Tag Archives: horror

Predator: Badlands

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The newest film from the Predator franchise opened this weekend, from director Dan Trachtenberg, who has now directed three Predator movies with Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. Those two were really great and it helped me to anticipate this new film.

Trachtenberg takes a big time swing here by making the Predator, which were called Yautja in this film, the protagonist of the film. This was one of my early troubles with the film, because I had a tough time accepting the idea of Dek, the Yautja, as our lead character.

That did not last for long though. I found myself very entertained with the action and the story. I did not expect this film to be like it was. I think it really picked up when Dek meets up with Thia (Elle Fanning). I knew of the character of Thia from the trailers, but it worked much more than I thought it would.

Predator: Badlands improved as the film moved along. I found it exciting and a lot of fun. I did have another issue with a switch in attitude that Dek goes through as it felt too sudden, but I do not want to go into too many details because of spoilers. Again, I did not think it was a deal breaker for the film, but it was something that I thought about.

I thought the third act was really epic.

The CGI was mostly good. There were a few moments where the CGI was iffy, but most of the time, it was exceptional.

It was cool that this film has a tie in with the Alien franchise, leading to a potentially new line of crossover.

Predator: Badlands is highly entertaining and full of energy. It looks great and has some of the most creative creatures and exciting action. It was a lot of fun and not what I expected.

4 stars

Strange Harvest

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This scared the hell out of me.

It has been a long time since I have been as disturbed by a film as I was by Strange Harvest, a film I rented on Fandango at Home (Vudu). This would have worked really well for the October 13, although I did not watch it until November.

This movie was filmed in the “True Crime” style documentary, though the story was fictional. I would call it a “mockumentary” though that term leads me to picture something funny like This is Spinal Tap, and there was nothing funny about Strange Harvest.

The film followed the story of the serial killer who became known as Mr. Shiny, and his multiple murders over several years. The main “talking heads” of the horror mockumentary were Detective Joe Kirby (Peter Zizzo) and Detective Lexi Taylor (Terri Apple). They provided most of the narrative for the fake documentary.

This feels like a real documentary, which I think is why it hit so hard. There is a “Blair Witch” tone to it which adds to the mood of this film. Up until the ending of the doc, this could be a true story.

Mr. Shiny is a combination of the Zodiac Killer and an H.P. Lovecraft character. When we learn of his identity as Leslie Sykes (Jesse J. Clarkson), the character becomes even more frightening than he did before. Jesse Clarkson does an amazing job of creating an eerie, creepy, sinister character who is more like a ghost than a human for much of the film.

This is definitely one of the most scary films I have seen in a long time. I am still feeling disconcerted and unquieted as I write this. I may go from here and jump into my bed and hide beneath my covers. Strange Harvest was an excellent experience.

4.75 stars

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #42

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#42

The Walking Dead

After the ending of LOST, I had a huge gap in my heart and I was not interested in replacing it with another TV show. I did not watch much TV after LOST left. I did not watch The Walking Dead’s first season because of that. I had heard some good word of mouth about the comic book adaptation, so I decided I would catch up on the first, short season.

It was so wonderful, it helped in the recovery from post-LOST life.

Few shows have generated the anguish that The Walking Dead has over its eleven seasons. I will be honest, I did not watch much of the last few years of the show. There was onlky so much pain one could take.

I remember the spot that began my end with this show. It was Glen. I am not sure that any TV death has ever been as emptying as when Negan smashed Lucille, his baseball bat, into Glen’s skull, as he did in the comics, it was horrific and left me feeling hollow. I knew it was done brilliantly well and created all kinds of story, but the fact was that Glen’s death was the slow end for me.

Before that though, The Walking Dead was so amazing. It had so many unbelievable moments. Shane and his craziness. Carol telling Lizzie to look at the flowers before shooting her in the head. Daryl Dixon and his overall awesomeness. Rick screaming for Carl.

One of the best additions in the later part of the show was Michonne, played by Danai Gurira. Michonne and her katana was so bad ass. I also enjoyed her eventual relationship with Rick, which I saw more of in the spin of featuring those two characters, The Ones Who Lived.

The Walking Dead took advantage of the resurgence of zombies, leading the way among pop culture in presenting some of the most frightening moments featuring the monsters. However, the show never justbecame about the zombies, or Walkers as they dubbed them. The show was about the relationships between and the choices made by the survivors, and proved consistently that the humans might be the real monsters in a zombie apocalypse.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #43

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#43

What We Do in the Shadows

This past summer, I did a TV show first time watch by watching all six seasons of the FX series What We Do in the Shadows. Since they had usually around 10 episodes a season at about a half and hour, I would binge a season in one day and then do a write up.

What We Do in the Shadows was based on a movie from writer/director Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. The show is shot in the mockumentary format following a group of four vampire roommates living together in Staten Island.

