Tag: Horror

Possessor (2020)

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Last October I was introduced to Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg through his movie “Infinity Pool” (2022). While it wasn’t one of my top films of the year, I was impressed by Brandon’s style and interested by both the similarities and differences with his father. So for this years Halloween Challenge I had a look for anything else directed by Brandon and found “Possessor”. It actually scores higher than Infinity Pool on IMDB (and more than Brandon’s only other feature film “Antiviral” (2012). So it seemed worth a shot. Possibly several shots and a few stabbings. Let’s find out!

Familiar Territory.

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, possessor stars Andrea Riseborough (as “Tasya Vos”) and Christopher Abbott (As “Colin Tate” and “Tasya Vos” in Tate’s body). It also has a support role for Jennifer Jason Leigh (Who also starred in David Cronenberg’s “Existenz” (1999)) and Sean Bean who you naturally assume is not going to survive the movie, but I’m not giving spoilers. The set up is very much something from a Science Fiction Action movie and had it been in that genre I’d probably comment on it not being especially interesting. However, this is Brandon Cronenberg, so I’m not expecting explosions and car chases.

Much like with Infinity Pool, the plot here is based on a fairly out there science fiction concept, in this case taking control of another persons body and using it to perform assassinations. Both movies are also sort of casual about it, the movie doesn’t appear to be set notably in the future and there is no real explanation about the technology. It ultimately is not about the tech and instead more about human psychology and the film uses the technology to examine that.

What It Is About And What It Really Is About.

True to form, the story seems barely interested in the actual assassination job for which Vos was hired, instead it is really about her mental state and that of her victims. This is a film about identity and the dark desires that hide in the back of peoples’ minds and provides a conclusion that is… well, very Cronenberg. Like with Infinity Pool, the classic Body Horror stuff you tend to expect from the family is present but used sparingly (Except on the marketing material, where it’s overused to the point that it could be called misleading).

What grounds the film more in Horror than Sci-Fi is we are looking at the main characters journey into her own darkness. Shedding her humanity (Much of which seemed to be faked, reacting as people would expect instead of how she feels). While this is laid out for the viewer fairly early on, the journey still offers some surprises and there are perhaps some double meanings behind a few of the scenes. Pacing wise it is a little slow with probably too much focus on people having sex (Another Cronenberg trait) but neither of these are particularly problematic. The film has a feel of a dream and the Jim Williams soundtrack is clearly designed to emphasize this.

Dark Desires

Abbott and Riseborough put in solid performances. Both play Vos, but in Abbots case only while she is in Tate’s body. This means Abbott has to convince the viewer he is two different people in one body, in some cases including Vos pretending to be Tate and others in a way that is meant to feel like it could be either. He does this pretty well. Risenborough meanwhile gets to play Vos as herself, which is largely unemotional and cold, but underneath that a character disturbed and frustrated by her own emotions. She does it well.

Overall I feel about this movie a lot like I did with Infinity Pool. It is interesting and well executed. However, it is a pretty linear feeling journey where we always feel like we are just slowly plodding from A to B. There is a little bit of depth but not enough to really drive discussion. The technology involved is one that obviously opens a lot of philosophical debate (Like in Infinity Pool) and yet Brandon (Again) ignores most of that to hyper focus on a fairly simple character journey.

Once again this feels like taking a David Cronenberg film and watering it down a bit to make it more accessible to the audience. The end result is a movie I definitely enjoyed, but will probably not watch a second time. I can’t help but feel Brandon has an all time great Horror in him, but this isn’t it. It is instead a narrow 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Deadly Friend (1986)

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For today’s review I’m checking in on an 80’s Wes Craven movie that somehow never made it on to my screen until now. This is “Deadly Friend” from 1986. Sandwiched between two of Craven’s best movies 1984’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” and 1988’s “Serpent and the Rainbow” you’d think this was peak Craven, but Wes was never particularly consistent and this movie doesn’t have the best reputation. Then again neither did “Shocker” from 1989 and that is one of my top guilty pleasures (Most of which are in the Horror genre, naturally). So let’s see where this one lands.

BB Thing

The movie was written by Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob’s Lader) and is based off the novel “Friend” by Diana Henstell. It Stars Kirsty Swanson (The future big screen “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”) as “Samantha”, a girl with an abuse drunk father and Matthew Labyorteaux as “Paul”, a boy genius that has just moved into the area.

