It seems like everywhere you look these days there’s Vampires. In the book stores and multiplexes there’s the Twilight Series. The books are doing so well that one independent bookstore that was sold out of the 3rd book told me the Publisher was out of the first three books all together. And at the box office the adaptation of the first book blew everyone away when it made nearly $20 million more than expected opening weekend, and crossed the $100 million mark in 8 days. And TV is even seeing a Vampire resurgence, after a few years off when Buffy and Angel ended there runs. SciFi recently announced it had picked up last seasons canceled before it’s time, Moonlight, and HBO’s Tru Blood, based on yet another series of books, just wrapped it’s first season with a second set to air this summer.

But there is one little gem that may get missed by most in this vampire frenzy, the independent Swedish film, Let the Right One In. The fact that’s it’s both independent and has subtitles will probably deter many people, but those that look past this will find a really great little film. Let the Right One In (LTROI) is essentially the anti-Twilight. Whereas Twilight is the sweet, romantic fairy tale of a girl and her vampire, LTROI is the darkly realistic tale of a boy and his vampire.

We are quickly introduced to Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) a homely 12 year old boy who lives with his mother in a large apartment complex. Oskar spends his days being picked on by his peers, taking their torment without saying a word. But it’s quickly clear that Oskar is not your typical kid, he collects newspaper clippings of murders and other violent crimes and at night he dreams of getting his revenge on his tormentors with the help of his hunting knife. During one of his nightly “fights” Oskar meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), his new neighbor, whose arrival, with an older man, Håkan, coincides with that of a series of ghastly murders. It reveals nothing to tell you that it is Håkan that is committing these murders (although he is horrible at it) in order to feed Eli, who is of course a vampire.

The main focus of the movie is the relationship between Oskar & Eli. It is fascinating to see the changes that having a friend, especially a unique on like Eli has on Oskar, and it’s not long before the bullies see the change in him as well. Hedebrant and Leandersson do a wonderful job portraying their relationship and Leandersson especially does a fantastic job portraying Eli as creepy, yet sweet. But be forewarned this movie is not all darkly, sweet romance; there is also quite a bit of blood and gore.

All in all, LTROI, is an excellent film with a weirdly sweet, yet bloody romance at its center. If you’re a fan of the horror genre its essential viewing, and don’t let the subtitles keep you from seeing this film. Although if you absolutely can’t do subtitles, you can always wait until the American version coming soon from Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. (But it probably won’t be near as good as this near perfect gem.)

Labels: Halloween '09, Let The Right One In

Holy Crap! That's about all I could say when I finished The Strangers last night. But I'll get there eventually.

First off I have to say I was already scared as I sat down to watch the movie. I'd been waiting quite a while to see this one and I'd worked it up in my head as just about the scariest thing ever. Well it may not have been the scariest thing ever it did have me on the edge of my seat, yelling at the screen, and jumping at ever noise in the house. (All houses make noise but why, oh why did mine have to pop right by the front door just as someone banged on the front door in the movie?!?!)

And I have to admit it apparently shook me up more than I'd realized as I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and constantly looking up to see if there were any masked faces in my bedroom. Clearly the movie had the desired effect: it scared me, a lot.

The movie begins with an ominous warning that it is inspired by actually events (something I'll get to later) and begins by showing us the aftermath of the evening, a bloody knife, blood on a wall, cars with large holes in the window, and lets us know that the exact nature of what went on is still unknown. Then we cut back to the previous evening.

James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler giving an award winning performance*) are returning to his families summer home from a wedding and a disastrous proposal attempt. As the couple tries to figure out how to act around each other following their fight we get a sense of the house and the open area around it. Writer/Director Bryan Bertino gives us plenty of time to get to know James and Kristen as we ratchets up the suspense and it works wonderfully making you care for the characters, unlike most horror movies. Once the couple answer a knock at the door the movie becomes a study in suspense and terror that does not relent.

Normally I'd go into lots of details about the movie, but to be honest its one that needs to be entered into without much information. Most of what you need to know can be found elsewhere on this blog or in the trailers but I'll do a quick recap. Before long James and Kristen are terrorized by three strangers, a man and two women, wearing masks that are honestly creepy as hell. The girls wear porcelain masks that look like dolls, while the man, clearly the leader wears only a burlap sack with eye holes in it.

I will say that the most terrifying moment in the film can be glimpsed in the trailer it's the moment, seen above in the poster, when the man enters the house while Kristen is there alone. For what seems like forever, but was probably less than 2 or 3 minutes we see him simply standing in the back staring at Kristen with her not having a clue that he's there, or that anything is wrong. It is a truly unnerving scene and left me curled up on the couch.

Included on the DVD is a short making of and I liked what one of the crew said. He described the movie not as a horror film but as a terror film. It's job is not to scare you with clever jump scenes, but instead to terrify you throughout the entire film. In this sense I felt it succeeded.

Now I would be remiss if I did not mention the fantastic score and sound editing for this film. These guys should win an Academy Award, not be nominated but win. Without the score and all of the sound this movie would not be a tenth as scary as it is. But the movie makes great use of the sound to play with your feelings, scare you, and keep you on edge. The numerous sound people did not miss a single beat in this film and the movie is seriously rewarded because of it. If you do not leave the movie haunted by the sound then something is seriously wrong with you.

Now about this "Inspired by True Events" warning: Some feel it's placed there to scare people more, and maybe it is. But, Bertino wrote the movie because of an incident in his life. Now nothing like what happened in the movie actually happened, but Bertino says that one night when he was younger he was home alone and someone knocked on the door asking for a person who didn't live there. The next morning he found out his neighbors house had been broken into. From there it seems he spun off this terrifying tale. And that's the extent of the "True Events"

I'd recommend this one to anyone who likes to be scared, but you might not want to watch it alone.

*She won the Spike Scream Award for best Actress in a Horror Movie

Labels: Halloween '09, The Strangers

The Changeling is a 1980 movie starring George C. Scott that’s as much of a murder mystery as it is a haunted house film. It is one of the best “horror” films I have ever seen and it’s one I keep coming back to year after year. I first saw the film on Halloween of 1999. The town I went to college in has an old, restored theater called The Paramount that shows classic films as well as some new ones, but every Halloween for years and years they showed The Changeling on Halloween. The film has some very iconic scenes including one with a wheelchair chasing Scott through the house and one with a red ball. But these scenes take on a whole new feel in the packed Halloween screenings at The Paramount. In the scene with the red ball there are always red balls thrown down from the balcony and usually a wheelchair can be seen going down the aisle in the pivotal scene of the movie. It’s definitely a place to go for the experience as much for the movie, as most people there have seen the movie several times over.

You can read the rest of the article on DVD Snapshot.

Labels: Flashback Friday, Halloween '09, The Changeling

When I was in 4th grade I had a friend named Jesse. Jesse and I used to spend the night at each other's houses all the time. Now, I remember playing cops and robbers (mainly because one time I had my hands handcuffed behind my back and fell and busted my face since I couldn't use my hands to stop me), but more than any of the games we played I remember the movies we watched, specifically the one movie we watched every time we stayed over together, The Monster Squad.


If you're not in the know, Monster Squad is basically The Goonies with the Universal Monsters. Except the producers couldn't get the rights to the Universal Monsters and had to make slight changes to make them just different enough to not be copyright infringement. So it's basically a rip-off of The Goonies and a rip-off of the classic Universal Monsters. And it's also amazing!


