10/31-Halloween (1978)

What kind of monster would I be if I didn't end this adventure with Halloween?  I guess since it was a Friday, I could have done Friday the 13th for all the number dyslexics out there.  But I didn't.  I went with Halloween, mostly because I had never seen it all the way through (although that means I miss out on Kevin Bacon getting an arrow stabbed through his neck while smoking a J).

Let me start by saying this movie has one of the most iconic horror movie themes ever, perhaps only rivaled by The Exorcist, but unlike The Exorcist, this movie hammers the theme into your brain until just thinking about the tune send shivers down your spine and makes you turn around to check for murderers.  Also, John Carpenter, the director, made the music, so that's cool.

Speaking of turning around, that's where so much of the fear in this movie comes from, the sense of being watched an followed.  This is a strategy of fear-inducing that has evolved into one of the found-footage genre's greatest tools.  Several of the found-footage movies I watched this month featured a scene where the antagonist manned the camera, providing a first-person view into the nefarious acts of the bad guy.  These scenes were often the most tense and scary of the respective movies.  Halloween is not found-footage, but implements the first-person shots several times with consistently high tension-levels.

The murdering is also well-paced through the movie.  After opening with a kill scene, the body count slows to set up characters, such as Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut.  But just because there is no killing during these scenes, doesn't mean they aren't scary.  This is where the "being watched" scenes begin to appear, and the looming sense of dread starts to build.

"I'm in the corner, watching you kiss him..."

Most of the tension-building takes place during the day, which again, shows its power.  Any movie that can instill fear in daylight is doing something right.  One detractor is that the kill effects are a little cheesy, but that's balanced out by Carpenter using a lot of shots focusing on the killer or the knife pulling away all blood stained.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/30-The Exorcist (1973)

I know I'm going to get shit for this, and maybe it was all the hype, but after having never seen The Exorcist, I was kinda disappointed.  Yes, there were scary moments, primarily when devil Regan was on screen, but not only was that a fairly minimal part of the movie but also the scenes in between failed to keep the tension for me.  On top of that, I found the ending to be abrupt and unsatisfying.

I dunno.  I feel bad about not being blown away by it.  I mean it tops just about "Scariest Movie Ever!" list, but it just didn't get to me the way some of the others on I've watched this month.  That iconic music?  Super stressful and awesome.  Yet they play it like twice in the whole movie for about ten seconds each.  I want more damnit!

That shit gives me chills every time.  So why use it so little?  I know I've used the term slow burn on here a bunch, and that would apply here, but again, the final act just didn't do it for me.  In fact, the most scariest scene for me, and it was truly horrifying, comes almost exactly at the halfway point.  After that, I was really excited for the rest, thinking it would only get more tense and awful (which remember is a good thing for horror films), only to be disappointed that the climax (my apologies for unintended future pun) came at the halfway point.  Here's the scene:

That scene really gets to me.  Rewatching it while putting it here gave me just as much unpleasantness (again this is good) as the first time, but again, what follows just doesn't do this scene justice.

Disappointed.  I wanted to be terrified of this movie.  I so wanted this to be a contender for scariest of month, but it just fell kinda flat.  

All that said, from a movie as a whole standpoint, it was great.  Characters that were somewhat developed, beautiful cinematography, it was even nominated for Best Picture (the first horror movie to do so).

If anyone hasn't seen it and watches it, please tell me what you think.  Or even if you have seen it, tell me what you think.  I just feel really weird about this.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10 boos (the above scene is 7 boos)

10/29 I Saw the Devil (2010)

Man, Choi Min-sik makes some hard to watch movies.  To be fair, I've only seen this and Oldboy, but good lord, they are both rough.  Albeit in different ways.  He clearly likes hammers though...

I'm pretty much just gonna drop spoilers throughout, so don't read on if you want to watch it blind.

In a nutshell, I Saw the Devil is Taken meets a mixture of Silence of the Lambs and Hostel.  The film begins when Kyung-chul kills Joo-yun seeming for her refusing his help with her flat tire (although after finishing the movie, I realized he probably would have killed her anyway).  Turns out Joo-yun is the daughter of the former chief of police and her fiancee is a secret service agent (Liam Neeson).  Because of this, they pull out all the stops to find her body, which they do, or at least her head.  This lead to one of the two laugh out load moments in the otherwise very serious film.

I wish I could find a gif or a video of it, but I can't.  But basically, the police put Joo-yun's severed head in a forensics box and the guys carrying the box proceeds to stumble in front of a ton of other police and journalists and the head rolls out.  I know it was supposed to be a serious and tragic moment, but holy shit, it was hilarious.

Anyway, Soo-hyun (Joo-yun's fiancee, the secret service agent) receives the police's top suspects from his father-in-law and begins a vigilante spree against them to figure out who was Joo-yun's killer.  His first stop is not the killer, but does provide some harsh violence as he interrupts the suspect's masturbation session.

If you didn't watch the clip, then you missed my other laughing moment, right at the end.  When the police chief asks the hard-hitting question, "Who broke your balls?"  Sometimes, even in the most dreadful moments, you just need a laugh.

Soo-hyun eventually figures out that Kyung-chul is the killer and begins to stalk him via a tracking device on his car.  Soo-hyun then interrupts Kyung-chul's current rape and soon to be murder by beating the shit out of him and forcing a gps/microphone pill down his throat.  He is then able track Kyung-chul even better, allowing KC (abbreviating now on for my ease) to get patched up at the hospital.  Now as if we didn't already know, we see KC continuing to be a monster as he begins to sexually assault the nurse.  But thanks to the tracking device, SH shows up and lays an even more severe beatdown on KC, culminating in a scene that left be truly breathless in horror and visceral pain.  I'm not even going to try to look for a gif, picture, or video because it was too horrifying, but I'll just say this: scalpel meets Achilles tendon.

Just writing that made me feel icky.

This sick catch and release by SH continues and you see him basically becoming the monster that he is trying to extinguish.  You also meet some other horrible characters like a slovenly cannibal.  SH wins out in the end, but at such a cost to both his family and conscience that you really question if you can even call it a victory.  This is something that KC expresses several times in the final act, but you really don't believe him until the film ends and the dust settles.

Then you're just sitting there.  Depressed, horrified, and just generally feeling shitty about everything that was once good in the world.  But then I remembered that I'm not a secret service agent, and if my non-existent fiancee were killed, I wouldn't go on a rampage of vengeance.  I'd probably just grieve in the normal fashion and try to move on with my life.  No moral and mental breakdown for this guy!

