Author Archives: Doc

Stranger Things S4 Vol. 2 E9

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SPOILERS

“Chapter Nine: The Piggyback”

Two and a half hours is longer than a lot of movies, but the final episode of Stranger Things in season four is better than a lot of movies. There were so many emotions and anxious moments in this finale that it really put a satisfying period on the best season of Stranger Things we have had. Some of the early episodes had a few storyline that dragged some, but every one of them was fire in this episode.

I was not a huge fan of the Russian arc for most of this season (with the exception of Hopper’s awesome escape) but it felt too dragged out and too separate from the story being told in the season. That changed with the use of the Demogorgon and we got a fantastic struggle with Hopper, Joyce, Murray in the gulag trying to help the kids by killing these monsters. Tying it back to the main story really brought a relevance that had been missing. Then the connection between Hopper and Joyce came through the screen.

Max offering herself up as bait was frightening and I was legitimately crying as she raised from the ground. Lucas was fighting with Jason and when Jason stepped on the Walkman and broke it, I audibly cried out. Jason deserved his fate when the “earthquake” came through the house. Even with Eleven there, I was scared for Max. I couldn’t believe that they would kill her after the drama of episode four, but they did it anyway. Thankfully, Eleven was able to save her, sort of. It seemed as if Max may be alive but is lost in her mind.

The death of Eddie was also painful as he went out a hero. Having Dustin there made the loss all the more painful. Eddie was a major player here, with his metal performance of Metallica and his efforts to give the party more time. His death by the bats was horrible and painful.

We learned that Vecna/Henry/1 was behind everything that was happening with the Upside Down. It is not the Mindflayer. Instead, Vecna survived the finale (according to Will, who said that he could feel him now that he was back in Hawkins). He was hurt, which sure seemed as he should be with the saw-off shotgun and the fire that was consuming him. I was pumping my fist when Eleven arrived and pulled Vecna away from Max the first time. That was an amazing arrival.

Mike’s words of love helped to inspire Eleven in her battle with Vecna. This was another thing I thought might come from Mike’s dying words, but I am grateful that my prediction was off.

The earthquake that ravaged Hawkins was horrific and frightening. It is still amazing that the town is so blinded by their denial. I did enjoy the falling action, catching up with the characters after the “victory” over Vecna. The California crew arriving back in Hawkins reuniting with their friends, Dustin with Eddie’s uncle, Hopper and Joyce making it back from Russia, and Hopper’s emotional reunion with Eleven were all great moments. Jonathan and Nancy’s reunion was awkward as could be as they both have clearly grown apart but are afraid to admit it. Then, the huge cliffhanger with the storm clouds which should lead us into season 5.

This was great. Emotional. Exciting. Painful.

Can’t wait for season 5.

Friday Night Titans#18

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I am in total shock.

I can not believe what was announced at the beginning of the most recent Friday Night Titans. It shook me to the core.

The episode featured two fun matches that were very difficult to watch. Barbarian defeated Brandon “The Hornet” Hanna and two new teams including Chance Ellison’s new team defeating Zipper and Paige. They were good matches but they paled in comparison for the announcement made by Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis at the beginning of the episode.

This season, season 9 of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown will be the final season. The MTS is ending.

This blew my mind. I never expected this and I immediately started wondering why. I suppose it had to do with money and the cost of running the show at the level that they were going.

I have spent the better part of the last nine years watching, supporting and enjoying the content provided by the Schmoedown. Some of the great moments of entertainment over the years have come with the Schmoedown.

One of the things that immediately crossed my mind, here at EYG, was that I established the Schmoedown wing of the EYG Hall of Fame just this past year and I intended on continuing over the years to induct Schmoedown competitors. So I am going to induct a few more competitors into the Schmoedown wing tonight and then close it down. Three of these would have been inducted this coming February.

Final inductees from the Schmoedown into the EYG Hall of Fame are: Mark Reilly, Shazam (William Bibbiani & The Kid Brendan Meyer), Samm Levine, William “The Beast” Bibbiani and Ethan Erwin.

Congrats.