The cast was exceptional and had a ton of chemistry with each other. The main stars included Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, and Kristen Schaal.

Much of the POV came from the human character Guillermo, who was the familiar for Nandor the Relentless, one of the four roommates. There was the married couple Lazlo and Nadja and the “energy vampire” Colin Robinson.

Every episode saw this out of time foursome dealing with something unbelievable. The one thing you could count on with What We Do in the Shadows was that it was funny.

The show was not only funny, but it was shocking. There was blood and other bodily fluids involved and provided a humorous look at a world that one wouldn’t think of as funny.

There were a ton of guests stars during the six seasons including such notable stars as Mark Hamill, Tilda Swinton, Dave Bautista, Paul Reubens, Scott Bakula, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Pollak, John Slattery, Wesley Snipes, and Evan Rachel Woods. This is just a few of the stars who found their way to this show.

The mockumentary style of the show was one of the big stars as well. It brought a wonderful quirkiness to the show that worked.

Every season was hilarious and, even the weaker ones, had some fabulous moments.

IT: Welcome to Derry S1 E1

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Spoilers

“The Pilot”

I loved IT. I loved the original TV show miniseries starring Tim Curry and the 2017 movie. The second part of the movie was not as strong, but I am a fan of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

So when I heard that there was a series in the works for HBO Max set in Derry in prior years when Pennywise would terrorize the children of Derry, I was all in.

While we did not see Pennywise in this first episode, it was anything but lacking. In fact, I found it shocking and, somewhat, upsetting.

They set up a group of kids, much like the “losers” from the film, and gave them a mission. Find Matty, the boy who we meet at the beginning who wound up with a weird family in an attempt to leave Derry.

These kids included Teddy, Phil, Lilly, Phil’s little sister Susie and Veronica. They were trying to solve the mystery of Matty’s disappearance after Lilly heard him speaking to her out of her pipes in her bathtub.

Shockingly, Lilly and Veronica were the only two to survive the encounter at the end of the episode. I couldn’t believe it because it sure seemed as of Teddy and Phil were being set up as the main characters of this show. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I was sure something would happen to save them, even after seeing their blood splatter and Teddy actually being slammed face first into the projector room glass.

I am sad that they are gone, because I really liked them. I saw an interview with director Andy Muschietti who said they wanted to show that no one was safe in this setting. He did that for sure.

We’ll see where this goes from here. I thought this pilot episode was really good and it definitely defied what I expected to see.

Clown Park

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Clown Park  

By LBJlll

One day a group of 4 high school boys were sitting at lunch alone like always.

When they heard the cool kids talk about some clown park and how cool it was.

So after school they immediately met up with each other and decided to go there. The park was out of town. When they arrived at the park they were surprised to see the park was abandoned. 3 of the 4 boys wanted to head back home but Josh, who drove, said he didn’t drive all the way to the park just to turn around. The boys went in and they saw what looked to be blood on the front entrance wall but Josh said it was paint.

 They were hesitant but they kept going in until they made it to this room that turned the water slides on. They thought they found something cool but really they would see it wasn’t. They  ran up the stairs but Josh decided to wait and rest. All three of the boys agreed and went down the slide. When they got down the slide they were met with Josh laying in a pool of blood with a stab wound in his neck. Jake immediately ran to help but he slipped in the blood, fell forward and fell head first into a sharp wooden stick. The other two yelled lets leave right now. They started running. When the 2 kids got to the car they started calling 911 and driving home thinking they were safe. The dispatcher started talking but the two boys didn’t reply. 

The two boys didn’t respond because after the clown ended the first two boys he got in the back seat of the car with two knives and ended the boys there. The boy’s bodies were never found.

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.

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

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #60

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#60

The Twilight Zone

One of the classic anthology series of all time is next up in the Top 100 countdown. The Twilight Zone found a place in the culture of the country with its weird tales of supernatural and uncertain events.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into… the Twilight Zone.

Rod Sterling was the narrator of this series, starting off the show with his typical monologue featuring the main story they would be telling in the next half and hour (or so. The show had a season of hour long episodes).

There are so many classic episodes that are iconic to the world. The gremlin on the wing of the airplane. The man who only wishes for a chance to read, finds the time at the end of the world, only to break his glasses. It’s a cookbook!!!

I spent the summer of 2023 watching all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone. What a wonderful watch. Some episodes were not as good, some were downright terrible (“The Bard” or “Cavander is Coming,” for example), but most were really great or amazing.

This is the top 10 episodes I ranked that summer. As with any list, things may change over time, but this was the comprehensive list at that time.