I didn't mention it yet, but his jacket is really cool.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 7 out of 10 boos

10/28-The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

Movies like this one are kinda cheating when they act as though they are based on a true story, but never actually say so, so you can't get mad at them when the unbelievable starts to happen.  The film begins by saying it has been edited from an unfinished documentary, outtakes, and news footage to create what you're about to see.  So it kinda seems like maybe this is real, but we actually live in a world filled with lies.  In short, this isn't a true story.

But that is not really important at all to the quality of the movie.

The premise here is that a medical student is creating a documentary on Alzheimer's disease, focusing on a particular patient, Deborah Logan.  At first, things are harmless, yet depressing enough.  This frail old lady is clearly losing it, but doesn't seem to even realize it, while her daughter turns to alcohol to cope with the stress of being her caretaker.  While I've not experienced living with someone with Alzheimer's directly, the increasing dementia was rather hard to watch.

Things begin to get a bit more eerie as her mental health deteriorates leading to a pretty wild final act.

Awesome spoiler gif: click here!

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/27-Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

I won't talk much about this movie because despite being told that it was really scary, it turned out not to be much of horror movie.  Shouldn't you have figured that out before watching it, I hear you ask?  Why yes, probably, except I like to go into these movies as blindly as possible, so as to not spoil stuff, ass.

Sorry about that.

Let me say, just because it's not horror, doesn't mean it wasn't scary, but it was scary in a different way.  In a gross and uncomfortable way.  Basically, Martha escapes from a cult of sorts and stays with her sister while she recovers.  We learn through flashbacks that "the family" has some strange ideas, like the women can only eat after the men have finished.  Oh yeah, and the leader drugs and rapes the women through what they call "the cleansing."  The flashbacks reveal more and more intense situations for Martha, which she doesn't talk about but is still affecting her, even after escaping.

There are some "what is real?" moments when some of the dreams/flashbacks seem to bleed into her current waking life.  In addition, there's a real sick to your stomach feeling whenever "the family" in on screen, particularly Patrick, the leader.  The movie ends just when the real horror would seemingly start.  From a "film as art" perspective, it's a bold and powerful (flavorful?) ending, letting your imagination define what happens next.  But from a horror fan perspective, it was unsatisfying and left me wanting.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 2 out of 10 boos

10/26-You're Next (2011)

There's some really interesting things that You're Next does including possibly the greatest death scene ever (will get more into this later).  First of all, there's a good amount of nostalgia in this film, starting with the opening scene, a classic horror trope.  Unknown characters are boning and then are promptly murdered by a masked assailant.

We then shift to a different story line.  A recently retired couple arrive at their new home and notice that their neighbor must be there (the unbeknownst to them, murdered neighbor).  The couple's adult-aged children begin arriving to celebrate the parents anniversary.  There's a funny moment where they here something upstairs and the mother insists on them leaving and calling the police, which is a huge overreaction for the situation, but she's obviously seen horror movies before.  She's not taking any chances.  What makes it funny is that there actually is an intruder, but they don't find him, so they assume it's safe.

Things are going seemingly fine, until...

We get to a dinner scene!

Classic dad sweater vest.

Fans of this blog will know that I've mentioned the importance of dinner scenes in horror movies, and this one is no different.  Now it's not uncomfortable because the people are cannibals or sadists, but rather because the family doesn't completely get along.  Ever go to your friend's house for dinner and they end up arguing?  This was like that on steroids.  So much so that no one seems to notice when the daughter's boyfriend gets murdered with an arrow.

Spoilers!

What follows is the family being taken down one by one.  Despite them holing up in the interior of the house, no one is safe because, surprise! someone was already in the house.  Remember that noise they heard earlier?  Well it was a murderer.  One of the sons' Australian girlfriend begins to take charge in how to survive, which is due to her being raised by her dad on a survivalist compound.  This becomes apparent when she gets the best of one of the intruders and just unrelentingly murders him with a meat hammer.  The youngest son watches her do this with little reaction.

It was around this time that I realized this movie is basically Home Alone for adults.  Traps are set by both the intruders and the family, several of which end in some very visceral activations.  Speaking of visceral, I know I'm a little weird in how I react to stuff, but in the dinner scene, I had little reaction to the arrow murder.  But during the struggle, one of the characters effs up his ankle and that made me seize up something fierce.  That being said, I did grasp my neck on the several throat slits.

Anyway, we find out that the youngest son is the orchestrator of the entire thing, having the whole family killed so he will be the sole benefactor of the family's enormous wealth.  But they've clearly not counted on Erin (the Aussie girlfriend) being a badass and fighting back.  At this point, we're well into the second act, nearly the final, and I'm starting to think that the movie is losing steam.

Well boy was a fucking moron.

Remember when I mentioned that best kill?  Well, I couldn't find a gif, and the only video I could find is this awful quality one.  To set the scene, Erin smashes a blender on Felix's (the douche son) head.  She then slams it, blade-side down into the top of his head.  AND THEN SHE TURNS IT ON!!!!  FUCK YES, SHE BLENDED HIS BRAINS OUT!!!

The ending has another turn or two that I won't cover so as to leave something to surprise. but it has a fun, bleak end that is very reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead.  Between the quality scares, killer deaths (hehe, deal with the terrible pun), and actually solid character development, I was very pleasantly surprised by this slasher flick.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/25 Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Note: I like this poster more than the normal one, but that tagline is garbage.  Personally, I really think it should be "Officer, we've had a doozy of a day."  If you don't get it, don't worry, it's funny in the context of the movie.

I tend to believe that this movie is much better going in not knowing anything about it.  So if you haven't seen it, please take my word and watch it without reading on.

Otherwise, spoiler city:

So first off, I fully admit that this was kinda cheating to pick.  Not only have I seen it before, but its also much more of a funny satire than a truly scary movie.  That being said, I can always pretend that i hadn't seen it, and thus picked it not knowing what it was truly about.  But here's the thing, I wanted to watch it, so deal with it.

Seriously though, as I enter the final week of Spooktober, I'll be watching several of the scariest films (according to various lists and whatnot), so I decided to kick off the week with something a little light, so that I don't end the month with a bout of depression and/or fear-somnia.

All that said, this movie kicks ass.

