Halloween Marathon: Wolf Creek & A Lonely Place to Die (Double Feature)

Its a bit hard to get so many movies up in a week so I’m going to keep up this double feature going.  It’ll help me cover a few more movies and not have to over analyze any of them.  How does that sound? The main features will get full reviews.

Next up was a last minute addition since it expired today: A Lonely Place to Die.  I like Melissa George a lot in thriller-esque movies so I was pretty excited to add this in.  Its more of a thriller than a horror but I like to group in thrillers for these marathons.  And for the next horror, I decided to finally watch Wolf Creek.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect for either so lets check it out! 🙂

 WOLF CREEK (2005)

Director & Writer: Greg Mclean

Cast: Nathan Phillips, Kestie Morassi, Cassandra Magrath, John Jarratt

Ben (Nathan Phillips), Kristy (Kestie Morassi) and Lizzy (Cassandra Magrath) all go on a backpacking/road trip. Their plans are to go hike to Wolf Creek before making it to party in Cairns. Outside Wolf Creek, the car ends up dying and they are stranded in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily, they get help from a man driving through the area.  This man offers his help however, it turns out he ends up taking them captive instead.

Wolf Creek is a pretty effective horror movie.  It builds up slowly in the beginning to how everything just turns to crap afterwards.  I found the ending bit a little bit predictable but the whole setup of the movie and the building up pulled me into the movie. There was a part where I was yelling at the character to do something. I usually am pretty contained when I watch movies so thats a pretty good thing.

I expected this one to be more gory than it actually was but then I’m not saying that the torture/kills weren’t sadistic because they were.  They were actually pretty different than others I’ve seen.  It really helps that the bad guy is extremely creepy and just gets under your skin (at least he got under mine). The three backpackers don’t exactly make great choices and some of the dialogue just makes this into a typical horror movie but the premise of it all, the sum of everything makes it a pretty good and effective horror movie.

What I’m saying, despite some flaws, Wolf Creek is a worthy horror film and I was highly thrilled and entertained by it (for the most part). 🙂 If you haven’t seen this, you might want to give it a chance.

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (2011)

Director (& co-writer): Julian Gilbey

Cast: Melissa George, Ed Speleers, Alec Newman, Kate Magowan, Garry Sweeney, Holly Boyd, Douglas Russell, Alan Steele, Sean Harris, Karel Rodden

A group of five mountain climbers: Alison (Melissa George), Rob (Alec Newman), Ed (Ed Speleers), Jenny (Kate Magowan) and Alex (Garry Sweeney), go for a climbing trip in the Scottish Highlands.  While hiking to the mountain, Ed hears a sound and alerts the others. Following the sound, they find a breathing tube buried in the ground.  Collectively, they decide to dig out whoever is under there.  They find a frightened little girl, Anna.  When they pull her out, it becomes clear that she’s valuable to a hidden presence in the forest as they get targeted.

A Lonely Place to Die is a pretty awesome thriller.  There was a lot of evading, running in the woods and fast-paced action filled with bullets flying all over the place as they try to save Anna.  It was an exciting watch.  Unlike Wolf Creek, this one builds up pretty quickly and we never really quite get to know the characters before we dive straight into the action and adventure portion of things.  We quickly get an idea of where the story is headed but we never quite know at any point whether any of them will get out of this mess.

I always expect pretty good flicks when Melissa George is on board. I saw her in 30 Days of Night in last year’s Halloween marathon (review HERE) and it was pretty good.  There is no doubt that Melissa George’s Alison was the main character in this even though it didn’t really start that way.  Still, its not as much about the character as the situation they are in: stranded and preyed on in the middle of unknown grounds trying to get back to civilization where they will be able to get more help.  Whats nice in this one is that this one has really smart characters and they actually work out some viable and believable solutions.

There’s a whole lot to like about A Lonely Place to Die.  You want to hold on to the edge of your seats? This one is paced to be that way and it doesn’t fail itself.  Its remains a constant till the ending and that makes this an exciting experience.  Not to mention the Scottish Highlands are extremely beautiful to see, except I might want to hold off on any hiking trips there after this 😉

Have you seen Wolf Creek and/or A Lonely Place to Die? Thoughts on these two? 

