The 1970's were a wacky time, man. Adults trusted teenagers with watching their kids? That's the worst decision I've ever heard. Also, there's a killer named Michael Myers on the loose. When he was just 5 years old, he stabbed his older sister on Halloween night while in a clown costume. This put him in a mental facility, but after 15 years pass, he escapes by scaring a girl and taking her car. We then learn about a group of teenagers who don't even care that Halloween is a holiday, and a group of frightened kids. One of the teenagers (Jamie Lee Curtis, yeah, the one from Freaky Friday. Good touch, 1970's) is babysitting a little boy while her friends is babysitting a little girl in another house. They exchange phone calls throughout the night. This ends abruptly when Michael hops in the back of Annie's car and strangles her. Blonde girl then goes to the house that Annie was at to check on her, while Annie's friends go to the house blonde girl was at. This, of course, inhabits Michael, who murders the two teenagers while they're "getting it on". Blonde girl ventures to the house with all of the corpses and finds all of them laying in a sadistic manner planned out by Michael. This is followed by blonde girl thinking she kills Michael and then not really doing it, but the job is finished when Michael's old doctor comes and shoots him to death...
...or so they thought. Ok, this movie was outstanding. Literally everything I could ask from a horror movie. Just to give some context, over the month of October, I've watched both ITs, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. They were all good, but nothing like this one. It had the character building from Friday the 13th, the slasher factor from Nightmare on Elm Street, and the eeriness from IT. Michael Myers is the perfect killer, hands-down. He doesn't just murder everything like Freddy, he actually plans his kills out so much. I watched this movie with my parents, and everytime we said that something would happen, it didn't. It was frustrating at the time, but it really goes to show that Halloween isn't predictable and always throws in a twist. Also, the fact that Michael appears and disappears out of nowhere was a really nice concept that I loved from the start. I can go on for hours, least favorite part was the lack of killing at the beginning, but in retrospect the first scene made up for it, and favorite part was every single time Michael crept up behind them and they didn't notice. Loved that. This movie is a 10/10 for a horror film. It may not be the most technical, or the deepest, but it sure gives the audience something to get caught up in and solidifies itself as a masterpiece.
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Taking place in the 1930's in London, we learn that there are multiple terrorist attacks with the use of explosives. Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka) is a member of the group, but hides out in his own movie theater. His wife (Sylvia Sidney) begins to investigate his behavior, and so is Scotland Yard Detective Sgt. Ted Spencer (John Loder). We later find out that Verloc gets his wife's little brother to deliver the bombs with pieces of film.
This is the first mystery I've watched in a while, and I have to say, I really liked it. I've seen a handful of Hitchcock movies before this, and I definitely loved how he incorporated his famous style into this piece. The dinner scene was the most memorable, I just loved watching the mysterious dialogue between them. I could ramble on and on about the scenes I loved in this movie, which is why I don't understand why it's never really talked about. Many people have heard of Vertigo and Psycho. I've seen Vertigo and I can guarantee that the plot is much better in Sabotage. It's even reached Hollywood yet and went into his pieces of art. Anyways, I love how Hitchcock incorporated the wife's role into the story so smoothly. I could really tell, from a story standpoint, what she was thinking and what her intentions were. Overall, Sabotage was a great film and I believe everyone should go watch it. It's 1984 and a whole town of teenagers are having the same dream. This dream consisted of a man named Freddy Krueger with razor-sharp claws chopping the teenager up. The twist is, if they get cut in their dream, it translates over to the real world. This is shown by a gruesome scene of a girl surrounded by blood. This is ruled as a murder and her boyfriend was sent to jail. When he goes to sleep, Freddy visits him as well. While investigating the mysterious murders, we learn that Marge Thompson, our main character, cannot go to sleep in fear of Freddy paying her a visit. Her mother Nancy tells her of how Freddy Krueger exists in the real world and she burned him to death--or so he thought. Marge then goes on to burn Freddy to death again. It may have been a dream, I forget, reality and dreams are confusing in this film.
This movie freaked me out, especially for an '80s slasher film. The use of Freddy's claws looked so realistic and actually made me quite scared. The story wasn't exactly my favorite, I more or less enjoyed the murders and the final showdown, but overall, it was pretty solid. I loved how the killer had an identity and we got to learn about who he is and what he wants to do. I think this killer identity made me enjoy the film much more. Comparing it to Friday the 13th, we learned much less about the victims and more about the killer than that movie, and this one actually had the main killer in it. Overall, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a great slasher movie. The story didn't get good until Nancy joined the picture, but all of the killings were easily the most enjoyable part of this film and I would highly recommend it. In a secluded camp that was recently brought back to life, 6 camp counselors roam the grounds, ignoring all warning signs. These 6 people take advantage of the camp they have all to themselves and have a little fun along the way. One by one, they all get murdered by a mysterious figure, except one. The plot is as exciting as it sounds.
I wasn't impressed with this movie whatsoever as far as a scary movie goes. I did enjoy parts and it kept me engaged, but I think this film represents what everyone thinks of 80's horror movies. From today's standards, everything has gotten scarier, and that just makes Friday the 13th look like child's play. I wasn't expecting how much teenage angst that was present, I would much rather enjoy watching people get murdered than teenage angst. There were only 5 direct murders in the film and all of them kind of blew, except the one where the girl I was not emotionally invested in whatsoever got her head chopped off. Speaking of which, I did not sympathize with any character and didn't really care when they died. This really ruined the movie for me, especially how I never saw Jason's face when he was murdering them. Also, the jingle before he killed somebody was cheesy. I did enjoy the banter and attempts this movie made, but to be completely honest, I did not like this movie overall. I'm glad I watched it, since Friday the 13th is presumably a classic, and it really makes me concerned on how I wasn't allowed to watch this when I was little. It's literally not scary at all, cover up the nudity and a 5 year old could watch it entirely. Taking place in a small town called Derry (sorry lactose intolerants), the film IT follows a group of social outcasts struggling to fit in with the rest of the crowd. Along their journey to take down a group of bullies, they start to notice that there is more to this town than meets the eye. We see this through the lens of Bill (Richard Thomas, Jaeden Lieberher), a young boy who has tragically lost his brother Georgie (Tony Dakota, Jackson Robert Scott). Little does he know, the peculiar events taking place in his town are caused by a clown named Pennywise (Tim Curry, Bill Skarsgard), who is far from ordinary. He cannot be killed by any normal means, can cause hallucinations, and only comes out from hiding every 27 years to kill a new batch of kids. After fighting Pennywise and his hallucinations that are specific to every child in the group, they finally defeat Pennywise once and for all... or so they thought.
Overall, I loved both of these movies. The 1990 edition gave me some good laughs, while 2017 left me terrified. Who wasn't left terrified after 2017 though? I would tell anyone to watch these if they want a good bad horror movie, or a scary horror movie with character.
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