Tag Archives: horror

The X-Files S9 E11

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“Audrey Pauley”

This was a strange episode.

Monica gets involved in a car crash where a drunk driver hit her and she is taken t the hospital. There it appears that she is brain dead, though her body is still functioning. John refuses to accept the evidence before his eyes, despite the fact that everyone, including Scully, does not believe him. Monica is actually in a deserted hospital and she can only see a few other people there.

One of the people in the mysterious hospital was named Audrey and she was able to be in both the mysterious hospital and the real world. Turned out that she somehow created the mysterious hospital (along with a tiny dollhouse type of hospital) in her mind, I guess. The form this takes is not overly clear, nor how or why she was able to do this.

Another issue was the doctor, played by Jack Blessing, who was known as Mr. MacGillicuddy on Moonlighting, was poisoning patients and putting them into these brain dead situations to… I don’t know… help them die after that? MacGillicuddy’s motives were not explored too deeply. However, he did kill off a nurse who saw him give a shot that was not on the charts, and, eventually, Audrey. I don’t know why MacGillicuddy took such a dark turn after Moonlighting went off the air. Heck, if I remember Moonlighting, I think MacGillicuddy died in the last episode. Maybe he was in this mysterious hospital then.

I’m kidding of course. There is just so much unexplained, even for an X-Files episode, that I had some trouble buying it. It also does not help that Monica is one of my least favorite characters on the show. I was impressed with Robert Patrick’s performance. He brought some solid work grieving the woman that he loved.

Admittedly, the love Doggett felt for Monica seemed to be fast tracked here. I got some implication that they had feelings for one another, but nothing to this extent until this episode. Still, I can let that slide. I do have an issue with Doggett not telling Scully what he thought was happening. He said once that Scully would think he was crazy… but he should know by now that Scully always listened to crazy theories and never outright dismissed them. You would think that John would know that by now.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas here, and some solid to great performances. There are just too many things lacking in my opinion for this to be anything but a mid episode.

Screamboat

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June 4

When I saw this for rent on Vudu, I expected it to be another film in the same vein as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. It had two movies and both were in the top 5 worst movies of their respective years. Taking the Steamboat Willie cartoon from public domain felt like the same kind of sad and pathetic attempt.

Make no mistake, this is a terrible movie….

But…

I don’t know… I guess I came in with the expectations of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but Screamboat was better than that. It’s not good. Just better than Blood and Honey.

According to IMDB, “A seemingly routine late-night ferry ride in New York City descends into chaos when an ordinary mouse undergoes a terrifying transformation. This mutated creature unleashes a reign of terror upon the unsuspecting passengers, forcing them to fight for their survival. As the body count rises, the remaining survivors must band together to find a way to escape the deadly vessel and confront the monstrous threat“

The piece that felt better than Blood and Honey was this had a satiric side to it. The Steamboat Willie character itself had some funny parts. He would whistle just before killing his victim, much like Mickey would in the original Steamboat Willie animated movie. I kind of liked the backstory of Steamboat Willie, involving the man known as Walt. Some of the kills were sufficiently gross. There were a couple of characters that I wanted to survive the trip on the ferry.

What was bad about the film? Oh, let’s see… the acting, the dialogue was horrendous. Most of these characters were one-dimensional and there were these “bad girls” that I really wanted to get killed by the mouse. I was cheering for Willie when they did. The characters did some really stupid things and made some really stupid choices. Plenty of the choices made no sense. Of course, stupid characters are not uncommon for some horror films, especially the slasher ones. A couple of the deaths of our main characters felt underwhelming.

If I am being honest, there are some funny moments in the movie and they actually felt like they were intended it to be funny. There was one line of dialogue that made me laugh out loud. One character fired a flare gun at Willie and said “Say cheese, mother f@#$%.” I thought that was exceptionally funny.

This is nowhere as bad as either of the two Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey movies and if you want a stupid movie to watch that has some dumb laughs and a murderous version of Mickey Mouse, you could do worse than this movie. Just know what kind of movie this is and do not expect much, and you might even have a passable time.

2.1 stars

Into the Deep

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June 2

I have been a fan of shark movies. Sadly, most of them are terrible. There are some exceptions. So when I spotted Into the Deep on Disney +, I thought this would be a good option for the June Swoon 4: Two A Day.