The Schmoedown will continue to run until October where the Spectacular is scheduled to end it all.

Stranger Things S4 Volume 2 E8

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SPOILERS

“Chapter Eight: Papa”

At first, I was just going to write up both episode 8 & 9 together in one post, but I decided that I wanted to split them apart. I did watch them back to back, which was a commitment of four hours. The 8th episode was an hour and a half. It did not feel like that though. These episodes flew by as the storylines continued to come together.

This has been a great season so far, though there are a few early story bits that did not work well. However, these storylines (basically the Russian gulag and the west coast crew) fired on all cylinders in this volume of the show. Mike and Will became huge pieces for the episode and the Russian tale became so much more than it had been on the build.

Episode 8 gave us some serious kick ass action from Eleven. Her confrontation with Brennen had me screaming at the TV and then her crashing of the helicopter that was trying to shoot her was amazing. Eleven’s reunion with Mike was emotional too.

Speaking of emotions, Will was talking to Mike, trying to convince him that Eleven would always need him because he was the heart of the group and he showed the mysterious painting. That made me happy because I had considered them looking at the painting after Will died. There have been plenty of rumors about which characters might die in this volume and it has made me anxious about all my favorites.

Thankfully, Matthew Modine was the first to go and that made me happy. I’ve wanted this guy to get offed the minute after he walked into the present day section of this show. It is all the better too that it was not Eleven who killed him.

Going back to Will, his monologue to Mike in the back of the pizza van about feeling different and not knowing how people will react was not just about Eleven and Mike. It was clearly about how Will feels different because (as plenty of people have speculated) Will is gay. The show has not said the specific words, but he is obviously implying it. And the words were beautiful and Will’s pain was powerful.

The Hawkins crew went about preparing for their plan to kill Vecna/Henry/1 by going to a gun shop and beefing up their weapons. They ran into Jason and his basketball vigilantes doing the same thing.

Part of the Hawkins crew plan was to offer up Max as bait so they could catch Vecna/Henry/1 in the Upside Down while he is mentally traveling to the regular world.

A great set up for the finale. The Hawkins crew with the A-Team “setting up the trap” section of the show was a great ’80s throwback. The nostalgia of the series has not been as relevant in this season’s episodes as it has been in the past.

Episode 9 is 2 1/2 hours long, which is longer than many movies so the conclusion is certainly going to be epic (since I have already watched it, I can let you know for sure).

Only Murders in the Building Season 1

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One of the shows that I wanted to watch is the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building starring Steve Martin and Martin Short. When season one originally came out, I thought about watching it, but it slipped by the wayside. I’ve always enjoyed Steve Martin and Martin Short and the idea of them in a murder mystery was very intriguing. With the second season starting, this was a great chance to see if I was going to enjoy the show.

I started season one and ended season one on the same day. Breezed right through it. It was so good.

The central mystery of the show is set up in the first episode and it is extremely compelling with a plentiful amount of suspects and twists and turns. It is plotted out well and each episode helped build the story. There were some really cool episodes, including one that had basically no dialogue and was focused on a deaf character and the use of ASL. The story mixes together and it works extremely well.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have great chemistry and are filled with humor. Selina Gomez does an extremely good job and, to be honest, I was not expecting for her to be as excellent as she was. She fit right in with the two lead legends in the film and she absolutely carried her ow

There were some wonderful guest stars here too including Nathan Lane, Jane Lynch, Tina Fey, Sting, and Jimmy Fallon.

The arrival of the bassoonist Jan (Amy Ryan) helped open up the Steve Martin character and they fit together and, when we discovered that Jan was the actual killer, it was a tough reveal. Steve Martin was amazing during the confrontation between them.

And the show did a great job of setting up for season two.

I know a few episodes of season 2 have dropped so I am looking forward to continuing with this every Tuesday on Hulu.

The Boys S3 E7

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“Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed”

Ok…now what????

What a shock at the end of the show. My jaw dropped and everything that I thought was going to happen eventually in season three of The Boys went by the way side. The Boys had their very own, “Luke, I am your father” moment as Soldier Boy told Homelander that he had discovered that Vought had Soldier Boy give them a sample of semen that would become Homelander.

