RCR Redesign Coming Soon

I haven't really wrote many blogs or posted any reviews on here of late as I've been crazy busy with the re-design our our website. The new site will be going up probably within the next week or so and I'll get back to posting my reviews on here...

Please let me know what you think once it's up, what you think, even if it's negative. All feedback is welcome...

Another small piece of news, I've had to update the page URL to our forum. For those of you who already have it bookmarked it can now be found at - http://roughcutreviews.websitetoolbox.com/

The Haunting in Connecticut (2008)

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT follows a family who are forced to relocate near to a clinic where their teenage son Mat, is being treated for cancer. They manage to find a place that’s cheap to rent but little do they no that it was used in the past as a funeral home. Quickly Mat experiencing violent, supernatural events that his parents first blame on his medication but not long after they too begins to experience unexplainable events that have them thinking that the house is indeed haunted.

With it being one of those ‘Based on a True story’ movies that we see an abundance of these days, it was clear that it would inevitably gain interest and in the months leading up to it’s release it gained more followers with it’s trailer and poster, yes the one with the boy with ‘ectoplasm’ coming out of his mouth. On the flipside a lot of hardcore horror geeks had dismissed it as another feeble mainstream horror movie in the vein THE AMITYVILLE HORROR remake and indeed to a certain degree it has quite a few similarities.

When all is said and done THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT turns out to be a thoroughly watchable and at times enjoyable movie. Probably even more so if you go watch it with someone who is scared of their own shadow. Unfortunately it does suffer its flaws, the biggest being that it’s just too similar to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and Nicole Kidman-led OTHERS. Having said that if the story is accurate and the events did really happen then these similarities were perhaps unavoidable.

Although it relies at times on the cliqued jump scares there are at a few moments that may make you cringe. The effects and make also play there part well in making the movie more believable. THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT holds it own well enough in a genre already swamped with poor remakes of classic or foreign movies.

Still , a long way off the better ghost stories like SESSION 9 and THE ORPHANGE but worth a watch if only to pass the time.

Date: 30/03/2009
Rating: 3/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/

The Unborn (2008)

Our second ‘Children in Horror’ theme of the night was in the shape of Universal’s THE UNBORN. From the trailer it was clear what we were in for. This was to be our usual run of the mill effects heavy, jump scares-style horror from Hollywood. The only difference this team being that it wasn’t a remake of something from Asia. When the line-up for this year’s Frightfest in Glasgow was initially announced Demented Dave and I were left disappointed that there weren’t any stand out movies that we had been looking forward to. OUTLANDER for me was the one I was perhaps most interested in but definitely bottom of my list was THE UNBORN. Indeed even the organisers had very little to say about it.

The Story follows Casey (Odette Yustman, CLOVERFIELD) , a young woman haunted by a malevolent spirit called a Dybbuk . Casey begins to be haunted by visions and dreams. When she delves deeper into her past she learns that she is now the subject of a family curse that dates back to Nazi Germany and that she was a twin but her brother was never born. The Dybbuk begins to possess those around her and with each and every possession becomes stronger. Casey is then forced to try and shut a doorway from beyond our world with the help of Sendak (Gary Oldman) by the means of an exorcism.

After each of the movies in the line- up we all clapped the movies, even if they weren’t perhaps brilliant. Unsurprisingly THE UNBORN did not get one single person’s applause. Indeed there were boos from my left. Yes, granted they were from Dave but the general mumblings afterwards from the crowd were that THE UNBORN perhaps should have went Unmade. Think along the lines of the ONE MISSED CALL and SHUTTER remakes and you’ll know what to expect. By all means if you enjoyed these movies then THE UNBORN will be for you but if you are a horror fan like ourselves and prefer not to know when each scare is about to happen then you’re gonna hate this. Indeed the only reason I never gave in to leaving and just going to the pub was because of Odette Yustman . No, she wasn’t brilliant in her role (I suppose she didn’t really have much to work with) but the fact she walks about in her pants just really done it for me. Shallow huh?

Yes, it really was that difficult for me to find anything positive to say about this one.

