Netflix Review: The Dead Room (2016)

"The Dull Room."

There have been some pretty solid Horror flicks that have come out of New Zealand over the past few years. Deathgasm, What We Do in the Shadows, Housebound, Black Sheep, and The Devil's Rock have all impressed us in different ways, so when anything new and scary comes out from The Land of the Long White Cloud, we take notice.



That said, The Dead Room is the first Kiwi fright flick that we've seen in a while that underwhelmed us. It's a valiant effort, and it does some things well, but overall it's an uninspired affair that offers more tired tropes than it does genuine scares.



It happens.

After a family is scared from their isolated farmhouse by a ghost who likes to bump chandeliers with its head, a crack-team of Paranormal Investigators are called in by the insurance company to see if it was all a hoax or not. There's Scott, the skeptical man of science who refuses to believe in anything Supernatural unless there's concrete proof; Liam, the tech geek who is so in love with his gadgets that he doesn't even notice the sexy vulnerable medium on the team; and then there's Holly, the sexy vulnerable medium who dresses kind of slutty for ghostbusting, but she looks good doing it, so we don't mind at all. She's the hero of the movie.

THEY ARE ILL-EQUIPPED TO FACE THE TASK AT HAND.

On the first day, the three set up camp in the house, cameras, sensors and all, and then turn in to get some sleep. That night, at precisely 3 A.M, one of the sensors detects movement, and a chair rocks by itself. Creepy, but could be nothing, so back to sleep they go. The next night at 3 A.M., they're awoken by a loud bang, but this time Holly says she can see a ghost. Still not sure what it is, they go to sleep.

"WAKE ME WHEN SCIENCE GETS HERE!"

On night three at 3 A.M. (this ghost is dependable if anything), chandeliers swing, walls get punched, and doors slam. We're not going to discuss the plot any further here, not because it would spoil anything, but because it's pretty much that same thing over and over again until the last 10 minutes of the movie, when we kinda find out what is going on. But not really.

HURRY, GET TO THE SAFE ROOM WHICH ISN'T SAFE AT ALL! OR MAYBE IT IS. JUST RUN!

The Dead Room wasn't horrible. In fact it's a fairly well-made, low budget Kiwi flick that managed to create a noice and creepy atmosphere, even if it didn't quite know what to do with it. The cast also does a solid job making their characters likable, not counting science guy, which was by design, I'm sure.



The real problem with this movie is that it isn't scary. The house is suitably creepy, but we know so little about why its haunted that there isn't much space for any kind of tension to build. Who is the tall ghost that stalks the halls at night, and why is he doing it? Why is the room at the end of the hallway a safe haven from his supernatural rampage? And what happened in the farmhouse to make it such a supernatural hotspot?



We never get to see the "tall man" ghost, and what we did see at the end (it's hard to explain it any further without delving into spoilers) was quick and fleeting, so it kinda felt like there wasn't any payoff.



Answers to those questions may have helped make things better, although the way it all played out was so stupid at times that it just couldn't be scary. It all started off well, and there were some scary bits here and there throughout, but it never really felt like anyone was in danger. Something scary happens, everyone goes to bed. The next day, something else scary happens, and they go to bed again. Rinse, repeat. By the time any of them decide to do anything, it's the end of the movie, and you just know that they're all doomed, even if it's not exactly clear why.



With most supernatural movies, I usually feel like the characters aren't in any real danger. Most of the time we see movie ghosts slam doors, walk across hallways, jump out an yell boo, contort their faces and scream, and do a bunch of things that look cool, but make no sense threat-wise. I'll admit that I would probably shit myself if anything like that happened to me, but as far as characters in movies go, what are the real stakes if all they have to deal with is flying chairs?

ALRIGHT, SO THINGS MAY HAVE GOTTEN A BIT DANGEROUS AT THE VERY END...

Not really much gore in this one, although there is a pretty gnarly corpse-thing near the end.

Nope, but for a ghostbuster, Laura Petersen sure did wear some skimpy outfits.

