The Sick Flicks

The Shining Synopsis and Review

2010-02-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

Considered to be one of the most important movies in the history of horror, The Shining is another movie that was based on a Stephen King book. The movie was made by Stanley Kubrick and is even today known for some of the iconic imagery that the movie portrayed. King himself has gone on record saying that he did not like the way the movie turned out, and there were reports of mismanagement being rife on the sets, because of Kubrick being a perfectionist. However, when we see the movie today, we can only say that it was a disagreement amongst the masters of the trade.

The Shining Synopsis

The movie begins with a aerial shot that introduces us to the main characters traveling to the hotel. From the very beginning,we understand that Kubrick has tried to make the movie as visually appealing as the terror that we'd experience in the movie. The background music is something that lulls you into one of those dreamless, bitter naps that leave you waking up with a headache. The music and the camera work makes the hotel more foreboding that it normally would be. The first sequence of the movie then introduces us to Jack Tarrance.

Jack

It seems that Jack is looking for a job as a caretaker, and the hotel where he is being offered the job is a sort of a jinxed one, where the previous caretaker has killed his family, apparently due to cabin fever. The employer informs Jack about this and has apprehensions whether he'd be ready to take on the position. Jack is quite happy to take on the position and the mystery!

The next scene immediately takes us to Jack's son, Danny who has Extra Sensory Perception and is shown to talking to a 'Tony', who informs him that his dad has already got the job and would be calling his mother in a while to do confirm. And Bingo!

Ask Him Who Wins the Lottery This Week

This brings us to some of the iconic scenes in the movie, like the whole room bathed in blood, the twin sisters, etc. Of course this is just the beginning of some weirdly beautiful scenes that we will be seeing all through the movie. Irrespective, the trio travel to the hotel. The happy family has a good time regaling each other stories about how some people became cannibals and all sorts of safe family stories.

Happy Family

Thus starts their first day in the Hotel, where the family is introduced to all the aspects of the hotel. Daniel, or Don as he is called sees the twin sisters for the second time in the Hotel, counting the first as the one time when he saw them in the dream.

The hotel itself has a very romantic past, it was built in the early nineties,is built on an Indian burial ground and there were some rebellions that were brought down during the construction - how peaceful and serene this place would be!

The mother and child are then shown the kitchen and when they reach the poultry, the head chef calls Daniel 'Doc', which is his actual nickname, but it is not known to anyone in the hotel, as yet. When the mother asks him how he knows that they call Daniel 'Doc', he brushes it away as a coincidence. Well, it is not a coincidence, when the Head Chef speaks to Doc via telepathy and asks him whether he'd like some icecream.

That's him. Check the Telepathy. It's Awesome!

Well very soon Daniel and the Head Chef are left together, with Daniel having a scoop of ice cream and everyone else going to another part of the hotel. The head chef asks him how he knew that Daniel was called Doc and that is where Daniel is introduced to ESP and telepathy, called the 'Shining'.

Daniel is one step ahead of the Head Chef, and tells him that he has his own friend, Tony, who tells him about everything that happens, 'before' it actually happens. The Head Chef seems a bit upset that his place in the sun is being shadowed, and begins asking Daniel as to who this person is. He also asks Daniel whether Tony has ever told him anything about this place. Daniel answers in the negative, but on some coaxing, Daniel asks whether something bad happened in the Hotel. The head chef then gives a very interesting analogy of bad things to bread and toast.

It is here that Daniel asks about Room 237, and says that the chef is scared of Room 237. When prodded, the chef says that there's nothing in Room 237 and he is told to stay out of the room. Things go well for a month, with the only problem being that Jack's novel not going anywhere. The mother and child go for a walk, and reach the maze. This is the maze, people:

The Maze

After a while, Daniel comes across the Room 237, and stops his little blue tricycle, trying to go into the room.

The Room

During a storm, when the telephones are down, Daniel is driving his tricycle all through the hotel, only to meet the twin sisters once again, as they invite him to play with them. While they invite him, Danny also sees visions of the two killed, with a mean looking fireaxe on the side! He tells Tony that he is scared. Tony tells him that it is just like pictures in a book. It isn't real.

Son meets dad after a while, and this seems to be one of the beginning signs that Jack is becoming insane cooped in that hotel. He calls Danny to himself and embraces him in a way that denotes a man going mad slowly. Meanwhile, Danny asks his father whether he would ever hurt his mother and him.

Father Son Talk

The next day, while Danny is playing with his cars on a brightly colored carpet, he walks towards another of the meandering, long running panels in the hotel and finds that Room 237 is unlocked. He is basically looking for his mother, who's in the machine room, doing what people normally do in machine rooms. The mother hears some crying sounds and goes to check.

At the same time, Jack shouts out loud, making Wendy run through the hotel to console him. Jack says that he had a nightmare, the 'most horrible dream he ever had'. He confesses that he dreamt that he killed her and Danny. Danny comes back from room 237, walking in one of those slow walks that are part and parcel of horror flicks. His mother runs to him, only to find some marks on his neck. The mother accuses that Jack tried to kill Danny.

Jack goes deeper into the realms of insanity, now mindlessly trudgling all about the hotel, and finally reaches the Gold Room. He looks for a drink. Jack begins to speak to himself, thinking that there's a bartender and other people in the Gold Room that is empty. Jack then holds up a complete conversation with the bartender, right from asking for a white man's bourbon to asking how his credit is in that joint.

He confesses to Lloyd that he did not hurt the child. He speaks to him in a very emotional and drunken way, repeating that he did not hurt him and that he would not hurt him at all. Finally, he says that he didn't hurt him and that it was an accident. It is then revealed that he had hurt his son a three years ago, because he had thrown some of his papers all over the floor.

Wendy comes running up to him, and tells him that someone else is in the hotel, a crazy woman, who has tried to strangle Daniel. She says that Daniel told her that a crazy woman lives in the hotel. The scene ends when Jack asks her which room was it?

Impending the snowstorm and the hinted at ghosts in the hotel, Jack slowly but surely slips into the realm of sheer insanity. The head chef has a dream about Daniel dying after strangulation, while he is surrounded by posted of naked Africa American chicks, while Jack investigates the room 237. Jack has a vision of a naked woman and has a very sleazy little smile on his face. When Wendy asks whether there was anyone in the room, he replies in the negative. The head chef tries to call the hotel, but the phones are not working, you remember?

While the wife and husband speak, Daniel is having another vision at his bedroom door. Wendy tells Jack that they should leave the hotel, and they have a domestic fight. Jack has a fit of rage in the hotel room, throwing away the steel and silverware, walking through the hotel like its his own palace. Well, it is his palace anyway.

He returns to the Gold Room, seeing all the ghosts having a party in the gold room, while the Head Chef tries to call the radio to find out what the problem with the phones. He also notifies the radio about a family being in the hotel with a kid.

While at the Gold Room, he meets Lloyd once more, and orders a drink. While being paid, Lloyd says that he won't be charging him, as the money would not work there. He then meets waiter who messes up with his jacket. The two gentlemen come to a washroom, and the waiter introduces himself as Delbert Grady. Jack asks him whether he has seen him somewhere before, and Grady replies in the negative. Jack asks Grady whether he was the caretaker around the hotel, and Grady again replies in the negative.

He asks whether Grady is married. Grady affirms and says that he has a wife and two daughters. When asked where they are at the moment, Grady says that he cannot be quite sure about it at the moment. Jack argues that he was the caretaker and says that he recognizes him. He also tells him that he killed his wife and daughters and shot himself. Grady says that he does not have any recollection about it. Finally, in a ominous tone, Grady tells Jack that he is the caretaker and he was always the caretaker.

