I’m scared to close my eyes. I’m scared to open them. We are going to die out here.
Thanks to Second Sight, I was able to watch the festival cut for this one reconstructed from the original Hi8 tapes and 16mm film. If you weren’t aware, the footage was transferred to 35mm for theaters but that 35mm footage is what got retransferred for home release. Until the Second Sight’s reconstruction, nobody ever went back to the original masters to digitize…
In many ways The Vampire Doll follows a similar formula to Psycho. With one character going to look for someone at an old spooky house then two other characters following when they don’t hear back from the first.
It’s score, sound design, set design, and cinematography all help to build an extremely eerie and interesting atmosphere that keeps you on the edge of your seat while you watch our characters investigate. In fact, while this movie is not a slasher, it…
On the next episode of the Mind Your Movies podcast, we are talking about Studio Gibli movies!
Spirited Away is a foundational Japanese animation film as it was the first to really take hold of western audiences. It uses some computer-guided animation techniques that were novel at the time while retaining an overarching hand-drawn feeling. It’s whacky and very Alice In Wonderland-esque in the characters being oddities with large personalities. It’s weird, densely thematic, and a lot of fun.
Episode 14 of the Mind Your Movies podcast is on Studio Gibli movies.
One of the first movies from the studio, founded only four years prior, My Neighbor Totoro has a nostalgic hand-drawn art style that suits it well. It is a heartwarming and wholesome exploration of a family that moves into a new house while the mother is sick in the hospital. Absent of any evil being or devious plot, this is really a story full of some miscommunication and heartache as the kids are nervous for their mom’s health. Luckily, Totoro and Catbus are there to help. It’s adorable and wholesome.
Bong Joon Ho's newest rendition of his iconic story about class, injustice, and dehumanization of the workforce is blunt, dark, and comical. The performances, visual effects, and cinematography allow this to feel alive despite Mickey's continuous dying, which the humor lifts in tone. The characters are all tragically flawed, and the world is well-built and deeply dystopian.
Mickey 17 is captive as a compliant and unquestioning worker. He doesn’t care about the politics or class dynamics and struggles — or…
Listen, this is clearly a kids movie, but it’s fun and does what you’d hope. It’s weird and whacky as you’d expect from a Clive Barker production. It is enjoyable but it doesn’t have Pixar-level depth.
