One of the recent films appearing on Amazon Prime’s Shudder is the horror film called Spiral.
A same-sex couple and their daughter move to a small town where they are hoping to live happily. However, the town is not as idyllic as they thought. One of the couple, Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman), had lived in the town before and had suffered a traumatic event as a young boy.
Malik had been uneasy about the town, but his husband Aaron (Ari Cohen) told him he was overreacting and that everything was going to be okay.
Unfortunately, it was not going to be okay.
There was some good suspense in Spiral and what exactly was happening was nicely hidden in the uncertainty of the situation. It seemed as if Malik may have been imagining some of it because of his past trauma and it felt like a nightmare scenario.
I have to say though that the ending of the film was shocking and disturbing for sure. The final few scenes were unbelievably creepy.
Lochlyn Munro, Hall Cooper on the TV show Riverdale, plays a superiorly creepy villain and he does a very solid job of it.
Another good watch for this time of year, Spiral has that Get Out feel to it. While it is not at that level, this is a good film for October.
Next up on the Halloween Horror Bingfest is a classic 1980s film called Fright Night.
I had seen this as a younger man, but I did not remember that The Princess Bride’s Prince Humperdinck himself, Chris Sarandon, starred as Jerry Dandrige, the main villainous vampire. The only thing I really remembered from the first time was Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent, TV’s “vampire hunter”.
Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) moved in next door to Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale), who immediately spotted the vampire next door biting one of his victims. No one believed Charley, but that did not prevent him from trying to stop him. With help from the vampire hunter Peter Vincent, Charley had to put his life on the line to try and save his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) from a fate worse than death.
Fright Night is a cult classic with a healthy dose of camp to it. Yet it does not take the camp factor to a level that is annoying and provides us with a very good time in battling vampires.
Roddy McDowall is great in this movie. He gives one of his greatest performances in any film anywhere. You believe everything in connection to this character, an actor who seems to be washed up, and who really never thought that vampires could be real. McDowall ties everything in the script together into the narrative.
Chris Sarandon is great too. he plays the perfect, slimy villain, here two years before he would don the crown of Prince Humperdinck. The smirk and the knowing façade made him a wonderful foil for the all-American type of Charley.
Fright Night has a distinct B-movie feel to it, and it plays that up throughout the film. Peter Vincent was a host of the old late night TV monster movie shows, this one appropriately titled Fright Night. This provides a back drop for the movie and lets us into the idea of what kind of horror movie this is.
The 2020 EYG Horror/Halloween Bingefest this year continued today with one of the classic haunted house movies of all time. Poltergeist inspired several sequels and filled the minds of the audience with tension and fright.
The Freeling family seemed to be the perfect family, living a wonderful life. However, strange events begin happening in the house. At first, it seemed like harmless fun, but it quickly degenerated into a life and death struggle.
One particularly stormy night lead to several horrifying situations and the abduction of young girl Carole Anne (Heather O’Rourke) from her bedroom. This led Steven (Craig T. Nelson), her father, and Diane (JoBeth Williams), her mother, to struggle to save their entire family.
I have to say, this film unnerved me quite a bit. I had an eerie feel when it ended and it stuck with with for a bit. That is a sign of an effective horror film.
The performances of Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams were fantastic. I really bought them as a happy couple, who loved their life and their family above all else. The strength of the pairing of Nelson and Williams elevated the material dramatically.
Although she was not on screen as much as the other members of the cast, Zelda Rubinstein (who I was originally introduced to on Picket Fences) was utterly brilliant as the psychic Tangina. Her arrival in the movie truly kickstarted the film into another level of intensity. Her voice and her diminutive frame demanded your attention in every scene she appeared in and she dominated the screen.
The special effects really hold up too. For 1982, these were extra special and these effects deserved the praise that was heaped upon them.
Directed by Tobe Hooper, the screenplay was written by, among others, Steven Spielberg, though rumors circulated that Spielberg’s touch on the film was more all-encompassing than just writer. In fact, the vision of Spielberg permeated much of the creative decisions which became Poltergeist.
