House of Sand and Fog - 2003 ***

Sad and mournful tale of an evicted woman who begins a battle with the new owners of her house after she can no longer afford to keep up the payments and it is repossessed. Kingsley is riveting as Behrani, the stern and liberal Air Force Officer who believes that the new house will be the key to his family's happiness once and for all, and Connelly isn't bad either as Kathy, the recovering alcoholic who feels she has finally lost the fight with her various demons when she is kicked out of her family home, adding the last blow to her already tortured being. It's very sad and touching, as well as being quite gut-wrenching and upsetting.

(HORROR) Oculus - 2013 ***

"Oculus' tries to be original, tries to be quirky and tries to be unique. On some levels its pretty good, and I haven't seen anything like it before. On the other hand its too much of an arty mishmash to be anything other than a mess of director s and writers trying to be too clever. The idea of a haunted/cursed mirror has been done before, but even so its never been done in this manner, and certain parts are genuinely frightening. Overall though, the two main characters are ridiculous. The girl comes across as though she's taken a hearty suck on a bong and hasn't quite come down, and the bloke doesn't fare much better. The film combines the past lives of the brother and sister with the present, as all the awful things that happened when they were younger centred around/next to the star of the show; the mirror. The mirror makes normal people do horrible things, and turn into vicious psychopaths, and will take said people 'into the parallel universe. It's all a bit complicated. Worth a watch I guess.

The Lost Moment - 1947 ****

A very overlooked film barely ever mentioned in annuals nowadays.
Cummings plays a publisher desperate to get his hands on love letters written by a deceased writer. He carefully ingratiates himself into the house of the widow and her great niece, hoping to be able to  steal the letters for himself. Things aren't simple however when it turns up that the great niece Tina has a schizophrenic nature resulting in her frequently believing she is the rightful recipient of the love letters. Its a beautifully haunting movie very like 'Rebecca'.

(HORROR) No Tell Motel - 2012 *

Although the title of the film is a sneak preview of how bad the movie actually is, the premise looks quite good. It's not. It's one of those awful films that you realise 20 minutes in is going to get worse and worse. I'm not one to give up on films half way through and usually try and stick them out if I can. I sort of wished I had done that here. I like movies based around haunted buildings, but only if when you finally see the ghost or entity, it's actually worthwhile. This was sort of a joke, and there was no way it was going to induce any sort of fear in me.
Loads more horror films with greater ratings. This was a waste of time.

(HORROR) Taste the Fear - 1961 ****

Ironic really, that a 60s hammer horror would be scarier than something churned out in the last few years pertaining to be a horror film. A woman goes to stay at her father's house which her stepmother appears to be running with routine precision. Every time she asks about her father however, she is told that he is away on business. Which is strange really, because she could swear that she saw him in the summer house, and in his wheelchair by the pool at night. Haunting and scary. Worth a watch.

(HORROR) The Haunting of Helena - 2013 **

A not too original horror based on the twisted version of the evil tooth fairy. A young girl begins to have visions of the tooth fairy coming to kill her after she bumps her head in a car crash. Her mother soon begins to experience the tooth fairy as well, and finds out that she is the entity of the wife of a terrifying man who had all her teeth pulled out by him for smiling at another man.
It's pretty disgusting, even more so for me as I have just had two teeth pulled out and spent over 6 months with agonising toothache!

The Red House - 1947 **

I really didn't enjoy this film which is a shame because I think Robinson is a darn good actor. I was totally put off by all the actors in this however and the completely manic way the story was handled wasn't in the least bit enjoyable. Robinson plays a crippled farmer named Pete who lives with his sister and ward Meg who he has adopted in a reclusive farm. They live next to some ominous looking woods which are said to be haunted. Meg convinces her friend Nath to come and do some odd jobs around the farm for some extra cash, and that same evening he ignores warnings not to walk through the woods on the way home, resulting in him hearing blood-curdling screams and wails. He also comes across an abandoned Red House. He thinks it is Pete trying to scare him at first, but after hearing terror in Pete's voice when he talks about how much he fears the place Nath and Meg decide to solve the mystery themselves. It's like a scary Famous Five episode. It could be scary, but I feel Robinson for one grossly overacts here, and it shows. The ending is obvious before the end as well.

(HORROR) Haunted - 1995 **

'Haunted' is one of those films that looks like it's going to be brilliant. And to be honest if you described the story it would come across like 'The Awakening' which I thought was terrifying. An old house, set in 1920s, ghosts, creepy music - it's pretty much my ideal film. Except it wasn't. It was slow, not in the least bit scary, very odd towards the end and Kate Beckinsale gave a very wooden performance. Saying that, so did Aidan Quinn. She spent the whole film whimpering and quivering and he spent his time giving confused and spaced out glances to everyone he spoke to. I don't really understand the plot. So that was another black mark against it.