Monthly Round-Up & Blogger Links: October 2016

Happy Halloween folks! You’ve probably noticed it’s been looking a little...purple here lately at Flick Chicks. Jenna’s taking a break from blogging as she’s struggling to find the time. I hope she’ll be back, but for now, I hope you don’t mind sticking around with just me for a while. 

Moving swiftly on, October has been Halloweenie Month, and although I didn’t watch as many horrors as I’d hoped, I’m still pretty darn proud of myself! If you’ve missed any of my Halloweenie Posts, here they are for you:

It Follows (2014)

The Human Centipede, First Sequence (2009)

The Babadook (2014)

My Favourite Halloween Special TV Episodes

Krampus (2015)

Orphan (2009)

Psycho (1960)

It’s been a quiet month for cinema trips, there haven’t been many ‘must watch’ releases, but I did catch The Girl on the Train, and Doctor Strange in IMAX, which was well worth the extra money, I have to say. I’ll post my review of the latter as soon as possible for you guys. In between all the scary movies I did watch some more of my usual kind of movies, and if you missed any of those reviews you can find those here:

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

The Nice Guys (2016)

As far as TV goes, I was super excited to see that a release date for Sherlock Season 4 has finally been announced, New Year’s Day! I’ll be going to my parent’s house to watch that with them. Boy, it’s been so long I’m going to have to have a catch up over Christmas, because I honestly don’t remember how it all ended. Speaking of ending...last week brought the final of The Great British Bake Off, which basically crushed our whole country. The show moves to another channel next year, which led to judge Mary Berry and presenters Mel and Sue dropping out. It’s the end of Bake Off as we know it! Fingers crossed the BBC creates a new show.

I’ve started watching Westworld too, and managed to fall behind on it already. This show is so good so far, you guys. I’ve never seen/read the original (Movie? Show? Book?) so I have no idea where any of it is going, but it’s just so well made. I’m loving all the crazy theories flying around.

Finally, I wanted to share a few posts that I’ve loved reading this month from my fellow bloggers. Check these guys out if you don’t follow them already!

Dell at Dell on Movies has been celebrating all things horror this month, and introduced me to Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Brittani (I triple-checked this month!) at Rambling Film reviewed a movie I'm not sure I'll ever have the guts to watch, Hush.

Keith at Keith and the Movies reminded why I still really need to see Cafe Society.

Sati at Cinematic Corner has been recapping Westworld for us. I'm behind on her posts because I'm behind on the show - but I'll catch up!

Rebecca at ThePunkTheory shared with us all her Top 4 Scary TV Shows, of which I've only been brave enough to watch 1.

m.brown at Two Dollar Cinema always writes fantastically amusing reviews, but my favourite of his this month was The Jungle Book.

Last but certainly not least, check out Ruth's blog FlixChatter for all the latest coverage of Twin Cities Film Fest.

Halloweenie Review: Psycho (1960)

October is coming to an end, but I felt like I still had enough nerves in me to go out with a bang. I started a modern classic, It Follows, and thought, why not end with a classic classic? That sparked me to check the IMDB Top 250 list which I’ve largely ignored for a few months, and on there spotted a movie I knew I needed to see. Psycho! I don’t know the time limit on spoiler alerts, but I’m going to discuss the entire plot in this post, so beware.

I’m fairly certain I’m not the only person out there who has never watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), but everyone in the world knows about that famous shower scene. I’ve seen it parodied countless times, most notably in National Lampoon’s Vacation when Clark scares Ellen with a banana whilst she’s showering. In fact, if you check out the references section on IMDB, it has over 1,000! That’s pretty impressive.

So the funny thing is, despite this movie being 56 years old, I actually didn’t have a clue what it was about! All I really knew was that it ended with our heroine being tragically murdered whilst having a shower. Turns out, I was even wrong about that.

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is fed up with her life. She has to meet her partner in secret, and they aren’t able to get married because he’s had to give up his money in alimony. When tasked at work to deliver $40,000 in cash to the bank, Marion uses the opportunity to run away and start a new life. When the weather takes a turn for the worse, she is forced to spend the night at Bates Motel, a deserted little place ran by an oddball by the name Norman (Anthony Perkins) who is dominated by his mother.

