MOVIE MUSINGS - Annabelle

So the good Captain made it out to see Annabelle. I wanted to see this since I first heard of its production. Let's not dilly dally, but jump right into it.
Annabelle is a sort of prequel to last years best horror movie, "The Conjuring." The Conjuring was a haunted house story that I truly enjoyed. It featured fictionalized versions of the demon hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. Annabelle mentions the Warrens without them appearing, and it is done in a nice manner.
This film is not the most original ever produced, but if you are up for a somewhat formulaic romp through numerous tried and true horror conventions, with many jump scares and some decent atmosphere, then this is for you. It's well acted, has interesting cinematography, and a decent, although familiar, story. The musical score is also well done, and adds a feel of foreboding to many scenes.
Imagine a mix of The Omen, with parts of Rosemary's Baby, and Child's Play, and you have the ingredients that were used for Annabelle. Oh,throw in a pinch of Helter Skelter as well, and let it simmer in the back of your mind.  I'm not complaining, I love all of those movies, and I also don't mind formulaic. If it works, it works. 80's style slasher movies are a personal favorite of the Captain, and let's face it, they mostly follow a pretty similar pattern.
When a movie has a plot involving a Satanic cult named The Disciples of The Ram, you can go ahead and count me in. I don't want to give away spoilers to the story itself, so I will mention a few themes. A new born baby, satanic cult, used bookstore, a caring Priest, a possessed doll, and possibly Satan himself (maybe just a demon and not the head guy from the deep south). Plus a young traumatized new mother with emotional problems who is left on her own with her baby for long periods of time. A sewing machine that runs on its own and a record player that plays on its own. Also, upstairs neighbors that make a lot of noise even though the people live on the top floor. Not even sure if that was suppose to happen or if it was a blooper.
Don't go into this expecting Gone With The Wind. Instead, go into it expecting a cross between The Conjuring and Paranormal Activity as far as scares go. I do recommend seeing this movie in a theatre if possible, as the discomfort of the other movie goers around you adds significantly to the experience. You hear people fidgeting in their seats during certain parts and you also hear the occasional editorial comment along the lines of  "aw HELL NO" as things creep up on the unsuspecting victims.
That is enough info for now. Go see Annabelle. Captain Creepy enjoyed the "Hell" out of it. Bwahahahaha. 5 stars.
Next up in the hopper, Ouija. Can't wait!

MOVIE MUSINGS - Amazing Spiderman 2

Captain America The Winter Soldier is a huge, epic, world changing movie. Amazing Spiderman 2 is more local, staying in New York. As with most Spidey stories, this is chocked full of the teenage angst of Peter Parker and all of the problems he has to deal with. Peter can never quite seem to get over the hump. It's a personal story of the tragedies and triumphs of your friendly neighborhood 30 year old high school senior.
 Andrew Garfield is fine as Spiderman. I'm just glad they finally had him graduate high school since Garfield is 30 years old, and looks it. It is quite a reach to see him as a high school kid. My suspension of disbelief can only take me so far. Spiderman looks Amazing in costume, and the effects of him swinging through the city are tremendous.
A great thing about sequels of this type is that normally during the first film in a series the majority of the time is spent on the origin of the character, and at this point, who really needs to spend 3/4 of a movie seeing the origin that we all have known our entire lives. At the start of this movie, our protagonist is already a seasoned and confident hero, and this is how I prefer to watch him. A confident and competent Spidey is fun.
Dane DeHaan plays Harry Osborn and he is a super actor that dominates most of the scenes in which he appears. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy is also good. Sally Field is cast as Aunt May and I didn't care for her in this role. Hard to define exactly why, she is a fine actress, but just isn't Aunt May to me.
One of my favorite things in the entire show is during the climactic scene as an incredible event happens, the face of a giant clock is shown and the time displayed is 1:22.  When this event happened in the comic book back in the 1970's, it was in Amazing Spiderman number 122. Nice little Easter egg for those paying attention.
There were a few things that bother me pretty bad about this movie. Jamie Foxx character is absolutely ridiculous. Not Electro, but the scientist he portrays before becoming a super villain. His hair is just dumb, and his motivation for hating Spidey borders on embarrassing. The fact that Gwen shows up in the big final scene is also silly and doesn't feel right. Finally, the transformation by Harry Osborn into the Goblin happens so fast and nonsensically that it is hard to overlook.  "I need Spiderman's blood. No! You can't have it! I hate you, you are Peter Parker, you aren't my friend, you suck and I'm gonna kill you." That is about how quick all that happened. Immediately transforms into Goblin and is a master on his flying jet ski.  Not good.
Overall, I have to overlook some big holes in the script and some serious pacing problems and accept the film for what it is. A fun, action packed popcorn movie with heart and good acting.
Captain Creepy rates Amazing Spiderman 2 a low 4 out of 5 radioactive spiders.
Oh, and Rhino is pretty stupid in that dumb suit.

