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The Possession

I first saw trailers for this movie some several months ago. I was very sketchy on the trailers as it didn’t seem to be anything more than a movie about a possessed child ala The Exorcist or an a rip-off of Paranormal Activity. It was the former of the two. There isn’t anything wrong with that concept as long as it is done well. This one was okay.

The move is based on a "true story." I found the supposed true story this movie is based on and it shares almost no similarities to the movie itself with the exception that both the movie and the story contain a box that supposedly contains a demon. The movie was directed by Ole Bornedal who is mostly known for Danish language films. It was produced by Sam Raimi, known for directing the Evil Dead series. Some supposed weird things happened during filming including the props house burning down five days after filming was complete.

The movie starts off with an old woman alone in her house looking at a box. There seems to be strange whispering coming from the box which the woman tries to ignore by turning on music. The whispering over powers the music and the woman in a fit of pure annoyance grabs a hammer and starts approaching the box intent on destroying it. A strange force takes hold of her and twists her body into several strange positions before smashing her face into a glass table.

After this scene we are introduced to Clyde, a basketball coach presenting going through a divorce. He is just finishing up a practice game and leaves to pick up his kids. This is where we are introduced to his two daughters, Emily and Hannah, as well as his former wife Stephanie. Hannah seems very blunt about the divorce just choosing to accept what she sees as fact while Emily hopes seemingly in vain her parents will reconcile and get back together.

Clyde shows the kids he has bought a newly built home in the outskirts of town and Emily is excited at the thought of seeing wild life where as Hannah finds it deplorable. The kids seem to split time fairly evenly between their two parents. Stephanie has started dating again as well having a boyfriend named Brett.

During one of his weekends with the kids, Clyde stops at a yard sale. Emily takes a strange interest in what appears to be the box from the beginning of the film. It whispers to her in the same eerie manner as it did to the old lady and she talks her father into buying it for her. He does so as well as a few other miscellaneous things and the family is on their way.

Back at the house Emily wants Clyde to try to open the box for her. Clyde studies the box and is surprised to find that there are no seams in it and seemingly no way to open it. He shakes the box and hears something inside. He concludes there must be a way to open it and will look more in the morning.

That night Emily hears more strange whispering coming from the box and manages to find the way to open it. The box has a fairly strange and elaborate locking system if I do say so myself requiring you to pull out metal parts on the bottom before it can be opened. The items in there are very strange; ranging from a dried up dead moth to what appears to be a human tooth. If I were her I would have just shut that box and called it a day. Actually if it were talking to me...I probably would have just left it at the yard sale.

for the full review please follow this link: http://macabremark.com/macabre-mark-goes-to-see-the-possesion/#more-249

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

The first piece of marketing I saw for this lovely little picture wasnt a trailer. It was a movie poster. I just read the title outloud to myself; Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. My first thought was "this sounds truly ridiculous." I do mean that in a good way.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter went into production in about March of 2010 when Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov bought the film rights. They hired the writer of the graphic novel this movie is based on, Seth Grahame-Smith, to write the script. Filming began in March of 2011 in Louisiana.

The movie begins showing an old Abraham Lincoln writing in a journal and one of the most epic introductory quotes I've heard in a long time. President Lincoln starts his story when he was just a boy. His father is fired from the mill at which he works for defending two of his friends who are African American. His boss, Jack Barts, expects his debt to be paid immediately which Lincoln's father refuses.

That night while little boy Lincoln is writing in his journal in the rafters above where his mother is sleeping. He looks down and sees Jack Barts biting his mother's wrist before departing. The next day doctors are unsure of what is happening to his mother, and she dies next to him as he reads to her from his journal. The movie skips ahead several years to young Lincoln in a bar getting drunk planning to kill Jack Barts. A bar patron notices Lincoln drinking and comments on the amount of Alcohol he has consumed, stating "A man only drinks like that when he's planning to kiss a girl or kill a man. Which is it?" knocking a gun from lincoln's pocket.

