For It Is Man's Number

Wednesday, 8 November 2023

Prime Time: Too Late For Tears (1949)

Another slightly lighter film noir, but not any worse for it, Too Late For Tears is a very enjoyable film that I have since discovered already has a decent fanbase already. I am, once again, late to the party, but I would argue that this remains a lesser-known title, partially due to the lack of many immediately recognizable names attached to it.

Lizabeth Scott plays Jane Palmer, a woman who sees a great opportunity to become temporarily wealthy when a bag full of money ends up in the car being driven by her husband, Alan (Arthur Kennedy). It’s the kind of monetary amount that must be needed by someone though, and those people will want to get it back. Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) thinks he can handle the situation, seeking to intimidate Jane before realising that she may be tougher than she looks, and there’s also a man named Don Blake (Don DeFore) asking questions. Jane has to fend off these men, as well as questions from her sister-in-law, Kathy (Kristine Miller), and she soon shows that she’ll do whatever it takes to keep that money for herself.

While he does have a couple of great movies in his filmography, director Byron Haskin isn’t someone too familiar to me. The same can be said of writer Roy Huggins (despite me enjoying Pushover, also written by him, last week, and noticing that he helped to create a couple of iconic TV properties). Regardless of my own familiarity with their names, both me work together well to serve up an entertaining noir that keeps us in close proximity to an enjoyably devious central character who keeps getting cornered in ways that make them increasingly dangerous to those doing the cornering. While the runtime is just a bit longer than the average you’d expect for this type of thing, it never feels slow or plodding.

Scott is a formidable presence onscreen, her head turned so quickly by the money that you just know she had already spent a long time looking to pounce on any slight chance to change her life. She’s convincingly manipulative and tough, becoming bolder with each success. Duryea is a typical tough guy, but less typically worried when he realises exactly who he is dealing with, and his menacing turn becomes a bit more nuanced as the plot continues to twist and unfold. DeFore is a bit more pleasant, and gets to share a number of scenes with Miller, a ray of light in the murky noir haze, that show both of them hoping to find out exactly what has gone on between Jane and Alan (who is AWOL for most of the movie, leaving Kennedy only required for a few scenes in the opening act).

Making great use of the tropes, with a particularly memorable femme fatale at the heart of everything, Too Late For Tears is a gripping thriller that manages to sustain an impressive amount of tension for most of the runtime. Absolutely recommended to fans of noir.

8/10

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Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Croupier (1998)

Although he doesn’t get an automatic free pass from me, film-maker Mike Hodges is someone who has done enough good work, and at least one classic, that I am always happy to give him some of my time. Croupier is a film I have been hearing praised for decades, but just never got around to seeing, and I finally kicked myself up the behind and got it watched. I’m glad I did.

Clive Owen plays Jack (although he spends a lot of time developing a personality he calls Jake), a young man who is directed towards a casino job by his father (Paul Reynolds). He shows great skill as a croupier, and hopes to earn enough money to afford him to pursue his real passion - writing. Becoming more and more intrigued by those around him, however, Jack soon starts to play with fire, but he’s not the only one who could end up being burned. There’s his partner, Marion (Gina McKee), other staff at the casino, and an intriguing gambler (Jani, played by Alex Kingston) who might not be as cool and collected as she appears.

Written by Paul Mayersberg (someone else with a filmography certainly worth exploring), Croupier is an enjoyably odd film, blending moments of grim realism with plenty of cinematic polish, delivering very familiar fare with laconic wit and a suitably wry performance from Owen. In fact, the leading man is so good in his role that many decided he would be the perfect choice for James Bond at this time. We know that Daniel Craig got the role instead, and I would argue that Owen has given us a number of other treats we would have otherwise been denied (do check out “The Knick”, if you haven’t seen it).

Hodges seems to enjoy wandering through this world, using the mirrored surfaces, security camera placement, and watchful eyes of the main character to show viewers an environment where the line between riches and ruin is about as thin as you can get. Casinos love to be busy, but their success depends on their customer base being happy to lose much more often than they win.

