Grave Encounters 2: A Review and Synopsis

     Good evening readers, it's nice to post again and have communication with you. This week I watched and reviewed the second installment to the grave encounters series, aptly named Grave Encounters 2.  Although it was basically the same as the first one, just with minor differences of course, I still enjoyed this film along with most other horror films I watch. And no, I do not think that every horror movie is good. If you wish to read about a bad movie I reviewed, click here.

Summary:

      An ambitious film student seeks out a way to get his name out into the world of horror movies by trying to prove that the movie Grave Encounters is real.

Synopsis:

      Film student Alex Wright and his friends want to produce a film about the original Grave Encounters movie. Alex believes that the first film was real. He posts an online plea for any information about the film and receives a message from someone named "DeathAwaits". The message leads Alex to the mother of Sean Rogerson, the actor who played Lance in Grave Encounters. She believes that Sean is still alive but they discover that she has severe dementia.

Alex finds out that the cast from the first movie are all missing or have died. He gets a mysterious message leading him to meet the producer of the original film. The producer confesses that the film was actual found footage. 

"DeathAwaits" Contacts the Crew Through the Spirit Board.

     Discovering that the 'Collingwood mental hospital' from the film is actually an abandoned asylum in Canada (The name of which is censored throughout the film), Alex and his friends travel to the hospital to meet DeathAwaits666, where they discover a Ouija board. Using it to communicate with the spirits, they realize that their online contact is not a person, but a paranormal entity.

      The spirit turns violent and the group flees. A panicked Alex finally agrees to leave but not until they gather all the cameras. They split up to finish quicker. Jared is killed by the entity. After reviewing the footage of his death, the group frantically tries to find a way out. However, as in the original film, they are met with walls where the exits should be. Later, Tessa is separated from the group and killed. The surviving students discover the security guard from the grounds strapped to a gurney, hooked up to an electroshock machine, used to give patients seizures. He is electrocuted. 

Jared's Death

      While fleeing from one of the malevolent spirits, they escape the hospital and return to their hotel room. However, when they use the elevator to get to the hotel lobby, it instead opens onto the tunnels beneath the hospital and they are once again trapped.

       They meet up with the actor Sean Rogerson, and discover that he has been trapped in the hospital for over nine years, subsiding on rats and water from the hospital toilets. Rogerson has been lobotomised and driven insane, but he shows them that the building's layout is far bigger than a city, and that he has made a map. He claims to be able to communicate with the building's entities due to the lobotomy performed on him by Dr. Friedkin, and states that the reason the hospital is like this is due to experiments and rituals by Dr. Friedkin. Sean shows them a free standing red door in one of the rooms and tells them it is the only way out, but it is wrapped in chains.

Tessa's Death

       While they sleep for the night, something picks up a camera and films them. Sean kills Trevor, claiming the entities made him do it. Alex and Jennifer discover Sean and their equipment have disappeared. Sean cuts the chains on the red door with the team's tools and enters, only to realize the door leads nowhere. Frenzied, he begins talking to the entities, who instruct Sean to "finish the film" so it will draw more curious thrill-seekers to the hospital. But only a single survivor will be allowed to leave.

       Alex and Jennifer see Dr. Friedkin's satanic altar and hide as the doctor performs a lobotomy. The nurses then present an infant to Dr. Friedkin, who sacrifices it. The couple flees and Sean demands they hand over their tapes. Alex refuses and Sean tries to kill him. During the struggle, a void opens up on the wall and sucks Sean in. Alex realizes that Sean was being honest in how to escape so he smashes Jennifer's face in with the camera. He then turns the camera on himself, promising that he will finish the film.

Alex Kills Jennifer

       He exits the hospital through the red door which leads him to a field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and he is soon arrested. The last scene shows that the footage has been made into a film, with Alex and producer Jerry Hartfield claiming that everything the public sees has been staged and that it is 'just a movie'.

Review:

     Unlike the first movie, I did not approve of who they cast as whom with the actors. I thought that the characters were poorly written, and that the movie was just a knock-off version of the first one. Though the effects were nice and I did get the occasional jump scare and heebie-jeebies, the first one was much better. I liked the way that the hospital interacted with the characters in the first film, one of my favorite parts was when one of the ghosts carved hello onto one of the actors' backs. This is earth though, and we can't always get what we want. All in all I will rate this 3 out of 5 stars just because it was just a desperate continuation of the first film.  

Cited Sources:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTM2NTIzMDQ0NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQ3NTM0OA@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg 

http://38.media.tumblr.com/a4221319cc6365178db1b70bb0c30d65/tumblr_n9ktqrmK561sxfqdyo1_1280.gif 

https://38.media.tumblr.com/1ede051ade25eec7c69b14663bed54d3/tumblr_mwq0ofZVMF1sf7wtno1_500.gif

https://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbn9j7lxIe1qhghqbo1_500.gif

The Crow: A review and Synopsis

      Welcome back dear readers! I hope that the Autumn months have brought you a nice transition into the imposing winter months. This week we are looking over the first ever thriller movie that I watched. It is The Crow, starring old time movie star, Brandon Lee.
Summary:
       After a murder of two lovers on their wedding night taking place on Devil's Night, one of the victims is brought back from the dead to seek revenge on the ones that raped and murdered his to be wife.
Synopsis:
       "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right." 
      October 30, Devil's Night, in Detroit. Sergeant Albrecht is at the scene of a crime where Shelly Webster  has been beaten and raped and her fiancé, local musician and guitarist Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), has been murdered, having been stabbed, shot, and thrown out of their apartment window to the streets below. The couple had been planning their wedding for the next day; Halloween. A cop comments darkly, "Who gets married on Halloween?" Albrecht responds, "Nobody."
      As he prepares to leave for the hospital with Shelly, Albrecht meets a young girl with a skateboard named Sarah who says she is a friend of Eric and Shelly and that they took care of her. Albrecht tells her that Shelly probably won't survive.

