Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones | Open Grave
Slim pickings this week, as we get a couple horror / thriller movies to fill that niche, but nobody wants to go up against the glut of Christmas Day releases head on.
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
I can't imagine a movie born of focus groups (this one comes out of the studio's stated goal of courting the Latino audience with the Paranormal Activity franchise) will be any good, and the diminishing returns on this franchise have been almost as stark as the Saw series. If you saw the first four (there were 4 of these?!), you're probably seeing this one too, but if you're like me and think this series ran out of gas after the (arguably) entertaining original, you'll skip it. Unless of course the studio's right, and you can appeal to a new racial demographic by just throwing several generic ingredients into a blender.
Open Grave
Another one to be leery about, since it was released on iTunes a week before it got released in theaters. I've railed against the state of horror movies before, and this week looks like it might provide me with two more examples of unoriginal cheap startles and gorenography trying to pass itself as true horror. Still the trailer makes it look at least intriguing, with all the characters waking up with amnesia before discovering the real threat. Is it cannibals? My money's on cannibals. I like Sharlto Copley, so this is one I might actually see.
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
I can't imagine a movie born of focus groups (this one comes out of the studio's stated goal of courting the Latino audience with the Paranormal Activity franchise) will be any good, and the diminishing returns on this franchise have been almost as stark as the Saw series. If you saw the first four (there were 4 of these?!), you're probably seeing this one too, but if you're like me and think this series ran out of gas after the (arguably) entertaining original, you'll skip it. Unless of course the studio's right, and you can appeal to a new racial demographic by just throwing several generic ingredients into a blender.
Open Grave
Another one to be leery about, since it was released on iTunes a week before it got released in theaters. I've railed against the state of horror movies before, and this week looks like it might provide me with two more examples of unoriginal cheap startles and gorenography trying to pass itself as true horror. Still the trailer makes it look at least intriguing, with all the characters waking up with amnesia before discovering the real threat. Is it cannibals? My money's on cannibals. I like Sharlto Copley, so this is one I might actually see.