Harrison Ford Movie: **** What Lies Beneath (2000)

 This is a very good Halloween/Ghost story.  After taking her daughter, Caitlin (Katharine Towne) to school, Claire Spencer (Michelle Pfeiffer) starts seeing a ghost.  The new neighbors Mary and Warren Feur (Miranda Otto and James Remar) have a love hate relationship, and then the wife disappears so she assumes he has murdered his wife and the ghost if of her.  However when she confronts him, his wife is there.  Her husband, Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford) is not very sympathetic.  She sees a psychiatrist (Joe Morton) who suggests she ask the ghost what it wants.  She and her friend, Jody (Diana Scarwid) try a seance but with limited success.  A woman disappeared a year ago, about the time of Claire's accident.  She slowly becomes convinced that this is the ghost, and it has something to do with her husband.  

If you are into a good fright this is a very good movie.  Harrison Ford is in a different type of role for him.

Movie Review: ***^Gone (2012)

 Jill (Amanda Seyfried) was kidnapped a year ago, but when the police could not find anything after a week they concluded she was crazy and having a paranoid reaction to her parents having passed away.   She was court ordered into psychiatric hospital.

Now her sister, Molly (Emily Wickersham) has come up missing, and Jill concludes that the kidnapper/murderer is back.  But still no one believes her.  She is sure she will be murdered if she does not find him quickly.  She decides to find her herself.  However in questioning people she flashes a gun around, and the police are now after her for having an illegal gun.  Her investigtion leads to the killer's phone number so she calls, and makes arrangements to meet him, in Forest Park, where she was thrown in a hole when she was kidnapped.  She was able to use a bone from a murdered girl as a shiv and stab the killer, Jim or Digger (Socrotis Otto).  In the forest she finds definite proof Jim is the murderer.  In his tent are pictures of the women he has killed.  She struggles with him in the hole.  He has the same bone she used to stab him.  The struggle and she is able to shot him.  

She gets back to her home, and her sister is there after being tied up and drugged, when she wakes up she finds herself under the house.

This movie has received very poor reviews and did not make lots of money at the box office.  However I liked it.

Movie Review: ***Split (2016)

***Split (2016)  This movie is a bit slow for a Shyamalan, but our villain, superhero is well done.  When he starts bouncing between personalities is when the acting is really noted.  A person with multiple personalities kidnaps three young woman.  James McAvoy portrays our split personality.  Betty Buckley who is just a bit too trusting but suspects something is wrong.  Anya Taylor-Joy portrays a young lady who appeals to the child of “Split.”  This movie is headed for a tragedy from the beginning.  I must admit, I prefer the sequel, “Glass.”

Movie Review: ****Carrie (1976)

I avoid writing about "R" rated movies.  This is an exception because there are TV versions available which have been toned down.  Carrie (Sissie Spacek) is a girl with a special power, she can move things with her mind.  Her mother (Piper Laurie) has something wrong with her mentally, and she is a religious fanatic, and repressive of her daughter, even her new power.  Carrie is a loner at school, but very beautiful.  She is discovered by a boy at school, Tommy (William Katt) and he invites her to the prom.  Of course Tommy's old girlfriend is upset.  She and a few girls plan their revenge.  First they make sure Carrie is voted prom queen, and then the prank, a bucket of blood from the butcher is spilled over her.  You don't want to mess with someone with kinetic powers. 
I like Sissy Spacek as an actress.  I always have.  Although the blood is a bit much, and then aided with lighting, the TV movies tell this story well without going overboard. 

Movie Review: **^Goosebumps II, Haunted Halloween (2018)

This is the sequel which is appropriately named "Haunted Halloween" because everything Halloween is haunted and comes to life.  But before we get there, Sarah (Madison Iseman) is in charge of her brother for the weekend.  Her brother, Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor) and his friend, Sam (Caleel Harris) have started a rummage company.  The get their first job and inadvertently open an R.L. Stine (Jack Black) book releasing the mannequin, Slappy.  Slappy insists on being part of a family with a Mommy (Wendi McClendon-Covey) a and siblings, all of the Halloween characters.  The unleashing of the monsters is terrible.  This movie gets distorted by too many monsters going every which way.  In the end it is credited to a weather anomaly, but pretty gruesome until they can get them all back in the book, and finish the story of one of Stine's first manuscripts.

Movie Review: ***Goosebumps (2015)

This is a classic retellng of R. L. Stines's (Jack Black) Goodebumps stories with the monsters coming to life and preying on a town.  This is after Slappy, a mannequin is set loose and he then lets all the other monsters lose.  Zach (Dylan Minnette) a neighbor and Hannah (Odeya Rush) Stine's daughter, help in recapturing all the monsters.  They can only do this by typing a new story, on the original typewriter, which happens to be at a school where there is a prom dance taking place.  Lots of monsters, maybe even too many.

