#10. The Butterfly Effect 3 : Revelations [2009]

" Death Repeats Itself "



USA[90m] Directed by : Seth Grossman Written by : Holly Brix Music : Adam Balazs Cinematography : Dan Stoloff Starring : Chris Carmack, Rachel Miner, Sonya A. Avakian, Melissa Jones Release Date : January 09, 2009

Butterfly Effect: Revelation is a 2009 science fiction/horror film directed by Seth Grossman that is the third film in the Butterfly Effect franchise.The movie was filmed in Michigan and concluded filming in October 2008. It debuted as part of the lineup for After Dark Horrorfest III, a horror film festival held in January 2009. The film will be released on DVD on March 31, 2009.

Synopsis
Sam Reide (Chris Carmack) witnesses a woman killed, then wakes up in an ice-filled bathtub, his vitals being monitored by his sister Jenna (Rachel Miner). Sam can travel back to any time and location during his lifetime, needing only to concentrate on where and when he wishes to arrive. He has helped the local police capture criminals under the guise of being a psychic. We learn that Sam pays his sister's rent and buys her groceries, and that she rarely leaves the apartment and lives in squalor. That night, Elizabeth (Sarah Habel), the sister of Sam's murdered girlfriend Rebecca (Mia Serifino), arrives at Sam's apartment. She believes that the man about to be executed for her sister's murder, Lonnie Flennonds (Richard Wilkinson), is innocent, and she offers to pay Sam to find the real murderer. Sam turns her down, but goes to speak with the man who tutored him on time travel, Goldburg (Kevin Yon), who reminds him of the cardinal rules: he's not to alter his own personal past, nor travel in time with his body left unsupervised.

We learn that a fire that claimed the lives of Sam and Jenna's parents had claimed Jenna's life, but Sam altered time so that their parents died instead. After Goldburg's departure their bartender, Vicki (Melissa Jones), seductively offers Sam a buttery nipple; he and Vicki have sex, but upon seeing Rebecca's photo, he cannot continue. Sam changes his mind and agrees to help Elizabeth. He tries to help Lonnie without time-traveling, but Lonnie refuses, believing Sam to be the culprit. Frustrated, Sam travels back to June 1998. He first runs into a drunk Elizabeth, telling her to stay in her locked car. He goes into Rebecca's bedroom to find her already dead; while there, Elizabeth is attacked from her backseat. Sam returns to the present, to learn he no longer owns a car, is renting his couch to a roommate named Paco (Ulysses Hernandez), and no longer works for the police, instead being a discarded suspect for Rebecca's murder who has repeatedly asked for the case file.

In 1998 Lonnie had seen Rebecca and Sam talking, and didn't stop this time: as he was not at the murder scene, in this new present he is a wheelchair-bound lawyer. Sam visits Goldburg, who suggests he go back to the scene of the third murder and this time only observe. Sam also visits Jenna, who is significantly better off and living more cleanly; she refuses to help him. Sam travels back to September 2000 and witnesses the third victim, Anita Barnes (Chantel Giacalone), being attacked, only to learn it is her boyfriend attempting to cater to her rape fetish. He is discovered and her boyfriend's punch sends him back to the present, where now Sam is renting a couch from Paco, who is about to evict him for non-payment. Goldburg is missing, and Lonnie is now the third victim while Anita remains alive. Present-day Anita pepper-sprays him; escaping to Jenna's, she tells him that Goldburg was about to implicate him in the murders, and furthermore tells him she fears a future Sam is the murderer. Sam complains he is now "too stupid" to fix things; Jenna pinky-swears him to not time-travel anymore.

Drunk at the bar, he propositions Vicki, who is engaged in this timeline. After Sam leaves, the killer shows up and murders Vicki near an auto plant; her body is found by the police. As Sam left his receipt behind at the bar, he is hauled in by the police. Jenna extricates him; the police put a tail on him as he leaves. As he leaves, he takes Det. Glenn's (Lynch Travis) evidence notebook, which he uses to look at the scene of the crime and travel back to September 2004, before the bodies were found by the police. He returns to the present to find himself on Jenna's couch as she leaves for work, reminding him to clean up after himself and have dinner ready for her — their positions now effectively reversed from the beginning of the film. Sam returns to the auto plant, where the police lie in wait to arrest him. Sam convinces Det. Glenn to release him by telling him how his wife mistook him for M.C. Hammer on their first meeting. Visiting home, Sam accidentally inhales some burundanga flowers from Goldburg's greenhouse, and barely can haul himself into the bathtub before time-traveling back to the abandoned auto plant, where he finds a severely injured Goldburg, and, running for help, is felled by a foothold trap.

