Tag: Halloween

Ranking the original Elm Street Movies

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Its that time of year again and this year we will be ranking my favourite Horror franchise of all time a Nightmare on Elm Street, a series of films based around a serial killer called Freddy Krueger who hunts his victims in their dreams, the idea came from Wes Craven and at the time it was very unique and made Freddy one of the most threatening villains where he could attack people from behind the grave when they are asleep. This helped to give him very creative kills but also made him stand out compared to the competition with Jason, Chuckie, Leather Face and others.

Needless to say I am very excited to revisit this franchise, it’s what got me into the horror genre and is still my favourite to this day so without any more delay lets get ranking from worst to best

This is only my opinion and is in no way fact and may not follow the traditional opinion of this franchises qualities.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

This movie was the biggest Fuck You to the studio, the fans and original creator Wes Craven so lets talk about it.

After Nightmare 5 released to the lowest financial gross of the series the decision was made to finally kill off Freddy Krueger and end the series.

In the film we are given a new protagonist Doctor Lisa Zane who is helping children in a foster home in Springfield Ohio, it is later revealed that this woman is Krueger’s daughter a revelation that didn’t need to exist but at least it kind of gives Freddy a reason for going after the teenagers under her care.

There is no explanation as to where Alice from Nightmare 4 and 5 had gone, we never find out why Krueger stopped hunting her but this wouldn’t be the first unexplained moment from the series.

The reason this film is so insulting to Freddy Fans is because not only do we get silly Freddy but it is turned up so high that this may as well be a parody, Freddy isn’t just goofy in this he goes completely looney Tunes!

We get fourth wall breaks, Freddy directly interacts with the audience on multiple occasions even doing the whole “shhh” thing while sneaking on one of his victims.

The one liners are awful too especially during the video game dream, this dream especially is a great example to see how much they did not care about this series anymore, Freddy can get away with being a little silly at times, but playing video games is ridiculous if you showed clips from this scene without any concept it would be more convincing as a commercial for the NES game than actually part of what should have been an epic final showdown for this character.

Overall the performances in this are pretty mediocre from everyone but unfortunately this time Robert Englund is just bad as the character, this movie sucks and never should have been approved, famously Wes Craven couldn’t finish watching this one and that should tell you everything you need to know!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

The Dream Master was in my opinion the first movie where this franchise went off the rails, choices were made to keep the funny Freddy from Nightmare 3 but turn up the silliness and focus less on scares with more creative kills that don’t really follow any of the logic we had seen before this one.

After the events of Nightmare 3 we first see the surviving Dream Warriors who are still working together to protect the Dream Realm from the return of Freddy.

Some events later and Freddy is brought back by a dog who pees fire and our Dream Warriors are all dead leaving the new protagonist Alice a master of dreams to defeat Freddy and save her friends.

So I want to point out that at this point in the franchise there wasn’t any reason for Freddy to kill his victims because with the Dream warriors out of the picture there are no living relatives of the people who killed him while he was alive.

I don’t particularly think it matters that much but the three previous movies definitely felt more like a compelling trilogy due to Freddy having a particular need for revenge with his kills.

Chose this photo I found over an image from the movie as this is such a cool cast photo shoot!

The Acting in this is so bad from almost everyone in the new cast (Not the Dream Warriors), I don’t know why but almost all the line delivery in this comes across as monotone and not with much effort, of course Robert Englund is fantastic and I will give props to Toy Newkirk who played Sheila as she was the only supporting cast member that I thought did a good job with her acting, it was nothing special but it was one of the only performances that I can say I liked.

The kills and dream sequences in this are really good and some of the best in the franchise, stand out kills definitely go to Joey who gets trapped under his water bed and drowns and by far the best kill up to this point in the franchise goes to Debbie who slowly becomes a giant cockroach bursting from her skin before being stuck in a bug trapping fluid and crushed to death! It is flipping awesome

There are actually some really great effects in this movie and with the dream world having less rules we do get some more memorable Freddy moments, one liners and very creative dreams but I do feel that at times this movie went a little too silly like when Freddy orders Pizza and its meatballs are the heads of his victims or the stupid karate fight where Freddy is invisible because they ran out of money and had to quickly make a kill scene out of bed sheets and cheap decorations

Minus that awful scene I think the biggest problem with this movie is that Freddy is not scary at all, he is comic relief in this and has completely lost his scare factor, I like fun Freddy and I think that’s how he should be but he still needs to be scary otherwise the franchise just becomes a comedy in a similar manner to Bride of Chucky but where it works well for Chucky, for Freddy it is just really disappointing and has a big impact on what could have a great film.

Bad Acting, boring characters and a non-scary Freddy definitely affects my ranking with this one but it had some great kills and some really good effects, this is actually a fan favourite and is the highest grossing movie in the Elm Street Franchise so maybe its just me but I’m not too keen on this one.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

Probably the most controversial movie in the original series this second film sees Freddy leaving the Dream World and possessing High Schooler Jesse Walsh and killing victims in the real world instead.

So with this having much less Dreaming than the others films the kills here are pretty lame and in a sense a lot less scary, I couldn’t take Freddy seriously in this especially during the pool party scene where he massacres plenty of victims twice his size.

One great kill though is definitely the gym teacher, they did still let Freddy keep his dream like powers so he can use telekinesis to control inanimate objects, he uses this to his full potential during this kill and its very memorable with a lot of balls flying everywhere and towel whipping.

The film is known to be a homage to gay culture and I’m all for this with the gay body language and mannerisms of the protagonist and plenty of other homoerotic hints and directorial choices, its great to see something celebrate this at a time when it wasn’t fully accepted in society.

The cast are pretty great in this from Male Scream Queen Jesse and his perfect chemistry with on screen girlfriend Lisa and no one is really that annoying in this one, the first movie Nancy was way too whiny but this was an issue clearly picked up before casting was made here.

The effects are really good considering how quickly they had to make this movie, two in particular stand out being the bird puppet that attacks the Walsh family in a homage to Alfred Hitchcocks the Birds and Freddy bursting out of Jesse’s Skin is just fantastic although the cheap rubber skin costume he leaves behind always gives me a chuckle.

Nightmare 2 is really not a bad a movie at all its a lot of fun but its really hard to look past this being anything more than a standard slasher film without the full creativity of the Dream Kills, not being in the real world is what made Freddy stand out among his competition and its just a shame they lost that vision a little bit here.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Dream Child was the least successful film in the franchise resulting in only one final movie being made in the original Freddy Series after this one. The film was a critical and financial failure but over the years has garnered a bit more love from fans.

In the film a now pregnant Alice from Nightmare 4 has just graduated from High School and is looking forward to her future with her boyfriend Dan. Unfortunately Krueger has taken over the dreams of her unborn child and Alice’s last remaining friends hoping to be reborn into the real world.

The casting performances here are so much better that in the fourth movie although that isn’t exactly a hard sell. Here the actors portrayals are again nothing too special or particularly memorable but a little more effort and love was put in by the actors and actresses giving us a little more fun and a realism which made the movie more entertaining and easier to watch.

I really like that this film had a higher focus on Amanda Kruger (Freddy’s Mother) and made her an important ally to his defeat this time around.

This was an extension to a back story we had seen in Nightmare 3 and gave us some more insight on why Freddy was so evil.

While this film only has a small handful of death scenes they are all excellent and have some pretty good effects, all of them push the dream limits to the max and are extremely memorable, my favourite involved Freddy quite literally forcing someone to eat themselves to death in a scene which was pretty gross but had all of the Freddy Comedy, creativity and horror that this franchise offers.

The Dream sequences also have some really good sets, by far the best and most creative sequence was the Comic Book, here we get a black and white set with some really cheesy costumes and one liners similar to Superhero comic books of another time, the Kill here is also really creative and one of Freddy’s best.