Tribute To A Friend

We use to sit in a tent in his backyard reading comics. We read books about the Bermuda Triangle and Bigfoot. We played tag and Monster Around the Garage. We would spin around in circles until we were too dizzy to stand. We laid on our backs in the grass on hot summer nights looking at the stars and picking out constellations. We rode bikes and chased down the ice cream truck when it came through our neighborhood. We listened to 45's on the record player. We played baseball in the field next to the cemetery. We talked about the Six Million Dollar Man and Logan's Run. We played Hot Wheels, Army, and Cowboys and Indians. We went to Cedar Point and ran as fast as we could to get in line for The Blue Streak and The Mine Ride. We watched people throw up on the Rotor and we laughed.When I got home from the Army we would go to the Silver Dollar Saloon and listen to bands and talk to chicks. We drove around our Trans Ams and thought we were hot stuff. We got an apartment and were roommates. When I got married he was my best man. When we got older we lost touch, but every once in a while we would talk on the phone about work, and family, and both of our favorite team, the Miami Dolphins. Memories of you are scattered through my life. May you rest in peace Kerry. Thank you for being my friend. 

MOVIE MUSINGS - Son of Batman - DC Animated Movie

Son of Batman is the latest DC Universe straight to dvd animated movie. The basic premise is that years ago Batman was drugged and date raped by Talia Al Ghul, the daughter of the demon, Ra's Al Ghul. She got pregnant and had a son named Damien. Damien is raised and trained by the League of Assassins (aka League of Shadows), trained from birth to be a killer, and eventually to rule the world.
Batman doesn't even know that Damien exists until Talia presents him to Bruce at age 10. Due to circumstances that happened in the opening sequences of the movie, Talia now believes Damien should go live with his father and continue his training with him.
The remainder of the movie consists of Bruce/Batman attempting to be a father to an extremely intelligent, highly skilled, 10 year old killer. Damien isn't all bad, he was just brought up this way and Bruce tries to correct the twisted nature of his son.

The Good - David McCallum (Ducky from NCIS) is great as the voice of Alfred Pennyworth. I would love to see him in that role in a live action movie. Nightwing also appears and adds a lot during his limited screen time. A full length Nightwing animated movie would be sweet. He is a truly outstanding and undervalued character in the DC Universe. His relationship to Damien is also a very important one, especially in the comics that this movie was based on. Overall the animation is wonderful. The backgrounds look great, and the League of Assassins are rendered nicely. The helicopters are drawn amazingly well, and the Batmobile is cool as well. The colors are done well. There is a lot of blood in this movie, a surprising amount of blood. Damien has a true talent for making people bleed, which is a bit of a departure for these movies.

The Head Scratcher -  Joseph Lansdale and James Robinson were involved in the writing, and this is a bit of a head scratcher for me. Lansdale has been a favorite author of mine for 20 years. He writes many southern fried weird novels that cross somewhere between Stephen King and Quentin Tarantino. As an example, he penned the short story that later became the cult classic movie Bubba Ho-Tep. He is great. James Robinson is a tremendous comic book writer, one of the top writers over the last 20 years. The story is based on comics written by Grant Morrison, well known for his over the top wild and mind blowing storytelling. The slightly head scratching part to me is that with this ridiculous amount of creative talent involved, the script should be brain meltingly good, but it isn't. It's not bad, but it could have been much much better. Slightly disappointing in this regard.

