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Mischief Night (2013) Directed by Richard Schenkman



How best to describe this movie...a drama disguised as a slasher or a slasher disguised as a drama? Anyway, this isn't a very pleasant movie to watch, due to its pace and the way it tells its story.

There is absolutely nothing horror/slasher like about the first half of this movie. It of course tries to set up its characters and story in this but it all takes far too long really and the movie isn't ever doing anything all that interesting with it anyway. For example, here's one of the things this movie does; Have a 2 minute montage, in which the girl fixes herself a sandwich...yes, truly exciting stuff. It's kind of annoying how the first half of the movie feels like a bad, made for TV family drama, while the second half is an all out, generic, slasher.

And there's another problem really; the movie is an incredibly generic and therefore also very predictable one. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this movie features every single genre cliché in it; false scares, cell phones that stop working, characters who split up, a killer that's first messing with people, instead of just simply kill them, when he/she has the chance. This movie is even more predictable and generic than the average genre attempt. absolutely nothing in this movie comes as a surprise, not even when it reveals the killer because....well, just find out for yourself. It's the only thing about this movie that isn't generic but at the same time, it's not really something that works out very good about it either. At least not for me it doesn't.

It's a movie that fails in every department. It isn't ever becoming an interesting or engaging one with its story or characters. It isn't ever being a good tense or mysterious one with its horror/thriller elements and it never brings anything new to the table. Instead it's a far too slow (well, at least its first half is), predictable and totally ineffective movie. I certainly was glad when it finally was over.

Just go watch any other random slasher instead. Chances are it's a far better and more effective movie than this one.

4/10

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Revelation Road 2: The Sea of Glass and Fire (2013) Directed by Gabriel Sabloff



It apparently only have been a couple of months since I had seen the first installment "Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End" but I basically remember very little about it. But whatever that first movie must have done wrong, this one got right, since I actually quite liked and enjoyed watching this movie, despite of its religious themes and propaganda.

Whether you are a Christian or not, you have to admit that most faith based movies just aren't very good ones. They are cheap looking, with most of the time some bad acting and predictable story lines in it. And while this is not a great movie by any means, it at least is a pretty good looking and well made one, that also offers plenty of excitement and surprises in it.

It's not like this movie features or very solid or engaging main plot in it though. As a matter of fact; that's the one main thing lacking from this movie. I don't really know what the main character is trying to do or achieve and I don't really know or understand who all of these other people are and what their story is exactly. It's never really clear what the main goal of this movie is supposed to be, other than 'spreading the word of God' and be religious propaganda.

One of the things that also always bother me about movies dealing with the rapture is that there never is a sense of panic or despair in any of them. People instead seem to be happy and treat it like the most glorious thing that ever happened to them, even though God 'took away' a lot of their loved ones. Life simply goes on, which is also one of the reasons why I liked the movie "Rapture-Palooza" so much. It poked perfect fun at all of this.

But really, out of all the faith based movies that I have seen thus far, this probably is the best one. It's a quality movie that look at, that never bores with anything or starts to drag due to all of its religious themes. It isn't all preachy in a preachy kind of way, which makes this movie definitely less annoying to watch than most other religious movies out there. It's not really necessary for you to be a believer, in order to enjoy watching this movie, though it of course helps if you are a Christian already.

Really don't think that this movie is going to convert anyone to Christianity but I sincerely do believe that Christians themselves will really enjoy watching this movie, as will some non-believers, since it isn't constantly all in your face with its religious themes.

6/10

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Trailer: Mischief Night (2013)


Young Emily Walton, who has suffered from psychosomatic blindness ever since the car accident that took her mother's life, must summon every instinct at her disposal to protect herself and her loved ones from a mysterious intruder. From: IMDb.com






Directed by: Richard Schenkman
Starring: Ally Walker, Charlie O'Connell, Richard Riehle and others
Current release date: October 30, 2013

Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End (2013) Directed by Gabriel Sabloff



As far as Christian movies go, this isn't the worst or most obnoxious and annoying one to watch, though it does become nearly unwatchable toward its end.

Thing that always confuses me about this sort of Christian propaganda movies is that I just don't understand who they are made for exactly. Are they made for Christans, to strengthen their faith further? (I don't see how this movie could do that) Or perhaps they are simply meant to bring some Christian themed entertainment to believers? (in that case, this movie would be doing an extremely poor job with it) Or is it meant to open people's eyes and turn nonbelievers into believers? (I don't see how this movie could convert anyone though) In either case, this movie is a far from effective or good enough one, for any sort of demographic out there.

It's not like Christian propaganda per definition is something bad or lame. I mean, it obviously still could work out but just not when you don't really have the skills or ideas to create a decent enough movie out of.

Problem is that this is a very poorly structured movie, that still was following a decent enough story for its first half but throws everything overboard during its second half. It's just a big jumbled mess to be frank. All of the story- and character development is gone, as the movie seems more concerned with telling and showing you all kinds of faith related stuff. And it's not like the movie is doing anything good or interesting with it either. How many movies are there out there in which the main characters starts off as a nonbeliever but slowly and steadily starts to 'see the light', as the movie progresses.

And really, it's doing everything in a far from involving way. I was actually quite bored throughout most part of the movie, also not in the least because it's very apparent, very early on already, what this movie is trying to do and tell and where it's heading at with its story and main character.

The movie tries to present itself like some sort of hip and action packed post-apocalyptic movie (the story involves the rapture, or well at least the buildup to it. If you want to see more of it, you need to wait for the sequel to come out apparently) but in truth, there is hardly any action in this movie at all. I also just don't get why this movie had to involve a very stereotypical and over-the-top, criminal, biker-gang, that you normally would expect to see in a "Mad Max" movie.

Perhaps, with God's will, the sequel is going to shed some more light on the mumbled messages of this movie and will answer some of the questions this movie leaves, though I don't really have much faith in it...

3/10

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