It gave me hope when I saw that Richard Dreyfuss was among the cast of this movie. Dreyfuss starred in the greatest shark movie of all time (heck, one of the greatest movies of all time) Jaws. How could we go wrong?

We could go wrong in so many ways.

Into the Deep was horrible. Just a waste of an hour and a half. After the first five minutes, I had an idea of what kind of movie this was going to be.

According to IMDB, “Pirates on the hunt for sunken drugs kidnap a boat of tourists and force them to dive into shark infested waters to retrieve the contraband.”

That sounds exciting. That was not the basis behind this story. I mean, it was there, but the execution of that storyline was so inept that it was laughable.

The acting was just bad. The dialogue was unnatural. It made no sense. The story was so coincidental and haphazard that it could not be believed. None of the characters felt like real people.

The shark attacks looked ridiculous. It looked like a shark just shaking a hunk of bloody meat. The images of the sharks in the water were impressive as they just swam around. Other than that, there just was not much of anything.

The overall production of the movie felt cheap. The sound was terrible. With the exception of the beauty of the water shots, there was not much to make this stand out among shark films, let alone other movies.

There are so many better movies on Disney +. Take your time and watch those. This was terrible in every way.

1 star

Bring Her Back

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I guess I really didn’t need to sleep tonight.

The internet was out when I got home from my last day of school, so, instead of just being mad at Mediacom, I decided to go to a movie. I had the tickets for tomorrow purchased and I know there was one film that I was going to see later next week. I went tonight instead.

Bring Her Back, the latest movie from directors Danny and Michael Philippou, the directors of 2022 Talk to Me, was one of the most disturbing and unsettling films I have seen in a long time.

This film avoided many of the horror tropes. There were no jump scares. It covered multiple types of horror, from body horror to psychological horror.

Step siblings are sent to a new foster home after their father died. It does not take long to realize that something was off about this situation.

There is no doubt that this is a movie that will be triggering for some. It is one of those horror movies that stuns you so much that you just want to go sit in silence and deconstruct.

Bring Her Back is a slow burn, but it does move well and never is without a healthy dose of tension and anxiety. There were times when I was grimacing, disturbed and looking away. There are some scenes that were very difficult to get through.

Sally Hawkins played Laura, the foster mother, who was extremely creepy, even in the moments when she seemed as if she was a loving individual. Hawkins was truly exceptional in this performance, which could have been too over the top, but turned out strong.

The kids in the movie do a great job too. Billy Barratt played the oldest kid, Andy, who had plenty of background troubles. Sora Wong played Piper in her debut. Wong, just like the character she played, Piper, is partially blind. She was remarkable and made everything work so well. Jonah Wren Phillips played Oliver, the boy Laura had already been fostering. All three of these kids did an amazing job, and they all had a different type of character to play.

I have to say, I was not completely clear about the demon aspect of this movie. It was a bit confusing, but you just accept that there is something supernatural going on and don’t question it too much.

This is going to be one of those movies that I will recommend, but never want to watch again. I squirmed in my seat several times during this uncomfortable movie. A24 has become known as a super horror film studio and they have yet another one. This is also a very different of sort of horror film than the Philippou brothers made previously.

There will be plenty of people who hate this movie. I was tense the whole time. My teeth were gritted several times. The film is remarkably well constructed and made. I understand if someone hated this movie. I don’t ever want to watch it again. But it absolutely did what it was trying to do.

3.8 stars

Final Destination: Bloodlines

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I never knew that Rube Goldberg was such a sicko.

The series of horror movies in the Final Destination franchise are films that I have not see before. It just did not feel like the type of film that was going to appeal to me. So I was not anxious to see the Final Destination: Bloodlines film out this weekend.

I have to say, I liked this way more than i ever believed I would.

According to IMDB, “A teenage girl has recurring nightmares of a tower collapse in the 1960s. She discovers that these nightmares are a premonition she inherited from her grandmother. The grandmother predicted the collapse of the building and saved a group of people from death. Decades later, the granddaughter begins to have visions of her family members dying. She realizes that there is a sequence and must fight to prevent Death from reclaiming her family’s bloodline.”

I really enjoyed the set up for the movie. The opening did a great job of baiting the hook for the audience and it left a huge question in my mind immediately. The set piece with the collapsing restaurant was thrilling and extremely suspenseful. I loved the mystery aspect of the film as our characters tried their best to prevent Death from claiming their family.

