fenrisfil, Author at Screen Wolf

Phantoms (1998)

Posted on October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 by fenrisfil

Today I finally look to answer the age old pop culture question: Was Ben Affleck the bomb in Phantoms? If you are scratching your head at this point you probably haven’t seen “Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back” or maybe just didn’t like it. Understandable but back in 2001, when Kevin Smith was still funny and in touch with pop culture I was watching and had never actually heard of the film Phantoms (Which only came out 3 years earlier). It’s been on my list ever since but only now, 21 years after that throw away line of dialogue that put the film on my radar have I finally gotten around to watching it. So is Affleck the bomb?

October Review Challenge – Day 24

First thing to mention here is that this is a Dean Koontz adaptation. Often I find Koontz doesn’t translate especially well to screen, however in this case Koontz himself wrote the screenplay (Something he never repeated). The movie is directed by Joe Chappelle whose previous two movies were Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers and Hellraiser IV: Bloodlines. Perhaps not the strongest of films to have on the CV but at least he was experience in the genre.

The movie stars Affleck, Joanna Going and Rose McGowan with support from Peter O’Toole and Liev Schreiber. The casting is perhaps a little confusing. O’Toole received top billing, but was in less than half the film, Affleck meanwhile is clearly the hero but doesn’t himself turn up for the first 20 minutes or so. The story mostly follows McGowan and Going though they are mostly just along for the ride. Schreiber meanwhile is effectively the human face of the antagonist.

Two Girls and One Cop

The story begins with sisters Jennifer (Going) and Lisa (McGowan) Pailey arriving at the small ski resort town of Snowfield, Colorado (Where Jennifer works as a doctor). They find the town appearing deserted but upon further examination they find a number of bodies killed in a variety of ways, all gruesome. At first Jennifer thinks it may have been a virus but as she finds more bodies, including decapitated heads they realise something more sinister is happening.

Into this arrives our hero, Sheriff Bryce Hammond (Affleck) along with his deputies (Including Schriber as Deputy Stu Wargle) who is investigating the killings. They arrive at a hotel where they find the words “Timothy Flyte” and “Ancient Enemy” written on a mirror. The deputies are killed off, one mysteriously and Wargle by a bat like creature. However Wargle appears shortly after to Lisa in the bathroom in a creepy scene and the grop find the body is missing. Hammond radios out for assistance.

The Witness

And this is where things start to come together. The government moves in and brings with it Dr. Timothy Flyte (O’Toole) to investigate. However they are quicly all taken out (other than Flyte and the original three survivors) with something taking over their body to communicate with them. The entity reveals itself as “The Ancient Enemy” (Theorised about in Dr. Flyte’s book) and that it deliberately brought him to it so he can “Bear witness”.

The creature seems to believe it is the devil but Dr. Flyte summises that the organism absorbs knowledge and intelligence from the life forms it feeds on and as it fed on more humans it became more intelligent but also absorbed their spiritual beliefs and beliefs on what the creature is. Thus it assumed the role of a demonic god like being. It then comes down to this remaining four to find a way to stop the monster.

The Thing From The Same World

So first thing’s first, “Thing” being the operative word. The creature here very strongly resembles the alien from John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from 1982 and while this story is source from Koontz novel, that only came out in 1983. The novel is clearly influenced by H.P. lovecraft, but it’s hard not to make some parallels at least in regards to how it is portrayed on screen with The Thing. In any case it’s impossible not to compare the films. In that regard… well I can’t help but feel Phantoms is far inferior. The monsters are far less creative and the effects less scary despite having 16 years more advancements in effects available to them. They even heavily feature a dog monster that simply can’t stand up to Carpenter’s version.

Comparison’s aside though, the effects aren’t bad and the scenes where they create freakish monstrosities are reasonably entertaining, though in this movie these effects are used sparingly. The odd thing is the use of the dead Deputy Wargle as a sort of wise cracking villainous face of the monster. He often seems to act independent of the larger monster and with a twisted sense of humour reflecting the man before he died. It seems odd that of all the things absorbed it is the only one (Well maybe the dog when it first appears) that seems to demonstrate individual characteristics. While there could be in universe explanations for this (and certainly budget ones), I can’t help but feel it doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. That said Schreiber is at least good at playing creepy characters.

Characters and Actors

As far as characters and performances go though, while this is a solid cast and they perform their part well, outside of Affleck’s Sheriff the characters themselves seem largely lacking. Affleck ultimately is the character with the story arc and that leads the battle against the enemies. Jennifer and Lisa mostly are just there and their story climaxes with a fight against the corrupted Deputy Wargle (Who seems isolated from the whole and acting independently), a character who was basically being creepy to the pair even before he died. It almost seems like they are in the wrong movie. It’s a shame because the actresses are talented.

O’Tooles Dr. Flyte though is totally wasted. He comes in very late on, comes up with the way to defeat the ancient enemy and then writes a book about it (Which of course no one believes). While his performance is as top notch as you’d expect from this exceptional actor, the character is largely there to move the plot on and little else. In my view, especially given he has top billing, it would have been nice to have his character involved at the very start. Perhaps this is a problem with having the author write the screenplay, they may be too precious about their work to make necessary changes for it to work on screen.

Conclusion

When all is said and done, the movie is actually entertaining. Unsurprisingly from Koontz the premise is a good one and the acting is solid. However, the pacing is a little iffy, most of the characters seem wasted, the ending comes a little too quickly and easily and ultimately the enemy is just a less cool version of John Carpenter’s The Thing. But is Ben Affleck the bomb? Well, he stands out largely only in comparison to other characters in the film, but yeah, I can agree with that. The film itself though just about makes a 6/10. Better than it’s IMDB score suggests, but perhaps not as good as you may hope from the names involved.

One final note. I think this is a film that has actually aged well. When it came out it was perhaps too similar to a lot of films that had come out in the 80’s and 90’s (The Thing, The Blob, Tremors, Screamers, Mimic, Event Horizon… the list is endless really). I suspect this is a good part of why the movie was originally panned, but now this kind of idea feels a bit more fresh and a change from all the uncanny valley based horror we have these days (Where things look mostly human but then move or do something that doesn’t fit with human, triggering discomfort in the viewer). That alone may make it worth revisiting or checking out for the first time.

