Top 5 Slasher Villains

My second top list and I have decided to do it on my top five slasher villains! I am a massive fan of slasher films, I remember times where I have stayed up throughout the night watching them so in the future I will review those films. The reason it is five is because I cannot think of ten.

5. GHOSTFACE

 

Love the whole Scream franchise and Ghostface was a formidable slasher for the protagonists; he has a great mask and costume and the guy can take some punishment. Not to mention he has a love for horror films and likes to reference them. However the reason that Ghostface is fifth is because the identity of Ghostface constantly keeps changing and that is something I do not like. Not only that but his incarnations in Scream 2 – 4 have never been as great as the one in the original Scream.

4. FREDDY KRUEGER

 

The Nightmare on Elm Street film; a series that was so creative yet declined with every new film they released, the only ones I liked where 1 (of course this one!), 3, 4 and Freddy vs. Jason (If that counts). However something they did get right creating such an iconic character like Freddy; the burnt, knife fingered dream invader. This guy can really dread going to sleep however as the series declined so did he and they just made his murderers silly instead of creative since he could do anything in a dream. But I do not blame Robert Englund for this because he is one hell of a slasher actor!

3. NORMAN BATES

 

One of the first ever slashers to grace the screen and I am talking about the Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece not the remake. This guy is creepy as hell and I am not talking about when he dresses like a woman and kills women in the showers, even when he is not in his mother disguise there is just something unnerving about him. I am sure anyone who has watched the film remembers the scene where he is talking about taxidermy.

2. JIGSAW

A quite unique villain for the fact that he does not just straight up kill his victims with a knife; instead he creates many elaborate traps and make his victims kill themselves. Another reason is that he is not doing this out of pleasure or revenge (like some of his apprentices do), he has suffered in the past and his suffering with cancer so he knows how precious life really wants his victims to know that as well.

1.      JASON VOORHEES

 Now my favourite is the deformed serial killer from the Friday the 13^th series. Sure he has a bit of a mother obsession and he was not even the killer in the first film but he has become an imposing, un – killable behemoth. His signature machete and hockey mask have become so iconic and out of all of the killers on this list I really don’t want to be chased by him. I also really like all of his films and all of his portrayals; I even really like Jason X and the Friday the 13^th remake even though I know they were not well received.

 

References:

http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131103072806/h__/halloween/images/6/60/Ghost-face-accessory-mask-large.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/Freddy_Krueger.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Norman-bates.png
http://crimson.fit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Jigsaw-puppet.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Jasonf.jpg

Bleach Review: 560 – 564, Mask De Masculine vs. Kensei and Renji

Now it is time for another review that I promised to do in my earlier review and that is the recent Mask De Masculine fight that was shown. The reason I am reviewing it is because besides from being a really great fight, I want to review the all fights that are coming up in Bleach but only after they have finished.

It starts off with Mask De Masculine defeating Ikkaku Madarame, Yumichika Ayasegawa and Shuhei Hisagi (along side his cheering fan James), however before he can land the finishing blow he is stopped by the Soul Reaper captains Kensei Mugruma and Rojuro ‘Rose’ Otoribashi. Kensei steps up to fight first and activities his Bankai, Tekken Tachikaze, which controls the power of wind and focuses all of the power of his Shikai in to his knuckle blades. This explosive power makes his assault seem endless and he uses it to get the upper hand on Mask, however it his then revealed that Mask’s S stands for The Superstar and the cheering from his fan James grants Mask even greater power and strength. Kensei fights back but the constant cheering from James powers up Mask too much and he is defeated.

Next Rose steps up to fight and starts by cutting James in half before activating his own Bankai, Kinshara Butodan, a music type Bankai. Acting as a conductor to direct several giants that have numerous techniques such as Sea Drift (Water) and Prometheus (Fire) and seems to overwhelm Mask. However before he can activate another technique called Ein Heldenleben, Mask figures out the weakness in Rose’s Bankai by destroying his own eardrums and thereby blocking out the music, he then blasts a star shaped hole through Rose’s chest, critically injuring him.

But all is not lost because Mask is interrupted once again by the arrival of Renji, who has just come back from his training in the Royal Realm. Mask starts off by having his eardrums healed by James, who still turns out to be alive, before charging at Renji. However Renji’s training has made him more powerful than he thought, so even after Mask changes form, enters Vollstandig and unleashes a wide array of star based moves; Renji survives them and enters Bankai. His Bankai has changed to it’s ‘true form’ has a result of his training; the head of the snake engulfs his sword arm and looks like a shield while he can control massive bone arm of the baboon, this new Bankai his called Soo Zabimaru. After overpowering Mask, Renji actives a move called Orochio, cutting Mask in half and burning him to ashes. 

