BuzzSugar

Listen Up: "The Strangers" by St. Vincent

BuzzSugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:30:15 -0700

For a couple of weeks now, I haven't been able to get the phrase "paint the black hole blacker" out of my head, and it's all because of St. Vincent. The singer - actual name Annie Clark - releases her sophomore album, Actor, today, and that line comes from the ethereal first track, "The Strangers."

St. Vincent's music is intensely layered, with strings and horns swirling around Clark's pure, theatrical voice. In "The Strangers" in particular, there's something - an organ sound, maybe, or an oboe? - that reminds me of a Disney movie soundtrack, the part where the eventual heroine finds herself in great danger in a haunted forest and has to use her wits and charm to find her way back to safety.

I'll be curious to hear more from Actor today, but for now, you can check out "The Strangers" if you read more.

Source

Does "Based on True Events" Make You More Interested in a Scary Movie?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:30:04 -0700

This weekend's release of The Haunting in Connecticut is supposedly based on the story of a real-life family that moved into a home only to find that it was formerly a funeral parlor and is now haunted.

When horror flicks are advertised as fictionalizing "true events," it inevitably sends me to the Internet for some answers. A lot of the time it turns out to be a pretty nebulous claim like in the case of The Strangers, which was marketed as being "inspired by a true story" but that turned out to be only semi-accurate.

So what do you think? In the case of scary movies, is it all the more intriguing when it's supposedly based on a true story?

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:30:43 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue.

The Incredible Hulk
Last Summer I predicted that The Incredible Hulk might be the season's forgotten superhero movie, nestled as it was between the releases of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, and not having quite the existing fan base that Hellboy II did. It was definitely a huge improvement over the last time someone tried to bring the green giant to the big screen, but it still had a hard time standing out in the 2008 Summer of the Superhero Movie.

But hey, that's what DVDs are for! And I think this is a perfectly thrilling option to take home and curl up with, especially if you never got around to seeing it in the theaters. Special features include an alternate opening and a making-of featurette.

Two more up next, so read more.

The Strangers
Holy cow this movie scared the bejesus out of me. The timing of the DVD is of course perfect for the current spooky season. Starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, The Strangers is exactly what I would screen at my house for a creepy late-night at-home movie-watching party around Halloween.

Even the Netflix plot description freaks me out: "Young suburban couple James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) welcome the peace and quiet of a secluded family vacation home - that is, until three masked home invaders make them realize how dangerous isolation can be. "

Special features include deleted scenes and a featurette entitled, "The Elements of Terror." Eek!

The Go-Getter
It's been kind of a long haul for this little indie movie from its appearance at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival to today's DVD release. It stars Zooey Deschanel and Jena Malone and I thought the trailer looked intriguing but missed it in the theaters. I think I'll be adding this to my Netflix queue.

The plot is as such: "After the death of his mother, 19-year-old Mercer (Lou Taylor Pucci) steals a car and sets out to find his long-lost half brother. As he steers out of town, the car's owner, Kate (Zooey Deschanel), calls the cell phone left inside. Oddly, she's empathetic, and the two develop an unusual bond over the course of Mercer's journey." Special features include a commentary track.

BuzzSugar's Must Haves For October

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:39:47 -0700

I love the Fall and October is the best, what with the changing leaves and Halloween and all. It's also a great time of year for entertainment, so I didn't have any trouble digging up some must-have items for my list. I've included an artist who should definitely be on in the background when the weather gets cold, a funny book to read by the fire (or heater), a scary movie to watch in the safety of your own home (with candy), and very cool TV-to-DVD choices. Ready to check it out? Just hit "Start."

View Slideshow ›

Box Office: Kung Fu Panda Chops the Competition

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:30:06 -0700

Po the panda and friends kicked some box office butt this weekend, winning the No. 1 spot handily with an estimated $60 million over the weekend. Kung Fu Panda is the second-best opening DreamWorks Animation has ever had behind Shrek the Third. In second place came the Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow comedy You Don't Mess with the Zohan, earning a healthy $40 million.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was bumped to the third spot and has grossed an estimated $253 million. The good news for the Sex and the City movie is that it has almost passed the $100 million mark domestically. The bad news is it experienced a steep decline that put it at No. 4. The super scary flick The Strangers dropped to No. 5.

According to Variety, box office watchers had expected way closer results between Kung Fu Panda and Zohan so a big congrats is in order to Jack Black and crew!

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

The Strangers: Slow and Steady Gets the Scare

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:31:11 -0700

The Strangers director Bryan Bertino takes a simple storyline based in reality ("inspired," in fact, by true events) and tells it with such careful realism that our own basic human terror, usually lying dormant within us, rises inescapably to the surface. He has figured out a perfectly lethal recipe for horror movie success: take a large dose of realism, add a few scary things and then patiently wait for the fear to rise.

This movie is a great example of a horror/suspense film done well. We human beings already have so many fears just lying inside us, waiting to be tapped into. We don't need two hours of cheap jump scares (looking at you, Prom Night) or gratuitous, nauseating gore. We just have to witness very simple, normal things that could happen to plant a tiny seed of fear in the backs of our minds. Then, all it takes is a patient, detail-oriented filmmaker to nurture that seed until it grows into all-consuming terror.

To see the basic plotline and how it somehow so thoroughly scared the living daylights out of me, read more.

