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vickyvicarious · 1 month ago

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To anyone who is interested, here is my thoughts on Nosferatu (2024). In briefest sum: it's not my thing. I didn't really like it by large.

To be a little longer, but still remain mostly spoiler-free: There are several elements running throughout the movie. There's stuff taken directly from the original Nosferatu, there's stuff added in from Dracula, and there's also some elements that appear to me to be informed by other adaptations or reputation, as well as more modern tastes in the way horror movies operate. It is definitely still a horror, and for people who like this style of horror, I think a lot of them would enjoy it. Personally, I'm not super into gore or sexual horror scenes. There are definitely several of both. In general I like more subtle psychological horror, and in a lot of ways I think this movie is pretty in-your-face about what it does. That is a personal preference for me, though, and definitely not universal.

Also, while I find the combination of elements interesting, in several places I personally feel like it weakens characterization or at least my interest in the characters. That said, some character things that fans of Dracula like would probably include: Orlock is definitely still evil/hated by all. Thomas and Ellen (the Harker figures) are in love, and both protagonists we're meant to root for. There are also a lot of added scenes that call back to various events in the book. On the other hand, there is some degree of Ellen/Orlock that is likely a major turnoff for a lot of people, and also Friedrich (the Arthur figure) is definitely not our Art. Also, many of the callback scenes involve similar events, but almost inevitably twisted in some way, either to fit the changed place in the plot, the different characters, or to feed in to horror scenes that are more gory/sexual than you'd see in either original book or movie.

Finally, more specific spoilers under the cut:

Sorry in advance but this is more of a ramble than any specific progression throughout the plot.

I think that the story wanted to have its cake and eat it too a little bit in regards to the original book, the original film, and to pop-culture derived interpretations of Dracula themes and characters. I also think there was a degree of playing in to more typical modern horror expectations. Some of my thoughts on this are pretty suppositional because I don't actually like watching horror movies much and also haven't seen any film adaptations of Dracula (aside from the original Nosferatu and now this one). So feel free to disregard me if I'm wrong on any of those points. But I feel like there are several scenes that either alter events or add in gratuitous nudity or violence just because that's expected.

Like, for example, when Thomas arrives in the town near the castle. There's a whole odd scene where a bunch of people are dancing around and then kind of mocking him before he gets into the inn. Once there, we have a scene more like in the original movie (OM from here on out) where there's horrified reaction to him saying he's going to the castle, and also similar to the original book (OB) where he is given a crucifix. Then we have a scene that seems like a "queer dreams" reference (but when he wakes his shoes are muddy showing it really happened) where he follows a bunch of locals leading a naked virgin on a horse to a grace where they then stake a vampire. I think this is the same group who were outside the inn mocking him, though I'm not totally sure.

The staking scene irked me more in hindsight because it seemed to be suggesting a possible alternate ending, with the virgin potentially 'distracting' the monster's attention while its body was staked. I kind of wondered near the end if this was going to happen to some extent with Ellen taking out the shadow and Orlock's spirit while the men staked his physical body. Now, that too would be off from both originals and was entirely my own theory so it not being fulfilled isn't really a knock on the movie, but... While I guess we can see the connection here, the actual way the whole "pure woman offers herself to the vampire to kill it" plays out later has nothing really to do with this scene. So it still feels kind of like there was no point having her there, since all she did was ride naked on a horse, and so it felt more contrived to show a boob than really relevant to me. The people also are weird because of this. Are they in Orlock's employ and scornful of Thomas? Are they opposed to vampires and want to protect him? There's a weird mix, only increased when everyone is gone when he awakes (including the innkeepers) and have stolen his horse. I didn't feel like their behavior made sense.

OrlocI did like several of the trippy bits about Thomas' journey to the castle (though the empty carriage reminded me more of Curse of Strahd, haha), and some of the parts of him being there. The scenes where he is eating with Orlock and where he's being pressured into signing a contract he can't read are pretty good moments of him having to try and keep calm and polite while freaking out hugely internally, though it's all much more condensed and quick to become blatant attacks on him than the OB. But that itself is more similar to the OM. The scene when Orlock makes him say "my lord" instead of "sir" is pretty funny. I also quite liked the way Orlock turned his excuse to leave ("I've been having horrible dreams since getting here, I think I'm ill") against him into a reason he must stay ("It's not good to travel when you're sick, you must stay here until you get better"). From the book, we get scenes like Thomas asking about local traditions and being shut down, running frantically about after learning he's trapped, being threatened by wolves, and escaping out the window. But the way it happens is typically very different, with Orlock just having some wolves in his crypt apparently. Thomas going in there and opening up the coffin to see him isn't really led up to in any way, other than him running around searching for an exit. We do get an attempted shoveling, except it's not a shovel but a pickaxe, there's no apparent reason for it to be sitting there, and Orlock (who apparently sleeps totally naked) physically repels the blow and then chases after him/shadows him and then drinks him while also humping him. He wakes up in his bed afterwards, and escapes out the window while fleeing wolves that have been sent to attack him after Orlock (presumably) leaves. Then he falls into the river.

I think in general his character is closest to the equivalent OB character. He loves his wife intensely, and is determined to return to her and to protect her/kill the vampire who harmed her. There are still some really unfortunate moments where he tells her to ignore her creepy dreams and basically be normal (as well as disregarding her warnings not to leave, though that at least I seem to remember happening in the OM), and he's the one to say of course she'll be left behind when hunting vampires. But he never seems to think about leaving her, and definitely loves her a lot throughout. I also like him getting a limp after his escape from the castle, showing some lingering physical effect. Though he also apparently has bite marks since he shows them to people later on.

Von Franz is shown to be more lost in his 'crazy' theories than Van Helsing. He also is too willing to sacrifice others, and kind of has a crazy monologue while setting a bunch of stuff on fire which feels super out of character. But he plays a smaller part and I liked both him not being shown as a super vampire hunter (the one scene when Friedrich asks him how to kill the demon he's talking about and he's just like "I dunno, I've never actually seen one of these before" was funny) and him having respect for Ellen. He insists she not be tied up and empathizes with her psychic nature being preyed upon, being clear that the results are not her fault. Dr. Siever plays a really small role, and Knock (the Hawkins/Renfield medley) is just as comically evil as he is in the OM. He does get naked in a pentagram and gnaw on animals/people onscreen, but doesn't have a huge role. I had fun laughing at Orlock carrying his own coffin in the original but sadly no luck in that regard thanks to Knock escaping to help him.

Friedrich irks me the most because he's got a larger role and it's so different from Arthur. While Emma (Lucy) doesn't do too much, she's at least still a good friend to Ellen. He clearly doesn't like her from the start and just kind of puts up with her weirdness because of other people. He's a loving husband and father and that's where the most sympathy for him comes in, but also skeptic who hates the influence on his life that Ellen brings and has a hard time believing Von Franz about supernatural causes. While Siever apparently suggested it in the first place, he still is the one who approves tying Ellen up, and he's a jerk to her about her not being normal and not doing what he tells her. Not to mention kicking the Hutters out in the middle of a plague! As well as trying to flee when his wife is already suffering from the plague. He does traumatically lose his whole family, and he gets the shadow keeping him asleep while his children were killed, which originally happened to Jonathan while Mina was attacked. The scene of the nosferatu carelessly dropping a dead child reminded me of vampire!Lucy tossing aside a child in the graveyard. And in fact, having Emma be the only one awake rushing about to try and save her family and having to face the vampire alone is sort of similar to the night of Lucy's memorandum if you squint. I absolutely hated Friedrich's ending - he's visibly caught the plague and wanders off to the graveyard where he then has sex with his dead (not undead, just dead) wife and then dies doing so? Euch. If they just left out the necrophilia then it would feel much more coherent to his character, just kind of selfish and very intentionally 'normal' but still deeply loving his family and losing it after their loss. But that just seemed kind of thrown in there to add to the erotic horror to me, and since I don't like it, well. I didn't like it.

Ellen, now... it's hard to talk about her character in this without also talking about Orlock. But let me start with just her and then get to that after. They lean way in on the psychic Ellen from the OM, which I initially quite liked. She also seems to deeply love Thomas, though there are some later scenes that add a weird dynamic there. One being she only became 'normal' when she met him, and so he seems kind of like an escape from her psychic dreads. I initially really liked her connection to him when he was on his trip. She gave him a token of her hair in a locket, which she cut while staring psychically out into the night, and it seemed like it was linking her to him. Then, when Orlock took the locket, the connection seemed to contribute with her sometimes overlapping with Orlock in a way I initially thought was kind of cool. I really liked the way the actress did her own version of the clawed hands and the Orlock walk/silhouette, she embodied that really well.

The sexualized trances/dreams and seizures were definitely not to my taste thought, and the whole more Exorcist-style scenes where she seemed almost outright possessed didn't really make full sense to me most of the time. I really disliked what the story behind them and her connection to Orlock ended up being. Apparently she psychically reached out to something dark in her lonely youth and ended up waking him/making some sort of marriage pact with him? This is what aroused his interest in her all along and seemed to drive many of his actions. And while we do see that she hates him consciously, and outright rejects and insults him to his face in one scene, there's all this stuff where she seems very drawn to him despite that. I really hated the Hutton sex scene. It was bound up in an argument between them during which she seemed to at least partially believe Orlock's words about Thomas selling her (this was apparently the contract he couldn't read but signed because Orlock was menacing him) for a bag of gold. She also throws in his face that he's never satisfied her like her dream lover (the nosferatu). She seems to be getting partially possessed or something throughout this fight. She takes on the nosferatu posture and uses a different voice, but it's not made clear how much of this is some influence against her or her own inner darkness or her actual thoughts. Thomas looks scared of/for her and also freaked out by how crazy she seems, and then she crawls up to him begging for no doctor and then they have aggressive sex while she commands him to kiss her heart. That in particular makes it seem like she's trying to emulate her dream sex with the nosferatu, since he's always shown to bit the chest/over the heart. So that left a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth.

Again, we do see that she loves Thomas and wants to save him. But the eroticization of the vampire feeding (once again, they are clearly having sex while he drinks her blood. The only reason I wasn't a hundred percent sure this happened with Thomas is because he at least was wearing clothes thought Orlock was naked at the time) combined with the visual horror of making Orlock look so open-wound and corpsey combined to have a really weird feel of just wanting to show a woman having sex with a horrible monster. The sexual horror thing... but she agreed to it, yes as a plan to kill Orlock, but what with the dreams thing and her making sex noises and whatnot it kind of seems like she's enjoying it too. Then when they find her body there's this kind of weird detail where she has a hand holding Orlock to her chest (she drew him back down and asked him to drink more blood when he started to notice the onset of dawn) and Thomas takes her other hand, and it feels symbolic somehow. Her lover being death and her husband reaching out for her but her clinging death closer... I dunno. The whole sex and dream connection/prolonged haunting aspect made it seem a lot less resigned sacrifice than it did in the OM, and definitely way more of her being drawn to him in return than in the OB.

Orlock himself was a pretty nice mix of Dracula and OM Count for most of it I think. I liked when he called himself nothing but hunger, it feels like it leaned in more to his OM counterpart. Using Thomas's fate against her (and before that, the Hardings) was very much something OB Dracula would do too. But his whole past with Ellen and consequent fixation on her kind of took over everything he did. And since I didn't like that element... I did love the shadow stuff, and enjoyed when he did the classic nosferatu walk with the hands reaching out, though it wasn't as often. His design was definitely creepy as well.

I liked the plague elements. I also liked the shadow of the vampire, and kind of wish there had been more emphasis put on that. I feel like in the OM, more horror was shown in his movements and his physicality partially just due to the medium. But it was also really iconic, especially the shadow, and I liked the instances when it was used to reflect his influence.

Not a fan of all the thrashing about (sexually and also just seizing/shaking) and drooling/vomiting/blood spilling from mouths. But those are more personal preference and again feel like more modern horror staples to various degrees. My biggest grief is the Orlock/Ellen stuff and how that infects other things around it.

