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Welcome to Freaky Films

Hello there my name is Jacob Thompson and I’ll be your personal guide through weekly movie watch-lists and review updates. I want to create a place where I can share my love for weird and macabre movies while also giving you my thoughts and opinions on the film. Posts will be made at the beginning and end of the week, posts at the beginning of the week will have a 3 film watch list for you to view over the week and posts at the end will be thorough reviews of each. I’ve always loved film more than any other entertainment medium. My end goal here is to create a space for new Cinephiles to find very different and out of the norm films, from what you’d see on or off the silver screen. 

If I absolutely had to decide a favorite movie genre I have to admit it would have to be horror. I do plan on reviewing all different genre of film but horror definitely holds a special place in my heart, so circumstantially a heavy theme in most of my watch lists will be horror or just generally disturbing movies. If you are not interested in horror or are generally squeamish I would not recommend my movie selections. At the end of each week, when you’ve hopefully watched all three films, I will post a short but in depth review of each film. I will also be watching/re-watching the films along with you, as well as short tweets over the films as I watch.

Hopefully at some point I will branch out to new and different film territory such as, blockbuster reviews, or large recommendation lists. I hope you join me and watch along as we explore the weirdest films the industry has to offer. If you enjoy the website and would like to reference an ever growing list of films follow me on Letterboxd and hey, while your at it why not follow my Twitter

My Experience

Seems like the week of June first was my most popular.

I absolutely loved creating this website, assignment or not it was just an overall enjoyable experience. I honestly might come back to this website to something without constraint every now and again. There are definitely some improvements that could be made to the site I really wanted to give the entire home page a more horror aesthetic feel and maybe add some filter tags to each post in order to make them easier to access. Features like a horror trivia page and a forum of some type would have been interesting to add. Promoting on Twitter works fine and all but I think I could’ve done better promoting by asking some friends to make posts about the site as well, boosting the amount of people who will see it.

My Welcome post was the most popular.

I did enjoy writing these posts from time to time, I’m very passionate about movies so writing about them isn’t too much of a chore for me. If I had to pick a favorite moment it would have to be creating the Nicolas Cage watchlist, I came up with the idea for it on the spot and it ended up being my favorite post. something like this blog could really help me in the future as a resume feature, something my employer can use to see my ability first hand. I think the most valuable tool in all this is learning to promote properly which I think will be a very important skill in my future.

The week of June first was my most traffic heavy with a total of nine visitors and eleven total views on my posts cumulative. My most popular post was the welcome post, which I guess makes sense since its pinned to front of the page and is always the first thing you see when you visit. I’m actually surprised I got any viewers, with only six followers on Twitter I really didn’t think my promotions would reach anybody. It has been fun to say the least but for right now, this is Jake signing off.

The Abandoned Nursing Home

The front door of the abandoned nursing home.

I took a trip to Florida in order to see my family over spring break last year, I did not do anything too special the entire time I was there. I mostly just caught up on movies I had not seen yet, like Color Out Of Space, and hung out with my family. Though there is one thing I did that was a little out of the ordinary for me, I got to explore an abandoned nursing home near our house in Florida! I would like today to talk about my experience at the old place for fun since it kinda goes with the theme of this website it being a creepy old building and what not.

A hallway on the second floor where the light didn’t quite reach.
A utility closet that I thought had a cool industrial vibe to it.

There was an alleyway near my house in Florida that was always occupied by tons of cats so I thought it interesting enough to explore one day and maybe chill with the cats. Walking down the alley I noticed the building, old, falling apart, and completely taken over by feral cats. I decided to take a closer look at the building and to my surprise found a door with a busted window I could get through. Once I was finally inside I noticed just how recently this place must have been abandoned, there was still a ton of stuff like furniture and other things left behind.

One of the oddest finds while at the nursing home, looks like a bed pan on top of a bunch of notes.
I really wonder what made everyone abandon this place in such a hurry.

The amount of personal possessions left behind was shocking to me. Why was this place abandoned and why in such a rush that people left their possessions behind? I would like to clarify that I had confirmed beforehand that this place was completely abandoned months prior and that nothing was taken or disturbed during my exploration, I only observed and took pictures my entire time inside. Overall thought it was a really fun experience for me, the whole time I had a chill down my spine like I was being watched and made the experience so much creepier.

Nicolas Cage is back for more

Directed by: Kevin Lewis

Ironically only a couple weeks after posting Watchlist #3 Cage-off, a watchlist comprised of my top three Nicolas Cage films we get an announcement for a new horror film starring the man himself! Willy’s Wonderland it’s called and it looks to be another independent horror film to be added to Nic’s roster of films. “The Janitor (Cage) finds himself stranded in a remote town. Unable to pay the repair shop to fix his Jeep, he agrees to work off his debt by spending the night cleaning Willy’s Wonderland, an abandoned theme park full of animatronic characters that were once a beacon of fun for children to play with. But Willy’s Wonderland carries a dark secret that The Janitor is about to discover. He’s been lured into a deadly trap, or rather, a living nightmare, as the Wonderland’s animatronic characters come to life to destroy him. The Janitor is forced to fight his way from one monster to another, trying to survive until morning. And The Janitor doesn’t play nice.” a quick synopsis of the film courtesy of the previously discussed website Bloody Disgusting. I don’t know about you guys but this has got me really excited, for the movie and for Nic’s future career.

