Reviews

I really enjoyed this film, about a group of actors brought together during the Covid pandemic to make a sequel to a Hollywood franchise.

The cast is obviously having a lot of fun with in jokes and even some cameos. Everybody is over the top and I laughed out loud a few times. I think I might actually want to see "Cliff Beasts", the phony film they are making.

Aaron has been infected with a zombie virus, but isn't immediately turning. He attempts to discover why and how he became this way. Unable to trust most around him, he goes on a hunt to get the answers.

Love the practical effects & make-up. There is also a nicely animated shootout which was a lot of fun. It's bizarre and hallucinatory in a number of scenes. Not your straight forward zombie thriller.

I didn't know much about this film, until all the Oscar buzz. Wonderful cast and certainly deserving of the nominations in all categories.

A young man, being raised by his widowed mother has become the butt of jokes by the local ranch hands. When she marries a landowner, the man's brother increases the bullying of mother & son.

If you have Shudder I have to recommend this one. This rotoscoped fantasy will immediately bring to mind the work of Ralph Bakshi. A resurrected witch seeks an immortal guardian to take down an evil wizard. Brutal violence and nudity.

Just watched The Bunker Game on Shudder. Best not to read the synopsis, as I expect many folks went in not knowing much. Almost anything I say will be a spoiler. Trailer sort of gives you a hint, but I liked the twist.

Only a few likable characters, with a creepy subplot that might really bother some folks. There is Nazi imagery, I can say that much. First ten minutes set things up then you begin to understand, as things go wrong. Slow burn with things growing weirder. Odd ending you can take a couple of ways.

I gave it three out of five 💀 on the app.

If you're a horror fan, I have to recommend Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror now available on Shudder A documentary on how regional folklore has been used in horror films.

Beginning with British cinema, then covers this type of horror around the world. It has some examples of this in early silent films, but is primarily how modern filmmakers, since the mid-20th Century have used lore and legends in their films. Often looking at older eras to point out problems in our own.

Butterfly Kisses (2018) is a Found Footage horror, which starts with two film students working on an urban legend, then becomes the search of a documentary filmmaker trying to find if it was 'real' or a hoax. Nice study of obsession. Watch through the early credits, for a further scene.

Just watched film over on Netflix. Wow! No spoilers, but this has an amazing twist that I didn't see coming.

A diverse group decides to used a carpool service to get to a city larger city in Italy for various reasons. We learn a bit about the characters as an accident leaves them stranded in the woods. Odd things begin to happen and a local legend is revealed.

Very gory and brutal, if somewhat predictable until the final act. The version I saw was dubbed. Don't give up on this!

Considering how good the trailer looked and the talent in front of and behind the camera, I don't know how this could turn out to be so boring.

The first act nicely introduced the concept and the 'assemble the squad' scenes have enough humor to get you involved. The second act really sets things in motion and we learn more about the refugee camps and the society the zombies have created. It falls apart in the third act with everything stopping to give each character some emotional point so we are supposed to care. This fails and just drags the film out for more than a half hour than necessary.

I guess I just expected more from everyone involved. If there is a sequel, count me out.

I don't understand the haters of this film. I found it entertaining with some good scares and 'puzzles' along the way. Certainly better than a couple of later films in the series, adding a decent police procedural element.

Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, brought their usual levels of professionalism to the film, with solid acting from the rest of the cast. It leaves room for another sequel and I'd like to see where Rock takes it.

Frankly, my biggest quibble was with the tattoo as a plot point. It does take a while for a tatt to heal, so this made little sense.

I have heard of this TV movie for years but have never had the opportunity to view it, until I saw that it was available on Shutter. My initial reaction was that it seemed an odd place for this, until I actually watched it. It is probably one of the most frightening films I have seen in years.

In 1984, Sheffield, England was one of the largest cities in Britain. Industrial, but like other cities going through a rough period economically. We are introduced to several families and individuals going about their daily lives, as tensions in the Middle East between Russia and the US escalate. We see this via television reports and newspaper headlines viewed by various characters or in the background. A narrator fills in details of the current structure in place in Britain, in case of emergencies.

Tensions finally erupt and the super-powers begin firing nuclear missiles at each other as well as any civilian or military target the find necessary, Both industrial and military sites are located in the area in and around Sheffield. We quickly begin to witness the breakdown of government and social structure in the nation.

The use of stock footage, scripted scenes and effects are still effective and I frankly had to turn away from the screen at some points. The effect of the bombs and resulting loss of human life is chilling. Be warned if you think this might be a trigger.

I don't understand the hate this film seems to get. Is it because the teens we see don't suit up. There's even a scene mentioning the X-Men, with a Prof X joke. They talk about not wanting to dress up and fight criminals.

