scary – Page 4 – Scare Me Please

The Hoarder Review

April 10, 2023April 10, 2023 by Finn the Brave, posted in Movies

Introduction

So far the movies I have reviewed here have been decent picks. Then came The Hoarder, a slasher film I watched for free on one of my favorite platforms, Tubi. Directed by Matt Winn in 2015, I was excited to watch this one based on the description:

“When Ella discovers that her boyfriend is renting a secret storage unit, she becomes suspicious. She breaks into the storage unit with her friend Molly and discovers something sinister.”

They don’t give away too much and the use of the terms “suspicious” and “sinister” appealed to me.

Being completely free and having a surprisingly large number of horror films, Tubi pretty much meets all my criteria for a number one app on my TV. What it doesn’t include, however, are trailers or ratings. Now this can be good or bad. This “blind” choosing has lead me to gems such as “Aftermath” and “Wretched”; I’m very thankful to have watched. On the bad side, it’s also caused me to endure The Hoarder.

When I write these reviews, I always watch the film at least two times, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything and give it a fair chance. That means, that since I suffered two times, YOU should have to experience it too. So grab a drink, find a comfy place to sit, and prepare yourself for 1500 words of nitpicking.

Horror Elements

There is absolutely no backstory to this film at all. No reason why the fiancé is so untrusting, no reason for the antagonist’s actions, no reason why anyone does anything that they do. There might be a sentence or two in an attempt to enrich character development/plot, but nothing more. Audio/music was about the same and the only suspense I had was wondering how much longer I had to deal with the characters before they got killed.

Nothing about this movie was realistic; allow me to give some examples (i.e. complain). For starters, why in the world would the main character think her fiancé would keep a journal of him cheating on her at all, let alone in a storage unit. If he actively used it, then he’d stash it at his office and if it was past inequities, then he would’ve just junked it. Overall just a lame plot set-up.

Next, why the heck are there so many people in those storage units right when it’s closing? Is that just where people go to hang out in the evenings? I can understand a couple, but there were seven for crying out loud! Then, the lady sees her friend get killed by the “creature” and she seriously refuses to leave without her- no way. She would’ve ran outside, called the police, and stayed out there while they handled it. While we’re on the topic of the “creature”, why was he even going around killing random people? How were any of them able to eat if their mouths were stapled shut? And why wouldn’t they just pull the damn staples out?? And WHY was a pudgy, middle-aged man who works a sedentary job, able to beat up everyone else so easily, despite them being younger and in much better shape??? I mean in the final scene, it was two against one and the two even had a gun! Sadly, these are questions I may never know the answers to.

I also feel it pertinent to mention how incredibly unrealistic one of the end scenes was: the main character is being chased by what she now knows is the psycho killer. He is attempting to capture her so he can staple her mouth shut and imprison her forever in a storage locker. While madly running away, she stumbles into a box that has her name on it. What does she do? Did you guess: Run right past it to the nearest exit, grabbing something along the way to use as a weapon, escaping outside to her car, driving away while calling the police? If you did, then you were wrong! Instead, she stops to go through her belongings very very VERY slowly, giving the killer ample time to sneak up on her, thus enabling him to add her to his perverse assortment of prisoners.

Tangent

I know I’ve been pretty negative so far in this review, so let me try “The Sandwich” technique for this section. If you’re not familiar with what this is, I’ll explain it to you. “The Sandwich” is used when giving feedback, particularly if there’s a criticism involved. Basically, the person giving the feedback starts with a compliment, or something positive. After this comes the criticism, followed up by another bit of positivity.

For Example:

Compliment: Wow, that’s a really cute hamster at the beginning of the film.

Critique: I can’t stand any of these characters, how long does this film go on for, just be done already, I don’t think I’m gonna be able to make it through another 20 minutes of this acting, why why why did I pick this to watch…

Compliment: Well, it’s not the worst I’ve seen.

Now with that brief lesson over, back to the review.

