Paranormal Activity

I love what my mother calls 'scary movies.' Of course, for her a 'scary movie' is anything that is not a romantic comedy, a comedy, or a drama. Here's a funny story: early one morning I was awakened by some scratching noises in my ceiling. I walked out to the kitchen to tell my mother about it. She looked at me like I was crazy, and I told her to come back to my room with me where she also heard the scratching noises. Later that night, after my dad had set some traps in the attic to catch the scratching culprit, my mother confessed she thought I'd lost it that morning and that the scratching noises I'd heard were something I'd dreamt thanks to all the 'scary movies' that I watch. Of all the scary movies I've watched, I've never worried about them possibly giving me nightmares. Then I watched Paranormal Activity, and I thought, if anything's going to give me a nightmare, it'll be this movie.

Paranormal Activity--a tiny independent film that only cost $15,000 to make--is being hailed as the mother of all scary movies or at least the mother of all those released in 2009. I have to admit that when I watched it, I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd seen clips here and there on TV and those I'd seen didn't blow me away. But it is a scary movie after all and it had gotten good reviews and pulled in millions at the box office, so I thought I'd watch it just to see what all the fuss was about and if I agreed with all the fuss.

Presented as found home movie footage, similar to Cloverfield, Quarantine (movies I've seen) and The Blair Witch Project (a movie I haven't seen), the actors' use their own names in the film. Micah and Katie have moved in together after several years of dating when strange things start happening in the night. Inspired and determined to document these occurrences, Micah buys a camcorder to record the strange thuds, bumps, and other goings on that happen while the couple sleeps in the very early morning hours.

As a direct result of Micah purchasing the camcorder and recording at night, these strange events escalate, and the couple consults a professor whose expertise is ghosts and related hauntings. During the course of an interview in their house with the professor, Katie reveals that a strange and shadowy figure has been stalking her since she was about eight years old, and it has made its presence known intermittently over the years. The professor tells Katie that he is certain that she is being stalked by a demon or other malevolent being and this falls outside his field of expertise. The professor cannot help this young couple, but he knows someone who can, and he gives Katie another professor's name.

Meanwhile, Micah, who has captured the entire episode on camera, is skeptical and is even more determined to capture everything on camera. He is also determined to solve the problem of the demon haunting them on his own because Katie is his girlfriend and he can protect her himself! Soon Micah begins yelling and verbally provoking the demon stalking them in their house. This is a very bad idea. The malevolent being responds by ratcheting up its activities and revealing the extent of its powers and influence over Katie until late one night when the couple are at their breaking point and the shocking conclusion is captured by Micah's camera.

My impression prior to viewing the movie was that it was basically an hour and a half of watching the couple sleep while blankets ripple eerily and doors open and close seemingly of their own will. However, these night time scenes are intercut with day time scenes of the couple working or studying around the house and discussing their demon problem. The home video style adds to the creepy eeriness of the atmosphere because it adds realism--as if this really is some home video discovered after these events have actually happened. We never see the thing haunting the protagonists, and we never know why it has targeted Katie, but in a way, this makes the events portrayed more horrifying because they are seemingly random. This is a very scary, eerie, creepy movie. And I can't help but think that Sam and Dean Winchester might have been able to solve this couple's demon problem before things got too far out of hand. I guess they were too busy trying to avert the apocalypse.

I highly recommend Paranormal Activity for horror genre fans. It is coming soon to a library near you.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Propel, Propel, Propel Your Craft

We have uploaded a new video to our YouTube channel entitled "Propel, Propel, Propel Your Craft." It's a replication of a skit that first appeared on The Children's Show in 1954. The skit starred the beloved Fred Rogers and Josey Carey. Click on the link to view the video or you can just watch it below. Enjoy!

Rise: Blood Hunter

Rise: Blood Hunter stars Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis.

In retrospect after viewing this movie, I realize that maybe the title should have been a tip off that perhaps this movie wouldn't be very good. But I thought I'd watch it anyway because one shouldn't judge a movie or a book by its title-- it just might surprise you. I'm good at judging a book pretty early on in the reading process, and if the writing or the story isn't good, I quickly jump ship. However, I've found that once I start a movie, I watch it to the conclusion unless it is just too weird.

