Sometimes a film's best avoided...

Sometimes They Come Back... Again (1996)
Starring: Michael Gross, Hilary Swank, Alexis Arquette, and Jennifer Elise Cox
Director: Adam Grossman
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

When Jon Porter (Gross) returns to his childhood home after the death of his mother, his good-girl teenaged daughter Michelle (Swank) is stalked by the restless spirits of a gang of intensely evil teenaged Satanists, led by Tony Reno (Arquette) he killed as they were killing his sister several decades ago. If Jon is to save his daughter, he needs to kill them... again.

"Sometimes They Come Back... Again" starts out okay but quickly degrades into bad effects and abject stupidity. Even allowing for the standard cast of Stephen King stock characters (the film is based, very loosely, on a short story he wrote, "Sometimes They Come Back") -- the haunted adult who has to face childhood horrors, the 1950s-style tough-guys who are still around as ghosts, the innocent child of the main character who is now being menaced by the dark past, the village idiot, the desperate cleric, and so on--the characters and events here are generally so over the top that it becomes impossible for the viewer to suspend disbelief. And the awful "electricity effects" doesn't help one bit.

It also doesn't help that the only decent actors in the piece are Gross and Swank. On one hand, it's good, because the father/daughter relationship is key to the film's story. On the other hand, it's bad, because whenever they're acting against other players, they show how bad everyone else is.

Truly hardcore Stephen King fans might enjoy this film. The rest of us can just watch it for the beauty that is Hilary Swank...

'Dreamcatcher' suffers from a lack of relationships

Dreamcatcher (2003)
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, and Tom Sizemore
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

"Dreamcatcher" is the story of four friends who, in childhood, devopled a psychic bond after befriending a retarded boy. That bond has kept them together into adulthood, and on their 20th annual retreat to a remote cabin of drinking, hunting, and male bonding, a horrific terror from another world tests both their friendship and psychic abilities.

Although very intense at times--there is a scene that flips swiftly from bathroom humor to bathroom horror, and it is definately one of the scariest bits of film ever made--the movie suffers greatly from the fact that the viewers never really feel a connection with the four friends at the heart of the tale. They are good, brave people, but beyond that there isn't much of an opportunity to get to know and care about them. Therefore, when they die (and I don't think I'm spoiling anything but mentioning that several of the friends don't make it back to civilization alive, given that this is a horror movie), there is no real emotional response from viewers.

If the director or screenwriter had found a way to make us feel the bond between the friends, this could have been one scary movie, because the monster is darn scary and Morgan Freeman does an excellent job as a villainous military officer--even if anyone who actually knows American military men, they'l be shaking their heads at this character and the whole portrayal of a military operation in the film. But it's the lack of viewers properly feeling the bond between the heroes that is the film's fatal flaw, one that certainly generated by the filmmakers, because one of Stephen King's strengths when writing about life-long friends facing danger and death together, he is always very adept at making us feel almost as though we are part of their fellowship as the story unfolds.

And that's too bad, because without us feeling the connection between the main characters and sharing their pain as they watch their friends die, "Dreamcatcher" never rises above the level of a bad slasher-film merged with a mediocre science fiction monster movie.

'1408' is a spectacular spook show!

1408 (2007)
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary MacCormack, and Jasmine Jessica Anthony
Director: Mikael Haafstroem
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A jaded paranormal investigator (Cusack) meets his match when he confronts the evil that dwells in Room 1408.


"1408" is the best ghost/haunted house movie in at least a decade. The acting is top-notch. Enslin starts out as a somewhat unlikeable cynic, but as he lives through his night of terror and emotional anguish brought on by whatever evil exists in Room 1408, John Cusack's fantastic range as an actor brings the audience firmly on his side, rooting for him to defeat the room. Cusack goes from amsused, to angry, to terrified, to heartbroken, to resigned to his fate, and back again, never seeming as if he's hamming it up or overacting. Cusack's utterly believable peformance draws the viewers in, and transmits the terror straight to us.

Similarly, Samuel L. Jackson actually gives a performance in this film that doesn't involve chewing up the scenery. He is likewise perfectly believable in his part--playing it somewhat understated, yet sincere. The scene he shares with Cusack are well played, because by the time it's over, the audience is convinced that the hotel manager isn't trying to scam Enslin so his hotel gets a write-up... he sincerely believes Room 1408 is haunted by an evil presence.