Lincoln goes to kill Jack Barts and fails. As the old vampire is about to kill Lincoln, he is pulled off and tossed aside. Lincoln wakes up the next day in an unfamiliar home. He finds that his savior is the bar patron from the night before who introduces himself as Henry Strugess. Henry explains that Jack Barts is a vampire and that they are in fact all over the country. Henry agrees to train Lincoln in vampire hunting which Lincoln intends to use to avenge his mother.

After several weeks of training, Lincoln heads to Springfield. Once there he meets a local shop owner named Speed, and stays at an apartment at the shop in return for working there. Henry meanwhile sends him the names and locations of vampires that are in Springfield which Lincoln hunts down and kills; having several close calls in the process.

A few days go by and Lincoln happens to meet a young woman named Mary who comes into the shop. He begins to develop feelings for her, and the two eventually form a close relationship despite previous warnings Strugess gave Lincoln about doing such. He later proposes to her. One of Lincoln's friends from a childhood, an African American named William Johnson, shows up as well needing Lincoln's growing lawyer skills.

For the full review please visit: http://macabremark.com/macabre-mark-goes-to-see-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter/

Prometheus

I first saw trailers for this sometime ago. My first reaction was excitment as I am a big fan of the alien franchise and I had been waiting for something along these lines for a while. after seeing the movie....I am not 100% happy but I'm happy enough.

I know that this movie was originally meant to be a prequel to Alien, and some things changed during production. Scott changed several things in order to go away from repeating things from the other movies over and over. After several rewrites he was happy enough to continue. He used 3D in order to increase the illusion of depth and finally the movie was released worldwide on June 8 2012.

The movie starts off showing an all gray skinned man on what is presumed to be earth. The gray skinned man drinks a strange black fluid which causes him to die and fall into the water. We cut to many centuries later, the year 2089, when a science team is searching around in a cave. They find a weird cave drawing which they presume to be 55,000 years old, if not older. After the couple hold hand its fades to black and we are now on the ship Promethus.

4 years have passed since the couple found the drawings. A robot named David begins to awaken the crew as they approache the planet. The crew is briefed as to just what their mission is. The scientist team Elizabeth Shaw, and Charlie Holloway have found many drawings just like the one they found in the cave we saw prior. All of the civilazations were seperated by time and vast distances yet they all managed to draw the same drawing in some way.

for the full review please visit: http://macabremark.com/macabre-mark-goes-to-see-prometheus/

Chernobyl Diaries

When I first saw trailers for this....this thing. I was a combination of slightly offended, and mildly curious. I decided to appease that morbid curiosity. I have no one to blame but myself for the immense amount of rage I am feeling at the inept stupidity of this movie.

Chernobyl Diaries is written by Oren Peli, best known for Paranormal Activity and Shane Van Dyke, the grandson of Dick Van Dyke. Shane has previously written movies such as "Transmorphers" "Paranormal Entity" and "The Day the Earth Stopped." So let me get this straight....Oren Peli teamed up with a guy who is best known for writing a ripoff of his most famous movie to write this? Just let that simmer in your brain for a while.

The movie starts with 3 people, a guy, named Chris, and two girls, Amanda and Natalie, all arriving in Kiev, Ukraine. They are on a tour across Europe. They are visiting Chris's brother, Paul, who has recently moved there. The three go out for a night on the town, getting drunk and having a blast. It is implied that there is tension between Paul and his father, but it is never further elaborated on.

Seeming desperate to find something to do to spend time with his brother and his friends before they make their way to Moscow on their tour, Paul asks the three if they would like to go on a "Extreme tour." The "extreme tour" in question is a tour of Prypiat, a town not too far away from the Chernobyl nuclear plant where radiation levels had lowered enough to visit. After some bickering, they all eventually agree to give the abandoned city a visit.