Gradys then queries Jack whether he knew that his son would soon call a outsider to the situation. When Jack says he does not know, Gradys says that a 'nigger cook' will be coming into the hotel, due to the talent that he has, a talent that he has used to solve the situation.

It may be here that Jack actually falls into the deepest depths of insanity, where the two men have a frank talk from the '50s about how the men of the family should correct their families. When Jack walks out, he reaches the radio call, which was initiated by the head chef. Jack disconnects the radio.

The Head Chef meanwhile begins his sojourn to the hotel, first flying and then driving towards the hotel. Unfortunately, he is caught in a big snowstorm. Wendy, meanwhile is moving around with a big enough baseball bat, and finds out that her husband has been typing 'All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy' in various fonts and typefaces.

And Remember, No Copy Paste

This brings us to Jack's first violent act, which is deferred because his wife basically bashes him unconscious with a baseball bat. Jack takes the conversation towards Danny, and what should be done with him. Finally, Jack has another domestic argument, where he shows his insanity and warbles about how he has to be in the Overlook Hotel till the 1st of May.

Jack is then locked in a room in the hotel, while the wife and son move to a safer place within the hotel. Jack gains consciousness and then demands to be released. His wife, being the smarter of the two, does not agree. Jack tries some emotional blackmail, but that does not work. Wendy says that she's gonna get a doctor by driving the snowcat. Jack tells her to check out the radio and the snowcat, and tells her that she's not going anywhere. As expected, the snowcat is screwed beyond repair.

Meanwhile, Jack and Mr Grady have a talk, while he is locked in the store room. Grady tells him that he has to solve this matter in the harshest manner possible, and Jack tells him that he looks forward to it. Upon his word, Grady unlocks the door.

The head chefs makes his way through harsh weather and snowstorm, only to be killed in an ambush my Jack Torrance. Danny has another ESP experience, where he goes to his mother, mentioning 'Redrum', which is basically written on his bedroom door. We see Jack with a big knife, and the soulful, piano music that is the symnbolism of horror moves nowadays. He writes Redrum on Wendy's bedroom door too. Wendy wakes up, to hear Jack breaking open the door with the iconic fireaxe. Jack breaks the door down, and there's a chase sequence, which has Wendy sending her son away from the hotel through the window hatch.

The headchef has reached the house by now, as both the predator and the prey hear the sound of an approaching vehicle. Danny himself has gotten back into the hotel, and is trying to hide somewhere safe in the hotel, as Jack searches for his family, fire axe in hand. It's here that he meets his end in an ambush.

This then leads to a rage filled chase sequence, where the father searches for his son, only to kill him in the snow capped area. Finally, Wendy and Danny drive away, leaving Jack to die in the freezing place.

Great Sick Themes: Horror Movie Themes

2010-02-25T04:40:00.000-08:00

Everything about the original Exorcist was a refreshing change in the world of Horror movies and slasher flicks. Before the Exorcist, most of the movies depended on deaths, slashes and kills of integral and unintegral characters to send the point across to the viewer. The Exorcist was one of the first movies to use sequences and situations to put across the fact that the situation was indeed completely jacked up.

Another important aspect of the movie was the titular music. As far as I am concerned, it is the best music that I have heard in a horror movie. As OMG Horror puts it, this is truly stunning stuff.

So great was this theme, that it inspired a Bollywood thriller movie, that was quite ahead of its time. To check for yourself:

This brings us to the quite eerie and frightening Friday the 13th movie theme, which had the cult 'ki ki ki ma ma ma' as a background. What's interesting about this music is that it actually gives a cue to the viewer as to when something nasty is gonna happen on the screen, and when that happens, it only creates a dread/wish for the music to come back again!Another great piece of work here.

When it comes to Latin chants in a Horror theme, we will never forget The Omen, the original movie that began the Christ/Satan thought. While the thought itself was terrifying enough, they had to create this themesong to make it awesomer:

Before I have my one and a half fans tearing down my front door in a haze of 'How Come no Psycho', I have to say that I keep Psycho a bit down on the list simply because the music has become so commonplace that it is actually a shame. But even so, you cannot disagree that this is one of the most adrenaline pumping scores in a horror movie:

The Exorcist Synopsis and Review

2010-02-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Every business has game changers. These game changers, basically change the way the business works, the way the business is looked at by others, and basically takes the business in an entirely different realm and category that was previously nonexistent. Keeping these things in mind, the Exorcist can be considered to be the biggest game changers for the Horror and Sci Fi industry, because it basically gave birth to the 'possessed child/possessed person' concept to the world of Horror movies.

The Exorcist Synopsis:

The movie begins on a eerie note, giving us a profile of a Virgin Mary photograph, and then the ancient Azaan call of the Moslems, interspersed with the movie credits in red and black.

Gentle Beginnings

The movie then takes us to a excavation site, where something strange is found by the excavators, sending the main archeologists in a tizzy, especially when they find that what they have is a statue of the demon itself.

That's the Devil

Well, the guy has some frights as he goes through his day, and then has the biggest fright, when he finds out that the miniature model of the demon that he found out was just the iceing to this cake:

That's all for the old archaeologist for now, as we are taken to Georgetown, to the peaceful residence of a famous movie actress, Chris MacNeil, who is divorced and stays with her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair) and some househelps.

Thinks are a ok until Regan falls a bit sick all of a sudden, and the doctors cannot actually place a finger on what's happened to her, other than that she has become temperamental and has knowledge of words that a typical 12 year old wouldn't have (specifically, the c- word).

Things take a serious turn during a party hosted by Chris, where Regan comes into the hall and pisses on the carpet, and speaks to the guests in a male voice, effectively saying something like,"You are gonna die'

I promised myself no carpet cleaning jokes

When nothing comes out of it, the doctors suggest an exorcism for Regan, which is not exactly shot down by the mother, but she has no idea whom to turn to. Finally she turns to another integral character of the movie, who had another storyline going on. This guy:

Supposed to be the titular character

The guy is a priest who basically loses his faith in God after his mother dies, because of old age, and because the family does not have money to look after her, other than admit her to a government hospital. While all this is going on, some of the most infamous scenes in Horror History go on, like the now infamous defiling of the Virgin Mary scene, which is basically a scene depicting the Virgin graphically defiled, like this:

Meanwhile, Reagan becomes more violent as the days pass, with her one day stabbing herself furiously, uttering 'Let Jesus Fuck You' and then turning on her mother, slapping her and saying 'Lick me, Lick me!'. This also has the famous sequence where her neck turns a full 180 degrees.

Look Ma, No CGI!

This finally leads to the Priest meeting Regan in her house, and this is where the real meat of the movie begins. Basically, its the interaction between the Priest and the possesses Regan that interests me the most. The taunts, the words, the reflex puking, aah.. just what the doctor ordered!

With the priest finding it difficult to exorcise Regan, the veteran archaeologist cum priest that we first say in the movie is brought in, so that he may help the young priest in the exorcism. It is then the duo who speak to the spirit, and finally win against in exorcising the demon from the little girl's body.

The movie has several sequences like the infamous spider sequence, the levitation sequence, the room thrashing sequence, each of these sequences are something that should be watched to be experienced. Here is the Spider Walk Scene:

Childs Play 2010: What it will be, What it won't be.