The plot is more than a little far fetched since right at the start we are introduced to “BB”, a full AI robot that Paul seems to have just thrown together in his spare time. Of course being a horror we are introduced to it strangling a would be thief trying to steal from the family car, not realising the robot was in the back. As the family come back to the car, the robot lets the thief go, but clearly we are meant to know this AI was always dangerous.

Two Minds, One Rampage

Choking aside the first half of the movie has shades of your standard 80’s family movie. The robot reminds me a little of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit (But cheaper, which makes sense given it’s not a military construction), but with a very 80’s slasher movie set up where we are introduced to a string of obnoxious characters that we all know won’t be making it to the end of the movie. None of this is bad though, just a little bit quirky and if you grew up in the 80’s likely a little nostalgic.

The second half of the movie is more of a mixed bag. Following BB’s demise at the hands of a shotgun totting grumpy old woman and Samantha’s at the hands of her father, the pair are effectively merged into the titular “Deadly Friend”. Paul determined to save Samantha (Who is brain dead and about to have her life support cut off) comes up with a crazy idea to use the chip from BB to fix her brain (Likening it to a simpel pacemaker). This is clearly a bad idea, but Paul is a bit of a mad scientist, totally oblivious to the slightly psychotic nature of the AI he created.

Bad Makeup

The biggest problem here is that Kirsty Swanson with excessive black eye shadow and doing the zombie walk isn’t exactly terrifying. But I don’t blame her for that, the set up of being a basically a cyborg zombie doesn’t leave a lot you can do as an actor to be terrifying, it really is down to the make up job and directing and this is one of the laziest make up jobs in monster movie history. They could have ramped up the cyborg part a bit or alternatively not had her be a total zombie, so she can move quickly. But we got what we got. The two main revenge scenes are actually pretty good, though one plays more seriously and the other just made me laugh out loud for the cartoon gore (Spoiler: This features a full on head explosion).

Ultimately the movie feels very confused, like it was trying to be a bit of everything and as a result didn’t really achieve anything of note. Despite a few good scenes and an interesting concept, the movie ultimately just doesn’t work. This narrowly scrapes a 5.5/10, not terrible but definitely one of Wes Craven’s weakest.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Maniac Cop 2 (1990)

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There are an endless number of Horror franchises out there. Some big, some small. Quite a few of them I have only seen the first movie and never got around to the sequels. One such movie is Maniac Cop. The original movie starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon and ended with the apparent demise of the titular character in a watery grave at the end. Of course anyone that watched Horror movies in the 80’s knows that’s basically a guarantee of a return in a sequel and so here we are!

Director William Lustig (Who also directed “Maniac” which I’ll be reviewing later in October) and Writer Larry Cohen both return for this sequel and so it’s no surprise to find it continues directly on from the end of the first film and see’s the return of both Campbell and Landon. However the leads for this movie are actually Robert Davi (One of my favourite Bond Villains) and Claudia Christian (Of “Babylon 5” fame, but also made an appearance in my October Horrothon last year in “The Hidden” (1987)). Lustig has a habit of swerving with his leads and never hesitates to kill one off for shock value, so expect this movie to follow that pattern (Though I’m not dropping direct spoilers).

Cunning Stunts

The first thing to note here is I like the way the story is continued. It’s difficult to cover without spoilers, but it’s worthy of note for a horror sequel to maintain such solid continuity. Of course it helps when you have the same writer and director, but it’s certainly refreshing. The second thing to note is the stunts. For a 1990 horror movie, it is somewhat surprising in the number and quality of stunts here.

There is a very solid car chase, a scene where Claudia Christian (Or rather her stunt double) is handcuffed outside an out of control car and has to somehow try and steer it while being flung around and last but not least there is a climax that features a lot of stunt men being set on fire, with the killer himself spending a lot of time wondering around while on fire! It’s pretty impressive for a $4m horror film ($9m with inflation). The movie also features a “Terminator” like scene where Cordell invades the police station and clears house. Basically lots of cool stuff to enjoy visually in this.

Cops and Killers

Character wise the movie revolves primarily around four characters. Claudia Christians “Susan Riley”, Robert Davi’s “Detective McKinney”, The Maniac Cop “Matt Cordell” (Played by Robert Z’Dar, who the following year would become an even more infamous cop in “Samurai Cop”) and Leo Rossi’s “Turkel”, a serial killer that has been murdering local strippers. Davi puts in a pretty neutral performance and seems less interested in the movie the further on it goes, Rossi overacts, though given his character is a psycho it mostly works and Christian puts in a solid performance hitting all the right notes when requires.

