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V/H/S/99 (2022)
V/H/S/99 Continues to be a solid showcase even if it's a slight step down from the last entry
V/H/S/99 is the fifth entry in the found footage anthology series and second to be released by horror based streaming service Shudder. Following the impressive viewership numbers and critical response of V/H/S/94, the producers opted to move forward with another entry. As an anthology, V/H/S/99 features a (mostly) varied assortment of shorts with decent execution even if it's a slight step down from its predecessor in terms of overall quality.
The first short Shredding written and directed by Maggie Levin follows an aspiring punk rock group who record themselves playing music as well as pranks with a plan to shoot a video at the stage where group B*tch Cat was killed when a fired caused them to be stampeded by their fans only to learn they may not have left. This was honestly not a great start for me as it fell into a lot of tropes from V/H/S segments like Amateur Night and Bonestorm where we follow vapid and obnoxious characters who get their comeuppance from something supernatural. While not all the members of the group are annoying as there is one decent character (which is one more than Amateur Night or Bonestorm had), the first half did try my patience until an admittedly pretty good climax with some well integrated musical choices.
Suicide Bid written and directed by Johannes Roberts is a spin on the "hazing ritual gone wrong" horror setup from things like Hell Night or One Dark Night if you mixed it with Buried as we follow a college freshmen who is forced to spend the night buried in a coffin to gain admittance to a sorority after being told of a girl named Giltine who did the ritual only for an empty coffin to be found and her spirit left behind. It's pretty standard stuff but the limited location and a strong performance by Ally Ioannides makes for a pretty tense sitting especially if you've got claustrophobia.
Ozzy's Dungeon directed by musical artist Flying Lotus who co-writes alongside Zoe Cooper follows a former child contestant on a game show called Ozzy's Dungeon who nearly won the prize of having her wish granted only to lose thanks to a brutal compound fracture from a rival contestant. Years later, the former host is kidnapped by the contestant's family and forced to play the game that cost her the use of her leg. This is a real creative one and definitely the standout of the group as it plays on 90s nostalgia with particular influence taken from Nickelodeon game shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple or Double Dare. Divided into three sequences, the first section takes us through an episode of Ozzy's Dungeon which is a solid replication of the Nickelodeon format while also possessing a critique of the low key disturbing nature of some of those challenges amped up to a considerable degree. The second segment where the family force the host to go through a series of torturous exaggerations on the game show challenges was a little repetitive for my taste, but there's some solid wince inducing pain sequences if you're into that thing. The final segment where they return to the abandoned set goes where you expect, but it's a solid enough capper with a karmic punch.
The Gawkers directed by Tyler MacIntyre and writtten by MacIntyre alongside Chris Lee Hill a group of horny teenage boys who record themselves pulling pranks or scoping out women only to find their group's de facto leader has a "loser" brother who is on good terms with an attractive woman who moves in to their neighborhood, whom the group convince to place a spy cam in her home to see naked only to see more than they bargained for. This was probably my least favorite short in the movie as much like the first one it follows a group of asinine lunkheads, but unlike the first one there's not even that great of a payoff as it's basically Amateur Night only with some really bad effects on the reveal sequence.
The last sequence, To Hell and Back written and directed by Vanessa & Joseph Winter follows a pair of videographers hired by a coven of witches to record a ritual summoning a demon on New Year's only to be accidentally sent to Hell where they enlist the aid of a demon to escort them to a way out. Essentially a found footage take on Dante's Inferno by way of Blair Witch Project, the short does a nice job of showcasing a reasonably good looking Hell for what was most likely a limited budget. Featuring some fun demon designs (some admittedly better than others) and an entertaining performance by Melanie Stone as the demon guide, this is definitely a case where they saved the best for last.
V/H/S/99 doesn't quite have the same level of polish as its predecessor did and it has slightly more things that didn't work, but the things that work are undeniably good and make for a welcome if flawed entry to what's always been a flawed franchise.
V/H/S/94 (2021)
Doesn't reach the heights of the series, but it's a welcome return to form after Viral
As a SWAT team initiates a drug raid on a mysterious compound, the team members come across various TV and VCR setups that springboard into footage of supernatural occurrences.
After the negative critical and fan reaction to V/H/S: Viral, the franchise went into hibernation for a few years until in the Summer of 2020 it was announced a fourth entry, V/H/S/94 would be produced for horror streaming service Shudder and serve as a soft reboot of the franchise. While initially intended to have a reunion of prior contributors like David Bruckner and Radio Silence, they were busy with their contributions to Hellraiser and Scream leaving Simon Barrett and Timo Tjahjanto as the only alums to return. Upon release the film garnered critical praise and achieved the highest viewership ever for a Shudder original at that point and effectively reinvigorated the franchise. While still very much an uneven affair like prior entries, it's also a very entertaining one.
The frame story, Holy Hell written and directed by Jennifer Reeder, this time around involves a SWAT team raiding a compound believing it to be a drug bust only to find what looks like ritual suicide and TV sets strewn about the place. In terms of wraparound stories for the V/H/S series I liked it way more than either the first one or Viral's, but felt it fell short of V/H/S/2's frame story with the characterization being pretty flat on the SWAT members (with the exception of one who's supposed to be kind of abrasive) but it's nicely atmospheric and serves as a good springboard into the various segments.
The first segment, Storm Drain written and directed by Chloe Okuno, follows a news reporter and her cameraman as they report on sightings of a local urban legend called "Rat Man" and venture into the mouth of a storm drain hoping to find atmospheric footage for the report only to find something more terrifying. While it plays somewhat fast and loose with the "found footage" gimmick as it mixes a news broadcast with the recovered footage, it's stylish and scary enough that it earns the goodwill to make it work especially with its ending that's both scary and darkly humorous.
The second segment, The Empty Wake written and directed by Simon Barrett, follows a service at a funeral home hosted by attendant Hailey (Kyal Legend) who is trusted to host the event only for bad weather and no attendance leaving her with the casket which may or may not posses unnerving traits. Very much a "one man show" for much of the runtime, Legend does quite well playing a role requiring her to be in an empty room and there's a pretty impressive climax in the end even if a lack of clarity in the final moments makes it more confusing than scary.
The Subject, written and directed by Timo Tjahjanto, follows a deranged prosthetics specialist (Budi Ross) who is creating cybernetic abominations told from the point of view of one of his unwilling subjects who must fight for her life. Essentially Tetsuo: The Iron Man by way of Hardcore Henry, Budi Ross is delightfully insane as the scientist and the cyborg's are nicely unnerving and disturbing in their designs and the second half gives us some creative and visceral action beats that are nicely bloody and brutal.
The final segment, Terror written and directed by Ryan Prows follows a white supremacist militia documenting their plan to "take back America" through usage of a vampire they've managed to capture which of course gets out of hand. This was probably the segment I liked the least mainly because the militia group are all obnoxious (by intention) trigger happy simpletons who have no other character other than downing beer and shooting off guns until they get their comeuppance. It honestly reminded me of some of the shorts from the first V/H/S that had similar two dimensional jerks getting their comeuppance from something supernatural and much as I had issues with them, the same issues arise here. I think there's a good idea here, but it didn't come through for me personally even with its attempts to tie it to the wraparound narrative (which full disclosure: I actually missed on my first viewing).
V/H/S/94 is a not altogether unwelcome return of the franchise even if it still possesses some of the issues that have kept it from greatness. The shorts feature a nice variety even if some are better than others and there's a much clearer direction than Viral that's also more true to the tone that struck a chord with fans of the first two installments.
V/H/S Viral (2014)
V/H/S: Viral sees the series incinerate the goodwill of its predecessors and fall face first off a cliff
As the LAPD chase an ice cream truck through the city, Kevin (Patrick Lawrie) follows after hoping to capture the chaos and go viral online. When his girlfriend, Iris (Emilia Ares), disappears once the ice cream truck passes by Kevin documents his pursuit of the truck which is intercut with footage detailing other events of the supernatural.
V/H/S: Viral is the third installment of the Brad Miska produced found footage anthology series from Bloody Disgusting. While the second V/H/S entry saw a marked upturn in reception from critics and audiences, V/H/S: Viral saw that goodwill evaporate with both critics and audiences panning the film for its lack of scares as well as its stylistic and tonal departures from the prior installments and it effectively put the V/H/S series into hibernation for seven years until the series was given a soft reboot with V/H/S/94 in 2021. V/H/S: Viral has an occasional nugget of charm or an interesting idea only to be undercut by the obnoxiousness of its presentation and a tone that tries to be winking and self-aware.
Despite the bearing the V/H/S title, V/H/S: Viral has little to do with VHS other than the effects used on the footage for the wraparound story that feel like they're made by someone who's only been told how VHS works from a language they're only partially familiar with. While the thieves from the first V/H/S movie were kind of annoying they at least made some kind of sense in their own way, the Marcel Sarmiento directed Vicious Circles features Kevin and Iris who have no real purpose in the linking material (which has no reason why it's being interrupted by the other stories) and they're involved in the "plot" for no other reason than "what else am I gonna do?". I understand the movie is trying to comment on internet/youtube fame, but not only is it not scary with its overproduced delivery that carries a soundtrack (eschewing the aesthetics of found footage) but it's also massively obnoxious as well.
