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scary movie

The Last Exorcism Part II: Movie Review

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The Last Exorcism Part II, left off where the first movie ended.  The original film was shot documentary style about a devious evangelical pastor’s job to exorcise a demon from a farm girl.  The original movie is shot through the perspective of the Preacher and his film crew.  Director Daniel Stamm followed the ever popular found footage style of American horror fims.  Louis Sweetzer, the father of the possessed girl, contacts Reverend Cotton Marcus because he believes his innocent daughter, Nell, is possessed.  Turns out Nell is possessed by a demon named Abalam.  And, as movies like these go, Nell/Abalam over power the Reverend and kill him, his crew, and her family.  The movie ends with the camera lying in the woods of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The Last Exorcism Part 2
Movie Poster for the Last Exorcism Part II

The Last Exorcism II, begins with an unidentified couple finding the exorcised Nell in their home, cold and trembling from her time in the woods.  The beginning scene had one “jump” moment but was otherwise uneventful.  Nell (played by Ashley Bell) is examined by a doctor, bathed by a creepy nurse, who cuts a peice of her hair and places it in a pouch, and sent to a half-way house in New Orleans.  The house “father” gives Nell the cross necklace her mother had given her but tells her to decide whether she is a religious person or not.  Nell soon befriends the other girls in the home and gets a job cleaning motel rooms.  Frank Merle, the man who runs the house, helps Nell to deal with the past events of her life, and she decides that the events that took place and the demon were not real.

When all things seem to be going good, Nell has a boyfriend and is socializing well, she is visited by her father.  His presence warns her that the demon still wants her and will do anything for her.  Soon, Nell starts showing signs of procession and all around creepiness.  She is seduced by the demon in her dreams and is followed by strange characters wearing masks.

Nell is scared and ready to get rid of the demon for good, and the creepy nurse from the beginning turns out to be a voo-doo priestess who has been watching over Nell and has a plan to rid her of the demon for good.

The nurse calls in two men who strap her to a table and hook her up to a monitor and begin to “exorcise” the demon for good.  Well, things don’t go according to plan and Nell must choose to die free or accept the demon into her for good.

I won’t give away the ending in case you do decide to go see the movie.  However, I would not recommend wasting your money on this movie.  The movie was boring and not frightening at all.  The acting was comical and the movie dragged on and on and on and on… You get my point!  If you enjoyed the first movie then you might want to catch the second part, but it does not answer any questions or expand on the first film what-so-ever!

Mama Gonna Creep You Out: Review of the movie Mama

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This past weekend I paid the ridiculous $12.50 to go see the 2013 horror movie Mama.  Mama is co-written and directed by Andres Muschietti, co-written by Neil Cross, and produced by Guillermo del Toro.  The movie has a dark, cold feeling to it.  The colors all seemed very ominous and frigid.  The special effects were mediocre and the soundtrack was not memorable.

Mama
Mama the movie

The story begins with a wall street broker gone rogue who shoots his work partners and then returns home to execute his wife.  After brutally murdering his wife, Jeffrey, proceeds to kidnap his 2 daughters, Lilly and Victoria. The three of them flee in his Mercedes and, because of the icy roads and Jeffrey’s manic state of mind, crash into the woods.  Of course, he finds a cabin to hide out in, because there’s always an abandoned cabin in an isolated wooded area (yes, I am being sarcastic).  Turns out, the cabin is already inhabited by “Mama.”  Mama is the ghost of a mental patient from the 1800’s who escaped and kidnapped her baby from an orphanage.  Mama isn’t too fond of Jeffrey and he “disappears”,so Mama looks after his 2 daughters.

Cut to 5 years later.  Lilly and Victoria are found in the woods, because of their Uncle Luke’s relentless efforts, and, after some psychiatric treatment, move in with their uncle Luke (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain).  As one can imagine, the girls have adapted to living in the woods and the younger of the two, Lilly, being an infant when she was brought into the woods, walks on all fours and can barely speak.  The elder daughter Victoria is slightly more adjusted.  The creepiest part of this movie was the way the girls walked and spoke.  Lilly contorts her body in ways that seem very unnatural.  Also, the sounds Lilly made were completely unnerving, think The Grudge and Signs.  Eventually, the girls start speaking to “Mama” and playing with her.  The first entrance of “Mama” was actually unexpected and terrifying, causing everyone in the theater to jump out of their seats and scream, followed by a rolling laughter.  Although the ghost looked a little to digital for my taste, she was disturbing nonetheless.  Distorted face and disjointed limbs.  The movie reaches its climax when we find out “Mama’s” story and her jealousy, over taking care of Lilly and Victoria, causes her to attack any adult in her way.  The ending was actually quite unexpected and almost brought a tear to my eye.  But you’ll have to see it I don’t want to spoil the whole thing for you!

Mama definitely had its scary moments.  I would define it more as creepy than scary.  The acting was actually pretty good, especially by the youngest daughter Lilly, played by Isabelle Nélisse.  I have to say, as a horror movie buff, that I haven’t seen many good frightening flicks made in the past decade or so, but Mama was worth the watch, but maybe not the $12.50 movie ticket.