Carrie 1976 Film Review

 

Horror fans there are so few films out there that I would argue aren't horror films at all but are infact a different genre entirely and well the film that i'm about to review for you all today is one of those films. For you see I see this film not as a horror film but I personally see this film as a tragedy or even a drama and so join me horror fans as I now review the 1976 horror classic that made Stephen King a house hold name with the film in question being called simply just "Carrie" enjoy.

The plot of this film is Shy 16 year old Carrie White is tormented by her fellow students one day at high school and after one of the bullies gets suspended and banned from the prom Carrie and the rest of the students will soon come to discover that this prom will be one to remember but for all of the very wrong reasons indeed. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this film in all honesty the plot of this film is rather simple and in all honesty that's not a bad thing since the main focus of this film isn't the plot it's the characters and the lose of sanity in Carrie White that's the main focus of this film but with that being said I would have liked it if this film did have a much stronger or even a better plot line tho.

Starring in this film is Sissy Spacek as Carrie White , Piper Laurie as Margaret White and Amy Irving as Sue Snell. Also starring in this film is William Katt as Tommy Ross , In one of his very earliest film roles we have a very young John Travolta as Billy Nolan , Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen , Betty Buckley as Miss Collins , P. J. Soles as Norma Watson , Priscilla Pointer as Eleanor Snell , Sydney Lassick as Mr. Fromm and Stefan Gierasch as Principal Morton.

In terms of what I personally thought about the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is alot better then what I thought that it would be. Since i've honestly never even seen this film all the way through and so I honestly thought that the acting in this film was going to be pretty bad since that's true for most if not all Stephen King film adaptations but to my surprise the acting that's featured / presented to us in this very film is really freaking good with a special shout out / mention going to Sissy Spacek who simply is Carrie White and Sissy Spacek does such a good job acting in this film that it was hard for me to spot where the character of Carrie White and ended and where Sissy Spacek began because that's how good Sissy Spacek is in this film in the role of Carrie White.

I honestly really do love the opening of this movie since the opening is so calm that is makes for a great juxtaposition with all of the carnage that comes later on in the film. I honestly cannot give the opening of this particular film enough credit because for me at least we are inside the head of Carrie White while that opening is playing hence why the music that's playing over the opening credits is so soft and relaxing and yet the second that Carrie herself starts to feel uneasy the calm music stops and we are now back into real life and we are stuck in this form of real life until the end of the film.

Now for me at least I don't see this film as a horror film I personally see this film as either a tragedy or as a drama. Since for me at least Carrie White isn't the main villain of this film she is just someone who was pushed so far of the edge by both her fellow students and teachers and by her own mother and all Carrie wants to do is just fit in with the rest of her fellow students and yet those same students don't like Carrie the staff constantly get Carrie's name wrong and her mother abuses her.

This is to me is what makes this film feel more like a tragedy or a drama since when we do see Carrie be generally happy for once in her life it's taken away from her by the characters of Chris and Billy. Heck you could even make the argument that Carrie's own mother Margret White also tries to stop Carrie being happy when she tries and fails to stop Carrie from going to the prom and all of these reasons and more could also be used to say that this film is more of a drama then a straight forward horror film.

There are a few things that I didn't like about this film with the first of which being that all of this films characters felt very underdeveloped to me personally. Which is a shame since the book does give us some detail as to what each character is like and none of that is presented to us in the final cut of this particular film and this is also a shame because I honestly did like the characters in this film even all of the bully characters had some charm to them but I would have loved it if we got to find out more about what makes these characters tick.

The other thing that I didn't like about this film is it this films running time since this film has a total running time of one hour and thirty eight minuets and nine seconds and while there is nothing wrong with having a short running time. The film spends alot of time with no scares and just setting up the prom which is fine for a longer film since then you can space out all of your scares but this film isn't even an hour and forty minuets long and so you need to get to the scares alot quicker but on the flip side of that if you did get to the scares alot quicker then you wouldn't have the time to fully develop your characters nor would you have the time to build up any kind of tension whatsoever and so it's coin toss situation really where on one side of the coin you have possibly great scares but you don't care about any f the characters but the other side of that coin you very little scares but you have great and memorable characters and some great tension built almost up to the point where anything would scare you.