You can read the rest of the article over at DVD Snapshot.

Labels: Halloween '09, Monster Squad

Halloween is tomorrow and between being sick and getting ready to move and being out of town I haven't had a lot of time to do Halloween Blogs, so today and tomorrow I'll be posting a plethora of blogs from yesteryear starting with this one on Are You Afraid of the Dark? one of my favorite Nickelodeon series from my childhood, originally posted on April 10, 2008.

If you're roughly my age there's a good chance you spent the saturday nights of your middle school years sitting in front of the TV watching SNICK AKA Saturday Night Nickelodeon. SNICK was a 2 hour block of programing which ran from 8pm/7pm central to 10pm/9pm central. Over the years the shows featured on SNICK changed but for my tour of duty the last show of the night was always, my personal favorite, Are You Afraid of the Dark?

AYAOTD? was an anthology series that featured "The Midnight Society," a secret society who met at their secret location deep in the woods to take turns telling Ghost Stories. Each episode would open with The Midnight Society (Left) arriving at the site, usually with something funny happening that would lead into that weeks member beginning to tell their story by throwing some "birch bark powder" into the fire, producing heightened flames while saying "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story "The Tale of..."

Each weeks the stories varied between subject matter. One week might be about a murderous ghost clown, the next might be about a group of kids playing hide and seek in the cemetery where there may or may not be a killer lurking, or it might be an adaptation of a fairy tale or urban legend. Whatever the tale it always involved a group of teens and something supernatural. Most of the time the story was just scary enough to make you look behind you during it, but not so scary as to give you nightmares. (Although "The Tale of Laughing in the Dark" featuring a clown, still frightens me today) And usually the tale ended with a happy ending. After the tale was told someone would dump a red bucket of water on the fire and the group would all leave.

Most episodes were stand alone, although there were a couple of multi-episode stories. Also there were a couple of recurring characters Sardo (No Mister, accent on the "Do!") owner of Sardo's Magic Mansion, who often appeared in Gary's tales and Mr. Vink ("Vink. With a Va-Va-Va") a mad scientist/magician type who would appear in Frank's stories. Both characters appeared in two-parter "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure" told by both Frank and Gary.

The show, based in Canada, was a revolving door of young Canadian actors, many of whom were either on other Nickelodeon series or have since gone on to have decent careers. Among those that appeared on the series over it's Seven Seasons were: Mia Kirshner (The L Word), Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina), Eddie Kaye Thomas ('Til Death), Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince), Neve Campbell (Right, The Scream series), Will Friedle (Boy Meets World), Jewel Staite (Firefly), Ryan Gosling (The Notebook), Tia & Tamera Mowry (Sisters, Sister), Emmanuelle Chriqui (The upcoming Don't Mess with the Zohan), Elisha Cuthbert (24), Hayden Christensen (Jumper), and more I'm sure I've missed. I think it was a job you had to have in order to be a young Canadian actor.

The first Six Seasons are out on Region 1 with season 7 hitting on April 29. Although if you look on Amazon.com you can't find any of them new and will pay a hefty price for them used. (My I got my Complete Series on eBay a few years ago) But if you've never seen the show or can't afford to purchse the DVDs, there's good news. Apparently the show will be airing on The N starting on May 14th.

As for me I'm going to turn the lights down low, curl up in the chair in the corner (so nothing can sneak up from behind) and watch a few old episodes.

Labels: Are you afraid of the dark?, Halloween '09

So in honor of Halloween I thought I'd post quite possibly the weirdest video I've seen in a long time. It's one man, Matt Mullholland, performing the Ghostbusters Theme on multiple tracks, all added together to perfectly capture the theme acapella.  It's very strange and for some reason one portion of the song is sung shirtless with a monkey stuffed animal.  But overall it's pretty impressive.  Enjoy!

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Now Fox has announced that the hit show is coming to DVD much sooner than I think anyone expected releasing the first 13 episodes as Volume 1 on December 29. With this move I think Fox is hoping to get the show out there and get more people watching, while also making money from the already large fanbase who will likely flock to stores to purchase it. I for one can't wait to get a copy so I can clear up some space on my DVR, as I've yet to delete an episode. The set comes with a load of Special Features including the director's cut of the pilot and cast auditions. You can check out all of the details in the press release below.

If there's one movie this summer that I'm completely bummed that I missed it's (500) Days of Summer.  The movie looked amazing, and stars two of my favorite actors, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  These two have been in some of the best movies of the past ten years including Elf, Brick, The Lookout, and many more.  With all that was going in the CineManiac household I just never got the chance to see it.  (although I had tickets to a preview screening by the time I got there it was already full)  So I can't wait to check it out when it hits stores on December 22. 

And if the movie wasn't enough the Blu-Ray is packed with extra goodies including deleted scenes, featurettes, commentary, and much, much more.  You can read all about it in the full press release below.

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Posted via email from the_cinemaniac's posterous

To solve the hardest crimes, hire the smartest criminal! USA NETWORK’s new series, White Collar, premieres Friday, October 23 at 10pm/9c. WHITE COLLAR, stars Matt Bomer (“Chuck,” “Tru Calling”), Tim DeKay (“Tell Me You Love Me,” “Carnivàle”), Tiffani Thiessen (“What About Brian,” “Fastlane”) and Willie Garson (“Sex and the City,” “John from Cincinnati”). WHITE COLLAR is about the most unlikely of partnerships between a con artist and an FBI agent. The story unfolds after charming criminal mastermind Neal Caffrey (Bomer) is caught by his nemesis, G-Man extraordinaire Peter Burke (DeKay). Rather than returning to jail for this daring getaway, Neal suggests an alternate plan - providing his expertise to assist the Feds in putting away infamous and elusive criminals in return for his freedom. Join us online: Official Site, Facebook Fan Page, and Twitter.

I can honestly tell you that White Collar is one of the best new series of the season. And in the great tradition of USA and it's moto "Character's Welcome" this show has some great characters and lets them drive the action, something USA's done a great job of ever since they brought us Monk. I think it's this determination to bring us great characters and not just good premises that USA consistently brings us some of the best shows not just on cable, but on television period. This Friday is your chance to check out the newest series, White Collar, and for the next 4 weeks you have the chance to win a White Collar Gift Bag. I have two bags to give away. All you have to do is send an e-mail telling me what you'd steal if you could steal anything, no limits! (You might get bonus points for telling me how you'd steal it!) You have until midnight on November 13th! Open only to U.S. residents, 18 yrs of age or older.

Enter to win a White Collar Gift Bag!

– Six-in-One Game Set

– The Modern Gentleman

– Neal’s Little Black Book

– White Collar T-Shirt

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Hey kids!  It's been a busy week and I'm out of town but I wanted to remind you that tonight is the Fall Finale of Psych!  According to creator Steve Franks it's the most intense episode of the show to date.  Personally I can't wait (in fact I've commandeered my parents DVR so I can catch it tonight!)  Since I'm so busy I don't have time to give you the best parts of the interview I took part in with Franks and Dule Hill, so I'm just posting the entire transcript.  There's some great info in here about tonight's episode, the future of Gus' love life, the amazing theme song, and James Roday's off season beard.  So enjoy and remeber to tune in tonight on USA at 10/9c. 

