Gabe Reviews Horror

This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #51: Hush (2016) I was kind of dreading watching this movie, to be perfectly honest. I've seen it before, a few years ago. I was dreading it because while I remembered it being very good, I remembered it being TERRIFYING. And it 100% was terrifying on this re-watch. Hush is a movie by Mike Flannigan, who's made several other fantastic horror films (including Oculus, one of my top ten horror films of all time). It's about a woman named Maddie who gets stalked and attacked by a masked serial killer, with the encounter made all the more difficult by the fact that Maddie is deaf and mute. As such, this film is almost entirely without dialogue- there's apparently only fifteen minutes of it in the entire film- and several scenes are without any soundtrack or ambient noise as well, imparting the experience of Maddie's lack of hearing onto the viewer. (I will say, I think it's int

This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #50: The Host (2006) Writer/Director Bong Joon-ho has expressed frustration with people's reactions when making this film, as they seemed to think that making a "monster movie" was beneath him. While I can definitely attest that Bong Joon-ho is a fantastic director (I highly, highly recommend Parasite, another movie of his that unfortunately isn't on this list), I feel that looking back, this is a peculiar movie to make people feel that way about him. Because ultimately, I don't think this IS a monster movie. I mean, it is, but it isn't. The Host is a Korean film that was so popular that approximately twenty percent of the entire country bought tickets to see it. It follows the story of a family whose daughter is kidnapped during a viral outbreak, and they go through hell and high water to get her back (but at what cost...). There's also a monster in there. But that&

This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #49: The Curse of La Llorona (2019) Hooo-weee, this (tenuous) addition to the Conjuring universe is a STINKER. I watched it a couple years ago and nearly fell asleep halfway through, and it took all my willpower to stay awake this time too. This movie is boring, it's lazy, and it's cheap. There's no other way to put it. First, it's boring. SO MUCH of this movie is a whole lotta nothing. Long shots where nothing happens (including one in the middle of what should have been the climax!), scenes that serve little purpose in the plot and are so predictable as to not surprise anybody, and a plot that does absolutely nothing new. Second, it's lazy! The cinematography is uninspired and often shaky/handheld for no appreciable reason, so many IDIOTIC actions taken by characters purely to further the plot, and so many of the scenes are so poorly-plotted that something important hinges o

This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #48: Get Out (2017) "Now, sink into the floor." I first watched Get Out a few months after release and I thought it was pretty good. I showed it to a few people, still thought it was pretty good. Went the last four or five years thinking it was pretty good. I rewatched it today, and can I just say, this movie is FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC? For anyone who hasn't seen it, Get Out follows Daniel Kaluuya as Chris, a young man traveling with his girlfriend, Rose, to meet her rich parents for the first time. Chris is concerned that her parents might act strange around him because of his race, but when he meets them they're super friendly and welcoming. But as the family introduces Chris to all of their friends at a yearly garden party, all of the myriad bizarre interactions begin to add up and something far, far more sinister than anyone expected is lurking just beneath the surface. I feel l