My only real complaints with this movie is the very low body count and some of the inconsistencies with the lore such as baby Freddy being born disfigured when we all know that he was burned alive by the original Elm Street parents hence why his face is burned and scarred (I know this is a dream but its never questioned not even by his mother Amanda)

I don’t understand why this film gets so much hate because I really don’t think its that bad, at this point the franchise was definitely hanging on by a thread from a story perspective and you could tell the studio was running out of ideas, but this is still a good watch for entertainment and you wont be bored by the casting or the kills, this film had some of Freddy’s most memorable moments but was far from being the franchises peak.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The one that started it all and what a great start to this franchise, the movie actually opens with a brief shot of Freddy building his knife glove before he was killed by the Elm street parents a fiery death which is explained to the main character Nancy later on in the film.

With this being the first movie in the franchise the plot is fairly bare bones, Freddy is hunting down the children of the parents who murdered him as revenge, the main characters in this movie are Nancy, Glen, Tina and Rod

The performances are not too memorable especially from the main characters, Nancy played by Heather Langenkamp is really quite annoying and whiny in her portrayal, the other three do ok jobs but no one really stands out, this was Johnny Depp’s first role on screen and he hadn’t quite discovered his full acting talents at this point but with it being his first role it is definitely one of his most important.

Robert Englund plays Freddy and he’s just great in this, the first movie has a more serious Freddy with genuine disturbing imagery and scary moments. There are a lot of gross out moments with his humour in this with special effects involving bugs, maggots and plenty of green blood so it does have silly moments but nothing compared to how off the rails the franchise went later on down the line.

Freddy is creepy in this especially when you cant see him on screen, the dream sequences are all made to scare with none of them being out of wack.

The kills are all memorable but some of the most basic in the franchise compared to what would come next, Tina being dragged across the ceiling was always a great effect and of course Glen being dragged into his mattress with litres of blood being sprayed all across his bedroom is fairly iconic these days and remembered fondly by horror fans.

Nancy’s parents play a pretty important role in this movie trying to get Nancy help through sleep therapy’s and eventually with her father almost capturing Freddy near the end of the film.

Unfortunately I think both of these characters could have been written a little bit better, both are very stubborn and don’t believe Nancy when she tells them that Freddy Krueger is the killer, they don’t even believe her when she pulls his hat out of a dream in the clinic, a hat she never walked in with and that has his name written inside of it. Maybe they just didn’t want to believe in Freddy especially since they played such a big role in his original murder and are just scared to hear his name again? What do you guys think? this part of the movie has just always bugged me!

A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, it started Johnny Depps career, he next when onto Edward Scissorhands which helped to Sky Rocket the actor to fame, this was the introduction to Freddy and the movie is now protected in the American Film Institute.

A great start for this franchise and one of the better Elm Street movies, I watch this every Halloween and will continue to do so but even though this is the one I choose to re-watch the most I wouldn’t say it’s my absolute favorite in the franchise.

Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)

And here we are at nightmare 3 a fan favourite of the series and honestly it is my favourite too.

The film follows new lead Kristen a teenage girl who has the ability to bring people into her dreams, this is the sister power to Nancy Thompson who was able to bring people and items from her dreams into the real world.

After a Freddy Nightmare that ends with a false suicide attempt she is sent to a psychiatric hospital for suicidal children. The New Psychiatrist is none other than Nancy Thompson who knows the truth of who haunts their dreams and wants to train them to find their Dream Powers and kick Freddy’s Ass!

I think this is a good point to say that this is where the franchise really began to find its feet and become less serious and more fun while still remaining generally creepy and unnerving, the franchise would later go off the rails but this for me was its sweet spot.

The Dreams in this one really start to get creative with how they were portrayed, in previous films the dreams would mostly take place in Elm Street but here we get to see punk inspired alleyways and a Hellscape inspired take on the classic boiler room set, Dreams that can add more creativity and have a lot more lee way allowing the franchise its creative freedoms.

Other creative choices such as stop motion, puppets and clay animation was used numerous times to help really expand Freddy’s capabilities, the snake was my favourite effect but Puppet Freddy was definitely another highlight.

The kills in this one are some of the most memorable and best in the franchise, “Welcome to Prime Time Bitch” a line improvised by Freddy actor Robert Englund before he smashes Jennifer’s head into the tv screen is easily Freddy’s best known one liner and of course the gruesome death of Philip who is quite literally controlled and forced to fall from an abandoned tower block.

A hilarious moment I have to mention is the wizard master, the costume is just so awful and cringe worthy, the line he says “In the name of Lowrek, Prince of Elves, demon, begone!” doesnt help but it is hilariously goofy and I love it

Some more Freddy Lore was added into this movie thanks to the ghost of his mother Amanda Krueger explaining to secondary protagonist Dr Neil Gordon that Freddy is the bastard child of 100 psychopaths after she was accidently locked in with inmates and got raped repeatably and left bearing a child.

We also find out that Freddy absorbs the powers of his victims as there souls become trapped within his flesh.

It is really hard to see this as nothing more than a perfect Freddy movie because of what it brings to franchise but takes it down a less serious route without completely losing those scares. I love the return of Nancy Thomson and her father and of course the outlandish sets, new lore, amazing lovable characters and just brilliant effects really help this one to not only be the best in the series but also the movie that I feel really made Freddy Krueger find his place as a horror icon.

I am ashamed to say that while this is my favourite horror franchise it got painful to get through near the end, Freddy is such an iconic character and will always be my favourite but compared to other franchises this one was the shortest for films and how long he remained relevant, which a shame because it never had to be that way but too many changes and a lack of direction very quickly killed off this horror icon.

My final opinion of the 6 Elm Street movies is that you should only really go out of your way to watch the original film and Dream Warriors, both of these films tell Nancy’s story and overall would have been great finale for Freddy before his franchise lost its way.

Wes Craven would later go onto make his New Nightmare, a great spin off film where he finally got to create the Freddy Character he originally envisioned and as dark as he originally intended

October 31st we will finally be talking about that one so please look forward to that!

In the meantime check out my official Friday the 13th Rankings and my official Child’s Play Rankings

Friday the 13th Film Franchise – My Official Ranking
Ranking the original Child’s Play movies
Oh and BTW the official Freddy vs Jason crossover will be added into both the Elm Street List and the Friday the 13th List but in due time as I need to re-watch the entire Jason franchise to figure out exactly where it will fit in.
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Psycho (1960) Review

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Psycho is a horror/psychological thriller directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the film is a loose adaptation of the 1959 novel Psycho written by author Robert Bloch. The original novel was actually inspired by the Serial Killings of Ed Gein who would also be the inspiration for Leatherface and Hannibal Lecter

The film had some big stars to its name including acting Legends the late Janet Leigh and the late Anthony Perkins who play the films main leads Embezzler Marion Crane and Motel owner Norman Bates.

The films plot revolves around Marion Crane a bank worker who steal $40,000 from a client and goes on the run where she eventually ends up at the Bates Motel, a run down and failing Motel ran by its owner Norman Bates a seemingly friendly person but no one knows that he is being emotionally controlled by his manipulative and psychologically abusive elderly mother who has a murderous side to her personality.

Anthony Perkins was made for this role, I don’t know if anyone else could give off such a convincing performance especially considering he had to play two personalities in one role, we have seen this done in other films but there is something about Norman Bates which feels very real and not in any way silly or over the top. Perkins plays both his Norman and Mother personalities as two different sides to the character with one being overly friendly and the other unhinged and dangerous while managing to maintain a creepiness factor throughout all of his screen time.

Janet Leigh and the supporting cast all deserve credit too because everyone was brilliant in this, out of the entire movie what made me the most nervous wasn’t Norman Bates but Marion Crane on the run, there are so many moments where she almost gets caught and it did leave me on the edge of my seat, two parts specifically where when she was at the traffic light and sees her boss from the bank crossing the road and the other was when she was buying a car with a shot of a police officer watching her from the background. In the scene she is extremely nervous and trying to buy a car as quickly as possible so she can get away from the situation but the car sales man doing his job keeps trying to sell her other vehicles giving the officer more time to come over and see what is going on.