F. Germay My first question is to Steve.  It is what advice would you give to aspiring writers in the business?

 

S. Franks I can’t believe I got the first question with Dule Hill on the line.  Don’t you guys know that there is a television star on this line?  I’m very excited.  Thank you very much for that.  For me, my advice is to write and to keep writing if you want to be a writer because if you want to be an actor writing doesn’t really help you that much.  For me, I was working at Disneyland and working in college and I wrote five scripts before I ever went out with one because the first three were terrible and then the fourth one was less terrible.  The fifth one I thought was pretty good.  The fifth one I set up and sold.  For me, I didn’t know anybody in the business.  I didn’t have any relatives in the business.  I just knew I always wanted to do it.  I knew from the time I was in fifth grade.  I was writing scripts in fifth grade, so I just knew that I was going to be in it for the long haul and I had to just keep working at it.  For me it was trial and error, trial and error, and trial and error. 

 

The interesting thing about being a writer is so many of my friends were like, “Yes, I want to write.  That’s cool.”  I always encourage them to keep writing and you find out who really wants to be a writer by who’s still around two years later. 

 

F. Germay Thank you. 

 

S. Franks You’re welcome.

 

Moderator Thank you.  We have a question from Joshua Maloni from Niagra Frontier Publications.  Please go ahead.

 

J. Maloni I’m enjoying another stellar season of Psych.  Steve, let me ask you: what can you tell us about the fall finale and where we’re going when the show comes back?

 

S. Franks The fall finale is really, really fun and really intense.  The idea came about after we had the Mr. Yang episode that ended last year.  We thought how fun was it to really have a fun, suspenseful, intense episode.  Bonnie Hammer, the head of pretty much half of the world and our NBC/USA world really loved that episode and wanted to see us do something like that, so we decided, “You know what?  Let’s do something great and exciting.”  We actually shot this episode third and when we got it back we were like, “Wow!  This is really intense and is really big and really has this unbelievable finale. It has so many things.  This is clearly not the light season kickoff.  It’s like this is a season finale,” so we actually shot this episode months and months ago and we realized we’ve already done our season finale, so we went on to the lighter, funnier, goofier stuff that you’ve been seeing in the last few weeks.

 

It’s really exciting and we like to do one or two of these every half season where we do something that’s a little more intense and more exciting.  In the spring we’re doing another one or in the winter.  I guess it would be officially called the winter.  I call it the spring even though we don’t have a date yet for next year, but for us it’s always about building off of the core and what we can get away with in Psych.  Since we were able to get away with something more intense with ... we sort of pushed it a little bit more in this episode with all of the signature fun comedy that we also get throughout this episode.  Expect this to be probably our most intense episode, a lot of fun, a slam-bang finale and we’ll follow that up in the spring with something equally as crazy. 

 

J. Maloni Can you give us any kind of hints as to what we’ll see in the second half of the season?

 

S. Franks Oh, my gosh.  Of course I can.  We’re actually shooting it right now.  I finally realize my dream to do a Jaws episode, so we’re doing an episode with a shark attack.  We’re doing an Outbreak episode.  We’ve always wanted to do something fun with that.  Of course, what’s more fun than a deadly virus on the loose?   What are we doing?  In the spring, I call it, the winter, we’re starting off doing a military episode and we’ve landed our dream guest star.  That’s John Cena from the World Wrestling.  We’ve been trying to do that since season one.  We actually had a wrestling idea.  We’re really excited.  For me it’s always been each episode is a little movie, a little summer movie and we’re continuing that.  Each episode probably couldn’t be more different than the last one and that’s the way we like it until we run out of worlds. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Rosa Cordero from Accidental Sexiness.  Please go ahead.

 

R. Cordero Dule, I love you and I think you need a girlfriend on the show and I want to try out.  The second part of my question is for Steve.  I loved Big Daddy.  I want to know if you’ll do any more writing for movies. 

 

S. Franks I love that question.  Thank you.  Ever since we started the show I thought, “Gosh, I want to get back into features.  I want to get back into features.”  Then, just like now when we’re at the end of the season, the end of the season comes and I go home and collapse into my bed.  I really would like to.  My goal this year is to get back.  I actually have a feature script that I’ve been working on the last two seasons and I’m finally going to finish it this year.  I would love to get back in the movies.  After the end of this show, after 12 seasons, that’s probably where I will return to. 

 

To answer your first question, Dule Hill having a girlfriend on the show, there may be a little bit of that in the winter, but somebody can ask Dule about that.

 

Thank you for that question.  I would love to get back in the movies.  It’s my goal and plan.  To me it was so fun being a feature writer because it’s like, “Do I write today?  I should.  Maybe.  I’m not inspired.”  When you’re doing a seven-day schedule of a television show it’s pretty much, “Oh, my God.  Oh, my God.  There’s another one coming up after this,” so the pressure and the level of intensity, they couldn’t be more different.  You don’t have time to obsess over anything.  You don’t have time to obsess over things the way you can in a feature.  You just have to do it and trust your instincts.  For me, I think I become a way better writer from working in TV because there is no excuse.  You can never slow down.  You can’t be blocked.  It’s a really different experience.

 

Moderator Thank you.  We’ll go to the line of Laura Tucker from Small Screen Monthly.  Please go ahead. 

 

L. Tucker My first question is for Steve.  I am absolutely addicted to the theme song. I know your band, The Friendly Indians, recorded it.  It’s literally stuck in my head every Saturday morning.  Now, why is it not available on iTunes, but other Friendly Indians tracks are?  Is it like a copyright thing or what?

 

S. Franks No.  What happened is we played around.  The Friendly Indians have been around for ten years.  By the way, The Friendly Indians are back and rehearsing and we’re going to do some shows in the off season, but it was one of those things where we went in to record the theme song before and we got this great studio where Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder had recorded.  We had great producers. It was really super professional and cool.  We only had enough studio time to record the one-minute version of the song, so we were like, “Okay.  We’ll come back and record the full-length version,” and there just has not been any time to go back and do it.  Now that we have this really great version of the one-minute song we can’t sort of half-way do it.  We have to go lock into a studio and get all of those elements back together. 

 

The reason it’s not available is there is no full-length version of it.  We fully intend, every off season, to do that, but as I mentioned earlier, at the end of every season I usually curl up into a ball and sleep for the two months we have off until we start writing again.  So, I hear you.  I’m going to pull the guys together now that we’re back rehearsing.  I think it’s inevitable that we’ll actually do a great recording of it and get it on iTunes.  Actually, we’re hoping we’re going to have enough material to go in and record a third album.

 

Moderator Thank you.  We have a question from Lauren Becker from Shooting Stars Magazine.  Please go ahead. 

 

L. Becker Thank you, guys, for talking to us.

 

S. Franks Thank you, guys, for coming out.  By the way, I have to say I love all of the questions so far.  No pressure on you.

 

L. Becker My first question is for either of you, quite honestly.  I was wondering about the The Mentalist; it’s so similar to Psych just on a more serious level.  What was your initial reaction to that? 

 

S. Franks Well, I think we can both probably comment on that.  For me, I guess it’s the sincerest form of flattery, you know.  There’s not really anything you can do about it, but we like to take every opportunity we can to sort of play with it and have fun with it.  There will be a Mentalist reference in this Friday’s episode and probably a lot more in the winter season.  Dule?

 

D. Hill I would agree with Steve.  I mean it’s not like that show is taking away from our audience or we’ve taken away from their audience.  There’s room for both of us on the air.  I think it’s great there are actors out there who have work to do.  There is more television that’s being made that’s not a late night talk show.  I think it’s a great thing.  I mean on our show we like to have a lot of fun anyway, so as long as they can take us ribbing them every once in a while I think it’s all good. 