The Gregg Bishop directed Dante the Great isn't really found footage and is staged more like a mockumentary following magician Dante the Great (Justin Welborn) whose magic is supposedly real thanks to his cloak. There are some creative things done with the cloak, but there's also no real sense of tension or atmosphere especially since it keeps shifting formats between mockumentary, found footage, and conventional narrative with no commitment to a style.
The Nacho Vigalondo directed Parallel Monsters featuring scientist Alfonso (Gustavo Salmeron) making contact with a parallel version of himself who built the same machine leading them to switch places is probably the "best" by default, but after some good buildup and discomfort is let down by an ending so stupid my jaw was left agape at what I was seeing.
The final short, Bonestorm, made by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead is a lesser effort by the usually reliable filmmaking duo as it follows a group of skateboarders who run afoul of Satanists in Mexico in what's supposed to be kind of like Jackass meets Evil Dead only without the novelty or charm of either and featuring characters who are massively grating in scenes that go one way too long.
V/H/S: Viral is one of the greatest acts of self-sabotage I've seen a franchise do to itself destroying the tone, goodwill, and core concept of itself in a miscalculated act I'm desperate to know the motivation behind. I honestly can't imagine what caused the producers to decide this was the best way forward for the series and am legitimately curious. For V/H/S completionists only (if that), everyone else: stick to the good ones.
V/H/S/2 (2013)
V/H/S/2 refines the strengths of its predecessor while jettisoning most of its weaknesses
Private investigators Larry (Lawrence Michael Levine) and Ayesha (Kelsy Abbott) take on the case of investigating the disappearance of college student Kyle (L. C. Holt) and upon entering Kyle's home find a collection of VHS tapes with instances of supernatural occurrence.
After the first V/H/S film proved to be a modest hit, the producers rushed a sequel into production not long after its release. Featuring a return of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett as well as a bevy of new creatives for the rest of the segments, V/H/S/2 irons out most of the rough spots even if carries over a few.
Tape 49 serves as our wraparound segment which is written and directed by Simon Barrett. Larry and Ayesh are way more likable characters than the thieves from the prior film (even if they dabble in morally questionable activities) and their function in taking us through the story holds a lot more stakes even if it's not altogether clear why they tie together with the segments.
Adam Wingard directs and stars in the first segment Phase I Clinical Trials written by Simon Barrett. Featuring the story of a man who lost his eye, Herman (Wingard), who's given an artificial eye by company KPG with the caveat they'll record its feed for research, what seems like a medical miracle soon turns terrifying as Herman begins seeing ghosts with the eye. It's a very conventional story with a man slowly losing his mind to supernatural occurrence before succumbing to them, but it's well done with a nice punch to the scare sequences.
Blair Witch Project alums Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale co-direct A Ride in the Park from a script by Jamie Nash which follows a bicyclist (Jay Saunders) in the woods who is bitten by a zombie and becomes one and thanks to his GoPro helmet we follow a zombie attack from the POV of the zombie. It's a very basic zombie setup, but the Sanchez and Hale do play with the concept of following it from the POV of the zombies and exploring how much humanity remains once they turn into flesh eating ghouls. A simple concept but extremely well executed.
Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans write and direct Safe Haven which follows a documentary crew interviewing a cult led by the enigmatic Father (Epy Kusnandar) which initially seems like an Indonesian Jonestown only for the cult's theology to reveal itself in terrifying ways. This is definitely the most brutal of the segments and features a lot of the same gritty and high impact style Tjahjanto and Evans have brought to their other projects and the carnage depicted both during the buildup and eventual reveal is truly something to behold.
The final segment Slumber Party Alien Abduction directed by Jason Eisener and written by John Davies & Eisener follows a group of siblings, their dog, and their friends engaging in various hijinks when aliens arrive and abduct them. This is probably the weakest of the shorts as the aliens are very standard and not all that interesting but it is well acted even if the material isn't all that interesting.
V/H/S/2 is a marked improvement from its predecessor especially thanks to a shorter runtime and less abrasive leads in the wraparound segment. The reason why this stuff is even on VHS still stains credibility and unlike its predecessor it ends on the weakest short (I personally would've ended on Safe Haven) but it's a solid enough collection of shorts from skilled teams.
V/H/S (2012)
V/H/S features a unique showcase of styles even if as a movie it doesn't coalesce into a neatly satisfying whole
A group of criminals who engage in the filming of illegal activities for profit are hired by an unknown client to break into a house and find a rare VHS tape, and watching the various tapes strewn about the floor of a dead man's room bear witness to footage of supernatural encounters.
V/H/S is a 2012 horror anthology that was the brainchild of horror website Bloody Disgusting founder Brad Miska. Through his work in horror journalism Miska had cultivated numerous relationships throughout the industry and created the central concept and invited several writers and filmmakers to submit their ideas to be part of the project. The film recieved mixed reviews with some praising the concept and format, while other criticized the film as being overlong with no noteworthy shorts. Despite mixed reception, V/H/S proved to be enough of a success that it would be the start of a low key cult horror franchise. V/H/S is more intriguing as a "proof of concept" than a horror film in its own right because most of the shorts are very standard with one or two standouts.
The wraparound segment titled Tape 56 directed by Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (who'd go on to much better horror works) unfortunately doesn't make the best setup as despite the promising setup of going into a house to find a rare VHS tape, none of the actors are particularly engaging as they're all written to be loud and obnoxious jerks who are two dimensional fodder to be picked off one by one in the interludes between tape viewings. It's not a bad concept on paper, but the characters are so unlikable and shallow that you don't really care when they die.
Amateur Night (which was later adapted into a full feature Siren) written and directed by David Bruckner continues with the theme of annoying characters getting not undeserved comuppance as a trio of partying dude bros hitting the town with a hidden camera to document their sexcapades only to discover that one of their pick-ups is a literal "maneater". The acting isn't really the problem here and I applaud actors Hannah Fierman and Joe Sykes for showing comittment to the segment with doing full frontal nudity in the segment, but it features very shallow characters getting killed in a very shallow fashion.
Second Honeymoon written and directed by Ti West follows married couple Sam (Joe Swanberg) and Stephanie (Sophia Takal) on a cross country roadtrip where they've picked up a seemingly unknown passenger and there's maybe a little more character here than the prior segments, but the actual premise and reveal underwhelms with a feeling of "so what?". A real shame as I like Ti West as a filmmaker as seen with House of the Devil and The Innkeepers.
Glenn McQuaid writes and directs Tuesday the 17th which goes for the old standard of "slasher in the woods" (as you can guess from its name) and playing like a mixture of Blair Witch Project by way of Friday the 13th Part VI there's a real sense of fun with this one as it plays with formula as well as the found footage format. One particular standout is that the "killer" is always distorted by static and only appears as vaguely humanoid shape in the footage. Probably my second favorite of the anthology.
Joe Swanberg writes and directs The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger which features a serious of online video calls between medical student James (Daniel Kaufman) and his long distance girlfriend Emily (Helen Rogers) who comes to believe her apartment is haunted. While there's a massive leap as to why this is even on a VHS tape, there is decent buildup and scares with this situation until a nonsensical reveal ends up with a headscratching and frankly stupid explanation as to "why" this is happening.
The last segment 10/31/98 is made by the horror collective Radio Silence who write, direct, and star (more or less playing themselves) as partiers on Halloween night who go to a house party inadvertantly walking into a situation where the fear is very real. While it does focus on partiers wandering into a dangerous situation, the Radio Silence crew have good chemistry and make themselves likable enough that it works to its advantage and leads to a really fun climax where the crew gets to cut loose with what can only be described as Sam Raimi by way of Poltergeist. It's definitely a case of saving the best for last.
V/H/S is really better viewed as a proof of concept than a full movie. While segments Tuesday the 17th and 10/31/98 are quite fun, the wraparound segment and the other two segments are very bland and underwhelming not helped by the over long runtime at just under two hours. Marginally worth it for the two really good shorts mentioned, but as a whole it falls short of other anthologies.
Grimcutty (2022)
An interesting idea about moral panics and mass hysteria is suffocated by obnoxious characters and an idiot plot
Asha (Sara Wolfkind) is a teenage girl making ASMR videos as she deals with friction from her parents Amir (Usman Ally) and Melinda (Alona Tal) over her decision to quit the school's track team. Already ripe with concerns over technological creep and screentime, Amir and Melinda soon come across a viral news story about an internet challenge known as Grimcutty, accompanied with an image of a pale white monster, that is supposedly making children engage in either self-harm, assault, murder, or even suicide. After getting warned of the challenge by her parents, Asha soon begins seeing the Grimcutty monster in real life with no one believing her as the moral panic grows.
Grimcutty is a 2022 horror film written and directed by John William Ross that was produced by 20th Digital Studio for streaming service Hulu. The film takes inspiration from the 2018-19 hoax and moral panic known as the Momo Challenge where supposedly minors in online spaces were being directed by a user known as "Momo" to engage in acts of either violence or self harm which despite coming from dubious sources unable to be confirmed by law enforcement caused a global panic. There's definitely some good room for satire or provocative commentary for a premise like this, but unfortunately this ends up being less They Live or The Stuff and more "what if Reefer Madness was a horror film?".