The real protagonist of the story though is Cordell and Z’Dar does a pretty decent job given he’s playing a zombie cop. The other three are just there to move the plot on as required. McKinney is the hero of the day, but not because of any challenge he had to overcome and he doesn’t face off with Cordell or really have any notable action scenes, he just helps clear Cordells name (At least clear his name pre-zombie-psycho-rampage). Susan’s importance largely rolls off for the final act, while Turkel turns up half way through and is only really there to be manipulated. His character has the least depth of the four, but he doesn’t really need any for the plot to work.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a surprisingly good sequel to a moderately decent 80’s slasher. I think I may even prefer it to the original. My only real negative is I would have liked to have seen more of Bruce Campbell, but then since this is after Evil Dead 2 it probably would have taken too much attention away from the killer, so perhaps it’s for the best. Largely for the cool factor and the stunts this just about reaches 6.5/10.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

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The second movie of my 2023 October Horrorthon is one I’ve been looking forward to for a fair while. This is a Dracula movie with a bit of a twist in that it focuses on one specific chapter from Bram Stoker’s Novel. As the name suggests this is about Dracula’s journey to England on board a vessel known as “The Demeter”. For those that haven’t read the book, it’s worth noting it is an epistolary novel, that is the story is conveyed via a series of letters, diary entries and logs. This chapter in particular is written in the form of the Captain’s Log. This gives a lot of freedom in telling this story on screen since the source material is intentionally vague.

The Long Journey ahead

The movie is directed by André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) and written by Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room) and Zak Olkewicz (Bullet Train). The cast features some strong acting talent (If not the biggest name draws) with Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton, The Tragedy of MacBeth) taking the lead, and Game of Thrones alumnis Liam Cunningham (As the Captain) and Aisling Franciosi (A Stowaway) offering the main support.

The first thing to note here is that Hawkins’ character of “Clemens” is original to this movie. Clemens is a Doctor looking to travel back to England, as a man of Science he naturally will have to face that the world has more to it than he can easily understand. In the book the crew had sailed with the Captain many times, but this tweak in minor. Anna (Franciosi) is also an addition and a little more against the source material as she is a stowaway (In the book they searched the ship thoroughly and found no one not meant to be there). Still it’s a reasonable change and her role is important to the story, as she is the primary exposition character.

Nosferatu

The most interesting element of the film is Dracula himself, who is presented in a far more monstrous form than we are used to. It is a little reminiscent of Count Orlok in “Nosferatu” (1922), a film that still holds up shockingly well for a hundred and one year old silent movie. I appreciate this approach not just because I’m a fan of Nosferatu but because I like Vampires that are actually terrifying. This is about as opposite to something like “Twilight” that you can get. On top of this they kept his presence mysterious and minimal so as to maintain the atmosphere of terror throughout.

Despite the miniscule amount of source material (Honestly, it’s barely a chapter), you may be concerned that with a nearly two hour run time things may drag but the pacing is spot on and builds perfectly to it’s climax. In regards to the characters, none really stand out but they do have depth and all fill their roles adequately and believably. As I mentioned at the start this is a strong cast of quality actors, none of them are big name draws but for a horror film you don’t really need that.

Having Your Cake And Eating It Too

The film manages the impressive feat of both maintaining accuracy to the source while putting their own twist on the story and it does it in a way that adds to the original instead of taking away from it. This is a rare example of an adaptation actually getting to have it’s cake and being able to eat it. All too often there is a battle between staying true to the source and finding something new to say. but here that is a non-issue. Of course it helps when you are adapting something short and deliberately vague!

In conclusion, while not the best Dracula film ever made this is a strong entry into the mythos and refreshingly original. Vampires are finally scary again! This is a 7/10.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

X (2022)

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October has rolled around once more and that means it is time for the Horror Review challenge. For the third year running (Fourth including my pre-blog Facebook/Minds reviews), I’ll be reviewing a horror or horror adjacent movie every day for 31 days. First up is A24’s Porno gone wrong story “X” featuring two modern Scream Queens in Mia Goth (In a double role) and Jenna Ortega. But did the movie live up to they hype? Let’s have a look.

King of Average.

First thing to note here is that this is a Ti West movie. If you’ve been following my blog you will know I was not impressed at all with his “The Innkeepers” (2011). I am yet to watch “House of the Devil” (2009) or the prequel to “this “X”, “Pearl” (2022) both of which are fairly well regarded, so I’m not viewing this with especially high expectations. However, West certainly has a lot of experience in the genre having worked on many Horror based TV shows over the years. If I was to compare him to another director it would probably be Mick Garris. Competent, experienced, but not especially outstanding.

