Category: Horror

Ghost House (2017)

ghost house

Ghost House is basically the the stereotypical Asian ghost story. You know most American ones involve some sort of Indian cemetery or burial mound and a pissed spirit. Well prepare for that from our Asian brethren.

On vacation before being married a couple meets a nice European couple and decide to go site seeing. This of course leads to seeing some land marks, a strip club and an old abandoned shrine with a bunch of mini houses, sort of like doll houses. When one woman attempts to retrieve a piece of cloth at the behest of their new European friends whom now decides to run away and abandon them to be possessed by an evil spirit.

Turns out this evil spirit gets really pissed off when a young attractive woman messes with these houses. It sounds good in theory but sadly the movie is actually kind of boring. It is slow, comes off pretty stereotypical to a degree that actually spoils the movie at times and the acting isn’t all that great either. I wouldn’t suggest watching this one except for morbid curiosity. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

friend

This may be the longest title I have ever reviewed. Like the actual title not the movie length. The movie is a weird sort of romantic comedy. Steve Carrell plays a guy trying to find the one that got away, his high school sweetheart. keira knightley plays a woman just trying to get home to her family.  And why are they doing this? Well in about three weeks the world is ending because a huge rock from space is going to wipe out all life on Earth.

For once in a rare twist a movie about armageddon handles it in a realistic but fun way. For example early on there is a family and friends party, but weirdly this normally classy and uptight group is now swingers doing heroin teaching small children to chug booze. I mean I get it, the world is ending, have a good time. Another man they run into doesn’t want to go to hell so he hires a hit man, to kill him.

All in all the movie is fun if not a bit odd, but worth a watch. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The New Daughter (2009)

the new daughter

The New Daughter proves you can take a premise that has been done to death, add another idea that has also been done to death combine it with more stuff that is highly cliche and still make a pretty good movie. Stop me if you heard this one before. A writer movies his kids to the country after mom leaves/dies ( in this case leaves) only for his kid ( in this case his daughter) to be possessed by an evil spirit because of an ancient Indian burial mound.

Yes that is the story of this movie. That being said the slow progressive change with the daughter is well done and her ever changing relationship with her dad and brother, both of which change differently is nice. The duel twist ending is also a pretty nice change of pace. The acting is great which isn’t a surprise from Kevin Costner. The problem with the movie however and the reason a lot of people dislike it however is understandable. There is nothing in this movie you have never seen before. From beginning to end it is a series of events that other movies have done, The New Daughter simply does them all well. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Goon (2011)

goon

Goon is the story of a bouncer that has a gay brother and a friend with a big mouth at a local hockey game. When a guy from the opposing team gets tossed in the box for fighting in typical fan fashion his friend lets fly with some nasty obscenities and hand gestures only for the player to jump out of the box to attack and calling him a fag. Our man Doug doesn’t like this and demands he takes the word back, and when this demand is denied he beats the ever loving crap out of him. He also discovers a new job as a hockey player.

Good you see is the movie of Doug “The Thug” Glatt, bouncer turned hockey player. His job? Take out those that would get a little rough with his fellow players. and he is damn good at it. He also happens to be one of the nicest guys on Earth, to the point that he at a few points apologizes to a few guys or even a hey nice fight. It was actually nice to see Seann William Scott play someone besides Stiffler and he did it very well. The movie isn’t perfect and honestly being a hockey fan really helps. In fact if you aren’t a hockey fan you should probably skip it since much of the fun comes from being a hockey fan. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friends with Benefits (2011)

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Friends with benefits is essentially that thing everyone tries at some point that doesn’t work. You know a two friends decide they need a lil something something and help each other out and poof, someone catches feelings and wrecks the whole thing. This isn’t real life tho, so its both of them.

The movie is as you would imagine full of jokes, sexual innuendo and brief nudity. So ladies, ever wanted to see Justin’s butt here is your shot. Men knew about Mila years ago so I feel no need to mention it. But you know…her butt as well.

Another amazing and unexpected part of the movie is Woody Harrelson playing one of the best gay characters in recent movie history. He is fun and hilarious and adds quite a bit to the movie  despite having a pretty limited role.

The actual story is pretty basic. Both have rough breakups , eventually meet and become friends have a few drinks and a bad idea becomes a good idea and things escalate from there. The movie isn’t the best but it is quite good. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Knights of Sidonia

knights of sidonia

You ever wish John Carpenter’s Thing was mixed with space mechs or J.J. Abrams Star Trek was creepier? Well, here you go. Sidonia is the last bit of humanity left, a militarized colony in space, struggling to battle the Guana- giant, fleshy space creatures that cause mass devastation. Sidonia’s main defense are the Knights, mechanized suits of weaponized armor. Upon the brink of destruction, a young man emerges with an uncanny gift to pilot, but will that be enough to save him and humanity from the threats inside and out?

