Dead By Dawn 2016: We Go On (2016)

After the madness of YellowBrickRoad, writer-directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton return with another impressive horror entry. While more traditional in style and aim than their debut feature, this remains something a bit different. Yet it also ladles on the atmosphere and traditional scares with a skill rarely seen at this level (not to dismiss the many fine horror movies we see every year, I am just emphasising that this is a top-tier flick with very few of the flaws we usually see associated with considerably lower budgets).

Clark Freeman plays Miles, a young man who seems to be afraid of almost everything in the world around him. Especially cars. He's one of the few people who doesn't drive. In an effort to release himself from his paralysing fears, Miles overs a large financial reward to anyone who can prove that there is something after death. He wants to take some comfort in the fact that we go on, hence the title. After wading through a large pile of kooks and deluded responses, he narrows his potential candidated down to just a few. Heading off to meet each one, with his mother (Annette O'Toole) in tow, he soon finds that there may not be any proof out there. Until it appears right under his nose. And then he might wish he hadn't started on this journey.

There are only two main problems with We Go On. First of all, Freeman isn't the best lead. He's not terrible, by any means, but it certainly takes a while to warm to his character. After some careful consideration, I concluded that this was due more to Freeman's performance than the writing, which is pretty solid throughout. The second main problem is a surprising lack of tension during some sequences. There's atmosphere and some wonderfully spooky details, and a few fantastic jump scares, but the tension dissipates once some rules are laid down and you know what can and cannot occur. That doesn't make the experience of some of the main characters any less harrowing, however, and it's a minor flaw when the rest of the actual horror content is so well handled.

As well as Freeman and O'Toole (who is wonderful, by the way, in her portrayal of a mother who will go to almost any lengths to keep her son safe and well), the cast includes John Glover in a small role (making the film an extra little treat for Smallville fans), Giovanna Zacarias as an alleged psychic plagued by the presence of spirits around her, Jay Dunn as a lovesick stranger, and Laura Heisler as a young woman trying to keep a dangerous individual out of her life. All of these people interconnnect in ways that feel nicely plausible without ever seeming too contrived, in the context of the main premise.

Holland and Mitton have certainly learned a thing or two over the past few years, although I am still also a huge fan of their debut, and We Go On uses almost every trick in the book to deliver the chills. The visuals and production design are solid, the audio moves up and down to prime you for those big scares, and the script manages to satisfy everyone while also still leaving room for some personal interpretation.

If you enjoyed some of the bigger supernatural hits from the last decade or so (The Sixth Sense, Stir Of Echoes, White Noise, etc) then you should love this one. It's up there with the very best of 'em.

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8/10

Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

Grave Encounters is a found footage movie written and directed by The Vicious Brothers (AKA Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz) that was released last year to a pretty warm reception from horror fans. Of course, some people hated it (many are sick, by now, of the whole "found footage" subgenre anyway) but a lot of people were very impressed. I really enjoyed it but it was almost the very definition of a ghost train/funhouse movie. The jump scares were enjoyable, things were occasionally intense, but it didn't really live up to the promise that it had. In my view, anyway.

That didn't stop me from looking forward to this sequel. I was even more optimistic when I found out that the people involved, and John Poliquin is credited as the director this time, were going to be taking an interesting approach. They were going down the Book Of Shadows route which sounded just fine to me as I am one of the 5% of the population who loved that sequel to The Blair Witch Project.

Richard Harmon (a young man who looks far too much like Robert Pattinson for his own good, sadly) plays Alex Wright, a young man who uploads movie reviews on to the internet and also keeps people up to date on his own blossoming directorial career. He's directing a horror movie with some fellow students involved and he wants it to be something truly memorable. Hopefully, he can make it as memorable as Grave Encounters, a movie that he advised people wasn't really worth a watch but that has played on his mind ever since he saw it. In fact, Alex has become a bit obsessed and thinks that the events depicted in Grave Encounters really happened. When his online videos start receiving replies from a user going by the name of "deathawaits" he decides that he should follow his gut and find out more about the movie. He talks to a number of people and soon becomes more and more convinced that his theory - that the movie shows real events - is correct. But the final proof required will only be found by going to the location and checking it out. The five members making up the group have packed plenty that they think will see them a lot better prepared than the first group.

Surprising as it may seem, I enjoyed this even more than the first movie. The script by The Vicious Brothers is very clever and allows them to have their cake and eat it. When Book Of Shadows was released years ago anyone who liked the film, such as myself, would defend it by reminding people that simply providing another bunch of people getting lost in the woods would be a boring and horrible retread of the first film. In Grave Encounters 2, aspects of the first movie are looked at and the premise gradually moves to what viewers think will simply be a retread of the first movie before it all gets wilder and wilder. That's the real beauty of it. Grave Encounters set things up for a horror movie that had some crazy moments here and there but the sequel basically kicks into gear after half an hour or so and then says "well, if you thought THAT stuff was out there then just strap yourself in and enjoy this lot".

The cast aren't really great but they do good enough. Harmon carries most of the scenes but Stephanie Bennett, Leanne Lapp, Dylan Playfair and Howie Lai make up the full group bravely venturing where things do more than just go bump in the night. Fans of the first movie will be pleased to know that Sean Rogerson returns (though I won't say in what capacity) and has a lot of fun in his role as he gets to act quite differently from how he was in the first movie.

