October 3rd: 7 Below (2012, Netflix Streaming)

Looking at the cast for this one I had fairly high hopes.  Val Kilmer and Ving Rhames are two very powerful actors who do a great job in their roles.  Let's not forget about Pulp Fiction  and The Ghost in the Darkness before we finish this film.  Seven Below is a really formulaic horror movie, but proves to pick the better parts of horror films.  The characters are all stock characters that we're comfortable and familiar with and the setup is something that is very homey.  It could be these reasons that it falls short of being as truly awesome as its cast should allow.

The very first scene is a classic horror movie preamble.  Within 5 seconds of opening logos we see tits.  Ten seconds later: spousal abuse. About 30 seconds later: matricide and rampant violence.  It fades out on the scream of the two young daughters, a move I found very tasteful.

(Fade to today) The setup is simple, with very little to fill us in on.  It's a chartered bus going up into the mountains with three groups of passengers; the marriage falling apart, the brothers on a lifetime journey after loosing a parent and a foreigner on vacation.  The film quickly uses a pit stop to establish the tone of all the characters and introduces a lowly gas station attendant that we think we will never see again.  Within 15 minutes of the film starting we know exactly who everybody is and how they got trapped in their situation.

I want to just come out and say that this is one of my favorite horror movie tropes.  It's a brave move that is a bit rehashed, but usually makes for some very tense situations with a lot of friction to spice up the goings on of the film.  Unfortunately, this one kind of plays out a little flat.  A lot of the previous friction seen at the rest stop doesn't take place once the characters are trapped and some of the only friction seen is between Val Kilmer and Ving Rhames.  Who both play their parts fantastically.

Spoiler alert!!!!! A storm traps them in a mountain mansion!  How original.  I guess you only have so many ways to make people trapped in the 21st century.

Long story short: the cashier at the gas station gets roped into everything when one of the "Broken Brother" characters ropes her into it and then the carnage ensues.  It's actually a pretty neat horror film from beginning to end, I just feel like it would have done a little better had it been released in 1992 or 2002 instead of 2012.  It doesn't quite have the edge that you seen in current films on any front.  It does fairly well with atmosphere, writing and dialogue, but it doesn't smolder in your mind like most of its contemporaries.  Ving Rhames does his best to evoke a Green Mile Micheal Clarke Duncan and Val Kilmer gives us one of his more tasteful performances in years.  The newcomers and lesser known actors actually hold their own fairly well.  All in all, I call this one a "win" as far as lesser known horror films go.

Also, the twist at the end is actually pretty weird and was foreshadowed very tastefully in the first half hour.  The writer and director did pretty well and I did enjoy my time with this one.  Not the best, but a good film.