The Omen is a 1976 movie that spawned three sequels (and a remake that didn't need to be made) and is my favorite horror movie of all-time. It starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Spencer Stevens, Patrick Troughton, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw, and Leo McKern. Diplomat Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) doesn't want to tell his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) that their baby died at birth, so at a shady priest's urging, he adopts the baby of a woman who died in childbirth; the child is named Damien, and strange things happen in his presence because he just so happens to be the Antichrist. At Damien's (Harvey Stephens) fifth birthday party, his nanny hangs herself after shouting, "It's all for you, Damien!" Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who was there the night of Damien's birth, tries to warn Robert that Damien is not what he seems, but Robert refuses to listen because this is a horror movie. When Katherine takes Damien to a safari park, some animals run away from Damien, terrified, and others become violent, attacking the car Katherine and Damien are in. Kids scare me in general, but Damien is on a whole other level...he's such a little shit that he causes his mother to have a miscarriage after running his tricycle into her and knocking her over the upstairs railing; before Robert even knew that Katherine was pregnant, Father Brennan warned him that Damien would stop Katherine from having the baby.
I love The Omen, and watching the Omen Trilogy over a day or two inspired me to write my first Satan play...and now I've written almost twenty of them. Thanks, Damien!
My rating 10/10
Followed by:
Damien: Omen II
Omen III: The Final Conflict
Omen IV: The Awakening
The Omen (2006 remake)
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
Horror Movie Month: Final Destination
Final Destination is a 2000 movie directed by James Wong (who also wrote the screenplay, along with Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick) and starring Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kirsten Cloke, Tony Todd, Seann William Scott, Amanda Detmer, and Chad E. Donella. After boarding a plane to Paris for his senior trip, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a premonition about the plane exploding. He panics and gets kicked off the plane, along with a few of his fellow students, and they are horrified as they witness the plane explode during take-off. They're relieved to be alive, but soon realize that they're not off the hook...though they didn't die on the plane, Death is going to take them one way or another.
The idea that you can't cheat Death and that it will come after you until it gets you is a cool concept for a movie. I've seen all of the Final Destination movies, and they have some of the most creative deaths I've ever seen in movies, and after watching the first one again, I have no desire to get on a plane anytime soon. I really like Final Destination, and movies like this prove that the scariest villains are the ones you can't see.
My rating: 8/10
Followed by:
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
The Final Destination
Final Destination 5
The idea that you can't cheat Death and that it will come after you until it gets you is a cool concept for a movie. I've seen all of the Final Destination movies, and they have some of the most creative deaths I've ever seen in movies, and after watching the first one again, I have no desire to get on a plane anytime soon. I really like Final Destination, and movies like this prove that the scariest villains are the ones you can't see.
My rating: 8/10
Followed by:
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
The Final Destination
Final Destination 5
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Horror Movie Month: Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity is a 2009 found-footage movie written and directed by Oren Peli and starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs, Amber Armstrong, and Ashley Palmer. Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) move into a new house and soon begin experiencing paranormal activity (Hey, that's the name of the movie!) possibly caused by a demon that has been following Katie since childhood.
I first saw this movie not long after it came out on DVD, and I wasn't really scared while I was watching it, but I got scared afterward whenever I started thinking about it. For the first few nights after I saw it, I had a hard time falling asleep because I kept having thoughts like "What if the closet door just slides open by itself right now?" Most horror movies don't scare me at all since the things I read about in the news every day are just as bad as the things that happen in these movies, but when I do get scared, it's usually because there's a ghost or demon involved. Paranormal Activity scared me more than most movies have because watching it feels like watching real people go through something awful.
My rating: 7.5/10
Followed by:
Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 4
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
I first saw this movie not long after it came out on DVD, and I wasn't really scared while I was watching it, but I got scared afterward whenever I started thinking about it. For the first few nights after I saw it, I had a hard time falling asleep because I kept having thoughts like "What if the closet door just slides open by itself right now?" Most horror movies don't scare me at all since the things I read about in the news every day are just as bad as the things that happen in these movies, but when I do get scared, it's usually because there's a ghost or demon involved. Paranormal Activity scared me more than most movies have because watching it feels like watching real people go through something awful.
My rating: 7.5/10
Followed by:
Paranormal Activity 2
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 4
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Horror Movie Month: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 movie directed by Jim Sharman (who co-wrote the screenplay with Richard O'Brien) and stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, and Nell Campbell. An engaged couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) breaks down in a storm and goes to a nearby castle to use the phone. They happen to show up during the Annual Transylvanian Convention, so they meet an interesting array of characters, led by Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a mad scientist/transvestite who is keeping a man he created in his labratory.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which was a stage show before it was a movie) is a fun movie, and though all of the actors were great, Tim Curry was the clear standout as Frank N. Furter, one of the most memorable movie characters of the past forty years. The songs are catchy, and whenever I watch the movie, "The Time Warp" ends up getting stuck in my head for a few days...it's a good song though, so I don't mind. : )
My rating: 8/10
Followed by:
Shock Treatment
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which was a stage show before it was a movie) is a fun movie, and though all of the actors were great, Tim Curry was the clear standout as Frank N. Furter, one of the most memorable movie characters of the past forty years. The songs are catchy, and whenever I watch the movie, "The Time Warp" ends up getting stuck in my head for a few days...it's a good song though, so I don't mind. : )
My rating: 8/10
Followed by:
Shock Treatment
Paranormal Jokes and Haiku on sale!