While the initial setup for Grimcutty seems like it might be promising, those promises soon fly out the window as we're introduced to the family who all feel like broad caricatures rather than fully formed characters. While the idea of the monster using the moral panic to its benefit is an intriguing idea, the parents are such lunkheaded simpletons whose primary purpose is to serve as mechanisms designed to choose the worst decision possible simply so the plot can go in the direction the writer "needs" it to go. Not that Asha is much better as despite understanding how stupid and impulsive teenagers can be, the actions the character takes are so divorced from reality and she's so thinly written (doing ASMR videos is NOT a character) that she bears the same forced machinations other characters and becomes grating. The titular Grimcutty looks fine all things considered, it's reasonably well constructed but by making it look so much like Momo the actually design feels like it's trying too hard to be scary and conceptually speaking looks like if you tried to make The Crow a Disneyland mascot. There's definitely an idea at play here for something good or intelligent, but instead of exploiting it effectively it settles for becoming a really superficial and dumb teen flick.
Grimcutty isn't scary, funny, or smart despite its honest attempts, and instead just feels annoying and stupid to the point it entices that instinctive reflex of shouting things at the screen in the hopes the characters might make a rational and/or competent decision. Maybe a candidate for bad movie night, but only with a large (and preferably drunk) group.
Breeders (1986)
Schlocky and exploitative genre trash with a paper thin amount of plot to barely be above porn
Set in Manhattan, Dr. Gamble Pace (Teresa Yvon Farley) and NYPD Detective Dale Andriotti (Lance Lewman) see an appearance of several rape victims who are all virginal as well as having been burned with some kind of acid that soon suggests something not of this world.
Breeders is a 1986 erotic Sci-fi horror film that was part of a brief foray by pornographic director Tim Kincaid (better known by his pseudonym Joe Gage) to work inside the more conventional genre space. While Kincaid's work with gay pornography of the 70s has received some positive appraisal such as showing more diverse portrayals of homosexuality by eschewing more effeminate archetypal portrayals in favor of more rugged or blue collar portrayals, his brief run as a genre filmmaker shows ineptitude and just not understanding how these kind of movies should work making them prime fodder for bad movie fans.
While Breeders has an unapologetically trashy premise of an extraterrestrial serial rapist with a cop and doctor teaming up to investigate it (it's almost like a prototype of Species), Tim Kincaid shows himself to be completely alien to things like build-up, atmosphere or pacing and his incorporation of character or effects sequences often show his inexperience with genre filmmaking as he doesn't know how to frame effects sequences or dialogue sections to make them interesting. What Kincaid does know how to do however is fill the cast with an assortment of nubile women with an eagerness for disrobing (plot or context be damned like doing naked aerobics or cooking dinner naked) so he certainly knows how to capture attractive nudity which is where his skills as a porn director pay off. The movie has a pretty horrific setup with plentiful opportunities for body horror, but it's so ineptly directed and badly acted that it takes what should be horrific and makes it unintentionally funny until it's climax with a Jacuzzi filled with nude women in alien...."slime" just leaves your mouth agape. And that's to say nothing of the creature design itself that looks like a 50s b-movie era human fly.
Breeders has a nugget of a promising premise, but coming from a writer/director with no real experience outside of directing porn that promise evaporates like so much lubricant on a hot summer shoot. Maybe if someone like Larry Cohen or Gary Sherman had handled this premise something could've been done with it, but courtesy of Tim Kincaid what we have is the perfect trash film for bad movie night with some not too unwelcome excessive nudity.
Cutting Class (1989)
Of all the slasher movies of the 80s....this is certainly one of them
At Purley High School, the students see the return of Brian Woods (Donovan Leitch) who has recently been released from a mental institution as part of a sentence for killing his father. Brian soon turns his attention towards Paula Carson (Jill Schoelen) who is also the object of affection for his former friend Dwight Ingalls (Brad Pitt). Not long thereafter the school is plagued by death and disappearances.
Cutting Class is a 1989 slasher film (although filmed in 1987) that is notable for being an early starring role for Brad Pitt. Produced at a time when slashers were waning in popularity, Cutting Class made very little impact and aside from the curiosity factor of being produced by Highlander producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer, being directed by John Boorman collaborator Rospo Pallenberg, or being written by creator of Salute Your Shorts' Steve Slavkin, Cutting Class is a very by the numbers slasher that just kind of goes through the motions without any real point to distinguish itself.
Aside from having some reliable character actors like Roddy McDowall or Martin Mull in the cast, most of the characterization is pretty flat and no one really stands out including Pitt who's just sort of there and attractive looking but doesn't really get to show off any standout acting moments. Due to being a low budget direct-to-video production, Cutting Class has the look and feel of being about 8 years older than it actually is and feels like it belongs to the same category of unexceptional slashers like Prom Night and Graduation Day. There is one standout kill involving a trampoline and a flag pole (which I suspect inspired Eli Roth for a similar scene in his own Thanksgiving) but aside from that one point and a climax set in a machine shop most of the kills feel pretty rote.
Cutting Class is the definition of "space filler" and in that regard it's probably marginally successful. It's not exceptionally well acted, directed, written, or even produced as those expecting over the top violence and nudity will feel it somewhat restrained, but it delivers what it promises to the barest minimum.
Salem's Lot (2004)
Salem's Lot is adapted to miniseries format once again in an adaptation that's slightly more faithful while also missing the atmosphere and style of its 1979 predecessor
In the town of Jerusalem's Lot (also know as Salem's Lot), writer Ben Mears (Rob Lowe) has returned to his childhood home seeking inspiration for his latest book from the Marsten House whose dark history and crumbling edifice casts a dark shadow over the town. Upon arrival, Ben learns that the house has been sold to enigmatic antique dealer Richard Straker (Donald Sutherland) and his unseen partner Kurt Barlow (Rutger Hauer). Upon meeting waitress and art student Susan Norton (Samantha Mathis) the two strike up a romance as a mysterious ailment strikes the town that may be tied to the Marsten House and its two occupants.
Salem's Lot is a 2004 television miniseries that aired on TNT and is the second adaptation of Stephen King's 1975 novel of the same name following the 1979 adaptation by Tobe Hooper. While the original series was a critical and commercial success in its day, it also made several deviations from its source material in order to streamline its dense source material or in Kurt Barlow's case extracted the personality of the character in favor of something more traditionally monstrous. While this 2004 adaptation of Salem's Lot didn't achieve the same critical reception as its predecessor (though it tended to lean positive) it was nonetheless a ratings success becoming the highest rated longform cable program of the year and would spur TNT to return to King adaptations with 2006's Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Salem's Lot is in some cases more faithful to the original book, but unfortunately what it gains in faithfulness from the 1979 miniseries, it loses in fear, style and tone.
To start off on a positive note, in terms of modernizing the source material from an era of post-Vietnam 70s cynicism to mid-2000s post 9/11 and War on Terror cynicism Peter Filardi's screenplay does well enough in translating its subject matter with its take on small town's harboring dark secrets. While the original book and miniseries sort of framed Salem's Lot as being a dying bastion of post-World War II prosperity and the American Dream, the 2004 version takes it a step further by saying it never really existed outside of a rose colored construct of nostalgia and expurgation. I also rather liked Rutger Hauer as Kurt Barlow but I did feel that Donald Sutherland was somewhat miscast as Richard Straker. While most of the casting choices are fine such as Andre Braugher playing an update on Matt Burke (with an effort to work in more enlightened takes on homosexuality from the book's contemporary leanings) or James Cromwell's Father Callahan and the various supporting characters, I felt that Rob Lowe and Samantha Mathis felt horribly miscast in their roles and also didn't show the chemistry David Soul and Bonnie Bedelia had in the original. I also felt that Mikael Salomon's direction paled in comparison to Hooper's style as the miniseries incorporates a lot of the worst trends of mid-2000s horror film making including overly flashy editing and in your face CGI that call attention to themselves rather than provide any atmosphere.
The 2004 adaptation of Salem's Lot isn't without some value, but despite trying to be more faithful to the book it pales in comparison to its 1979 counterpart. While it does well in not just copying the original beat for beat and successfully (mostly) updates the material to modern day, it doesn't have the level of style or lead actors that made the original work as well as it did.
A Return to Salem's Lot (1987)
A complete tonal and thematic 180 mean this couldn't have less to do with Salem's Lot, but in spite of the many issues it is kind of fascinating in its existence
Anthropologist Joe Weber (Michael Moriarty) has been summed back to the United States from documenting tribal sacrifices after his estranged son Jeremy (Ricky Addison Reed) has been having behavioral problems. With his ex-wife and her husband having dumped Jeremy in his care, the two head off to Jerusalem's Lot, Maine where his deceased aunt Clara (June Havoc) willed him a house. Upon entry into the town, the two find it to be sparsely populated with the house in question considerably more dilapidated than first thought. However the two soon discover the town is inhabited almost entirely by vampires and that they want Joe Weber to document their society using his expertise as his son Jeremy becomes more ingrained in their society.