Willy’s Wonderland looks like its going to be some crazy, and classic, Nicolas Cage fun in the style of recent films like Mom And Dad or Mandy where they kinda let Nic do his own thing and don’t hold him back from his own weirdness. I have always been a fan of monster design in films and I’m really interested in finding out what these animatronic creatures look like. It seems as though this is Kevin Lewis’s first big project, his previous films mostly consisting of small dramas. Overall I couldn’t be more excited to hear about this movie and I have a good feeling that this will go down as a Nicolas Cage classic.

Mom And Dad A Terribly Entertaining Film

Directed By Brian Taylor

Nicolas Cage is definitely a versatile actor from treasure hunter to flaming skeleton, he does it all, and now we have psychotic dad Nicolas Cage. Nick, as I will call him from now on, gives an amazingly entertaining, one liner filled performance in “Mom And Dad”. I personally really enjoyed this film even though it wasn’t really well received in the box office, I do have a few problems with it which is why I think its the weakest film in this trio but I will talk about that later. To start out I would like to say “Mom And Dad” is an extremely funny and entertaining black comedy that just falls a little short due to some fundamental problems.

I would first like to talk about the negatives of this movie to get them out of the way. First of all the soundtrack in this movie is absolutely abysmal and I don’t mean the music itself is bad but the way the music is used in the film. None of the music makes any sense in this film, all the music is this very odd techno type, for example there is a scene where Nick is tickling his kid which is fine and all until you here the insanely jarring techno music accompanying it. It is really hard to explain with words alone but if you did see the movie before reading this like you should’ve I am sure you know what I am talking about. I would say the music is the biggest thing holding this movie back but besides that there are a few other things like plot holes, lack of explanation for why this is happening, and the annoying ending to the film.

Now for the good; “Mom And Dad” is incredibly an incredibly funny and interesting film that really doesn’t care what you think of it. There are some incredibly funny moments in this film, like when the gas explosion goes off and they shoot a slow motion of Nicks face rippling from the shock wave, it really holds up as a black comedy. My favorite parts of this movie and the real reason its one of my favorite Nicolas Cage movies is the one liners he pops off throughout the film, if they weren’t so explicit I would list some of them here. Overall there is not much to say about this film it is very simple and that is one of the reasons I like it so much, it’s just 84 minutes of pure Nicolas Cage insanity.

Bloody Disgusting A Horror Community Staple

This “review” will be a bit out of the norm from my usual stuff. I wanted to take a moment to talk about Bloody Disgusting, an amazing blog dedicated to all things horror. Bloody disgusting is more than just a horror resource for me, it is the inspiration for my fascination with the macabre and downright disturbing films in general. Without further ado lets jump right into this blogs review.

Bloody Disgusting is already the top resource in horror for most film goers, so I am sorry if none of this is new information to you. Bloody Disgusting is an archive of everything horror, they are a well-established cornerstone cult film info. Countless video/written reviews on TV, film, and video games, all related to horror of course, can be found littering the website. I personally love using the website as a recommendation point for films I may not have heard of but want to add to my watch list. Podcasts are great on bloody disgusting, with four different horror themed podcasts to listen to, you will never run out of content.

I could not recommend this website more, I would go as far as to say you’re not really a horror fan if you don’t regularly visit this website. Bloody Disgusting has been a cornerstone of horror information since 2001 and has only gotten bigger and more successful with each year. Now I’m fully aware that I’m basically talking to myself on this blog but, if you do happen to come across this post I would be so grateful if you would give recommendations for my watch lists, be it your own personal tastes or something you find fascinating on Bloody Disgusting. I have to say once more, Bloody Disgusting is an amazing resource for anybody interested in horror and I could not recommend it more.

Watchlist #3 Cage-off

Finally a new watchlist! This one is very near and dear to my heart, you see these three movies all have something in common they all star the man, the myth, the legend Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage is one of my all time favorite actors, he may be a little out there sometimes with his performances but that honestly only makes him more appealing and entertaining to me. Without further ado here are my personal favorite three films staring Nicolas Cage.

Directed By Richard Stanley

“Color out of Space” is one of, if not the, best film portrayals of H.P. Lovecrafts works and the film is only better having Nicolas Cage as a lead. Think “The Thing” meets “Annihilation” that’s the kind of film your about to experience, and its amazing. The film is about a family that lives on a remote ranch in a small New England town when one day out of the blue a meteorite crashes in their front yard. This meteor starts mutating everything around it even distorting time and space, and has an odd effect on the family as well. That’s all I really want to say right now about the film, it’s really best to just experience the film going in blind. If you don’t believe me that this is a must watch film the just listen to @TeakittyLB and @zinnyinn and their reactions to the film after watching.

