Manio's Viewing Of: Super 8 (2011)

The unknown. I believe that's what scares us the most. If you ever ask someone why they're afraid of ghosts or aliens for example they'll say "Because they're unknown, and we don't know anything about them". Which is entirely true, the unknown scares us the most and the things we can't explain, makes us even that more terrified.

Super 8 is a 2011 American science fiction film written and directed by J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. The film, starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler, was released on June 10, 2011 in conventional and IMAX theaters. The film tells the story of a group of children who are filming their own Super 8 movie when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their town. The movie was filmed in Weirton, West Virginia and surrounding areas. So, let's talk a little about Super 8 and I'll delve deep into my thoughts of this film. Super 8 stars some "teen" actors we've never seen before, or I've never seen before and they do a damn good job. Super 8 is your typical alien movie where an alien crash-lands in a city, the army is trying to cover it up and kill anyone who knows anything about the creature. Yeah, the military are great people aren't they? Killing civilians because they know about an alien? That's just messed up. Either way, the film is full of action, suspense, and even kiddy romance! There's nothing like two kids falling in love during attacks on their town. It's a great romantic setting.

Enough of that though. Let's talk about the whole purpose behind Super 8, and what they've done with it to make it diffirent than most alien films we've seen today. The film opens up with Joe (Joel Courtney) sitting on a swingset, holding a necklace that his mother previously owned, which we find out his mother died a few days prior in an accident at the factory. Anyways, tensions begin running high and Joe starts getting upset with his father because he's preventing Joe from seeing this girl he has hard feelings for. I won't explain why, because that is a spoiler and we don't like those devilish little fiends.

Anyways, the group of kids decide to head to their local train station and film some of their zombie film, when a train gets derailed from a truck driving on the tracks, and this is when things get set into motion. The kids then leave the accident, and find out that if they tell anyone what they saw they will be killed along with their families. Eventually the film progresses quite well, and people start being abducted, and electronics start going missing. What could be taking all the electronics, and abducting all of the lovely citizens? Over-all Super 8 was a good experience, and I enjoyed every minute of the film. Sure, some of the child actors were a tad annoying, and I was hoping for one of them to be killed off, yeah I'm a sadistic asshole. However, besides that they presented the film quite well, and for me it was a huge success. So, if you're a fan of J.J. Abrams (Cloverfield, Godzilla 1998) and Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, Jaws, E.T.) you'll love this film as it have everything a sci-fi, and monster nerd would love.

A huge thumbs up for Super 8.

Manio's Viewing Of: Hatchet II (2010)

You know what I hate more than anything? Creepy rednecks. Honestly. They just have some way of creeping me out, partly because of how many creepy rednecks I've been subjected to. The family in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, those creepy mutant rednecks from Fallout 3's Point Lookout DLC and especially the family from House Of 1000 Corpses. Everything about those things make me cringe. They're extremely creepy, and make me have a heavy distaste for rednecks. Well, not all rednecks just the creepy ones.

Hatchet II is a 2010 American slasher film written and directed by Adam Green. It is the sequel to Green's film, Hatchet. Picking up right where the first film ended, Hatchet II follows Marybeth as she escapes the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling, killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family’s connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher. So, yeah. Marybeth (Danielle Harris) decides to go back into the swamp where the night before she previously escaped and witnessed everyone die in the most gruesome ways possible. Yeah, I can understand going back and giving your family a proper burial but really? You're going to go back into the swamp..at night when Victor Crowley is known for killing people? I'd rather go back when there's sunlight thank you very much.

Either way, Victor Crowley is all like "Fuck the tourists!" and starts butchering all the hunters one, by one. Some of this kills are incredibly gruesome and literally made me cringe with the amounts of gore in this film. Yeah, talk about a gore-fest. Either way, Marybeth eventually finds out why Victor Crowley is killing people, and she intends to stop his reign of terror for good. Sound familiar? I have to say the one kill that made me cringe the most was watching a man get his testicles sliced off with a chainsaw..that just isn't fun. At-least he didn't have to pay any money for the vysectomy. Not to mention there's an axe+vagina kill in their somewhere, be on the look for that.

Over-all, Hatchet II is an alright horror film and quite possibly one of the best I've seen in a long time. That says a lot. Sure, there's a DECENT plot in there but we all want gore, and death in our horror films and this totally delivers. People get fucked up, there's blood, guts, and a creepy looking hillbilly running around with an axe. Definetly worth your time, so I'll definetly reccomend people check this out. THUMBS UP.

Manio's Viewing Of: Dead Silence (2007)

There's just something about puppets, and ventriloquism that's always freaked me out. Dolls talking, and people making them talk. It's fucking creepy. I recently watched two horror films Dead Silence, and Hatchet II. I'll talk about Dead Silence today, and hopefully tomorrow toss up a review of Hatchet. We'll see what happens. Dead Silence is a 2007 horror film, directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, the creators of Saw. The film stars Ryan Kwanten as the main protagonist, Jamie Ashen, Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Jim Lipton, and Amber Valletta as Jamie's fathers third wife, Ella. This film centers around a children's poem about Mary Shaw, and her puppets. The poem goes as such "Beware the stare of Mary Shaw. She has no children, only dolls. If you see her in your dreams, Be sure you never, ever scream, Or she'll rip your tongue out, at the seam".

Yeah, it's quite the morbid poem and honestly when I kept hearing it get recited I honestly felt a little creeped out, and was like "Jesus, that's fucked". Either way, the film is about this couple Jamie Ashen and his Lisa who receive a package from an unknown person and the package turns out to be a ventriloquist's dummy with the name "Billy". After some talking, and Lisa recites the poem, Jamie heads out to get take-out and meanwhile in the apartment everything goes quiet, and Lisa is found dead with her tongue ripped out. It's morbid, and honestly seeing her corpse made me a little creeped out. You don't forget that kind of thing.

The film then revolves Jamie heading to his old home town of Raven's Fair, and finding out more about Mary Shaw and her puppets. Seeing as that was her town as well. He finds out some creepy information, and finds out why Mary Shaw has come back from the dead to kill everyone, and killing them by ripping out their tongue. It's extremely morbid, and I'll admit I got creeped out a couple of times.

If you're into films that psychologically mess with you, and scare you that way you'll like this film. Sure, they use a ton of jump scares but the psycho-logic scares are in there as well. Puppets, morgues, that kind of stuff are my major things that creep me out so I was pretty much on the edge of my seat a couple times. Sadly, you can tell James Wan and Leigh Whannell have made this film because it has Saw plot-twists tossed around inside of it, which made me automatically know that they were putting some saw-esque plot-twists into the film.

Over-all it was a fun, and extremely creepy experience and I recommend you all check it out. If you're into horror films, and over-all creepiness you'll enjoy everything Dead Silence has to offer. Plus, there's a a cameo in the puppet room if you can notice it at the end of the film. Either way, this film extremely surprised me and I was expecting a stupid, gore-fest like Saw. This film get's a solid THUMBS UP.