Paranormal Jokes and Haiku is on sale for 99¢ until November 2nd!
Paranormal Jokes and Haiku explores the lighter side of the paranormal...you won't get scared reading these poems and corny jokes about ghosts, aliens, Bigfoot, and other creatures of the unknown! The book contains 49 haiku and 26 groan-inducing jokes from paranormal blogger Crystal Smith-Connelly (of the blog Why would you want to be normal when you could be paranormal?).
Why do they call him
Bigfoot? Are they trying to
Make him self-conscious?
What is a ghost's favorite instrument?
The boo-kulele
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Jokes-Haiku-Crystal-Smith-Connelly-ebook/dp/B00U1SPTZM/
Paranormal Jokes and Haiku explores the lighter side of the paranormal...you won't get scared reading these poems and corny jokes about ghosts, aliens, Bigfoot, and other creatures of the unknown! The book contains 49 haiku and 26 groan-inducing jokes from paranormal blogger Crystal Smith-Connelly (of the blog Why would you want to be normal when you could be paranormal?).
Why do they call him
Bigfoot? Are they trying to
Make him self-conscious?
What is a ghost's favorite instrument?
The boo-kulele
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-Jokes-Haiku-Crystal-Smith-Connelly-ebook/dp/B00U1SPTZM/
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Review: Evil Dead the Musical at the Knight Theater
My husband and I like to go out of town to celebrate our anniversary every year, so this year we went to Charlotte to see Evil Dead the Musical at the Knight Theater. Evil Dead the Musical covers the events of the Evil Dead series, but it's even better than the movies because there's singing (everything is better with songs). All of the songs were great, but "Cabin in the Woods," "Housewares Employee," and "All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons" are the ones I'll be listening to over and over again when I get the cast recording (which should be pretty soon since I ordered the CD as soon as I got back to the hotel after the show).
I loved Evil Dead the Musical, and all of the actors gave incredible performances. Trent Mills was perfect as Ash, our charming, badass hero, and Merritt Crews was wonderful as Shelly and Annie, two characters who couldn't be more different from each other. Crews, Michelle Nash, and Saphire Demitro all have beautiful voices, and I got chills when Nash harmonized with Mills during "Housewares Employee." I'm glad I got to see the musical with this cast...each actor was phenomenal in his or her role (both as a regular person and as a Candarian demon), they all had great comic timing, and I loved listening to them sing. Evil Dead the Musical is a hilarious musical with catchy songs and impressive special effects, and I hope I'll be lucky enough to see it again someday. I know I'm biased because I'm a playwright, but I think there's nothing greater than live theatre...there's nothing I'd rather see than a good musical that makes me laugh. If Evil Dead the Musical is coming to your town, you should really go see it...there's a good chance it'll be the most fun you've ever had at the theatre. : )
My rating: 10/10
http://www.evildeadthemusical.com/EvilDead-worldwide/productions/index.html
I loved Evil Dead the Musical, and all of the actors gave incredible performances. Trent Mills was perfect as Ash, our charming, badass hero, and Merritt Crews was wonderful as Shelly and Annie, two characters who couldn't be more different from each other. Crews, Michelle Nash, and Saphire Demitro all have beautiful voices, and I got chills when Nash harmonized with Mills during "Housewares Employee." I'm glad I got to see the musical with this cast...each actor was phenomenal in his or her role (both as a regular person and as a Candarian demon), they all had great comic timing, and I loved listening to them sing. Evil Dead the Musical is a hilarious musical with catchy songs and impressive special effects, and I hope I'll be lucky enough to see it again someday. I know I'm biased because I'm a playwright, but I think there's nothing greater than live theatre...there's nothing I'd rather see than a good musical that makes me laugh. If Evil Dead the Musical is coming to your town, you should really go see it...there's a good chance it'll be the most fun you've ever had at the theatre. : )
My rating: 10/10
http://www.evildeadthemusical.com/EvilDead-worldwide/productions/index.html
Horror Movie Month: Re-Animator
Re-Animator is a 1985 movie directed by Stuart Gordon (who also wrote the screenplay, along with William J. Norris and Dennis Paoli) and starring Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, David Gale, and Robert Sampson. The movie was inspired by an H.P. Lovecraft story called "Herbert West-Reanimator." At New England's Miskatonic University, Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) and his girlfriend Megan Halsey (Barbara Crampton) are shocked when Dan's new housemate, Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs), uses a reanimating reagent to bring Dan's dead cat back to life. When Dan tells the dean (Robert Sampson) about Herbert reanimating the cat, Dr. Halsey doesn't believe him and bars Dan and Herbert from the school. Desperate to prove that the reagent works, Dan and Herbert sneak into the morgue to test it on a corpse, but things don't go exactly as planned.
Re-Animator is a fun movie that will definitely keep you entertained. If you don't like gory movies, you might want to skip it, but if you don't mind gore, Re-Animator might be something you'll really enjoy.
My rating: 7/10
Followed by:
Bride of Re-Animator
Beyond Re-Animator
Re-Animator is a fun movie that will definitely keep you entertained. If you don't like gory movies, you might want to skip it, but if you don't mind gore, Re-Animator might be something you'll really enjoy.
My rating: 7/10
Followed by:
Bride of Re-Animator
Beyond Re-Animator
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