2010-02-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

Horror fans all over the world must be pretty kicked up about the remake/reboot of the Child's Play franchise. Well I personally would rate Child's Play 1 as a cult classic, Child's Play 2 as a good follow up, Child's Play 3 as a half hearted endeavor and Child's Play 4 as a completely new idea put into a old concept that really worked for me. That said, I do look forward to Child's Play 4. Here is some information that we have got about Child's Play 4:

Who will be directing Child's Play 4?:

Don Mancini will be directing Child's Play 4.

How close will it be to the original Child's Play series?:

The writer of the original series, Don Mancini is attached to the project. Of course, that is neither here nor there, but it's safe to say that at least they have their heart in the right place - as yet.

Will there be Tiffany in the Project?

Child's Play was never about the serial killer, it was about his life as a soul who is trapped in a body of a child. And thought Tiffany had a major role in the latter Child's Play movies, it doe snot guarantee her role in the Child's Play remake.

And no, we do not even have a trailer as yet.

Cujo Review and Synopsis

2010-02-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

When I see the horror movies of the '80s, I cannot help but marvel at the fact that the movie makers back then made such intense movies with such in depth scenes without the technical and CGI help that is available today. One such marvel is Child's Play, which was released around the '80s. Another movie that really got me by the scruff was Cujo.

Cujo was another movie that was based on a Stephen King book, and one can only marvel on how Stephen King picks up completely everyday objects and individuals and weaves his horror fest around it. This time it's a dog that is infested by rabies. Of course, the movie and the story has one major difference, which we will discuss later in the article.

Plot:

The main characters, Joe Camber and family live in the fictitious town of Castle Rock, Maine and have a pet, a St. Bernard. Joe Camber is quite fond of the dog, but forgets one important aspect - to vaccinate it against rabies. Inadvertently, Cujo gets rabies from a bat or something, and the entire family is then harassed by a very strong, very brutal and quite ruthless St. Bernard.

Review:

The movie is a scene to scene follow up to the novel, except for a change in the end, which was brought about because the test audience found the ending too depressing. Make no mistake about it, this is one movie that leaves you tired, frustrated and completely humbled by the end of it all.

You tend to wonder whether it was a good idea to allow the elements of nature, like a dog to actually have a higher hand on them when it comes to basic survival, and also makes you wonder whether humans are actually as weak as the movie has depicted them as. Of course, the solitary sequence of humanity rising over the situation does have the necessary effect of exhilaration, but it does leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Read on to find out the Plot Summary:

The movie begins with the credits, and the artists in the crowd would actually like the font in which the name Cujo is written.

Does it not remind you of Coca Cola?

The movie basically starts with a brief scenery of the nature, with a hare moving about in the forest to some happy and soulful music, who is then chased by the titular character, all to a slightly moving music, telling you, and the one and a half PETA members in the audience that this is life, this is how it works, this is how it is. The movie takes a sordid turn right then, when Cujo is bitten by a rabies infected bat,as he follows the hare into a harehole, setting the trend for the rest of the movie.

We are then introduced to the family, with the boy moving around the house checking if all the light switches work. We are shown that he is scared of the darkness, as he switches off the light and then runs to sleep. The spooks start right then, with a door opening in the similar creeky manner.Of course, one shriek gets the family up and we are introduced to the family:

Dress that guy up and it becomes a Post Card

Well, its good to know that Scooby Doo was the children's favorite back in the '80s too, which the typical breakfast scene from movies shows. And that introduces us to Steve, apparently the handyman of the family. Well, you see that almost everyone is ready to kiss him, except the wife, who does not even give him the time of the day. Why? Well, we wouldn't know, would we? Of course, with this kind of a face, who'd hire him?

Would you hire him?

We do not know who'd hire him, but we can tell you one thing. Whenever your wife looks at you like this when another guy is around, you know its trouble. I meant, like this:

The next scene basically shows us that she is having it with the Steve who just brought the horse for her son. Well, the next scene informs us that the family has a broken down car and they need it repaired, and to repair that car they have to go quite a long way, which they do. And that is where the boy meets Cujo for the first time. Cujo is introduced to the audience once again, making an entry that would put John Wayne to shame. You wish to see it? Well, you asked for it:

I told you

Now, we know that the woman has some serious eye defects when she lays with Steve, but if she cannot see a dog who has rabid bite on his damn nose, you have to think about her mental state as well. I mean, come on people, she did not see this:

Seriously, think about it.

This brings us to the subplot where the product that Joe works for is said to be the reason for some kids falling sick, which was a false alarm scare as said in the news. What follows is a very interesting litany that Joe gives to his wife about having product responsibility. Seriously, if even ten percent of professionals in the ad and media world would have this kind of responsibility, the world would be a better place to live in.Well, Joe goes back to firefighting for his advertising campaign, while his wife goes back to screwing the beard guy, This movie does bring a lot of old memories back, with one person saying that "We lost the Sharp Account'. Now, when was the time when such a statement really meant something, without anyone turning back to you and saying, "We lost the what account?" - That's right, the '80s! Cujo meanwhile is showing signs of becoming rabid, while his owner pays no attention to him.

Doggy Bad News

We are taken through a scene where the woman breaks up with the beard guy and she basically goes to his house to tell him off, and her husband sees them, and then they disappear before he can turn back and reach them. Inconsequential, for now. However, the lady goes and picks up her son from school. While going back, her car conks out but she finally reaches home, where she is confronted by her husband about the affair a lot subtly than many other men would. While this is going on, we are shown the metamorphosis of Cujo from a very healthy St Bernard to a rabies infested dog, like this:

Very Bad News

Well, there are some plot points, like we find out that the car repairman is quite poor, and that Joe's wife finally tells him that she was having an affair with his best friend. Joe thinks the best way to let this blow over is by driving away for a while. This is where Cujo becomes completely inflicted by rabies, and runs away, when he is found by the car repairman's son. At the same time, Joe drives away from the house in the red Ferrari, leaving mother and son alone.

Meanwhile, the owner of the dog too goes away for a while, leaving Cujo, the mother and the son alone in the sad town. Of course, the repairman's son wants to take him to the vet, but you know how inconsideration in horror movies actually make the movies work. Cujo begins his murderous spree, bu killing one of the neighbors after a very brutal snapping and biting, and a shooting spree, which does not succeed in getting anything done.

Baldie Dies! Baldie Dies!

The dog's owner turns up at Baldie Gary's house, only to find him dead, almost completely mauled by Cujo, only thing that the dog's owner does not know who has killed Gary actually. He does a bit of a search around, and tries to call the police, when he sees his beloved Cujo - thusly.

Thats a Done Case

Oh, and he kills his own owner.

As is wont to happen, Joe's wife and the son are stranded in the middle of nowhere in their shiny little yellow car, which stops just near the repairman's house. The wife gets out of the car which is not working guaranteed, and shouts out if anyone is around. Finding nobody around, and listening to her son's cries, she is in a position where she cannot shield her son, and she is attacked by Cujo. This makes for a pretty gory scene. I need to tell you, this was one of the greatest fights I have ever seen between human and animal.

In a single moment, the film turns from a broken family movie to a bare gritted survival between animal and dog. The long, protracted sequence speaks about a lot actually in that half an hour, how a woman is torn between her safety and her son's life, how almost anyone can be taken aback by situations and therefore, die, and how humans can finally get better than the situation that they are thrust in.

This basically leads to a sequence where the woman and the son are left in a car that is slowly heating up, causing breathlessness in the child, and a woman who is getting out of options very quickly. This finale is one of the most terrify, exhilarating and heartbreaking (in the novel) sequence that one will ever see in any movie. Because in the novel it is shown that the woman, after all her heroics cannot save her son. This was changed in the movie because the audience felt this was a depressing ending.