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Posted on October 23, 2022October 23, 2022 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is the Roger Corman horror “The Haunted Palace”. Although considered part of the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations Corman did with Vincent Price in the 60’s (Starting with House of Usher in 1960), it is actually an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Corman wanted to do something different but the studio didn’t want to take the risk so they worked in Poe’s poem “The Haunted Palace” and presented it as another Poe adaptation. Retrospectively this is a shame as this is actually the very first adaptation of Lovecraft’s work and as far as I can tell the first appearance of the Necronomicon in a movie. The “Haunted Palace” in Poe’s poem was actually a metaphor for the human mind, but here it is implied to be about the mansion in which most of the action happens.

October Review Challenge – Day 23

The movie is set in the fictional village of Arkham (A regular Lovecraft setting, though not actually the setting in the source material). A dark shadow looms over the town thanks to a curse placed by the evil warlock Joseph Curwen (played by Vincent Price) upon his death at the hands of the villagers. It is believed the curse has caused many of the new born of the village to have horrendous mutations (often missing one or both eyes) and after 110 years these mutants are numerous. The remaining non-mutated ancestors of those that killed Curwen live in fear of the second part of Curwen’s curse which was his promise to return and take direct vengeance on those that burned him to death. Curwen’s old mansion looms over the town from a nearby cliff and has remained abandoned since his death.

Into this comes Curwen’s descendent, Charles Dexter Ward (Also played by Prie) and his wife Anne (Debra Paget in her final motion picture performance before retiring from the business). Ward is a decent man and not a superstitious one, but having just been notified of his inheritance (Curwen’s mansion on the cliff top) he has decided to visit his new property and assess what to do with it. Due to his striking resemblance to Curwen the villages are on the whole hostile to him and they all encourage him to depart and burn the deed to the mansion. Ward ignores them and travels to the mansion where he is greeted by a painting of his ancestor. The painting seems to have a hypnotic effect on the man.

Yog-Sothoth and the Necronomicon

Over time Curwen’s evil presence starts to take over control of Ward and while in control he continues his plans which revolve around two things, his revenge on the villages and his original goal which he was engaged in prior to be lynched over a hundred years ago which was to use the ancient evil book, The Necronomicon to summon the Elder God Yog-Sothoth and then breed captured women from the village with the creature with the goal of creating a race of super beings and unlocking the door to Yog-Sothoths realm. This it turns out is the reason for the deformities amongst some of villagers.

Curwen with the assistance of two other necromancers manages to bring his fiancée (Cathie Merchant) back from the dead, meanwhile Anne has sought help from the local doctor, Dr. Willet (Frank Maxwell) and the townsfolk after finding two of their own dead are ready to form a new lynch mob to take care of Curwen’s descendent. Curwen and his evil group capture Anne and plan to give her to the Elder Gods, but as the mob reach the mansion and set it on fire, they burn the painting of Curwen giving Ward a chance to take back control. But will it be enough? I’ll leave that part for you to find out should you chose to watch.

Assessment

The movie features a strong cast. Vincent Price gives the kind of powerful and creepy performance you expect from his horror appearances, but getting to play a villain and a victim he also gets an opportunity to show more vulnerability (something he was also very good at when needed). The rest of the cast includes a number of recognisable faces, probably most notable is Lon Chaney Jr (A horror legend himself as 1941’s “The Wolfman”), but I was also happy to see character actor and Horror and Film Noir regular Elisha Cook Jr. (“The Maltese Falcon”, “Rosemary’s Baby”). To be clear though Price is who people are tuning in for though and he doesn’t disappoint.

The plot is a little messy. It certainly has interesting elements but it feels a bit like it should have been a little more simplified or increased in length to properly explore the different elements. The Elder Gods and Necronomicon are somewhat wasted on a plot that didn’t really need them, though the deformed villagers certainly give the piece a bit of a Lovecraftian tone but they too are underused. Ultimately as tends to be the case with Corman’s horrors the source material is largely pushed to the side to allow for something that seems a little bit generic and it’s a shame when dealing with something so unique as the first Lovecraft adaptation. Slapping on the Poe poem doesn’t add anything of worth, this is a Corman film first, a Lovecraft film second and Poe Film a very distant third.

Conclusion

The movie is above average for a horror, but far from exceptional and this isn’t a surprise as that was pretty much Corman’s thing. Regularly producing decent horror films on a low budget. Not many of them could be considered classics, but many managed a good enough standard to entertain the audience in the day and to entertain me decades later. This one was weak in some places almost descending into self parody but strong in others, especially in Price’s performance. Overall it made for an entertaining experience and I do recommend checking the movie out. I’m going to give this a firm 6/10.

The Black Cat (1934)

Posted on October 22, 2022October 22, 2022 by fenrisfil

For tonight’s horror I’m going back to the golden age of Universal’s dominance of the Horror genre and visiting the very first collaboration between the two biggest legends of that era – Bella Lugosi and Boris Karloff. This is “The Black Cat” from 1934. Universal’s highest selling movie of that year, a movie that lay the foundation for the Psychological Horror sub-genre, a pre-code movie (meaning it could be edgier than those that would follow for the next few decades) and last but not least was one of the earliest movies to feature a continuous musical score (present for about 80% of the movie). Question is though does this 88 year old movie still stand up?

October Review Challenge – Day 22

Our story starts with Newlyweds Peter and Joan Allison (David Manners and Julie Bishop respectively) on their honeymoon in Hungary where they meet Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi), a Hungarian psychiatrist that is returning after being in a prison camp in Serbia for 15 years after WW1. After the bus they are on crashes, Peter and Dr. Werdegast take her to the home of Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff) an Austrain architect. The home is built on the ruins of an old fort, which Poelzig used to be the commander of. Werdegast explains Poelzig is an old friend, though in truth they are bitter rivals with Werdegast believing Poelzig betrayed him and his men to the Russians during the war resulting in the death of thousands.

Once inside things start out friendly enough but soon become sinister. Werdegast believes Poelzig stole his wife from him, and later after he is shown her preserved body that he has killed her. This may be true as it seems Poelzig has a collection of dead women on display in glass cases. Also in the mansion, but unknown the guests is also Werdegast’s daughter. Poelzig has married her and told her that her father died in the war.

