[HORROR MOVIE CORNER] Hocus Pocus (1993)

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 Disney's cult Halloween classic "Hocus Pocus!"

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Title: Hocus Pocus

Starring:  Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Thora Birch, Omri Katz

Genre:  Comedy / Horror / Adventure

Company:   Disney

Directed by: Kenny Ortega

Year: 1993

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG - For Some Scary Sequences, and for Language.

Buy on:   Blu-Ray.com  //  Amazon  //  Best Buy

This movie has some scary sequences that involves children being put into danger and some light language.  

The movie starts off with a young boy named Thackery Binx who finds out that his little sister Emily is missing and he goes out to search for her.  It was then that he finds out that the Sanderson Sisters, three sisters who are witches, had kidnapped her and Thackery tries to save Emily.  But unfortunately, the Sanderson Sisters ended up sucking out Emily's soul in order to make themselves younger and Thackery is too late to save her.  The Sanderson Sisters than put a curse on Thackery that turns him into a black cat for all eternity.  But then, the villagers caught up with the Sanderson Sisters and ended up hanging them.  But not before Winifred, the head witch, places a curse that they will be resurrected once a "virgin" lights the candle on Halloween.  The movie then fast forwards to the year 1993 and we are introduced to Max and his little sister Dani.  Max is having a horrible time in his new home in Salem, while Dani is adjusting to Salem just fine.  Then on Halloween night, Max decided to light the candle that would resurrect the Sanderson Sisters, despite both Dani and Allison telling him not to.  The Sanderson Sisters are then resurrected and they decided to continue their plan of sucking out the souls out of the children of Salem to make themselves younger.  Now, Dani, Max, Allison and now Binx, who is a black cat at this point, have to try to stop the Sandereson Sisters before it's too late!

Wow!  I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did!  When I first heard about this movie, I was a bit intrigued about what this movie was all about.  So, when I finally watched this movie, I was completely hooked!  I liked the fact that the movie tackled the subject of sibling relationships and how important it is to care about your siblings, no matter how annoying they can be.  This was best shown between the Sanderson Sisters, Thackery and his little sister Emily and Max and his little sister Dani.  The Sanderson Sisters are like the negative side of the sibling relationship as Winifred abuses her younger sisters Mary and Sarah and wouldn't think of protecting them.  Thackery and Emily are on the more positive side of the sibling relationship as Thackery truly cares about his sister Emily, although he failed to save her.  And then we have Max and Dani who are in the middle as they argue with each other a lot, but they would do anything to protect each other.  I also loved the way that the movie had a nice balance between horror and comedy as I laughed out loud during the Sanderson Sisters' crazy antics and yet, I was a bit scared for the children being threatened with death throughout this film.  Especially during the scene where Emily, a little girl , ends up dying at the beginning of the movie.  I especially loved the actors' performances in this film, with the Sanderson Sisters being the best part of the film.  Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy did a fantastic job at portraying the Sanderson Sisters as they were so hilarious and entertaining to watch! I also enjoyed Thora Birch's performance as Dani as she made Dani quite snarky yet energetic at the same time.

The only issues that I had with this film was that I felt that the protagonists were a bit too flat and I wished that they had explained the backstories of some of the characters.  Even though Max and Allison were interesting characters, they weren't as entertaining as the Sanderson Sisters and the only protagonists that were pretty entertaining were Dani and Binx the Cat.  Also, I would like to know how the Sanderson Sisters became witches in the first place (although it was implied that the Devil gave them their powers).

Overall, "Hocus Pocus" is a fantastic film that both children and adults will enjoy!  It balances horror and humor very well and it has some of the best performances from Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy!

[MOVIE REVIEW] How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

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Title: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Starring:  Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Molly Shannon, Christine Baranski

Genre: Fantasy / Family / Romance / Adventure / Comedy

Company:   Universal Pictures

Directed by: Ron Howard

Year: 2000

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG for Some Crude Humor

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

In the town of Whoville, all the Whos were getting ready it celebrate Christmas, but there was one Who that was curious about the true meaning of Christmas and that was Cindy Lou Who herself.  Not only was Cindy Lou wondering about the true meaning of Christmas, but she was curious about one person who doesn't live in Whoville and that's the Grinch himself.  The Whos almost never talk about the Grinch or want to be reminded of him, but Cindy Lou wanted to be friends with the Grinch and tried to invite him to the Whoville celebration.  But, when the Grinch is humiliated at the celebration, he decided that he will steal all the Whos' presents on Christmas Eve.

