VOODOO HORROR

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1988)

The film is very loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis.
Davis' book recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse. Narcisse was allegedly poisoned and buried alive. When he was released from the grave, he was given an herbal brew whose effects produced what was called a zombie.

Dennis Alan, an ethnobotanist/anthropologist from Harvard University, narrowly escapes the Amazon Jungle and returns to Boston. Word of his exploits gets around, and he is approached by a large pharmaceutical corporation looking to investigate a drug used in Voodoo religion in Haiti. They want to acquire it for mass production. They send him to Haiti to find out about the drug. He learns more about the process of making zombies instead. He discovers the drug is an alternate and less dangerous method of anesthesia. When Alan arrives in Haiti, the country is in the middle of a revolution. The government is imprisoning and killing all opponents. Alan meets another doctor, who helps him research and investigate the so-called zombies. Alan finds the negative side of Vodou religion, which can destroy the mind. Alan's exploration in Haiti to find the "zombie drug" draws the attention of the authorities. As they have used the zombie legends to create fear in the population, they do not want the secrets revealed. The commander of the Tonton Macoute, Captain Dargent Peytraud, threatens Alan to get him to leave Haiti.

Director: Wes Craven
Producer: Doug Claybourne, David Ladd, Robert Engelman
Writter: Wade Davis (book), Richard Maxwell, Adam Rodman
Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield, Brent Jennings, Conrad Roberts
Running Time: 98min

Rating: 9/10


ANGEL HEART (1987)

The film is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by "a devil", and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs inNew Orleans.

The movie opens in January 1955. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a seedy private investigator in New York City. Louis Cyphre (De Niro) hires Angel to locate Johnny Favorite, a popular big band crooner who was severely injured in World War IIand hospitalized with profound neurological trauma. Cyphre has discovered that the hospital may have falsified Favorite's records and wants Angel to find out what happened, as Favorite owed a debt to Cyphre. But there's more to the case than initially appears, as the doctor who treated Johnny at the hospital (Michael Higgins) is soon found dead after Harry questions him. The detective also has some serious reservations about the enigmatic Mr. Cyphre, who is vague about the "debt" that Favorite owes to him. At the same time Angel begins to detect hints of bizarre religious underpinnings to the case. Despite his misgivings, Harry accepts Cyphre's offer of $5,000 to continue with his investigations. Angel travels to New Orleans as he digs deeper into the case, delving into a world of voodoo and Satanism and growing increasingly worried for his own safety. One informant after another that he speaks to turns up dead. Angel fears becoming a suspect in their murders and he begins experiencing terrifying dreams. One contact, Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of a deceased voodoo priestess and, as she eventually admits, Favorite's daughter, becomes his lover...

Director: Alan Parker
Producer: Alan Marshall, Elliott Kastner
Writter: Screenplay: Alan Parker, Novel: William Hjortsberg
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet
Running Time: 113min

Rating: 9.5/10


I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse, relates in a voiceover narration how she "walked with a zombie." Betsy is hired to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who is the owner of a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. She arrives on Saint Sebastian, which is populated by the descendants of African slaves and a small white community of doctors and officials. Betsy is taken to Fort Holland, where she is told the story of how the Hollands brought the slaves to the island, learning that the statue of "Ti-Misery" in the Hollands' courtyard comes from the figurehead of a slave ship - it is an effigy of Saint Sebastian with arrows in it. That night at dinner, Betsy is joined by Paul’s half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison) and told about their mutual mother, Mrs Rand (Edith Barrett). While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears a woman crying from across the courtyard. She goes to investigate and ends up in the tower stairwell. She begins to ascend the stairs when she is cornered by Jessica Holland, who walks towards her like a ghost in a light robe, her eyes staring. Betsy screams for help, waking most of the household...

