Netflix has promised to release a new movie every week to their streaming service. Unfortunately, for every Fear Street and Army of the Dead we get, there is a The Devil Below to balance it out. In fact, I would dare to say that the quality of the movies such as The Devil Below is what is the rule instead of the exception.

By that I mean that it is crappy.

A team of researchers arrive in the Appalachian country to investigate a series of coal mines that have been ablaze for decades. When the open one up, they realize quickly that they have made a mistake and have unleashed something previously contained.

BO-RING!

There is nothing here to grab your attention or to make you give a care about any of the characters here. All of the characters are lacking any depth to their character, being nothing more than one trait, a one-trick pony.

And the monsters… well, let’s just say that they resembled the Flukeman on The X-Files crossed with Audrey II, but not quite as scary. They are shot in the worst way possible, that made them more funny than frightening.

This is the type of movie that makes me not want to explore the rest of these Netflix movies.

1 star

Son, the new horror film on Shudder, is really frightening.

I mean, frightening as hell.

After a terrible childhood and past, Laura (Andi Matichak) seemed to have gotten past it. She lived alone with her son David (Luke David Blumm). One night, she woke up and found a group of people in her son’s room. She ran for help, and, when she returned, they were all gone. Police detective Paul (Emile Hirsch) believed her when no one else would.

At this point, David got real sick, puking blood and going through convulsions. The doctors had no idea what was happening to him, but Laura knew that it was somehow connected to her past. When David’s illness took an unexpected turn, things became even more frightening.

Holy crap was this intense.

This is one of the better of the creepy child category of horror genre we have seen in quite awhile. I was very impressed with Luke David Blumm, who carried some powerful moments in the film with a great maturity. He and Andi Matichak had a wonderful chemistry, and you believe that she loved her son no matter what.

As the film moved on, you are never quite sure what was happening even when you see it before your eyes. With the questions of Laura’s background in play, the thought that none of it was real was a possibility, which helped bring a surreal quality to the movie.

The movie is unnerving and packed a surprisingly powerful emotional beat to it. This is one that you do not want to watch late at night in the dark if you expect to sleep. A well done, suspenseful horror film that had me not sure what was going to happen next.

4.1 stars

There was a joke here. It got old quickly.

It is possible that the idea here was a way to speak on the fact that Americans do not know there history. However, this is filled with crassness, crudeness, and stupidity.

George Washington (Channing Tatum) and his best friend Abe Lincoln (Will Forte) were preparing to revolt against the British. When Benedict Arnold (Andy Samberg) betrayed them, and killing Abe.

Washington compiled a team including Sam Adams (Jason Mantzoukas), a gender bent Thomas Edison (Olivia Munn), Paul Revere (Bobby Moynihan) and Geronimo (Raoul Max Trujillo) to find the Gettysburg Address and create “America” a name Lincoln gave for the new country as he died.

This film is totally batshit crazy. There is so much ridiculousness tossed into this movie because the joke is too think to stretch to a 90 minute movie. This might have been effective for an animated short, but there is not enough here to make it fun.

There was so much swearing and crude language and they tried to make that funny.

Great use of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird though.

I was looking forward to seeing this film and I was really disappointed with the results.

1.5 stars

Here is one of those movies from VOD that I might not have ever seen if I hadn’t had to spend most of the last year searching for movies online. I found this on Vudu, and the synopsis sounded cool. So I gave it a chance and it was a great movie that really highlights the acting chops of Megan Fox.

I know, right? Megan Fox has never been someone who I thought of when the term “acting chops” came up, but here she not only shows her kick ass tendencies, but also her skill as a thespian.

Megan Fox is Emma, a woman who had been involved in a violent encounter years before with a man named Bobby Ray (Callan Mulvey). Her husband was a successful lawyer Mark (Eoin Macken) but heir marriage was having problems. Emma was having an affair with Tom (Aml Ameen), a co-worker of Mark.

Mark set up a surprise for Emma and his anniversary, a trip to a remote lakehouse in the winter. He prepared a romantic evening, isolated with only them.

The next morning, Emma awakens to find that she is handcuffed to Mark and that he had a gun. He shoots himself in the head, with blood and brains splattering across Emma. She realized that he had removed anything that could unshackle her from him. Worse yet, she soon learns that he had hired Bobby Ray and his brother Jimmy (Jack Roth) to kill her and they were on their way.

Sure the premise is a little out there, but the performers all do a wonderful job, in particular Megan Fox, who struggles to survive with all of these hurdles tossed in her way. She shows smarts and determination, as well as a bad ass streak. The physical performance from Fox shows how much she was willing to go for it.

The film was short, and paced extremely well. There was little wasted time, especially once they arrived at the lakehouse. It was tense and taut and even clever at times.