It's just such a perfect send up of so many backwoods horror tropes.  Promiscuous college kids on spring break stumble upon two hillbillies in their decrepit cabin and bad stuff starts happening.  Except the hillbillies in question are not evil in anyway, just always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hilarious, yet gory deaths are strewn through this slasher meets comedy.  I really just can't recommend this enough.  Yes, it's not particularly scary in the traditional sense, but again, I don't care.  See the movie and enjoy.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 2 out of 10 boos

10/24-Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)

Ju-on: The Grudge is another Japanses horror film which came out around the turn of the century and had an American remake.  The storytelling mechanic that this film employs is pretty interesting, especially given the premise.  Basically, when someone dies a horrific death, their spirit lingers in that space, killing others who enter, creating new ju-ons and repeating the cycle.  The movie is separated into individual segments, each focusing on a different character and how they meet their demise to the spirits.  What's especially interested about his particular film is that the stories are not told in a linear fashion.  This allows the mystery to really unfold in a pleasing manner.

The movie has a few jump scares, but relies mostly on simply being unsettling.  I don't want to know how the filmmakers did it, but there are several times where a cat makes sounds as if its being tortured.  But this isn't the worst sound.  There was one sound reused throughout the movie that sent chills down my spine every time.  So here it is for twelve hours!

But the unnervingness was not just due to sound, the body language of the spirits had a visceral horror in and of itself.  Not just that, but eyes as well, played a major part in giving me goosebumps.

You also may never shower again.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10 boos

10/23-SCRE4M (2011)

I. Fucking. Loved. This. Movie.

Just watch the opening scene:

Ugh.  So Good.

SCRE4M (and yes, I'm going to write it like that every time) is the horror equivalent of 22 Jump Street, although since the former came out before the latter, maybe those should be switched.  Regardless, this movie is a meta-masterpiece.  Rarely do you watch a horror movie with a smile on your face (unless you're a sociopath), but that was me during much of this movie.  It's funny, but not in a haha way.  It returns the franchise to its satire foundations.

Plus the cast is bonkers.

First, basically all the surviving characters from the series are back (read: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette).  In addition, you saw the cameos of Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell above.  You've also got Alison Brie, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson and Adam Brody (both playing cops!), a Culkin, and the shopkeep kid from Jericho (which I like to think its a delightful wink to the first film with Skeet Ulrich, the star of Jericho).

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that SCRE4M is the scariest movie around, it's not, but it does have its fair share of scares and twists.  What's more important is that it is entertaining as hell.  So much excellent commentary on reboots and sequels, not to mention more on the horror genre in general.

Spoilery, but great scene: Click here for spoiler clip

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10 boos

10/22-Scream (1996)

Watching this movie and knowing the ending is both super entertaining and super frustrating.  Entertaining because you pick up on clues planted early in the movie, as well as being able to follow the bad guy's plot.  But frustrating because the one character nobody believes gets everything right.

This movie is a scary movie fan's wet dream.  So many references, whether directly named or simply through homages, to classic horror films.  The movie is even somewhat self-referential at times.  I also can't help but see a little irony in the fact that someone in the movie says "you gotta leave room for a sequel" and this movie spawned three of them (I plan to watch SCRE4M tomorrow).

Also, very important to note, this is the movie where Courtney Cox and David Arquette started their relationship.  So you know that's a pretty big deal.

Was definitely this guy for some Halloween

At its heart, Scream is a satire of the horror genre.  But like all the best satires, it is nearly indistinguishable to the subject it mocks to those not looking for it.  The gore is there, though not over the top.  The scares are earned through the proper building of tension.  And the ending is great.  Really not a lot negative to say.  Watch it, if you haven't already.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/21-The Strangers (2008)

I'm never sure what to make of "inspired by true events" movies.  On one hand, there is nothing truly unbelievable about The Strangers; no possessions, no monsters, just psychopaths.  On the other hand, the credits end with a nice little notice.  "All characters and events in this film are fictitious."  So you know, which is it?  The cynic in me says that it's probably the one hiding in the fine print.

Well regardless of if it's true or not, there's quite a bit going on for this flick.  Isolated setting and a relationship on the rocks make a perfect breeding ground for high tension.

While I loved seeing Dennis Reynolds show up, I can't help but think that actors like him who are known so strongly for one particular character, always take me a little out of the moment because I'm just thinking "haha, maybe he'll make an implication joke."  That said, he scenes were predictable, but still pretty shocking to watch.

Liv Tyler channeled her inner Shelley Duvall and proceeded to helplessly scream through most of movie.  There are some very good scares, and the motive for the intruders is eerie, but somewhat frustrating in how simple it is.  Great use of creepy mask though.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/20-Would You Rather (2012)

Not at as psychologically draining as Funny Games, yet not as brutal The Loved Ones, Would You Rather sits in a middle ground of mediocrity.  Yes, there is suspense, and yes, there is wincing, but I can't help but feel a lacking of originality.  An eccentric and creepy rich guy invites a bunch of people to a house where they compete in a deadly game for a large sum of money?  That's the plot of a buttload of movies, not to mention House on Haunted Hill, with Jeffrey Combs is also in.  The ending does surprise a little bit, only to be predictable once you remember the bleakness of the film.

Instead of getting much into the meat of it, since its not really worth it, I'd rather (hehe, like the title) go over the cast and what they've done.  It's rare that nearly everyone in this movie is recognizable, despite none of them being stars (Brittany Snow excluded because Pitch Perfect, duh).

Jeffrey Combs, mentioned above for HoHH, is also The Re-Animator! (Hardcore fans of Spooktober already know this because I mentioned it in a previous post)

Lawrence Gilliard Jr., The Wire, 'nuff said.

Enver Gjokaj, eastern European guy that Britta dates in that episode of Community!  Also, Dollhouse.

Sasha Grey.  Remember when that porn star did some "real" movies?

John Heard, a total that guy.  The dad in Home Alone.

Eddie Steeples, that dude from My Name is Earl.

June Squibb.  Academy award nominee, June Squibb.

Robin Lord Taylor, the Penguin from Gotham.  Anyone else watching that?  *crickets*

And finally Robb Wells, from Trailer Park Boys.  I've never seen that show, but Netflix tries to get me to watch it so much, I recognized his face.  Plus, I know the show is Canadian, and this dude was dropping aboots and soories.

Anyway, Would You Rather had its moments, but at the end of the day, its a fairly forgettable torture porn.  Given the choice, I'd pick one of the two mentioned in the first sentence above.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 3 out of 10 boos

10/19-The Possession of Michael King (2014)

I don't have much for this movie as it didn't really do anything particularly special.  It is a found footage akin to Paranormal Activity with the combination of both stationary cameras set up throughout the house and handheld shaky cams.