Wow! I was actually pretty surprised that I enjoyed this movie!  I never would have thought that Jim Carrey would do a great job at portraying the Grinch!  Jim Carrey made the Grinch's character much more humorous and hammy, which made the film much funnier in tone and the Grinchs' jokes easily land at the right times.  Taylor Momsen was fantastic as Cindy Lou Who as Cindy is shown as being a friendly and determined girl who only wanted to be friends with the Grinch and I liked the fact that she truly cares for the Grinch and only wanted to make him happy.  James Horner's music was probably the highlight of this film as it surprisingly goes well with the emotional scenes in the movie, such as during the scene where we learn about the Grinch's tragic backstory.  The special effects were surprisingly well done for the year 2000 and the film did a fantastic job at showcasing the bizarre yet beautiful world of  Whoville and greatly captured the creative style from the original Dr. Seuss book.

My biggest issue with this movie is that the Whos seem to be portrayed in a negative way as they are much more cruel towards the Grinch in this version than in the original book and the 1960s cartoon special.  Also, there were times where Jim Carrey's performance as the Grinch got so hammy that I couldn't take his more emotional scenes seriously, like he constantly gets upset whenever the Whos teased him.  I also didn't like the fact that Martha, the Grinch's love interest, didn't have much of a role in the film other than just standing around and looking at the scenery and being a love interest.
I always have a problem with certain love interests not having much to do in the film other than just being defined as a love interest to the protagonist and not having a personality of their own.  It would have been great if Martha had more scenes with the Grinch so that their relationship would be much more believable to me.

Overall, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is one of the most hilarious interpretations of the Grinch ever made on film and it is definitely worth the watch!

[MOVIE REVIEW] Return to Oz (1985)

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Title: Return to Oz

Starring:  Fairuza Balk , Nicol Williamson and Jean Marsh

Genre: Fantasy / Horror / Alternate World / Friendship

Company:  Walt Disney Company

Directedby: Walter Murch

Year: 1985

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Best Buy  //  Blu-Ray.com

 Dorothy Gale had just come back from the Land of Oz, but when she tried to tell her aunt and uncle about her adventures in Oz, they thought that Dorothy had gone crazy, so they decided to take her to a doctor that will give her treatment for her insanity.  The treatment turns out to be shock therapy and Dorothy, with a little help from a mysterious girl, escapes from the mental hospital and ended up in the land of Oz once again.  But, once Dorothy arrives in Oz, she discovers that the Land of Oz has been taken over by the Nome King and that the Scarecrow, who was the King of Oz, has been kidnapped by the Nome King.  So, Dorothy along with some help from a pumpkin man named Jack Pumpkinhead, a mechanical robot named Tik-Tok, her hen Billina and a half moose half sofa creature named the Gump try to journey to the Nome King's kingdom to rescue the Scarecrow, while encountering nightmarish creatures such as Princess Mombi and the Wheelers along the way.

Now I have a confession to make.  Whenever I talked to people who have seen "Return to Oz" when they were little, many people were terrified of this movie when they were kids.  Me however, I wasn't that scared of the movie when I was little and I actually found it to be pretty interesting and I still find it pretty interesting to this very day!  This movie has actually turned my expectations on its head as it is a much darker sequel to "The Wizard of Oz" that has caused some controversy among "Oz" fans and yet, it was pulled off extremely well to make it stand out from "The Wizard of Oz." The surprising thing about all this is that this was the most faithful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books in terms of tone, even though "The Wizard of Oz" is hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time.  What I really loved about this movie was the fact that it was darker and edgier than "The Wizard of Oz" and the villains in this movie seem genuinely threatening and are actually out to harm Dorothy and her friends.  Probably my favorite scenes in this movie were any scenes with the Nome King as he seems to be friendly towards Dorothy and her friends, but you can tell that he has some evil intentions up his sleeves and he actually means to trick Dorothy into a sense of security in order to manipulate her throughout her adventures.  I loved the new friends that Dorothy makes along the way, especially Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead as they were truly original and fun to see on screen.

