You’re Next

You’re Next directed by Adam Wingard starts off as a family reunion dinner that quickly turns bad. A trio of killers wearing masks and carrying various weapons set traps around the house, then invade and start killing the people inside. Unfortunately for the killers, among the targets one of the characters is trained to deal with hostile and emergency situations. The movie has a good sense of suspense and hits that logical side where it could possibly happen, making it all the more scary. The acting is believable and the gore and special effects are very realistic. With that being said, all of the kills are very brutal, violent, heartless, graphic, and explicit. It’s not something I’d really recommend for the faint-hearted. 

Personal Rating: 4.6 out of 5

Hush

Hush is a movie directed by Mike Flanagan that focuses on a woman who is deaf and mute played by Kate Siegel, who is cast aside by society and being stalked by a psycho-like killer. After being cast aside by society, she decided to distance herself from the rest of society by living in a very rural area with few neighbors. The tactics used by the killer get a little unclear and illogical during the movie. The first death scene is just a little disturbing, and there are few scenes that truly make the movie deserve an R rating. The movie is still unique, with the fact that  she’s unable to hear anything or talk/scream. Her stalker spends most of his time lingering around the property, unable to get in the house, and also unmasks himself in roughly the first 20 minutes of the movie making it less scary.

Personal Rating: 4.0 out of 5

The Ritual

The Ritual focuses on a group of four who enter the woods and go for a hike together after one of their friends has passed away. This movie focuses more on the fictional horror side with frequent jump scares throughout the movie – most won’t catch viewers off guard, and on most occasions, the sound effects are much scarier than what’s happening on screen. So, if you do let your guard , the sound effects might have you a little shaken up. This horror movie uses a monster-like creature to strike fear into the audience watching it. As a horror movie, I personally didn’t find it overly scary and it most likely won’t keep you up at night. The overall ideas for the movie were intriguing, though, and the movie really felt like it had potential that wasn’t fully tapped into. 

Personal Rating: 3.8 out of 5