Now then boys and girls since this is a Carrie film and so that means that I have to talk about this films version of the classic prom sequence and if i'm being really honest this sequence more then lived up to my already fairly high expectations of this film. This is due to the fact that the film took the time to make you care for and to make emphasize with Carrie White and so when she finally does start to kill everybody that's there at the prom that night you really do feel happy for Carrie and scared for everyone else because you've seen Carrie go through so much torment in this film and so to see get some measure of revenge is always a happy occasion but at the same time due to the evil crime that Carrie is sadly committing throughout the final act of this film you also feel scarred for everyone else because you the audience know exactly what Carrie can do and we don't know how far Carrie White is willing to go with her sick and twisted form of revenge.

Overall this is a really good film and this film really does deserve any and all of the praise that it gets and while I can't / cannot say if this film is the best adaptation of the book I can say that it really does set the bar really freaking high for all of the other Carrie film adaptations in my opinion anyways. Now then i've talked about both of the good and as well as both of the bad things that are in this film in this very review and as such this film gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

As for where I got all of the images that I used in this review well then boys and girls I got all of the images that I used in this very review from either the official Carrie fandom wiki page or from Google Images. With my preferred website to use to get the images from this film that I ended up using in this very review being the official Carrie fandom wiki page and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with our one and only true goddess Elvira wishing us all some very very unpleasant dreams indeed.

Army Of The Dead Film SPOILER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

 

Zombie fans director Zack Snyder has become somewhat of a cult icon over the past years with the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut finally paying of on March 18th 2021. However Zack Snyder also had another film in development and well that film has been released into theaters and well I thought that'd give you my SPOILER FREE review of the movie and so join me as I review the Zack Snyder zombie film that is currently taking movie theaters / cinemas by storm with the film in question / the film itself being called simply "Army Of The Dead" enjoy.

The plot of this film is a group of people are tasked with robbing a Las Vegas casino the only problem is Las Vegas is filled to the brim with all kinds of Zombies. In terms of what I personally thought about the plot of this particular film in all honesty the plot of this film is alot better then what I personally thought that it would be since to me the plot of this movie makes the movie sound pretty stupid but in actuality the plot of this movie is in my opinion at least very fun and very entertaining.

Starring in this film is Dave Bautista as Scott Ward , Ella Purnell as Kate Ward and Omari Hardwick as Vanderohe. Also starring in this film is Ana De La Reguera as Maria Cruz , Theo Rossi as Burt Cummings , Matthias Schweighöfer as Ludwig Dieter , Nora Arnezeder as Lily , Hiroyuki Sanada as Bly Tanaka , Garret Dillahunt as Martin , Tig Notaro as Marianne Peters , Raúl Castillo as Mikey Guzman , Huma Qureshi as Geeta , Samantha Win as Chambers , Athena Perample as The Bride , Michael Cassidy as Sergeant Kelly and Richard Cetrone as Zeus.

As for what I personally thought about the acting that's featured / presented to us in this very film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this very film is alot better then what I thought it was going to be. Simply because the very idea behind this film doesn't really allow for good acting and depending on what you personally think of writer , producer and director Zack Snyder then you either like his films and think that he's a god or you hate him and everything about him and you hate every film that he's ever made , I personally think that he's an OK director and in my opinion at least he knows how to direct he's actors and that shows through in the acting / performances in this film since every actor that's starring /appearing in this film gives the right performance for their respective character.

Now I was going to review the 2004 Dawn Of The Dead film since that film was also directed by Zack Snyder however with this film reaching shall we say certain parts of the internet a few days early that review has now been scrapped. However I do now wish that Zack Snyder had made more zombie films since it's clear from this film that he's very interested in adding things to the zombie mythology instead of just sticking to what George A. Romero came up with. 

I will admit that having a zombie film set in Las Vegas is indeed a very good idea and while I cannot say if we've seen any other zombie film use the Las Vegas i'm glad that this film uses a setting that to my knowledge at least hasn't been used that much or at all in zombie media. That being said tho this film doesn't take full advantage of it's Las Vegas film setting since you very easily could have had some fun with the zombies that we see in Las Vegas and as well as give us some pretty fun locations for some of this films many action sequences.

Now then boys and girls if you know your Zack Snyder films then you'll know that when he wants to do he can have some really fun opening titles and the same is true for this film and while I won't give anything away I will say that the film is pretty much worth watching just for the opening titles alone. Since in my opinion at least the opening titles for this film are so fun and they are a pretty good indicator of what you should expect from this film plus the song that plays over the opening credits is just the perfect song and it's really the only song that you'd want playing over the opening credits / titles of a zombie movie that's being set in Las Vegas.