Now what???

The thought that Soldier Boy would be able to stop Homelander, perhaps by taking away his powers with his blast, feels as if it is off the table now. In fact, Soldier Boy was calling Homelander to change the deal and that makes me wonder exactly how this could turn out for the heroes.

I still hate Billy Butcher. He went through a horrible mental illusion caused by Mindstorm that flashed through his abusive past leading up to his brother’s suicide. It felt as if Butcher was finally going to have that reflective moment that made him at least a little less of an a-hole. However, when Starlight called to warn Hughie that 3-5 doses of V-23 causes death, she spoke with Butcher who promised to tell Hughie but, of course, he did not. In fact, he wanted them to steal some more so they could take down Homelander at last.

And then, Black Noir interacts with animated cartoon characters. I could not believe that Black Noir was suddenly Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We saw the animated version of Soldier Boy being betrayed by Noir and the others in Payback when he was given to the Russians. We could see that all of the animation was in Noir’s head and not in reality and it certainly showed us that he was not quite all there.

A-Train lives! I thought he was a goner last week after he killed Blue Hawk, but he awoke in the hospital with Angela right there, telling him the made up story to cover the death of Blue Hawk and that A-Train had a heart transplant from Blue Hawk himself.

I think that next week is the season finale. I have no idea what is going to happen and that is great!

The Deep continues his foray into his sex life with the mollusks. The Deep’s wife was not quite into the threesome.

National Champions (2021)

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June 30th, Movies 31

The June Swoon comes to a close today with the final film in the binge. The choice I made was a football movie featuring J.K. Simmons and Stephan James called National Champions. Truth is the film is less about football and more about the system of college football and how the NCAA makes billions of dollars while the student-athletes get nothing.

In National Champions, two football teams are preparing for the college championship game when the star quarterback LeMarcus James (Stephan James) and his friend, another player Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig) announced that they were going to boycott the game unless the NCAA changed their system and began paying and providing benefits to the players that the NCAA was building their brand upon.

LeMarcus and Emmett went around to players on the team trying to build up support, others to join in on the boycott. Meanwhile, Coach James Lazor (J.K. Simmons) was trying to hold his team together before the big game and met up with the officials of the NCAA trying to break down the boycott.

The fact that the NCAA is a billion dollar business that absolutely takes advantage of the young men to make that money, and then the athletes are not allowed to benefit for it. The small percentage that go on to the NFL may benefit from their college games, but the vast majority of the players will not play any more. Many of them find themselves back in poverty or in financial difficulties and facing injuries or pain from their playing days.

The film really did a great job of building tension as they approached the game and what the individuals involved would do in order to get the game played. JK Simmons was fantastic as always, but so was Stephan James. These performances were what this film depended on.

I do believe that the storyline involving Coach Lazor’s wife Baily (Kristin Chenoweth) and a professor at the college Elliott Schmidt (Timothy Olyphant) was too far, and, in the end, was a strange twist. This actually hurt the story and distracted from the overall story. It is a shame because I do love Timothy Olyphant.

The film’s message is one that is absolutely a problem that needs to be addressed and the movie does a great job of showing the troubles with the NCAA and college football. It is able to present the message while still being entertaining.

Father of the Bride (2022)

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How many times can this movie be remade? Father of the Bride has been made three times, 1950 and 1991 and now in 2022. The 1950 version had a sequel while the 1991 film had two sequels as well. So why do we need yet another version of this film?

The reason we need another remake is because they were able to come up with a undeniably entertaining and robust take on the formula that is funny, totally engaging story with some of the most likeable characters you would find.

Billy (Andy Garcia) and Ingrid (Gloria Estefan) are having major problems with their marriage and even therapy was not working. They finally decided that they were going to get a divorce. With their daughter Sofia (Adeia Arjona) coming back to Miami, they planned on telling her and their other daughter Cora (Isabela Merced) about their divorce.

However, Sofia beat them to the announcement drop when she told them that she was engaged to be married to a young man named Adan (Diego Boneta) and they were looking to get married within a month.