Eventually it becomes clear that Poelzig wants to sacrifice Joan in a Satanic ritual, but Werdegast is determined to stop him and take down his rival once and for good. Initially he plays Chess for the freedom of the newlyweds, but loses to Poelzig who then prevents the newlyweds from leaving, imprisons Peter and prepares Joan for her sacrifice. It is a conflict that would see few survivors of that fateful night. But you’ll have to watch this classic to learn any more.

Bitter Rivals

Karloff and Lugosi are better actors than they are usually given credit for and they both put in a good performance here. Interestingly playing bitter rivals on screen may have been the start of their real life rivalry. Despite working together eight times, Karloff usually got top billing and that never sat well with Lugosi. It’s possible their rivalry started during filming this movie, after all the top two horror stars of the day playing bitter rivals on screen, hard not to imagine them wanting to outperform each other and of course since they are playing bitter rivals that comes through on screen and makes for a definite highlight for the film.

The rest of the cast is just sort of there but when you’re on screen with two icons it’s hard not to get lost in the shuffle. None of them were bad though. Being a 30’s movie there is little in the way of effects and the horror is all implied, though those implications can at times be pretty grewsome, including someone being skinned alive (Just not on camera, though you see some shadows). As a psychological horror it doesn’t have to rely on monsters or direct conflict, a lot of it is about the build and it handles this pretty pretty well.

Sound and Fury

In regards to the musical score, this is something that while fairly ground breaking, hasn’t actually aged that well. The movie features a mixture of compositions by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Chopin instead of original material and as a result lacks the same sort of impact as scores would later give to horror movies and also makes the soundtrack somewhat interchangeable with a lot of other films of the 1930’s. Of course as you’d expect from those three composers the music itself is of a very high standard but it tends to be a bit too overbearing and draws too much attention to itself.

That said it’s hard to judge how this was received at the time. Audiences used to silent movies were used to hearing continuous music, but earlier horrors of the 30’s such as Dracula and Frankenstein would have felt strangely silent, with an opening and closing theme but little else in between. Of course the same year as The Black Cat came out King Kong changed the game for film scores forever by featuring an entirely original score, so this was a product of a short transitional period for movie soundtracks.

The Black Cat

The title “The Black Cat” only really factors into the story a couple of times. It seems Werdegast has an extreme fear of black cats. So naturally his rival keeps a few of them around. The Black Cat is also pointed out to be symbolic of evil in the film and of course Poelzig is Satanist. But really the title of the film was just an excuse to link the story to Edgar Allan Poe’s story by the same name, to which it bares no resemblance at all.

One of the most interesting things I find with this film is that were it to be made in the 2020’s it would probably be 3 hours long, yet they told this story in one hour and five minutes. It’s not like the plot is overly simple either. True some characters could have been given more time, but the story is all there and the truth is the audience even in the day probably only cared about Karloff and Lugosi anyway. So if the daughter seems somewhat wasted and the husband and wife couple of little consequence, it’s not the biggest blow to the movie.

Conclusion

Anyway, all told there is a reason this is a classic. Rating it from the point of view of how it stands today however instead of how it must have felt when it came out I give this a strong 6.5/10 (Meaning I’ll likely make that 7/10 for my IMDB rating since I can’t do half points there). If I was reviewing this in 1934 though it would probably get an 8/10. So, it’s lost some points after 88 years but a 6.5/10 is still a strong score from me. Once again I am reminded why Universal’s Horror movies of this era are so well regarded.

Count Dracula (1970)

Posted on October 21, 2022October 21, 2022 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is Jesús Franco’s take on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” from 1970. This is reputed to be the truest adaptation to the novel and a version of the story I’ve never seen before. It is also in the unique position of being Christopher Lee’s single non-comedic appearance as Dracula outside of the many Hammer films. Indeed it was actually made in a year when he appeared twice for Hammer in the role and had a cameo as the character in a Spike Lee comedy. For someone concerned with being typecast it seems like probably a bad move. Lee’s interest in this particular movie though stems from one of his long standing issues with his Hammer appearances: He always wanted to play the character more like he was in the novel. So now he had his chance.

October Review Challenge – Day 21

The story starts with lawyer Jonathan Harker (played by Frederick Williams), travelling to Transylvania to secure property for Count Dracula. If you are reading this you probably know how this goes by now so I’ll keep it brief. Dracula is of course going to feed on him after doing the necessary paperwork for his new property in England. After the first feeding though Harker manages to escape and finds himself back in England (Apparently someone found his unconscious body in Transylvania and transported him asleep back to the UK. Handy).

Back in the UK, Harker finds himself at a psychiatric clinic owned by Dr. Van Helsing. Naturally no one believes him about Dracula, until Van Helsing spots the bite marks on his neck. Harker’s fiancée Mina and her friend Lucy arrive to take care of Harker, but unbeknownst to them Dracula has followed and begins to prey on the women. Lucy dies and returns as a vampire herself, at which point Van Helsing and company set out to rid themselves of Dracula and his cohorts. This eventually leads back to Transylvania where the Count is attempting to return.

Production Quality

Despite the expanded role for Lee (Who never talked much in the Hammer series) and the accuracy to the source the movie clearly lacks in a lot of the production values Hammer brought to the table. The sound designed is grating to say the least and a number of times the effects reminded me of those used in Bela Lugosi’s time (40 years earlier). On top of this a lot of the camera work is downright shoddy. I know this is low budget, but I wasn’t expecting it to look that low budget. While the music obviously couldn’t utilise Hammer’s themes for the character, what it does present doesn’t seem to quite fit.

The plot meanwhile, while relatively true to the source really seems to drag, despite the relatively short run time for the film. The conclusion of the film feels anti-climactic and I can’t help but find myself missing the more action orientated endings of the Hammer films. Those always seemed to deliver a dramatic finale, but here it’s a bit of a matter-of-fact ending; It just sort of happens.

Characters and Performances

Christopher Lee does an decent job, but by his standards it is below average and the truth is while he may talk more than in the Hammer films he still doesn’t get a lot of screen time. Like in the novel Dracula initially appears as an old man but gets younger every time he feeds, this doesn’t really factor in to much in the plot outside from a casual reference later on.

Klaus Kinski puts in a very good performance as the bug eating Renfield, though the characters role in the film is relatively short. Herbert Lom performs his part as Van Helsing with authority but the character itself seems largely wasted in this version, having a stroke about 2/3rds of the way through and then being relegated away from the action. In the novel while he doesn’t kill Dracula himself, he is still involved in the action, disposing of his minions. The rest of the cast are pretty average.