 

L. Becker Fair enough.  My second question is from the beginning idea of Psych how has it changed to what we, as the viewers, see?  Were there a lot of things that you had to change round character wise or anything or is it pretty similar to the main idea?

 

S. Franks For me, because I came from features, you write a 110-page script and in that story the characters sort of go along their arc, as they say.  They go through their journey and make the changes as the situations sort of change them.  In a TV show I sort of think of it as it’s maybe a 110-episode arc, so you take each episode is another minute of the movie.  The characters start in a certain place and then you expand upon that world.  We started our guys exactly where we wanted them to.  Gus had a life and Shawn had drifted a little bit out of his world.  Shawn had is life.  They were sort of both looking for something.  Gus’ world was too structured, his full-time job.  Shawn’s life had no structure whatsoever and this opportunity came about for these two guys to sort of rekindle their childhood and have this great sort of fun adventure together.  They’ve been affecting each other every week and making each other more complete and enriching their lives and developing and growing up.  Now it’s been four years that they’ve been doing it and they’ve undergone these great changes. 

 

Important for us is we’ve expanded.  Every week we drive our network crazy because we never want to repeat what we’ve done.  We want to just expand and go a little bit further, a little bit further so when we do a very intense episode, like the one that comes Friday, we also want to do a crazy episode a little bit crazier, just like the Spanish Telenovela episode and the Hollywood episode. 

 

I’m very happy with where we started.  It’s fun for us; Dule, I’m sure, will talk much more eloquently about this; to just keep expanding upon what we’ve done and building on what we’ve done and stretching the rules just a little bit more.  Our goal is that people on Friday go, “Holy crap.  Did you see what they did on Psych Friday and they got away with it?”  That’s our goal.  Dule?

 

D. Hill I think you sell yourself short, Steve.  I think you’ve explained it very well.  I mean it’s a journey.  As I said, I’m only going to be repeating what Steve said.  I think he nailed it.  I mean, as the show goes on you’re kind of slowly, but surely, going over this arc hopefully by the end of the series the characters would have still maintained some of the elements of who they were from the beginning, but they still have grown.  They’re not the exact same person because nobody stays the same.  Actually, that’s what keeps audiences interested.  As I said, Steve, you nailed it anyway. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Stefan Blitz from ForcesofGeek.com.  Please go ahead.

 

S. Blitz I have a question, actually, for both of you.  Steve and Dule, how has both the series and the character of Gus unexpectedly changed since the series began?

 

D. Hill Can you repeat the question one more time?

 

S. Blitz Sure.  How have both, the series and your character, unexpectedly changed for you since the series began?

 

S. Franks Dule, before we start I can tell you that one of the great things about Dule, as we talked about the Gus/girlfriend thing earlier, is every once in a while Dule is really great about calling up in the best way and saying, “All right, Steve Franks, what are you doing?  Don’t you think that Gus’s character should…?” 

 

It’s always in a very collaborative way and in such a way that I’m like, “You know what?  You’re right.  We haven’t explored that part of Gus.  We haven’t done that.  Gus has done this a little too much.” 

 

At the beginning of the season Dule called and said, “Hey, when is Gus going to get a girlfriend coming in?”  So we sort of use that as a springboard to a really fun episode that happens in the winter.  I think for me it’s like I have the entire world to think about and it’s always good for me to check in with Dule or James or Maggie to sort of see what are you looking for.  They’ve been such a great collaborator in terms of how we can push the character in a little further direction. 

 

Okay, Dule.  Take it.

 

D. Hill I mean there haven’t been too many things that have been unexpected necessarily. It’s weird when you use the word unexpected because you’re in the character so long that it’s always a collaborative effort when you’re trying to figure out what new places to go.  I guess for myself the one thing would be having a girlfriend coming on this year.  It wasn’t necessarily unexpected because we spoke to Steve about it earlier in the season.  Also, the fact that Gus and Shawn can sing so well and sing so much, I think that would be something from the get-go of the show I never saw happening on the show so much.

 

I don’t really know.  It’s a hard question to answer so say what is unexpected with the character.  It’s been a great journey.  I’ve enjoyed each episode and seeing where the character goes next in the different things that come up.  That’s it.

 

S. Franks There’s also something fun.  We have this great built-in device that Gus has these unbelievably odd interests that somehow dovetail into the cases, so he has expertise in areas that are always really fun, so Dule is always surprised to find out that he happens to be an expert in a certain area.  I remember the first season when we did the Comic-Con episode and Dule was like, “Gus is a comic book geek?”

 

I’m like, “Absolutely he is.” 

 

He’s like, “Okay. I didn’t see that coming.” 

 

D. Hill ... we’re four years in and being that Gus does have these random interests, things don’t really surprise me.  They’re not really as unexpected anymore, because Gus can be interested in anything.  He can be a connoisseur of anything.  It doesn’t surprise me anymore.  I mean, it can be anything random, the fact that he may know some random thing that Gus may know, something about space or something about - in the last episode that aired he’s a member of the largest on-line community to abolish the practice of - what was that thing, Steve, taxidermy? 

 

S. Franks Yes.

 

D. Hill I mean it doesn’t really surprise me anymore, but to me it’s what keeps the show funny.  It’s what keeps the character interesting and lets it be an enjoyable thing to do. 

 

S. Franks We always think of Gus as a student of the world.  He wants to learn.  He wants to learn and understand everything. 

 

D. Hill He’s actually a very corny renaissance man. 

 

S. Franks Exactly.

 

D. Hill A cornball renaissance man. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Travis Tidmore from Cinemaniac.  Please go ahead.

 

T. Tidmore Steve, first of all, I want to thank you guys for the theme song.  My 20-month-old loves it and won’t stop watching it.  It’s non-stop in our house.

 

S.Franks That’s awesome.  We love to tweak the theme song as much as possible.  That’s one of our favorite things.  Quite honestly, one of the great things that’s happened on this show was the opportunity to have Boys II Men sing my theme song.  It was unbelievable.  I love the theme song too.   Congratulations on your 20-month-old.  You’re going to be sleeping a lot more very soon.

 

T. Tidmore Yes.  I’m looking forward to that.  You guys have talked a lot about Dule’s character having a girlfriend this season.  This last episode featured Larisa Oleynik, who was my first TV crush. I just wondered if there’s any chance that she’s going to come back in any capacity.

 

S. Franks That’s a good idea.  Definitely not in the winter, because we’ve actually written all of the episodes as of yesterday, but there’s always a possibility.  In fact, one of the big things going forward to season five, we already have ideas.  We’ve got nine ideas for season five.  We’re really interested in bringing some characters back.  We’ve got a whole slew of them that we’re working on bringing back.  We’ll definitely add her to the list.  I have a board in the office.  It always hovers around 50 ideas, but it’s sort of 50 worlds and usually they’re one-word descriptions, but many of them would relate to characters we’ve already seen in the past and loved, and a lot of them from this season. 

 

D. Hill Larisa was great on the show.  She came up and she had a good time and we enjoyed having her.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll get a chance to see her back some time soon. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Elliott Slament from Spoiler TV.  Please go ahead.

 

E. Slament I have a question for Steve.  Abigail hasn’t really been present very much as Shawn’s girlfriend.  Does this represent Shawn’s lack of interest and ultimate attraction to Juliet or is it something else?