The first movie was enjoyable but slightly disappointing. This sequel has a better script, the courage of its convictions to completely run with the ideas put forward and ends up being slightly better. That's rare in the land of sequels. It's almost impossible in the land of horror sequels.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Encounters-2/dp/B009KOE64I/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1349374636&sr=8-4&keywords=grave+encounters+2

The Amityville Horror (1979)

You may sneer and laugh at me for saying so but The Amityville Horror remains one of my favourite haunted house movies and I put it up alongside such classics as The Haunting and The Legend Of Hell House. It left an indelible impression upon me when I saw it in my youth and even though I am now older and wiser (and armed with the knowledge that a lot of the story is alleged to be completely fictional) I still can't watch the movie without being affected by the ominous presence of the house at the centre of the supernatural events. That haunting score by Lalo Schifrin doesn't help matters (I rank it alongside The Omen as one of the best horror movie scores of all time).

The story, for those of you somehow unaware of the most famous haunted house since Borley Rectory, is all about George (James Brolin) and Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder), a married couple with three kids (two boys and one girl) and not too much in the way of disposable income. They move into the house in Amityville, aware of the history it has but dismissing the fact that the house itself is a bad place, and it's not long before things start going bump in the night, bump in the day and bump all over the place.

The Amityville Horror is, despite the fact that none of it actually happened, a fine movie. It takes a number of preposterous ideas and somehow makes them all believable, thanks to a mix of solid direction from Stuart Rosenberg and a great cast including Brolin in one of his best roles, Kidder being a bit less annoying than usual, Rod Steiger, Murray Hamilton and Don Stroud. Steiger is landed with the worst of the roles, a priest trying to help the Lutz family, but he has fun in the role and is always entertaining. The film also proves once again that what you don't see is always a lot scarier than any special effects that could have been thrown around onscreen (the one major visual fright is actually one of the lamest moments in the whole movie).

The book was written by Jay Anson, from the tale that he was told by George Lutz and his wife, and the screenplay by Sandor Stern takes the enjoyable and melodramatic raw material and keeps everything nicely paced en route to an unashamedly bombastic finale.

Yet, in many ways, The Amityville Horror isn't all that affected by the direction, the script or the acting. That music plays and the camera shows the "face" of the house and that's all it takes for the goosebumps to rise and the atmosphere to start taking hold. You might try to say that the house is actually an icon of horror. Or maybe I'd be alone with that opinion.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Amityville-Horror-DVD/dp/B000795L9E/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1342087283&sr=8-6

The Haunting In Connecticut (2009)

I used to absolutely love haunted house movies. They would always entertain me and also scare the pants off me at the same time. The Amityville Horror (both versions), The Changeling, The Legend Of Hell House and The Haunting (1963) are a few of my favourites. Yet the tide of my opinion has been turning over the past 5-10 years. I think the fact that so many of them nowadays are labelled "based on a true story" or "based on the horrifying truth" or "based on the book based on the facts told to the neighbour by some previous owners" has turned me against them. Because, it seems, the more that they purport to be based on fact the easier it is to spot how false it all feels.

Here are a few common factors to spot in any modern haunted house movie "based on a true story" - the family is already under some kind of stress (emotional or financial), someone always helps them when things get a lot worse and, coincidentally, when the family unit is weakened. Kids are usually at the epicentre of events (this is often explained away by the fact that puberty and raging hormones encourages supernatural activity or some other hogwash). And, of course, most of the facts are based on testimonies as opposed to any actual, ummmm, evidence.

Like Mulder, I still want to believe. It's just getting harder and harder to remain a wannabe believer.

This movie doesn't help.Written by Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe, and directed by Peter Cornwell, it checks off all of the factors just mentioned and then puts them together to create something dull, unscary, predictable and borderline incompetent (just count the amount of "jump" scares that don't work because of the way that the camera moves and/or scene blocking indicate what's about to occur).

It's a shame because this movie wastes a damn good cast. Virginia Madsen is always someone I enjoy watching onscreen (and sorry to be so shallow but is she getting even finer in her 50s??) while Martin Donovan is solid enough. They play the parents to a cancer-stricken young man played by the excellent Kyle Gallner. Amanda Crew is an acceptable young actress and then we have a supporting turn from the superb Elias Koteas. They're all left floundering.

The poor script isn't laughably bad but it's just dull and seems to be two steps behind the viewer. The CGI is sometimes okay but usually overdone and distractingly fake. The direction is awful. The only fact that rings true by the time the end credits roll is that you shouldn't waste your time on this.

3/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-in-Connecticut-the-DVD/dp/B0027UY836

The Time Of Their Lives (1946)

Abbott & Costello provide audiences with something a bit different from their usual fare in this easygoing, supernatural comedy.

Lou plays Horatio, a man wrongly shot down as a traitor and cursed to reside as a ghost alongside Melody Allen (played by Marjorie Reynolds). Horatio and Melody have to stay on the land on which they died, unless one day their innocence can be proved. As time rolls merrily on, we eventually get a group of people arriving who may well help in that endeavour. Including, of course, a character played by Bud Abbott.


The Time Of Their Lives is a pleasant enough little movie and I can't say that I disliked it. However, it really was really missing some spark of wit and vitality. The supernatural element kept things entertaining enough but didn't really compensate for the lack of the trademark fast-talking banter that fans of A & C know and love.

The first of many A & C movies directed by Charles Barton, this one benefits from a great cast (Marjorie Reynolds is a delight, Binnie Barnes and Gale Sondergaard are both very good, Ann Gillis is very sweet and John Shelton is fine) compensating for the mediocre script. Val Burton, Walter DeLeon and Bradford Ropes all had a hand in the screenplay, with some additional dialogue by John Grant (as was so often the case), but none of them capitalise on the potential of the premise. One or two set-pieces stand out as pretty amusing skits but they're still not a patch on the more typical A & C style of humour that featured in most of their other movies.

I wish this had been a better comedy but I still enjoyed it as a nice and inoffensive comedy that happens to have two lead characters who are ghosts.

6/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abbott-Costello-Naughty-Nineties-Their/dp/B000GLKNQO/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1332194164&sr=1-1