I've read a couple of reviews where the critics complain that there's nothing new in this film, that it's just another ghost movie. Those critics are morons. There isn't supposed to be anything "new" in this very traditional ghost story. What they should have noticed (although I wonder if one of those reviewers even saw the film... I've suspected him of working purely off press kits before) is how perfectly all the traditional elements are deployed and used... and how, for the first time in entirely too long, this is a horror movie from a major releasing company that is driven by the performances of the actors and the carefully orchestrated unfolding and worsening of the haunting rather than merely being an excuse to toss together a bunch of CGI monsters or lame scares OR build-ups that don't actually result in anything.

"1408" works because every promise of something strange or terrifying pays off... and sometimes pays off in somewhat unexpected ways. But it all happens within the standards of a traditional ghost story. The film even ends on a strong note, because it avoids the "shock scare" at the end that has become so commonplace that in most cases it's more irritating than frightening. Instead, this film ends on a supremely creepy note that is probably more horrifying and heartbreaking for Enslin than anything up to that point.

Although I can't rave enough about how exciting it is to finally see a decent ghost movie again, "1408" isn't quite perfect.

There is a point where it appears as if Enslin has escaped from the room that goes on just a bit too long. The filmmakers give us some early hints that it's a trick the Room is playing, but instead of moving swiftly to what is obvious to the viewer (if not to Enslin), he continues the sequence. Fortunately, what follows is more horrorfying than what went before, so the film recovers nicely from a near-stumble, and it's only true weak point.

"1408" is a great adaptation of a Stephen King short story, and it's a must-see for anyone who loves a good, traditional haunted house movie. It's the best one of the decade just passed.

It's a predictable view from 'Secret Window'

This review is being posted as part of Blog Cabins' 30 dAyS oF cRaZy blog-a-thon! The blogosphere is a tad more insane this month than usual!

Secret Window (2004)
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, and Maria Bello
Director: David Koepp
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Mort Rainey (Depp) is a novelist on the verge of a burn-out when his life gets even worse: A maniac (Turturro) accuses him of plagiarising a story he wrote, and begins an ever-increasing campaign of violence and terror against Mort and those closest to him.


Based on a short story by Stephen King, "Secret Window" features a number of themes related to the darker side of the basically lonely professional life that every writer leads... and if one is familiar with those themes and how they've played out in King's works, where this movie ultimately goes is very predictable.

However, the cast is made up of competent actors--Depp once again shows what an excellent actor he is, and Turturro was downright frightening in most of his scenes--the script is well done, and the director clearly knows how to use all the tools in his bag of tricks to keep the suspense up.

Even if I realized early on that I was watching yet another movie about a crazy writer being stalked by himself, through a twisted part of his broken mind that has taken over, Koepp delivered a film that kept me watching due to nicely staged scenes and by managing to provide enough twists to keep me wondering if I was wrong about my assumptions. The script was also well enough written that I cared about the characters. I didn't want Johnny Depp's beleaguered writer to be a maniac, because
I liked him, and I certainly didn't want Maria Bello to end up in a shallow grave. It's one of those rare mystery movies where there really is no mystery if you've seen enough of them, but it is still well-crafted enough to make it worthwhile.

And it could be that this film was predictable to me because I've seen so many horror, mystery, and suspense films. Maybe viewers who haven't watched quite as many movies, or are as familiar with Stephen King's Package of Repeated Themes and Stereotypes would be taken aback by the "shocking twist ending."

'Rose Red' is a house you might want to avoid

Rose Red (2002)
Starring: Nancy Travis, Julian Sands, and Matt Keeslar
Director: Craig R. Baxley
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A self-absorbed, mentally unstable psychology professor (Travis) leads a team of psychics into Seattle's most haunted house--a house so haunted that it builds expansions to itself.


"Rose Red" is a made-for-TV chiller that tries to capture the feel of great haunted house flicks like "The Changeling", "House on Haunted Hill" and "Legend of Hell House." It mostly fails to do so, even if it is from a script by Stephen King.

Originally aired as a two-part mini-series, the movie has a few mild scares, but the truly chilling moments are few and far between. The performances by the actors are okay, but generally bland; the story is plagued by "stupid-character-syndrom"; and the house never really takes on the sort of menace/personality that the settings for this kind of movie MUST possess in order for the work to really be successful. The lack of personality in the house--and no number of characters telling the viewer how spooky the place is can create it--is what really kills "Rose Red".