I can count the number of black and white movies I’ve seen on one hand, they’ve never really had much appeal to me. That said, I’ve enjoyed every one I have seen! I think what makes them great is that there’s no glitz and glamour to distract me, the focus is on storytelling, and the storytelling in Psycho is spot on. The first half an hour or so is dedicated to building up Marion’s character, showing us why she’s taking such drastic measures. It also builds up suspense in a very successful way, when Marion is stopped by the police and the whole ordeal at the car garage, I was on the edge of my seat.

Shock number 1 for me was when that pivotal scene happened only half way through the movie. Shock number 2 was that it was Norman’s mother that did the deed, rather than Norman himself. I’d always thought it was him! The scene was still difficult to watch, despite knowing what was coming. I can’t imagine the reaction when it was first released. If only time travel were real!

The second half of the movie turns into a crime solving story, as more clues are thrown out, and more questions raised about Norman and his mother. The moment when it’s revealed that Norman’s mother had been dead for 10 years gave me goosebumps. But who was it in the window upstairs?! The final scenes got too suspenseful for me, I hid behind my blanket, poking my head out every now and again, but what an ending! 

This movie is a huge two finger salute to the trailers of these days that give the entire story away. Almost the whole of Psycho was a complete surprise to me, despite it being one of the most famous movies of all time. Not my genre at all, but a bloody fantastic watch. Is the Bates Motel show worth a watch? I’m tempted.

Halloweenie Review: Orphan (2009)

When I thought up the ‘Halloweenie’ idea for this blog over October, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have so far. Really, I was just looking for an excuse to watch It Follows and The Babadook without having to try and write a proper review for them, but having knocked those two out of the park early on, I found myself on Sunday night actively looking for another good Horror movie to watch. That’s how I came across Orphan (2009). I came across a list of ‘The 25 Best Horror Films of the 21st Century so far’ and didn’t get any further than the first one on the list.

“An original chiller co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio”

“...it ramps up to a rare (and essentially unguessable) twist”

Oh, I’m sold.

The orphan in question is a young girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), who is adopted by troubled parents Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) who already have 2 children younger than Esther, one of which is deaf. I’m still not sure why, or how that’s important to the plot, but okay. At least it made me keep my eyes on the screen to read the subtitles whenever she was signing.

It’s quite a long movie, but it never really dragged. The characters are all well introduced, we learn about the struggles Kate and John have had, Kate’s drinking problem, John’s infidelity, their miscarriage. I question whether it’s the right time for them to adopt, but then so did they, so I can accept that. Esther is an instantly likeable character, she’s quiet and doesn’t like like to play with the other children at the home, but she enjoys music and art, and she’s very smart. She’s a little odd, with her dress sense, ribbons and the way she talks, and that only gets worse as the movie goes on.

Esther quickly takes a liking to her new younger sister and her new father, but doesn’t like Kate much at all. She manipulates the whole family in such a way it’s frustrating to watch at times. I haven’t seen many of Peter Sarsgaard’s movies but I always find his character unlikeable, and I can’t explain why. I couldn’t stand him in this either. Would you really trust the word of your newly adopted and down right weird daughter over your wife?

I’ll keep this post spoiler free for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet, but I can’t argue with the second point that sold the movie to me in the first place. I did NOT see that plot twist coming. Personally, I try not to work it out anyway, because I love the thrill of the twist when it comes, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this one. I mean, really?!

I feel so conflicted. The movie felt well written (almost), well made, well acted, but so much made so little sense. It felt like so many details were thrown in to throw the audience off the scent, but really, the clues were there from the very beginning. I’m going to have to mull over this one for a while I think!

Halloweenie Review: Krampus (2015)

October is Halloweenie month here at Flick Chicks, the month that Jenna and I put on our big girl pants and force ourselves to sit through a few horror movies. You can read more about it in our announcement post here!

Upon realising that Jenna and I don’t live close enough to watch every single scary movie together, I think I fell into my comfort zone a bit, Christmas movies! Krampus (2015) was originally going to be the movie of choice for my family’s annual ‘weekend before Christmas’ cinema trip, until I managed to convince them it was by no means a movie for children, and hey, perhaps we should see The Force Awakens instead?! I have since happily reported back to my Mum she would not have survived this movie.

