HALLOWEEN HOTTIES: MELANIE PAPALIA

MELANIE PAPALIA

This newest installment of Halloween Hotties features a relatively new scream queen on the block, Canadian actress Melanie Papalia. This hardworking beauty has kept very busy since her first TV role in 2003 and along the way has had some close calls with the horror genre with roles on Blade: The Series and Supernatural, along with a part in the killer car flick Super Hybrid. It wasn’t until 2012 with a role in the internet themed slasher Smiley, that she made her presence fully known in the genre and she’s continues to make an impression with two more sassy, spunky performances in two more genre flicks since…

(Click on the highlighted links or on the movie posters to read a review of her horror film’s that I’ve covered here previously. )

SMILEY

While 2012’s Smiley may not have achieved all it set out to, Papalia certainly made us take notice as sassy party girl, Proxy, who is roomate to the film’s heroine, Ashley (Caitlin Gerard). Ashley and Proxy conduct a dangerous experiment with an internet urban legend and unintentionally unleash a mysterious masked killer on an unsuspecting campus. Oops!

Melanie Papalia as feisty party girl, Proxy!

Proxy and Ashley may have taken an internet urban legend a bit too lightly.

Has an innocent prank put the fun loving vixen in jeopardy? See Smiley to find out!

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THE DEN

Melanie Papalia returned to horror in 2013 in the clever, internet set chiller The Den. This flick takes place totally on the laptop of Papalia’s heroine, Elizabeth Denton, whose research project on the behavior of people in internet chat communities, attracts the wrong kind of attention from a dangerous and demented individual. Papalia took center stage here and carried this disturbing flick on her petite, but sturdy shoulders. A very effective little movie whose leading lady helps make it work with a strong performance!

Pretty Elizabeth may have picked the wrong social studies project…

…as she soon finds herself and her friends in harm’s way, targeted by a maniac!

Our feisty heroine isn’t giving up without a fight!

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EXTRATERRESTRIAL

Melanie’s latest foray into horror…and hopefully, far from her last…was the really fun 2014 Sci-Fi/horror Extraterrestrial from the Vicious Brothers (Grave Encounters)! In this chilling and really entertaining flick, Papalia plays another feisty party girl, who, along with friends, is trapped in a secluded mountain cabin by some vengeful space aliens.

Papalia’s character, also named “Melanie”, is maybe too inquisitive for her own good?

A calmer moment before the pissing off of some unfriendly ETs!

Is that a…

Melanie and friends learn pissing off aliens is never a good thing.

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Party girl, bad girl or final girl, it doesn’t matter to us! We would love to see this gorgeous and talented lady from Up North in more genre flicks, as she’s already made quite an impression in the films she’s done. Whether in peril from internet entities, fighting off demented killers, or fleeing not-so-little green men, we just want to see this Canadian charmer get the spotlight she deserves!…and while horror is our favorite choice, we’d pretty much watch this talented lass in just about anything!

-MonsterZero NJ

And don’t forget to check out our Halloween Hotties focusing on Briana Evigan, Katrina Bowden, Alexandra Daddario, Katie Featherston, Katharine Isabelle, Amber Heard and Danielle Harris! (just click on their names to go to their pages!)

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: THE DEN (2013)

THE DEN (2013)

(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)

The Den is one of those pleasant little surprises that you watched out of moderate curiosity and enjoyed far more than expected. It also sets it’s horror story completely on the laptop of it’s lead character, a full year before Unfriended. The story tells of pretty Elizabeth Benton (Melanie Papalia from Extraterrestrial) who has received a grant to do a social study of people who populate internet chat sites. The site she chooses for her 24/7 study is “The Den.” She meets all sorts of strange people and, as can be expected in a horror flick like this, catches the attention of a deranged and dangerous individual. Soon she is being cyber-stalked, her computer hacked, her life invaded and her friends and loved ones start o fall victim to some masked assailant. Can Elizabeth escape this maniac?…or will she be their next victim?

Directed by Zachary Donohue and co-written by he and Lauren Thompson, this is actually a clever and effective little horror/thriller with some gruesome and disturbing moments. More than a year before Unfriended and even a few weeks before Open Windows, Donohue sets his entire thriller on Elizabeth’s laptop and phone so we see her POV of those she’s watching and the POV of those watching her. What unfolds is nothing new to the slasher sub-genre, with a young victim being chosen and stalked and those around her put in harm’s way, but, the stage it plays out on is novel…for when it was made…and there are some moments that use the POV format very well. Donohue keeps us involved and there is some suspense and it’s only in the last act when it takes a bit of a “Hostel” turn, that the familiarity really starts to sink in…though it still worked well enough and provided some action caught on the various cameras. While it’s ending was nothing new and a bit abrupt, it still added a chill, so, it worked.

Another real big factor in this working as well as it does, is leading lady Melanie Papalia. The entire movie rests on her shoulders and she carries it well. Elizabeth is a sweet, ambitious and likable girl who is thrust into a nightmarish situation. Papalia plays her terror well, but, adds a strength and resilience to her character that helps make her resourcefulness and toughness believable when she has to fight tooth and nail for her life. The Extraterrestrial actress makes an impressive and endearing heroine and hopefully, she gets to play final girl more often. Also stars David Schlachtenhaufen, Adam Shapiro, Katija Pevec and Anna Margaret Hollyman as Elizabeth’s friends and loved ones but, it is Papalia’s show all the way.

I liked The Den. It’s no classic and it’s far from perfect but, it is surprisingly more effective than one might expect from a little movie set entirely on a laptop. The slasher story is familiar, despite the novel cyber setting, but, Donohue makes it work well enough and his firecracker leading lady carries this internet horror on her pretty but, sturdy shoulders. It’s not going to revolutionize horror and you might forget about it six months from now, but, for 80+ minutes, it’s entertaining, has some effective and disturbing sequences and introduces us to a director and actress we’d like to see more of. I’d say check it out if you have the chance. Cool little flick.

-MonsterZero NJ

3 laptops.

BE WARNED: Trailer is spoiler-ish…