The tone of this film worked really well even though it felt like it was all over the place. The kills were, at the same time, grisly and funny. I’m not sure how it could work that I was laughing while I was repelling in disgust. The intricate ways that the victims died made me think of the old Rube Goldberg drawing of complicated inventions to do simple things. In this case, the simple thing was driving something threw someone’s head (or other various body parts).

The film looked great and, as I said, the kills were excellent. I was invested in the group finding a way to prevent their own deaths and thus cheat Death.

Kaitlyn Santa Juana was our lead protagonist, Stefani, and I thought she did a wonderful job. The whole film, I felt as if I had seen her before, but I just could not place it. However, looking on IMDB after the film, I could not find a credit on her list that I would have known her from. She was on the CW series The Flash, but only two episodes and I did not watch that series much any way. I did thin she was a compelling lead so I was impressed with her performance, even if I thought I knew her.

I thought the film does an exceptional job developing characters connected to Stefani. They were more than just the typical horror movie canon fodder characters. They had depth to them and they had emotional beats that work very well in making them be characters that we want to see escape, not just get killed off.

There is also a small cameo from the late Tony Todd. I am not sure if this is his final film, but if it is, he has a strong one to end on.

Perhaps I have to add some of the Final Destination movies to my list of films for the October 13 this year as I enjoyed this one a lot and if this represents what the franchise is about, I am up for some more.

4.1 stars

Time for an Adventure

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 Time for an Adventure 

My name is clare anet , today I got an 

Opportunity to go to 

Sateran and I was on me way to the

 Rocketship 4 hours after I got the news. 

Now it’s time for an adventure

On Sateran. When we got to 

Sateran I jumped up and down. 

After I jumped down from the ship I seen 

An alien. When I saw the alien I screamed.

When I screamed the alien ran, when the alien ran I 

Could hear it yelling to the other aliens “omg there 

Are humans here RUNNNNNNNNN!” After I heard them 

Screamed and run I ran after them and said ”wait I won’t hurt 

I just want to get to know you.” Now we are our good friends

And are leaving for Earth in three days. When  I told the alien 

It jumped up and down non stop. When we got to Earth the alien 

Screamed “omg I’m on Earth this is so CRAZYYYY!” 

Now in Three weeks some crew members 

and I are going back to Sateren And the alien is 

going back. When we landed the alien started to cry

And begged us to let him stay in the U.S. with us. 

Now from the alien’s point of view. Part 2

Today was a normal alien day then all of the sudden 

We saw a weirdly shaped object in the distance. 

When we saw it we all screamed “RUNNNNNNN!!!” 

They landed and Bob went to see what it was. 

Bob said this is cool and they jumped out and we all ran. 

After that they chased us and we all stopped. After a few days 

They took Bob home with them and returned him back a month later.

Clown in a Cornfield

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I saw this listed at Cinemark and my mind immediately went to movies like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Clown in a cornfield? It seemed so ridiculous. However, the reviews were mostly positive, surprising me. I decided to give it a chance.

According to IMBD (by way of Bloody Disgusting), “Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start, But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.” Synopsis from Bloody Disgusting“

I was torn by this movie. There were parts that I thought were really dumb and, if you excuse the pun, corny. However, it was heads and shoulders above the type of movies that I expected it to be lke.

The film did start off by introducing a group of young teen characters that I hated and led me to look forward to seeing them killed by a clown. As the film progressed, I learned that the unlikable characters were part of the story, not just a slasher movie trope. I started to believe that the writing was more clever than I initially thought.

The story had some interesting moments, but was very messy in a lot of spots. I am not sure everything came together well. There were some holes in the story, especially the ending. Without spoiling anything, something at the end confused me so much that I was questioning myself that I must have missed something.

Clown in a Cornfield is not a bad film. It was an enjoyable enough watch as it moved along quickly. I think I went in with low expectations and I had a good enough time with it. I did like how the film changed up several of the expected horror tropes. This was fun at times.

3 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #14

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“Chapter Four: A Hope in Hell”

This morning, we take a stroll down the Sunday Morning Sidewalk onto the path to Hell.

And the path to Hell is lined with more than just good intentions. It is lined with tension, anxiety and suspense.

What a great episode this was.

At first, as Morpheus and Matthew traveled into Hell to regain his helm, I was more engaged with the second part of the story, John Dee being picked up by a woman named Rosemary. That conversation inside Rosemary’s car was scary and I dreaded what was going to happen to Rosemary, who was just trying to be a good person.

