Spitting Out the Demons Part II – Hiding Behind the Sofa

Spitting Out the Demons Part II – Hiding Behind the Sofa

So I figured, since I’m giving you the rundown of my movie backlog and trying to work on organising my reviews a bit more, I figured I’d write this particular blog on some of the horror films I’ve recently caught. So here we go, once again, with the review.

Fright Night (2011) – For the sake of transparency, I’ve not seen the original Fright Night, or its sequel, so my expectations of this particular film were middling to low at best. You know the set-up straight off: “kid finds out his neighbour’s a vampire, tries to get a stage magician to help…” Where this film surprised me were its writing (from Buffy alumnus Marti Noxon), strong performances from Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell, and that it actually had palpable tension in places, along with the many laughs gleaned from David Tennant goofing on Russell Brand. This, folks, is how you do it.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) – This, sadly, is not how you do it. I really wanted to like this film, but at every turn it simply failed to gel. A competent cast including Rooney Mara, Thomas Dekker and Clancy Brown, a very well-cast if a little on-the-nose villain and a veteran (music video) director were hampered by shoddy scripting, shonky special effects and an utter lack of tension in any of the supposedly ‘scary’ sequences. And the editing – God, it’s like it was cut together with garden shears. An utter waste of my time and those involved.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) – And we’re back on the good foot again! To say the original is a classic, that George Romero is an artist, is almost too big an understatement. Almost. I squirmed, retched, jumped and covered my eyes more in this one film than every other horror film I’ve seen – combined. Special mention for Ken Foree as Peter (later of Kenan and Kel fame for all you tweeny boppers), David Emge as the best zombie victim ever, and make-up maestro Tom Savini’s cameo as a biker. What more is there to say, really? Romero. Zombies. Classic. Fucking. Nuff. Said.

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