BUT... if you like this sort of story, as I imagine many do, and if you are able to see it as its own thing enough not to get upset with the divergences (for example Orlock/Ellen, or Friedrich vs. Arthur) then I think a lot of people would enjoy this movie.

#nosferatu 2024 #nosferatu critical #not totally negative but as i say not my thing and i give reasons why #so if you loved it probably you'd prefer to skip this post

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returnofthelightt · 1 year ago

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Hasta & The Final Girl Trope In Horror Films: A (Mini) Analysis

Here on this post, I wanted to make a short analysis on how I think Hasta connects to the The Final Girl Trope.

☆ Please note that the Final Girl Trope actually has evolved. The trope characters are not what it used to be, I will be going back to the original origins of this trope.

☆ In addition to the Hasta Nakshatra, I found that many of the women playing have Mula, Revati and Mrigashira as well. My research today only focuses on Hasta but please note it is not limited to this Nakshatra only.

☆ Many of these references that are used are personal opinions and theories. If you do not agree or have a different opinion I would love to hear it! But please be respectful in doing so.

The Final Girl Trope

The Trope Itself

Before diving deeper into the hasta Nakshatra, let’s look at the ‘Final Girl’ trope description.

The final girl in movies is usually the last person standing or is the only woman that can make exit in the movie. They are usually described as being the virgin or sexually unavailable, refraining from sexual activities, as well as alcohol and drugs. Additionally, many of the Final girls portrayed had Brunette her instead of Blonde (blonde characters - specifically women, were perceived as highly promiscuous). If not all the time, most of the final girls are known to be more intelligent or at least carry smarter decision-making. They are the first ones to sense that something is ‘off.’ As mentioned before, Hasta’s sign of Virgo, is ruled by Mercury (Mercury exalts in Virgo). Mercury rules human intellect, as it is a combination of the sun (the soul) and the moon (mind).

If we look at even the basics, the sign of Virgo is ‘The Virgin.’ Virgin women are often stereotypically described along the lines of being pure, innocent, chaste, and so forth.

Additionally, the women have an androgynous appearance - with their names and clothing sometimes being unisex. Claire Nakti in her Hasta Nakshatra video discussed how they manifest their traits through purity and by detaching from male influence. Claire also talks about how “Hasta women like to prove their worth without needing men, as well as female power separated from female appearance/sexuality” (this can be depicted in numerous ways such as their work, appearance and so forth). Hasta picks up all external influences, analyzes them, and discriminates based on their observations. Hasta picks out men and realizes only the divinity is deserving of her.

It’s hard to exactly state if The Final Girl trope exudes the real meaning of feminism, or at least women standing up for themselves against evil. However, I wonder if Hasta’s appearance in these films unconsciously aims to reject the typical views that some males hold of women (i.e. unintelligence), and how his perception of the Final Girl often ends up with the evil male lead having to disappear to avoid being killed or eventually is killed. Claire Nakti also mentioned how many Hasta women are involved in using books or poems to criticize male behaviour, male sexuality the struggles of women opening up, and the promotion of female independence regarding intellect. The Final Girl in the film must use her wit to decipher the situation and defeat the Killer through the use of her hands.

If we decipher Carol J Clover’s book on the Final Girl trope, she does mention how the victims in Slasher films are mostly viewed as women, whereas the evil characters are males. Often these Final Girls are initially stereotyped for the male gaze at the beginning of the film, but eventually, the viewer roots for the final girl to defeat the monster. The woman becomes ‘masculinized’ when she is forced to defeat the monster by utilizing a weapon.

Carol further emphasizes this action while discussing how the killing of the monster/killer can be related to ‘castrating’ the male, which in return eliminates the ‘threat’ to the uterine. The body part that represents Hasta’s is the palm of their hand. The Hasta Nakshatra is known for manifesting outcomes with their hands. In Komilla’s Sutton book, she describes how Hasta can be related to elephants, as they use their trunk as an extra hand to complete their task. I thought this was interesting considering the quote ‘to hold something/someone in the palm of your hand,’ pretty much means you the influence or control of something/someone. The symbolism of the hand of course can be also correlated to their Deity, Savitar - The Sun God. Savitar was known to be skillful with his hands.

In all, I do think Hasta has some correlation with the Final Girl Trope, whether it would be in films or tv shows. I do think there are many of factors (my own personal ones) and others that are discussed in Clover's book. It wasnt that long, but I hope you guys enjoyed reading it! Feedback would be greatly appreciated xx.

#astrology #vedic astrology #vedic astro observations #vedic astro notes #astro observations #hasta #nakshatra #mercury

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all-souls-matinee · 5 months ago

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BONUS Halloween in August/September Review: Alien: Romulus (2024)

[Eschewing my usual format of 1-2 sentence summary + 1-2 paragraphs of thoughts, this one will be a combination to include several spoilers. It also assumes some prior knowledge of the Alien franchise]

Going into Romulus I was leery of how video game-y the trailer felt and the choice of a director best known for 'subverted expectations' home invasion horror, but those were the two aspects of it I ended up really liking. The premise is that a group of 20-somethings are stuck in an intergalactic mining town where the amount of missions they must fly hours they must work to gain an emigration permit is raised by a few years each time they reach their goal. Our protagonist, Rain, is told by a friend that he and his crew have discovered the wreck of the Nostromo floating above them and plan to break in and steal its cryochambers; the last thing they need for their own ship to make an escape into deep space. The crew welcomes her, but admit that what they really need is her adoptive brother Andy, an ill-liked synthetic who can access the Nostromo's controls. So far so good, I love this premise! It's a little YA dystopia, we've got a ragtag group of mining orphans that look like TikTok influencers and don't have personalities, but that's okay- acceptable and even expected for an Alien movie. I'm also not here to clutch pearls over the sanctity of the original; everything that follows plot-wise is good stuff! Reminiscent of video games, yes, but that means lots of clever little item pickups and interactions, and the tension-building is excellent. An early example: while collecting cryofuel half the team is trapped in a room full of slowly thawing, unseen facehuggers. The other half must retrieve a master-key computer chip from Ash's body (left over from the original mission) to pass to Andy, who is then stuck in reboot mode and unable to help until a critical moment, and this all filmed brilliantly with great effects. There are several standout scenes like it; the movie feels connected to the rest of franchise while contributing new ideas- playing with gravity and temperature and electricity as both weapons and stumbling blocks. It looks good, I like individual plot beats (including the contentious climax), I love the multiple dead rat puppets that are here for some reason, but this is also the only movie I've considered walking out of.

No one barring David Jonsson (Andy) can act, and chemistry is nonexistent. We're told that the crew is composed of friends, siblings, cousins, and love interests, but never actually see it, and no matter how good the plot and pacing are on paper that really makes things drag in places. I like the aliens and love the androids in these movies, but at the end of the day I've always ended up rooting for the humans because of the empathy on display. Many of the Aliens are objectively worse than Romulus from a filmmaking perspective, but this is the first one where I wanted the bad guys to win.

The main villain of this movie isn't the aliens, it's Ash. I was spoiled on CGI Deepfaked* Ian Holm going in, so when they boarded the Nostromo and saw his body I rolled my eyes and braced myself for a scene where he comes to life like a haunted house prop and then they kill him or whatever, but no, he sticks around and drives the entire plot. It's awful; I don't even hate this one from a writing perspective it just feels insanely disrespectful (and is distractingly bad to look at.)

3. The Green Mile is one of my most hated movies of all time. I revisited it early this year when the podcast Just King Things discussed the book within the context of Stephen King's larger body of work, which stresses the character of John Coffey not as an aberration but a trope King keeps coming back to: a black or disabled person who is a holy innocent. Physical prowess and/or magic powers are coupled with the disposition of a character like Of Mice and Men's Lennie or Flowers for Algernon's Charlie to create someone who looks scary but is actually worthy of love because, hey guys, he's nice and sympathetic in a way that appeals to an imagined white American audience. Months after listening to that episode I accidentally walked into an even broader literary context, discovering the character of Jean in E.E. Cummings's The Enormous Room (a nearly 1:1 blueprint for Coffey), and Pip in Moby-Dick, a child traumatized to a point of babbling incoherence that allows him to act as a holy conduit, a prophet, and a comfort to his captain. These characters aren't meant to be racist but rather to teach about antiblack racism, which makes for interesting reading, but a terrible Alien movie.

Andy is the only black character in this film. Andy is referred to as Rain's brother at most twice, then revealed to be her servant (literally programmed by her father to do two things- protect her and make dad jokes.) Andy is cognitively and physically disabled from being rebooted so many times over the years, and faces extra abuse and discrimination because of this. I cannot begin to describe how it felt to have spent the year bumping into saintly black characters in media who are dehumanized in order to teach some vague platitude about humanity, only to run into it again here. It gets worse and more muddled when Andy is rebooted using Ash's chip, which makes him "normal," which makes him evil. Ash uses him to further the interests of Weyland rather than his sister/master Rain and it makes him start saying scary inhuman stuff like 'the solution to the trolley problem is to kill as few people as possible.' (Again, go bad guys.)

I know the movie doesn't see itself as racist. Andy is by far the most interesting character and has a lot of complexity to him; Rain's whole arc is learning that no one should have seen him as expendable or treated him as an inferior, and tells him his new prime directive is to live for himself (as well as her. Can't leave that on the table.) Alverez clearly had the best of intentions, but the movie can't get away from the fact that Andy being cognitively impaired and using his strength and powers to the benefit of some random white girl, choosing family over work but also the individual over the collective, was actually what made him human.

Okay rant over. I liked the part where they threw a flair and the facehuggers scurried after it like a pack of dogs because they hunt by body heat and movement instead of by smell and vision. Yay :-)

*Holm was deepfaked 'respectfully' with the consent of his family using a combination of animatronic and a new actor... and the company literally responsible for deepfakes (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/alien-romulus-ian-holm-rook-ash-ai-1235982350.) I cannot stress enough how bad this is to look at for almost 2 hours like i needed to talk about Andy but jesus christ.

#long post #edited to move spoiler tags into the post- got ahead of myself ;-)

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agentnico · 4 months ago

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Speak No Evil (2024) review

Right, so I did not realise I needed James McAvoy singing ‘Eternal Flame’ in an unsettling voice whilst starring intently into my eyes in my life yet here we are. Mr Tumnus for the win!

Plot: A dream holiday turns into a living nightmare when an American couple and their daughter spend the weekend at a British family's idyllic country estate.

Based on a Danish horror film of the same name, which I have not watched to avoid a sense of bias, or the more truthful reason being that I simply couldn’t make the deserved effort, the Hollywood remake machine is back at it again with Speak No Evil, a psychological thriller courtesy of the folks from Blumhouse, a production company who’s model is to produce films on a small budget, and give directors creative freedom whilst still release films widely through the studio system. Essentially a studio that pioneers for artistic freedom, so always good to support these types of films. That being said, Blumhouse has lost a bit of its reliably unique flair with it being a while since they’ve had their last solid hit, but I’m always happy to give them a go.

In cometh Speak No Evil, a film which Universal marketed so hard I’ve seen the trailer for it maybe 352 times? Look, whatever sells the tickets I guess, but last time a trailer has been shoved in the audience’s faces so much was Argylle, and we all know how well that movie performed. NOT! Anyway, does Speak No Evil deliver the scares? Well… kind of. It’s borderline a comedy. For there is a lot of funny moments throughout (not sorely caused by McAvoy belting out Eternal Flame, but again - huge win!), but more so in how the movie challenges the ideologies of good manners. I myself got married a few days ago, and in my wedding speech I spoke about how us Eastern Europeans lack a sense of good manners, for we act how we feel, so hardly ever smile and can often come off as straight up rude. Well not myself personally, I feel like I am truly a delightful human being (and humble too!), but folks from culture. However marrying a British woman, Brits are always the high level of well mannered etiquette, and truly in the UK everyone always smiles, says “please” and “thank you”, even if on their mind they may secretly be calling you the C-bomb. So in Speak No Evil this aspect plays a huge part, with the main couple being too well mannered and polite to say anything, and as such allowing the other crazy couple to get away with some mad stuff. As such, this movie is more of a comedy of manners, with only the last 30 minutes embracing its true thriller roots, and even then, it’s not scary at all.