 

S. Franks Who hasn’t?  I’m sorry.  What was the beginning of that question?  It was cutting out.

 

E. Slament I was saying that Abigail hasn’t been very present as Shawn’s girlfriend.

 

S Franks Yes.  Actually, we sort of had the idea that she’s been there, but we have her for only a certain number of episodes and we wanted to keep her for a certain amount of time, so we sort of spread it out over the season.  It’s one of those things also, when you’re on a cable budget, your guest star budget is only so large, so we can only see her so many times. It’s one of the challenges we have making our show on the sort of price range we do for all of the sort of big ideas that we try to get.  For us, our idea was that Shawn is very invested in Abigail and he’s trying to take this big leap to sort of do a relationship, but production wise we had to figure out a way to sort of keep her alive by talking about her or seeing her and I think Shawn is doing his best to make things work for he and Abigail.  We will see her again.

 

E. Slament Speaking about relationships, might we see anything for Lassiter in the future?

 

S. Franks We have not done anything in the winter, but it’s at the very top or very near the top of my list for season five, should the season five happen, just assuming that season five happens, because you never know in this business.  But yes, I think Lassiter with a girlfriend has endless possibilities. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Joel Humel from Pop Culture Madness.  Please go ahead.

 

J. Humel Thank you for taking our calls today, both of you guys.

 

S. Franks Thank you a lot.  I’m really excited.  I got the list of all of these sites and I’m going to visit each and every one of them in the next week. 

 

J. Humel Cool.

 

S. Franks I sit there and when I actually can get on my computer to just play I realize all I do is go to MLB.com.  I’m excited to have new sites to look at. 

 

J. Humel Okay. Well, I hope this doesn’t count as a question, but who are you rooting for? 

 

S. Franks I’m rooting for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  They’re my team.  I was at both games this week.  This has been one of the greatest weeks of baseball ever for me. 

 

J. Humel I’m a Phillies guy.  They’re right next door to me practically.

 

S. Franks Boy, what a game last night.

 

J. Humel Yes.

 

S. Franks That was just amazing. 

 

J. Humel Anyway, here’s my question:  What were you doing or what inspired you when you came up with the premise of Psych?

 

S. Franks At the very core of it I just found TV depressing, especially the procedural.  I grew up with what they called the light hours, the shows that were fun:  Magnum PI.  When I was really little it was Rockford Files and Moonlighting and all of those shows that were just fun to watch.  I found myself looking at TV and it was always about murder and dismemberment and looking under a microscope at bones and flesh wounds.  For me, and I think this is also to go back to the very first question, the best advice I could give is I wrote the show for me.  I wrote a show that I wanted to see.  I’d never done a one-hour show.  I’d had a few half-hour, multi-camera live pilots, but I’d never even attempted to write the hour-long drama or cop show.  My dad was a cop, so I’m like, “Maybe now is the time to do a cop show.”  I wanted to do something that was fun and funny and revolved around characters that also can take you into a little mystery each week, but that you really got yourself wrapped up and loved the characters and to create a really fun world each week that does something that you don’t see on other shows. 

 

I’m locked in that nobody else is doing a murdered sea lion episode and nobody else is doing an acapella group gets involved in a drug sting.  I feel really good about what we’ve accomplished, but I basically wrote the show that I’ve always wanted to see or that I missed from my childhood. 

 

J. Humel Okay.  Thank you.  Dule, I guess my second question is a little bit related.  What did you bring into the character of Gus as opposed to what was playing when you first heard about him?

 

D. Hill It’s always hard for me to go through and talk about, I guess, the thought process of a character, the process of creating a character, but I can make my best attempt.  I think the main thing that I brought to the character was the idea that he wasn’t just a nerd.  I thought that when I first came Gus was the reluctant sidekick.  I think the main thing I brought was the idea that he actually had a very rational thought process for why he did certain things.  Everything he did he did under the belief that made it very cool and made him very slick.  When you really look at him and look at his actions, he’s not cool at all and he’s not slick.  I mean the thing I always ... the character that he’s a cool nerd.  That’s the thing.  He’s a nerd who thinks he’s cool or he’s someone who thinks he’s cool and he’s a nerd.  That’s the main thing.  He’s a conflict of both; of him trying to be cool, but really being a nerd instead of him just ... the fact that he’s a nerd.  If you ask Gus if he’s a nerd he’s going to tell you no.  He’s going to say, “Women love what I do.”   He’s going to say, “It’s a proven fact.”  Even in the acapella episode is it a sign ... signing the name on the back of a card, but that’s a very corny thing to do.  Do you know what I mean? 

 

I would say that would be the main thing that I brought to the character, but as I said, I’m realizing as I get older the more and more I do interviews on ... process I don’t really enjoy talking about the process of the character because it’s more of an organic thing.  It just happens through the actions.  It happens as you’re living the character out.  As you go along through the seasons you just create it.  You don’t really necessarily put it into words or put specific pinpoints into; at least I don’t anyway; the development of the character.  That would be my answer.

 

J. Humel Plus it’s such genius writing that you don’t have to, right?

 

D. Hill Overall.  I mean the show is a hit show anyway.  I know when me and Steve first met, when we first sat down that was the only thing I could really remember is I didn’t want to be playing a straight nerd for five years or six years on television.  I always thought that we’d seen – (recording cuts out)

 

S. Franks We must have lost Dule.  I can actually take a little bit more.  Dule says the word nerd or geek or whatever.  We don’t ever think of that as a bad term.  We sort of think of this as a more fully realized human being, as a person who understands it and wants to understand the world.  What Dule says is the most true is everything that Gus does is so much thought out that it’s too thought out.  He analyzes everything in his life to the point of his own demise.  I think it’s a fun, fun character to write. 

 

We’ve been so lucky this year to really be able to write for all of the characters on the show.  It’s not just we have to figure out another Shawn episode.  I’m doing an episode in the spring called “A Very Juliet” episode and it was just so great to spend an entire episode just thinking about Maggie’s character and bringing a really, really fun case right into the middle of the episode. 

 

Moderator We’ll go to the line of Lena Lamoray with LeenaLamore.com.  Please go ahead.

 

L. Lamoray In casting Psych what was the one thing that James and Dule did that made you realize they were your Shawn and Gus?

 

S. Franks I hope Dule gets on by the end of this.  We looked at so many people for Shawn.  We cast Shawn first.  James came in and it was funny when James came in.  James is really funny because he grows a beard in the off season.  He’s really shy and really quiet.  This guy came in all really super quiet with this kind of thickish beard.  We’re like, “Who is this guy?”  Then he starts talking and it was like, “Oh, my gosh.  That might be him.”   Then James came in a second time.  We had a certain number of people we called back and James came in the second time and it was like, “Oh, my God.  That is him.” 

 

James is such a good guy that he came in when we were bringing in all of the Guses.  I don’t know a ton about this business because, like I said, this is the first TV show I’ve done, but I don’t think that the lead of a show ever does that.  He was there for casting for all of the Guses and would read with every single person who came in to read for the part.  Dule came in for a meeting and it was like, “Wow.  This is kind of exactly what we were looking for.”  They had like an instant chemistry.  They were kind of friends right from the start. 