The Scene of the Brutal Murder

      One year later, a crow flies over the dark and rainy landscape of Detroit and lands on the headstone of Eric Draven. It taps at the stone with its beak, awakening Eric from the grave. He climbs out of the ground, trembling and wracked with convulsions. With some confusion, he stands and walks with the crow to his abandoned apartment, finding it in shambles. Memories of the night of his death come back to him as the gang responsible runs through the city, setting fire to it. The faces of the attackers stick in his mind and, bent on vengeance, he changes his clothes and paints his face white in parody of a porcelain harlequin mask he had given Shelly as a gift. He then draws black liner around his eyes and down his cheeks like tears and paints his lips black with glasgow lines reaching out from the corners. Guided by the crow and sharing the crow's high perspective on the city, Eric sets out to avenge his murder and Shelly's death.
      The first person he locates is Tin Tin, a thug obsessed with knives. Eric engages in one on one combat, discovering in the process that he is immune to harm. He wins the fight by catching a knife and pinning Tin Tin to the wall with it. Eric confronts him about the murders the previous year and Tin Tin laughs in his face, mocking Shelly. Eric finishes him off by stabbing him in each vital organ (in alphabetical order) with his own knives and takes his trench coat, leaving a crow-shaped bloodstain on the wall of the alley. Using Tin Tin's memories, he goes to the pawn shop where Tin Tin sold Shelly's engagement ring. Eric forces the owner, Gideon, to show him where the ring is located and finds it mixed in a box with dozens of other rings. He lets Gideon live so that he can deliver a message of death to the rest of the gang before he breaks a gas pipe, loads a shotgun with other rings of destroyed lives, and ignites the shop in a massive explosion.

Eric Takes on Tin Tin

      Eric locates the next thug on his list, Funboy], getting high in an apartment with Sarah's drug-addicted mother, Darla. Funboy shoots Eric in his hand and Eric mocks him by pretending to scream in pain before showing the hole in his palm heal before his eyes. Frightened, Funboy is easily disarmed by Eric and is shot in the thigh before being injected with an overdose of morphine. Eric then confronts Darla but merely says that morphine is bad for her, taking the drug out of her arm seemingly by magic, and tells her that she should return to her daughter who is waiting for her on the streets.
      Albrecht, meanwhile, has been following the deaths of the thugs around town. He doesn't share the rest of the department's view on the killings, thinking of them as more of a blessing than a curse. He even goes so far as to rescue Eric as he flees from choppers after his latest killing, though Eric is quick to disappear afterwards. Upon meeting again later on, Eric explains what he's doing and offers his best reason as to why he's come back. Albrecht tells him what he knows of Shelly's death and reveals that he stayed with her as she suffered through thirty hours of agony before dying. Eric touches Albrecht and receives from him all the pain felt by Shelly during that time.

Eric and Albrecht

      Gideon goes to Top Dollar, the leader of all gangs in Detroit, and warns him about Eric. Top Dollar responds by stabbing Gideon through the throat with a sword, sinking it to the hilt, as his lover/half sister/soothsayer, Myca , looks on with glee. the crow visits sarah.
      Two other members of the gang, T-Bird and Skank , stop at a convenience store for supplies. Eric sneaks into the car and kidnaps T-Bird while Skank is in the store. Skank runs into the street, gets hit by a car & steals it to follow the pair; he watches as Eric ties T-Bird to the driver's seat of a car with explosives strapped to him & lets the car drive off the pier where it explodes midair and sinks into the harbor. When the police arrive, they discover a fiery symbol in the shape of a crow at the scene.
      Meanwhile, Darla tries to reconcile with Sarah by making her breakfast; though Sarah is skeptical at first of her mother's sudden change of heart, she accepts the effort and hugs her. Albrecht's "superior" reams him out just because he can & tells him he's suspended for misconduct.
      Sarah goes to Eric's apartment and speaks out to the shadows, feeling that he must be nearby. She tells him that she misses him and Shelly but, when no one responds, goes to leave and says that she figured he wouldn't care anymore. Eric speaks to her, appearing in the window, and tells her that, although they cannot be friends anymore, he still cares about her.
      Skank retreats to the gang hideout, rambling wildly about Eric; Sarah & Albrecht bond over their mutual experiences w/ Eric & discuss how he came back.
      At the gang hideout, Top Dollar, hardly concerned for T-Bird's fate, is discussing plans for criminal activity on Devil's Night with other associates. Eric crashes the meeting looking for Skank, and proceeds to make fun of everyone in the room. A massive gunfight ensues, while Top Dollar escapes with Myca and his lieutenant, Grange. Eric easily kills everyone in the room by gun, fists & swords, saving Skank for last, throwing him out the window. The police arrive to find Eric the last man standing; he escapes w/ Albrecht's help.
      Top Dollar, Grange, and Myca discuss Eric and his unique abilities. Myca reveals that Eric is invulnerable to harm, but only if his link to the real world, the crow, remains untouched. Realizing that if they kill the crow, they kill Eric, the three of them hatch a plan.

