Prometheus (2012)

In the open scene we see a humanoid type figure (an Engineer) standing on the edge of a waterfall as he looks at a spacecraft rising away into the clouds. No clue or date is given to explain what's happening.

Cut away and it's the year 2089, Scotland (UK), where 2 archaeologists, Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover an ancient drawing which is connected to several other ancient drawings already found. In all the drawings, a "star map" is found, which Elizabeth believes to be an invitation to find humanity’s creators, or "Engineers".

With the help and funding of Weyland Corporation's CEO Peter Weyland, Elizabeth, Charlie, and a crew of 17 (in total) head out to find the distant moon LV-223 aboard the state of art Prometheus. It takes them 2 years to reach their destination, all while the ship's android, David, monitors their voyage and as they wake from hyper-sleep (stasis) it's now 2093.

The Prometheus lands near a large structure, which a team is set to explore, but under the instructions from mission director Meredith Vickers, who tells them to avoid making contact with the Engineers without her permission. As the team searches through the dark tunnels, they come across an Engineer and go on to discover more alien technology which is more than what they bargained for. After realising what they encounter could not only threaten the crew members but the entire existence of Earth, the fight for survival begins!

As Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) movie is one of the films that first got me into horror as a kid, I'm a massive fan of the Alien franchise. However, I couldn't help feeling underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, the cinematography, visual effects and set production are all of the highest standard, as we have become accustomed to from director Ridley Scott over the years. It was the story that let it down. Plot holes causing too many unexplained questions and things simply not adding up when it came to the 1979 Alien movie. Yes, this is a prequel to that movie, but not in a direct sense. Rather, it was an origin story, pre-dating the xenomorph in the Alien franchise. The acting I couldn't fault, all the cast were solid but the stand out performance for me was Michael Fassbender. That said, there seemed to be little point for Charlize Theron's character, other than the small annoyance she causes to the crew. It was kind of like a poor "Burke" (Aliens 1986) roll!

If you haven't got the time or money to head out to the cinema to see this movie, then don't worry, wait for the DVD/Blu-ray. At best it was a decent Sci-Fi film and I would've rated it higher had it not had the link to such an amazing film like Alien!

Prometheus get a little disappointing 6/10
(Read on for a bit more info on the movie as regards the plot...)

Check out the trailer belolw...

Director - Ridley Scott
Writers  - Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelo

The Cast -
Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender as David
Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland
Idris Elba as Janek
Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway
Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers
Rafe Spall as Millburn
Sean Harris as Fifield

    #####~~*******WARNING - THIS NEXT PASSAGE CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS*******~~#####


I wanted to go into more detail because the movie raised certain questions. So I going to talk about things that will spoil the movie when you see it for the first time. (Nip back and have a read through this when you have, or not, it's up to you!)

In the opening scene, what's going on and what year is it?
The Engineer standing on the edge of a waterfall as he looks at a spacecraft rising away into the clouds. He then goes on to drink a dark bubbling liquid and disintegrates into the water.
Circa 500 Million BC: One of the Engineers is left on Earth, becoming the catalyst for the first life on the planet as his DNA mixes with the water.

Where does the Prometheues movie fit in with the timeline
2093 - (December), the Prometheus lands on LV-223.
2122 - (June 3 - June 6), USCSS Nostromo (Alien movie 1979) encounters what is assumed to be a distress signal emanating from the planetoid designated LV-426.
2157 - Hadley’s Hope terraforming colony established on LV-426 aka Acheron. There is no sign of any signal from the derelict investigated by the Nostromo 35 years earlier.
2179 (Circa May 16) - Shuttlecraft Narcissus is discovered by a deep salvage team, and Ellen Ripley and Mr Jones the Cat are rescued (setting the record for the longest ever hypersleep).
2179 (July 6) - Ripley reluctantly agrees to accompany Burke and a Colonial Marine squad of 2nd Battalion, 9th Regiment to Acheron to investigate on board the USS Sulaco after Colonial Administration loses contact with the colony on LV-426. No need to go any further here.

Can we as assume that the spacecraft discovered by the Nostromo in Alien (1979) and then found by terraformers in Aliens (1986) is the same ship that the Engineer attempts to escape in but crashes in the Prometheus movie?
At first, yes. BUT, either the writers of Prometheus have got the name of the moon wrong and instead of the Engineer dying in his seat of the craft he dies in is the escape shuttle of the Prometheus, or over time the moon's name has been renamed and changed from LV-223 to LV-426!