 

The only thing I knew going into the show is that you hear horror stories about actors who are difficult and stay in their trailer all day or won’t come out until the other actor comes out.  The only thing I knew coming in was I wanted everybody on our set to be there, to really want to be there and to be cool.  We have a no a-hole policy on our show.  James and Dule were really good people right from the start.  I liked them and I said, “You know what?  I can spend five to eight years hanging out with these guys.”  So the chemistry was first and foremost before those guys ever read a word together; in fact, the first time Dule came in it was just for a meeting at the end of the day.  We ended up just running the scenes right then and it was great.  There is a whole casting process where you have to bring the people into the network to read; well, we sort of tipped the scales a little bit.  We had Dule and James read together at Dule’s house.  James drove to Dule’s house and they sort of were more practiced than the others.  It was just great from the start.  Those guys were friends from the start. 

 

It was just really lucky.  I can’t stress enough how much of a miracle it is that a TV show ever gets made, ever becomes good, ever stays good and ever stays fresh.  All of those things happening and for us to be coming here to the end of our fourth season, we’ve been incredibly lucky and we’ve had so much fun along the way.  The fact that we went to Comic-Con this year and we filled a room with 4,200 seats and the fans were insanely great and for us to have that kind of following this far in it’s been magical and great.  We just feel so fortunate and lucky to be part of i

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This afternoon I, along with a few other bloggers, got a chance to talk to Steve Franks, the creator of USA's Psych. He brought along Dule Hill and it was a great time, although Dule got dropped from the call and a few minutes later my phone dropped out as well. But during the excellent interview I got to talk to Franks about the excellent Theme Song. While I'll have more from that interview later this week I wanted to repost the video of my son, Owen, dancing to the theme song when he was about 11 months old. So I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.




Soon I'll try to post a video of Owen saying "Psych" and "I know, I know" which he does whenever he sees the Psych DVDs.

Labels: Psych

As I said last time, watching the movie House turned me off from scary things for quite some time. But not too long, for a little over a year later another, far scary work would come along and scar me for life.

On November 18, 1990 the television miniseries "It" began broadcasting. Since I was only 9 at the time my parents, wisely, forbade me from seeing it. But alas I found away to see some of it, at someone else's house. I didn't see too much, because it scared me so bad. But I remember seeing the very beginning with the clown down the storm drain that pulls the little boy to his death. And I remember a scene with an old crazy lady. I'm pretty sure I saw other bits and pieces over the nights it was aired, but all I really remember is that clown.

Played by Tim Curry, Pennywise the Clown took something fun, clowns, and turned them into a demonic nightmare. This seemingly normal clown would quickly turn into this monster. From it's frightening smile full of sharp teeth, to it's horrific eyes, it's an image that struck a cord in me, that mad me hate clowns for life.

I say Hate because I'm not really scared of clowns. Sure at first it made me scared of clowns, but more than that it made me just want to bunch them in the face, a feeling I still get to this day. I abhor clowns, and think they are a truly awful plight on the human race. (I do have to admit, this may also stem from the fact that around this same time Jams were hugely popular and my mother, sewed some for me, made of a material covered in clowns, and I'm pretty sure I had to wear these to school. (I still love you Mom!) But I think Pennywise was a big part of it too)
House and It were very significant in steering me away from horror for a while, at least as far as movies go.

After these the next thing I remember is the first time I saw "A Nightmare on Elm Street." As I recall I was in middle school (around 12 or 13) and staying home alone for the night. As my parents left I told them of my plans to watch Nightmare, to which they responded "Are you sure?" and I of course being 12 or 13 said "Yeah, I'll be fine." And I was, at first.

I enjoyed the movie and thought it was pretty scary, but nothing too bad, nothing that I thought would disturb me after it ended. But then I went to bed, and that's when the trouble started. you see Freddy Kruger, the killer in the movie, invades your dreams and kills you. So unlike most killers, which you can climb into bed and get away from, getting into bed and going to sleep is what triggers Freddy. He comes in your dreams and kills you and terrorizes you in your sleep, and if you try not to sleep he confuses you by making you think you're awake when you're really sleeping. And that seemed to disturb me. So for a few nights I had some nightmares until i finally got over Freddy, but once again I kind of stayed away from Horror for awhile..

Coming Up: Part 3: "Here Comes The King!"

Labels: Halloween, Halloween '09

Each year I sit down to watch a few movies for Halloween, because for me Halloween is a time for scary/spooky movies. So here's a list of what I'm watching this Halloween, feel free to add your own in the comments section. After each one you'll see how long this has been a tradition in my house to watch at Halloween.

1. The Changeling
This is the 6th year I'll have watched this for Halloween, with a 4 year absence from 2004 to 2008.

2. HIMYM - "The Slutty Pumpkin"
This will be the 5th year I've watched this for Halloween, every year since the show debuted. And I will by having an alcoholic tootsie roll when I watch it.

3. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Last year was our first year to watch this.

4. Hocus Pocus
Jeri and I have watched this every year for the past 4 years.

5. Ghost Hunters Live!
This will be year 3 for us, and we can't wait!

6. Trick'R'Treat
This is the first year I've watched this, but I guarantee it will be here for years to come.

7. Scream
This is the first time I've watched this movie in the last 6 years, but I look forward to making it a Halloween staple.

8. The Monster Squad
Again, this will be the first time I watch this for Halloween, but it's a classic that I plan to share with my kids one day soon.

Back in 2007 I started a column on my love of horror, but while writing what would have been the third installments a fire in Malibu, where I was living at the time, kept me a bit too busy to finish the series. My hope is to finish it now, 2 years later. So enjoy Oh, The Horror! Part 1, originally published on October 12, 2007.

Oh October, how I love you so! You have my favorite Holiday of the year, and I don't mean Columbus Day. I'm speaking of course of Halloween. The holiday when the ghosts and ghouls come out of hiding and the scares happen all month long. The month when most studios release their horror movies and supernatural thrillers. The month when I curl up to watch things that will likely cause me to look over my shoulder constantly, and check every nook and cranny before going to bed.

I've loved the horror genre (which to me encompasses ghosts, monsters, supernatural thrillers, etc.) for as long as I can remember. As a kid I was enthralled by the books on all of the Universal Monsters, the My Teacher is an Alien series, and the Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters series.

Several of my favorite movies as a kid centered on the supernatural. At any moment I could have quoted to you my two favorite movies: GhostBusters and The Monster Squad! Ghostbusters was a perfect blend of humor and a few scenes that scared the bejeezus out of me, mainly with the demon dogs (or hell hounds), but it was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat, while having fun. Meanwhile, The Monster Squad was just some all around fun. It wasn't really scary but it had all of the Universal Monsters (even if they were slightly different to avoid copyright) and a band of kids teaming up to fight them (basically Goonies with monsters) and my friend Jesse and I would watch it all the time.

Next came two Disney Sunday Night Movies: Mr. Boogedy and it's sequel The Bride of Boogedy The movies centered on a family who move into a haunted house, and hilarity and creepiness ensue. It was slightly scary to my 6 and 7 year old self and I loved it.. In fact my Aunt and Uncle had recorded it on video and for years I would watch it every time I went to their house. (In fact I know have a copy on DVD which looks like it was transfered from a video from the original airings in the mid-80s, I still love it!)

But then I turned 8 and something happened that turned me off of horror for a while. My brother and I are 4 years apart, but our birthdays are 2 days apart. For my brother's 12th birthday he had a bunch of friends stay the night and they watched House. For those of you who don't know House starred the Greatest American Hero himself, William Katt, as an author who moves into a new house, which is haunted. I could give you the synopsis of IMDB, but instead I'll tell you what I remember. William moves into the new house and it starts to scare the living pants off of me! One of the ghosts was played by Richard Moll, I think he had something to do with Vietnam flashbacks, but honestly don't remember, and something comes out of the closet which I'm pretty sure made me cry.