DO BONERS KILL GHOSTS OF SOMETHING?

New Zealand is a gorgeous place that we'd really like to visit.

THEN AGAIN...

I have to give this movie some credit for being technically sound, and for its cast being able, but in the end, The Dead Room is a pretty tame Haunted House flick that doesn't pack a ton of scares, and the ones that it does have come late, and are over fairly quickly.



Watch it for free on Netflix if you have it. 



C



The Dead Room is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD, and is streaming on Netflix.

It's not easy finding pictures of Laura Petersen online, but here are a few.

Random Streaming MOTW Review: Haunt (2014)

"Not to be confused with Haunter."

(aka Not Haunter)

Release Date: March 7, 2014.

Country: USA

Written by: Andrew Barrer.

Directed by: Mac Carter.

Starring: Liana Liberato, Harrison Gilbertson, Jacki Weaver, Danielle Chuchran, and Ione Skye.



Every week, we sit down, surf through the Netflix and On Demands
of the world, find ourselves a random, B-Grade Horror flick that we've
never seen, and watch it. Sometimes we're surprised with how well they
turn out, and sometimes they're just as bad as we expect them to be. 



Either way, it makes for a good time. This is one of those films. 





*This is a re-post of a review that we did back in 2014, but since a few of us didn't see it before tonight, it seemed right to revisit.



When it comes to Horror movies that feature teens in peril, most of them end up falling flat. That's mainly because such movies tend to treat their teen characters like they're lovelorn morons who are all but devoid of any sort of depth or real personality.



We're not talking about the "dumb teens who party too much and get what's coming to them," because those are the kinds of teen characters that usually populate Slasher flicks or Torture Porn, and they don't really need personality. They exist only to up the body count. We're talking about the "normal" kids next door, who are always somehow crazy attractive, and exist only to be in love, or to sass their parents, or to mope around whining about how no one understands them. Those are the kinds of teen characters that should be more fleshed out, because they're meant to be more than just numbers to add to a kill count... at least in theory.



The cool thing about Haunt, is that for all of its faults, it actually manages to give us a pretty effective Haunted House flick that features teen characters that actually feel real, and end up being likable. Sure, there's still a teen love story going on here, and yes, we have to suffer through a bit of shy moping now and then, but that's alright; because real kids do those sorts of things. At least with Haunt, we get likable, smart characters doing some cliche' things, because that's just how normal people behave.

Haunt begins with a creepy prologue about the cursed Morello House, where all but one member of a family died under mysterious circumstances. The lone Morello survivor is the Mother, and she narrates the house's fateful history, and lets us know that there are ghosts and such most likely roaming around the place.



So it goes without saying that when the Asher Family moves into the old Morello house, things begin to get creepy. Shy son Evan Asher meets Sam, his cutie pie next-door neighbor, and they become fast friends; two damaged souls drawn together by... blah. Point is, that not only do they team up to uncover the mystery of what went on in the creepy house, but they somehow manage to fall in love along the way. Awww.

They are so in love.

Somehow Sam knows that there's a ghost radio in Evan's crawlspace, and she convinces him to try it out with her, so that they can "find heaven" or some such crap. They obviously don't find heaven, instead they unleash a vengeful spirit into the world.. or maybe the spirit was already there, but couldn't be proactive until someone used the ghost radio... we can't say for sure.

"Does this thing get Sirius?"

Either way, the house is full of ghosts, one of which is out for blood, the rest of which just kinda hang around and look creepy. What really went on in the Morello house? Is the Asher Family doomed to suffer the same grisly fate? What's with that ghost radio? Why do we just not trust Sam? We don't know anything about any of that, but we can say that by the time the movie ends, neither will you.

What does this even mean?

Two things keep Haunt from being a disappointing effort: its atmosphere, and the performances of its cast. 



