Awakened in the night, young Sophie (Mackenzie Imsand) clutches her teddy bear and peers into the darkness of her room. She hears scary sounds and slips out of bed to investigate. She tiptoes closer to her parents’ bedroom, hearing shrieks and sounds of a struggle. When she reaches for the door handle, her mother suddenly…
Both the original “The Houses October Built” and its sequel, The Houses October Built 2, open with quotes about the dark, primal volatility of human nature. The first cites Walter Jon Williams’ well known “I’m not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I’m afraid of what real human beings do to other real…
As the story goes, in October of 1994, three college students wandered into the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland to investigate the legend of the Blair Witch. In the summer of 1999, their footage was released as “The Blair Witch Project,” a small movie that cost just over $20,000 to make, and instantaneously solidified its place…
Not to personalize my critique too much, but the most frightening moment about Paranormal Activity 4 was when I tripped on a buffer cord coming out of the theater. The pain and embarrassment of my clumsiness, however, was nowhere near the agony I felt while watching what I hope will be the final installment of…
A second trailer for Paramount Pictures’ Paranormal Activity 4 was made available today and it is marginally better than the one from August. A few new characters make an entrance but the result is basically the same. Grainy security camera and Handycam footage catch creepy things going on in a house that are related to…
Today Paramount Pictures dropped their trailer for Paranormal Activity 4 and its clear that they’re going to milk every drop of money they can from this franchise. The new catch? The young next door neighbor to Katie and Hunter (she walked off with him in “Paranormal Activity 2,” I think) is getting spooked by them…
During my younger years, my mother would always tell me outlandish stories. Most of these tales involved animals spontaneously springing to life and adapting anthropomorphic qualities and inspired an overactive imagination, but one fable in particular would always scare me witless. As a superstitious woman, she’d look at me — her words marinated in conviction…
