V/H/S/2

Having acquired a heap of knowledge and a pile of leftover tapes from their first outing, this second installment of the V/H/S horror line feels more polished and... boring... than the first.  Sure, everything tied together better in a central theme: private detectives are asked to look for a college student who's been missing for a few days.  At his house, they find lots of static-y monitors and piles of VHS tapes.

This time, it all feels more predictable in its narration.  There's a story with ghosts, one with zombies, one with occult, and one with aliens.  It's all nice and tidy.  And that's what makes it boring.

V/H/S/2
2013, 95 minutes, directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, and Jason Eisener

The Paramount was already running an hour late after their first film.  I stayed in line for Evil Dead for two hours, but when the film was supposed to have started and the previous screening was still letting out, I bailed for dinner and a sure spot at this midnight film.  Knowing now that some people made it (barely) to both thanks to V/H/S/2 also being inexplicably delayed, and knowing that I didn't care much for the midnight film, makes me angrier at the Paramount and SXSW for being unable to keep their schedules even remotely on time.

ABCs of Death

In what I think is the first Drafthouse Films-funded venture, Tim League and Ant Timpson enlist 26 genre film directors to each produce a short, each based on death and a letter of the alphabet.  As is usual, I don't review shorts except when they are produced together to form a feature film.  I'm not going to attempt to review every story; it's sufficient to say some were funny, some were bizarre, and some were downright disgusting.  I can't recommend it for anyone with a stomach or conscious.

ABCs of Death
2012, 123 minutes, directed by Angela Bettis, Hélène Cattet, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Bruno Forzani, Adrián García Bogliano, Xavier Gens, Noboru Iguchi, Thomas Cappelen Malling, Jorge Michel Grau, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, Mikael Wulff, Yudai Yamaguchi, and Lee Hardcastle




The list of deaths below is for my own reference.  I don't recommend reading it, whether you plan to see the film or not.
Apocalypse
Bird
Cycle
Dogfight
Exhumed
Far
Gravity
Hydro-Electric Diffusion
Itchy
Jidai-Geki
Kapoo
Libido
Miscarriage
Nature
Orgasm
Parama Ribo (Pressure)
Quack
Rice
Speed
Toilet
Unsuspecting
Vagitist
XXL
Yeti
Zymosis

Lovely Molly

In Lovely Molly, director Eduardo Sanchez (of Blair Witch fame) follows the same trend as the [REC] franchise, moving away from first-person "found footage" back to a mix with traditional camera work. Molly and her husband, newly married, move back into her childhood home. The demons of her past - drug use, insanity, the memory of her father - quickly reemerge as she struggles in her new old setting. Are the demons all in her head, or does her father's legacy live on? SXSW bills the as "what happens before the exorcist arrives". I think of it as Paranormal 4: Less Scary More Nudity.

Lovely Molly
2011, 95 minutes, directed by Eduardo Sanchez

Paranormal Activity

This film is generating so much hype here today. Together with the industry presence (30+ seats blocked off for cast and crew) and enhanced security, it's either going to be a huge blockbuster or a serious disappointment.

...watches...

Eh, it was ok, but not worth the hype. It was very predictable and lacked the stick-with-you creepy factor of similar films like The Blair Witch Project. I didn't go to sleep thinking about ghosts, I went to sleep thinking up a better ending. I overheard the guy sitting next to me say that there are eight endings, and he described one of them. Sadly, the one he gave was better than the one they used.

Paranormal Activity
2007, 99 minutes, directed by Oren Peli

read on for spoiler thoughts
The CG in the last second was totally out of place, and the ending was 100% predictable from the moment of the slashed picture. Come on, when she decides to not leave it's obvious she's been possessed. Rather than all of that, wind back to when she's dragged down the hall. Instead of having her pulled into a back bedroom until Micah rescues her, let's see her (via an arm, whatever) get pulled up into the attic through that back closet just before the door slam. Then Micah shouldn't be able to rescue her. He ends up alone. After the tension (and the activity) mounts over five minutes of him frantically figuring out what to do, she should reappear, just give a little grin, and then plug in the she-slaughters-him ending of choice.

Drag Me to Hell

100% predictable

200% cheesy

3000% awesome

Drag Me to Hell
2009, 96 minutes (as a work in progress), directed by Sam Raimi

Alone

Although I dislike horror, especially including the shockfest, I find that Alone, seen September 22, does have redeeming qualities. I appreciated the plot twists and turns, which served and advanced the story instead of merely setting up the next visual effects shock.

Alone
2007, 95 minutes, directed by B. Pisanthanakun and P. Wongpoom