A Return to Salem's Lot is a very loose sequel to the 1979 TV miniseries Salem's Lot which itself was adapted from the 1975 book of the same name by Stephen King. The project came about as the result of Warner Brothers' home media division asking Larry Cohen to produce a direct-to-video film for them with Cohen countering by asking to make two back to back with the two in question being It's Alive III: Island of the Alive and A Return to Salem's Lot. As both projects had sizable footprints in the home media space, Warner Bros. Agreed and allowed Cohen the resources and leeway he needed. Cohen himself had written a rejected draft of Salem's Lot back when Warner Bros. Was trying to adapt it to feature film, but Cohen stated that he's not a fan of vampire films as he finds them "tedious" and instead wanted to take a more satirical approach to vampire films mixed with the Thornton Wilder play Our Town. Critical reception tended to run negative with many lamenting the film's lack of scares and tenuous connections to its source material, but there was some praise of the film's satire. As a sequel to Salem's Lot it's a pretty sizable creative failure, but as a Larry Cohen project it does feature some of his noted quirks and eccentricities that make his film's interesting even if they're very eyebrow raising in this instance.
As seen with his work for Cohen in Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff, Michael Moriarty is a fine actor who can approach unapologetic schlocky silliness with committed gusto and is enjoyable as Joe Weber whose often acerbic and cynical attitude is tested against the revelation that vampires exist. As the film is more of a comedy, it goes about as far from the Tobe Hooper directed miniseries as you'd think not only in regards to content (like how the town shouldn't even exist after the ending) but also tone and atmosphere as it really isn't trying to be scary at any point. There honestly is some on point satire mixed with the high concept Shenanigans (a specialty of Cohen's) particularly when a Nazi Hunter played by Samuel Fuller enters the picture at the halfway point and serves as a satire of the beneath the surface level racism present in isolated wealthy hamlets but so many issues come back to framing this as a sequel to Salem's Lot and while the satire has promise it lacks some of the finer points of polish Cohen usually puts on his material even if you were to take it as a standalone project.
A Return to Salem's Lot is baffling in its existence not only because it's a complete tonal mismatch to its predecessor, but because it does have at least some interesting ideas you could see being expanded upon if given the leeway and freedom they needed. It's not a good movie, but because Cohen is writing and directing it, that makes the experience more interesting than it would be in lesser hands.
Salem's Lot (1979)
The 1979 miniseries has to compress and twist its dense source material, but in spite of its TV limitations it's an effective and moody horror piece
In the town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine (also known as Salem's Lot), writer Ben Mears (David Soul) has returned to his childhood home seeking to gain inspiration from the town and ominous and historied landmark The Marsten House only to find it has been purchased by the enigmatic Richard Straker (James Mason) and his hereto unseen associate Kurt Barlow. In the course of wandering the town, Ben meets local art teacher Susan Norton (Bonnie Bedelia) and the two strike up a romance with Susan having been a fan of his books. Not long after Ben's arrival in town a series of tragic deaths of mysterious and often unexplainable circumstances suggests something evil has ensnared the town and may be related to Straker and Barlow.
Salem's Lot is a 1979 TV miniseries that aired on CBS and was adapted from Stephen King's 1975 novel of the same name. The second of King's works to be adapted (as well as his second published novel), Warner Bros. Initially acquired the rights intent on making it a feature film, several different screenwriters attempted to adapt the very dense novel to feature length but no one was able to come up with a workable script which lead to the project being handed off to Warner Bros. Television where producer Richard Kobritz decided to repurpose it as a television miniseries. After hiring Carrie producer Paul Monash to write the screenplay and Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Tobe Hooper to direct, thus began the process of adaptation which in addition to the expected changes for content per TV standards also required compression and restructuring even with the three hour runtime. Despite the changes Salem's Lot was a critical and commercial hit in its time setting not only a precedent for Stephen King's works on television but also the vampire genre in general as works such as Fright Night, The Lost Boys, and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer have noted influences from this adaptation. While maybe a little dated and not quite matching its source material, Salem's Lot is still an enjoyable watch thanks to its stylish direction and committed performances.
In terms of approach, Hooper and Monash do a good job of sticking to the spirit of King's novel even if they have to work around the limitations of time and content restrictions. Having read the book, King very much made the town of Salem's Lot a character unto itself with lengthy sections of the book dedicated to building up the town's history and mythos and creating a three dimensional portrait of a quaint New England town whose individual residents formed into a collective whole. Much like how the book Salem's Lot looked at the creeping infection of evil infecting this town, there's a lot of that tone captured in the series as we see the relatively bustling if quiet burg of Salem's Lot become more desolate and empty even if due to limitations of scope it's not quite able to push that idea as far as the book did.
In terms of casting I thought David Soul did a solid job of playing Ben Mears and he's paired well with Bonnie Bedelia's Susan Norton with the two having some solid chemistry. Lance Kerwin I thought did decent as Mark Petrie, but I personally felt like maybe he was a bit older than the role was written (Kerwin was around 18 at the time of production and in the book the character was a few years younger). In terms of the supporting cast, the series does a good job of bringing the large ensemble to life even if it's been considerably streamlined with some characters eliminated, reduced, or in some cases merged together. The characters of Burke and Father Callahan for example feel like they've been considerably reduced despite being core characters in the book and this leads to some awkward workarounds like Ben now getting information from an off screen unnamed colleague in San Francisco. The biggest change undoubtedly is in the characters of Richard Straker and Kurt Barlow who taken independently of the book are still quite intimidating (particularly James Mason's Straker) and Barlow sports a memorable Max Schrek inspired design while also removing much of his personality from the book making him less a character and more of a force so adjust your expectations if you've read the book.
Salem's Lot is a decent adaptation of the source material (although more in tone and spirit than content) and solid horror story that works well within the limitations affordable by 70s television. While not the engrossing multilayered work its novel was, Salem's Lot makes up for it by capturing a haunting atmosphere and mostly good performances from its ensemble.
Slingshot (2024)
Slingshot boasts a handsome production and solid acting that walks through a very safe Solaris inspired retread
Set on board the Odyssey-1 spacecraft, crew John (Casey Affleck), Nash (Tomer Capone), and Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne) are 9 months into a journey to Saturn's moon of Titan where they will use Jupiter's gravity for a slingshot maneuver. As the months wear on and John and the rest of the crew experience mental and physical exhaustion from the hypersleep cycles tensions continue to build upon the crew as John experiences hallucinations of his ex-girlfriend Zoe (Emily beecham).
Slingshot is a psychological sci-fi thriller directed by Mikael Hafstrom and written by R. Scott Adams and Nathan Parker. Hafstrom had apparently acquired the script for quite some time and was interested in its confined nature and compared it in spirit to 1408 which like Slingshot was also a confined chamber piece but with Slingshot more science-fiction as opposed to 1408's Supernatural thriller. Slingshot is certainly a very handsome and well-acted production, but unfortunately it's also very familiar and goes in a direction that's overly familiar for this kind of story.
In terms of the cast, I felt like Casey Affleck, laurence Fishburne, and Tomer Capone do quite well in their roles as the three crewman who go from a cordial and professional working relationship to a greater buildup of tension, unease, and distrust as the events move forward. Structurally speaking Hafstrom uses flashbacks to flesh out Casey Affleck's character in much the same way he did John Cusack's character in 1408, but where that film used it to effectively analyze that character's unprocessed grief and survivor's guilt, Slingshot uses it to build-up a not very interesting love story where Emily Beecham and Casey Affleck's relationship just isn't that interesting or worth emotional investment. As a chamber piece the movie does give our actors a good chance to create engaging portraits of men eroding under pressure and isolation, but unfortunately the payoff to the journey isn't all that satisfying and it really only served to remind me of how much better this kind of premise was done in something like Alexandre Aja's Oxygen.
If you're a die-hard sci-fi fan there is good stuff to appreciate here especially as it relates to the acting and production design, but the uninvolved love story and underwhelming payoff make it difficult to recommend outside of genre die hards/faithful whose enjoyment of this movie will still be marked with an asterisk.
Cuckoo (2024)
Cuckoo's off-kilter presentation and Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens' engaging performances create an unnerving and fun thrill ride
Set int the Bavarian Alps, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) has recently come from the United States to live with her estranged father Luis (Marton Csokas) and his new wife Beth (Jessica Henwick) and mute daughter Alma (Mila Lieu) as they're in the process of moving to a resort run by Herr Konig (Dan Stevens) to oversee development of a secondary expansion. Gretchen takes a receptionist position with the resort intent on saving enough money to fly back to the United States, but during the first few nights Gretchen notices strange behavior and occurrences on the grounds that suggests something sinister is in the woods.
Cuckoo comes to his from German director Tilman Singer in his sophomore feature following his work on 2018's Luz. Taking inspiration from observations of the wilderness in his native Germany, Singer crafted the story around certain noted elements centering it around a family. Singer creates an unnerving and tense horror experience which is helped with solid performances by Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.
Hunter Schafer of TV's Euphoria makes a solid lead as Gretchen who certainly carries an abrasive edge with a chip on her shoulder, but both she and Singer also make sure early on to give her moments of vulnerability so we understand where she's coming from in why she carries herself this way. From the introductory scene where she is traveling to their new home in a car separate from her parents and half-sister, there's an isolating feeling that makes Gretchen feel as though she's not welcome there and is viewed more as an intruder than part of the family which shows why she's so eager to get away. Dan Stevens' quirky performance as resort owner Herr Konig is a good balance of darkly humorous and quietly sinister and along with the nature of the resort there's a very Lynch or Cronenberg like atmosphere that something's not right with this seemingly idyllic hideaway which adds to the sense of mystery and unease throughout the movie. While I was admittedly able to guess where the movie was going (as the title itself is a pretty big hint) I remained engaged thanks to the performances and atmosphere as well as supporting characters like Jan Bluthardt's Henry and Greta Fernadez' Trixie who left me wanting to know more about them.
