At the Movies with Kane and BN

[Kane52630]

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

When Chastity Pariah (hilarious name btw) used her finger to taste what was in the pot of food meant for everyone, it might have been the grossest thing I've seen all year and I saw The Substance.

I've always seen clips of this on TV but I never really sat down and watched the whole thing until now. So good. It's essentially one giant pun-fest with a ton of innuendos that is also a fish-out-of-water story... that is also a low-key solid witch movie. I feel like whoever wrote this was a punch-up writer who had all his jokes stored in a book and that turned into this script. Cassandra Peterson was incredible in this and the entire movie revolves around her, obviously. I love how it quickly moves from one thing to another, it's like a collection of gags and funny oneliners strung together that completely works.

Even though this movie came out in the late 80s, it's got a lot of old-fashioned jokes and characters that actually feel timeless... until it got to the end and you can feel the late 80s crawling in. It is interesting how well this really pairs with Pee-wee's Big Adventure considering what the structure of the movie is and it's also got the same writer and how both Pee Wee and Elvira started out as unconventional TV oddities even though Elvira was basically the replacement to Vampira. Overall, it was really fun and a delightful horror comedy that oddly aged well.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Smile 2

Take notes JT, this is how you ruin a tour: Drinking lots of water and discovering you have a parasitic entity attached to you.

Parker Finn does it again and knocks it out of the park... even though I had my fair share of doubts about the sequel when I watched the trailer. They did a great job continuing the story right after the events with the first one in a really awesome and unpredictable action crime opening scene that feels like you're watching the one shot from True Detective.

The movie does a great job of keeping you in suspense but also having fun with the deeply unsettling moments just like the first one like a true thrill ride. The thing that sticks out the most with these movies is the direction, the insane camera work, and most importantly the incredible sound design. Just like the last one it was made to be watched in a Dolby cinema where the sound is booming and the seats are rocking with each moment. It's also prominently shot with some great vibrant colors with great lighting that pop which you don't really get from horror movies anymore.

Naomi Scott is truly unbelievable for what she is asked to do in this and delivers her best performance yet by far, especially with the 3rd act which is so insane. They also did a great job making the world of her as a singer feel so believable even the pop music itself feels like it was made for real radio play. I also thought Rosemarie DeWitt, Dylan Gelula, Lukas Gage, and Peter Jacobson were also great in this. Ray Nicholson wasn't in it enough but I thought his scenes were also done well.

Where the first one is about generational mental illness, they smartly pivot the commentary to celebrity/pop singer troubles/scandals and what the scares did well is play on those fears really well. Just like with the first one, I thought all the jump scares were earned considering how the plot operates and I even thought the fakeouts were also executed well which I'm sure not everyone will agree with. Overall, it's definitely one of my favorite horror movies of the year in a year full of horror movies.
4.5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Rumours

Easiest paycheck ever for Charles Dance who just takes a nap between every other scene.

An interesting mashup of unconventional political satire by the way of Dr. Strangelove with a zombie horror that doesn't really click as well as they think it does. It takes place during the G7 summit where these world leaders basically get into a Night of the Living Dead situation where they try to figure out how to get out safe while taking the piss at each other. It's a movie that won't work as well if you have no clue about geopolitics and inside knowledge about each leader by country. The movie uses the actors less as a character and more as what each country represents. I think the horror aspect is the weakest part of the movie and you can tell the director has really no interest in the genre other than just to use for his satire. The best part about the movie is the laugh-out-loud moments that really land when it lands but other times it sometimes falls flat. Overall, it's a great concept that fails under the execution.
2.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Shadow Strays

Timo Tjahjanto saw everyone else this year getting gory with their movies and said, ight bet.

