Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

  The updated Rube Goldberg devices in this loose remake of William Castle's 1960 haunted house flick along with the exaggeratedly designed ghosts make this one fun to watch if predictable. Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, and Matthew Lillard each give their all in a film that needs more scares. 

 I'm generally not a big fan of Haunted House movies that were released after 2010, particularly the Conjuring series, or, honestly, any haunted house movies that deal with possession, poltergeist activity, or exorcisms. Don't get me started on Ed and Lorraine Warren or other woo peddlers. However, The Other s is very different. Nicole Kidman's spectacular performance brings realistic gravitas to an interesting historical, supernatural drama by adding an element of believability missing from most. The shocking third act reveal additionally sets this one apart. 

A silly premise concerning a police chase on a ghost-infested Mars that often feels like it wants to be a Mad Max or Snake Pliskin sequel is not one of John Carpenter's better offerings. However, if you just want a fun movie with a visually distinctive villain and many laudable action sequences.

Jeremiah and I rented the Lost House some time in 2001 because we wanted a bigger place that would hold us and our friend, Matt. The place was too big, so we had to get a roommate. Eventually, Jeremiah's cousin moved into a room in our house that was not that bigger than a closet. Another guy  moved in upstairs with Mat, and maybe I will discuss him in more detail in a future post. Needless to say the guy was a mess and caused us more stress than you could ever imagine.  We decorated the house in Punk and Industrial Chic, taping flyers, newspaper clippings, and comic strips to the dirty walls. It soon resembled  a larger version of my bedroom in high school. Much to my mother's dismay, I covered the walls of my room with clippings and pictures from floor to ceiling, tacking up whatever took my fancy from punk ads to clippings from old books. My room was on the second floor of the house, which earlier had been converted from an attic, so the lower half of the wall had pa...

I moved in that summer, not prepared for a hot, festering several months in a strange, small house that had seen its share of drunken, college parties. I moved in with three other guys who I had known awhile: Dave, Joe, and Jeremiah. We were a motley crew: a punk rock English major, a brusque music major, a science major, and an opinionated psychology major. I was the progressive English major that flirted with anarchism, like a less obnoxious version of Rik from The Young Ones . In some ways, we resembled that troupe, except with far less humor.   Joe was a more conservative psychology major who liked to argue. We were both from the same hometown and had honed our friendship as outsiders. Dave majored in teaching music; he was the authoritarian taskmaster that wanted to keep us in line. Jeremiah, the science major, added a new flavor to our little group of outsiders. We met Jeremiah when he took a room in the house the previous January. He and I would move into another house, T...