Krampus is exactly what you think it is. One Christmas Eve, a young boy has a hard time understanding why his family have to get together every year when they clearly can’t stand each other, and in his anger, he accidentally summons a horde of Christmas demons to his home, led by none other than Krampus himself.

The opening scene to this movie might just be my favourite of any festive films I’ve seen. The contrast of the beautiful music “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” with the chaotic, hellish scenes of the rush before the big day, screaming children sat on the laps of miserable mall Santas, people barging others out of the way to finish their shopping, it was so well done. The movie also stars some of my favourite faces from TV, Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Allison Tolman (Fargo) and David Koechner (The Office) so I had plenty to look forward to.

As funny as it was, the first chunk of the movie felt like a poor man’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but nonetheless, I enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for a cheesy festive flick. It’s actually easy to forget that you’re watching a horror, that it, until a once hopeful letter to Santa gets torn up and thrown out of the window. From there, it’s a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled ride to hell. It’s quite jumpy in parts, especially the scenes outside in the blizzard, but I got used to it after a while. Watching the movie through a layer of cardigan sure helps.

I do have a few issues with Krampus. It’s described as a Horror Comedy, but it doesn’t blend the two genres well at all. The first half is pure comedy, the second part is pure horror, but that cheesy kind of horror that makes you laugh because it’s a bit well, bad. Perhaps that’s what the team was going for, but it felt off to me. The characters were scary enough, that’s for sure. It’ll be a while before I forget that teddy bear’s face!

If you can see past the corny one liners, Krampus is actually quite enjoyable. It also has quite a sentimental lesson behind it, and although it felt rushed, I enjoyed the ending. It wasn’t as ‘happily ever after’ as I expected it to be. 

Halloweenie Review: The Babadook (2014)

There are several coping mechanisms that I use when watching a horror movie. My favourite is keeping a cardigan nearby, and watching the tense scenes through it. Cardigans are the perfect thickness for obscuring most of the scariness without blocking the screen entirely. Hoodies are no good, as I sadly learnt whilst watching It Follows, they’re just too thick. They’re perfect for weepy movies though, I just pull up the hood and hide myself away. My latest trick for horrors that I can find on VOD however is watching on my tablet with headphones. Super easy to look away from and tear out a headphone when the creepy music is just too much.

The Babadook (2014) is a wonderfully creepy movie. Amelia (Essie Davis) is still struggling with the tragic death of her husband 7 years ago. Her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) is having problems of his own. He’s plagued by a monster that not only keeps him awake at night, but has led to him becoming quite a violent and disturbed young boy. Just when things seem like they can’t get worse for this Mother and Son, they read a book called Mister Babadook, turning their lives into a living nightmare.

I got pulled into a false sense of security with this movie’s first half, which does a brilliant job at building the two leading characters and explores their backstories and the reasons why they are who they are. It honestly makes a great movie of it’s own right, without the horror part that follows. It was easy to take an instant disliking to Samuel, he seemed to be the stereotypical ‘weird kid’ you expect from a horror movie, but my heart ached for him and Amelia after a while. It was such a sad situation.

Sadly, the movie moves on from their tragedy and cranks up the scare factor once the ‘Mister Babadook’ book is found. The book itself is written in that rhyming couplet style that many children’s books are written, and starts off fairly innocent. You know, until the part about wishing you were dead. That was a bit off. Amelia does the WRONG thing by tearing the book up that night (personally I would have burnt it, and my entire house down) which I can only assume just angered the Babadook.

I can’t even tell you through words just how terrifying the sound the Babadook makes. Even through headphones rather than quality, cinema speakers, it’s chilling, and I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it. Move over Godzilla, you ain't got nothing on this hat-wearing monster.

What I liked the most was that we didn’t actually see the Babadook that often. We just didn’t need to, the atmosphere and the music is enough, and it makes those scenes with him in that bit more powerful. Admittedly, I was hiding for a lot of the final chunk of the movie, whispering (spoiler alert) ‘please not the dog’ over and over again, but it was a justified kind of scaredness, I wasn’t just hiding from endless jump scares.

I’m so glad I braved this one, and ooh boy, that ending! I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it was definitely not what I was expecting.