I’m not going to lie, I found this film to be very goofy. The humour of the cultural differences was amusing, but when the final act co es where it’s supposed fully take on the horror element, I never felt remotely concerned or worried about any of the characters. There was such a lack of tension due to the poor directing and a script that seemingly has a message but does not know how to bring it home. After watching the film, I read up about the original Danish version and it’s more messed up darker ending, and immediately realised what the issue with the new 2024 remake was - it’s been given the classic Hollywood ending. You know, the typical no matter how terrible the scenario gets, all characters will find a way out eventually no matter what. As such, Speak No Evil has no gravitas or sense of terror to it. It’s a thriller that had a fun concept which goes nowhere,

The one aspect of Speak No Evil that does work is James McAvoy. Following on from showcasing his psychopathic talents in Shyamalan’s Split and Glass, McAvoy fully embraces the crazy unhinged nature of his character, which results in a fully mad performance, but one that truly carries the film, and is consistently entertaining. From bloodshot red rolling eyes, to his impressive henchman physique, to ‘Eternal Flame’, McAvoy throws himself into this role and is endlessly watchable. In fact his acting almost makes this movie worth watching. Almost. But no, this is a typical throwaway Hollywood remake that is just so silly and uninspired.

Overall score: 4/10

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weirdstuffinthewoods · 8 months ago

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The inevitable what if...?

Freddy vs Jason (2003)

Horror fans constantly seem divided on what constitutes "real" horror, or even "good" horror.

The issue with gatekeeping the genre is that you start to get bored with the offerings that fit the qualifications. Original IPs are best rewarded only if they're frightening enough to satisfy lovers of jump scares and dread alike. Franchises are begrudgingly watched for ever-lengthening amounts of time, and attempts at reboots are either met with rightful scorn (the moneygrabs) or badly received because fans are still clinging to the original too hard to make room for the new (think Candyman 2021). Between the two options, restricting what constitutes as worthy horror can leave you in a stale place.

All this to say- I watched Freddy v Jason tonight and it continues to be one of my Ol' Faithfuls. While not necessarily frightening, balls-to-the-wall movies like Freddy v Jason, Deathgasm, House on Haunted Hill (1999), or the Hong Kong fever dream that is Rigor Mortis offer something that truly frightening films sometimes can't- fun.

Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, horror and comedy have always gone well together. You see it as far back as films like The Old Dark House (1932) and at Halloween haunts worldwide every year. A scare actor gets a scream out of you and you run off, laughing. The tension of a film builds and builds and is finally cut by comedic relief. Horror and comedy make the perfect group watches- the acting is usually mediocre, and someone's always going to have a questionable costume or hair and makeup choice (lookin' at you, knockoff Jason Mewes and frosted-tips cop). There's plenty to laugh at but also plenty to make you go

The film is directed by Ronny Yu, a director who also breathed life back into the Child's Play franchise with Bride of Chucky, another one of my favorites. In Fangoria 221, Yu notes that for Bride he was asked if he'd seen the original films. When he answered in the negative, he was told "No worries-you can catch up later or just forget it and start fresh." Using a similar philosophy here (as he was not familiar with either franchise before pairing the two in a match made in hell), Yu managed to keep the lore as consistent as it's ever been (not very) and also give us a horror milestone that manages to be really, really fun.

Still not convinced? Here's a short list of reasons:

The 2000s-era over saturation!

This movie focuses on BLUE as their color of choice- movies like Cabin Fever or House on Haunted Hill were very focused on RED. If you want to forget what colors the real world is, movies from this decade are for you!

The stupid one-liners!

(and casting easter eggs like Kelly Rowland here and Ginger Snaps icon in the lesser but still memorable role of "Gibb")

Joint-smokin' Freddy caterpillar (in super dated cgi, but who cares?)

The entire cornfield rave!

Who throws raves in a cornfield? Is that a thing in the midwest? Who cares? It's a great place to hide Jason's bulk and watch some obnoxious jocks get gutted.

It's like watching a wrestling match between two legends. Both Freddy and Jason have built their respective (if questionable quality) franchises that both began with iconic films that shaped the slasher genre. The pair are polar opposites in every way- Freddy a quick-witted, small, overly talkative set of brains with some knife fingers, and Jason a hulking, silent mass with both his strength and his machete on hand at all times.

The kills are still fun and the blend of practical and cgi effects don't feel totally cheap just yet, but the real payoff is the finale that pits the two legends head to head in an over-the-top, totally rock-n-roll finale. While you can and do root for both of them, the surprisingly sympathetic lens put on Jason adds a layer of connection you usually don't get with the silent behemoth, making it an impossible to call fight. I can hear the theaters full of screaming fans now.

I'm just saying- Horror, if no other genre, is a place for experimentation, especially with its long-running penchant for low budgets. Where else are you going to see crossover fights outside of fanfiction?

When given the choice, definitely champion an original idea (don't want to encourage those big budget studios too much), but if you're having a Halloween rager, why not throw on a bloody good time like this one?

#freddy krueger #jason voorhees #freddy v jason #freddy vs jason #2003 horror #2000s horror

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roskirambles · 4 months ago

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Horror Movie of the day: Frankenstein (1931) The myth of Prometeus tells the story of hubris. One, where an act of defiance to the divine order costed a man eternal punishment, for the former god changed humanity forever by giving them a gift that arose both progress and destruction, sometimes thought as a cautionary tale against arrogance in the face of discovery. But apparently Henry Frankenstein didn't get the memo, because he's just doing that: playing with life and death by trying to create human life from dead organic matter. Indeed, the reanimated corpse in front of him is a lot of things, including an impossible break through in science.

But one thing the monster isn't.. is in his control.

Directed by James Whale, this incredibly loose take on Mary Shelley's masterpiece is arguably the most iconic out of the classic Universal Monster films. The reason? It's quite grandiose. Having equally powerful vistas but a bolder cinematography than it's predecessors helps, as well as the use of sound just being that much more refined.

The adaptation of the core narrative is quite captivating as well; in spite of some drastic changes, not only does it manage to keep the central themes of the boundaries of science going awry and self destructive obsession, but the relationship between the Doctor and the Creature is engaging by being viewed from a different, less cynical but still fundamentally tragic angle. All courtesy of the performances of Colin Clive as Henry, and Boris Karloff as the creature in what would be his apotheosis in the world of horror cinema. There's a reason that makeup by Jack Pierce is to this very day THE benchmark of how a movie monster looks.

To say it is the least faithful to the source material so far would be the understatement of the century(well over half the iconic things from this movie have no precedent in the novel), but on its own terms, it certainly blew what was already a solid horror film lineup so far out of the water.

When I said this was a loose adaptation, I feel the term "loose" is on itself. Granted, it's based on a 1927 theatre play by Peggy Webling over the actual novel, but that doesn't change the fact it has created a fairly misleading image of the entire story. The way the creature looks and moves, the electricity used to create it, Dr. Frankenstein having a hunchbacked assistant, the resolution of the conflict being a massive fire, all of these things have no root in the original novel, as the way things play out have fundamental enough differences to think of this as a different story with the same starting point. One that covers many of the same themes and ideas, mind you, but what used to be a fairly slow, moody tale of mysteryand a melancholic tone gets hit with a strong sense of spectacle leading to a fairly explosive finale.

And for once... I don't think that was a bad choice. The novel is one of those stories that are enjoyed the best in written form thanks to its epistolary format, and any worthy adaptation would have to inevitably make pragmatic shifts to adequate its contents to a different medium.

And of course, I'm almost legally obligated to talk about ·the fumble".

Remember Bela Lugosi? The guy who played Dracula in the movie that came out that very same year? (...yeah, movie production didn't take entire years on average back then, go figure)

Well, he was the original candidate to play the creature, but reportedly dropped the role when he found the monster in question would only growl or vocalize without talking was beneath his acting skills. This mistake would cost him his stardom, as Boris Karloff absolutely displaced him as Universal's go to scary guy with a performance (and makeup) that just completely stole the Hungarian's thunder, not helped by the fact Karloff wasn't restricted by his accent to play more conventional and varied roles.

The rivalry between the two seems to have been exaggerated into a legendary feud, but the reality doesn't seem to suggest there was true animosity between the two, even if Lugosi would have every reason and then some to resent Karloff for displacing him into eventual mainstream obscurity at the time.

#horror movies #halloween movie #universal monsters #james whale #boris karloff #colin clive #mae clarke #john boles #dwight frye #edward van sloan #frederick kerr #frankenstein #roskirambles

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grigori77 · 1 month ago

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2024 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 2)

20. AZRAEL – I’m not super familiar with filmmaker EL Katz, when the trailer for this dropped I realised I only knew his feature debut Cheap Thrills, but I DID remember really liking it, so I thought there was potential here. In the end THE MAIN REASON I was willing to give this one a go was the screenwriting credit – this is another stripped back, bare bones horror flick from Adam Wingard’s regular collaborator Simon Barrett (You’re Next, The Guest, Blair Witch) who I absolutely ADORE, so I was TOTALLY on board for this one. The premise is pure FIRE, too, focusing on a deeply twisted post apocalyptic world that’s developed an unspecified number of generations after the Rapture, and the daily horror that those left behind have adapted to. Samara Weaving stars as the titular heroine, a young woman living in the woods with her lover Kenan (Misfits and Utopia’s Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), hiding from the doomsday cult they’ve been cast out of, who cut the vocal chords of their children at birth in the belief that human speech is a sin. When they’re found and kidnapped by cult enforcers, the pair are separated and staked out in the wilderness as sacrifices to the Burnt Ones, twisted, nightmarish humanoid monstrosities that feed on human flesh and blood, but Azrael escapes her bonds and goes on a vengeful one-woman rampage against the cult and, in particular, its leader Miriam (The Girl With the Needle’s Vic Carmen Sonne), a strange spiritual medium heavily pregnant with a dark and mysterious spawn. Coming across as a particularly twisted lovechild of A Quiet Place and This Is the End, the film features virtually no dialogue, every scrap of information ultimately gleaned through purely visible exposition while characters communicate entirely through looks and gestures, and it’s a FASCINATING exercise which lends the film a particularly breezy expedience that leaves plenty of room for some enjoyably intense, deeply harrowing screw-tightening action sequences, and the memorable cast are all entirely game for everything they’re called upon to do. Weaving carries the film magnificently, this is undeniably the best performance I’ve ever seen her deliver, which is incredible given that she never utters a word through the whole 85-minute runtime, while Sonne and Katarina Unt (The Idiot, November), who makes a particularly strong impression throughout as Josephine, a tough veteran cultist who takes Azrael’s avenging crusade particularly personally, both shine throughout too. This is a spectacular exercise in bare bones filmmaking, Katz and co taking the stripped back super-tight script and crafting something wonderfully immediate and strikingly primal for what must have been a minimal budget, and the result is definitely one of the most viscerally intense and darkly majestic horror thrillers I’ve seen not just in the past year but for this current decade. I may not have known EL Katz well before, but I sure am paying attention to him now ...

