Horror Double Feature

Halloween is just around the corner and, as I typically do this time of year, I've been watching a few of horror movies to get into the spirit. Last night I ventured into the dark recesses of a couple streaming services hoping to find some spooky options. 

The first movie I decided to check out was American Poltergeist on Netflix. 

Released in 2015, this film is about a group of college kids who decide that this semester they want to live off-campus, and so they rent a couple of rooms at an old house. Of course, this house has a dark past and is haunted. At first it starts out with the landlady acting a little creepy and some strange noises in the house. Eventually, when one of the girls starts to have visions of the people who were killed in the home, things start to escalate quickly. Overall, there is very little positive to say about this movie. The acting is bad, it's not well written, the sound design is shoddy, etc. However, it does hit that sweet spot of being so bad that I found it hilarious. I can't recommend this movie if you're looking for some good scares, with that being said, you may get a few laughs out of it. This one deserves a 0 out of 5 rating but, because I was so entertained by it, I'm going to give American Poltergeist a 1 out of 5.


The second movie I landed on last night was Exorcism of the Dead from 2017, which I came across on Amazon Prime Video. 

Movies about exorcisms have always had a way of suckering me in ever since I first saw 1973's The Exorcist which still stands as the gold-standard of such films. This movie could not be further in quality from that masterpiece. Exorcism of the Dead is probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The movie starts off with a woman emailing the Catholic church asking for help as she believes her daughter is possessed by a demon. Eventually a priest arrives and goes up to the girl's room, with her uncle, to perform an exorcism. Most of the movie takes place in this one room and it might be the most boring exorcism ever put to film. Occasionally the movie will venture to another location to show a murder, but it's not much more interesting. This is a rare film with no redeeming qualities, at least that I could spot. I'm giving this one a 0 out of 5.