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Showing posts from August, 2016

Don't Breathe

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When was the last time you walked into a theater and saw a film that shattered your senses? Don't Breathe is a breath of fresh air for what some may call an overwrought genre. I had mentioned in one of my previous reviews that the home-invasion genre was brought to life again by a film titled Intruders, so I did not expect something else to come along so soon that absolutely flips the switch on how these situations typically play out. Why should you go out and see this film at your earliest convenience? Please allow me to elaborate. The plot itself isn't too complicated, but that doesn't strip the film of anything whatsoever. We are given insight into the lives and doings of three teenage criminals, which are Alex (Dylan Minnette, Goosebumps ), Rocky (scream queen Jane Levy, Evil Dead, ABC's Suburgatory ) and Money (Daniel Zovatto). One of our criminals catches word of a visually disabled Iraqi war veteran (Stephen Lang) who's sitting on a large sum of mone

The Walking Dead Season 7 Trailer & Sneak Peak Breakdown: A Possible Over Analyzation

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Just about a month ago, we were given a trailer to Season 7 of the AMC smash zombie hit The Walking Dead. Although the trailer didn't give us very much information on Negan's victim, it did temporarily introduce a couple new aspects that will, without a doubt, bring this show to heights it's yet to reach. While those are going to play major parts in this upcoming season, I'd like to take some time and focus on Negan, in particular. For those of you who haven't read the comic, I will do my best to bring some justice to the lines he delivered in the most recent trailer. Again, a possible over analyzation, but we shall see. “ I’m gonna beat the holy hell out of one of you” This is Negan's obvious implication that one of our eleven Alexandrians will receive a bashing, but who will it be? Higher-ups at AMC and showrunner Scott M. Gimple have been going to drastic lengths to keep this truth from being told. Are we seriously supposed to believe they filmed e

Intruders (2015)

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Home-invasion films have come and gone over the years. We can start as early as the 1960’s with Wait until Dark , to present day, bringing us such pictures as The Strangers, Panic Room, and The Purge . The idea of being stuck in one of those situations always shakes me up. However, the question still remains: has this sub-genre been squeezed dry, or is there still a spark of creativity left to reignite the fear that even “home” itself, isn't the safe haven we make it out to be? Intruders (alternately titled Shut In ) is the perfect answer to our calling of a solid “break-in” blockbuster: it feels fresh, the performances are solid (for the most part), and you're probably not going to guess what direction this film will take you in, which ends up making it all the more entertaining. We are introduced to our protagonist Charlotte (Leticia Jiminez), an agoraphobic woman who hasn't left her house in a solid decade. She is now encountering the end stages of caring

Cabin Fever (2016)

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Okay, I have something I must admit: I definitely knew what I was getting into when I pulled this gem out of a Redbox only a short few days ago. Months back, when I had first caught wind that there would be a Cabin Fever reboot, I wasn't the happiest camper. I mean, come on, it's barely a decade old, and someone on this green earth had the audacity to watch the original and say, “Hey, I think this could be done better”. Had that been my only qualm, I'd put my differences aside and allow the director to be creative with whatever they had envisioned. Unfortunately, in this case, there wasn't very much creative thinking that went into this simplistic rehash. From the get go, we are introduced to our group of actors, which consists of Paul (Samuel Davis), Karen (Gage Golightly), Jeff (Matthew Daddario), Marcy (Nadine Crocker) and Bert (an overly obnoxious Dustin Ingram). None of these performances captivated me enough to actually care about the characters, or any har

Lights Out (2016)

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Every time a PG-13 Horror film is released, I stop for a second and wonder if it's going to be something legitimately captivating, or yet another vicious cash grab. I can safely, and proudly, declare that Lights Out is most definitely the former of the two. We open in a dimly lit warehouse, with the sight of mannequins grouped and scattered about. There has always been something unsettling to me about the sight of mannequins, but truthfully,that's not exactly where the real horror lies. Lurking in the darkness is something much more sinister Our film centers around a family living in Los Angeles. We have the mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), who suffers from an obvious mental disorder, her son Martin (Gabriel Bateman), and her daughter Rebecca (Teresa Palmer). From what we can infer, it appears Rebecca had to distance herself from her own mother at some point. She lives alone in a dingy downtown apartment, but for a character such as Rebecca, this does not affect her in the

The Walking Dead: Season 7 Death prediction(s)

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If you know, or are, someone who is a fan of The Walking Dead, then you should know by now the frustration we’re all feeling from the Season 6 finale. It ended on a cliffhanger; leaving us viewers to wonder who Negan made brain pudding out of (Did you hear those mashing noises as the camera went to black? Delicious!). I’ve been in the same boat as all of you, and have done my best to try and narrow down who it could be, so here’s what I came up with! Hopefully some of this information helps to hold you over until the death is finally “ revealed in the Season 7 premiere” , which has been confirmed by Greg Nicotero, himself. WARNING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION, TV SHOW AND COMIC BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD Glenn - Glenn is possibly the most expected victim of Lucille. Aside from the comic book, there seem to be some telling hints that it may be our beloved pizza boy who bites the bat. There are the POV shots from inside the van (though I personally believe they might belong to another

The Invitation (2015)

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You are cordially invited to  a dinner party. There’s just one catch, however: it’s at the house you used to share with your now ex-wife and her new lover. If this isn’t already a premise for possible destruction and tension, then I’m not sure what is. We’re all adults here though, aren’t we? Let’s dive into this 2015 pulse pounder together. The Invitation is one of those films where the less you know, the better your viewing experience will be. We open with our lead, Will (a fantastic Logan Marshall Green), driving to the dinner party of the century with his seemingly new partner, Kira , played by Emayatzy Corinealdi. You can tell from the get go that Will isn’t too keen on the evening’s plans, but perhaps he feels that going through with it won’t leave him with any “ w hat if” scenarios. After accidentally hitting a coyote in transit to the get-together and being forced to mercy-kill it, Will and Kira arrive at his former home. It isn’t long before we are introduced to E