Category Archives: Doc’s Movie Reviews

Shelby Oaks

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I was excited to see the horror film Shelby Oaks because the director/writer of the movie was YouTube movie reviewer Chris Stuckmann, who I have liked for many years. I know this was a passion project that he raised funds for with Kickstarter and I like seeing someone accomplish a goal.

According to IMDB, “A woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real.”

The movie started off like it was a documentary, talking about Riley (Sarah Durn) and her crew at the YouTube channel, Paranoid Paranormal, had disappeared after arriving in the town of Shelby Oaks. Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) investigated the disappearance, which was eventually tied to something from the sister’s past.

The chunk of the movie was engaging. There music cues were very successful in creating some tension where necessary. I really enjoyed the documentary style that started the film off. It was quite a chunk of time in this format before the title card came along. I thought that the documentary format was mor compelling than the middle section of the movie, though I did enjoy most of it.

I will say that I was fairly disappointed with the ending of the film. I did not feel a satisfaction with how things were resolved and it weakened a solid effort prior to it.

I was impressed with Stuckmann’s directorial debut as there were several good scenes and shots through the film. The film looked really good too.

Overall, I think it was a good debut from Stuckmann and it is something that he can always be proud of completing. I do think there are better movies in his future, but Shelby Oaks was wacthable.

3.5 stars

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

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The latest big time musician biopic was released this weekend, with The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White taking the stage as Bruce Springsteen.

The film takes a certain part of Springsteen’s life, specifically the time he was working on recording his album Nebraska, and tells the story of that period. There are flashbacks to Bruce as a child with his alcoholic/abusive father, but the main emphasis of the film is getting Nebraska written, recorded and released.

Jeremy Allen White is spectacular as Springsteen. He gives a sensational performance as The Boss, going as far as doing his own singing for the role. He really does sound like a young version of Springsteen. I would also like to shout out the performance of Jeremy Strong, who played Jon Landau, Bruce’s friend and manager. Strong is always great and he puts in a very subtle and workmanlike performance here.

The music is great. It was odd at first as the music did not seem to include any Springsteen songs as had Lucille by Chuck Berry and Urgent by Foreigner. The first scene we see is Bruce playing Born to Run, so there was that. The Springsteen music does come over the course of the movie.

The film’s script deals heavily with the depression that Springsteen was dealing with, something that he has dealt with over his life. Springsteen made Nebraska as a very personal record and the songs all meant something to him, which was why he could not compromise with them.

I do think the film felt a little long, as some of the scenes became repetitive. There was a storyline with Springsteen and a girlfriend at the time, Faye Romano (Odessa Young). This was an interesting storyline and did not show Bruce in the best light. I liked Faye and I have to say that I was rooting for her.

I think Springsteen fans will love the movie while those who are just there for the film itself may find it a touch dull. I would not say that I am a Springsteen fan, but I do like him so I was entertained enough. I definitely think that the performance of Jeremy Allen White was better than the movie itself.

3.6 stars

The Uninspired (2009)

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12 of The October 13

I had high hopes for this film.

The Uninspired was based on Kim Jee-Woo’s 2003 Korean horror film, A Tale of Two Sisters. I have never seen that film so I did not have to worry about a comparison.

According to IMDB, “Anna returns home after a stint in a mental hospital, but her recovery is jeopardized by her father’s new girlfriend and ghastly visions of her dead mother.“

I started with this movie and I was intrigued with what it was laying out. There was kept its story close to the vest at the beginning, and I liked the very beginning of the film. Then, it seemed to take a shift into a situation with a manipulative girlfriend that we’d seen many times before.

Sadly, that middle part of the movie was so dumb that the film skidded to a halt. It became nonsensical several times. Then, in the third act, the film went completely off the rails as the film tried to pull a poor man’s Sixth Sense twist that really did not work… at all. I found it to be totally ridiculous and it did not make any sense, nor did they care that it did not.

I was really disappointed with the film.

Vampyr (1932)

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11 of the October 13

In all honesty, I am not sure I have any idea of what happened in this movie.

The October 13 headed back to 1932, thanks to HBO Max, for a black and white gothic horror movie entitled Vampyr.

It is bizarre, wild, disorienting and nightmarish. And I am not sure I know what happened.

According to IMDB, “A drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.”

The info drop they present us with included a lot of details that we have not seen in vampire stories before, which is fine, but it was a little difficult to follow.