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Val Lewton
Writter: nez Wallace (story), Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray
Starring:  James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
Running Time: 69min

Rating: 9/10

LYCANTHROPES a.k.a WEREWOLVES (1)

SILVER BULLET (1985)

Silver Bullet is based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf.
The film is set (in 1976) in the small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, and opens with the death of a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon). Although he was murdered by a werewolf, the county coroner believes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train. Later on, a local woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), is slaughtered in her bedroom. This murder goes unsolved and the townsfolk become worried. Jane Costlaw (Follows), the narrator of the film, is the oldest sister in a family of four. Her narration centers on her relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim). The story develops around the rocky relationship between the handicapped little brother and the over-burdened older sister; a relationship that is strained from the start. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico), is a drunken redneck, whose daughter is Marty's girlfriend, who hears someone destroying his flower pots in a shed not far from his house. Believing it is a gang of mischievous teenagers, Sturmfuller plans to scare them off with a shotgun. Instead, he encounters the werewolf and is killed, which sends his family away. It is not until the brutal slaying of a teenager, Brady Kincaid (Joe Wright), who was Marty's best friend, that the townsfolk are on the verge of abandoning local authority and seeking their own kind of private justice...

Director: Daniel Attias
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Writter: Stephen King, Narrated by Tovah Feldshuh
Starring: Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Everett McGill, Robin Groves
Running Time: 95min

Rating: 8/10

THE HOWLING (1981)

The Howling is a 1981 based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner.
Karen White (Dee Wallace-Stone) is a Los Angeles television news anchor who is being stalked by a serial murderer named Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). In cooperation with the police, she takes part in a scheme to capture Eddie by agreeing to meet him in a sleazy porno theater. Eddie forces Karen to watch a video of a young woman being raped, and when Karen turns around to see Eddie she screams. The police enter and shoot Eddie, and although Karen is safe, she suffers amnesia. Her therapist, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee), decides to send her and her husband, Bill Neill (Christopher Stone), to "The Colony", a secluded resort in the countryside where he sends patients for treatment. The colony is filled with strange characters, and one, a sultry nymphomaniac named Marsha Quist (Elisabeth Brooks), tries to seduce Bill. When he resists her less-than-subtle sexual overtures, he is attacked and bitten by a wolf-like creature while returning to his cabin...

Director: Joe Dante
Producer: Jack Conrad, Michael Finnell
Writter: Novel: Gary Brandner, Screenplay: John Sayles, Terence H. Winkless
Starring: Dee Wallace-Stone, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski
Running Time: 91min

Rating: 9/10

DOG SOLDIERS (2002)

The story begins with a couple camping in the Scottish Highlands. The woman gives the man a silver letter opener as a present, shortly before they are attacked in their tent. Meanwhile, Private Cooper is seen running through a forest in North Wales. He attacks his pursuers, but is overwhelmed and wrestled to the ground. It turns out Cooper was trying to join the special forces, but fails when he refuses to obey Captain Richard Ryan's command to shoot a dog. He is returned to unit. Four weeks later, a squad of six British Army soldiers, including Cooper, is dropped into the Scottish Highlands, missing a football match that makes into their conversation. Expecting to carry out a routine training mission, they find the savaged remains of a special forces squad who were part of the same training exercise. The single survivor, Captain Ryan, makes cryptic references to what attacked them. It is noticed that he has been wounded. Unseen antagonists make their presence known as they attack the troops. Whilst retreating, Bruce is impaled on a tree branch and Sergeant Wells is attacked. He is rescued by Cooper and carried to the roadside where the group encounter Megan, a zoologist who takes them to a lonely house owned by what she describes as a very kind people. The house is empty, save a dog named Sam, though it appears someone had just previously been preparing supper.

Director: Neil Marshall
Producer: Christopher Figg, Tom Reeve, David E. Allen
Writter: Neil Marshall
Starring: Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham
Running Time: 105min

Rating: 7.5/10

PELICULAS PARA NO DORMIR ____________ (Films to Keep You Awake)

1. La habitación del niño (Alex de la Iglesia)
eng. title: The baby's room

2. Adivina quién soy (Enrique Urbizu)
eng. title: A real friend

3. Regreso a Moira (Mateo Gil)
eng. title: Spectre

4. Cuento de Navidad (Paco Plaza)
eng. title: Xmas tale

5. La Culpa (Chicho Ibañez Serrador)
eng. title: Blame

6. Para entrar a vivir (Jaume Balagueró)
eng. title: To let

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (5)

