Saw

CHICAGO – If you find yourself reading this review, you likely understand how much a film can influence society. Despite our best efforts, we don’t get to decide how or why something gets added to our zeitgeist. Its staying power can extend to anything from a character, an ideology, or even a quote.

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 20 pairs of guaranteed anytime movie tickets up for grabs to “The Conjuring” prequel “Annabelle”! Pick your own local movie theatre and time throughout Chicago(land)!

CHICAGO – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 40 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the highly anticipated horror sequel “Insidious: Chapter 2” starring Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson!

CHICAGO – With his production company, Blumhouse, Jason Blum might be the most important voice in modern horror. As studio horror films became glutted with remakes and sequels in the ’00s, Blum changed the model with low-budget, high-profit films like “Paranormal Activity” and “Insidious.”

CHICAGO – “The Collection” is a very, very, very, very bad movie. It is really only watchable because it’s so bad. It’s one of those flicks that encourages talking or tweeting in the theater merely so you can make it enjoyable by laughing at it and not really with it.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – I have written over a thousand reviews and have rarely been as conflicted as I am about my response to James Wan’s “Insidious.” It comes down to this question — do you judge the effort or the execution? I love what Wan and co-writer Leigh Whannell (the team behind “Saw,” working this time with the producers of “Paranormal Activity”) are attempting with their unique ghost story, one that clearly pays homage to an old-fashioned style of horror filmmaking, but I don’t think they quite pull it off. Ultimately, a movie doesn’t exist in theory, only up on the screen, and that’s where “Insidious” doesn’t quite work as well as this classic horror fan truly wished it would.

CHICAGO – In our latest horror/thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new film “Insidious” with Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne from the “Paranormal Activity” and “Saw” makers!

CHICAGO – Patrick Wilson (“Little Children”) and Rose Byrne (“Damages”) play a truly terrified couple in James Wan’s “Insidious,” opening this Friday, April 1st, 2011. Produced by the team behind “Paranormal Activity” and written and co-starring Leigh Whannell, the man who did the same double duty on “Saw,” “Insidious” hopes to be the haunted house movie of 2011 with a twist.

CHICAGO – There’s something that horror movie producers never seem capable of understanding. A great horror movie is like watching a magic trick. It doesn’t work nearly as well the second time. The sequels to “Saw,” “The Blair Witch Project,” and now “Paranormal Activity,” are not that dissimilar from watching the same rabbit come out of the same hat with nothing much different than a new colored bandana around its neck. “Paranormal Activity 2” has moments but doesn’t amount to nearly the same overall experience as the first.

CHICAGO – I’m old enough to remember how the “Friday the 13th” series made a promise of “The Final Chapter” after the fourth film only to return with “Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.” Let’s hope that “Saw: The Final Chapter” (also known as “Saw 7” and “Saw 3D”) does not follow the same pattern because this lackluster series truly needs to end now. At least give it a few years for some filmmaker to find what worked about it in the first place (for the record, I think the original “Saw” is a near-great horror flick…but the franchise went 1-for-7 overall) because this final film does not demand a follow-up. Please.