Parents should know that this movie can be pretty terrifying for small children.  There are many scenes where Dorothy and her friends are in constant peril and are in danger of being killed by the vllains.  Also, there are some genuinely scary scenes such as the scene where Dorothy accidentally wakes up a headless Princess Mombi, who tries to capture Dorothy and the scenes with the Wheelers.  Parents might want to screen this movie first before showing it to their children.  Also, the reason why I took off half a point from the rating was because the movie can get pretty confusing at times and it was hard for me to follow what exactly happened in the plot at times.

Overall, "Return to Oz" is a truly enjoyable film that "Oz" fans would enjoy extremely well!  However, this movie can get pretty scary at times, so watch this film with extreme caution.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Coraline
• Corpse Bride

[MOVIE REVIEW] Mirrormask (2005)

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Title: Mirrormask

Starring:  Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Rob Brydon and Gina McKee

Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Friendship

Company:  The Jim Henson Company and Destination Films

Directed by: Dave McKean

Year: 2005

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG – For Some Mild Thematic Elements and Scary Images.

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Blu-Ray.com

The film starts off with a young girl named Helena Campbell, whose family runs a circus and she is one of the performers.  Unfortunately, Helena wanted to run away from the circus to live a normal life and when she tried to tell this to her mother, they ended up getting into a huge argument to the point where Helena wished something terrible happens to her mother.  When the family gets ready for their big circus performance, Helena's mother ends up fainting on stage and she is immediately rushed to the hospital.  It turns out that Helena's mother needs to undergo an operation to survive and Helena and her father worry for the mother, especially Helena as she felt bad for saying horrible things to her mother before.  During the night, Helena ends up going into a dreamlike state and she stumbles upon a surreal world that seems to mirror her own world except that everything seems like it came out of her drawings.  There, she meets an odd man who constantly wears a mask named Valentine and it was then that they discovered that the world is in chaos because the Princess of Shadows ends up stealing a charm from the City of Light and the White Queen ends up being in a coma, which allows the Queen of Shadows to take over the City of Light.  So, Helena and Valentine ended up going on a journey to retrieve the missing charm before it is too late!

Now, I will admit that even though I have read many of Neil Gaiman's works, I had never heard of this movie before, until just recently and I must admit that I really enjoyed this movie a lot!  What was the most interesting thing to me about this movie was that the drawings that Helena had drawn throughout the film was none other than Dave McKean's drawings, who was well known for doing a lot of the artwork for Neil Gaiman's books!  I loved the way that the drawings provided a haunting and surreal atmosphere for the film as I found myself either being memorized by the imagery (the scenes with the City of Lights were beautiful) or being frightened by the imagery (the scenes with the sphinx cats really creep me out). I also loved the fact that this film is somewhat of a spiritual successor to "Labyrinth," another film from the Jim Henson Company, as both films dealt with the main character having problems with their families and once they enter another world, they have to save the people who resemble their family members from whatever dark force happens to come upon them.  The actors and the actresses in this film were fantastic, with my favorite character being Valentine as he was played wonderfully by Jason Barry and he really brought so much humor to the film.  I also loved Stephanie Leonidas' portrayal of Helena as she is shown to be a spunky girl who doesn't seem to be afraid of the frightening world she ends up in and it really makes me get into her character.

The only problem that I had with this film was that the story tend to get a little confusing at times to the point where I don't exactly know what is quite going on with the characters.  Like for instance, the movie didn't really explain about what kind of condition Helena's mother had that caused her to go to the hospital in the first place and even though it wouldn't be a major part of the film, I still would like to know what kind of disease Helena's mother had that would be so dangerous to her health.

Overall, "Mirrormask" is a fantastic and surreal film that anyone who is a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's works or surreal movies in general will definitely enjoy for many years to come!