A super action-packed and blood-soaked crime thriller that has some bumps along the road for me. It's by Timo Tjahjanto who has made some of the best Indonesian horror and action films like The Night Comes for Us and the Safe Haven short from VHS 2 and with The Shadow Strays, I feel like he bit off more than he can chew. I think he definitely delivers on the action and the gory horror moments but I don't think the world wasn't as well as planned out as The Night Comes For Us. It has more of a fantasy feel to the story and the characters like in Mortal Kombat or some other fantasy action games where it's got lore but it's not really as important as the fight scenes. The story itself is pretty simple but they do go out of their way to make it overly complicated that don't really mean much. Aurora Ribero does a decent enough job with the acting and the choreography but I don't think she was quite there to the other Indonesian greats like Iko, Julie Estelle, and Yayan Ruhian especially when it comes to the acting portion. That being said, I think the action set pieces were really well-made and well-thought-through. Overall, I'm more curious to see what Timo Tjahjanto does with Nobody 2 but with The Shadow Strays, I thought it was just passable with some great action.
3/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Beyond

I wonder who hates eyeballs more, Art The Clown or Lucio Fulci.

A beautiful and disgusting cocktail of horror and hopelessness. It's a Giallo film by Lucio Fulci that constantly gets weirder and also wins you over if you're into seeing twisted gory set pieces. By the time you get to the 3rd act, it fully becomes the OG Resident Evil years before Resident Evil was even a thing. Fulci does a great job setting the atmosphere with the spooky cinematography and giving you the early 80s surrealism that you'd expect from a supernatural film that is also entrenched in southern gothic New Orleans. While the story is simple, it is overly complicated at times that you don't really fully understand but that is usually the case with a lot of the 70s & 80s grindhouse horror. I thought Catriona MacColl & Cinzia Monreale were great despite the heavy ADR'd dialogue. Overall, I really dug it. This one really surprised me as it went along.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Pieces

I was going to make an Ashlee Simpson joke but did some coked-up producer suggest it'll be cool if a fake Bruce Lee shows up in his movie for no reason? lol

Yet another bonkers Giallo slasher that only exists to see what sex and gore they can get away with at the time. This one is definitely less ambitious in its storytelling and it being a post-Halloween/Friday the 13th movie, it is interesting that this is also the same year as Slumber Party Massacre, which honestly did this movie better. They try to make you think the killer is a variety of guys but it almost feels like you're watching a twisted episode of Scooby Doo. As far as the kills go, they are pretty nasty and some of the effects hold up pretty well but I think everything else about the movie is really silly and comedic. The movie has the fortunate/unfortunate thing of being heavily ADR'd to the point where some people don't even move their mouths when they're talking, but some of the line readings and dialogue are so hilarious they work for me. Overall, while gruesome and exploitative, this one feels more like a meme than a movie.
3/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

High Tension

There's no doubt in my mind Alexandre Aja saw Cactus Jack at Royal Rumble 2000 and had an idea for a badass weapon.

So good, so grim, and so grueling to watch at times. It's Alexandre Aja's first real venture into horror and it's so evident how well the movie wears its direct influences. This was basically a combination of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre with John Carpenter's Halloween with another horror movie that I won't spoil. Just like many early 2000s horror, it's relentless and mean and gets right into slasher mode right when they stay overnight at the farmhouse. Cécile de France is fantastic in this and they did such a good job creating tension without a lot of dialogue and letting the story play out in a very real way. The 3rd act twist is definitely something I didn't see coming and I can see why some didn't appreciate it, but I thought it worked extremely well and made the movie stand out among the rest of the 00s slashers that don't have bigger aspirations to do something different. Overall, I thought it was fantastic.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Wrong Turn

This movie could not be more 2003 between all the low-rise jeans/midriffs and playing Breaking Benjamin in the end credits.

A very standard MTV/post-Scream teen slasher that has nothing going on beneath the surface. It's actually surprising how none of the characters are interesting or well-written or even well-performed other than finding Eliza Dushku super attractive. They don't really give you much and then they throw you into this plot where they're all stranded and stumble upon a less interesting inbred cannibal family that almost feels like a ripoff of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Lots of cliché moments with a couple of bad performances. If you've never seen Emmanuelle Chriqui in anything else you'd think she is the worst actress alive and the movie doesn't give any of the actors that much room to explore their characters. As for the kills, I thought a couple of them were interesting namely the one up high on the trees. The movie itself wasn't too bad but not much about it was all that great to me. Overall, to me, this feels like it was made for entry-level horror fans who want to get into the genre and nothing else.
2.5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Woman of the Hour

I must say, that is one insanely long pee break for all that to happen.