There are several deft touches of humor in the film as well, something that you would not think would be effective. However, each moment of humor seemed to fit extremely well and helped make you believe this was a real family and real people going through these unreal events. It came across very well.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score was amazing. His music elevated the tension in each scene, highlighting the beauty in each moment.
October is underway and a new Netflix horror/comedy movie starring vampires hit the streaming service today.
Miguel (Jaden Michael), Bobby (Gerald Jones III) and Luis (Gregory Diaz IV) were best friends but they had to deal with plenty of issues as many young black kids may face. Then, when you add in vampires, well, that flips the script.
The three young actors do a great job here. Their chemistry together is one of the strongest part of the film. They were all extremely likable and worked well together. I especially liked Jaden Michael, who I kept thinking would make a tremendous Miles Morales in the MCU.
The first two-thirds of the movie were very solid. The time spent on these three characters was time well spent and helped pull the movie through some challenges in the third act.
Because the problems in the third act were large. The biggest of the problems was the special effects of the vampires. They looked cheap and amateurish. Those effects took me out of the film that I had been enjoying quite a bit up until that point.
The story did not help much in the conflict with the vampires. They seemed to die easily and everything that the three boys did seemed to work perfectly. Heck, even Blade, who we saw clips from in the film, had some troubles when fighting the vampires. Some of the emotion from the beginning of the film wound up being drained by the third act.
While it did not end strong, the first part of the film was pretty decent and it made me recommend the movie. It makes a nice Halloween month watch.
Vampires vs. The Bronx brings the feeling of the silliness of The Monster Squad and mixes it with the cheesy-factor of a Fright Night. It is a lot of fun, albeit fairly dumb fun. It survives the weak third act because of the early strength.
The new documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door was brutal, painful and shocking as it focused on the 2018 murders committed by Christopher Watts against his wife Shanann and his two daughters, CeCe and Bella. The film used archival footage from the police, social media and other places to tell the story.
With the use of this true footage that allowed us to see these people, the victim, killer and bystanders, as the investigation developed, this documentary was desperately tough to watch and deeply haunting. There was a truly surreal feel about the film as it jumped around the timeline of events that shocked the community of Frederick, Colorado.
I had not heard about this story, so when the documentary took a turn with a neighbor pointing a suspicious finger at Chris, I was not expecting it. Then to watch this man slowly disintegrate in front of everyone was something to witness.
The documentary, filmed by Jenny Popplewell, had a massive reveal as Chris confessed to his father that he had killed his wife. It had that same kind of shocking feel as the ending of HBO’s mini series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst had. Chris blamed the deaths of the daughters on Shanann, claiming that he killed her after she had killed them.
The posts on social media and multiple text messages and videos told a different story, and it was not too long until he was pointing police in the direction of where the bodies of his family were placed.
Listening to his eventual explanation of what happened was horrendous and heartbreaking.
While I could see how some people could consider this exploitation of a family tragedy, the family of Shanann supported the film and it had a message to present about the violence against women and the use of social media. This elevates the typical true crime documentaries.
This documentary is an important watch, but understand that it will stir up feelings that go all across the spectrum. The unbridled sadness of these innocent lives being ended to the disgust of the evil committed by this man to the bizarre realization that you are watching the unraveling of the case in front of you. It is a powerful doc, but also a truly upsetting one.
The other day during the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Singles Tournament match between William “The Beast” Bibbiani and the Barbarian, one of the questions in round two was centered around the movie It’s Alive. It was a movie that I had never heard of before, but host Mark Ellis said a couple of times that It’s Alive was a “great movie” and Bibbiani added that the director Larry Cohen was a “genius” and “underappreciated in his time.”
Since it is almost October and the annual Halloween/Horror Binge-a-thon was coming up, I decided that I would start off the month a tad early and watch the movie that two awesome people recommended.