A lot of the best moments in the movie are thanks to Hitchcock’s direction and camera angles, not only does he help to make those scenes with Marion on the run a lot more intense but it’s the way he films the mother so we never see her face that helps to keep the big twist at the end really jaw dropping but it actually makes the character a lot scarier.

The famous shower scene is a great example where we only see the figure behind the curtain before it opens and Marion Crane is murdered, I should say that they originally tried fake blood for this scene but it didn’t look right in Black and White so chocolate syrup was used instead.

This was really the first major twist of the movie because Marion Crane was in all of the advertising and really was the secondary main character of the film, her dying so early on would have shocked audiences back in 1960 this was another reason why the film was put in black and white because Hitchcock wasn’t sure audiences were ready to see a stabbing in colour yet.

The scene is not overly gory and the choice to end the shot with the blood going down the shower drain was really impactful without showing us the grizzly details, I wish more films today would make choices like this as a lot of modern horror is in competition for gory kills and jump scares.

The scariest and in my opinion best directed scene in the movie is actually the big reveal when Lila Crane finally finds Mrs Bates in the basement, she turns her around to confront her and is met with a skeleton, she screams, the iconic music comes on and Norman Bates dressed in his mothers clothes bursts through the door knife in hand screaming.

This twist was huge back then and was such a worry from the studios that they actually made Hitchcock extend it so that we see Bates being incarcerated which is then followed by a dull scene with a psychiatrist explaining why Norman is the way he is.

I loved the entire movie but this one scene at the end, it is so unnecessary and really drags on taking away from the perfect flow the rest of the movie had. Until his death Hitchcock always spoke of how much he despised this scene.

The Studios never wanted to fund this movie and eventually Hitchcock did manage to get a measly budget of around $800,000 which given inflation is only around $8,000,000 today.

Because of this serious budget cuts had to be made such as filming the movie in Black and White and using crew members from his Alfred Hitchcock presents Television series who were more affordable than bigger stars at the time.

Hitchcock agreed to take no earnings for the film giving up his usual $250,000 fee until its release where he would take 60% of its overall gross, this was a way to put Hitchcock off the idea of making the movie but this plan seriously backfired in the studios face because the film went on to make $50,000,000 meaning that Hitchcock walked away a very rich man and made more money than the studios themselves.

Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho is a Masterpiece of the Horror Genre and one of the greatest movies of all time, its one of Hitchcocks most celebrated works and has been forever protected in the American Film Institute.

There isn’t really much to say other than if you haven’t seen this you should definitely go and watch it, it was the inspiration for a lot of horror icons and future franchises to come, this is one movie that I will be watching every October.

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The Thing from Another World (1951) Review

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The Thing from Another World is a science fiction / Horror movie directed by Christian Nyby.

The film was the the first adaptation of the short story Who Goes There which is about an alien creature who can shapeshift into different bodies, it uses this ability to murder exhibitionists in Antarctica by morphing into the bodies of the crew and killing them from behind false faces.

This adaptation was filmed in Black and White and in a sense is the most controversial due to general confusion about the films creation and artistic changes that had to be made due to the lack of technology at the time the film was made, the biggest change is the creature itself, the shapeshifting at the time was difficult to portray on film especially with such a small budget so instead a standard alien creature became the films threat, a controversial choice but at least it allows this version to stand out on its own.

Howard Hawkes
Christian Nyby

The first and most well known debate is who actually directed the film, while Christian Nyby is officially posted as the films director, interviews with the cast years later revelated that Howard Hawkes directed the movie and gave Nyby the credit so that he could obtain his directors guild membership. Nyby denies Hawkes intervention and all but one cast member agreed that Hawkes did indeed direct the movie. What makes this so mysterious is that Hawkes denied directing the movie up until his death in 1977 leaving this as one of the biggest debates and mysteries in film history.

The casting in the film was great and its hard to pick out particular performances as everyone on screen were a lot of fun to watch and gave realistic performances. The Crew all have a really good connection in this and are genuinely very likable bouncing off of each others personalities, there are also disagreements though with some wanting to execute the creature while others want it studied.

Margaret Spencer who plays Nikki was memorable for her performance as the love interest of the Captain and how she uses her romantic advantages to help encourage him to make the best decisions and get what she wants.

The creature was played by James Arness and if you watch the movie you will notice that the creature is never shown close to the camera, this does make him more scary as he is hidden in the shadows but this choice was actually made due to the director being dissatisfied with the Makeup quality, famously a headpiece inspired by Frankenstein was also put onto Arness due to this.

For a low budget movie The Thing from Another World is really impressive in what it manages to pull off, the film was rated X even considering the lack of any blood or gore but the location and casting choices really helped to make this one memorable, the creature mostly communicates in grunts and moans, he generally punches and chokes his victims and due to his supernatural strength he definitely had the advantage over the captain and his crew. These choices are very 1950’s sci-fi and I love them, it reminds me very much of another classic from the 50’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon that film also had a creature who attacked and grunted in similar ways to this movie and both are very great films I highly recommend checking out this Halloween if you get the chance.

What a great find this movie was, I have always enjoyed the John Carpenter version but I never knew there was an original adaptation before that one and I was left pleasantly surprised with this, I saw this on the BBC I Player app so you may still find it there but I’m not sure if it is only available for a limited time, either way you really should check out this movie especially if you want to explore older Sci-fi and Horror classics.

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Until Dawn (2015) Review

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Until Dawn is the first of many choose your own adventure games from Supermassive Games, the game relies on player choices determining who will survive this horror story on the mountains of the Wendigo. The game takes inspiration from the Butterfly Effect a chaos theory where different choices and events will lead to vastly differentiating outcomes.

The game is considered an interactive drama series where players take control of eight playable characters and make decisions which will in turn effect their survival chances and relationships with other characters in the story.

After a horrible prank gone wrong two twin sisters Hannah and Beth go missing during a snow storm on the mountains and are presumed dead after search and rescues teams fail to find them.

One year later the teenage pranksters return to the mountain in remembrance of the girls but soon realise that something dark and sinister is afoot, they are not alone on this mountain and they start to wonder what really happened to their friends who perished on that terrible night!.

The game takes place primarily in four locations the Lodge, the Sanitorium, an old Hotel and the Mines and where each character ends up depends on player choices.

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Until Dawnâ„¢_20150818215136

In my personal opinion none of the games locations are all too memorable, nothing about them really stands out although I would make the argument that this does work much more in the games favor than it may seem.

The areas of the game are basic but are all very dark helping to build upon the atmosphere and increase the players fear levels, throughout the entire journey you will be on the edge of your seat not sure if your next decision will end kindly, the Wendigo’s are absolutely terrifying and give you very little chance to escape if they manage to catch you, a shot with a gun will help you knock them back temporarily but the most common and difficult way to survive is to keep absolutely still.

The Wendigo’s are blind and track players by sound, a very clever mechanic in the game uses the dual shock controllers motion sensors to enhance realism during segments where you mustn’t move, players literally need to keep the controller as still as possible and one slight movement can easily lead to death so be careful.

The game is full to the brim with quick time events, I normally hate these in games but they work quite well in this, you don’t get much warning when they appear and if you miss them it can end very badly.

Throughout the adventure there are plenty of collectibles to find most of these are clues to discovering the three in game mysteries, those being what happened to the twins, who is the psychopath and the history of the mountain. You need to find all of the twins clues to save Josh at the end of the game so I would recommend trying to get everything.

Totems are also hidden across the mountain, finding these will show you clues on possible outcomes later on in the game, it can really help you make decisions depending on whether you want to save or kill certain characters.

There are many different way to finish the game, you can choose who lives and who dies leading the multiple outcomes, I had two issues with the game and both were a problem with its replay value, don’t get me wrong the game has plenty of reasons to replay but not being able to skip over cutscenes a second or third time around will get you sick of the story pretty fast and the biggest problem of all is that there is only one ending.