Movie Elements

To start with a positive, there’s a really cute hamster in one of the scenes. The hamster doesn’t die and looks really happy. It’s also a bit plump, which adds to the cuteness.

Cinematography was “meh”; It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great. I have nothing to remark on in regards to the pacing either. Plot, however, is a different story. Let’s start with the event that sparked the main characters even going to the storage unit. Two of the characters are talking at the beginning, one is about to get married while the other is her friend.

Allow me to just share the first sentence I wrote during my review:

“It’s been 15 minutes and I already hate all the characters.”

Poor acting, stale dialogue, and zero character development. I really don’t know what else to say about this. If the actors would have intentionally tried to be terrible, it would have almost been entertaining, but as they were taking things serious, I can’t even give the “entertainment” factor a thumbs-up.

Despite it’s flaws, I will give the movie credit for originality in regards to the plot’s premise. Did it go in a great direction? No. Did I like the ending? No. Could the idea be redone and turned into something super scary and horrific? Yes. Honestly, this movie could have been really good; the claustrophobic feeling of being stuck within the units, being chased by some humanoid creature, not sure how to escape, no cell service with the thick walls of the building- all this could easily equate to high quality horror.

Conclusion

If the previous paragraphs weren’t clear, allow me to summarize my thoughts: I did not like this movie. As mentioned earlier, it was a good idea that had potential to be a great scary movie… but it just wasn’t. Honestly, it was the details that killed it for me. I can forgive crap acting and lame dialogue, if attention is paid to the small details. This film felt like a family got together for a reunion one year and decided, “Hey, let’s make a movie!”, and slapped everything together over a four day weekend. It just didn’t feel like any passion for horror went into this at all, which leads me to our rating:

Final Scare Me Please Score: The Hamster was the Best Part of the Movie, Out of 100

Have you watched this movie? What did you think? Anything we missed? Have an idea for what we should watch next? Drop a comment below to let us know!

Suspense and Horror: Why Aftermath Stands Out

March 31, 2023February 18, 2025 by Finn the Brave, posted in Movies

Introduction

Imagine after months of saving and searching, you’re finally moving into your new dream home. After haggling with the owners, you manage to knock down the price into a range that you can afford. You never imagined being able to live in such an upscale house you are ecstatic when the paperwork goes through. There is some dark history behind the house, but that’s easy to ignore when you jump into the swimming pool, your swimming pool. Does this sound ideal? It certainly did to the main characters in the movie Aftermath, a film directed by Peter Winther that was released in 2021.

Just like the theatrical trailer, the film summary provided on Netflix, where I watched the movie, is vague as to what exactly is going to unfold within the story:

“Desperate to save their marriage, a young couple takes a deal and moves into their dream home, but disturbing events reveal the house’s troubled history.”

I very much appreciate when trailers do not give away too much about the film and this one certainly did not. It was difficult to classify what type of horror this film was as there’s a bit of a twist to it, but ultimately I’d classify it a mixture of mystery/thriller/horror.

Horror Elements

Based on a true story (which I’ll delve into later), the movie has a captivating introduction of a 9-1-1 call and an unfolding of a crime scene. This will play a role later on, but for the introduction it provides backstory that sets the stage for the rest of the plot to play out. Why was the couple able to move into a house that is well out of their price range and yet once the paperwork is done they feel stuck there? Well, because of the murder/suicide that took place there, that’s why.

The two antagonists in the film were nothing special; certainly creepy, but not particularly scary once you actually know what’s going on in the story. Personally, the idea of somebody being that devious and taking away your feeling of safety within your own home was far scarier then when the main characters finally saw the flesh-and-blood person in their home.