The Baby's Room (spanish: La habitación del niño) (2006)

In Spain, the sports journalist Juan has a perfect life with his wife Sonia: they have just had a baby and moved to an old house that needs to be repaired in a fancy neighborhood. When Juan's sister and her husband visit the couple, they give them an electronic nanny to monitor the baby's room. During the night, Juan and Sonia hear voices in the room but they do not find anybody. On the next day, Juan hires an alarm system for the house and a monitor to observe the baby's room. When Juan sees a man in the room, he gets a knife to protect his son. However, Sonia believes her husband is insane and moves to her mother's house. Juan investigates the happening with the former journalist Domingo, who explains him the paradoxical experiment Schrodinger's Cat and the existence of parallel worlds...

Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Producer: Estudios Picasso, Filmax, Telecinco, Castelao Producciones
Writter: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia
Starring: Javier Gutiérrez, Leonor Watling, Sancho Gracia, María Asquerino,
Running Time: 77min

Rating: 9/10

CALVAIRE (2004)

Marc Stevens is a suave but arrogant up-and-coming pop singer, who makes his living performing light pop ballads and easy listening tunes at retirement homes and other small venues around Belgium. En route to perform on a Christmas special, he wrecks his van-- which doubles as his home-during a thunderstorm and is stranded deep in the woods. Lost, cold, and succumbing to the elements, Marc is rescued by a local, an emaciated young man named Boris, who takes Marc to a nearby abandoned inn and then deserts him there.
Marc quickly discovers that the sole occupant of the inn is its former proprietor, Mr. Bartel, an amiable old man who now lives there as a hermit of sorts. Claiming to be a retired standup comedian, Mr. Bartel welcomes Marc to stay as long as he likes, even offering to tow and repair Marc's van as a sign of brotherhood between professional entertainers. Marc accepts the offer, but retains his arrogant demeanor, refusing to speak with Mr. Bartel about his own career or personal life. The next morning, Mr. Bartel tows Marc's van into the front yard of the inn. Marc informs Mr. Bartel that he is going for a walk, at which point Mr. Bartel suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning Marc not to travel into the nearby village. Marc agrees, but nevertheless pays a visit to a nearby farm, where he witnesses a family voyeuristically watching a teenage boy have intercourse with a calf, calling the experience "so tender". Meanwhile, rather than repairing Marc's van, Mr. Bartel begins snooping through the portion of it in which Marc lives, stealing an envelope of amateur pornography presented to Marc by one of his fans.
That night, Mr. Bartel becomes even more aggressive, working himself into a frenzy while recalling his adulterous wife who abandoned him years before...

Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Producer: Michael Gentile, Eddy Géradon-Luyckx,. Vincent Tavier
Writter: Fabrice Du Welz, Romain Protat
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon
Running Time: 88min

Rating: 7/10

REC II (2007)

Dr. Owen, an official from the Ministry of Health and a Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO) team, equipped with helmet-mounted video cameras, are sent into a quarantined apartment building to control the situation. After encountering some of the infected, Owen uses religious mantra and rosary to fight them off. It turns out that Owen is actually a priest sent by the church to get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl and aid the other priest in charge of her. When they get to the penthouse, they find out that the infected can travel all around the building through the air ducts. The Medeiros girl is nowhere to be found. Larra, one of the GEO officers goes into the air duct and finds a sample of her blood – the only one that the original priest took from her. Owen then performs a religious rite, and the blood spontaneously combusts, confirming that it is the blood he's looking for; however, the rest of the blood also sets on fire and Larra drops it, rendering it useless. They must then get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl. Jennifer's father, who was outside getting medicine for his daughter (the infected girl from REC), manages to convince a firefighter to take him into the building. Moments before the building is quarantined, three teenagers named Tito, Mire and Ori are messing around on a roof. When the police quarantine the building, they find them and escort them out to the street. The teenagers gain access to the sealed building through the sewage system; however, police have seen them and seal their exit...