Scene shot from Alien 1979

Throughout the movie, there's signs of the infamous xenomorph of the Alien franchise. In Alien (1979) an Engineer / Space Jockey is found with it's chest ripped open by a xenomorph (see picture left), as discovered by Captain Dallas, Executive Officer Kane, and Navigator Lambert who investigate a derelict spacecraft that contains the fossilised remains.





At the end of the Prometheus movie the Engineer is attacked by an organism that Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) earlier in the movie has removed from inside her stomach. The organism then plants an embryo inside the Engineer which rapidly grows and bursts out of his stomach, revealing an early form of xenomorph.

Big plot hole? Hmm, yes! But not if the writers are planning a sequel and another engineer goes back to LV-223 and then comes into contact with the xenomorph, presuming said xenomorph is a queen and pushed out a load of eggs, then he escapes but crash lands on LV-426! But then there's a statue like formation on the wall that's looks like a queen xenomorph, in the area that the giant head and metalic cylinders are found and the Engineer that's found outside that room is carbon dated to around 2000 years old. The fluid contained in the cylinders is does not produce xenomorph directly, but rather it evolves from another organic form. Is there other samples of this used on other planets? It's certainly not mentioned in this movie.

Going back further along the timeline by bringing Predator into it, these xenomorphs already exist! -
2000 BC - A Predator hunting expedition goes awry in Northern Cambodia when the Aliens multiply out of control. The Predators wipe out all trace of the infestation.
1904 (October 10) - A occupants of a whaling station on Bouvetoya in the South Atlantic Ocean caught between in the middle of a Predator/ Alien hunt, are slaughtered. One whaler, Karl Johanssen witnesses a Predator fighting an Alien before dying of hypothermia.
1997 - A Predator comes to Los Angeles in the grip of a heat wave, wiping out a drugs gang, police officers and a carriage full of civilians on the Los Angeles Metro. Lieutenant Mike Harrigan pursues it across the city until he finds the creature cornered by Agent Keyes' special unit. The Predator wipes out the special unit and is pursued by Harrigan to its ship. Upon which we see a xenomorph skull.
2004 (October 3) - Weyland Industries satellite P12 picks up a heat bloom over Antarctica and the icebreaker Piper Maru is dispatched to investigate, where upon xenomorphs and Predators make an appearance.

So there you go. If you're a fan of the franchise, do you see my frustration with the Prometheus movie?!
Prometheus is going to need a damn good, even great sequel to justify it's self!

Sources used - time.absoluteavp.com (THE ALIEN UNIVERSE TIMELINE)

The Fields (2011)

Set in 1973, young Steven is witness to a domestic incident between his mother and father, which results in him having to live with his grandparents who live in a house that backs onto a massive corn field.

Traumatised by the event, Steve spends his time outside, playing with his Godzilla and dinosaur toys and occasionally nipping out with his grandad to pick up the groceries. He also seems to have an obsession with Charles Manson, who he sees on the TV, thinking he will escape prison and come after him!

While playing in the corn field, he stumbles across a dead girl. Although he tells his grandad, the old boy thinks nothing of it, other than putting it down to a child's wild imagination.



Out and about, picking up some milk from the local farm shop, Steven sets off alone to take a peek at the cows, where farm hand Eugene is working. Right from the get-go, Eugene gives off creepy vibes, even though him and Steven already know each other.

Inbetween the normal ruotine of life, playing around the house, slipping off into the corn field and having random encounters with hippies, disturbing things start to happen as the grandparents and grandson are terrorized by an unseen presence. As all this is going on, Steven's parents Bonnie and Barry are supposedly trying to work things out.


I do have to start by saying, about 40 minutes into the film I fell asleep! I put this down to the fact I was tired and simply went to bed when I woke up some 30 minutes later. So fresh out of the shower this morning, armed with a cup of tea and a cigarette, I sat down and watched it again, from the start.

Wide awake and bright eyed, I still stuggled to find anything of interest for alteast an hour into it! The mass of corn, the little Steven, the eerie surrounding of the whole place should've got me creeped out and on the edge of my seat. But it simply didn't. The discovery of the dead body in the field seems to get over looked, the completely random scene in the middle of the movie makes no real sense and the introduction of the hippies seems so obscure that you don't even think to yourself why they're there or why is this happening. The one thing that you can put your finger on, without giving certain things away, is predictable.

The best thing about this movie was Cloris Leachman performance as the racist foul mouthed grandma. Joshua Ormond, as Steven, came across with absolutely no emotional content what so ever. Yes, he's a kid, but I've seen better acting from younger performers. Lets face it, it's horror, the child of the piece should be creepy as hell while being cute and vulnerable at the same time. But in this case, there was simply nothing offered. In fact, the whole movie lacked any luster till around the 1 hour 25 minute mark, but even that died down after a few minutes!