The Bad - Talia admitting to Bats that she drugged him and raped him to get pregnant is pretty harsh for a cartoon movie. Then she says to him, "it wasn't all bad, was it?", as she attempts to seduce him once again. That is some pretty twisted stuff, and if the roles were reversed in that scene people would be having a heart attack over it. What makes that scene even more disturbing is that during that exchange, Damien is standing in the shadows in the corner of the room watching, and Talia knows he is there. WTF is up with these weirdos?
Another thing that didn't work for me was during a huge scene near the end, Damien is engaged in one on one combat with Deathstroke the Terminator. You know, Deathstroke, one of the deadliest and most vicious killers in the world? Anyway, when Damien is dueling with Deathstroke, Batman is sitting a few rooms over next to the Lazarus Pit with Talia. Making out with her! Yes, their 10 year old son is in mortal combat with a legendary killer, but Batman would rather get his freak on than go help out. Batman would not do that. Just doesn't mesh with the character of the character. Not well done.
A couple other problems for me. Why is Ra's Al Ghul depicted as a samurai or something? Strange.
Voice acting was good in some areas but Batman had no emotion ever. No matter what was happening he maintained the stoic "I am Batman" monotone. I know he is a badass but it is possible to have a slight variance in his speaking tone from time to time.
Also, Deathstroke is one of my favorite DC characters, but why is he in this movie? I just didn't get that at all. Seems he was there cuz he looks cool and people like him, but he didn't really have a need to be there. Maybe it's just me.

Conclusion - I enjoyed Son of Batman.There are some problems with the story and some odd stuff happens that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but still it was pretty good. Pretty good, but should have been better. It never moved me emotionally like a top shelf movie does (ie Captain America). Still worth a watch for dedicated Batman fans.
I give Son of Batman a 3.5 out of 5 rating. Stay creepy my friends.

MOVIE MUSINGS - Captain America : The Winter Soldier Review (short and sweet)

Captain America : The Winter Soldier is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Maybe in several years. For me, this movie succeeds on so many different levels. The script is well written, the special effects are jaw dropping (I saw it in 3d and it was incredible). The acting is top notch. Characterization is spot one. The villains are crazy cool. It is also filled with little hidden nuggets for long time fans. I teared up 4 times during this film and I can't even blame the 3d glasses. I don't even feel the need to go any deeper with a review. This is a great movie. Don't miss it. I give this one 5 out of 5 stars. Keep it Creepy.  

COMIC CHAOS - Creepy Comic Review - V Wars

As I was looking through the stacks of free comic books during Free Comic Book Day at my local store, there were a few that caught my eye. One of these books featured a cover by Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and its title was V Wars issue #0. Published by IDW Publishing. I scooped it up and did a quick flip through and deemed it worthy enough to read.
 When I go to Free Comic Book Day I always purchase a few items so as not to look like a troll just grabbing free stuff and hauling ass out the door. I had nothing in mind to purchase so I perused the racks for something that looked good to try. I noticed a copy of V Wars #1 and bought it on an impulse, figuring that between the free issue 0 and the $3.99 issue 1, I may get a decent idea of what this title was all about.
The writer for V Wars is Jonathan Maberry. He is a veteran comics writer and also has authored numerous prose novels, many in the horror genre. I have heard him interviewed on several radio programs about folklore and legendary creatures. He is a knowledgeable dude in these areas.
As you may decipher by the title of this series, the V in the name is for Vampire Wars. The plot of the story is pretty much a rip off of World War Z, only substituting vampires for the zombies. VERY similar story.
The story is that sometime in the last year as polar ice was melting, a disease was released from the formerly frozen water. This triggered something in certain peoples dna that activated a gene that caused them to become vampires. Evidently everyone carries this gene and it could activate at any time.
Luther Swann is the protagonist in our story. He is a professor of folklore and the worlds foremost expert on vampires. He begins as a police consultant brought in to help because of his background in folklore and is later moved up to assist the federal government and actually becomes a presidential advisor for vampires.
Over a period of time many different types of vampires begin to appear. Some look human, some look like monsters, some just like to party and get drunk, some want to be left alone, and some are bloodthirsty killers. The normal humans are at war with the vampires and Luther Swann is attached to a special ops unit that is in the middle of the action, and he doesn't like it. Luther believes there can be a peaceful resolution to the war if the parties involved would be willing to talk things out and come up with alternatives to killing each other.
As the 0 issue winds down Luther experiences a personal tragedy that really was not that surprising. I saw it coming from a mile away, but it did still advance the story along. Issue 1 starts out with Luther meeting with the speaker of the house. The speaker is having a press conference where he is going to announce the pursuit of peace. He feels that human and vampire alike are all citizens of this world, and deserve a chance to live. These words aren't even all the way out of his mouth when a bullet goes through his eye and ends his life. Vampires are blamed for the assassination, but did they do the deed? You will have to read the book to discover this for yourself. All out war is declared on the vampires and the poop really hits the fan.
The plot of the series is of course very derivative, and the stories contained in these two issues are rather formulaic. I was able to guess much of what would happen before it happened.Yet, that doesn't mean it's all bad. I actually enjoyed the story. It was executed and written in fine fashion. Maberry knows what he is doing. The script was tight and kept me engaged throughout. There are prose pages included at the rear of the book along with maps detailing the areas of the world where the outbreaks are located. These are nice extras that add an epic feel to the whole package.
The art is by Alan Robinson and he does a fine job. Workable art with good storytelling. Nothing fancy or jaw dropping, just good solid artwork. The only part of the art that didn't do it for me was the coloring. The colors seemed rather flat to me. I'm sure this was done on purpose due to the post catastrophic setting of the story, but I personally would have preferred a little color pop.
Overall these 2 issues lay a nice groundwork for the V Wars series. This was announced as an ongoing series from IDW and I think it has the potential to be very good. I plan on continuing to follow this series for the next few issues to see where it goes. Nice work, Free Comic Book Day, you got me interested in a new book!
Captain Creepy gives V Wars issues #0 and #1 a rating of 8 out of 10. Cool stuff. Creepy out.