The killer approaches the trapped Sam, removing the mask as they approach to reveal ... Jenna, who can also time travel. She has an incestuous love for her brother, having killed the women either because she perceived them as rivals for Sam's affections or because they were new witnesses introduced by Sam's rescue attempts. Sam travels back in time to the day of the fire that killed his parents; instead of saving Jenna, he traps her in her room. He awakes in a new timeline where he had fallen in love with Elizabeth (not Rebecca), and he, Elizabeth, and their daughter Jenna (named after his now-dead sister) (Alexis Sturr) are pulling up to a family barbecue, where he is greeted by his now-living parents and a perfectly healthy Goldburg. The film closes as Sam's daughter puts her Barbie doll on the grill and smiles as it begins to melt.

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#9. Friday The 13th [2009]

" Welcome to Crystal Lake "

USA[77m] Directed by : Marcus Nispel Screenplay : Damian Shannon, Mark Swift Story : Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, Mark Wheaton Characters by : Victor Miller Music : Steve Jablonsky Cinematography : Daniel Pearl Starring : Derek Mears, Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle Release Date : February 13, 2009

Friday the 13th is a 2009 American horror film directed by Marcus Nispel, and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a reboot of the Friday the 13th film series, which began in 1980 and whose last film was the 2003 crossover film Freddy vs. Jason. Nispel also helmed the 2003 remake of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), while Shannon and Swift wrote the screenplay for Freddy vs. Jason. It stars Derek Mears as Jason Voorhees, with Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti and Danielle Panabaker portraying the male and female leads.

The film follows Clay Miller (Padalecki) as he searches for his missing sister, Whitney (Righetti), who was taken by Jason while she was camping in the woods at Crystal Lake. Originally starting out as an origin story, the film ultimately became a re-imagining of the first four Friday the 13th films. Along with bringing the film back to its roots, Jason was designed as a leaner and faster killer, with a backstory that could provide a little sympathy for the character but not enough that he would lose his menace. Although this film reboots the continuity, Jason's iconic hockey mask,which was not introduced until the third film in the series, is acquired through the progression of the film. In keeping with the tone of the film, Jason's mask was also brought back to its roots, created from a mold of the original mask from Part III, though subtle changes were made to keep it unique to the new film. Friday the 13th also incorporated some of Harry Manfredini's music score from the original Friday film series, as the producers recognized the iconic status it held.

The film was released on Friday, February 13, 2009 to the most theaters of any of the Friday the 13th films. Although the film was met with primarily negative reviews, it earned approximately $19 million in its opening night and $40 million for its opening weekend. With its opening weekend, Friday the 13th broke two records, having the largest opening day for the film series, and the largest opening weekend for any horror film.It currently sits as the second highest grossing film in the Friday the 13th franchise with $64.7 million, and has earned an estimated $87.8 million worldwide.

Synopsis
On June 13, 1980, a young Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guss) witnesses his mother (Nana Visitor) get beheaded by a camp counselor (Stephanie Rhodes) who was trying to escape Mrs. Voorhees's murderous rampage around Camp Crystal Lake. Approximately 30 years later, a group of vacationing friends—Wade (Jonathan Sadowski), Richie (Ben Feldman), Mike (Nick Mennell), Whitney (Amanda Righetti) and Amanda (America Olivo)—arrive at Crystal Lake on a camping trip, and to find some marijuana that was planted in the woods. As Mike and Whitney explore the abandoned Crystal Lake camp, Jason (Derek Mears) begins to kill the rest of the group one-by-one. Jason also kills Mike, but instead of doing the same to Whitney he decides to kidnap her because she resembles his mother at a young age.