All in all I couldn't sleep in my bed that night, and I had to check my closet before I went to bed everynight and then I had to sleep with the closet open and the lights on. I know this went on for several months before I could finally close the closet door. I'll be honest I haven't seen the movie since then, I've seen bits and pieces, but I always turned it off because part of me is scared of even seeing it. (Strange Fact I just found out: House's story was written by the writer/director of The Monster Squad!) (I did however see House II, several times in fact. My Aunt and Uncle also owned House and House II. Whereas House scared the bejeezus out of me, House II was a hilarious romp, with no scares in sight. I mean it had a caterpuppy for crying out loud! (That's a half caterpillar half dog thing.))

Because of House it would be a while before I watched anything remotely scary.

Next Up: Clowns. Why Did It Have To Be Clowns?

Labels: Halloween, Halloween '09

Wow! That's about all I can say after seeing Cloverfield.
I've been looking forward to seeing this for about 6 months now, ever since I first read that J.J. Abrams was producing some new movie no one had heard anything about and that it had a preview before Transformers.

All anyone knew was that it was going under the codename "Cloverfield" likely because that's the street Bad Robots production offices are on. Then the trailer came out and it was breathtaking, and yet I still knew nothing about it. But the internets were abuzz with this new movie that was coming out of left field. Was it called Cloverfield, was it called 1-18-08 or was that simply the release date? Was it a new Godzilla movie? What does Slusho have to do with it? And so on and so forth.

And after months of hype it's here, and does it live up to that hype? For me the answer is a resounding YES! The movie was fantastic. Running at only 1 hour and 25 minutes because it's so intense it feels so much longer (but in a good way). The movie starts off slow and then goes all out at break neck speed with little time to breath. I noticed several times during the movie that my hands were curled into balls and sweating and had to make my self open them and dry them off. It was just a natural reaction to the movie.

I don't want to tell you much about the movie, as it's worth seeing without knowing anything, but basically it's about a small group of friends whose lives are thrown upside down when something attacks New York City. What follows is their struggle to survive the night all captured on a digital camera by one of them.

For the last few weeks I've been trying to avoid the tv ads which seem to be showing more and more, and I stayed away from all the reviews, because I didn't want to know anything before hand. And I'm glad I did. It's rare that you can go into a movie knowing almost nothing about it in these spoilerific days, but I'm glad I was able to as I think I was better off for it.

As I said it's best going in not knowing anything. In fact if you want to see this, stop reading reviews, stop seeing the commercials, just go. And go now, go see it with a packed house, who may or may not scream things like "Run, B****, Run" when something scary happens. It's best seen on the big screen with a big crowd.

I can't say everyone will love it, in fact I think it's one of those movies where some people will love it and some will hate it. The crowd I was with tonight had some of the haters in it, but I have my doubts about how much they "hated" it. Mainly because for the intense hour or so when things are going crazy, the theater was silent, everyone was so involved in the movie and wondering what would happen next that there was no real whispering, no murmurs from the people around you, just a silent enthralled crowd (in fact at one point I badly needed to cough, but refrained because what was going on onscreen was very quiet and in the theater you could have heard a pin drop).

I think because the movie doesn't end how some people had hoped or thought that it would that they decided they hated the entire thing. Something I think happens a lot, people love a movie, but once it ends in a way they don't like they decide the entire movie was bad.

One thing I should mention are the amazing special effects. This movie was made for tens of millions, which in today's age is considered low budget as more and more movies jump the 100 million mark, but the effects don't reflect the cost. They are wonderful and as my friend pointed out, all the more amazing because of the jerkiness of the hand held camera, which means they had to spend much more time making sure all the effects line up and track correctly.

If you have even an inkling of wanting to see this, go do it now. You really want to see this with a big crowd on the big screen.

Labels: Cloverfield, Halloween, Halloween '09

In today's Flashback Friday over at DVD Snapshot I take a look back at Scream.

Scream was the first horror movie I ever saw in the theaters (unless you count Howard the Duck!), which might explain why I became enthralled and mildly obsessed with it. It was 1996 and the internet was still relatively new to middle class America. Scream was the first movie I can recall that really used the internet for movie promotion. The website was set up like you were looking into a real investigation with case files on all the suspects and information which could possibly help you figure out who the killer was. At the age of 15 I quickly became obsessed with the movie after seeing ads and spending hours on the website.

You can read the rest of the column here.

The downside to reviewing movies is sometimes you have to review a movie that you have no desire to relive; case in point the new horror film Paranormal Activity. That’s not to say that the movie is bad, in fact it’s incredible, it’s just that the movie was so terrifying to me that days later I’m still a little freaked out at night. Every noise has me jumping and shadow could be something haunting. Something only a truly great horror film can do.



Paranormal Activity introduces us to Katie (Katie Featherstone) and Micah (Micah Sloat), a young couple who have been experiencing some, well, paranormal activity in their home. When we meet them the activity has been going on for some time and Micah has bought a new camera in an attempt to capture the phenomenon on tape. It’s clear from the start that Micah doesn’t quite believe That Katie has been hearing the voices she claims to hear. But, during their first night of filming the couple catches a few strange noises, which piques Micah’s interest.



We quickly learn that while Micah thinks this is a fun game, Katie is tired of it. Katie has been haunted off and on by what is apparently the same entity since she was 8 years old, and she just wants to get rid of it. Early on the couple calls in a psychic who tells them that he believes that the haunting is a demon who has attached himself to Katie. The psychic also gives them the name of a demonologist friend who can help, and tells them not to provoke it, and under no circumstances should they try to contact it using something like a ouija board. Of course Micah thinks he can handle it himself and eventually does everything the psychic tells him not to.



The movie is ultra-low budget and really profits from this. The movie is shot from a single camera angle, which heightens the tension by making it feel that much more realistic. The night scenes feel like something out of SyFy’s Ghost Hunters, a series I believe in completely. And maybe that’s why the movie affected me so much, because I believe in ghosts and demons, and the footage looks like the real thing.



While the activity starts out slow, the haunting gets progressively worse, with loud noises, shadows, and eventually physical activity. First time director Oren Peli succeeds by slowly ratcheting up the tension until you feel like you can’t take it anymore. In fact, at one point I thought to myself “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” It keeps getting worse and worse until it finally, thankfully, horribly ends. And like The Blair Witch Project before it the movie continues to haunt you long after you’ve left the theater.