The end of the game is a helicopter shot of your survivors followed by police interviews in the credits, nothing else gets added here and the reason that is a problem is because apart from trophies if there is no additional cutscene or reward why would we want to replay this over and over again?

The game is fun but it is also very slow paced and is a bit of a drag to replay at times, I did this four times in a row to try and get all the trophies and after that I had no intention to put my self through it again and I completely understand that this is a different type of game to what I’m used too but I cant lie about how it made me feel after multiple playthroughs.

Visually the game is terrifying and graphically it holds up really well for a mid life span PS4 game, the dark atmosphere really helps to give you an uneasy feeling from beginning to end and the designers put a lot of effort into graphics helping to again build on realism with the excellent and powdery snow effects, and the slimy and meaty skin of the Wendigos.

The games soundtrack composed by Jason Graves and while very basic it works well for the game, they used an orchestra but remained very quiet only getting louder the closer characters got to a threat, the quietness makes the game feel empty and does help to put players more on edge and when the music does get louder due to it being unexpected it really set me into a panic not quite knowing what was around the corner.

Until Dawn is a game that I have wanted to play for a very long time but have waiting for the right opportunity, thankfully with this being part of the PS Plus game catalogue I finally got the chance and I really enjoyed it, I liked most of the characters and wanted to see them all succeed and the story is so well written, the twist of who the psychopath was really caught me off guard and I had even found all of the clues. The game controlled fine and was a lot of fun my only issue was with my distaste for choices with the replay value but overall I can highly recommend this one to fans of horror and gamers alike 7/10

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Ranking the original Child’s Play movies

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Hes everyone ones favourite killer doll with an impressive film collection to his name but how do the 7 movies in the original Childs Play series holdup?

Today I will be ranking and discussing all of them, I wont be covering the remake as I want to focus on the original storyline but I do have plans for these horror film remakes in the far future.

Obviously this is just my personal opinion and I will be ranking this list based more on which ones I want to re watch more than the quality of the films, this is purely rated by my own viewing pleasure and your list may be very different to mine.

With all that said and done lets get straight into this crazy series of films !

Curse of Chucky – 2013

The only curse this movie has is how boring it is and the fact that it makes very little sense in the timeline of events

The very much alive Chucky doll is shipped to a wheelchaired bound girl in a posh old mansion, the doll is in near mint condition considering that the last movie had his head, arms, and legs cut off.

The face is later revealed to be a mask hiding Chucky’s wounds but the arms and legs are never explained neither is what happened after the events of the last movie Seed of Chucky.

The casting is pretty decent here no one does a bad job and the main character Nica and her niece Alice are fantastic in their roles, Summer Howell who plays Alice is exceptionally good here and in my opinion is actually a lot more likeable than the series first hero Andy Barclay.

A couple of fun cameos from Tiffany and Andy are in this film and were some of the only really memorable moments for me, never the less its great to finally see Andy return as his “ending” in Childs Play 3 was less than satisfactory.

The twist ending was unexpected and a highlight of the movie, it was really cool to see a teeny bit of back story for Charles Lee Ray and the events which led to him running into the toy shop in the original Child’s Play.

I know I’m biased here because a lot of people really like this movie but I don’t really get it, yes I know its gone back to the horror side of the franchise and that’s great but I just found it no where near as entertaining as any of the other films, they don’t even have any great sets in this it practically takes place in one building minus a few scenes.

The kills were pretty basic compared to the last two movies and while overall it continues the Chucky storyline this is one film that I personally will not look forward to watching again if I decide to another Chucky marathon in the future.

Seed of Chucky-2004

Where to start with this one..

Taking place 3 years after the events of Bride of Chucky, a young adolescent doll named “shitface” later to be renamed as Glen” is trying to figure out where they belong.

The old Chucky and Tiffany dolls are being used as props in their own feature film, Glen notices that these two dolls on TV also have “made in Japan” so insists that they are their lost parents. So they travel to the movie studio to resurrect Mum and Dad !

This movie is insane, this is 100 percent a comedy film and it works as such, it being so ridiculous in its premise and delivery makes for a lot of funny moments. My favourite is Tiffany calling the wife of a cop she killed in the fourth movie and apologising and saying that she was seeking help after a self help book says she should make amends with the people she’s hurt, the scene where she is on the phone with Jennifer Tilly and her personal aid is also pretty funny as they both sound the same being played by the same actress.

We got double Jennifer Tilley she’s plays her self in this as well as the Tiffany doll and she is just amazing as she always is in her performances, she works so well in comedy films and parodies and even playing two characters in this she pulls off two very memorable performances.

Unfortunately I don’t have much more positive things to say about this one. I think Child Play works so much better when it’s taken less seriously but there needs to be a fine line and I think this jumped too far over it.

Everything from its premise to the kills is so over the top that this feels more like a Robot Chicken or Scary Movie segment and that’s the best way I can describe it. It doesn’t feel right more of a parody than an actual entry in the franchise, I like silly Chucky but this is just way too much !! There is a way it can be done well and it has been done much better in this very film series.

Seed of Chucky is a fun movie in its own ways but for me it just doesn’t work as well as some of the other films in the franchise, I understand that this is meant to extremely ridiculous and they took a comedy route here but even some of the other silly movies didn’t go quite this hard and I feel that’s this movies biggest issue, it steered a little bit too far from that nice balance of silliness and seriousness and that’s why Seed of Chucky is so low on this list.

Childs Play 3 – 1991

Childs Play 3 is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to these movies, this is because while it is generally a pretty underwhelming film it is still entertaining enough that it is enjoyable

The casting is really bad in this movie as well, it primarily takes place in a military academy, Andy this time played by Justin Whalin and plays the character as a young adolescence and he does an ok job but its nothing to write home about, a lot of the acting from the entire cast is either very monotone or extremely over the top.

They play the military stereotypes really hard in this movie, you have the bully character, the nerd, the pychopath, the abusive drill sergeant, the struggling newbie and the cool character. Its cliche and nothing special, Chucky is straight up silly in this movie dropping lines like “This means war” and DONT FUCK WITH THE CHUCK!

If there one thing I can say about the film its gotta be that last set they made for theme park., it is so cool inside of the Ghost train, the graveyard scene with all the zombies jumping out is quite scary even though its fake and the final battle with Chucky in the hell segment is very symbiotic of his evil and again it just generally is really cool to look at, I wish they made ghost trains like that in real life.

Child Play 3 is an entertaining movie but its just bad for a movie in this series, it lacked in creativity not only doing the whole voodoo soul stick for the third in a row but also taking place in a school full of weapons which did take a tole on the creativity of the kills. The only redeemable moment in the film was that ending ghost train scene and apart from that while it isn’t boring it just plain sucks.

Cult of Chucky – 2017

After a disappointing and forgetful prior film this movie in my opinion really took the franchise to a place where it needed to be a well balanced silly but serious movie.

Nica now in a mental institution is convinced by the system into believing that she was the person who murdered her family that is until Tiffany disguised as Jennifer Tilley delivers the Chucky Doll directly to her which starts to trigger not only awful memories for Nica but a series of creative murders as well.

The kills are not the best that we have seen in the series but they are a upgrade to the last movie, we get another glass ceiling death similar to Seed of Chucky which was definitely my favourite death in the film.

A really cool idea introduced to this film was that Chucky is now able to transfer his soul into various dolls and people allowing him to be in multiple places at once, this idea could be quite scary if it wasn’t made clear who was possessed at anytime, but because we are told who has the soul transferred into them it takes away a lot of the suspense and I hope the upcoming TV series handles this a lot better.

The original Chucky dolls head is still alive and being kept at Andy Barclays home, it is really beat up but looks pretty damn awesome, also it was great to see Kyle back even for such a small cameo

Cult of Chucky was a fun movie, it took the franchise to new levels by changing up its rules, I like that Chucky is more of a transferrable soul now than just stuck in his body, like I said it could be a scary premise if they wanted go down that route, other than that, the acting is great here and there is much more screen time for Tiffany who at this point I think I like even more than Chucky himself.