To make matters more graphic, here is a small collage that shows you the Cujo at the beginning of the movie, as compared to the Cujo we see at the end of the movie:

Child's Play 1 Synopsis and Review

2010-02-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

Child's Play is one of the more intelligent horror movie franchises, that has lived since the '80s to the '00s. Now, there is news that the entire franchise is being remade/rebooted, a news that will only be greeted with happiness from the cult fans that have been hiding somewhere all these years. I was not much of a Child's Play fan when i first saw the movie, or the movie series, and did have a good laugh when they made a Bollywood movie based on the same concept, information for which you can find here.

Watching Child's Play now makes me wonder what kind of genuises existed in the '80s and '90s and it also makes me sad to think that these guys made history with such trivial resources back in their day. I only hope that the revived Child's Play movie or franchise meets the same success that the original franchise met with. Also, this is one of the few horror/slasher movies that actually were mostly a whodunnit in the first part, but later on became a full fledged horror movie.

Plot Synopsis:

Charles Lee Ray, aka The Lakeshore Strangler is a serial killer who has the law on his heels. While running away from a cop, Mike Norris, he enters a warehouse housing the most popular kid's toy - Good guys. Using his voodoo, he transfers his soul into the doll, as the entire warehouse then burns down due to to Mike's self defense tactics.

You can be so angry when you are shot you know!

Charles Lee Ray, also known as Chucky is now entrapped inside the doll's body. We are then introduced to Andy, who is celebrating quite a lonely birthday in his house, watching a cartoon showing Play Pal's Good Guy's cartoon. He is around making some breakfast for his mom, who still has her lazy hiney in bed. It is upto the poor guy to make toast, make juice as she does whatever women do sleeping late.

Picture of a obedient child

When he thinks the toast and juice is done, he runs up to his mother, who gives him a warm hug and then it's presents time! Apparently, the doll that he wanted is very expensive, and she gets him one of those half assed accessories which are never sold anyway, such a jerk I tell you.

Hey, Beyonce's expensive, can we hire Destiny's Child?

Fortunately, for every foolish woman like this who there is a smart woman, and the smart woman in this movie is Maggie, a friend of Karen, who knows just the place where they can get the Good Guy doll at a half assed price.

Would you buy anything from this guy?

Life is not a bed of roses for Karen, as her supervisor tells her that she has to spend more time in the departmental store, because they are short handed or something. The good hearted Maggie says that she will take care of Andy till the time Karen comes home.

That's Feminine Bonding Right There

Well, its that time of the movie when the protagonist meets the antagonist, and we were right there to capture the moment for all of our one and a half fans!

Yippity Yippity Yay!

This brings us to the sequences where Andy and Chucky are having a good time together, with Maggie having some chocolate pie, until Chucky finds out that his accomplice who basically turned tail on him has escaped from prison.

As soon as he finds this out, Maggie plays spoilsport and like the typical nagpot that she is, she tells Andy that its bed time. Andy is not someone to take things lying down and tells her that Chucky wants to watch the nine o clock news. Not understanding the greater aspect of such things, Maggie drives both Andy and his doll into bed, leaving Andy to brush his teeth. It is here that we Chucky in his first movement, as he sits on the couch and watches the news, all by himself.

Now, there have been several horror scenes that revolve around the television, hell, there have been even movies about it. But when you see the Chucky scene for the first time, this scene is still as intriguing.

The Family Scene

Things go pretty interesting after this, with the real Chucky standing up for what he is really supposed to do, kill and maim, yeah! Being the degenerate that he is, he first kills the woman who actually gave him a cosy little home, Maggie. This he does by hitting her forehead with a toy hammer, which accidentally launches her into orbit and finally down on the pavement.

The stupidity of police officials that we hear in real life is actually mirrored in reel life too. Once the woman dies, the six year old obedient and normally silent Andy automatically becomes the number of suspect of the death. I do not know if psychiatric tests were allowed back then, but it seems stupid for a police officer to blame the child for the death directly at the scene of crime.

Basically, he is saying her son is a killer.

Now, I do not know about that time, but I guess we lived in times where we could believe that a bare chested man could save a entire country, but it was not possible for someone to transfer their soul into a doll. If a child told his mother today that his toy is a soul, it would be the beginning of a media circus, a book, a movie, a tv series, even coming on Oprah, but back then, such kids were just shut down in their rooms. Sad situation, I say.

Reason of a Media Circus

Anyway, the next day when his mother is out working, Andy is told by Chucky to go to a place where his pardner is basically sleeping peacefully. While Andy begins looking for Chucky, Chucky looks for his friend and leaves a stove on, only to have his friend come in with guns blazing. Do you know what happens when a person comes in with guns blazing into a room with the stove on?


Bada Boom!

The authorities now take Andy into custody, and it is up to the detective to tell his mother that she might have spawned a serial killer. There is a big argument about this, which I do not think should have happened. I'd consider the woman just showing the officer her finger, take her son for a psychiatric test, and then let the law run its own course, and her son would be home within two weeks. But women seldom take the logical way out, and has a slanging match with the officer, and then returns home, trying to have a conversation with Chucky!

While the conversation does not have much success, our inhourse Hercule Poirot sees the box in which Chucky came, and the batteries fall out. Now, this woman has much more brains than a common departmental store helper and it does not take much time for her to reach the defining moment in her life:

Look Ma! No Batteries!

Not content with just one heroic job for the day, our departmental store heroine decides to take matters into her own hands, and threatens Chucky with a life in the hot and melting home fireplace, and this is where Chucky understand that his game is really up, gives her a love mark and runs away! It's Chucky on the loose!

Karen does not know whom to turn to, so she rushes to the police station and meets the police officer who basically is the root of all happenings. Obviously the police officer finds it easier to believe that a six year old kid has killed two people with no remorse of motive, than to believe that a soul has taken control of a doll that was bought by his mother on half price. Come on, people, a simple investigation would have had the police inspector find out that the doll was bought from a cheapskate who looted the doll from the burnt house where a serial killer with a voodoo background had been shot and killed by the authorities!

Well, a person can be dense in the mental department, but he does not believe Karen even when she shows him the love mark. Gawd, where did we get the people in the police force back then?

A week in Vega doesn't do this to a smexy woman.

But this woman believes in women empowerment, and scurries away to find the person who had actually sold her the doll. This brings us to a scene where we are reminded that it is not a good idea for a curvaceous blonde walking through the scum of the city in the dark of the night - however thick coats she wears. Of course, the knight in shining armor arrives just in time, and the two part ways once more.

Well, maybe Chucky is mad that the police officer does not think it possible that he can infuse his soul into a doll and that's why he decides to slash the police officer! While the police officer is busy saving his ass (literally) Karen does some research on her own, and finds out that The Lakeshore Strangler actually exists, and that there might be a answer to all these questions in the form of this person:

The Neighborhood Wiccan

Of course, Chucky reaches this guy before everyone, and the guy basically tells Chucky that he is becoming human, and will become completely human unless he doesn't transfer his soul into the first person who exposed himself to. And we guessed who that is, right. It's this guy!

There go my prospects of a normal life. Why was mom such a skinflint!

With this done, the movie basically has a long sequence where Chucky tries to transfer his soul into Andy's body, which is thwarted by his mother and the police officer time and again. I think they save him something like three times. And this happens because Chucky is a real badass who survives a complete burn, some six bullet shots in all types of organs of his body, and finally, he dies when his head is blown off with a bullet, with another shutting out his heart forever!

