{Movie}: The Pact

The Pact

Directed by: Nicholas McCarthy

Starring: Caity Lotz, Casper van Dien, Haley Hudson

Genre: Thriller, Horror

Rated: R

Year: 2012

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

While on StumbleUpon, I learned about this movie from a top 5 unknown good horror movies on Netflix. I must say, while I certainly did not know about this movie, I don't think that this film was as good as that blogger said. I give credit to the film for lots of mysterious disappearances. But the format of the movie sorta follows a similar path. A family with a bad past. A haunted house. A ghost - who turns out to be good and just wants to help. And a murderer. Oh, and for the sake of it, throw in a child to make it a little more heartfelt. 

The film focuses on a family, who's mother just passes away. The two daughters go back to the house, which holds bad memories for them, and in an attempt to help out, clean and pack the house. However, one daughter goes missing, and soon after visiting the house, their cousin goes missing too. So it comes down to a paranormal mystery - find the missing characters and figure out what the heck the ghost wants.

There were some jump scares in the movie, but they weren't that good, or they would have been worse if the music wasn't there. This film had your basic medium, police officer, and innocent child. There also were typical dragging scenes, Ouija board, and anti- gravity moment. And each one of those moments weren't particularly memorable either... the dragging scenes weren't meant to be super scary, the Ouija board was very typical, and the anti-gravity scene was just that... it looked like she was badly learning to fly.

The film wasn't entirely bad, the mystery behind the idea was interesting. The main character had to find where her sister and cousin had disappeared to - spoiler they die. But also, she starts to learn that the ghost is trying to protect her from something. And lo and behold a new aspect of the mystery is added. However, there are some parts of the movie I still didn't understand after finishing it. For example, why is it called The Pact. As far as I knew, there was no reference to a pact, let alone how Judas's victim and Annie's mother are friends. Next, how did the Judas killer become known as a serial killer if it was only one ghost and one victim that we learned off. Also, how does the two different colored eyes mean anything? I know that Annie has two different colored eyes, which they only make a big deal of after we realize that Judas also has two different colored eyes. So are they not niece and uncle? Are they child and father? No idea... Also, at the very end, an eye is shown opening. However, I wasn't sure who's eye this was... considering that Judas is supposed to be dead - I mean we see him get shot.

Rating: 4/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!

{Movie}: Intruders

Intruders

Directed by: Juan Fresnadillo

Starring: Clive Owen, Ella Purnell, Carice van Houten

Genre: Thriller

Rated: R

Year: 2011

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

Similarly to Dream House, I expected this film to be more of a horror story than a thriller. However, this film does a good job of creating a confusing and intriguing mystery. The film focuses around two family, an English family and a Hispanic family. The beginning of the film focuses on the Hispanic family, establishing that something is terrorizing the young boy. However, these scenes are all in Spanish, and the viewer is forced to read subtitles. I personally don't like reading subtitles in thriller and horror movies, because I think that it detracts from whatever horrors may be on screen. Also, the beginning of the film didn't interest mee right away, and I ended up playing Tetris on my phone for the first 30 minutes of the film. 

However, after the initial introduction of everything, the film did pick up. The focus changes to the English family, and their daughter Mia. Mia begins seeing a figure, called Hollowface, after she finds a single page describing who he is. It becomes more interesting as we learn that the little boy, Juan, in the Hispanic family is also seeing the same figure. This is important because it is thought that maybe Mia is having some pysch problems, but we know that since the little boy is also seeing the figure, we are going to assume that it is real. Except WHAM the film throws in your face that the little boy is Mia's father, the only other person in the English side of the story who can see Hollowface. While this turn was a little unexpcected, it makes perfect sense.

So while the film held a very interesting "who is Hollowface" and "What is his purpose" type of idea, the ending is not as good as it could. I think the film takes a more thriller mystery aspect, and the director could have done more with the idea. Especially since the imagination of the two children seem to dictate what Hollowface does. 

Rating: 7/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!

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{Movie}: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Directed by: Thor Freudenthal

Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Douglas Smith

Genre: Family, Adventure

Rated: PG

Year: 2013

Thoughts: Beware! Warning! This may contain spoilers!

Being an avid book reader, I was excited when I heard that the second Percy Jackson movie was going to be made into a film. However, seeing as this was intended to be another children's movie, I did not have any expectations for this film.

I'd say going into this film with no expectations was a good idea, since it is based off of a book, which tends to skew people's opinion of the film. I can admit that I have read the book a good few year ago, and while I remember the plot, many of the details evaded my memory.

But the film was surprisingly very pleasant for a children's movie. The action was intense, and the fighting was well choreographed (although keep in mind that since it was a children's movie, nobody died... they all just were knocked unconscious). The acting was really good, these younger actors have already established themselves once in the previous film, and since then the acting has improved. The plot was very straight forward - which made the film a little boring because there were no major plot twists. The biggest possible twist was the end, when Thalia wakes up. And when we find out that she is also a descendent of one of the three gods, removing Percy from the only heir. 

However, being a family movie, you know the ending will be happy and the bad guys will not win. But sometimes these happy scenes go to an extreme, causing the characters to make some stupid mistakes. For example, when Percy and Tyson are reunited they decide to hug and apologize and the works. However, they should realize that while they are having their intense hallmark moment, Kronos is still being resurrected behind them. If this was strictly an adventure/ action film, this hallmark moment would have been postponed until the real conflict had been resolved. But then again, in the movie Kronos is needed for a major fight scene, creating some excitement.

In all I'd say the movie was really cute. It wasn't too violent, and the children are really clever, except for the scene noted above. The director was smart in making the film cater to younger children, but also to the older teenagers and young adults, who may have read the book series, when it was first published. It also helps that all the actors and actresses are closer to our age, and have very attractive features.

Rating: 7/10

Any suggestions for movies to watch? Any opinions about the movie? 

Comment and please let me know what you're thinking! Thanks guys!

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