Tag Archives: horror

Hope

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My friend Chris asked me if I was going to see Hope this weekend. I had no idea what it was. He sent me a link, which introduced me to this Korean action/sci-fi/monster movie. I also heard some chatter about how wild this movie was, so when I saw the film available at Cinemark, it moved up my list.

Wild is not the appropriate descriptor for the film.

According to IMDB, “A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before.“

The movie starts off with the Chief of Police (Hwang Jung-min) getting called by his cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) to investigate a dead cow on the road that had gaping claw wounds on its body. This led to a pursuit of some kind of monster that is rampaging through the heart of the small town.

Another character that I enjoyed a great deal in this movie was Im Sung-ae, who was played by Jung Ho-yeon- one of the stars of the first season of Squid Game.

The first act of this movie is basically the monster and Chief going through the city and it was tremendous. There were so many epic action moments that were amazingly shot. Some of the CGI was a touch shaky, but there were also some awesome CGI as well. There were no moments of bad CGI that took me out of the movie.

There was a switch along the line when we discover something unexpected and it changes the perspective. It is still some greatness, as there are a ton of great action chases and exciting, thrill ride scenes.

There were some extremely funny scenes too. Especially some of the dialogue of the film was hilarious and my entire theater was laughing at it.

Hope, though I am not sure where that name comes from, is so great for most of this movie that the long run time of over two and a half hours did not feel that way for me. I really was considering this being the second 5 star review of the day.

However, without spoiling anything, the ending of this movie dropped a gigantic HUH??? on the audience and came from out of nowhere. I was totally confused at the end of the film, and it hurt a film that I thought was superb so far. It felt like the film was incomplete. It does sound like they are working on the sequel.

As with any foreign language film, I forgot the fact that I was reading the English dub on the screen as the film progressed. It just becomes part of the experience. I prefer reading the subtitles over having English actors dub the words because the performances always seem to suffer in that way. The tone of voices is as important as the words that they are saying.

This was a lot of fun even though the ending dinged it. It is a bat-shit crazy film that flipped the script a couple of times and kept me tense and anxious the whole time.

4.5 stars

Buddy

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I have been trying to get to the movie, Buddy, for the last two weeks, but it just was not working out. So when I went to schedule this week’s movies, Buddy was the priority.

Man, am I glad I made this a priority. I loved this movie.

Buddy reminded me of the late WWE superstar Brey Wyatt, who had a stretch where he was playing a demented children’s host, much like Mr. Rogers. Instead of Mr. Rogers, this is a demented Barney.

Buddy is an orange unicorn who hangs out with a bunch of little kids who sing to Buddy and tell him how much they love him, but it turned out that there was something much more sinister than you expect.

The film started off showing what seemed like an episode of “It’s Buddy” and the first one felt fun. However, it definitely took a turn soon after. Everything looked like it was one of those cheap ’90s kiddies show, but that was what the creators of the film wanted it to look like.

I just thought this was so great as the kids slowly learned about Buddy’s true nature, and i found myself really cheering for these kids. Wade was my favorite one (played by Caleb Williams), and the kid seemed like her was absolutely in a Barney episode. I think that was intentional. Another of the lead kids were Freddy (Delany Quinn) and she did a great job as the overall protagonist.

After a point in the film, the story left the “It’s Buddy” set in the middle and we were in the real world. It was discombobulating at first, but the craziness of these scene, plus the awesome Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace were involved in the story. I was so into this movie that I was trying to guess what was going down during this time and I found myself yelling at Topher Grace for his character.

There are some legitimately horrifying moments in the film with some awesome gore. It was such an entertaining film that I was completely invested in. I was alone in the theater, which allowed me to be as expressive as I could be, and I loved what happened.

There were some real funny moments in the film too… in a really dark comedic manner. It is one of the most creative films of 2026. I loved Buddy and it is another odd film that I absolutely enjoyed completely.

5 stars

The Runner

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Amazon Prime has had some big “winners” from their original films. Anyone who saw War of the World a couple of years ago knows to what I refer.

I did know that the latest Gal Gadot movie, The Runner, was being dropped on Amazon Prime. I saw that it was available to see free and I could not believe it.

I can see now why it was available free.

No one would pay for this movie. What in the heck was this?

