“[REC]³:Génesis” (2012) – Spanish Zombie/ Horror

The cold days of Autumn are well and truly upon us… and that can mean only one thing here at the ol’ Litterbox…. Halloween will soon be here and with it our old friends the Zombies shambling close behind. Given that, it’s time to get us all ready for the “Zombie Apocalypse” a wee bit early with a quick review of the latest Spanish horror offering in the genre, “[REC]³:Génesis”. Just to get us all in the proper mood, mind you, Hehehehe!!

Our synopsis goes like this: “Koldo and Clara are about to celebrate the most important day of their lives: their wedding. Everything appears to be running smoothly, and the bride, the groom and their families are enjoying a wonderful day in the countryside… until some of the guests start showing signs of a strange illness. Before they know what’s happening, the bride and groom find themselves in the middle of a hellish ordeal, as an uncontrollable torrent of violence is unleashed on the wedding. What started off as an idyllic day quickly descends into a nightmare of the worst kind.”

The first two offerings in this horror franchise were right up this wee lady’s alley, and so when this one finally came available on Region 2 DVD it didn’t take tooooo darn much to convince this Catgirl it was definitely as “must have”. So… if you, like a certain Zombie crazy Catgirl, just love these sorts of goofy horror goodies you’ll probably be chomping at the bit to read all about it for yourself…. So don’t just stand there silly… C’mon!! 😉

“Seru” (2011) – Malay Ghost/ Horror

Time for a review of yet another of the “Shaky Cam” horror films that this wee Catgirl can’t seem to escape from lately. This time out, I’m taking a look at Malaysia’s contribution to the genre, 2011’s “Seru”. About time we got one of these from this part of the world…. the basic “low budget” premise seems perfectly suited for them.

Our synopsis… sounding somewhat familiar by now… goes like this: “Seru” follows a production team in the midst of shooting when many strange things start to take place, affecting the crew members until eventually someone is murdered. When assistant director Sari gets hysterical and makeup artist Julia collapses, things start to get haywire. Not long after, Julia disappears into the forest and the rest head out to find her. As the crew members get taken out one at a time by a vengeful entity, the reason behind the whole event is uncovered.”

Hmmmm? Can’t be tooooo darn many more of these lurking out there now can there? Anyway…. the Trailer for this one actually looks pretty darn creepy, so who knows? Maybe it’ll be the Malaysians who knock this wee Catgirl’s socks off with some real scares and prove that a movie doesn’t have to be a big expensive “Blockbuster” to do the job a good horror film is supposed to do.

So… get yourselves ready Gentle Visitors, as we travel into the jungles of the Malay peninsula to see if the Hantu have what it takes to scare us silly…

“Ragini MMS” (2011) – Hindi Ghost/ Horror

Another new week…. and another new Review is upon us… Oooohhh… and it seems the dreaded “Curse of the Shaky Cam Horror Movies” is sticking with this wee Catgirl like evil dryer lint to my favorite sweater as we are off to India this time out for their latest addition to the recent deluge of such efforts to hit DVD release, “Ragini MMS”.

Our synopsis reads: “Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) and her boyfriend, Uday (Raj Kumar Yadav) plan a naughty weekend rendezvous to have sex for the first time at a friends desolate bungalow in the midst of a forest outside Mumbai. Of course, Uday also has some other devious plans of his own: the entire house has been rigged with cameras so he can make an amateur sex tape of his tryst with Ragini and sell it off to kick start an “acting career”.

However that turns out to be the very least of their problems as things do not go as planned, and the cameras that were meant to capture tender illicit love-making become witness to something that is beyond the realm of human understanding… something metaphysical… and they find themselves trapped under the spell of an angry vile spirit who plans to keep them in this house forever, turning their “sexcapade” into a living nightmare.”

Hmmmm? Am I ready to see a “shaky cam horror”, Bollywood style? If anything…. it’ll certainly put a different spin on the idea once it takes a trip through the ol’ “cultural filter” to become something for the mainstream Hindi movie audience to enjoy. Both explicit sex and gore aren’t really all that prevalent in Indian film so I figure this ought to be pretty tame by the standards of movies your Favorite Catgirl usually watches, but who knows? Maybe the Indians will pull out all the stops and go crazy with this one….

Wanna know all about it? Well just tiptoe along with me and we’ll take a lil’ peek together then… 😉

“Haunted Changi” (2010) – Singapore Ghost/ Horror

It’s finally December… and even though I’ve been a wee bit scarce around the ol’ Litterbox lately, I am still alive and kicking… just busy, busy, busy with the Thanksgiving holiday and, as always, work. But… I have also managed a film or two in my busy schedule, so it’s time for another quick review. (Before somebody discovers I’ve actually got some unaccounted for “free time”…. Hehehehe!!) This time out…. Singapore’s recent addition to the virtual deluge of “shaky cam” horror “fake-cumentaries”, “Haunted Changi” recently released here in the US on Region 1 DVD.

Our synopsis goes along these lines: “In January of 2010, a group of local filmmakers began exploring the famously haunted Old Changi Hospital in Singapore with terrifying and tragic results. This movie pieces together the original Haunted Changi film crew’s footage in an attempt to tell the full story of the terrible events they experienced.”

Hmmmm? Yep. Sounds familiar alright…. but hey, who knows? Given the current popular fascination with this particular horror sub-genre throughout the world, it seems your Favorite Catgirl is going to be sitting through lots… and lots… and lots of these until the craze finally winds down as they always inevitably do.

Will Singapore have anything new or novel to add? Or will we get a simple rehash of old ideas yet again? Guess I’ll find out… and so can you, Gentle Visitor, if you just tag along with lil’ ol’ me and “Read On”….

“Atrocious” (2010) – Spanish Horror

Time for another review… and as seems to be the case lately here at the ol’ Litterbox, it’s another Spanish horror effort, 2010’s shaky cam cinema “faux-cumentary”, “Atrocious”. Yep…. yet another of those “shaky cam” amateur film clip things….. but this one has more to be blamed on the recent success of “Paranormal Activity” than “The Blair Witch Project”. Still…. it had better be good….. I’m still traumatized by the eye wrenching I took watching Korea’s “Deserted House”.

Our synopsis? So here it goes: “On the 4th of April, 2010, the Quintanilla family were all found murdered in their country house in rural Spain. Police reported the existence of 37 hours of recorded evidence discovered at the scene of the grisly event. “Atrocious” shows the real found footage in all its entirety.

The Quintanilla family traveled to their old farm house in Sitges, where Christian and his sister Julie investigated the Legend of the ghostly “Girl in the Garraf Woods” for their Internet Blog on the Paranormal. Both of them used video cameras to record all of their investigations of the folktale. On the fifth day after their arrival they and their family were found dead under strange circumstances. “Atrocious” shows the last five days of the lives of Cristian Quintanilla and his family and also shows the strange situations that they lived in those moments, many of which remain unexplained even to this day.”

Hmmmm…. as you know, I’m not much of a fan of these “found footage” films. Sure… they can be made on the cheap… with unknown actors… and there’s a certain quirky charm to the general idea, but usually they also share that annoying look of home movies shot by drunken frat boys on Halloween. Can’t say that makes for epic cinematography… it usually gives you a good 70-90 minutes of badly out of focus, incomprehensible footage that…. for me at least… is more a pain to watch than it is to figure out what the heck is going on. Can they be scary? Yes… but it’s a tricky bit to manage with any real success. “The Blair Witch Project” being the first of these, will always be the big yardstick against which all the followers will be measured, and although imitation is the purist form of flattery, it’s not always a good enough reason to make a film either. Will this one stand out from the rest of those clones? Guess I’ll find out…..

"Deserted House" (폐가) (2010) – Korean Ghost / Horror

Time for another review, and this time we’re off to Korea for a look at “Deserted House”, the latest Korean horror story to make it to DVD and then safely across the sea to your Favorite Catgirl’s mailbox this brand spankin’ New Year. Been some time since I watched a Korean film, especially given the price rise I’ve noticed in their DVD’s of late… nearly rivaling that of the Japanese imports I rarely indulge in. But then… Neko loves her ghost stories (lots more than most sane girls probably should….) , so could I pass up another Korean haunted house story for movie nite? Nawwwww…..

The synopsis goes along these lines: “In 42 years, 6 people have disappeared! 8 people have died! There have been 11 murders! Everyone is afraid of the deserted house with the ghosts. It is prohibited to enter if you are alive. But three deserted home society members and three filming team members enter the deserted house. They break the taboo of deserted homes and enter the world of spirits. But they disappear one day… And there is only a video they left behind…”

Seems like somebody in Korea has noticed the trend towards the “imitation” documentary style horror films being made lately, along the lines of “Paranormal Activity”, “Cloverfield”, “Noroi”, “Keramat”, and of course, [REC]…. so naturally somebody figured the Koreans had to have a homegrown version to call their own. They’ve been successful for the most part, made money, so I guess it was inevitable that there would be more. Good thing? Bad thing? That remains to be seen.

Only one way to know and that’s to take a look…. so curl up, sit a spell and let Neko-chan tell you all about it.