THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT

The Strangers: Prey at Night – Movie Review

If you’ve ever read any of my reviews for horror films, you’ll know I base how frightening the movie was by whether or not I have to leave the light on at bedtime. This is a leave, at least, a nightlight on type of situation. The main reason for that is because if you let the main theme of the film, people out to kill you who won’t stop until they do, sink into your psyche it’s quite distressing and can interrupt one’s plans for a good night’s sleep. The movie played a part it in, as well, of course. It’s a decent horror but it did have its fair amount of eye-rolling scenes, mostly due to things the characters do that no one in their right mind would. If they hadn’t continually done, well, stupid things that make you periodically root for the killers, Dollface, Pin-Up Girl and Man in the Mask, the flick would most likely keep you up all night. The very thought that people would want to kill indiscriminately because they’re bored is terrifying. When asked by one of the characters why she’s doing what she’s doing, Dollface responds, ‘Why not.’

The original movie, The Strangers, written and directed by Bryan Bertino, one of the writers of this film, was unique and more frightening than this but its sequel is filled with just as much blood and as many jump-scares as its predecessor. Dollface and Pin-Up Girl seem to always come out of nowhere to wrangle this family of vacationers right where they want them to be able to torture them with ease. The first film, starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, is similar in that they are a married couple who are terrorized at their vacation home by masked strangers. This time, it’s a married couple with two teenage kids, going to spend a vacation at a family members trailer park near a lake. What makes this all more frightening of a thought is where the premise of the screenplay originally came from. The Strangers came to Bertino because of two true events. Those of the Manson family, Tate murders, where several people were killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and also a series of break-ins that happened in Bertino’s neighborhood when he was younger, whereupon a stranger would knock on the door and ask if a particular person was home, just to see if someone was there. If no one was home at the moment, that was the place they hit. Combining these two ideas made it possible to construct a horrifying tale of unwitting victims unable to escape the circumstances they found themselves.

Christina Hendricks (Madmen) plays a mother named Cindy and Martin Henderson (Grey’s Anatomy) plays her husband, Mike, who decide to force their teenagers, Kinsey (Madison) and Luke, played by Bill Pullman’s son Lewis, to take a trip with them to a place where Cindy and Mike, more or less, have their kids to themselves. Well, they do get them to themselves but not for long.

They find that the trailer park is deserted and her uncle isn’t there to greet them so they’ll see them in the morning. It’s peculiar but god forbid anyone listens to the hairs on the back of their necks which are pointing the way out for them. They ignore their gut feelings and because of that decision, their family vacation never gets underway. The terror starts almost the very moment they get there
 without a chance to play cards or reconnect. From earlier scenes, you can see that the siblings aren’t close but before long they’re having to save each other. They find themselves wandering alone, in a place they’re not familiar with, without help and no way to get any.

For the most part, it’s clichĂ© (a wounded girl can’t run) and it’s highly predictable (the victims moves toward the problem not away from it) and I just can’t say enough how ridiculous it is that the individuals in this film’s scenarios put themselves in danger more than help themselves out of it. That said, if you like a good, fun horror, you’ll get plenty out of it. There are a lot of jump-scares and the occasional clutch-your-seat scene to make this a worthwhile watch. There was particular care in making sure you heard people struggling to live. That was a plus. Director Johannes Roberts puts you into the action in a scene where Luke is being attacked by Man in the Mask in a pool. We go under the water with him, briefly come up for air only to be yanked back under giving us that feeling of all hope being lost at the same time Luke experiences it. Eerie. I would like Roberts to explain one thing to me, though. Why on earth is Man in the Mask a big fan of Kim Wilde and Air Supply? Perhaps to remind us that he is just a normal guy under there or that he’s a touch on the older side? Whatever the answer, it was odd. So is the film. Watch it anyway but I’d wait for cable.