Now I will fully admit that I had no idea that this film was even playing in theatres / cinemas mostly because this is a Netflix film and well nine times of ten Netflix doesn't release a film to theatres / cinemas they just release it straight to Netflix. As such I was surprised to learn that this film was being released into theatres / cinemas but only for a week and only in a certain chain of theatres / cinemas which means that this film can't really make any money since not alot of people will be able to see this film in either theaters or cinemas however I can see where Netflix is coming from by releasing this film into theatres / cinemas since Zack Snyder is a very bankable name right now and so releasing his next movie to cinemas / theatres does make sense but it should have been released into more theatres / cinemas and should be playing in those theatres / cinemas for much longer then a week but that's just what I think anyways and that's just in my very humble and as well as being in my very honest opinion anyways.

Now then boys and girls one of the things that this film got alot of criticism for was it's running and since this film has a running time of exactly two hours and twenty one minuets and fifty two seconds I can honestly see why. Since this film really didn't need to be that long at all in my opinion since you very easily could have told the plot / story of this film in well under two hours and you'd have to loose nothing that's important to the actual story / plot of this film either in order to make this film come in at well under two hours.

Now then boys and girls there are zombies in this film and that means that we have to talk about the actual scares that are featured / presented to us in this / the actual film itself and if i'm being honest here boys and girls the zombies in this film look really good. The Issue with these zombies is however the fact that they don't really do anything that scary other then look slightly creepy or lung at people really fast which is a shame because visually the zombies that are featured / presented to us in this film do look both really cool and really creepy but that's really it and that's really not even close to being enough to making a scary zombie movie since you need actual scares to make your zombie movie actually scary.

Overall this film is so much better then Spiral AKA Spiral: From The Book Of Saw but that's not really a high bar to reach tho and this film can be really fun and funny when it wants to be but there are also alot of things that are wrong that I personally didn't like with this film. Now then boys and girls since i've talked about both of the good and as well both of the bad things that are wrong with this film in this very review that means that this film gets a solid 7.5 out of 10 from me.

As for where I personally got all of the images that I used in this very review well then boys and girls I personally got all of the images that I used in this very review from Google Images , the official Netflix fandom wiki page and the official Army Of The Dead fandom wiki page. In terms of which website I personally preferred to get the images from this film from it has to be the official Army Of The Dead fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that not only was there alot of images up on there but alot of the images that are up on the official Army Of The Dead fandom wiki page are very high quality and very high definition and so as always boys and girls we end this review as we always do with our one true goddess Elvira wishing us all some very unpleasant dreams indeed.

Spiral AKA Spiral: From The Book Of Saw SPOILER FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

 

Saw fans the day that we have all been waiting for is now here because there is a new Saw film that's just been released into theaters and you can bet that I was going to not only watch but to also review this movie / film the first chance that I got and well I have very mixed feelings about this film. I will be keeping this review as spoiler free as is humanly possible and so join me as I review the latest entry into the Saw film / media franchise with the film in question being called "Spiral: From The Book Of Saw" or simply just "Spiral" enjoy.

The plot of this film is Detectives William Schenk and Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks are tasked with finding out who is killing of a bunch of cops and that's really all that I can say / summarise about the plot of the film without going into spoilers. I will say that in terms of what I personally thought about the plot of this film I personally found the plot of this film to pretty predictable since I called who the new killer is the second that they appeared on screen and the plot of the film does suffer because of that since if you can work out who the killer is then what's the point in watching this film and the whole film is like that and so you can call out certain plot points minuets or even hours before they even happen and those plot points will happen in the exact same way that you called out / said would happen.

Starring in this film is this film's co-writer and as well as one of this films many executive producers Chris Rock as Det. Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks. Also starring in this film is Max Minghella as Det. William Schenk , Marisol Nichols as Capt. Angie Garza , Ali Johnson as Jeannie Lewis , Zoie Palmer as Kara Boswick , Genelle Williams as Lisa Banks , Richard Zeppieri as Det. Fitch , Dan Petronijevic as Det. Marv Boswick , Morgan David Jones as Officer Barrett , Leonidas Castrounis as Young Boy and Samuel L. Jackson as Marcus Banks.

In terms of what I personally thought about / of the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is pretty decent. Which given who's starring in this film shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but at the same time even tho the actors do indeed turn in some really good performances the actors are let down by the script which gives all of the characters including the killer very little to no personality or very little to no characteristics and so the actors can only do so much and sadly the actors good performances in this film aren't enough in my opinion at least to actually save this film.

