Thursday, January 16, 2014

Friday the 13th Reboot... Found Footage??

     So I read that there will be another shot at rebooting Friday the 13th. The last remake, was, at best, forgetful. Why would this time be any different? Here's why: the rumors surrounding the reboot of Friday the 13th are that this new film will be in the "found footage" style. Um... what?
    I love the original Friday the 13th films. Out of all the slashers of the 80s, Jason Voorhees is my favorite killer, hands down, of all time. I felt that the last "reboot" was lacking what the originals had, and the was style. The newer version seemed to just be sticking to a formula devised by watching the originals, and with no skill at all, replaying them with a more "modern" spin. It was a let down for sure. So how far is Hollywood willing to go? With the success of a steadily growing amount of "found footage" films (not all bad, but not all good) why not put Jason in this style of film?! Will Jason be doing the filming, or will this be like some kind of bad creature film where we only get glimpses of the serial killer? Will we even know it's Jason?? I don't see this being a good idea in any sense. Non of the remakes have lived up to the original, Halloween (Why is Rob Zombie set to destroy the horror genre?) gave too much away, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Why won't they stop? I like my slasher movies, and I like some of the found footage movies... but I don't think they should be mixed.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

 I was a fan of the Paranormal Activity movies. I've seen everyone of them in the theater with my wife. While we did not find them to be actual "horror" movies, they were fun to watch. So with the new movie out in the theater, my wife and I decided to keep tradition alive and go see Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. What a mistake we made. The Paranormal franchise has taken a turn for the worse with the latest installment. Gone is the ghost activity formula that has been the mainstay of the franchise since the first film.  Now it has become how much goofy stuff can we put in a film, how cheesy can we make this and keep insync with films that suck, like Insidious for example. The edge is gone and at points it was almost a struggle to stay awake. The movie focuses around a group of Hispanic people in Oxnard, California, which was great, except that the grandmother only spoke Spanish so if your like me, you have no clue what she is saying (no subtitles as they keep to the "found footage style" of the first four films). But that was just a minor thing. The big shift was there was more of a "Sci-Fi/Supernatural" element that really just made the film feel/look fake. Massive plot holes were left in and details that would have helped one to better understand what is going on were left out. At $10.50 a ticket, I feel like I was ripped off and a hour and a half of my life is wasted thanks to this movie. I want my 21 bucks back. This movie is like almost every other horror film has churned out in the last decade or two, pure crap. Don't waste your money on this one.