 

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT Official Channels

Website: preyatnight.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/TheStrangers

Twitter: @TheStrangers

Instagram: @TheStrangers

The-Lullaby-movie-poster

The Lullaby Movie Review

Uncork’d Entertainment brings director Darrell Roodt’s vision of a horrific and twisted fairy tale for you to watch, available today on all platforms of VOD.

I liked the film, overall, but it’s hard to root for or feel too sorry for the main character, Chloe (Swart) who has just given birth to little Liam and is now doing everything she can do to stop herself from killing him. Why it’s hard to root for her is, though attempted, you never get a real liking for her. Instead, you feel more for her mother, Ruby (Puren), who is trying to bury her sordid past and makeup to her daughter whom she was anything but loving to.  That’s not to say you’re not going to like the film or buy into the characters. All boxes for a great horror are checked and there are two scream queens here, in Swart and Puren and in a few scenes they’re battling it out for top position if they were so interested. They’re both magnificent in their roles.

Chloe is from Eden Rock, a town that has a terrible past. The story is introduced to us by a woman narrating, complete with sound effects that set the tone, the story of what the British soldiers did to the women of Eden Rock in 1901 while their husbands were away. They locked them in concentration camps, raped them and if any of the women had children, the priest and a midwife would take the child and kill it to save its soul from damnation. These scenes will have you on edge and squirming at the thought of what these women and their babies went through.

Chloe had left her mother and Eden Rock, but she needs help and Ruby has taken her back in. It’s not hard to put two and two together and see that since it’s the same town and that babies are involved that a haunting is about to happen. Chloe has rejected her baby and Ruby takes it upon herself to try and get her some help as she falls deeper and deeper into depression. Chloe’s mood darkens when horrible visions of Eden Rock’s midwife begin to assault her. She becomes more aggressive while protecting the child. As the visions have shown the intentions of the midwife which is to see the child is killed.

Ruby decides to get some help from a therapist who’s also an old friend named Dr. Reed. He believes Chloe’s issues are just hormonal. He suggests and encourages Chloe to do as the visions suggest. Maybe he knows more than he’s letting on? His demeanor will lead you to think there’s something not quite right with him. Actor Brandon Auret does a superb job of bringing the creepy character to life. Even with his help or maybe because of it, Chloe grows uglier and more unhinged. She admits she’s a black hole; feels empty inside. A simple case of the baby blues hardly leads to what happens to this young woman and those around her.

The movie is good. I enjoyed the sound design tremendously. Spine-chilling sounds such as creaking floorboards, screeching, the crackle of a fire, shrieks and screams all helped in shaping the overall cadence and allows the audience to feel the pulse without missing a beat. Manipulative camera angles and adequate editing assisted considerably in the broad understanding of both Chloe’s and Ruby’s plight while keeping in mind that poor Liam’s soul is on the line. I close with this last thought. These two wonderful actresses, one playing a woman who’s desperately trying to reconnect with her child and one who’s doing everything she can to stay connected with the world, are tremendous. It would be a shame not to see a lot more of them in the future. I hope we do.

 

Theaters where you can currently see The Lullaby:

Phoenix – Valley Art

Los Angeles – Laemmle Music Hall

Philadelphia – PFS Roxy Theater

Chicago – Facets Cinematheque

Atlanta – Plaza Theater

Dallas – Texas Theater

Cleveland – Cedar Lee Cinemas

San Francisco – Roxie Theater

Miami – Cinema Paradiso

Denver – SIE Film Center

The Strangers: Prey at Night Advance Movie Screening

Movie Screening Summary

A family’s road trip takes a dangerous turn when they arrive at a secluded mobile home park to stay with some relatives and find it mysteriously deserted. Under the cover of darkness, three masked psychopaths pay them a visit to test the family’s every limit as they struggle to survive. Johannes Roberts directs this horror film inspired by the 2008 smash hit THE STRANGERS.