Myca

      Having killed the last of the four who had murdered him and Shelly, Eric returns to the cemetary and visits Shelly's grave. Sarah meets him there to say goodbye and he gives her Shelly's engagement ring as a necklace. Sarah leaves the cemetary only to be abducted by Grange and taken to a local church where Top Dollar and Myca are hiding out. Through the crow, Eric sees that Sarah is in danger and goes to rescue her. The crow flies inside ahead of him but is sniped by Grange. Eric, not realizing what wounding the crow has done for his own immunity, accosts Top Dollar, saying he'll let him leave if he gives Sarah to Eric. Top Dollar shoots Eric, now no longer invincible, then smacks him around some; Sarah is taken to the upper levels of the church. Albrecht, having gone to the church to pay his respects, realizes what's happening & comes in shooting. He finds Eric on the floor and helps him towards the spiral staircase in the back. The wounded crow is picked up by Myca, who hopes to harness its mystical powers. Albrecht manages to shoot and kill Grange, but not before being wounded. He stays below as Eric ascends the stairs. Myca meets him halfway up, holding the crow at knifepoint, but the crow lunges up and pecks her eyes out, causing her to fall from the stairs to her death.
      Eric makes it to the roof where Top Dollar is holding Sarah. He pushes her off the roof though she manages to hold onto some scaffolding as Top Dollar and Eric fight. Distracted for a moment by Sarah's cries for help, Eric is stabbed through the back by Top Dollar who admits to having everything to do with Eric and Shelly's deaths, claiming that nothing goes on in their town without his say-so. He tell Eric that he's enjoyed their sparring & that he'll miss him, but before he can kill him, Eric grabs him and bestows his gratitude for Top Dollar's crimes: all of the thirty hours of pain Shelly had to endure at once. In agonizing pain, Top Dollar falls off the roof and is impaled on a gargoyle.

Top Dollar's Death

      Eric rescues Sarah and brings her to Albrecht who is soon taken to an ambulance. Eric then disappears from sight and crawls to Shelly's grave before passing out. Her spirit comes to him, sans face paint, and they are finally reunited.
      Later, Sarah visits Eric's grave, which has closed up once again. The crow stands on his headstone, holding Shelly's ring that Sarah lost during her abduction. The crow drops it in Sarah's hand. As it flies off into the night, Sarah narrates that, though buildings burn and people die, real love is forever.

Eric at Shelly's Gravestone

Review:
      Yes, again, this was the first thriller that I ever watched and it will always be my favorite. The whole idea of revenge for a wrongful deed through the use of undead methods is probably one of the best things ever. I was captivated by the mysterious Eric Draven and I grew to love him as more was explained throughout the film. Of course the effects were super cheesy, but they were good in 1994, the year that the movie was made. LOVE, LOVE, LOVED THIS MOVIE! It's a must see in my opinion. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars. <3

Cited Sources:
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/the-crow1994/large_6qXNSP30QeX4HUUpxSaq7GEH5OB.jpg
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/063/a/e/eric_and_tin_tin_by_edge4923-d78yjrw.jpg
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o165/cinquevolte/The%20Crow%20PD/stills_602216_2.jpg

Carrie: A Review and Synopsis

      Hi guys! This week I watched the movie adaption of Stephen King's Carrie.
Summary:
       After receiving her first period, a young girl begins to develop psychic powers that make life a little more than it used to be.
Synopsis:
      The film starts with the birth of our main character, Carrie; which depicts her mother lying on a bed writhing in pain. She gives birth to Carrie and contemplates taking the life of the baby in her arms, but decides against it. This beginning scene tells us that her mother is a woman of dangerous and impulsive actions. This plays a greater role later on in the movie.
      Next we see Carrie in a school pool, readying to enter the water. She watches the other girls around her, seeming to be maybe jealous of them, or just really lonely. Along with the other girls, Carrie makes her way into the pool where a game of water polo begins. The game starts out nice and easy, Carrie standing in the back corner of the pool aside, everything seems to be going fine. Eventually the ball is pummeled into the water in front of our protagonist and she is forced to enter the game. Attempting a serve, Carrie accidentally hits one of her classmates in the head (I think it was Chris, a snobby girl who is the daughter of a lawyer). This leads to the beginning of the tragic downfall that ends in a murder.
      Then we find ourselves at the beginning of the action, the scene that basically sets the show on the road for the rest of the film. While Carrie taking a shower, she finds blood on her soap (from her first period) and has no idea what it is. She begins screaming and yelling for help, thinking that she is dying. Carrie then approaches her classmates in a panicked manor and they begin to laugh once they realize that Carrie is just on her period. The other girls then proceed to throw tampons and pads at Carrie, yelling at her to "plug it up". The gym teacher hears the commotion and enters the locker room where she finds Carrie cowering on the floor and other girls throwing things at her. The gym teacher stops the other girls and tells Carrie that everything will be okay, and seemed a bit surprised that Carrie didn't know what her period was and that was what was going on.

Carrie on the Bathroom Floor

       Humiliated, Carrie goes to the principal's office with her gym teacher to tell him what exactly happened. In the end, Carrie's mother is called to pick her up. As Carrie leaves with her mother, Chris shows her friends, including the guilty Sue Snell, a video she took of Carrie's humiliation in the bathroom. The car ride back to Carrie's house is dead silent, even though Carrie asked her mother why she didn't tell her about periods.
      Upon arriving at the house, Carrie asks her mother again why she wasn't informed of the periods. Her mother, Margaret, asks Carrie to come inside. Carrie refuses and her mother goes inside. Our "heroine" is confronted by one of the neighbor kids who calls her "Crazy Carrie". Carrie reacts by making him fall off his bike, much to her surprise.  She eventually goes inside and sees her mother banging her head against the wall, asking "God" for "forgiveness". Carrie tells her mother that she didn't do anything, to which her mother retorts by telling Carrie to go into her prayer closet (a crawlspace under the house stairs that has pictures of Jesus and other Christian memorabilia). The teen refuses so she is thrown to the floor by Margaret and is dragged into the closet. Carrie begins to bang on the door, she becomes so emotional that she triggers a crack to occur in the middle of the wooden door.