Owen is almost constantly assured and one step ahead of those around him. The couple of scenes that have him on the back foot are fleeting, but his inner sense of panic is easier to notice, due to any unforeseen eventuality being such a rare occurrence. It’s a fantastic performance, he feels at ease and professional when in the casino and has enough charm to keep viewers on his side as he starts to misbehave. Kingston is the other standout, and the chemistry between her and Owen is fantastic. She even does quite well with a South African accent that gives her an extra connection to our lead. McKee gets the short end of the stick, but she does okay with what she’s given, and both Kate Hardie and Nicholas Ball are familiar faces given key roles as they lead Owen’s character away from his rules and his own code of ethics. Alexander Morton is the casino boss, someone who comes across as harsh but fair, although he also seems quite naive when it comes to spotting problems/scams.

Playing out at times almost like a parody of neo-noir films, Croupier holds up well precisely because it doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. The very end of the film mishandles things slightly, with most of the plot strands tied up in a way that feels a bit too flippant, but it mostly succeeds in doing what it set out to do. Which is a good deal more than some manage. Good deal . . . get it? Because croupiers deal cards, and . . . right, I will end things here. Before the whole review turns into a bust.

8/10

Monday, 6 November 2023

Mubi Monday: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Writer Kelly Masterson may not have a long list of credits to their name, but they certainly provide quality ahead of quantity. I have enjoyed everything I have seen from him so far, and there are one or two of his screenplays that I absolutely love. Including this one.

Things pretty much start with a botched robbery. Gunshots are fired, and people are wounded, in potentially fatal ways. We then start to jump back and forth in time, watching both the planning for the robbery and the many loose ends that need tied up in the aftermath. At the heart of everything stands Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), two brothers trying to seize an opportunity. Both need a large cash injection to improve their lives, and both have feelings for the lovely Gina (Marisa Tomei). Both also find themselves way out of their depth as soon as their plans go awry, but one of the brothers may have more determination to do whatever is necessary to turn their mistakes into an opportunity.

Directed by Sidney Lumet, a man who has directed more classics than I could list here (just check out his filmography and start working your way through them all, you won’t be disappointed), Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is a classic neo-noir structured to draw viewers closer to the main characters before showing everything falling apart around them. Every extra detail revealed works to compound the initial error in judgement that set everyone on a path to somewhere predictably dark and unpleasant. Lumet isn’t interested in making things overly stylish or slick, and I don’t think he ever is, as he once again makes his life easier by marrying up a perfect cast to an absolutely brilliant script. There’s a sadness and desperation to the leads that stops them from ever feeling too entertaining or too cool, and each performance feels built wholly around a kernel of authenticity that makes it so much easier to watch the events unfold without feeling held back by a layer of cinematic artifice.

Hoffman and Hawke absolutely nail their onscreen sibling relationship, with both delivering superb performances that complement one another beautifully. Hoffman is the man with the plan, and the one who actually needs everything to work out as intended, while Hawke’s character is much more nervous, and much easier to push around than his brother. Tomei is an excellent choice for the role of Gina, a believable motivator for the men who want to keep her in their lives, and Albert Finney has a role that becomes more and more integral to the film as we watch things come to a head. On top of that, you have some screentime for Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, Alexsa Palladino, and Leonardo Cimino, all doing excellent work, whether onscreen for just the one scene of a few different moments.

Carter Burwell’s score is a beautiful accompaniment to the changing pace of the writhing plot, and the very end of the film has both Masterson and Lumet making a couple of strong choices that I think were absolutely the right ones, delivering a finale that is impactful and satisfying.

I don’t know why I didn’t ever make time for this before, but I am glad I finally got around to it now. Slot it into your own viewing schedule as soon as you can. I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed by this.