Stardust (2007)

This week seems to be birthday week for celebrities.  We have Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis.  I was struggling to find a movie to watch for the next review and with that, I debated between “I am Sam” and “Stardust”.  Stardust won that battle.  Its one of those really fun adventure, romance and fantasy stories that I love.  I’ve had a tiring week (as I’ve mentioned SO many times before), so this seemed like a good choice to relax a bit 🙂

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Kate Magowan, Mark Strong, Ricky Gervais

In the village of Wall, a boy Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) sees a shooting star fall out of the sky and in pursuit for a girl, he promises her that he will get her that star even if it means crossing into the unknown on the other side of the guarded wall.  At the same time, he learns of the magical story of his parents and his life and this leads him to have to travel across the wall to search for his mother as well.  Travelling unexpectedly to the unknown, he crashes (literally) into a beautiful girl, Yvaine (Claire Danes) who turns out to be the shooting star he was looking for.  However, while he is trying to lead Yvaine back to Wall to see the girl he likes, they also learn that Yvaine is seeked by an old (and evil) witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) who wants to cut out her heart to regain her and her sister’s youth.  Tristan has to protect Yvaine in the process.  In addition, the magical world is also going through a leader dilemma as the former king on his death bed sent out a gem that will only change back to the original color with the destined heir who finds it.  With coincidence, it also leads to their search for Yvaine and Tristan.  As Yvaine and Tristan escape, their paths are intertwined with friends such as Captain Shakespeare (Robert DeNiro) and not just enemies.  They both also learn a little bit more about what love is.  As the narrator (Ian McKellan) says at the beginning: “This is a story about how Tristan Thorn becomes a man, a greater challenge altogether.”

This movie is adapted from a book by Neil Gaiman and thats something I didn’t know for so many years that I’ve been watching it.  I’ve never read or heard of the book so I’ll probably need to look it up someday.  I’m a huge fan of this flick.  Its magical, fun, humorous and just completely adventurous.  The story itself is so cute and just brings up this desire to fall in love and how love is quite magical in its own way.

The main characters have to be Claire Danes.  I’m a big fan of hers.  I haven’t seen her in a whole lot of stuff but every time I’ve seen on her scene, she has this elegance to her.  I don’t consider an absolutely beauty but she has a very elegant feeling to her when she talks and when she acts.  In this movie, we see both her as Yvaine and Charlie Cox (who I have never seen in anything else) as Tristan being pretty naive youngsters. They do a very good job at it.

My favorite character was Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare.  He plays a role where he pretends to be someone else to live up to his reputation.  As the Captain of a flying ship and following his father’s footsteps, he hides the fact that he actually is into plays and acting and occasionally dresses up in gowns and prances around with fans and whatnot.  Robert DeNiro is very much a manly man but its refreshing and funny to see him do this particular role.  It always makes me smile 🙂

I watched this movie in honor of Michelle Pfeiffer’s birthday. Her role as the evil Lamia was amazing.  But then, when is she not, right? I’m a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan and same with Meg Ryan, I have a lot of catching up to do for her movies as well.  In this one, she is so awesome.  And her makeup as an old woman is quite worth the applause because it is very convincing.  When she needs to pull out the evil side, she does it in such a convincing way from her expressions to the tone of voice.

Stardust has a fantastic cast and I love the story.  What makes this movie very good is that its a little over 2 hours long and I never feel the length of it at all.  Its not because all the movies nowadays are at least 2.5 hours long but rather, this movie doesn’t give you too much of a down period and keeps the adventures going and moves the storyline along very efficiently.

If you haven’t seen Stardust, I highly recommend it.  Its fun and amusing.  Its like entering into a fantasy magical world and meeting all your fairy tales good and bad all at once.  Plus, its about searching for true love, with princes, pirates, witches and a hero that shines through to his full potential when he becomes a man.

I’m a bit late for the talented Michelle Pfeiffer’s birthday.  Are you a fan of Michelle Pfeiffer? What made you like her or dislike her?