Spotlight On: Anthony Hopkins

This week's spotlight is on one of my all-time favorite actors, Anthony Hopkins. I just think that he is absolutely brilliant in everything that he is in, whether is is being scary or crazy, or sad or happy, he is just amazing. He has such a long a great career and I look forward to seeing even more movies with Mr. Hopkins. Here are my favorite movies of his.

Magic

I really loved this movie. Hopkins plays a ventriliquist named Corky, who can't stop talking to his dummy Fats. The main reason I love this movie is for Anthony Hopkin's performance. It is basically two hours him talking to himself and it is just creepy and unsettling and fantastic. One of the best scenes in the movie is when his agent asks if he can make Fats stop talking for five minutes. You'd think it would be easy, but you end up seeing how hard it is for Corky not to talk to Fats.



The Elephant Man

I just watched this movie again about a week or two ago and it still makes me bawl my eyes out. Hopkins plays a man who takes the "Elephant Man" aka John Merrick out of the circus freak show and takes care of him in his hospital. While I think that John Hurt as Merrick has the stand out performance in this film, Hopkins is great as always as a man who grows to care for him.



The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Anthony Hopkins plays the famous dead hunchback Quasimodo in a TV movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The best parts of the movie were definitely when he was talking to Esmeralda.


The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins is best known for his role in this film, and with good reason. Hannibal Lecter is one of the best movie villains of all time. Hopkins is one of the very few people to win an Oscar for a horror film role. He is a murdering cannibal, but is also a brilliant forensic psychologist. I liked both Hannibal and Red Dragon, but neither of them come close to being as amazing as The Silence of the Lambs. It is just a classic performance in a classic movie!



Dracula

People say that he goes a little over the top in this movie, but I love Anthony Hopkins as Abraham Van Helsing. My favorite scene in the whole movie is the scene where he kills Lucy. (It would be the shadow scene, but that gets bumped down to second place because Keanu Reeves is terrible...)



The Mask of Zorro

I loved this movie when I was a kid and used to watch it all the time. I haven't seen it in forever (I believe that the last time I watched it was on VHS), but I remember loving the sword fights, the love story, and the scene where he is training the new Zorro how to fight. Hopkins just has that great voice where you just want to listen to everything he is saying.



The Wolfman

"Terrible things Lawrence...you've don't terrible things." In the original Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot's father kills him, but in this version, he is the one who past the werewolf curse onto him. I don't care what anybody says, I loved the remake of the Wolfman! I thought it was entertaining, it has a cast of actors that I love, the Wolfman make-up looked really cool, and it was just awesome!



Thor

Seriously, who else would they have gotten to play Odin? Hopkins was just great casting.



Upcoming: He has a lot of really interesting looking movies coming out, but the one I'm really excited for is Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho where he plays, guess who...Alfred Hitchcock! One of my favorite actor's playing one of my favorite directors!

My Most Anticipated Movies for 2012 (Part 1)

I'm going to this this three months at a time because my list always gets too long and I end up forgetting some. So... here are the movies I plan to see in January, February, and March of 2012.

JANUARY

The Devil Inside

Its been a while since I've seen a movie in theaters that actually scared me, and I'm hoping that The Devil Inside will do just that. Although I'm getting sick of all these exorcism movies, this movie does look pretty freaky. The first time I saw the trailer it did give me a bit of a fright. Of course, so did the trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and that movie was kind of shitty.



Underworld: Awakening

I still haven't seen Underworld: Evolution all the way through, but I have until January to watch it. This movie actually looks pretty cool. I'm loving the little werewolf/ vampire hybrid girl, and Kate Beckinsale looks awesome as always in her black leather suit.



Haywire

This really isn't my type of movie at all. I think that the plot of this movie is something that has been done a million times before and it doesn't really look all that interesting to me. Why do I want to see it then? Well for starters it has Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum...definitely some eye candy. And oh yeah...MICHAEL FASSBENDER. If that handsome Irish actor is in a movie, you know my ass is going to be in those theater seats.



We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is a book that I was planning to read because I heard that it was both really good and really disturbing. Now I guess I don't have to because I can go see this movie.(And all the literary snobs cry...) From what I have read about the plo,t the trailers that I have seen haven't really given too much away about what this movie is really about. I guess it is about parents dealing with the fact that their teenage son shot up his high school.



Albert Nobbs

I saw the trailer for this movie when I went to see Like Crazy and thought that it looked really interesting. Glenn Close plays a woman who pretends to be a man called Albert Nobbs.



FEBRUARY

The Woman in Black

I love me a good ghost story! This movie looks really cool and the fact that it is produced by Hammer makes it that much better.



W.E.

What make this movie neat is that it is directed by Madonna. This story is about Edward VIII and how he gives up the throne for the woman he loves. We got a hint of this story in The King's Speech, though that movie focuses on his brother. I am curious to learn more about Edwards story with this movie, because in The King's Speech I really didn't care so much for his character. Plus, maybe seeing Abbie Cornish and Oscar Isaac in this will make me forgive them for Sucker Punch.



This Means War

Totally going to see this just because it has Tom Hardy. He always plays such super serious characters, so it'll be nice to see him to a comedy. Also, I love Chelsea Handler, so it'll be cool to see her in this as well.



MARCH

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

There is not a poster or a trailer for this movie yet, but with a title like that, how could you not want to see it?

The Raven

I have never read anything by Edgar Allen Poe, with the exception of a few poems (including The Raven) but that is something that I plan to fix in the future. This movie stars John Cusack as the famous writer, and is about a series of murders that are inspired by his novels.



Mirror Mirror

I'm actually still debating whether or not I really want to see this movie because it looks corny as hell! I might still see it so that I can compare it to Snow White and the Huntsman which comes out later in the year.



21 Jump Street

This movie actually looks pretty funny. I think that Channing Tatum is much better in his comedic roles than his dramatic ones. Plus...I read somewhere that Johnny Depp is going to have a cameo!!



The Hunger Games

I'm really not a fan of YA novels, but from what I've read about this movie it seems like an interesting story. A part of me is curious and wants to read the books, but another part of me just wants to wait to see the movie so that I can be surprised.



Wrath of the Titans

While I am still irked that they replaced Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, I am curious to see this movie. It actually looks pretty cool, and I'm always up for seeing Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes!

Best Werewolf Movies

In celebration of Halloween and my werewolf costume, here is my list of my 13 favorite movies featuring lycanthropes.

13. Cursed

This is one of the corniest horror films ever made, but it is a total guilty pleasure for me. I mean, you don't see many movies where a werewolf gives you the middle finger.


12. The Company of Wolves

This Little Red Riding Hood story has the strangest werewolf transformations I have ever seen. The weirdest one is probably the one with Stephen Rea where he peels his skin off.


11. Underworld

While this movie is mainly about vampires, I was much more interested in the Lycans. I loved Michael Sheen as Lucian, the lycan who once had a vampire bride that was murdered by her own father for loving a werewolf. I haven't seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, but I am really curious to because the backstory of the werewolves was something that I found interesting from the first film.



10. The Wolfman

This movie didn't get the best reviews, but I actually love it. I love Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt, and I thought that this movie was really cool. "I will kill ALL OF YOU!"

9. Trick r Treat

This movie was cool because I had no idea that they were werewolves until they started transforming. I thought that they were just a bunch of college girls looking to get laid, but they were actually looking for victims. Awesome. You can find that scene HERE

8. Silver Bullet

A bunch of really great werewolf films came out in the 80s and Silver Bullet was one of them. I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I used to love this movie. Here is one of the best scenes in the whole movie.



7. Wolf

Here we see Jack Nicholson as a man who gets bitten by a wolf and finds himself turning into a lycanthrope.



6. The Howling

Another classic 80s werewolf movie. Those were the good days when they used practical effects instead of CGI, so all the transformation scenes look really cool, like the one HERE

5. Curse of the Werewolf

This is one of my favorite Hammer horror films, starring the handsome Oliver Reed. My favorite scene starts below at about 2:38.



4. The Wolf Man

This is the classic 1941 Universal horror film starring Lon Cheney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolf Man. "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."



3. Dog Soldiers

This movie is really cool. It is about this group of soldiers trying to fight off this pack of werewolves in the middle of nowhere. This movie goes old school and has the werewolves walk on two legs.



2. Ginger Snaps

I love this movie. It is about these two death-obsessed sisters, and one of them gets bitten by a werewolf. So, she slowly starts turning into a lycanthrope, and that includes growing a bit of a tail.



1. An American Werewolf in London

Best. Werewolf. Movie. Ever. That just goes without saying. This movie features the best werewolf transformation scene ever, has a great story, some great gore effects, and is also really funny at parts. It is not only the best werewolf movie, but is one of the best horror films ever made. I love love love this movie!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Once again it is my favorite day of the year, Halloween! Unfortunately, Halloween is on a Monday this year and I will be stuck working on my paper that is due tomorrow. It is all good though. I celebrated Halloween on Saturday with my older sister. We checked out some costume contests and saw some really cool costumes. This year I went as a werewolf, one of my favorite horror monsters.

I hope that everyone has a spook-tacular Halloween!



Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Seven

This movie was an interesting take on the classic Little Red Riding Hood Story. It is about a pretty young girl named Rosaleen who is warned about men who are "hairy on the inside" from her grandmother. The special effects are rediculous in this film, but that is what makes it so great. When Stephen Rea's character turns into a wolf it just looks strange, but I love it.



The best part, though was probably the part at the ending when the werewolf who killed her grandmother transforms and we see the wolf's nose coming out if his mouth. Unfortuanately I can't find a video of that on Youtube...

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Six

I spent all of last night and some of this morning writing a paper on this movie, so I am just sick of it already even though I have only seen it once. I was writing a paper on supernatural depictions of Native Americans in film and I started writing it about Wolfen, then about Wolfen and this movie, but I realized that I had a lot more to say on this film. I love the original Ginger Snaps, and this is a sort of prequel to it. It is about the ancestors or Ginger and Brigitte in the 19th century, who are also named Ginger and Brigitte. It is a werewolf origin story and explains how werewolves came to Canada from the white settlers. It features handsome Native actor Nathaniel Archand as a guy called Hunter who helps the girls out. To me, this movie moved really slowly and didn't get good until the ending. I loved the part where Ginger lets all of the werewolves into the Trading Post...that was realyl cool.

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Three

I thought that this was going to be a straight-up werewolf movie, but it really wasn't. This movie is about a cop who is tracking down a killer who is slashing his victims to ribbons. All clues lead to a wolf, but an expert on wolves claim that the wounds were not done by an animal. In the beginning, you are led to believe that these Native people can transform into wolves and are doing the murders, but in the end you find out that it is Wolfen doing the killings. Wolfen are not really werewolves, but juse a supernatural type of wolf that coexisted with Native Americans 20,000 years ago. This movie doesn't really have a lot of horror elements until the ending, and uses way to much of the POV of the wolves, especially since the look of it is really dated. What is awesome is that this movie fits with this paper I am writing about Native Americans in Supernatural films. I had no idea that there were Native characters when I rented it, so it just worked out perfectly!

Horror-A-Day: Day Sixteen

I loved this movie! If you're looking for a movie with tons of werewolf action, this is not the movie to watch, but it has a great story. My one complaint is that it has waaaay to much backstory. It starts off with a begger who goes to this rich man's house. After the begger insults him, he puts the begger in the dungeon. Once in the dungeon, the only people he sees are the jailer and his daughter. Eventually the daughter grows up to be a beautiful (but mute) woman who gets thrown in the dungeon herself after she rejects the rich man's advances. While in there she gets raped by the begger, then kills the rich man, and escapes. She gets found by a man and his wife and gives birth to a baby boy and dies in labor. That boy grows up to be the werewolf character in the story. See what I mean? Way too much backstory. Anyways, the boy's name is Leon and is played by Oliver Reed (who was a handsome devil when he was young). We first see him turn into a werewolf while out at a pub with his friend. A girl takes him up to her place and he turns into a lycanthrope and kills her, then goes downstairs and kills his friend. Oliver Reed looks really cool in his werewolf makeup.

That picture doesn't really do it justice. You would have to watch the movie to see how cool it looks. Anyways, this is a great example of a Hammer horror film. I think that this is my favorite, along with The Curse of Frankenstein.

Horror-A-Day: Day Fourteen

This movie was actually supposed to be a part of my Horror-A-Day last year, but it was unavailable from Netflix because a bunch of other people wanted to see it too. I actually really loved this movie. I thought that is was fun and creepy and was just a great Halloween movie. I watched this movie on Friday, and then I went and bought it on Saturday. That is how much I liked it. It is a combination of stories. There is a high school principal who poisons a kid's Halloween candy and then puts him in a hole in the backyard, a group of kids who awaken some zombie children, a pack of werewolf girls, and an old man who is attacked by a little pumpkin-headed boy who wears a sack over his head. What made this movie even cooler was that there wasn't a whole lot of CGI. The werewolf transformation scene used CGI, but the actual werewolves were puppets, which was awesome! I also love the look of Sam with his mask off!

Horror-A-Day: Day Ten

OMG, Yes! This movie was awesome! I love werewolf movies, and this one was that much better because it doesn't use CGI lycanthropes. The werewolves all look really cool...

While there aren't any good transformations scenes in this movie (the one guy who does transform does so behind a table), I'll forgive that because I liked this movie so much. It is about this group of soldiers that get attacked by a pack of werewolves. They end up in this woman's house and are trying to fight them off. The soldiers are eventually picked off one by one until there is one survivor. This movie also has some cool gore effects. Like in the scene where the guy goes to hotwire a car and finds a wolf munching on one of his fellow soldiers. Awesome. This is definitely one of the best werewolf movies I have ever seen. It is right up there with American Werewolf in London (although no movie will ever beat that...)

Spotlight On: Rob Zombie

This week's spotlight is on Rob Zombie, who is not only one of my favorite musicians, but one of my favorite horror movie directors as well. I was fortunate enough to see him live with Ozzy Osbourne on Halloween in 2008, which was one of the coolest Halloweens ever! Me, my sister, her boyfriend, and my friend Kiana all went to the show dressed in our costumes. Basically everybody else did too, so the room was filled with these awesome costumes, and it was just great. Here are some of my favorite Rob Zombie songs.

White Zombie







Rob Zombie

btw...Living Dead Girl is one of my all-time favorite songs and all-time favorite videos...and it's my ringtone...







yeah...Clockwork Orange!






Rob also makes some of the most interesting horror films. While I'm not a fan of all of his films, the ones that I do like, I LOVE!

House of 1000 Corpses

While a lot of people prefer the sequel, I actually like House of 1000 Corpses better. It is uber creepy, and just oozes horror! It is a movie that I always watch around Halloween and is just filled with moments that I love.

Click HERE for the Murder Ride scene

Click HERE for the I Wanna Be Loved By You scene (love it!!!)

Click HERE for the Dr. Satan scene.

The Devil's Rejects

One of the best horror sequels ever! While the are some changes (difference casting for Mama Firefly, Otis is no longer an albino) they are forgivable because this movie rules! Here are some of my favorite scenes.

Click HERE for a Captain Spaulding scene

Click HERE for the scene with girl with the flesh mask

Halloween

While not the best horror remake in the world, Rob Zombie's Halloween does have its good points. For example, I love the casting of Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis and Brad Dourif as the Sheriff. They are two of my favorite actors, and I love that they're in this. My main complaint about this movie is that there is waaaay too much back story. In the original they just have POV shots of young Michael for about a minute or two, and that is really all you need. Rob gets way too carried away with the young Michael Myers story! Also, I hate the rape scene in the unrated version. I have it on DVD and I always have to fast forward. It is just an ugly scene, that really doesn't need to be in the movie at all. If a rape scene is central to the plot like in Last House on the Left, then I understand, but this movie really didn't need one.



Werewolf Women of the SS

This is my favorite of the fake trailers made for the Tarantino/ Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature. THIS is the one that should've been made into a movie instead of Machete.



Upcoming: he is currently working on a movie called Lords of Salem, which is about witches. It should be coming out sometime next year.