With a lot of the plot being based on a true story, the whole movie felt a lot more “real” than most. Add great acting, well-developed characters, likable protagonists, and boom- you have a sturdy base for your horror movie to stand on. Something I wrote multiple times in my notes while watching was “FINALLY SMART CHARACTERS”. What do I mean by this? To start, whenever the wife heard a scary noise or saw something spooky, she immediately grabbed a weapon and/or called the police. None of this “is somebody there?” nonsense you typically see in movies. Also, the main character was relentless in proving there was something wrong with the house by investing in security cameras and hiding a secret camcorder in her bedroom, an action that eventually leads to the antagonist being caught.

One of my favorite lines from the movie, and one I feel to be extremely realistic, takes place right after the couple wake up in the middle of the night to a loud noise. Hearing footsteps downstairs, the husband bolts out of the room, leaving his wife alone. Instead of waiting for him to return, like I’ve seen in countless other movie scenes, she yells, “Kevin don’t f*cking leave me up here!” before running out of the room to follow him. She also made sure to stab the killer again even after he was presumed dead, just to make sure- thank you!

Music and audio cues for each scene are executed extremely well, including the jump scares, in which there were only three in the entire movie, one of which made me scream so loud I got a sore throat. Suspense, however, is what sets this movie apart from others. There’s no clear look at the “monster” until the final climax scene which occurs during the last 15 minutes of the film. Instead, the audience has a full 1:45 minutes of complete dread to sit through until it can finally be released through the final fight scene. In fact, this tension got high for me, I actually had to pause the movie at about 45 minutes in, to just breathe and let my heart rate return to normal.

Movie Elements

Though I felt the movie creatively added certain horror elements to an already scary situation, I can’t give the filmmakers full credit for originality considering it’s based on the true story of a young couple from California. Basically, a young couple ended up outbidding someone on an amazing house in Carmel Valley, CA. After moving in around November, weird things started happening. The wife began to receive flowers with creepy notes, their mail kept getting stopped, and hundreds of dollars worth of magazine subscriptions were delivered in their names.

Things escalated around Valentine’s Day, when eight irate neighbors descended upon the husband; all the wives in the neighborhood received inappropriate gifts that had the young couple’s address/the husband’s name on it. Finally, things reached their peak when multiple strangers dropped by the home attempting to rape the wife. It was then discovered an ad had been put in the paper advertising the address with a picture of the wife, inviting men into her home. It was shortly after this discovery was made that the police arrested Kathy Rowe, the person whom the couple had originally outbid on the house.

All of this was included within the movie, (in addition to a few twists and additions) which to me, made everything a bit scarier knowing it had been a real story. The pacing was great and kept my interest the entire two hours, quite a feat considering I have ADHD. I will say there was a bit too much drama for my taste, but despite this, the movie was still quite entertaining. I’m not quite sure where to mention this, but I have to acknowledge how much the dog Odie added to the movie too. There were quite a few scenes (at least five) that were made scary only because of the dog. For example, at one point the wife is playing fetch with the pupper when the ball rolls under her bed, getting stuck. She leaves the room (he follows her) to retrieve something long to get the ball unstuck. When she returns a few moments later, the ball is sitting on top of her bed. No change in music, no image of the antagonist, nothing dramatic whatsoever, yet it produced the desired effect: fear. Fear is at its peak during horror scenes when the director understands and allows the audience’s imagination to take over in place of “special effects”.

Cinematography, though not elaborate, was great, with the entire set feeling “dark”. Lighting was not an issue either, as despite the gloom, the audience could still see everything going on. For some scenes, there was a “fisheye” effect used, which at first I thought would be distracting, but ending up making the scene more intense as it hyper focuses on the main character in the middle of the screen, allowing for the edges of the lense to appear stretched, distorted, making anything (or anyone) you see to appear way creepier than normal. I have seen this done in other films before in such a way that was distracting, I believe because there was too much of the effect, too dramatically done, whereas the effects and angles in this film were subtle.