Carrie Review and Plot Synopsis

2010-02-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

No horror movie based medium can be complete without Stephen King and his movies. I was very young when Stephen King actually began sending chills down people's spines and very soon it was just that I 'knew' Stephen King to be 'the' horror writer and had never seen any of his movies or even read his novels. It was only in late 2005 that I saw my first Stephen King's novel based movie - The Shawshank Redemption - and I was spellbound by this guy. I began looking around for more Stephen king material and I was awarded by this movie which is supposed to be one of the best Stephen King novels. Stephen King's novels are that extraordinary stuff that take on a lot of things, with a firm eye on giving people what they want - entertainment.

There have been several movies that have spoken about introvert, mild mannered and even gifted children, and have succeeded in showing a mirror to the way that the schools and their peers have treated them. Of course, all these messages get lost in transition somewhere, as the plot of the movie is actually quite different. So, these movies actually leave us with the impotent frustration of seeing someone being bullied by youngsters who do not know better and their parents who have much more to think about in their lives.

Carrie is a bullied, somewhat unfitting young lady who is the butt of jokes in her school, simply because she is a bit introvert. She has a hard life at home, with her overzealous religious mother using the Bible for almost everything. Things take a bad turn when she menstruates in the school bathroom, which leads to a brutal ragging by all the other students, telling her to 'plug it up'. After this situation, Carrie begins to understand her extra ordinary powers of telekinesis.

The school teachers do not take kindly to the ragging, and hold all the students onto detention and suspension, and one of the students think that they were too harsh on the girl, and therefore requests her boyfriend to take her to the prom. Life is not as simple though, as one of the other girls confide with her boyfriend to plunge Carrie with pig's blood.

As Carrie is crowned the Prom Queen, the Pig's Blood pail falls onto her, and this is what creates the scenario for the brutal end of the movie. Carrie has now taken complete control of her telekinesis powers,and uses them to put some scum of the universe back where they belong, dead. It is only when she goes home that she finds out about her mother, who had told her not to go to the Prom has been waiting for her, as she thinks that she is taken by the devil. Carrie kills her mother and then burns up the whole house.

Synopsis:

The movie begins with a few girls playing basketball in the school playground and you are immediately introduced to Carrey (Sissy Spacel) as she fails to take a pass and that ends the game. Everyone goes upto her and someone even hits her with a hand or something.

She seems sorry, leave her alone already

We are later taken to a scene which seems right out of an T&A movie, wherein the camera makes up its mind to show us some of the better things before we get on to the gruesome. Think about it, young high school girls showing their '80s thatches in slowmotion. Yes, I do not know why the scene is filmed in slowmotion, but it is filmed in slow motion.

The slowmotion ends when Carrie begins menstruating in the bathroom and is turned into a ball of nervous fear, and all the girls gang up on her with chants of 'Plug it up'. Her savior this time is the PE teacher, who talks to the Principal about this, and this is where we see Carrie's telekinesis powers for the second time .The Principal, for some unknown reason calls her Cassie repeatedly, and finally, she shouts out that her name is Carrie, causing the ashtray to fall down and break.

This Guy says 'S' for 'R'.

Carrie's telekinesis powers are shown once again when she throws a boy off his cycle as he just begins to hound her as 'Creepy Carrie'. When Carrie gets home, we are introduced to her ultra religious mother, who has basically spent the most part of her life trying to keep her daughter chaste and succeeded in keeping a good social life out of her reach.

When the mother finds out about the issue at school, she proclaims that sin is getting into her daughter and closes her in the closet, and after a while, proceeds to sew. After a while, Carrie comes out and bids her mother good night, and this is where she once again uses her telekinesis powers, to keep her mother locked out for a while, and not to mention, break the mirror in her room.

Here's the mother who just closed her daughter in a coop a while ago.

Carrie's life does not change much, as it is evident that even the school teachers do not leave a chance to take a potshot on her. We are introduced to Michael, a typical curly haired hunk of the '80s and his poem, which is read out in the class, and when the schoolteacher asks for any critics, Carrie is the one who mutters that it is 'beautiful', making way for another rebuke, this time from the teacher. While a little farther away, another teacher is taking all the female students who made life hell for Carrie to task, by informing them that they have to be in 'her' detention for seven days, failing which they will not be allowed to go to the prom dance. If you think which face could conjure up such a evil trick, here it is:

Never Judge a Book By its...

While some of the girls are still booing about what has happened, Michael's girlfriend really thought that what she has done is wrong and therefore goes ahead and talks to Michael and the Schoolteacher about allowing Carrie and Michael to be part of the Prom together. After much reluctance, the teacher agrees, thinking that there will be at least some happiness in Carrie's life.

However, evil people are abound everywhere, and one of them happens to be the girl who is seemingly the brat of the pack and the leader of the brat pack, Sue Snell and her boyfriend Billy Nolan. The two connive together to make Carrie's prom dance a memorable event, while at the same time Carrie learns what her powers are meant for and what they do from one of the books in the library.

On prom night, Carrie's mother repeatedly begs with her not to go to the Prom Night, but this is one of the few times when Carrie uses her powers for her profit, by locking her mother in her bed with her powers. Her mother repeatedly tells her that 'they are gonna laugh at you'.

Everything goes as planned on prom night, and Carrie is treated well and even gets a good dance, with both of them voting for themselves during the prom night as Prom Queen and Prom King. When Carrie wins the award along with Tommy, she walks up to the stage to get the prize, and that is when hell freezes over, as the pig's blood pail drenches her with blood and knocks down Tommy.

One of the most iconic scenes

What follows next is a hellish account of how Carrie kills everyone in the Prom, or at least injures grievously, first by locking all of them in the school hall, then hosing them and finally, even electrocuting some of them. When she walks away, Sue and Billy try to run over her with their car, but Carrie once again uses her powers to crash and burn their car.

When Carrie comes home, her mother informs her that she has been possesses and that they should do something to help her. Carries mother attacks her, and Carrie uses her telekineses once more, to kill her own mother with the daggers lying nearby. Devastated by everything, Carrie finally sets the whole house on fire, along with her mother and her.

At the time of release, the climax was supposed to be one of the more brutal climaxes that were present in movies. Of course, all that has changed since the '80s, but here is a clip from YouTube that shows what was brutal back then:

AntiChrist Review (1999)

2010-02-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

The world is a changing, and with the changes all around, there is no doubt that some ideas and aspects that we have lived with would be changing. One of these aspects is the most followed religion in the world, Christianity. Christianity has been the context of many movies all over the world, and some of them have begun to question several information that we have considered to be the all believed fact. There are some movies that stand out because of their controversial stand on Christianity, and one of them is Anti - Christ.

Cast:

William Dafoe- He

Charlotte Gainsbourg: She

Plot:

He and She are a couple whose life changes after an unfortunate incident. Their newborn son dies after he falls from the top floor of the their house, while the two are indulging in sexual intercourse. The death of the child, along with the situation how it happened, has a deep effect on the wife. The husband, who is a psychiatrist decides to self medicate his wife, and after a talk, the husband decides that the best way to cure his wife would be to help her face her worst fears, the first one being the forest.

The two then land in a old house in the forest, where the two live, with the husband and wife finding many different things about themselves, which makes them wonder whether they have made the right decisions in their life.

Review:

While the movie begins as the typical horror psychology fare, with the creeps and the drips the movie basically takes a deeper message that seems quite audacious when it first seeps in. As a movie, it is made very slickly, with the camera angles, the acting and everything else about the movie being top class, but the movie suffers from two flaws.

