Dark Horror Tales

Plot Summary: A one night stand turns into a nightmare for Jonathan who believes he's been targeted for something sinister and supernatural.  As a kid, when you read stories, you probably took everything it had to offer literally. Stories for kids are simple and have a basic message. Then you grow up, go to school, and in Literature class, learn that not everything is as straightforward as it seems. You are taught to analyze, to see everything from a different perspective. Now, if you go back to those children stories, would you still think they had a direct message? If a baby is looking for his mother, is she playing hide and seek, or trying to catch a quick nap while the baby goes all around the house searching? It’s a baby, they’re not going to catch on that the mother was tired after being up all night and tricked them into thinking they were still playing with them. Because guess where the baby usually finds the mother at the end of the book? The bed.  Regardless of how you se

PLOT SUMMARY: When the Addams Family move into a new neighborhood and Wednesday strikes a friendship with the neighbor, none of the families are pleased. There was a time when my weekend mornings were reserved for cartoons. All of the shows were different, and all of them were entertaining. I really do miss the era of Swat Kats, Captain Planet and Scooby Doo. The Addams Family had a different schedule which is why I didn’t get to watch it everyday. But when I did, I remember thinking how normal the characters thought they were. Playing with weapons, tossing them at family members, trying to hurt them but not completely going through with it. The writing was such that the family was certainly spooky, but their love for each other was palpable. As far as I remember, the Addams family lived in a normal neighborhood with a perpetual storm cloud over their mansion. The neighbors detested them, but not their kids. Over time I forgot what the stories were, so when this movie came out, I thoug

Plot Summary: Danni thinks she's suffering from night terrors until she finds out something far more sinister is going on.  Sometimes I think writers purposely write a confusing story just so when no one gets what it is about, they can say "Guess you’re not smart enough". When in reality, some stories are just not well-crafted to deliver whatever message or entertainment they want to. After she Wakes, gets really confusing in the second half. Is it a ghost? Is it an intruder? Was it all a dream?

PLOT SUMMARY: Mickey and Jules are amateur criminals who break into a home to steal a car only to find the owners have a dark secret in their basement. The concept of villainy is to be extremely wicked, have sinister intentions, think of only hurting others, and get what you want no matter what it costs. The movie Villains shows us that a single criminal act doesn’t label you as a villain. In fact, I’m not sure whether the title fitted any of the characters. VILLAINS Movie Plot  The story is about Mickey and Jules, two amateur criminals who just want to get to Florida. Blue beaches, golden sands, hundreds of seashells...yes, their dream is to live on the beaches and make a living selling seashell. The only way they can get there is by resorting to holding up a gas station. They just about manage to steal some cash and runaway in a car when they find out they’ve run out of gas. Yes, they were at the gas station store but forgot to steal gas. Jules manages to calm down a panicky Mickey a

PLOT SUMMARY: When Emily, a caretaker, arrives to tend to a dementia patient, she soon learns that the house has some terrible secrets waiting to be revealed.  Reason #48 of why I watch horror movies: They are short. When a movie is good, you don’t really want it to end, do you? But with horror movies, the longer they are, the fewer horror elements are incorporated in the stories and replaced by unnecessary drama.

Excerpt  Raina leaned back in her chair and rubbed her forehead.  All around her, students were busy scribbling away, and here she was, giving rise to all her fears that had been cooped inside her.  Everything was okay now; had been ever since she had come back.  Mallika had decided to leave her alone.  She no longer heard rumours about her and she had noticed Mallika even cringe in fear as she had passed by. A small part of her hated the fact that people were fearful of her but the alternative was much worse.  She didn't think she could take it if Mallika had been up to her old tricks again. Raina took a few deep breaths and started to feel calmer.  She had lost a lot of weight thanks to Uncle Rabindra' gruelling chores and at least she didn't have to hear fat jokes anymore.  Nevertheless, she had tried provoking Mallika once by slowly eating a cupcake in front of her; licking away the icing and looking at her with a mocking stare. She had seen the struggle in Ma

Plot Summary: A serial killer known as Trick, terrorizes a small town. His name is a possible clue as to what is exactly going on.  As soon as a movie begins with a definition card, my first thought is, what a display of pompous nonsense. I actually feel the makers are trying too hard to seem smart and looking down upon their audience by explaining to them what their movie is about. Because on their own, no one is going to understand the storyline. Many such movies have failed to deliver a good viewing experience. Trick, however, is a pleasant surprise. This time, when the definition comes in, its sole purpose isn’t to provide knowledge but to deliver a hint. TRICK Movie Plot  The movie begins with a group of high school kids at a Halloween party. They are all in costumes, playing spin the knife instead of spin the bottle. There is a guy dressed in black, wearing a jack o lantern mask. When the knife points at him, he’s cheered on and called Trick. He beckons the boy sitting acros

PLOT SUMMARY: After moving into a new house, Leah dreams about a little girl and believes she is being warned about being in danger.  There is something interesting about Warnings. No, it’s not the caricaturist acting. Seriously, there is one character who keeps trying to be “relevant” using “girl” and “boy” in every one of her dialogues. Is that why the villain goes for the throat when attacking her? You would think so. Apart from the lack of acting skills displayed by the actors, the movie did have some things working for it. There was definitely some pace, a chilly atmosphere and decent direction of a kind of cliched story. At first glance, Warnings seems different. Yes, a couple moves into a new house and you expect it to be haunted. Then you find out that some people in the area have disappeared. And dead animals have been found. And only the blood of the former occupants has been found. Oh, and there was a cult nearby many years ago. Did I forget anything? Oh yes, one of the cult

Excerpt from Chapter Four  Once she was out, she breathed in the warm morning air that smelled of grass. The streets were empty except for a few kids riding their bicycles or skateboarding. She looked down the street which led to Neil’s house and walked in the other direction.  Alisha turned back once, feeling a knot in her belly and wishing she and Neil could go back to being the friends they were before, when they would tease each other, play pranks together and skip classes to hangout and watch movies.  Now, everything had gotten complicated. She supposed it had to do with her makeover that she had wanted to try in her last year of school. If she graduated.  Alisha had started to seriously think about going to college, figuring out what kind of career she was made for and work hard. Her thoughts had turned to the new look she wanted to have in college and had experimented during the holidays.  Alisha touched her straight hair and stopped, looking down at her ba

PLOT SUMMARY: When a monster takes refuge in Stan's shed, he realizes he has found a chance to get rid of his bullies.  Vampires plus High School equals to? No, not Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, where there were no bullies. Where harmony prevailed and anyone who looked weird wasn’t made fun of. Bullies from any other teen movie would have made fun of pale looking, sun-fearing people. No, The Shed centres around a monster with vampire traits who takes refuge in, well, a shed. THE SHED Movie Plot  Basically, we see a man running in the forest from a monster, who is then bitten and turned into a monster who sizzles in the sun. He finds the closest shelter which just happens to be a shed belonging to Stan’s grandfather. We then move on to Stan’s story, a seventeen-year-old who is plagued by nightmares. Seriously, the movie might well have been called Stan’s Nightmares. And he doesn’t have ordinary ones. He seeks nightmares inside nightmares. Another interesting thing to note about