Basically, Michael's wife dies because of bad psychic advice, so he sets out to make a documentary disproving the existence of god or the devil.  Spoiler alert, he gets possessed.

This isn't to say the movie didn't have its scary moments, but a lot of the jumps relied on being loud.  Which to be fair, did make me jump, but it feels a little forced in retrospect.  There's not a whole lot about this movie that is memorable, perhaps with the exception of the needle scene, but again, that's because I have a fear of needles.  So I'm a little biased towards wincing.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 3 out of 10 boos

10/18-Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

In honor of Daryl and Kelsey's wedding, I chose to watch the best wedding (bride) themed horror movie out there.  Note, I'm not comparing Daryl and Frankenstein, just the wedding aspect.

There's a lot of interesting things about watching this movie that have nothing to do with the movie itself and are simply based on Bride of Frankenstein being so old.  Number one, the credits are at the beginning, like a lot of old-timey movies.  What I particularly like is it calls the cast, "The Players."  They also repeat the credits at the end, with this lovely caption:

Also, Karloff going as one-name, how badass is that?

In addition, the movie opens with "Suggested by the original story written in 1816 by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly," which basically means this is glorified fan-fiction.  You know what, I'll do it one better, it's like the Star Wars extended universe.  And to prove that, within the first five minutes of this movie, it completely retconned the ending of Frankenstein, by having neither Frankenstein nor the Monster be dead.

But that's not really the point.  The movie explores a lot of the thought behind what it means to be human.  And apparently to the Monster, that means friends, smoking, drinking, and listening to music.  So basically college.

Smoke. Good. (this is an actual line)

But we're also reminded that most of humanity is a shallow turd, screaming and running away from the Monster (it doesn't help to lessen his scariness that there isn't a better name for him).  The only people who treat him well are a blind hermit and a creepy, disgraced professor.  Basically, the only people who will accept you unconditionally are the impaired and weirdos.

In all seriousness, this was a really fun watch.  I haven't seen a whole ton of movies from this era, so it was good to see a truly classic.  That said, there were not many scares to be had, at least by today's standards.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 1 out of 10 boos

10/17-The ABCs of Death (2012)

The ABCs of Death is an anthology of horror shorts, each based on a word corresponding to the letters in the alphabet.  26 different directors created 26 short films and all feature death in some fashion or another.  Because they are all so different, it's tricky to give an overview, so I'll just mention some highlights.  I will say, it was kinda fun to try and figure out what the inspiration word was for each segment, as the title was revealed at the end of each.

Actually frightening shorts-
L is for Libido.  This one is more sickening than scary, but still.
P is for Pressure.  Again, a hard to watch short.
X is for XXL.  Wow, this one was brutal.

What the fuck shorts-
F is for Fart
H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion
R is for Removed
T is for Toilet
Y is for Youngbuck

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 3 out of 10 boos

10/16-Peeping Tom (1960)

Peeping Tom is the oldest film I've seen so far and for the most part holds up to many of today's standards of thrillers, mostly due to relying on implied horror, rather than attempting effects that look cheesy by today's standards.

Throughout the movie, there is a general sense of unease about everything.  Major contributors to this dreadful feeling is the music which conveys tension so well and the protagonist, who is incredibly off-putting.  He just makes you feel uncomfortable, even when he isn't doing anything weird.  The movie is something of a slow burn, but definitely builds to a strong and frightening final act.

There is a lot of commentary on voyeurism, specifically watching people experience fear.  The movie paints those who watch (and enjoy) others being fearful in a pretty negative light.  These criticisms could be seen as parallel to fans of the horror genre in general.  After all, what is a horror movie if not watching being be afraid.  And after having done this for the last half month, it kinda hits close to home.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10

Apologies

I am behind on posting because I was out of town for a good friend's wedding (congrats Daryl and Kelsey!)  But have no fear!  Or maybe have fear because that's the point of scary movies?  Whatever, posts are coming soon with regularity to finish our the month!

10/15-In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

Imagine a movie where the plot centers on the release of a book of the same name as the movie, and in fact tells a similar story as the movie.  and then in the movie universe, a movie is adapted from the book and when a character goes to see said movie, he watches himself in a scene we saw earlier in the movie (the real movie, not movie based on the book in the real movie).  Still with me?  It's okay, I wasn't really either.  But that's In the Mouth of Madness for you, a mind-bending, Lovecraftian psychological horror.

The movie opens with Sam Neill being admitted to an insane asylum.  Despite looking disheveled and resisting his confinement, he is speaking (or rather shouting) fairly coherently that he doesn't belong here and that he's not insane.  After some kicking and 'bow-throwing, the orderlies subdue Neill and get him in to a cell.  Shortly there after, a doctor arrives to evaluate Neil and discovers that he has drawn crosses on every inch of surface area in his cell, including all over his person. He also now seems complacent with his new imprisonment.

"There's a guard with a pair of swollen testicles who swears you wanted out of here."

The doctor then convinces Neill to explain the events that led up to his admittance to the asylum, which acts as the bulk of the plot for the movie.  Pre-crazy Sam Neill, known as John Trent, is an insurance fraud investigator called in to determine the validity of the disappearance of famed pulp horror novelist, Sutter Cane.  Trent believes the whole thing to be a scam, a publicity stunt to drum up sales of Cane's last book in preparation for the new one, which he is supposed to be finishing up.

Trent doesn't get what all the fuss is about with regards to Sutter Cain, but the editor explains that some of the less stable readers find his work disorienting, and can lead to them losing their connection to reality, or more specifically to the reality we all subscribe to, but might not be what reality actually is.  Again, sometimes it's hard to speak clearly about this movie.  As the editor says, "A reality is just what we tell each other it is."

So in order to get into the mind of the potential scammer, Trent buys Cane's books and starts to read them, only to begin to have strange delusions.  Eventually, he notices something in the cover art of the series, art that Cane himself insisted on creating.  When put together like a collage, a map of New Hampshire appears, indicating where Hobb's End, the seemingly fictional town where all of Cane's works take place, is in real life.  So Trent and the editor decide to find this town to hopefully prove that Cane truly is missing and not just another hoax.

Spoiler time!

On the drive down, the editor experiences strange happenings occur, like the road disappearing and the car seeming to be flying above the clouds.  She comes to in broad daylight on the edge of Hobb's End with no recollection of how they arrived.  The few inhabitants that the two meet are all characters in Cane's books.  Trent believes them all to be actors, still thinking the whole town is a huge publicity stunt, but the editor seems to know what will happen with certain people and places in the town.

