Sometimes dead is better!

Torture, gore and death are the three elements that are required in order to produce a high-quality bloodcurdling scary movie. My whole life I have enjoyed watching horror movies, although I will admit that I am terrified of zombies!!!! My name is Jackie and I am a student at the University of St. Francis. In my blogs I will give my opinion as well as little known facts on various scary movies, both new and old.

My last blog will be on none other than the great Stephen King. He has such a great talent when it comes to writing horror, but his greatest accomplishment would have to be Pet Sematary (1989), written by Mr. King, but directed by Mary Lambert . The Creed family has moved to the quiet of the countryside in order to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city. The family consists of Louis (Dale Midkiff), his wife Rachel (Denise Crosby), their daughter Ellie(Blaze Berdahl) and their toddler son Gage (Miko Hughes).

The house is beautiful, the only concerns are the road and the cemetery. The road the runs by their house is like an "Indianapolis Speedway" for truckers. There backyard has a little overgrown path that leads to a makeshift "Pet Sematary". Most of the animals found here have been claimed by the truckers speeding on the road.

Louis is a new doctor at the local college when a horrible accident occurs. The man is brought in for possible treatment, but he is too far gone. Later on that evening Louis is visited by the mans ghostly apparition who warns him "the barrier was not meant to be crossed." He believes it was just a dream until he realizes that his feet are covered in mud, so he really is not sure how to interpret it.

While Rachel is gone with Ellie and Gage, Ellie's cat "Church" falls victim to the deadly road. Louis and his neighbor Jud (Fred Gwynn) collect the remains and head out to bury "Church" in the "Pet Sematary". Jud decides that he wants Louis to bury the cat beyond the barrier (of brush) up into an ancient Micmac India burial ground. He completes the task and the men make the journey home.

Some time later, "Church" returns home. Louis believes that he must have buried him alive. But the cat does not seem right, reeking of an unbelievable stench and acting quite odd and peculiar. He rushes across the way to Jud's house to figure out what is going on. Jud informs him that the "dead don't stay dead" when buried on that land. Curiosity overcomes Louis and he asks "Has anyone ever buried a person up there?" Jud says no, but the truth is that it did happen once. The person was not them self and in the end killed the family that wanted him back.

Sometime later, the family is enjoying a picnic on a beautiful day. Everyone is happy and laughing while Gage flies a kite. Disaster strikes when Gage loses his grip on the handle and begins to run after it......toward the road. As all this is going on a trucker is happily speeding his way through the road. No one can grab him in time, and poor little sweet innocent Gage is killed when the truck strikes him.

Deeply hurt due to the loss of his son, Louis convinces himself that is was his fault. How does he propose to fix this? He decides that is the burial ground worked for "Church" then it will work for Gage. When Rachel and Ellie leave to go stay with her parents, Louis goes grave robbing. While he is traveling to the site of the burial ground, the ghostly apparition that warned him in his dreams is now coming to him and begging him to rethink this and to not do this. The same apparition also tries to help Rachel figure out what is going on through Ellie.

Going against the ghost's warnings, he completes his task and returns home to wait for his son. Gage wakes up and decides that he wants to play with the next door neighbor. He tortures the old man, slicing his heel, mouth and neck with his father's scalpel. Then mommy comes home, and dies at the hand of her own son. Finally Louis wakes up to discover that his son is evil and he must destroy him. But his nightmare does not end when he decides to bury his wife on the Indian burial ground....she comes back for him!

As much as this movie both creeped me out and entertained me, it was kind of puzzling to find out that the charater of Ellie had to be played by two different people, where as with Gage's character, the actor played it fine and was a little over 2 years old. Another interesting fact is that this movie (to THIS very day) is still banned in Germany. Doesn't it make you want to really watch it?

Home Sweet Home

Torture, gore and death are the three elements that are required in order to produce a high-quality bloodcurdling scary movie. My whole life I have enjoyed watching horror movies, although I will admit that I am terrified of zombies!!!! My name is Jackie and I am a student at the University of St. Francis. In my blogs I will give my opinion as well as interesting facts on various scary movies, both new and old.

The Crazies(2010) was directed by Breck Eisner, but is actually a remake of the 1973 George Romero classic, titled the same. The whole setting of the movie takes place (once again) in a small town where something seems to be making people act strangely. The town of Ogden Marsh is a picture-perfect American town where all the citizens abide by the laws.....that is until one fateful day it all gets turned upside down.

It all begins at a children's baseball game. A local man known for his drinking problems, walks onto the field with a loaded shotgun. The town sheriff David Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) has no choice but to take the old mans life in order to save all those in attendance. After that, the plot thickens.

The town doctor Judy (Radha Mitchell), also the sheriff's wife, has a lot of people being brought to her as ill, but she cannot seem to provide an answer or a cure. The infected individuals seem to have acquired a depraved, blood-thirsty attitude towards anyone and everyone, especially those they love. One good example would be one man who becomes infected decides to lock his wife and young son in a closet. After completing that task, he proceeds to set the house on fire, killing both without so much as a sign of remorse as he walks away from the inferno.

Within days black SUVs begin to appear and the government decides to intervene and take over the town, trying to contain the disease. No one is allowed in and no one is allowed to leave. They do this by separating the infected from the uninfected. The infected are strapped to a gurney and left to suffer. Those that are not infected are hauled away. In the midst of this chaos it is revealed to us that Judy is pregnant with her and David's first child, which could have caused the haz mat men to believe that she was infected. He and his deputy Russell (Joe Anderson) find a way to break into where she is being held, saving her and Becca (Danielle Panabaker), her assistant at the medical center. The four decide to band together and fight to try and make their way out of the town.

One of the most interesting methods of killing by one of the infected in the movie would have to be the man with the pitchfork. As mentioned earlier those that are said to be infected are strapped to a gurney and left to suffer. The anticipation grows as the quiet is replaced by the sound of a loud scraping coming closer and closer. When it becomes clear that this is an infected person, the terror sets in. This mans walks up to a bed and plunges the pitchfork into the stomach of the detained individual. He does this to several people before he is finally killed.

Overall, I did enjoy watching this movie. The end was a very good cliffhanger that lets up know there could be a sequel in the works! If you would like to see a trailer use the link below.

http://www.thecrazies-movie.com?bcpid=41808394001&bctid=65767390001