Looking back on it, it was a real shame because the story itself is actually quite clever, how each piece fits together and the random parts that feel like they shouldn't even be in the movie at the time, do complete the puzzle. I say puzzle, let me explain...

It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle of something you have very little interest in, but then the end product is actually rather interesting, but because of the hours spent putting it together you're still disappointed. This is how the movie made me feel. The concept was good but the delivery was poor. With a better main cast and better direction I would have really rated this film.

Unfortunately, because of this The Fields gets 3.5/10

The Cast -                                                    Directors - Tom Mattera & David Mazzoni
Tara Reid as Bonnie
Cloris Leachman as Gladys                            Writer - Harrison Smith
Joshua Ormond as Steven
Faust Checho as Barry
Brian Anthony Wilson as Charlie
Miles Williams as Jack
Karen Ludwig as Tootie
Max Antisell as Douglas
Louis Morabito as Eugene

Check out the trailer below...

The Devil Inside (2012)

Having already had bad press on the movie, particularly the ending, I sat down and gave it ago for myself.

Starting off in 1989, we hear a police recording of an emergency call simply saying "I've killed them." Cut to VT and now the police have enter the house that the call came from. Dead bodies are shown and eventually a woman, Maria Rossi, is brought out and put in a police car.

The film shows a news story and police investigation showing the three members of the clergy whom she murdered. The Catholic Church became involved, and she has since been in a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Rome.

Cut to 2009, Maria Rossi's daughter, Isabella, who learned of the murders from her father, who died three days after telling her, is filming a documentary about exorcisms, and to find out more about her mother, she visits a school in Rome, where she meets two priests, Ben and David. Along with attending the school and performing sanctioned exorcisms, Ben and David, without the knowledge of the holy church, also investigate cases that have been deemed closed due to being a matter of a mental health issue rather than one of possession. They look at the tape and audio that the camera man, Michael, has gathered from a visit to Maria Rossi, in order to determine if she is indeed possessed. With Isabella wanting to know more, rather than simply explaining how an exorcism works, they take Isabella with them on a case to show her how it's done. Shortly after this, they visit Isabella's mother to carry out an exorcism, all be it a secret one.

There's no more to it than that! A very simple story shot in the manner of a found footage film. The good thing to point out is the acting, while most of the cast are average, Suzan Crowley (Maria Rossi) is excellent, as she pops in and out of different characters.

The direction is solid, the script is decent, the SFX are pretty damn cool but it still felt no more than an average film. This all leads to a very predictable and horrible ending. Which turned it into a below average film. Let's face it, The Exorcist (1973) is still the best possession / exorcism movie out there. I struggle to name one film that has equalled it, let alone surpassed it! If you can name one then let me know. In all honesty, if you haven't seen the Extended Director's Cut Edition in glorious full 1080p HD of The Exorcist (it was like watching it for the first time again), then watch that instead of The Devil Inside.

The Devil Inside gets a disappointing 4/10

The Cast -
Fernanda Andrade as Isabella Rossi
Simon Quarterman as Father Ben Rawlings
Evan Helmuth as Father David Keane
Ionut Grama as Michael Schaefer
Suzan Crowley as Maria Rossi
Bonnie Morgan as Rosalita

Director - William Brent Bell

Writers - William Brent Bell & Matthew Peterman

Check out the clip below...

Apartment 143 [Emergo] (2012)

With a VOD release on April 27th and a theatrical run beginning later on June 1st, I took full advantage of the VOD.

This is a found footage / faux documentary, with a feel of Paranormal Activity (2007), Poltergeist (1982) with a touch of The Exorcist (1973) and a mix of a supernatural / possession / psychological thriller. Sounds complicated? I guess so, but the film itself isn't.

A team of high-tech parapsychologists, Dr. Helzer, Paul and Ellen, set out to investigate a series of anomalous phenomena taking place in a an apartment, where widowed father Alan White lives with his two children Caitlin and Benny. The team arrives at the apartment and things kick off pretty much straight away with strange noises, footstep type sounds and banging. It soon dies down as they go about setting up their equipment and make themselves familiar with the White family.

After having suffered similar problems in the house they lived in previous, they up sticks only to have the unexplained phenomenon follow them. With gizmos and gadgets galore, a lot of activity is not only captured, but experienced first hand.

