"You almost knocked over your alcohol with your knife"-Zombieland

Zombieland was in one word, AWESOME. It had everything, action, a decent love story, comedy, great cinematography. The reviews had been really good, basically saying that it was a sleeper from this year and I agree, I think people should really give it a chance even if it isnt their "typical type" of movie they would be into.

The story takes place in a post apocalyptic sort of world where the zombie virus is running rampant (a mad cow mutation of some kind) and causing humans to be outnumbered. We dont learn character names, they are only referred to by their city they are traveling to in order to find any surviving friends or family. Columbus is your typical uptight, nerdy, Michael Cera sort of character who is forced to man up to protect himself in his new found violent world. No longer hiding himself from living life by playing video games in the comfort of his dorm, he sets out to find his family in Ohio. He has a list of rules which he follows to keep himself alive; for example Rule #2 The Double Tap, which is genius because I think at some point we have all watched a horror movie where we wonder why the hell did the character not shoot the "villain" more than once to make sure theyre dead?!

Eventually he meets self proclaimed badass Tallahassee who has lost a loved one and merely searching for a new place to call home and kicking zombie ass and taking names along the way. He also teams up with Wichita and her sister Little Rock who are headed to an amusement park in California that is rumored to be zombie free. Along the way they grow closer, get into danger, find joys in the little things left of human life and blow a ton of zombies apart the whole way.

Sauna

I had wanted to see Sauna a while back and since it is Finnish it took a little for it to show up on DVD. To be completely honest. I didnt get it. I really dont know what happened in this movie but I wish I did. As a photographer, the cinematography is awesome in every way, the colors and vividness of it all reminds me of "Defiance" and "The Village".Sauna takes place in 1595 at the end of the Russian/Swedish war, two Swedish brothers are traveling and plotting the new country borders on a map. The oldest brother has endured this 25 year war and its brutality, the youngest has not and is studying to be a geography professor when he returns. At some point they lock away a young girl and leave her to die, as they get further away from her and happen upon a small undocumented town, the youngest brother is haunted by this girl. In the town they find a big concrete "Sauna", where it is said one can "Wash Your Sins". According to the official site (www.washyoursins.com) the movie is about "sins and repentance".

It is marketed as a horror movie, and some scenes are a bit scary/startling as well as tension filled. Unfortunately there is a lot lost in translation between the Finnish and English subtitles I believe, because when things start getting underway in the film things just stop making sense to me all together. Overall, the movie was beautifully shot and the scary things look awesome and are creepy but there might as well have been no subtitles because I cant even figure out the last half of the movie. Would have made a great photo exhibit of still images though.

Netflix Withdrawl

Someone either living or working within the building is stealing Netflix. It’s so not ok. About 6 discs of mine I’ve had to report missing this wk. Hoping something shows up tomorrow.

"This is huge, this one night changes everything for me" - The House of the Devil

I finished my work day early on this afternoon and had 4hrs to kill. I had been hearing great stuff about The House of the Devil and decided to go check it out.

It was awesome. It is your classic 80's "C" list sort of horror movie but done way better than films from the actual time period. An Official Tribeca film festival selection of 2009, the movie is shot to look as if it were actually made during the rise of the horror genre, the director ran a huge risk of being campy/cheesy in the worst way possible. But it seems like director Ti West knew exactly what he wanted to do and was able to execute it perfectly, I cant imagine it being shot in any other way or taking place in any other time.

The story revolves around a college sophomore, played by Jocelin Donahue, pressed for cash for a new apartment to escape her messy roommate. She miraculously finds a babysitting job posted on campus with only a few days to come up with her first months rent. To her friends reluctance she heads out to the house only to find out that there is no baby and she will in fact be watching and elderly woman. At this point she is offered more money than she needs and knows that she has to take this job despite being misled. Sit around, watch tv, order pizza and wait till midnight. Simple enough. After tons of suspense, bumps in the night start to get to her and things start to really get rolling.

The suspense in the film is well played, there was only a minute or two where I started to get a little antsy but overall I was on edge waiting to jump and I definitely did. I have been a fan of grindhouse/exploitation/C List movies for the last few years and it was awesome seeing a new one that was done right.

Eli Roth Produces "Cotton"

Eli Roth is currently producing a new film coming up called "Cotton". So far its drawing comparisons to Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and the Blair Witch Project in terms of shooting style. The movie revolves around a priest that has turned away from the church and decides to team up with a documentary crew to film his last exorcism. According to Roth, "In short, Cotton is the scariest script ive read in years". I hope your right Bear Jew...but by the looks of the first released image, he could be onto something.