#10. “The Howling Man”

#9. “The Dummy”

#8. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 

#7. “Time Enough at Last”

#6. “Eye of the Beholder”

#5. “A Stop at Willoughby” 

#4. “Living Doll”

#3. “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”

#2. “To Serve Man”

#1. “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”

Some of the best actors around spent time in the Twilight Zone including Burgess Meredith, William Shatner, Robert Redford, Bill Mumy, Jack Klugman, Dennis Hopper, Agnes Morehead, Claude Akins, Elizabeth Montgomery, Ed Wynn, Lee Marvin, Telly Savalas, and Charles Bronson. There were hundreds of other actors that appeared in the show over its five seasons.

There have been many variations and homages to The Twilight Zone over the years, but none of them reached the level of success or quality as the original CBS series.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #38

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Spoilers

The Haunting of Hill House

“Steven Sees a Ghost”

The ending of this first episode gave me chills.

We start a new series this week for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and, in honor of the creepy season, I chose The Haunting of Hill House.

What a great start to this series.

I have to say, I think this series does an admirable job of introducing these characters to the viewers. With so many major characters, it can be difficult to know who is who. Then, not only do we met these people in the present day, but also in flashbacks to the time they lived in Hill House. It could easily be very confusing, but I have to say that the show did a solid job of connecting the characters from the past and the present. It did require my attention though.

The show does an especially good job with Steven, as we see him both as a young boy, the oldest of the kids and his protective nature, and an older man, skeptical and struggling.

Then, Nell and the moment at the end was an amazing shock. When Nell stood in that apartment staring blankly at Steven, I knew what was going on (I mean, when you title the episode “Steven Sees a Ghost” and he hasn’t up to this point, well, it is not rocket science), but it did not make it any less impactful.

The middle two girls are the characters that I got the least from during this episode, and I hope they will come into focus more are the series progresses. Luke is a fascinating character and I feel like I have a good grasp on him even with the limited amount of screen time he received.

The father has clearly been affected dramatically and I feel as if we are going to dive deeper into the mother’s suicide in Hill House.

I am intrigued by the mysterious events that the show has introduced to us and, with the mind of writer-director Mike Flanagan, who also was the force behind Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and The Life of Chuck, I believe this could lead to something special.

This series is loosely based on the novel of the same name from 1959 by Shirley Jackson.

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

Dangerous Animals (2025)

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3 of October 13

This is the first time that I used one of the October 13 to watch a movie from the same year. I have usually specified that the October 13 would be from prior years, but this was one of the movies that I was excited to see. Since it came free on streaming just recently, I thought this would be an excellent exception. And boy howdy, was it an excellent exception.

I do enjoy a good shark movie. However, there are rarely too many that could be defined as good. Obviously Jaws is the king of all shark movies. Jaws 2 does not get the love it should. There is Open Water (which is not as much of a shark movie as a lost at sea with sharks movie), and the epic Samuel L. Jackson death scene in Deep Blue Sea. Blake Lively’s The Shallows was good, and last year’s Under Paris was tense. After that, the pickings are rather slim.

You can add another winner to that list with Dangerous Animals. It was an awesome film that did not make the shark into the antagonist. There was a much worse antagonist on the ship.

According to IMDB, “When Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.“

This was extremely intense and suspenseful. Hassie Harrison played Zephyr, a loner whose one night stand with Moses (Josh Heuston) gave her a moment of joy. Unfortunately, she was grabbed by Tucker (Jai Courtney), who had his own plans for her.

Hassie Harrison was awesome as this bad ass. She fought with every ounce of energy she had to avoid being fed to the sharks and she was great. Jai Courtney was as slimy and horrendous of a character as I have seen on the screen in a long time. The war between Zephyr and Tucker kept me glued through every minute of the 98 minute run time.

I loved the ending, which was very satisfying and portrayed the shark in a wholly unusual light. The shots of the shark were great despite the low budget feel of this Australian/USA co-production. The score worked so well helping to build the tension. The overall look and design of this film was very strong and I enjoyed this one a lot.

I was able to stream this on Prime. I would absolutely recommend those who love the shark movie, give this one a try.

4.25 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #37

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Spoilers

“Full Circle”

Our fifth series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk ended today with the tenth and final episode of HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

I wonder what H.P. Lovecraft would have thought about this series?

I did not see the ending of this show coming. I was very surprised with the death of Atticus in that ceremony, and the victory at the end, bonding Christina from using magic… and all white people… was a cool end.

I especially liked the use of Ji-ah in the finale. I have been wondering the purpose of this character for much of the series and to have that pay off in such a meaningful way makes me feel positive.

Of course, we had the best scene of the series in this episode too. Atticus, Leti, Montrose, Ji-ah, Hippolyta, and Diana were in the car, driving to Ardham, when the song “Sh-Boom” comes on the radio. Diana starts to sing along with the song and, before too long, the entire carload was joining in. It was my favorite moment of the series, giving us a flash of innocence and joy before the final spell.

