Catch it, bin it, kill it - Carriers (2009)

We've all been there; your other half starts puking or sneezing and you start disinfecting all the surfaces they've touched, in a vein hope you escape the dreaded lergy.

Here we start the story with a seemingly happy group on a road trip. Very soon they come upon a man at the side of the road with his young daughter, asking for gas, but it's clear something's going on. The daughter has blood at her mouth so the group speed away. She is infected. But a mile down the road their car breaks down so they turn back for the other man's car. They seal the infected father and daughter in the back and get on their way. Most of the population has been wiped out by a virus.

As with all of these types of films the survivors are forever travelling towards something better, some form of hope and more importantly, a life without this plague they are suffering. Normally it's a hospital or research facility that has a cure. They find a medical centre where the doctor there has a cheerful message, "Sometimes choosing life is choosing a more painful form of death." They hot foot it out of there, managing to lose the father and daughter as they do it.

Also, as a typical symptom of the Apocalyptic Horror film, our main characters get their down time. They commandeer an empty (obviously) hotel and have fun on its supersize golf course. But hey, it wouldn't be much fun if they were the only guests checked in, would it? I dunno, they're like some evil hotel waiters ready to get there rocks off with the female members of the group. That is until they see that one of them is infected. They let them go and her friends turn on her.

Forever in its bleak landscape, I'm not sure what I expected when I sat down to watch this. I didn't expect to be asking myself if I was capable of these things. Was I above that? Could I survive this? There are no zombies here. No shocks, scares or people running from a horror. Just people slowly backing away from their friends and family. And yet it's a film about what people are capable of doing to keep from being alone. It's a film that makes you think, is this rotten life really worth surviving without the ones you love?

And a beautiful soundtrack....

Scare Sarah Cinema (1) - Horror shorts selection

Over the past few months I've been lucky enough to have been given the nod on a few new short scary genre films doing the rounds. However I am inherently lazy so it has taken me a while to get round to watching them so you may have seen them already, but I don't care as I like the sound of my own voice. Go get your popcorn!

Italian film maker, Davide Melini's latest work, The Puzzle is a new take on one of the very first urban legends that gave me the creeps. A middle aged woman has an argument with her son on the phone. She is home alone and sits down to do a puzzle. The acting is a little questionable but the tension is well set up.



Next up, whether you love Twilight or hate it you should see the funny side of All-American Vampire, written by Lyz Reblin with director Zach Knue. I love films from students but where this is different is in the production value. This could go far in the YA market.



Stalker by Wreckroom Productions is pretty scary. A young girl has hallucinations that she is being stalked by a masked man, or is it real..? This company have quite a few on You Tube so well worth sifting through.



It just goes to show what's out there, just spend a while on You Tube and there are tons of great new talent. The great thing about short films is the potential. Maybe you've have a masterpiece you'd like to share? So, as you leave the Scare Sarah Cinema, don't forget to take all your crap with you.

Is there anybody there? - Paranormal Activity (2007)

Sometimes during a lull of scary films, you are no longer watching them to be frightened, but more watching them in a pseudo-horror-sophisticated way of appreciating the technicalities of the plot and commenting on the amount of blood used in litres or the amount of virginal breasts seen in, well, pairs. I must say at times I have fallen in to this category, and as it's been a while since I have been scared by a film, imagine my horrified joy at watching Paranormal Activity for the first time.

Katie and Micah are a young couple who have been experiencing some disturbing poltergeist activity. In fact, it's Katie who, since she was a small child, seems to have been stalked by a dark presence wherever she goes. At the beginning of the film Micah has his new camcorder and greets Katie with it on the porch and sets the scene for his armature ghost investigation, with humour in his voice. He plans to record any activity through the night and fixes the camera in the bedroom facing their bed and the open bedroom door. Personally I can't sleep with the door open. Not that it would stop an axe murderer getting in, I just feel safer so here it really adds to the unease. The first few nights we hear knocking that doesn't always wake the couple. On another night we hear an almost inhuman sound followed by a very loud bang. They run down stairs to find the light fitting swinging from the ceiling.

As part of the investigation they invite a psychic, Dr Fredrichs to see if he senses anything. He does but warns them it is not a ghost they have, but a demon and this is not in his line of expertise. He discourages Micah from trying to communicate with the demon as this would be seen as inviting it in. Micah suggests trying to find out what it wants but Dr Fredrichs says what it wants is probably Katie. He suggests contacting a demonologist he knows. The demon is feeding off the increased negative energy as Micah constantly taunts it and refuses to let Katie contact the demon expert, sure that he can solve the problem himself. Micah is frustrated while trying to stay in control of the situation. But in control he is not, and that's what is really frightening about this film. The demon is not scared of them and anything they capture on camera is exactly what it wants them to see.

The incidents build in severity, violence and become more sinister, no longer just contained to the night time. Not wanting to give away key scenes but some I just did not see coming like when Katie is sleepwalking and stands looking at Micah for several hours before walking out of the room. I came to dread the night scenes (in a good way), not knowing what I would see through the dark doorway or in a corner of the bedroom and not wanting to look directly at the screen. Obvious comparisons were made to Blair Witch, what with the shaky camera work, the photo placed in the attic as a token/threat and the based on a true story with a Found Footage element. Paranormal Activity relies on the aspect of being at your most venerable while you sleep. With a script that was largely improvised, it takes a film like this to come along to remind you why you fell in love with horror in the first place.

And FYI; breasts, none and blood, I'd say about 250ml.

Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (3) The movies made me do it

What came first; the chicken or the egg? Art imitates life and vise-versa. We are bombarded by films based on true events but how often do we hear that a film has inspired someone to do something awful? It's always a horror or some other violent genre though, isn't it? It never happens with "nice" films like Free Willy or Ace Ventura. I don't know why I picked those films as they are the most likely to make me do Something Awful.

In the 1980's and '90's Britain went Video Nasty crazy. The Video Recordings Act came in to force, banning several titles in its path. Good god, they even made a list. It, and the Obscene Publications Act, were there to protect us from depravity and corruption. But what of the people who actually made them? In most cases they had not committed a crime by, or during, making these films and yet they were considered so shocking they were unfit for human consumption. Maybe they're right. I mean, what kind of sicko thinks it's a good idea for a killer doll to go around terrorising children...

Child's Play 3 was one of the first scary films I ever watched. I must've been about 11 years old at the time but it did little more than make me sleep a little less easy that night. But then I'm hard. In 1993 the UK press went all out to blame the murder of a 3 year old boy by two 11 year olds on CP3; claiming the killing was similar to certain scenes in the film. Such an uproar was caused the distributors withdrew it from sale in the UK & Ireland until 2002. Watching it now it seems ridiculous and tame compared to many films of its type. But it was rated 18 for a reason.

About 2 years ago three people abducted a teenager and took him to the woods. They tied him to a tree and set him on fire, apparently inspired by the film Severance.

I can understand society being outraged by these crimes and more so if the films themselves in some way had hypnotised individuals in to committing them. But I just can't see how a well balanced person would, after watching a horror film, think "hey, what a great idea!" And then go out and do it. I watched horror films before I was old enough, and while I do not claim to be 100% balanced, at no point was I even tempted to reenact any of them. If the argument here is that horror films shouldn't be allowed then you will lose. If on the other hand you think before being allowed to watch them you should have your mental health evaluated then you're crazy, but would have a valid point.

"Don't you blame the movies! Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!"

“Are we talking about the Austin Powers Mike Myers?” - Halloween 2 (2009)

In the first Halloween remake we were assured Michael was misunderstood and driven to these unspeakable acts of violence by that ungrateful bitch of a sister. In RZ's Halloween 2 however, he shreds his way through much of the cast like stabbing and slashing with knives is going out of fashion. "Fuck you" he says, with bravado.

We take up the story pretty much where the last one left off. Michael Myers has left carnage all around and has got himself killed in the process. They load his body in to the back of the ambulance, the vile ambulance drivers, who are right out of Texas Chainsaw, crash in to a cow and Michael wakes up. The usual then!

I really liked Rob Zombie’s first Halloween film and I don’t care who knows it, but this one, I felt a little horrified. On the one hand I like the fact that he is making a different film. Same back story but fleshed out with new facts and new conversations. Much like a drama based on a true story that has to give extra scenes but no one knows if they’re true or not.

What I felt uncomfortable with was the dream sequences and having to revisit young Michael and his mum every 20 minutes. Surely the source of Halloween’s scariness was Michael’s anonymity and the fleeting sightings of him through the back window or your rear view mirror and NOT to see him walking through fields like some evil version of Jonathan Smith from Highway to Heaven.

I really did enjoy Dr Loomis’ new starry attitude though. “Michael Myers is fucking dead!” he screams when asked about the disappearance of his body. A bit Scream 2 but fun to watch nonetheless.

I have peace with this film. Rob Zombie has made a different movie so far removed from the spirit of the original that it can’t be put on the same shelf. So, it’s a different film. Not one I would’ve enjoyed in a world before John Carpenter, but a film it is. Carpenter’s Myers is beautifully supernatural. Zombie’s Myers is, erm, something else.