The Prayer Closet

      Multiple hours later, Margaret opens the door to the closet and carries her sleeping daughter up to bed. Meanwhile, Sue and her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, are doing the dirty in a Jeep. They get dressed and Sue confesses to Tommy about what happened in the locker room and how she felt bad for doing it. Tommy tries to relate by telling Sue that he once punched another boy who was bullying him when he was little, saying that the bully had it coming. Then, Tommy asks Sue what Carrie White ever did to her, to which Sue answers, "nothing". All while this is happening, Chris, her friend, and her boyfriend arrive at Chris' house (drunk), and they decide to hang out. During this, Chris tells her boyfriend, Billy, about Carrie White and what happened. On a whim, Chris decides to upload the video of Carrie to YouTube as to humiliate her even further.
      The next day, Ms. Desjardin lays down the law with Chris, Sue, and all the other girls that participated in Carries shaming. Ms. Desjardin asks about Chris and Sues dates for the prom and tells Sue she wouldve voted her Prom Queen but not anymore. Ms. Desjardin tells them it was a "very crappy" thing they did to Carrie and they are going to pay for it. They will be doing suicide sprints after school for a week. Anyone who refuses the punishment is suspended and cannot go to prom. "While you run, I want you to think long and hard about what it has to be like for Carrie White," Ms. Desjardin says. After a while, Chris calls "bull crap" on the whole punishment, saying Ms. Desjardin can't do it. Sue tries to tell her to take the punishment and let it go but she wont. Chris refuses, so Ms. Desjardin suspends her and revokes her prom privileges. Ms. Desjardin mentions that apparently someone took a video of the incident, looking at Chris as she is pretty sure that she did it. Chris says Ms. Desjardin cant take away prom from her and tries to rally the other girls to go with her. One by one, they refuse, including Sue, the only one who shows any true remorse. They continue to run while Chris screams: "This is not over!"

Chris (Pictured) Argues with Ms. Desjardin

      At school the next day, Carrie hides in the bathroom. She looks at her face in the mirror and concentrates, making the mirror shatter into pieces. Carrie concentrates even further and makes the mirror shards levitate until another girl walks into the bathroom. Carrie leaves abruptly.
      Chris gets a meeting with Ms. Desjardin and The Principal with her arrogant lawyer father to try and overturn her suspension and revoked prom privileges. Chris tries to play the victim, but Ms. Desjardin plays better hardball than her, saying there was a video uploaded and if Chris just proves it isn't on her phone, then she can have her prom after all. Her father tells her to give up the phone, but Chris refuses to and storms out, thus indirectly admitting her complicity and making sure her suspension and punishment stay active. Sue and the prom committee work on turning the gymnasium into the prom. Chris storms in and asks why the girls didn't back her up. She then asks why Sue didn't. Sue says because she deserved the punishment, they all did. Ms. Desjardin was right; they did a shitty thing to Carrie. Chris balks and says Carrie deserved it. "What has Carrie White ever done to you?" Sue asks her soon to be former friend. Chris tells Sue that she is not being high and mighty because she feels bad; its because she wants to go to prom with Tommy then do the dirty with him in the hotel she already booked. "You don't give a crap about Carrie White," Chris sneers, leaving.
      The next day, Sue watches Tommy play Lacrosse. Sue comes up to Tommy and asks for a favor; she wants him to take Carrie to the prom. Tommy is shocked, saying he wants to take her, but Sue wants to do something. "I'm trying to fix what I did," she says. Tommy tries to convince her, but Sue says she cant go and begs him to help her make things right. Tommy finds Carrie at lunch and shocks her by talking to her. Tommy asks her about prom and if she would like to go with him. Carrie runs off without responding. Tommy tracks her down and asks again, but Carrie thinks it is a joke. "Stop trying to trick me," Carrie says. "I'm not," Tommy replies. Carrie doesn't believe him however, and runs off.
      Carrie cries in the locker room when Ms. Desjardin finds her. Ms. Desjardin thinks the girls did something again but Carrie says she got invited to prom. Ms. Desjardin says that's a happy thing and asks who asked her. Carrie says Tommy Ross. Ms. Desjardin, realizing something is up, stays neutral saying he is a cute boy. Carrie says she knows he dates Sue Snell and thinks this a big joke to him. "They're going to trick me again," Carrie says. Ms. Desjardin says maybe not. Carrie ponders why Tommy would want to go with her. Ms. Desjardin directs Carrie to the mirror telling her she sees a beautiful girl and with the right dress and the tiniest dash of makeup she can stun everyone speechless. Ms. Desjardin confronts Sue and Tommy thinking they are planning something. "If the two of you are planning some kind of joke on a poor, lonely girl..." Ms. Desjardin warns them. However, Sue says she is trying to do a good thing for Carrie; allow her one good night and a chance to be social. Tommy says it doesn't matter since Carrie said no, but Sue tells him to try again. Ms. Desjardin tries to appeal to Tommy saying he will look weird with Carrie on his arm, but Sue says this is a private matter and they don't care how they look doing it.

Ms. Desjardin Comfort and Reassures Carrie

      That evening, Carrie walks home seeing her mom waiting for her in the front yard. Margaret is livid since she didn't know where she was. Carrie says she went into town to buy fabric to make herself a gown. Margaret says she is not allowed to go anywhere but school and home. Carrie then tells her the news; shes been asked to prom. Carrie tells her that she knows she is scared and she is too. However, the kids laugh at her and think she is weird. She doesn't want to be weird; she wants to be normal and thinks prom may be her final chance. "I have to try and be a whole person before it is too late," Carrie says. Margaret is livid and tells her to go to her closet and repent before it is too late. Carrie asks why she cant be happy for her. But the insane Margaret refuses to listen and orders Carrie to go to her closet. Carrie then has an episode and makes everything in the living room jump up. Margaret falls to the floor in shock and starts to pray. Carrie tells her mom to get up and when she doesn't, she raises her with her powers. Margaret calls Carrie a devil, but Carrie says she has powers and others have them too. Carrie states that her grandmother may have had them and it's possible that they skipped a generation to Carrie. Carrie places her mother down and her mother says she thought she was a cancer when she was born. Carrie tells her that is a horrible thing to say and levitates her again. She tells her she is going to prom, she will not stop her, and they are not talking about it anymore. Carrie then releases her.
      Margaret tells her she looks like a deviant. Carrie, having enough of her mother's overly religious quotes, asks that for once that her mom could be happy for her. Margaret says they are going to laugh at her, but Carrie says to stop it. Tommy is a nice boy and everything is going to be fine. As Tommy shows up, Margaret tells her daughter that she was conceived by what was basically marital rape and how she tried to kill her as a baby. Carrie, finally losing all her patience, force chokes her mom. There will be a judgment Carrie, Margaret says. Carrie opens the closet and looks her mother in with powers, saying she will be back at 10:30 pm as promised. She then melts the door lock so her mother cant get out. Carrie goes out to meet Tommy. "Do I look okay?" Carrie asks. "You look beautiful," Tommy says, meaning it. They drive to prom in a limo. Carrie requests a moment, thinking about the other students. Tommy tells her despite what she thinks they aren't all bad. Calming her down, they go in, where she is introduced to Tommy's best friend and his girlfriend, who goes to another school. The other girl compliments Carrie on her dress, and is pleasantly surprised to find out that Carrie made it herself.