She reveals that she knows this because the events all happen in the sample chapters of Cane's new book.  Trent is still a non-believer, but is somewhat swayed after the editor returns to the hotel acting insane because she met with Cane, who exposed her to the entire book.  He tries to leave the town, but every time he leaves on the highway, the road disappears and he finds himself back in Hobb's End facing a mob of townsfolk.  After two attempts to leave, he drives through the crowd, crashes, and wakes up in the church where Cane has been hanging out, writing his book.  Cane, unsurprisingly, is a bit of a nutjob, basically explaining that because his books have become so popular, been read by so many people, his work has literally been brought to life.

In fact, John Trent himself is a character in the book, forced to do what Cane has written for him.  This explains why he was unable to escape the town.  Cane instructs Trent to take the book to the publisher so that the madness it instills in readers will spread through society, allowing ancient beings from the unknown to reign again just as was written in his books.  Trent resists, destroying the copy. He arrives back in New York where the publisher says that Trent turned the book in weeks ago and that there never was an editor (Trent believes her to have been written out).

Succumbing to the will of the book, Trent murders someone with an axe, which seems to be what landed him in the insane asylum.  Back to the present, the doctor dismisses the whole thing as a mild hallucination.  Trent wakes up to find his room unlocked and everyone is gone.  It looks like a riot happened.  He hears warnings on the radio telling of riots and mutations, and sees that the movie theater is playing In the Mouth of Madness.  He goes in and has a hysterical breakdown while watching his own life on screen.  Boom.  Credits.

I'm jealous he had the theater to himself.

Important note: Hayden Christensen is in it for like 10 seconds and it's awful, just like the Star Wars prequels.  But seriously, the reality bending in this movie was really cool, although not the most nerve-wracking "is this real?" movie I've seen.

Also!  Because I'm really dumb, I've been watching (read: fast-forwarding) the credits to make sure there's no post-credit business, which there sometimes is.  There wasn't for this movie, but there was something even more strange.  It mentioned the "no animals were harmed" stuff follow by:

"Human interaction was monitored by the Inter Planetary Psychiatric Association.  The body count was high, the casualties are heavy"

Like what?  Who puts a weird meta joke at the end of the credits?  John Carpenter apparently.  Oh also, this is the final film of a spiritual trilogy which Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy."  The first is The Thing and the second is Prince of Darkness.  I've seen the former but not the latter and I still really enjoyed this one, so I really don't think there's a huge need to watch them in a particular order.  Plot-wise, they aren't related, they are just thematically linked.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10 boos

10/14-13 Ghosts (2001)

I was planning what I would watch tonight when I noticed it was the 13th, so I of course think Friday the 13th, even though it's not Friday.  But then I remembered that I was really going to be watching on the 14th, because after midnight and such.  So I put the decision off for later.

Some time passed and I casually noticed the date again because I apparently forgot about the prior ordeal.  Upon seeing the 13th, I thought, "I know! I'll watch 13 Ghosts!" I immediately remembered the previous 13 debacle, but said fuck it and picked 13 Ghosts anyway.

This film opens with a psychic Matthew Lillard helping a rich eccentric, F. Murray Abraham (what's he doing in this garbage) capture a ghost with a big glass cube and a literal truckload of blood.  This is the twelfth and final ghost that Lillard has been contracted to contain, but they are briefly sidetracked by ghost-rights advocates upset at F. Murray enslaving the ghosts, they even have spells and silver flares!  This brief moment is important to establish the world this movie takes place in, one where mystical stuff happens, but probably most people don't know about it.  They manage to secure the ghost after a bunch of ghost-fodder rent-a-cops a murdered by said spirit in a number of entertaining ways, including being doubled over and sucked in between two junkyard cars.  In the scuffle, F. Murray dies leaving Matthew Lillard without pay.

We cut to Tony Shalhoub (of all people [by the way, I watched Galaxy Quest, which T-Shal is also in, recently and it's really great.  It's not scary, but it's still good.]) raising his family after his wife died in a fire, when a lawyer arrives at their apartment to share the news that his reclusive uncle Cyrus (F. Murray) has died and left Tony as the sole benefactor.  The main part of this inheritance is the custom built house which was Cyrus' life's work.

Don't worry, they make a "don't throw stones" joke.

So they all go to check out the house, and when they insert the key, some mechanism in the house activates opening the door for the family, but also clearly doing something nefarious.  Mattew Lillard appears feigning to be the power guy needing to check on something because there's a bunch of people without power.  We know this is bullshit, but the people go with it and let him in.  The lawyer and Tony go to sign some paperwork and Matthew heads to the basement in search of the money he is owed.  He unfortunately discovers that all twelve of the ghost containers are located in the basement of the house.

He finds the two men signing the documents in the library and warns T-Shal to get his family out of this house because of the ghosts.  Tony and Lillard argue a bit about the existence of ghosts, but when Lillard convinces him, they realize that the lawyer is missing.  We see the lawyer head to the basement where he finds a control room of sorts and a bag full of cash.  Upon taking the bag, he unknowingly activates something in the mechanisms of the house.  Walls begin moving, the exits to the outside shut, and at least one of the ghosts is released.  The lawyer sees the escaped ghost and is murdered by a door trying to flee.

Actual line from later in the movie-"Did the lawyer split?"

Anyway, the kids go missing in the house, ghosts continue to be released, and one of the ghost-lovers from the opening scene appears in the house to help the family survive.  She explains that the house is actually a giant machine designed by some ancient dude while he was possessed. "It's a machine designed by the devil himself and powered by the dead."  The house apparently needs twelve specific archetypes of ghosts, like the jackal (a crazy ghost), the juggernaut (a massive ghost), or the withered lover (who, in a fun twist, is T-Shal's dead wife), to power it and open the "Ocularis Infernum," or Eye of Hell.

The final act is pretty fun with a few twists and turns, one of which is pretty predictable due to casting and a "seeming" throwaway line.  But in the end, what this movie suffers from is the lack of any real fear.  Sure some of the ghosts are spooky looking, but they aren't particularly effective killers, at least in what we see.  In addition, there's no real question of who will live and who will die; it's very predictable in that sense.  By that token, you have a lot of hope for the characters you expect to live, and too much hope kills fear.  Movies like Funny Games or Eden Lake take away all your hope for the characters, and just when you think there's a chance for them, when a little hope eeks its way inside you, they take it all away.  You lose all hope and are left with the sense of dread.  In other words, pure horror.

