Horror.com Forums - Talk about horror. - Last Seen Contemporary Movie

Unless I see something really good and surprising like Triangle, I'm not going to post reviews for a while. I want to get more stuff done so I can watch a horror movie per night in October. Kind of going out for now with some forgettable ones that do have pretty actresses in them. You can almost call it "The Friday the 13th remake actress show." First up -

The Julianna Guill Double Feature -

Too bad these movies aren't as fun as this image. It's from the bad Friday the 13th remake. She plays almost the same character in both Altitude and Mine Games. They have kind of similar plot elements too.

Altitude -

When you see this poster what do you think? I thought Lovecraft, Twilight Zone, and good sci-fi horror movies or TV shows. But sadly the movie feels like a 90210 "horror" movie with a Lifetime / LMN network twist. Maybe the director should have told the actors to watch some old Twilight Zone episodes. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is far better than this one. In fact 30 minute Twilight Zone episodes have a far tighter feel for storytelling as a whole compared to this 90 minute movie. They should have used the first 10 or so minutes to show the relationship between the main characters. Twilight Zone was very good at setting the scene and mind set of characters almost immediately since they didn't have that much time. But here they want a reveal to be a surprise for some reason. To generate conflict I guess. The important characters aren't very likeable either. Jessica Lowndes is beautiful, that's really the only reason why you like her in the movie. Same for Julianna as the pretty blonde girl. As characters they are pretty bad. One supposedly has a boyfriend but he doesn't seem like it. And the other I guess is cheating. The male characters are stereotypes. Jock, musician, and geek.

The final twist when you realize where they are going with the story is a big "why?" or "are they serious?" Because a good story that does something like this would put the elements or hint at something early on. Like I mentioned, those Twilight Zone episodes get you in the mood early on from the title sequence. It's like Altitude used that poster as a tease to rope people in and then have the modern teenager / young adult stuff through almost the whole movie.

Maybe if the director or writer made the story only for Jessica or Julianna it would have been better. Or at least more enjoyable. Look at the remake of When a Stranger Calls. That's a pretty bad movie. But it has Camilla Belle in a beautiful setting and house. Perhaps the plane in this movie could have been a luxurious private design and Jessica was co-pilot or the person asked to help fly. At least create the story with a bigger plane or another passenger that can fly. I swear Jessica's character looks behind her more than she looks in front and she's the one flying in a cloud, without radio contact, and at an unknown altitude. At one if not more points she actually gets out of her seat to engage in conversation and argue with her friends! It's crazy and makes zero sense.

There is another older movie that has a coming TV show this year that does a similar twist as Altitude. I don't want to drop a spoiler so post if you've seen Altitude and want the name of the movie / TV show. But it's a far, far better movie where you care about and feel for the characters more than in Altitude. Only see this one if you want to see Jessica Lowndes, Julianna Guill, or are curious about that poster monster. And even then you can look that stuff up online.

Mine Games -

I think the setup is good but for this type of movie I think you need to decide if you are going to go serious or slasher. It's like they weren't sure during the movie. A movie like Triangle (http://horror.com/forum/showpost.php...postcount=2442) gets it. It's serious and the tone is right from the get go. Mine Games bounces back and forth. If they wanted to use the slasher tropes with the twist they should have gone all out. All the characters should have been mentally compromised from alcohol or drugs. For example, one time I went too far with alcohol and thought skeletons were going to come through my door. In this movie only the ethnic girl gets hallucinations and I think she's supposed to be Native American or a fortune teller. It's one of those typical Hollywood things.

Mine Games starts off with usual things you see other and better horror movies. The trip to the cabin, nice overhead shots through the beautiful outdoors, a group of friends, the supply pickup, etc. Basically the sort of setup that Cabin in the Woods, a movie I'm not that fond of, made a point of showing how tired it all is. Parts of the movie and character elements reminded me of The Descent. Except they explore an abandoned mine for no reason. They don't just take a few steps in either. They go deep into the mine multiple times and even play around in it. I guess common sense of old abandoned mine equals dangerous doesn't click with these people.

The movie kind of feels thrown together. Ideas from other movies quickly put together. There was one seemingly out of place sex scene and only after watching some of the movie again hearing a throwaway line did I realize the identity of the couple. Still I think the continuity of the movie is messed up as there is something shown at the beginning of the movie that hints at something. But it can't possibly be as that would break the timeline.

Maybe it's the budget. I was looking around for more stuff on the mine walls. There could have been more with that mine. More back story. Perhaps another person knowing about it or hearing about some area legend. It's a trope but you need that sometimes. Even Triangle has the one line that basically tells you what is happening.

In the end, there is no why even though that's not always needed. But there is no unsettling feeling at the end like in Triangle. It just ends kind of similar to The Descent's American ending. It's like they saw certain movies and thought to make their own version with slasher elements but didn't realize that they needed to make an actual movie not just rip from others.

* By the way, no Julianna nudity in either of these. I guess she decided that the scene in the Friday the 13th remake was enough and the best we get is her in a bikini in Mine Games.
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Amanda Righetti Special

Return to the House on Haunted Hill -

I barely remember The House on Haunted Hill remake and I haven't seen the original movie. From what I remember, I didn't think the remake wasn't that bad. Amanda Righetti is really pretty here. I kind of remember her in that Friday the 13th remake. She's hardly in the opening segment and when the twist happens I was pretty much detached from the movie at that point. Here she's front and center figuring out what happened to her sister. The movie might not be the best but it's not horrible or offensive either. Jeffrey Combs has a quick bad guy role. The main bad guy or at least the main human bad guy is pretty good too. It's an ok time waster while eating dinner.