Directed By Panos Cosmatos

This film is absolutely insane I almost don’t know what else to say, this film completely caught me by surprise when it first came out. “Mandy” is a heavy metal fueled psychedelic trip of a film starring Nicolas cage as a chainsaw wielding, revenge driven, John Wick type, hearing that you should already know that this movie is going to be awesome. The films story is really just a basic revenge tale, after Nicolas Cages wife is captured by a cult he goes on a gory, psychedelic rampage to get her back. @DanielDKraus and @InsideNo9Tweets sure make me want to see the movie again.

Directed By Brian Taylor

“Mom And Dad” is one of those so bad its good kind of films don’t get me wrong its a very entertaining movie with an interesting premise but there are so many odd scenes that make you think “they thought this was a good idea!?”. “Mom And Dad” is about parents all over the world inexplicably getting hit with the urge to kill their kids. That is all there is to it, you follow the kids of Nicolas Cage as they try to escape their deranged parents who are trying to kill them. The film is an odd one for sure but at least you will have some great Nicolas Cage lines to quote afterward. I will let @livewire1221 and @awarmann hype the film up for you some more.

Back for blood

Hello again and welcome to the redemption of Freaky films. After a long and seemingly permanent hiatus Freaky Films is back and ready to thrill you with the oddest and most interesting films the world has to offer. Freaky Films is a movie review blog with a sort of twist, I will post a movie recommendation list containing three similarly themed films then after a few days I will post a movie review for each individual film and rank them. The point is to have you watch all three films and form your own opinion on them so when I post my review and ranking we can discuss our similar or different points of view.

I want to create a place where I can share my love for weird and macabre movies while also giving you my thoughts and opinions. I’ve always loved film more than any other entertainment medium. My end goal here is to create a space for new Cinephiles to find very different and out of the norm films, from what you’d see on or off the silver screen. If you enjoy film in any way or want some oddity in your life then I would say this site will definitely have something for you. I truly love all film but, if I had to choose a favorite genre it would definitely have to be horror, most of my movie recommendation lists will include horror but that is not set in stone and the film lists will change with my current preference.

In the future I would love to add my full movie watch history to a separate page and maybe a few movie quizzes to go along with it. I hope everyone reading this has as good a time with this blog as I did creating it. You might as well also follow me Twitter to keep up to date on when a new post has arrived, and check out my Letterboxd where I keep my full movie diary and reviews for everything I have seen (mostly).

Film Review #5

Cabin Fever (2002) Directed By: Eli Roth

Cabin Fever (2002) is the original film before Cabin Fever (2016) an unneeded remake of a film only 14 years old at the time and still considered quite good. I will only be covering the original 2002 version. You’ve got your basic setup, group of clueless teens, cabin in the middle of nowhere, and a flesh eating disease. Could this film be number one, read to find out?!

Cabin Fever sets itself up as what seems to be a basic slasher film but with a major twist the killer is an unseen enemy, disease. It truly is a disgusting film, if you are not a fan of body horror then I wouldn’t recommend this film. But if you are this is kind of the pinnacle body horror film. Directed by Eli Roth its undoubtably the best film in his lacking roster.

Cabin Fever is a really fun movie to say the least. I really like the dreadful tone of the film as the viewer knows everyone’s gonna get it at some point. The acting is sub par and the characters are really unlikable, those are the only main drawbacks. This film rocks and that’s why it’s our number one.

Film Review #4

The Crazies (2010) Directed By: Breck Eisner

The Crazies (2010) is a solid film by director Breck Eisner who has a previous track record that’s not to great. Movies such as The Last Witch Hunter and Sahara, The Crazies really stands out as his best directorial creation. The original film The Crazies (1973) is on its own a great film that I would love to talk about, but in my opinion, out of the two, the remake is the superior film. I think you can already tell that I quite enjoy this film but will it be first place? Read more to find out.

When I saw this movie I was expecting a kind of zombie apocalypse meets small town kind of movie but I was happily surprised with its actual plot and execution. Our setting is a small quiet farming town, the original was set in Pennsylvania but I’m not sure about the remake. The water supply has been contaminated by some new type of rabies and all hell breaks loose. Something I love about this movie is on top of the creepy atmosphere there is also a looming government presence trying to quarantine and and keep quiet about whats going on.

The water born disease transforms the infected into rabid versions of themselves, trying to kill everybody but still keeping intelligence. I really like this because it gives us scenes like a granny sneakily shanking people with a knitting needle. This movie is a trip, and a good one at that, it’s got some pacing and story issues. This film comes in second place just behind my personal favorite.