Horror Anime Review: Another (2012)

In 1972, Yomiyama North Middle School’s class 3-3 student Misaki, died unexpected in the middle of the school year. Misaki’s class mates and teachers, not wanting to deal with the loss, pretend Misaki never died and even go together to pretend Misaki is still there until the school year is over and they have all graduated. The rumours even

Now, many years later, a boy named Kōichi Sakakibara ends up in the same class, and as he starts late in the year, he is confused to find a girl named Misaki Mei, that no one in class seems to see or react to. As he makes contact with her, no student in their class is safe, neither is their families, as the curse from 1972 still haunts the students of class 3-3, where the dead were once invited.

As Ringu, this is also a story based on a novel, this one by the author Yukito Ayatsuji, who is married to the author of the Shiki books, Fuyumi Ono. It has also been made into a manga series and in 2012 a live action movie. So far I have only had a relationship to the anime and I really enjoyed the atmosphere it built up. In the first few episodes, not much happens, but like the Shiki anime, it starts building. It gives you just enough to make you want to continue, because you want to know what is happening, and as the action starts, you need to continue, because you need to know how it is all going to end.

As the twists here are quite good, I will not give the story away, and I think everyone should check this short 12 episode series out if they like anime and good horror. I will also say that it does get gory, so it isn’t just the normal ghost scares that never leaves you with any blood. In the end you will sit and just wait for the next horrible death, and wonder, much like in Final Destination, which instrument is going to do the people in in the end.

So, go to a streaming site, lean back, and enjoy this series now that the nights are getting colder, but as you get longer into the series, you should start wondering, if you are really sure you know who is dead or not around you.

Horror Movie Review: Ringu (1998)

Based on Koji Suzuki’s novel by the same name, this movie started a new trend of remakes of asian horrors, and also opened up for the popularity of asian horror on a world wide market. In a world wide market that relied heavily of gore and showing the scares, a movie where the unseeable was even more horrifying, really scared people a lot more than exploding heads and zombies had done for decades. It also made us fear our televisions and VHS movies for seven days after we saw them.

Reiko Asakawa is a reporter looking into a rumour of a cursed video, and as she travels around to interview people, her niece dies mysteriously at the same day as her friends that all had been rumored to have watched the video. As she starts looking into it for her sister, and at the same time coping with her life as a single, divorced mother, she starts finding out more than she should, and a curse that might have stopped with her niece, is unleashed once more as she finds the cursed tape in a cabin reception in Izu.

An eerie video with hints to the person behind it, and the horror that follows it as a phone call, and the knowledge that she has only 7 days to figure out how to stop the curse from consuming her like all the others. With the help of her estranged Ex-husband, they have to solve the messages of the tape before the curse takes them, and also their young son, that watched it by accident.

As I have read the book, I know that it is really, really different from the movies, and it sadly seems the american remake followed the japanese movie more than trying to do anything else with the book. I won’t spoil the movie, or the book too much, but the book did have a different lead, and a lot of different things according to the back story of everyones favorite little Sadako. The american remake is not the worst, but the second one was so horrible I have until now just wiped it off my mind. There is also two sequals to the japanese one. The second one is ok, and the last one, Ringu birthday, is actually closer to making me cry than to make me afraid. There is also a more unknown sequal, named Ransen, and a new one from 2012 in 3D, just named Sadako 3D that was horrible besides one horrifying idea for a monster.

If you are a fan of the book, there is actually a korean version of the Ring, that follows the book a little closer than the japanese movies, and if you look, I bet you can find it, it is called the Ring virus in english.

So, treat yourself to this asian horror movie, where the scares are not the use of blood, or overly horrible serial killers out to kill you, but the ancient human fear of the unknown. We do not know what is lurking in the darkness, we do not know who is on the other side of that phone, or what is coming closer and closer from the well each time the movie is shown. All we know, is that it will come for us, and no matter what, we will not be ready. Remember then, that when your television suddenly turns on again, do not unplugg it, because then it will only be more terrifying when it still turns on before you, and a woman with long black hair, and a long white dress looks back at you.

Horror Movie Review: Alien (1979)

After the popularity of Star Wars, Science fiction was on the rise again, and this is when Ridley Scott gave us as a beautiful mix of science fiction and claustrophobic horror.

Most people have probably already seen or heard of this movie, and it is a classic. It follows the crew of seven on the Nostromo, a commercial towing spacecraft on its route back to Earth. But on the way there, the crew is woken up by the computer telling them of a transmission on another planet and orders to check it out.

They send down a team to the planet, and without their knowledge, they return with a murderous threat like nothing humanity has ever seen. In a dark and looming atmosphere, they are hunted down one after another, knowing that danger lurks just around the corner, inside the darkness all around them.

This movie has a lot of good actors, like John Hurt (doctor who, Merlin series+) Ian Holm (Bilbo in The lord of the rings) and last but not least, Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbuster), that went on to somehow appear in all the Alien movies. She is a strong hero, and her motherly instincts in these movies just serves to make her even stronger.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for any of you if you haven’t seen it, but I really recommend it. Even with its age it has aged well, and even with old-looking computers and some outdated science fiction looks, the effects of the alien and the use of their sets transcends time and would make a lot of producers these days jealous.