9/10

Sunday, 5 November 2023

Netflix And Chill: When Angels Sleep (2018)

A standard premise that can be used for a variety of genres, from comedy to horror, When Angels Sleep starts off by showing us a tired and harried businessman (Germán, played by Julián Villagrán) trying to get home as quickly as possible. He has already been chastised by his wife (Marian Álvarez) for missing his daughter's birthday party, but at least making the lengthy drive home in good time might allow him to regain some goodwill. It isn't long until he's pulled over by the police, however, weaving back and forth on the road after dropping off to sleep. The police take him to a motel and force him to rest up, an order he pretends to obey. Once back on the road, it's not long until his night goes from bad to worse, hitting a young girl with his car and then trying to convince her friend that he didn't do it on purpose.

Written and directed by Gonzalo Bendala (only his second feature, from what I could see), When Angels Sleep is a competent and well-made dark thriller, but it doesn't quite manage to keep viewers onside as everything escalates. Viewers don't really get to spend enough time with Germán before everything starts going wrong, we just know that he's a busy man who often seems too busy to make time for his family, nor do we get to get to know any of the supporting players that well. It's hard to think of a way this could have been fixed within the suitable runtime, approximately 91 minutes, but something else was needed here.

Villagrán is perfectly fine in the main role, even if the full transformation of his character doesn't land as well as it should (something I don't view as his fault), and Ester Expósito is very good in the role of Silvia, the young woman understandably terrified of someone she thinks has deliberately used his car as a deadly weapon, but they aren't fleshed out enough to carry what is essentially a two-hander for most of the runtime. Yes, Álvarez is also a constant presence, and other characters move on and off the screen, but the main tension, the main battle of wills, is between Germán and Silvia, and neither character shows us enough to get us fully on their side as a bad accident and horrible misunderstanding turns into something much more dangerous. Yes, we're automatically against the idea of anyone dying, of course, but there's a lack of tension here due to viewers not really caring about whatever the ultimate outcome will be.

Bendala does well in showing the escalation of events, but that's the only thing that he gets absolutely right. There's nothing else here that feels fully worth your time. Everyone onscreen starts in quite a bad place and then suffers as they move forward, there's sadly nothing here that is pleasantly surprising or unpredictable once Bendala gets the ball rolling on the main chain of events, and the coda at the very end of the film is as underwhelming and unsatisfying as a number of other scenes. You could watch this if you have nothing else prioritised ahead of it, but I would advise you that there should always be better options to give your time to.

4/10

Saturday, 4 November 2023

Shudder Saturday: Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

I am not going to spend too much time here repeating myself, but it's important to remind everyone that I am a big fan of the Hell House LLC trilogy (and I think we can continue to view that as a trilogy, considering how this film bases itself elsewhere, despite strong connections to the events that unfolded at the Abbadon Hotel). Found footage horror done right, I was equally excited and apprehensive when I heard about writer-director Stephen Cognetti making another trip back to that well.

Set in the titular Carmichael Manor, this is all about potential supernatural happenings being investigated by Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta), her partner, Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown), and Margot's brother, Chase (James Liddell). Having investigated a number of places over the years for her website, Margot quickly comes around to the idea that the Carmichael Manor might actually be the one genuinely haunted location that she has investigated. There are random noises heard, figures glimpsed, and horrible bloody clown mannequins that start developing a very bad habit of turning up in unexpected places.

I'm actually quite easy to make nervous when it comes to the right kind of horror. Anything to do with ghosts, or hauntings, has a chance to get me on edge, and keep me there for the duration. Throw in some creepy clowns and you have a perfect storm of factors to keep me wanting to watch events unfold from between my fingers. "The Carmichael Manor" continues to serve up the thrills and chills as consistently as the other Hell House LLC movies, and I view the whole series as a great example of how to do this kind of movie. Whether or not you end up enjoying these as much as I do, they really help to highlight the chasm that exists between the very worst and very best of found footage horror movies. Some people still think that you can make a movie by getting some friends together over a weekend spent wandering around an old building while filming a load of inactivity on your smartphone. That's not how you make an effective horror movie. This is.