However, then Morpheus wound up in a fight with Lucifer Morningstar and the narrative of the episode switched. The ‘fight” between these two was amazing… and unlike anything I expected. It was truly sensational and brilliantly constructed. It could have easily just slipped into the big power fight that we see so often, but this was deeper, more intense.

The fight turned on the word of the raven, Matthew, giving Morpheus that last bit of motivation to overcome the ruler of the Underworld.

It also seemed as if Rosemary was able to survive the episode, and I was sure she was a goner. Sarah Niles played Rosemary so exceptionally that I immediately connected with the character and wished for her safety. John gave her the amulet of protection at the end of the episode after she had decided to wait for him instead of escaping to freedom. It was a sweet ending that I still was anxious about. I really wanted Rosemary, a good person, to not be killed off in this warped story. When it was clear that she was going to make it, I did breath a sigh of relief.

Nicely paired episode with two stories (which nearly crossed at the end) that I was very engaged in. This is my favorite episode so far of the season and it does seem as if the show is only getting better each week.

The Legend of Ochi

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A24 is an active and extremely busy movie studio, releasing all kinds of different movies. One of the newest releases from the studio is a fantasy/adventure that plays like a fairy tail in The Legend of Ochi.

Shot on location in Romania, The Legend of Ochi looks beautiful and the creatures known as the ochi are amazingly constructed in one of the best uses of practical effects in years. The creatures, in particular our little lead character, are marvelous and shows that you can still create something stunning and effective without a bunch of CGI.

According to IMBD, “A young girl named Yuri is raised to fear the reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. However, when she discovers a baby ochi left behind by its pack, she embarks on a perilous journey to reunite the creature with its family. As Yuri ventures deeper into the forest, she faces dangerous challenges and learns valuable lessons about courage, friendship, and the importance of protecting nature.”

The performance of young actor Helena Zengel is very impressive as Yuri and she effectively carries the bulk of this film on her shoulders. She does an admirable job interacting with the puppet ochi as it travels around on her back and in her company.

There are two well known faces involved in the film. Willem Dafoe played Yuri’s father Maxim and Finn Wolfhard is Petro, a boy who is taken in by her father. Dafoe is his usually wonderful self as this father whose anger about his life is transferred into his hatred for these ochi creatures. He trained these children that are in his care as a military unit to hunt the ochi.

I did like the background story of Maxim and I thought his arc of the movie was very soldi. He had some great scenes with Emily Watson, who played Dasha, Yuri’s absent mother.

There are some weird things happening here, but it had that ET feel combined with a A24 horror film. The Legend of Ochi was a fun film with a nice story.

3.8 stars

Sinners

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Ryan Coogler has been hugely successful as a director. From his debut with Fruitville Station to his forays into the MCU with Black Panther to his entries in the Rocky franchise with Creed, Coogler has been a winner. Coogler decided to tackle the vampire genre with his new film Sinners, but there is so much more than just a vampire flick.

Conceivably, you could call this a Vampire musical. I was not expecting that.

According to IMDB, “Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.”

I can see some people feeling that this movie is slow, and there is no doubt that the film takes the first hour or so of the run time to do lots of background. It absolutely takes its time to get to the vampire, and, while I was sitting in the theater, it did feel its length at times, what came after was worth it, and that first hour or so did make a difference with the deaths that followed.

Michael B. Jordon was wonderful in this dual role, as Smoke and Stack. You felt the connection between the twin brothers and Jordon does such a good job that there were a couple of times I questioned that it was him doing both parts.

What I did not expect was how much this was tied in with music, particularly with the Blues. Some of the musical numbers were amazingly complex and choreographed and a couple of them were downright surreal. I watched the one dance routine with spirits from the past, present and future with a shocked disbelief.

One of the best performances came from the debut of Miles Caton, who played Sammie. His character really made me think about Robert Johnson and the legend surrounding his life and career. Sammie was a phenom on the guitar, but his music seemingly brought forth the vampires. Caton was an impressive actor in this film.

The story was brutal and emotional, pulling on heartstrings of the different characters, providing pain and anguish as well as some joy of the music and being together.

Sinners is a challenging watch, but it is a worthwhile one, marking yet another win for Ryan Coogler.

