Black Christmas (1974)

Black Christmas

Starring the amazing Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon, Black Christmas set the standard for slasher flicks. This is where many of the familiar horror cliches were born- don”t answer the phone, don’t go upstairs, don’t stay in the house, don’t have sex, don’t drink, don’t do drugs… This movie is about a maniac that targets the girls of a soriority. There are nice side stories going on and great character development. This isn’t a mindless T&A flick like most sorority horror movies. The 2 things that creeped me out the most are the brutal suffocation of young girl who sits in a rocking chair looking out a window in the attic and is never discovered and then the unsettling shrieks and profanities of the “obscene caller” that torments the residents of the sorority. This movie is a classic must see for any horror fan and the remakes are just appalling so avoid them at all costs.

After.Life (2009)

Afterlife

After.life stars Christina Ricci as a young woman disenchanted with her relationship with her boyfriend played by Justin Long. After a misunderstanding over dinner, she drives off with a fury and gets in a car accident. She awakens on a mortician’s table. Liam Neeson plays a mortician with the ability to talk to the dead. As he prepares her for her burial, she argues that she is not dead. He assures her she is in fact dead and should perhaps not have taken her life for granted when she had it the chance. Really cool movie. Visually gorgeous and just a chilling story line.

[REC]

REC

I just watched [REC] not realizing it was the original version of Quarantine which I saw last year in the theater. Hard to believe this zombie/sickness genre is still so popular. Since the plot is the same for both movies this is a double review. A young female reporter is shadowing some firefighters for a news documentary. She and her cameraman follow them to an apartment building in response to a call about a sick person. Sick is an understatement. When the alleged infirmed start rabidly biting people we know somethings up. The police quarantine everyone to the building to prevent the infected from escaping. Lucky for us, the cameraman films everything and we soon learn survival is looking bleak. There is a big reference to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead when an adorable little girl with “tonsillitis” suddenly turns zombie and starts attacking. Filmed in a documentary style with a shaky handheld camera, this is face paced and engaging. You feel their isolation and hope someone comes out of of this alive. the last 10-15 minutes are the most intense so wait for it. I happen to think the Spanish version is better but if you can’t deal with dubbing or subtitles just watch Quarantine. Same effect.