These are young adults who have all had tragedies in their lives, some which were caused by their new powers or triggered them. We learn how these effected them and altered their personalities. Meanwhile a doctor claims to be helping them understand their powers for her mysterious supervisors.

To be honest, I thought this film was better than about half the costumed X-Men films that were given wide release. Sad that this wasn't given a chance and released when initially announced.

This Northern Irish film gives off some heavy Shaun of the Dead vibes, with its gore and dark humor. They play with some of the usual tropes of vampires and there are a lot of Dracula references, naturally.

When an ancient cairn is disturbed a curse begins and the body count increases. The bickering father & son really make the film, along with the various neighbors in the village. My only problem, and not the filmmakers, is that the heavy accents sometimes made the dialogue hard to understand.

A female serial killer is trying to dispose of her latest victim when she discovers that she is being monitored by a drone. Looking to find out who might have seen her it proves to be more difficult than she had thought.

Brutal, but also a with dark humor. Both killer and the drone owner are good in their roles. Must have been difficult to film in the two main locations where this takes place.

Wernor Herzog is seeking love, but his frenemy Klaus Kinski has other plans. You only have to be slightly familiar with the filmmaker and actor to enjoy the jokes. Much of it is over-the-top slapstick and running gags. The actors portraying director and actor are brilliant.

I haven't laughed this hard in a while and you really don't know what to expect or who might be part of Kinski's plan.

A young actress moves to Hollywood and like many others hopes to make it big. Moving into a new apartment she starts finding letters in her mailbox addressed to someone else. Curious she begins reading them and is effected by their content. Seeking to discover who the other woman might have been she discovers that her situation is not unique. What happened to the other woman?

Wonderfully acted and covers a lot in a short film. You can debate the ending.

A young woman buys an antique bathtub and begins to have visions. The underwater scenes are nicely done and very disturbing. Good ending, which I didn't quite expect.

Hired to bring a man's daughter out of a cult, a pro infiltrator must learn more about the cult in which she has fallen. As time goes by the simple assignment becomes more difficult and dangerous then he originally thought.

A wife has some wonderful news for her husband, so texts him throughout the day. The film shows us the text messages and the reaction of the husband, who seems a bit confused. An odd ending, which seems more a punch line.

The relationship that Susie & Andy have seems to be falling apart. Both seem to be having strange dreams and there may be some jealousy in the situation. When lovers can't trust each other things can go horribly wrong.

Wonderful short that takes an odd twist.

Celeste is lonely and unhappy, so she turns to Lonely Hearts, an online service where you can meet others. She believes she has found a nice guy, but the first date takes a twist.

I'd only seen clips of the film previously so it was great when TCM broadcast this print. This version has English subtitles beneath the original dialogue cards.

It's fascinating to see how the film uses medieval illustrations, and re-enactments to cover the history of the witch hunts. Especially interesting is that this takes a secular view of the events, not giving credence to the supernatural tales. Puppets, makeup and even stop-motion is used to retell the confessions of those forced to confess.

Like so many other horror/slasher films this starts with the usual, "Based on true event' sort of disclaimer, but like many of those films goes way off the rails.

This is a brutal horror/slasher film, that uses a theory of actual events that took place in the mid-West from the late '90s into the the 2010s. Close to 50 young men were found drowned throughout the area with reports that 'smiley face' graffiti was found near where the bodies were discovered. The theory of several former law enforcement officers and a forensic doctor (written about in 2008) was that these were actually murders committed by one or more serial killers. Dismissed by most professionals in the field the theory has nevertheless been popularized in books and 'true crime' shows.

Here the location has been changed to Southern California and the number of 'mysterious' deaths more than doubled. A slow beginning, with some animal mutilation that might disturb some folks. The later murders are quite gruesome. I'm giving it a 6 out of ten, as there are some scary and intense scenes. However, it does seem to take a very long time getting started.

Juan Diego Escobar Alzate makes a remarkable feature film debut as director and writer. Beautifully shot and well acted by a cast, with whom I am not familiar. I was fortunate enough to see this thanks to the folks at Horrible Imaginings Film Fest earlier this year.

El Senor is a father and leader of a small religious cult in the mountains of Columbia. To be honest, since we see the people mostly using older technology, except for some modern firearms, I had thought this was actually some near future dystopia. My bad on that!

El Senor believes that he can bring about salvation, by discovering the reincarnation of Christ, in young boys he brings to his compound and keeps locked up. Much of the tale deals with the increasing madness of this man and his daughter's discovery that much of what he has been telling them are lies.

The cinematography in this movie is one of the highlights, with shots of the night sky, waterfalls and the overwhelming landscape. The isolation of the family and those around them is evident, as we see how vast the world outside their small farms really is.

This is a dark film and one in which we can debate the ending and the fates of the characters. Highly recommended.