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"Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

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"Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

Old 09-26-12, 04:52 PM
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"Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day






Theatrical Showing



Frankenweenie | V/H/S
Sinister | Paranormal Activity 4
Silent Hill: Revelation | [REC]³ Génesis
Resident Evil: Retribution
House at the End of the Street
& More



Attending a theatrical showing allows you to obtain a bonus entry. If you missed a day, this means you can still check off the subset list as being complete.
The same goes for attending a live event such as a horror convention, haunted house, play, ghost tour, etc. You have one.


These "October Horror Movie Challenge" threads are for the discussion of the films in the 31 FILM SUBSET list.

MAIN THREAD | LIST THREAD

The plan is for everyone to watch this film on the October day in the thread title, and to start discussing it the morning of the following day.
You may start discussion early if you want, but the preferred plan is for this to be as much of a group exercise as possible, with all of us viewing it "together" and discussing after.

Of course, you are totally encouraged to participate in these threads even if you haven't watched the movie on the designated day.
Even if you haven't watched it in years, or are not participating in the Horror Challenge, please feel free to chime in.



Spoiler tags are unnecessary in here, so if you have yet to see the film BEWARE OF SPOILERS.

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Last edited by Chad; 09-26-12 at 06:49 PM.
Old 10-10-12, 11:37 AM
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Re: "Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

Hotel Transylvania was a fun movie consisting of a Dracula's scared/bitter towards humans skit extended by party gags, music, fart jokes, and dancing. At first it seemed unoriginal (Mad Monster Party, Monster Squad, etc make monster team-ups seems redundant) but it's a spirited film that's worth seeing for the energetic atmosphere and my kids liked it.

I wish more of the theatrical horror films like Paranormal Activity 4 or new Silence Hill, Resident Evil opened a little earlier but am hoping to check out Sinister soon. Too bad Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D was delayed.
Old 10-30-12, 05:30 PM
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Re: "Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

I'm surprised there's not more discussion here. Overall I think Frankenweenie was the best theatrical release I caught this season. I wish I could have seen Paranorman and although I'm skeptical would have liked to take in Resident Evil 5.

I went to see Paranormal Activity 4 and enjoyed it but agree with many a change from found footage would be refreshing. I think the reason most people don't appreciate Paranormal Activity films is because of their slow pacing. I need to get an Xbox and a Kinetic; does it really do that? Great product placement either way. PLOT SPOILER:
Spoiler:
...but Paranormal Activity 4's ending felt too similar to the third; it never really went anywhere original.


I also caught Sinister, nothing revolutionary but it was scary in the theater. Probably won't hold up as well as the comparable Insidious. I appreciated the in-joke about the demon, seen in trailers, as appearing to be from a Swedish heavy metal band because at least it's self-aware of how derivative aspects were. I love it when films create a fake mythological folktale that you find out is totally fictitious on researching; there's enough interesting real folktales for harvesting... ever since the Blair Witch I've never understood that. PLOT SPOILER:
Spoiler:
I wish they would have avoided the plot device of the film footage just re-appearing, that was weak
Old 10-30-12, 07:07 PM
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Re: "Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

I liked "Paranormal Activity 4." I agree that it doesn't really break any new ground. It's pretty much a rehash of part 3. And I don't get the whole

Spoiler:
Wyatt/Hunter thing. So since Hunter is going by the name Robbie now, Hunter has to possess Wyatt in order to live again? Is that where they were going with this? Because that really confused me and Wikipedia was no help. I don't get why Wyatt was suddenly telling people his name was Hunter after the bathtub drowning incident, and why Hunter's spirit would be going around possessing people. I thought that according to these movies, demons were non-human entities and thus were the only ones who possessed people? So wouldn't it be TOBY who was possessing the boy? So why wasn't he telling people his name was Toby if he was possessed by Toby? Why call himself "Hunter"? Are they playing on the name since he's a "hunter" who will work for the coven and hunt other children for them now? And the stupidity of the parents takes the cake here. Your daughter gets locked in the garage with a running car, almost dies, and has to drive the car THROUGH the garage door to escape, and you just act like it's no big deal? At least Micah and Katie in the first movie were willing to TRY leaving the house to see if that would help. These dipshits don't even do that. They don't even CONSIDER doing that. The more I think about the movie, the less I like it.
Old 10-30-12, 09:34 PM
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Re: "Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

I left my interpretation in underlined red font, it seems we were both left with different plot impression.
Originally Posted by edwardnortonfan
I liked "Paranormal Activity 4." I agree that it doesn't really break any new ground. It's pretty much a rehash of part 3. And I don't get the whole