Release: March 9, 2018
Studio: Aviron Pictures
Genre: Horror
Director: Johannes Roberts
Writers: Bryan Bertino and Ben Ketai
Cast: Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman
Producers: Wayne Marc Godfrey, James Harris, Robert Jones, Mark Lane
Rating: R for horror violence and terror throughout, and for language
Runtime: 81 Min

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT Official Channels
Website: preyatnight.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/TheStrangers
Twitter: @TheStrangers
Instagram: @TheStrangers

Advance Movie Screening For THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT

Find your chance to receive special advance movie screening passes below.

 

Phoenix, Arizona

Advance Movie Screening Details

Movie Screening Date: Monday, March 5
Location: Harkins Arizona Mills
Movie Screening Time: 7:00pm
[button link=”http://www.gofobo.com/STRANGETXT” type=”big” newwindow=”yes”] Get Passes[/button]

Advance Movie Screening Information

To redeem a pass, simply click the Get Passes button. You will taken to our movie screening partner site (where you can sign up for a free account). Once you’ve done so, you’ll be able to print out your pass and bring it with you to your screening or event.

Admittance into a screening or event is not guaranteed with your pass. Events and advance screenings are filled on a ” first come, first served ” basis. To ensure that you stand a good chance of being admitted, we recommend that you show up 30 minutes to one hour early.

The number of admissions that are permissible for each pass are printed clearly on the ticket that you print out. You are allowed to bring as many guests as is indicated on your pass. For example, if your pass is for ” Admit Two, ” you can bring yourself and one guest. If you have an ” Admit One ” pass, you can bring only yourself.

If you have any other questions or comments, please contact us.

Lullaby

“THE LULLABY” 

IN THEATERS AND ON DEMAND MARCH 2

Chloe is overwhelmed by the birth of her first child.  The incessant crying of her baby, the growing sense of guilt and paranoia sends her into depression.  With a heightened urge to protect her son, Chloe sees danger in every situation.  She starts to hear voices, the humming of a childhood lullaby and sees flashes of a strange entity around her child.  Convinced that the entity is real, Chloe will do everything in her power to protect her son. 
Is she haunted by evil or is it just the baby blues?

Reine Swart, Deànré Reiners, Thandi Puren, Brandon Auret, and Dorothy-Ann Gould star in a Darrell James Roodt film, opening in theaters across the U.S and available on VOD 3/2.

In Theaters March 2nd

http://www.fandango.com

A Quiet Place – Trailer and Featurette

IF THEY HEAR YOU, THEY HUNT YOU

DIRECTED BY

JOHN KRASINSKI

PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BAY, ANDREW FORM, BRAD FULLER

STORY BY

BRYAN WOODS & SCOTT BECK

SCREENPLAY BY

BRYAN WOODS & SCOTT BECK AND JOHN KRASINSKI

STARRING

EMILY BLUNT, JOHN KRASINSKI, NOAH JUPE, MILLICENT SIMMONDS

IN THEATERS APRIL 6, 2018

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AQuietPlaceM…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/QuietPlaceMovie

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AQuietPlace…

#AQuietPlace

#StayQuiet

In Theaters April 6th

http://www.fandango.com

The first trailer for the breakout horror sensation “Hereditary” arrives!

EVIL RUNS IN THE FAMILY IN FIRST TRAILER FOR ARI ASTER’S HEREDITARY

The Toni Collette horror sensation that shook Sundance will hit theaters nationwide on June 8th.

STARRING
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd, Milly Shapiro, Alex Wolff

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
Ari Aster

SYNOPSIS

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.

In Theaters June 8th

http://www.fandango.com

Mom and Dad Movie Review

Say you could take a movie like “The Happening“, where a mysterious plague overcomes people and makes them want to commit suicide, but it changes the results a little. Now, it only affects the parents, who exhibit a change in the attitude from protecting their children, to instead wanting to kill them.  Now add the forever crazy antics of Nicolas Cage and you have “Mom and Dad”, bizarre creation that gives you another reason to demand that Cage hand back that Oscar he won back in 1995.