First, Gal Gadot played Maia, a high-powered lawyer, whose son was kidnapped and the kidnapper blackmails Maia. The kidnapper (played by Damian Lewis) put her son into a diabetic coma and threatened to give him another dose that would kill him. He gives the boy an IV with a drip so there is a counting clock on Maia.

He wanted her to go and shoot her key witness who is going to testify against some mob boss. Then he had her run across London in order to get to kill the guy. It is like Die Hard With a Vengeance meets Speed, but way stupider than either one.

Gal Gadot is just not a good actress. She absolutely peaked with the first Wonder Woman. There were some unbelievably horrendous scenes with her performances. There is one moment where a train was going past her that was some of the worst acting I have ever seen. It was Tommy Wiseau level acting.

The situation is as stupid as it could be. How did this guy get his hands on the kid? Maia dropped him off at school. He wanted his mom to walk him into the school, but she ignored him. It was just a few scenes later when Lewis had the kid in a room and had him in the coma. There is just no way this set up worked in any fashion. Suspension of disbelieve is one thing, but this is just not possible.

The entire film makes zero sense. There is a moment where Maia runs down a subway train. I wish I was kidding.

The one positive of the film is that I did not see any Amazon Prime product placement, which is something they must have learned from War of the Worlds. Now… Nike shoes is a different thing.

The editing of the movie is just terrible. It is so noticeable that it is so obnoxious that I can’t even explain it.

It is only a 85 minute film, but it really felt like it was double that.

It is truly one of the worst movies of the year. Way to go, Amazon. You’ve got another winner.

0.5 stars

Boston Legal S2 E6, E7

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Spoilers

“Witches of Mass Destruction”

“Truly, Madly, Deeply”

Two Boston Legal episodes, one that I thought was a typically strong one, and one that I found ridiculous.

“Witches of Mass Destruction” had two main story arcs. One was about the death of a young man in the military whose sister brought a case against the government that during recruitment, the recruiters committed fraud by what the told him. Alan stepped up to take the case despite Denny’s objections and direct orders to drop it. The other arc on this episode was a Christian couple and a Wiccan couple joining forces to sue to stop a Halloween pageant at a public school. This tale, though bizarre, at the heart is about religious freedom and schools keeping religion out. Both of these stories were solid and the military one in particular was extremely emotional.

“Truly, Madly, Deeply,” on the other hand, had two silly arcs and one of Denny Crane. Alan and Brad defended a station manager who fired their clown who was talking about global warming on air. The thing is, the man was attending the court in his clown makeup and Alan was afraid of clowns. It made Alan look bad as he could not do cross or even look in the clown’s direction. The second arc featured Michael McKeon, who I love as an actor, trying to prevent his wife from getting an annulment on grounds that he had sex with a cow. If one of these to stories had been opposed by something more solid, I don’t think that I would have felt as… icky. Then, Denny Crane decided to shoot his client that he had been assigned to defend by the judge in the knees. The client was a child rapist and murderer and Denny did not want to defend him. He tried many other tricks to get off the case and then he ended up shooting him, claiming to be defending himself.

To be fair, all three of these storylines had positive resolutions, but by that time, I had checked out on them.

To me, the second of these episodes only served to make some of the lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt look foolish, in particular Alan and Shirley (who couldn’t defend the cow lover). Denny always looked that way so it was no big deal for his character.

Oh, and the first episode was the one where Denny and Alan famously dressed as flamingos for their firm’s Halloween party (which is an image on the banner above the post).

Boston Legal has shown the ability to go from deadly serious to over-the-top absurdity in a blink of an eye. Episode seven just did not work for me.

Fall 2: Deadpoint

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I was excited for this movie. Honestly, I did not immediately recognize the original film from the title of the sequel, because the title Fall was so generic. However, once I refreshed my memory, I remembered how tense and thrilling that first film was and how it had a really great twist. I was excited to hear that it was getting a sequel.

After seeing Fall 2: Deadpoint, I’m at a mid level for it. There were moments where the film was tense and filled me with anxiety, but, unfortunately, there seemed to be more moments that were just so stupid and that they tried to force a twist in the movie at the end that really did not work for me.