Although there's the standard problem of having characters continually filming long after they would have bumped it down the list of priorities (with "staying safe and alive" being moved to the top of the list), the cast do a very good job here of maintaining their fluctuating group dynamic, delivering the required exposition, and becoming more and more afraid as the situation gets more serious. Liddell may have to play his character with a bit more emotional turbulence (he's brought along to help, but also to keep him busy after a recent "episode" that had people worried about him), but he does well enough with what he's given to work with. Perrotta and Brown do even better though, less hampered by the script, and both moving further and further into the "eye of the storm" as everything builds toward a foregone conclusion.

Although absolutely fantastic when it comes to building tension and presenting scary set-pieces, the film does falter when it comes to the unnecessary spiderwebbing plot. With the found footage framed by segments in which people talk about how events unfolded (hence the foregone conclusion, another mis-step in the script), Cognetti takes the opportunity to bring in more of the Abbadon Hotel lore. That's a real shame, particularly when the backstory of the Carmichael Manor is interesting enough as it is. I would have rather had less explanation, despite how nicely it does tie things together, and more ambiguity, and I rolled my eyes at a last-minute "reveal" that was signposted from very early on in the movie. It didn't stop me being a fan though.

Four films in, the Hell House LLC series has a chance at becoming one of my favourite ever horror brands, and I look forward to whatever comes next from Cognetti, whether he moves into new territory or finds other ways to tell more stories in this movie universe.

7/10

Friday, 3 November 2023

Noirvember: Jagged Edge (1985)

A script by Joe Eszterhas, a central character who is confident and sexy, but may also have committed a savage murder, and a major star helping to add some sparkle to enjoyably trashy pulp fare, it’s easy to see why some view Jagged Edge as a warm-up for Basic Instinct, but it’s also important to note that the two films are as different as they are similar.

Jeff Bridges plays Jack Forrester, a man accused of the vicious murder of his wife. He stands to gain everything from her death, and a lot of people know that the marriage had some problems, but he protests his innocence. Picking Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) as his attorney, a woman who had hoped to leave criminal law behind, Forrester soon learns that his good looks and charm won’t be enough to stop the truth coming out. And the truth isn’t very nice. But it doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer.

Perhaps I have been spoiled over the years, and I have certainly been influenced by seeing many other Eszterhas scripts onscreen before this one, but Jagged Edge is a surprisingly tame and polished affair. There’s an ill-advised blurring of boundaries between attorney and client, to put it mildly, and sex is weaponized in a way that will be familiar to those who have seen any of his other films, but director Richard Marquand never dwells on the lustier moments. He prefers to always circle back to the courtroom proceedings, or investigation ongoing during the trial, as quickly as possible. Where others may have made this an erotic thriller with just enough courtroom scenes to keep things grounded, Marquand delivers a legal thriller with just enough chemistry between the leads to keep things sexually-charged.

Both Close and Bridges are excellent in their roles, the former smart and tough, the latter attractively carefree and advantageously looking like . . . Jeff Bridges, and they work equally well together and individually, although the film sticks with Close for most of the scenes not set in the courtroom. Peter Coyote is the prosecuting attorney, Thomas Krasny, and he’s a lot of fun in his role, the typically over-confident prosecutor who starts to become increasingly nervous as more and more cracks appear in the case. Last, but not least, I have to mention Robert Loggia, stealing a couple of scenes as a private detective named Sam Ransom (a role that for him nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing out to Don Ameche for his turn in Cocoon).

Solid entertainment from start to finish, Jagged Edge just doesn’t have anything that really lifts it up. No pun intended, it lacks a bit of edge. Even the John Barry score feels a bit more restrained than it could be, although I may again be dealing with my own bias caused by exposure to other movies of this ilk. I certainly enjoyed it while it was on though, and it felt like a title I was long overdue to check off my “watchlist”, but I doubt I will ever rush to rewatch it.

