Kelsey Reviews: “The Devil Inside” (2012)

My Rating: 1.0/5.0

Many horror films nowadays center around CGI and gore, and some, I’ll say, are done very well. But then there’s the scary movies that just plummet straight to the ground. Terrible acting, mixed up plot, or a dumb ending. Some movies, just simply aren’t frightening enough to even be contained in the horror genre itself. All of these descriptions are straightforward factors contributing to what a bad horror flick can be considered, and also simply stating what “The Devil Inside” was. A god-awful movie that is lucky to get four stars on IMDb.

The Devil Inside is about a woman, Isabella, who sets out to discover why her mother, now living in a mental hospital, killed three clergy people in the past. She is told to go to Italy to talk to some experts on the subject, and ends up discussing the matter with priests. These priests say that it may not be a medical issue, but her mother has a devil inside her, which then leads to more chaos and insanity.

This movie is a very cheap, unscary, and an unconvincing mess of a movie. It came out in January, too, which usually means a low-grade thriller movie. Horror/scary movies mostly come out in the summer or fall season, getting into the mood of halloween and later months of the year. But January seems pretty odd for this thriller to come out.

The acting in the movie alone is really, really mediocre. You can easily tell that the people are are trying to act like they’re really reacting, they’re definitely trying much too hard. This was aimed to be a movie that was a “found footage” type, like most of you know, the Paranormal Activity movies are, but it wasn’t convincing at all. I’m not saying that all of these kinds of films are bad, but if you’re planning on making a fake horror-documentary, at least get some good actors to portray the characters that are created for that movie.

The source material that the characters got information was very vague and unclear to the audience, but most of the audience seemed to care about the gore factor or the scary parts. Speaking of, those weren’t even scary. Nothing was really startling, and I distinctly remember that there was a dog about a quarter of the way into the movie that barked at a protagonist passing by, and that was the scariest part in the movie, because it was so sudden.

The movie has no conclusion whatsoever and just abruptly ends without a wrap-up, and it didn’t even make sense. Most characters end up killing themselves at the end. When my sister-in-law and I went to see it, we were honestly laughing by this point. It was utterly ludicrous. At the very end, the screen just cuts to black and has a title card that says something like “The facts of the Rossi case have never been fully established, but to follow the investigation, go to TheRossiFiles.com.” and then the credits role. It was terrible. So, I would definitely not recommend this movie to anyone, whether you like horror movies or not, this is not a good one.

Kelsey Reviews: “Trick ‘r Treat” (2007)

4.0/5.0

Fall season is approaching, we’re in the month of October, and it’s that time of the year for Halloween movies! Scary films leaving you on the edge of your seat waiting to know what happens and horror films having you check twice under your before you sleep. I’m more of a classic horror film lover, but I decided I’d review a more recent halloween movie, 2007, Trick ‘r Treat.

Out of all the scary movies I have seen in my lifetime, I think this is one of my favourites. IMDb rates it 6.7 out of 10.0, and I think it’s more underappreciated than it should be. It’s not my favourite, but it definitely scared me when I first saw it, unlike some of the more recent films that are just in for the gore factor with bad acting.

The movie itself centers around these groups of people on Halloween night. They do not know each other, but they all intertwine in the end, which is one of the main things I love about the movie. Some of my favourite movies being that same way. Two examples could be Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, both good ‘ole Tarantino films. I think it’s a great method for some movies, because then when you re-watch them, you notice more connections and you see things being foreshadowed. It also makes the first time you watch the film all the more special because you don’t know what’s coming.

Now, for the acting in the story. Anna Paquin is a great actress in this, one of the first I recognized. Most of the other actors I’ve not seen in much else. But, then again, I’m a huge True Blood fan, so it’s not surprising. I’d recognize Anna in her other films. She does a wonderful job hiding her accent. She has a natural New Zealand accent, and in this movie she has a Northern American accent. The other actors did a good job as well.

This film takes us on a throwback to the old age traditions and rules of trick-or-treating on Halloween, including a serial killer, adventurous middle-schoolers, and women looking for lust, causing trouble. There is one specific villain who appears in a lot of the movie. This villain doesn’t get many parts in the movie until one specific scene toward the end. But the fact you see him here and there before that scene makes you wonder why he’s so important and why he is appearing so much. Once you find out, it’s surprising and ties everything together!

I recommend this film for anyone who likes an eerie October movie with a great storyline and characters; The actors portray those characters really well. I’m not sure as to why it is so underrated and underappreciated, but I think that it is a wonderful horror flick for the fall/Halloween season.

Kelsey Reviews: “Amélie” (2001)

Rating: 5.0/5.0

A great foreign film from France, filled with adventure and romance; Suspense and bliss. My personal 2nd favourite foreign film in general, once I thought about it for a while. Out of all of the places in the world that film is released for it to be considered Foreign, England and France are my favourites.

Amélie focuses on the life of a girl in Paris, France, working at Montmartre café, who decides to help those around her along with her personal life, and finds a love interest along the way. Meeting new people and helping them express themselves in creative ways, Amélie lives out a life with  a lot of emotion and mystery throughout.

