When I woke up this morning one of the first things I read was a story on Buzzfeed about the racism Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things) was encountering from the series’ fandom and while none of that should have been a surprise – he’s a darker-skinned male in the United States, racism/sexism/nativism/whatever -ism you want – […]
I’ve been working through a respiratory infection – it isn’t COVID though I imagine it’s just as unpleasant – though I’m trying to get back up to speed and this is as good a place as any to start. You might have heard recently that storied actor Frank Langella was recently fired from Netlflix’s The […]
I really liked Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day (1993) though I always thought that the premise – guy realizes he’s caught in a time loop, seemingly unable to escape – was better suited to horror than comedy. Though it’s an idea that horror movies have used, such as Happy Death Day (2017) and others though none […]
If you’ve seen Eternals – currently the No. 1 movie in the United States – you’ve likely seen the kiss that was banned in three countries (a commendable stand by Disney, as long as one understands if any of those countries had the economic weight of, let’s say China, then that kiss would have been […]
Jacob Chase’s Come Play is a surprisingly good horror movie; ‘surprisingly’ because there’s a lot of really mediocre horror out there so movies that manage to work are worth drawing attention to. What make it such a joy for me is that any movie that makes me feel something – as long as it isn’t […]
Just like every movie isn’t Art, not every movie has resonance beyond the moment you’re sitting and watching it – whatever the intentions of the filmmakers. And that’s okay because not everything needs or should possess canyon-deep layers of subtext (and besides, there’s an argument to be made for the difficulty creating something fairly light […]
Evan Spiliotopolous’ The Unholy has a lot of good ideas though doesn’t explore anything deeply enough to matter. It revolves around similar subject matter as Netflix’s Midnight Mass (2021), namely the intersection of faith and the worship of false/deceptive entities though The Unholy approaches the subject matter so simplistically that nothing particularly resonates. The story […]
It’s not exactly a secret that I’m not a fan of James Wan as a director. I enjoyed Saw (2004) and Dead Silence (2007) – both written by Leigh Wannell. Coincidence? I don’t think so – though everything else I’ve seen from him is either dull – The Conjuring (2013) and it’s sequel – silly […]
Last week I chose to see the reboot of Candyman (2021) over Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and while the former was not terribly scary, it wasn’t a decision that I regretted. Partially because the aspirations of Shang-Chi seemed a bit high (I tend to watch movies because I enjoy watching movies, […]
With a title like ‘Squid Game’ I can understand how someone might be turned off because if you go in expecting to see even one cephalopod you’re going to be disappointed. Though if you’re looking for a thriller with serious horror overtones evocative of such fare like The Prisoner (1967), Battle Royale (2000) and The […]
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