Trailer Review: Double Feature: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters & Hansel & Gretel Get Baked

So the story of this film is basically what happened to Hansel and Gretel after they escaped the Witch and the Gingerbread house from the classic fairytale. They become witch hunters and action movie heroes. This actually looks really good and is a great re-imagining of the characters and looks like its going to be a great action movie, I just hope it’s better than Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was. I for one will definitely check it out when it comes out in cinemas. Check it out here Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters - Totally Witchin' Trailer

Another Hansel & Gretel movie worth mentioning is Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, which unlike this films more action/steampunk style setting is more of a comedy horror where Hansel & Gretel are two twenty something stoners, it looks pretty funny and looks like it will be a good movie, hopefully it gets the horror and comedy elements balanced. Check it out here  Hansel & Gretel Get Baked Official Trailer #1

Trailer Review: Evil Dead (Remake) Trailer #2 (2013) - Fede Alvarez

"We're going to get you. We're going to get you. Not another peep. Time to go to sleep."

          No one ever likes seeing their favourite film getting a sequel/prequel, but what they like even less is seeing it remade. So as a fan of the Evil Dead film franchise I understand where the negative feelings are coming from, but I’m going to give this film a chance and if you’re a horror fan or fan of the franchise it deserves to be at least checked out. For those of you not in the know Sam Rami, director of the Spider-man trilogy (the Toby Maguire one, in case you’re reading this after The Amazing Spiderman No. 3) was originally best known for his horror film trilogy The Evil Dead , which while made on a shoestring budget and not getting a wide spread release, went on to become one of the Horror genres most popular film franchise and a cult film series in its own right. Basically The Evil Dead films are held up on a pedestal by its fans and its untouchable, so when Sam Rami announced he planned on making a Evil Dead 4, after dropping out of Spider-man 4, fan interest was high, would we see a continuation of Ash’s fight against the Deadites, but the project never went ahead and was mentioned very little after the initial announcement. Then in early 2011 Bruce Campbell announced that a remake of The Evil Dead was underway with himself and Sam Rami serving as executative producers, opinions were strongly mixed.

          So with the film coming out shortly, have they done a good job at mixing the old and the new? In my opinion yes they have, they’ve kept the more serious horror feel of the first Evil Dead film and built on that. This film look genuinely terrifying, which I hope it is, it’s a bit of a pity to see the humour of the two Evil Dead sequels is missing, but I for one will be going to see this movie and I hope you do too.

Check out the trailer below or at the link here: EVIL DEAD - Full Redband Trailer

Review: The Birds (1963) – Alfred Hitchcock

The Birds

          I remember seeing this film when I was about 7 or 8 with my Gran and being terrified of Birds for the next few months.  I used to love when she came to babysit myself and my brother as we used to always end up watching Classic films; in fact I remember seeing this film in Black and White, which in my opinion makes it scarier.
I put this film on the other night for Halloween and it was my first time seeing it since then, at least 12 years since the 1^st time and it was my first time seeing the colour version and being honest the horror elements didn’t stand up and the special effects really let it down (at least in my opinion). Having said that though I still immensely enjoyed the film and in my opinion it is still a classic and one of my favourite Hitchcock films.

           Ok to get started with the review proper, the story starts off with our two leads Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) and Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) meeting in a bird shop and the Mitch plays a trick on Melanie, treating her like a sales assistant which she plays along with, he asks her for some Love birds for his sister, as well as flirting with one another and setting up the romantic element of the film.  To shorten the plot Melanie buys a pair of Love birds and plans to delivery’s them anonymously to Mitch’s house via boat for his sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and intends to leave Mitch a nasty letter but thinks better of it and instead leaves a note for Cathy, on her way back across the lake she is attacked by a seagull. Mitch then tends to Melanie and convinces her to stay for dinner and she agrees and it’s here we meet Cathy and Mitch’s over possessive mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy). Melanie stays the night in Annie Hayworth’s (Suzanne Pleshette) house, who also happens to be Mitch’s ex-fiancé, she warns Melanie about Mitch’s overprotective mother and how she ultimately broke the two of them up, that evening a sea gull kills itself by flying into the house door.

           The next day at Cathy’s birthday party the children are attacked by Seagulls which Melanie, Mitch and Annie ward off, later that evening sparrows invade the home and a neighbour is killed by the bird in his home, who is found by Lydia whom freaks out. Melanie then comforts Lydia who wants her to go to the school to get Cathy and bring her home, while outside she notices a large group of crows gathered on the play ground (this scene still terrifies me). Melanie and Annie (the school teacher) make a plan to evacuate the school in a mock fire drill, while outside several of the children are attacked by the crows. By this stage the police are now involved and are reluctant to draw a link between the attacks and play down the birds involvement in the neighbours attack instead putting it down to a failed burglary attempt and putting the other attacks down as random unrelated incidents.

The scene that still terrifies me to this day

           At a dinner Melanie is on the phone to her father telling him the story so far and in interrupted by local citizens who don’t believe her until another bird attack begins and basically destroy the town. Melanie, Mitch, Cathy and Lydia then board up the house and wait until daybreak to make a run to the city, they are attacked during the night by a large group of birds who nearly break in through the sealed doors and windows but ease their attacks. During the night Melanie hears a noise upstairs and investigates and is attacked by a group of birds that have broken into one of the upstairs rooms, injuring her badly. Mitch rescues her and start the car for their escape and its heard on the radio that the attacks have spread and that the national guard may be called in to help with the unexplained attacks, the film ends with the car driving into the distance with thousands of birds of different species watching them.

           As a result of this film to this day I’ll look twice when I see a large flock of birds, but like I mentioned the special effects are dated. I love how this film never explains why the birds are attacking and it doesn’t show us winning over nature and shows us how vulnerable we really are against the might of nature.