Movie Spotlight: The Crooked Man

The Crooked Man is a 2016 Syfy original movie starring Dmitrious Bistrevsky, Angelique Rivera, Reilly Stith, Marco Rodriguez, Michael Jai White, and Cameron Jebo. A young girl suffers a violent death at a slumber party after 12-year-old Olivia sings a nursery rhyme that summons a demon called The Crooked Man (Dmitrious Bistrevs). Olivia (Angelique Rivera) returns to the town six years later, and when people who were present the night of the slumber party start dying, she's certain The Crooked Man is back.

Syfy movies have a tendency to be silly (which is one of the reasons I like them), but The Crooked Man is pretty creepy and better than most of the Syfy original movies I've seen. (Ghost Shark is still my favorite though.) The actors were great, especially Angelique Rivera and Cameron Jebo, and the movie was better than I expected, so that was a nice surprise, : )

My rating: 7.5/10

Movie Spotlight: Krampus

Krampus is a 2015 movie starring Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Chonchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, and Krista Stadler. When the Engel family gets together right before Christmas, tension and fighting cause young Max (Emjay Anthony) to lose his Christmas spirit. This summons a demon known as Krampus, who is hellbent on punishing those who are without Christmas spirit.

I'm not generally into holiday movies, but Krampus is my kind of Christmas movie...fun, creepy, and so entertaining! I'm always happy to see Adam Scott and David Koechner, so of course I loved them in Krampus, and everyone else gave great performances too. : )

My rating: 8/10

Movie Spotlight: Insidious: Chapter 3

Insidious: Chapter 3 is the 2015 prequel to Insidious, and it stars Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, and Lin Shaye. After psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) agrees to help teenager Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) contact her dead mother, a demonic figure begins haunting Quinn. When the demon becomes violent, Elise reluctantly agrees to go into the spiritual world with help from paranormal investigators Specs (Leigh Whannell, who also wrote and directed the movie) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

Insidious: Chapter 3 is a good movie, but I didn't like it quite as much as the first two Insidious movies. All of the performances were great though, and the demon was a real asshole (like most demons)...what self-respecting demon keeps harassing a teenage girl with two broken legs? Seems kind of lazy. ; )

My rating: 7.5/10

My Insidious: Chapter 2 review:
http://paranormalcrystal.blogspot.com/2014/01/movie-spotlight-insidious-chapter-2.html

Movie Spotlight: Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body is a 2009 movie starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Chris Pratt (love him!), Johnny Simmons, J.K. Simmons, Adam Brody, and Amy Sedaris.  I haven't heard much positive talk about the movie, but since I like Diablo Cody's other movies, and I like Chris Pratt and Amy Sedaris, I decided to give it a chance.  The movie begins with Anita (Amanda Seyfried) in solitary confinement in a mental institution, and she begins to tell the story of what led her to that point.  She flashes back to the night of a concert where a fire breaks out and kills some people.  Jennifer (Megan Fox) leaves with the band, despite Anita's protests, and then shows up at Anita's house hours later, covered in blood.  She eats some food out of the refrigerator, then spews thick black vomit everywhere and runs out of the house.  The next day, Jennifer acts like she's fine, but she soon begins killing  people, so she is definitely not okay.

Jennifer's Body isn't a great movie, but it's not as bad as I'd heard it was, and I don't feel like watching it was a waste of time.  My only real complaint is that Chris Pratt and Amy Sedaris didn't have enough screen time. : )

My rating: 6/10