I love all kinds of movies – the good, the bad and even the just-good-looking, but there will always be more movies than I can watch, so how to pick which one? Usually, I catch whatever is at the cinema, or maybe a friend recommends a movie. On top of these standard ways of thinning the herd, there are a few specific “genres” that will always get me to watch a film, even though I know it’s probably going to be bad. I say genres, but every entry here can include everything from romance to action, so I guess you can say if a movie contains one of these five things, I’m watching it.
Category: horror
Radio Review: The Raven
The Raven
I had such high hopes for this romp through 19th century Baltimore, mixing the great Edgar Allan Poe with his own creations, but sadly it all falls flat. Even iconic scenes like the pendulum are wasted. Only the supporting cast saves it a bit.
Dice roll 3. Read the full review in Norwegian at radiorevolt.no
The Film with the uncomfortable scenes
Movie: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011, aka the American version) 
We continue my quest to watch the Oscar winners with the remaking of the Swedish hit, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson. If you don’t remember which Oscar it won, that’s because it was Best Film Editing, which I actually don’t agree with, but more on that later. Before we get to the review, we need full disclosure: I have not seen the Swedish version, nor have I read the books.
Radio Review: The Devil Inside
This week I had the not-so-pleasurable experience of watching yet another pseudo-documentary style scary movie. Unfortunately, The Devil Inside is not even in the same league as The Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity (1, 2 or 3 for that matter) and as for the exorcisms: in a word, tame, compared to its 40 year old predecessor, The Exorcist. It’s a dice roll 2 for this one, and I’m being nice.
I Guess It’s Bad Horror Week
Movie: Cry Wolf (2005).
Considering the movie’s tagline: “You lie… You die!” I’ll come clean. My love of bad horror wasn’t the only reason I decided to watch this movie. I’ve also had this curiosity about the actor, Jared Padalecki, who I enjoy so much in the TV show Supernatural, and I wanted to see what else he could do. Unfortunately, this movie does nothing to showcase his acting ability.
I really wanted to like this movie as a bad horror movie, but unfortunately it’s not a good example of an admittedly dodgy genre. While it has a few redeeming qualities, they’re not nearly enough to make up for the rest of it.
Horror Remakes are Infectious
Movie: The Crazies (2010).
Some will, and probably have, characterized The Crazies as a zombie-film without zombies. This means it has all the creepy dead-eyed killers, but with the added element of the unknown. It might even make you reevaluate your zombie-apocalypse survival plan.
It’s a remake of a 1973 George Romano movie, but I haven’t seen it so we’ll skip the discussion on remakes. The plot is fairly simple: the people in a small town in rural America start behaving oddly, and it’s up to Sheriff Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) to figure out what’s happening. Soon the town is not only overrun by “crazies”, but by a government agency, keen to contain the situation at all costs. Our group of potential survivors must therefore do battle on two fronts, so to speak.
Film Dice 