The premise is a fairly standard Horror affair. A small group of young people heading to a remote location, having lots of sex and getting picked off one by one. In this instance we’re in a 1970’s setting and they are in the location to shoot a porno. It’s a pretty similar set up to “Wrestlemaniac/El Mascarado Massacre” (2006), which isn’t a great sign since that was an awful movie. The key differences are this movie actually does show a lot of the porno side and instead of a crazed Rey Misterio Snr. killing everyone it’s two old farmers. Neither of these are really improvements!

It’s All About Mia

The movie relies a lot on trying to creep you out because the old people are old. That’s probably something that only really works on the younger audience, for me it just seemed a bit sad. Other than that there is a whole lot of sex and then about half an hour of standard slasher stuff. Mia Goth does stand out as the only characters with any real depth though the film essentially revolves around her so not surprise.

Jenna Ortega is totally wasted and the rest of the victims are generic and forgettable. The Villains meanwhile are not terribly believable, given their age and their motivation is a little off given they agreed to rent out their farmhouse to this group and then seem angry they are there. Admittedly they didn’t know they’d be shooting porn, but it still seems like their motivation is really: This is a horror film, we need to kill people.

Double Act

The only point of interest in the movie really comes from the focus on Mia Goth. The actress plays both the “Final Girl” and the primary psycho, two roles that are meant to parallel one another The only problem is the movie didn’t really need to have the same actress play that role to achieve that and doing so largely robbed the theme of it’s subtilty, while ensuring the only thing of value was Mia Goth. I can’t fault Goth’s performance though, it’s just the concept is a little on the nose.

Overall this is another clanger from West and I’m starting to wonder if his Modus Operandi is simply to make generic horror with obvious, “On the nose” themes. I will probably give “Pearl” a run next year or “House of the Devil” and see if West can finally convince me he has something to offer in the genre. If he does it’s certainly not with “X”. This is a 4/10 for me.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Cocaine Bear (2023)

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This is a fun B-movie by design, yet it has been given a substantial push by the studio, a $35m production budget and opened in a surprising number of theatres (3500 in the US, compared to Ant-Man 3’s 4300 and Creeds 4000). There was a lot of hype for this and in most cases I would say that would raise expectations, but the movie is called “cocaine Bear” so not so much here.

The movie doesn’t really focus on any one particular lead though Sari (Keri Russel) is probably the closest to a protagonist. The Cocaine Bear itself starts out as the villain of the piece but by the end has largely passed that mantle on to Ray Liotta’s “Sid”. That switch changes the tone of the film somewhat from a monster horror to a family adventure film (with added gore). Effectively it ends up as comedy adventure with over the top gore which would this a good double bill with “Violent Night” from 2022.

We’ve Got a Taste for You!

The early part of the movie is where it is at it’s best. Here the rest of the ensemble cast take center stage and do their best to survive against the cocaine driven beast. We get a mixture of comedy moments and violent gore with a few notable highlights (Such as the ambulance scene). The bear itself looks great and is pretty convincing when it needs to be. The production budget was quite high for a horror movie, twice the cost of “A Quiet Place” (2018) for example, so I would expect the effects to be top notch and I was not disappointed.

The plot is pretty straight forward, but a movie like this doesn’t really need complexity. It does what it needs to. The actors performances were okay, some performances were less convincing then others, but again for this kind of film it was fine. Elizabeth Banks is still early in her career as a director and with two clangers to her name (If you include her segment on 2013’s abysmal “Movie 43”) and the music drama “Pitch Perfect” she seemed like a strange choice, but I respect her going for it and she did okay. Much like with the actors, it could probably have been better but it was good enough for a horror comedy about a cocaine addicted black bear.

Conclusion

A straight forward movie that doesn’t take itself seriously and does what it can with a story based on a real life event where a bear ate some cocaine and basically just died. It won’t bother the Oscars and it probably won’t end up as a cult classic, but if you like the combination of laughs and gore, it’s well worth checking out. 6/10

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Infinity Pool (2023)

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For today’s review I’m looking at the 2023 movie “Infinity Pool”, staring the underappreciated Alexander Skarsgård (Most recently staring in one of the best movies and yet biggest flops of last year “The Northman”) and rising horror starlet Mia Goth (Who hit a double whammy last year with “X” and it’s prequel “Pearl”). The movie is written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg. This is his second feature film after 2020’s “Possessor”, which I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing yet, but much like this film it sounds very much like something that could have been made by his father. So let’s find out if the apple falls far from the tree!

