Hello there, boils and ghouls! It’s time for another very exciting edition of PAUL’S HORROR FLIX! Two very different horror films this week, as we delve into both the supernatural and the extraterrestrial with:
- The Fourth Kind
- The Reeds
Are either one of these flicks worth your time? Will they keep you up at night, looking past your bedroom door for ghosts and aliens? Find out in my full reviews after the jump!
The Fourth Kind
I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t see The Fourth Kind in theaters. It looked interesting enough, and has a decent cast, but I think maybe I was a little burned out on “pseudo-reality” flicks after Paranormal Activity (which I loved) was all over the place. I’m not sure Kind was in the theaters very long, and what I did hear about it was relatively lukewarm, if not downright negative.
Ultimately, my review isn’t going to dissent what I’ve already heard. The Fourth Kind isn’t a horrible film, but it sure isn’t great. The actors do serviceable jobs, but the main concept of the film, basically that Hollywood actors are reenacting real-life events, interspersed with some of the “real” footage, is interesting, if not entirely well done. While I appreciate the subtlety of the quick glimpses given us of what is happening before all video footage, essentially, turns to static, it’s just a little too subtle. I do appreciate subtlety, and I can appreciate a slow burn, but there should be a bit more of a payoff than what we get here. We never even get a glance at the “aliens” responsible for the movie’s events (more is shown of the revelation of the “white owl” in the trailer for the film), and the film ends on such a dour note, it’s kind of shocking that someone walked out of post-production thinking that audiences would find that ending satisfactory.
All in all, a disappointing film with a depressing ending. Hard to recommend a film like that, but if it were to come on cable, where it, honestly, feels like it belongs, it might be worth a sit through on a rainy Sunday afternoon – as long as you can watch something to cheer you up before bedtime.
The Reeds
The Reeds is an entry from After Dark’s most recent Horrorfest line and one of only two I’ve seen. I’m not entirely sure how After Dark plans for these films to really be seen, seeing as how this was playing nowhere near where I live during its short theatrical run, and the usual deal that Best Buy offers ($60 for all 8 films) wasn’t offered this year, which discouraged me, for the first time, from buying the movies. After all, why would I pay $100 for 8 films that I didn’t know much about, much less were even sure were worth the money?
Luckily, I didn’t have to pay for The Reeds – one of my friends purchased it and invited me over to see it. The Reeds is a perfectly acceptable horror film, but that’s really all it is – acceptable. A group of friends rent a boat for a short day trip through the titular reeds (which begs the question of why anyone would, since they’re not very interesting or pretty) when a disaster causes one of them a grave injury, and some crazy kids (and a serial killer) start hunting them down. It all goes supernatural very quickly, and begs the question as to where it’s all going….which you’ll know if you’ve seen any film like this before. While I didn’t dislike The Reeds, it was a bit too similar to Triangle, which in itself was a bit too predictable and not an entirely great film.
Like I said, there’s nothing really unlikeable about The Reeds, but if you’ve seen any film like it, you’ll see the film’s twists coming a mile away and while there is a good creep factor throughout, I’m not entirely sure it’s enough to sustain interest in the film, much less make it worth purchasing. Like The Fourth Kind, worth a watch if nothing else is on.