But this movie doesn't have any of that.  13 Ghosts gets its scares through forced jump scares, relying on abrupt, screeching sound effects and split-second shots of gore.  There's also a bit a gore in how the ghosts are presented, but in the end, just doesn't read as that scary.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 3 out of 10 boos

10/13-Audition (1999)

I went with the least spoilery poster for this movie, but unfortunately, they are all at least a little bit spoilers.

Anyway, Audition is another slow burn of a horror movie, but really builds to a totally what the fuck final act.  Similar to Kairo, this is a Japanese movie also dealing with feelings of loneliness and isolation, but this one doesn't focus on technology as Kairo did.

The movie starts almost like the premise to a rom com: Shigeharu Aoyama loved his wife, but seven years after her untimely death to illness, everyone thinks it's time that he got back in the game.  But middle-aged widowers don't know how to date anymore, plus at his age, he wants to be confident in his partner that they will be in it for the long haul.  But have no fear, his producer friend, Yoshikawa has a brilliant idea!

"Let's hold auditions for a movie, but really you'll be scouting these women for your potential mate"

"Yay! What could go wrong?*"

*Highlight for spoiler: everything.

So after scouring over hundreds of applications, they pick 30 women for the audition, but one. Asami, has clearly caught Aoyama's eye even before he's met her.  During the audition, he becomes even more enamored with her.  Yoshikawa warns Aoyama against moving too quickly as he has some reservations.  Something in his gut doesn't feel right, but more specifically, he was unable to reach her references, one of whom has even been missing for over a year.

Aoyama ignores the warning and begins to develop the relationship anyway.  This are seemingly going well and he takes her away for the weekend with the intent of proposing to her.  Although somewhat aloof to the plans that Aoyama suggests, Asami begins to disrobe, asking him to join her in bed.  As he does, she stops him and makes promise that he will love only her and no one else.  He of course does because homeboy needed to get his dick wet.  Just kidding, he clearly truly loves her.

But when he wakes up, she's gone.

The rest of the movie is a roller coaster of emotions as he tries to find her, but ends up finding out about her past, much of is shrouded in mystery and seeming dead ends.  There's quite a bit of non-linear editing in the final act which leads to a lot of thinking "wait, what?"  But for a movie that keeps forcing you to ask "what is real," the conclusion was satisfyingly straightforward and wrapped the movie up nicely.

There were a few very solid jump scares, but most of the horror is psychological, either between not knowing what is real or the horror of what insane people are capable of.  There's also a bit of visceral, bodily horror, but not that much outright gore, as most of the violence is implied, choosing to focus the camera on the perpetrator rather than the victim.  If you fear needles, as I do, there is one particular scene you will likely watch through your fingertips (as I did).  I tried to find the clip to show off how horrifyingly creepy just the audio in that scene is, but apparently no one wants to put it online because it's clearly too scary.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 7 out of 10 boos

10/12-The Pact (2012)

The premise of The Pact is fairly straight forward, Nicole is taking care of her mother's estate after she's died and weird stuff starts happening in the house.  Not all that different from many other supernatural horrors.  But what sets this one apart is that this movie acts more like a mystery with scary elements, rather than a straight horror film.

The movie did rely mostly on jump scares for the terror, but they were some of the scariest jumps I've had since starting this.  That being said, there is some traditional tension.  The movie ends leaving you asking a few questions, but it's not a frustrating amount of unanswered non-sense like some movies.  At the same time, I liked that there was something to think about after finishing it.

I called this movie supernatural earlier, and strictly speaking, that's true, but I also liked that the movie didn't rely to heavily on the paranormal, and kept much of the horror in the real world.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/11-Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist (German for noisy ghost!) is like Cabin in the Woods from 30 years prior.  Practically every single horror trope is represented in this movie.  Haunted house manifesting in stuff movie on its own?  Duh.  Creepy little girl?  Check.  Evil clown?  Living doll?  You're in luck!  There's an evil clown doll that comes to life!  Eerie whispering, a malevolent plant, some gross-out gore, an eccentric expert of the paranormal, the list could go on, but Poltergeist has got it all.

After reading that, you may think the movie is a jumbled mess of ideas, like free-form jazz for the horror genre, but the story does a very good job of keeping the story in focus and moving along at a good pace.  While this movie was certainly not the scariest ever, there were several genuinely eerie and unsettling moments throughout.  Even from one of the first scenes, the peculiarities start, but subtle enough that the haunting has room to grow.

An interesting tidbit about this movie is that it originally received an R rating, despite the lack of excessive violence or language that one would expect from today's R movies.  This is because until 1984, PG-13 didn't exist.  That's why some 80s movies are rated PG, but have sassy language, or rated R, but keeping thinking "this is a really tame R move."  Steven Spielberg (the producer) and Tobe Hooper (the director) protested the R rating, and were successful in their appeal to rate the movie PG.  Fun connection: the reason PG-13 came to exist is because Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins were too violent to be PG, but clearly didn't deserve to be R.

A movie like this one can be tricky ton make because quite a few of the main actors were children, who can really detract from the movie if they are bad.  Luckily, the child actors were quite good in their work.  The youngest girl, age 5, was surprisingly good, but I think some of that came from the filmmakers putting peanut butter in her mouth and dubbing her dialogue in later, Mr. Ed-style.

In addition, there is some fear to watching an older movie like this because it may feel outdated, but with the exception of one scene, all the special and practical effects really hold up.  Apparently, the skeletons used in the film were actual human remains because at the time, getting the real thing was cheaper than making plastic skeletons.

Spoiler: if you are curious about the cheesy scene in question, it's posted below.  Also, that scene opens with a character (who is a guest in the house), pulling a giant steak out of the fridge to cook for himself because he's a selfish, inconsiderate prick.

Overall, very entertaining with some good scares involved.  One of the better films I've seen on this adventure in terms of what makes a good movie, even if it isn't one of the scariest.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 4 out of 10 boos

10/10-Eden Lake (2008)

This was both an excellent and horrible follow up to The Loved Ones.  Excellent because both films share many themes including horrifying young people, torture, and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.  It was a horrible choice because now I feel like shit after that double-whammy of bleak horror.