According to IMDB, “Grieving her sister Shiloh’s death, Jax Hunter bonds with Shiloh’s bold friend Luce. Together they tackle dangerous Mount Kwan in Thailand. When a rockslide traps them on a narrow plank 4,000 feet up, Jax must face her fears to survive.”

I did like how they tied this movie to the original, by giving Shiloh (played by Virginia Gardner) a younger sister. This is part of the plot that worked as her sister Jax had to deal with her grief and her own fear.

I did like the new setting for the situation the girls found themselves in and there were some really tense and scary moments. If the film would have been happy just to build suspense in that manner, this would have been an acceptable film and a decent sequel. Unfortunately, you could tell that they were trying to one up the surprise twist of Fall, and that was where this film fell flat.

Because the fact is that the third act of this film was easily my least favorite part of this film. It felt added on that damaged the film dramatically.

Some of the images shot for the film was fine, but nowhere near as well done in the first movie. It felt like there were more shots that were obviously green screen compared to the first one.

This film has its positives, but the stupid stuff really hurt this movie for me. I didn’t hate watching Fall 2: Deadpoint, but there were enough issues with the film that made me disappointed.

2.7 stars

Mayday

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The new Ryan Reynolds film debuted on Apple TV + this weekend, called Mayday. One wondered why this was not released theatrically. That did not make me optimistic about the quality of the film. However, those fears were squashed after I watched Mayday.

Co-starring Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh and written/directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who also directed Dungeons and Dragons, Mayday was just a lot of fun. I thought this movie was really funny and had some really good action. I’m not sure why this was not released in the theater, but it would have certainly been a worthwhile addition to the big screen.

Navy Pilot Lieutenant Troy Brennan (Ryan Reynolds) was recruited for a top secret surveillance mission over the Soviet Union. The mission led to the plane being shot down and Brennan being injured after falling through trees in a forest. Nikolai “Nick” Ustinov found the injured pilot and took him to his cabin to nurse him back to health. Nick was an American-loving Russian who was more than what he seemed. The buddies tried to find a way to get Troy home.

Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh had a tremendous chemistry and they carried the film. The friendship developing during the movie was one of the standout keys to the film. Reynolds’ one-liner quips were very clever and funny.

The action was fun, if not silly at times. There is a chase scene that takes place in Moscow that is one of the most original and ridiculous chase scenes I have seen, and yet, somehow, this bizarre scene worked.

The film had a surprising heart to it. There were some wonderful moments between Nick and his daughter Anna (Maria Bakalova).

The film is highly entertaining and I enjoyed watching this film. Is it perfect? No, of course not, but it is definitely worth watching. Mayday is streaming on Apple TV +.

4.2 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #83

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Spoilers

“Hand to Mouth”

Jimmy made his first contact with Larry in this episode that saw everything else on the edge for the informant.

Jimmy’s father showed up to see him and flashed his old badge for some favors from the guards, unwittingly blowing his cover. One guard in particular, Mr. Carter, who blackmailed Jimmy for 10 grand or else he would tell everyone that Jimmy was here as a snitch.

Jimmy was summoned to the in prison Italian Mafia Don, and he waded through that issue too. Oh, it was the real life Mafia head Vincent “the Chin” Gigante played by Tony Amendola. He wants Jimmy to play boccie with him.

The main course of this week’s episode was the dialogue between Jimmy and Larry. There was a scene between them that absolutely was frightening. Both Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser were tremendous in their roles and in this moment. The tension built by the face of Hauser and his chilling words was amazing.

It had an impact on Jimmy too. When Jimmy told Agent McCauley about Carter, she told him they would get him out of prison. He should go into isolation until they could get the paperwork done. McCauley was having doubts about the case, afraid that Larry was just a sad and sick serial confessor, or that they would never be able to get the goods on him.

When asked what would happen to Larry if Jimmy went into isolation, McCauley answered that the judge could find the confession coerced and let him out into the world.

Jimmy had already seen the evil in Larry, convinced he was guilty. Jimmy insisted that he would stay and get the info. It was an unselfish turn for the drug dealer, because he knew allowing Larry out would be way worse than anything else.

I’m in on this show, and I am excited to see what is going to come down next. I didn’t realize that Jimmy’s father was being played by Ray Liotta, and that this was his final role before his death.