The visuals of this movie, especially the odd out-of-body experience that our main protagonist, Allan Gray went through happened without any explanation at all. The death of the doctor at the end of the film, smothered in flour, was also as weird of an ending as you could expect. Then, Gray and Giséle, who had been kidnapped by the doctor, were on a boat.

It all feels more like a fever dream than anything else.

Isle of the Dead (1945)

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10 of the October 13

With this year’s October 13, most of the films have been from the last 10-15 years. I wanted to find something older to add to the list, so I went to HBO Max and found a film from 1945 featuring EYG Hall of Famer Boris Karloff called Isle of the Dead.

According to IMDB, “On a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn’t enough worry, one of the people, a superstitious old peasant woman, suspects one young girl of being a vampiric kind of demon called a vorvolaka“

The film was a slow burn for much of the runtime, as the characters stuck on the island began to fall from the plague. However, once the identity of the “vorvolaka” was revealed and she went on her spree in the end of the film, the story picked up rapidly.

Boris Karloff gives a great performance as General Nikolas Pherides. The General was very much suspicious of Thea (Ellen Drew) and the combination of the sickness and his own paranoia led to a madness gripping him. Karloff was definitely the stand out of the actors involved.

The music of the score worked extremely well, creating a sufficient feel for each scene.

The story was simple and the horror did elevate near the third act. With a strong performance from an iconic horror actor, Isle of the Dead ended on a strong note.

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)

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9 of the October 13

This is the third Hell House film that I have seen. I have not gone in any specific order. I started with the original Hell House film and then, for the October 13 for 2024, I watched the Hell House LLC: Origins film.

This, the first sequel to the original, has been on my queue on Amazon Prime for quite awhile now.

The film had some moments to it, but it was a step down from the other Hell House films that I have seen. The found footage/documentary format does work well for this series. This film added the “Morning Mysteries” talk show idea to help build the suspense of what was going on.

However, the twist at the end was laughable. There were good moments leading into this, but none of them would be as remembered as this horrific ending twist. It is perhaps one of the worst ending sequences I have seen in a long time.

Even if I had been engaged with the film up until the ending, that would have truly wrecked it. As it is, I was mildly interested in the film prior to this, but it took a major nose dive after that.

Terrifier (2016)

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8 of the October 13

I have avoided the Terrifier franchise up until this point. I figured that I could include this in the October 13 this year since I found them available on Peacock. I have always enjoyed a good killer clown.

Of course, I much prefer Pennywise to Art the Clown.

I did like the design of the character of Art the Clown. He looked good. After that though, I was not much of a fan of this movie.

The biggest problem was that none of these characters, including Art, meant anything to me. There was really no story to the film. Sure, most slasher films have a limited amount of story, but there usually is something. This was lacking completely.

The killings were gruesome and had a bit of humor to them. I had to roll my eyes at the hacksaw killing because of how impossible it would be. If you know, you know. It felt as if the gore was the only thing that Terrifier had going for it.

The ending in the morgue made no sense as there had been zero hints prior that Art was anything more than just a kook in a clown mask.

While Terrifier was just 1 hour and 25 minutes long, the sequel expanded to a whopping 2 hours and 25 minutes, which will probably prevent me from watching it any time soon. The first film did not inspire me to want to invest that long into a second taste of Art the Clown.

Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital (2024)

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7 of The October 13

For the next film in the October 13 this year, I went to Netflix for a 2024 Philippine found footage film based on a Korean film from 2018 called Gonijam: Haunted Asylum.

According to IMDB, “Reality TV stars face mounting supernatural horrors while filming at haunted Xinglin Hospital in Taiwan. As paranormal activity intensifies, group dynamics crumble and a dark force manipulates their survival choices.“

The idea of a group of online celebrities doing a livestream inside a horrendous haunted asylum and streaming their eventual deaths across the internet does not sound like a situation that is improbable. In fact, I could see something like this taking place in the world of YouTube today.

It seemed as if most of these actors were playing some form of themselves during the film. They all did an exceptional job of creating tension and anxiety through their outright terror and panic to escape the horrors that they were facing.

A few of the deaths were terrible, including the ones that were more quiet, like Zarck, who appears to have caught some kind of deadly virus and he was breaking our in scabs and growths.

While a lot of the dialogue was members of the team just calling out each other’s names (aka “ALEXA!”, “QUEN!” etc.), it built that feeling of confusion and hysteria.

This was a good use of the found footage subgenre and the movie had some interesting comments to make on the online community. The responses to the live stream on the side of the screen were very realistic.

