I hope everyone had an awesome holiday! I know I'm quite a bit late, but I wanted to put up the final movie write-ups for the month!
Scarecrows <---Helpful link to full thoughts
Some mercenaries steal a lot of money and kidnap a pilot and his daughter, forcing them to fly them out of the country. But when one of their own betrays them, and they wind up on a creepy, deserted farm surrounded by equally creepy scarecrows, it quickly becomes apparent that their biggest problem isn't going to simply be trying to track down their former teammate.
A very atmospheric little horror outing where the monsters are all....wait for it...scarecrows. Cool. We need more of those. And it even starts out pretty good, too, with a great location that feels really, mysteriously ominous. The acting is even pretty decent. And it even has some decent effects for a low-budget film like this. But the problems arise with the writing. The guy who runs off with the money clearly had no escape plan. Strike 1. The mercenaries start off all bloodthirsty and threatening, but once the pilot dies, they look at his daughter like "Gee, kid. We know we kept threatening to shoot the two of you and all, but gosh, we didn't mean for him to die and we feel really bad about orphaning you now and all." Strike 2. And THEN, when they finally realize that the money isn't worth their lives, and they're up against something beyond their control and need to leave, these idiots keep getting distracted by errant $20 bills laying around the farm 10 seconds later. Seriously, it's like "Shit! Screw the money! We need to get back to the plane and get out of her-... Oh, look! Money!" It's really, REALLY bad. So, Strike 3, movie. You're nice and moody and all, but I think I'd rather go watch
Dark Night of the Scarecrow again instead.
Mirrors
An ex-detective takes a night job paroling an old, fire-damaged department store, and starts to suspect that the mirrors in the store are harboring a dark force.
Yet
another movie that starts off really well with some awesome atmosphere and nice imagery, and then just...falls apart by the middle and then annoy you by the end. I think it was
supposed to be an adaptation of the Korean film,
Into the Mirror, but it got mostly rewritten and lost a lot in translation. Because I just do not understand the internal story logic in this one at all. You have this evil force, which
SPOILER turns out to be a demon
END SPOILER. It's trapped in the mirrors. And you THINK it's only trapped in the mirrors at the store, because clearly it wants out. But then you find out that it can go into
ANY mirror and kill people whenever it wants. It just needs a reflective surface. Yet it's end goal is to possess this one gal that got away from it? Why? It was doing fine. It was killing lots of people and growing stronger with each death and shit, just how it wanted. Possessing the mirrors was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to it. But it's obsessed with this one chick? I don't get it. Then by the end it turns into this weird action thing, and people are getting thrown several feet through the air, yet still getting back up. It kinda feels like you suddenly switched movies. And then there's this twist at the end that I'm sure is supposed to make you go "oh no!", but all it did was add more questions and made me continue to question the film's logic. Oh well. At least most of it looked nice.
And here's my pumpkin, for those interested:
It is Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000, with a pumpkin head. Or, if you like, Pumpkinhead Tom Servo.
And I know (I think it was) Ziggy, mention Halloween decorations earlier. Yes, I do decorate, but mostly inside this year. I typically like to put up some lights outside, but the hurricanes this year kinda put a kibosh on that, so we didn't bother. Hopefully we'll be able to do it next year. There is one guy on the street that REALLY likes to decorate though, with a bunch of lights and blow-ups and other knick·knack. He's got a small yard, but he fills it to the brink with over a dozen different things. And he's quick, too. He's already gotten it all down and put up all his Christmas decorations in their place already. That dude is dedicated
But here's my tiny little internal display, if you care to know:
Anyway, thanks everyone for participating! I really enjoy reading everyone's thoughts on movies/games/what-have-you and looking at any pictures you chose to share. It's probably one of my favorite things.
Hope to see you all next year!