Scary Movie (2026)

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I was going to see The Invite at 4 PM today at Cinemark, but I wanted to do a movie in the afternoon to watch to waste the time. The movie that fit into that window the best was a movie that has been out for several weeks, but I had not seen. It was the new film from the Wayans Brothers, Scary Movie.

I was not sure if this was a movie that I wanted to see, because it just did not feel like it was a film that was in my wheelhouse. I had nearly gone a different time, but it just did not work out. So today would be the day for me to see the film from a previous franchise, returned to the public’s eye.

I definitely found a movie to waste my time with.

I hated the newest Scary Movie. Truly hated it.

The film parodied a bunch of horror movies over the last few years, specifically Scream as they used the Ghostface killer from that franchise. However, they also poked fun at It Follows, K-Pop Demon Hunters, M3GAN, Nosferatu, White Chicks, Sinners, Get Out, Wednesday (TV show on Netflix), Smile, The Substance, Terrifier 3, and several more. The problem was that none of the parodies had any cleverness to it and the writing was just poor.

The film was just drug jokes, dropping the n-word, sex jokes, and killing a bunch of people. None of them were funny at all. The only pieces that made me smile a bit were the meta jokes or the breaking of the fourth wall. However, they overdid these too.

I did not laugh at this movie and that is a sin for a comedy, especially a spoof film that has all kinds of leeway to be ridiculous. I was hoping that I would enjoy this with the return of the Wayans, but it was clear that I was just not going to.

1 star

Agents of Shield S6 E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10

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Spoilers

“The Other Thing”

“Inescapable”

“Toldja”

“Collision Course (Part I)”

“Collision Course (Part II)”

“Leap”

We got a chunk of the sixth season watched on this Fourth of July. The mysteries of Sarge and crew and what they were doing on the earth. We learned the truth about Sarge during these episodes.

The Agents of Shield finally all got back together on earth. It has been like a season and a half since the entire group were back together in one point. Since the diner scene before they were abducted, they finally were all together. It may not have been for long, but it was nice to see.

The tense scenes on the semi as it rolled seemingly unstoppable toward the structure with a deadly bomb aboard. It was nice to see that Deke was shown to be capable and not just a talkative jerk.

RIP Davis. We did not know you well. I had little connection to Davis when I first watched this show, but I liked him much more this time through. Watching him killed by Izel was both brutal and frightening. She is a monstrous villain and felt as if she could not be touched.

The end of Collison Course (Part II) certainly felt like the end of the season, until May walked into Sarge’s cell and shot him to death… or at least for a bit. I liked how Mack and Yo Yo finally go back together.

The battle of machismo between Sarge and Mack was also some great stuff. Who was ahead of the other one? It always seemed that both Sarge and Mack were two steps ahead of each other.

“Inescapable” highlighted some great performances from Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge. The scenes where Elizabeth is told that Fitz was killed and when Fitz learned about his own death and the marriage were bangers. I loved this episode because it was a great character study about these two complex characters.

There are three remaining episodes of season six remaining for the team to prevent Izel from her evil plan.

Minions & Monsters

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I have hated the previous two Minions movies and I have not been a big fan of any of the Despicable Me franchise either, so I was not excited when they announced a new Minions movie.

However, I had heard some positive word of mouth, especially from online film critic Dan Murrell, a well-know hater of Minion content, and I had some hope.

After seeing Minions & Monsters, I can say without hesitation that this is my favorite Minions movie I have ever seen.

According to IMDB, Minions & Monsters “Follows the Minions in 1920s Hollywood as they search for frightening creatures for their monster movie, partner with a green creature, and must save the planet after unleashing monsters.“

The Minions wind up in Hollywood and that was really fun. The movie had a ton of references and allusions to some of the greatest movies of all time, from Jaws to Casablanca.

There are some real characters in the movie and an actual storyline. They are not incredibly deep, but they are here. There are some big time voice performances too including Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Phil LaMarr and Bobby Moynihan.

The animation is wonderful and full of amazing color. The times they switched from the typical animation style into a different one were very effective.

This movie does a great job of appealing to the children in the audience while still giving some jokes and items for the adults, which, again, is not something that is typical in a Minions movie.

This was such a nice surprise. This had a feeling of the Looney Tunes to me. For a movie that I had no desire to see at one point in the year, to a film that was entertaining, it sure tells you that if you keep your mind open, anything could happen. Even a fun and enjoyable minions movie.