In It’s Alive, the pregnant Lenore Davis (Sharon Farrell) wakes up in bed and tells her husband Frank Davis (John Ryan) that it was time to have the baby. These two were clearly veterans of this because they were remarkably calm and downright nonchalant about this. They slowly got dressed, woke up their son Chris (Daniel Holzman), dropped Chris off with friend Charley (William Wellman Jr.) before strolling peacefully to the hospital.
That would be the final moments of peacefulness the couple would encounter. Almost as soon as Lenore arrived in the delivery room, she began saying things like “this feels different” and the “something was wrong” but no one seemed to be concerned with her proclamations.
The doctors surely would regret that oversight. As soon as the oversized mutant baby was born, it became violent and viciously murdered the room full of doctors and nurses, escaping from the hospital.
The movie wisely kept the viewing of the mutant child to a minimum, with only quick flashes and darkened shots. The imagery of the child could have easily flatlined this production with its look had the creators not used the horror genre tope of the unknown being more frightening.
As it is, this movie is clearly a B-movie that has developed a cult status, but there are several prominent aspects of It’s Alive that make it a worthwhile watch. The whole idea of “Frankenstein/Doctor Frankenstein” debate that Frank has with himself in the film is fascinating. There was also a family dynamic that was included that spoke to loving a family member despite its appearance or its behavior. It took Frank a while to discover that, but he does eventually.
The film speculates that the baby’s mutation came from birth control pills that Lenore had been taking for years and an argument could be made that the movie’s hidden message is about abortion.
I found this to be fun, silly and an exciting monster movie. I might not go as far as Mark Ellis did, but I am glad it started off the Halloween Horror Binge for 2020 (which actually, come to think of it, is an oxymoron).
I have always been a fan of the Sherlock Holmes mythos. I loved the Benedict Cumberbatch series, the Robert Downey Jr. movies and the characters are iconic. I enjoy the universe.
So hearing that the universe would be expanding to include Sherlock Holmes’ sister, Enola, I was excited.
When Enola wakes up one day to find her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) gone, she begins to investigate the reasons behind the disappearance. Her older brothers show up after being gone for years and try to force the young and wild child into a finishing school, but Enola had plans of her own, which was to find her mother.
Along the way, Enola finds herself wrapped up with another event happening in the world. A young Lord named Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) was looking to escape from his own personal situation, which included being pursued by a bowler-hat wearing killer (Burn Gorman). Together, Enola and Viscount try to survive long enough to unravel the mystery.
Turned out that this movie is based on a series of books written in 2006 by Nancy Springer and that she created the Enola Holmes character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not have another sibling officially for Sherlock than Mycroft. A sister was introduced in the Cumberbatch TV series, but that came after the books.
Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame is the lead role here and she is a wonderful choice for Enola. She is able to show her charm, confidence and strength in this role as the exceptional sister. The movie smartly leans on that charm as well, having her be the focus of the film and having her talk the audience though the film with her fourth-wall-breaking narration.
The movie was fully enjoyable and a breath of fresh air. It had a brisk pace and, even being over 2 hours, never once felt its length. The story is cleverly written and weaves the Sherlock Holmes universe into this narrative beautifully.
That would include the strong performances as Henry Cavill as Sherlock and Sam Claflin as Mycroft. Both actors were able to bring to life their versions of these iconic characters without just copying the blueprint that has come before them. Cavill, in particular, really brings Sherlock Holmes into the film in just the right manner, fitting what this film required of Sherlock without losing what makes the character amazing to begin with. I did wonder about the absence of John Watson and how that character would fit into the life of Henry Cavill’s Sherlock, but that is a minor gripe that could be easily addressed at a future time.
Still, Millie Bobby Brown is the star here, bringing another level to her career. This Netflix film is great entertainment for the whole family and can provide young girls a real role model to look up to who is smart, funny and extremely capable.
One of the small independent films that showed up this weekend on Vudu was called Alone, and, at the time, Vudu said it had 100% on the Tomatometer. That is an impressive feat, so, despite the uninspiring title, it caught my interest.