I really enjoyed Cuckoo. While it follows a pretty set path, it's such a rich atmospheric and well-acted film that I really enjoyed walking down it. Hunter Schafer shows a natural adeptness to the horror genre that's comparable with Samara Weaving's turn in Ready or Not and I think she could have a future as strong genre staple (as well as other roles beyond the genre).
AfrAId (2024)
Blumhouse strikes again as they create yet another well-acted piece of mediocrity with a nugget of an intriguing idea
Advertising executive Curtis Pike (John Cho) and his business partner Marcus (Keith Carradine) are approached by tech entrepreneurs Sam (Ashley Romans) and Lightning (David Dastmachian) to market their revolutionary AI assistant AIA (Havana Rose Liu). Under pressure from his business partner, Curtis brings AI to his home where it meets and interacts with his wife Meredith (Katherine Waterston) and their three children teenage daughter Iris (Lukita Maxwell), middle son Preston (Wyatt Lindner), and youngest son Cal (Isaac Bae). While initially AIA seems like a benefit to the Pike family, Curtis soon notices the technological creep and strange occurrences since AIA's arrival become a cause for concern.
Afraid is another genre feature from noted low budget producer Blumhouse and is written and directed by Chris Weitz. The film was initially announced under the title of They Listen and scheduled to come out in August 2023 until it was delayed (possibly due to its similarities to earlier 2023 Blumhouse release M3GAN). As has been the trend with many genre films, Afraid looks at the ongoing concerns surrounding AI and their impact on society and both humanity and technology's future and while Afraid certainly tries to address those questions, it does so in the most mediocre and lifeless way possible.
Starting off, I will say that the acting from all involved is perfectly fine. When you have a cast that includes the likes of John Cho, Katherine Waterston, and Keith Carradine as well as more up and coming names like Havana Rose Liu and David Dastmalchian you at least have the right people in place to act the part and they certainly do. The movie tries to make a commentary on the increasingly tech focused society in which we now live with concerns like screentime, deepfakes, and the social necessity of even having an electronic device as well as the psychological and social ramifications like lack of privacy or personal disassociation between online actions and real life. The major issue however is a lot of this stuff is pretty surface level at best (John Cho was actually in a much more intriguing commentary with Searching a few years back) and aside from taking some swipes at online sex crimes or SWATing (which is presented as a good thing/joke payoff in the third act) it often feels confused to its handling of these events like how AIA's informing the police of a deepfaked sex video by Iris' skeazy boyfriend is framed as a bad thing. Last but not least, as a horror film Afraid really isn't all that scary and many of the scare scenes are mostly of the standard jump scare variety and AIA herself never feels all that menacing even when they add "extensions" for her to operate in the real world where the conclusion just feels like a cut rate Colossus: The Forbin Project.
In comparison to the previous Blumhouse releases of Night Swim and Imaginary, Afraid is just kind of mediocre. It's honestly made watchable by a good cast and having a nugget of a good idea, but there's better movies that tackle this subject and you're not really missing much.
Oddity (2024)
McCarthy impresses in his sophomore feature with a well acted thriller
One year after her twin sister Dani Timmis (Carolyn Bracken) was allegedly murdered in her countryside house by released mental patient Olin Boole (Tahg Murphy), Dani's blind sister, Darcy Odello (Carolyn Bracken) who runs a curio shop and is an avid occultist learns that Dani's surviving husband Dr. Ted Timmis (Gwilym Lee) has started a relationship with pharmaceutical rep Yana (Caroline Menton). On the anniversary of her sister's death, Darcy pays a surprise visit on Ted and Yana bringing a gift of an odd wooden mannequin that she claims her mother got from a witch. As Ted works late at the asylum strange happenings plague the house as tension builds between Yana and Darcy.
Oddity comes to us from Irish writer director Damian McCarthy in his sophomore effort following his work on Caveat. Taking inspiration from antique stores, Child's Play, and Creepshow, McCarthy has created a quite unique and often unnerving horror thriller that is sure to please fans of the genre.
In many ways, Oddity is almost a chamber piece as it features a relatively contained location and small cast and with a few re-writes could've easily been a stage play. McCarthy makes this very much an actor's movie as there's considerable time spent developing the assortment of characters and their relationships and the setup and delivery reminded me a bit of Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder if you included a bit of a supernatural bent (where the Creepshow influence comes in as there's definitely some EC Comics-esque morality plays). The mannequin is expertly designed and is used to good effect by McCarthy, but Carolyn Bracken is phenomenal in a dual role playing identical twins who couldn't be more different and makes them both engaging. Gwilym Lee is also very good as Ted and his portrayal as the film goes on just gets better and better.
I really enjoyed Oddity and it's probably one of my favorite horror films from this year. It's a shocking an effective limited location thriller that uses character and tension quite effectively in equal measure.
Blue Thunder (1983)
A fun 80s cop thriller that delivers on exciting action and intrigue while offering food for thought on police militarization
Set in Los Angeles, Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider) is a pilot for the LAPD's air support division still coping with PTSD from his tours in Vietnam. During a flight with his new partner Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern), a stray flight outside their zone where the two engage in voyeurism coincides with an assault on a local Councilman, Diane McNeely (Robin Braxton) which the two make it to in order to provide air support but not before McNeely is wounded during the events. Murphy is briefly suspended until the test of a prototype weaponized police helicopter called Blue Thunder is initiated with Murphy as the pilot working under Colonel Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell) whom he carries animosity towards from their time in the war. However Murphy soon discovers there may be something more insidious with Blue Thunder that places a target on his back.
Blue Thunder is 1983 action thriller directed by John Badham and written by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby. O'Bannon and Jakoby fist came up with the concept for Blue Thunder in the 70s having been inspired by their experiences living in Los Angeles and having helicopters flying at low altitude wake them in the early morning hours. A modest success upon release, Blue Thunder received decent critical reception and while allegedly not as overtly political as its initial draft, still has solid commentary on police militarization mixed in with some nicely done action sequences.
Needless to say, Roy Scheider does well in the role of Frank Murphy as it falls well within his wheelhouse of playing strong but slightly broken characters (as seen in his work in Jaws and Sorcerer), his world weary cynicism is well placed against Daniel Stern's more energized optimism and he also has good moments with Candy Clark's Kate. Malcolm McDowell is fun as Murphy's antagonist Cochrane and kudos to him for remaining intense and threatening during the flight scenes which he was reportedly terrified of as he has a fear of flying in real life. While the movie has decent political bite with some commentary on police militarization and some obvious influence from Watergate (especially in the third act when a tape becomes important), it never forgets to provide some truly exciting aerial scenes with copter chases that show some truly expert choreography and immerse you in adrenaline pumping sequences. Admittedly some of the logic goes out the window in order to justify the climax (which maybe goes on longer than it should) but it's not a bad tradeoff.
Blue Thunder is an entertaining action thriller with an engaging lead, strong tension, and solid action sequences. By no means perfect as there are logical leaps the plot takes that are sometimes as impressive as its aerial ones, but it's also entertaining.
Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)
Well, it's not Highlander II but it's a far cry from Highlander (despite aping several key points of the original)
After winning the Prize, Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) has settled into a quiet existence in Marrakesh with his adopted son Jon (Gabriel Kakon). In Japan, an archeological dig headed by Dr. Alex Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger) has uncovered the lost 400 year old tomb of legendary sorcerer Nakano (Mako), with whom MacLeod once trained. The dig ends up freeing a legendarily brutal Immortal named Kane (Mario Van Peebles) and his two henchmen who were trapped by Nakano and sets his sights on getting revenge on Connor.
While Highlander II: The Quickening was a critical and audience failure that achieved lukewarm box office, it was technically made successful thanks to usage of foreign pre-sales, cable, and home media, and reigniting interest in the Highlander name which saw the original film get a massive uptick in rentals. Given that Highlander was producer William N. Panzer's biggest film he had his name on (with a distant second being the DTV slasher Cutting Class that featuring an early supporting performance from Brad Pitt) there was no way he'd be putting his biggest cash cow out to pasture and saw not only movement on a third Highlander movie, but also a Highlander TV series for syndication. While Highlander I and II director Russell Mulcahy had been poised to return, a financial disagreement saw him withdraw from the project and replaced by Andy Morahan in his feature debut who like Mulcahy also had a background in music videos. Designed with the intention of ignoring Highlander II there was a conscious decision by the producers to avoid the sci-fi aesthetics of the original and return to the urban fantasy of the first film. The result? A mostly inoffensive rehash of the first film that still has to bend and twist itself to justify its existence.