The Devil’s Candy (2015)

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6 of The October 13

I had never heard of this movie before, but after seeing Dangerous Animals, directed by Sean Byrne, I saw on his IMDB page that he had done another horror film called The Devil’s Candy. I was impressed enough with the Dangerous Animals movie, that I looked into this movie. It had a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and was available on Shudder.

With the positives, I added it to the possible films for the October 13 this year. I just watched it and it was a frightening thriller with some solid performances.

According to IMDB, “Metal music, paint, and family are the passions of struggling painter, Jesse, who lives a happy life with his wife, and daughter. Things look brighter when Jesse finds a huge old house, in rural Texas, selling at a very low price, due to its mysterious past. They move in and Jesse converts the barn into a studio. But soon, his work starts taking on a new, darker flavour – and things get even more ominous when the hulking, unbalanced son of the former owners appears on the doorstep. Jesse’s family won’t be safe until they find a way to quiet the Devil himself.“

Pruitt Taylor Vince played Ray Smilie, who lived in the house before. His presence in the film was disturbing every second he was on screen. You felt for him at first, but that does not last long as he begins to do some horrendous things.

The tone of this movie was so uneasy, filled with tension that you were never really sure where the film was heading next and whether or not this was going to turn out to be a positive ending. I like that kind of film and the mood was truly ramped up.

Byrne does a great job directing this and you can see where his storytelling highlights the important details in the film. He is one of our new voices in horror with a couple huge successes under his belt.

Good Fortune

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I was not excited about this movie. I was not a fan of the trailers that I had seen and I found the performance of Keanu Reeves to be weird.

However, after watching the full movie, and seeing Keanu Reeves’ performance in context, I understand what he was doing much more.

Accordsing to IMDB, “In Good Fortune, Ansari plays a down-on-his-luck guy who is working myriad jobs. He’s called by his friend (played by Seth Rogen), who lives in the Hollywood Hills, to do various jobs for him – put in a disco floor, fix the pool heater. Keanu Reeves “valley” angel makes it so Rogen’s rich guy situation is swapped with Ansari, so the latter has the former’s life.”

I had wondered why Keanu was playing this character in such a one note feel. After seeing the film, I understand that he is playing an angel who was never a human being, so he did not have the emotions that one might expect. Because of that, I do think I readjusted my opinions.

The film had a simple story, and was well written. It avoided some of the typical tropes of this type of film, especially the arc taken by Keanu’s Gabriel. There was some good humor here. I really liked Seth Rogen’s work in this movie. Aziz Ansari’s performance was not as great for me, but he was fine.

It is amazing that the performance of Keanu Reeves, which made me iffy about the film from the trailers, turned out to be the best part of this movie. I think Good Fortune is a good time and a fun watch.

3.75 stars

Black Phone 2

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The first film, Black Phone, was such a surprise hit and was so great that you knew there would be a sequel at some point, despite the fact that the Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke, was killed.

Of course, Ethan Hawke returned to the film in a supernatural manner as Black Phone 2 dropped in theaters this weekend.

According to IMDB, “As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.“

Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw returned as Finney and Gwen. Finney was the kid who the Grabber snatched in the last movie and his sister Gwen used her dreams to find where he was being held at. Gwen has had some issues with dreams still and it led them to a winter camp in the mountains.

The tone of this movie is so excellent. It is frightening and anxiety-fueling. There were multiple moments that were very disturbing and unsettling.

Ethan Hawke’s return as the Grabber was awesome. It was a creative way to bring him back. It was a Freddy Krueger type of situation and it was scary.

The performances of all the actors were fantastic. I thought they all did such a great job and helped create the suspense. This was especially the truth for Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen. She had to carry a lot of the real impact of the story.

However, I do think that some of the story became too convoluted and messy. I had some issues with the story that I will not spoil here. Still, the positives of this film overweighed the problems I found in the film.

Black Phone 2 was a solid sequel, though I did not like it as much as the original. It was a strong follow up.

3.6 stars

Scare Me (2020)

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5 of the October 13

Scare me is a comedy horror film written, directed and starring Josh Ruben, who has also directed Werewolves Within and Heart Eyes.

I do not remember where I found this film while I was compiling my possible list of the October 13 this year, but I am truly pleased that Scare Me made it. Comedy-horror is difficult to do. There are way more examples of films that try it and fail than those that are successful. Josh Ruben appears to be someone who can find that perfect mix between the genres.

Fred (Josh Ruben) rented a cabin in the Catskills with hopes of doing some writing. Fred meets Fanny (Aya Cash), who had written one of the best horror novels of all time. During a power outage, Fanny comes over to Fred’s cabin and the two of them take turns telling stories, trying to scare each other.