3.9 stars

Sovereign (2025)

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June 20

Movie 20

I’m not sure how to feel about this one.

Sovereign was a film starring Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay that I found after an exhaustive search for a film this morning for the June Swoon 5. Nothing was tripping my trigger until I came across this movie on Hulu. I like both of the actors of this film (which also included Dennis Quaid) and it had a high Rotten Tomatoes score so I decided to put it on.

It was a film that I had a problem with becoming engaged with as the character played by Offerman, Jerry Kane, was such a brusque, unwavering individual with thoughts and opinions that were revolutionary or conspiratorial. It was clear that Jerry had been indoctrinating his son Joe (Tremblay) into his way of thinking, even though Joe did not always seem to be okay with the ideas.

Watching these two interact with the world and the eventual results of the choices was heartbreaking and very difficult to watch. The film certainly did not leave me with a positive feeling.

Both Nick Offerman and Jacob Tremblay played their roles brilliantly. There was a raw, visceral feel around the characters. Jerry stuck in his ways and lost in himself and Joe who could see a way out, but was tied to his father.

This film is based on a true crime drama and, as I said, I am split on it. I did not find the experience of watching Sovereign an enjoyable one, but the two main performances were so excellent that I am glad that I watched it. It did not leave me in a positive mindset, but there are a lot of strengths to the creation of the film including some wonder cinematography and direction that make the film special.

It is one of those movies that I am glad to have seen but never want to watch again.

Widow’s Bay S1 E10

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Spoilers

“We Hope You Enjoyed Your Time”

Widow’s Bay has been one of the best shows on TV recently. The Apple TV show was a real surprise with how wonderful it was. A wonderful blend of comedy and horror, Widow’s Bay ended their first season with a big twist.

All season long, I was making references to LOST with this show, and this episode drove those references wildly. We get a shot of what looked exactly like the moment when the hatch was opened and they were looking down the shaft. This was with Evan and his friends looked down the shaft. I recognized that shot right away.. it was just missing Jack and John looking down.

Another LOST allusion was the discovery of the film cannister explaining how to sacrifice people to the island. I said out loud after that scene ended that “We need to watch that again” which was a famous line said by both John Locke and Mr. Eko in LOST. This film in this episode was right out of the Dharma Initiative training.

There is also major issues about births on the two shows. On LOST, women could not successfully give birth on the Island and on Widow’s Bay, children born on the island can not leave or they would die. Just the idea that both shows refer to the Island as if it were a real person is a connection that is here.

There are times when I see things that remind me of LOST that are probably not there, or are just my own over-analysis. These are not the case. I refuse to believe that this is anything but an homage to LOST.

The whole Ruth is the final descendent of Richard Warren storyline brought us the big twist. The whole time Tom was in her house, preparing to do her in, I was holding my breath, hoping beyond all hope that he would not kill her. When Bechir left the bunker, I knew what he was going to do. The show tried to make you think that he was going to try and prevent Tom from killing Ruth, but I could see his motivation coming. I was shocked though when he shot her in the back of the head (apparently only glancing, though).

Making Ruth the “secret-mother” of Tom’s wife Lauren was a stroke of genius, which means, of course, that Evan is the last surviving descent of Warren, which immediately switches Tom’s motivation. It is probably a major storyline moving into season 2.

Ruth seemed to be able to survive all of these murder attempts, not falling victim to Tom’s tea poison and not dying after the sheriff shot her in the head. I sure hope she did survive the night, because she was awesome and who else is going to help Deidre up and down her steps?

Does that bell ringing at the end of the episode mean that the island wants 8 more sacrifices? That is sure what I took from it. I assume that Kenny was the first sacrifice, which is why the storm subdued in such a rapid fire moment.

Matthew Rhys was astonishing in this role all season, but his performance here was Emmy worthy.

I hope we do not have to wait too long for season two. The show has been renewed for a second season and no show on TV deserves one more than Widow’s Bay.

Hallow Road (2025)

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June 17

Day 17

This morning, I watched a psychological thriller/horror film called Hallow Road, and it disturbed me. It was tense and taught, but I am not sure how I feel about the ending.

According to IMDB, “Two parents enter a race against time when they receive a distressing late-night phone call from their daughter after she caused a tragic car accident.”