Conclusion

After looking around the internet for other reviews, I was discouraged to see Aftermath didn’t seem to do too well. Though not an award winner by any means, I still feel it should get more credit than it did and is certainly one I would recommend watching. It did an excellent job building up a thick layer of suspense for the audience, making it an excellent choice for mystery/thriller fans. This movie did a lot right, but one major critique would be the “why” behind the old lover living under the stairs. During the final 15 minutes, there was a flashback in conversation that went into it slightly, but there were no details, and the final explanation during the end scene felt rushed at best. Again the audience has to make some of their own inferences, which is fine, but certainly it could have been a bit smoother. All in all, a worthy watch and one that isn’t diminished when rewatched either.

Final Scare Me Please Score: Just padlock the door under the stairs shut, out of 100

Have you watched this movie? What did you think? Anything we missed? Have an idea for what we should watch next? Drop a comment below to let us know!

Official Trailer

Sources:

San Diego couple still scared after a year of torment from jealous home bidder. ABC7 Los Angeles. (2015, February 13). Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://abc7.com/rape-san-diego-kathy-rowe-jerry-rice/475504/ 

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, March 23). Aftermath (2021 film). Wikipedia. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_(2021_film) 

Don’t Be Afraid Review

March 20, 2023 by Finn the Brave, posted in Games

Introduction

When deciding which horror game should launch my first “Let’s Play” video, alongside a gaming review, the choices were overwhelming. Type in “Best Horror Games” or “List of Scariest Games” into any web browser and the results kicked back will encompass many pages worth of titles. So what exactly was my criteria for selection? Did I research other horror game review articles until I found the highest rated one? Did I watch endless horror game playthroughs until I stumbled across one that seemed truly terrifying? That all seemed a bit too complicated, so instead, I pulled up current sales and picked the most discounted one I could find. The final result was Don’t Be Afraid, normally $10, but costing me only a couple bucks on sale.

Though I ended up playing on the Nintendo Switch, it is also available via Steam, Play Station, and Xbox. As of writing this, there is a DLC available for free on Steam called The First Toy. Self-labeled as an “adventure horror” game, it could be considered “stealth horror”, played in first person and it does contain a few simple puzzles. Hydra, a gaming company based in Poland, provides this summary of their game:

“Don’t Be Afraid is an adventure horror game that allows you to personate a boy, kidnapped by a psychopath. You have to survive, escape and find out how you were kidnapped. Exploring the gigantic, mysterious house of your torturer, you will soon reveal many secrets hidden inside it’s walls…”

Spoilers are sure to follow within the rest of this article, so consider this to be fair warning if you continue reading. Without further ado, let’s examine both the horror and gameplay elements of the game that will lead up to our ultimate Scare Me Please rating.

Horror Elements

As this is the first article in our game review series, I’ll briefly list the six elements of horror being examined during gameplay: disempowerment, isolation, tension, uncertainty, lingering fear, and the protagonist.

By taking on the roll of a young kid that’s just woken up in a locked, dungeon-like room with the memory that a deranged man kidnapped and put you there is an amazing start to the game. Immediately, you feel helpless as you have no idea where you are, and being the size of a child, seem very small in the dark environment you’re thrust into. The mechanics of the game provide no option of fighting enemies, so you’re aware quite early on that you must use stealth and quick thinking to escape whatever challenges arise. Combine this with the extinguishable candles that you use to make your way around in the dark and the unease, especially within the first area of the game, reaches such a high level that I actually had to pause a few times to remind myself it was only a game.

The feeling of disempowerment was excellently done, until you notice your surroundings. There are literally weapons scattered everywhere. Axes, knives, tools… if there’s something small and sharp that could be used for protection, it was in the game somewhere. By the third occurrence I actually wrote in my notes, “Why are there so many weapons/tools laying around… just pick one up dammit!”. This availability of protection, whether you’re playing as kid or not, took away a lot of the fear element for me as it just wasn’t realistic.