7/10

Thursday, 2 November 2023

Noirvember: Pushover (1954)

A man and a woman meet in the kind of encounter that could lead to the 1950s version of a rom-com. She is having car trouble. He can offer her somewhere to stay while it gets fixed. But she may have another man in her life. And, as viewers find out in the next scene, her latest admirer is actually a cop.

Directed by Richard Quine, Pushover is an enjoyable film noir that pairs up Fred MacMurray (as Paul Sheridan, the cop) and Kim Novak (as Lona McLane), allowing them to struggle against their attraction as if both were magnets trying to join together as opposing forces keep showing how they should stay apart. McLane is a woman who is due a visit from her fella, a criminal who has hidden the money from a recent bank robbery somewhere, and Sheridan is one of the cops trying to ensure his arrest, but love complicates the whole situation. And greed. Love and greed. A classic film noir combination.

While not as dark and gritty as many other film noirs, Pushover is an excellent depiction of a man making one bad decision and then seeing events spiral way out of his control, causing the kind of damage that he soon realises there’s no coming back from. Apparently based on a couple of different source texts (“The Night Watch”, by Thomas Walsh, and “Rafferty”, by William S. Ballinger), the script by Roy Huggins continually builds momentum as everyone is dragged towards a tense finale. Quine ensures that everyone can see the pieces moving into place, and he does so without anything feeling rushed or illogical.

MacMurray does a great job of being the dependable guy we’ve seen him play in so many other movies (a man without malicious intent who is changed by the unfolding chain of events that he kickstarted), and Novak is already a shining star in her first credited feature role. If anyone is going to get themselves in big trouble then doing so for Novak feels like pretty good motivation. Philip Carey, Allen Nourse, and E. G. Marshall make up other members of the force who are focused on cracking the case, and all of them do well in very stereotypical roles, and Dorothy Malone stands out as a woman who inadvertently puts a spanner in the works of the unstoppable scheme.

This is never going to crack a list of top 10 film noirs, I doubt it would even crack a top 50, but Pushover is well worth your time. The leads have great chemistry, the supporting characters are all memorable in the right ways, and the tension keeps getting ratcheted up nicely as soon as one small error creates a tragic butterfly effect. I REALLY liked this, and hope others check it out.

8/10

Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Prime Time: The Usual Suspects (1995)

An astonishingly accomplished second film from director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie, who had previously worked together on their debut, Public Access, The Usual Suspects holds up as well today as it did when it was first released. Almost.

The story concerns five criminals who end up brought together by the police during an investigation. They are Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), Hockney (Kevin Pollak), McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Verbal (Kevin Spacey), and all five end up working together on a job that seems quite simple and profitable. Things soon become more complicated, however, when they are all informed that they have unwittingly crossed paths with a major criminal figure known as Keyser Söze. They now owe Söze, and he has a big job planned for them. This is all told to the viewer through flashbacks, with us hearing the tale as Verbal tells it to a tenacious cop named Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri). What starts off as the investigation of a heist gone wrong soon turns into a determined quest to uncover the real identity of Keyser Söze.

There's still a LOT here to enjoy, if you're a film fan or a noir fan, but rewatching The Usual Suspects is a way to savour many little details (mainly the nuances in the great performances from the ensemble cast) and pick apart a number of threads that don't seem to make sense. McQuarrie's script puts the emphasis on cool ahead of believability, but that's not a terrible thing when the dialogue is as crackling with energy as this is.

Singer directs with an assured hand, but he has such great source material to work with. The script is matched by the cast, and everything is lifted up by the editing and score from John Ottman. As much as I have enjoyed many films from Singer, he helps himself a lot by often combining the best cast with a good script (and we've subsequently seen the messy result when one of those elements isn't as strong as it could be).

