31 Days of Horror Day 2: Extraterrestrial 2014 - REVIEW

When it comes to aliens, most people explain away mysterious lights in the sky as something military related or just plain old pranks committed by bored college kids. Me? I'm more of a "I have to see it to believe it" kind of person and since I've never seen one but I do wonder sometimes... if we are to believe that aliens are real, how would they be? Vicious and unrelenting like the ones in the Alien franchise? Peaceful and loving like E.T.? Funny and full of one-liners like Paul? Maybe they would capture and study us only to realize we're a species of self destructive douchebags and just vaporize us all. Movies give us a plethora of ideas about how aliens would be and Extraterrestrial is no different.

Five friends take off for a weekend of fun at a cabin in the woods only to discover they are  not alone. When one of them shoots and kills an alien, it sets off a chain of events that sends the lot of them running for their lives.

Yes, I know, it's not much of a synopsis but that's about all you'll get from Extraterrestrial. There is nothing ground breaking about it. When it started I thought, "this might end up being pretty good", yet the further into it I got, the more it seemed to fall apart. The cast, while good, were held back by dialogue that felt forced and phenomenal actors like Michael Ironside and Gil Bellows were sorely under used.

In the end, Extraterrestrial ends up being a direct release that's dumped right in the middle of an oversaturated subgenre full of recycled elements and cliché characters that is just "okay". If you're able to make it through the first 60 minutes or so, the ending does differ a bit from the norm but even that seems to come completely out of the blue and doesn't really tie in with the rest of the film. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a disaster because there's definitely an audience out there that would find the silver lining in it. It's worth a one time viewing but I don't see it being something that someone would watch over and over out of pure enjoyment.

House at the End of the Street 2012 - REVIEW

There are so many films that come out every year that I pass on because I either hear bad things or don't get into the trailer or simply because the movie poster or name turns me off. You'd think I'd have learned by now not to judge a book by it's cover, especially given the films that have surprised me. But no... I still turn away from them until my curiosity finally gets the best of me and I break down and watch it. Sometimes, I'm right and as much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I'm wrong.

Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) is thrust into a relationship with her estranged mother  (Elisabeth Shue) after her father splits. They move to a new town in the hopes of starting over and find themselves living next door to a house where a young girl murdered her parents years earlier. Rebelling against her mother, Elissa befriends the surviving son (Max Thieriot), who still lives in the house. As they become closer and closer, more is revealed about the deaths of his parents and Elissa soon learns that the story is far from over.

Somebody did some really great casting here!  This is only the second time I've seen one of Thieriot's films, the other being My Soul to Take, and he surprised me both times. His character here is a lot like Bug from MStT being that he's an outcast that gets picked on and bullied by the rest of the kids and he does such a great job portraying that character. He just seems so sweet and innocent and all you wanna do is just hug him. Lawrence is equally good as the "rebel WITH a cause" who (as Shue's character says) wants to rescue Ryan (Thieriot) from his demons. Shue is fantastic as usual. She's been a favorite of mine since the 80's and is kinda like fine wine... she gets better with age. I didn't know a whole lot about this one going in so I was also surprised to see the ever so handsome Gil Bellows, and while he doesn't have a whole lot of time on screen, I still love to watch him work. Writer David Loucka did well creating the character of Ryan. He's quite complex with an interesting back story that makes him very apathetic. Having said that, it doesn't seem that Loucka spent as much time on his other main characters. We're given hints here and there as to Elissa's past but there just wasn't enough to make her as strong and likeable as her counter part. The character's of Sarah (Shue) and Weaver (Bellows), while brilliantly cast, are really just hanging around to provide tiresome exposition and the majority of the back story.

Admittedly, the film doesn't have the most original plot, but it does have a couple of genuinely clever twists in the final act that most won't see coming. With a low body count, very little gore and a PG-13 rating, House looks to be aimed more toward the tween crowd. It certainly has enough teenage angst in it to fuel a CW mini-series. In fact, this is a film I can see my 15 year old busting out during a sleep over so her and all her girlfriends can talk about how cute Thieriot is. Also, it does have a certain creepiness to it, especially toward the end. It's nothing spectacular but I wouldn't call it a snooze fest either. For the most part, I enjoyed it and I would recommend it for a one time viewing, mainly because of the cast, but I don't see it holding up past that.