Conclusion

Overall, while a bit of a curiosity and perhaps of mild interest to fans of Christopher Lee or Bram Stoker’s novel, it is ultimately a poor vampire horror that compares badly to the original Hammer Dracula with Lee. The opening scenes with Harker at Castle Dracula are good, but it’s all downhill after that. This is a 4/10.

https://youtu.be/jsxst69muTY

Crimes of the Future (2022)

Posted on October 20, 2022October 21, 2022 by fenrisfil

The movie of the night is David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future”. Naturally being Cronenberg it’s a weird body horror movie. This is based on a story Cronenberg was working on 20 years earlier, but never got around to making. The movie also shares a name with another Cronenberg film from 1970 having no direct relation to it (Though I suppose they could be considered part of an anthology series, just an odd one with a 52year gap between entries). Since this was Cronenberg’s second feature length movie maybe it’s intended as a return to his roots or maybe he just liked the title. Anyway the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux with support including Kirsten Stuart.

October Review Challenge – Day 20

The film opens with a young child eating a plastic bin and then being murdered by his mother. Yes, it’s that weird. None of this gets an explanation until later in the movie, instead the scene switches to our protagonist Saul Tenser and his partner Caprice who are a world-renowned performance artist couple. Saul has a condition that causes him to rapidly grow new organs in his body, organs whose function is unclear. Instead of letting them grow he makes their removal part of his performance art but the changes are also causing him to have issues sleeping and eating.

At this point it is important to know a few things about this world. This is set some undefined period of time in the future. Humanity has started to develop strange mutations, which has lead to most people no longer having a sense of pain and being immune to disease and infection. This has lead to surgery going from a dangerous, uncomfortable procedure requiring aesthetic to something you can basically perform on yourself. Indeed it’s become a sexual kink and this is where the performance aspect comes in.

Preserving Humanity.

It also triggered a reaction from the worlds governments (or at least this undefined countries government) to protect the status of humanity and as such it seems it is a crime to deliberately modify your own biology and all new organs must be catalogued and tattooed. Into this we find an underground faction that consider it a mistake to turn against evolution to preserve a fixed idea of what it is to be human.

Saul and Caprice come into it when the father of the child from the start of the film asks them to use the modified autopsy machine which they use for their performance to do an actual autopsy on his son as part of their performance. The father wants to expose how his son was born with these modified organs to prove the future of humanity is embracing the change. The performance and it’s aftermath form the conclusion of the film, so I’ll leave that there.

But What Does It All Mean?

Unsurprisingly the movie is weird, gross and yet sexual since this is Cronenberg’s MO. There seems to be quite dense subtext here and the movie asks questions about what is art, what is beauty and what does it mean to be human? Alongside that there is hints at an environmentalist message, an examination of how far a jaded species will go to find their next high and a look at how we influence the next generation even outside passing on our genes (Manifested by the child inheriting the body modifications of the parent).

The trouble I feel though is none of these questions are that distinct and the answer not that clear. Indeed I’m not totally sure some of them are even meant to be questions. I do feel accepting inevitable change, including at a biological level is key part of this story as this feeds to the movies conclusion, which is based on a revelation that the viewer will have figured out already. I don’t however think it was meant to be a twist though and rather just to show the protagonist finally embracing inevitable change.

Conclusion.

My biggest issue with the movie is it just isn’t very entertaining. There is nothing really to the movie other than the dense layers of subtext. By Cronenberg standards the body horror is mild, the characters are uninteresting the plot sort of goes nowhere. This is all art and message with no entertainment and I’ve never been a fan of movies like that. As a Cronenberg film this is a long way down in the ranking and pales when placed next to a masterpiece like Videodrome. As a movie in general I don’t think many people will find anything here worth turning up for. That said, it’s not a terrible movie so I think a 4.5/10 is a fair verdict.

Seoul Station (2016)

Posted on October 19, 2022October 19, 2022 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s horror film is Korean animated zombie feature “Seoul Station” from 2016. This is the animated prequel to incredibly good zombie film “Train to Busan” that was released earlier in 2016 and along with it’s sequel “Peninsula” from 2020 forms a sort of trilogy. It’s worth noting, much like George Romero’s Night/Dawn/Day trilogy, though based around the same zombie apocalypse, none of the films have any direct ties to each other. None of the characters carry through and each film works perfectly as a stand alone movie. This series all comes from the creative mind of Sang-ho Yeon, who is also the man behind the Netflix series Hellbound (Which is also worth checking out). This is a director/writer to watch out for in years to come.

October Review Challenge – Day 19

Because this is animated and in Korean I can’t make any useful comment on the actors involved, but should you be familiar with Korean voice actors the key voices are provided by: Shim Eun-kyung, Seung-ryong Ryu, Joon Lee and Jang Hyuk-jin. The key character though is Hye-Sun, a young girl that ran away from home and ended up as a prostitute, having run away from that life too she is now on the verge of homelessness only able to stay away from it by hooking up with an abusive boyfriend Ki-woong, a lowlife that refuses to work and wants Hye-Sun to act as a prostitute again, though with the goal of robbing people instead of sleeping with them (Or so he claims).

While we are getting to know Hye-Sun’s story another one is unfolding involving the homeless people squatting in Seoul Station. A homeless man is found by another badly wounded, looking like he has been bitten by someone. His friend who noticed the man bleeding attempts to get help for him, but he is frustrated at every turn being rejected by authorities and pushed around by other homeless people. Eventually he manages to get some pain killers and an energy drink which he takes to his friend, only to find the man dead. When he reports this to the authorities they investigate, but finding the body gone they assume it is crazy homeless people being crazy homeless people. Eventually the homeless man finds his friend apparently alive, but he is then attacked by him.

Zombie Uprising

These events seem to be happening all over and because of their vulnerability and how their actions are ignored by the authorities the zombie plague spreads quickly amongst the homeless. Hye-Sun ends up caught up in it and in fleeing from zombies she finds herself in the police station. The cops though assume the problem is the homeless have all gone crazy and report the situation as such. Meanwhile Ki-woon is confronted by Suk-gyu, who says he is Hye-Sun’s father and demands to know where she is. They too end up caught up in the outbreak and find themselves driving around the city searching for her.