There are so many great moments that really work in the movie. Plenty of them are your typical issues that pop up, but the cast is so strong that any cliché melts away. Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan have great chemistry and you feel everything that Andy Garcia throw out there. You get mad at him when he is being stubborn and your heart melts when he is in pain.

Other cast members that I have not yet mentioned include Ruben Rabasa, Chloe Fineman, Pedro Damián, Ana Fabrega, Sean Patrick Dawson, Enrique Murciano, Ho-Kwan Tse, Macarena Achaga, Laura Harring, and Casey Thomas Brown.

Father of the Bride is streaming on HBO Max and it may be somewhat predictable, but it is engaging and fun and worth the watch.

3.9 stars

Beckett (2021)

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June 29th, Movie 30

The penultimate day of the June Swoon was filled with the Netflix film Beckett, starring John David Washington.

According to IMDB: “While vacationing in Greece, American tourist Beckett (John David Washington) becomes the target of a manhunt after a devastating accident. Forced to run for his life and desperate to get across the country to the American embassy to clear his name, tensions escalate as the authorities close in, political unrest mounts, and Beckett falls even deeper into a dangerous web of conspiracy“

Washington was solid in this man-on-the-run story. He made a good every man struggling to do whatever he has to do to survive. Are there things that Beckett does that he probably should not be able to do. Still, most of the action works well.

The story was convoluted. I liked the mystery of what was happening, but it never really felt like it came together well and some of the twists were hard to buy. Still, I liked the way it worked itself out and ended up.

Beckett may not be the greatest film ever but it is a fairly fun time and has an enjoyable lead character who battled to survive against the villains. It is not a deep film, but I liked watching it.

Ms. Marvel S1 E4

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SPOILERS

“Seeing Red”

One of the items that I have meant to comment on over the last few week of Ms. Marvel on Disney + was how effective this show is for drawing connections with the viewers. I mean, I am not a 16-year old Pakistani Muslim girl, but I can relate with so many other aspects of the series. I have seen plenty of online reactors who have found parts of the story, especially with the family or situations, that brought them back to their own childhoods or their lives in some way.

This works because the show has plenty of overarching themes such as family, relationships, love that are universal. Plus, there is an amazing amount of cultural information and scenes that show us the lives of Muslims in the MCU in a positive light.

This week we head to Karachi, Pakistan (and the show actually recorded there) and see what the city is like, filled with color and foods. I swear Kamala spent half the time eating in this episode.

We are introduced to several characters in this episode including Red Dagger, a Pakistani hero that had been introduced in the comics, and Kamala’s grandmother, who we technically saw on the phone Facetiming with Kamala in previous episodes. Noni is a spark of energy in a little old lady body. She was more like Kamala and you can see why they have such a close relationship and why she and Muneeba may have had some conflict. Muneeba claimed that Noni always was spouting her “crazy theories” which could explain why Muneeba called the bangle junk in episode one.

There was a lot more fighting this episode as Kamala and Red Dagger squared off at first in the typical super hero fight. Then we got the Kamala/Red Dagger fight with the ClanDestines who escaped from DODC custody. This included a chase scene through the streets of Karachi.

It was during that last fight scene where Namja stabbed at the bangle and sent Kamala somewhere else. It is not clear if it was another dimension or time travel, but Kamala wound up at the train station during the Partition.

With only two episodes left, things are picking up with Kamala. Ms. Marvel has been a fantastic series so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Best Sellers (2021)

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June 28th, Movie 29

As the June Swoon moves into its final few days, I have been having some troubles finding movies from 2021 that I wanted to watch. I have a list of films still, but a lot of them are films that just do not appeal for me. The DailyView was easier considering the number of years available, but, even then, I had stretches that it was tough to find what I was in the mood for.

Yesterday, I watched the Billy Crystal film Here Today which has been on my Amazon Prime for quite awhile and now I am getting to another longtime film on the “My Stuff” queue, Michael Caine’s Best Sellers.