The scares found in Haunt will definitely affect the younger folks in the audience, but we older Horror fans have seen too much to fall for a bunch of jump scares and music cues. Lucky for us, the movie does a pretty solid job of establishing a creepy and tension-filled atmosphere, which was every bit as effective (and even more so) as were its scares.



As far as the cast goes, Liana Liberato is the star here. Sure, mopey and broody Evan is the "main" character for all intents and purposes, but its not until he meets cute little Sam that the movie really gets interesting. Liana can act, she's likable, and the kid delivers here. Harrison Gilbertson (Evan) was equally as likable, and he made a good pair with Liberato.



The real treat of the movie though, was Jacki Weaver. She's devilishly creepy in this one, which may surprise fans of her Oscar Nominated performance in Silver Linings Playbook. She's no stranger to genre work though, her pedigree reaching as far back as 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock. She was a treat in Haunt, and she definitely classed the movie up a bit. It was also nice to see Ione Skye on screen again (seems like it's been a while), even if her part was a relatively smaller one.



Haunt is not the most original movie, and in fact, it's about as run-of-the-mill as it gets as far a Haunted House flicks go, but it does manage to do some pretty engaging things within its limited trappings. We'll take overly-familiar as long as a movie is enjoyable, and for the most part, Haunt was.

Looks trustworthy to us.

***BEWARE ENDING SPOILERS***



The whole backstory element was really confusing.



So did the old woman kill her kids, or did she just off the woman that her husband was sleeping with? I have to assume that the mistress died first, then her angry ghost killed the woman's kids as revenge, but if that's the case, why would the dad cover his sons mouth and say "Don't make a sound! Don't even move!" as if he were afraid that the Mother would kill him too?



And why would they bring a dead body through their sons room while he's in bed sleeping, and take it into his crawlspace to bury it? Why not wait until no one was home?



All of this leads us to the big question: Where did the box come from? Even better, how did the Morello parents know what it was, and how to use it?

But why?!?

Jump-scares. Jarring music cues. Quick-cut & stuttered movement. Why have do Horror filmmakers still insist on using these lame gimmicks, as if they haven't been tired and ineffective for years now?



Yes, people are conditioned to become alarmed when they suddenly hear a loud noise, or when someone jumps out at them, but when you're going for mood, "loud and sudden" just does not fit. Nuance. That's all we want. We know it's not really that simple to achieve, but execute your big "scary" moments with a bit more style or something. Maybe there's no clear cut answer to the jump-scare issue, but man do they ever take us right out of a scene when done poorly.



As for the whole stuttered/broken movement thing goes though, can we please give that a rest? It was effective for a while in the early 2000's when Asian Horror became so popular, because seeing dead people/ghosts shake, shimmer, and move in quick-cut jumps was new and kind of startling. It was fun.



Years later, it's not really fun anymore. It's like jumping out at the same person, from exactly the same hiding place, every single day; at first, you got them. After a while, you still get them, but it's just not as effective, because you've gotten them before. After a while it becomes ineffective, because they know you're going to be there, and they're expecting you.



We're done ranting now, because we know that none of this will ever stop. It's just all so frustrating!

Don't look at us that way. We're picky.

Haunt has some bloodshed in it, but save for one death scene, most of it is pretty tame. There's lots of creepy imagery throughout though, so it's at least a bit bloody.

We are NOT going to make a "Hammertime" joke here. Not gonna do it.

Nope.

Never open the "spirit box" and play with it. Not ever!

Not ever!

Haunt is a decent little Haunted House flick that is big on atmosphere and character, while being a bit confusing in its mechanics, and feeling a bit rushed towards the end.



It's definitely worth a rental on VOD, just go into it knowing that it's a fairly by-the-numbers endeavour, and you'll be fine.



C+



Haunt is available now DVD and VOD.

Seems like just yesterday that we were watching Liana Liberato for the first time when she appeared on Sons of Anarchy, and now, she's all grown up. She's as beautiful as she is talented, and we expect nothing but big things from her career from this point out.