The four year old son believes it to be his dead mother, the teenage daughter seems to be ignoring what's going on and the father is distraught and scared for his kids. There's a quite obvious strain on the relationship between father and daughter and with the truth behind the history of the small family being discovered and how Alan's wife died, things get a whole lot worse as that history is manifesting itself more and more through Caitlin. The team capture everything with a plethora of equipment but also get to close too the action.

OK, so found footage films are becoming more and more present in horror as there's certainly no shortage of them now. By no means is this an original piece of film making but the movie still pulls it off with a certain flare. The effects out weigh anything Paranormal Activity has to offer. The story is solid and there's more to it than just a simple haunting or a mysterious possession.

The well written script is delivered by all the cast in equal measures of good acting. There's no prolonged gaps of uninteresting dialogue. Rather, every conversation relates to what's going on. Which means it's easy to get to know the family in a short period of time and you can connect with each character. Character development in these kinds of films are so important. It can make or break a film, even effecting the shipment of scares. There is certainly a fair share of freaky and jumpy moments, which are not just put there for the sake of it. They tie in with each character's chronicle, namely Allan and daughter Caitlin, who provide a simple yet stand out performance by Kai Lennox and Gia Mantegna respectively.

The Spanish duo of Torrens and Cortés have stepped up to the plate that is found footage and given us a worthy opponent to take on and beat the best of them out there.

Apartment 143 gets an 8/10

The Cast -                                               Director - Carles Torrens
Kai Lennox as Alan White
Michael O'Keefe as Dr. Helzer                    Writer - Rodrigo Cortés
Rick Gonzalez as Paul Ortega
Fiona Glascott as Ellen Keegan
Gia Mantegna as Caitlin White
Damian Roman as Benny White 

Check out the trailer below...

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

The Cast -
Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider
Idris Elba as Moreau
Violante Placido as Nadya
Johnny Whitworth as Ray Carrigan/Blackout
Ciarán Hinds as The Devil/Roarke
Fergus Riordan as Danny
Christopher Lambert as Methodius






Directors - Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

Writers - Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman & David S. Goyer

The Plot -
Johnny Blaze, a man who made a deal with the Devil who called himself Roarke at the time, is on the run trying to make sure no-one is harmed by his alter ego, The Ghost Rider. He is approached by a Monk named Moreau who tells him that he can help be him free of the Rider, but first, he needs Johnny's help to protect a boy, whom Roarke has plans for.

The Review -
In the second instalment of Ghost Rider we find Johnny Blaze hiding from the world in an attempt to control his dark passenger (yes, that is a reference to Dexter!).
While Blaze is off the grid, Roarke has sent his minions to capture a boy called Danny, who has more about him than first meets the eye. But the boy's mother, Nadya, won't let him go without a fight. Under the care of a secret brotherhood of monks, Danny and his mother have to flee from their safety and go on the run.
Moreau, a monk himself, knows of the plans Roarke has set for the boy. So he enlist the help of Blaze, offering him the chance to free himself from the Ghost Rider once Danny is delivered back to the monk brotherhood where upon the mission is complete.
Along the way, Blaze has internal turmoil with the Rider inside. But in order to save Danny, Blaze must let the demon out in an all out war against the Devil, with the help of Moreau, Nadya and Danny.

Along with a battle looming, Blaze learns that his inner Demon is much more than the evil he once feared. Can he use his power to protect and not just for destruction and is giving it up the best option?

This sequel really has a different feel to it. It could almost be described as a dark comedy horror. But don't let that put you off as it works to it's advantage. It is darker than the original and some of the scene worked so well that they could have been pulled straight out of the comic book. I watched this on DVD which made me wish I'd gone to the cinema to see. Some of the effects are made perfectly for 3D. With a good mix off balls out action and drama this is an enjoyable watch. The only real bad point for me was that it felt a little bit rushed and if you're a fan of the first film, like in a big way, then you might not like it. I personally like both of them.

If you're going to watch this movie, if you have the facilities, I would recommend that you watch it on 3D Blu-Ray on a 3D TV to get the most out of it.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance gets a 7/10

Check out the trailer below...

Dear God No! (2011)

The Cast -
Jett Bryant as Jett
Madeline Brumby as Edna Marco
Paul McComiskey as Dr. Marco
Olivia LaCroix as Evelyn Marco
Nik Morgan as Spyder
John Collins as Collins
Shane Morton as Randal
Rusty Stache as Jimbo
Heath Street as Todd
Rachelle Lynn as Laura


Director & Writer - James Bickert






The Plot -
Outlaw motorcycle gang The Impalers' tri-state rape and murder spree ended in a bloody massacre with rival club Satan's Own. The surviving members sought refuge in a secluded cabin deep in the North Georgia mountains. What first must of seemed like easy prey for a home invasion, became a living nightmare of depravity and violence. A young innocent girl being held captive may hold the key to the twisted secrets locked in the basement and the killing machine feasting on human flesh in the forest outside.