Incredible directional debut for Anna Kendrick who also stars in this that is about the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala who appeared on The Dating Game in the late 70s. They do a fantastic job making it feel cinematic and capturing the late 70s really well but also showcase a lot of smaller and intimate but also intense scenes that don't look or act cheap. It's got the mechanics of making the murder movie/show that Netflix loves to make all the time but it's done with a better care with the filmmaking and performances than most of them. Anna Kendrick is phenomenal in this as always but they also fleshed out some of the supporting cast like Autumn Best and Nicolette Robinson and I thought Daniel Zovatto did a great job playing Rodney Alcala in a way that feels menacing without giving a showy performance. The scene in the parking lot and the scene out in the desert were definitely the scene stealers of the movie. Overall, it's a solid based on a true story serial murder thriller that makes you want to see where Anna Kendrick goes next in her directing career.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Triangle

Honestly? this was the best-case scenario if you were Heather.

An incredible mind-bending horror movie that I'm glad I went in knowing little and didn't see any trailers for because they would absolutely spoil the twist... even though I had my suspicions early on in the movie. It also makes me miss watching movies of this era where it's high def, bright, and colorful but also still look like a movie. Melissa George is incredible in it and carried the movie so well that it distracts you from the other supporting cast who weren't as good namely Liam Hemsworth who just started acting. Without giving it away, I absolutely love this concept for a horror movie and the implications of being trapped with no way out are super frightening. It's also shockingly violent in a way that catches you off guard because they don't cut away. I also love how this ends in a way that makes a lot of sense but I can see how it can be confusing because it can be viewed as vaguely ambiguous. Overall, I loved it.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

The Craft

You know it's the 90s when the local occult shop owner is somehow vaguely Middle Eastern or South Asian or even possibly Eastern European but is played by a Spanish actress.

Yet another movie that I've seen clips of but never got around to watching the whole thing. It was honestly better than I was expecting it to be and it is interesting how well it aged filmmaking-wise. The mid-90s aesthetic is so apparent and cool and the plotting of the movie is very much in conversation with other similar like Clueless and Ginger Snaps and it's funny how this came out in the same year as Scream which also has some obvious similarities. Robin Tunney is technically the lead for most of the movie but Fairuza Balk steals the show at every turn. I also thought Rachel True & Neve Campbell were pretty good in it as well and got their side plots going especially with one that I didn't expect them to go there. It's all relatively small stakes which I like and the movie mostly plays out as a coming-of-age story set in a Catholic high school. Also, it wouldn't be a 90s teen movie without a great soundtrack and I thought they did well with that. Overall, it's a really solid movie you see why it's stayed in Hot Topic stores for so long.
3.5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Beyond The Black Rainbow

Turns out the Arboria Institute was just making absolute banger dark synthwave albums.

Finally got to see this after wanting to check it out ever since I saw Mandy in 2018 and it did not disappoint. It's a well-crafted indie psychedelic sci-fi horror by Panos Cosmatos that is so similar to Stranger Things plotwise that I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence for the Duffer Brothers. You can see where this leads into Mandy because it's got an incredible cosmic horror aesthetic that takes over the movie and you definitely notice some similar shots that are in both. There are also some obvious inspirations that Panos got from Kubrick, Cronenberg, Lynch, and Argento. While Michael Rogers & Eva Allan were fantastic in this, the main character of the movie is by far the score by Sinoia Caves. It's completely a character on to itself and it carries the movie with aesthetics and psychedelic vibes through music. Overall, while I still prefer Mandy, it's incredible and I hate that it took me this long to check it out. Now I can't wait to play this soundtrack over and over again.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

Conclave

Tedesco would have definitely gone on the Joe Rogan podcast after this, vape pen and all.

A fantastic political thriller that takes you inside the world of a fictional papal conclave and all the drama that it creates. It's more or less like watching 12 Angry Men meets the earlier (and better) seasons of House of Cards and Game of Thrones. The director Edward Berger, cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine, and composer Volker Bertelmann do an incredible job lifting the script up which is already pretty sharp with a great sense of style and presence to make it very entertaining to watch as the drama unfolds and it takes you into some interesting twists.