Child Play – 1988

Oh dear the one that started it all and barely making the top three !

The first Childs Play is easily the creepiest film in the series although that doesn’t mean it isn’t at all goofy

Moments like Charles Lee Ray saying a voodoo ritual to get his souls transferred into the good guy doll is pretty ridiculous and of course we have the infamous voodoo torturing scene which both stand out as pretty non intentionally hilarious.

Yeah this is a pretty voodoo heavy film !

But that’s not to say that this does not have its creepy moments, there is one scene where the mom character finally discovers that the doll is possessed and once Chucky realises the iconic line “Hi I’m Chucky wanna play” is said and its actually quite memorable for being the biggest scare of the film, well that’s my opinion anyway.

The scenes building up to this moment we only see Andy putting the doll to his ear, there are kills that could easily link to Andy having serious mental problems and being the killer and these moments are very well directed, of course once the doll actually being alive is revealed it does go a little bit off the rails with chucky saying curse words and becoming the comic relief of the film.

The only other thing to really note here is that there a good number of explosions which are not exactly realsitic considering their size, at times I had to wonder if this had been directed by Michael bay they were of such epic proportions.

The casting here is fine enough the only person who is remotely memorable bar Chucky is Catherine Hicks who played Karen Barclay I thought she gave a really believable performance, she played Andy’s mother and she fitted her role perfectly portraying a desperate woman who is dealing with her son murdering all her friends and trying to prevent him from being taken away from her.

Alex Vincent who plays Andy was only a little boy when this movie came out so I don’t want to rip into his performance too much but most people would agree that he is very annoying in this and obviously his acting is not great due to his age but that’s all I will say on the subject as I feel its unfair to really criticise him in this.

I love this movie, the first Childs play is half phycological horror and half comedy but its never too overtop compared to its many sequels, I watch this every Halloween and any other time I get the chance, its a super fun movie and one of personal favourites.

Bride of Chucky (1998)

This movie is where the series took a complete U-turn and completely rebranded its self while also sticking to the original storyline and events.

Before we begin I want to explain that this takes place 10 years after the events of Childs Play 3 and Andy is missing from this movie and never mentioned once, its very weird considering he was such a big part of the first trilogy but keeping that in mind lets get straight into it.

A new killer is shown in this movie Tiffany, a freaky cook played by one of my favourite Actresses Jennifer Tilly, Tilley’s comedic scene chewing works extremely well for her character in this.

Her reading Voodoo for Dummies gets me every time, its little moments like this that goes to show that this is not at all meant to be a full on horror movie, most of the kills and moments are goofy, its works really well as a comedy but still has some serious storytelling on offer and I think it was a great direction to take the series.

When they are both dolls I think the movie starts to get really fun because because both of these killers personalities bounce of each other very well and in a weird way they make a creepy but cute couple.

I cant discuss this movie without talking about the sex scene, Chucky get laid in this movie and it is hilarious, while this is important to set up the sequel this is probably the funniest scene in the movie, its super weird but pretty funny to know that even though they are trapped in their doll bodies the sex organs work just fine!

The kills in this movie are fantastic, early on Tiff tells chucky he needs to up his game and give up the boring stabbings, from this point on all murders are ridiculous but in a good way and it makes these movies standout from the competitors, I think my favourite was the couple being killed by the broken glass ceiling in the hotel room quickly followed by Chucky stuffing a burning t-shirt into a cars petrol tank and blowing up the ass hole cop that was inside.

What else can I really say about this one, it is such a great movie and by far its up there as a classic, I think Chucky works better when he not taken too seriously, a lot of the slasher movies from this era went goofy and didn’t work but it seems for Chucky hes better being silly than scary, in fact he was never really a scary character and when Bride of Chucky came out the new owners Universal definitely seemed to know this.

The casting is pretty good in the film Jennifer Tilly is amazing and of course Brad Dourif as Chucky is fine, the rest of the cast are good and while none of them stood out apart from the dolls I have no complaints.

stick this one on your spooky marathon list, it is great, really freaking stupid but it works so flipping well !

Child’s Play 2 (1990)

The second Childs Play is my favourite movie in the series for a lot of reasons.

The casting here is great and a massive improvement to the first movie and even know a lot of the later films had memorable performances, this was one of the only films where I think everyone did a fine job.

Andy is less annoying by this point and of course Chucky is fantastic in this, his character is just starting to get more into the goofy side than horror so his moments are memorable for being a little over the top as well as a little menacing. The death of the teacher is one of my favourites mainly because shes a massive bitch and seeing her get her comeuppance by the toy doll she confiscated is just too funny.

In the film Andys mother is in a mental health facility as no one believes her about Chucky so Andy is placed into temporary care with a Foster family.

The family are a lot of fun on screen the two parents played by Jenny Agutter and Gerrit Graham play two very different characters who bounce well off each other as the serious father figure and nurturing mother.

The Foster sister Kyle is one of better side kick characters for Andy is the series, she’s played by Christine Elise who does a grand job as the misunderstood teenager who at first doesn’t believe Andy but by the end of the film she teams up to defeat Charles Lee Ray once again!

Plenty of locations were shot for this film and they are very visually appealing, I love the Foster home with its creepy basement and old fashioned layout and of course the factory is really cool. The opening shots of the movie are of the burned chucky doll getting restored its quite creepy but at the end of the film the final battle in the factory is fantastic, the best part is when Chucky gets sent into the doll building machine backwards and we get to see him as a deformed version himself. He has a lot of great looks in this scene one, he has a knife hand, he gets his legs destroyed so has to wheel himself around and then there is the terrifying melting version before he gets his head exploded by gas pressure, it’s all really awesome and one of the better finales

Childs Play 2 is just a phenomenal film and is in my opinion not only the best in this franchise but one of the best movies ever made especially during the era of slashers, a lot of Chucky’s competitors had pretty weak second movies so its nice to see one work so well.

And that my official ranking of the Childs Play series !, Of course the TV series isnt out yet but I will add it to this list in the future as it does continue the story in this timeline.

So do you agree with my picks or would you have ranked these differently let me know in the comments below 🙂

Here is a link to last years ranking of the original 10 Friday the 13th movies

Friday the 13th Film Franchise – My Official Ranking

Happy Halloween 2021, I hope you have a Spooktacular day, have fun but also stay safe !

Next month we are back to regualr reviews before Christmas so I will see you then

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American Gothic 1988 Review

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Inspired by the famous painting by Grant Wood, this low budget horror film from the 1980’s is one of the most bizarre films I have watched in a long time.

This is a classic broken down car movie, in this case its a plane and our five young victims are stuck on a seemingly abandoned island, they begin camping for the night and the next morning they discover an old farm house which hasn’t changed since the 1900’s there is no electricity and all of the decor and furniture is old and worn, they assume the house is abandoned that is until the peculiar owners arrive.

The disturbing family that lives in this house are just as old fashioned as the house, they are all followers of god and live by his rules.

They all play a role and its quite strange, the mother and father are simple enough they follow very strict rules and swear by the lord but its the children that are the creepiest and most disturbing.

The daughter character Fanny believes herself to be 12 years old even though she is clearly a middle aged adult, she still plays with her dolls and cares for her dead baby which is literally the skeleton of a dead infant, its quite disgusting and could be upsetting for some viewers.

The two brother characters also play themselves as a much younger age, the big fella teddy is particularly dangerous and cannot control his own strength going as far as breaking someone neck without hardly touching it.

The ending of the film is quite unsettling and left me with a lot of questions, im going to discuss it now so if you dont want spoilers you may want to stop here !

The last survivor is Cythia, throughout the film we realise she is struggling from PTSD after she let her baby drown in the bath, she is clearly unwell and she becomes more and more detached from reality as her friends slowly turn up dead.

By the end of the film she has a chance to run away but chooses to go back to the house, here she is dressed up like a little child and begins acting that way aswell.

