“CHRONICLE” Movie Review. Every DESTINY has its PAYBACK.

“CHRONICLE” PRESS PREVIEW

Chill, man.

Somewhere along the line, you learn that it’s choice really – not chance, that shapes a man’s destiny.

You play with fire, you get burnt.

That’s anybody’s comeuppance for toying with bad vibes.

Here’s the premise of the movie CHRONICLE.

It is about three spunky high school lads who uncovers a startling discovery that they can attain supernatural power.

Each uses it for his own singular purpose and each receives a different form of payback.

CHRONICLE follows the trend of the Blair Witch Project, the Paranormal Activity franchise and Cloverfield.

 These are “found-footage” movies, shot on hand held cameras to achieve those quirky, shaky shots for realism.  You see, the methodology of “hand held camera capture” renders the finished accomplishment more amazing.

First-time director JOSH TRANK gives his feature film a breath of fresh air and his visual treatment takes us through an intriguing story based on an absorbing screenplay by MAX LANDIS.

It has a bit of everything: drama, horror, suspense and fantasy all rolled into one big nail-biting entertainment.

Let’s delve into the main plot without much ado:

Troubled teenager Andrew (DANE DEHANN) leads a lonesome, unhappy existence.

His mum is dying of cancer and he detests his abusive alcoholic father.

He demonstrates what human frailty is all about.

His closest friend is his cousin Matt (ALEX RUSSELL) who understands, yet is not entirely proud to be seen with him.

Andrew’s pastime is to record everything in his life with a clunky video camera.

 At a rave party one night, Andrew, Matt and their classmate Steve (MICHAEL B. JORDAN) stumble upon a crater that leads down to an alien artifact.

Inexplicable things start to erupt before their eyes of which we do not get to see because Andrew’s camera cuts out. We are later shown that each of them has developed telekinetic powers.

Boys will be boys, and the three chums use their newfound abilities to pull off pranks just to impress their schoolmates.

 Andrew can easily assemble a Lego space station just by focusing on his mindset.

At the supermarket, they shock spectators by reeling a shopping cart skirting down the aisle.

In the parking lot, they brain-valet a car from one parking space to another much to the ire of the exasperated car owner.

At the school’s talent show, the low-esteemed Andrew now becomes a rage when he performs mind-bending card tricks.

Let’s leave the best for last – the boys are able to will themselves to fly, way above the skyscrapers and clouds. In one incident they are foolishly laughing when they are almost killed by a passing jet.

Everything’s done in the spirit of fun, until they start to play with fire by levitating a truck into a lake.

From then on, the thrills become more pronounced, spinning out of control.

And death-defying.

“CHRONICLE”  is an excellent thriller with a cool, slick dressing.

The story is intense and the plot has its fair share of twists and turns that keeps you guessing all the way.

The thrills go above and beyond to shock you into submission.

To sum it all up, it is a thoroughly enjoyable film with a great unknown cast, a great director, stupendous effects and a profound script.

Watch it if you can.

“INSIDIOUS” MOVIE REVIEW. “The HOUSE ain’t HAUNTED, but your SON is.”

“INSIDIOUS” PRESS PREVIEW

For starters, the word “insidious” suggests a demonic attraction.

And it is starkly obvious that film director JAMES WAN and screenwriter LEIGH WHANNELL took the liberty to adapt creative cues from classic horrors such as “The Exorcist” and “Poltergeist”.

The results show.

Here’s an extraordinary movie about a haunted house that brings on the goosebumps.

Or did it really?

Mom, Dad and three kids — move into this divine place called home.

Surprise!

Pretty soon the happy family will be terrorized by unexpected thumps in the night, spooky faces at the window, and weird objects that apparently move when they shouldn’t.

And more …. to jolt you that, whatever you see is just starting to happen,

and there’ll be more than meets the eye in time to come.

This demonic presence threatens to rip their whole world apart.

The director and his sound editors time must have had a whale of a time imbuing a super loud crashing score to hit every split second after something creepy moves across the screen.

Some scenes may seem to have been heavily borrowed from the “PARANORMAL ACTIVITY” series.

Eventually Mom cracks up and wants out of this soul defeating house.

So the family relocates, moves to a new place to escape the hauntings.

But the apparitions vengefully stomp back again in full force.

The hapless couple eventually seeks the help of a female psychic and a couple of geeky paranormal researchers.

The perturbed psychic announces that all is not well and that the house is not haunted- but there’s a “demon” that lurks within the body of their comatose son and refuses to be evicted.

“The house ain’t haunted, but your son is.”

The ghost busters strategically install the entire house with security equipment for detecting ghost, the ectoplasm and energy vibrations providing a “scientific” examination of the events.

The family is warned to steel themselves for further impending shocks as they embark on a bizarre journey into the “other” world to retrieve their son.

Behold terror at its extreme when the exorcism rites are exercised, to forcefully “expel” the demon out of the son’s body.

”INSIDIOUS” is a horror thriller that expounds on the haunted house theme, only it’s a human that’s haunted instead of a house.

Actors PATRICK WILSON and ROSE BYRNE pitch in formidable performances as exasperated parents who are forced to accept the shocking truth that their eldest child is “possessed” even in comatose.

LIN SHAYE in a supporting role of the woman psychic is superb as she delivers a chilling albeit difficult part “so authentic” that it will surely blow your mind away and steal the thunder from the leads.

So much for the summary of the spook movie “INSIDIOUS”.

Just stay braced for the breathtaking climax.

“INSIDIOUS” isn’t just an intense horror flick served with dark savory wit.

It’s a psycho-supernatural thriller – scary, gripping and absorbing.

Now, go get a blast.