Six weeks later, Trent (Travis Van Winkle), along with his girlfriend Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), and their friends Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Nolan (Ryan Hansen), Bree (Julianna Guill) and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) arrive at Trent's summer cabin, which sits on Crystal Lake, unaware of the events that occurred a few weeks prior. Also in town is Clay (Jared Padalecki), who has come to Crystal Lake searching for his sister Whitney. Clay eventually makes his way to Trent's cabin, where Jenna agrees to help him look for his sister on the other side of the lake. As Clay and Jenna search for clues to Whitney's disappearance, Jason kills Nolan and Chelsea out on the lake. Clay and Jenna reach the old Crystal Lake campgrounds, where they witness Jason hauling a dead body into one of the abandoned camp houses. Clay and Jenna run back to warn the others about Jason, who arrives shortly after them and cuts the power to the cabin.

After killing Chewie and Lawrence, who ventured outside the house, Jason sneaks inside the cabin and kills Bree. Trent, Clay and Jenna escape the house, but Trent is killed shortly after when he reaches the main road. Jason then chases Clay and Jenna back to the campgrounds, where Clay discovers Jason's lair and finds his sister chained to the wall. Clay frees Whitney, and all three attempt to escape as Jason arrives. The trio find an exit, but Jenna is killed before she can get out. Jason comes after Clay and Whitney, who use Jason's love and memory of his mother to distract him long enough to stab him in the chest with his own machete. Afterward, Clay dumps Jason's lifeless body into the lake, but before he and Whitney can leave Jason bursts through the lake dock and grabs Whitney.



Official Website : http://www.fridaythe13thmovie.com

Note: In my research I discovered that the scientific name for fear of Friday the 13th is paraskavedekatriaphobia. I envision a new franchise: "Paraskavedekatriaphobia: A New Beginning," "Paraskavedekatriaphobia: Jason Lives," "Paraskavedekatriaphobia: Freddy's Nightmare," etc.

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#8. The Broken [2009]

" Face Your Fears "



UK [88m] Directed by : Sean Ellis Written by : Sean Ellis Music : Guy Farley Cinematography : Angus Hudson Starring : Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, Asier Newman, Michelle Duncan, Melvil Poupaud

The Broken is a horror/thriller written and directed by Sean Ellis and starring Lena Headey, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Synopsis
On a typically gloomy day in London, Gina, a young and beautiful radiologist, is sure she just saw herself driving by--in her own car. When she follows her mysterious doppelganger into an unfamiliar apartment, she isn’t quite sure she can trust her own eyes until she spots a photo of herself and her father on the entryway table. Understandably spooked, she dashes back down to her car. Soon she finds herself in the hospital, unable to remember what has put her there or much about the strange woman. What Gina does know is her boyfriend seems different, the ceiling above the bathtub leaks blood in her dreams, and broken mirrors are becoming a recurring theme in her life. Increasingly paranoid, Gina is experiencing a bizarre and horrific version of her former life, and as things spiral out of control, she must escape from, or come to grips with, her new reality.



Cashback, Sean Ellis’ first film, gained the director many fans, many of whom should be more than excited to see his follow-up. Maybe it’s because The Broken is very different in style, maybe it’s because Mirrors has a superficially similar theme or maybe it’s just because this film could be quite difficult to market. While Cashback was quite light, humorous and even poetic in tone, The Broken is simply dark and menacing. Something Ellis’ claims to be closer to his home territory, and who can contradict him after seeing his newest film? Every part of the film is tweaked to inject some sense of real dread into the audience.

So far, this is the best of the “8 Films to Die For” in the 2009 After Dark Horrorfest. Rather than filling the screen with gore, violence, and cannibalism, THE BROKEN works from an intriguing premise to create an enigmatic mystery-thriller with overtones of paranoid horror. Shot in cool colors with slick production values and solid performances, it is consistently engaging until the mystery wears thin for lack of an adequate explanation. Is it supernatural, science fiction, or fantasy - or is it all in the character’s head? Writer-director Sean Ellis is not saying, and much as we admire his courage for going the David Lynch route and leaving it up to the audience, one wishes for a few clues that would at least point us in the right direction. Without these, the film is ultimately unsatisfying, squandering its better qualities with a lackluster ending. In this regards, it parallels the 2007 After Dark Horrofest entry THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE, another British film that was more speculative fiction thriller than horor movie, and which also frittered away its premise on a weak third act. (Which leaves us wondering: Are the Brits the only ones making modestly budgeted genre films that rely more on good ideas than gore? And if so, why can’t they bring those good ideas to a satisfying resolution?)