Under The Sun.

Our movie starts with obscure novelist James Foster (Skarsgård) and his rich wife “Em” (Played by Cleopatra Coleman) spending time at a resort in the fictional island of Li Tolqa, which appears to be, at least on the surface, some form of Banana Republic. Despite claiming no one has read his book, one of the fellow tourists, “Gabi” (Goth) claims to be a fan. She invites the pair to join her and her husband “Alban” (Jalil Lespert) to spend time with them and despite warnings that they should not stray from within the resorts walls, they decide to spend the next day driving in the countryside.

After an evening on the beach drinking heavily, James drives the group home and accidentally runs over one of the locals. The group panic and return to the hotel hoping it will go unnoticed, but the local police turn up the next morning and haul James away. It turns out the justice system in Li Tolqa is swift and harsh, with James condemned to be executed by the eldest son of the man he ran over.

Killing Yourself to Live.

However, this is where the film introduces some science fiction elements. It turns out for a hefty fee (Presumably paid for by his wife) they will create a fully grown clone of him, including his memories and kill that instead. Confused, but desperate he agrees. On return to the hotel James finds his passport missing and so must remain at the resort while this is sorted out. His wife however heads off.

Stuck on the island, James finds himself falling in with Gabi and her nihilist friends, a spoiled, dangerous group of people who seem to get their kicks from tormenting others and abusing the islands legal system and it’s loophole for the rich. This isn’t a spoiler review, so I’ll stop there with the plot. Suffice to say this is going to be a life changing experience for the man.

Tomorrow’s Dream.

Probably the main thing David Cronenberg is known for is using body horror as a study on humanity. The focus has never really been on the plausibility of the situations since they largely exist as a sort of metaphor anyway, instead they are really more character studies with a focus on their deeply flawed and often self destructive protagonists. Brandon has clearly gone for a very similar approach.

You have to basically just accept this island nation that in every other regard is a typical banana republic has the technology to create perfect clones of people (Including their memories) and that they use this amazing technology in the most bizarre and twisted way, as a frankly unnecessary side show to allowing the rich to pay their way out of trouble. None of it really makes any sense if taken literally. But beneath the surface it is clear that the film is a study in Nihilism.

Into the Void.

To some extent it is about the form of Nihilism that comes naturally from power (Specifically the power that comes from being rich). Certainly this is where bored sociopath Gabi comes in. James however, is not especially rich and not at all powerful. His wife and step-father are rich, but his Nihilism is somewhat different and perhaps more related to his creativity. He wrote a book no one read, married his publishers daughter and has effectively landed on his feet but without any real sense of achievement. He is empty inside and without a real direction or purpose. This much is obvious.

At one point in the story the dangerous crowd James has fallen in with poses the question: “How do you know if you are the original or the clone”. It’s a common sci-fi trope and the first place my mind went once it was revealed it was a clone story. However, the important part of the conversation was the follow up: “Perhaps you just watched the real you die” to which James answers “We can only hope”. The group seem to approve of the response and there we have it. The ultimate nihilism, death without consequences. This sets up James journey for the rest of the film.

Thrill of it All.

Infinity Pool is ultimately simpler than the usual David Cronenberg affair, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The story still contains the elements you would expect from a Cronenberg body horror, but it’s presented a more accessible package. It is dark, violent, horrific, filled with deeply flawed characters and ultimately thought provoking. The ending is in some ways disappointing, but has purpose. This probably won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you like the films of his father’s this Brandon Cronenberg movie may be worth your time, otherwise probably not. I do, so it’s a solid 6/10 for me. Would be higher, but you need a LOT of suspension of disbelief for this one.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

M3GAN (2023)

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Time for my first review of a 2023 movie. In what is already looking like a decent year for horror (Possibly just because we don’t have another bad Halloween sequel to deal with, though we do have an Exorcist remake to be annoyed at later in the year), one of the first to hit theatres this year was the AI gone rogue/Killer doll movie “M3gan”.

Viral Marketing.

This has been building itself a nice bit of hype as the release date drew near and featured an interesting viral marketing campaign a little reminiscent of the one used for Smile. The main feature of the campaign was creepy M3gan doll dancers turning up in high profile events/locations. The campaign also had some fun on Twitter with some playful interaction between the M3gan account and the Chucky one. Both being owned by the same company, you have to wonder if a crossover is on the cards.