4.3 stars

The Last of Us S2 E1

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“Future Days”

Season two of the tense and traumatic HBO Max show, The Last of Us, just debuted and the relationship between Joel and Ellie was shaken and on the edge. And it clearly is related to the lie Joel told at the end of last season, to hide the brutality that he committed against the fireflies in order to save Ellie’s life. It has been five years later and there have been issues since that lie, bringing them to the point where they are now.

The show kicked off and ended with the same group of people, the surviving Fireflies that Joel did not murder at the hospital. They, particularly a woman named Abby, swear that they will find and kill Joel, no matter how long it takes. Apparently, how long it will take is five years as they show up at the end of the episode again.

It looks as if the choices made by Joel is the driving force of the drama for this season, whether it be from the group looking for vengeance to Ellie knowing that he has been lying to her for years. I think it is obvious that Ellie knows that Joel lied to her. You can see it in her face.

Catharine O’Hara is a member of the cast this season as Gail, who is a therapist that has been working with Joel. Joel has not been wanting to admit to anything and even after Gail mentioned her husband Eugene, who apparently Joel had to kill, he does not go into specifics (I just saw that Eugene will be played by Joe Pantoliano, so… flashbacks I assume!). He does not seem to be good at hiding it, because it sure seems as if everyone could tell that he had something he was keeping inside.

There is a new type of infected too. It was an infected that did not just run right at you, but who stalked you, hid from you, and positioned itself into proper spot. It was a creepy scene where the infected stalked Ellie.

This episode built the characters and started to place them into position to where they will face the trouble this season. The distance between Joel and Ellie is hard to watch considering how close they had become by the end of the first season.

Yellowjackets S3 E10

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“Full Circle”

The third season of Yellowjackets came to a close in dramatic fashion that, once again, made me feel like it was LOST.

At the end of the third season of LOST, Jack was able to get ahold of a phone and contacted the boat off the shore of the Island. At the end of the episode, we see that Jack and Kate had made it off the Island and got back to LA.

At the end of the third season of Yellowjackets, Natalie is able to use the phone from the scientists to contact the outside world, leading to the possibility that the Yellowjackets are soon to be rescued.

At, much like Jack in the flash forward, adult Shauna wants to reclaim her power, maker herself the “Queen” again. In sense, Shauna wanted to “go back.”

Also, much like LOST, we got to a point seeing who was in the pit from the first season, revealing a long term mystery as Mari was the doomed victim.

Lottie’s killer was revealed as Shauna’s daughter Callie. Callie and Jeff took their stuff and left Shauna. Shauna found the letter Melissa left with the tape under the fridge. Of course, she tore it up and put it down the garbage disposal. Shauna is truly an unhinged crazy person. And with her family gone, what is keeping her from going all whack-a-doodle once again?

Tai and Misty met to discuss Shauna… or to blame her for everyone’s deaths. I am not sure I find these two together as much better. And what is up with Walter?

This does feel as if the show is preparing to transition into a different reality, to re-invent itself into a different show, much like LOST did in season 4. I’ll be anxious to see where this show takes the story.

A Minecraft Movie

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My teacher buddy Ambarlee stopped by my classroom Monday morning and she told me that she went to A Minecraft Movie over the weekend and she loved it. When I said I was going Wednesday morning and not looking forward to it, she said that she was watching her middle child and there was so much joy on his face that it made it so much better for her. Sadly, I had no child’s face to stare at when I watched this thing. I am sure I would rather be watching a child’s face than this movie.

According to IMDB, “Four misfits are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home they’ll have to master this world while embarking on a quest with an unexpected expert crafter.”

I do like Jack Black and Jason Momoa. They are reasonably likable characters here… well, at least, they are likable representation of themselves. I always enjoyed when Jack Black would break into song in A Minecraft movie. Black is a full-fledged entertainer.

After that, there is little in this movie that I enjoyed. I found the story repetitive and dull. The comedy missed way more than it hit. There were a few moments were I found myself laughing, but they were few and far between.

I was not a fan of the manner in which the story was told nor did I think the film looked that great. It absolutely had a feel like a video game where the background was cartoonish. I am not sure what the whole Jennifer Coolidge sections were about, though Coolidge is another actor that I like, but her entire story arc was unnecessary.

This was a dumb movie that especially young audiences might enjoy, especially those that have spent hours playing the game this movie was based on. This was not for me. I went in with a low level of expectations and the film struggled to reach them. A Minecraft Movie made a massive amount at the box office this weekend (though my Wednesday morning showing at Phoenix Theaters was empty except for me) and this will undoubtedly be a major success. I wish it was a better movie.