Carrie puts on Makeup

       A slow song comes on and Tommy convinces Carrie to dance with him. He teaches her how to slow dance and quickly learns. Carrie puts her head on his shoulder then backs away. Something crosses Tommy's face when that happens; while he is still obviously loyal to Sue, he is starting to grow some feelings for Carrie due to her being such a sweet person. Carrie, still unsure about his intentions asks why he asked her to prom. Tommy says that he wanted to, and is having a good time with her and hopes she is feeling the same way. Carrie nods yes. Tommy then says they will enjoy their time here then they can go to an after party and he will have back home on time. Carrie smiles, agrees, and notes that she can maybe stay out till 11.Thanks to a friend, Billy and Chris break into and sit in the rafters waiting to dump pigs blood they stole onto Carrie. They hand off ballots to their friend to make sure that Carrie gets elected prom queen and will make her way up to the marked dumping spot. The voting for Prom King and Queen begin. Carrie questions voting for herself but Tommy tells her it isn't much to it, and she should have one chance to be in the spotlight. Carrie notes that the crowns are beautiful. "Devil with false modesty," Tommy says. Carrie is convinced so they vote for themselves. Meanwhile, Chris friends switch out the ballots to rig them in Tommy and Carries favor.
      Sue looks around and sees Chris in the rafters. Chris sees Sue see her. She hesitates momentarily, but Billy goads her on to pull the rope. Ms. Desjardin sees Sue and misconstrues her reasons for being there and throws her out of the building without hearing her warning. Chris pulls the rope and the pig blood cascades down and drowns Carrie in it. Complete and utter silence follows. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Tommy yells at everyone, having and wanting no part in this unbelievable act of cruelty. Chris then hacks the video monitors and plays Carries period video. Most cant help but laugh but Ms. Desjardin among with a few others, are in complete shock. Ms. Desjardin goes to Carrie but Carrie pushes her back with her powers, startling everyone. Chris and Billy rig the rope and begin to flee but Chris wants to stick around and see Carrie squirm. The rope however gives and the pail that held the blood cracks Tommy on the back of the head, killing him instantly. Carrie turns back around and cradles his head her lap, absolutely devastated that the only boy that ever treated her kindly has been killed. Carrie looks up in the rafters and recognizes Billy's sunglasses. She knows who is responsible. Something snaps in her mind. She turns to the guests, as the blood on her body starts to levitate off it. A few see this and try to flee in horror but it is no use.

The Blood Falls on Carrie and Tommy

      Carrie finally loses control and force-pushes the entire crowd back, people hitting tables and each other. Carrie shuts all the doors of the gym so no one can get out. One of the girls, Heather, is force flinged across the room and has her head smashed into a closed door. Jack and a few other guys try to escape by climbing the bleachers, so Carrie collapses them, gorily crushing Jack to death. As a boy films her, she throws a table at him, the force of the hit killing him. Carrie then trips the sprinkles leaving the whole room wet. As she sees the twin girls Nicki and Lizzy, friends of Chris, flee she forces pushes them to the ground and lets them be trampled to death. She then takes electrical wires and whips another one of Chris' friends, Tina, which catches her dress sets it on fire, causing Tina to burn to death. As flames envelop the room, Ms. Desjardin tries to calm Carrie down but Carrie catches her in a force choke hold and considers electrocuting her. However, her reasoning returns momentarily and she spares Ms. Desjardin as she was one of the few people that were ever nice to her. Carrie then levitates herself out of the building. By now the entire school is in flames. While people some escape, many don't. Carrie sees Chris and Billy's red car. Her rage returns.
      Chris asks Billy what they should do as their little prank is now responsible for at least a dozen deaths. Billy tells her they will leave town and never come back. Chris agrees reluctantly. As they drive off, Carrie is behind them. She stomps the ground and causes it to cave out ahead. Billy turns the car around and speeds back. Chris sees Carrie and despite everything, will not give up her vendetta. "RUN HER DOWN. KILL HER!" Chris snarls. Billy says he has it under control and charges Carrie. Carrie however is waiting for him and stops the car with her power, the force causing Billy to hit the steering wheel hard, breaking his nose. Chris comes to a few minutes later, and realizes Billy is dead from the impact. She cries but when she sees Carrie, she reaches for the keys and backs up, still hell-bent on killing her. When she charges again, Carrie pulls the car up high in the air, and then throws into a gas station pump. The force of the throw causes Chris face to go through the windshield making shards of glass embed all around her face. Carrie watches as Chris breathes her last. As an extra precaution and because Chris deserved it, Carrie causes the leaked gas to spark, causing an explosion that guarantees Billy and Chris demise.

