[SHORTS REVIEW] Unedited Footage of a Bear (2014)

 

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Title: Unedited Footage of a Bear

Genre: Horror / Surrealism / Fantasy / Drama

Company: Adult Swim

Directed by: Alan Resnick   

Year: 2014

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The short starts off with some cameramen filming a bear out in the wild.  But then suddenly, the short switches to a commercial called "Claridryl" and the commercial shows a woman named Donna taking the prescription drug and saying that her life has been better ever since she took Claridryl.  But then, the short starts to become a bit dark as Donna starts to see an evil version of herself out in the streets and her evil self tries to attack the real Donna.  Once Evil Donna leaves the real Donna in the streets, things take a dark turn once Evil Donna takes over Donna's life.

So, after I watched Too Many Cooks, I wanted to check out more of Adult Swim's Informercial series and man, was "Unedited Footage of a Bear" a wild ride!  Unlike "Too Many Cooks," "Unedited Footage of a Bear" doesn't have that much humor in the story, as the story is about a woman dealing with the side effects of the Claridryl drug and how it has a negative impact on her life.  What I really loved about this short was how the story switched from being about a bear to being about a woman dealing with a drug addiction.  This sudden switch in the story really made this short so interesting to watch and I was actually shocked by how dark this short got once Donna's hallucinations got worse as the short goes on.  This was also one of the weirdest shorts I've seen, besides "Too Many Cooks," as we, the audience, can't really tell what's real and what's not real as Donna starts hallucinating everything going on and we can't tell if the actions that she has committed throughout this short was really Evil Donna's doing or her own doing.  I also loved the fact that this short shows the realistic side effects of drug addiction (albeit in a weird way) as it's rare to see a short that parodies commercials tackle such a tough subject in such a creepy and effective way.

My main issue with this short was that it was pretty confusing.  I understand that this short is probably looking into Donna's madness as she becomes addicted to Claridryl.  But at times, I can't tell what's really going on with the story.  Like, is Evil Donna real or is she a figment of Donna's imagination and Donna was the one who was committing the horrible acts throughout this short?

Overall, "Unedited Footage of a Bear" is one of the most intriguing and dark shorts ever created by Adult Swim.  I would recommend this short film if you were a fan of "Too Many Cooks" and you want to watch another Adult Swim informercial that has a dark twist to the story.

• Too Many Cooks

• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions

• Quasi at the Quackadero

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[SHORTS REVIEW] Too Many Cooks (2014)

 

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Title: Too Many Cooks

Genre: Horror / Surrealism / Fantasy / Comedy

Company: Adult Swim

Directed by: Casper Kelly

Year: 2014

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE! 

So, the short introduces the Cook Family and the short basically started out as a spoof on the sitcoms of the 1980s and the 1990s.  But as the short goes on, it turns out that a certain serial killer has entered the show and he starts turning everything upside down...

So, when I heard about this short through Adult Swim, I was wondering about why everyone was talking about this short and why this short went viral on YouTube.  So, I finally checked out this short and man, was this short awesome and crazy!  What I loved so much about this short was how it subverted your expectations.  When the short first started, it was basically an affectionate parody of the sitcoms from the 1980s and the 1990s.  But as the short goes on, it suddenly turns into a surreal short full of horror elements, especially once the serial killer enters the scene.  Also, I loved how the short takes it time to build up the horror elements throughout the short and really made the tension in the story quite intense. Another thing that I liked about this short was the music.  The music essentially replays the theme song "Too Many Cooks" over and over again throughout the short.  Even though this would be something that would annoy many people, the repeating music actually helped made this short really stand out as the narrative is dictated by the theme song.  While the theme song sounds very catchy and lighthearted, it actually becomes much more disturbing once the theme song starts playing throughout the more morbid scenes of this short.

My only minor issue with this short is that it can be a bit confusing to understand, due to the short not really going into details about the characters' backstories.  Now, I understand that this short is not meant to be something deep (at least, on the surface).  But, I can't help but be curious about the backstories of these characters, especially of the killer.  I actually had to look up information about the killer in order to understand his character a bit more.

Overall, "Too Many Cooks" is easily one of the best Adult Swim shorts I had ever seen!  The fact that this short managed to subvert your expectations in such an intriguing and frightening way really made this a treat to watch!  I highly recommend this short if you are a fan of shorts that have unexpected plot twists and catchy theme songs!

• Face Like a Frog
• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions
• Quasi at the Quackadero

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[HORROR MOVIE CORNER] The Babysitter (2017)

 

Hello horror movie fans! Welcome to the all-new "Horror Movie Corner," where I talk about the horror movies that I have seen over the years!  So, this week's horror movie that I will be reviewing is the crazy Netflix film, "The Babysitter!"

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Title: The Babysitter

Starring:  Samara Weaving, Robbie Amell, Judah Lewis, Bella Thorne

Genre:  Comedy / Horror / Action

Company:   New Line Cinema

Directed by: McG

Year: 2017

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV-MA

Buy on:   Blu-Ray.com

This movie has graphic violence and strong language and some sexual content.  

The movie starts off with a 12-year-old boy named Cole Johnson who was constantly bullied at school and was always afraid of everything.  But despite all this, Cole is good friends with his babysitter Bee and they would do all sorts of things together.  One day, Cole's parents went on a getaway trip and they left Cole with Bee.  At first, things were going well between Cole and Bee as they enjoyed playing various games with each other.  But as soon as Cole goes to bed, he starts hearing Bee playing some games with her friends downstairs.  Cole then goes downstairs to see what Bee and her friends were doing and it turned out that Bee and her friends were performing a human sacrifice!  It was then that Cole realized that Bee and her friends are in a cult and that they planned on performing human sacrifices in order to have their wishes come true and Cole is the next victim on their list!  Now Cole has to do everything in his power to escape from Bee and her friends!

Wow! I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did!  At first, I thought that I wasn't going to like this movie because the premise sounded ridiculous.  But once I watched this movie, I was quite impressed by how funny and scary this film was!  I really loved the performances of all the actors and actresses in this film as they really got into their roles and they made the movie so entertaining to watch!  I especially loved the performances from Samara Weaving as Bee and Robbie Amell as Max as they were the most entertaining characters in the movie!  I loved the way that Robbie Amell made Max into such a comical character, despite the fact that he's an ax-crazy killer.  I also enjoyed Samara Weaving's performance as Bee as she made Bee so friendly yet deadly at the same time.  I also liked the fact that the movie had a nice balance between comedy and horror as there were many scenes that were quite intense.  But at the same time, I was laughing out loud at how over the top the actors' performances were.

The main issue that I had with this film was that I felt that the characters weren't that well developed as I don't know anything about their backstories.  The characters that I was the most curious about were Bee and her friends as their motivations to perform human sacrifices seem a little flat to me because I don't know much about their backgrounds and how they even know about performing sacrifices to have their wishes come true.

Overall, "The Babysitter" may seem like a silly horror comedy film, but it is definitely entertaining to watch because of how over the top the characters' antics are.  And I loved the way that this film turned many horror tropes on its head and made a pretty entertaining movie out of it!