Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts

Sunday, 7 June 2015

House on Haunted Hill

Hey everyone I don't think I've reviewed many scary movies so why don't I review this one. It is directed by William Castle (who is famous for making movies with gimmicks) and stars Vincent Price so this should be pretty good. It's a dark and stormy night so let's review House on Haunted Hill.










A man named Watson Prichard (Elisha Cook) tells the audience that he is the owner of a house he belives to be haunted. A eccentric millionare named Frderick Loren (Vincent Price) and his wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) rent the house to host a party. He invites Mr. Prichard, a jet pilot named Lance Schroeder (Richard Long), a psychiatrist named Dr. David Trent (Alan Marshall), one of Mr. Loren's employees named Norah Manning (Carolyn Craig), and a newspaper wrter named Ruth Bridgers (Julie Michum). They all arive at the house and find that their host is nowhere to be found. After a chandelier falls and almost hits one of the guests Mr. and Mrs. Loren show up and welcome them to the party. He says that after midnight they will be locked inside the house. Mr. Prichard tours them around the house and shows them the wine cellar where there is a vat of acid in the middle. Lance and Norah look around the cellar and Lance gets locked in a room. When the rest of them find hi he had been hit in the head very hard.



Lace says he must have bumped his head against the wall. However Lance and Norah go down stairs to the cellar again and look in the room where Lance bumped his head Norah sees what appears to be a ghost of an old woman but no one believes her.  Norah goes up to her room and an old man tells her to leave before it`s to late. It turns out that the ghost in the basement and the old man are just the caretakers of the mansion but they end up locking everyone in the house meaning that nobody can leave. To make things interesting Mr. Loren gives everyone guns. OK we are about halfway into this  murder mystery horror movie and we haven`t seen any ghosts and nobody is dead....kind of a misleading description. Everyone is looking around the house but then they realize that Norah is missing. But there is no time to worry about that because then Anabelle turns up dead and it looks like somebody hung her. Lance finds Norah and says someone tried to kill her so Lance hides her in his room while the rest go downstairs to descuss what is happening.





***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***


They all make the decision to stay in their rooms and not leave for the entire night. But Norah sees the ghost of Annabelle at her window which causes her to snap and leave her room. Dr. Trent sees Norah and tells Mr. Loren that she is heading down to the basement. It turns out that Annabelle isn't dead and that she and Dr. Trent are working together to kill Mr. Loren. Mr. Loren heads into the basement where Norah accidently shoots him and kills him. Dr. Trent tries dumps his body into the vat of acid. Before we sees him being dumped we cut to Annabell going into the basment and and sees Mr. Loren's living skeleton which causes her to walk into the vat of acid. It turns out that the skeleton was just a puppet and that Mr. Loren used a bullet proof vest and tossed Dr. Trent into the vat of acid. So there weren't any ghost the whole time...or were there? The End.



***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***



House on Haunted Hill is a very silly movie. With over the top acting and bad special effects it doesn't hold up well now adays. The whole thing felt like an episode of Scooby Doo but it was all very hilarious to watch. Now there are some jump scares so I wouldn't recomend showing it to small children. But if you want a silly mystery this movie is for you. See you next time.

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Gravity Falls

You know what I haven't done? Reviewed  a TV show. So I can try. But what TV show to review? Whats that Waylon? You want me to review Gravity Falls......yes you do. Well okay this is my review of the first several episodes of Gravity Falls (Season 1). Quick note I will be revealing the endings. So since I am talking about multiple episodes I will just write the ending in italics so you know when to skip them. One more thing I have lost my pastels so there will be no cartoons until further notice.