This was really great. It was so funny and still provided that creepy feel that you didn’t know what was next. Josh Ruben and Aya Cash worked well together, creating some compelling stories to present to each other.

Chris Redd joined in on the fun for a short while as Carlo the pizza delivery guy.

The film uses a ton of references from other horror movies including Jaws, The Shining, Misery, and Poltergeist. The movie clearly has a love for horror films and the manner in which they are created, while also messing with the tropes of the genre.

I watched Scare Me on Amazon Prime, specifically with Shudder. It was an excellent time, blending humor and horror perfectly.

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

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4 of the October 13

There was a movie from 1959 called House on Haunted Hill, that starred Vincent Price. It was a fun time as five people were challenged to stay the night in a haunted house for $10,000.

Well, in 1999, the fee goes up.

It was $1,000,000 dollars in the 1999 remake, and it was at an old abandoned insane asylum.

And I would not classify this one as “fun.”

The film included  Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson, Peter Gallagher, and Chris Kattan as those poor souls trying to survive the night. That’s a decent cast list of actors, but the writing was anything but good, and character development was lacking even more.

Some of the special effects were bad, although it was 1999, so you have to take that into consideration. Of course, 1999 had the Sixth Sense come out and those effects were much better.

This was nowhere near as good of a movie as the Vincent Price version, and it was the first poor movie in the October 13 for this year.

Roofman

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Channing Tatum showed just how charming of an actor he is by taking the role of Jeffery Manchester, a criminal who would rob McDonalds and other stores by cutting a hole in the ceiling.

This is a true story of Manchester, and it is astounding. I can tell you how much I was rooting for Tatum, even though I knew it was a true story. At one point in the theater, I thought to myself that there was no way this was going to turn out well for these characters.

According to IMDB, “Based on an unbelievable true story, Roofman follows Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald’s restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys “R” Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move. But when he falls for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mom drawn to his undeniable charm, his double life begins to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in.“

Of course, one could argue that Manchester was incredibly selfish, having insinuated himself into the lives of Leigh and her daughters, making himself a vital part of their lives despite knowing that one day he would have to break their hearts. If you stop and think about what was happening here, you can see Manchester as a rotten person. Still, Channing Tatum is such a charming and versatile actor that you can’t help but look past the bad behavior and hope for the best.

Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Uzo Aduba, Ben Mendelsohn, and Molly Price all had roles in the film. Dinklage was excellent as always, playing a jerk of a boss at the Toys R Us that Manchester hid out at.

The story moved quickly as the relationship between Manchester and Leigh developed. He was very skilled at inter-personal workings and he eventually won over her daughters.

I found this to be a very engaging and thoroughly beguiling film. Channing Tatum was the standout star and he carried the film on his shoulders.

4 stars

Tron: Ares

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So there was probably few major blockbusters this year that I was looking forward to less than Tron: Ares. I was not a fan of either of the previous films, Tron and Tron: Legacy, though, to be fair, I would be hard pressed to tell you much of anything about those previous movies because it has been a long time since I watched them. I did walk into the movie with as open of a mind as I could, but I was not anticipating it.

I disliked this movie a lot.

There were two things that I thought were really great. First, the soundtrack/score of the film, done by Nine Inch Nails, was sensational and worked so well for the world of this movie. I had questioned the choice of Nine Inch Nails, but they absolutely ruled here.

The second thing that I can say positively about Tron: Ares is the visual effects are amazing. It looks great, although perhaps there were some scenes when the visual effects were too much because it overpowered what was happening in the scene. For the most part, the action with these effects were top notch.

That is where I draw the line for my positives.

The story of the movie was so basic that it was as if it weren’t even there. Jared Leto was fine, but he did not have to do anything really challenging. The rest of the actors felt as if they were not necessary. So many of the other actors had virtually nothing to do, including Greta Lee and Even Peters, who I usually love. Peters, especially, felt like nothing more than a one note villain that could have been so much more.

There were nothing that really tied this movie to anything that happened in previous films, outside of a forced cameo from Jeff Bridges. That is fine, but it felt as if it went out of the way to avoid the previous films.

I was bored for much of the film and, if I did not have the score to entertain me, I may have fallen asleep. There were no characters worth my time and the story was nothing more than searching for the latest MacGuffin.

I was anxious for this movie to get over with for much of the two hour run time. I did not enjoy my time in the theater with Tron: Ares.

2 stars