19. TRANSFORMERS ONE – After languishing for years under decreasing returns in quality and general critical opinion under the guidance of director Michael Bay, the past five years or so have been a whole lot kinder to the cinematic Transformers legacy, starting with the first truly GREAT live-action Transformers flick Bumblebee and then (mostly) continuing with its follow-up, the admittedly clunky but ultimately still perfectly good Rise of the Beasts. So I was a good deal more hopeful about this first purely animated feature for the franchise since the rightly beloved 1986 “original”, especially once the reviews starting coming in and the word of mouth was SO VERY STRONG. This is definitely the most faithful and downright RESPECTFUL the movies have been to the core property since that gold standard benchmark, going right back to the very roots of the core characters (literally, in this case) and building a strong, solid core for a far more promising franchise future moving forward. It helps that the director, Josh Cooley, built his own qualified foundation working in Disney animation, rising through the ranks before finally making his directorial debut on Toy Story 4, and he’s ably backed up here by a spectacular writing team headed by Eric Pearson, who’s been making a name for himself as one of the MCU’s new star screenwriters on the likes of Thor: Ragnarok, Black Widow and the incoming Thunderbolts* movie. Between them they’ve crafted an evocative return to the very beginning of the whole saga, delivering an origin story for the Autobots and Decepticons through the original friendship of Optimus Prime and Megatron before they were torn apart by war and strife. Chris Hemsworth does a really impressive job of living up to the MAMMOTH legacy of the mighty Peter Cullen as proto-Optimus Orion Pax, while Brian Tyree Henry is an intriguing successor to one of the greatest voice actors of all time, Frank Welker, as future Megatron D-16. They’re both a long way from the mighty warriors and idealogical leaders they’re destined to become – when we first meet them they’re simple mining bots digging away in Cybertron’s depths for Energon while dreaming about living up to the examples of their heroes, the Primes of legend.

Then one foolish mistake sends them both stumbling full-on down a rabbit-hole of discovery that ultimately leads to them learning the shocking truth about their society and the lie that’s kept their kind down for generations, setting them both on a collision course to not only changing their world forever, but also planting the seeds of a future war that neither of them wanted … okay, so it sounds pretty heavy, but this is, ultimately, one of the most FUN movies I’ve come across in the past year, living up to the irreverence of the Bay era while always delivering some precision-crafted humour with a good deal more intelligence and a surprising amount of maturity … indeed this is one of the smartest films I saw in 2024, asking some very pointed questions and giving some very potent answers, and it NEVER talks down to its audience. The voice cast here are spot-on, too – Hemsworth and Henry are both inspired throughout, carrying so much weight in their respective parts and always proving worthy equals to their material, and their chemistry is incendiary; fellow MCU-alumnus Scarlett Johansson, meanwhile, proves that there really IS room for proper heroic transformers who AREN’T just token females with her competitive and fiery take on fan-favourite Elita-1, while Keegan Michael-Key effortlessly steals all of his scenes as a far more old school dorky motormouth version of future Bumblebee B-127, and there’s solid support from the likes of Jon Hamm, Laurence Fishburne, James Remar and, in particular, a truly inspired appearance from Steve Buscemi. Overall, this is a truly special film for me, finally delivering on all the promise that we’ve only sporadically seen delivered on the big screen since the original came out, bringing our original core favourites to incredible breathing life through some genuinely awesome high quality animation while throwing some rightfully thrilling action sequences into the mix for good measure, and NEVER scrimping on the much needed heart and emotional heft that’s always been so important to this property. This is definitely the best Transformers movie we’ve seen in a very long time indeed, very nearly the equal of the ‘86 film, and it would be really good if Hasbro could look past the frustrating underperformance at the box office and just concentrate on the universal love that this film has received from audiences, critics and the fanbase as a whole so that we can get more of the Transformers movies we truly DESERVE ...

18. THE BEEKEEPER – David Ayer doing a big noisy action-heavy revenge thriller starring Jason Statham? That’s totally gonna be a clunky, cheesy guilty pleasure, right? That’s definitely what the trailer made it look like – imagine my surprise, then, when this turned out to be a surprisingly solid, meaty and, above all else, INTELLIGENT actioner which provides a far greater cerebral challenge than your average by-the-numbers exploitation actioner. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be THAT surprised – Ayer may have made the lowbrow likes of the first Suicide Squad movie, Bright (which I nonetheless didn’t think deserved ANYTHING LIKE the amount of hate it actually got) and the far more rightly derided The Tax Collector, but he’s also the director who brought us genuinely IMPRESSIVE cinema like Fury, End of Watch and the best movie of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s more recent career, Sabotage. This one definitely belongs in THAT camp, Ayer delivering with gusto like he always does on the action front but also investing a good deal more substance and emotional depth, due in no small part to the efforts of a deeply committed leading man and a thought-provokingly timely screenplay from Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen, Salt and another of Ayer’s GOOD ONES, Street Kings). Statham stars as Adam Clay, a beekeeper renting some farmland from retired schoolteacher Eloise Parker (the legendary Phylicia Rashad), who falls victim to an online phishing scam which sees her stripped of her life savings and the entire balance of a $2 million charity fund she manages, leading her to commit suicide in shame. Bad news for the scammers, though, because it turns out that Clay’s profession is merely a cover, he’s actually also a FIGURATIVE Beekeeper, an agent for a covert governmental security program SO SECRET that almost nobody even knows it exists, a genuinely LETHAL former special forces badass so highly skilled that he makes Navy SEALs look like National Guard, and he’s got the technological counter-terrorist knowhow to make tracking these nefarious f£$%ers down proper child’s-play. You can, of course, TOTALLY see where this is gonna go … even so, this is a film which really does keeps you guessing, never telegraphing its heavyweight punches and throwing in plenty of twists over the course of its surprisingly streamlined 105 minute runtime. As the star of the Expendables and Transporter movies, Statham can do this kind of action (anti) hero role in his sleep, but he really shows up in all the ways that count here, making Clay come across as a preternatural badass who nonetheless has some subtly nuanced layers underneath his seemingly bulletproof, tightly toned shell; The Umbrella Academy’s Emmy Raver-Lampman, meanwhile, helps keep the exposition from getting dull and the unravelling mystery fascinating as Eloise’s acerbic and dogged FBI agent daughter Verona Parker, torn between her duty to bring Clay in and her personal investment in seeing the people responsible for her mother’s death pay for their crimes, while Josh Hutcherson and genuine living legend Jeremy Irons make for compellingly complex antagonists as tech billionaire Derek Danforth, the louche and reptilian owner of the company that covertly runs the online scams, and his extremely reluctant protector, suave former CIA director-turned security expert Wallace Westwyld. Altogether this is in an entirely different league from most of the action cinema I’ve seen Statham in over the years, Ayer and Wimmer helping him create his most interesting genre character TO DATE, one that I trust, given the film’s skilful sequel teasing and its deservedly impressive box office performance, shouldn’t take long to return to the big screen, and I for one CANNOT WAIT …

17. MARS EXPRESS – My favourite animated feature of the summer is a pretty singular work which came out of leftfield and really took me by surprise, a French science fiction murder mystery thriller of rare vision, inventiveness and beauty which is tempered by a fascinating and more than a little troubling thematic message which raises far more questions than it answers. Marking the feature debut of writer-director Jeremie Perin (Crisis Jung, Lastman), it chronicles the investigation of two very unusual private investigators – world weary former soldiers Aline Ruby (Lea Drucker of Fox’s War of the Worlds TV series) and Carlos Rivera (The Crimson Rivers’ Daniel Njo Lobe), the latter of whom is now a kind of simulant android whose recorded consciousness was uploaded into a robotic body after he was killed in action – on a colonised Mars as they hunt for the cause of a supposedly harmless robot’s sudden malfunction and subsequent violent rampage. As they tumble deeper down an alarmingly perilous rabbit hole, they uncover a terrifying clandestine conspiracy involving corporate malfeasance which may include their sometime employer, tech billionaire Chris Royjacker (the great Mathieu Almaric), rogue AI and a looming technological revolution which could spell disaster for the Red Planet … this is a genuinely INTRIGUING film, Perin and co-writer Laurent Sarfati (who previously worked with him on Lastman) weaving a seductively labyrinthine detective story which works magnificently well as an ingenious sci-fi take on the classic Noir formula, but also delivers a very timely Philip K. Dick-esque treatise on the potential dangers of the unchecked development of artificial intelligence and asks far more fundamentally challenging questions about what it really means to be alive, and to be human. It’s also genuinely THRILLING, propelling the story at a furious pace generously peppered with full-blooded action sequences, as well as a GORGEOUS work of animated art, the exquisite mixture of 2D and digital animation rivalling some of the best anime I’ve seen but nonetheless carrying a conspicuously FRENCH vibe. Altogether this is a magnificent achievement for an up-and-coming filmmaking talent whose work I will DEFINITELY be keeping an eye out for in the future. I highly recommend hunting it down.

16. LOVE LIES BLEEDING – Rose Glass made a suitably offbeat splash with her directorial feature debut Saint Maud back in 2019, a twisted psychological horror about religious fervour … so her subsequence team-up with A24 made perfect sense to me. Even so, when I found out that her next project was a psychological thriller about lesbian bodybuilders I still had NO IDEA what to expect, certainly not from THIS filmmaker … and even now I’ve seen it (TWICE, in fact), I STILL don’t know QUITE what to make of it. This is a seriously WEIRD film, kind of like a postmodern LGBTQ version of Body Heat married to the bizarre existential extremes of Mandy, but while it definitely left me baffled, I couldn’t deny that it was also a deeply fascinating, thoroughly compelling and unapologetically SEXY film too, one of THE hottest thrillers I’ve come across in a good long while. Kristen Stewart and my girl Katy O’Brian (seriously, I’ve been a fan ever since Z Nation, long before she was in The Mandalorian and Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania) are both ON FIRE, both metaphorically and VERY NEARLY literally, as Lou Langston, the very publicly lesbian manager of a cruddy Albuquerque gym in 1989, and new-to-town drifter Jackie Cleaver, an aspiring bodybuilder trying to make her way to Las Vegas to attend a competition. The pair fall fast and VERY HARD in love, but storm clouds are already gathering as the FBI sniff around Lou, looking for her reluctant help in bringing down her local criminal kingpin father Lou Langston Sr. (Ed Harris), while Lou’s sister Beth (Jenna Malone) suffers at the hands of her increasingly abusive husband J.J. (Dave Franco), and one night everything comes to a head and their lives are thrown into utter chaos … this film has a much more complicated, overblown and downright TWISTED plot than it really has any need for, but this isn’t a film where the story is really THAT IMPORTANT, Glass and co-writer Weronika Tofilska instead concentrating most of their effort on the complex and morally ambiguous characters and their deeply unhealthy interpersonal relationships. Even the two lead protagonists, despite their powerful love, are definitely a much more toxic mess than the trailers made them out to be, but the way they’re played means we still can’t help rooting for them no matter WHAT they do – this is definitely THE BEST performance I’ve seen Stewart deliver to date, even putting her recently acclaimed turn in Spencer to shame, while I’ve been waiting so long for O’Brian to FINALLY land a role that TRULY fits her largely underrated talents, which this DEFINITELY IS, and their chemistry is genuinely OFF THE CHARTS, every one of their scenes threatening to ignite the celluloid, even when they’ve both got all their clothes ON; meanwhile the rest of the cast similarly impress, Harris in particular proving a suitably spooky villain as he plays it subtly charming and seductive, while Dickinson’s Anna Baryshnikov is supremely creepy as Daisy, an emotionally manipulative local lesbian who’s formed a particularly uncomfortable obsession with Lou. Steamy, unsettling, shocking and frequently downright NASTY, with a line in truly WEIRD hallucinatory escapism bordering on genuine body horror, this is definitely NOT a film for the faint-hearted OR the easily offended, but its many virtues FAR exceed any flaws it may display, meaning that Rose Glass has got another winner on her hands, while A24 have got another high profile ODDITY to further perplex and thrill their fans with.