Ralph Fiennes is great in this as always and I like how well they have him interact with the rest of the cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini who were all great in this. Carlos Diehz has a very small but super vital role and how that plays into everything was super compelling.

It's a movie that expertly knows how to use imagery and sound to create tension and stakes but also makes it easy to follow along. And I thought about the issues the movie tackles on the Catholic Church were really on point and it does address a lot in a short amount of time. If I do have any complaints, it would be some of the middle could have either been expanded on or shortened but I can't tell which would be better. Overall, I really enjoyed it and it definitely works with a theater crowd, especially with the reveals.
4/5

 

[Kane52630]

Venom: The Last Dance

Venom saying "I'm so done with the multiverse s**t" when everyone else is also done with symbiotes and the Sonyverse is a hilarious thing to say.

A steaming pile of trash. This was made just to be made... especially after Marvel proper said no to whatever multiverse plans they had going. This movie immediately scraps what happened at the end of the last movie and pretends none of it happened and instead, they do what all bad franchises do, they make a wacky road trip movie. Having Tom Hardy play a part in the story credit tells you all you need to know about this movie that has nothing interesting going on or nothing interesting to say other than let's just make a conflict happen out of nowhere and have terrible jokes along the way. The script itself feels like they dug through the trashbin and found an '80s E.T. knockoff and rewrote it to add Venom because the only interesting thing about the movie is the family they bumped into who was looking for Area 51. They continue to give Eddie Brock and Venom an Abbott and Costello relationship but nobody knows how to write comedy or meaningful dialogue even as a joke. The whole Las Vegas segment of the movie felt like filler just to include Mrs Chen and have a silly dance segment that doesn't really work. They have a villain who doesn't even leave his chair to do something which is probably the most infuriating part about the movie. I will say there are some "so bad it's good" moments with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and Clark Backo but not enough to make the movie digestible to watch like Madame Web. By the time you get to the 3rd act, the movie becomes video game brain rot and by the time that happens, you are wondering how a 2 hour movie feels like 3 hours. Overall, for my money, it's up there with the worst of the year. Hopefully, it's the final cap to an awful Venom trilogy that nobody asked for.
1/5

 

[Kane52630]

Noroi: The Curse

Do you think Ghostbusters would cover ectoplasmic worms?

A very subtle and creepy Japanese found footage film that definitely has its influence later on in found footage horror. For this movie, it takes a lot of inspiration from stuff like Ringu and Ju-On but expands them by using different formats and sources to tell the story. They don't use jump scares in a practical sense but they do a good job of letting the creepiness take over the easy scares. I thought it was brilliant to use some of those Japanese shows and make it look like they were really done in real life as well as the fake documentary side of this movie that the 'found footage' is from. Overall, for most people, this will be a slow burn and it's maybe not even that scary to most people but I thought it was really good for a found footage movie at the time it was made.
3.5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
Day 27: Noroi: The Curse (3.5/5)
​

 

[Kane52630]

The Thing


Wilford Brimley saying he's all fine now and wants to go outside while a noose is hanging in front of him is me with this Jets season.
5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
Day 27: Noroi: The Curse (3.5/5)
Day 28: The Thing (5/5) [REWATCH]
​

 

[Kane52630]

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Conal Cochran would fix this economy. #SupportLocalBusinesses
5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
Day 27: Noroi: The Curse (3.5/5)
Day 28: The Thing (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 29: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (5/5) [REWATCH]
​

 

[Kane52630]

MadS

Anais ate. Literally and figuratively.

Simply incredible, I am so glad I caught this while we're still in October. This was a fantastic French drug-fueled zombie flick that is done as a cleverly edited oner. Where Talk to Me used demonic possession as a way to tell the bad effects of drug abuse, this does it in a [REC]/28 Days Later style zombie flick and it completely works. While it's technically not found footage, it almost acts like one through a 3rd person lens like if you're playing a GTA video game. I love how for almost the entire movie we don't know what they're seeing is because of the drugs or if there is really a zombie apocalypse happening. I also love how they go through three characters who are intertwined and see all three have their own meltdowns and I like how they go through each character like passing a baton. The movie starts with Milton Riche's character and ends with Lucille Guillaume's character but the one that stole the show for me is Laurie Pavy who plays Anais. In a year of great female horror performances, she delivers a fantastic maniac performance. Overall, this was easily one of the better horror films of the year and that's saying a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an American remake on the horizon just like how they did with See No Evil.
4/5

 

[Black Narcissus]

Beyond The Black Rainbow

Turns out the Arboria Institute was just making absolute banger dark synthwave albums.