Date: 22/02/2009
Rating: 1/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/

Grace (2009)

One of the movies I knew the least about going into this year’s Frightfest was first time director, Paul Solet’s GRACE. The fact that Adam Green who directed SPIRAL, which is an RCR favourite, produced it and gave Solet a video introduction before hand made me sit up and take interest. GRACE was originally intended to be a feature film but not being able to get the funds together Solet made it into a short film with an entirely different cast and managed to get noticed at a film festival by Green. He had taken one of the props from the movie along which made Green take notice. Those of you who see the movie will realize the prop I was talking about.

Jordan Ladd plays Madeline Matheson who at eight months pregnant gets into a car crash with her husband and loses her unborn baby. Heartbroken she decides that she wants to go to term with her unborn baby Grace and opts to do this with a midwife instead of going to hospital. M iraculously Grace returns to life a few moments after she is born. Unwilling to listen to her bossy mother-in-law she opts not to go to hospital for blood tests to see how this resurrection occurred. When Madeline takes Grace Home it becomes clear that all is not quite what it seems but being her miracle child she chooses to ignore it. All too quickly Grace develops a taste for blood and when processed meat from a shop leaves her uninterested Madeline must seek alternatives elsewhere.

The only thing I knew about GRACE before going to see it was that when it was showed at the Sundance Film Festival Stateside two men had to be taken out by paramedics after they fainted. At FrightFest there were a few walk outs but I think these were for an entirely different reason. With the vast majority of us being horror fans gore and scares only serve to make us enjoy a movie more. If I had to guess I ‘d say they walked out of the movie for the same reason that kept me from giving this one a higher rating - they were simply bored. The movie drags far too much. If perhaps it was a shorter movie then it may have worked better but it seemed to suffer from being far too drawn out. It’s not all bad though; my respect goes to the director for trying to be original and doing something slightly different. It would have been easy to jump on board and go out and make a remake or copy a tried and tested formula but Solet tried to play on a generally unused subject in horror movies – Childbirth.

Another positive from the movie was that it managed to make me cringe on quite a few occasions. Not from gore or scares by but instead from the whole subject of childbirth. As a guy with no kids I really do not have much knowledge of the subject, nor do I have any desire to find out more anytime soon.

It’s quite difficult to compare GRACE to any other movie and I suppose that’s no bad thing so I’ll just say this – Check this one out if you’re looking for something slightly different from the norm. It’s just a little bit too slow for me.

Date: 22/02/2009
Rating: 2.5/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/

Trailer Park Of Terror (2008)

Six troubled high school students and their chaperon, and their youth ministries Pastor get into a smash on their bus which leaves them stranded while returning from an outdoor character building retreat in the mountains. Little do they know that when they stumble upon a trailer park, the chaos that waits for them as there is home to Norma a super-hot and damned Red neck and her band of blood-thirsty and cursed friends who are hell-bent on destruction.

With 30 DAYS OF NIGHT making the jump from graphic novel to movie and quickly becoming one of my favourite horror movies of 2007 I made a point of keeping an eye out for other horror comic books/graphic novel adaptations so when Demented Dave, our horror guy mentioned this one to me I took note. I had originally planned on reading some general horror comic books before watching anything but when TRAILER PARK OF TERROR fell into my lap the urge to watch it was too great.

TRAILER PARK OF TERROR is your normal bog-standard red necks in a trailer park who turn into demons and prey on passers by’s type of movie. Ok, maybe thats not quite bog-standard but there’s been similar stories. For me this one comes in as one of the better attempts. It never quite takes it’s self seriously nor does it try to be something it’s not. The othere elements of the movie which helped it along for me where some of the effects and make up which for a movie with a lower budget were surprisingly good. It also had some decent gore and death scenes which let's face it, we love as horror fans.

Yes, it’s not without its flaws, in between some great lines there is some poor acting but for a Direct-to-DVD release we we’re never going to get Oscar-worthy performances but I have to admit to loving Norma, the leader pf the these cursed soles. Not only did she looked good but her characters was quite amusing too.

If you enjoyed FEAST and JACK BROOKS: MOSNTER SLAYER then this one may just be for you. If not then it’s still well worth a watch as it’s a lot of fun.

I don't know, maybe it's just me or that I've watched too many horror movies but I still managed to find Norma hot even with the makeup!

Date: 12/02/2009
Rating: 3.5/5
Copyright ©2009 Rough Cut Reviews.
Read this review and more on: http://www.roughcutreviews.com/