Horror Movie Talk

Synopsis

The late Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator tracking down the whereabouts of Sutter Cane a famous horror novelist who has gone missing right before the release of his new novel. Trent suspects that the whole thing is a publicity stunt for the novel’s release, but as he searches for Kane, he finds the line between Kane’s fictional world and reality start to fray and overlap in disturbing ways.

Review

John Carpenter goes full Lovecraftian, melding his trademark independent film sensibilities and impressive practical effects with cosmic horror. If you look at his Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB ratings, you will also see that this is his last major film with significant critical and audience praise. It marks the end of an era where scrappy 80s gore and body horror was supplanted by slicker high budget meta narratives. This movie ushered in the new era with the likes of Candyman, The New Nightmare, and Scream.

standing between two eras, this definitely has more of an esthetic aligned with the scrappy indy vibe of Romero and Carpenters previous work. The idea takes center stage and isn’t handled preciously. It presents itself as a cool thing and lets the audience take a little ride without delving deep into the psychological or taking itself too seriously. Kind of like a Stephen King novel actually.

I picked this one because of the passing of Sam Neill and he does a great job here being the everyman descending into, you guessed it, madness. We also get Happy Gilmore’s grandma being freaky af, Vigo the Carpathian, and a very young Hayden Christiansen.

Like I said before, it’s a fun ride that doesn’t take itself too seriously. My only criticism is that it does rely on some repetitive cinematic moves such as jump scares and arbitrary time loops. But it’s all to service the films uneasy vibe and give impact to the singular moments of cosmic horror.

Score

7/10

Synopsis

Alice is a French woman who loves to smoke cigarettes. And her husband, Will, is an asshole. When the two get into a big fight at Will’s younger brother Joseph’s birthday bash, Will drunkenly drives full speed into a pedestrian, flipping his vehicle. The car catches fire and Will dies a horrific death. As the family gathers together for the funeral, Alice must face the scariest thing of all…in-laws. But not just any in-laws, but in-laws who are slowly taken over by the forces of Evil who want to burn your flesh off the bone like a candle stick.

Review of Evil Dead Burn

Evil Dead Burn is a stand alone film, and while it definitely seems to be connecting itself to some events in Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead (2013), it does so in subtle ways. You don’t really even need to see any previous Evil Dead movie to enjoy this film. If you enjoyed the tone and style of Evil Dead Rise, you will find that exact vibe in Evil Dead Burn. It is incredibly violent from start to finish, with almost no breaks in the gore. The movie starts off horrific, is horrific for 2 hours, and then ends horrifically. I had a really good time with this movie, but I was stressed out the entire time. It can be exhausting to watch people get their head bashed in for the entire runtime, so if you are someone who struggles with the really nasty gore scenes in horror movies, I would probably sit this one out. Its hard to say if this film is more violent than the previous 2 in the franchise, but it certainly isn’t less so. The major difference I noticed in Evil Dead Burn was that a lot of the violence was akin to that of a physically abusive partner (throwing you around, punching you, and hitting you with things). The past films have focused a lot more on ripping and tearing the flesh (which of course we do get in this movie) but I think that the type of violence on display in Evil Dead Burn fits really well with its overall theme of overcoming an abusive partner, as well as breaking the cycle of an abusive family.

Score 8/10

Synopsis

May is about a young woman named May who grew up in a strict home with an overbearing mother. Since she was a child May has had a lazy eye. Mortified that her daughter might have a physical flaw, May is forced by her mother to wear an eyepatch to elementary school. I’m sure you can see this villain origin story beginning to form. Now and adult, May’s social skills are a bit stunted. She is lonely, with her only friend being a porcelain doll given to her by her mom. The bulk of the movie is about May looking for love and friendship. But maybe May is just too weird for those things.

Review of May

May (2002) is an odd movie for sure. Every scene feels a little awkward, by design. Every character is just a bit weird, and I think that plays to the movie’s themes well. May of course is the weirdest one, but her downfall is much more about being an absolute psycho than social awkwardness. More than anything I think this movie can be used as evidence towards the point Bryce made on a recent episode that Hollywood ugly and normal person ugly are not the same thing. I find it funny when a movie takes a gorgeous actress and puts her in glasses with messy hair and tries to convince me the woman is not still gorgeous. I think this movie would be really interesting with a gender swap using a fairly ugly man because I think ugly men are one of the things we as a society fear the most sometimes. The entire movie is laced with some pretty erotic imagery that made me feel weird in my tummy at times I probably shouldn’t have felt that way. I think overall the movie is definitely interesting, and has some strong moments. But I wouldn’t say it was great. Just good.

Synopsis

After cocktail waitress Frida and her friend Jess meet tech billionaire Slater King, they are invited to join him on his private island. Along with his friends and a few other women they are brought to a beautiful island filled with bottomless drinks, great food, and a party that never seems to end. Although this vacation truly seems like a dream, things are a little…off. This dream soon begins to unravel and what’s revealed is a true nightmare. 

Review of Blink Twice

I chose Blink Twice to review this week because it’s a film that I sort of stumbled upon the first time I saw it, so I didn’t really know much going in, and I was just so pleasantly surprised. 

Now watching it for my 3rd time not only does it hold up but I found it almost more enjoyable due to being able to appreciate a lot of the effort put into the foreshadowing that you don’t catch until you know what happens. 

The themes of different power dynamics within our society are explored in a satirical way while also bringing real world intense horror elements that aren’t your typical dark figure in the corner 

Kravitz was able to visually capture this well using day and night as a tool as well as some memory devices that help the audience and the characters keep track of time and the different worlds the characters are living

The cast is great, it is incredibly well acted and believable and the pacing may be a problem for some viewers but it kept me engaged waiting for the reveal so to say. I like that you know something is going to happen you just aren’t sure how yet or exactly what it is going to look life 

Overall it was very fun to watch, it’s beautiful, dark and at times extremely horrifying

Score 

9/10

Synopsis

Two young men who are either 16 or 25 discover they like kissing. Their parents don’t like them kissing. So they call the gay exorcist, the kind that exorcise the gay out of gays, not the normal type of gay exorcist. The zealous christians who adhere to the Old Testament beliefs about gays use witchcraft (which they seem to be fine with) to curse the two mates with a sex demon.

Review of Leviticus

I was interested to see how they would handle the deep and complex issues of religious trauma for gays. Unfortunately, they handled these issues as clumsily as a back of the bus handjob between two teenagers. There really didn’t seem to be much depth behind the characters or relationships that would have made this movie really interesting. 

Instead we get a repetitive and oppressive reliance on the gimmick of the movie revealed in the trailer. A supernatural entity that appears as the person you lust over to lure you in, so that it can harm/kill you. If you are expecting more, it’s not here. 

There are a couple of lines in the movie that act as ciphers for interpreting the message of the film, but they don’t give much depth to the themes.

I’m sure that this movie will be meaningful to many people that watch it, and it being released during pride month is obviously intentional, but for me it was a miss.

Score

4/10