Tuesday Terror: The Bay (2012)

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On July 4th 2009, disaster struck a small Maryland town. Several government agencies were involved in a cover up. They locked away evidence, cleaned up the bodies and buried the truth.

However, there are still witnesses.Thanks to a government leak, a journalism student who was present at the July 4th fiasco gets access to the various material authorities had confiscated. She’s combined her footage with surveillance cameras, video calls, etc to create a documentary that reveals what really happened that day…on The Bay.

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This is a pretty good found footage story. It isn’t linear and unfolds in a way that will keep you guessing as to exactly what is going on. The townspeople, who have no idea what’s happening to them, flail around for answers. Many of the theories presented don’t seem incredibly far fetched.

There are shades of Jaws – the vacuum cleaner salesman turned mayor sucks – and other horror films but it doesn’t feel redundant. The story telling works to draw you in.

This is the kind of movie that will send you to Google afterward.

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Tips: Don’t drink the water. Don’t swim in the water. Don’t run through a water sprinkler.

Tuesday Terror: Friend Request (2016)

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You think you can ghost Marina? Unfriend her on social media, ignore her messages and FaceChats? You are an amateur; Marina takes ghosting to a whole new level. You’re not ready.

Let’s start from the beginning. Laura is a beautiful, popular girl with over 800 friends on a Facebook lookalike site. She’s also a good, kindhearted girl who magnanimously accepts a friend request from a Marina, a girl who (OMG! Can you believe it) has 0 social media friends.

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Unfortunately, Marina is tremendously clingy. She believes that this virtual like translates into real life best friends.

Laura is too nice to tell Marina to back off. She pretends that she’s too sick to have a birthday get together rather than telling Marina the truth. Of course, Laura’s real life friends document the festivities on social media. Then, all hell breaks loose.

A big stumbling block for this movie is the Facebook lookalike site everyone uses. At one point, Laura and friends desperately want to delete profiles or remove disturbing material from them but can’t. It’s incredibly easy to be suspended from Facebook. That these college aged people being helpless doesn’t ring true. IRL, those types of offensive post would have been taken down because of complaints.

So, Laura and the gang not being in control of their social media looks more incompetent than scary. To be fair, they do try to explain it but…eh.

It’s a bit of The Ring, with just a hint of Stay Alive. It’s has a nice surprise or two but don’t think about the plot after the credits.

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Tips:
*Why lie if your social medial timeline will give you away?
*Careful who you befriend on social media.
*Do you see ovaries in the 2nd poster…or is it just me?

Tuesday Terror: Burnt Offerings (1976)

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What would you sacrifice to have the home of your dreams? That’s the question the Rolf family faces in Burnt Offerings, starring Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Betty Davis and Burgess Meredith.

A family of moderate means rents a huge, Victorian mansion for the summer. Why is the mansion so cheap? Well, the owners explain that their mother lives on the top floor and tenants are required to provide the elderly lady with meals–though they will never see her. That’s a very strange proposition and it raises red flags for the husband (Reed). The wife (Black) is so in love with the mansion, she promises to handle the care and feeding of the mother.

It’s a fantastic property, but things don’t feel quite right. Was that a trick of the light? Could the corridors be haunted? The history of the place is vast – who wouldn’t expect a ghost or two. Yet, as darkness descends on the family, one has to wonder if the house itself is a living, breathing entity.

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Tip:
An old lady in the attic who never leaves the room? Come on people – be smarter than this.