Shudder Saturday: The Exorcism (2024)

Co-written and directed by Joshua John Miller, it's worth starting any review of The Exorcism by reminding people of who Joshua John Miller is. He's many things, including an actor, writer, and director. But, and it's most important in relation to this movie, he's also a son of Jason "Father Karras in The Exorcist" Miller. That's most important here because The Exorcism is very much in dialogue with The Exorcist. You could even consider one as an attempt to exorcise the spirits of the other, but maybe that's overthinking things.

Russell Crowe plays Anthony Miller, an actor trying to keep himself in order as he portrays a priest in a horror movie about an exorcism. The film is called The Georgetown Project, and it bears a major resemblance to the landmark horror film famously filmed in that area (although that film is namechecked, which means we're in a world in which that film already exists). Miller is trying to stay away from alcohol, trying to stay connected to his daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), and trying not to be too disorientated by the content of the film, especially while the director (Adam Goldberg) keeps pushing him to tap into uncomfortable memories of abuse and pain.

The last time I watched Russell Crowe get involved with some demon-wrestling exorcisms was when I watched The Pope’s Exorcist. That film was fun, and Crowe seemed to be having a lot of fun in the lead role. This film is the polar opposite of that. Crowe isn’t having fun, and neither are viewers. 

Alongside Crowe and Simpkins are a great mix of players who all deserve better. David Hyde Pierce gets to utter dialogue that his most famous sitcom creation would justifiably ridicule, Goldberg is a cartoon depiction of an angry star director, Chloe Bailey doesn’t get enough to do, and there are irrelevant amounts of screentime for Adrian Pasdar and Sam Worthington. Simpkins probably fares the best, mainly because she’s at the heart of the drama without having to do all of the contorting and snarling that Crowe delivers.

Miller has done good work before this, and I am sure he will do something else worth my time sometime in the future, but this is truly dire. Maybe directing isn’t his strong suit, especially when you consider that this is only the second feature he has helmed in twenty five years. M. A. Fortin doesn’t help in his co-writing role either, despite being a long-term collaborator with Miller, which makes me think the biggest problem here stems from someone wrestling with a project that they cannot view with any objectivity. Miller is the reason this exists, and he is the reason that it collapses like an underbaked soufflé.

Although it’s all put together with the level of technical competence and polish that the budget allows, The Exorcism still manages to sink to the bottom of the 2024 horror movie barrel. And I can only hope that it stays there, perhaps pinned under anything else that we can send down there to ensure it doesn’t try to float back to the top.

2/10

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Shudder Saturday: Ladyworld (2018)

I was really hoping to start 2022 with a great movie. Well that didn't work out. Nope, not at all.

Although it sometimes depends on the mood I am in, I am always up for a horror or drama that tries to do something a bit different. I am especially keen to try and avoid pigeonholing movies into any one genre, something that saves me from the anger and disappointment I see people experience when something doesn't go along with certain standards that they themselves have imposed upon it. 

That's my way of saying that I was open to the idea of Ladyworld. I read the brief plot summary - a number of teenage girls become trapped after some mystery act of nature, they then start to unravel and turn on one another as their resources dwindle - and I figured that I might enjoy it. It may fit in some horror elements, it may just be a drama, it had the potential to showcase some great young actors and be a bit different from hundreds of other horror movies I have seen.

Sadly, the biggest difference this movie has from many other movies is how absolutely terrible it is. I ended 2021/started 2022 with one of the worst movies I saw/will see that year, which really isn't how I wanted things to go.

I'm going to blame director Amanda Kramer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Benjamin Shearn (although it feels like a film with a lot of improvisation between people who don't have enough experience in improv). At the most basic level, this is a gender-flipped riff on Lord Of The Flies, bringing the female experience to the material, but it does absolutely nothing of worth with the premise. Characters aren't developed well, dialogue is painfully bad at times, and the most interesting element, a potential male threat in their midst who attacks when individuals are away from the group, is so badly mishandled that it is too often forgotten while the young women go back to arguing with one another (which may well be a point being made, but it's still not one that is well done).

The cast generally don't seem up to the task of carrying the movie, with three of the main players providing varying degrees of irritation. Ariela Barer, Annalise Basso, and Ryan Simpkins are left out to dry by Kramer, who I suspect could have achieved much better results if she'd managed to create a more focused storyline. Maya Hawke and Tatsumi Romano barely manage to rise above the material, but they do enough to warrant being mentioned here as the only two positives I can think of.

As for the ear-damaging score from Callie Ryan, obviously crafted to create an atmosphere of growing tension, insanity, and a sense of inescapable confinement, I would have much preferred to watch the film with that bizzare "pen pineapple apple pen" song from a few years ago playing alongside the visuals.

Not even visually interesting enough to make it worth your time, there's almost nothing here to help any viewer want to watch the whole thing. A mess, and one that obviously thinks it is being artistically impressive and thought-provoking. I won't be rushing to seek out anything else made by Kramer.

