Horrorfest: The Beginning

This is the fifth year I've been doing this.  I'm starting early this year because I have a few 2014 releases to catch up with, and I'll be doing a Halloween series rewatch given the Blu-ray boxed set is coming out tomorrow.  I'm still not certain if I'll be checking out the Zombie remakes.  Additionally, It's a little frustrating that many of Scream Factory's recent titles aren't available on Netflix.  Quite a few I want to check out but can't.  Bleh.  You know what would solve this?  VIDEO STORES STILL EXISTING!  (I promise that's the only time I'll mention this during this year's fest.)

OCULUS
(Mike Flanagan, 2014)
And we're off to a great start!  Even though it comes with the obligatory "From the Producers of Paranormal Activity and/or Insidious and/or Saw), this is about as far removed from modern horror as possible.  That is it's not a remake, it doesn't claim to be inspired by true events, the soundtrack isn't too overactive (see the next film in the fest), and the editing (outside of jumping between the two narratives) is fairly calm.  Years after their parents bizarre murder, a brother and sister team up to expose the truth behind a haunted mirror that has been leading to bizarre deaths for over a hundred years.  As they do that, flashbacks to their childhood show the parents' descent into madness.  Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, ABC's upcoming Selfie) plays the older version of the sister.  Outside of that sitcom pilot, I haven't seen her in anything and she's a formidable talent.  In one scene, she has to deliver some long winded exposition and does it in a truly dazzling manner.  This is something that could easily develop into a franchise, perhaps both sequels and prequels.  The box-office was underwhelming, so sadly it'll probably be direct-to-blu (is that what I'm supposed to call it?  Debuting On Demand?).  Despite generally positive reviews, I suspect audiences didn't bite because of the duel narratives and the downer of an ending.  The whole movie has a very elegant, timeless feel and is about as good as we can expect modern wide release horror to be.  GRADE: B+

THE QUIET ONES
(John Pogue, 2014)
Welcome to the most ironically named movie in quite some time.  It should really be titled Loud Sounds: The Movie.  In the early 1970's, an aspiring filmmaker is hired by a professor to document a group of med students experiments on a supposedly possessed young woman.  Here we have just about everything I said Oculus didn't have, particularly the looooouuuuuuuddddddd sound mix.  All the booms, pounds, and screeches occurring all over the soundscape and about three notches louder than all the dialogue.  If you want something to wake the neighbors and show off your system, this is it.  If you want something original and/or scary, this is a snooze.  The story offers nothing new, though the period detail and cinematography (particularly the recreations using old film) are a nice touch.  And Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) is some fine horror HPOA.  GRADE: C

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
(Jim Jarmusch, 2014)
Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are centuries old vampires in Jim Jarmusch's stylish drama.  This is far closer to Lost In Translation than the standard vampire film.  It's got mood to spar, and the feeling of melancholy pervades the film.  Rather than whimsy romance, the film nails the depression that might come from a lonely existence as a modern undead.  The characters listen to rock music, suck on blood popsicles, trot the globe at night, make love, and reject modern humans who they call "zombies".  In the film's best and most hypnotic sequences, Swinton's Eve and Hiddleston's Adam cruise through the abandoned and dead Detroit city night.  Making vampires a metaphor for the rundown city, well that's infinitely more clever than anything a Twilight movie came up with.  This is a film that has stayed with me since viewing, and I wouldn't be surprised to watch it again and thoroughly love it.  Anton Yelchin and Mia Wasikowska co-star.  GRADE: B+