Movie Review: ****Maleficent (2014)

This is a different take on the Sleeping Beauty story; at least from a different angle.  This is great Halloween fare.  It gives some idea of where Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) comes from, and tells the story from her perspective.  I really enjoyed the young Maleficents Isobelle Molloy and Ella Purnell), who were still happy.  Maleficent became bitter after her wings were removed.  Maleficent's crow (Sam Riley), who becomes human, is also a very interesting character.  Turns out the Sleeping Beauty, Aurora (Elle Fanning) is able to melt all hearts.  This includes Maleficent's.  As a result it is Maleficent who grows and changes and this leads for a good story. 

Movie Review: ***The House With a Clock in its Walls

The House with a Clock in its Walls

A fun movie, but I found it lacking just a little.  I think it was that the main character were supposed to be weird, and at times it just came across a little too weird.  Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) goes to live with his uncle(Jack Black) after his parents die in an accident.  He meets his uncle's friend (Cate Blanchett).  Over time Lewis discovers that his uncle and his friend are both involved in magical pursuits, and that there is a clock hidden within the wall s of the house which is counting down, and portends some great tragedy will take place when it does.  At any rate, Lewis starts to learn magic, but is also manipulated by the former owners of the home, Isaac and Selena Izard (Kyle MacLachlan and Renee Goldsberry).  Isaac was involved in an experiment which killed him, and he had apparently killed his wife during the experiment.  However by manipulating the boy, they both reappear with the intent of ending the world where there is war.  It takes all the skills and wit of our little threesome to overcome this evil. 
Great Halloween movie with seed spitting pumpkins--they don't have teeth so can't really hurt you, and other spooky goblins. 

Animated Movie Review: Coraline (2009)

If this movie doesn't, no movie ever will convince you not to creep around the attic.  It also teaches that sometimes things are not what they seem.  Coraline (Dakota Fanning) goes through the attic to meet her other parents.  They are nicer than her real parents, and she is drawn to them, until it is almost too late.  I really like the depiction of the cat.  The animation was very similar to a Tim Burton movie, with its long limbs and skinny bodies, unless the opposite is emphasized.  It was written and directed by Henry Selick.

Movie Review: ***^Transylvania (2012)

This is a delightful movie, with Adam Sandler portraying Dracula, who loses his wife to the town mob, and determines to raise his daughter (Selena Gomez) away from humans.  He makes a hotel, where all monsters can come and enjoy life away from humans.  He tricks his daughter into being scared of humans as well, until one comes upon them seeking adventure.  Of course the daughter falls for him (Andy Samberg), and the count has to decide if he will ruin his daughter's chance for happiness.

Movie Review: ***Hotel Transylvania II

Adam Sandler helped write this movie, as well as providing his voice talents for the character of Dracula.  His daughter is voiced by Selena Gomez.  In Hotel Transylvania I she married a human (voiced by Andy Samberg.)  In this episode they have a child.  Will he be human or vampire?  that is the big question, and where will he fit in?  Great Grandfather comes and says he just needs a good scare to bring out his fangs.  But in this case, that doesn't help.  However, his friend being in peril just might work.
This is a fun Halloween movie.  I must admit, I have not seen Hotel Transylvania, but hope to do so.  It is not available on Instant Netflix while this version is.  
My only complaint is the nipple twisting scene.  Of course it is the blind man's nipples being twisted, but Sandler seems to be infatuated with this move, as it is also in "Water Boy."

Movie Review: **** Practical Magic (1998)

Here is a very good Halloween themed show.  Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) come from a family of witches, with a particular curse that if they love men, that man is destined to die.  And so they do their best not to fall in love, including wishing (or casting a spell) for the impossible, or picking someone who is terribly evil you couldn't fall in love with him.  All this works to a degree, until Sally does fall in love, and after having two children, her husband is killed by a truck.  In the meantime, Gillian picks an abuser, and Sally goes to rescue her, killing gillian's boyfriend in the process.  They cast a spell to bring him back, and he comes back as a ghost haunting them.  In the end he inhabits Gillian, and only bringing the community together are they able to save her, and send the ex on his way.
This movie has sisterly and motherly affection, as well as romantic relationships.  It has some scary scenes.  It also puts in some unneeded drinking and partying.  It also deals with relationships with those who are different.  The community has always been down on them as witches, but in the end the make amends.

Movie Review: PBS Short: Dia de los Muertos

This is a cute little short about a girl who is missing her mother who has passed away.  The dead are closer than we think.  Dia de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday, is tomorrow.

Movie Review: The Boy Who Left Home to Find out about the Shivers.