The one flaw in the movie, which makes it controversial is the unneeded graphic sexual scenes all through the movie. This basically makes the movie less watchable, as some of the scene placement would look as something that the director does for catering to the masses.

The other flaw is the basic concept of the movie, wherein basically the storywriter wants to tell us that all women are Anti Christ, and the only way to save the world is by doing away by any woman who turns out to the Anti Christ. As a movie reviewer, I would say that women have already been exploited a lot, and another movie that gets back to the Inquisition was not needed.

Stepfather Review (2009)

2010-02-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

Making remakes is not a simple task. In fact, making remakes of movies is as difficult as making comic book movies, the film makers have to cater to such diverse tastes and mediums that they are tend to fall and fail. There have been many cases where the film maker has abused the reference material so much in their movie, that finally nothing can salvage the movie. Keeping this mind, at Stepfather (2009), which is a remake of the '80s cult classic 'The Stepfather' stands its own ground in the deluge of blockbuster movies this season.

Cast:

Dylan Walsh as David Harris/Grady Edwards/Gregory Sykes/Chris Ames/The Stepfather
Penn Badgley as Michael Harding
Sela Ward as Susan Harding
Amber Heard as Kelly Porter
Sherry Stringfield as Leah
Paige Turco as Jackie Kerns
Jon Tenney as Jay Harding
Nancy Linehan Charles as Mrs. Cutters
Marcuis Harris as Detective Shay
Braeden Lemasters as Sean Harding
Deirdre Lovejoy as Detective Tylar
Skyler Samuels as Beth Harding
Blue Deckert as Captain Mackie
Jason Wiles as Dylan Bennett
Jessalyn Gilsig as Julie Kingst
Tracey Costello as Mrs. Rivers
Sean Moran as Gus
Savannah Levin as Lisa Bennett
Nicole Michele Sobchack as Mrs. Bennett

Plot:

Chris Ames is seen walking out of a seemingly quite neighborhood, even listening to the the Christmas Carol 'Silent Night', quite out of season, and drifting into the big bad world. He is then spotted a few weeks later, striking up a friendship with another young lady with children, and six months later, when they are about to be married, the family welcomes her eldest son, Michael. While everyone is taken by the affable and more than helpful Chris, it is Michael who is not comfortable with a new man in the family, and has his suspicions, which soon seem to break apart the entire family into pieces.

Things take a bad turn when the family soon realises that anyone trying to dig into the past of Chris Ames ends up either in a swimming fool, belly up or falling down the staircase in some 'unfortunate incident'. Chris soon falls back to his old behavior, where he has a seemingly violent interaction with the middle son of the family, which is promptly informed to the divorced father.

What happens further is something that sets the map of the typical horror/slasher movies, where the antagonist goes on a killing spree, to hide something that they have done years ago, or just to cover up the story that they have provided.

Review:

The Stepfather is a slickly made movie, with various nods to the original version. Typically in horror movies, the music as well as the camera work plays a big role in creating the spooky atmosphere, and the makers succeed in creating a exciting, spooky and typically horror atmosphere. What works most in the movie is the actual sequences that prove the brutality of the main character are kept for the very end, right from where he walks out of the house, with the camera panning through blooded warehouse objects, like a hammer, or even a screwdriver, etc.

The audience is already informed that the movie would be much more subtle than the original, with the first sequence, where Chris gets a bloodied face because of a nick while shaving, as compared to the blood splattered face that was introduced to the audience in the original movie.

One interesting aspect of the movie is that the makers have finally decided to give the women a bit more work than screaming and basically adding to the T&A in the movie. In the end, it is the mother who actually stabs Chris, and Michael's girlfriend, who does little more than donning the skimpiest bikini all through the movie actually takes up a woodcutter machine to ward off Chris during a crucial moment in the movie.

The movie is a bit cliched, where the audience can actually guess who dies and who does not, and gets ready for another slasher sequence some ten minutes before they actually happen. Of course, most slasher movies suffer form this, and what takes them ahead of the typical fare is the 'way the people are killed', which basically tests the creativity of the movie makers.

The Good Son Review (1993)

2010-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

People who remembered Macauly Culkin as the cute lil boy in the Home Alone series may find this movie a bit hard to digest. After all, who could imagine that someone would have the gall to create a horror/slasher movie around one of the cutest child that ever hit the big screen? But someone had that idea and that gives us this movie starring Macauly Culkin and Elijah Wood, which may still be one of the most disturbing movies that you would ever set your eyes on.

Cast:

Macaulay Culkin as Henry Evans
Elijah Wood as Mark Evans
Wendy Crewson as Susan Evans
David Morse as Jack Evans
Daniel Hugh Kelly as Wallace Evans
Jacqueline Brookes as Alice Davenport
Quinn Culkin as Connie Evans

Plot:

Elijah Wood plays Mark, a young boy whose mother has recently passed away, and his father has to leave on an important business trip, which basically means that Mark must be kept somewhere where he can console himself after his mother's death. The family decides that the best place is at his uncle's, where he meets Henry Evans, a child that seems to be one of the many croaky, but gregarious kids that dot the neighborhood of any family residence today. It is only when Henry begins to believe that Mark is actually trying to, or at least going to usurp his place in the house, that he starts coming into his own terms, and changes the life of his family as well as Mark's forever.

Review:

The movie is a tightly written, enchanting script that is supported by some awesome acting by the supporting as well as the main cast. Of course, most of the screen space is captured by Macaulay and Elijah, and it is one of the first times that even when sheer evil is on the screen, you are more interested in the histronics of the protagonist. Elijah proves here that he always had more acting chops than Macaulay, but Macaulay took gives his best, scene to scene, dialogue to dialogue.

Again, the character of Henry Evans can be considered one of the most evil characters that have come into being on the big screen, simply because of his age and it can be seen from his first scene of violence, the Mr Highway man scene, that this guy is a born psychopath, with little chance of any kind of retribution.

As the climax builds up, the movie catches pace, something that it may have lagged behind in, especially during the psychologist scene, but it was an important plotpoint, of the movie made a veer around that arc where Mark was accused of being a nutcase finally.

The Orphan Review and Plot Synopsis (2009)

2010-02-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

Let's see what makes a good slasher flick:

A nasty protagonist who turns out to be the antagonist.
A cute as a button hit list, out of which some actually end up dying.
A hard as nails main character who comes up trumps finally, one way or the other.

Now lets check what the "Orphan' has for itself:

A nasty protagonist who turns out to the antagonist - Check
A cute as a button hit list, out of which some actually end up dying - Check
A hard as nails main character who comes up trumps finally, one way or the other - Check.

Seriously speaking, when it comes to slasher or horror flicks, the perfect ten cannot be farther for The Orphan. It may be the movie that actually brings about some storyline aspects into the entire realm of Slasher an Horror flicks. And with the great acting by the main cast as well as the supporting one, this movie seriously had something for the hardcore slasher fan.

Plot:

The movie speaks about a couple that has recently lost their third child, because of which the mother goes into a kind of depression, which makes her prone to drinking and she even loses her job back at Yale. After a while, the couple decide to adopt a child, so that they do not miss their unborn child as much as they actually are. This brings into their life Esther, singularly the most sick character ever that has come into mainstream media, and more so when she does hasn't been 'taken by a ghost', or has 'bad things been done to her'.

