ghostsarescared Reviews

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

Should never have been a film.

[5/10 · 20 December 2013]

This is the first time I am going to disagree with IMDb's ratings.

Hachi should never have been made into a film. My main reason being that a dog and its master's relationship is not something that can be completely explained, analyzed or documented. I don't know the details of the true story, but I'm pretty sure not many people do - as it happened in the 1920s in Japan. This just seems to be another example of American filmmakers trying to cash in on someone else's story.

While the acting wasn't abysmal, it was pretty damn Hallmark-y. The dog- vision was a bad decision, as it didn't add anything meaningful to the already sentiment-laden mood. This mood pervaded the entire film - which had no real emotional ups or downs. Not helping matters was the monotonous, unremarkable piano theme that never paused while dog or owner was on screen.

Supporting cast were typecast and dull. Several big plot holes as well.

All in all very disappointing.

The Walking Dead (2010–2022)

The Real 'Walking Dead' are the Actors.

[6/10 · 8 November 2012]

I gotta give it to this show for its devotion to authenticity. They actually hired real zombies to play the lead actors! I have tried watching this show several times because people whose opinions I respect(ed) praised it so enthusiastically. But I can't watch without cringing or laughing or just giving up. The acting is somewhat bad. Not horrible. But I'd almost rather it be horrible than borderline okay. Why should I care about any of these characters? The reason I give it a 6 is because it looks great and the storyline can be unpredictable. But I am disgusted by how easily impressed and entertained most people in the US are. Perhaps the Zombie Apocalypse has already begun.

Sinister (I) (2012)

Insultingly Bad

[5/10 · 1 November 2012]

Judging by the trailer, I expected this movie to be right up my alley. What a disappointment. It wasn't intelligent, edgy, or disturbing. In fact, Sinister was so dumbed-down that I was pretty insulted by the time it was over. It became a very predictable rotation-Main character watches a film reel, hears a noise, walks around his pitch-black house, sees something creepy. We could predict the jumps like clockwork. My boyfriend called the entire plot about twenty minutes into the movie. The costumes and makeup were laughably bad, the 'possessed' children cliché, and the villain 'Mr. Boogie' (really?) looked like an emaciated member of KISS. The movie had many unnecessarily stylized sequences with no meaning, and it drove its point home to the point of torment. The. children. are. murdering. everyone. WE GET IT. The ONLY reason I am giving this movie any stars is because the music was fantastic, especially the use of Boards of Canada's 'Gyroscope' in the sequence where the moronic main character burns the film reels.

I really am baffled at the great reviews this movie got. I mean, yeah, if you are mentally incapacitated, I could see you being scared by this movie. I even saw a review that used the phrase 'deepy frightening'. DEEPLY FRIGHTENING?! If Sinister is deeply frightening then so is Casper the Friendly Ghost. Start thinking, people.

Also disappointed because the director was also behind Exorcism of Emily Rose and I loved that movie.

A complete waste of $20 and an evening.

12 and Holding (2005)

Big Mess

[4/10 · 17 July 2012]

How does this movie hold a 7.5 rating?! I spent most of the film cringing, groaning and giggling at inappropriate times. I feel like I could catch glimpses of what this film was trying to be, which was something rawer, something more profound. But most of the time it was like a TV movie on cough syrup. Why the Gilliam-esque angles? Why the horrible lighting? The score was ALL OVER THE PLACE and really out of touch with what was happening in the scene. Everything was overdone. The acting was terrible and cliché. Why do I care about any of these people? I was very confused as to whether this movie was trying to be serious or not. A vanity project. Try Harmony Korine or Todd Solondz if you want something like this, but better.

Life During Wartime (2009)

I just want my father.

[9/10 · 16 October 2011]

The last words of this film for me were absolute perfection. While this film did have its flaws, the things it got right made up for all of them. There are some profound ideas in this film that can be overlooked if you're too focused on the bizarre storyline. But perhaps ideas like this can only be accurately portrayed with content as explicit as this. Solondz's films are exactly what they appear to be. They hide nothing, and I think that's what turns people off. People want a fantasy. They don't want to see backdrops of Taco Bell parking lots and they certainly don't want to hear about pedophilia or about the sort of unhappy talk they hear in their own families hoisted up on the big screen. I admit I didn't really care for the 'ghost' sequences but they were certainly entertaining. The timing and subtlety really shines here, every actor was excellent. I really didn't know what would happen next-one of the big reasons I am a Solondz fan. That facet alone makes his films true to life. People call this a bad 'vanity project' but I disagree.

I laughed out loud, I was shocked, amazed, and at the end of the last scene I was literally breathless.

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)

Painful Trip

[8/10 · 1 October 2011]

I watched Lily Chou-Chou last night and was mesmerized and deeply moved by it. The use of lighting and shadow instantly produce a subject-less nostalgia, sort of a yearning without knowing what one is yearning for. Perhaps these youth yearned for a purpose. Confusion about identity is central to this film, and I felt a very helpless feeling throughout. The music, especially the song 'Kaifuku Suru Kizu' was very haunting. I don't know if it was the notion of 'ethereal music' placed at the beginning meant to trick the viewer into hearing something that isn't there, or if the music really contained an 'otherness'-either way, I felt something I hadn't before when I heard it. The song's been stuck in my head all day. Overall a soul-crushing movie that still remains realistic despite its dreamy feel. I think it accurately portrays the chaos of ideas and meanings and meaninglessness of our modern age colliding with human emotion. 8/10.

Room (I) (2005)

Haunting.

[7/10 · 10 April 2011]

I actually liked this film. No it isn't perfect-but it gave me a feeling that not many others have. I'd compare the feeling to the one I got from Clean, Shaven and Inland Empire. Sort of a nightmarish claustrophobia, but the sort you get from being stuck inside your own body. I think the director deserves credit for a haunting, unique film. I really related to the main character in her 'lostness'...this movie really gets that the most disturbing things are not subversive or alien to us- they are real situations, every day things. No, there's not a real plot or a satisfying-loose ends-tying finale, but if there were I'd feel cheated because life isn't like that. I think this film has been reviewed by too many people who have never experienced real fear.