 

Blu-ray Review:: Session 9 (2001)

"One of the best Haunted House movies of all-time."

(aka The Weak and the Wounded)

Release Date: August 10th, 2001.

Country: USA

Rating: R

Written by: Brad Anderson and Stephen Gevedon.

Directed by: Brad Anderson.

Starring: Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Josh Lucas, Stephen Gevedon, Brendan Sexton III, and Larry Fessenden.



One of the best pure Horror movies of the new millennium (or that we've ever seen, period), Session 9 is a quiet, eerie movie that will get under your skin and stay there. For days.



Now, the tough, jaded type of Horror fans who take pride in the fact that nothing can scare them, might be immune to the effects of this movie. Everyone else though, will most likely be freaked out after watching Session 9, especially if you watch it alone, in the dark, and late at night... which is how most Horror movies should always be watched anyhow.



The "What We Learned" section below is going to contain a pretty big spoiler for the movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, we implore you to skip that section completely, until you have. This is a great movie, and it deserves to be seen 100% Spoiler Free. Please don't ruin it for yourselves.



*This is a repost of a review that we did in 2015, updated for the Blu-ray release.

The plot for this one is pretty simple, and even a bit sparse: A Hazmat crew accepts a job removing asbestos from the abandoned Danvers State Mental Hospital, wherein strange things begin to happen. And by strange, we mean creepy.

YEAH, I'M NOT GOING DOWN THERE.

Crew boss Gordon needs this job to keep his company afloat, and with a new baby at home, he's under a lot of stress to pull this job off perfectly. Right hand man Phil is there to support Gordon, although he's not thrilled that another guy on the crew, Hank, stole his girlfriend from him, and is banging her on the reg, always happy to shove it in Phil's face. Mike is the vaguely dissatisfied ex-lawyer who is living well below his expectations, and Jeff is Gordon's goofy Nephew who is afraid of the dark, and paralyzingly so.

SO MUCH DYSFUNCTION!

When Mike finds an old box containing session tapes of a doctor interviewing his patient, Mary Hobbes (who killed her family and suffers from multiple-personality disorder), he is compelled to listen to them... which leads to everyone on the crew to begin mentally deteriorating in their own way.



...and that's all we're saying about the plot.

THOSE DAMN TAPES!

Session 9 is an absolute clinic on how to tell a terrifying story using little more than mood and atmosphere. This movie gets under your skin not only with its perfect, terrifying location, but with the subtle sense of wrongness that it establishes from the start. When we think of movies that have genuinely scare and unnerved us -and we're talking about in our adult lives here, not when we were kids, when everything scared us- Session 9 is one of the very first movies that comes to mind.



And years after the fact, when we do think about Session 9, we always hear that damn piano music in our heads.



From the start of the movie, you get the feeling that something wrong, and maybe even evil, is afoot here. Mike is virtually lead to the box that contains the session tapes, and once he begins to listen to them, and become obsessed with the disturbing interviews with Mary Hobbes, everything starts going horribly wrong for he and his crew. Are the happenings supernatural, or purely psychological? That's been intentionally left for the viewer to decide for themselves, and you can argue the case for one over the other all you like, but the honest answer is that it's both.

THE THREE SIDES OF MARY HOBBES.

The true star of this movie is the historic Danvers State Hospital. The birthplace of the frontal lobotomy, it's the perfect setting for a Horror movie, and in fact, it's been a part of Horror lore since way back when it was referenced in H.P. Lovecraft's work. It's since been demolished (which is a shame), but the fact that they were able to shoot Session 9 there will keep it alive in our nightmares forever. Oh, and the grounds that it was built on was originally called Salem Village; you know, where the Salem Witch Trials took place. CREEPY.



The human cast of the movie was pretty damned impressive in this one too. Peter Mullan is one of the best actors working today, who most people probably don't even know about. His work in Session 9, as well as Red Riding and Top of the Lake, is enough to make him one of our faves. Love him or hate him, David Caruso does his best David Caruso here, which is cool with us. Everyone else played their parts well enough.