It may be one shock therapy you long needed to get yourself up and going, thanks

to smart director JAMES WAN and his merry gang.

“PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2″ MOVIE REVIEW. GHASTLY BUMPINGS,THUMPINGS and other DISTURBANCES in dead of Night.

“PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2″ PRESS REVIEW

I wish I can consider myself a horror film buff.

But I am not.

I’ve never been afraid of the dark, this life.

And yeah, pitfalls are meant to be overcome.

So it’s no less surprising that I passed on the chance to review the first one.

That was a year ago.

I’ve always harbored the notion that people who pay to get themselves “spooked” are a crazy lot.

The first PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was an independent American film, cheaply-made.

It dwells on spooks that bumped and thumped in the night, not without warnings.

And if you chose not to believe, then woe betide you,

because the noises should then rise to a threatening crescendo …..

getting louder, bolder, angrier and end up as deafening bangs and thuds.

The apparitions would eventually appear in the final consternation, to haunt and shock the ballers out of everyone.

Don’t watch if you have a weak heart, lest you land up having a cardiac arrest.

The first film was shot in the faux-documentary style.

It signified a smashing 2009 worldwide box-office hit in the making.

Journalistic reviews collectively rated it “two thumbs up”.

A die-hard colleague even swore that PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 1 was amongst his all-time favorites, to date.

What of this predecessor, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2?

Grapevine is rife that critics are lauding praises that it’s a wonderfully directed and superbly acted horror flick.

The intensely ” real” chilly atmosphere is a profound factor.

It delivers some genuinely heart-thumping shocks, switching back and forth, to steal ideas from the first film.

Horror fans are a loyal lot.

Keep them really scared, and they will repeatedly come back wanting more.

Curiosity kills the cat and seeing is believing.

I had looked forward to the prequel.

At last, here’s my personal rating:

There’s too much-hype on this home made horror flick that’s stitched with surveillance footages.

Nevertheless it’s always enjoyable to watch something unpretentiously different.

Shooting in documentary style creates a sense of intensity and realism.

The point-of-interest to other film makers is, everything is entirely produced on a shoe-string budget,

made heaps for the investors and producers and is keeping everyone happy and hungry, longing for a further chapter, whilst the soup is still warm.

In PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2, we are introduced to a new pair of gregarious victims, Kristi (wife) and Dan (husband).

This time they come with additional baggages in tow – a child (Hunter), a teenage daughter (Ali), plus a German shepherd dog (Abby).

Initially Dan is skeptical about spooks dwelling in his new home.

The maid has a premonition of impending evil, but she cannot convince the family of her belief. Instead, she gets fired.

But after a bewildering break-in where the whole house is ransacked, Dan then

decides to have cameras installed in every room.

It’s through these cameras that we witness the bizarre happenings.

It is a creepy follow-up on the first one.

There are inexplicable going-ons.

Kristi eventually sinks into a trance-like stupor, creating exasperation for those around her.

She acts like she has been “possessed”.

Abby the German Shepherd dog is persistently attacked by an unknown power.

Everything takes place within the house where there are safety cameras everywhere.

Combining the look of the choppy home video and surveillance cameras, each creepy creak, thud, and humming of the refrigerator motor in the still of night is bound to create goose bumps.

The ending is as gruesome as it is mind boggling, leaving the final pieces of jig saw puzzle in disarray.

We have to assemble these into one cohesive piece before we can arrive at an answer.

The scares are all the more effective by coercing the audience to use its own imagination to fill in the blanks.

The natural performances of the actors, their fright and astonishment at unexpected occurrences, including that of the dog’s, make the film believable and disturbing.

People go to “Paranormal Activity 2″ with fond memories of the original film.

This one is low-tech and teasing in the way it cajoles our eyes and expectations.

The audience is scared, but hooked.

The audience will come back for more.

Are there roaming spirits in this world?

Do you believe in the undead?

What’d you do if you hear unexplained thumps at night in your home?

As you leave the theater at the end of the movie, these will be your lingering thoughts.

“Tonight is the night
When leaves make a sound
Like a gnome in his home
Under the ground,
When spooks and trolls
Creep out of holes
Mossy and green.”

Will there be a PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 after this?

Likely.

Wherever you go, tread with caution.

The unexpected can always come a-calling, when you least expect it.

Beware!

THE CRAZIES Movie Preview. BLESS THE UNINFECTED!

PRESS PREVIEW

Nah, THE CRAZIES is not a slapstick yarn as the name implies.

Far from it.

BEWARE!

It’s a mind boggling horror thriller, a zombie flick that takes you on a scary hair-raising ride to arrive at a flat-out apocalyptic conclusion.

Run, baby, run!

A happily married couple in OGDEN MARSH, a desolate midwestern town find themselves battling for their lives as their neighbours and family suddenly disintegrate into unexplainable madness.

A government plane carrying an unidentified cargo has crashed outside the peaceful farming town of OGDEN MARSH, contaminating the water supply with a deadly virus.

The mysterious toxin spilled in the water turns everyone exposed to it into mindless killers.

The infected ones go berserk and piles of bloodied bodies are strewn everywhere.

Even the authorities play safe and show total disregard for the safety of the uninfected, leaving them to face their own gloom and doom.

Now everyone is trapped in the maze of this once-upon-a-time idyllic town they now no longer recognize.

Unable to trust former neighbours and friends and deserted by the authorities, two couples are forced to band together, planning haphazardly, an escape route.

It’s a nightmarish struggle for survival.

This is where the story begins.

Director BRECK EISNER does a bloody good job in helming this edgy supernatural tale that will keep us on the edge of suspense.

It’s definitely worth a watch, when you want to blow your mind after a tiring day’s grind!

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