Eventually Suk-gyu finds herself in a barricaded section of the city where many of the survivors, but those survivors are trapped between the zombies and riot police that have mistaken the outbreak for an insurrection. From here I’m keeping quite since talking about the ending in any capacity would really be a spoiler at this stage. So you’ll have to watch to find out what happens.

View From The Bottom

The characters are perhaps a weakness as none of them are especially likeable. You certainly feel sympathy towards Hye-Sun and towards the homeless people, but that is about it. Hye Sun largely just follows other people and often gets them killed when they try to help her. Indeed there would be several more survivors from that night had she simply died the first time a zombie charged for her. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad character and it is likely intentional but I do like to have at least one character I want to survive when watching this kind of film, just to get me more invested in their fate.

The main purpose of this movie though is to look at how a zombie outbreak would impact the bottom end of the societal hierarchy and through that investigate the plight of the homeless and near-homeless in a city where they are basically treated like they are already the living dead. At one point when Hye Sun is travelling with an older homeless man through the underground subway tunnels she breaks down crying and saying she wants to go home (To her father, that she ran away from). The old man too breaks down saying he too wants to go home, but he doesn’t have one and the pair spend a time crying together. It places a contrast where we feel sympathy for both but we also realise the higher level of despair for the old man that has nowhere to even dream of returning to.

How Does It Fare As A Zombie Film?

I’ve always said zombie films need social commentary and this is one that doubles down on that area, but does it well and with it’s choice of social commentary it finds a neat way to give us tragedy too, another key element of these films. The only area in lacks somewhat is the absurdity, but it isn’t totally absent. At one point Suk-gyu and the old man she is travelling with are desperately trying to lift a gate to a subway tunnel to escape an approaching zombie, only to find as the monster draws near it wasn’t a zombie at all but a crazy homeless woman. That scene does a great job of adding humour, but also tragedy and social commentary all at once. That’s the only lighter moment of the movie I can recall however.

The weakest part of this zombie film is the zombies themselves and that is probably down to it being animation. While the animation makes the zombies significantly less scary (and less gory), the format is not really taken advantage of to show us anything that they couldn’t have done in live action. So it seems a waste to me. Maybe it is just down to personal preference, but for me the story is good enough to warrant making it in live action. It is a classic zombie story with an ending worthy of George Romero. However, when I compare this to Train to Busan it becomes clear just how much is lost by doing it in animation.

Conclusion

Overall this is not the classic that Train to Busan was, nor is it quite as good as Peninsula though that is a better comparison. It suffers as a zombie film from being animated and it lacks a bit character wise. However it score a lot of points for story and the clever social commentary. This is a very strong 6.5/10. I may even end up revising it up a notch before the end of October. Had this been done in live action though I think it could have been a 7 or 7.5.

The Hidden (1987)

Posted on October 18, 2022October 18, 2022 by fenrisfil

I’m back to the 80’s horror now and with body snatching space slug film “The Hidden” from 1987. Staring Kyle MacLachlan looking pretty much exactly as he did in Twin Peaks a few years later and acting a bit like he did in the series relaunch more recently. He plays FBI Agent “Lloyd Gallagher” who teams up with cop “Tom Beck”, played by Michael Nouri. The film is also the feature debut of Claudia Christian (Ivanova from Babylon 5). The film is directed by Jack Shoulder (Alone in the Dark, Nightmare on Elm Street 2) and written by Jim Kouf (Stakeout, National Treasure, Rush Hour).

THE HIDDEN, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Nouri, 1987

October Review Challenge – Day 18

The film kicks off right away with a violent bank robbery and a car chase, with the robber having a whale of a time blasting out rock music while driving recklessly to evade the cops. Eventually he gets gunned down, but is taken to hospital and put in intensive care. At this point FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher turns up at police headquarters looking for the same suspect. However on discovering the suspect dead at the hospital his hunt turns to another patient that had contact with him. Both suspects are unusual because they showed no sign of criminal activity or malicious acts in the past and just seem to have flipped and gone on a rampage. Both sharing a love for sports cars and rock music.

Of course since this is a science fiction horror there is more to it and as I opened up by calling it a “Body snatching space slug film” you can probably guess where this is going. The real antagonist is said space slug and it transfers itself between victims and then uses them to go on it’s sociopathic crime sprees. After wearing out the bodies of the first two it takes control of a stripper, Brenda (Christian) leading to a tense chase with Gallagher and Beck. Gallagher though has a secret of his own and a personal vendetta with the alien. Things become more difficult for our heroes as their target starts to get more ambitious with it’s choice of bodies, leading to a dramatic final showdown.

A Source of Inspiration?

This is an interesting film and a pretty original take on the body snatcher idea. It reminds me a lot of the film “Fallen” (1998) with Denzel Washington, and I can’t help but wonder if they took some influence from The Hidden when writing that. Fallen is the better film, at least as a horror and did a lot more with the idea, but that’s not to say The Hidden is bad. The movie is pretty light in the horror and science fiction aspects and is really an action movie with a horror/sci-fi premise and in that regard it is pretty satisfying. There are a lot of shoot outs and the body thief can take a lot of punishment before at has to flee a body making it a little bit like a Terminator film.

Kyle MacLachlan playing a weird FBI agent before he starred in Twin Peaks is interesting too. There is almost no way this film didn’t play into his casting and long before his “Dougie Jones” days (In the recent Twin Peaks continuation) he showed his talent for playing “not quite there” characters. Thes rest of the cast do an adequate job and I always enjoy seeing Claudia Christian (As well as playing a fan favourite on Babylon 5, she just seems like a cool person. One of the few celebrities I never regretted following on social media).

Assessment

The action scenes are pretty solid and the plot pushes along at a good pace so you are never bored watching. The plot tries to keep itself simple and a lot of that requires suspension of disbelief and not thinking too hard about what the reaction from most people would be to these events (Like when people they’ve known for years suddenly turn into unstoppable killing machines and go on murder sprees for no apparent reason). There are definitely some holes there, but the fast pace stops you dwelling too long on them.

Overall this is a pretty good movie, but it trades exploration of the premise for quick action and by the standard of 80’s action movies it is not especially notable. As a body thief horror though it comes up very short against the similar Fallen (or the first two Body Snatchers films), so it isn’t in the upper reaches of good, but it is well worth checking out some time. This is a strong 6/10.