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Producer: Julio Fernández
Writter: Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso
Running Time: 85min

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (4)

SESSION 9 (2001)

The Danvers State Hospital has been closed since 1992. Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the owner of The Hazmat Elimination Company, a small asbestos removal company. When he hears that the hospital needs asbestos removal, he makes a bid to remove them, ambitiously claiming he can finish the job in just two weeks in order to get the contract; as he is in desperate need of money. He is also a new father, and the stress of work and parenthood have been causing problems between Gordon and his wife, Wendy. As Gordon initially tours the asylum, he comes across a dark hallway with an eerily illuminatedrestraint chair in the middle. He hears a ghostly voice say, "Hello.... Gordon."
Gordon's team is small, but eclectic. Mike (Stephen Gevedon, also the film's screenwriter) is a law school drop-out, who knows the most about the asylum in the group. Phil (David Caruso), Gordon's second in command, is filled with bitterness after losing his long-time girlfriend to Hank (Josh Lucas), another team member who likes to rub that fact in Phil's face. Because of this, Phil has taken up smoking Marijuana. Hank dreams of leaving his job to run a casino. Jeff, Gordon's nephew (Brendan Sexton III), is the youngest member of the crew, and suffers from severe nyctophobia.
The job affects each of the men in different ways. While checking on an electrical problem, Mike discovers a box marked "evidence" in a file room in a tunnel. Inside, Mike finds a collection of nine tapedsessions with former patient number 444, a thirty-seven year old named Mary Hobbes from 1974. In between working, he listens and becomes increasingly engrossed in the interviews, which detail her multiple personality disorder. Two of Hobbes' personalities are harmless and child-like...

Director: Brad Anderson
Producer: John Sloss, Dorothy Aufiero, David Collins, Michael Williams
Writter: Brad Anderson, Stephen Gevedon
Starring: David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Brendan Sexton III
Running Time: 102min

Rating: 9/10


NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957)

In England, Professor Harrington approaches Dr. Julian Karswell, the leader of a satanic cult, promising to call off an investigation of the cult if Karswell would call off "what he has started". Karswell agrees. After learning that a parchment given to Harrington has disintegrated, he ushers Harrington out. After Harrington arrives at his home, a demon materializes in the woods and approaches Harrington. Fleeing in his car, Harrington crashes into a telegraph pole which causes falling power lines to electrocute him.
Dr. John Holden arrives in England to attend a convention where Harrington had intended to expose Karswell's cult. Holden is informed of Harrington's death and that the only link between it and Karswell's cult is an accused murderer, Rand Hobart, who has fallen into a catatonic stupor. While Harrington's collaborators consider the possibility of supernatural forces, Holden rejects the idea as superstition.
Following Harrington's notes, Holden visits the British Museum's library to examine books on witchcraft. A book Harrington requests is discovered to be missing. He is approached by Karswell, who offers to show Holden his own copy at his mansion. At Harrington's funeral, Holden meets the dead man's niece, Joanna, who provides him with Harrington's diary. The diary reveals Harrington's increasing fear of Karswell's power. Holden remains skeptical, but goes with Joanna to Karswell's mansion the next day...

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Hal E. Chester
Writter: Charles Bennett, Hal E. Chester, based on a story by M.R. James
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Seyler
Running Time: 95min

Rating: 8/10


RAVENOUS (1999)

In an opening prologue during the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), a United States Army officer, Lieutenant Boyd, freezes in battle while his unit is massacred. Playing dead, he is transported along with the other dead, with his commanding officer's blood dripping into his mouth, back to the Mexican headquarters. In a moment of sudden bravery, he captures the Mexican command. He is promoted to Captain for his heroism, but his commanding officer realizes he is a coward and transfers him to the remote Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
After Boyd joins the seven other inhabitants of Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives...

Director: Antonia Bird
Producer: Adam Fields, David Heyman, Tim Van Rellim
Writter: Ted Griffin
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Neal McDonough
Running Time: 100min

Rating: 8.5/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (3)

GROTESQUE (Jap.: Gurotesuku) (2009)

A young couple Aki and Kazuo (Tsugumi Nagasawa and Hiroaki Kawatsure) are snatched off the street while having their first date as a romantic couple after a few years working in the same office, and wake up shackled in a scary basement, which has all its walls covered with plastic. With no further explanation, a sadistic madman (Shigeo Ōsako) degrades, tortures and mutilates them. Initially, he punctures Kazuo's belly with a screwdriver and slices his tongue, then rapes both, one at a time, forcing the other to watch. Sometimes he stops the torture to provide medical assistance and cure the couple's wounds, so they can continue alive for a long period of time. This way he cuts off all their fingers, makes collars with them, pops out Kazuo's right eye, removes the girl's nipples and cuts off her right arm.
As the torture progresses, it is revealed he is simply doing it for sexual stimulation, and tells the couple he wants the two to survive...

