LAID TO REST (2009)

The picture on the DVD looked good and there was a couple of hot chicks...other than that I cannot think of one thing about this movie that didn't suck. I've been in car wrecks that were more fun than watching this disaster. The complete lack of story didn't bother me, what really pissed me off is that every single person in this movie was a goddamn idiot. It's pretty common for one or two victims in a slasher movie to do stupid shit, but here, that's all they do. Twice, fucking twice the victims escapes in a car only to stop for no reason other than to let the killer catch up with them. And then, in probably the one of the most ignorant things I've ever seen, the killer has a girl cornered with a knife to her throat when he runs out of videotape (yea, he films the kills), so he sends the girl he's about to murder into a store to buy him another tape! What the fuck?

If SAW had a severely mentally disabled brother that ate out of the kittie litter box, it would be LAID TO REST. Very little gore, horribly shot tits and wall-to-wall stupidity. Never watch this movie. If you ever feel the desire to watch it, just jump spine first onto a fire hydrant. It would hurt less.

Part 2 - Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2 (2011)

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)

[Update 03/07/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Swedish art house meets the vampire genre with good results. That is, if you don't mind the slow pacing.  If you're expecting something like THE LOST BOYS, but with snow and subtitles then you're not even going to make it through the first 30 minutes. But if you do stick around then you're in for a treat.

Oskar (or as I like to call him "the Swedish version of Danny from THE SHINING") is a twelve year boy old with some problems: he lives alone with his mother in some depressing-looking apartments, it's always snowing, he has no friends and the local school bullies are constantly kicking his ass. Then a vampire trapped in a 12-year-old's body moves in next door and they become friends.  Aww.  Oh yeah, there's also a serial killer living next door.

Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also wrote the screenplay), director Tomas Alfredson does a very good job of capturing the helplessness and torment Oskar is going through and his subsequent attraction to the vampire, Eli. Recommended for fans of arthouse horror.

Ramke - Let Me In (2010)

PRIVATE HELL 36 (1954)

Tightly-packed crime drama about a man in NYC who's murdered and robbed of $300,000. A year later, some of the bills start showing up in Los Angeles. Detectives Bruner and Farnum are assigned to follow the money trail. It leads to lounge singer Ida Lupino (THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, HIGH SIERRA) and eventually to tension and backstabbing between the two partners when they steal $80k of the money.

It might not be action-packed, but PRIVATE HELL 36 is still a great film noir. The acting is top-notch. The story is interesting and hard-boiled. The direction by Don Siegel - who'd later go on to direct four Clint Eastwood flicks- is excellent with numerous scenes shot on city streets and a horse track (I loved watching the crowd and seeing the old cars).

Any fan of classic film noir and older crime movies should have this in their collection.  Would be a great double feature with ARMORED CAR ROBBERY.