She eventually ends up killing Fanny over the baby declaring the corpse as her child and the rage of pulling its head off (yes I did warn you this is quite gross and in someways aged quite poorly) she winds up killing everyone else before returning to the baby’s room to rock its cradle.

What I was left wondering after the movie is why were these people living in the past? and are they all blood relations? The reason I ask the second question is because the one son Woody is quite old and doesn’t look too different to his “father” are these other people who have been lost on the island and brain washed? the reason why they live in the past I cant figure out apart from maybe its religious choices inspired by the Amish or something like that but I honestly have no idea.

I stumbled across this movie by complete accident and I am happy I did, its a very weird horror movie, its not scary but is disturbing and unsettling from a psychological standpoint. The dead baby is a bit much for me personally and I have to be honest I don’t really want to watch it again because of that, and its not that I’m offended but its just a bit too messed up for me to really enjoy it.

Baby cadavers aside this is an ok film, its a little slow at the beginning and apart from the family the main victims that we are meant to root for are pretty boring and not very relatable, I like the idea of the film but I feel its ambitious ideas do you leave it with more than one plothole and unanswered questions so I wouldn’t really recommend this unless you really like cheaply made, dumb horror flicks.

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Pet Sematary 1989 Review

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Spooky Season is finally here and this year I have no theme, instead I am going to be discussing various horror movies and if I get time a game or two, the first film I want to take a look at is the 1989 film Pet Sematary.

Directed by Mary Lambert and with a screenplay by the books original author Stephen King, Pet Semetary is a movie that after watching I can’t seem to keep off my mind due to its creepy nature.

The Creed family Louis, his wife Rachel and their two children Ellie and Gage are moving to Maine so that Louis can accept his new job as a Physician in the local university.

Upon arriving the dangerous main road with fast lorry drivers passing regularly is shown to be a serious issue, the one neighbour Jud, a kind old man from across the street warns the Creed family to keep an eye on the cat Church as many animals have been killed in the road causing a massive Pet Sematary to built just behind their new home.

Jud takes the family to this sematary and begins explaining to Ellie about death but Rachel reacts negatively to this due to how she witnessed her disabled sister Zelda choking to death after Rachel decided to not help her, Rachel still has PTSD for this and feels guilty for letting her sister die.

When the family cat Church is hit by a truck and dies, Jud takes Louis to bury the cat in an ancient Indian burial ground, everything that is buried here comes back to life which is proven true when Church walks back to the house although seeming a little bit grumpier.

With the burial ground being the main cause of misery in this film then you can technically call this a zombie flick and its one not to disappoint in its creepiness.

The comic relief of the film is the spirit of a young man named Victor Pascal, Louis was a jogger who was killed during his run, before he dies he warns Louis about the pet sematary and even calls him by name even though they have never met.

Throughout the film his ghost comes to Louis and his family multiple times to try and prevent the inevitable but his efforts end up being in vain.

If you thought the death of a cat would be the only major loss in this film then I am afraid that what comes next is truly bone chilling. The family toddler Gage is eventually the next victim of the busy road and after Jud’s many warnings that humans should never be buried in the Pet Sematary and even telling a horrifying tale of a young man who was brought back as a monster, Louis lets his grief get the better of him and he buries Gage hoping to see his son again.

Gage is the second antagonist of the movie after Church the cat although he is most definitely much more dangerous, he is the part of the movie that has stuck with me for so long, I think its the creepy taunts in his childlike voice and the part where he walks with the cane while giggling just gives me the shivers every time I see it ! This is probably the most memorable part of the film but I think that it is also in part that the majority of cast performances are not really that great, its not bad or anything but the main family is quite boring to watch but Brad Greenquist and Fred Gwynne who played Pascal and Jud were very good in their respective roles. Brad was a lot of fun as the comic relief and took a little bit of the edge away from this very dark tale, Fred Gwynne has a very grandfatherly nature to him in this and I very quickly recognised him from his work on the Munster’s playing Herman Munster.

Worth mentioning is the opening of the film, it perfectly sets up the film that comes after it, with the chilling child choir mixed in with the final words children said to their dead pets is actually a good message that saying goodbye should be goodbye, a lesson clearly not learned by Louis Creed who eventually sets up his own demise by not following the rules of life.

Pet Sematary is a pretty messed up movie with an extremely dark premise that I think some people will find a little bit too much at times. I would however recommend it if you enjoy movies with a creepy atmosphere or if you want to see a Stephen King movie as this is one of the better ones in my opinion.

After seeing this I do want to check out the book one day just see if it is just as eerie on paper.

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Friday the 13th Film Franchise – My Official Ranking

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Friday the 13th is one of my favourite horror franchises of all time and I have wanted to discuss the films for a while but could never decide how I wanted to go about it, the films are all quite similar in premise and each have different qualities that are better in some than others, I figure that the best way to celebrate such a great franchise is with my official ranking of the 10 main series movies from worst to best.

Of course this is only my opinion and you may rank these film differently, my opinions on these films is likely to be unexpected but I am basing this list on how much I enjoyed them rather than the overall quality.

So without further lets talk about Friday the 13th.

10. Jason goes to Hell: Final Friday

This movie was a train wreck and not only is it the worst in the entire series but it may be the worst slasher movie in any major franchise.

Jason looks really awesome in this movie and is by far my favourite version of him but unfortunately the writers decided to kill him off in the first 15 minutes, leaving his spirit possessing normal characters and committing his murders within their bodies.

This is by far the most controversial decision in the film and honestly I don’t know why they thought it was a good idea, when you watch a Friday the 13th movie you want to see Jason not some stranger you’ve never seen in the franchise before.

To be honest the casting choices in the movie are just awful and I cant think of a single performance that stuck with me, the acting was genuinely stale and uninspired.

The visual effects are very good and are some of the best in the series, like the title at end of the movie Jason does go to Hell and the demons that come and take his soul are generally really cool and scary, this scene also leads to a great final moment which revels Freddy Krueger’s knifes dragging Jason’s mask into the ground hinting at a crossover in the future.

This was a really odd way on ending the original Friday the 13th franchise, at this point the series was getting a little stale and needed a conclusive end. I couldn’t understand some of the writers creative choices in this one and I think the “lack of Jason” really ruined this one for me, Like I said the reveal of the crossover was great but now that you know about it I can honestly say avoid this one because it is really not worth your time.

9. Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood (1988)

Friday the 13th Part 7 is one of the worst in series in my opinion, it definitely delves into new territory having Jason taking on a girl with telekinetic and psychic powers but it really does not hold up as a good entry in the series.

The films lead is a girl named Tina who accidently releases Jason from his prison beneath the lake ultimately putting herself and everyone else at the camp in serious danger.

The casting was nothing special but they at least enjoyable characters, I liked that there was a good mix of likeable and unlikable councillors this time so some of the deaths felt a lot more satisfying than others since those characters were so horrid, the death of councillor Melissa felt especially good since she was the bully character with some serious Egotistical problems and a manipulative personality.

Considering the movie has an interesting premise with Jason taking on a psychic, it is extremely boring for a slasher film and doesn’t have many memorable moments, even the deaths are a bit lame, the only parts I really enjoyed were near the end when Tina was using her powers to get one up on Jason but apart from that this is one movie I will be skipping next Halloween.

8. Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Part 8 was the first movie to take place outside of the usual setting, in the movie Jason boards a boat of graduating high school students and after a few murders the final chase takes place throughout New York City.

Before arriving in New York the majority of the film takes place on the boat, with such little room to escape the deaths are plentiful and quite memorable, the movie is quite silly with some comedic deaths including one woman who is beaten with her electric guitar and boy who has his head punched off.

The part of the film in New York was my favourite, it was nice to see such a change of scenery in one of these films and the way that the city was portrayed definitely made the film still feel intense and dark, there was one one scene where a female got kidnapped and the alleyway she was taken too was so dark and comic book like that I half expected Batman to come and recue her.