Carrie Stops the Car

      Carrie begins to walk home, destroying everything in her path. When she gets inside, she sees her mom had forced a hole from the crack in the door and has escaped from the closet. Carrie calls out to her but gets no response. Her mother is hiding in the shadows. Carrie gets into the bathtub and cleans off all the blood, changing into a blue nightgown. She finds Margaret and tells her she was right about everything. They hug and Margaret suggests they pray. As they pray, Margaret takes her butcher knife and stabs Carrie once in the back. Carrie then pushes her mother back as she falls down the stairs. Their fight continues in the kitchen as Carrie begs her mother to stop what she is doing. "You know a devil never dies. You gotta keep killing it," Margaret says, manic. They struggle and she slices Carrie on the leg and arm. When she tries to stab Carrie in the face, Carrie stops the blade with her powers and then pulls up numerous sharp objects and points them in her mother's direction. Telling her she is sorry, Carrie lets them fly, and they impale her mother to the wall as if in a crucifix-like pose. Carrie, horrified by what she is done, releases the blades that pin her mother to the wall. Margaret dies moments later in Carrie's lap. Carrie cries at the loss.
      Moments later, Sue arrives at the house. Carrie is angry with her saying she just killed her mother and she wants her back. "Why couldn't you leave me alone?" Carrie asks. Sue says she tried to help her. "Don't hurt me Carrie," Sue pleads. "Why not?" Carrie snarls. Carrie puts Sue in a force choke-hold as the house begins to collapse around them due to her powers becoming uncontrollable. Carrie puts Sue down. Sue tries to reach for Carrie so they can escape. Carrie places her hand near Sues stomach. "Its a girl," Carrie says. Sue looks at her in shock. "You don't know?" Carrie asks. Carrie pushes her out of the house. Sue watches as rocks come out of nowhere and fall directly on the house, collapsing it on itself. Carrie holds her mother and kisses her forehead as the house finally falls down on the both of them. Sue looks on in horror and gingerly touches her stomach. An undisclosed time later, Sue is giving a deposition in front of the whole town (As to her pregnancy subplot, it is very unclear whether Sue is still pregnant or not and/or she kept the baby). The man interviewing her asks if what she saw happen could've been a natural accident. Sue however, stands by her story. Carrie was just a normal girl with normal hopes and desires like everyone else, and they pushed her and when people get pushed, eventually they break. They broke Carrie White.
      We see Sue at the graveyard where Margaret and Carrie are at a joint plot. Someone has spray painted "CARRIE WHITE BURNS IN HELL" on the gravestone with an arrow pointing down. Even in death, someone still had to be heartless to the poor, lonely girl who only wanted to be accepted. Sue lays a white rose at the grave and leaves. A moment later a force comes up from the ground, cracking the tombstone down the middle. In the middle, a crater forms in the shape of a heart. Carrie's ultimate fate is left ambiguous.

Her Grave

Review:
      Sorry for the long synopsis, but this was a big movie to cover. As an avid Stephen King fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Yes the acting was cheesy, for the most part, and the effects were kinda stupid, I thought that it told the story of Carrie White as it should be told. Unlike the 1970's movie, this film had a better way of playing out the full book, and included many of the small details. All in all, I rate this movie a 7 out of 10 stars.
Sources:

http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/3pFxLrjVFm0uMrMG4B39opOfpqF.jpg
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http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140125075350/stephenking/images/3/3a/Carrie_2013_02.jpg
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http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OYrXDWj4wBI/hqdefault.jpg

Grave Encounters: A Review and Synopsis

     

     Welcome back readers,  this week we find ourselves at one of my favorite films, and that would be Tribeca Film Festival's Grave Encounters.
Summary: 
        A camera crew ventures in to an abandoned mental hospital to film a TV show. Once locked in, mysterious events begin to occur and soon the Cast finds themselves trapped inside the hospital with many vengeful spirits.
Synopsis:
       At the beginning of the film we are met by the Television Producer Jerry Hartfield, who introduces the film by telling the interviewers about the show, Grave Encounters. He says that the crew was in the process of filming their sixth episode when things started to get a bit weird. Then, he tells us that the following footage has not been edited and all of the frames are original.

Jerry Hartfield

      Next we meet the crew, Lance Preston (Main Investigator), T.C. Gibson (Camera Man), Sasha Parker (Occult Specialist), Matt White (Technical Expert), and Houston Grey (The Alleged Spirit Medium); they prepare to enter the building after the Caretaker arrives and they receive a tour of the hospital. The tour leads the Crew throughout the dark halls and into several rooms, one of which a young girl had killed herself in, and end with a walk through of the hospital's underground tunnels that connect all the buildings with one another.

The Walls

      The caretaker leaves the group after they are voluntarily locked inside the institution with chains on the main entrance, thus beginning a filming they would never forget. 

      They start with filming around the hospital in search for any sort of paranormal activity, but find none until a few hours later when a door behind T.C. slams itself while he is filming. The crew tries to contact the spirits but have no luck, but are then tormented further by more malicious hauntings. T.C. is off on his own again when he receives a call from his wife telling him that his daughter is scared of a monster under her bed. During this time, T.C. puts the camera down and talks on the phone. In the background, you see a wheelchair moving ever so slightly, though not enough to catch the cameraman's attention. Soon after we are brought to the crew trying to communicate again, this time Sasha gets quite a scare. A ghost pulls her hair as she is listening to a voice recording.
    This causes the whole team to freak out so they walk back to base (The entrance), and talk to Matt who has been looking over footage the whole time. They catch him up on all that happens and so they decide it is time to leave. The rest of the group sends Matt to collect the cameras they had set up all over the main building. He leaves and we see footage of Matt collecting the cameras one by one, until he reaches a room filled with windows. One of the previously locked windows is opened, and as soon as Matt notices this, he disappears. After a while, the rest of the Grave Encounters Crew takes note of his absence and venture out to search for him while Houston stays at base. With no luck, they return to base and try to figure out a way out of the Institute, and they only do that because T.C. is freaked out after being pushed down the stairs by an unseen entity.