This movie has to be pretty great for my rating being 5.0/5.0. It being my 2nd favourite foreign film next to Pan’s Labyrinth. Amélie Poulain is a quirky and fun character who likes to create mysteries of her own, I really like that about the character. Most of the characters in the movie were big roles, so there weren’t too many characters and traits that it was overwhelming or confusing. You learn a lot of each character throughout the movie, and the backstory of Amélie. I like how they introduce the characters in the beginning, instead of revealing that later in the story for you to find out. This shows how straightforward and easy to follow this film is.

Amélie herself is a peculiar yet simple character and I love the way the writers portray her personality. They go into the a very fine history of her without being too broad in the beginning to know what her life is like and what she is like. The rest of the movie is essentially about how she enjoys helping the lives of others. This is a really great movie that shows selflessness and care to others, so it’s also showing a message through a film full of mystery, affection, and exhilaration.

I love the fact that this is not your typical love story; Girl finds a boy, falls in love, deal with a problem, problem is resolved and they live happily ever after, the end. This is not Amélie. Amélie discovers how she wants to assist people in their lives, and then takes a boy (Nino)’s possession that he lost, and makes it a mystery to help him find it. I won’t tell how it ends because I do not like including spoilers in my reviews, but I just loved the originality in it. I love how it is mostly about Amélie and her life, but including a bit of romance with Nino as well. Not so much about the two of them together. Not from two perspectives, mainly focused on one.

But Amélie Poulain is not all rainbows, puppies, and  sunshine. If she sees someone being utterly disrespectful to another that she knows is not doing wrong, she’ll sneakily get revenge on that person. Not too terrible of a happening, but enough to teach them a lesson. Amélie has her personal problems, too, just like everyone else, and loves to help people out, whether that means doing it the easy way or the hard way. But she’s definitely not 100% happy all the time, so don’t hold me to describing her as emotionless. She’s just like any other character, but more of an optimist than a pessimist. This is why I describe this film as more of a feel-good movie than anything.

All-in-all, Amélie is a fantastic movie. If its in my top 5 foreign movies and it’s at #2, that shows that it’s pretty fantastic in my eyes. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves a good romance while not being too lovey-dovey and basic for any other romance. The soundtrack is fantastic as well; It all seems to work out pretty great when they put everything together. The original plot, the music, and everything, it’s all great.

Kelsey Reviews: “V for Vendetta” (2005)

Rating: 4.0/5.0

V For Vendetta is an action-packed film about A shadowy freedom fighter known as “V” who fights against his terrorist, totalitarian society. Upon rescuing a girl from the secret police, he also finds his best chance at having an ally.

The movie was written by Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), so I watched this movie with high expectations. I didn’t know much about the director, and later found out James McTeigue hadn’t full-out directed anything before V For Vendetta (Besides being a Second Unit/Assistant Director). I was quite surprised to hear that. He did a fantastic job with the film, and the actors were just as great. Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman especially, being the two main characters of the film. Hugo needed to have a lot of emotion shown in his voice and actions since you could not see his facial expression, and he did a great job with that.

This film was also an adaptation of the Alan Moore book that he made in 1982. I haven’t read the book, but I plan to soon. The beginning of the movie really brings you in and wanting to see more due to the fact that within the first 10 minutes, there is a fight. I think a beginning full of action is a great way to start, well, anything, really. A book, a movie, a television show, etcetera. This is why Romeo and Juliet is one of my favourite Shakespearian plays; it begins with a fight between a Montague and a Capulet, which brings the viewer in wanting to know more (For example, Romeo and Juliet):Why are they fighting? Who are these men? What is this importance to the rest of the play? I think that was great on the director and writer’s part.

Throughout parts of the movie, the government is trying to find V and Evey, and there are scenes from both V and Evey’s perspective. I think this is a key element to a film. If a filmmaker just stays on one straight path through a movie, it can become either predictable and/or rather unexciting. This is a important because one of the most important things is keeping an audience when writing/directing a movie. If you lose them, you get bad reviews. If you get bad reviews, that’s just not a good sign for a successful film headed your way, and I’d hope nobody wants that.

One thing about the movie I disliked was, of course, like with most films, there were some small slow parts, but that’s typical. It’s not a perfect film, but there really isn’t one “perfect” film. But that is just my opinion, it depends on what your definition of “perfect” is, and how you see it. Another thing I didn’t like about this movie was the fact that this terrorist known as V is trying to make England a better place. If that did happen, I think more people would follow him in his act of terrorism and break out in riots, but coincidentally, they all follow the dictatorship like nothing is bothering them (but clearly, you could see that it is). So the citizens are really on the government’s side of they’re all against V, which I don’t think would be very realistic if this were an actual situation. But, looking at it in a different perspective, that is really not much of a problem at all because comic books—and movies based off of them— aren’t always supposed to be realistic, they’re really to tell the story of a fantasy.

In the whole of the movie, I see a very strong message trying to get through. Now I don’t know if this was stressed in the book as much as it was in the movie, but I have recognized it in many other movies as well. From V’s perspective, he is trying to be a hero and make his country a better place by threatening the government and killing off people. This is just his personal thought process, everyone thinks different, but he thinks violence is the way to help. As he even said in the movie, “Violence can be used for good; Justice.” An outsider would see V as an enemy and that is why everyone acts defensive, but in actuality, he’s just trying to help. He doesn’t just want to help his country, he also wishes to help Evey live without fear.