Double Feature: Paranormal Activity 3 and Hausu

      

Falling behind yet again. But after this posting, only one to go! I'll be watching my final movie for the month tonight as it's Halloween, but here are the movies for the past couple days.

10/29: For tonight's film I watched Paranormal Activity 3, the third installment in the franchise. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much. I loved the first one for doing what I think makes horror movies the scariest: not letting you see the horror, but I fully expected 3 to just ride the coattails of the original. And while it certainly does in some respects, it also is it's own movie. I didn't mind the 2nd film, but thought, for the most part, it was a "already seen this" type experience. 3,though, surprisingly adds quite a bit to the franchise, especially in how the end of the film steers the Paranormal movies in a completely new direction. While it may seem a bit of a stretch, I feel it pretty effectively breathes new life into the series. The scares too are well done, especially with the final scene in the house involving a kitchen. Even I, the horror movie connoisseur (I kid), made me jump pretty high. 

With all that good, though, the movies weakest point is how it is set in the 1980s. Not a whole lot was put into making this feel realistic; nothing, from the cameras to the house to the people, seem like they are living in 1988. That's a bit of a nitpick though, but it did pull me out of the movie a few times. Overall, though, a surprisingly good ghost/possession movie.

8/10

10/30: For tonight's flick I watched the Japanese horror film Hausu. Wow, um... I have no words that can adequately describe this movie. If someone has ever accurately put a bad acid trip to film, hands down... this is it. The movie follows a group of young girls that go to visit one of the girl's aunt who lives in the countryside. Once there, shit goes, and this doesn't come close to describing it, pretty batshit. There's a piano that eats a girl, a floating head that bites a girl's butt, an evil cat with glowing eyes powers, and a cannibalistic aunt. Yeah. Really, I don't know what else to say, as you really have to see the movie to get; nothing I could possibly say would possibly describe it. And I mean all this in THE best way possible. I can honestly say I've never seen another movie like this, and the whole experience was, really, like a drug trip. Which I'm down with.

10/10