It was an enjoyably intense and anxiety-filled thriller worth the time and the rental fee.
Jessica (Jules Willcox), trying to escape a tragedy in her personal life, took off in her car. Along the way, she had a series of encounters with a man (Marc Menchaca), who at first looked to be following her on the road, but turned out to be considerably more sinister than that.
The film shows Jessica’s desperation to survive, first from the confines of the man’s prison and then in the wilds of the forest of the Pacific Northwest. It builds suspense throughout the movie and it had me rooting for Jessica.
However, it did place her in situations that made me want to scream at her. She seemed like a smart woman, but she kept putting herself in the way of danger when I could see other choices. That always frustrates me at times, but, fortunately, Alone does not go too far with the poor choices. They had her do things that was somewhat understandable, that someone traumatized might make.
Marc Menchaca was extremely creepy and menacing as the man. We never got a reason why he was doing what he was doing, but we did get a glimpse behind the curtain into his real life, which was fascinating. The film played with some themes, but never dove deeply into any of them. It stuck with the basic cat-and-mouse survival game. The film works in that vein, but it may have missed a chance to elevate the story to a higher plane.
When researching this after the fact, it was weird to see how many movies in 2020 that had been titled “Alone.” I found three for sure and that goes to show how this movie’s title was a missed for sure.
Found this film on Vudu yesterday and I was excited to see it. I had found this interesting when seeing the trailers before the global pandemic and the content seems to be right in line with the current issues facing the nation.
Unfortunately, despite a premise filled with potential and intrigue, Antebellum failed to cash in on it and left me feeling underwhelmed.
The film, which boasts a prospective twist in the movie, truly spoiled that for anyone who had seen that aforementioned trailer. It was a major spoiler for what could have been a truly mind blowing moment.
Successful author Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe) finds herself in a nightmarish reality, showing what life was like on plantations for slaves. This world seems to be more than what it appears, however.
Seriously, one of the main issues this film faces is the set up and execution of the film’s main framing device. It makes no sense and does not even give the audience an idea of what is happening or how it may be happening. When the entire second half of the film depends on it, you can’t just cast it off as unimportant. There has to be some kind of clear message about the situation you are in.
Janelle Monáe is excellent here though. She certainly throws herself into the role, despite the fact that I believe much of the script let her down. There were some imagery that showed the horrors of slavery but the overall narrative just did not come together as the film may had hoped.
In the end, Antebellum is an exercise of good ideas versus poor execution. The performances in the film are solid to outstanding, but the overall concept is just not pulled together to make the story comprehensible. The final act is just ridiculous and not worthy of the set up.
I did not know anything about this movie until I happened to see it on a casual glance at Netflix. There was Tom Holland starring in this unfamiliar movie. So I was excited to watch it and on the first opportunity, I did.
I have to say, I found it disappointing.
There are a group of characters in this movie, with Tom Holland’s Arvin Russell being the main protagonist, probably. There are a series of characters, all unlikable and rotten, who the film follows. Robert Pattinson plays a scumbag preacher taking advantage of the young and impressionable girls of the area. A husband and wife (Jason Clarke, Riley Keough) who are serial killers, picking up hitchhikers and killing them. There is a sheriff (Sebastian Stan) who is crooked and in the pocket of a local criminal.
Arvin has a terribly dark past with his father and mother and ends up with other family members. Arvin is shown to be vicious at times, but, perhaps, deep down a good person. At least, he can justify the behavior he showed.
The worst part of the film, for me, was the voice over that told this story. The entire time, I kept picturing the Dukes of Hazzard with Waylon Jennings telling us what those Duke Boys were up to. It was distracting and felt tonally off key. There were a couple of times when I nearly laughed because of the narrating and I do not expect that laughter was the intended purpose.
The cast was very good. Tom Holland was great here. I never thought of him as Peter Parker, and, for me, that is a major bonus. Sebastian Stan was solid too, as I did not even recognize him until later. Bill Skarsgård was creepy as overtly religious father to young Arvin (Michael Banks Repeta).