15. TWISTERS – Back in 1996, Jan de Bont’s man-against-nature action thriller Twister turned out to be one of the most undeniably enjoyable blockbusters of the 90s, and it’s one of those rare CGI-heavy features from the fledgling digital days that STILL holds up impressively well today. It also DEFINITELY worked perfectly well on its own merits, with no need for a sequel and CERTAINLY not a remake … so when it was announced that there was going to be one after all, like many I was suitably dubious. I mean the story was told perfectly well in the original, there’s nothing new that could really be said in a follow-up, right? Turns out there actually IS, though, and I’m pleased to report that Minari director Lee Isaac Chung’s new film lives up to its predecessor in fine style, thanks in no small part to him and screenwriter Mark L Smith (The Revenant, Overlord, The Midnight Sky) clearly taking the lessons of the 1996 film very much to heart and bringing us a fresh serving of everything that worked so well last time round while carving impressive fresh ground for a rewarding original story moving forward. That being said, the greatest strength of the original wasn’t the effects anyway – it was the well-rounded, fully-realised characters we followed into the film’s myriad dangers, and this one definitely pulls off the same feat, introducing a new generation of tornado chasers out to pioneer new scientific tech and hopefully save the lives of people living in the strife-torn environs of America’s Tornado Alley. Glen Powell (hot off major career-making turns in Top Gun: Maverick and Hit Man) may be the heavyweight star power in this particular cast, and he’s definitely great, scene-stealing fun as Tyler Owens, the self-proclaimed “Tornado Wrangler” of YouTube, but the true heart of the film is Daisy Edgar-Jones (Fresh, Where the Crawdads Sing, Normal People) as meteorologist Kate Carter, who’s looking for redemption for past mistakes which led to the deaths of most of her old storm-chasing team, while Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In the Heights) is certainly the soul as Javi, Kate’s former colleague, looking to help her realise her goal through his new tech venture Storm Par; there’s also hefty support from the likes of Brandon Perea (Nope), Sasha Lane (American Honey, Daniel Isn’t Real), David Corenswet (the new Superman) and even my girl Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding, Z Nation, The Mandalorian)! They’re all just as fleshed out as Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt’s crew were back in the day, a compelling collection of lovable misfits we’re happy to go on this crazy death-defying adventure with, which of course does SO MUCH of the heavy lifting with regards to the tension-building because we get so deeply invested in them all. That being said, the film definitely doesn’t scrimp on spectacle, the visual effects work having improved SIGNIFICANTLY on what was already impressively high quality work back in ’96, leading to some truly TERRIFYING set-pieces that would definitely surprise anyone who only knows Chung for his critically acclaimed and award-winning dramatic work, but much much less now we’ve seen what else he’s capable of on the hugely enjoyable Star Wars-based Skeleton Crew TV series. This is a far cry from just pure by-the-numbers summer blockbuster fare, then, a heavyweight event pic with a surprising amount of substance and a hefty dose of proper FEELS to go with all that adrenaline and eye candy, and it’s a MORE THAN worthy successor to an already rightly beloved classic.

14. CUCKOO – After making an impressive debut with his deeply unsettling horror film Luz, writer-director Tilman Singer returns with more of the same for this slice of subtly disturbing nightmare fuel that’ll definitely make you think twice about staying in a German hotel the next time you’re holidaying in the Alps. Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) carries the whole film as Gretchen, a moody American teen who’s thoroughly pissed about being displaced by her architect father Luis (Marton Csokas), who’s moved his whole family to a small Alpine resort which he’s helping to build a new main reception building for. She’s at odds with her stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) and thoroughly creeped out by the resort’s manager, Herr König (Dan Stevens) while she struggles to form a relationship with her mute younger sister Alma (Dodger’s Mila Lieu) and dreams of returning to her home in New York. Then she discovers there’s something VERY WRONG going on in and around the resort, and the only person who seems willing to take her seriously is Henry (Luz and Tatort’s Jan Bluthardt), a tightly-wound cop who seems to have his own agenda regarding what’s happening here … this is another one of those films that really needs to be watched good and cold, Singer crafting a delightfully twisted tapestry of deeply ingrained unease and oppressive threat in every scene, displaying a gleefully stylish eye for unique compositions and fever dream aesthetics that play out in some truly inspired sequences that simultaneously tantalise the senses and trigger our prehistoric fight-or-flight response. Schafer is an absolute revelation here, effortlessly proving she definitely has the chops to carry a major property on her deceptively slender shoulders, while Stevens makes our skin crawl in every scene, investing his character with a perfect veneer of sleazy smarm that belies a much darker core of cruel, superior sadism. In a year which proved to be a genuine embarrassment of riches when it came to horror cinema, this was an indie gem which really pulled off the seemingly herculean task of truly STANDING OUT from the crowd, and it deserves to be considered a genre great for the decade ...

13. THE SHADOW STRAYS – Netflix and Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto are a combination that, up until quite recently, I didn’t realise I needed. I was passingly familiar with his work thanks to his earlier Indonesian action cinema offerings as one half of the directorial duo The Mo Brothers (namely Killers and Headshot), but it was his genuine DYNAMITE 2019 solo streaming offering The Night Comes For Us that REALLY grabbed my attention, so when I heard he was doing another one in a very similar vein for Netflix I was VERY EXCITED INDEED. Little did I know … seriously, I thought I knew what he was capable with TNCFU, but I was a fool – this is SO MUCH BIGGER than that, Tjahjanto creating something genuinely capable of favourable comparisons to The Raid movies, albeit with a much stronger feminist bent. Aurora Ribero (Love Like the Falling Rain, Like & Share) effortlessly makes the transition from romantic comedies to becoming a bona fide action cinema BADASS as a young woman simply known as 13, a recent recruit into the Shadows, a mysterious secret society of elite international assassins. After a job goes south, she’s sent back to her native Jakarta to recuperate, with orders to lay low and await further instructions from her stern mentor/handler Umbra (Susuk and Tunnel’s Hana Malasan), only to get drawn into a gang war when her young neighbour and only friend Monji (24 Hours With Gaspar’s Ali Fikry) is abducted by mobsters days after his mother’s untimely death. The resulting carnage brings a whole lot of heat she never counted on, not least within her own organisation, and suddenly she’s more of a liability than an asset … this is a much more expansive, sprawling action epic than the director’s previous offering, going VERY BIG with some seriously heavyweight set-pieces that display some of the most spectacular action choreography and stuntwork I’ve seen deployed outside of a John Wick movie, bolstered by some truly ASTOUNDING single-shots that genuinely left my jaw on the floor more than once, and Ribero is particularly impressive throughout, displaying some genuinely rare martial arts prowess as she kicks a whole heap of arse. There’s some top-notch worldbuilding on display here too, Tjahjanto crafting a compelling mythology for his (ahem) shadowy protagonists which lays strong foundation for a potentially awesome franchise moving forward, while there’s some surprisingly robust writing too, the characters and their emotional arcs convincingly well-rounded while there are some convincing twists on offer, and there’s a good deal more heart than I would have expected too, dropping some serious feels on us that don’t feel particularly forced. In the end it’s a pretty exceptional action-fest that really marks its writer-director as a talent to watch in future, and given that he landed the gig directing the upcoming Nobody sequel I’m even more inclined to dig deeper into his back catalogue now. Come see me again in August when I’m a whole lot more familiar with Timo Tjahjanto ...

12. ABIGAIL – This particular horror highlight of 2024 is TWO of my favourite things in the genre rolled into one – if there’s one thing I really CAN’T resist, it’s well-executed horror comedy, where a film is genuinely scary, but doesn’t take itself particularly seriously, displaying a strong and prevalent sense of humour. I’m also a real sucker for VAMPIRES (ahem). Put the two together and a movie has to really SHIT THE BED for me not to like it, so this one was pretty much guaranteed to get me on its side before it even started. Directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Opin and Tyler Gillett have been sneaking round the outskirts of my movie-fan radar for a few years now, first popping up just before COVID with black comedy slasher Ready Or Not before bringing the last two Scream movies into cinemas. Not that I even realised THIS was from them until after the fact – I took it entirely on its own merits, drawn in purely by the intriguing premise and promise of equal measures of scares and laughs, and it did not disappoint, EASILY proving to be their best offering so far. Scream’s Melissa Barrera stars as “Joey”, one of an anonymous crew of crooks brought together by sleazy criminal mastermind Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) to facilitate the kidnapping of the eponymous pre-teen ballerina daughter (Mathilda the Musical’s Alisha Weir) of a local business rival. The job seems to go off without a hitch, and they settle in for a twenty-four hour wait in an isolated mansion before the ransom exchange, charged with keeping an eye on the girl … then one of them turns up dead in the worst way possible, and it dawns on them that there’s something monstrous stalking the halls of the house. Best not give away any more than that, ‘least not for those who didn’t get the twist pretty comprehensively spoiled by the advertising campaign … suffice to say that what unfolds is a blood-soaked, riotously entertaining black comedy horror-show that kept me hooked through a selection of effective twists to a particularly surprising climax. Barrera and the rest are clearly having the time of their lives here, everybody going all out with more than one enjoyably ripe, larger-than-life performance to really impress (not least Dan Stevens, who chews the scenery with particular wild-eyed enthusiasm throughout), while this definitely provides a fitting farewell for one of the cast – “Dean” was the final role of Euphoria’s Angus Cloud before his tragic death last year, and he really did himself proud here. This is one of the most full-on visceral vampire movies I’ve seen in a while, rivalling Renfield for gleefully disgusting practical effects, and while the scares here are VERY EFFECTIVE throughout, almost every sequence is delivered with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, the directing duo never letting it get too (figuratively) dark or depressing even when the blood really starts to fly. Those who enjoy their horror liberally laced with humour should find this particular recipe all but irresistible.

11. FURIOSA – 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road was not only one of the greatest films of the last decade, but was also the undeniable MASTERPIECE of director George Miller’s career, even managing to (almost) eclipse previous classic sequel The Road Warrior. It was a triumph of visual storytelling, two hours of furious all-action mayhem with barely any digital trickery in evidence, and brought us one of the greatest female protagonists of all time in the irrepressible warrior woman who managed to overshadow Max Rockatansky himself – Imperator Furiosa, perfectly brought to life by an ON FIRE Charlize Theron. It was, quite simply, A PERFECT FILM. So did it really NEED a prequel, chronicling the story of what led such a badass lady to undertake the gruelling crusade of that most exceptional of cinematic extravaganzas? Honestly? Not really. But does that matter? No, not at all. As soon as Miller started touting this as a project those of us who flipped out SO HARD over Fury Road IMMEDIATELY started frothing at the mouth at the possibilities … it was just that the more pragmatic among us were also a little worried that he might not be able to capture lightning in a bottle all over again. Well, we never should have doubted him, Miller was definitely equal to the task – Furiosa may not be QUITE as good as the film it chronologically precedes, but as an origin story it is MAGNIFICENT, a sprawling, gruelling, exhausting post-apocalyptic action epic that definitely does flawless justice to such an incredibly strong character. I don’t want to give too much away plot-wise, it’s better to just jump in and ABSORB it all, suffice to say that this does indeed reveal how the child Furiosa was stolen from her seemingly idyllic life in an oasis in the middle of the radioactive Australian wasteland, dragged into the middle of a brutally hostile desert filled with warfare, insanity and SERIOUSLY POWERFUL VEHICLES and forced to forge herself into an indomitable, merciless and uncompromising living weapon in order to survive, thrive and find her way back to her long lost Green Place. Anya Taylor-Joy is a fine choice indeed for a more youthful Furiosa, subtly nuanced and filled with simmering intensity buried under a haughty mask of righteous untouchability, but she doesn’t even TURN UP until the midway point of the film, the lion’s share of

the work to establish her unbreakable character through her lost childhood ultimately going to The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart’s Ayla Browne (who previously performed for Miller on Three Thousand Years of Longing), and she is nothing less than a TOTAL FUCKING REVELATION in the role. Even so, Chris Hemsworth frequently steals the film as the best villain the franchise has EVER HAD (and that says a lot in a series that includes Hugh Keys-Byrne’s Toecutter), self-aggrandising preening peacock Dementus, who gleefully tips from adorably camp to chillingly monstrous to pompously flamboyant at the drop of a hat, effortlessly holding court over the likes of Nathan Jones’ spectacularly ridiculous Rictus Erectus and Romper Stomper’s Lachy Hulme as a more youthful incarnation of his tyrannical father Immortan Joe, while The Musketeers’ Tom Burke is heroically stoic as Praetorian Jack, the doughty War Rig commander who takes Furiosa on as his protégé, and model-turned actress Charlee Fraser (Anyone But You) rules over the opening scenes as her ferociously protective mother, Mary Jabassa. Miller delivers in fine style on the action like always, the War Rig chase in particular going down as one of 2024’s most memorable action sequences, and once again there’s a pleasing reliance on physical stunt-work, practical sets and good old fashioned elbow grease over CGI throughout that does its predecessor proud. That being said, this one is NOT a breakneck movie-long chase, its more leisurely, sometimes quite introspective pace instead allowing the story to breathe and the peerless world-building to develop, although there is still a characteristic relentlessness to the tale which means that, despite its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it never feels overlong. Then again, it also deploys Fury Road’s secret weapon – a throbbing, atmospherically propulsive score from Tom Holkenborg – to create another pleasurable ride through the irradiated hellscape of Miller’s Outback. I for one would be very pleased to return to it someday …

