What Ingrid Watches

The Oscars are still some months away, but one thing is for sure: this is not going to be a year when one movie will sweep away all the big prizes. It is, of course, a lot more interesting when the Oscars are neatly divided amongst a handful - or more - of favourites. Let's face it: it is always a lot more fun when we have to keep on guessing for a long time which movie is going to win which award! When we look at the movies, in general, this year, we can safely say that at the moment there are two big favourites: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino) and Martin Scorcese's The Irishman. As soon as the first one came out it was already rumoured to be an Oscar contender and things are still going strong for Tarantino. But The Irishman has had some raving reviews too and will probably feature in the major categories as well. It would be nice of course to see these two directors in a neck to neck race, but lately, things have become even more exciting! JoJo Rabbi...

After Nick Groff left Ghost Adventures , he launched Paranormal Lockdown and also served as an executive producer for another paranormal television series, Ghost Stalkers. This series only lasted for one season (end of 2914) and has six episodes, each devoted to one (supposedly) haunted location. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes. Ghost Stalkers features two hosts, actor Chad Lindberg and author John E. L. Tenney. Both have a lot in common: not only do they believe in the paranormal, but they both also experienced an NDE (Near Death Experience). Because of this, they believe that haunted locations contain a portal (to hell), where the dead can cross over from one world to another. And it's their mission to find this portal in the locations they investigate in each of the six episodes. For this, they use a device, called a wormhole detector, built to discover gateways that connect different realities with each other. The two men have different personalities though and thi...

About a week ago, I discovered that director Tom Six had made a new movie, called The Onania Club. Since I am familiar with some of his former movies, I became very intrigued. So, I went to my good friend YouTube to look for the trailer. And I did find it! It all looks mysterious and unsettling again! But then we are dealing with the director who made one of the most controversial trilogies in movie history. Dutch writer, director, producer and actor Tom Six started making movies in the Netherlands in 2004. His international breakthrough came 5 years later when he made the first part of The Human Centipede, a trilogy that belongs to the subgenre of body horror. Critics were divided, but the movie quickly gained cult status. The second part came in 2011; Tom Six had to recut it because the movie was deemed to be too violent. The final part was released in 2015. Little is known about his latest production, The Onania Club. The movie was slated for 2017 and then got delayed for...

We all have guilty pleasures like watching a movie that is so bad that it actually becomes hilarious. Showgirls is a perfect example: the screenplay is ludicrous and the acting is over the top, but we all enjoy the nudity (both female and male) and the dancing and the stripping. Shark Night is another example: the plot of this horror movie is silly and predictable, to say the least, and the acting is wooden, but we can't wait to see how most of the cast is killed off. A group of young people spends a long weekend in a gorgeous house located on a beautiful saltwater lake. They all represent a certain prototype: the innocent virgin, the jock, the nerd and so on. They quickly have a run-in with some bad guys, but very conveniently there is a sheriff nearby. It doesn't take long though for our group to figure out that there is something "fishy" in the water. And the viewer quickly knows who will survive the shark attacks and who won't. Of course, you might ask y...

Hideo Nakata is a Japanese filmmaker with hits such as Ring, Ring 2, Dark Water and The Ring Two. Some of his movies were remade in America, where they were highly successful as well. Imagine my surprise when out of the blue, I stumbled upon this trailer on YouTube: At a first look, the trailer looks incoherent. It seems like they are rechewing the story about the origins of Sadako, but now in in the 21st century with all its new technology. Somehow this didn't look appealing to me... Have we grown tired of all these Japanese girls with long black hair in front of their face climbing our of a well? I soon discovered why I hadn't heard of this movie before. It bombed... The incoherent storytelling, which you can already notice in the trailer, is one of the reasons. But the main reason is that it is not scary enough; there are only a handful of scare jumps and the body count is very low. And after all, we do watch a horror movie in order to be scared and to see...

The title refers to the main character, a young boy who is a Hitler Youth. One day he discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic and his worldviews are turned upside down. The film stars Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson and is directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok). The trailer appeals a lot to me. If I can't see the movie here in Spain in its original version, I will probably buy the DVD. I like the historical subject - I have always been interested in World War II, but what I really appreciate is the fact that the director opted for a black comedy. The movie has had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and will be released in the USA in the 2nd part of Octobre. So far the movie has received mixed reviews. Praise so far has gone to the principal actors, but critics are divided by the depiction of the Nazis in the movie. Right now it is hard to judge whether this movie is going to be successful at the Oscars or not. Remembe...

Last week, I talked about one of my favourite paranormal shows on American television, Ghost Adventures . As I explained to you, in the 10th season, paranormal researcher Nick Groff was replaced by 2 other collaborators. Luckily for us, Groff returned with other shows, one of them being Paranormal Lockdown. In this series, Groff teams up with another paranormal researcher, Katrina Weidman - who was featured on yet another American paranormal program - and a cameraman called Rob. The show follows more or less the same format as Ghost Adventures: the first 20 minutes feature an introduction with some historic details and eyewitness accounts of the haunted location, followed by the investigation itself. But instead of exploring the building during one night, both the researchers and at some intervals also the cameraman, are locked down for 72 hours, thus allowing enough time to gather substantial evidence. Paranormal Lockdown takes you to haunted buildings all over America and the...