Till Death is a solid revenge/thriller that gives us a new look at Megan Fox. It was easy to root for her and you can feel every frightening moment as she is desperately trying to save her life. Yes, there may be an unlikely situation or two, but they are worth it with the solid make up of the remainder of the film.

4 stars

Wow.

The second part of Netflix’s three week Fear Street trilogy was amazing. What a middle chapter of this tale being told in three movies every Friday. This cool concept is really delivering us some powerful horror.

After last week’s Fear Street Part One: 1994, Deenna (Kiana Madeira) and Josh (Benjamin Flore Jr) found themselves at the door of C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), the survivor of the slaughter at Camp Nightwing in 1978. Deenna and Josh were looking to discover how she survived the attack by Sarah Fier and her magical killers. After some opposition, Ms. Berman finally sat down and told them the story of Camp Nightwing.

This was a great camp slasher flick. I have to say, at least in the first act, the difference for me between 1994 and 1978 was that the characters in 1994 were characters that I liked, while the campers and counselors at Camp Nightwing were characters that I was rooting to get an axe to the face. To be fair, several of those characters grew on me or showed me another side to their personality making me less anxious for them to die.

Perfect example was Alice (Ryan Simpkins), who was the one-time best friend of Cindy Berman (Emily Rudd) until Cindy “snitched” on her and got her in trouble. Alice was such a rotten person early in the movie that I just disliked her tremendously. However, as the film progressed and we discovered more about Alice and her story, she became someone I no longer wanted to get her head chopped off.

Cindy and her little sister Ziggy (Sadie Sink) were having plenty of issues with one another too. Ziggy was more rebellious and getting into trouble at the camp. We meet her getting stringed up by other campers who were joking about setting her on fire. They actually burned her with a lighter. Again, here are several characters who I would not mind seeing chopped to death.

We get more of the backstory of the curse on the town of Shadyside by the witch Sarah Fier. One of the camp nurses, whose daughter had been one of the people who were possessed and killed a bunch of people, had done research on Sarah Fier and had filled a journal with all of the details, including a map.

The killings were brutal and bloody, but, admittedly, not overly creative. The origin of the Camp Nightwing killer, who we had seen in 1994, is revealed here as Cindy’s perfect boyfriend Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye). It is awesome seeing how he became the monster that we knew he was.

The middle of the trilogy does a great job setting up next week, when we head back to 1666 for the third and final entry in the Fear Street trilogy. This one got me all the more excited for next week.

4.5 stars

It has been almost two years since the last MCU movie in theaters. Spider-Man: Far From Home came out at the end of July in 2019, a few month after the gigantic Avengers: Endgame. Little did we know that it wouldn’t be until just past the first week of July 2021 until we get another.

Sure, we have been tided over with some awesome Disney + TV shows in the meantime, but there is just something about the Marvel heroes on the big screen.

Finally, we have a new film, and it is one that has gone through a lot to make its way onto the movie screen. Black Widow was originally scheduled for May 2020, but had to be delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It got pushed several times and calls to just put it out on Disney + were coming from MCU-content starved fans, but Marvel Studios held off, trusting their movie. They finally set July 9th as the release date for Natasha’s first big screen stand alone epic and this time things looked good. Of course, they are also releasing it as their Premium release on the streaming site for another fee as well.

Fact is that the Black Widow has faced more than just a pandemic. Scarlett Johansson is a major star and one would think that a major star who is one of the Avengers would have received her own stand alone movie way before this, especially since the character perished in Endgame. Rumors persisted that SOME at Marvel Studios did not believe a woman could lead a major comic franchise (*cough* Ike P), and when Kevin Feige finally got total control of things at Marvel Studios, Black Widow was one of those things he wanted to get done. Unfortunately, at this point, plans were underway and it would have been difficult to toss Black Widow into the mix.

So one of the issues of Marvel Studio’s Black Widow is that it does feel as if it should have existed before this time in the MCU. That is not something the film could be blamed for, but the fact that Natasha Romanoff sacrificed herself on Vormir, does take away from much of the prequel’s punch.

Having said that, Black Widow is a rollicking good time, filled with action and wonderful characters. It is the MCU’s James Bond/Jason Bourne-type film and it holds it own with many, if not all, of these spy films.

Black Widow picks up directly after Captain America: Civil War with Natasha on the run for her actions against the Sokovia Accords. She is being pursued by ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (William Hurt). There are some initial flashbacks to child Natasha (Ever Anderson) living in Ohio, a part of a Russian sleeper cell along with her “father” Alexi (David Harbour), “mother” Melina (Rachel Weisz) and “sister” Yelena (Violet McGraw). When the mission ended and the family had to retreat, the girls were taken by Dreykov Ray Winstone) to the Red Room to begin their training in the Widow program.