But anyway, what about the film itself? Helmed by “Housebound” (2014) director Gerard Johnstone but from the mind of Horror legend, James Wan (scripted by Wan’s “Malignant” (2021) collaborator Akela Cooper), M3gan stars Allison Williams as under pressure robotics engineer and toy maker “Gemma” and upcoming child actress Violet McGraw as her orphaned niece “Cady”. The titular character herself is a mixture of animatronics, body actress Amie Donald (provider of M3gan’s dancier moments), and voice actress Jenna Davis.

The Set Up.

The story is pretty simple and built around two key strands that intertwine. One is a much more personal story about Gemma and Cady. Gemma is a woman that clearly put her career first in life, largely driven by her inventive nature and ambition to break new ground with technology and AI. Suddenly she has found herself as guardian to her young niece after both the girl’s parents are killed in a road accident. Cady is obviously traumatised by the experience and Gemma doesn’t really know how to cope and is torn between trying and attempted to hit deadlines at work.

The second part of the story is in Gemma’s passion project “M3GAN” an AI robotic doll, that she has been working on in semi-secret (much to the chagrin of her bosses). After a failed test she was told to abandon work on the project and return to the next line of fury robotic toys that her company is famous for. However after sharing her designs with Cady she realised that she could perhaps kill two birds with one stone by having a prototype of her design bond with Cady, helping her through a tough time while also allowing Gemma to spend more time with her niece while she works. Good intentions it seems, but that road to hell is paved with just those sort of intentions.

Comedy and Critique.

What we see unravel then is a fun horror/comedy wrapped around a quite intelligent critique of both irresponsible science and parenthood. It is a double mistake that ends up costing several people their lives. Cady ends up become so emotionally bonded to M3gan that the relationship has become unhealthy, meanwhile the capabilities of the doll to learn and adapt to the emotional state of it’s primary user has led to the AI become dangerous unstable itself. Meanwhile Gemma’s focus on making the product a success has lead to her missing the warning signs of both issues. I couldn’t help but be reminded of that line from Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”. It definitely applies here.

Friend, Entertainer, Murderer.

But that’s the nuts and bolts, what makes the film really work is the fun approach to the character. Really gave the movie a sort of 80’s feel in it’s slightly silly approach where the killer is firmly there to entertain the audience first instead of just terrify them. That said though, she certainly ups the creepy factor when needed. The doll taps into a lot of horror history, providing some fun “Chucky” like moments, some parts with more in common with “The Terminator” and a good helping of “Village of the Damned” too, with it’s creepy dead eyed children.

The doll appears realistic and humanlike at one moment (going into dance routines for example) and then in a moments notice changes into something far scarier, with a clear influence from the movement patterns of the more impressive Boston Dynamics robots. It’s those moments that M3gan transitions between lifeless doll, imitation little girl and savage robot that makes the movie really work and the great thing is those moments can be moving, scary or funny depending on what was needed at the time.

Conclusion

M3gan is a straight forward movie and makes for easy viewing, which is really what you want from a Horror Comedy. It’s a fun movie but most importantly it firmly establishes a new member to the Horror Icon hall of fame. Even though horror has been making a big comeback in recent year, there hasn’t been many iconic characters added to the list. Indeed the last addition was probably Annabelle and that killer doll has been more miss than hit (“Creation” was fantastic mind). If you’ve only gotten into horror in recent years perhaps this won’t be what your looking for but if you were a Horror fan in the 80’s, I’m pretty sure you’ll love it. It’s a 7/10 from me.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

The Red House (1947)

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So, we’re a week into November. I’ve had my post-October break, but my fingers are itchy to get to a new review done, so it’s time to start the Noirvember season! I’ve decided that moving forward I’m going to only give a brief synopsis instead of full plot. This way it’s easier to avoid spoilers, should keep my reviews under 1000 words and you can find the full plot on Wikipedia anyway, so you can always check their if interested.

For my first movie found the perfect transition from Horror to Noir by finding a film that shares aspects of both. This is “The Red House” from 1947. The horror aspects aren’t strong enough to justify it as a horror, but it’s pretty close to that line and by being there it moves to the fringes of what counts as Noir too. Interestingly Wikipedia has declared it a horror, but IMDB lists it as Drama/Film-Noir/Mystery with no mention of horror. Having seen it now I’m going to say IMDB was closer there but it shows how it’s not clear cut.