T.C. and Lance Try to Escape Using a Hospital Bed

      They eventually break through the entrance door only to find that instead of the outside, they are faced with another of the dark hallways. Sasha points out that they are in the correct location because of the words "DEATH AWAITS" are spray-painted on the door they just broke through. Houston picks up the chain that had been used to seal the doors. The Crew then realizes that something messed up is going on.
      Lance and the group try to find another exit, but all the other doors have either been walled up or lead to more corridors.  They then try to search for Matt and an Exit, but this is stopped when they find a ghostly girl  standing in a corner of one of the rooms. When they try to ask her something, she turns around and her face contorts demonically. The group flees, but somehow Houston gets separated.  After a while we see Houston scrambling around in the dark, unable to see, and he is maliciously attacked by another unseen force that eventually kills him.
      Lance and T.C. find a room that they think is safe so they bring Sasha and decide to rest, hoping that they would wake up and that the sun would be up.  The camera is turned on shortly after, where we are met by the face of Lance who tells us that while they were resting, something has happened. The image moves to a very terrified Sasha who is reluctant when the back of her shirt is pulled up to reveal that the word "HELLO" is carved into her back.

Sasha's Back

      After a while, the group finds Matt, who is wearing a hospital uniform and seems to have been driven insane.  He mumbles details about his "psychological disorder", and tells the rest of the surviving group members that the only way they could get out is to "get better" by the treatment of  the hospital's main physician, Arthur Friedkin. Lance, Sasha, and T.C. then notice that hospital tags bearing their names are now on their wrists.
      They run around the hospital being chased by apparitions when they find themselves in a room where they had been informed that a young girl had committed suicide in by slitting her wrists in the bathtub. Lance hears the sound of rushing water, and peers over one of the overturned bathtubs he is behind and sees that the tub is filled with blood. He tells his crew members this and they begin to leave the room when Matt walks over to the bathtub. Lance tells T.C. to go get Matt, and when he does, T.C. is pulled into the tub of blood by the figure of a girl covered in blood. In attempts to save T.C., Lance and Sasha flip the tub only to find that T.C. has disappeared entirely.

T.C. is Pulled into the Bathtub

      After this, Matt, Sasha, and Lance try to find another way out when they come across an elevator that is shut tight. Lance goes off to search for something to pry open the elevator doors when he sees a bloody tongue on the floor. Blood drops compel him to look up and he is met face to face by a tongueless apparition that chases him back to the elevator. Lance picks up the metal bar he acquired and pries open the doors, which attracts the attention of the tongueless ghost who tries to attack them. Lance and Sasha hold the door shut against the ghost, not realizing that Matt is picking up a camera. Matt takes the camera and jumps down the elevator shaft, committing suicide. The ghost leaves and Lance and Sasha realize what Matt did, but with no other choice they climb down the shaft to Matt's body. They take an exit to the underground tunnels, where they walk for days in one direction without finding anything.
      At this point, Sasha is not holding well against the forces of the undead and begins to throw up blood. She asks for her Mom, and all Lance can do is hold her to try and comfort her. They walk further into the tunnels with no success. They take a break to rest, and while they sleep, a mysterious fog manifests and takes Sasha away; Lance wakes up and notices Sasha's absence. He continues his trek through the tunnels when he finds a door. The door leads to what seems to be the operating rooms in which Arthur Friedkin had performed his surgeries (his favorite was the lobotomy). Lance stumbles upon what seems to be the ghost of the doctor performing a surgery on an unidentified body. Lance tries to run but trips over what looks like an altar. He then comes across a book, and turns around to see the doctor look right at him when the doctor's own face contorts demonically.

Friedkin's Demonic Altar

    Shortly after a series of screams, we are met once again by Lance's face in the camera. Though, this time, he is bleeding from his left eye which could be evidence of a Lobotomy. He tells everyone that is watching "Screw you!" in a harsh tone. He then says, "He [Friedkin] said I’m all better now. I can finally go home. For Grave Encounters, Lance Preston. Signing off." Then the screen cuts to blue and the film is over.

Review:
      Again, this is one of my favorite horror films, but I do have some things to say about the way they filmed it. In the beginning of the movie, I was annoyed by the constant zooming of the camera, but that changed when I got further into the movie. The actors did a fine job of making their roles believable, as their reactions and words made it seem as if the movie had actually happened. This movie also had quite a few good jump-scares, and an over all antagonizing fear-factor that kept me on the edge of my seat. Over all, I give this movie a nine out of ten because the movie was just an enjoyable film to watch.

Citations (In Order):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Grave-Encounters-Poster-2011.jpg
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A Haunting at Silver Falls: A Review and Synopsis

Summary:
     A young orphan girl goes to live with her relatives and soon finds herself being haunted by a pair of ghostly twins.

Synopsis:
    In the first scene, a woman is being chased through the woods by an invisible creature. She is attacked and after she is dead, her corpse is moved and a severed hand lies in the middle of the forest with a silver ring on its index finger.

The Woman

    After 20  years, our main heroine, Jordan, moves to live with her Aunt Anne and her uncle Kevin Sanders in Silver falls from L.A., all taking place after her father dies. Jordan's aunt and her mom were twin sisters, and Jordan's mother died when she was 5 years old. Anne and Jordan have a brief conversation about this, and they the two girls go down the stairs from what you later find out is Jordan's room. They walk in on her Uncle, Kevin, having a discussion with Jordan's nerd of a boyfriend whose name is Larry. Larry is your typical uncool kid, who isn't cool because he wears your grandpa's glasses.
    Larry takes Jordan to a little party out in the woods that's filled with alcohol, drugs, and the typical teenager trying to have a good time. It's there that she meets Robbie who is the cool kid around town, and is totally rad because his hair is awesome. He sells Larry some pills and flirts with Jordan, who is completely uninterested in the guy. Larry and Jordan leave the crowd and cuddle against a tree, and Larry jokes with Jordan by telling her stories of people who've died in Silver Falls and how their spirits still haunt the town, all be it joking, it seems that the stories could be true (as this is foreshadowing for later in the film).
    A cop crashes the party so Larry and Jordan make a run for it, getting separated in the process. When she realizes that she's alone, Jordan believes she's hearing Larry whisper her name and spots a silver ring lying the the middle of the forest floor.