Gabriel (2007)

Posted on October 17, 2022October 17, 2022 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is another low budget Australian film, but this time from 2007. This is directed by Shane Abbess and I’ve seen his movies before so know exactly what to expect. A good idea, good world building, but not much else. For the record “Infini” is probably his best work, but it’s only average. Why do I keep watching his films you may ask? Well, I do really appreciate someone coming up with good ideas, even if they tend to fail in the execution (and let’s be honest, a good part of that is done to budget limitations). I can’t help but feel Abbess is going to pull something great out one day and I want to see it when he does. Anyway, this is a movie about Angels fighting Demons in purgatory and stars Andy Whitfield (a.k.a. Spartacus from the TV series) in the title role.

October Review Challenge – Day 17

Our film begins with a brief explanation of the world in which it is set. This is purgatory, a giant city that is inhabited by the souls of those deemed not evil enough for hell or righteous enough for heaven. Here the inhabitants remain until they earn the chance to move up or down. Unlike on Earth though the forces of good and evil take a direct approach to their recruitment. Seven Angels and seven Fallen Angels fight for control of the city and to lead it’s inhabitants one way or the other. It seems these entities join the fight one at a time and apparently not synchronised. Basically this is WCW War Games but with Angels and Demons. Just like War Games, it seems the “heels” enter first so always get the numerical advantage with the final “face” being the hero that has to clean house.

Gabriel is that hero and our story follows him. The demons (Well fallen angels, but I’m just going to call them demons) have the upper hand and all the Angels have gone into hiding and are generally washed up and run down. Gabriel sets out to find them so that together they can restore the balance, not an easy task as most of them have given up. The strongest previous Angel, Michael has gone completely missing, presumed killed by Samuel, the head Demon. Getting this group together those seems to be exactly what Samuel wants as only when they use their powers can the demons sense where they are and move in for the kill.

City of Angels, City of Devils.

This is a movie with some good ideas and a mind towards style, but a lot of it doesn’t work. The Angels fight using guns, which is a little goofy and seems entirely a style choice. The purgatory city is interesting but the humans don’t have a whole lot of an involvement in the plot, so it’s basically Team X Vs Team Y in a setting that is basically “Dark City” and trying to do it with a bit of Matrix flair. This is definitely a movie that wants to be in the 90’s. I can respect that though, 90’s gothic was cool.

The acting here is not great, with the exception of Andy Whitfield who largely has to hold the film up by himself. Andy made a name for himself after this in the TV series Spartacus but sadly his life and career was cut short by cancer so we’ll never know how far his career could have gone. The rest of the cast is filled with various “Home and Away” Alumni that weren’t quite able to break Hollywood. This lot have varying degrees of talent but some of them, especially most of the villains were just awful.

Lacking Soul.

While the concepts and world building is pretty reasonable, the actual plot and the characters leave a lot to be desired. There really isn’t much to the story and the characters don’t really get to show their depth. All the Angels aside from Gabriel are worn down and depressed, while all the demons are basically psychopaths other than their leader. Gabriel himself despite having a good actor, is not exactly complex. The only character with complexity is “Sammael” (played just about passably by Dwaine Stevenson) but his complexity is built into the fact he is part of a painfully obvious twist.

The plot itself is really an exercise in time wasting. We all know Gabriel will end up fighting Sammael, but first he must get his team together and act that turns out completely pointless because in the end he has to kill all the villains himself anyway. It is a plot that probably would be fine stretched out in a TV series or compacted down in a shorter movie, but this was the wrong length for that plot. The music and the effects meanwhile both scream “low budget”, but are actually both okay. None of it took me out of the moment and for a $200k (Australian dollars) movie from the late 2000’s it’s not bad really.

Conclusion

After my Halloween Ends review I actually don’t mind watching a regular old bad movie. At least the people behind this had their own ideas and had them stand on their own feet. Admittedly they then fell over a little drunk, but I still respect the intention. The world building here is actually pretty good and the basic concept is one I approve of. It’s only really the execution that lets it down. I’m going to be generous and give it a 4.5/10 for the concept (goofy as it is), setting and a few nice visuals. Like all of Shane Abbess’ movies it’s painfully close to good, but not quite there.

Halloween Ends (2022)

Posted on October 16, 2022December 23, 2022 by fenrisfil

This AI generated poster was meant to mock the film but it actually looks pretty good.

Tonight I subjected myself to the recently released “Halloween Ends”…. It was not good. For the record I did not like the first of this “requal” trilogy, I hated the second and so I was never expecting to like this one. Also the word has been it’s not good. Some people even calling it the “Rise of Skywalker” of the series. Which is interesting when you think about it, Rise of Skywalker was a desperate course correction caused by going into a trilogy with no firm plan and giving the second movie to someone different to the first who then went about doing his own thing and ignoring continuity. Then a lead actor died, the director left and JJ Abrams took a pay cheque just to get something out. This movie however is part of a trilogy all entirely by one man: David Gordon Green. All three films were announced at once with the idea that it was all supposedly to a master plan.

Halloween Review Challenge – Day 16

The film sees the return of Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak (As her granddaughter “Allison”), but the real star is Rohan Campbell as new character “Correy”. It was directed and co-written (presumably in crayon) by David Gordon Green. I’m not going to worry about spoilers here because frankly this film doesn’t deserve to remain unspoiled. That said I’m also not going to dig too much into the plot because it’s not worth it either and I suspect this will be close to 2000 words even without that.

The story follows Correy. A guy that a few years ago was involved in an accident where a kid died and who since then has been vilified by the community. On top of this a group of local knuckleheads regularly bully him and beat him up. Despite this he has been developing a relationship with Allison. After they throw him off a bridge and leave him for dead he stumbles into a cave where he finds Michael Myers… for some reason. Why Michael has been in low battery mode in a cave I don’t know. He takes the entire film to shake it off enough to do… anything and even then is a shadow of his former self. Not a great last stand for The Shape.

Protagonist and Antagonist, though not sure which is which.

Bait, Meet Switch / Why is Everything a Mantle Now?

