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Shinitra
Reviews
Mina Seward (2001)
If you can somehow find this, watch it!
I got to go to the premier screening of this film. Bryan Enk has an amazing vision as a director in general (both on stage and in film), but for whatever reason, this one sticks with me as my favorite of his films. Maybe it's because I'm really into vampire (& vampire hunter) movies, but I really really liked this one. So, if you have a chance to catch this at a screening somewhere, or if you know of some other way to get your hands on a copy of this, by all means, check it out. The performances are strong, the script is interesting (and I mean that in a good way), and it's all around a fun watch. Buffy wishes she was as cool as Mina.
Rose Red (2002)
Not what I expected in a Stephen King haunted house flick. Overall it was fairly disappointing.
I don't know what constitutes spoilers here, so just to be safe: Possible spoiler alert! I don't give away any plot points, but I do discuss certain aspects of the series and the characters that you might not know about if you haven't seen it. If you don't care...read on.
The house effects were cool, the cinematography of the house was beautifully done (the shot down the center of the stairs was my favorite). The makeup/monster effects were poorly executed. They just looked like plastic covered animatronic ghosts/zombies/whatever they were. Julian Sands was amazing, and horribly under-used. His was one of two characters that kept me watching after night one. Nancy Travis...well, I guess I can't directly blame her, but the character was poorly written. I had a hard time believing that such an insane, egomaniacle, evil woman could have convinced these people to join her, even for $5K a head. She was completely over the top and psychotic and just...that character killed a lot of my suspension of disbelief. When I heard that King and Spielberg wanted to make the ultimate haunted house movie, but had a parting of the ways. The Haunting was Spielberg's foray...well, I thought that hands down, King's vision would blow it out of the water. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case. It was The Haunting (ie not scary, sometimes boring, poorly executed)...just 6 hours of it that I could have spent doing something more enjoyable. Still, I've seen worse (far worse) from King. Sleepwalkers anyone?