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shootingxstardust · 1 year ago

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Little Godzilla Minus One Review (Spoiler-Free)

I saw Godzilla Minus One with @shxxtteredfantasy on 12/1 when it hit theaters. I missed the fan exclusive event that was a couple days prior, but that's alright! I saw it. I give this movie a 10/10. It is one of the best Godzilla movies in years I loved the story, the design, the characters. It was one of the few Godzilla movies where I cared about all of the characters. Usually in Godzilla movies I only care about one or two, or even none of them. Usually I just want to get to the monster action, but this one was different.

Godzilla Minus One returned to the dread or even horror like elements from the first movie in 1954. The original 1954 movie was definitely an anti-nuclear war film, and had been made just 9 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. It was a chilling movie. it was depressing. It was even scary seeing Godzilla on screen. Safe to say, Minus One brought Godzilla back to his roots.

Whenever I saw Godzilla, I felt awe, I felt dread. I feared for what would happen to the characters. With the film being set right after the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings, it made the dread even worse.

This movie has some of the most fleshed out characters I've seen in a Godzilla movie. You really feel for each and every one of them, including the main protagonist. You really feel for their struggles, and want them to succeed. I cried during the movie several times, I will admit. I liked Shin Godzilla, but while this may be an unpopular opinion, I found his design to be a little too zombie like. The movie was great, but it wasn't perfect. This movie in my opinion was perfect. Now I will also admit, I do like some Godzilla movies with a little more cheese. Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) are still my favorites, but I cannot deny that this movie is a masterpiece, and actually good movie, that stands just as tall as Godzilla (1954) if not taller in my opinion. So yeah. 10/10 Go see it if it's at your local theater. It's awesome! By awesome, I do mean, you will be awed, if not completely chilled.

#Out of Blue Flames{OOC}#Godzilla Minus One #Mun shit #And yes I am excited for the whatever batshit insanity is going on with #Godzilla x Kong #At this point the Monsterverse if becoming the new Showa era and I'm here for it.

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xenovalence · 6 months ago

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Alien: Romulus

R 2024 ‧ Horror/Sci-fi ‧ 1h 59m

Cue the lo-fi beats and the vintage VHS effects

We finally got another one, Boys. whats up back at it again with another film review. Let's dive into the spooky, squishy spacey nightmare that is Alien romcom I mean Alien: Romulus. Which by the way likely references the mythological figure Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. Romulus, along with his twin brother Remus, is a symbol of origin, survival, and the violent birth of a new order. This connection may suggest themes of beginnings, foundation, and perhaps the brutal conditions under which new civilizations (or in this case, new forms of horror) arise. In the context of the Alien universe, the name "Romulus"

could metaphorically relate to the birth of something terrifying and foundational within the series' lore, possibly marking a return to the franchise's origins while introducing a new chapter or entity that carries a significant impact. It may also imply the creation or discovery of something that, like Romulus's Rome, is destined to grow into something powerful and enduring—albeit with a dark and violent genesis. These mythological and thematic parallels could be why the filmmakers chose the name "Romulus" for this installment and keeping up the tradition of Greek names. Like Prometheus.

Did they bring back the xenomorphs? yeah, they did it—they brought back them back along with

the face-huggers, and all the existential dread you could ever want, but... did they stick the landing? Let’s find out. First off, this movie is like if you took the OG Alien and Aliens, shoved 'em in a blender with some VHS tapes of Blade Runner and a sprinkling of your favorite 80s horror flicks. It takes the formula and runs with it. A horror film with Teens in space. It’s as if you gave people from the original alien and aliens films and gave them updated film equipmentment and said go crazy. Pays homage and fan service in a respectful way.

Fede Álvarez, the guy who brought us that Evil Dead remake, knows how to make you squirm in your seat, and here, he’s playing all the right notes—just maybe a little too close to the originals at times. Set between the events of the original Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), the film is praised for capturing the claustrophobic terror that defined the early films. A Classic troupe in horror is isolation, one of the most isolated places in existence, space, prefect. The plot centers on a group of young people who, in a desperate bid to escape their grim existence on a mining colony, board an abandoned spaceship, only to encounter the deadly xenomorphs.

The film's atmosphere is heavily influenced by the classic haunted-house-in-space formula that made the original so effective. The production design and practical effects are especially noteworthy, with a deliberate move away from heavy CGI in favor of tangible, lived-in environments that heighten the tension and realism. This return to practical effects is a major point of praise, as it creates a more immersive and terrifying experience for the audience.

We’re talking practical effects that look like they’ve crawled out of a Ridley Scott fever dream. There’s some seriously gnarly creature design here, and the space station where our unlucky crew of Gen Z miners end up feels more lived-in than my old room full of N64 games. There’s a real effort to make the environment feel gritty, grimy, and full of history—like people lived and died here long before our crew showed up and made bad decisions. And yeah, they make some real bad decisions.

Let’s talk characters. We’ve got Cailee Spaeny as Rain, who’s basically the 2024 answer to Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. She’s tough, but forgettable . She’s just trying to survive, and honestly, who wouldn’t be? But the real star here is David Jonsson as Andy, the synthetic. This dude’s playing mind games with everyone, including us. Half the time, I didn’t know whether to root for him or be freaked out. And honestly, that’s how you know he’s nailing it. There isn't specific information available that confirms whether the character Andy is explicitly portrayed as autistic. However, characters who are synthetics or androids in the Alien franchise often display traits that could be interpreted as being on the autism spectrum, such as difficulty with social interactions, a focus on logic and tasks, and a unique way of perceiving and processing the world around them. David Jonsson's portrayal of Andy is noted for its complexity, making the character intriguing and enigmatic, with audiences unsure whether to fear or sympathize with him . This ambiguity might lead to different interpretations, including one where Andy's behavior could be seen through the lens of neurodiversity, but without clear confirmation from the filmmakers, any conclusions would be speculative.

Another noteworthy observation is his portrayal has interesting layers when you consider his race. In science fiction, synthetics often represent "the other"—beings that are created, owned, and often exploited by humans, drawing parallels to historical and ongoing issues of slavery and racism. By casting a Black actor as Andy, the film may subtly invoke these themes, whether intentionally or not. The parallels between Andy's existence as a synthetic and the historical treatment of Black people as property or slaves add a deeper layer to his character. Synthetics in the Alien franchise often grapple with questions of autonomy, identity, and purpose, much like how marginalized groups have historically fought for recognition and rights. Moreover, Andy’s struggle with his programmed directives and the way he is perceived by others could reflect the societal prejudices faced by Black people, who are often judged and constrained by societal expectations and biases. This interpretation suggests that Andy's character might be seen as a commentary on the intersection of race, identity, and humanity's fear of "the other."However, these themes are likely more interpretive than explicit, as the film does not overtly address race. Still, the casting of David Jonsson as Andy adds a significant layer of complexity that invites viewers to explore these possible connections.

But okay, this movie’s not perfect. The audio mixing? Yikes. It’s like they recorded the first 30 minutes in a wind tunnel or something. I couldn’t make out half the exposition, which is kind of important when you’re dealing with a plot and also the accents are kind of hard to understand without subtitles, but hey I understand why our boy Ridley Scott, is British and since he is producing the film with his company Scott Free why not? Don’t even get me started on the CGI resurrection of Ian Holm’s character from the first Alien. They tried to go for that sweet fan service, but it just ends up looking like something from a creepy deepfake video.

That said, if you’re into that old-school, haunted-house-in-space vibe, Romulus delivers. It’s got the thrills, the chills, and enough gooey body horror to make you question your life choices. It’s like watching your favorite horror franchise come back to life, but this time with a bit more self-awareness. The plot might be thinner than my hairline, but sometimes you just want to see some aliens eat people, you know?

In the end, Alien: Romulus isn’t here to revolutionize the franchise—it’s more like a greatest hits album with a few new tracks. And honestly, I’m okay with that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go re-watch the original and remind myself why I never want to go to space. Catch you later, space cowboys.

Subjective 7.9/10

Objective 7.5/10

#alien #xenomorph #alien romulus #horror film #film poster #film #film review

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scary-movies-on-netflix · 7 months ago

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IN THE EARTH (2021)

Sometime in the near future an English dude shows up at a forest preserve to perform some research. There’s a pandemic going on. The dude is Martin. I haven’t seen him in any horror movies before, but he was in a delightful comedy called “Bank of Dave” (2023). Anywho, a ranger, Alma, is tasked with taking him to the distant campsite of the scientist Martin is going to work with. We last saw Alma in “Midsommar” (2019). She was half of the couple where the dude just decided to leave without telling anyone, including his girlfriend. She says that doesn't make any sense, and the Swedes drive her away to join him, but they are both killed!

Alma and Martin proceed through the forest. They come across an empty campsite, because apparently people escape the locked-down cities to go camping. The second night, whilst sleeping, they are viciously attacked! The next morning, as they recover, they see that most of their equipment has been stolen or destroyed, and their shoes have also been taken. They trek painfully through the forest, and Martin cuts his foot.

They come across Zach, a dude living in the forest. He takes them into his camp and cleans and stitches Martin’s foot. Then he gives them a tasty tea, which is actually drugged! While they are unconscious, Zach dresses them up in white tarp clothing and arranges them ritualistically so that he can photograph them with an old film camera. When they come to, he rants crazily at them about a being in the forest, whom he worships through images.

He drugs them again, but apparently with a smaller dose. Zach looks over Martin’s foot and tells him it’s infected. Martin asks to be taken to a hospital, but instead Zach chops off two toes (the little ones) with an axe! Zach next carries Martin out of the room, and Alma takes the opportunity to grab a little knife that Zach has dropped. She frees herself, squirts some film chemicals into Zach’s eyes, and then drops a film enlarger on him. She frees Martin, but Zach then chases them with a bow. Some stuff happens, and Martin ends up in some forest area filled with speakers and strobe lights, and a figure rushes out to retrieve him. It’s the scientist they were originally looking for, Olivia! Zach passes out, or something, and gives up the chase. Alma arrives to join Martin.

The next day Olivia cleans up Martin’s wounds. Her camp is built near a stone cairn, or dolmen, whatever. Olivia found reference to the forest in the seminal book about witches and witchcraft, the Malleus Malificarum. Now, using lights and speakers, she’s trying to speak to the forest, including the mycorrhiza (the fungal network that connects most of any given forest). She was apparently working with Zach, but he went too far and became crazy! Alma seems suspicious, especially in that Zach could probably come into Olivia’s camp at any time, and she wants to leave as soon as possible. The following day the entire camp is surrounded by a mist of fungal spores! Alma puts on a hazmat suit and tries to make it past the mist, but she starts hallucinating and freaks out! Olivia and Martin drag her back to the camp, and Alma says, “It’s not what you think…it is not a human.”

