INSOMNIAC SONG
MOVIE AND TELEVISION REVIEWS
HORROR
The Ward (2010)
Starring: Amber Heard, Mamie Grummer, Jared Harris
Directed by: John Carpenter
Rating: R
Run time: 88 minutes
Synopsis: A thriller centered on an institutionalized young woman who becomes terrorized by a ghost.
While not your typical John Carpenter fare, The Ward isn't necessarily bad. It's not going to appeal to your average horror fan. The body count and gore are pretty much non-existent. Even as a psychological horror, there are a few jump scares and misdirection present. Once you get to the twist, the rest of the film seems to make sense. This is almost too little, too late. Regardless, I was intrigued by the twist. I just wish it had been explored in a better way.
Rating: 2.5/5
HORROR
Red Mist (2008)
Alternate Title: Freakdog
Starring: Arielle Kebbel, Sarah Carter, Katie McGrath, MyAnna Buring
Directed by: Paddy Breathnach
Rating: Not Rated
Run time: 82 minutes
Synopsis: A young doctor in a US hospital administers a powerful and untested cocktail of drugs to a coma victim. But instead of curing him, it triggers a powerful "out-of-body" experience and enables the patient - a depraved and dangerous loner - to inhabit other people's bodies and, through them, take revenge on the bullying medical students who were accidentally responsible for his condition.
Medical students more interested in sex, drugs and drinking get in over their heads cause injury to a creepy janitor and leave him outside of a hospital. While this isn't the greatest premise ever, it's fairly original considering all the remakes we've been expected to enjoy. Arielle Kebbel has an innocent look to her that's easy to sympathize with. There are lots of pretty faces and bloody deaths to satisfy the average horror fan. I couldn't quite get past the plot holes or the weak ending to really enjoy it.
Rating: 2/5
HORROR
Cello (2005)
Director: Lee Woo-cheol
Starring: Seong Hyeon-ah, Park Da-an, Jeong Ho-bin
Rating: NR
Running Time: 92 minutes
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Synopsis: After surviving a terrifying car wreck that killed her best friend, Mi-ju, a brilliant cellist longs for a peaceful and stable life as a music teacher at a local college. When horrifying memories of the accident begin to surface, her tranquil life quickly becomes a nightmare. A supernatural evil seeks revenge against her and her family. Until she knows the reason why, no one is safe.
Hong Mi-Ju lives a relatively normal life teaching part-time at a musical academy. She seems to be fairly normal with friends among her co-workers. The only downfall is that she has a former student who's very upset that Mi-Ju gave her a failing grade. The young woman promises to get revenge on the professor as she's been prevented from getting into the university that she wanted. Despite this, Mi-Ju goes home to a loving husband, their two daughters and her sister-in-law. Home life seems to be quite normal with the exception of a creepy housekeeper being taken on. Everything seems too normal for a horror movie. Then strange things begin to happen...
While Cello isn't what I'd classify as traditional horror (even of the Asian variety), it does hold some of the values that those films portray. Those are in a quite limited respect though. It would have been better to classify this movie as a psychological drama instead. Even that label can only take it so far. The film is extremely boring. I found myself yawning through most of it. I will, however, say that the cello music and the youngest daughter were the best parts. The little girl (Jin Ji-Hee) was adorable and quite precocious.
With that said, I suppose that I should explain what I didn't like. The pacing of the film was extremely slow. For the first fifteen minutes, there was only a quick (almost easily missed) sighting of the ghost. Once that happens, there's no other sightings of the ghost until the film is almost over. One would think that in a ninety minute horror film, you'd at least see the ghost quite a few times by the hour mark. Instead, we're left with Mi-Ju being paranoid, a creepy housekeeper and the creepy elder daughter. It's not really explained very well that the elder daughter was born with a developmental disorder that Mi-Ju blames herself for.
The film didn't manage to hold my attention by the time that the last twenty minutes roll around. This is where the action starts to pick up. We've finally reached Mi-Ju's breaking point and the full unveiling of the ghost. The true backstory is revealed as well as a twist that wasn't quite expected. Even so, I wasn't interested enough to care. Mi-Ju was seemingly the perfect teacher, wife and mother....yet she was also perfectly boring. Her husband was also quite boring. The creepy housekeeper and elder daughter were both mute unless you count the daughter screaming as speech. We're not given adequate time to care about the sister-in-law's fate even though she lives in the home.
Rating: 2/5