Steve (Michael Fassbender!) plans on proposing to his girlfriend, Jenny, on their weekend getaway to Eden Lake, an old favorite of Steve's.  Upon arrival, we see that this place is in the white trash boonies of England.  You could call these people chavs, lots of "you wot mate?" and the like.  Steve and Jenny make their way to the beach to camp, but their setup is disrupted by some unruly teens.  When Steve asks them to turn down their music, they're all like "you wot mate?" (I told you that's what they say) and basically refuse to back down.  Because Fassbender is a grown ass man, he keeps his composure instead of bustin' skulls.  The kids eventually leave and the two continue their camping fun.

The following day, the couple discovers one of their bags is missing, and in it are the car keys.  They immediately notice the car is gone too and begin searching for the kids, whom they assume stole the car.  When they do, Steve calmly asks for his keys, phone, and wallet, yet the leader of the gang (played by the guy who played Cook in Skins, who is also an ill-tempered shit) acts like he doesn't know what Steve is talking about.  As Steve advances, one of the others pulls a knife, and thus, a struggle ensues.  During this, the gang's dog gets loose and goes to attack Steve, who is able to break free with the knife just as the dog lunges, killing the dog (seriously how many fucking dogs [and other pets] are going to die in these movies?).

Brett, the leader and dog's owner, breaks down from is tough guy persona, showing real love for the dog.  It'd be touching moment if he hadn't been acting like such a twat for the entire time we've seen him (and the worst is yet to come).

Spoilers and the like ahead

After the death of his dog, Brett and his gang hunt down Steve and Jenny, eventually capturing Steve to torture him.  Tied up in barbed wire and being choked by a dog chain, Steve pleads for his life, promising not to say anything to the police if they let him go.  We see the rest of the gang really for the first time in this scene and you realize that most of the kids are really young, maybe 13 or 14.  Brett forces each of them to cut Steve while they record it so that no one in the gang will rat.  He even threatens one of them with the knife.  Not only is he torturing Steve, but he's mentally torturing these younger boys, corrupting them through fear.

Like Funny Games, the horror really begins with something of a forced miscommunication followed by the perpetrators acting like victims.  Brett acts as though Fassbender killed his dog with malicious intent, conveniently forgetting that it was Brett himself who stole the car, his friend who pulled the knife in the first place, and his girlfriend who was unable to control the vicious dog, which was some mean looking breed (I know that breeds are inherently more violent or whatever, but this dog could have seriously injured someone).

It makes it so frustrating to watch people who have truly done no wrong.  I know that is part of the point of this movie, and a major element of where the horror comes from, but Jesus Christ does this movie take the wind out of your sails.  Every time you think they might catch a break, nope, back into hell.

Speaking of hell, one of these hopeful moments comes when Jenny runs into a local boy, Adam, who was picked on by the gang earlier in the movie.  She begs him to help her get back into town and he agrees to take her to where his mom is picking him up.  Of course something doesn't feel right and he actually just led her to a trap.  She manages to escape again when the fire they set to burn her alive ended up just burning her restraints.

"Come back or we'll burn this fucking kid [Adam]!"

But she keeps running, and as she does, we hear the sound of a blood-curdling scream, followed by a brief shot of the boy running around on fire.  I mean, fuuuuuck.  Like, I didn't have a ton of sympathy for this kid considering he just sold Jenny out, but come on, did he deserve to be burned alive?  Obviously not.  But this scene was crucial in solidifying just how insane and determined to kill all witnesses Brett is.  Something clicks in Jenny, a determination to live no matter what the cost.

After evading most of them, the youngest of the gang, who has been wanting to stop this from the start, comes up behind Jenny presumably to help end the madness.  Unfortunately, Jenny is unaware of his motives and rams a piece of glass in his neck killing the boy.  Realizing what she's done, Jenny breaks down cradling the boy, but soon realizes she has to continue on.

When the gang finds the body, one of the boys insists they stop this, but this only angers Brett further.  He begins to pummel the boy.  I mean, a truly savage beating.  Though the camera never shows it, I think he killed the boy.  Brett is officially gone mentally.

In her final escape, Jenny manages to steal a car, run over one of the gang (this time with no remorse), and make it back into town, running into the first house she finds.  They immediately come to her aid, but while tending to her cuts one of them gets a frantic phone call.  We can't hear who's on the other line, but it's all coming together for both us and Jenny.  Of all the fucking houses in this town, she winds up in the house of one of parents of these little fuckers.

"We take care of our own," Brett's father insists, as the bathroom door closes with Jenny and several of the dads inside.  The camera pans upstairs as we hear horrible screaming.  Brett looks smugly in his mirror as he puts on Steve's stolen sunglasses.

Roll credits...

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 7 out of 10 boos

10/10-The Loved Ones (2009)

Wow, The Loved Ones is intense.

Several scenes ended with me unexpectedly a little winded because I was forgetting to breathe, the intensity was so high.  I don't even want to go into detail, this is one you just have to see it.  As Paul Dampier (holla back Paul!) told me, "Now THIS is what I consider torture porn done right."  I'd go as far to say this isn't even that torture porny as far as most go.  Yes there is some over the top violence, but it never feels like it's just for the sake of violence.  There's even some funny moments!  Even if you are just laughing at the dementedness of it all; laughing so you don't weep inside.

As with many other horror greats, one of the most uncomfortable scenes involves a dinner.  Perhaps these scenes are so effective because family dinner is supposed to be this universal commonality among all people, a time to come together with loved ones (no pun intended).  Yet movies like this one or Texas Chainsaw Massacre remind us that even insane people sit down to eat dinner as a family, but their dinners are much more uncomfortable for us as the viewer or any guests that may be joining them, whether voluntarily or not.

Another comparison to horror classics is some kind of theme music for the villain, for example che che che ha ha ha for Jason Vorhees or ree ree ree ree for Pyscho.  This movie continues that tradition, but is able to turn a seemingly depressing teen angst song into one of pure horror.

Seriously, just listening to that link for a few seconds to verify it was the right song gave me chills.  I think when a film is able to make everything seem normal except for one glaring insanity, it can make for some seriously unnerving cinema.  I've mentioned before that realist horror can really rattle my constitution, and like Funny Games, this movie fits the bill.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 7 out of 10 boos

10/9-Kairo (2001)

Kairo, sometimes seen as Pulse, is Japanese horror film about the isolation that our increase in technology brings.  The story is told between two parallel storylines.  The first follows Michi, a young woman who is present when her coworker commits suicide.  The other follows Kawashima, a college student whose internet asks him if he wants to meet a ghost after showing him several strange and eerie photos.  Eventually the two stories converge.