As night approaches, it seems that the fungal mist is slowly approaching the camp. They suddenly see Zach under the trees in the distance! Olivia goes to speak to him. She comes back, and apparently he’s explained that to escape the forest they need to perform some sort of “sacrament” involving the cairn so they can talk to it. Olivia prepares some concoction of roots and mushrooms. Alma is, naturlich, dubious. She asks, “What do you think it wants to tell you?” Olivia suggests that the forest wants to speak about how trees and humanity can peacefully coexist. “You keep talking about this thing as if it’s human,” Alma says, “it’s not.” She nonetheless goes along with the ritual.

Alma and Martin go to the cairn. Martin drinks the concoction. Alma goes to check on one of the strobe lights, but then she smacked in the face by Zach! Zach goes to Martin, who he is going to sacrifice! Alma goes back to the camp and sneaks into Olivia’s secret tent. Inside, Olivia is surrounded by a bunch of Zach’s pictures, because she is also cuckoo for Coco Puffs! (Did I mention earlier that she and Zach were married at one point? And that she was also in a relationship with Martin?) Olivia looks crazily at Alma and rushes at her with a knife, but Alma disarms Olivia and begins to beat the shit out of her. Zach hears the fight over the speakers and heads into camp to help Olivia. Alma bonks him on the head, and then he shoves her over. He pulls out a knife to stab her. She grabs a tent peg and stabs him in the eye! Zach staggers about a bit and asks to be taken to a hospital, but instead Alma pushes the tent peg further into his brain and kills him.

Meanwhile, Olivia has recovered and heads to the cairn to finish off Martin, for the ritual. Alma runs after her and they fight over him. Everyone then trips out, and we see past scenes from the movie and kaleidoscope-like images of the forest and nature. Everyone comes to at daybreak. Olivia falls to the ground and says, “Thank you.” Martin is alive. Alma stands over him and says, “Let me guide you out of the woods.”

This was good. It reminded me of “Flora” (2017), another movie about a fungus-haunted forest. We have elements of body horror, what with Martin having his toes chopped off and things being inserted into his body (by Zach). There’s folk horror, as we start off with some ancient tales about the old forest, and Dr. Wendell drags out the Malleus Malificarum, so we might also have a witch movie. Finally, we have some good old-fashioned cosmic horror, but our eldritch beings are not outer gods, but actually fungi. Olivia, in her snooty and condescending manner, informs Alma that they’ll have a nice conversation about how to live sustainably on the earth. Alma reasonably responds that fungi aren’t humans. How are you supposed to “talk” to a form of life that doesn’t think (like us, at least) and experiences the world in an entirely different way than we do? In the end it doesn’t really matter, for the fungus is mostly a freaky deus ex machina, swooping in to save the humans from the horrors and cruelty they inflict on each other in the name of spirituality.

#in the earth #horror movie #horror movies #movie review #2021 #good #scary forest #folk horror #cosmic horror

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annbourbon · 1 year ago

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Well hello folks! It's that time of the year again! And here's my 2023 movie list, keep on mind I actually made the effort to watch movies I have never seen before, even though they're old... so even if you already watched them because they're classics, I didn't until now.

I actually need to get some books to read but for now binged all these days to watch 31 movies & series in a couple of days.

1. Mask Girl (K-Drama, series)✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay this series was amazing. I've been a fan of Orange Caramel even though they're now disbanded, so seeing Nana back on the scene was so cool. But that's not all, honestly:

* Insane plot, made me gasp a couple of times and I've been into K-Drama for a while now so...

* I was actually rooting for Kim Mo-mi the whole time, but also I couldn't find myself to hate the other characters because the actors are so good<3

* Did I mention Nana is there?

* It has so many layers and many points of view which makes it so interesting to watch

I'm not saying anything else because I highly recommend this one.

2. The Platform (movie) ✅⭐⭐

A bit boring at times but quite interesting too. I watched it because someone recommended it to me. I was so disappointed with the ending but at the same time I understood why it finished the way it did. I'm not going to watch it again though. Definitely hated it.

3. Scream (movie, 2023 ver.) ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since I already watched the original one. This one was awesome. I loved the original cast coming back, and also, Jenna Ortega 😍😚

4. Suspiria (remake)✅⭐⭐⭐

I got bored lol it is aesthetic but not a lot. I prefer the school on the original movie. Like, it's so pretty...

Actually I got, really bored at some parts. I wanted the whole ballet concept to be more... macabre and beautiful. They could have put anything else and the idea would have been the same.

I enjoyed the dance. But it's not classical ballet. I'm giving it an extra star because of the aesthetics. It's not creepy or scary. Just another film. Some parts are awesome but mostly... bland.

5. The Deep House ✅⭐⭐

I think, I was disappointed. It's one of those old school movies, you either love it or hate it. I ended up disliking it a lot because it felt kind of lazy. There was no message behind, there was no reason for me to actually care about them as characters, and BTW, the dude there, he was sooooo toxic. I ended up hating him the whole movie except for his last moments. I really don't recommend this one lol but here you have me, trying to find something different.

Well, sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

6. Doctor Sleep ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

I need to be honest, he's still one of my first celebrity crushes. So I might be a bit biased. But I loved the movie. Before you say anything to me, I have watched The Shinning already.

7. Gothika ✅⭐⭐

I might as well be honest. I saw this movie when I was a kiddo. But I had a lot of nightmares about it. Still, now I got to watch it fully. And I realized that it's not as intense as I thought it was. I mean, yes. It has some scenes. But I'm a Hannibal Lecter and Criminal Minds fan now lol it's kind of difficult to get past that.

8. Dreamcatcher ✅⭐⭐⭐

It started pretty average and I was expecting nothing from it. But it got better. And really scary. I hated the bathroom scene but also loved the whole movie.

9. Only Mine ✅⭐⭐⭐

Scary but because it's based on a real story. The movie is pretty decent.

10. Train to Busan ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Was so cool 💕 😢 more than scary it was inspiring me a lot. IDK how to explain it. But I'll be watching it again because *feelings*

I think it's becoming one of my favorite horror movies.

11. Annihilation ✅⭐⭐

Mmmmm I fell asleep. Had to watch it again. And it was not that interesting. I loved the colors though. If I have to say anything about it lol 💤😴

12. Psycho (1960) ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can't believe it took me so long to watch this one!!! I love this movie I swear. It's such a good one. It's not as scary as I thought it would be but I think that's a "me" problem lol since it seems like I'm so used to scary things nothing really scares me anymore.

However, the suspense was so in point and I can't even believe that I was holding my breath. Like, how? This movie is so old no? It should be boring and all that uh? Well it doesn't matter. Hitchcock definitely knew his way around. It caught my interest and hold me captive till the end of the movie. I didn't even start scrolling my phone or got bored!

Sure there are a couple of plots that can be "fixed" because we now have better phones and technology, but the whole movie it's timeless. It definitely holds. I loved it. A lot. That can't be said of several other movies and tv shows.

13. Constantine ✅⭐⭐⭐

Not really scary. But really cool. I was having a crush over Tilda Swinton the whole time lol sadly she doesn't get to have a lot of screentime but I repeated her scenes for a while before going to the next movie.

14. Beowulf ✅⭐⭐

By now I'm getting tired AF of bloodbaths. Like it's not even scary. It's disgusting and tiresome. I want to see something else. I really did not enjoy the movie. I'm starting to realize that binging on a certain genre can desensitize a person and it certainly feels like I'm way over it. I remember the movie but I can't remember anything that is worth of comment. Except, maybe... that Beowulf is an asshole, so is the king, and apparently the next king will do the same thing and everyone there deserved what happened to them except ofc the people in town and kids. I don't think I liked the story or movie at all. 💀

15. Disturbing Behavior ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay so James Marsden and Katie Holmes are so cute together. And they're literally kids here. It was a bit awkward lol but I enjoyed the movie. It's kind of interesting and definitely talks about how society pressures you on behaving in a certain way. All that while making a scary movie. Which is why I might've ended up liking it a bit more than the others. Interesting how parents were so on board with this behavior too. Anyway, since I'm on a marathon I don't really have a lot of time to analyze it as much as I usually do. I probably won't be watching it again, but it's a good movie to analyze and enjoy for a while. For real.

16. The Exorcist (original) ✅⭐⭐⭐

Now we're getting serious lol or not...

Honest reaction

Before the movie>> I'm so scared of it 😭😿😱

During and after the movie>>> wow... It's so... meh 😑

I was a bit distracted during the whole movie. And it's not that scary. Just sad, long, boring and disappointing. Nothing else to comment.

My brother said that I needed to appreciate it a bit more since it's an old movie, but honestly... I prefer Psycho to the Exorcist. Like, I get it. Old movie. Different type of special effects and all that. But still, the whole thing, even the characters feels kinda flat? Nvm the spoilers. I received a similar amount of spoilers from both movies and I still enjoyed Psycho more. I did laughed a lot. But it's not supposed to be a comedy movie 😭🤣

17. 12 Monkeys ✅⭐⭐⭐

TT~TT okay? I really cried for a while. And I had to take some days off because of this one. I started watching other series, kdramas and stuff that made me laugh and forget about this one.

18. Ghost Ship ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I remember seeing this one everywhere when I was a kid and my parents trying to make sure I didn't watch it. One of the reasons I finally got my hands on it and watch it lol

I really enjoyed it. I was so sad about the girl on the ship. And I usually do not like slashers but somehow I ended up loving this one. Definitely is going to be one of my favorite movies from now on.

19. The exorcism of Emily Rose ✅ ⭐⭐

Boring at the beginning but interesting after 30 minutes into the movie. Which in a way, it's not good lol but let it be. I was thinking to call the Winchesters all the time.

Mmmm I think these two are one of the reasons I stopped disliking horror movies.

The other one would be Fi from So Weird

Which TBH is the original reason I stopped disliking ghosts and monsters. I joined Fi team first before Supernatural. Supernatural was me being edgy and sarcastic all the way, especially on my worse days. But Fiona, she's the one I truly aspired to be. Now I think I'm a mix of both and it's okay. I still prefer Fi over the Winchesters because she gives everyone a chance to be. I mean, I love the brothers a lot... okay not the point of this lol sorry... Ummmm I think you can see I got distracted while watching the movie. 💀🤣

Interesting though, a mix of lawyer-ish fight with "medical terms" and all that in a demonic possession case. Different P.O.V. sure. It definitely makes more sense than the Exorcist where the story ends without anyone (no cops, no lawyers, no other authorities) involved despite several people dying.

"Touched by the hand of God" they said. And believe me when I said "ew" during that part 😭🤣 I wasn't even trying to be funny. Seriously though... there's only one thing I despise more than movie slashers. Religion, especially inside movies. And inside books too. I was so disappointed by Susan's problem when I found out what it was about. I also spent almost my entire childhood inside several Catholic and Christian schools. Most of the time being bullied by everyone there. Please lol I can't stand them (I do realize that not everyone is like that but it left a huge trauma on me so I can't stand those things.) The fun part is, I don't have anything against religions. Just against hypocrisy and lack of comprehension. Still, it's okay for a movie. One or two hours of it won't be bothering me so much. Didn't scare me. But made me uncomfortable. I wish I could hear more about Dr. Adani (?) P.O.V. though.... I believe I will have to watch Heroes (series) for a similar take on that.

20. The Barcelona Vamp ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was... triggering. And not about vampires. But about CP and apparently a real case. Obviously Hollywood has its own take on this so I can't say anything about it until I do my research on the real deal. But the whole movie was interesting and also very, very triggering. Really scary. Some scenes were too uncomfortable to watch so I had to pause it several times. Why? These things are so so close to us and people, sometimes people we know, keep hiding these things from us. Maybe the Barcelona Vamp was innocent. Maybe it wasn't. The only thing that it is true is that nothing like this happens without another one getting involved too. Another one keeping silence. Someone refusing to act. That's how bad it is. Not the movie ofc.