There is one moment near the end of the film that I just cant seem to get out of my head, a particularly unlikeable character meets his end in quite an ironic sense after it is revealed that he almost drowned one of the other characters years prior to the events of the film.

A fairly stupid movie but nothing too crazy and it is a lot of fun, the parts in New York are way better than what takes place on the boat, and I only wish that the entire movie had a New York setting, Part 8 can be over the top at times but not as much as some other entries in the franchise, I wouldn’t say you need to watch this one but I wouldn’t say skip it either.

7. Jason X (2001)

What do you do when you run of ideas for a franchise? If you guessed send them into space you would be correct and that is exactly what happened with Jason X.

In the film a group of scientists find a cryogenically frozen Jason Voorhees in the year 2455, the move takes primarily place in a space vessel similar to film Alien which I where I think they got the concept from.

From a story perspective this is probably the weakest one and the cast while funny were not great I couldn’t even remember their names after the film, infact the only person I really enjoyed was the captain of the group but holy cow is this movie a ton of fun.

The deaths were pretty standard but one really stood out and that was the frozen face smash, the rest of the deaths were forgettable but matched with funny lines and silly dialogue, the silliness works in this better than other franchise entries because I think this was meant to be a parody compared to another film that will be mentioned in this list.

Towards the end of the movie is a very funny scene that pokes fun at the cliche nature of the franchise and is my favourite part do the film

So is this slasher in space worth your time? I’m going to say no because while it was fun it’s not that memorable and feels more like a cheesy action comedy than a horror but if you want a good laugh and a stupid movie to watch with friends then this is a good option.

6. Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)

The Final Chapter was definitely a stretch as a title bearing in mind that this was only the fourth film and in the original series there was actually ten.

For me this film was a major disappointment for such a beloved entry in the Friday the 13th franchise, the story is fine and is what is to be expected in a slasher movie, Jason escapes from the morgue and is back on a killing spree there isn’t much else to this apart from there is now a child played by Corey Feldman in danger as well as young adults.

The main cast is forgettable and none of the victims really stand out apart from a small handful, of course Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis the main protagonist is great and does a good job portraying a very intelligent but also fragile young boy who has managed to get himself wrapped up in the mess of Jason Voorhees.

At the end of the movie Jason is ultimately defeated when Tommy Jarvis recreates Jason’s childhood image and distracts the killer long enough for him to be taken down by his sister before finally being “killed” by Tommy which triggers a later rivalry between the two them.

The biggest issue I have with this film is that compared to what came before it this one really struggled to keep my attention, I found it boring, uninspired and generally forgetful, there was only one death that really stuck with me and that was Crispin Glovers character and I think that because he was only victim I actually liked.

One thing I can say this film does well is it connects the lore of previous movies with this one, the brother of Sandra Dier (Victim in Part 2) is seeking revenge on Jason after his sisters murder but unfortunately he meets the same untimely fate and is unable to beat Jason.

So as I have stated there are things I like about this movie but its just not enough for me to want go back and watch this every Halloween, honestly I think this movie is quite weak for genre of slasher movie, it doesn’t need a great plot but I don’t think I could argue that this is movie is even fun to watch and that’s why I dislike it.

5. Friday the 13th part 2 (1981)

Friday the 13th part 2 is a mixed bag in my opinion, I feel the movies first and last thirds are overall very good but it definitely falls short in comparison to the first film in the franchise.

The movie opens to Alice the lone survivor of the last film trying to cope with PTSD 2 months after her traumatising ordeal with Mrs Voorhees, in a similar manner to the first film she is placed as if she is to be the protagonist but is killed off to try and catch the audience off guard, I would argue that because of her previous work in the franchise her death was a bigger shock than how this was pulled off in the original.

The film moves onto five years later and we are introduced to our new campers who are setting up a summer camp in a new campsite and not Crystal Lake, the characters were really forgettable in my opinion, they all seemed quite cliche and none of them were really that interesting, I feel that this was done so that the film could have more focus on Jason who was the new threat but you still want to remember the people you are supposed to be rooting for.

Ultimately after the big showdown with Jason the film has two survivors, Ginny barely makes it and practically defeats Jason on her own but its a guy called Ted that has the ironic survival that I feel needs mentioning, the reason this character stands out amongst the rest is because the only reason he survives is because after too many drinks he is too drunk to drive back to the campsite leaving him staying at a motel and ultimately avoiding all of the unfortunate ends his campmates met with.

This was officially the first appearance of Jason as the main antagonist of the franchise so he didn’t quite have his signature look and before his deformed reveal near the end his face was covered with a flour sack and to be honest it comes across as very hills have eyes more than its own thing, I can at least say that the various kills are fun in this movie, the double spearing was particularly memorable as well as slitting the throat of a hanging upside down camper.

Friday the 13th: Part 2 had a lot to live up too especially when compared to the first film, but unfortunately I just don’t think is that great, it had a good start and the ending was really well done with a very intense battle between Jason and Ginny but the middle of the film is just a little boring especially with such bland characters who I found difficult to really connect with, not a bad film just quite disappointing and no where near the quality of that first film.

4 .Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives (1986)

Friday the 13th Part 6 may as well be a parody because it is so stupid that I cant believe it was actually signed off, with that in mind I will say that this is one of the most fun films in the franchise.

The movie opens with a grown up Tommy Jarvis digging up Jason’s corpse to cremate him with intentions to make sure he can never return, unfortunately thanks to a lightning strike the deceased killer is brought back to life and is now on a killing spree with his new undead and immortal form.

They redesigned Tommy’s character for this movie, in part 5 he was quiet and secluded which worked well for his character but I enjoyed his more confident side in this, Tommy has no fear of Jason and just wants to keep the killer at bay but the issue he has is no one believes him about Jasons return leaving him to mostly trying to defeat the killer himself.

The movie is well casted and is full of memorable moments, the issue I have though is that the movie is a bit too silly for my liking, this is mainly seen in the deaths, one guy gets his head bashed into a tree trunk leaving a bloody imprint of a smiley face, another death has a camp counsellor strangled to death in a RV toilet while her boyfriend thinks she’s jut being thrown around by his crazy driving, its all played for laughs but it doesn’t suit the franchise too well considering that other movies could be a little silly but Part 6 was way too comedic to feel like a Friday the 13th film and at times seemed more like a Scary Movie wannabe.

While this was not the first movie to use children as potential victims it was the first time I felt that Jason may actually be evil enough to kill a child, he comes very close in this but thankfully none of the children at the camp were harmed, children being murdered in films doesn’t often sit well with audiences so I think this was for the best.

I really enjoyed this movie from an easy entertainment standpoint but the comedic one liners and seriously over the top deaths just didn’t sit right with me for a Friday the 13th movie, I like a few cliché characters, cheesy dialogue and silly deaths in a slasher movie but this was just a bit too much.

3. Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning (1985)

Friday the 13th part 5 was never intended to exist, in fact part 4 was originally considered the end of the franchise, this left me some what concerned before watching this, however I was left pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it regardless of how ridiculous it can be.

The movie follows a now older Tommy Jarvis who is living in a halfway house full of misfits after his childhood ordeal with serial killer Jason Voorhees.

In the movie one of the misfits named joey is murdered by another household member triggering Joey’s father to become a Jason copy Cat Killer to get revenge for his sons death.

The movie does not take it self seriously as it often is very over top, this is reflected in the casting choice and the films characters, members of the halfway house are exaggerated versions of stereotypes which may be frowned upon today but I would be lying if I said they were not entertaining.

There is a secondary plot in the movie revolving around a hill billy and her very stupid son, these are way overperformed and it added a lot of laughs to an already silly film but again I think this worked in the movies favor.

The deaths in this film are more creative than what I got previously and I really appreciate that as it helped mix up the violence instead of the usual regular stabbings. Although it must be pointed out that while these deaths are silly they were written as comedic like the deaths in part 6

An unnecessary sequel but a really fun one that is full of memorable moments, great over the top kills and ridiculous but hilarious characters, if you like movies that are so stupid they are good then this is a movie for you.