Alien is the first movie and a must see, but if you like it, do not stop there, as the second movie, named Aliens, is also an amazing movie, made by James Cameron. It is more of a science fiction, horror and lots of action, but it is amazing and camp in just the right ways. The third movie, Alien 3, made by David Fincher, is also a good movie, even if a lot of people who likes the 2nd movie does not like the opening. I myself started with the 4th movie, I liked it, but has in later years seen that it does not compare to the old ones at all, but even if it did flop, it is written by Buffy and Avengers maker Josh Whedon.

And if you like these movies and can’t get enough. Watch the Predator movies, and then kick back with some awesome monster brawling with Alien vs Predators 1 and 2. It will not be wasted time, no matter what people tell you.

So, sit back, turn off the lights once more, and dwell into the dark corridors of the Nostromo, where you can see on your sensors that there is something moving against you in the hallways, it is getting closer and closer, but you can’t see anything at all! The small deadly dot on the sensor starts running towards you, and even as it is right on top of you, you can still not see anything in the darkness. But as you slowly hear low hissing, you can feel something thick and slippery drip down you back, unto your shoulders and then into your face, and you will slowly look up at the open air ducts, where something is looking back.

And remember: In space, no one can hear you scream…

Horror Book Review: Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

January 1937.

Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life.

So when he’s offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun.   At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year.

Gruhuken.

But the Arctic summer is brief.  As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease.   One by one, his companions are forced to leave.  He faces a stark choice.  Stay or go.  Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness.  Soon he will reach the point of no return – when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible.  And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone.  Something walks there in the dark.

From Michelle Paver’s web site

As a lover of ghost stories, this book pleasently surprised me when I borrowed it at the local library. I later went on to get it myself in hardcover, and the audiobook, that is amazingly read, and perfect for a cold winter night! It is set just outside of Norway, and there is some things set in Norway, and also a few Norwegian characters like the captain of the boat that brings the group to Gruhuken.

But I think that one of the things that got me with this book, was that they actually used something from Norwegian folklore, and they used it really well. I won’t spoil it here, but it pleased the folklore nerd in me and has kept with me since.

As a story it starts slowly in the cold streets of London, and then it builds as we discover the even colder Artic through the eyes of our hero, as we read through his diary. Then, the sun fades for longer times, until it is gone, and as it slowly fades, we feel a creeping promise that when only the darkness is left, something horrible will happen.

(Trailer for the audiobooks. Can be gotten from audiable for free if you don’t have an account there yet.)

So, as the autumn now turns the nights darker, and as winter closes in, and the darkness takes more and more over, sit down before the fireplace with a good book, or lean back in the chair with the audiobook, and let your mind wander to the cold artic, where danger creeps ever closer in the dark.

Horror Movie Review: The Evil Dead (1981)

To start of this month of Halloween, I have decided to look at a few of my all time horror favorites, and what better to start off with than this amazing horror classic? The third movie actually was the first horror movie I watched as a kid and didn’t have nightmares of. I laughed and actually enjoyed it a lot.

The Evil Dead is the story of five friends that travel to a remote cabin in the woods to hang out, and as we know well from all cabin movies from our time, things does not go well. In the cabin they find the Necronomicon, better known as the book of the dead, bound in human flesh and written in blood, and a taped recording of the professor that owned the cabin reading passages from the cursed book.

Evil is released in the woods and gets into the cabin, slowly possessing and killing off the friends one by one, until in true horror style, the only pure hero is left to face the forces of evil. (for the first movie at least, the pure part sort of fades over time and insanity.)

I will not spoil the movie for you anymore than that, because it is worth a watch. The first one is more shocking in the effects and can seem dark and horrible at times, as there is a scene with a woman and a tree that a lot of people will probably remember from this movie if they have watched it. And our amazing hero Ash Williams, is played by the then breakthrough star Bruce Campbell, that still to this day lives on his fame in this role. In this movie he has still not perfected his camp that he will later be known for, and that this hero put the groundwork for, but it is still nice to see him here in his first big role, as Ash is more reserved, and has not had to cut his arm off or killed hoards of Deadittes while making one-liners yet.

Even if the 3rd was my first of the movies, the second one is my favorite, and I recommend people to watch all three movies. It can get confusing at times because of continuity, as people don’t really know if the second on is a sequal or a remake. The first movie was made on little to no budget, and the second one they had more, then the third one, mostly known as Army of Darkness, was their big break, and it shows. The director Sam Raimi also broke through with this movie, that was based on his and Bruce Campbells first project together ‘within the woods’, Sam Raimi then went on to make the spider-man trilogy, the Grudge remakes and the Xena and Hercules series.

There was also a remake not long ago, but that one is far, far inferior, and to be honest, the only thing I found good in it was the credits where you got the old tape of the professor playing, and after the credits where we got a nice cameo that should have happened in the movie itself. But there is a rumor that there will be three more movies, a sequal to the remake, and a sequal to Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell returning as Ash, and then a third one to mix the two series. And I do not mind this. If I get two movies with Bruce, I do not mind at all!

And I know this might have entered into a rant about Bruce Campbell, but to be honest, it is what most people take from these movies. It is good movies, but anyone else than him as Ash would not have been able to make it the cult classics that it is. So go, watch the movies, or any movie with him in, Bubba-ho-tep is another amazing movie, where he plays a old man that claims to be Elvis Presly, who lives at a old people home where a old mummy has come back and is eating people’s souls while somehow dressed as a cowboy. And it is up to Elvis and a black man claiming to be John F. Kennedy to fight the mummy, quite slowly, in wheelchairs. It is an amazing movie about growing old, but still never giving up.

So, to start off Halloween, give yourself some sugar, watch some good hammy cult classics and say your hails to the King.