Now then boys and girls there was a lot of speculation online that this film might be a prequel to the first Saw film and that this film will give us some more backstory on John Kramer. Well I can say that without giving anything away that this film is indeed a sequel to Jigsaw and so John Kramer is sadly no longer with us and I have to say that making this film more of a sequel to Jigsaw does infact oddly make alot of sense since we've already seen alot of John Kramers backstory in literally all of the previous Saw films and so exploring more of his backstory here would just feel like we the audience and the makers of this particular film / the film makers behind this particular film are treading on familiar ground.

Not only does see film see the return of the Saw film franchise but it also sees the return of director Darren Lynn Bousman who of course directed Saw 2 , Saw 3 and Saw 4. I have to say that I personally feel that this film isn't his best entry into the Saw film franchise since this film lacks that creative flair that Darren Lynn Bousman brought / bought to all of his Saw 4 which is a shame because having Darren Lynn Bousman directing a saw film again for the first time in fourteen years would have been more then enough to convince die hard Saw fans to go and see and hopefully even like this particular film.

I will give this film the idea of telling a story thats set in the world of the Saw film franchise from the point of view of solely the police is indeed a good and once again to this films credit this film does the most that you can possibly do with that idea. However with that being said having a good idea isn't enough to make the film good you also need to have a good script and you also need things to make sense and both of those things are where this film falls apart because the script isn't that good at all and alot of the choices made in this films script also don't make any kind of sense whatsoever but that's just what I personally think anyways and that's just in my very humble and as well as being in my very honest opinion anyways.

I gave to talk about the disguised voice that the killer in this film uses because not only is so bad that's laughable but also very distracting. Since the disguised voice that the killer of this film uses sounds nothing like the actual person who is the killer which I get is kind of the point but even when John Kramer disguised his voice whenever a tape or a video played you still knew that it was him because the voice that he used was booming and powerful but the killers disguised voice is meek and in my opinion at least the killers disguised voice isn't anywhere even close to being threatening.

Now then boys and girls this film has a grand total running time of simply just one hour and twenty minuets and twenty nine seconds. Which I personally felt was the right amount of time for this film simply because this film doesn't have enough story to cover anything that's even close to two hours or even either one hour and thirty minuets or for that matter even one hour and forty / one hour and forty five minuets and I will fully admit that this film does have some really good pacing and the film honestly felt like it was on for about forty five minuets instead of one hour and twenty minuets and twenty nine seconds.

 

Now then boys and girls as any die hard Saw fan will tell you the true stars of the Saw film franchise or any film that's set in the saw film franchise are the traps and yes there are some traps in this film which means that I have to talk about the traps that are featured / presented to us in the actual film itself and if i'm being honest I have some very mixed feelings about the traps that are featured / presented to us in this very / particular film. Since some of the traps that are in this film do indeed look good are indeed pretty creepy (sadly tho I cannot say which trap I thought was pretty creepy because it's spoiler so your going to have to take my word for it.) however there are also alot of traps in this film that just look bland and in my opinion at least aren't that creepy in the slightest / at all.

Overall I honestly / personally do think that this film is better then the previous film in the Saw film franchise which if you'll all remember was called simply just Jigsaw but that really isn't a high bar to reach and even so this film is only slightly better then Jigsaw. Now then boys and girl since i've talked about both of the good things in this very film and as well as both of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review that that means that I give this film a rating of a solid 5.5 out of 10 from me personally.

As for where I got the images that I used in this very review well then boys and girls I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Saw fandom wiki page , the official Netflix fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personal preferred website to use to get images from this film being either the official Saw fandom wiki page or Google Images just because on the official Saw fandom wiki page there was some high quality and high definition images but there wasn't that many spoiler free images that I could actually use in this spoiler free review but on Google Images there was alot more of a verity of images with most of the images that I personally saw on Google Images being spoiler free so I say whichever website you feel comfortable using if you want any images from either film or just from any film in general and so we end this review as we always do with our one true goddess Elvira wishing us all some very unpleasant dreams indeed.

Jigsaw Review

 

Saw fans the newest film in the Saw film franchise Spiral AKA Spiral: From The Book Of Saw is due to finally be released this Friday in theatres. As such I felt that it was only right that I produce a tie in review however instead of reviewing any of the Saw films that I already own on DVD I thought that i'd take a look at the only Saw film that I don't own on DVD and as well as being the one and only Saw film that i've only seen the once and so join me as I review the 2017 Saw film that is called simply "Jigsaw" enjoy.