2. Friday the 13th (1980)

The one that started it all, the first film in the franchise didn’t actually use Jason Voorhees as the villain and went for a more mysterious killer who left few clues for viewers to try and figure out who can be trusted.

The casting was very good here with believable characters and well written dialogue, I like that the film doesn’t take long to get to the first kill but it also doesn’t feel rushed and is overall well paced and uses a good mix of well executed cinematography and good work from director Sean . S. Cunningham which helps the film work so well with a fairly limited budget.

The film is full of memorable moments but for me the most surprising was the death of Annie, Annie was shown at the beginning of the film and viewers would expect her to be protagonist of the movie so when she became the first victim of the 1980 crystal lake murders it really caught viewers off guard and went to show that the film would not be a cliche murder flick but more of homicide mystery.

By the end of the film the mystery killer is revealed to be the mother of Jason Voorhees, Jason drowned in 1957 at Camp Crystal Lake when the councellers were not paying attention,  the killer is portrayed by Betsy Palmer  and she gives a very creepy and overall pychotic performance of a woman tormented by the loss of her son and now wants to murder all the councellers at Crystal Lake after its grand re-opening in 1980.

Overall a great film which is a lot of fun and full of memorable moments and characters, definitely a great annual tradition for a Halloween watch.

1. Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)

Friday the 13th Part 3 is where the franchise first started to stop taking itself so seriously and focused more primarily on memorable characters and great on screen deaths than it did story. I would argue that this worked in the franchises favor for many reasons.

By letting the franchise take a less serious route we were given a cast of characters who were are extremely memorable, funny and a little over the top at times, this may seem like a negative thing as these characters are not realistic and come across more as cartoons than actual people but in my opinion this just made them more likeable.

The film can be silly at times for example there is a secondary plot in the movie where two of the new campers upset a biker gang and a rivalry soon ensues, this is completely un-needed in a movie like this but it is actually one of the best parts of the film because the gang are again really over top versions of what a biker gang is ultimately making them very enjoyable to watch.

The movie doesnt take place in a campsite this time but in a log cabin which was a nice change of scenery, this movie was also much brighter in colour allowing certain elements to stand out more, I found that these previous two movies used very dark colour schemes and night skies to match the darker tone and more serious intention of those movies but since this film is more relaxed in that sense, the more cheerful lighting and colour choices works well with the high energy of the film.

Jason is first wearing the Hockey Mask in part 3 starting the trend of his signature outfit, this movie also had him more in frame and on show much more than the previous two films, again I found this much more fun, I appreciate that having him off camera is more scary but this movie only goes to show that he works much better as a slasher villain taken much less seriously, I would also argue that seeing him looking for his victims is much more creepy and menacing that what we cant see.

The movie was originally made in 3D so there is a lot obvious 3D moments in the film that don’t really look right in 2D as these moments come across as a little forced but that is honestly the only thing I don’t like about this film, I think its one of the best slasher films to watch around the Halloween season and if you have never seen a Friday the 13th film before this probably wouldn’t be bad a place to start, of course the original adds a lot to the lore and the Betsy Palmer moments are outstating but overall I would say that this is a better Friday the 13th movie.

And there you have it the 10 mains seires Friday the 13th movies ranked by yours truly, what were yoour favourite movies in the franchise?

Happy Halloween 2020, I hope this years spooky content, Im going to be taking a short break now until the Christmas Season to give myself some much needed chill out time so I will see you then.

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Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) Gameboy Review

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Castlevania: The Adventure was the third Castlevania game released chronologically and was the first title to be exclusive for a handheld system, It was developed and published by the video game developer Konami, it was released in 1989 for the Nintendo Gameboy in Japan and North America prior to a 1991 release in PAL regions.

The game is set 100 years before the events of the first Castlevania game and stars Christopher Belmont who after years of Dracula causing havoc decides he’s had enough and travels to his castle ready to slay him.

The gameplay is fairly standard with it being a very basic 2D action platformer, in traditional Castlevania style you attack with the whip which can only be used in the direction you are facing so quick reaction times are a must in order to survive, it should also be noted that Sub Weapons are not in the game, a very odd choice which really takes away from the experience.

Quick progression is very important in the game since players are given a time limit to finish each of the four stages and their boss, overall the game is very short and I didn’t find the time limits to be anywhere near running out as I completed each level, as usual there are limited lives but there is little reason to worry because continuing from a Game Over only makes you repeat the stage you died on.

The boss fights are very forgettable and its a shame because in the two previous titles the boss fights were at least interesting and had some strategy and weaknesses to sub weapons, here they all feel very much the same and die fairly quickly.

I can at least say that while its not as good as before, the music here is really fun and is impressive for Game Boy standards, I would argue that the music may be the best part of the game due to the rest of it lacking in many ways.

Castlevania: The adventure is extremely disappointing as an entry in the Castlevania series, due to its limited stages, lack of sub weapons and overall boring gameplay nothing about it stands out compared to what we have had before, even the infamous Castlevania 2 is more enjoyable as a gaming experience than what we got here, the controls are clunky and the hit detection is a little off making the whole game even more frustrating than it needs to be, it had a good soundtrack but that’s about it and unfortunately I really cannot give this a higher ranting than a 2.5/10.

I am only grateful that the next Castlevania game I am reviewing is at least another good one so please look forward to that.

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Revenge of Creature (1955) Review

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The Season of Spooks and fear is among us and even though this year due to unforeseen circumstances parties and trick or treating has been cancelled, we can still enjoy some spooky media so please join me for Halloween 2020 !

Revenge of the Creature is the sequel to the much beloved sci fi-horror classic the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Check out my review of the original here

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2017/10/23/creature-from-the-black-lagoon-1954-review/

The opening of the film really caught me off guard because it used a mixture of the previous films footage as well as new scenes briefly explaining the events of the last film and this ultimately leads up to the creature being captured and put on display in a sea park.

The majority of the film takes place in this sea park and I have mixed feelings about this because while the film is scripted well enough that the simple environment of the aquarium do work well from a story telling narrative it is difficult to not miss the amazing shots from the North Florida Wakulla Springs.

Compared to its predecessor I would argue that this film is more light hearted and sillier but I think it works more in its favour because of this, a great example of this is the scene in the laboratory, it opens to a monkey painting and then eventually the films shows us a goofy moment regarding a missing lab rat from a scientist played by Clint Eastwood, this film was actually his debut role although he isn’t credited as being in the picture.

In this movie we get see the creature on Land much more than we do in water, he’s also more brutal and more animalistic with his mannerisms and the way he kills his victims, It’s hard not feel sorry for him in this movie because all he wants is to get back to the Black Lagoon and apart from trying to take the female lead with him to the water he doesn’t do anything that doesn’t have just cause, he only really kills people when he feels threatened and doesn’t do much harm to others.

There is a great scene film in this film where the creature escapes its captivity and all of a sudden the humans that imprisoned it panic and do not know what to do, in this scene the creature is only trying to leave the sea park but everyone is so terrified of him that he has to fight through their terror to try and get back to the sea so that he can breathe.

The casting is great in this movie and all of the characters are very likable, the three main cast members give the best the performances and give the most screen time, of course the creature is yet again played by Ricou Browning for the underwater scenes and for the land segments Tom Hennesey takes over the role. The two main love interests and scientists in the film are Clete Ferguson and Helen Dobson played John Agar and Lori Nelson.

I really enjoyed this movie and I like it better than the first, the original film is great but its a little slow in places, I like this version because it has silly moments that mix well with the horror, and with creature now having more screen time and some more on land segments his character is more entertaining and overall more memorable, at least this was the case for me and from what I understand a lot of people would disagree with my opinion as the original is often regarded as a much better film, either way there is still one more movie in this trilogy and I’m going to be taking a look at it later on in October so look forward to that.

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