Harris Shaw (Michael Caine) was a ill-manner, cranky retired author who was approached by Lucy (Aubrey Plaza) the daughter of his friend and editor. She was now in charge of her father’s publishing company and she wanted him to fulfill a contract he had signed years ago for another book.

Harris was anything but helpful and Lucy was nearing her breaking point. She had an offer to purchase the publishing company, but when Harris arrived with a new manuscript, she was ecstatic. She wanted him to go on a book tour, but he was unhappy with that idea. He eventually agreed but his bad behavior was not helping the book sales.

Michael Caine was his typically excellent self and he and Aubrey Plaza made a strong team. Much like Crystal and Tiffany Haddish in Here Today, Caine and Plaza were the best part of this movie.

The story was filled with clichés though: the alcoholic author, the lost wife, the sentimental home. The film does take a few of the clichés in a different direction, including the shocking moment near the end of the film in a book store.

A lot of what happened required some suspension of disbelief. I am not sure that social media would work the way this film indicated that it worked, but all of that could be dismissed if you connect to the two main characters.

Best Sellers had some good moments and a strong pair of leads. Again, it is not perfect, but it is interesting enough.

Here Today (2021)

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June 27th, Movie 28

Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish starred in a film called Here Today, a story about a successful long time comedy writer who was suffering though the onset of dementia and who met a much younger singer who helped him face the troubles of his life.

The film’s strength was easily the pair of Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. They had an easy chemistry and a platonic charm that carried most of the film. The intimacies that they shared was much greater than sexual and they worked extremely well.

There are some definite laughs in the film, much through the dialogue and banter with Crystal. Crystal, who played Charlie, worked on a SNL-type sketch show as a comedy writer, and a mentor to some of the others on the writing staff. Though this was a secondary plotline, I really enjoyed this piece of the movie. It brought the strength of Billy Crystal to the forefront.

However, the film is too sentimental and emotionally manipulative through much of the dementia storyline. Parts of it worked very well, but other parts of it felt as if it was being included to pull on the heart strings. I think some of the dementia sections of the film needed some tightening up.

These sections were intertwined with the story of Charlie’s wife, who had died in a car wreck. These were mostly well done and the flashbacks were used effectively.

Here Today had been on my list at Amazon Prime for quite awhile and I am happy that I finally got around to watching it. It is not a perfect movie, but it has enough entertainment value to watch.

Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

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June 26th, Movie 27

“This is garbage. I don’t know why they are trying to remake the classics. They’re never as good as the originals.” — Jeff McKenzie (Rob Delaney), Home Sweet Home Alone.

You know, this is never a good sign when a movie makes a meta reference about how bad films that try to remake classics are, when that is exactly what your film is trying to do.

I did not watch this last year when Home Sweet Home Alone came out on Disney +, but, if I had, this atrocious film would have been atop the Top 30 Worst Films of the Year, over taking Tom and Jerry.

We know the general story. Little kid, this time named Max (Archie Yates), gets left behind by his family who are on their way for vacation over seas (this time to Japan) and he has to defend his house against two intruders.

Now, most of the time we have seen this concept, the intruders are criminals looking to rob the house, or to get revenge on the kid. This time however is a little different.

The intruders are a married couple Jeff and Pam McKenzie (Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper) who are trying to retrieve a rare doll they think Max has stolen. Instead of being reasonable and, I don’t know, calling the police, they decide to break into the house to find the doll. This leads to a series of non-creative yet violent assaults on the McKenzies.

It is completely full of crap and a horrendous movie.

I do want to say that I do not blame the kid, Archie Yates. Archie was great in Jo Jo Rabbit and he has plenty of upsides to his career. He just should fire those people who got him this script and had him star in this movie. They do not have your back.

Home Sweet Home Alone is a mess. If you have some kind of morbid curiosity about it, it is on Disney + but otherwise, stay away.

Men in Black II (2002)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 9

Sequel time this week on the Do Over and we head into the early 2000s with Men in Black 2. I remember being a big fan of the original Men in Black and also of Twin Peaks and The Practice, where our main villain of this film, Lara Flynn Boyle, appeared. It couldn’t have failed. However…

I disliked the sequel quite a bit the first time I watched this. Will my opinion hold up?

