My Top Ten Horror Movies, 10 to 5

Hello readers!

As Halloween approaches, I had the necessity to make my personal Top Ten of horror movies. This is the first part.

I’m a strange fan of horror: I love to watch movies, tv shows and reality tv shows like Ghost Adventures, but at the same time, it’s difficult for me to find a book or a movie that I like and that scares me, so most of the time I’m disappointed. If a movie can reach my personal Top Ten, is really the best.

I will not include classics like The Addams family or NBC, only because I want to talk about underrated/adult movies.

10) The Ring (2002)

The ring was the first horror movie I’ve watched in a movie theatre. I remember I was 15 years old, and I’ve watched it with my friend. Both of us were so terrified that we lock our VHS and video recorder in the closet for months. I’ve watched again after many years, and I fell asleep.

9) The ward (2010)

Without talking about Amber Heard, the main actress, this movie is great! I love all the plot twist!

8) The Others (2001)

 

At first, I can’t stand this movie, I don’t even remember why. Now is one of my fave, even if I know how it ends.

7) The skeleton key (2005)

What I like most about The Skeleton Key are the locations. And Kate Hudson, she’s one of my fave actresses.

6) Errementari (2018)

Errementari is a great underrated horror movie made in Spain, I watched it last year and I was immediately a fan. You can read my review here.

And that’s the first part of the post, in the next days I will post the top 5 horror movies!

Have you seen these movies? Are you a horror fan?

Tell me in the comments!

Review tv series: Lore, season 1

Hello readers!

This is the perfect time of the year to post this review and to watch this show!

 

Title: Lore

Author/Producer: Aaron Mahnke, Gale Anne Hurd, Geln Morgan, Ben Silverman, etc…

Date of premiere: October 13, 2017

Total seasons: 2

Found on: Amazon Prime Video

On July 27, 2019, the series was cancelled.

My Rating: 4,5/5

Review:

I didn’t know this podcast before found it on Prime Video. I’m always interested in a good documentary, so I watched the first season, and I really liked it.

This series explores a lot of dark subjects, like the German legend of The Wolfman, or haunted toys, toys like dolls. (I’m really scared of dolls)

This must say: it’s absolutely not a series suited for children, teenagers or people easily scared, because each episode narrates a real event with real people. Each episode is a mix of animation (like the trailer you can see above), dramatisation with actors and, when possible, real photos or real videos.

That’s what makes this series really scary.

There are only 6 episodes in the first season, and my favourites are the very first one, about the mistakes of bury people alive, the fourth (spirit seance) and the last. The last one, about the haunted doll named Robert was really well done and super creepy.

Please, be also aware that each episode can talk about other things than the main subject, so there are a lot of trigger warnings like suicide, homicide, blood, death of relatives, corpses, capital execution.

The second season is focused on evil people who had lived in the past, like the Countess Bathory.

I enjoyed this series because I’ve learned a lot from it, and the narrator does a great job to introduce us to the story.

It’s perfect to watch during Halloween season…

Movie mini Reviews: Your Name; Momo

Original Title: Momo e no Tegami / A letter to Momo

Produced by: Production I. G., Pierrot

Date of release: 2011

My rating: 4/5

Plot:

Clinging to an unfinished letter written by her recently deceased father, young Momo moves with her mother from bustling Tokyo to the remote Japanese island of Shio. Upon their arrival, she begins to explore her new habitat, meeting local children and learning their routines and customs. However, it’s not long before several bizarre occurrences crop up around the previously tranquil island. Orchards are found ransacked, prized trinkets start disappearing and, worst of all, each morning after her mother leaves for work, Momo hears strange mumblings coming from the attic of their home. Annoyed by these creepy goings-on and her mother’s refusal to believe them, Momo embarks on a strange and supernatural adventure to discover the source of the mischief, which leads her to a trio of troublesome imps: the flatulent lizard Kawa, the childlike Mame and their hulking ogre leader Iwa. Momo also learns that her visit to the island is in some way connected to her father’s mysterious letter.

 

Original title: Kimi no na wa  /  Your Name

Produced by: Comix Wave films

Date of release: 2016

My rating: 2.75/5

Plot:

From director Makoto Shinkai, the innovative mind behind Voices of a Distant Star and 5 Centimeters Per Second, comes a beautiful masterpiece about time, the thread of fate, and the hearts of two young souls. The day the stars fell, two lives changed forever. High-schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other. Yet, somehow, it works. They build a connection and communicate by leaving notes, messages, and more importantly, an imprint. When a dazzling comet lights up the night’s sky, something shifts, and they seek each other out wanting something more – a chance to finally meet. But try as they might, something more daunting than distance prevents them. Is the string of fate between Mitsuha and Taki strong enough to bring them together, or will forces outside their control leave them forever separated?

 

Reviews:

I watched these two movies recently, so I decided to do a mash-up review. As you can see from my rating, I’ve loved A Letter to Momo, and I like it Your Name, but not so much.

But Your Name is famous, and Momo is totally underrated.