This is a presentation in the series Shelly Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre.  I watched it thinking it might be scary.  It is based on a Brothers Grimm story.  It wasn't.  For the most part it was just stupid with corny special effects.   A person who has never been scared agrees to stay in a haunted castle.  Tony and I where slightly amused by the second day in which the bowl using a skull for the ball and bones for the pins.  Because he conquers the castle, he is given the princess to marry.  He then gets the shivers thinking about the responsibilities that come with that.

Movie Review: ****Psycho (1960 Alfred Hitchcock)

I thought this movie would make a good Halloween movie to watch, and let the scary music play loud enough to great the trick or treaters.  None of them noticed. 
This is the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic.  A young woman takes off with $40,000 from her employer, and picks the wrong hotel.  I didn't realize that the murder happened so early in the movie, and the rest of the movie is about finding her killer.  This movie is rated R because of the murder in the shower scene; however it would not be rated so severely today. 
Hitchcock does know how to tell a story, get an isolated rural area, and add someone who is criminally insane, and you have all the right ingredients for a scary time.  Janet Leigh stars as the victim and Anthony Perkins as the killer.

Movie Review: **^Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy (2005)

 http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2014/10/tv-movie-review-scary-godmother.html
After last years fright Jimmy is determined that Halloween should not take place this year.  He comes up with several different schemes, such as destroying all the pumpkins, or getting rid of all the candy and costumes.  In every case, he is thwarted by his cousin Hannah.  He even tries to destroy the Halloween party, but aain is thwarted, and in the end wins the award for the best costume as he scared the Bug-A-Boo.  This show has the feel of the Magic School Bus, but other than that is very good. 
The voice talents include Tabitha St. Germain as Scary Godmother, Gary Chalk as Harry the Werewolf, Alexander Ludwig as Jimmy and Britt McKillip as his cousin Hannah.
I must admit, the characters are growing on me.

TV Movie Review: **Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular (2003)

I was going to write a review of how this movie was not any good; however the ending did make up for some of it.  I  had a bit of a hard tie with the kids and their characters.  They seemed a bit much.  Then add the monster party, and it all seemed just noise.  However, the monsters did grow on me.  And the ending was really pretty cute.  The point of the movie is older cousin and his friends scare their younger cousin by sending her into a haunted house.  She find the Scary Godmother, who taks her to the monster party.  When they realize they trick that has been pulled on her, they decide to get even with the older kids.  She thought her flashlight would keep monsters away.  This is just something her father had told her.  However, the flashlight is party of the revenge scene and is rather well done.
for the sequel
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2014/10/movie-review-scary-godmother-revenge-of.html

Movie Review: **The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow

This animated feature movie was produced in 2003 the Porchlight Entertainment.   It is less than an hour, made for t.v. special.  It is along the genre of the Magic School Bus or Skooby Doo.  It starts with a retelling of the Washington Irving Story, and then carries on from there.  There are a couple thieves who steal the original manuscript, and another couple of kids looking for the best pumpkin, and unknowingly pick the pumpkin where the manuscript was hid.  However the manuscript turns the pumpkin into the haunted head, and the headless horseman is looking for it.  Lots of ghost flying around, and scaring of each other.  A couple of scary song spice up the show.  The main feature of this short is that it is noisy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQPzyP2Pc1c

Movie Review: ***^Mirror, Mirror

This is the second movie recent movie which is a different take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  They both have similar changes from the Disney version, taking the Dwarfs from loveable miners to seven thieves who have been expelled from the community.  An interesting take here is the stilts the dwarfs use when fighting.  Snow White (played here by Lily Collins) in both movies is dispossessed and having to retake the kingdom.  Lily Collins gives the role a more innocent feel.  The prince is played by Armie Hammer.  The witch (queen) is played here by Julia Roberts.  Both movies do interesting things with the mirror.  Here it is in a house on a lake, and talks back to the queen, a reflection of herself, which also uses black magic on her behalf.  Snow White in this movie has interesting relationships with the dwarfs and the prince which make the story enjoyable.  I recommend this movie.
This is my review of Snow White and the Huntsman.
http://mmboebillywardle.blogspot.com/2013/10/movie-review-snow-white-and-huntsman.html

Movie Review: ****The Others

This is a ghost story with a creepy house.  Some memories are too terrible to remember, and such is the case with this movie.  With her husband at war, Grace (Nicole Kidman) is home to care for her two children.  The have an illness making them sensitive to light.  She always keeps the windows covered.  However the curtains are left open, and doors are left open.  Is it the servants, or is it ghosts?  Her daughter says she is seeing people, and draws a picture of them.  Grace finally leaves because of the ghosts or intruders.  She runs into the night fog, and comes back with her husband, home form the war.  This movie makes very good use of fog and ambiance, and a creepy house.  It too have a twist at the end.  Good fun, but perhaps too creepy for little ones.