Episode 1 Tourist Trapped:  Two twins named Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) Pines are spending the summer at their great uncle Stan's (Alex Hirsch) house in a small town called Gravity Falls (it's a pun). Stan runs a place called the Mystery Shack which show people supernatural things that are fake. One day when putting up signs in the forest Dipper finds a mysterious book with the number 3 on it.  The book contains knowledge of real supernatural stuff. When Dipper gets back to the house Mabel says she has a boyfriend named Norman (Alex Hirsch). Dipper reads his book and realizes that Norman matches the description of a zombie.  So dipper films Norman but can't find anything weird. But when rewatching it he sees his hand fall off and that convinces him. So Dipper chases after Norman but it turns out that Norman isn't a zombie but instead a bunch of gnomes (no comment). So the gnomes turn into a giant monster (no comment) and chase Dipper and Mabel. But they escape and defeat the gnomes. Later that night Stan is seen going through a secret passage behind a vending machine (creepy music). The End


I think this is a good intro to the series. It shows who the characters are and how strange the world of Gravity Falls is. Also there is some funny foreshadowing in this episode. So a good start to the series and it gets better from there.

Episode 2 Legend of the Gobbelwonker: While on a fishing trip with Stan Dipper and Mabel hear the stories of a lake monster called the Gobbelwonker from an old man (Alex Hirsch) and they decide to go look for the monster with Stan's assistant Soos (Alex Hirsch). They go to an island out in the middle of the lake where the monster is supposed to be. On the island all they see is some beavers with a chainsaw. But they actually manage to find the Gobblewonker. But it chases them away and follows them. They corner the monster in a cave and drop a rock on its head. But it turns out that the monster is really that old man. He built it to get some attention and that he is crazy and has built many robots before. So they go back to Stan and spend the rest of the day fishing. The End.


This is even better then the first episode. It is a good combination of funny and suspencefull. Also the old man who tells them about the Gobbelwonker is a really funny because of how crazy he is. This episode shows how funny and silly Gravity falls cane be.

Episode 3 Headhunters: Mabel and Dipper find a room full of wax figures of famous people like Sherlock Homes and Groucho Marx. Stan says that it used to be the Mystery Shack Wax Museum. This gives Mabel the idea to make her own wax sculpture. So she sculpts a wax figure of Stan. Stan loves it so much that he reopens the Wax Museum with the Wax Stan as the main attraction. But people don't like it because of how egotistical Stan is and that Stan promised pizza when there isn't any. So everyone storms out angrily. That night Stan is murdered...well the wax one actually. So Dipper and Mabel decide to figure out who killed Wax Stan. After an investigation they think that it is a local reporter named Toby Determined (Gregg Turkington) but it turns out they are wrong. So they give up and go home where Stan is giving a funeral for Wax Stan. When Stan leaves the room the Wax Figures come to life and say that they hate Stan and that they meant to kill the real one. But Mabel and Dipper defeat all the Wax Figures and the only thing that survives is the head of Wax Larry King (real Larry King). The End.


While this isn't as good as the first two episodes of the show it is still pretty good. The mystery aspect has good build up and I like how it pay homage to classic mystery and horror movies (such as House of Wax). Over all not the best in the series but still it is really good.

Episode 4 The Hand that Rocks the Mable: The Mystery Shack is being put out of business by a child psychic named ,Lil Gideon (Thurop Van Orman). Mabel, Dipper, and Soos decide to check it out. Gideon tries to befriend Mabel and falls in love with her. The problem is Mabel doesn't love him. So Mabel breaks up with him. That makes Gideon angry so he uses his psychic powers that he gets from his amulet to kidnap Dipper. So Mabel comes to save Dipper. They destroy Gideon's amulet where he gets his powers and Dipper and Mabel return home. But in a quick scene before the credits we see Gideon has a book just like the one that Dipper found only this one has the number 2 on it. The End.

This is a good introduction to Gideon who would become a returning character. The best thing about Gideon is that he can go from being evil and menacing to being silly and goofy. So This was a pretty good episode of the show. Now for my final opinion of the show.

Gravity Falls is an amazingly animated, funny, and mysterious show. The characters have very distinct personalities. Another good thing about Gravity Falls is the mystery aspect it always keeps you guessing what will happen next. I am especially exited for the second season coming out in August. I will probably review the second season at some point. See you next time.