Let me explain: the great strength of A Letter to Momo is the story, the animation and visual effects are more classics. It’s a story who I can relate much more than Your Name, there is a lot of emotions going through, from the sadness of the beginning, when Momo’s father died, to the anger for the troubles due to the demons, and finally to the fun and the friendship between the three demons and Momo.

It’s a little too long however, but the ending is really emotional and satisfying.

The strength of Your Name is visual: the plot is a little too romantic and “weird” to me, even if I had appreciated the plot twist. But oh my… the scenes of the night sky, with the cometh, the classic Japanese village with their summer festival and traditions, in contrast with Taki’s life in a modern city. Every scene is a masterpiece, with the colours, the music, the particular shot. You really a big TV with a high resolution to better see this movie!

I appreciated both of this movies, and I will recommend both: A Letter to Momo if you want a “classic” movie full of human emotions and Japanese mythology; Your Name if you prefer a more romantic story with a touch of angst.

Both of the movies are available on Netflix.

Netflix Movie Review: Errementari

Title: Errementari, The Blacksmith and the Devil.

Director: Paul Urkijo Alijo

Cast: Kandido Uranga, Eneko Sagardoy, Uma Bracaglia

Release Date: 12 October 2018

Genres: fantasy, horror, retelling

Rating: 5/5

Trigger Warning: it’s a horror, so death, Satan, suicide, blood, visions of Hell and Demons.

Plot:

Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil is a re-telling of an ancient fable about a Blacksmith who finds himself battling the Devil. In this story, the Blacksmith has captured the Devil and lives a life of hermit-like seclusion away from the prying eyes of the townsfolk. All is going well until a desperate little girl, Usue, accidentally stumbles across the devil and unknowingly releases him. It is then left to the Blacksmith to reclaim his bounty, but this is easier said than done as he also finds himself at the end of a lynch mob that have come searching for the missing Usue.

Review spoiler free:

You know you have found a good horror movie when you and your dad, who sacrifices himself every time this blogger want to watch a horror movie, at the end of the movie, turn to the other and say simultaneously: that was awesome!!

Errementari is a retelling of a fable, is located in Spain and is written in Basque (but they translated it in italian!): after the artistic prologue we are introduced in a world dark and gloomy, devastated by the war. And we first meet The Blacksmith.

Then we skip 8 years, and we found Usue, a little girl living in the same village as The Blacksmith, and a mysterious stranger who is searching the Blacksmith. But nobody in the village wants to enter the property of the Blacksmith, because it seems an old, crazy and nasty man.

The scene, dark as usual for a Netflix movie, are fascinating: the old village with a forest deep and strange, with twisted trees and fog; the property and the house of The Blacksmith, completely covered with cross; the church of the village, with demons statues.

It’s the perfect setting for Halloween! I’ve loved it!

That was me during the entire movie.

 

 

The plot: I hate when for the first 20/30 minutes of a horror movie nothing happens. But Errementari doesn’t fail, and every minute of the movie is interesting, or sad, or funny. Yes, you hear me right: there are a lot of scenes so funny, and let me say it, it’s all because of Sartael, the demon.

The characters: Sartael is the best. I want a fan club for him. And I want to protect Usue and The Blacksmith, because remember if “Not all tales always have a happy ending”, you can’t judge a person by their appereance.

I want to applaud the make up artist: as a cosplayer I’m so impressed by their work.

As always with a positive review, I’m not sure if this is a “professional” or “convincing” review, but I just want to say this: this is an original movie so well done, with a lot of emotions, perfect for Halloween, and it became one of my favorite horror movie of all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Netflix series review: The Good Cop

The Good Cop

Cast: Josh Groban, Tony Danza, Monica Barbaro, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Bill Kottkamp

Executive Producers: Andy Breckman, Howard Klein, Randy Zisk

Episodes: 10

Release date: 21 September

Rating: 4/5

I only watch the first 2 episodes, so this will not be a review of the entire season 1.

I’m a great fan of Josh Groban, so obviously I was expecting this series. Groban is the son, Tony Caruso Jr, and Danza play the father. The son is the good cop, the too much good cop, so stickler for the rules. The father is a corrupt cop who is now forced to live with his son. I read a lot of nasty comments and reviews online, written by “famous website” who didn’t reccomend this series, because it’s boring.

Well, I admit it’s not like “CSI” or “Criminal minds”: there isn’t blood on the crime scene, no violence or s*x scenes (for this 2 episodes!) and I really like that.

I really enjoy crime series, but I don’t want to watch constantly gruesome shows. The news are bad enough, thanks. This is the perfect show to watch with all the family: it’s funny, quiet and the episodes are about 21 min long. There’s only a mistery for episode, so they’re pretty simple, but original and the other characters contributes to the light and easy atmosphere.

There was a scene in the first episode that makes me laugh so hard. And I really like the father/son scenes. I will definitely watch all the 10 episodes.

I hope for just a little “sing a song” scene with Groban in the next episodes. This will be perfect.

 

Any other fan of Josh Groban out there?

Have you watched this series?