1.75 stars

The X-Files S8 E18, E19, E20

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“Vienen”

“Alone”

“Essence”

With just a handful of episodes remaining in season 8 of The X-Files, I wanted to get them churned out. I have been doing this re-watch of the X-Files since September of 2023 and I am down to one more episode for this season, leaving just season 9, 10, & 11.

My memory of season 8 during its original run was that I did not like it much, but I have to say that this season was better than I had remembered. I have made this speculation before, but it seems obvious that my original thought on this season was the lack of Mulder and what seemed like a replacement in John Doggett. John Doggett has won me over during this re-watch as I was not angry at Mulder not being there.

Of these three episodes, they all had that old X-Files feel to them. With “Vienen” featuring the final appearance of the Black Oil and the ultimate firing of Mulder by Deputy Director Kersh, the whole alien conspiracy felt like it was back, even though it was different and no longer being directed by CSM.

“Alone” was a pretty decent monster-of-the-week tale that had Mulder truly put his trust in Doggett, in a life and death moment. It was a stress-inducing episode where I was reminded of Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard, from Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, those pesky scientists.

“Essence” is a part one of the season finale where we focus in on those people trying to get to Scully’s baby. It reclaimed the old days of the conspiracy as we learn about a baby/alien cloning program and how Billy Miles is like the unstoppable Terminator (ironic since Robert Patrick is on the other end of that). This one was pulling in the old guard too as, of all people, Alex Krychek showed up to help out the good guys team. I still would have loved to see someone put a bullet in Krychek’s head, but I guess he did help things out.

I hope to finish off season 8 either tomorrow or some time early next week. Season 9 has 20 episodes. Season 10 has six episodes and season 11 has 10 episodes, meaning that I am down to 37 episodes remaining in this re-watch of the X-Files. As I said, it has been going since September 2023 so we will be done with this under two years.

Locked

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I had not heard about this movie until I saw a mention of it on TikTok. Starring Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins, this reminded me quite a bit of Phone Booth, with Colin Farrell, but with a car.

Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgård) was a man struggling to get his life on track. His van was in the shop and he did not have the money to pay to get it fixed and he could not keep his promises to pick up his daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright) after school.

In an attempt to get the money he needed, Eddie was in search of a car that might be open where he could steal the money he needed. He was not stealing cars, just looking for stuff he could steal inside.

When he comes across a wealthy looking car unlocked in a parking lot, Eddie thinks he has struck it rich. That is until he realizes that he can not get back out of the car. He is locked inside. And a phone line from the car is ringing, demanding that he answer it.

When Eddie can’t take the ring any longer, he answers the phone to discover that the car’s owner, William (Anthony Hopkins) is on the other end and this car was a trap to punish anyone trying to rob it. William then tortures Eddie for several days in several hard to buy scenarios in an attempt for justice. Eddie does not know how deep the anger goes inside William.

I am of two minds with this one. While I like the idea and the execution, some of the things going down are hard to accept as possible. The electrified seats, the bullet proof glass, and the cameras everywhere were all accepted as part of the trap. I kept thinking that there had to be a way out of this car and that made it tough for me to accept the premise.

Bill Skarsgård, however, does a fantastic job as Eddie. Eddie goes through the ringer here, both physically and emotionally. This is one of the rare films that Bill Skarsgård has done where we can see his face, and he does not disappoint. His character is filled with all kinds of emotion and guilt over the life that he has chosen and his own failures as a man and a father. He clearly loves his daughter, even while letting her down consistently.

There just felt like there was something that did not work in this movie for me, and, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think it was Anthony Hopkins. He is a master at acting, but I just did not feel like he was cast properly in this role. I found his dialogue to be clunky and all over the place, lacking that taut delivery of some of his other classic villains. The film want this to be a morality tale, but it takes too long to get to the reasoning behind the trap and I found Hopkins to be more annoying than sinister.

The drama is well done and the scenes with the car in motion are both ridiculous and suspenseful at the same time. There is a scene with a slow motion deflecting bullet that is kind of laughable, but most of the action is good.

I do think the performance of Bill Skarsgård is worth the price of admission alone. Locked felt too long, even at just over 90 minutes, but what worked in the film worked well.

3 stars