After meeting up with the tour guide, Yuri and another couple, Zoe and Michael, the group heads to Prypiat. They are initially locked out due to maintenance, which Paul points out makes no damn sense. Yuri decides to go through an old abandoned checkpoint in order to get the group in. The fact that this checkpoint even exists and it isn't guarded blows my freaking mind. I am pretty sure that the military would think ahead and have this blocked off as well.


For the full review please visit: http://macabremark.com/macabre-mark-goes-to-see-chernobyl-diaries/

The Cabin in the Woods

Wow.....just wow. what did I say a 2 months or so ago? The Woman in Black was going to be the best horror movie of the year? I was wrong. The Cabin in the Woods is easily the best horror movie of the year and I would go as far to say it is easily the best horror film of the last five years.

The Cabin in the Woods completed filming all the way back in May of 2009. The film was co-written by Joss Whedon, who many fans of the television series Firefly will recognize and Drew Goddard, best known for writing Cloverfield. Drew Goddard also directed The Cabin in the Woods and did a damn good job of doing so if I do say so myself. We unfortunately had to wait all this time due to the financial troubles of MGM studios.

The movie opens with two technicians at a water cooler with one talking about his wife baby proofing the house despite not knowing if a baby is actually on the way. This whole sequence is rather clever and pretty funny. It builds intrigue as they talk about an operation they are about to commence. They sit down and turn on the monitors and the operation starts.

It is here we are introduced to our main characters in this movie, Dana, Kurt, Jules, Marty and Holden. The five are getting ready for a trip out into the wilderness to a cabin recently purchased by Kurt's cousin. As they leave, it is discovered that they are being watched by someone who radios into the faculity that they have left.

The five stop at an old gas station where they meet a strange old man. The old man warns them not to go to the cabin. He insults Jules and as Kurt is about to beat his ass, Holden stops him and they move on their way. They continue on and as they reach a tunnel and drive through it, we see an eagle hit some kind of strange barriar which fries it.

The two reach the cabin and their behavior degrades to actions that Marty, whom is a total stoner, notes is not usual behavior. It has become clear throughout that the people in the faculty are inducing behavior aletering drugs which seem to be manipulating the characters into particular horror stereotypes, any fans of horror will know that when they see them. The particular ones they chose seem to point towards 80s slasher films.

The group has fun with the members of the faculty constantly watching, even going as far as betting on what the group will do. This all seems to be old hat to them, something that has been done many times before. Later that night during a game of truth or dare the group discovers the basement of the cabin they are staying in.

This review is in complete to read the review in its entirely please visit: http://macabremark.com/?p=27

Silent House (2012 film)

You know I admittedly had high hopes for this movie. It looked really decent from the trailers. maybe even a movie that would make me jump a little. However it is a remake of a Spanish language movie, so that meant it could go either way. It went the way I didn't want it too.

I couldn't find much about the production information of this movie other than it was directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau. The film also premiered at the 2011 Sundance film festival, which gave me slightly higher standards for it. For those curious I have never seen the original movie, so I am unsure of its quality or if this is a shot for shot remake.

The movie opens with the main character, Sarah, looking out over the water at a lake house. She sees a car pull up and a man steps out. It is now we are introduced to Sarah's father, John. John was in town picking up supplies along with making a stop at an internet cafe. Sarah and John, along with John's brother Peter, whom might I add looks at least 10 years younger than John, are fixing up the lake house in order to sell it.

While working in the basement John and Peter have an off-screen disagreement which leads to Peter leaving the house to go to town in a huff. Sarah is meanwhile looking around the house, and after the disagreement tries to find out what it was about. Her father tells her not to worry about and exclaims "everything would be easier if everyone just listened to me."

After her father goes back downstairs, Sarah hears a knock at the door. She answers it to find a girl about her age standing there whose name is Sophia. Sophia claims to be one of Sarah's childhood friends whom played with her all the time while she was at the lake house, specifically mentioning dress-up being one of their favorite games. Sarah does not remember Sophia in the slightest, but makes plans to hang out with her later that night, none the less.

This review is in complete to read the review in its entirely please visit: http://macabremark.com/?p=29