This week the studios are giving us one of the first Oscar contenders of the season and two horror releases. One of the horror films looks like a new classic while the other appears to be a pile. Before dropping any cash on admission this weekend, read and choose carefully. Apparently your generation doesn’t want to see vampire killers anymore, nor vampires either. All they want to see slashers running around in ski masks, hacking up young virgins.
The Social Network – Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jesse Eisenberg, the man who stole Michael Cera’s mojo. Seriously, how much money is missing from Cera’s bank account solely because of Eisenberg deciding to become an actor? You think Cera doesn’t watch Zombieland on lonely nights and thinking, “That should be ME hanging out with Harrelson!” Now Eisenberg may very well get a Best Actor nod off of his work in this, perhaps David Fincher‘s (Fight Club) best film yet. The story of the various people who claim to be founders of the website Facebook, the film also includes another stunning turn from Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go), showing everyone once again why Hollywood is lining up to offer him roles including the Spider-Man reboot. Check out the trailer here.
Let Me In – Let’s face it, this isn’t going to be nominated for Best Picture at the end of the year, but the buzz on it is tremendous. A remake of the modern classic Swedish film Let the Right One In, we are shown the life of a bullied young boy who befriends a young girl that has just moved into his apartment complex, only to realize later that she is a vampire. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) took a look of hits from fans of the original film, but now that the movie has actually screened for audiences and critics at a few film festivals, it is being called one of the most heartfelt movies of the year. Yeah, how many reviews of Twilight do you remember saying that? This could be the contender this week, folks. Check out the great looking trailer here.
Case 39 – Someone at Paramount finally remembered that they had this movie sitting on the shelf. Made in 2009 and featuring a cast of Renee Zellweger, Bradley Cooper, and Ian McShane, the studio figured that they would finally try to recoup some of their budget by releasing this thriller during the first weekend of October, hoping for some early Halloween traffic. I wonder if anyone bothered noticing that Let Me In was already scheduled, or if at this point it doesn’t really matter. Zellweger stars as a social worker that takes a 10 year old girl from her abusive parents, only to slowly discover that the girl may not be as innocent as she believes. Just from that description, I’m willing to bet that they rip off The Omen.