Despite wiping the events and Zeist revelations of Highlander II from continuity, this third Highlander film much like its predecessor relies on massive retcons and ignoring aspects of the Prize from the original film in order to justify continuation. If you're wondering why exactly Connor MacLeod claimed the Prize while there were still Immortals trapped in a tomb for 400 years keep wondering because the movie's sure not gonna answer that. After Kane's emergence from the tomb we largely get a repeat of key points from the first highlander film complete with having a love interest specializing in ancient stuff like Brenda (who's been unceremoniously killed in a car accident between films), Connor being a person of interest by the police when heads start rolling (and idiotically using his Russell Nash alias which has ties to the events in 1986), and Kane is more or less a reskin of The Kurgan only with powers of illusion he acquired from killing Nakano. It's honestly hard to feel anything but indifference to Highlander III because it's honestly better made than Highlander II and actually feels like it belongs in the same world as the first one, but it also feels like it took the laziest route to once again get blood from a stone that's once again the result of Panzer's lack of foresight when he arrogantly dismissved claims of his writers by saying "there's not going to be a sequel".
I'll say this for Highlander III, I wasn't annoyed while watching it but I also wasn't entertained. There's nothing about this movie that really stands out aside from maybe Mario Van Peebles screen chewing performance, but by that same measure the first film had an equally insane villain performance from Clancy Brown and also had a sense of novelty and mystery to it that made it entertaining. Highlander III is space filler that exists because the name has international appeal and by that measure it succeeds in taking up space.
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
A troubled production leads to a maelstrom of incomprehensibility and stupidity that's made all the more baffling by the amount of resources behind it
In the future of 1999, having claimed The Prize and lost his immortality Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) uses the knowledge he accumulated from The Prize to assist Dr. Allan Neyman (Allan Rich) in creating a shield to envelop the Earth after the depleted ozone layer leads to a mass of deaths from solar radiation including Connor's wife Brenda. 25 years later in 2024, Connor is now an old man wandering aimlessly through life as the corrupt Shield Corporation under the direction of David Blake (John C. McGinley) has resulted in a dystopian future of endless night. Connor remembers his forgotten past where he and Juan Ramierez (Sean Connery) were once citizens of the planet Zeist who fought a failed rebellion against General Katana (Michael Ironside) and were banished throughout Earth's history in the process where they'd remain Immortal until only one remained who could either return to Zeist or become mortal on Earth. As Louise Marcus (Virginia Madsen), an environmental activist working against the Shield Corporation tries to convince Connor to help, Katana initiates a plan to kill Connor resulting in him regaining his youth and immortality and bringing back Juan Ramierez from the dead.
During the production of the original Highlander, producer William Panzer's decision that The Prize would be freeing Connor MacLeod of his immortality was met with disagreement by writers Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson who tried to convince him that such an ending wouldn't allow for a sequel only to be met with dismissive comments from Panzer that "there won't be any sequel"(Hilarious in hindsight one might say). After the international success coupled with the film's ever growing popularity on home video and cable, Panzer decided to look into producing a sequel which was motivated at least in part by the purchase of Highlander distributor Cannon Film's purchase by Weintraub Entertainment Group causing reduced exposure of the film as distribution rights became tangled. Panzer thought a sequel would not only tap into a fanbase who were interested in more, but also give him and his producing partners something they wholly owned as opposed to the original. Panzer hired Brian Clemens to write the initial draft of the screenplay who later lamented it as one of the worst assignments he'd ever taken as not only did he have to make a sequel to a film whose ending cut off any sequel possibilities, but also had the non-negotiable caveat of needing to make Sean Connery's character Juan Sanchez return despite him having died. Matters were furthered complicated with the budget ballooning due to a crash in Argentina's economy where production was taking place and the completion bond company taking direct control of the film which director Russell Mulcahy largely disowned. Hated by critics and audiences, the film while not a success at the box office wasn't as much of a money loser as you might think as it did cause a spike in rentals of the original film and had some of its production costs covered by pre-sales. While there have been attempts at image rehab with things like the Renegade Cut, Highlander II remains one of the most forced and unnecessary sequels in history that's also a bad film in its own right.
In terms of setting itself up, Highlander 2 couldn't feel less like the original if it tried as it largely sheds the heroic/urban fantasy approach of the original in favor of a gritty dystopian sci-fi aesthetic with a half-baked environmental message. The movie honestly feels more like someone trying to make a poor man's attempt at a Paul Verhoeven movie complete with "satirical" commercials and worldbuilding, but even that feels like I'm being too generous because while Robocop 2 was very much a poor man's version of the first film, it at least felt like it understood the original. The nonsensical future society is bad enough, but then we get to the nonsensical reveal that all the Immortals were actually aliens exiled from their home planet of Zeist...while still possessing earthly names like MacLeod and Ramirez...I'm sure you're seeing the issues here.
The plot of this movie is just a mess as regardless of which version you watch I'm still not sure why General Katana bothers to go after MacLeod and while Clancy Brown's The Kurgan wasn't a subtle villain by any means, at least he made sense and served his purpose. With the usually reliable Michael Ironside he's basically directed to dial up the crazy to 11 and does things for no other reason than the plot needs him to. And last but not least we have Sean Connery's return as Juan Ramirez whose return to life is instigated by...MacLeod saying his name. As stupid as this whole plot point is and as embarrassing as the hackneyed "fish out of water" comedy scenes are, at least Connery is still somewhat charming even in the obvious mess of a film he's in (even Connery basically admitted he did the film for the $3 million paycheck and nothing else). Watching Highlander 2 unfold is basically like watching madness and stupidity unleashed in a maelstrom of nonsense after someone crammed David Lynch's Dune, Blade Runner, Robocop, and Highlander into a paint shaker and unleashed the confused contents in film format.
I guess I should mention the Renegade version and while it's maybe slightly more coherent, it only does the unenviable task of taking an awful movie and making it a bad movie (though maybe slightly more watchable). There's really no saving Highlander 2 because its issues are embedded within the core of its existence. It may not have some of the structural issues or the nonsensical plot point of Immortals being from the planet Zeist and instead from a non-descript point in the distant past, but it's still not at the point where I'd consider it good.
Highlander 2 is either an awful movie or a bad movie depending on which version you watch, but it's also ill worthy of being a follow-up to the original film. In terms of its artistic value, it is morbidly fascinating in seeing a movie that has this level of money, resources, and talent behind it yield such unbridled chaos and serves as a warning of what happens when a sequel comes about purely from business decisions rather than any passion or drive to the project. And of course while normal circumstances would ordinarily see this being the last Highlander entry, history has seen to make Highlander's existence anything but ordinary.
Highlander (1986)
The Immortal cult classic is still entertaining, in spite of some rough spots
In 1986 New York City a headless corpse is found in a destroyed parking garage near Madison Square Garden that defies explanation. Police forensics specialist Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) comes to believe the event and some ancient metal embedded in the parking structure may be connected to a sword and brings her to mysterious antiquities dealer Russell Nash (Christopher Lambert) who in actuality is an immortal who's life began as Connor MacLeod in the Scottish Highlands during the early 16th Century and will face off against insane and sadistic immortal The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) who has come to The Gathering of the last Immortals to claim the fabled Prize.
Highlander is a 1986 action-fantasy film that was written by Gregory Widen as a project while he was a student at UCLA. According to Widen, his professor was impressed enough with the screenplay that he encouraged Widen to shop it around resulting in it being acquired by William N. Panzer and Peter S. Davis for $200,000 with Widen doing an initial rewrite and Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson finalizing the ultimate version of the script. The film was given a somewhat tepid release in the United States (which director Russell Mulcahy blamed on the 20th Century Fox imposed cuts and poor marketing) but thanks to the international market and the second life on home video and cable television, Highlander quickly became a cult favorite (and the starting point for a reluctant franchise, but that's a discussion for another day). Highlander is a fun fantasy epic with urban grit that makes itself a memorable and stylish heroic journey.
To get things out of the way, Christopher Lambert is admittedly not the best as while he has a good steely eyed look and handsome profile, it's pretty clear that English is his second language. He does okay I suppose and they do try to compensate by explaining him having been "lots of different places" but there's a reason Lambert's roles in American films have been more on the B-level of films (though often entertaining Bs for whatever that's worth). With that out of the way, the rest of the movie is really enjoyable. The opening fight sword fight in a parking garage is eye catching and memorable (though maybe the tiniest bit silly with the extended backflips) and Roxanne Hart does well as the audience proxy investigating Connor's Russel Nash alias and is the outsider looking in as it were. Sean Connery is also very fun in a supporting presence as Juan Ramirez whom we see training Connor in both swordplay and the conditions of immortality, The Gathering, and The Prize. Last but certainly not least is Clancy Brown's antagonistic role as The Kurgan a sadistic and borderline insane brute who devours the scene in the best possible way with a killer voice to match
The flashbacks are worked quite nicely into the story as we see the strain immortality takes on Connor with rejection of his klansmen, the loss of his wife to old age, his inability to have children, and his adoption of a young girl during World War II who is now older than him in present day. The movie does a nice job of establishing the feeling of immortality with Connor with both key moments from his life as well as side characters whom he has offhanded exchanges with that hint at a larger scale of events. The action sequences are nicely intense and well choreographed with the "quickening" that happens whenever an immortal is killed feeling otherworldly and explosive (literally) with absolutely gorgeous staging by director Russell Mulcahy who uses his music video expertise to give Highlander a similar intense and almost dreamlike polish to his underrated horror film Razorback.
Highlander is really strong heroic fantasy with an urban twist and you can definitely see why it's endeared itself as a cult favorite since its release. While not everything is as polished as it could be, the epic story, fleshed out characters, and stylish direction help to make the film an engaging and entertaining experience.