Finally got to see this after wanting to check it out ever since I saw Mandy in 2018 and it did not disappoint. It's a well-crafted indie psychedelic sci-fi horror by Panos Cosmatos that is so similar to Stranger Things plotwise that I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence for the Duffer Brothers. You can see where this leads into Mandy because it's got an incredible cosmic horror aesthetic that takes over the movie and you definitely notice some similar shots that are in both. There are also some obvious inspirations that Panos got from Kubrick, Cronenberg, Lynch, and Argento. While Michael Rogers & Eva Allan were fantastic in this, the main character of the movie is by far the score by Sinoia Caves. It's completely a character on to itself and it carries the movie with aesthetics and psychedelic vibes through music. Overall, while I still prefer Mandy, it's incredible and I hate that it took me this long to check it out. Now I can't wait to play this soundtrack over and over again.
4/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
​

I consider myself lucky to experience this on the big screen way back then. It was only about 6 other folks in there, but man did I feel a vibe. I also snuck drinks and took an edible. Lawd.

 

[Kane52630]

The Mist

No other movie can give you the feeling of being trapped in Walmart at 2am.

PSA: ONLY watch this in Black & White.
5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
Day 27: Noroi: The Curse (3.5/5)
Day 28: The Thing (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 29: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 30: The Mist (5/5) [REWATCH]
​

 

[Kane52630]

Trick 'r Treat

It’s not Halloween until I see my lil boy Sam murder someone for rejecting Halloween.
5/5

31 Days of Horror Marathon
Day 1: Oddity (4/5)
Day 2: Handling the Undead (3.5/5)
Day 3: 'Salem's Lot (2024) (2.5/5)
Day 4: V/H/S/Beyond (3.5/5)
Day 5: Hold Your Breath (2.5/5)
Day 6: Creature from the Black Lagoon (3.5/5)
Day 7: Revenge of the Creature (3.5/5)
Day 8: The Creature Walks Among Us (3/5)
Day 9: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (4/5)
Day 10: House of Frankenstein (3.5/5)
Day 11: House of Dracula (3/5)
Day 12: Azrael (3.5/5)
Day 13: Terrifier 3 (4/5)
Day 14: It's What's Inside (4.5/5)
Day 15: Ed Wood (4.5/5)
Day 16: Frankenhooker (4/5)
Day 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (4/5)
Day 18: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (4/5)
Day 19: Smile 2 (4.5/5)
Day 20: The Beyond (4/5)
Day 21: Pieces (3/5)
Day 22: High Tension (4/5)
Day 23: Wrong Turn (2.5/5)
Day 24: Triangle (4/5)
Day 25: The Craft (3.5/5)
Day 26: Beyond The Black Rainbow (4/5)
Day 27: Noroi: The Curse (3.5/5)
Day 28: The Thing (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 29: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 30: The Mist (5/5) [REWATCH]
Day 31: Trick 'r Treat (5/5) [REWATCH]
​

 

[Kane52630]

Anora

Shout out to Mark Eidelstein, this has to be the most insanely inaccurate portrayal of someone playing on a video game controller I've ever seen in my life.

That being said, Sean Baker does it again. It's a hilarious romantic dramedy that takes what he's done before with The Flordia Project and Red Rocket and adds a lot of NY touches much in the same vein as Uncut Gems or Good Time. The movie pretty much starts out as a Millennial version of Pretty Woman that ultimately switches into something more comedic, intense, and emotionally deeper with the characters. The movie holds most of the emotional heft and stakes with Mikey Madison's character who gives one of the best performances of the year. A lot of the supporting cast gives it its comedy chops like something you'd see out of The Simpsons or Dumb and Dumber between Mark Eidelstein, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, and Vache Tovmasyan. And with Yura Borisov, he also gives one of the more underrated performances in the movie. While the story itself seems pretty standard on paper, Sean Baker does a great job keeping you in the mindset of Anora and what she goes through and creating controlled chaos when the chase plot gets going. Overall, this was so much fun to watch, it's easily one of the best movies of the year and one that will definitely be present during the award season.
4.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

Here

So mad they didn't spend 30 minutes on the Proterozoic era in that locked position.

