Word: horror
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...similar to it) has been the unseen evil in major Hollywood productions (Outbreak, with Dustin Hoffman), books of fiction (Outbreak, without Dustin Hoffman) and even, most famously, a best-selling nonfiction treatment (The Hot Zone), and with good reason. The virus has all the makings of a 21st century horror: It is invisible, lightning quick, mysterious and horrible...
...whip Tom DeLay has not changed; much of the rest of the leadership has not changed; the party platform has barely changed. He is treated as the messiah by conservatives left in the wilderness since Newt Gingrich was exiled, who have been willing all year long to mute their horror at that inclusive language and mushy bipartisanship. But for the true believers, pragmatism ends on Election Day, when payment comes due, and there are people close to Bush who think that if he wins, his problem is going to be not with Democrats but with Republicans...
...stop and find myself contemplating the original Blair Witch Project (something that doesn't seem to occur all that often), I almost always realize that my thoughts never seem to dwell on the actual movie itself. Because really, what made that novel, dirt-cheap, better-in-concept-than-execution horror film explode into an orgiastic pop culture triumph was all the creativity that went on outside of it. Directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick didn't come close to producing the most starkly terrifying film ever (still Jaws, hands down), yet their marketing campaign and use of the Internet...
...most unique films in years, so how can Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 possibly match that level of inventiveness? Well, the simple answer is that it doesn't even attempt to. Packaged and shipped barely a year after the original, BW2 is a painfully mediocre, decidedly unimaginative horror movie that does little more than ride the first Blair Witch's coattails and proves every bit as derivative as its predecessor was clever. The first mistake was in thinking that a workable sequel could even be produced-copying the "documentary" format of the original would simply be redundant and doing...
Initially, Berlinger seems to understand that his best course of action is to straddle the thin line of hip irony and ride it until it breaks. The early scenes of BW2 are entirely self-aware and play like a wicked little horror satire, from the inspired opening montage to, even better, a group of awestruck foreign tourists that stare at the trees with wide-eyed wonder while babbling about Coffin Rock and little stick figures. These are the glimmers of the film I dearly wish Berlinger decided to pursue. Instead, he has his troupe camp out in the woods...