The film featured two outstanding performances at the center of the story from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys. When I saw Matthew Rhys attached to this film, I was excited as I am truly enjoying his work on Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. I did not realize that Rosamund Pike was involved until the movie was underway.

Both Rhys and Pike were amazing as panicked parents responding to their daughter’s desperate phone call in the middle of the night. They each showed the entire gamut of emotions as the situation grew worse. Most of the movie took place with the parents inside their car, speaking to their daughter on the phone. The helplessness they felt came through with every new revelation and every unexpected twist.

When it became clear that this movie was taking a shift from compelling family drama into something more mysterious, I was not sure how to feel. While, the unnatural story beats worked as a surprise, I am not sure that it was the route I wanted to see the movie take. It was a sudden shift that, while teased, felt like it came out of nowhere.

However, the film was full of suspense the entire time and the result at the end was powerful. I wonder how powerful it could been if it did not have the twist of story.

The fantastic acting of Pike and Rhys carries this movie and they alone are reasons to see it. I found this on Hulu after a friend’s review from earlier this year.

Deep Water (2026)

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I do love me some shark movies. Even the bad ones, which there are a lot, have their share of fun and wild moments. Deep Water, which is a return to form for Finnish film director Renny Harlin, has its share of moments and scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.”

There were a group of superficial characters that meant little to me, but there were some intriguing characters that I liked very much. Finally, there was at least one jerk who I wanted to become a shark-burger. Most of the characters were kind of dull, but I still found myself rooting for most of them.

I was shocked to see both Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley in this cast, as I felt as if this film was a B-level film at best. I still think that is the case, but it is always great to see Kingsley in anything.

There were enough interpersonal relationships between the characters to keep them from being more than juts chum for the sharks. Yes, the characters are not Martin Brody, Matt Hooper or Quint, but you can’t expect that type of writing in every shark movie.

I did think many of the shark attacks were silly at times, especially the one involving the helicopter, but their presence did create a sufficient amount of tension to keep the thin story afloat.

Harlin was unafraid to kill off characters in many different ways, and it did feel as if any of them were ripe for being eaten (or drowned). The stakes are absolutely off the charts.

Sure, there are basic story beats that you see over and again in shark movies, but they do work overall here and the plane crash that led before the sharks, was excellent.

I enjoyed this movie and the film hit me in the feels at the end, which is really should have. I think this is a solid shark movie and I am happy to have rented it on Fandango at Home.

3.75 stars

Ash (2025)

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June 16

Day 16

Today kicks off the second half of this year’s June Swoon 5 with a sci-fi/horror film on Hulu called Ash. Directed and scored by Flying Lotus, a DJ, rapper, filmmaker and record producer, Ash feels like a mixed bag.

According to IMDB, “A woman wakes up on a distant planet and finds the crew of her space station viciously killed. Her investigation into what happened sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.“

The good parts of Ash included the lead performance from Eiza González as Riya, the woman who wakes up and is confused by the gore and death around her. González did a very strong job of expressing her confusion and fear of the situation that she found herself in.

Another positive is the look and the sound of the film. The score made the film standout from some of the other entries in the subgenre of space monster/horror. The score kept the audience on their toes and uneasy as the mysteries unfurled around Riya. The film’s special effects and imagery was also top notch as everything, especially the body horror aspects of the film, looked specifically frightening or horrendous.

The biggest problem is that this movie, story wise, does not even try to attempt something different than what we have seen before. There are scenes that feel as if they were taken directly out of Alien or The Thing or Event Horizon or Cloverfield: Paradox or many other space monster films.

The film leaned hard on cliches throughout the entire movie. Riya had amnesia at the beginning after awakening to find everyone dead. I mean… was there ever any question about what had happened here? Aaron Paul’s character Brion was very cliche as well. The only thing not cliche about him was that he spelled his name with an “o” instead of an “a.”

The film was only 1 hour and 35 minutes long, but it felt much longer than that. It dragged through the first two thirds of the movie before a fairly spry final act helped pick up the action. I am not opposed to slow burns, but there needed to be something more entertaining during that slow burn to engage my mind. This did not have it.

The film looked great, sounded great and had a decent lead performance, but there is just not enough of anything else to make this anything but a forgettable flick.