Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a 2004 and sequel to the first film. The story picks up where the first one ends; with Alice in the hospital and the virus having spread from the Nest below Raccoon City and up to the people above. Quickly, just like in the video game, the city begins to tear itself apart, while Umbrella Corporation uses this time as an opportunity to test their new creation.

Overall, the film was really good. Makes for a great weekend horror movie. Has plenty of eye candy and gore for the guys as well.

Budget: $43 million
Director: Alexander Witt
Starring:
Milla Jovovich
Sienna Guillory
Oded Fehr
Thomas Kretschmann
Jared Harris
Mike Epps
Sandrine Holt
Iain Glen
Zack Ward

A Nightmare on Elm Street is either a remake or a continuation of the almost 30 year old franchise. It’s either/or because there is nothing new about this film. While we’re fans of the ‘Nightmare’ films – high hopes on something new and cool were placed on this over-hyped film and for those of you excited about going to see it, are probably going to be disappointed.

While watching the film, almost everything about it has been seen from all the previous films. Things like, falling through a floor and into another room, grabbing Kruger and pulling him out, to the parents desperately trying to hide the truth from their children. It’s all been done and it’s exactly the same as all the other films you’ve seen already.

Is it entertaining, watchable? Yes. Is there anything new, will your hair be blown back? No.

Budget: $35 million
Director: Samuel Bayer
Starring:
Jackie Earle Haley
Kyle Gallner
Rooney Mara
Katie Cassidy
Thomas Dekker
Kellan Lutz
Clancy Brown
Connie Britton

House of Wax is a 2005 horror film, that has done well over the long term, but didn’t do so well in theaters and with audiences initially. We thought is was a great film, creative, and original, but for some reason, audiences didn’t respond to it too well.

the film is about a group of student friends, that are on their way to a football game. Similar to Wrong Turn, they get stuck out in the woods, far from the nearest city. They eventually accept a ride from one of the rednecks that scrapes road kill for a living and end up in the town of Ambrose, where everyone is made of wax.

Only after the local wants to make him part of their collection do they learn that the wax people used to be real people and were made they way they are. The film revolves around the town House of Wax, which is literally made of wax, along with everything in it.

The film is a great Friday night rental, good for more than a few scary moments on a first date.

Budget: $30 million
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring:
Elisha Cuthbert
Chad Michael Murray
Brian Van Holt
Paris Hilton
Jared Padalecki
Jon Abrahams
Robert Ri’chard

This 2007 film, starring Will Smith, is about a man that has survived a plaque that has killed everyone else or turned them into monsters. Before the plague, Robert Neville (Smith) was a scientist for the US Army, and now that he’s all alone, he’s trying to find the cure. He also thinks he is the last man on the planet, while he hides out in NYC.

The movie is filled with action, as Smith avoids the monsters that run the streets at night;taking special care to avoid leaving his scent behind whenever he goes anywhere. He soon learns that he is not the only person and that the monsters are getting smarter, tracking him while he tracks them.

The film has a little bit of a surprise/disappointing ending, since you’ve spent all this time investing in Will’s character, only to not have it work out in the end.

A great film and a must see.

Budget: $150 million
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring:
Will Smith
Alice Braga
Willow Smith
April Grace
Charlie Tahan

The Crazies is a remake of the 1973 George Romero film. It’s about a small town where a plane crashes carrying a secret govt experiment, that when inhaled, makes the person go crazy and start killing everyone they come into contact with. The story circles around police officer David Hutton, as he and a few others try to escape the crazies and the military that were sent in to isolate the town.

For the most part the film was good. I didn’t think it was up to the expensiveness of a movie ticket, but will probably become a really popular rental.

It’s jammed packed with those, ‘out of nowhere’ moments.

Budget: $12 million
Director: Breck Eisner
Starring:
Timothy Olyphant
Radha Mitchell
Joe Anderson
Danielle Panabaker
Christie Lynn Smith

You know what’s so good about 28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later? They’re getting ready to make 28 Months Later! Both the first film and the sequel were really good.

I tend to lean more towards liking the first one just a little more, because of the originality and the story. The second picks up 6 months after the first one left off. England is beginning to be repopulated, people are coming back, BUT their still is no cure or vaccine, which is a really bad combination when you’re still in the middle of clean up.

The only other thing I found, more distracting than anything, was that the shots in this film seemed strange at time. Almost as if the DP had to switch over to a camcorder. The color correcting was good, but that movie quality seemed to diminish at certain points in the film. I have no idea why though.

Overall, the film is great. Containment protocols fail, the squirmy coward from the beginning gets what’s coming to him, and a lot of people die or get INFECTED.

