Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Season of the Witch

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying the Autumn weather! I sure am! I'm also very excited that tomorrow (Saturday) is October 1st!! Halloween is just around the corner! I need to get into gear and start decorating...shame on me for not starting sooner!

This week's movie review is brought to us by my friend, Roxy! This is the first time she's written a movie review and I'm so honored that she wrote it for us! She does warn that there are some spoilers in her review, so if you haven't seen this movie and don't want too many surprises be warned! :)

Season of the Witch (2011)
starring Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman

First, I have to say, that the advertisements for this movie were misleading. I really thought I'd be watching a movie about a witch with some scary abilities. From the opening scene - the hanging and drowing of suspected witches - I had my suspicions of what this movie was really about. One confesses and pleads for her life, another explains that she was only using herbal medicine, the last tells the priest "you'll burn in hell". Oh, believe me I loved that part...it's what happened after the hanging that made me wonder who I was supposed to be rooting for.

Cut to a battlefield, where Nick Cage and Ron Perlman are participating in the crusades. Yes, it's all in the name of religion, we're all too familiar with that. I think Ron Perlman makes a good barbarian, by the way. They discover, just a bit late, that there's no honor in what they're doing and desert the army. Not long after, they find themselves caught in a town suffering from the plague. Naturally, the townspeople believe a witch to be the cause of the pestilence. The deserters are tasked with delivering the witch to a place where her powers may be nullified. They are joined by another soldier, a priest, an altar boy, and a liar they've recruited as a guide.

At this point in the movie, I am thinking the "witch" is an innocent victim. Then things start to happen. One by one, her escorts are killed off by events that she instigates. Her personality continually fluxates between innocent victim and something more sinister. While I was watching, I just kept saying, "That's not a witch. Whatever that is, it ain't a witch." The final scene, I have to call satisfying in that I can appreciate adventure/horror battle scenes in which the antagonist holds nothing back. This villain is such that the scene is nearly apocalyptic before it's done.

Good and Bad Points:
Speed of the plot - it doesn't lag, but in places I wished there was a little more detail and less speed.

Climax - the plot didn't build suspense in a way to create the "wow factor" but rather created confusion. I wonder if the writers wanted to keep the audience guessing or if the writers were guessing along the way.

Antagonist Motive and Ending - The antagonist's motive, while not known until nearly the end, left me with more questions than answers. The ending, while not bad, felt abrupt.

Special Effects: The demons were awesome, but the morphing used on the wolves faces made me think of something out of the Buffy series. They're wolves, not tv-cheese vampires.

Overall, I liked this movie. While I wasn't "wowed" by it, I would still add it to my collection. Since I liked this one, just short of the wow factor, I give it 4 out of 5 skulls.

Thanks for your great review, Roxy! I've been wanting to see this movie, I'm even more interested in seeing it now!

Remember, if you would like to submit a movie review we would love to feature it! Just email your review to the email address you can find on the contact button on the right hand side of the blog! Hope everyone has a wonderful first day of October!

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Night Book Club!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday! One of our readers suggested that we do book reviews...I love the idea! I had been thinking about doing this, so since there seems to be some interest, let's try it!

I will post a book review each Saturday night. The book can be about Halloween, sci-fi, thriller, mystery, horror, etc... You can submit your book review to me via the contact button on the right hand side of the blog. Each book that is reviewed will become part of the Halloween Night Book Club!

Can't wait to see what you're reading! ;)

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: Contagion

Hello everyone!

It's that time again...time for a new Fright Night Friday movie review! This week's review comes from my good friend, TJ! He's an awesome writer and fellow Harry Potter maniac! ;) He has a great blog showcasing his writing over at http://tjsshortstories.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check it out! On another note, I hope everyone had a wonderful first day of Fall! Now time for the review!

Contagion (2011)

Walking into the theatre to watch Contagion, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Based on its title, I could guess what the film was about. My prediction was that it would be about some sort of disease or the like having to be contained in an area in order to prevent it from being spread. How right I was.

The film follows a group of characters with various stories about how a virus breaks out after a woman catches it during a visit to Hong Kong. When she returns to the US, she transmits the virus to several people, including her son. Early on, both she and her son succumb to the virus, putting her husband (played by Matt Damon) at risk for catching the disease. However as time goes on, doctors discover that the husband has an immunity to the disease and allows him to go home with his daughter from a previous marriage, however, she must be contained because she is at risk for catching the virus (she never does).

Meanwhile, Dr. Ellis Cheever (played by Laurence Fishburne) of the CDC express fears that the disease is a bioweapon of some sort intended to cause terror of the Thanksgiving weekend (when the woman who initially carried the virus returned home). Cheever decides to send Dr. Erin Mears (played by Kate Winslet), who is an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, to Minneapolis where the virus began breaking out to begin investigating the virus and traceback. Unfortunately, Mears becomes infected with the disease while staying at her hotel, rapidly deteriorates in health and eventually succumbs to the virus.

Among all of this, a freelance journalist, Alan Krumwiede (played by Jude Law), posts videos on his blog claiming that he recovered from the virus by using a cure based on forsythia. As a result, panicked people attempt to obtain forsythia by overwhelming pharmacies thus accelerating the spread of the virus by congregated infected and healthy people. It eventually comes to light that Krumwiede was never sick, but was attempting to boost demand on behalf of investors that produce and distribute the treatment.

A World Heath Organization epidemiologist, Dr. Leonora Orantes (played by Marion Cotillard), travels to Hong Kong to find out where the virus originated. While there, she is kidnapped by epidemiologist Sun Feng (played by Chin Han) who uses her as leverage to obtain the first vaccines for his village. Once the vaccines arrive, Orantes is exchanged for some vaccines that turn out to be placebos. Upon realizing that the villagers were fooled, Orantes rushes back to the village to inform the people.