Labels: Halloween, Halloween '09, Paranormal Activity

In a summer filled with Sequels, Threequels, adaptations of comics, short stories, and novels there is nothing more thrilling than finding a movie that comes from an original idea, except when you find a movie that's based on an original idea and is a interesting, well made film.
Kevin Costner stars as the titular Mr. Brooks, on the outside he's a normal, successful family man, so successful he's recently been named Man of the Year by the Portland Chamber of Commerce. We meet Earl Brooks in a bathroom just before he's honored with the award as he recited the Serenity Prayer that many learn in AA. We soon learn that's it's not alcohol Brooks is addicted to but rather killing. Brooks has been "sober" for over 2 years but now Marshall (William Hurt) Brooks' inner self has broken him down and convinced him that it's time to kill again. Brooks is obviously a man struggling with his addiction and we see that it takes a toll on him when he gives in to the addiction.
When Brooks finally does give in to Marshall and kills again he quickly realizes he's made a mistake, one that will come back to haunt him. Soon "Mr. Smith" (Dane Cook proving that he's wasting his talent by starring in drudge like Employee of the Month) comes to Mr. Brooks with photos that show Brooks at the murder scene, but rather than blackmailing or threatening, he tells Brooks he wants to come with him the next time he kills. It seems Smith was exhilarated by watching the murder and wants to experience it himself.
The movie masterfully intertwines three different plots each of which are entertaining and makes you yearn for more. The second plot centers on Brooks home life and shows how much he loves his wife (Marge Helgenberger) who believes her husband spends most of his time in his studio with his kiln, and his daughter who has recently returned home from school after dropping out under mysterious circumstances.
The third plot follows Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore) a police detective going through a rough divorce while trying to catch "The Finger Print Killer" (Brooks) who she had hoped was finished killing, and trying to catch/keep from getting killed by "The Hangman" a serial killer she helped put away who has recently escaped from prison.
To say anymore would be to ruin the movie.
The movie as a whole works, it keeps you enthralled, it's a thrilling guessing game, and you don't actually feel (too) bad rooting for the killer. All said and done, a well made, well thought out, wonderfully executed bit of cinema.

Labels: Halloween, Halloween '09, Mr. Brooks

My new Column, Flashback Friday, went live today in DVD Snapshot.  Here's a little taste:

Welcome to Flashback Friday, a new column that I hope will present a great opportunity for discussion and some fun reflection. I will be your guide as we look back at movies of the past 25 years.  Every two weeks I'll go back and rewatch a movie from the last 25 years and then explore it by looking back at how I felt the first time I saw the movie and how much my feelings for the movie has changed.  Hopefully you will join in the discussion by sharing your thoughts in the comments section.  Also, I'll be listing the next Flashback Friday movie at the end of the column giving you time to watch it and get ready for the discussion.

This week I'll be taking a look at a modern classic, The Matrix.  The Matrix changed film in a lot of ways, and I was curious to see how it's held up.  How have the past ten years affected the film?  Has watching the misguided (and some might say terrible) sequels changed how you and I feel about the film?

Click here to read the rest.

Posted via email from the_cinemaniac's posterous

Labels: Back to the Future, BTTF, Terminator Salvation

If you're anything like me, and I think you are, October is a special time of year. It's the time when the Halloween decorations come out, the weather gets colder, and the scary movies start playing, both in theaters and at home.

This October I already have plans to watch a few scary movies. Tomorrow night I'll be seeing the uber-low budget film, Paranormal Activity, and I've got Scream, Ghostbusters, Monster Squad, and The Haunting queued up and ready to play over the next few weeks. (Yes I realize some of those are comedies/kids movies, but all paranormal/horror/suspense movies get fair play in the CineManiac household, except for torture porn, I hate that crap!) And I'll be using the last of some store credit I have to pick up Trick'R'Treat next week.

On a side note, Scream, Monster Squad, and The Haunting are all being watched for a new column I have starting tomorrow at DVD Snapshot. The column, Flashback Friday, has me looking back at movies of the past 25 years, looking at how I remember the movie, and what I think of it on a recent viewing. I'll link to the first one, looking at The Matrix, tomorrow.

This October I'll also be re-posting some older reviews, columns, etc, including last year's "Things I'm Watching This Halloween" and the column I began in 2007 charting my history with Horror, which was interrupted be a wildfire and never completed. So to begin I'm posting an old review of 2007's Disturbia.

As a fan of Hitchcock's Rear Window, it would have been easy to blow this off as another inept attempt to remake a classic. But as a fan of star Shia LaBeouf from back when he was on Disney's Even Stevens I wanted to check it out from Day 1. Unfortunately between writing papers, studying and taking finals, and seeing Hot Fuzz and Spider-Man 3, I really didn't have the time until Thursday, and I'm glad I didn't miss it while it was in theaters.

The movie starts with Kale (LaBeouf) and his father on the lake fishing, from the start we can tell they have a good relationship and that Kale is a happy and easygoing guy, if somewhat of a smart mouth. Soon Kale's father dies in a tragic accident, in a scene that was so intense it will stick with you hours later. We then cut to "One Year Later" and open on a high school classroom, where Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) is telling his Spanish class about his upcoming summer vacation, in spanish. I'm sure this scene was very funny, but I'm not sure as the Mann Agora theater, unlike the Arclight (My Personal Favorite Theater), doesn't have their employees watch the first few minutes of the movie to make sure it's aligned correctly and in focus, so I had to go find someone to focus the movie and missed the rest of the scene.

We are then reintroduced to Kale as he sits, asleep, in his spanish class and is woken by his teacher. Kale is now withdrawn and full of anger, which soon lands him in court where he is sentenced to 3 months of house arrest. Forced to wear an ankle bracelet, Kale must stay within a 100 foot radius of the receiver located in his house. Here we are treated to a nice montage of Kale trying to figure out what to do to keep him sane while stuck inside his house. Besides playing video games and watching tv, Kale attempts to do his laundry (by shoving everything into the washer at once with a healthy dose of detergent) and actually cleaning the house. Soon Kale realizes how serious his situation is when some neighborhood kids lite a bag of flaming poo on his porch, Kale chases after them and is soon in handcuffs.

To avoid leaving his 100 foot radius again Kale sets out to establish a perimeter so he knows exactly how far he can go, and quickly realizes his neighbors are interesting to watch. Soon Kale is watching all of his neighbors from the comfort of his home through his binoculars. He takes a special interest in his hot new neighbor, Ashely (Sarah Roemer), and soon he and his pal Ronnie are taking in her daily swim. When Ashely catches them she too joins the voyeuristic fun of watching others without their knowledge.

The trio take a special interest in Mr. Turner (David Morse) who may or may not match the description of a man who was the last person seen with a missing woman. His car fits the description and so the gang makes the assumption that he may be a serial killer, living in their own little neighborhood. What follows is an intense series of cat and mouse games designed to keep you guessing about Turner and his motives.

I really enjoyed this movie, really enjoyed it. I think the biggest strength is that the characters are well developed, instead of just being caricatures. I think it could have been very easy to make this movie with just cardboard characters, but the writers and director did a great job of fleshing out the characters and making you feel for them (well most of them).

The actors themselves bring a lot to the film as well. I've always been a fan of Morse, who usually seems to play a cop or a bad guy or a bad cop, and he's pitch perfect here. Morse is a large man and I think his stature adds to the sense of terror he brings to the screen, by towering over the others it makes him more intense and menacing. Relative newcomers Roemer and Yoo do a great job as the love interest/best friend respectively and bring a lot of humor and suspense to the film. I think another reason I enjoy the film so much is that there is a healthy dose of humor in the movie, it's not just a suspenseful, edge of your seat thriller, but has a bit of a comedic element that helps alleve the tension when it needs it most.

But, I think the biggest revelation of the movie is the acting ability of LaBeouf, as I've said I'm a big fan of his, but I was blown away at how far he's come since Even Stevens and Holes. I have yet to see "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" his last film that got rave reviews, so I'm not sure if that was where he really stepped up his game, but after seeing this movie I'm very excited to check that one out and see if he carries the same weight as he does here.

Overall a fun, suspenseful thriller. See it in theaters while you can, there's a reason it's made $66 Million and counting.

Labels: Disturbia, Halloween, Halloween '09