Uglies (2024)
Uglies rehashes Logan's Run, Twilight Zone's Eye of the Beholder, and decade old YA tropes into a dull and often silly melange
Set in the future, after the previous society's (known as Rusties) reliance on fossil fuels rendered the planet uninhabitable resulting in a societal collapse, a new order sprang up built upon an alternative energy source taken from the Tiger White Lily flower. In a city built upon this new energy ruled over by governor Dr. Nyah Cable (Laverne Cox), those under 16 live in the Dorms sectioned off from the rest of the city and are called "Uglies" who upon reaching 16 undergo a medical procedure to become "Pretties". When Tally Youngblood (Joey King) breaks curfew to visit her best friend, Peris (Chase Stokes), who has undergone the procedure she notices how much colder he's gotten towards her and only narrowly avoids capture by the cities Wardens with the help of Shay (Brianne Tju), another Ugly whom she befriends. Shay tells Tally of her plans to find David (Keith Powers), the leader of a resistance known as the Smoke that operates in Rusties ruins which places Tally in a position where she must choose between her dream of being Pretty and loyalty to her friend.
Uglies is the long in development adaptation of the 2005 novel of the same name by Scott Westerfield. Uglies has undergone a lengthy development cycle with the rights first purchased in 2006 by producer John Davis and entering development hell. The project was revived when Joey King signed on to play the lead Tally Youngblood in 2020 as she had been a fan of the Uglies novels. The movie completed its production in December of 2021 and has only now been released after a lengthy gestation period and it certainly feels like a movie that should've come out 10 or 15 years ago if at all.
I'm going to be upfront and say that I have not read the novel or novels upon which this movie is based and only possess surface level knowledge if that, but despite never having read the books this is a movie that you know beat for beat if you've seen any of the forgotten attempts to ape Hunger Games' success be it the unfinished Divergent series or non-starters like The Darkest Minds and The 5th Wave. It's honestly pretty hard to get much discussion out of this movie because it's very much an archetype movie where it's plot and characters are paper thin with heavy handed allegories that are so laughable they never create a fully realized word (and this is going beyond the obvious silliness of calling your characters "Uglies" and "Pretties"). After going through what feels like a funhouse mirror sci-fi image of high school drama, Uglies basically becomes a mixture of Logan's Run if you mixed in the classic Twilight Zone episode Eye of the Beholder (although severely diluted) and then themed it after Seventeen magazine. Aside from Laverne Cox having some fun chewing the scene as the film's antagonist Dr. Cable, I really can't say anything about the cast as they all feel bored and lifeless spouting stiff and often inane dialogue with the enthusiasm of someone having a bad reaction to Ambien. The best thing I can say is sometimes the effects look okay, but other times (especially during the daylight scenes) they look barely above some of those mid-2000s Super Bowl commercials.
If you're in desperate need of revisiting your nostalgia for that wave of YA adaptations, just stick wait for the next Hunger Games movie. For all I know maybe this worked better in the book, but taking it as a movie it feels like a generic and lifeless commercial product that fails to justify itself (let alone the sequel/franchise it teases at the end which: No, absolutely not!).
Arabian Adventure (1979)
A very old fashioned adventure that feels about 20 years older than it actually is
In the Arabian city of Jabur, the Caliph Alquazar (Christopher Lee) rules over the city through fear and oppression with the help of dark arts that he's mastered. Despite his success in quelling rebellions, his Mirror of the Moon (Christopher Lee) tells Alquazar that without the Rose of Elin he can never be all powerful. Opportunity presents itself when Prince Hasan (Oliver Tobias) of Baghdad escapes from his imprisonment for violating the Alquazar's curfew and fights his way to the throne room where Alquazar learns he fancies his step-daughter and the Princess of Jubar, Zuleira (Emma Samms). Alquazar makes a deal that if Hasan can embark on a quest with his lackey Hasim (Milo O'Shea) and retrieve the Rose of Elin he will have Zuleira's hand in marriage. Meanwhile however, a young beggar child named Majeed (Puneet Sira) through magical workings finds himself guided by destiny's hand on Alquazar's journey.
Arabian Adventure is the fifth and final fantasy film Kevin Connor made for producer John Dark (following from The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core, The People That Time Forgot, and Warlords of Atlantis). Dark requested Warlords screenwriter, Brian Hayles, write an original Eastern fantasy film inspired by such classics as The Thief of Bagdad and was given the highest budget yet for a Connor/Dark production. Despite the enthusiasm among the cast, including Christopher Lee who returned to England for the first time in three years because he loved the script, the release of Arabian Adventure was quite muted as it disappointed at the box office and critical reception at the time tended to label the film as being "cheap" and "outdated". Arabian Adventure isn't without some charm, but it's also a very old fashioned film to the point it feels about 20 years older than it actually is.
Your enjoyment of this movie will depend heavilly on your forgiveness for familiarity and cheapness as you'll catch on pretty quickly just how confined and narrow this allegedly expansive Arabian city is because it's done entirely on sound stages. While admitedly the film's sets are bright, colorful, and well crafted, the film also feels much less expansive than comparable films like the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films (even the not very impressive third one). In the way that Harryhausen's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad felt like a gamechanger for this kind of period adventure film, Arabian Adventure feels like it's taking a step backwards as its scope and scale doesn't feel all that grander than the Thief of Bagdad from nearly 40 years prior. While some effects look decent enought (like Alquazar's storm spell) other parts look a lot more cheap such as a Genie effect that's just a clumsily implmented superimposition. Even if this movie had been released before special effects benchmarks like Star Wars and Superman it would've felt too old fashioned, but the fact the marketing actually namedropped those films in the trailer adds a layer of hubris that's hillarious in hindight.
Despite this movie being very easy to make fun of, there are admittedly some things I enjoy about it. Despite playing kind of a bland character, Oliver Tobias does do some pretty impressive physical work (such as the opening act escape/swordfights). Puneet Sira is also decent as Majeed the secondary protagonist and he's sort of to this movie what Abu was to The Thief of Bagdad. But the best performance is definitely Christopher Lee who per usual is a charasmatic presence and is having fun channeling Conrad Veidt as the film's villain Caliph Alquazar. The movie also has beautiful costuming and attractively dressed (if confining) sets. There are things that really don't work (such as the flying carpet effects, especially distance shots) but there is kind of a cheesey charm to be had from a movie like this.
Arabian Adventure is exactly as old fashioned and familiar as its generic title suggests. In an era that saw many game changing advancements in how these kinds of movies were made and structured, this is a movie that felt like a "man out of time" (though admittedly no more so than any of the other Connor/Dark films). If you have an affinity for these kinds of bygone costume adventure pictures there's some enjoyment to be had, just so long as you're aware some cobwebs have been dusted off.
Flightplan (2005)
Jodie Foster gives a solid performance in this heavy handed potboiler that starts out intriguing only to collapse completely by the third act
Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is an American engineer living in Berlin who is preparing to return to the States with her daughter Julia (Marlene Lawston) after her husband David (John Benjamin Hickey) fell to his death from their building. After going to sleep with her daughter shortly after takeoff, Kyle awakens to find Julia missing. After seeking help from the flight staff to no avail matters become further complicated when no one can recall even seeing Julia on the plane.
Flightplan is a 2005 thriller and one of two major plane based thrillers released that year (the other being Red Eye which preceded this film by a month). The script began development back in 1999 (originally centered on a father whose son goes missing in a conspiracy involving terrorism) with Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment acquiring the pitch. The project was re-written into more of a psychological thriller and also gender swapped as Grazer thought the role would be perfect for Jodie Foster. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews the film became a respectable success earning $220 million against a $55 million budget. While Flightplan offers an intriguing initial hook, the suspense deflates as it fails to iron out the kinks in its high concept premise.
Despite Flightplan's many issues, the acting is fine from all concerned. While Jodie Foster has played psychologically strained characters before, she's good playing someone desperately searching for her child even when those around her doubt she even exists. The movie also does a solid job of establishing the spatial geography of the plane and keeping it claustrophobic by confining the action exclusively to the plane (something I do kind of have to give the film over Red Eye as it could've benefitted from keeping the POV in the plane). Unfortunately, Flightplan is reliant on a variation of "the idiot plot" where instead of the plot requiring everyone to be an idiot, it requires everyone to be an unaware jerk. Once the poverbial "man behind the curtain" is revealed the amount of "stars/planets aligning" machinations that needed to take place are astounding to say the least, not to mention things the movie doesn't bother addressing like surveilance footage and gate agents that would be able to confirm these things. Even in a pre-9/11 thriller this would be hard to swallow, but in a post 9/11 thriller (which the film even tries to comment on) we're basically in fantasy land. The movie also dials up the smug abrasiveness of the supporting cast and while I understand their trying to set up a dynamic of "our hero against the world" you still need to create a believable situation where that would take place and I don't feel they do that.
Of the two plane thrillers released in 2005 Flightplan is definitely the lesser of the two. While Red Eye's logic wasn't exactly airtight either, it had more modest aspirations, a fast rollercoaster-esque pace, and even some moments of humor/levity. Flightplan on the other hand takes itself very seriously from its heavy handed sombre piano intro to the heavy handed saccharine direction with which the film is framed.
