Horror in January

January 2010 saw the releases of quite a few horror movies, but almost none of them was really worth it. To me, it seems that 2010 has gotten off to a stutter of a start.

January, like September, has always been a dumping ground for movies, not just horror movies. The movies that the studios don't have any faith in get dumped into these months. Horror movies actually benefit from this, as there is almost no competition. Sometimes this works, as in the cases of Daybreakers and Legion, but sometimes it backfires, as in the case of Sorority Row.

This also has something to do with marketing. Daybreakers and Legion had great marketing, offering the viewer something different. Sorority Row's marketing couldn't get past the fact that the movie was a slasher movie. If they had done some thinking then maybe Sorority Row would have had a chance at the box office.

But it really isn't all about the box office. For every horror fan it is all about how good the movie is. So let's take a look at January and see what we were given.

The Final Destination (DVD/blu-ray)
I am still trying to wrap my head around why a lot of people actually thought that this was a good movie. I know that the 3-D is really well done, but the movie is crap. I guess people just like the 3-D and don't care about the movie.

Halloween II (DVD/blu-ray)
The theatrical version of this movie was total mess, but thanks to DVD and blu-ray we can finally see what Rob Zombie was really trying to do.

Daybreakers (Theatrical)
From the directors of Undead comes this movie where vampires make up most of the earth population. Very moody and well shot, this movie is just ok. Could have been better.

Blood Creek (DVD)
This movie was dumped into one theater in Kentucky, where no one went to see it. The movie is a tad weird, but who am I to complain when there are killer horses.

Pandorum (DVD/blu-ray)
Think Event Horizon mixed with an action movie and you get picture. If you don't know Event Horizon then you need to go rent it right now.

Legion (Theatrical)
This movie has really good special effects, but the overall movie is not very good.

Saw VI (DVD/blu-ray)
This movie is so much better than Saw V, but it still doesn't come close to being a good movie.

This is just a sampling of what January had to offer us. Check back next month when I give you an overview
 of what we got.

The Final Destination 1/2*

The Final Destination series has always been, what I call "fun gore movies". You see, a "fun gore movie" is a movie where you have fun while the people on the screen are being killed in inventive ways. "Fun gore" movies have a light, almost cheery spirit to them.. They are not like "Hostel" or "Wolf Creek", where to tone is dead serious. Those movies are not fun. I am sad to report that "The Final Destination", while falling into the "fun gore" category, is not fun.

The movie follows the same basic plotline as the previous movies. The main character has a premonition about how they and a group of people are going to die, the person freaks out and saves the lives of the group, then they are killed off one by one in inventive ways.

 

 

There is nothing wrong with this plot. It has worked before, so why try to fix it. But what happened here is that the people involved started the movie out wrong. In previous "Final Destination" movies the opening was spectacular. You wanted to see the movie just for the opening. But here they have picked a race track to be the place where we get our first taste of what's to come. The problem is a racetrack is not the coolest place to stage a massacre. There are only a few ways that people can die here and they are repeated many times. This makes the opening very boring and by the book.

That brings me to my next problem with the movie. The death scenes are not inventive nor is there any suspense whatsoever. Death scenes in "fun gore" movies are supposed to be inventive. They are supposed to make you scream then laugh because they got you. Not one time during this movie was I shocked by anything that happened in the movie. I was very let down.

There are some nice touches to the movie, though. The security guard from the racetrack, who was saved by the premonition, keeps trying to kill himself, but can't because it is not his time to die. If the whole movie had been like this, a group of people who had the premonition but wanted to die, then maybe we would have had a good movie. At the very least we would have had an interesting movie. This and other small touches can't make up for this movie's lack of imagination.

This is the first "Final Destination" movie to made for 3-D, but that is one of another of the movie's downfalls. It appears that the filmmakers paid more attention to the 3-D and less to make a good movie. The 3-D is really well done, the movie is not.