Now this was one exciting fight and I thought it was very well done and there was few stand out moments for me. First was that Mask was shown to be a really powerful Sternritter, when he first appeared many thought he was just a simple minded Yammy copy but no this guy took out five Soul Reapers and was hard to kill. Mask really did grow on me during this fight and I really thought he was going to survive it so that was a shame.

Next was that Kensei and Rose got in on the spotlight and kicked some ass, sure they where defeated but they went down swinging. I think Kensei being in this repaired a lot of the damage Kubo did when he completely skipped his fight with Wonderwiess and he was missing for the rest of the Fake Karakura Arc; that was one of the biggest disappointments in Bleach. Then there was Rose, who is one of my favourite characters and we finally got to see his Bankai and it was soooo creative, one of the best Kubo has done, I really hope we see more of it.

Lastly was the reveal of Renji’s new Bankai and it is way better than his last one that was just a massive bone whip. This was looks cooler and gives Renji a ton of new abilities while the last one was just really straight forward and predictable.

However I felt that this chapter was not without and few flaws, he first being Kensei and Rose getting defeated. I know I said they still kicked ass but they are two of my favourites and since it’s been ages since we saw them last fight I thought they deserved a few victories, especially Rose who just revealed his Bankai. I really like the Vizards in Bleach but I think Kubo is just wasting them; first there was Shinji in the Komamura fight and now these two, all three seem to go down too quick for my liking and they did not even use their Hollow powers.

Next is another contradiction of the highlights I picked but I just have to say it; Renji. I admit his Bankai is awesome but it and he are now so overpowered. The Vandenreich are supposed to be the Soul Reaper’s ultimate enemy, Mask took out five Soul Reapers and he did not even break a sweat but Renji stepped in and dealt with him straight away, I just did not like that.

Lastly speaking about Mask, I did say he was growing on me but the latter half of the fight did not help. When he fought Kensei and Rose he kept calling them villains which made me think that Mask truly believed he was the good guy saving the world from the Soul Reapers, it added a bit of depth to his character. However when Renji his personality seemed to change, he flies in to a rage and even says that he is just going to kill Renji just for the sake of it. It made him out just to be mindless and cruel when I really thought he was a good person who truly viewed Soul Reapers as evil.

In conclusion this was a really great fight, one of my favourite of the Thousand War Arc so far, we got some cool Bankai action, a Sternritter with some cool abilities and Kensei and Rose got in on the fight too. But it was let down by Renji’s massive amount of over powering, the fact that Kensei and Rose are probably not going to be fighting again soon and Mask just turning in to some kind of berserker near the end.

SCORE: 7/10 

Film Review: Psycho (1960)

My first film review and I thought I would on one of my favourite films and an all time classic; Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Like all my other reviews this will contain SPOILERS so I advice you to only read on if you have seen the film.

This film stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane who steals $40,000 from the realtors office she works for in hopes of giving it to her boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin) because he is massively in debt and does not want to marry when he can barely afford it. Marion flees out of town and ends up staying a night at the Bates Motel run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a troubled man with a domineering mother. That is the first half of the story, the second half stars Marion’s sister Lila Crane (Vera Miles) who searches for her and also introduces the character Milton Arbogast (Jon McIntire) a private detective.

I really liked this story; it is simple but effective and really gets the audience involved with it. It also has a lot of suspense, for example when Marion is on the run there is a cop who stalks her and you just don’t know his the cop suspects her or not. (MASSIVE SPOILER) This film also contains the famous shower in which Marion is killed by Norman Bates and it is one of the best film scenes I have ever seen. The camera work and the acting by Janet Leigh is so convincing, this was a time when bloody violence and nudity was frowned upon but they do an amazing job making it as realistic as possible. That is another thing I really liked about the film; the brilliant camera work, they do a lot of excellent close up shots on the faces of the characters and there is a great scene where Arbogast is falling down the stars and like the shower scene they really convince you it is happening.

Every single character’s performance in this film is perfection but the highlight of them all is Anthony Perkins for his portrayal as Norman Bates. He makes the character seem as polite and shy as possible while at the same time really disturbed, especially during the conversation he has with Marion and he explains his hobby about taxidermy. The music is also great in this as well, the one that plays during the shower scene has become iconic and the fast paced one that plays when Marion is on the run really suits the moment.

Overall this is one of the most iconic films ever created and one of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest. Even though this film was not the first slasher film it is certainly started off a new craze for it that began in the 1980s. I really do not have anything bad to say about this film because it is a fine example of cinema at its best.

SCORE: 10/10