Sadie (Liu), a journalist, lands her expose of the underground, 'undead,' goth teen party scene on the front page of the newspaper where she works. An informant gives her a phone number during the course of her investigation that instead turns out to be an IP address that leads her to an even deeper, darker, far more dangerous story. However, Sadie doesn't realize what she's blindly and unwittingly stumbled upon until it is too late. She is kidnapped, raped, and made undead by the leader of a bloody and brutal cult linked to the mysterious IP address passed to her by her informant. Sadie, made undead against her will, embarks upon a one woman revenge spree, determined to hunt down every last member in the chain of command of the cult involved with her abduction and brutal attack. She works her way up the chain to the leader who took away her life as she knew it.

In another storyline, Rawlins (Chiklis), a police detective whose daughter has been brutally murdered in a similar manner to Sadie by the same cult, is hot on a booze soaked trail of Sadie as she murders each cult member with her trusty cross bow. Rawlins has no idea about what his daughter was mixed up with until his path collides with Sadie's and the two cautiously and slightly improbably join forces to bring down the cult's leader.

The words hot mess came to mind in the middle of viewing this movie as an adequate description of its overall quality and structure. The characters are underdeveloped and saddled with clichéd and sub par dialog. The plot is underdeveloped, muddled, and hindered by the poorly used device of jumping backwards in the timeline to reveal parts of the story that occurred in the past. Liu is either a bad actress or grossly miscast in this movie and quite possibly both. This is a wannabe horror/action movie that never really brings either and when it does bring horror/action, it is poorly done.

Although the word vampire is never uttered in the movie, the movie's undead antagonists must drink blood to survive and have an aversion to sunlight. It is heavily implied that these undead are indeed vampires. The movie puts its own boring twist on its version of the vampire. However, just what a vampire is or isn't or where they came from or what makes a vampire is never explained. I think die hard vampire or horror genre fans will want to see this movie, while all others should steer clear.

This movie is coming soon to the Matthews Public Library

2010 Pennsylvania Farm Show

The annual Pennsylvania Farm Show has begun and we have a wonderful video of highlights of this year's show ready for viewing on our YouTube channel. Click on the link or view the video below.

Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds (yes, I know it is misspelled, but that's how it's spelled on the DVD case) by Quentin Tarantino, the man who brought us Kill Bill, volumes one and two. The movie stars the following basterds: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and B.J. Novak.

While the second world war rages in Europe, Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) leads a ragtag unit of Jewish-American soldiers as a guerrilla force deep undercover behind enemy lines in Vichy France. The objective of the mission is thus: in the words of Raine, each man in the unit owes him 100 Nazi scalps and Raine "wants his Nazi scalps." The men hunt down and kill anyone wearing a swastika; for the most part the men are successful in their mission: they avoid capture by enemy forces and haven't taken any casualties. Before long they receive a mission they cannot refuse. The success of the mission itself could alter the course of the war and history as we know it; in short it is an opportunity too good and too dangerous to pass up. Soon the luck that held the unit in good stead turns and things start to go wrong in the hours leading up to the mission. But Raine and his men are determined to complete their mission no matter what stands in their way.

In a parallel storyline, Shoshana is a young Jew; her family was hunted down and brutally massacred by the "Jew Hunter"--German Col. Landa and his unit--years before. Now she's living in Paris under an assumed name and running a small cinema. Through happenstance her path crosses with that of a young German soldier who becomes smitten with her and through this acquaintance her path crosses with that of Landa's again. Shoshana is given an opportunity to avenge the deaths of her family members. However, will her plan for vengeance interfere with or derail Raine's mission? Or will the plans merrily collide creating a perfect storm of events to mutually benefit each objective?

From the trailers for his movies immediately preceding this one, it is clear that Tarantino has a penchant for the dark and twisted and sick. This movie is dark, a little twisted, especially its story and characters, specifically Raine and his men. The darkness is leavened by the fact that the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. There are also scenes depicting graphic and gruesome violence.

This movie is available to borrow from the Lebanon county library system.