Robert Pattinson was a bit too much over the top for me. His performance of the slimy preacher felt a little forced and too unrealistic for me.
The story is very dark and violent. While that alone is not a bad thing, this story feels so disjointed that, when it does eventually come together, it felt forced. It jumps all over the place and the narration does not bring it together effectively.
I did enjoy the performances and some of the characters were darkly effective, but The Devil All the Time has enough other drawbacks to make it a mixed bag.
After the run of Iron Man 2020, I was ready to see Tony Stark’s return to prominence in the Marvel Universe. I feel as if Tony has been crushed too much and his character was messed up. That was why I was so pleased with the new Iron Man series from Christopher Cantwell. It feels like a great new start for the iconic character.
I really enjoyed the new direction and the arrival of Tony Stark. I also thought the use of Patsy Walker’s Hellcat was an interesting choice. I guess Tony Stark has to have a redhead hanging around. It was also intriguing how they ended the Janet Van Dyne/Stark relationship in like two panels. It made me think about JJ Abrams’ Rise of Skywalker just wiping out some of the materials from the Last Jedi.
I found the framing technique of the “Tweets” really funny and engaging. It worked well for me.
The art in here from Cafu was gorgeous. I did not know much about Cafu, though I remember some wonderful work in Jane Foster: Valkyrie. There is a new suit of armor for Iron Man designed by Alex Ross and it is a wonder.
This is a great start and I enjoyed this more than I have for quite a long time.
The Amazing Spider-Man: The Sins of Norman Osborn #1
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Cover Art: Ryan Ottley & Nathan Fairbairn
I have to say that I typically dislike this kind of promotion. There is no reason this issue had to be a number 1. It could just be part of the Amazing Spider-Man series since it basically takes the storyline of the Sin Eater and continues it. Marvel does this a lot with their event runs and it is very annoying. Add to the fact that a lot of these types of issues feel disposable and unimportant to the storyline makes it even worse.
However…
This was just tremendous.
I loved this issue. There was so much going on and it certainly brings the story to a new level. The interactions between Spidey and Osborn are amazing and the formation of the group of Spider-people who plan on helping Peter out is special.
This book continues the build of the Sin Eater (with a mouth dropping moment inside Ravencroft) and the mystery of Kindred. And Norman Osborn is easily heading back for big things.
The Amazing Spider-Man series has been building this story for awhile now and this book was one of my favorites this week. Nick Spencer has been knocking it out of the park lately and I am excited to see where this goes from here.
The highly anticipated new series from writer Chip Zdarsky and the collaboration between Image and Skybound was released today and the anticipation was well worth it.
Two men head to a mysterious town called Stillwater to claim a supposed estate left to one of them, Daniel, from a deceased relative. Once they arrived in Stillwater, the locals are not friendly and the weirdness kicked into high gear.
I enjoyed the mysteriousness of the story. You had no idea what was happening and that feel of uncertainty had me turning the pages to see what was going to happen next.
Chip Zdarsky’s recent work on Daredevil has been so stellar that I have become a huge fan. There are a handful of writers these days that I am willing to pick up a non-Marvel title just because of name value, and Zdarsky is one of them. He spends a good chunk of the early part of the book developing Daniel and his friend and it pays off big time in the end.
As a fan of the small town weirdness such as Twin Peaks, Eerie, Indiana and Deery, Maine, Stillwater feels as if it could become as loved as any of these.
Mental health challenges can be a difficult subject to delve into in a coming of age movie. However, the latest YA novel film adaptation does a very good job of doing just that.
Words on Bathroom Walls is the story of high school senior Adam (Charlie Plummer), who after a violent incident in chemistry class, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and the illness plays havoc with his life. Expelled from his school, Adam winds up at a Catholic school with the understanding that he would remain on his medication.