"HELLO, DOC."

Who would honestly take a job at a creepy-ass place like that? Even if it's not haunted, the odds that there's a Serial Killer or maniac living there are pretty strong, so either way, you're probably going to die there.

THAT SUIT IS NOT GOING TO HELP YOU SURVIVE!

What ever happened to David Caruso? His career started off so strong, and them he kind of faded away, eventually ending up starring in that lame, tame CSI bullshit. He could have been one of the greats.

NO, FUCK YOU, DAVID!

There's a little bit of gore here and there, especially towards the end, but it's a mostly bloodless affair overall.

LOOK, THERE'S SOME BLOOD.

Nope.

This new 1080p transfer of Session 9 is fantastic, and it's likely as good as the movie will ever look. Session 9 was one of the first movies every shot using a 24p camera (you can read about that HERE), which means that it's always going to have that early "Shot on HD" feel to it, but to our eyes, this new transfer registered as nothing but crisp, clear, and gorgeous. The audio is sharp too, although we're not sure why Scream Factory opted to offer only a 2.0 track, completely forgoing a 5.1 mix.



The Special Features include a Commentary Track with Brad Anderson and Michael Gevedon that is absolutely worth a listen; and a nearly hour-long Doc where the cast and crew recall every phase of the movie's production, which was equally as compelling.

• NEW Return To Danvers: The Secrets Of SESSION 9 Featuring Interviews With Director/Co-writer Brad Anderson, Actor/Co-writer Stephen Gevedon, Actors Josh Lucas, Brendan Sexton III, Larry Fessenden, Composers The Climax Golden Twins And Director Of Photography Uta Briesewitz.


• NEW Horror's Hallowed Grounds � Revisiting The Locations of The Film.


• Audio Commentary With Brad Anderson And Stephen Gevedon.


• Deleted Scenes And Alternate Ending With Optional Commentary By Director Brad Anderson.


• Story To Screen Featurette.


• The Haunted Palace Featurette.


• Theatrical Trailer.

Overall, this is an excellent disc which does this excellent movie great justice.

NO DAVID CARUSO INTERVIEWS THOUGH, WHICH SUCKS.

 ***Don't read this section until after you've watched the movie. Watch it with no preconceived notions in your head, then come back and read this.***



Is Session 9 about someone having a mental breakdown, or is there more of a Supernatural element at play here? While Brad Anderson and Stephen Gevedon seemed to have left the ending as ambiguous as possible, and people will argue that it's all about a mental breakdown and nothing more, there's no way that "Simon" isn't an external entity of some kind.



The scene at the beginning of the movie were Gordon sees the chair, we see his face slowly covered by a darkness, and then we hear "Simon's" voice say "Hello, Gordon." Now, he hears the voice before the box with the session tapes is even found and opened (and it's sealed up pretty tightly, in an out of the way location), so there's no way that Gordon heard the tapes or knew about "Simon" before his breakdown, so it can't be a byproduct of his losing his mind.



And as far as that box that holds the Session Tapes goes, be sure to watch that scene carefully; Mike is basically lead to that box by "something," and it's only after its opened that everyone starts freaking out in their own special ways.



So Gordon does have a break from reality and totally loses his shit, but we truly believe that whatever "Simon" is helped to facilitate that break.



"Simon" lives in the weak and the wounded, after all, Doc.

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE PLAYED THOSE TAPES.

One of the best scary movies that we've ever seen, Session 9 is a Must See for any self-respecting Horror fan. Whether it's a Psychological Thriller or a Haunted House flick is up to you to decide, but either way, this is one effective, bleak movie that will chill you to the bone, and linger in your mind long after you've finished watching.



Buy this new Scream Factory disc and make sure it's on your Halloween watch list come October.



A+



Session 9 is available now on Blu-ray, and DVD.

Since there's basically no female presence in Session 9, here are some more stills from the movie, for you to creep yourselves out over. Enjoy.