The Last Excorcism

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Rating:  Rated PG-13 for disturbing violent content and terror, some sexual references and thematic material.

Storyline:  In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus was raised by his father to be a preacher. He agrees that the filmmaker Iris Reisen and the cameraman Daniel Moskowitz make a documentary about his life. Cotton tells that when her wife Shanna Marcus had troubles in the delivery of their son Justin, he prioritized the doctor help to God and since then he questions his faith. Further, he tells that exorcisms are frauds but the results are good for the believers because they believe it is true. When Cotton is summoned by the farmer Louis Sweetzer to perform an exorcism in his daughter Nell, Cotton sees the chance to prove to the documentary crew what he has just told. They head to Ivanwood and they have a hostile reception from Louis's son Caleb. Cotton performs the exorcism in Nell, exposing his tricks to the camera, but sooner they learn that the dysfunctional Sweetzer family has serious problems.

Review: Ambiguity is a powerful tool for a writer, filmmaker, or any creative person. But there's a fine line between ambiguity and lazy storytelling. The Last Exorcism, unfortunately, makes use of the latter. The film poses many questions but doesn't feel the need to answer most of them, meaning at the end of the film, the audience isn't so much pondering the themes of religious doubt and the adverse effects of shame so much as wondering what the heck just happened.

That's not normal.

The lack of clarity is only made more frustrating by the overly shaky handy-cam cinematography. I normally enjoy this mode of film making, and it was proved to be effective for horror films the phenomenal movie Paranormal Activity, but Daniel (the cameraman) has a bit too shaky of a hand for the style to work well here. I actually got a headache from some of the later, jumpier scenes.

It's a shame the film has such a laughable conclusion, because it starts with such promise. The first half hour or so is surprisingly funny, effectively parodying the genre (specifically exorcism-based horror films) and presenting a religious slant to the proceedings that makes things interesting initially but ultimately seems cheap and even stupid. Two fine performances from Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell are wasted as the material goes from subtly self-reflexive to blatantly generic. The horror that unfolds along the way rarely generates any real scares, settling instead for bursts of weirdness, cheap jumps, and ultimately, an unattractive mixture of stupidity and discomfort.

P.S: I found something wrong with the movie.In the scene when Mell is in the barn getting exorcised. Her shoes change. First she is wearing brown rag shoes. In the next scene, she is wearing red boots.

Cujo

The movie poster. It doesn't really show the crazy dog

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rating: Rated R for graphic violence, language and brief sexual content.
Cast:

•      Dee Wallace as Donna Trenton

•      Danny Pintauro as Tad Trenton

•      Daniel Hugh-Kelly as Vic Trenton

•     Christopher Stone as Steve Kemp

•      Ed Lauter as Joe Camber

•      Kaiulani Lee as Charity Camber

•      Billy Jacoby as Brett Camber 
•     Frank Welker was credited for doing vocal effects for Cujo.

Storyline: Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace) is a frustrated suburban housewife whose life is in turmoil after her husband Vic learns about her having an affair. Brett Camber (Billy Jacoby) is a young boy and a son of a mechanic, Joe, (Ed Lauter) whose only companion is a St. Bernard named "Cujo." Cujo is bitten by a bat with rabies and his behavior begins to change. While the dog begins to succumb to the disease, Brett and his mother leave for Connecticut to visit his mother's sister. When Donna and her young son, Tad (Danny Pintauro), drive out to the home where Cujo and the Cambers live, the gentle Cujo has been driven insane by rabies and has killed Joe and the Cambers' neighbor. Worse, their car gives out near the Camber's house and Donna and Tad are trapped inside while the massive dog waits outside, attacking repeatedly, all while Vic is out of town on a business trip.

          Cujo brutally kills anyone and everyone who comes to the house, including the local Sheriff. Eventually Donna makes an attempt to dash for the house but is attacked by Cujo, the only safety being the car. After a brutal struggle between the desperate mother and the relentless animal, Donna takes advantage of a momentary distraction and beats Cujo with a baseball bat and then stabs him with the handle when the bat breaks. As Donna attempts to revive her son, who has passed out due to the extreme heat, Cujo tears through the kitchen window and launches himself at the two. 



Trivia: (I was going to put trivia for some reason but I didn't want to put it all on the same page so here's a link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085382/trivia)
 

Review: I think of Cujo as "realistic horror" because it is something that could really happen. People really do get killed by rabid dogs...this film just exaggerates the truth a bit. It's a very good film - well acted, well directed, suspenseful and emotional. One of the problems is that it is pretty predictable. It starts off with the dog getting infected, and from then on tension is built up slowly as you sense the dog is getting angrier and angrier (He also gets dirtier and dirtier).

         Eventually it snaps and starts killing people. The bulk of the film focuses on when Donna and her son are trapped in the broken down car because Cujo attacks whenever they try to leave. You can feel all the desperation, pain and isolation of Donna and her son as they lay trapped inside. It makes you think twice about dogs and certainly what you would do in such a situation. Would you run, attack the dog, or wait until help arrives?

The Silence Of The Lambs

Genre:  Crime, Thriller, Suspense,

Rating:  R for Disturbing Grisly Images and Violence, Strong Language, and Some Sexual Content.
 

Storyline: A psychopath known as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the F.B.I. sends Agent Clarice Starling to interview a demented prisoner who may provide psychological insight and clues to the killer's actions.  The prisoner is a respected psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lector, a brilliant, murderous cannibal who will only help Starling if she feeds his morbid curiosity with details about her own complicated life. Clarice must first try and gain Lecter's confidence before he is to give away any information. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to confront her own psychological demons, but leads her to face with a demented, heinous killer, an incarceration of evil so powerful, that she may not have the courage -- or strength -- to stop him!

Review: The Silence of the Lambs, having accomplished the rare feat of winning all five of the major Academy Award categories, is a remarkable achievement in filmmaking. Gruesome, pulpish material was transformed by dedicated participants on all levels of production, and a film that would have failed in the hands of many others wound up becoming a modern masterpiece. Taut direction and a superb screenplay might be the best arguments for the film's power, but the flashiest are certainly delivered in the bravura performances of Hopkins and Foster. Their interplay -- and remember, they only share a handful of scenes together -- is nothing short of riveting.

 

Oscars

BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right

WINNER: The King’s Speech

The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

WINNER: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

James Franco, 127 Hours

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone

WINNER: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network

WINNER: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech

David O. Russell, The Fighter

BEST SONG
“Coming Home,” Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light,” Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
“If I Rise,” 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong

WINNER: “We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3, Randy Newman

BEST EDITING
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech, Tariq Anwar

WINNER: The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell

WINNER: Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic

WINNER: Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh

WINNER: God of Love, Luke Matheny

Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name (Nominees TBD)
Poster Girl (Nominees (TBD)

WINNER: Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lenno

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

WINNER: Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood

I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beaven
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres

BEST MAKEUP
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng

WINNER: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

BEST SOUND EDITING

WINNER: Inception, Richard King

Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger

BEST SOUND MIXING

WINNER: Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, and Ed Novick

The King’s Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen, and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan, and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat

WINNER: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER: Christian Bale, The Fighter

John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)

WINNER: In a Better World (Denmark)

Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year, written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; 
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg

WINNER: The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy

WINNER: The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

BEST ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist

WINNER: Toy Story 3

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe

WINNER: The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech

WINNER: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique

WINNER: Inception, Wally Pfister

The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins

BEST ART DIRECTION

WINNER: Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara

Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh