A Tale of Two Sisters

A Tale of Two Sisters -- I admit that I'm a fan of Asian horror movies because I find them more interesting, creative and unique than their Western counterparts. One of the Asian horror movies that I enjoyed watching, aside from Ringu and Ju-on, is A Tale of Two Sisters.

A Tale of Two Sisters is basically a psychological horror movie that centers on...two sisters. You didn't see that coming, did you? Don't worry, I won't give spoilers. Just a brief note on what the movie is about.

The movie starts with the two sisters moving into their new home in the countryside where there father grew up. Their step-mother greeted them warmly (their mother just died) but the sisters dislike their new mother. The house started to resemble a prison for the girls because of the cold atmosphere brought by their step-mother. Soon, their step-mother changes horribly, and with her, the house changes too - giving way to sinister and horrific incidents that drive the sisters to the brink of insanity.

That's just something to minutely describe A Tale of Two Sisters. For one, it messed up my mind the first time I saw it. Secondly, it scared me...and I like getting scared. The picture above is kinda creepy, no? I don't really want to give away the climactic parts of the story, so you should just watch it. It might seem confusing at first, but by the time the movie ends, you'll see how it all fits in together.

Silent Hill left me silent

Hey look, it's Pyramid Head!

Silent Hill -- I remember watching this at a big cinema, last full show, with very few people watching besides me. I admit that I never really got around to playing the game, mainly because I'm such a scaredy-cat.

Now onto the story...

A woman brings her daughter to a town called Silent Hill as a response to her daughter calling out for the place while her sleepwalking became more dangerous. A car crash that involved them just outside the town knocks them unconscious and when the woman wakes up, her daughter is nowhere to be found, and Silent Hill suddenly became a ghost town, complete with fog and ash-fall. As the woman goes around the town in search for her daughter, she encounters some messed up creatures that all connects to the secrets of Silent Hill and the town's connection with her daughter.

I must mention that I found the creatures of Silent Hill repulsive. Utterly hideous, especially the Janitor. Anyway, the movie itself is kinda...well I don't really know how to describe it, but it's like it's still missing something towards the end. Sure, it was a scare-fest for me. But that was almost all there was to it. I was left hanging trying to figure out what happens after they were able to get out of Silent Hill.

If there's anyone who can tell me, I'm all ears.

Since there's not much to say anyway, I'll just list down the different creatures found in the Silent Hill movie:

• Grey Child - they are noisy, blackened creatures that grab and drag you to god knows where. They are blackened in the sense that they look like they were burned to death.
• Creeper - they resemble insects that swarm all over people plus when you turn them over, they have this human-like face underneath.
• Dark Nurse - they squeak when they move, carry objects that can kill and they wear nurses' uniforms. One thing though, their faces are so disfigured, they're scary. Oh and they won't move when there's light.
• Lying Figure - probably the only creature that can come out during daylight, they spray acidic, tar-like substances on their victims.
• Pyramid Head - just check out the picture above for reference. He also carries a huge knife and is brutally strong.
• Janitor - before shifting to the otherworld, the Janitor is just a corpse, disfigured by barbed wires and stored in one of the school comfort room's cubicle. He was once the school's janitor but he molested a kid, therefore, earning him the punishment of being tied up.

And now, I shall leave you all with an image of the Janitor:

Doom for Doom

Doom -- Enter the Rock in this movie adaptation of the video game of the same title.

If you weren't able to catch Doom when it was shown last year, Doom is about a group of soldiers..well, space marines...who were sent to another planet to make sure that everything's going fine with a research facility.

Upon reaching the facility, they find out that the place isn't so fine after all. Almost all the scientists are missing, dragged into the darkness by some weird, unseen (not invisible) thing. They were briefed about the situation by a lady scientist who is probably the only scientist left there. Oh and a physically disabled guy is there to help too.

They receive their mission: get rid of the thing and leave.

Then you will see a series of action scenes and you also discover what the weird, unseen (not invisible) thing is. Of course, I wouldn't tell you the whole story here because I don't want to ruin anything for you, dear reader and unfortunate misser of the movie, Doom.

Okay, personally, I don't like the movie. It's an Alien rip-off. I haven't played the game but I've seen it and I wish there were scenes there that were actually taken from the game. Oh wait, there is! It's only scene that I liked in the whole movie:

You know those first-person shooter games like Time Crisis and well...Doom (durr)? There's this scene where the Rock goes around the lab, trying to find the weird, unseen (not invisible) thing and it's like you're playing the actual game itself. There! That's like cool, you know?

Well, that's me of course.

Try to watch it. If you don't like it, don't blame me. If you do, praise me for introducing Doom to you.

The Queen was Damned Indeed

Nahhh.. I wasn't saying that to Aaliyah, just in case people get the wrong notion or something.

Queen of the Damned -- I read and liked Anne Rice's book. I fell in love with the story, with the intricate history of the vampires, so much that I really had high expectations for the Queen of the Damned movie.

I was disappointed.

A lot.

Sure, I understand that like with most book-to-film movies, time is scarce, so the director has to fit in everything in one to two hours, preferably an hour and a half, lest the audience be bored...to death. I understand too that movie adaptations are based on the director's interpretation of the story, so it is up to him to recreate what he read.

The Queen of the Damned movie lacked something that made the book wonderful. The story was missing the important parts, the elders weren't given that much thought...then Aaliyah died before they were able to finish shooting the last scene of the movie, where her character, Akasha, dies. So they had to use CG to finish up the queen's death, and it was so hard to watch. The transitions from scene to scene aren't that smooth...so I got the feeling that I was watching three different independent stories at once.

The soundtrack is pretty cool though. At least, they still have a redeeming factor left to save this movie. Artists like Jay Gordon (whom I think voiced for Lestat's concerts) are featured in the album. If you haven't read the book yet, you might want to consider watching the Queen of the Damned movie, or if at least, you're a fan of Aaliyah.

O castitatis lilium...

Elfen Lied -- This has definitely got to be one of the goriest, saddest and most twisted anime I've ever seen.

What is Elfen Lied?
Elfen Lied is an anime/manga created by Okamoto Rin. The story revolves around a Diclonius named Lucy who was stranded in an island inn where she washed up after being hit on the head by a sniper's bullet. The hit caused her to have split personality disorder, her other "self" was called Nyu by Kouta and Yuka - the people who found her. Nyu's appearance causes Kouta to remember events from his past that seemed to be buried so deep that he forgot about them while the lab where Lucy escaped from ordered a man-hunt for her.

What is a "Diclonius"?
A Diclonius is a mutated human. You can tell them apart from other humans because they have horns on their heads that resemble cat ears. A diclonius possesses telekinetic powers that they can use through their "vectors".

What are "Vectors"?
Vectors represent a diclonius' power. They are like invisible hands surrounding the diclonius. They seem invisible because they move at speeds that the eyes cannot keep track of.

How does this post's title relate to Elfen Lied?
The title is taken from Elfen Lied's opening song, "Lilium". It's a Latin song, btw.

Elfen Lied is not recommended for those who are under 18 and those who have weak hearts and stomach. That's because a lot of killings happen and they are represented quite graphically. Nude and torture scenes are present too. I did like Elfen Lied though. Putting the violence aside, it's a sad story, especially Nana (another diclonius) who wanted to be accepted by the man she calls her father. It's tragic too...

Which is why if you're over 18, has a strong heart and tummy, watch Elfen Lied.

Ringu - Ring (1998)

Ring -- I know a lot of people like scary movies. I love them too and I love getting scared like hell.

One of the top three scariest movies of all time for me is the original Ring (Ringu). I got scared senseless when I watched this in the cinemas with my cousin (she even cut me with her nails when she clung onto me when she got scared).

I'm sure a lot of people have seen Ring and got scared too when they watched. Although for those (un?)fortunate enough who refused to watch the movie when they heard their family and friends talking about it, I will (as usual) give a super concise gist of the story (of the Japanese version).

Okay. So there's this reporter whose cousin died mysteriously. She finds out that the death was caused after the cousin watched a video tape a week before she died. The reporter, who knew about the tape beforehand but dismissed it as an urban legend until she finds out about her cousin, was able to get a copy of the tape. Of course, there won't be anything else left for the movie if the reporter didn't let her curiosity get the better of her and avoid watching the tape. So naturally, the reporter watches the video, gets a call that she'll die in 7 days, and gets all frantic trying to avoid her untimely death. She calls her ex-husband to help her save her life. End of super-concise gist (without giving away spoilers).

For those of you who have seen the movie, I guess you can relate to the things written in the next few sentences...

After I watched the movie, I had to cover my TV set with thick cloths and boards. Not only that, I couldn't watch TV for a week. I also couldn't go out of my room at night alone, not even when I'm super hungry or thirsty (good thing the bathroom's adjoined to my room). Okay, a lot of you might think I took things to the extreme but, the movie scared me shit.

Well, it's better to see for yourselves what I mean. Watch it...

Tales from the Darkside

"The Darkside is always there waiting for us to enter; waiting to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight."

Tales from the Darkside -- If you like all those horror and sci-fi stories, I think Tales from the Darkside is perfect for you. It's considered a relative of the Twilight Zone because of the morbid, but sometimes funny, episodes. The stories that are featured in the show are based from books by famous horror-genre authors like Stephen King and stars actors from the 40s-50s era.

I really wouldn't want to spoil Tales from the Darkside for eager viewers, so let me just give you a list of the best-rated episodes in the 4 seasons that it was aired:

Season 1:
Episode 7: Slippage
Episode 8: Inside the Closet
Episode 10: A Case of the Stubborns
Episode 14: Anniversary Dinner
Episode 22: Bigalow's Last Smoke

Season 2:
Episode 28: Parlor Floor Front
Episode 29: Halloween Candy
Episode 34: Ursa Minor
Episode 44: A Choice of Dreams
Episode 47: Fear of Floating

Season 3:
Episode 48: The Casavin Curse
Episode 49: The Circus
Episode 53: The Geezenstacks
Episode 57: Baker's Dozen
Episode 58: Deliver Us from Goodness
Episode 59: Seasons of Belief
Episode 61: The Milkman Cometh
Episode 65: Everybody Needs a Little Love
Episode 67: The Social Climber

Season 4:
Episode 74: The Moth
Episode 75: No Strings
Episode 77: The Yattering and Jack
Episode 79: Sorry, Right Number
Episode 84: The Cutty Black Sow
Episode 85: Do Not Open This Box
Episode 86: Family Reunion
Episode 89: Barter

Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt is one of the longest-running TV series ever showed on air, boasting 7 seasons from 1989 to 1996.

What is it about? Well, Tales from the Crypt is a collection of episode-long stories that end with a moral lesson that is presented in a disturbing manner. The storyteller is a ghoul called Cryptkeeper who dons different outfits usually depending on the theme of the episode for the day.

If you aren't the type to get queasy when watching gruesome shows, Tales from the Crypt is definitely worth watching. Besides, it isn't always gross or disturbing... There are times when it's funny too. The stories for each of the episodes are unique and well-directed, plus, they never get boring too.