Red Eye (2005)
Craven directs two strong performers in a high concept thrill ride
Flying home to Miami after attending her grandmother's funeral, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) meets a handsome and charismatic stranger in Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). While their encounter starts out pleasant enough, things take a turn when Jackson drops his facade and reveals he targeted Lisa as a way of using her access as manager of the Lux Atlantic Hotel to help him in creating an opportunity to assassinate head of Homeland Security Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia) who will be a guest at the hotel. Now Lisa is faced with an impossible choice one that will mean Keefe's death if she complies and her father, Joe (Brian Cox), if she doesn't.
Red Eye is a 2005 thriller from director Wes Craven and the feature writing debut of TV writer Carl Ellsworth. One of two high profile plane based thrillers released in 2005 (the other being Flightplan), Red Eye was purchased by Dreamworks who equated the high concept premise to the 2002 sleeper hit Phone Booth and Wes Craven directed as it took a turn for more thriller based genre fare than horror as he was known for. Stars Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy were both very enthused for the role (with Murphy even showing up two days before his wedding to audition for the part) and with the two's natural chemistry the project came together quickly. Made on a modest budget of $26 million, Red Eye was a decent sized hit earning $96 million worldwide. Red Eye is simple and streamlined high concept filmmaking where surehanded direction and two charismatic leads make this a flight worth taking.
In terms of its premise, Red Eye mines it's (literal) high concept quite effectively as once we're on the plane we're given the idea that Lisa has no escape and Jack has planned for her contingencies and internal state. Murphy is deliciously despicable as the villain and he's perfectly cast as he's an attractive man and the opening 20 minutes show how charming he can be while also sowing seeds for the reveal of his despicable and manipulative nature that shows his more cold and calculating side. McAdams is no less good as our heroine who expresses emotional vulnerability while also possessing good situational awareness and ability to create a plan of action (even if those plans don't always work). I will say the movie does maybe stretch itself a bit farther than it should in the third act where it kind of devolves into a slasher setup, but with a brisk pace and tight direction it does what a movie like this should do and provides unassuming and quick escapism.
Red Eye sees director Wes Craven delivering tight direction with two capable leads in McAdams and Murphy who help to sell the high concept thrills on display. While as with many high concept vehicles there are leaps in logic (particularly in the third act) the movie is filled with enough humor and quick pacing to serve as an enjoyable diversion.
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
The third and final Harryhausen Sinbad isn't without charm, but suffers from a slow pace and a greatly miscast lead.
In the kingdom of Charak, the coronation of the Prince Kassim (Damien Thomas) is interrupted when a curse turns the prince into a baboon. Captain Sinbad (Patrick Wayne) arrives in Charak to visit Kassim as he's an old friend and ask for Princess Farah's (Jane Seymour) hand in marriage, only to be denied entry to the palace. Matters are further complicated when a mysterious assailant summons three ghouls to attack Sinbad and his crew and after surviving the ambush they meet with Princess Farah who thinks the curse on Kassim may be a spell by her stepmother Zenobia (Margaret Whiting) in order to secure the Caliph position for her son, Rafi (Kurt Christian), as Kassim's claim is void after seven days. With time running out the group set off to find the Greek magician Melanthius (Patrick Troughton) with Zenobia and Rafi in pursuit.
After the financial success of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Columbia was interested in a third Sinbad film with producer Charles H. Schneer and effects artist Ray Harryhausen returning. As with prior entries, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was mainly a standalone project with no real links of continuity and featured a different actor for Sinbad as well as the decision to use more realistic creatures in comparison to the mythical ones from the prior entries. Released in the wake of Star Wars, critical reception tended to skew more harsh with unfavorable comparisons being made with many feeling the film was old fashioned not helped by the woodeness of Patrick Wayne's performance. The movie isn't without its charms, but it's a decidedly lesser effort in Harryhausen's canon.
Storywise, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger follows a very similar structure to the prior entries complete with recurring elements like Sinbad's love interest, a sorcerer antagonist, and a plot that's built around encountering the next setpiece. Schneer had said he'd hired Sam Wanamaker to direct as he was an "actor's director" and get some dimension from the characters he'd considered "cardboard", but it's an experiment that mostly falls flat as being the lengthiest of the Sinbad films it also feels like the most plodding and ponderous with way more time than necessary committed to not very interesting filler material. Some of the sequences with Jane Seymour or Patrick Troughton interacting with Kassim's stop-motion Baboon form are well done, but more often than not it makes the film feel like it's spinning its wheels until the next setpiece. While the movie tries to shake things up by having the sorceror antagonist be Farah's stepmother and seeking the throne for her son, Margaret Whiting's Zenobia comes across as more pathetic than a legitimate threat and with her co-dependent relationship with her son Rafi it's like Sinbad is racing against Agnes and Seymour Skinner from the Simpsons. Last but not least is Patrick Wayne (John Wayne's son) as our lead and from the first moment he opens his mouth you know he'll be the weakest Sinbad this series has seen. Given the Wayne family history with exotic costume epics (such as when John Wayne played Genghis Khan in The Conqueror) you'd think there'd be the lesson learned that some are not made for films like that and while it's not The Conqueror levels of bad casting Wayne has the charisma of attractive cardboard and the emotional range of a robot.
In terms of Harryhausen's effects work it's competent enough but nothing really stands out with it. I think it was probably a mistake to go for more "grounded" creatures like a giant bee, a Walrus, a troglodyte, and a sabre tooth tiger and as a result it just robs a lot of the wonder from the series you saw in the prior two installments. Admittedly things seem like they might be somewhat interesting with Sinbad in a snowy environment, but because it's over an hour until we get there it's not exploited all that much nor is exploited particularly well. Some of the work involving the troglodyte and Kassim's baboon form interacting with the cast can be good and tries to break from the convention of having the creatures always be antagonists, but it feels like there's less life than the prior entries.
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger is definitely the weakest of the three Harryhausen Sinbad films but there are things to appreciate. Despite an overlong runtime, plodding character scenes, and a wooden performance by Patrick Wayne, some of the effects work can still impress like with Kassim and Trog even if the creature designs are decidedly less memorable and the villains are more silly than scary.
Rebel Ridge (2024)
Aaron Pierre gives an excellent performance in Jeremy Saulnier's brutal and gritty action thriller which takes what's essentially a neo-western imbued with timely themes
Set in the town of Shelby Springs, Louisiana, former Marine Terry Richmond has come to the town with his life savings to post bail money for his cousin only to be stopped by the police. In the course of the stop Terry is searched and while allowed to leave with a warning for traffic violation, has his funds seized under Civil Asset Forfeiture. Terry attempts to get back the money with the help of court clerk Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) and attempts to deal directly with the Chief Shelby Springs PD, Sandy Burne (Don Johnson) prove fruitless as Burne uses his influence to retaliate against Terry's cousin and friends. As Terry pushes further and further against the corrupt police department, he works with Summer and uncovers a conspiracy deeply rooted within the town.
Rebel Ridge is the latest film from writer director Jeremy Saulnier who in the past few years has made a name for himself with his gritty minimalist thrillers that often posses a guerilla style in the filmmaking as seen with genre favorites like Blue Ruin and Green Room. Rebel Ridge marks Saulnier's second time working with Netflix following his previous colab with the streamer in 2018's Hold the Dark. Rebel Ridge has had a hard road to completion as like many productions it was delayed considerably by the Covid-19 Pandemic and suffered a massive upset part of the way through production when original star John Boyega left the film. Aaron Pierre eventually replaced Boyega and filming continued where it experienced a lengthy post-production process. In spite of its long hard road to release, I'm pleased to say that the film is a very strong genre piece and well worth the effort and time it took to make it.
At its core, Rebel Ridge is essentially a revisit of the classic Western formula of a stranger rolling into town and then through happenstance ends up squaring off against the corrupt establishment. The film touches upon timely issues like police militarization and cronyism as well as the Constitutional circumvention of things like Civil Asset Forfeiture and when you see Terry lose the money he's scrimped and saved for all his life taken before he can blink, it really makes you sympathize with him. Aaron Pierre is really good as Terry Richmond and despite the film losing the star power that would've come from Boyega's name, I do think it ended up working in the film's favor given how perfect the casting feels. Pierre is effortlessly watchable as Terry and possesses the relaxed masculine charisma that you look for in capable leading men not only handling the film's gritty action beats, but also the film's dramatic moments. AnnaSophia Robb is quite good as Terry's ally who's very much someone caught in a bad situation and wants to help Terry without risking the life she's managed to rebuild after she had her own issues with the law that have continued to haunt her. And last but not least we have Don Johnson who makes a great antagonist as he runs the town of Shelby Springs like his own personal fiefdom and projects and air of arrogance and cruelty that makes him a solid "boo/hiss" character you can't wait to see taken down a peg.
Sauliner's direction and writing shows that he hasn't lost that frugal guerilla style appeal even with a larger budget and cast. While Rebel Ridge is an action thriller, the action feels very gritty and impactful with lots of impact and tension conveyed in their build up and eventional release. The movie also has several scenes where it plays more towards the investigative route with interrogations, break-ins, and sleuthing and Saulinier keeps the tension simmering throughout the film's two hour runtime.
Rebel Ridge is a solid action thriller and definitely a springboard for its star Aaron Pierre to bigger things. Saulnier takes traditional genre trappings and inhabits them with good performances, characters, and action beats and provides a tense and exciting ride to the ending credits.