The Review -
The Impalers biker gang are down in members, as they make they're way to safety at a local strip club after raping and pillaging a bus load of nuns, it's not quite the safe house they thought it would be.
Things get ugly very quick as the leader of the outlaw bikers, Jett, kills the owner of the strip club, which leads all the strippers to fight back in a blaze of gun fire and tits!
The bikers hightail it as they are outnumbered and outgunned.

Back on the road, one of the outlaws has been shot so they stop at a gas station, which again turns into violence. They stop further down the road on their travels, where they come across a small boy who points them in the direction of a rich Doctor, who happens to live in a secluded cabin in the woods with his daughter.
Dr. Marco and daughter Edna, are carrying out some kind of experiment and have a secret down in the basement. They have guests, a man and his pregnant wife, that were undergraduates of the Doctor a number of years ago, that are there to help with the experiment. Whilst they are sat down for dinner, the biker gang turns up and cause more mayhem, as only they can. In a drug and alcohol fuelled frenzy, they murder and rape there way to the secret in the basement and soon find that there's something lurking on the woods outside, which in turn, is out for blood also. What's hiding in the basement and what's on the prowl outside? Will the bikers get out alive and will they leave any survivors?

This movie takes you back to the Grindhouse, Exploitation, B-Movie days and pulls it off perfectly. With nudity, graphic violence, blood and gore, and scenes of rape, even with the cheesy and low budget effects it isn't for the faint hearted, but, genuine horror fans should enjoy it. The acting is bad as it's supposed to be, which actually adds to the whole film in a good way. It's brutal, it's bloody, it's funny as hell and definitely worth checking out!

Dear God No! gets a 7/10

Check out the trailer here -

The Awakening (2011)

The Cast -
Rebecca Hall as Florence Cathcart
Dominic West as Robert Malory
Imelda Staunton as Maud Hill
John Shrapnel as Reverend Hugh Purslow
Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Tom
Shaun Dooley as Malcolm McNair
Joseph Mawle as Edward Judd


Director - Nick Murphy

Writers - Stephen Volk & Nick Murphy







The Plot -
The movie is set in 1921, England. Florence Cathcart is a published author on supernatural hoaxes who works with the police to expose charlatans and debunk supernatural phenomenon, having begun her foray into her profession upon the death of her lover in World War I. Upon a visit from Robert Malory, a teacher from a boarding school with the request to investigate the recent death of a student and how it is related to sightings of a ghost of a child, she travels to the school hoping to explain the sightings and the death.

The Review -
The movie starts off set in a room with a table surrounded by people attempting a seance. Things get a little spooky with ghostly things happening, but it is quickly interrupted by Florence, exposing the whole proceeding as a hoax, where upon the police swoop in and make arrests.
Later on Florence is paid a visit by Robert Malory, who has a case for her, involving the death of a boy at a boarding school which is believed to be link to a ghostly sighting. She decides to take the case.
Arriving at the school just before vacation time, using simple investigation methods, it doesn't take long for her to find the real reason why the young student died. When the students and the teaching staff leave for vacation, only Florence, Robert, Maud, the caretaker Edward and student Tom are left. Florence goes about setting up her equipment around the mansion, in order to debunk the ghost stories and complete her work there.

After discovering the truth behind the boy's death, not all is over as Florence experiences some strange goings-on herself and her equipment picking up the appearance of a spirit. With the start of Florence suffering flashbacks, it soon becomes clear that Tom has a pivotal role in Florence's investigation. But what do the flashbacks mean and how is Tom connected? Will Florence find the truth and unlock a hidden secret?

With this classic British supernatural thriller comes a feel of a Spanish movie, much like The Orphanage (2007) (http://mavensmovievaultofhorror.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/orphanage-2007-julias-eyes-2010-spanish.html), it's slow paced but keeps your attention with good acting from the main cast and good directing. When it comes to the use of the ghost detection equipment, it's a lot like the reality TV Show Ghost Hunters, but without the hand held cameras. The small amount of scares are predictable but it has a nice little twist towards the end. This movie is an enjoyable watch, if you like suspense instead of all out horror, blood and gore.

The Awakening gets a pleasant 6/10

Check out the trailer below...