Movies
The writer/director of the Twilight series takes on Lovecraft. It's no big surprise then that the result sways a bit more into dark fantasy territory, but that's not really such a bad thing when adapting Lovecraft. As long as you don't expect full-on horror here, you're bound to have a good time. When Walter's twin sister dies, he sees her ghostly form taken away into another dimension. Walter joins a paranormal society but has trouble finding someone who can show him the way. Until he finds a bar where they sell a special potion, that allows people to travel to the realm of lost ghosts. There is no lack of horror elements here, it's just that they're not all that scary. Hardwicke goes for atmosphere rather than thrills, and that fits the setup nicely. It's certainly not the most original of the Cabinet of Curiosities shorts (then again, it's a well-known Lovecraft story, so what did you expect), but it's executed with a lot of flair and grandeur. Fun.Read all
I never watched the original film, but I still wondered why they bothered with a remake. The plot is so basic and has been done some many times before, you could probably just copy/paste the entire film, slap a different title on it and nobody would even notice this was an actual remake. Gloria is a make-up artist who goes to Mexico to help a friend win a pageant. Once there, they are witness to a violent murder in a nightclub. Gloria loses track of her friend and gets into serious trouble when she tries to warn the police about what she saw, but ends up in the hands of the killers. Miss Bala is a decent action flick, nothing more, nothing less. The cast does a decent job, the action scenes are pretty dirty and the pacing is pleasant. The plot and characters are extremely unrealistic, but that just comes with the territory. Decent fun, might check out the original to see how much was borrowed here.Read all