Spacey is excellent as the figure at the centre of the spiderwebbing plot, a man forced into telling a tale to authorities that he hopes to use to avoid major jail time. Keaton lends weight to the central motley crew, the most serious figure forced to work alongside a group of skilled crooks who are more likely to land themselves in hot water than a big payday, and Pollak, Baldwin, and Del Toro are all excellent, with the latter having particular fun as he delivers his lines as unintelligibly as possible. Palminteri is enjoyably stern and tenacious, the cop probing even further as he feels himself getting increasingly closer to the full truth of the situation, and there are fun turns from Dan Hedaya, Peter Greene, Giancarlo Esposito, and Pete Postlethwaite, as well as one or two others (Suzy Amis is one of the few female characters, but she's given very little to work with).

Very rewatchable, and a lot of fun from start to finish, this remains a pretty great film. It just loses some power when you know what's coming, and when you can some time mulling over some of the more improbable plotting. Still highly recommended though, and certainly one that you need to watch if you've somehow not yet got around to it.

8/10

Tuesday, 31 October 2023

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

I don't want to seem too dramatic, but David Gordon Green has become a monster who must be stopped. I had worries about The Exorcist: Believer as soon as I saw the trailer (which basically sold the film as "if you thought it was scary to watch a young girl be possessed and endangered then wait until you see our film with TWO young girls being possessed and endangered). Those worries grew and grew as I watched what is now a new low point in a horror franchise that contains Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Here's as much of a plot summary as I can be bothered to give. Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) is a widow, and a father to teenaged Angela (Lidya Jewett). Angela heads off into some woods with a friend, Katherine (Olivia O'Neill), and the two girls end up missing for three days. Once they're back home, Angela and Katherine start acting rather strangely. Victor is unable to explain the change in his daughter, as are Miranda and Tony (Katherine's parents, played by Jennifer Nettles and Norbert Leo Butz, respectively). It's not long until we have Ellen Burstyn being pushed onscreen, bringing her character of Chris MacNeil into a tawdry mess that doesn't deserve the sense of legitimacy that her involvement gives it.

I am not exaggerating when I say that there is almost nothing here that will impress horror fans. In fact, most of the script, in terms of both dialogue (don’t get me started on that line about the patriarchy) and plotting, is laughably bad, and the material isn’t helped by visuals that are ugly and underlit. One moment focuses on a battle between elements that made me feel as if someone had spliced in a cut scene from a Mortal Kombat game. The blame lies with Green, but also co-writer Peter Sattler.

Odom Jr. is the best thing here, and there’s also a solid supporting turn from Ann Dowd, but they are the only people worth mentioning. I don’t blame anyone else for their performances, especially the younger cast members who admirably twist and throw themselves around in the more physical moments, but I wish there had been a cast of characters worth rooting for. There isn’t. This is a brand name in search of a worthy film, and that search may continue for a long time yet.

Considering what he did with another iconic horror property, I am worried that Green has some plan to link things together and ret-con past glories into his new creation. That would not be good. The only way this film is effective is in showing everyone how Green completely misunderstands the original classic.

Almost aggressively dumb and unsubtle throughout, aside from an opening sequence that I admit gave me hope that I might be in for something decent, this is a film made by someone who was told all about The Exorcist, but didn’t actually watch the film. It’s a film that somehow feels both overlong and yet also rushing to get to the lengthy exorcism sequence we all know is coming in the third act. And as for the score, and the “cheeky” music cue interwoven throughout a couple of key scenes . . . sometimes you just have to end a review with something simple and crude to express your opinion, so I say “f**k off”. That goes for so many aspects of the film that the makers thought would be cute and/or clever. And it goes for David Green.

Excuse me, I am setting up a crowdfunding campaign to help me hire a young priest and an old priest to keep Green away from any more classic horror movies.

2/10

Monday, 30 October 2023

Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

No Mubi Monday this week. I hope this shiny new film being reviewed will make up for it, especially when Mubi has a lot less horror movie content than most of the other big streaming services.