Esther is bad news since the very beginning, though everyone puts her quirky behavior to what she has 'gone through' as a child and the basic fact that she is from Russia. However, things take a bad turn when the orphanage from where she has been adopted start to smell a rat about sending a girl they do not know anything about to a house that is essentially a happy, complete household.

Review:

The movie surprises you with the level of brutality that is prevalent all about. Of course, the direction is stark and dark, and what plays a greater role in the movie is the background music, which has the correct tempo and thump that'd be required by a horror/slasher genre movie.

What interested me is the unwavering synposis of the child's mind that is shown all through the movie, right from where Esther manipulates the little girl, to where the boy tries to find out whether the girl that has come into the house is actually as evil as he thinks that she really is.

Another important aspect that works in making this movie an intelligent one is the reason that Esther goes through all the trouble to kill a nun, to hurt the small girl and to threaten the little kid with a knife - the husband. It is only logical that a grown woman who has lived as a teenager for different reasons would not find it very difficult to get love and affection, and yes, even basic physical intercourse.

The final clink in the movie may seem to be quite unreal to many people, but as a avid follower of crime and punishment, the reviewer would like to inform that the movie is in fact based on a true story, where a thirty year old woman actually lived as a teenager with many houses, finally disappearing into nothing one fine day.

Plot Synopsis:

The movie begins with Warner Bros logo splattered in some kind of neon paint, which then brings us to the other company affiliated with the movie, Dark Castle Entertainment. The setting is dark and foreboding, just a symbol of what the path ahead. A simple, type face font announces the arrival of the 'Orphan'.

It's Web 2.0 Man.. All Simplistic and Stuff!

The entire neon light common light aspect is brought forward as the titles go ahead, as the name Orphan becomes a weird, madhead written scrawl of the film name.

The first scene takes us to a couple coming into a hospital with the gay abandon of a much married couple coming into a home appliance showroom looking for a washing machine for their house. The woman, named Kate, goes into labor quite cheerfully, even having some time for some small talk with the nurse, and we think it's gonna be a family themed movie until we see this:

My God.. the color is so realistic!!

Okay, a woman has blood on her naughty parts when she goes into labor, not a good sign. We are further told that all is not well when the woman finds herself in the labor room, with the doctors and nurses being as happy as a group of children looking forward to the prospect of having a enactment of a tea party with their Barbie dolls. The weird scene ends with what women do best in Horror flicks, shout her lungs out as she is presented with the dead baby, nicely blood splattered on one side of its head, for horror effect.

Fortunately, this insane enactment of the medical profession did not happen and we find out that the woman is basically prone to nightmares and has to take some peanut shaped medicine whenever she has such dreams, maybe it's to bid her away from anxiety attacks, it is not clear.

With this done,Kate thinks that she did a great job surviving the nightmare, but because nobody else takes interests in her nightmares, and because she thinks that she will not have another chance to show off her thigh high boots, she trudges off to a mommy type psychiatrist, who does a good job of sitting on a chair and looking like a very busy and serious psychiatrist.

Look at these boots. You will never, ever see them later.

We find out that Kate has some skeletons in her closet, with her drunken behavior, which we are also told has brought about some changes in her life, and therefore the couple's life. In fact, the little twerp actually leans ahead and tells her psychiatrist that she stopped over at the wineshop by the road for a bottle, but did not get it. Nice abstinence.

Look at this woman. This is a woman who abstains.

After being all pompous and haughty about the fact that she didn't add to the economy by getting punch drunk, and beaming like a little kid when the psychiatrist gives her a pat on her back, it is then time for her to meet her daughter, a very sweet kid who is unfortunate deaf and dumb. This immediately makes a veteran movie watcher to gauge she will soon be dead and her deaf and dumb nature will play a very important role in her death. Anyway, we begin taking the forced 'talk ton the dumb' lessons as mother and daughter bond.

As the two drive home, the movie has one of its first 'Holy Shit' moment when Kate is lost in thought and breaks a signal, or breaks a signal and is lost in thought, it doesn't matter, because in a moment her nice little Lexus will be pummeled by a sixteen wheeler! Of course, she is saved and she heaves a sigh of relief.


Daved! oh sorry, Saved!

Ok, so what does a woman do when she has just brought her daughter home, has saved herself from coming under a truck and has effectively beaten her wanton need for wine? - Play the piano! If you ever thought why you were never successful in playing the piano, the movie gives you the right answer - Smexy Glasses!


No, you don't understand. I need those smexy glasses!

Soon Kate is disturbed by her daughter trying to be the next Shaquille O Neal in her bid to become the next.. erm.. who's a famous piano player? Anyway, before we lose ourselves in such deep questions, the men come home, completing the family - Or Is It?

Okay, who is the one who has the worst deal when it comes to be the husband of a hot knocking woman? This man:

Look at him closely as he 'tries' to kiss his wife

Why? Because she loses the child, she gets to drive a Lexus, she gets fat woman to listen to her problems, she gets to be all happy that she didn't drink and what does this man get, not even a simple lay at night! And they say it's a man's,world! After this night, the two talk about and decide that they should adopt a child, an older child, so that their two other children have the right company. So off they are to the Orphanage!

It has been long been said that the man of the species is the one who basically goes hunting for danger, and 'Orphan' affirms it, with Kate going towards all the good kids, while her husband walks right into the pit of evil, that's right, John meets Esther!

Hi! I am Esther.

Both the parents are pretty damn sure within the first ten minutes that Esther is the one who would be the best option for their family. With a quick talk with the Mother of the orphanage, Esther can be a family member within three weeks!

With Esther coming home, there is joy and excitement all around, with the mom, the dad and the daughter welcoming her, while the son doesn't, and the feeling is basically mutual, because it here where we see her first signs of pure evil.


Whenever someone looks at you like this, hell is gonna come over.

Well, the kid takes it like any nice grown up man would, he goes up to his treehouse and starts reading Playboy. Some kid comments that one of the Playboy models look like his mother. And what does he do? This:

Meh!

And so night falls on the household, and as we all know, every night in a horror movie has to have lighting and thunder even if its the middle of the year. So, on with the lighting and thunder and this is where Kate thinks that she can have it with her husband! Of course, Esther, being the evil kid that she is, wants to be a bone of contention and she brings in the artillery, saying they are scared of the lightning, saying they are scared of the lightning and she wishes to sleep near daddy!


Sing me a Lullaby!

Now, all through the movie I did not find one soul whom I thought should die, or even come under some percentage of violence, but now we are in school, in one of the greatest democracies in the world! Which basically allows twerps like this:

After she calls Esther 'Bo Peep'

Which makes Esther point daggers towards this girl, whose name we do not know yet. Now, I have been through various situations where jokes are made about the physical aspect of some phrases. Like back in my country,we have a phrase, 'Laughed in my mind'. There are several smart alecs who tell the person, "Show me how you laugh in your mind'. One similar phrase is 'Looked Daggers at'. Now, if you use that phrase anywhere, and if that particular smart alec ever asks you , "Look daggers at me, please point them to this picture:

This is how a person looks daggers

With school over, Esther and Max start playing, and this is where the second symbol of her being upto no good is proved, where she deliberately takes Max towards the water. She further makes life difficult by catching the boy hitting a pigeon with a paintball, and when he shows remorse, she eggs him to kill the pigeon, and when he refuses, she goes ahead and smashes the pigeons head with a rock.

At night, she begins with locking her doors, and when spoken about, she says that she will sing for the Sisters in the Orphanage so that she was allright. And then the whole house is drowned in a dreary, quite eerie slow lull of music.