As far as the movie's plot points go, I really mean it when I use terms like "basic" and "simple." A couple, James (Scott Speedman, who makes me miss Felicity so much!) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) drive to a remote cabin to spend the evening where some strangers come by and terrorize them. That's it. Really. However, the simplicity of the story doesn't mean it's boring. A good chunk of the beginning of the film is devoted to the romantic troubles the couple is experiencing (one of them wants to get married, the other does not, they find themselves at a heartbreaking crossroads). Even though I knew that they were setting us up to be spooked and I was trying to brace myself for it, I found myself relaxing into the drama of their story: the heartache, the sweetness, the helplessness. . . and then bam! Girl with scary wispy voice shows up on doorstep and from there a slow unspooling of eerie happenings begins.

And these eerie happenings are so. Very. Simple. Aggressive pounding on the front door. A flash of someone's creepy masked face. A discordant bit of old timey country music skipping on the record player. Shaky close-ups of a broken champagne flute. A shadow looming longer and longer along the wall. In this day and age, these things almost seem like relics of an old-fashioned brand of storytelling, but the thing is, maybe we need to go back to those old times. The tried and true is often the most effective, and The Strangers is a perfect example of this. The ending of the film is sickeningly sad and gross, but as far as suspense goes, everything leading up to the climactic ending is almost flawlessly frightening.

To see video clips from The Strangers, check out movies.ivillage.com.

Source

Movie Preview: The Strangers

BuzzSugar — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:00:27 -0700

I'm currently working on my full review of The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman but I'll go ahead and tell you now: it's so scary! I'm posting the full trailer here today to get you scary movie fans pumped up, and to remind you that there are some cool, smaller movies making their way into theaters nowadays besides the big blockbusters.

But OMG I cannot even watch this trailer! That's how not recovered I am from the screening. Anyway, after the jump check out the trailer and tell me: does this look terrifying? Or tame?

The movie opens tomorrow, May 30. To see the trailer read more.

Source

First Look: Liv Tyler in The Strangers

BuzzSugar — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:30:01 -0700

Apparently this trailer is R-rated, though I can't say I see much of anything too racy in it. The preview for the horror film The Strangers, does get pretty scary toward the end, though, and I like both her and Scott Speedman, so I'll be interested to see this film when it comes out in October.

The plot outline is pretty basic: "A young couple cozied up in a vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants." Sometimes simpler is better, though, especially when it comes to horror flicks. Looks like this will make a great movie choice come Halloween - especially since I have little interest in seeing the fourth Saw movie, also opening in October. To watch the new trailer for The Stranger, read more

Source

Link Time! James Van der Beek Is Coming to The Forgotten

BuzzSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:30:35 -0700

James Van Der Beek will make an appearance on The Forgotten - The Ausiello Files
Woody Allen's next movie will be called You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Vulture
Jay-Z will perform at the World Series this week - Pitchfork
Bravo has a new Top Chef spinoff in the works that's focused entirely on desserts - YumSugar
Keira Knightley will portray Eliza Doolittle in Joe Wright's My Fair Lady remake - Cinematical
Check out these two new leaked promos for 24 - The Wrap
Michael Hurwitz confirms that he's directing the Arrested Development movie - MTV Movies Blog
5 things you should know about the Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica - Pop Candy
Kristin Chenoweth is going to reprise her guest-starring role on Glee - PopWatch
Kenny Ortega drops out of directing the Footloose remake - Coming Soon

The Box: An Inadequate Package to Unwrap

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:56 -0800

I so wanted The Box to be a worthy successor to Donnie Darko, director Richard Kelly's first film and much-appreciated cult fave. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly get my wish.

The Box is a highly stylized, good-looking thriller, from the retro 1976 Virginia setting to the Barbie and Ken looks of leads Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. They play husband and wife Arthur and Norma Lewis, who run into a bit of a financial jam when a strange opportunity conveniently presents itself. A creepy, disfigured man (Frank Langella) offers them a million dollars if they push a button inside a box - but a stranger will die if they do.

Kelly has all the right elements and the creativity to give us a hip, entertaining thriller, but there are a number of blatant missteps that make the movie unsatisfying. To see more about what I mean, just read more.

Kelly puts his stamp on everything, namely the constant eerie atmosphere and the random sinister characters (apparently an old person standing still in the road is his trademark). Though many questioned the casting of Cameron Diaz and her requisite Virginia accent, there was a similar doubt when Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze were cast in Darko, and it ended up working. With Diaz, it's not that I would say that she nailed the part, but that the accent and greater aspects of the plot are very campy. And I like campy, but I don't know if that's what the film is going for.

If you're not taking it seriously, the movie is a pretty good time, with some frightening scenes and jumps. There are also many parts that are supposed to be creepy, but they're so labored that they come out as funny. Like, laugh out loud in the theater funny. I wouldn't call that a failure, I'd just invoke the term I used before campy.

The major problem the movie runs into is when it begins exploring these sci-fi and supernatural angles, which end up being red herrings. For instance, much is made of Arthur's job at NASA and Mars, which made me think we were in for a weird, wild sci-fi ride. I was ready to embrace something really out there (I'm a big David Lynch fan, after all), but you don't really get it. There are so many elements that are introduced but never followed to a conclusion, so you're left shrugging your shoulders when the movie ends. It's even more perplexing because the mystery of The Box itself is explained, but you're left with all these details that went nowhere, in retrospect. It's one thing to leave things open-ended, but you have to give the audience something to work with.

Honestly, if you're a Kelly fan, you'll probably find it enjoyable. But if you want complete resolution, I'd wait for the director's cut.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.