Couple of things: Ruby’s death off-screen was a bit of a waste, I think, just for the surprise twist of Christina being one step ahead. Then, I am not sure how I feel about Diana crushing Christina’s throat with her bionic arm at the very end.

There felt to be a bunch of dangling threads or things that happened over the course of the show that felt insignificant. Why did Hippolyta have to go on her adventure through time?

Lovecraft Country, for me, was very up and down. Some weeks the show was tremendous, but I do think it lacked a comprehensive vision of what story they wanted to tell. It had some real highs and some lows too, all capsulized in this final epsiode.

Next week, in honor of the month of Halloween, we start the sixth series in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. It will be Netflix’s series, The Haunting of Hill House.

The Long Walk

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I am all stiff and tired after driving for 100 miles. I can’t imagine having to walk it.

A ensemble of characters have to do just that (and more) in the latest film based on a Stephen King novella called The Long Walk, and it is absolutely tremendous.

My first feeling was that this was a combination of Squid Game and Hunger Games, which made sense considering Francis Lawrence directed it and he had directed several of the Hunger Games movies.

In this dystopian future, a group of young men volunteers win a lottery drawing for the right to participate in the “Long Walk,” an annual event where the group start to walk and must continue to walk at a brisque speed or else they would be eliminated. The last man standing would be declared the winner and would earn a wish and prize money.

I tell you, The Long Walk is one of the most difficult, heart-wrenching, hard-to-watch movies of the year. It keeps you, as an audience member, off balance and uneasy, if not outrightly disturbed. There were some scenes in this movie that were totally unsettling, and I do not just mean the scene of the execution of the walkers.

I was extremely emotional during this movie because they did such an amazing job of setting up and developing the characters that I cared for them in a limited amount of time and I found myself tearing up on more than one occasion and felt gut-punched more than once.

The film really was a character piece, as the driving force of much of the movie was the dialogue that was going on between the actors. It was so expertly written that there were characters who only received minimal attention that I cared about so much. The interaction between these actors drove the story and only helped serve the shocking violence that would follow. Nothing was held back. The violence was brutal, crushing and significant.

Our main two fixtures among the characters were Raymond Garraty and Peter McVries, played brilliantly by Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, respectfully. The performances of these two actors really created a bond between the characters that carried you through a film where you knew that only one of the ensemble would survive. They became brothers-like and gave the film real heart.

Mark Hamill played the Major, the head of this activity who would show up throughout the Long Walk to be an a-hole and continue to harass and remind the walkers of what was going on. Mark Hamill is awesome as a villain, but to be fair, this Major is not the most developed character in the film as he was a bit too mustache-twirly. Hamill played him extremely well though as I had sufficient feeling of resentment toward him as the film progressed.

This is not a fun watch by any means. It gives us a depressing world with an even worse premise that will lead only to violent death and loss. As an allegory to the Vietnam War, which is was back in the 1960s when Stephen King wrote this novella, it works well. As a character piece, introducing us to these sad people through dialogue and death, it works even more. The Long Walk is a powerfully compelling, hard to watch film that gave me a lot of feelings and things to think about.

4.6 stars

Dexter: Resurrection S1 E10

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Spoilers

“And Justice for All”

The first season of Dexter: Resurrection came to a close on Amazon Prime with an exceptional finale that was filled with tension and anxiousness and finished in an extremely satisfying way.

Dexter was trapped inside the serial killer vault at Prater’s home with the dead body of Batista on the floor. Prater trapped him inside and was going to leave him to die from lack of water. Dexter finds Batista’s phone in one of the episode’s contrivances. There were a few.

One that the episode kind of wrapped up was this. Dexter had seen the gun on the floor that Prater had used to kill Batista and he thought to himself that he must not get his fingerprints on the gun. However, it did not seem as if Dexter minded getting his fingerprints everywhere else in the room as he touched…. everything. At the end, it did show Dexter cleaning up after himself, but to think that he could get rid of every print is stretching it a bit. Still, at least he made the effort.

I like the fact that Charlie gets to leave with her ailing mother after basically making a deal with Dexter and Harrison (sort of).

Peter Dinklage is a superior actor and his performance as Leon Prater was top notch. He probably was the second best villain in Dexter history behind John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer. You could feel the desperation from Prater as he was wrapped up on Dexter’s table.

I think that we have finally put to bed the possibility that Blessing is the New York Ripper. That made me extra pleased. In fact, Dexter implied that Blessing is someone whom Dexter himself needs. Dexter took a turn to be more inclusive and less isolated. It sounded as if this was a new arc for everyone’s favorite serial killer.

I enjoyed every episode of the Dexter: Resurrection season and I hope that there will be another season down the road. I liked the tone and the intensity of the show and the budding relationship with Dexter and Harrison worked well.