Natasha received some mail, part of which was some vials from her sister Yelena (now played by Florence Pugh), she is attacked by the mysterious Taskmaster, who had the ability to mimic any fighting style Taskmaster sees. Natasha escaped and returned to Budapest (the location she and Hawkeye talked about way back in the first Avengers movie) to search for Yelena.

Natasha found out from Yelena that the Red Room was still active and Dreykov, whom Natasha believed she had killed, was still alive and running the program. The “sisters” decided to take the Red Room down once and for all and they went to see Alexi, the Red Guardian and Melina for answers.

I loved the action sequences in this movie. There are some wonderfully designed and filmed action throughout the Black Widow. I will say that I did not love the hand-to-hand fights because the camera was just too bouncy to enjoy those. The rest of the action is filmed wonderfully. Cate Shortland directed Black Widow and, reportedly, was brought to Marvel Studios by Scarlett Johansson herself. That is quite the pat on the back for Shortland.

The relationship between Natasha and Yelena is beautifully constructed too. They have their issues. Yelena felt deserted while Natasha felt the sting of discovering that the entire family she had known was not real, that is was put together by the Russian government. Yelena and Natasha fought, both figuratively and literally, as sisters, but you could see the conflict within both of the,

Florence Pugh is a tremendous actor. She has been providing some outstanding work over the last few years and her turn as Yelena is one more triumph. David Harbour is every bit as great, promptly stealing every scene he is in. His boastful Red Guardian is a hoot and he is as compelling and real as any possible “super-solider” could be. Rachel Weisz has the least to do of the family unit, but she optimizes her screen time to be impactful.

Scarlett Johansson is so comfortable as Natasha by now, after making eight other appearances in MCU films, but she brought the fire in this movie. Her scenes with Ray Winstone were excellent and the way she handled the constant development of her past life is excellent.

I have heard some criticism that Taskmaster was a weak Marvel villain, but I think that was coming from people who expected Taskmaster to be a more vital character than what Taskmaster turned out to be. Taskmaster was more of a henchman than was expected and so did not receive as much depth as possible. However, I did enjoy the Taskmaster’s story and it fit nicely into Black Widow’s background.

The post credit scene was great, but it was exactly what I thought it was going to be. Make sure you sit through all the credits, because it sets up what is next for one certain character.

A Black Widow solo film should have happened years ago. Imagine all the great spy game action we could have gotten in the MCU with Natasha. Unfortunately, it did not and that is not a criticism for this film. Black Widow has some real connection among the characters and is filled with amazing action. Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh are a delight together and David Harbour has great comedic timing.

Black Widow is a fun way to welcome the MCU back to the big screen.

4.75 stars

Netflix has something really cool happening right now.

The Fear Street trilogy, one a week for three weeks.

Based on a book series from Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is a slasher movie featuring young actors trying to survive against magically powered killers. The film is directed by Leigh Janiak, with a script co-written by Phil Graziadei and Janiak, from an original story by Kyle Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak.

1994: Shadyside, Ohio. The story shows us a group of teenagers, dealing with their own typical high school problems, trying to discover who they are and hoping to escape the small town failure of Shadyside. However, there was more to impact their lives than just high school drama. They were being pursued by an ancient evil witch, Sarah Fier, and her cadre of murderers which had been causing trouble in the town for centuries.

The legends of the town were usually dismissed as urban legends, but when Samantha (Olivia Scott Welch) accidentally stumbled across a grave, she became the target of the witch’s evil. Sam’s former girlfriend Deena (Kiana Madeira) held a lot of anger over their break up, but, along with her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr) and the local high school drug suppliers Simon (Fred Hechinger) and Kate (Julia Rehwald), teamed up with Sam to try and stay alive.

This was a rousing good time and horror fans should have a lot of fun with this. There is a lot of gore and blood, but not so much as to be disturbing. The three main killers are each different and bring their own dynamic to the film and there is some extremely creepy imagery of the killers and of the witch. The design of the characters really work and create a tension that is effective in the film.

The young actors all do a fantastic job with their performances. Every one of them was believable and conveyed their emotional depth for each character. There is depth provided to them, more so than you usually see in a slasher film and that helps build the tension for the audience. You like these characters and so you are worried when they are placed in jeopardy.

There are several classic horror movies that inspire Fear Street Part 1: 1994. Scream is clearly one of them, as the cold open reminds you of that iconic opening of the first Scream movie with Drew Barrymore. There is also a major plot point here that is an allusion to Poltergeist.

Part 2 coming up is going to head to 1978 and will be dealing with a massacre at a youth camp, a well used premise for horror movies. I am anxious to see how this will tie together with what we got this week. There were multiple mentions of the camp during Part 1 and it will be a vial component to the overall story the trilogy is telling. Part 1 ended with a dramatic cliffhanger and the “To Be Continued” at the end helped to create a anxiousness to see the upcoming part 2.

4.2 stars