My feelings here are pretty mixed. Regardless, the show looks beautiful. My problem is I was truly invested in season 1, addicted even. There was intrigue, danger, creepy shit, and messed up political scheming going down. After the first season though, two fell flat for me. I couldn’t really dig the direction the story was going in; in lames terms it blew its load too soon, pardon the expression. If you watch season 1, its a fast, exciting, and creepy space adventure. After that- meh. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes everyone.

Another

another

“What happened in Class 3 twenty six years ago?” is the question that drives this strange, tragic and creepy anime. The story follows a class of kids that have the misfortune of being in a cursed class. Every year, if there is a Extra involved in there class, people in the class and there families begin dying. To counteract this, the school pretends a unlucky kid doesn’t exist as part of a tradition. New kid Koichi isn’t aware of this and acknowledges pale, one eyed girl Mei and so begins the curse and the fear who will go next as these kids try to discover how to break the curse.

I’m going to say this anime stole my heart with it’s creepy atmospheric tension, engaging and likable characters and great dialogue as part of a fascinating mystery. I binge watched the hell out of the short 12 episode series. For those new to anime and love a good psychological horror mystery or want a good quick anime to binge watch, I highly recommend Another. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes everyone.

Tokyo Ghoul (season 1)

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In many ways I consider Tokyo Ghoul the spiritual successor to Deadman Wonderland but there’s a beautiful sense of madness, beauty, and pathos to this story. Keneke is a quiet bookworm all alone in the world except for his best friend. Until he meets a beautiful girl who enjoys the same literature he does, but all is not what it seems. She is a ghoul, a flesh eating beast that is resilient and powerful and wants to eat Keneke. Through the accident the beast is dead but by a twist of fate, her organs were accidentally transplanted into him and suddenly he isn’t the same, left with the mind of a human and the stomach of a ghoul. Suddenly Keneke is thrust into a dark underbelly of monsters and a relentless task force meant to slay his kind, but he must wonder what really makes a monster…

This is one of my favorites artiscally, while gory, there is a breathtaking amount of vibrant color mixed with a lot of gothic and noir elements. Also I’m in love with the opening credits and the song Unravel. The characters are really good and the world itself is pretty fascinating. I will warn you, this is a very violent and towards the end of the season, very disturbing show so if you get sick around blood and torture, this isn’t for you. I do recommend this to anime and horror fans alike. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes everyone.

The Details (2011)

the details

The Details is an odd movie in the sense that it is a comedy, but not really in that ha ha this is funny sense, but more in the huh, its funny how things work out sense. The movie starts out with a doctor having the grass in his yard fixed. Just a regular guy, with a regular wife and child. Sure the usual marriage problems are present and the day to day stuff is going on. Everything is pretty average tho. The next morning he wakes up to discover the new grass is messed up and he sets out to discover why, and the answer is a raccoon.

Everything in this movie can be traced back to this. One mans desire to fix his lawn and a raccoon doing raccoon things for food. One mans choice will change the lives of families. I won’t give away the details since obviously it would spoil the entire movie since the entire plot revolves around what happens after this. The movie is far from perfect, but then again so is life and the movie does an excellent job at showing that even with the best intentions things can easily go very differently than one would want. There are some good laughs to be had as well, but the real bread and butter of this movie is simply that on some level you will both love and hate the characters while empathizing with them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Witch: a New-England Folktale

The Witch

This is one of the most decisive movies I’ve seen in a long while, much like last year’s It comes at night . Some will love it, some will hate it, many will ask WTF did I just watch. First, like It Comes At Night, don’t watch the trailers. They set you up for a movie you aren’t getting.

The Witch is about a family in 1630 banished from there village because of there beliefs and sent to rebuild there lives in the woods. Life isn’t easy as food is scare, crops aren’t taking, and they have no money. The youngest, baby Sam, suddenly disappears under oldest Tomasin’s watch. The family begins to break as mother Katherine loses her mind and starts taking it out on Tomasin and the pressures of the family’s problems eat at father, William. Strange things begin happening like the dog is found murdered, oldest son, Caleb disappears, and the young twins Mercy and Jonas keep singing and conversing with the family goat, Black Phillip. Is this family’s misfortune there own, or the work of something else, as Caleb reappears after finding a mysterious woman lurking in the woods…

As I said. this is a weird case but regardless, I loved this movie. It is slow with some disturbing imagery throughout but I love the daring move to set it so faithfully in the 1600’s and I like that it is, at its core a fairytale in Grimm fashion. The atmosphere and score is amazing; the actors are splendidly genuine and feel genuine. I know many will disagree and honestly I can’t debate them on this film but it can’t be argued the effort and love put into the project, which definitely shows. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.