Gabe Reviews Horror

October 2026 Horror Reviews #12 - Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) Paranormal Activity 2 (or, as I think it should have been called, Paranormal Ac2vity) is primarily a prequel to the first film, taking place about two months before that movie's events. It follows Katie's sister, Kristi, as well as Kristi's husband Daniel, stepdaughter Ali, and infant son Hunter. Following an apparent break-in, Kristi and Daniel kit out their house with a ton of stationary surveillance cameras in an attempt to keep themselves safe, but as time goes on, the cameras pick up activity of the... paranormal... variety, as we learn a bit more of the origins of the malevolent force introduced in the first film. First, let me get the good out of the way: I appreciated how this movie looks and sounds way better than the previous one (three years and an extra few millions dollars' worth of budget will do that), and I really liked how the plot of this movie ends up tying directly into the plot of the pr...

October 2026 Horror Reviews #11 - Paranormal Activity (2007) While every official listing says Paranormal Activity released in 2007, this is a bit misleading- it was filmed in 2006 and made the film festival circuit the following year, but didn't get a theatrical release until 2009. I remember really liking it when it came out- it was one of the most genuinely terrifying movies I had seen in a long time- but I am sad to say I don't think it has quite held up as much as I expected. Paranormal Activity is a found footage movie that follows Katie and Micah, an inexplicably wealthy couple living in an inexplicably huge and empty house, who have started recording their day-to-day lives on video because of a recent series of seemingly supernatural occurrences. Katie has been living with these occurrences (mostly strange noises and minor unexplained phenomena) since she was a child, when she and her sister used to see a dark force or entity at the foot of their beds at night. Katie an...

October 2026 Horror Reviews #10 - Saw X (2023) Saw X takes place between the first and second films in the series, and follows John Kramer after he's been given a prognosis of only a few months to live. John hears about an experimental procedure being offered outside the country, and travels to Mexico to spend a fortune in the hopes of extending his life. The procedure seemingly goes well, but John falls down a rabbit hole that reveals the procedure was not what he expected- and the consequences will be dire. Someone will have to pay, and the Jigsaw Killer is going to make them pay. (It was actually quite difficult writing an evocative summary that doesn't spoil the main thrust of the film, because I think it's actually quite an interesting reveal when it happens.) I saw this movie back when it came out, and thought it was pretty good. I've heard people throw around things like "best Saw movie and it's not even close" and I wouldn't go that far, but th...

October 2026 Horror Reviews #9 - Spiral (2021) Spiral (originally titled "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" whatever that's supposed to mean) is the ninth entry in the Saw series, and seems to have been written as an explicit spin-off rather than a numbered entry (but the next movie is called Saw X so I guess that went out the window). Featuring none of the characters from any previous Saw film (only name-dropping John Kramer a couple times and one scene where a few photos of past characters are seen), this one follows Chris Rock as Detective Zeke Banks, a loose cannon cop who has drawn a big target on his back after he ratted out a corrupt partner a few years ago. When several cops from the precinct start turning up dead (or, at least, their body parts start being delivered to the station with Zeke's attention), the clues seem to point to a Jigsaw copycat. Will Zeke be able to track down and stop the culprit, or will he find out that the killer is closer than he could ha...

October 2026 Horror Reviews #8 - Jigsaw (2017) After a seven-year hiatus (longer than the series had been around before the last entry), the Saw franchise came back with Jigsaw, a film titled by somebody with even less regard for naming conventions than whoever named the seventh film "Saw 3D". In this movie, it's been ten years John Kramer's death, when some bodies begin turning up with messages (seemingly from John himself) announcing that the games have begun anew. This is intercut with footage of five individuals trapped in one of Jigsaw's infamous deathtrap dungeons, all being forced to atone for their past sins by sacrificing life and limb at the altar of Jigsaw. Is John truly back from the dead, or is a copycat killer taking up the mantle? Or, could it be that someone has been there all along, carrying on Jigsaw's work? I want to get right out and say: I think this is a great movie, all things considered. This is the type of movie the series should have ...

October 2026 Horror Reviews #7 - Saw 3D (2010) Saw 3D (originally known as Saw: The Final Chapter) is the seventh of ten Saw movies, and the end of the current movie timeline (I say this because, of the three remaining films, one follows an entirely new set of characters some time later, one is an explicit spin-off, and the other takes place entirely between Saw I and Saw II). In this entry, Hoffman has survived being put into a deathtrap by Jill in the previous movie, so he essentially abandons his life and identity to hide out and orchestrate a series of events that will let him corner Jill and get his revenge. Meanwhile, a self-help writer who has gained fame and fortune by pretending to be a survivor of one of Jigsaw's traps is captured and put in an actual Jigsaw trap (it's unclear exactly how or why or when Hoffman had the time to set this up, but the movie doesn't care so you shouldn't either). Back when this movie came out I remember it being made pretty explici...