Brent Ryan (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Kendal (Selma Blair) have the ideal life in the suburbs with their two kids. Carly (Anne Winters) is a teen-ager in high school, and Josh (Zackary Arthur) is her younger brother. The whole family gets along pretty well, but Ryan is dealing with a mid-life crisis and Kendall wants to be back in a creative job like she used to have. Carly and her friend Riley (Olivia Crocicchia) would like more freedom to have fun. Carly has a boyfriend Damon (Robert T Cunningham), but Brent does not like him because he is older, and he is black.

But there is a sudden turn in events. The parents are overcome by an insatiable urge to murder their children. Regardless of age or disposition, they are driven like wild animals to slaughter the fruit from their loins. It happens slowly over the course of one day, and then the first reports come in of dead children. The news is ablaze with reports of theories of all sorts. It could be unusual microbe activity in the water, or a sinister plot of an evil foreign nation. But these parents are compelled to kill the lovely little shining stars in their lives.  They are guided by an unseen desire to destroy their spawn.

Carly and Joshua are caught up in the murder spree that is about to imposed by their parents, Brent and Kendall. The can hide and they can run, but they have nowhere else to go. Damon has been able to escape his own death-by-paternal-unit, so he comes by to help. Carly is clever in ways that can fight back, so she can survive with her brother. Oh, and of course, this all happens on the night that Brent’s own parents are coming over for dinner. His dad Mel (Lance Henriksen) is of course under the same spell and feels the need to do the dirty deed – kill his own son in a gruesome manner.

Yes, this is a frankly bizarre and twisted movie. But it is a crazy set-up that seems tailor-made for the frantic and manic performances for which Nicolas Cage is most famous. And he does not disappoint here at all. In a sequence (a flashback that is set weeks before the weird killing virus), Cage plays Brent at home in the basement constructing a large pool table. And then in a fit of rage and fury, he destroys the same pool table with a sledgehammer, all while singing the “Hokey Pokey”. Ridiculous? Yes, it is – but at the same time it is fascinating to watch.

Brian Taylor is also the writer and director (with partner Mark Neveldine) of movies like “Crank”, Crank: High Voltage” and “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”. That is, writing and directing movies that are so tilted and perversely skewed is second nature to him. So this movie fits quite well into his wheelhouse.

Is this movie great or meaningful? Is it even good? The movie is competently made, but the soundtrack does not fit at all. The acting is somewhat uneven. Cage and Blair are really good, but there is no depth to being depraved. Anne Winters is the best, because she has a real emotion of fear and wanting to protect her much younger brother.

I just want to see this family at the next Thanksgiving dinner


In Phoenix area, playing only at the Harkins Valley Art in Tempe.

Trailer for the the new Gothic Thriller “Winchester”

WINCHESTER

Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award¼-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. To the outsider, it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman’s madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the troubled Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters


Directed by: The Spierig Brothers (Jigsaw, Predestination)

Produced by: Tim McGahan (Predestination) and Brett Tomberlin

Cast: Helen Mirren (Eye In The Sky, The Queen), Jason Clarke (Mudbound, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes), Sarah Snook (Steve Jobs, Jessabelle), Angus Sampson (Insidious, Mad Max: Fury Road), Finn Scicluna-O’Prey (True Story with Hamish & Andy, The Secret River)

Written by: Tom Vaughan, The Spierig Brothers (Jigsaw, Predestination)

#WinchesterMovie

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In Theaters February 2, 2018

http://www.fandango.com

A Quiet Place – Trailer

IF THEY CAN’T HEAR YOU, THEY CAN’T HUNT YOU



“A QUIET PLACE”


STARRING

EMILY BLUNT

JOHN KRASINSKI

NOAH JUPE

MILLICENT SIMMONDS

A QUIET PLACE Official Channels

Official Site: http://www.paramount.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Paramount

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ParamountPics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/paramountpics

#AQuietPlace

In Theaters April 6th 2018

http://www.fandango.com