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Author Topic: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN  (Read 6007 times)

Offline beemaster

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SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« on: October 31, 2011, 01:53:25 am »
Been watching a lot of horror movies, many I had never heard of - luckily lots of horror buffs out there writing reviews and collection their own top 50s.

Here is my recommendation if you still need a film for Halloween night. It has a fair amount of gore and language in it but I don't recall any nudity (just thinking back, saw it about a month ago) and it is a BLOB like movie, at least that is how I'd explain it in a single word or two.

SPLINTER - An alien creature , slightly suggested an experiment gone wrong, starts off at a small country gas station/mini-store. It learns that humans are great hosts quite quickly and it has many entertaining moments. After a fast opening, it lags for around 10 minutes during some character development then takes off and keeps haulin'.

I like quirky films, some with bad lines, sometimes poor acting, but all good films have to have something to pull it together so it works. Splinters kudos goes to a haphazard cast, a cute couple, a bad guy and his tweaked girl-friend, some other characters that enter, if only for a while to fill needed action scenes.

What works is that human survival is alive and well in this film: people realize that this small band of very different people need to work together and some people shocking come through with a viewers "thumbs-up".

I like the pace as much as anything. I reviewed a film TRIANGLE a few months back, a really creepy in a time-loop sort of way movie - it had interesting paradoxes which really kept you interested and feeling sorry for the main character to the very end and beyond. If you haven't seen Triangle yet, please NetFlix (or whatever you do) and check it out.

Splinter is a creature feature flick. I mention the Blob, which was (I believe) surpassed by Blob 2 the Matt Dillion remake many years after the first. That movie had one interesting point - you NEVER knew who the star of the movie (which character I should say) but you never knew which character was the MAIN character, because no sooner did you think you had it figured out, the Blob killed them. Mind you, Matt Dillion was a really young guy then, not a leading character for sure.

So, I'm not giving anything away, and even if you miss it for Halloween, rent Splinter (2008) and enjoy a good horror movie that with a few better lines and not much else MIGHT have been a great horror movie. Lastly, it has great pacing, very well shot and finally here is the trailer - TRAILER MIGHT BE A BIT INTENSE, but so is this 3 out of 5 star movie.

Splinter Trailer
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 12:07:20 pm by beemaster »
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Offline BlueBee

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2011, 02:16:39 am »
How do people sleep after watching horror movies?  Don’t y’all get nightmares or dreams about these things?  Looks somewhat interesting, but I don’t want to disturb my sleep for the next 2 months  :)

Offline AllenF

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2011, 10:50:33 pm »
I can watch horror all night long.   I saw Splinter couple years back.   I remember it was a b rated cheap made movie, but had very good idea behind it.   I believe they now have a second movie out but don't quote me on this and maybe Splinter 2 runs smoother.   Makes you wonder when you see dead road kill now, don't it.

Offline beemaster

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2011, 03:18:20 am »
Allen

I think the word cheap refers more to the cost of making this than anything about the quality. I thought it ranked up there with anything else made that was big budget. I guess what keeps it down was there are only a few scenes - in some ways, it could be a play.

It has a camping scene, a hi-jack on a road scene, a few shots in the car and then the gas station mini-mart scene. There were a few, just enough CGI effects to sell the plot but I can see where this likely had a low budget.

I rewatched a lot of it last night, couldn't help myself, then watched Atrocious (dubbed in English) about three young siblings with a few nice cameras filming the house and hedge maze next door just for the fun of it - I will say, I can watch horror all day, but this scared the crap out of me. The claustrophobic maze, especially shot using night cam as the one brother and sister ran through it despirately trying to find the exit had me grabbing the Xanax bottle.

I was a Blair Witch like film, all of those type films are better than Blair Witch and I'm still shocked Roger Ebert gave that 4 stars. Of course it was the first of that mocumentary type genre. Better films, Cloverfield, Quarantined I and II, Diary of the Dead (awesome George Romero film) and others - as my wife calls them Shaky films.

But Atrocious scared me, no film scares me. I think it was because (and I know this to be very true) it reminded me of being lost in the New Jersey Pinelands at night - 1 million acres of protected wetlands and forest where trees grow only 4ft apart, bramble are 3ft high and even in the day time you can be 10ft from a truck-wide fire road and NOT be able to see it. I spend a night there, heck I live only 500ft from the Northern border of the Pinelands (some call it the Pine Barrens) checkout www.pineypower.com for some history.

But my getting list while camping with three friends was no joke, I was about 20 followed what I thought was a trail until it wasn't anymore and it had gotten dark, mostly from the dense trees - I walked without a clue for three hours, no light, screaming didn't help. Eventually I just laid there and slept until daylight and it was still 2 hours before we all found each other - I had made it to a fire road and had an idea which way to go, but it was traumatic for me and my friends. This movie brought a lot of that back and I deleted it as fast as I could when I was done watching it.

To add some proof about the Pinelands, a "expert" haunted and scary place author was on George Noory's Coast to Coast AM show one night - he had traveled the world, literally a hundred place and more looking for spooky houses, inns, graveyards,etc.. And he said (when he searched for the Jersey Devil) there is no more frightening place on earth than the NJ Pinelands night or day - you could be a hundred feet of 1/2 a million acres from anything and you could not tell the difference. The Brambles he went on saying HELD YOU THERE, NOT WANTING YOU TO LEAVE and the trees were like matches in book stacked so close you wondered if you could even get through them.

So I had a scary moment tonight, I can't imagine what I'll dream but I'm not looking forward to sleeping - maybe that is why it is 2:20am and I'm still posting.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2011, 09:07:41 pm »
I put Atrocious in the Queue.  Maybe I can get to it in a week.

Offline AllenF

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2011, 10:07:39 pm »
I hope I get the one in English, just watch the trailers for it.   Lots of screaming there.   Looks good.  Teaser trailer on Youtube. 

Offline annette

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2011, 02:57:18 am »
I have a terrible fear of anything like a labyrinth. I was lost in one many, many years ago at a renaissance fair in the heat of the day. Could not figure out how to get out, and was dripping wet from the heat and felt claustrophobic. Finally started screaming until help came.

No, I don't go near mazes or anything like it.

I would be afraid to see that movie

John your experience sounds horrible and thank god you found your way out.

Offline AllenF

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2011, 10:49:20 pm »
Watch Insidious.  Took me 2 nights to get through it do to the fact that the wife thought it was too scary for it to be on while she was awake.   James Wan (Saw) directed.   

Offline beemaster

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2011, 11:49:34 pm »
I forgot about Insidious - awesome chiller with a neat twist to it. Definitely a movie that kep my wife clawing the couch.
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Offline bud1

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2011, 06:42:56 pm »
youalls heads are warped; keep telling the bossman that. talk soon boss
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Offline AllenF

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Re: SPLINTER - not TOO late for HALLOWEEN
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2011, 10:35:34 pm »
Warped?   Never been told that.  Whole bubble off plumb, ya.    But never warped.   :-D