Eventually, Dr. Ally Hextall finds a possible potential vaccine using a live version of the virus. Following the example of other cure finders, Dr. Hextall injects herself with the vaccine and visits her father in the hospital, exposing herself to the virus in the process. The vaccine works and the production of it is ramped up and the CDC begins awarding vaccinations using a random lottery based on birth dates.

The film ends showing how the virus started and began its spread. In Minneapolis, a bulldozer had knocked over a palm tree that had bats nesting in it, carrying the virus. One of the bats that flies out lands on a banana tree, eating a chunk of a banana, transmitting the virus into the banana. Having no tree to go back to, it flies to a hog building and drops the banana into a pigsty and one of the pigs eats the banana, giving the pig the virus. The pig is sold and slaughtered and is shown being prepared in the casino where Beth Emhoff (the woman who was first infected) was in. However, after preparing the pig, the chef did not was his hands and shook hands with Beth, transmitting the virus to her and beginning the chain of events throughout the movie.

Overall, the film was well done. The acting was good and the storyline was easy to follow. The problem I had with the film was that it had too many similarities to the 1995 film "Outbreak" and therefore was very predictable. I kind of expected almost everything that occurred in the movie, at least the events relating to the virus spreading. However, don't let that get you down, the film is well done and is great for anyone who is interested in anything biology related. I rate this movie 3 skulls!

Thank you for the great review, TJ! I've been wanting to see this, it sounds good! I'll have to rent it when it comes to DVD!

Remember, if there is a movie that you would like to review, we would love to feature it! It can be an old or new movie and it can be a movie that someone else has reviewed. We need our readers to submit reviews! :) Have a great weekend!

Happy Hauntings!

First Day of Fall!

I am happy to announce that tomorrow (Friday Sept. 23rd) is the first day of Fall! I am so very excited...Fall is my favorite season and it means that Halloween is that much closer! Now we can finally enjoy crisp, Autumn mornings and nights and beautiful afternoons! We have had a lot of butterflies at our house lately enjoying our butterfly bushes as they migrate south. We are on the lookout for hummingbirds and keep seed out for our other birds who will be flying through. I am so happy! I hope everyone has a wonderful and beautiful first day of Fall tomorrow!

Witch's Night Out!!

I am very excited for tomorrow (Friday) night! The local pumpkin patch, Walter's Pumpkin Patch (where my husband and I got married last year!) is holding an event called Witch's Night Out. It's from 6pm-10pm and only women are allowed. The catch? You have to dress like a witch!! They are offering free admission, drinks, and food and us witches get to enjoy some shopping in their store and chatter with fellow witches! My mom is going with me, I can't wait! I got my witch costume last weekend at Spirit Halloween! I'll be sure to share pictures with everyone!

Happy Hauntings!

Fright Night Friday Movie Review: The Ghost Goes Gear

Hello everyone!!

Welcome to another Fright Night Friday movie review!! Hope you all have a fun, and safe, holiday weekend! This week's movie review comes from my fabulous friend, Brenda!! Brenda is a singer/songwriter and is a member of the Urban Prairie Players band. You can check them out here: http://urbanprairieplayers.com/ Brenda is also a very talented artist and has started a line of handmade dolls called Emmy Bunter. Each doll is unique and I'm glad to say that I'm the proud owner of one (Halloween themed of course)! You can check out her Emmy Bunter Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/emmy.bunter

The Ghost Goes Gear (1966)
starring the Spencer Davis Group

The movie starts on a riverboat, where we see the Spencer Davis Group performing at a party. The boys - Spencer, Pete York, and Stevie and Muff Winwood – are all having a good time when the boat docks and their manager, Al, comes to collect them. While loading the band’s gear into their van, Al manages to drop one of Pete’s drums overboard. The comic downstream chase after the wayward drum leads to a chance encounter with Al’s family butler, Old Edwards, who reveals Al’s true origins. He is not simply “Al” but Algernon Plumley, son of an aristocrat.

Al returns with Edwards to the family manor home with the boys in tow. Once there he displays his upper class snobbery by admonishing the boys to stay out of the sight of his parents, who apparently would be appalled that their son is managing a rock band. The boys handle this quite cheerfully, and entertain the Plumleys’ perky young maid, Polly, in the kitchen.

Al, meanwhile, is reunited with his parents and learns that the family has fallen on hard times. (I wish we would see more of Lord Plumley, who looks like a fangless Grandpa Munster !) When the boys learn of the family’s plight, Spencer suggests that they advertise the manor as a "stately home" and charge admission.

The boys settle in for the night in the wine cellar, thanks to Al’s hospitality. It is here that the ghost makes his first appearance – and now it’s the group’s turn to be entertained.

Although the movie starts out as a madcap 1960’s British comedy, the plot pretty much falls apart about halfway through. It does have somewhat of a surprise ending, though.

The only reason to watch this film is for the scenes with the Spencer Davis Group. They perform several songs – including one while in their pajamas! Spencer is charming, Pete is a riot, and the Winwood brothers are cute and good natured throughout. If you're a fan of the group, it's worth watching - if you're looking for a ghost story, you'd do better to give this one a miss - even though the ghost can sing...

Rated 2 skulls

Thank you for the great review, Brenda! Sounds like a fun movie and I loved your Grandpa Munster reference! For those of you wanting to see the movie, I talked with Brenda and she said that it is available on DVD! She had rented it from Blockbuster Online and then found a VHS copy at Beatlefest (you fellow Beatles fans will know what that is)!

Once again, I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! Be sure to stay tuned to the blog--we are going to be announcing a giveaway very soon!

Happy Hauntings!