No other friendly NPC is encountered in the game, nor does the setting betray any glimpse into the world outside of the dungeon that you, as the main character, find yourself in. Along the way you discover multiple tapes left behind from another victim who wants to help you escape. This interaction takes away the feeling of isolation and uncertainty the game had initially done an excellent job of building. Though parts of the later game did illicit quite a few jumps and screams from me, I’ll say there’s no other part of the game that scared me quite as badly as the first 30 minutes did. A lot of this is due to not quite seeing the “monsters” yet (it made my imagination go into overtime with possibilities), though I will have to say that some of the stealth levels, especially the final clown one, do a great job of creating anxiety while you navigate around the obstacles.

Gameplay Elements

Controls were straightforward, if not a bit tedious, though this may be attributed to the difficulty of bringing a computer game to a console. Thankfully the game allows you to fully adjust the x and y axis, making the find/click portion a bit easier, though still not as smooth as using a mouse would be. I also was not a fan of only having an auto-save feature; this is fine to have, but please include a normal save option as well. Because of this, I ended up having to redo quite a bit of the game as I wasn’t always able to play through to a save screen.

Though the setting is a bit contradictory (at one point the game implies you’re in a basement, then later it seems to be an abandoned school) it ultimately does an excellent job of setting the mood. Again, I can’t speak for the computer version of the game, but the console version was hit or miss in regards to graphics. For example, some of the corpses/mannequins were so incredibly detailed, I had to close my eyes as I sprinted past them, sure they’d come to life specifically to chase me. Other times, the detail was so poor, they almost appeared blurry; I also noticed this for various textures, wood in particular.

Inconsistency prevailed within the quality of the audio as well; some sections were extremely realistic, while other sections of audio were so poor you could hear the soundtrack on loop. This was particularly evident during one of the stealth sections and was a major source of frustration for me as it lost all scare value to be replaced with irritation instead. To summarize the problem, you need to get past a hostile character while avoiding detection. There are multiple sections like this in the game (four to be exact), but the one with “Lydia” was designed quite poorly. Her footsteps never faded nor did her voice change volume to indicate when you could move, so you’re just stuck waiting for what seems like an eternity to creep along this section. This problem didn’t seem to be evident with any of the other stealth sections, only hers. It was also within this section she says approximately two lines that I could hear “click” every time it replayed itself.

Though there was minimal character development (having played through the game a few times now, I still find no attachment/interest in any of the characters), I will say the plot was unique in that you’re playing as a helpless kid versus the typical adult. There was only one main inconsistency to the storyline; it is reiterated multiple time throughout the game that the antagonist only targets children, yet during gameplay you see countless adult corpses throughout each level. Why were there so many? How long has he been at this? Were they all originally kids that were kidnapped? Did the psychopath kill them all once they reached a certain age? None of this is explained, making it more of a “gore for the sake of gore” type of attribute.

The only other section that struck me as odd was the “Before Kidnapping” scenes. Not only is the dialogue unbelievable (really, your mom is gonna tell you to eat candy and then go to bed?), but I feel as though it adds nothing to the story. You get kidnapped trying to go to a friend’s house, but why? Some of the story context alludes to him already knowing you (in fact, he kills your parents during one ending) and yet it seems as though you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite this, I did replay the game twice trying to get different endings (there are three) and this was actually fun to do as there are many choices throughout gameplay that lead to a different ending or accomplishment.

Conclusion

Ultimately, I don’t regret buying or playing through Don’t Be Afraid. They really did an excellent job with the various puzzles you had to solve, especially the ones that require you to read the notes lying around or pay attention to the environment in order to progress. I also cannot praise their introductory/tutorial level highly enough; the use of tutorial pictures on the walls were unique and helped the story progress without the distraction of a full-blown tutorial. That whole opening scene caused my heart rate to spike more than the rest of the game combined (except maybe the clown chase level… I did scream a lot during that part). If I could summarize the problem areas of the game in one word, it would be “inconstistency”. If the same effort were put into all of the game it would be absolutely amazing and as it is, I look forward to what other games Hydra adds to the horror genre.

Final Scare Me Please score: Just pick up a damn weapon, out of 100