Movie Reviews from the Grave Part Duex.

Before we get to more of my Horror movie review buffoonery, I found that I actually got a comment from the performance group The M.U.T.E.S whom I mistakenly referred to as mimes in my review of their opening gig for the Night of the living Dead Puppet Show. Please see below......

Vine Pewter said...

Hi Zangz!

Thanks so much for giving The Marvelous Unspeaking Troupe of Entertaining Scoundrels aka The M.U.T.E.S. a shout out and we are glad you liked the show! I just want to clear up that we are NOT mimes! This misconception has haunted us from the beginning. We don't talk when we do our skits because the idea is that you are watching a silent movie live and we paint our faces white to add to the black & white effect. We do however use props-lots of them at times! We don't pretend that things are there that aren't. We just want to put that out there because so many people are afraid of or hate mimes. We don't want to lose potential fans because they avoid our shows thinking that we are mimes. Find out more about the nation's premiere silent film style sketch comedy troupe at themutes.com.

PS We audition for AMERICA'S GOT TALENT on Nov. 7 in Chicago!!

So there you go folks. I've been educated. My apologies for misconstruing what The M.U.T.E.S. are all about. I'd also like to thank Vine for actually reading and responding to my blog which will make Vine the third or fourth person to not only visit, but actauly acknowledge openly that they've visited my blog of geekdom! This makes Vine the #3 of the 3.5 people who've actually visited my blog!

Please keep your eyes open for their next performance since it's something quite original and fun! And good luck to the gang on their tryout for America's Got Talent!!


So on to just a couple of reviews from my Halloween / Horror movie viewing this season. I've saved the best of them for last.....

Paranormal Activity - Before everyone starts screaming "BLAIR WITCH CLONE" just hear me out. Yes, much like The Blair Witch Project, this movie is presented as home movie footage of unexplained events. And yes, the actors keep their real names in the movie. Admittedly, there's a lot to compare with Blair Witch. But, Blair Witch was an experiment that went wild and Paranormal Activity is more of a spawn from Blair Witch type film making.

It is shot from the point of view of a young couple who are experiencing odd happenings in their condo. The strange events seem to be focusing mainly on Katie, the girlfriend of Micha. In an attempt to document the strangeness, Micha, a day trader with a tendency to not listen to his girlfriend's warnings, buys a home movie camera and sets it up in their bedroom.

Through the eyes of the camera we witness the strange noises and bumps in the night that plague the couple as they try and sleep. At first the haunting is very subtle which helps turn up the creep out factor. As Micha becomes a little more obsessed with trying to document and provoke the "spirit" the entity becomes far more active and angry. At the pleadings of Katie, they decide to bring in a psychic who tells them that he doesn't think it's a ghost. He believes it's something far more sinister.

For whatever reason this drives Micha to try and provoke the entity even more while Katie becomes far more reluctant to mess around with it. You see how their relationship starts to fall apart and how the activity starts to get far more disturbing at the same time, leading up to the climatic ending of the relationship.

Compare it to Blair Witch all you want. I won't disagree. I will say that I found Paranormal Activity to be even more creepy than Blair Witch. The scene in Blair Witch when they're in the tent and can hear little ghostly children laughing out in the woods creeped the the frack out! Well, paranormal Activity has scenes that trump that! I found myself pausing the movie to look down my darkened hallway to make sure there was nothing lurking down there during my viewing.

I really liked this flick. It focused on the "creep out" rather than buckets of blood and obnoxious teens getting sliced and diced. It's a nice breather from the usual fare. The prefect film for a cold, spooky evening. Best viewed in a dark room only lit by Jack-O-Lanterns! View trailer HERE!

Trick 'r Treat - Not to be confused with the hard rock influenced shlock fest from the 80's, this 2009 flick completely captures what a Halloween driven horror film should be. This anthology of horror revolves around a small town's Halloween festival where wondering if you have enough candy for the Trick or Treater's should be the least of your worries. Each little story saturates itself in gallows humor and usually leads into the next little vignette until the stories come full circle. Undead spooks, werewolves, a serial killer and a nasty little phantom Trick or Treater all take part in the gory shenanigans of the holiday festivities. I really loved this movie, if for nothing else, the whole spirit of Halloween is always present! View trailer HERE.

That's it for today. I'm off to help put up a giant inflatable Haunted House for my Friends' kid party. Before I leave you, keep in mind, tonight is Halloween Eve, be sure to close the windows and lock the doors. The dead can be pesky SOB's.

Zangz.