"The Shrine"

From writer/director Jon Knautz comes "The Shrine." Knautz is also the writer director of "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer" which I haven't seen and honestly...I don't really care to see. Anyway, I'd say Knautz did a fine job with "The Shrine."

Even though the beginning mirrors a lot of other horror movies, kids going to a strange country where they don't know the language or their way around, there's a shockingly unique storyline once things pick up.

Throughout a good 3/4 of the movie I (and those watching the movie with me) assumed that the locals were the "bad guys" so-to-speak, trying to make the three Americans leave their town and threatening them with knives and what not.

Eventually they say they'll leave, which of course there's that one girl in the group that doesn't know what's good for her, and forces the rest of the group to stay, and they're just kind of wandering around the woods when they see this:

It's like a gargoyle-statue thing but it's eyes are inverted and deep, deep red, almost black. Anyway, they stumble upon this in a deep fog that surrounds the whole middle of the woods. The two girls in the group make some serious eye contact with the gargoyle and that's when "The Shrine" proves to be a decent horror film. I really don't want to give it away because you should definitely check this one out. Like I said, the beginning's a bit less impressive then I'd like, but give it a chance.

Since I'm really trying to convine anyone who's reading this to see the movie, here's some more information on the plot, actors, and whatever else.

"Megan Is Missing"

Trailer!

The above trailer basically tells the complete storyline of the movie, but even if you know the overall plot, I'd still recommend this one.

The acting in the beginning was so bad it was humorous, but I quickly got past that, because it's just how old people think young girls actually act, while it's barely half-true, I can deal with it.

Basically, the movie shows these two best friends in the early teenage years experiencing relationships, parties, family issues, and other things that are introduced to us coming into adulthood. Eventually one of the girls meets a "cute guy" online and they talk for sometime before deciding to meet up. They do, and that's the day she goes missing.
The other friend knows that her friend, now missing, had had plans with the "cute guy" from online right before nobody had heard from her again, so she tells the police. After that, said "cute guy" gets in contact with the non-missing friend, bullying her and threatening her so she will stop drawing attention to her missing friend's situation.
Eventually, the second friend is abducted by this man, who we find out was never a "cute guy" but a sadistic internet predator, and the movie plays out in that both girls are brutally raped and murdered on one of the girls' video cameras.

If you go here and click "ENTER" and then "MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR" there's a written statement by the director of "Megan Is Missing" about his intentions on creating this film, which only took like eight days to make, surprisingly enough. It's basically a mash-up of several cases of child abduction by use of the internet all in one eye-opening movie. The end of the movie, like I previously stated, is pretty sick and graphic, especially when you know that no instance of the film was made up, it all came from real cases; it's hard to take.

"The Ward"

Even though I was a little surprised by the plot twist in "The Ward," directed by John Carpenter, the movie in general left me with an unimpressed feeling.

I understand the "Multiple Personalities Disorder" spin in the end of the movie...but it doesn't add up.

Alice Hudson has all these other personalities, which is a fine idea, but it doesn't explain why they are the way they are, and that's stuff I was interested in.

Her psyche created these other characters, i.e. Kristen, Emily, Sarah, Zoey and Iris, but how did they develop the traits they did? The psychiatrist just told Alice that she was really Alice Hudson and all of the other characters she thought she knew, were really all in her mind, and there was no more elaboration.

Right when I realized that there was a "ghost/zombie" character in the movie...I was a bit more intrigued. Immediately after seeing the Grade-C-botch-job-excuse-of-a-zombie, my intrigue faded.

The only thing that could have saved this film was some badass graphics, or disgustingly cool make-up. Not surprisingly though, neither of those things were present throughout "The Ward" and all the viewer is left with is a curiousness about "Multiple Personalities Disorder" and a hankerin' for some good ole-fashioned gore.

Here's a link for the trailer, though I'm not sure it's worth the one minute, forthy-three seconds of your life.

"The Woman" Possible Spoiler!

Recently, I watched "The Woman", released in 2011 and directed by Lucky Mckee. Now, usually, I feel as though I can get the feel of a movie pretty easily. You know, where it's headed sorta. But this movie pretty much shot down every guess I had in regards to the twists and turns of the storyline.

Basically, it focuses on the capturing of this feral woman, who turns out to be from a family of cannibals, by this well-to-do Southern family man, Chris Cleek. He takes her down to an underground shed area and hooks her up so she's in this sort of "Vitruvian Man" position. Throughout the film, Mr. Cleek cleans her up, with the help of his timid, fearful family.

It's the end that reeeeeeeaaally got me though. The father, Chris Cleek, turns out to be abusive and the family becomes fed up. The teenage daughter releases the Woman from her restraints and it's on from there. The woman jumps on the mother and rips her face off...with her mouth. All the while, the teenage daughter watches it all.

I'd have to say that thee most awesomely awesome moment of pure awesomeness of the whole film is when the Woman goes straight up to Mr. Cleek and goes straight through his chest with her hand to pull out his heart, look in his dying eyes, and take a bite out of his beating heart like we would an apple.

Of course, there are a few holes in the overall plot of the movie, but the sheer disturbing, disgustingness of it makes up for it. Well, to me, at least.

I hope I didn't give away too much of the movie if you haven't had the chance to see it yet. I'd recommend it to any horror movie finatic such as myself.


Watch the trailer here!