Halloweenie Review: The Human Centipede, First Sequence (2009)

October is Halloweenie month here at Flick Chicks, the month that Jenna and I put on our big girl pants and force ourselves to sit through a few horror movies. You can read more about it in our announcement post here, and get involved if you’d like!

Why did I decide to watch The Human Centipede? My smart, blogger answer would be that I’d like to experience the full range of horror movies, from slasher to supernatural to gore, but I’m not even sure what category this would fall into. Torture? The real answer to that question is that I’m fed up of every TV show out there making reference to a movie I’ve never seen.  I have no idea why I watched this back when it was released, morbid curiosity maybe - either way I honestly wished I hadn't (and I enjoy a good gore film!!) This is just horrific!

I’m pretty sure everyone knows the plot to The Human Centipede. Some creepy guy kidnaps some people and sews their mouths to another person’s butt, thus creating a human centipede. What I didn’t know beforehand is that creepy guy has already done this with some dogs. Yuk.  The worst part about this is that his logic is that as long as he feeds the first one the rest will survive on the nutrients, and we all know what that means!!  Case in point, there was one scene that actually made me gag and I had to turn away to avoid losing my dinner!

So the movie starts with what I come to expect from most horrors, some dumb people doing some dumb stuff. This time, it’s two American girls on vacation in Germany who get themselves lost in the woods, and then accept ‘creepy guy’s’ offer of shelter from the rain whilst he calls for help. Life pro tip here, don’t accept a drink from a stranger, especially when you didn’t see them prepare it.  General life tip, rain does not hurt you, man with medical equipment in his basement does!!

What I hate about horrors is the suspense. I hate waiting for that jump scare that I know is coming, because it makes me jump anyway. It always happens the same way! Why do houses in these movies have whole walls made of windows, with the curtains drawn? I know you’re going to pull that curtain back. I know there’s going to be someone on the other side waiting for you and - DAMNIT, I knew it and I still jumped.

There was only really that one jump scare, and the rest of the movie was just kind of gross. I should have known better. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh when one of the girls got on creepy guy’s bad side by trying to escape. Of course your punishment is going to be becoming the middle of the centipede! Duh!

Worst. PowerPoint Presentation. Ever.

I can't say I remember the jump in this one, I just remember the ending where they just topple over, I felt so bad for the woman in the middle but I couldn't help but laugh (Yes I am a horrible person!).  I feel like this film would have been a whole different experience if me and Allie has watched it together, we would have shouted at the screen and talked over the particularly horrid bits. It would have been a bit more Sharknado and a bit less ewwww!

Has anyone watched the other two Human Centipede movies? I can’t believe they actually made more, but we're on the 4th Sharknado movie, so there’s that.  I knew there was another one, I didn't know there was two more, do we even want to go there? We really don't, but The Human Centipede didn't scar me for life unlike It Follows!

I'm not sure I can rate this out of 10, it wasn't a badly made film but the story was cooked up by someone super cray-cray and the outcome was just gross...how does one quantify that?!

Halloweenie Review: It Follows (2014)

October is Halloweenie month here at Flick Chicks, the month that Jenna and I put on our big girl pants and force ourselves to sit through a few horror movies. You can read more about it in our announcement post here, and get involved if you’d like!

So this is the first is a long line of horror movies that me and Allie have promised to watch for Halloweenie, this was no where near the scariest we are going to watch and yet there were were hiding behind cardigans, cushions, hoodies and cats! We gave ourselves a choice between It Follows, Unfriended and The Babadook, and It Follows was the winner!

It Follows centres around what we named a "supernatural STD". After a sexual encounter, Jay (Maika Monroe) starts seeing people following her that no one else can see and they are trying to kill her.  Should she pass it on or try to stop it?

This was not what I was expecting, I thought it was going to be a teen slasher movie, Scream 2.0 but this was completely different. It had more of an indie feel about it and focused on really slow build ups rather than cheap scare tactics to entertain. I read afterwards that the idea of 'it' walking towards the camera makes it feel like a scary dream when someone is following you but you can't get away.

Jump scares are what keeps me away from Horrors, and it's so cool that It Follows only really made me jump once. From memory someone threw a rock at a window? I jumped a mile. The only other time I jumped was when Jenna quite literally punched me in the arm for no reason. Cheers mate!