Days go by and Kate begins to feel that something is amiss when she finds a very old Bible with photographs of two grown men, torn kept as leaflets in the book. Now, firstly, I would not have taken a girl from another country into my home. Secondly, I would have kicked her out the moment I find out pictures of two grown men in her Bible! But apparently this is a movie and things are different here.

At school. the Bible plays an important role where she is ragged by the same girl who called her Bo Peep, one thing leads to the other, and finally the Bo Peep girl tries to remove the coverings that she has on her throat and neck. And this is what she gets:

Never Take Out Her Neck Coverings

Well, the girl goes back to her piano lessons with mommy dearest, and mommy dearest comforts her about the incident in school, which basically is dropped off by Esther quite immediately. This is where Kate tells her about a scrapbook that she had created, and the scrapbook that she has in mind for her. Things move from one to another and finally Esther asks about who Jessica is.

With this kind of mother daughter bonding, the couple begin to find some sparks back into their marriage, and the sparks are so hot that they begin having it in on the kitchen sink itself! Unfortunately, this is seen by Esther. When Kate confronts her with it, she drops the 'F' bomb in a typical academic manner, and the two start having discussions about her. Trust me guys, I would have thrown this girl right out of my house by this time!

Okay, now with the couple on other talks, its time for Esther to do something really drastic, She finds out that the husband had an on off affair with a woman and finds her villain, the Bo Peep girl, whom she decides to take revenge on. She drops the girl from a ride in the garden!

On being confronted, Esther says that she was playing and that is seconded by Max. A volatile situation becomes a bit violent when Daniel remarks about her behavior, and the two have a little bicker about where she's from. Finally, Daniel blows the 'F' word, and he loses his tree house for that. The next day, the women of the house are out shopping, and Esther refuses to speak to the sister from the Orphanage, and at the same time goads Max into lip read what they are talking.

Sometime later, Kate finds out that Esther knows how to play the piano and when confronted, she taunts her about a daughter who cannot talk or listen and a son who is not interested. When the couple talk about it, John is very nicely saying that he does not believe in her being the evil conniving female that is about to destroy the family. The two have a little bickering about an affair that he had ten years ago, and the voice goes to Esther, who is apparently enjoying all of it as she paints a pretty picture.

The next day, Sister Abigail comes to the house and confesses that there might be a problem with Esther, and once again, John is quite an idiot about it all. Even the facts that are thrown at his face do not make any difference to him! He is even told that the girl could be party to arson!Esther takes her revenge by practically killing the woman by blowing her car off the road. When that is not enough, she takes hammers the point home to Sister Abigail that 'she's gonna stay!'.

Point Hammered

Esther increases her points on the evil meter when she risks Max's life during the activity. Hell, if she wanted to have the car crash to the sidewalk she could have thrown a stone at the windscreen! However, Esther and Max then get up and take all the incriminating material (killing a woman is bloody business) in the tree house, the key to which has been taken from Daniel because he drops the F word during dinner. She notices Daniel during the murder and actually threatens that she will cut off his wingwang if he ever told anyone what he saw.

John and Kate then take Esther to the good little psychologist that they have, and the psychologist is bowled over by Esther. She sings praises of Esther, while Esther throws a tantrum in a more than typical strong washroom.

Well, things do not end here, with Kate getting a call from the orphanage about the fact that Abigail hasn't returned, and this leads to the police finally finding the poor lady who had a freezing death, and the police at the door. Now, wait a minute. If I had a orphan who had a tiff with a woman and she ends up dying the next day just outside my house - I call the authorities - instanto presto. There are no two ways about it. Why this couple does not do that, or why John never, ever believes Kate until he has a knife thrust into his heart is something that we leave the the cinema goers to figure out.

All of this leads to a quite nice scene that tells us why the titles were made up neonsmattered light. All the paintings that Esther does actually can be viewed in dual lighting. With the common house lighting, its a warm, All American Home, and with the lights off, it's evil at it's most brutal!

Kate meanwhile decides to take the matters into her own hands, and arms with those smexy glasses of hers, does some layman research on the Internets for such huge terms as antisocial personality disorder, and more importantly character disturbed child and finally, children who kill.

Muh Smexy Glasses and Me!

Ladies, believe me, the one way to find out whether you have married a prick or not is to actually wave scientific and historic evidence that a killer may be residing in the house, and he turns it all around and has you visit the shrink. But then, the woman does she what she does best - solve problems while she feeds her brood. A quick phone call all around tells her that the orphanage seriously does not have any information about her, other than the tacky information that is provided by her.

Well, John shows his basic disknowledge when he allows Esther to once again play him off and not go to the dentist, while Kate does some investigation with her already threatened and scared children, and both of them do not give her any glue. And all this while Esther begins her seducing game with John in the time that she earned because she did not go to the dentist, I say, smart girl... or... woman?

Because of the daddy daughter time that the two spend, maybe Esther has a change of heart and tells Kate that she has got a present for her, a present from a plant that husband and wife had planted in the memories of their dead kid. Now wait, if John does not find anything trick in this, there has to be something wrong with John's head. No, seriously, I am this close to driving up to John's house, slapping his head with a cup and coffee and yell in his ear 'Smell up and wake the coffee!".

Meanwhile, Esther goes about breaking her arm herself by putting it in a screwing machine or something and then goes ahead to yell 'Daddy, Daddy' in her Russian accent. Of course, daddy dearest believes that a simple clutch from Kate could break a 11 year old's hand, what does he think he has married, the IncredibleS Super Woman?When Kate finds out that her husband thinks he has married the Incredible Super Woman, which she knows that she is not, she decides to drink and then decides against it, and finally throws out one of the bottles.

The next day, Esther tries to kill Max by starting the car when it parked in the neutral by the school. When John finds this out, and he finds a bottle of wine in Kate's room, he gives her an ultimatum that she either goes to rehab or he leaves with the children.

Well, when daddy dearest is stupid, its the mom and the son who has to take things in their own hands, and they both do, with mommy going back to the Bible and finding a Russian sounding institute name, and Daniel going down to Max's room to ask her about what's actually happening.

Well both are successful, with Daniel finding out that the incriminating evidence linking Esther to Abigail's death is in his own treehouse. Esther is a step ahead of Daniel and reaches the treehouse when he does, and this leads to Daniel basically hanging from a thick enough branch as the whole tree house burns.

Yes, you guessed it. Even after his son is in the hospital after surviving a tree house fire, which just had his own daughter and a complicated girl from Russia in the vicinity, he does not believe that Esther had anything to do with it. Even Esther knows that her game is up and goes ahead to kill Daniel in the hospital itself. This infuriates Kate to no end and for the first time, for the love of God, this child of Evil gets a thick, tight slap from her hands! Yes, the little girl Max plays a great role in this scenario. Oh if only a part of her brains were given to her father!

It's all downside from here, with Kate being admitted into the hospital due to her outburst and Esther, Kate and John in the house alone, where Esther tries to seduce a punch drunk John. Thank the Lord that she does not succeed. Well, what girl would succeed if she tries to seduce a man dressed like the woman in 'The Memoirs of a Geisha?"

Believe me when I say so and I won't show you screenshots

While all this is going on, Kate gets a call from wherever she had contacted, and everything, finally, finalmo dawns on her.This leads to a very nicely shot chase sequence, where Kate basically crashes into her own house, and the nail biting climax that 'DOES NOT PLAY ON MAX'S HEARING PROBLEM'.

The climax is good, because its the girls who do everything, where the husband just lies dead by the time the woman actually gets back to the house. Yes, the movie is said to have an alternate climax, which you can watch here: