Halloween Reviews: Nightmare, Paranormal Activity, Sinister and Boo at the Zoo

The Princess and the Warlock pretty much celebrate Halloween all October. As we like to say in our household, October is our favorite holiday. We try to pack our weekends full of fun events such as haunted houses, scary movies and Halloween parties as much as we can.

This past weekend we visited local haunted house “Nightmare”, saw two horror movies (Paranormal Activity 4 and Sinister) and went to the Bronx Zoo to check out their Boo in the Zoo event. So rather than do a separate post to review each and every event, we’ve decided to just review it all in one big post.

 

Nightmare Haunted House 2012

Nightmare

We’ve been attending Manhattan-based “Nightmare” haunted house for the past six years. Over this time, we’ve seen the productions vary from the outstanding to the underwhelming, though mostly the house is a crowd pleaser with only two years of the six being in the “underwhelming” category. This year? It gets the stamp of approval from us.

Every year Nightmare tackles a new theme. This year’s serial killers theme was its most controversial so far, but director Tim Haskell is not one to shy away from his artistic vision, nor does he sacrifice integrity either.

Without giving away any spoilers, let us begin by saying that this year’s house starts out very different than its previous iterations which set the foundation by making the small group of guests feel incredibly venerable. This vulnerability certainly carries over to the next room which is quite unexpected and delivers home the message that the artistic directors are mindful of the content they have created. It was this second room which had us and our friends talking at great length around a diner afterwards. The dialogue and theme presented in this particular room were a tad jarring but ultimately we felt it was probably a very important message to send the audience to ground them before diving ahead.

From then on, we traveled through a number of rooms featuring various serial killers, from the past and in more modern times. The acting and set designs were well done and certainly raised the bar from the past three years. The scares were a wonderful mix of your typical haunted house jump-out-of-the-dark-and-into-your-face scares to the more twisted and disturbing psychological mind screws, such as the Jeffrey Dahmer trial room which was the room both the Princess and the Warlock found the most unsettling. In addition to this, other highlights included the fact that the Princess bravely jumped down John Wayne Gacy’s crawlspace alone and was later “killed” by Jack the Ripper (she had one heck of a night!).

The only detractions to the house were three main issues we had. The first was lack of sound proofing. In several rooms we could hear the group in front of us shouting and screaming which muffled actor’s performance and made it hard for us to hear what was being said. The second issue was that, before you enter the house you are asked if you wish to be touched by performers or not. If you opt for the more immersive experience (like the Princess and the Warlock did), then you are marked with a bloody “X” on the forehead to alert actors. However, there were a number of our group (about 6) who all decided against it. The problem was that despite this option, those in our group who were unmarked were still touched which made our friends feel rather uncomfortable and annoyed. The biggest offender of this was the actor portraying Anne of Bathory. The third issue was an isolated incident, but needs to be noted all the same; in the Jack the Ripper room, when we entered the majority of the group pressed to a wall and when a door in the wall slams open unexpectedly, two of our friends were hit with the door because there was no warning not to be near it. This resulted in a bruised arm and elbow of said friends. (On the good hand, the actor playing Jack the Ripper was very conscientious about actively checking the group for marked targets).

Overall, Nightmare is an intense journey into dark, psychological terrain. It was a disturbing, albeit, entertaining journey that got our hearts pumping and our minds spinning, but it is certainly not for everyone and if you have any issues related to claustrophobia or feel uncomfortable with people getting in close proximity to you, it’s best to sit this one out.

The Princess’s rating: 4 stars

The Warlock’s rating: 3 stars

Paranormal Activity 4

The day after our visit to the haunted house, the Princess and the Warlock spent the majority of their Saturday having a movie marathon at the local cinema. First up – Paranormal Activity 4.

We’ve watched all the previous movies in the series and as much as the “found footage” craze is growing a bit tired, we couldn’t help ourselves from checking out the next chapter to the story.

While the film certainly has its moments of scares, overall it was lackluster compared to the first two movies, though the Warlock found it better than the third and the Princess found it comparable to the third. And that third chapter is the one that we feel set the series on a downward slope. Without spoiling too much, the third movie sets up certain elements in the series’ internal mythology that pulls the action away from being a universal experience and makes it much more insular to the specific characters and lessens the scare factor by explaining the unexplainable, leading up to a disappointing climax. Unfortunately, the forth movie follows this mythology and whereas the previous movies had a delightfully slow build- up of tension which left you on the edge of your seat with anxiety, this one failed to pull off that same rise that made the first two movies a sensation. And when the main scares do show up at the end, they are meager as they are delivered not by a more tangible force rather than the unknown.

This being said, the use of the laptop cameras and Kinect were innovative and provided some rather creepy moments. Overall, it was okay but nothing special. If you are a fan of the series it’s worth checking out, otherwise hold off for a Netflix view on the comfort of your own couch.

The Princess’s rating: 3 stars

The Warlock’s rating: 3 stars

 

Sinister

The premise of Sinister is that a down-on-his-luck true crime novelist played by Ethan Hawke moves his family into the home of a family that was recently murdered. A crime which he is investigating for his latest book.

After discovering a box full of troubling super 8 film, Hawke’s Ellison Oswalt finds himself deeper into the mystery than he expected and at the center of it, a supernatural entity known as Bughuul who lives in the images of himself.

The idea certainly isn’t original (see “The Ring”), but it provides memorable enough scares to make it unique and stand on its own. We don’t want to spoil too much, so we’ll just say this – Yes, it is scary. In fact, both the Princess and the Warlock were freaked out enough by this one that they needed to go see a third movie (Argo, we both give it 4 stars – but not theme relevant so we’re not reviewing it) just to get their mind off of the idea of Bughuul following us home. The great part about this film is that while it takes so many overused and seemingly unoriginal concepts (ie. creepy ghost children, the boogey monster) and reinvents the elements to transform it into a classic. It is hands down the best horror movie of 2012 to date and probably the best one we’ve seen since the Grudge.

The Princess’s rating: 4 stars

The Warlock’s rating: 4.5 stars

Boo at the Zoo

The Princess hasn’t been to the Bronx Zoo since she was a wee lass, so the Warlock had been promising her to take her for a while. Luckily, the Princess’s friend Dalin of Magic ala Mode decided to invite us to check out their Boo in the Zoo Halloween event.

Together with another friend, Nina, the four of us had a blast on the fine crisp, autumn day. The event is perfect for families looking for a fun day to spend with kids. Costumes are encourages for both children and adults alike. With Hayrides, free candy stations, a parade, face painting and of course lots of animals, it makes an ideal trip for locals looking for something a little less scary.