However, it was the lack of jump scares that had me nervous the entire time. Those slow shots of a window, or open door, had me holding my breath and squinting, waiting for something to jump at me. That suspence barely lets up, and when you do let your guard down, is the moment the movie strikes with something horrifying. I'm just amazed, still. Is this what it feels like to love a Horror movie?

The whole film has a dream vibe about it, everything was so slow and calm (but terrifying at the same time). It made mine and Allies freak outs about every bathroom mirror, windows with curtains and closet doors seem ridiculous as there was minimal big 'jumps'.  I do need someone to explain the swimming pool scene to me and how they came up with that plan? Why did they think it would work? It baffled me?

I have no idea how we are actually going to watch the real jumpy horrors after the state we were in after this. Allie kindly walked me to my car (because I had lots of stuff not because I was scared!!!) And the first person we saw we looked at each other and said "you can see him right" - crackpots! This part is true, whenever Jenna comes to my house she has enough stuff with her to move in with me for the week. I'd imagine we terrified that poor guy though, wondering if he was real or not!

I've spent every day since questioning anyone walking slowly, I feel the need to nudge someone nearby and ask them if they can see that person too.

Oh, and if you're looking for a second opinion, why not check out Courtney's review over at On The Screen Reviews. This was creepy timing, just as I'd finished polishing off this post, Courtney emailed me looking to join in on our 'Halloweenie' activity and sent me a link to her review of It Follows! Weeeeiiiiirrrrrrd! Thanks Courtney...now can anyone else see that person outside? No?

Monthly Round Up + Links: September 2016

As I type this post, whilst tweaking my cinnamon loaf recipe, I can't actually believe that it's October tomorrow! Normally, we post a Trivia Round-Up on the last day of the month, but honestly? That was starting to feel like a chore, and I've been looking for a way to share links to my favourite posts of other bloggers, and so we're trialing a different kind of Round Up post!

This month has been pretty slow for movie watching, for me anyway. Being a movie fan and a gamer sucks up a lot of time, and I'm still burning a couple of hours a day on World of Warcraft. I managed three cinema trips though, a Flick Chicks catch-up to see Bad Moms, a girls night out to see Bridget Jones's Baby, and a mid-week treat to see Swiss Army Man. I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on that last one.

If you've missed any of our reviews this month, you can find links to them all here:

Tallulah (2016)
Everybody Wants Some (2016)
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Sing Street (2016)
Wiener-Dog (2016)
Zootropolis/Zootopia (2016)
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) - Updated Post with Jenna's Review
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Updated Post with Jenna's Review

I've also got stuck into quite a few TV shows this month. I'm almost half way through Stranger Things, which I'm loving, and some of my favourite comedies are starting up again. One show I've caught up on and reviews is Wayward Pines, which is well worth a watch, and you can check out my review of it here. Don't worry, it's spoiler free!

Mid-September brought the birthday of one of my favourite actors, Tom Hardy. To celebrate the occasion I made a Top 5 List of my favourite roles of his, which you can read here. Quite a few of you mentioned roles of his from movies I haven't seen yet, which I'm planning on watching soon!

Also, the start of October brings the start of Halloweenie Season here at Flick Chicks! You may already know that we're huge babies when it comes to horrors, so we're trying to watch and review as many as we can in that month. Check out the announcement post here, and join in if you like! We have reviews's for The Human Centipede and It Follows on the horizon.

Last but not least, I want to share some of my favourite posts from our fellow bloggers. Check these out!

Those Assholes Watching Movies have been covering TIFF and got to see La La Land, which us Brits have to wait till January for. So jealous!

Margaret's Cinematic Corner is the place to be each Friday for all your movie news needs, and for the whereabouts of her J-Boo, Jared Leto. Seriously guys, she's converting me.

Kevin at Speaks in Movie Lines is the first person to get me interested in a Western, with his review of The Magnificent Seven.

Ruth at FlixChatter reviewed Florence Foster Jenkins. I scoffed at the trailer, but Ruth's words convinced me to give it a try, and I was so glad that I did!

Brittnay Brittani (sorry, I couldn't resist) at Rambling Film reviewed Snowden, a movie I really can't wait to see.

Jordan at Epileptic Moondancer reviewed Nerve, a movie I'm not gutted I missed at the cinema. Patiently awaiting a DVD or VOD release now!