Director: Kôji Shiraishi
Producer: Kazue Udagawa, Kyôsuke Ueno
Writter: Kôji Shiraishi
Starring: Hiroaki Kawatsure, Tsugumi Nagasawa, Shigeo Ōsako
Running Time: 73min, Japan: 69min (censored version)

Rating: 7/10

HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE (1996)

The film begins at Space Station Minos in the year 2127. Paul Merchant, the man who built the station, has a robot solve the Lament Configuration (the robot is subsequently destroyed). However, several guards led by Rimmer capture Paul. Paul tells Rimmer the story of his bloodline.
A flashback is shown to around 400 years ago. Philip Lemarchand, a French toymaker, makes the Lament Configuration for a wealthy aristrocrat named Duc de L'Isle, who is obsessed with dark magic. He and his apprentice, Jacques, kill a woman and remove her insides from her skin, and L'Isle uses dark magic with the Lament Configuration to summon a demon princess named Angelique in the woman's skin. She is theirs to command unless they stand in Hell's way. However, Angelique and Jacques betray and kill de L'Isle. Lemarchand, in the process of inventing a design (the Elysium Configuration) to destroy the demons, attempts to steal back the box but is discovered. Jacques callously informs the toymaker that he and his bloodline are cursed until the end of time because of the box he created, before ordering Angelique to kill him. However, his wife survives...

Director: Kevin Yagher, Joe Chappelle
Producer: Clive Barker, Anna C. Miller, Paul Rich
Writter: Peter Atkins
Starring: Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Kim Myers, Charlotte Chatton, Paul Perri, Doug Bradley
Running Time: 86min

Rating: 8/10

AUDITION (1999)

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower who lost his wife to an illness seven years prior, is urged by his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), to begin dating women again. Shigehiko is somewhat doubtful of his father's love life, but plans to move out when he finishes school and does not want his father to be alone. Aoyama's friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), a film producer, devises a plan to hold a mock-audition, in which young, beautiful women would audition for the "part" of Aoyama's new wife, under the impression that they are auditioning for a new film, but actually so Aoyama can marry one of the finalist contestants.
Aoyama is immediately enchanted by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a 24-year-old woman with a soft voice and reserved, yet confident, mannerisms. In her audition, Asami says that she was once a ballerina headed for greatness, but had to give up dancing after an injury. Aoyama, still reeling from the death of his wife, is attracted to her apparent emotional depth.
Yoshikawa warns him about Asami, saying that he has a bad feeling about her. None of the references on her résumé were able to be reached and her job history is shaky. The music producer she claimed to work for had gone missing. Aoyama is so enthralled by her inner and outer beauty that he is blinded by his feelings for her.
She lives in an empty apartment, furnished only with a sack and a telephone. Four days following the audition, she sits perfectly still in the middle of the floor next to the telephone, waiting for it to ring. When it finally does, the sack lurches across the room and makes gurgling sounds. She ignores it as she waits a few rings before answering.
When Asami answers the phone, she confesses to Aoyama that she never expected him to call. After several dates, she agrees to accompany him to a seaside hotel...

Director: Takashi Miike
Producer: Satoshi Fukushima
Writter: Ryu Murakami (Novel), Daisuke Tengan
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina
Running Time: 115min

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (2)

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)

In 1969 Pasadena, California, a young couple seek aid of the medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua) as their son claims to see and hear monsters. San Dena aids the family with a seance, but they are attacked by an unseen force which pulls the boy into a fiery pit.