The story has radiologist Gina McVey (Lena Headey) haunted by her doppleganger - literally, her reflection - after it breaks out of a mirror (off screen). While making a phone call, she sees her double driving away, and then follows her home. Driving away after a confrontation that we do not see, she collides with a cab and ends up in a hospital with only fragmentary memories of what happened earlier that day. As more mirrors break, Gina finds herself growing paranoid, believing that her boyfriend and family are being replaced by duplicates. Eventually, a trail of clues lead her back home to unravel the mystery hiding behind her lost memories…

THE BROKEN plays the gambit that plauges films of this type: in order to “play fair” with the audience and make all the pieces fit together, the “surprise” ending is predictable to anyone paying attention; the only way to concela it is by withholding vital information. Unfortunately, once you notice what is being withheld, the solution becomes that much more predictable. Why does Gina move in with her boyfriend after the accident, instead of going back home? Could it be that the filmmakers do not want us to see something in her apartment? And are we to believe that her friends and family never went to her apartment to fetch her clothes and toiletries while she was recovering in the hospital? (Ironically, the biggest unanswered question - what happened to the driver of the other car - does not figure into the mystery at all - you keep expecting some surprise in this regard, but the film never bothers addressing the subject at all.)

Ellis started out his career as a fashion photographer and it shows in his films. He is very keen on eye candy and he likes to show off. Even though the photography of The Broken has little in common with the flashy and glamorous look of fashion photography, Ellis’ attention to detail and almost perfect use of color owes more than a little to his former line of work. The film looks dark and gloomy from start to finish, with no bright or strong colors ever penetrating the darkened haze lying over the film. The editing is timid and the camera work often slow and even a little off-key. Intentionally so, as one strong scene with a mirror breaking off screen just after the camera has had it in frame for a good 30 seconds demonstrates. It’s scenes like this that add a lot to the mystery and uneasy atmosphere in the film.

Ultimately, the story would work better if it sustained the interpretation that what we are seeing really is the paranoid result of Gina’s post-traumatic stress from the accident. Unfortunately, too many objective scenes (in which her character does not appear) confirm that the doubles are real, robbing us of the best way to rationalize the logical shortcomings in the scenario.Worse, the film never bothers to offer any explanation for what is happening; the phenomena is simply presented without hint or rational. This would be acceptable if it viewers were given a few clues and invited to fill in the blanks, but there is no mention of parallel worlds of the folklore of mirrors or anything else; the doppelgangers remain an elusive plot device, their motives and behavior a complete mystery. They seem to be mirror images of the originals (down to their hearts being on the right side of the chest), but we never even know to what extent their memories duplicate the originals or even whether they can recognize each other. At times they manage to impersonate the people they have replaced; at others, they act like cliched pod people from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Visceral horror is, thankfully, kept to a minimum. Its one obvious outburst is a tad ridiculous, when a double kills its original by shoving a hand into her mouth - a method that looks at least as painful to the perpetrator as to the victim.The score is nice and atmospheric, though could’ve contributed a little more to the film. While it definitely adds to the atmosphere, it’s only in the last minute (and during the end credits) that Ellis shows how much more should have been done with it. The broken electronica of that last track fits so well with the film, but it’s the only time such an effect is applied. A missed opportunity, even though the rest of the score remains more than decent enough.

It’s not the visuals or music that will keep audiences away from The Broken though. The film is only 90 minutes long, but even in that small time frame Ellis keeps things vague and slow. Even though the uneasy atmosphere is ever present, there is not much happening on screen. There are two or three pretty effective scare scenes, but that doesn’t draw an audience to the theater anymore. The biggest problem with The Broken is that it never reveals much about what is going on. We follow the main character while stuff happens to her. Weird stuff that is never explained, not even hinted at. We see the “what”, but never understand the “who” or “why”. While this will definitely kill the movie for many, to me it was Ellis’ most brilliant move. It elevates The Broken above all those horror flicks trying to explain the unexplainable with some weak or badly thought up story twists. None of that here. And even though there is some kind of twist at the end of the film, it is hinted at a lot earlier so it shouldn’t really come as a big surprise. Ellis confirmed himself he didn’t set the film up to have a twist ending and by letting the audience in on it bit by bit he simply increased the mysterious feel as the film progressed.