2/10

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Netflix And Chill: Fear Street Part 2: 1978 (2021)

Leigh Janiak is once again directing this second instalment of the Fear Street trilogy, but it's Zak Olkewicz responsible for co-writing the screenplay with her this time around. Following on from the events of the first film, our leads end up at the home of C. Berman (Gillian Jacobs), someone who previously survived an attack from the witch Sarah Fier. A tale is told that takes us back to a summer of 1978 at Camp Nightwing.

Emily Rudd is Cindy Berman, a well-behaved and ambitious young woman at the camp, committed to completing tasks like cleaning the outhouse, with her boyfriend (Tommy Slater, played by McCabe Sly). Cindy's younger sister, Ziggy (Sadie Sink), isn't so well-behaved, and she's clearly getting a tough time from some of the other kids. But it turns out that she has an ally in the shape of young Nick Goode (Ted Sutherland). To cut a long story short, blood is spilled, the spirit of Sarah Fier grows restless again, and someone is turned into a mad axe murderer, looking to hack their way through camp and kill off every Shadyside kid that they encounter. Cindy and Alice (Ryan Simpkins), a close friend she grew apart from, end up stuck in a strange area that spreads out under the camp. They need to find a way out, but they also want to find a way to stop the killing, and/or stop the curse.

So, as you may have guessed, Fear Street Part 2 is basically a very familiar campground slasher movie, with nods to so many others coming thick and fast in every scene. The main characters are fine to spend time with, the rest of the plot is finely balanced between adding more to the overarching storyline without getting too much in the way, the kills are decent, if lacking any creativity, and there’s a decent twist before the end credits roll.

Janiak proves a good pair of hands once again, shamelessly revelling in the straightforward moments that could easily have been lifted from any Friday The 13th movie and circling around in ever-decreasing circles towards an ending that has to set up the starting point of the third, and final, instalment. The script does what needs to be done, weaker in the character development side of things (but what slasher isn’t?) while easily wandering from one plot point to the next, with an axe swing here and there to spray blood everywhere.

Sink and Sutherland work well together, Rudd and Simpkins also do good work, and Sly does well with the mean expression he has to plaster on his face for most of the runtime. And the other main character, yet again, is the overstuffed soundtrack, this time playing a selection of tunes from the seventies.

If you liked the first part of the trilogy then you should enjoy this one. It is fun, nothing more and nothing less, and it will be interesting to see if the final instalment manages to be just as entertaining.

7/10

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Shudder Saturday: Anguish (2015)

Inspired by true events. Every movie could use that, if you think about it. Does your film have one human being talking to another? Then it's inspired by true events. Does it show some particles moving through space? Then it's inspired by true events. Is it a tale of superheros battling supervillains, but also includes the previous elements? Then it's inspired by true events. My point is that this claim is often spurious, even more so than the "based on a true story" that all of us horror fans know to take with a pinch of salt nowadays.

But Anguish is inspired by true events. And, for all I know, it may have been so inspired by them that writer-director Sonny Mallhi tried to recreate everything as accurately as possible. Or maybe it was just a jumping-off point for this tale. Both of these approaches should lead to the same result, a movie that is ultimately worth your time. Sadly, this is not.

Ryan Simpkins plays Tess, a young woman who starts to become more and more unstable in her mental health as she feels as if her body is not her own. It seems that she may have been invaded by the spirit of a young woman, Lucy (Amberley Gridley), who was killed by a car while storming away from a heated argument with her mother (Sarah, played by Karina Logue). Tess's mother, Jessica (Annika Marks), obviously struggles to consider this scenario, although psychiatric treatment and even the idea of possession are not ruled out, eventually.

For a first feature, Mallhi does a lot right here. The script and direction are both decent, there's certainly nothing here that you can point to as completely incompetent (even if some moments are a bit heavy-handed and clumsy), and it's admirable that he tried to deliver something different from so many of the easier options horror fans are sold every other week.

Mallhi also does well with his casting. Simpkins is good in the lead role, and ably supported by Logue, Marks, and Gridley, as well as everyone else making up the supporting cast. Histrionics are on display every so often, but they feel more like breakdowns in mental health than overdone reactions to jumps and scares.

What isn't done so well is the tone of the film. The first half is especially bad, with a meandering and dull approach to the material. It is completely lifeless, no pun intended, and leads to a lack of interest in the main events, even as things start to become more interesting in the run up to the finale. And that isn't me simply demanding a horror movie provides more blood 'n' guts, or more scares (although, y'know, neither of those things are bad when there isn't much else going on). Mallhi doesn't even think of looking further into the psychological side of things, disappointingly avoiding a sense of ambiguity and exploration that would have made things significantly more interesting.

At least made with a bit of care, it's just a shame that Anguish doesn't say anything worthwhile, and doesn't make up for this by being more entertaining.

4/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.