Budget: N/A
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring:
Robert Carlyle
Catherine McCormack
Rose Byrne
Jeremy Renner
Idris Elba
Harold Perrineau

While the film hasn’t been received well by man of the critics that have seen it. It has received positive feedback based on fans that have seen it. In preparation for the film, a lot of people went out and rented the 1941 version. We think doing this set them up for different expectations. While the plot was somewhat lacking, the special effects, the thrills of the werewolf and the action involved really jump out at you. Werewolf, goth, and horror fans are sure to find something to love about the film, while the rest of us are left to say, ‘it’s ok.’

Budget: $85 million
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring:
Benicio Del Toro
Emily Blunt
Anthony Hopkins
Hugo Weaving

Like all films, whether successful or not – it started with an idea. That idea was SAW, not necessarily a franchise, but if it comes about, who’s going to say ‘no.’

That idea was started by two guys; James Wan & Leigh Whannell. They met each other during film school. James wanted to be a director and Leigh was a screenwriter; a perfect combination.

The two got together and hashed out the idea for SAW, in 2003, they created a short film around the concept and began pitching it.

Lionsgate picked up the film in 2004 for financing and once produced, it was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. The following October, like all the Octobers after that, they released the film theatrically. The film and the sequels have been very successful. So successful, year after year, the budget grew, and another film was produced.

With less than an estimated $50 million dollars spent on production of all the films, the SAW franchise has gone on to make over three quarters of a billion dollars in revenue. Not a bad investment on Liongate’s part.

Below are some of the posters and characters from each of the films.

In all 6 films have been released, with a 7th planned for production February 2010.

Total Budgets: $61.5 million
Gross (all films): $603 million
Directors:
James Wan
Darren Lynn Bousman
Kevin Greutert
David Hackl
Starring:
Leigh Whannell
Cary Elwes
Danny Glover
Shawnee Smith
Donnie Wahlberg
Tobin Bell
Beverley Mitchell
Dina Meyer
Costas Mandylor
Bahar Soomekh
Julie Benz

 

This movie is top-billed by Devon Sawa (90’s matinee idol, star of Casper), and Ali Larter (from Dawson’s Creek and Heroes), Kerr Smith (also from Dawson’s Creek), among other teenage stars. Also, this film was directed by James Wong, who originally concocted this for the then sci-fi saga X-Files. He also co-wrote this film with Glen Morgan. Even if movie critics didn’t rave about this movie, it wasn’t a hindrance to have two more sequels and a comic book series. Now that’s a positive premonition.

Trivias: 

• Several appearances of the number “180″ in the movie refer to the film’s original title of “Flight 180″. New Line Productions decided to rename the film to “Final Destination” to eliminate confusion from other plane movies like Air Force One (1997) or Con Air (1997).
• The original casting choices for Alex and Clear were Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

I don’t only call The Blair Witch Project as a horror movie, I call a PHENOMENON too. I instead appreciate its filmmakers’ ingenuity in coming up with an extremely low-budget movie to haul in extremely huge profits. From a budget of $22,000 (a menial amount in movie land), it cupped $240.5 million. Talk about good investment!

You might ask how they got to finishing this film with a super low budget in hand,  well the geniuses behind this record-breaking independent film practiced  supreme frugality. For starters,  Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez combined their intellectual powers to direct and write the screenplay themselves. And the script was not even the kind that would warm the hearts of people, all lines were improvised, probably made on the spot. And the fact that the actors were shot even on those candid moments, didn’t need much direction and script, for the actors were already throwing in the best of scenes on their own. There were several scenes in the movie where the acting was no longer an act.

Another thing that gave the producers much savings was to get your sister to play as the waitress, or the have the house of the production assistant serve as the house prop itself, so there’s no need to rent. Also, give the actors less and less food as the shooting days go by, which in this case, completed in just 8 days. Yes, just 8 short days of shooting.

About marketing the movie, the stunt was simple – make the entire nation believe that The Blair Witch Project is a montage of amateur video footages recovered from a group of hikers lost in the woods purportedly chasing a legendary witch in Blair, Maryland . Print out flyers that declare the actors MISSING, and even declare in the internet that they are missing, in turn igniting the public to see the scary footage that got them missing. The stunt paid off and many people were conned. It was only months after the movie was released did the filmmakers admit that it was all just a show. Well, this case of raw creativeness won several awards, and was the subject of so many movie and TV spoofs. This just goes to show that even the poorest of budget coupled with unique imagination can get you so far.  

Now is the time to watch again the movie that conned you. I’d say, this is the truest form of REALITY TV…yet it’s not… go figure.