The plot of this film is ten years after the death of John Kramer a new game has been started and it's up to Detective Halloran to find out who is behind this new game and stop it before all of the people that are taking part in the game end up dead. In terms of what I thought about the plot of this film in all honesty the plot of this film was the typical Saw plot with nothing new , added or thrown in which might have worked for the earlier Saw sequels but for the eighth film in the Saw film franchise the plot of this film really did need to add something new to make it stand out from all of the other Saw films which in opinion at least it sadly doesn't do that.

Starring in this film is Matt Passmore as Logan Nelson , the only returning Saw film franchise actor Tobin Bell as John Kramer / Jigsaw and Callum Keith Rennie as Detective Halloran. Also starring in this film is Clé Bennett as Detective Keith Hunt , Hannah Emily Anderson as Eleanor Bonneville , Laura Vandervoort as Anna , Paul Braunstein as Ryan , Mandela Van Peebles as Mitch , Brittany Allen as Carly and Josiah Black as Edgar Munsen.

In terms of what I personally thought about the acting that's featured / presented us in this very film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is about on par with the acting that's in all of the other Saw films. Which isn't a bad thing at all since it's a sign of consistency but the acting in the other Saw films wasn't good either and heck the only good actor in all of the Saw films is Tobin Bell who is once again on top form as John Kramer / Jigsaw.

This film is alot like the first Saw film in that the focus of the film isn't the gore but rather the mystery which is indeed a good thing or at least it would be if the mystery wasn't so obvious. Since the mystery behind this film is is John Kramer alive which anyone who has seen the Saw films knows that he's dead and so the mystery isn't that good because all it takes for the mystery to fall apart is for one person just to remember that John Kramer is dead. 

This film just straight up forgets that both Amanda and Detective Mark Hoffman even existed since neither character is either shown nor is either character even mentioned in any of this films many flashback sequences. I can kind of see why the makers if this film chose not to mention Detective Hoffman since the character isn't that popular among Saw fans but Amanda is popular with Saw fans and straight up forgetting about both characters shows that the makers of this film do not / don't respect the lore of the Saw franchise or the saw film franchise as a whole.

This film just confuses the entire Saw timeline because apparently John Kramer / Jigsaw had a secret apprentice before both Amanda and Detective Hoffman which honestly makes you wonder where this apprentice was during the events of the first seven Saw films. It also makes you wonder why the heck John Kramer /Jigsaw chose not to mention this secret apprentice to both Amanda or Detective Hoffman since this apprentice could have been very useful to them and even more useful to them when Detective Hoffman took over the mantle as Jigsaw.  

I will give this film this it's plot twist is one that I honestly didn't see coming and the same goes for the reveal that the character of Logan Nelson was a secret apprentice to John Kramer's / Jigsaw's. Both twists I personally thought were very well done but at the same time there should have been some hints at least for the Logan Nelson reveal just because it is such a huge plot point in the film and having at least some clues in this film would have allowed us the audience to work out what's going on at the same time that the characters are working out what's going on as well.

This film has a total running time of one hour and thirty one minuets fifty seven seconds so let's round that up to one hour and thirty two minuets. Which I felt was honestly the right amount of time for this film since this film doesn't have enough story to reach / cover anything that's even close to two hours and with this short running time every single scene in this film has to be about pushing the plot forward and as well being about advancing the characters forward and that means that this film in my opinion at least has some really good pacing since no scene lasts any longer then it honestly needs to.

Now then boys girls as any saw fan will tell you the true stars of the Saw films are the traps and the same is indeed true for this film and that means that I have to talk about the traps that are featured / presented to us in this film and if i'm being really honest here boys and girls the traps that are featured / presented to us in this film are a bit of let down for me personally. Since while the traps that are in this film are indeed creative there's none that really scared me which is what a good Saw trap should do in my opinion and the traps that are in this film just don't really stand out for me personally like the first trap with the buckets that just looks bland and uninteresting which is something that a Saw trap really shouldn't be.

Overall the best word that I can use to describe this film is average since everything about this film just screams average to me which is such a shame because this film out of all of the many Saw sequels this Saw film had the chance to be on par with the original Saw film instead this film ends up as perhaps the worst Saw sequel. Since even the bad Saw sequels at least have visually interesting and this film doesn't even have that going for it. Now then boys and girls since i've talked about both of the good and many of the bad things that are in this film in this review that means that this film gets a 5 out of 10 from me personally.

As for where I got all of the images that I used in this very review well then boys and girls I got all of the images that I personally used in this review from either the official Saw fandom wiki page or from Google Images. With my preferred website to use to get images from this review being the Saw fandom wiki page simply because alot of the images that are on the official Saw fandom wiki page are pretty high definition as well as being pretty high quality.