Kyle Warner's Blog, page 17

31 Days of Horror: Film #16 Halloween: Resurrection

31 Days of Horror: Film #16 HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION

Halloween: Resurrection was the only film from the original series I’d not yet seen. I also haven’t seen Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2, because after watching his first Halloween I was in no mood for Round 2 of that shit.

I think there’s something comforting about knowing that certain film series are always gonna be out there, coming up with new ways to thrill you with another entry a couple years down the road. Yes, sure, sequels rarely meas...

31 Days of Horror: Film #15 Maggie

I don’t get the zombie craze but I do like that it’s given storytellers the chance to experiment with genre and try new things. Maggie is one of the most interesting films to come out of the zombie boom, a sad drama about a family dealing with the infection of a child in a world that’s given up hope.

When you see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s making a zombie movie, your natural first thought would be that he’s preparing to kick zombie ass. Indeed, some posters for the film show explosions and...

Book Review: ARMADA by Ernest Cline

Hello. My name is Kyle and I’m the guy that hasn’t read Ready Player One yet. Ernest Cline’s latest book Armada happened across my desk and I said to the voice inside my head, “Well, why not?” To which the voice replied, “So many reasons!” But what does he know? So I went ahead and skipped Ready Player One and read Armada first.

This is some geeky sci-fi reading, my friends. Like, do geeks of this level exist in the real world or do they only exist within the mind of Ernest Cline and the crow...

31 Days of Horror: Film #14 Insidious Chapter 3

31 Days of Horror: Film #14 INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 3

When James Wan makes a movie, I buy a ticket. I like the guy. He has a good sense of pace, he’s inventive with his use of the camera, and he consistently makes some of the best horror movies of modern cinema. Though his best ghost story was The Conjuring, I thought that Insidious was a smart supernatural horror film with shades of Stephen King all done up in an original package. In Insidious, Wan and longtime collaborator Leigh Whannell (Sa...

31 Days of Horror: Film #13 Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

31 Days of Horror: Film #13 FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES

Today’s the 13th. It’s not a Friday, but still I figured if I was going to fit a Friday the 13th film into my 31 Days of Horror, today was as good a day as any.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is my favorite film from the slasher series. I’m not in touch with the Jason Voorhees fandom to know whether or not Jason Lives is an unpopular choice or not (for the record: Jason Goes to Hell, the 2009 remake, and the Carrie rip...

31 Days of Horror: Film #12 Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

31 Days of Horror: Film #12 HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER

Yeesh.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has the reputation of being one of the most disturbing American horror films ever made. It’s a film that’s always been on my radar, but I didn’t really want to watch it. I remember seeing one edited scene from the film many years ago in a televised program on the most shocking horror films ever (the sort of thing that would now be summed up in an online article). That one scene was eno...

31 Days of Horror: Film #11 The House of the Devil

31 Days of Horror: Film #11 THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL

Gonna keep today's log short because it's been a long day and I'm tired.

The House of the Devil is an old-school, slow-burn horror story that works on your paranoia. A babysitter accepts a job in a remote house and slowly begins to suspect that something’s wrong. It takes a long time for things to get dark and scary, but those who wait it out will be rewarded with a crazy finale. I liked The House of the Devil more than director Ti West’s...

31 Days of Horror: Film #10 Harbinger Down

31 Days of Horror: Film #10 HARBINGER DOWN

I was really hoping to like this one. Harbinger Down was created with the mission of showcasing practical, old-school special effects. The movie was made by experts of the craft, with director Alec Gillis having previous experience working on films like Aliens, Tremors, and Wolf. The special effects team behind Harbinger Down was hired to handle the monster effects of 2011’s The Thing prequel, but almost all of their work was replaced by CGI ef...

31 Days of Horror: Film #9 Ragnarok

Film #9 RAGNAROK

A disgraced archaeologist seeks to redeem himself by proving his theories about the Vikings and Ragnarok myths are true. This takes him on an adventure into the unknown where his team discovers a creature that might’ve killed the last great Viking King and be responsible for much of the mythology and symbolism of the Viking age.

That sounds cool but it isn’t. Really, this is my kind of movie – an adventure with a dash of monster mayhem – but Ragnarok is so unforgivably du...

31 Days of Horror: Film #8 Creep

31 Days of Horror: Film #8 CREEP

A cameraman named Aaron accepts a job on Craigslist (always a bad idea!) to film loner Josef for eight hours. Josef says he’s sick and is uncertain of whether he’s going to live to see his child born. He wants Aaron to record a day’s worth of life lessons and insights for his unborn child. Josef’s an odd one. Sad and too open with his thoughts and memories (especially with a man he just met), inspiring both pity and discomfort in Aaron and the viewers. Di...