The ring she found

    After she finds the ring, Jordan receives a ride home from Robbie. When she gets home, Jordan makes a stop by the kitchen and takes some candy up to her room. One of the things Larry told her about ghosts was that they sneak in and eat your candy, well soon after Jordan falls asleep we see a pair of bare feet standing on her floor with candy wrappers falling around them. The camera moves up a torn up dress and a zombie-like face with dark eyes appears out of focus. The face is staring down at Jordan in her bed, the female ghost points her finger at Jordan, a finger that has a ring on it much like the one Jordan found stumbling around in the woods.

    The ghost-girl crawls onto Jordan's bed on top of her and tries to pull the ring off the girl's finger, but fails miserably. The ghost tries harder and eventually pulls Jordan up into a sitting position, pulling hard on the sleeping girl's finger just to try and take the ring off. Again, the ghost fails and then disappears into thin air.         The next morning, Jordan awakes with a start and walks downstairs calmly, believing that the night's events were only a dream. The next morning Jordan goes downstairs and is lectured by Anne about leaving trash on the floor (the candy wrappers), saying that it attracts mice. Jordan has no clue what the woman is talking about because the candy had been eaten by one of the ghost twins.

    After this brief discussion, Jordan goes over to Larry's house to check on him after what had happened the night before. She begins throwing pebbles at Larry's bedroom balcony but is interrupted by Larry's father (played by that one librarian in the movie, the Mummy). He tells Jordan to stay away from his son and also tells her to get out of his sight because he thinks that she pressured Larry into buying the drugs. He leaves and Larry steps out of his room and explains to Jordan that he had tried to convince his dad that he had bought the pills on his own, but his father wouldn't listen. They tell each other goodbye and promise to see each other at school.

    Jordan heads home and find her Aunt Anne and Uncle Kevin sitting at the table with some of their belongings out in front of them, the belongings which they had accused Jordan of stealing earlier that day. The pair had found their belongings in Jordan's room, and they tell Jordan that she should have just asked to borrow those things. Jordan blatantly rejects the accusations and finds herself in more trouble than she would be if she had just confessed. Anne and Kevin lock Jordan in the bathroom so that they may go out and enjoy themselves without having to worry about Jordan doing anything she wasn't supposed to.

    Our heroine finds herself in the bathroom, and due to boredom, she falls asleep. Shortly after falling asleep, one of the twins makes their way into the bathroom and turn on the bathtub spigot. It's there that Jordan is nearly drowned by the ghost and is saved in the nick of time by Anne and Kevin.

    Jordan continues to see the ghostly twins. She is then made to see a therapist (coincidentally Larry's father).   Jordan sees the girl at school and follows her to the cemetery. Larry comes with Jordan on her day-long journey throughout the town, following the ghost and believing that the ghost wishes to show her something throughout the whole adventure. Larry makes a phone call and a little while later, her Aunt, Uncle, Robbie, the Sheriff, and Larry's Dad have an intervention and force Jordan to come home with them. At home, Jordan learns that she is being haunted by the ghosts of Heather and Holly Dahl, twins who were supposedly murdered by their father in cold blood (who is on death row in the meantime). She also learns that other women all over town who have claimed to be haunted by the Dahl twins committed suicide in short time.

     Jordan then makes a short trip to visit the twins' father, Wyatt Dahl, on death row. He asks Jordan where she got the ring on her finger, and then tells her that the ring was one of three that all fit together. He says that the twins each had one and he had the third, so he gives Jordan his ring and advises her to listen to what the twins were trying to tell her.

Jordan and Wyatt

    At home, Jordan puts the rings together and the twins take her to a school bus, which then is revealed to be a dream after Jordan wakes up. Jordan then finds the third, and final ring, in her Aunt's jewelry box. Anne walks in on Jordan and talks to her about it, which ends up with Anne and Kevin locking Jordan up in the basement. Larry comes by to apologize to Jordan for staging the intervention, but is stopped at the door by Anne and Kevin refusing to let him talk to her. Anne heads out to purchase some alcohol, and while she is out, Kevin torments Jordan while Larry enters through a different door. Larry hits Kevin on the head with a shovel and knocks him out, but Anne returns soon after. The two then overpower Anne and locker her up in the basement with Kevin. Jordan puts all three rings on Anne's finger and tells her that she will pay for what she did to the twins and all the women who were haunted by the twins. The twins then appear and the trapdoor to the basement closes on Anne and Kevin, most likely causing them to never be seen again. 

 
Review:
     Over all, I rate it 4 out of 10 stars because, my personal thoughts on this movie would go along the lines of,  "yeah, it's okay". I thought that the directors and writers tried a little bit too hard to add in the scares (which there were hardly any). I really thought that the addition of the convict to the story was unnecesary, and that the twins were a bit too cliche. The twins, to me, were just a copy off of Stephen King's The Shining. And the ending, albeit unpredictable, was just a horrible compilation of bad acting and horrible dialogue.

Sources:
Image 1: http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ4NzcyODQ4OV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTkxMzcyOQ@@._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg
Image 2: http://s2.hubimg.com/u/8242813_f260.jpg
Image 3: (screenshot from Netflix)
Image 4: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JlMzvMDgOhM/UtZrCKv8KlI/AAAAAAAAae8/pyVmlUy1rio/s1280/screenshot_00004.jpg