The Marsh movie review

The Marsh (2006)

Short review: "The Marsh" is yet another tedious, standard haunted house ghost story, that suffers from uninspired plot, horrendous dialogue, third-rate special effects and cheap scares. "The Marsh" is about a sophisticated author haunted by gruesome visions of violence and death that would be far out of place in her successful series of children's books, who embarks on a brief sabbatical into the countryside that turns out to be far from the convalescent getaway her doctor had prescribed. The acting was mediocre at best, except for Forest Whitaker, who did a decent job with the material he was given, thanks to his considerable talent. Gabriel Anwar, in the lead role, was bland and uninteresting to watch. The cinematography was simply poor, as was the scenery - the forest/marsh environment looked horrifyingly fake and amateurishly-done. "The Marsh" is poorly executed low-budget horror, with a predictable and unoriginal story, that lacks creepiness and suspense, scares and intensity.

• My Rating: 2.75/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 0% (3 Reviews)
  
• IMDb: 4.8/10

Don't Look Up movie review (2010)

Don't Look Up (2010)

Short review: "Don't Look Up" is a remake of 1996 Japanese horror film with the same name, directed by Chinese filmmaker Fruit Chan, best know to the western audiences as one of the directors of "3 Extremes". In this story, evil spirits get released from old celluloid, which causes a film crew to slowly go insane over time whilst in production on a new project. Despite its intriguing plot, creepy Transylvanian settings, and a couple of good scares, "Don't Look Up" does nothing to challenge its good premise, and simply falls flat on its face. The film suffers from poor direction and editing, beyond horrible acting, one-dimensional characters and laughably bad special effects. The pathetic attempt for shocking twist at the end was the rotten cherry on top of this terrible mess of a film.

• My Rating: 3.75/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
• IMDb: 5.9/10

Mirrors movie review (2010)

Mirrors 2 (2010)

"Mirrors 2" is yet another straight-to-DVD horror sequel, that relies on the success of its predecessor and hopes to find an audience for the same reason. The first movie definitely wasn't great or very original, since its subject matter concerned one of the most overused and annoying horror cliches - mirrors. Nevertheless, "Mirrors" managed to deliver some chills, creepy images and decent story. If I'm being honest, I was somewhat pleased with the original movie, mainly because I quite like Alexandre Aja's shooting style and admire his ideas as a director. Also, last but not least, I absolutely loved the twist in the end - it was unexpected, creative and downright terrifying. "Mirrors 2" revoleves around Max Matheson, who after losing his fiancee in a car crash, for which he blames himself, he reluctantly takes a job as a night watchman at his father's Mayflower Department Store. When his co-workers are killed off in gruesome and horrible ways and Max begins to see a mysterious young woman in all the store's mirrors, desperate to communicate with him, he fears he's losing his mind, or that he may be the next victim. As expected, it repeats the formula form the first film, but adds a different plot. Sadly, a pretty terrible one. However, despite its tired ghost-of-a-murdered-girl-seeking-for-revenge scenario, "Mirrors 2" is quite well put together for a STV movie, as it offers an okay direction, fairly good lead performance, smooth pacing and some excellent gore effects. It's more gory than scary or creepy, but there are some really tense moments and it's not without suspense. Nick Stahl gives very credible performance as Max, and he successfully carries the movie on his shoulders. Unfortunately, he's the only good actor here. Emmanuelle Vaugier is naturally drop dead gorgeous, but her acting abilities are amazingly dreadful. Lawrence Turner, William Katt and Jon Michael Davis are just bad. Period. Spanish director Victor Garcia's directing skills are also questionable at times, since during watching I noticed three absolutely identical shots. It was kinda hilarious. Despite its cliched story, predictable conclusion, and some truly terrible supporting performances, "Mirrors 2" is quite watchable and surprisingly gripping at times. It falls into the 'mediocre at best' category.

• My Rating: 5.00/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
• IMDb: 5.1/10