MOVIE MUSINGS - The Oculus - You See What it Wants You To See

The Oculus is suppose to be a horror movie that may actually be more of a suspense thriller. It is based on a 32 minute short film made by writer/director Mike Flanagan. He basically reworked the story of his short film and expanded it out to create a feature length film.
The premise is that 11 years ago a family of four moved into a new house, purchased an antique mirror that they mounted in the dads home office, which began to influence him. Something along the lines of George Lutz in the Amityville Horror. A ghostly demon woman comes out of the mirror and begins haunting the family. The mom starts coming unraveled and drinking a lot. Mayhem and murder ensue. Mom and dad end up dead and the 10 year old son ends up in a loony bin. He is released on his 21st birthday and is reunited with his sister, who is now 23. She owns the old family house at this time and acquires the evil mirror. She wants her newly free brother to help her to destroy the haunted mirror, which she knows is not going to be an easy thing to accomplish. More mayhem and murder ensues.

The Good - Good cast! Karen Gillan, known for her time as a companion to Doctor Who (Amy Pond), is the lead character. Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica plays her mom, even though she is only 8 years older than the actress that plays her daughter. Rory Cochran from Dazed and Confused and CSI Miami is the dad, and they all do a fine job. The girl that plays the main character as a 12 year old is a very good actress and does a great job in her role. There is a very cool Easter Egg near the beginning of the movie. During a scene at an auction, the item that is put up for bid is said to be from "the Levesque collection." The Oculus is a WWE Entertainment Production and Triple H real name is Paul Levesque. How did I catch that? That's what I do. The story itself is pretty good and there are some creepy and atmospheric moments.

The Bad - I enjoy a nice slow burn horror movie but at times this sucker burns really slow. The pace almost comes to a standstill in places. Although I felt the story was good enough, the execution of the story was uneven and overall the movie falls short of its potential. The Oculus constantly cuts from present day to flashback and back again. Multiple times in a single scene they bounce you back and forth. It is just overdone and makes the whole thing hard to follow at times. Maybe this was the intention but it detracted from the flow, at least to this Creepy moviegoer. The start of the movie is very slow although is does pick up the pace about halfway through.

Conclusion - I found the Oculus to be an enjoyable movie just taking it for what it is. It didn't change my life, or alter the future of the horror and suspense genre, but it is a decent flick. Not overly scary, yet somewhat creepy. This is not a must see movie by any means, but is a decent diversion for a rainy Saturday.
I rate The Oculus at 3 haunted mirrors out of a possible 5.