Spoiler alert: Yes, it does.

A new intergalactic threat arrived on earth in the tentacled form of Lara Flynn Boyle and she was in search of a new MacGuffin called The Light of Zartha. Coincidentally, only the neuralyzed K (Tommy Lee Jones) knows where it is so his old partner J (Will Smith) had to retrieve K. help him get his memories back before the The Light of Zartha explodes (apparently in the next couple of days) and destroys the earth. All the while avoiding the dangerous alien Lara Flynn Boyle. Oh, Johnny Knoxville is here too, with two heads as if one isn’t bad enough.

The plot on this is just ridiculous coincidental. There is no way everything falls into place perfectly for this movie to have taken place. Everything dealing with this story is just poorly written and lacks any comprehensive story design.

There was a ton of CGI and special effects in Men in Black II as well and most of it is clearly at a lower level than we are used to. I would go as far as to say that it was not up to par for a film in 2002 either.

Then, a lot of the same jokes and beats from the original are reused in the sequel. That is not an uncommon thing, but there are really a lot of them. Everything from K now being the person unfamiliar with the real world and having to take hints from J to blowing the head off of Tony Shalhoub so it can grow back. No matter how much I loved Tony Shalhoub, I think that is the only reason to include this character in this movie.

There are some good jokes scattered throughout and, of course, the chemistry between K and J shined like a light through the mess around them. Jones and Smith are easily the best part of this movie and anything that was enjoyable about it was directly from them.

Although did enjoy Rosario Dawson too, though her part was underwritten and I wanted more from her even if her part of the plot was perhaps the biggest eye-rolling section of the film.

In the end, there is enough here to not hate myself for re-watching it, but it is not a good movie and my original opinion looks to be right on the money.

House of Gucci (2021)

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June 25th, Movie 26

House of Gucci was one of the films that I did not get to in the theater, that was nominated for Oscars but one that I planned on doing during the June Swoon.

I have now watched House of Gucci, and I have to say that I did not get into it at all. I found it uninteresting and dull and I just could not get into it.

There are some positive things. I did like the soundtrack. There were some great songs included. Both Lady Gaga and Adam Driver play their characters well and deserved the praise that they received.

There was an impressive cast of actors in the film including such notables as Al Pacino, Selma Hayek, Jeremey Irons, Jack Huston, Camille Cottin and Florence Andrews.

Jared Leto is here too, but the less spoken about his performance, the better.

I thought it was too long and meandered through Lady Gaga and Adam Driver’s relationship.

It was just not a movie for me.

Watcher

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Watcher is a new film that just arrived on Vudu recently and I rented to give it a watch. The topic of the film intrigued me and I had seen it in the theaters for a few weeks before coming on Vudu.

The film is a psychological thriller directed by Chloe Okuno based on an original screenplay by Zack Ford.

Julia (Maika Monroe) and her husband Francis (Karl Glusman) moved to Bucharest for his job. They seemed to have a happy marriage and their apartment was very nice. However, it was not long after they moved in that Julia began to suspect that a neighbor at the building across form theirs had been watching her from his window. When a murder happened in the neighborhood, Julia’s suspicions became all the more intense, bordering on paranoid.

Francis started off as supportive, but he was not seeing the same problems that Julia was. Julia’s next door neighbor Irina (Madalina Anea) gave her some support and comfort, but she did not see any changes in the man watching her. She continued to be afraid of the man and worried about what he might do.

The film has some really strong atmosphere, filled with tension and an uncertainty of what truly was happening. It was nicely shot and set a mood for the film.

I do have to say that the old horror trope of the person who no one believes is overused. Why can’t the husband have just believed Julia about the situation? I mean, he was somewhat supportive, but he still had that aura of thinking that there was another answer to what was happening. There seemed to be better things happen when you just believe your spouse. The film did not give us any real reason to why he wouldn’t have believed what she was saying.

This was a decent horror/thriller that was engaging on a rainy Saturday morning. It may not be the best horror film of the year, but it was solid.

3.5 stars