In 2009 Los Angeles, California, bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Her boss, Jim Jacks (David Paymer), advises her to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions to get a promotion. Christine is visited by an elderly woman, Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), who asks for an extension on her mortgage payment. Christine decides to deny Ganush an extension to prove herself to Mr. Jacks. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation.

In the bank parking lot, Christine is attacked in her car by Ganush. After a violent struggle, Ganush removes a button from Christine's coat and uses it to place a curse on Christine. Later, with her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long), they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she is being haunted by a spirit. At her home, Christine is attacked by the spirit and has nightmares about Ganush. At work the next day, Christine has a projectile nosebleed that soaks a horrified Mr. Jacks in blood. Christine then tries to meet Ganush at her granddaughter's home and finds that Ganush died the previous night and a memorial service is being held. Christine returns to Rham Jas, who explains that she is being haunted by a powerful demon called the Lamia that will torment her for three days before taking her to Hell. Rham Jas suggests a sacrifice to appease the demon. The next day, the Lamia returns and thrashes Christine around her bedroom. Desperate to stop the attacks, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten. At a dinner party with Clay and his parents, Christine is still tormented by the Lamia, which frightens the Daltons.

Director: Sam Raimi
Producer: Grant Curtis, Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert
Writter: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Dileep Rao
Running Time: 108min

Rating: 9/10


THEM (french:ILS) (2006)

The film opens with a mother and daughter driving along a deserted country road at night. During an argument the mother swerves to avoid a figure in the road and crashes into a wooden post. She gets out to check the engine, as the car will not start, while her daughter waits in the car. After a period of silence the daughter calls to her mother. Receiving no reply, she gets out. Her mother is gone. She calls for her mother and her call is repeated from the surrounding woods by a whispery voice. Scared, she gets back into the car. Suddenly, noises come from the woods around her and mud is thrown against the windows. The young girl tries desperately to contact the police using a cell phone but she is strangled to death from behind.

The next day, Clementine, driving home from work, passes the crashed car, unaware of the previous night's events. She is greeted at home by her lover, Lucas. The two settle in for the night, enjoying dinner and watching television. After the two go to bed, Clementine is awakened by music from downstairs. Lucas goes down to investigate. He finds the TV back on. He reactively swings a poker at a sudden movement and shatters the glass in a French door. The door is then pushed from behind, causing a large fragment of glass to bury itself in his leg. Frantically, he escapes back up to Clementine in the bedroom above, and the two lock the door and try to formulate an escape plan. Clementine then climbs into the attic to find an escape route. As Clementine searches the attic, one of the intruders grabs her from behind, she fights him off and pushes him off her third story balcony. The intruder's body is soon surrounded by several other people. The couple find themselves surrounded and make a desperate attempt to escape the house.

Director: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Producer: Richard Grandpierre
Writter: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Starring: Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen
Running Time: 74min

Rating: 8/10


JACOB'S LADDER (1990)

Jacob Singer (Robbins) is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. When the story begins, helicopters are passing overhead, carrying supplies for what seems to be preparations for a big Viet Cong offensive. Without any warning, Jacob's unit comes under heavy fire. The soldiers try to take cover but begin to exhibit strange behavior for no apparent reason. Jacob attempts to escape the unexplained insanity, only to be stabbed with a bayonet by an unseen person.

The film then shifts back and forth from Vietnam to Jacob's memories (and hallucinations) of his son Gabe (Culkin, uncredited) and former wife Sarah (Kalember), and to his present (set in 1975 Brooklyn) relationship with a woman named Jezebel (Peña) in New York City. During this latter period, Jacob faces several threats to his life and has severe hallucinatory experiences. It is subsequently revealed that his son Gabe was hit by a car and killed before Jacob went to Vietnam.

As the hallucinations become increasingly bizarre, one of his old army buddies contacts Jacob to tell him about his hallucinations and is killed in a car ignition explosion. At the funeral, his surviving platoon-mates confess to Jacob they too have been seeing horrible hallucinations.

Director: Adrian Lyne
Producer: Mario Kassar, Alan Marshall, Bruce Joel Rubin, Andrew G. Vajna
Writter: Bruce Joel Rubin
Starring: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Jason Alexander, Ving Rhames
Running Time: 115min

Rating: 9.5/10