While at the school, he comes in contact with the school valedictorian Maya (Taylor Russell) and they form a connection. Maya, outspoken and intelligent, has a secret of her own. Adam keeps his schizophrenia under wraps to the best of his ability, but, when the medication starts to cause side effects that were affecting his life, Adam stopped taking them.
During the film, Adam’s “voices” were being shown through delusions of three, in particular, people only Adam could see. The Bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian), Joaquin (Devon Bostick) and Rebecca (AnnaSophia Robb) are only seen by Adam, but they seem to be trying to give him support in the only way they can. There is also a disembodied voice that only Adam can hear and tended toward the darker mindset.
I thought this was a very effective way to show these voices in Adam’s head without stigmatizing them and showing Adam as someone who is not human. Many times, mental illness is shown as evil or uncontrolled and it makes the characters unrelatable. Adam is very much relatable and you feel for his struggles. As he continues to sink deeper into his mental illness, you worry desperately that the movie is setting up the stage for something tragic to happen.
The film does an excellent job of showing that there is not a “cure” for this kind of mental illness and that it is not just going to go away magically at the end of the film.
There are some excellent performances here. Charlie Plummer is exceptional as Adam. He carries this movie with his understated and challenging work. Taylor Russell is another young actress who I think has a bright future as a star in this business. She commands her screen time and plays brilliantly off of Plummer. These two characters have a massive role to play and their chemistry exceeds the expectation.
Another performance that was very wonderful here was Walton Goggins, who plays the recent step father of Adam. Goggins has several layers to play and his work is subtle and really provides an excellent pay off. Andy Garcia is here too is a cool supporting role as Father Patrick, who bonds with Adam inside the confessional.
There are some powerful moments in Words on Bathroom Walls that brought a tear to my eyes. You form a connection with these characters and you want there to be a chance that they make it out of the darkness. Mental illness has such a stigma in our world that this film does a magnificent job of showing that we should look a little deeper before we judge the people afflicted.
A few years ago, there was a Netflix movie called The Babysitter, and it was enjoyable and unexpected. I found out that the new film, The Babysitter: Killer Queen was a direct sequel to that film and I was looking forward to watching it.
This film is nowhere near as fun or enjoyable as the original.
The sequel takes a huge step backwards with the story and with the humor. I will say that there were some ideas and some concepts that were interesting, but they were buried under too much junk to really take them seriously.
Our hero Cole (Judah Lewis), two years after surviving the Satanic blood cult that had tried to kill him, had been having plenty of problems, starting with people thinking he was crazy. He had told everybody about the shocking events of that night with his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving) and nobody believed him. They thought he had had a psychotic break, and the people in Cole’s life, such as his dad (Ken Marino) and his mom (Leslie Bibb), were hoping to get him back on the right track. They were preparing to have him taken to a psychiatrist resort of some sort, but he discovered that.
With this knowledge, Cole decided to join the girl Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) who was there with him that night two years ago. They went to a trip to the lake with a bunch of other kids for a wild party.
Unfortunately for Cole, that night’s darkness was not finished with him yet. He teams up with new girl Phoebe (Jenna Ortega) to try and survive the night.
There are parts of this that I really enjoyed. I thought Phoebe and her story was interesting, and Jenna Ortega was stunning. I found her to be completely compelling and I believe she has future star written all over her.
However, the humor of this horror/comedy falls flat way too many times. The whole storyline with Ken Marino and Chris Wylde (Melanie’s father) was some of the worst, most tone-deaf aspects of this movie. It made me dislike both characters a lot and thus brought the emotional impact at the end down considerably.
The campy tone of the movie went just too far and hurt what could have been a much more engaging film. There were so many ridiculous moments and situations that I spent more time rolling my eyes than anything else.
I do believe that there could have been a funny and thrilling horror flick somewhere in here. I thought the ending was decent, if not predictable. The returning demons from the original film had their moments and could have been more effective with the tone just a little bit more serious.
I was disappointed with the film, considering how much I liked the first one. Still, keep an eye on Jenna Ortega, because she could be something special.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 