A massive storm hits a small Maine town and causes a lot of damage. The next day a lot of residents head to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. Among them are David, his son Billy and neighbour Brent who has a fairly rocky relationship with David. As the folks go about their business a thick mist approaches fast and suddenly a deathly frightened man comes running into the store shouting that there’s something in the mist.
A cannibalistic clan slaughtered members of Bobby’s family seven years before in the desert en route to California and he was fortunate enough to get out along with his sister, brother-in-law and his small baby and Ruby, a member of the clan who turned against her kin to help the city folk. Now Bobby is the owner of a motorcross team that’s scheduled to compete in or around the desert area where he lived through his horror.
At Dewitt University a scavenger hunt is about to begin. The game, which takes place at night, takes the contestants all over the campus looking for clues. The terror begins as one by one the female players are slashed by a maniac…dressed as the basketball team’s mascot bear!
In Parmistan there a terrible game is played regularly and anyone who comes there must enter. It’s a game of survival and death where no outsider has won the game for over 900 years.
One of the most notorious serial killers in history was the subject of this two part miniseries that aired in May 1986. A big part of the movie’s success is thanks to Mark Harmon’s alarmingly good performance as Bundy. The relaxed runtime also helps in showing just how much ground Bundy covered…
Suburban parents Charles and Christine along with their daughter Cathy receive the shattering news that their son Andy has been killed in action in Vietnam. Christine can’t accept that fact and starts praying for her son to return. Later that night Andy returns home to the amazement of everybody. Soon after it’s apparent that Andy’s not the same as everybody remembered; very distant, cold and quiet…and possibly killing people.
“Rituals” is a very good wilderness thriller that may draw inspiration from the classic “Deliverance” (1972) but it’s even more layered and very effective. The title alone has multiple meanings from both the protagonists perspective but also from the antagonist who actually is given a reason for the reign of terror he invokes on the vacationing doctors.
Recently I watched the entire “Final Destination” (2000 – 2011) franchise. It’s a solid collection of horror films with a knockout premise that has the Grim Reaper as it’s baddie. Every film starts out the same and every film follows the same formula and tries and be as imaginative as possible with the death sequences that really are the franchise’s raison d’etre.
Dame Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel “Ten Little Indians” (which initial title was quite edgy (and it’s easy to google) and quickly changed to “And Then There Were None” when it was published in the US in 1940) is one of the Queen of Suspense’s most enduring piece of literature. It’s a remarkably grim novel whose basic plot has been imitated countless times and undoubtedly will continue to inspire more works for the unforeseeable future. In the 20th century there were four English speaking film adaptations of the novel produced in 1945, 1965, 1974 and 1989 that greeted audiences but there was one fact that not everyone knows that tied all the films together in a peculiar way that differed from the novel. When the novel was adapted for the stage Dame Agatha herself changed the ending and altered the plot slightly. No doubt a reason for this was partly to let theater patrons depart on a slightly happier note but also some key things would have been very difficult to realize on stage that is much easier to communicate in a novel. The following film versions were all adapted from Christie’s stage version and so they did not faithfully adhere to the nihilistic tone that so distinguishes the novel from the rest of her work.