Anyway after the meeting Correy seems to take a part of Michaels evil and goes on a killing spree. That’s right, this is almost a Friday the 13th Part V job, but Michael does get a couple of kills in on the way to the finale. Where as almost the entire point of Michael is he doesn’t have a personal vendetta, he just kills, Correy is specifically seeking out all his enemies to take down and killing them in very personal ways. Instead of the dark curiosity of Michael, there is a very personal hatred and determination to kill in ironic fashions (A bit like Jason Voorheese does sometimes).

Naturally being virtually superhuman now herself for no reason Laurie Strode senses the evil in him and gets in between him and her daughter. This leads to a big confrontation and after 63 year old Laurie deals with Corrie, Michael shows up and… get’s his ass handed to him and thrown into a scrap crusher. Because this has to have a big final, totally ended for sure this time, no escape, it’s really the end, finished, concluded, done, ending…. until the next movie (Which they even admitted was inevitable, though I suppose they may feel they can do Halloween with a new character, they are of course wrong).

I’m done with screencaps, have some storyboard… I mean AI art.

Not A Halloween Film.

First up, this is not a Halloween film. Most of the plot follows this new character, introduced in this movie and it is really his story. The film seems to want to do some kind of torch passing and that may be the dumbest idea they’ve ever had in one of these movies. At this stage Michael Myers is Halloween, you can’t replace Michael. The Halloween films tried to move away from him with the third movie and people rejected it. But that was a genuine attempt at a different kind of horror. Replacing him with another person that does the same job but isn’t Michael will go down like a lead balloon. About as well as replacing Skynet with another AI that does the exact same thing as Skynet (Why do they repeat the worst ideas).

The funny thing is Friday the 13th learned they can’t replace Jason way back when they tried it for part five. Now if you suggest to them replacing Jason the rights owners would probably laugh in your face and the thing is Jason wasn’t even the original killer and wasn’t supernatural until the sixth movie. When they raised him from the dead they realised the franchise would always be about Jason. Michael was created to be a supernatural killer. There was never any reason to retire Michael. He is the bogeyman. Why is it the people making Halloween films have forgotten this?

When a film is so bad you create child drawing AI art instead of find screenshots.

Just Pick One And Stick With It!

The movie seems incapable of deciding if Michael is supernatural or a mere human. If he is a supernatural monster it is frankly impossible to believe a 63 year old Jamie Lee Curtis can get the better of him in a fight. If he’s a human though, given he was older than Laurie Strode, sure I can buy it. But then it never made any sense for him to be human. This was one of my two big problems with the first of this trilogy (the other I’ll get on to later). Rob Zombies first movie actually did a good job of a human version of Michael, at least in the screener version, where he died in the end. That was something you can do in a reboot, because you want a fresh take. You shouldn’t do it in a movie that pretends to be a sequel.

But here’s the thing, by the time the second movie of this trilogy has concluded they determine Michael isn’t just human. It took Laurie Strode two whole movies to reach the conclusion Sam Loomis did 30 seconds into Halloween II. He’s something else, not human and you can’t just stop him with a physical struggle. But then in the third film he seems tired and worn out and loses a melee fight to a 63 year old woman. It is horrendously inconsistent. But then everything in this trilogy is inconsistent.

Halloween 4. Jamie Lloyd following in her uncles footsteps in 34 years earlier. Jamie was retconned from existence.

Retconning Just To Repeat.

If there always been a plan to do a trilogy it would make sense to actually have them flow into each other. Halloween Kills at least follow on the same night as the first movie though they feel thematically unrelated with a bunch of new characters introduced in the second. It felt more like Halloween 2 did in relation to the original, that is: unplanned. Halloween Ends though feels like a random sequel where some rogue director has tried to do something new, in this case giving Michael a protegee. Not a good idea, but in a random sequel it wouldn’t be surprising. This however is meant to be the end of a trilogy and even though everyone has admitted the series will still continue one day, the “final” end of Michael Myers. Weird to waste most of the film on a new character.

It occurs to me though, if Halloween Kills is a bad version of Halloween 2, then this is a bad version of Halloween 4 and H20 merged into one. Only instead of Michaels niece being driven by mysterious forces to follow in Michaels footsteps at the end of the movie, some random kid that is bullied and vilified gets randomly taken under Michaels wing because he feels the hate or something like that because Michael is apparently a Sith Lord now. In Halloween 4 what happened with Jamie mirrored what happened with Michael and it had a purpose through their shared bloodline. In this movie though, the character couldn’t be more different to Michael and it seems to miss the point of Michael that they want to give the guy a reason to be evil. Meanwhile the H20 element comes in the form of once again repeating Laurie Strodes vengeance and trying to be the “final”, “definitive” ending for Michael.

John Carpenter kicking the grooves between games of Fallout 76.

The Shortest Section – What Did I like?

The music was good. John Carpenter not only picked up a pay cheque to say the film is good, but also came back to do the soundtrack again. The sad thing is I won’t even buy this soundtrack as I don’t want to be reminded of the movie. To be fair to John he maybe isn’t shilling and does legitimately like these movies, his taste is questionable these days, I mean he called “Fallout 76” a great game…. I dunno. He’s still my favourite director so I won’t bad mouth him any more than that. Sorry John.

Much like the previous films I also like some of the kills, though this time around none of them were Michaels and they were all much more personal so it feels a bit of a cheat, but from a stand alone perspective they were fine. Had this not been a Halloween film perhaps I would praise it.

Sam Loomis, Michael Myers actual nemesis.

Understand Your Own Franchise People!

Honestly I’m tired of people taking over franchises that don’t understand the franchise. This whole thing has been an exercise in hubris. Coming out and retconning Halloween 2 and H20 and continuing the retcon of Halloween 4-6 is a bold movie that says “What we are doing is better than what came before”. But then they went out and basically just made worse versions of those films. Their first movie tried to impersonate the original Halloween, while throwing in the ending of the freshly retconned Halloween 2. Then the second film duplicated the “same night” killing spree of Halloween 2, with the conclusion basically being Laurie coming to the same realisation Loomis did at the start of that movie. Then we have the final part where they merge Halloween 4 and H20 into one horrible mess.

What is the point except as a cash in? There was no creative reason to do all this, it was not for the fans and it muddies up the continuity and makes it even more ridiculous next time Michael returns. This was entirely done as a cash in and as a vanity project for Gordon Green, who must be recognised now as an absolute hack of a director. Like Rian Johnson before him and many others, he wanted to make his own film, not a franchise film he just used the franchise as a shortcut to do it. There was no respect there just a few token Easter eggs and references, which is the usual shallow way these directors pretend to care about the franchise.