A safe return for Robert Zemeckis who hasn't really made an interesting movie since Flight. It's a non-linear dramedy that is set in one specific area in Pennsylvania that takes you through time and different characters that occupy that area and the camera does not move at all. In theory, it's a great concept for a movie that gets the history, pop culture, and anthropology side of me interested the entire time. What it ultimately becomes is a movie that is essentially Forrest Gump meets the Tree of Life with less-than-stellar acting made for the boomer crowd. I thought Tom Hanks & Robin Wright were great in this and were tasked to do a lot of different things in different periods of the characters' lives, their story gets the most screen time. I thought Kelly Reilly was also good in this but Paul Bettany feels a bit miscast who plays the dad who feels like he's in a different movie than the other three. Then you have all the supporting characters who show up at different points in history and some are better than others like Nicholas Pinnock and David Fynn but a lot of the time it was hit or miss because they don't give you enough of them. The movie borders on being an SNL parody almost the entire time and that's probably my biggest issue with the movie. Other than that, I thought having it be non-linear gives the movie a lot of life to the stories and the editing by Jesse Goldsmith is the real star of the movie even though you can see how easily this can be shortened to an hour as a TV show. Overall, while it's an incredibly Boomer movie in a majority "let's romanticize the past" kind of way, I did ultimately enjoy it way more than I didn't.
3.5/5

 

[Kane52630]

The Apprentice

ngl, it would have been an even better ending if the movie led us to his cameo in Home Alone 2.

A fantastic film that looks inside Donald Trump's rise in the '70s & '80s and his interesting relationship with Roy Cohn as a mentor. It would have been an easy thing to make this movie an SNL parody but they try to avoid all that and let the story tell who Trump is as a person behind closed doors and the transformation into the caricature that we all know. First and foremost, I thought Ali Abbasi did an incredible job directing this and making you feel like you're back in the '70s & '80s between the documentary style of how they shot this, the stock footage, and the cameras they used that transition from film grain to analog video. It very much reminds me of Wolf of Wall Street in that way. They also did a great job choosing the music for the soundtrack that isn't the same top 20 hits that we've all heard before. Almost all of it were one-hit wonders that rarely get used in movies. Sebastian Stan does a great job playing Trump in a subtle way that isn't doing a parody and you slowly see the progression into the snake oil salesman Trump character as the movie goes along. Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn was also very good and every time they both share a scene together, it's electrifying to watch. I don't think people are giving her enough credit but I thought Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump was also incredible and very much the heart of the movie in some ways. Overall, it's a very well-made character study that they went above and beyond what everyone was expecting this to be.
4/5

 

[Kane52630]

Subservience

[insert M3GAN 2.0 joke here because that's as lazy as this script]

Pretty mediocre that was treading on pretty bad at times. It's yet another "AI gone bad" horror that is also borrowing from a lot of other sources like the Spielberg movie and Blade Runner. It's basically written like a Lifetime movie except they added in some interesting scifi horror and a porno plot. They never once convince yourself that a dude that looks like Michele Morrone is a middle class construction manager who has a normal nuclear family and i thouight his performance felt like something out of soap opera. They don't really flesh out the world espeically when it comes to buying the AI robots and how anyone can get one without any overseight. Megan Fox wasn't that good either and she were given some pretty gargabe robot dialogue that was half thought out. I will say I thought Madeline Zima was the only one in this who knew what kind of movie she was in and I thought she was great with what little the script had to offer. The only thing that I thought was done pretty well was how they slowly started repleacing the background actors for the AI robots throughout the movie. It felt like an interesting modern update to the Invsisaion of the Body Snatchers but I wish the movie had done more with that. Overall, it's exactly the movie you think it is just from the poster alone.
2/5