It's strange that 2001 doesn't feel all that long ago, but a lot has changed in these 13 years.  Having your movie focus on a specific technology can be risky in terms of longevity.  Who knows if that tech will still be around in 20 years?  But this film doesn't suffer too much from being grounded in the early internet era.  In fact, there are some elements of suspense used that isn't even viable today.  At one point, Kawashima's computer, which uses dial-up internet, turns the internet on by itself.  Today's internet is more or less always connected.  In fact, were this movie to come out today, the scariness would come from the computer shutting the internet off on its own.

Much of the horror in this movie comes in a more philosophical way than most.  The commentary of the filmmakers, that despite being more connected through the internet, we as a people are more alone than ever.  Again, this is something that we are still struggling with even 13 years after this movie came out.  That being said, there are a number of traditional scares, the "help me" scene in particular comes to mind, the absolute silence mixed with the whispering, ugh goosebumps! The whole spookiness is taken to the next level by the hauntingly operatic score.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/8-The Last Exorcism (2010)

The Last Exorcism is a documentary style found footage film that follows Rev. Cotton Marcus, who no longer believes in demons, as he goes on to perform an exorcism.  His hope is that the documentary will reveal to the public that charade that is modern exorcism.  Despite his slipping faith, he continues preaching as we see in a scene where he tells the filmmakers that when he gets going, he can preach anything and the congregation will go along with it.  This leads to a bet about him preaching the good word of banana bread.

Cotton picks a random letter from the pile to investigate and the crew gets going.  When they are getting close, the van is hailed down by a bot named Caleb effectively telling them to leave.  They ignore the warning and continue down to the farm.  What follows is what tends to follow in these sorts of movies with several notable twists on the genre.

Ahead are thoughts and SPOILERS

What I liked about this movie in particular was the pacing.  It can be hard to maintain good suspense for 90 minutes and the filmmakers of The Last Exorcism seemed to realize that by having the first act and a half not even try to be scary.  They take their time establishing the characters and the environment itself.

This movie doesn't tout being based on a true story, which I prefer for haunting type movies.  The horror was split between suspense building leading to jump scares and wincing body pain.  Similar to Grave Encounters, the character in this is a non-believer portraying a believer who through the course of the movie becomes a believer.  And while we're comparing the two films, this movie actually has the footage found!

Speaking of the ending, knowing that Caleb is a bad guy puts a lot of interesting perspective on earlier parts of the movie. For example, he tells Rev. Marcus to leave upon first meeting him because he believes Marcus to be the real deal, thus ruining the nefarious plans. But when Caleb witnesses the truth behind one of Marcus' stage tricks, he says, "We don't have any problems now."  Seemingly innocuous at the time, but in retrospect shows Caleb's confidence that Marcus will not be able to exorcise the demon.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 5 out of 10 boos

10/8-Martyrs (2008)

I was very hesitant to watch this film because when researching movies to watch for this Halloween extravaganza, I saw Martyrs appear several times under the "oh my god, don't watch this unless you really really want to, and even then you probably shouldn't" category.  So you can imagine my wariness when picking it.  But I decided to give it a go since the past few movies haven't provided a whole lot of true horror, so I might as well throw myself down the rabbit's hole.  And truth be told, I'm glad I did.  While disturbing, the movie was not what I was expecting given the warnings.

In 1971, Lucie escapes her captivity, beaten and scared.  She befriends a girl named Anna in an orphanage, but is haunted by a feral apparition.  15 years later, we focus on a seemingly unrelated family sitting down for Sunday brunch when the doorbell rings.  The father goes to open the door and is killed instantly by a woman with a shotgun.  Context implies it's Lucie and these are the people who tortured her.  Lucie then murders the rest of the family including the two teenage children.

This clearly was difficult for Lucie as she begins weeping while covered in this family's blood and is attacked again by the creature haunting her.  Anna arrives to help her and try to figure out a plan, but is horrified by what Lucie has done, unconvinced that Lucie had enough evidence that these were in fact her torturers.

Spoilers and such beyond:

After Anna tries to help the mother, who survived her gunshot wound, Lucie attacks both of them, killing the mother for good.  She is upset with Anna for helping the woman, but is once again attacked by the creature, whom we learn was another victim Lucie didn't help rescue when she escaped 15 years prior.  The camera shifts to show from Anna's perspective and she see Lucie's wounds are self-inflicted.  The creature is a manifestation of her guilt for leaving the woman behind.  Lucie slits her throat and dies.

The next morning, Anna finds a torture chamber in a hidden basement in the house, realizing that Lucie had been right all along.  She finds a woman trapped down there and frees her, only for the woman to be shot by mysterious people dressed in black who arrive suddenly.  The group explains that they abuse women in order for them (the women) to achieve "martyrdom" and gain knowledge of life beyond our current one.

The movie shifts as Anna becomes there newest project, breaking her down through beatings and humiliation.  She imagines a conversation with Lucie who tells her to let go of her fears.  Shortly there after, Anna is told she is entering the final stage and that the suffering will end soon.  Sadly, the final stage is a horrific, she is skinned alive.  But this is apparently what it takes, and Anna achieves transcendence.

The leader of the shadow group arrives and listens to Anna's description of what she saw.  We, the audience, are not privy to the words.  More members of the group arrive and are told that the leader will reveal the results shortly.  When asked if the leader is ready, we see her in the bathroom removing her makeup.  The leader says that there is no room for interpretation in what Anna saw and shoots herself in the head.

Kinda bleak.

Although, after it finished, I found myself wondering if the ending wasn't slightly positive.  At first, I figured Anna's vision was so horrible that the Leader couldn't stand to live anymore.  But then I realized that that doesn't really make sense.  If everyone goes to some nightmarish hell after death, why would you want to go there sooner?  I feel as though Anna likely saw something good, a "heaven" if you will, and the leader found she needed to be there, not waiting on this Earth for another day.

However you interpret the ending, it doesn't change the fact that this was a rough movie to sit through.  For the first part, the shooting happen so abruptly, you hardly have time to process them.  And in the second part, you find yourself asking why? during the beatings.  It's interesting that although the beatings were less violent than some of the absurd contraptions in the Saw movies, for example, they were harder to watch, probably due to someone punching someone else relentlessly is more relatable than a head-brace that will rip your jaw off if you don't solve a puzzle.  I found myself wincing through most of this movie, which definitely a section of horror.

If you're looking for a horrifyingly brutal movie, but actually makes you think a little, this is the movie for you.

Rating on the Spook-o-meter: 6 out of 10 boos