There’s A Red House Over Yonder.

The movie is written and directed by Delmer Daves, who also directed the Bogart/Bacall classic “Dark Passage” that same year (1947) along with the classic western “3:10 to Yuma” (Which is marginally better than the surprisingly good remake). He also wrote the screenplay for “The Petrified Forest” way back in 1936, which is one of my favourite movies of that decade. The movie is based on the novel by George Agnew Chamberlain and stars Lon McCallister in a very typical role for him (Good natured country boy) along with Allene Roberts and the legend and Film Noir regular Edward G. Robinson.

The story revolves around Nath (McCallister) who is helping out at a local farm thanks to his friend Meg (Roberts). The farm is owned by Meg’s adopted father Pete Morgan (Robinson). Pete warns Nath not to go near a certain area of the forest on his land, but he and Meg become curious about it and so keep looking for this mysterious “Red House” that is meant to be there. As they get closer, Pete becomes more unstable and the petty criminal he hired to keep people off his land becomes more aggressive to those trespassers. Ultimately the secret of the red house will be revealed and the lives of all involved will not be the same.

The Tell-Tale Heart.

Performance wise Robinson unsurprisingly steals the show. While he is more famous for his roles in Gangster movies, the Noir era gave him a chance to explore more complex characters with a bit more vulnerability. His role here is pivotal and it is his character and his internal that makes the movie a Film Noir. Like many of the genre the story is really about how dark secrets of your past eventually catch up to and sometimes destroy you. It’s one of those elements that instead of fighting against the Hays code, embraces it. Crime does not pay, but Noir is often based around a characters attempts to delay their inevitable fate.

Pete Morgan has carried his secret with him since Meg was a child, but not just in his tainted soul but in a very physical form. He could have destroyed The Red House and with it all evidence of his crimes, but instead he left it there as a constant reminder and he must have known one day his secret would come to the surface. The truth is there is a definite Streisand effect here. Should someone stumble upon the house it wouldn’t mean anything to them, but his determination to keep people away from it naturally made them curious. Pete’s mental stability weakening every step along the way, with him slipping and calling Meg “Genie” (Her mothers name) several times. When Meg finally stumbles upon the place she found it strangely familiar. Ultimately Pete ends up confessing his crime.

Bad Prints and Good Natures.

The problem is that Pete is not the movies lead. Really it is a joint lead of Nath and Meg, but they are fairly straight forward good natured country girl/boy archetypes. Not characters that really lend themselves to film noir. Though Nath initially being in a relationship with Tibby does give his story a mild Noir twist since she is very much the type of woman that would lead a man onto the wrong path, though ultimately that doesn’t happen and instead she gets herself get in to more trouble than she bargained for with her infatuation with outlaw Teller. Nath and Meg are basically the outsiders in this dark world, which is really where the film starts to bend towards Horror, but only a little as there is no intentional malice with all this.

Another thing to note with this movie is the poor quality of the physical film print. Although most of the 1940’s Film Noirs I’ve seen have been well preserved and and pretty high quality every now and then you come across a movie that has obvious seen significant degradation. Sometimes it doesn’t impact the movie experience, but this movie has a lot of scenes that you can barely see anything in between the lighting and the film degradation. The trouble is I have to judge it on the film as it is now, because it’s not like you can hop in a time machine and go and watch this back in the day.

Conclusion

This would have been a much better movie had it focused more on Robinson’s Pete Morgan and less on Nath and Meg. This is basically a tell tale heart story and for that kind of thing you really want to focus on the person hearing the knocking (or in this case screaming). Not to mention, this is Edward G Robinson we’re talking about and he had top billing anyway, so it seems a missed opportunity. The story is interesting though so between that and Robinson’s performance it just about hits a 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Halloween And What Comes Next!

Posted on by fenrisfil

I hope those of you that came by over October for my review challenge enjoyed my reviews and maybe found some films to check out (or avoid). As the month went on I found myself writing more and more and while I really needed a break by the end it’s been a strange few days not writing anything. Fun fact, I did the review challenge last year too, I just didn’t have the blog then so it was straight to Facebook and Minds. But I got such a positive reaction and enjoyed it so much it is the reason I started the blog. A few of those reviews have been retrospectively added to the site, but not all as the Facebook reviews were far shorter and only had the one picture.

My Halloween Viewing.

