Psycho II

For my return after a 3-year absence from blogging, I decided to select this year's movies by dice roll. 2 24 sided dice were thrown to choose a Style of Horror-movie, and a "scare" type. This is adapted from an idea shamelessly stolen from Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9.

For today's movie, I threw a 16 for Sequel, and a 24  for Psychopath.

22 Years after his killing spree Norman Bates is released from the Asylum, a cured man. Moving back into his home at the motel, Norman takes a job at a local diner, where he befriends young waitress Mary, and offers her a place to stay following the breakup of her boyfriend.

But Norman starts getting worrying notes and phone-calls; it seems that "Mother" is back...

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Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

When most of the worlds population suddenly disappears, the few survivors are plagued by a living darkness which takes any human it touches.

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The Shining (1980)

A family move to an hotel on a mountain for the winter, so that Jack, the father, a frustrated writer, can work as caretaker while the snow cuts the hotel off from the outside world for the season.
As Jack descends into alcoholism and insanity, the hotel's decedent and sordid past is reaching out to him.

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Reviewed for Horror Movie a Week, here

Devil (2010)

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According to legend, the Devil from time-to-time takes on human form, gathering a group of people he wishes to torment, trapping them, and hiding amongst them, posing as one of them.
Stranded in a broken down elevator, 5 strangers are about to find out that some legends are true...

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I do love a claustrophobic film, and 5 people in an elevator certainly delivers on that front; combined with the idea that one of their ever decreasing number is a killer (Satan himself, no less) there's no shortage of tension, and the movie does a great job of keeping you guessing, right down to the end. As with all good whodunnits, you'll suspect each and every cast member at some point or another in the movies runtime.

Halloween (1978)

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On Halloween 1963, 6-year old Michael Myers stabbed and brutally murdered his older sister.
15 years later, Michael escapes the asylum... and he's coming home.

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First of all, sorry for the lack of reviews so far trhis year; Imma try to mack up for that now, starting with a long overdue review for Horror Movie A Week, which can be found here.

Rage (2010)

A FULLER VERSION OF THIS REVIEW IS ALSO POSTED AT A BLOG I CONTRIBUTE TO YEAR-ROUND.

Head to Horror Movie A Week to see what my friend Lisa and I think of the 52 movies we review each and every year.

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While parking his car, Dennis inadvertently cuts up a biker. It proves to be a far bigger mistake than he could have guessed.
Starting with childish baiting, and working his way up, the baker spends the day stalking and terrorising Dennis from behind his tinted visor, taking a simple disagreement way beyond road rage, and turning it into a terrifying ordeal.

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The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

A silent and unnamed man (Vinnie Jones) is killing people on quiet, late night trains in the New York subway, but with no bodies are turning up, the victims are listed only as "Missing People".
A photographer photographs a woman minutes before her disappearance, and his investigation leads him to the killer.
Unable to convince the police, he becomes obsessed with the man, and is determined to find proof.

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V/H/S/2 (aka S-VHS) (2013)

A Private investigator and his partner have been asked to check out the whereabouts of a missing student.
Breaking into his house (with the permission of his mother, the PI's client) they find an elaborate setup of multiple TVs, VCRs and a Laptop.
The PI goes to check out the rest of the house, and leaves his partner to see if she can find any clues on the laptop, or any of the collection of VHS tapes strewn around the floor.

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The Cellar Door (2007)

When Rudy goes to her friends house for a 'girls night in' they both end up passing out drunk.
She wakes up in a wooden crate, in a basement, as the prisoner of a socially awkward man, named Herman.
All Herman wants to do is keep her happy in her box, but sometimes she says mean things to Herman, or won't co-operate with him, and when she upsets Herman, she makes him do bad things...

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The movies prologue sees Herman's previous obsession escaping, and her subsequent murder. I get that they wanted to give the movie a dramatic lead-in but later, when Rudy realises she is not the first woman that Herman has 'kept', it's a big thing for her, and it's lacking some of its punch for us as we already know. Another small thing is that his previous victim was blonde, whereas Rudy is a redhead... To me, I'd have liked to have seen Herman always kidnap a similar looking woman, but again, it's a minor gripe. 

The Box (2009)

The Lewises wake one morning to find a package on their doorstep.
Inside the package is a wooden box, with a red button on top of it, shielded by a locked glass dome.
Later, a Mr Steward comes to give them the key to the dome, and explain the box's purpose.
They are to keep the box for 24 hours, after which Mr Steward will call again to collect it.
If at any point during that 24 hours, the button is pushed, 2 things will happen; Mr Steward will give them $1 million when he collects the box, and someone they do not know will die...

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9 Dead (aka Nine Dead) (2010)

After a spate of abductions in LA, all 9 of the masked kidnappers wake up in the same room, each handcuffed to a post.
The kidnapper enters the room, and tells them that they are all here for a reason; he will return every 10 minutes and ask if they know what the reason is. If they do, he will call the police, release them, and make a full confession; if they do not, he will kill one of them, and restart the clock...

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Tourist Trap

When some friends on vacation break down off the beaten, they walk to a gas station with a (now defunct) wax museum.
The museums owner quickly befriends them and agrees to help get their car running.
As if the museum's many mannequins (built by the owners brother before he moved to the city to work for a real waxworks) weren't creepy enough, it isn't long before they are one by one terrorised by a telekinetic masked madman.

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Frozen

When 3 friends bribe their way onto a ski-lift for one last run before the slope closes for the week, a simple mis-communication leads to them getting stranded hundreds of feet in the air, in sub-zero temperatures.

If you think this sounds like "Adrift" only in a ski-lift instead of in the water, you'd be right - so whether or not you enjoy this at all depends on your opinion of that film - both are hard to review (or even write about - I'm not sure these things qualify as 'reviews' in any real sense) as the only thing you can say without spoilers is "they keep trying to find ways to escape".