Stigma #1

Ok, the whole thing is tricky. Putting a movie into a specific genre. Where do thrillers end and horror movies begin. I guess I should lead off with what got me thinking, there exists a movie titled Apt Pupil. It was adopted from a Steven King short story and stars the always wonderful Ian McLellin as an ex-Nazi living out his days in hiding in the United States, his neighbor takes interest, and eventually finds out who he is, which leads to more deception, and domination over each other. The movie explains that as a nazi Sir Mclellins character was responsible for many atrocities, which intetest the boy even more. They both take on traits of eachoter and eventually leads to a murder as well as him being found out by the Isreali procecutors. The movie is labeled as a thriller, and I would totally agree, however it contains what I believe to be some of the most gutwrenching, and terrifying things I have ever watched. There is very little blood and gore in this movie, but the domination that the boy takes over, as well as his actions and behavior throught the movie makes for a very interesting, if not terrifying movie.
Now thrillers being labeled as horror is nothing new, but I feel like the other way around is a much higher mark. Movies like Fallen, Apt Pupil, and Pycho are very easy to suggest to fans of the horror genres, but it seems that a movie must reach a certain level of prominence before it can lose its stigma of being a horror film.

Chillerama

Ugh. Ok so everything I have reviewed so far I have pretty much loved, or spoken highly about, but I cannot about this movie. Infact I am deliberately writing this review out of pure unadulterated hate for this film. A midnight movie, great I love those, Trick or Treat is one of my favorite horror movies that came out in the last 10 years, and I have a special place in my heart for Steven King and George A Romeros Creep Show, movies with short little vinyettes sometimes interwoven or with a background. CHillerama I guess you could say falls into the same category, but I hate to even mention these movies in the same breath. Chillerama came recommended from a few friends, but I have no idea why. The movie centers around a drive in theater, but on a night where zombies raise from the dead, we are shown 3 movies, interspereced with the coming zombie apocalyplse. The movies which I even refuse to say the name of any of them because they are discusting, or flat out offensive, are trite. There is no substance, only mean spirited jokes, or jokes played only to be offensive. There is an entire movie that is completely unwatchable, because it is so uncomfortable because it is so homophobic and full of terrible stereotypes. I understand what the 4 directors tried to do when started, but they failed miserably. Honestly do not listen when people say it is light hearted and its supposed to be that way, it is not it falls flat and is not worth wasting an hour and a half of your life on.

The Collector

Walking around the local Family Video, almost every newer horror movie on the shelf says from the creators of Saw, or from the writers of saw one, three, or five, or any number of the seemingly endless sequels that exist in the franchise. Let me say this right now, stop, no one cares who wrote the sequels of Saw, they weren’t good, and certainly the writing and dialogue was the weakest part. I know that I have really no room to talk, but there are just so many boxes that feature this prominently. That said, I did take home a movie like this called The Collector. It written by the guys who wrote Saw IV through VII, but what confuses me is that they also did the Feast trilogy, which is to me a much better film series, it does not take its self seriously, much of it is played for laughs, and unlike a lot of horror movies, the jokes actually work. Doesn’t matter, back to The Collector, this movie is not funny, like at all. It revolves around a man named Arkin, a reformed criminal, who is working on a house in the country, it turns out that his ex wife owes people money, so Arkin decides to rob the family that he is working for. He breaks into the house to discover that the house has been booby trapped, and that someone else is there trying to both kill or collect family members. Ok so kind of a silly plot, and the more you think about it the dumber the idea of setting up such intricate booby traps is, but somehow I didn’t hate it. I didn’t hate it to the point that I kind of liked it. Arkin is such a good character, he is so likeable, because he does have so much heart. I can’t spoil you any more, but this movie is worth watching for any horror fan, or I guess anyone who wanted to see an adult version of the Mcully Kulkin Home Alone movies.

The Muppets

On their first outing since their debatably muppetesque ‘Muppets in Space’, the muppets make a return to form in 2011’s ‘The Muppets’. At the helm, we have (thankfully) a man who grew up loving the muppets for what they were, Jason Segel. Once word got out that he would be writing and starring, there was little doubt that the muppets would stray from what made them so arresting almost 40 years ago. What we have is a fantastically self aware and family friendly movie with laughs and heart. The new muppet, Walter, is Jason Segel’s little brother and the two of them are the muppet’s biggest fans. They drive out to California and take a tour from Alan Arkin of the old Muppet’s studio. When Walter over hears Tex Richmen, the greedy, oil loving tycoon is going to buy it and destroy it, he decides that he must reunite the muppets to save the theaters. Jason Segel’s love interest, Amy Adams, is fantastic as always. The two have a side plot going on that only adds to their strength of character without overpowering the muppets plot, which is, after why we’re watching this move. The cast is star studded, with plenty of cameos and pleasant surprises along the way. Plenty of enjoyable nostalgia and some of the catchiest songs for a movie in recent memory, the muppets movie is worth your time. It’s nice to see a movie low on computer animation, and actual heart. Something tat is truly hard to come by these days. Love and accept each other, kindness and laughs will always win out.