Chose Your Own Misadventure.

The Halloween franchise is a total mess now. Three branching continuities and each new one worse than the last. Halloween 4 is a better Halloween than H20, but H20 is better than Halloween Kills. Halloween 2 is far better than the frustrating named Halloween (2018). Then you get to the clangers and while it’s a tough call I’m going to have to say Resurrection is better than Halloween Ends. Halloween 5 is better than both. At least Resurrection was focused on Myers.

Ultimately the best run of Halloween films, if you are going all the way is the original one. 1-6 and yet the rights holders have gone back and rebooted twice and green lit a Rob Zombie remake (and sequel). It feels like such a waste and only something that damages the franchise long term and that more than anything is I think the greatest loss here. Hopefully Hollywood will get over this “Requel” concept and stop doing it.

Well, being a ghost never stopped him before….

Final Thoughts and Rating

It’s okay to drop a clanger in a horror series. At least it is as long as you don’t do anything that stops you making another sequel and do actively try and undo other films in the franchise while doing it. Horror franchises like Halloween need to accept they will keep going. Retconning and doing “definitive final no escape, he’s definitely dead this time” endings is frankly stupid. Everyone knows Michael will be back at some point. It comes to something when the ending of “Jason X”, the Friday the 13th film with Jason is space is more intelligent than the ending of your Halloween series that you retconned two continuities for (For those that haven’t seen Jason X, the final solution is to launch Jason into space where he crashes down on an alien planet… at a lake).

My great hope for Halloween now is that at some point they do a sequel back in the original continuity. That would do a good job of putting this disaster behind us, expose the foolishness of the supposedly definitive ending and get away from all these crazy timelines. Furthermore I hope they embrace the supernatural aspect of the character. That was what made him different to the other slashers, especially Jason (prior to him being bought back to life in part 6). Anyone can make a random slasher movie, but there is only one bogeyman. Sadly he wasn’t present in this film. This is a stinker. Stand alone, not within the Halloween franchise maybe it is worth a 5/10 but as a franchise film and the end of a trilogy it is a total disaster. 3/10.

I’m not even doing a trailer.

Some Guy Who Kills People (2011)

Posted on October 15, 2022October 15, 2022 by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is the American independent comedy horror “Some Guy Who Kills People” from 2011. This is directed by Jack Perez, whose previous movie was “Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus”… Well, James Cameron directed “Piranha Part Two: The Spawning”, so we shouldn’t hold that against him. This movie is a lot more grounded. This is penned by comedy writer Ryan A. Levin and stars Kevin Corrigan and Ariel Gade with support from Barry Bostswick, Karen Black, Lucy Davis and Leo Fitzpatrick.

October Review Challenge – Day 15

The story follows Ken Boyd (Corrigan) after his release from a mental institution. He was ut in there because he suicidal and he is a very reclusive introverted character, who spends most of his time drawing. When he was at college he was traumatized by a group of scumbags when they kidnaped him and took turns to subject him to various abuses (the story behind it is revealed late in the movie, so I’m not saying more). Those bullies are now one by one turning up dead and killed in ways that reflect the abuses they inflicted on Ken.

In contrast to these killings, Ken’s life is actually starting to improve. Although painfully introverted and socially awkward he is begins to develop a relationship with his daughter, who only recently found out who he was (Her mother didn’t want her to know, deciding he was crazy). Amy (Gade) is pretty much the perfect daughter, though she has problems in her own life her positive attitude and encouragement to Ken leads to him even going on a date with a girl that seemed interested in him, Stephanie (Davis).

The local Sheriff meanwhile (Bostwick), who dating Ken’s mother (Black) is starting to put things together and closing in on Ken. He’s just not sure if Ken could really do these horrific crimes, though with what he went through, he can certainly see why he would want to.

A Dad Who Connects With His Daughter

Ken is an interesting character. He is quite, reclusive, but does not seem actually evil. He does struggle with being in the outside world and perhaps yearns to be back behind the safe doors of the asylum. Despite that he has genuine affection for Stephanie and especially his daughter. At one point when he realised that Amy has bullies of her own he becomes quite protective of her and seems determined to be a positive influence on her.

Amy meanwhile is the sweetest girl you will probably ever come across in fiction and in some ways that makes her character harder to buy, but it’s so charming it doesn’t really matter. She is just unrelentingly good natured and unlike Ken, very talkative. Her home life though seems to be one of vague neglect (nothing hardcore, but her mother and step father don’t seem particularly engaged with her and there is a clear lack of connection between them). The movie does a good job of showing why Amy and Ken need each other.

Drama, Horror, Comedy.

That’s all the drama elements though, this is meant to be a comedy horror, so how did it fair on those standards? Well, it’s not really a horror to be honest, it just has horror elements. The kills are brutal and the way the bodies are left are creative. But the victims are all scumbags and so there isn’t really a fear factor. As an audience member you want to see them get slaughtered. These events are spaced out and not dwelled on. The movie also has a very predictable swerve, but honestly, didn’t ruin the film and they did a pretty good job of trying to push you away from the swerve… still it was a little too predictable so it’s still a minus.

This isn’t a heavy comedy either. Most of the humour comes from Barry Bostwick as Sheriff Walt Fuller and it’s more goofy than anything but I did find it amusing and since it plays specifically into the characters personality it isn’t too heavy handed, doesn’t disrupt the flow of the film and provides a bit of light relief, usually right after a violent murder. It also works well into the swerve as he turns out to be smarter than you would assume for most of the film.

Assessment

As you can see from the above the movie is more a drama and character study than a horror or comedy, but it’s not totally removed from these things and the way it is put together works quite well. The actors all do admirably, especially 14 year old Ariel Gade, an experienced child actress who actually retired from acting after this movie to focus on her education (Sensible for a child star). If she returns she may have a good career ahead of her.

Overall, I liked this movie. It was better than expected and million miles from the directors previous movie. Despite that, the film didn’t elicit any strong feelings from me. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. I chuckled a couple of times at the Sheriff but that was it and while I liked Amy, Ken and Sheriff Fuller I the story isn’t one I particularly feel the need to come back to. So while It is definitely a recommended movie, it’s not pushing into the 7-10 territory. This is a strong 6/10.