Much like I did last year, the movie I reviewed on Halloween I actually watched the day before and on Halloween itself I treated myself to a triple bill. Last year it was Nightmare on Elm Street 3, Friday the 13th part 6 and Halloween II. Three of the best Slasher sequels you will come across. This year though I went in a different direction. Not sure there really is a theme outside of just being great horror movies (and short enough to make a good triple bill). While I’m not doing reviews I am going to say a little about each one.

Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

The Return of the Living Dead, is the ground breaking “Zomedy” written and directed by the great Dan O’Bannon (Writer of Alien, Dark Star and the comic book that greatly inspired Blade Runner, see part 2 of my Blade Runner Deep Dive on that one). At some point I may have to do a deep dive just on Dan, simply because he just doesn’t get enough credit for his creative input to a number of classics.

Return was one of only three movies he directed, with the rest of his credits being writing, but he did a good job here. The movie was the first to my knowledge that had zombies that that you couldn’t kill by destroying the brain or removing the head. Every part of their body was animated and they didn’t lose their intelligence either. A few months later Re-Animator also used this kind of Zombie (and was also great). It may also have been the first zombie horror comedy.

Prince of Darkness (1987)

Prince of Darkness is part of the great run of films John Carpenter put together in the 80’s and forms part of what is known as his Apocalypse trilogy (Which spans until the 90’s), which includes “The Thing” and “In The Mouth of Madness”. Amongst Carpenter’s output (and especially amongst the 80’s movies) this isn’t likely many peoples favourite, but it’s still a quality movie and 100% classic John Carpenter.

The cast includes several actors from other Carpenter films such as Victor Wong and Dennis Dun (from the previous years “Big Trouble in Little China”) and Carpenter regulars Donald Pleasence and Peter Jason (Who would go on to appear in five more Carpenter movies). It also has a kick ass soundtrack, a random celebrity known for something other than acting (In this case Alice Cooper) and melancholy, claustrophobic theme involving dark secret truths and has a great ending. You know, this may be 110% classic Carpenter.

Event Horizon (1997)

The final movie of my triple bill was Event Horizon. This was panned by critics on release but turned out to be a cult classic and it is in my opinion is a top five horror movie for the 1990’s (or is at least in the conversation). The movie takes the feel of Aliens and slaps on a heavy shade of Hellraiser.

But the funny thing is it could also be in the same universe as the Doom video game seeing as they somewhat share a premise. In the game experiments in teleportation accidentally connect our realm to hell, in Event Horizon an experimental faster than light drive effectively teleports the ship to hell and back, bringing with it an influence of evil.

It fits quite well with the premise of Prince of Darkness, which suggested the evil we know as the devil is actually alien in origin. The other John Carpenter link here is Sam Neil who also featured in “In The Mouth of Madness” (Another one if the conversation for that top 5 spot) and Neil was really on form in the 90’s. Here he proved how good he can be as the antagonist.

Noirvember

When I first started my blog and right after my run of October reviews in 2021, I did something I called “Noirvember”. Since one of my movie passions is Film Noir and there aren’t a lot of websites out there that review both horrors and Film Noir I decided to take some of my momentum from October and channel it into doing a few thematic reviews through November.

I am absolutely going to do that again. Unlike October this isn’t a review a day job. My aim is to do at least four over November (one per week), but after taking a little break out at the start to recover from the Horror season I may well up that. I think I did about six last year, so expect something similar.

If you aren’t a fan of Noir or don’t really know what it is, perhaps this may encourage you to give these old movies a chance. In many ways they have a lot in common with horror between the lighting techniques and the fatalism of the characters. It’s one of the reasons why I find it a good transition back into general movie watching.

Further Down The Road

After November, I may introduce a few more non-review items on the site. I’m unlikely to do another deep dive of the size of the three part Blade Runner one, but not many films are as complicated a thing to get into as that movie. I do want to do more articles on some of my favourites though. Probably the next one will be on The Terminator, but we’ll see. I may do that Dan O’Bannon article too.

I’m also toying with an idea I’m calling “Movie Pitch” where I look at how I would have done something that didn’t work out so well in real life. For example, how I would revive the Terminator franchise (and yes it can be a franchise), how I would have done Universal’s Dark Universe, how I would reboot the Highlander franchise, what I would do to fix Halloween, that kind of thing. These days there are so many franchise down the toilet that I’ll never run out of things to “fix”. But the idea actually came from a Terminator story idea I had. Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad. That’s for you to decide.

On top of that, as the new year comes around I will do a year in review again (Maybe not a three part one this time) and of course I may watch and review some new releases.