The Aggression Scale (2012)

Fabianne Therese: Booby traps in The Aggression Scale.

At a glance:

DVD Sleuth's Mike Long notes: "When you watched Home Alone (1990), did you think - instead of using paint cans on the bad guys, I wish that the kid would kill them? Well, that's the approach taken by this movie". The Aggression Scale (2012) can be described as a violent, R-rated version of Dennis The Menace, with no room for comedy. It contains shreds of originality, mixed on a good pace with two watchable teenage leads in Ryan Hartwig and Fabianne Therese, who play two kids forced to defend a home invasion when some bad guys come a-knockin.
Bad news on the doorstep:

Dana Ashbrook's horrible actin.

It didn't secure general release and they didn't even bother to finish puttin up the official website. Anyway, as a thriller, the sharp editin makes it suspenseful enough to mask what is in actuality, quite an ordinary siege. The booby traps aren't terribly original or genius either - you could write these too if you grew up watchin Rambo or McGyver. Cuttin corners wherever it can, the film has Hartwig and Therese to thank for a convicted performance that carried the movie to the end, without which this project would've sunk well below acceptable mediocrity. For example, in an interview, the lass said she hurt her hand for real and they just wrote it in and she carried on.

Reminds me of:

Ryan Hartwig

Ryan Hartwig as the wordless killer child rivals Daeg Faerch's presence as young Mike Myers in Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007). Meanwhile, the worst actor in the movie is Dana Ashbrook, playin the head henchman. Useless and dislikable. He reminds me of this one guy, the worst actor in Malaysian cinema ever.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Steven C. Miller is a filmmaker who knows how to cut his losses. I'd put it down for ★★★ if you watched it without payin.
Bonus material:

This is the movie's title card.
Find out more at its official website here.

Mother's Day (2011)

At a glance:

Remember The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992)? Well, that hand is back again after 20 years, exactin similar menace in this B-grade horror-thriller starrin the now-wrinkled Rebecca de Mornay. We're invited to amuse ourselves in a web of deceit involvin a yuppie couple and their suitably varied dinner friends bein tortured for 112 minutes by a crazy mum and her unhinged kids, as noted by Charles Gant who wrote: "The perils of buying foreclosed properties are made painfully clear". It's a remake of the 1980 Kaufman brothers film of the same name, so it's no wonder that they also got cameos in this as mortgage brokers, after cashin in on their cheques.

Bad news on the doorstep:

What is odd though, is how Charles Kaufman reportedly said this film would be a shot-by-shot remake of Bergman's Virgin Spring (1960), as published on the new movie's official website. The unsettlin turns in the movie and also the surplus elements suggest that things may have been continuously rewritten on the go. But jeez man, how many characters were actually necessary? A circus of a cast, really.

Perennial wonderment:

If the movie is decidedly R rated, why not have some sex? Wouldn't have hurt none. There are some disturbin psychosexual anxieties between the characters that could've been elevated by some twisted sex scenes. Too much blood, too little cum.

Now ain't this a pretty mess.
Happy Mother's Day!

Reminds me of:
Secuestrados (2010), Trespass (2011) and all recent derivatives of the home invasion genre. Apparently, it's loosely based on a true life home invasion (Wichita Massacre), where brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr went on a spree of murder, assault, rape and robbery against a home owner and his guests in 2000, goin down as one of the worst crimes in Kansas state history.

My hands were clenched in first of rage:

Deborah Ann Woll
plays the token white slut with a black boyfriend.

When I realised that the only reason I watched this film - Rebecca de Mornay - didn't really ante up. She has a commandin presence by virtue of her character but it doesn't attract the horror levels of monstrous mummy figures like Kathy Bates in Misery (1990), which I expected to be a key element for this movie to work. Subsequently, plenty of Saw (2004) decisions thrown in to muddy the proceedings, which should've just focused on the mad mama. Also, if you're watchin this for Jaime King, you're not gonna see too much from her.

Most memorable line:

Can't remember any in such a bloodbath.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Half star short of three because there's just so much content! The big studios don't agree, so this didn't get a wide released and is mostly condemned to DVD catalogues.

Trailer for the curious:

The Hand The Rocks The Cradle (1992)

Rebecca De Mornay suckles in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992).

At a glance:

Irresistibly Rebecca De Mornay

One of the most memorable and endurin Hollywood thrillers from those times, like Misery - except the psychobitch villain isn't a plus-sized Kathy Bates but a hot and lactatin Rebecca De Mornay (pic) who shot to international fame with this movie about a twisted nanny named Peyton who snakes herself into a family and their home to destroy them. It's definitely one of the best of all the movies with this theme of an ill-intentioned stranger who is welcomed into a home. Very suspenseful stuff.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Ain't seen this Rebecca De Mornay since. She still seems to be active but she doesn't get big roles.
Reminds me of:
Well it doesn't remind me of anythin but it sure made me fuckin anal paranoid about anyone whom you allow into your home.
Watch out for:
The satisfyin return of an unlikely hero to save the day. Also, this movie gave Julianne Moore one of her earliest roles.
Most memorable line:
Peyton Flanders: When your husband makes love to you, it's MY face he sees. When your baby's hungry, it's MY breast that feeds him. Look at you! When push comes to shove, you can't even breathe!
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Simple but effective.★★★★
Trailer for the curious:

Poison (2001) @ Thy Neighbor's Wife

At a glance:
What, just one glance? You won't be able to take your masturbatatory eyes off Kari Wührer, star slut of this B-grade erotic thriller, styled like an oversexed version of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (1992). She's got heat. More than Rebecca De Mornay in that movie, but admittedly less than, say, Liz Berkeley in Showgirls (1995).
Perennial wonderment:
Why this fine piece of MTV VJ booty never made it big beyond shyte TV movies like Eight Legged Freaks (2002) and The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003). Probably because her best asset is her body, as she herself concedes. Oh well, there's more to life than bein a big movie star. She's married with three kids now.
Reminds me of:
Any sort of sexual activity near a swimmin pool. That nude-coloured bikini is still in my head after all these years.
Watch out for:
The bit where she has sad sex with the cryin dad and also the bit where she straddles the stupid-lookin son on the bed and fucks him silly.
Most memorable line:
Wasn't payin attention to any.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
★★ 1/2  for some decent sleazy entertainment. For a more substantial movie starrin Kari Wührer, check out King Of The Ants (2003). 

The Strangers (2008)

"What's this movie about again?"

Gemma Ward as Dollface.

At a glance:
Promisin door-knock suspense thriller where Scott Speedman-Liv Tyler chemistry works but story isn't rewardin enough and we discover that home invaders Bagface, Pin-Up Girl and Dollface are somewhat meaninglessly menacin, in the absence of more compellin storytellin. Fear turned pointless, though it does have its moments.
Perennial wonderment:
Liv, get a real job! Why do you like starrin in non-movies?
Reminds me of:
Vacancy (2007) with Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson - but nowhere near the intensity. I think it's not that far off to describe this movie as 'what happens if an Indon horror director did a Hollywood movie'.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
It does have an excellent marketin gimmick on its official website though - you can mail your friends an SOS phone call. ★ 1/2
Bonus material:

This scene wasn't even in the movie! Where I saw it, at least.