I love the use of color and the use of black and white too. It's definitely a good film. The dialogues... they were too realistic. Sadly. I have known people that say things like that. That keep blaming it onto the victims no matter if they're 40 or 6 years old. Don't watch this movie if child abuse triggers you. While it is not graphic it definitely makes you uncomfortable. And it should. Another thing to say about this movie: the original language is in Spanish. And when I saw it on HBO the English subtitles were lacking. So were the subtitles in Spanish. So either you learn/practice your Spanish or you'll need to find CC and the mp4 file too. To make sure you get it otherwise you'll be missing half of the story.

21. Dracula (1979)✅ ⭐⭐⭐

Okay the whole time I was so into the aesthetics. But sometimes I found it funny. Mmmm but I decided to give it a go because it was an old movie. Honestly it wasn't that bad. A bit cringe but kinda okay. The aesthetics were really pleasing tho.

22. Army of the Dead ✅⭐⭐

I started watching it because... it looked fun. Zombieland type of fun.

The OST is awesome. I'm not taking this movie seriously. I don't know why... oh yeah okay... now I kind of understand why.

Okay it has a lot of tits and a lot of blood in the very beginning. If this is how's gonna be... or not. Oh... it gets better after the first minutes 😜 A bit of character development...

I like this idea of zombies being strong and somewhat more fast. Like Korean zombies.

I fell asleep. Again... *sighs* this is ridiculous. I'll have to rewatch just... I'm not sure...

I'll be back. Let me do a quick rewatch.

Zombie tiger Valentine was awesome. Smart zombies? Cool!!

I think I'm bored...

I mean, it's a cool movie. But I prefer Zombieland.

They're supposed to be great at shooting, so why do they spend so many bullets on killing one zombie if they already know to aim for the head?

I'm rooting for the king. He actually seems decent.

Ohh no they killed his baby 😭

They should pay for it.

Okay... okay, wait a second lol I'm getting an idea...

Why there are no movies with zombies as main characters where the humans are the bad ones?

I mean, we have all what it takes: Usually someone, a doctor, trying to play God, and making a human turn into zombie. The whole zombie apocalypse goes on because they kill the family of subject Zero and all that.

This movie deserves another star just cause the OST is really awesome. Seriously. I'm not going to give it one more though lol the whole thing was quite disappointing.

23. The Fall of the Usher House (Netflix series) ✅⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay I saw this whole series in what? Two days? The adaptation was incredibly well done. I'm aware that the story on the book is different but I quite enjoyed the show. Although it's quite graphic. So there's my trigger warning ⚠️ if anything lol honest question, do we need trigger warnings for horror movies?

Carla Gugino's still one of my unexplained crushes, she is still as beautiful as the day I saw her for the first time, does she have a fountain of eternal youth hidden somewhere? Anyway, it surprised me how good she's within the horror genre. To be honest I haven't followed her in years but now she captured my attention so I definitely will be paying attention from now on.💕

I actually screamed during Tammy's death. Her acting is truly on point. It made me feel everything that the rest of the Ushers couldn't. Considering how tired and how much I've disassociated these weeks to be able to watch horror movies every day, I think you can say she's the best of the best.

Ironically, she wasn't even my favorite character but Aunt Madeleine and Camille who I felt they were so alike. And in a way I kept admiring them. And also Lenore but for different reasons. Still I felt captivated by the whole series. Aunt Madeleine monologue is wow! But Tammy's death and the way it was presented to us, I truly felt like I was inside with her. Grieving and feeling all that. I couldn't stop watching despite how much I wanted to.

24. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein✅⭐⭐⭐

It made me jump several times 😭🤣 but I can't quite put my finger on why... maybe because it was raining while I was watching the movie. Maybe because the timing was so on point every time the lightening strikes inside the movie, the same thing happened here...

Anyway this is my first time watching Frankestein and the aesthetics are so good 😍💖 also.. Helena Bonham Carter is there!? And considering how good Kenneth Branagh was playing Gilderoy Lockhart I really found hilarious and on point sawing him play Victor Frankenstein too.

25. #Alive✅⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐

What a movie! I wonder if this is tied to Train to Busan and All of us are Dead. I mean, technically it's not. But the fandom can always take upon it and make it a thing. It has happened before lol right?? Please someone needs to make it a thing 😭 even if it's just a fanfic or something. I'll be so happy.

It keeps reminding me of coronavirus 😭

The guy is a good person but... why is he eating such a big ramen? He should be breaking it into small portions lol he really does not know anything about survival. Poor thing 😕 I shouldn't be laughing so much about it but... he's really stupid at times. If he survives it'll be a miracle lol

Oh... she's cute 🥺 kind and smart. She's going to die lol

They are so lucky to have each other. 🥺😭

Oof!

Okay... let's start counting how many times he actually screwed it off lol

Every time I think he's about to screw it off, he saves her lol and I like their dynamic so much 🥺😭 like, not really shipping them. Just, rooting for them and loving their friendship. That's a friendship right?

OMG she's so cool...

No way... see? This is why I enjoy Korean movies so much... their plot twists are insane...

🥺😭💕

26. Freaky✅⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

O.M.G. it's definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Scary but original. And funny. I loved it. Great characters. Awesome development. Good acting. Made me laugh a lot and I was rooting for the heroine. But also... aw 🥺🤧 that ending... And the beginning! 😱💕

27. A nightmare on Elm Street ✅⭐⭐⭐

It's a great movie. Seriously. But I had to pause it several times because I felt sleepy... really sleepy. Which is so weird because I usually don't feel like that while watching a horror movie.

Anyway I found odd watching Johnny Depp as a kid 🤣 but I was rooting for Nancy's character all the way.

28. The Wizard of Oz ✅ ⭐⭐

Aw... cute singing...

Toto what!? 😱 Well...

I'm not sure I liked the movie lol it felt like.... why are they singing so merrily about the death of the witch!? I feel like they're so mean 😭💀

.... Did Glinda just decided to make Dorothy part of her beef against Elephie? (Ignoring the musical plot ofc) they're so mean lololol

Pretty sure lions and tigers are not part of the forest 😭🤣 okay maybe there are tigers on the rainforests. But pretty sure you won't find one... in middle of the forest. Nvm. I realize it's supposed to be a movie... sorry about that lol

Ohhh that last part when they are all together, facing their worse fears together. It's so cute.

I love the hourglass. It's red!! 😍 so pretty.... the movie is cringy lol but the songs are catchy. The red shoes are marvelous too 😍

And that's it. I don't like this movie lol but the songs are awesome.

29. Cirque du Freak ✅⭐⭐

Ken Watanabe!? Josh Hutcherson, John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek and William Dafoe!? How come I didn't watch this first!? 😭😱 looks so cool...

The intro is so long... but kind of interesting lol

I was eating... lucky me, I don't really get nauseous or sick of watching gross things. I used to watch Dr House or Hannibal when I was a kid while I was eating. That's how strong my stomach is lol

... Is it just me or Evra looks a bit like Ross Lynch here? I love Ross Lynch.... maybe that's why lol

Being honest it was below average. But I also liked it. So... the stars do not say how much, because then it'd be a 3 or 4 but the movie deserves only two.

30. Suspiria (original)✅⭐⭐⭐⭐

The aesthetics are so 😍💕

Did I mention I'm a Dario Argento fan? Okay, I'm a new fan lol like, I'm barely starting with his movies and all that, but still, he's the only one who has actually made me feel so excited and terrified at the same time. Like actually screaming and keep me horrified for several minutes. I loved Phenomena with Jennifer Connelly. Suspiria seems like a dream and a nightmare at the same time.

She looks like Lily Collins 😳

God... the aesthetics... that blue, and those walls... 😍💖

It's actually ballet! 😭😚

The music gives you an actual headache...

Are they trying to drown her!? That diet seems so... lol still... I wish there was a school like that. Minus the bloodbath ofc

lol I like how Susy prefers to sleep before spying on the teachers. I'd be pissed irl because there's nothing better than a mystery but... the movie's making me laugh a little with that. I think they're putting something on her food though.

Okay Susie's definitely taking pills to sleep, you do recognize the signs after a while... I'm surprised I didn't notice before... but Sara keeps shaking her so much it's impossible for her not to be awake unless she's on drugs 😭

Omg...

Okay... the ending was a bit disappointing. But also good? Still, that makes me like the remake a bit more. Ummm... I think I like both movies now. I'm keeping this on first place because the aesthetics and music. Some parts are dark but nothing big if you're into horror movies. Still... I think I want to watch it again because of the aesthetics. *sigh*

31. (No title. I'll be watching a movie with a friend 😚💕)

🦇✨ 🎃 ✨ 🎃 ✨ 🎃 ✨ 🎃 ✨ 🎃 ✨ 🦇

My take: I'm usually a person who likes horror movies. A lot. But... I'm so tired of them RN so I definitely took some horror movies out to make it a bit more light and that's why I ended up watching The Wizard of Oz and Cirque du Freak. And I still ended up hating them lol that's how tired I am. I'm about to puke already. Seriously. Someone please get me something else to watch lololol

I am now looking for the original books of Oz after watching Return to Oz and The Wizard of Oz (which tbh I never saw the original one until now, but several animated ones, and I always found them so creepy I could not even.)

I'm definitely not going to watch horror movies in a while. I'm so done with it. Also, this is why I was struggling so much and couldn't find another movie to make it 31 to the point I almost fall asleep with most of them. I can't feel a thing with most of them. And I love Suspiria. I'm not going to watch anything else after this movie. Not right now at least.

I did enjoy the movie with my friend. I think it's one of the best things. Just because I spent almost 2 hours with that person. That already makes everything 1000% better.

Things that I've learned:

* I hate slashers, unless they're really good or do not have so many gory details. Or it's a bit more "elegant" lol idk how to explain it, except for me liking more Hannibal than a random freak with a knife. You guys get it no?

* My favorite Halloween movies are with ghosts, but I prefer psychological thriller movies.

* I can endure religions on movies but I hate them with passion.

* Monsters are not my thing because they usually are so brainless and so are the people around them trying to kill or run away from them. Use your brain! (This is why I'm a Ravenclaw -.-)

* American zombies suck. They're slow and boring. Please do not mention to me War Z. Korean zombies are awesome and they're the only reason I started watching zombie movies 💀 I like them fast.

* I will root for the brainy and most sassiest person in the room. If this one is killed I will root for the killer.

* I don't think I'll be celebrating Halloween with horror movies next year lol but who knows right?

* The winner of this list would be: Psycho. And in second place I'd be picking Freaky cause I really enjoyed that movie.

* I'm growing less and less fond of Halloween the more time it passes (not the idea itself, death and undead will never scare me but the whole horror show puts me a bit.... off now. I'm starting to understand my own roots a bit more too like being fond of this time of the year because it ends but not because of the horror, ya know what I mean? I'm getting old I think. Or maybe I'm coming back to the person I used to be.)

* Most horror movies and series lack of character development or something that makes it attractive and lets the audience feel compelled to root for them. That's why many people started rooting for the monster. It lacks humanity. They're just bloodbaths. It's boring.

* It took me so many hours to think of my costumes, design something somewhat decent, pull all the pics and watch movies at the same time 😭 🤣 it was fun but I won't be doing this again.

* I love autumn 🍂🍁🍂

* Somehow I'm more in touch with my feelings right now.

* Some movies and series actually made me feel inspired to go back and write!

* I really, really love autumn 🍂 it's just this cozy, nostalgic feeling. I'm trying not to cry whenever I see the sunlight through the leaves. 🍁

#halloween 🎃#halloween movie #movies #Halloween movies #scary movies #lol #autumn #zombie #zombies #vampires #vampire

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