Spoiler:
Wyatt/Hunter thing. So since Hunter is going by the name Robbie now, I understood that Robbie was a third party and that Wyatt was Hunter who had been adopted and re-named. Hunter has to possess Wyatt in order to live again? Is that where they were going with this? Because that really confused me and Wikipedia was no help. I don't get why Wyatt was suddenly telling people his name was Hunter after the bathtub drowning incident, For some reason I thought the bathtub incident was later in the film after Wyatt wrote the name Hunter on his closet. and why Hunter's spirit would be going around possessing people. I thought that according to these movies, demons were non-human entities and thus were the only ones who possessed people? My understanding is that possessed Katie was trying to facilitate Hunter/Wyatt becoming possessed by a supernatural demon. It's not clear if they were both under the power of one demon or if there is a horde or demons So wouldn't it be TOBY who was possessing the boy? So why wasn't he telling people his name was Toby if he was possessed by Toby? Why call himself "Hunter"? Are they playing on the name since he's a "hunter" who will work for the coven and hunt other children for them now? And the stupidity of the parents takes the cake here. Your daughter gets locked in the garage with a running car, almost dies, and has to drive the car THROUGH the garage door to escape, and you just act like it's no big deal? Also, why didn't the daughter just pull up the video footage? Sure it's an invasion of privacy but if I get in a mess I'd pony up. At least Micah and Katie in the first movie were willing to TRY leaving the house to see if that would help. These dipshits don't even do that. They don't even CONSIDER doing that. The more I think about the movie, the less I like it. I agree, even if Wyatt is Hunter... where did Robbie come from? Either way there's an extra unexplained child - 2 human children, and one demon/ghost appeared childlike. If Wyatt is Hunter then how did he get put up for adoption after the lengths demon Katie went to get him?
Nothing too illuminating but somewhere here thinks
Spoiler:
Robbie is actually Katie's legitimate biological son and Wyatt is Hunter.


Also regarding Paranormal Activity 4...
Spoiler:
Were all the people at the end possessed too or were they just human participants? Was that suppose to be a big reveal about a demon legion? If so that might explain some of the above... it was all so quick, although scary hard to make sense of

Last edited by Undeadcow; 10-30-12 at 10:16 PM.
Old 10-31-12, 08:52 AM
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Re: "Theatrical Showing" Reviews/Discussion - 2012 Horror Challenge: Bonus Day

Originally Posted by Undeadcow
I left my interpretation in underlined red font, it seems we were both left with different plot impression.

Nothing too illuminating but somewhere here thinks
Spoiler:
Robbie is actually Katie's legitimate biological son and Wyatt is Hunter.


Also regarding Paranormal Activity 4...
Spoiler:
Were all the people at the end possessed too or were they just human participants? Was that suppose to be a big reveal about a demon legion? If so that might explain some of the above... it was all so quick, although scary hard to make sense of
More Paranormal Activity 4 speculating.

Spoiler:
Oh, the bathtub scene is later in the film after Wyatt wrote "Hunter" in his closet, but I noticed after the bathtub drowning is when Wyatt really starts to go around saying his name is Hunter, so I figured before the bathtub drowning, they were trying to influence him, but after the drowning is when he really started to claim "Hunter" as his identity.

That actually makes a bit more sense if Wyatt is really Hunter and he was adopted. I didn't think of that. I was distracted by the bathtub drowning thing, and I thought that must have been when Wyatt was possessed, but if he really was Hunter all along, maybe that's just when the demon really started influencing him, after he was drowned.

About the adoption...maybe the demon's plan is to infect babies with demonic influence and then have them adopted out to families who have no idea they are bringing a demon into their homes. Maybe that is how the coven will grow in power? Although if Wyatt was adopted all along, I don't understand why Alex reacted with shock when Wyatt started saying Robbie told him he was adopted too. If Wyatt had been adopted, Alex should know about that, don't you think? She was old enough to remember her brother being adopted. Also, Robbie says Wyatt is adopted like him, so it seemed to me that Robbie was another baby that was taken, not Katie's legitimate son.

Also, if Wyatt was really Hunter and just adopted out to another family, the whole thing still has a lot of problems, as far as demonic schemes go. It's not like Wyatt was taken when he was a tiny infant and some family could have passed him off as their legitimate biological son, he was over a year old when he was taken. That's quite a switch to try and make. Even if, like in "The Omen," their original child died and they decided to try and pass off the new baby as their own, that's much harder to do with a toddler than with a little baby.

My impression was that the horde of people at the end was similar to the "coven" at the end of part 3, just much larger with more people involved. Maybe these "Paranormal Activity" type possessions are really happening all over and we don't know it yet, and these people are the ones possessed by the demons in all those cases we haven't seen yet.

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