Fortunately, Sean Ellis manages to sustain a creepy sense of paranoid dread thanks to the fear of being replaced by these mysterious usurpers. Visually, the film is very assured. The crucial car accident is spectacular, echoing the bullet-time slow-motion of Dario Argento’s climactic crash in FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. In the grand tradition of modestly budgeted features, the editing contrives to show us this footage over and over (gotta get your money’s worth out of such a big piece of the budget), but the great thing is that the script justifies the repetition, because Gina frequently flashes back to the scene while trying to reconstruct her shattered memories. In a way these strong points makes THE BROKEN more frustrating than a film that is bad from beginning to end; it grips your attention throughout, only to leave you unsatisfied at the end. Nevertheless, the journey is worth taking even if the destination is disappointing.

Whether you can stomach being left behind in the dark is up to you, but if you think you can handle the lack of information on what the hell is happening, there is a little masterpiece hidden in The Broken. Ellis’ style is refreshing in between all the horror flicks fighting to be the goriest. Ellis’ focus is an uneasy atmosphere by leaving the audience in the dark and simply showing the facts from one point of view. By far one of the most stylish horror films to come out of England in quite a while. Ellis proves himself a great director, who can handle more than one style.

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#7. Eden Log [2009]

France [Imperia Films/Bac Films/Magnolia]101m Directed by : Franck Vestiel Music by : Jerome Wiciak Cinematography : Thierry Pouget Starring : Clovis Cornillac, Vimala Pons Release Date : December 26, 2007 [France], February 13, 2009 [US]

Eden Log is a 2007 science fiction film directed and co-written by Franck Vestiel. The film was Vestiel's first as a director, who shot the entire film using only hand-held cameras. The story follows Tolbiac (Clovis Cornillac) after he wakes up naked and disoriented in an underground cave, not knowing how he arrived there. Reviews were generally positive towards the film, which received an aggregated score of 60% from Rotten Tomatoes. In North America, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2008.

Synopsis
A man wakes up deep inside a cave. Suffering amnesia, he has no recollection of how he came to be here or of what happened to the man whose body he finds beside him. Tailed by a mysterious creature, he must continue through this strange and fantastic world. Enclosed, Tolbiac has no other option to reach the surface than to use REZO ZERO, secret observing cells in this cemetery-like abandoned mine. He embarks upon this journey guided by the roots of a plant, leading the way and the main subject of attention of the REZO.

This is the story of the rise of a forgotten man, sometimes informed by the archives of abandoned laboratories, which punctuate this subterranean network and at other times by his own strangely amplified instinct. During his search for the surface, Tolbiac must uncover the secret of what once lived in this network; but has this "mystery" truly left?



The film was Franck Vestiel's first as a director. Eden Log uses a muted palette. The film is shot with only hand-held cameras in underground locations 60 feet (18 m) below the surface, as well as in a sewer. A gray and blue multilevel set is used in Eden Log, which, according to Vestiel, was designed to "avoid the look of the usual science fiction future. The last thing I wanted was for Eden Log to fall into the trap of those science fiction films where the characters live in super-sterile, bathroom-like environments. And I did not want people to be able to date the film by identifying the technology, which is why I have no apparatuses, no dials, no buttons." The surrealistic landscapes of Eden Log were inspired by Vestiel's favorite films, such as Escape From New York and Dawn of the Dead, and comics and literature, such as Frank Miller's Daredevil and Screaming Metal.

Eden Log receives an aggregated score of 60% from Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews. The Toronto International Film Festival described the film as a "stunning sci-fi vision", in which Vestiel "created a decaying universe for his bewildered yet resourceful hero to explore". They noted that Eden Log appears to have been influenced by role-playing games and the works of Luc Besson, Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Darren Aronofsky, as well as channeling the "rich visual history of French comics, or bandes dessinées, from magazines like Métal Hurlant and its American counterpart, Heavy Metal". Chris Cabin of Film Critic credited the film for its first 20 minutes of attention-grabbing action, but notes that the journey that Tolbiac takes is "more suited that of a video game programmer than a young filmmaker". Cabin wrote that the film does not emotionally connect with the viewer, and he gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars.Variety remarked that the film is "bold", despite rehashing some cinematic qualities and sound design, concluding that the film "the most bang for limited bucks, with an eye-popping finale.

Official Websites : France [http://www.bacfilms.com/site/edenlog]
US [http://www.sixshooterfilmseries.com/edenlog]

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