Based on the popular videogame series by Scott Cawthon, something I have very limited knowledge of (having seen it in passing during a time when my youngest daughter was a fan), Five Nights At Freddy's feels like it has been a long time coming. In fact, it took so long to be turned into a movie that we've already had a couple of films covering similar territory (one, Willy's Wonderland, more directly than the other, The Banana Splits Movie).

The main plot here is quite simple, as you might expect from a screenplay adapting a simple videogame. Josh Hutcherson plays Mike, a young man who ends up taking a job as a security guard at the long-abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant. The place used to be a popular venue for children wanting to eat some food while enjoying the impressive animatronics. And then the horrible event happened, something that viewers find out as the film plays out, and as Mike starts to find himself in increasing danger. It's not just Mike that Mike wants to keep safe though. It's also his much younger sister, Abby (Piper Rubio). But there maybe something in Freddy's that wants Abby to join in with the fun and games.

Directed by Emma Tammi, who also helped to co-write the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, I am sure of two things about Five Nights At Freddy's. First of all, it should please fans of the game series. Second, it's not very good. I didn't hate it, largely because I like Hutcherson (and I am also a fan of Matthew Lillard and Mary Stuart Masterson, both here in enjoyable supporting roles), but I never once felt properly drawn into the onscreen world. I know enough about the source material to recognise various details transplanted from game to film, and I am sure that there were many extra touches that went completely over my head, and staying faithful enough to the videogames (which, and please correct me if I am wrong, involve people spending a lot of time toggling between security cameras to keep enemies at bay) seems to have been a stumbling block when it comes to making a satisfying movie.

As well as those already mentioned, the other main character here is Vanessa, played by Elizabeth Lail. For as much as I liked everyone else, some more than others, Lail is sadly unable to do much with a character that feels more awkwardly shoehorned in than anyone else. She delivers some exposition, offers potential friendship to Hutcherson's character, and becomes increasingly involved in the second half of the movie in a way that makes her feel more like an interloper than someone worth rooting for. There are also supporting turns from Kat Conner Sterling, Michael P. Sullivan, David Lind, and Christian Stokes, but none of them are as memorable as the animatronics. Which is probably an extra way to keep fans happy.

As for the character and production design, all seems well. I know how recognisable and iconic the main characters are, they're enjoyably creepy and believable, and the film knows that the most important element is getting them exactly right. Tammi, working on something that's quite a change in direction from the other film I have seen helmed by her (The Wind, 2018), doesn't get much else right though, sadly. Things aren't bloody enough to make up for a lack of fun, nor are they fun enough to make up for a lack of blood. And someone forgot to tell people to make sure that the lighting levels are right, resulting in a number of scenes that will leave viewers squinting at murky, and almost impenetrable, visuals.

The other big problem here is the runtime. It's not wildly excessive, but 109 minutes feels a bit too long. Things aren't helped by the backstory for Mike, all to do with a younger brother who went missing years ago, when the film would be greatly improved by keeping things more streamlined and simple.

A lot of people will enjoy Five Nights At Freddy's. There's a huge fanbase already looking forward to welcoming it into their lives with open arms. I thought it was okay. The central idea, buried here under a lot of extraneous material, is a very good one, and the familiar faces in the cast helped to make it easier to sit through as I waited for the underwhelming third act to finish up. You know a horror movie isn't great when you find yourself wishing it had contained a few more jump scares.

4/10

Sunday, 29 October 2023

Suitable Flesh (2023)

No Netflix and chill on the blog this week, mainly because I had the opportunity to cram some of the latest horror movies at a local cinema.

Loosely based on "The Thing On The Doorstep", a short story from H.P. Lovecraft I read many years ago now, Suitable Flesh is a horror film written by Dennis Paoli that feels very much like a new film from director Stuart Gordon, despite it actually being directed by Joe Lynch. I don't say that to unfairly compare the film to past glories. I say it as a very deliberate compliment.

The framing of the main narrative involves Heather Graham as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, a therapist who is locked up and being interviewed by a friend and colleague, Dr. Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton). It turns out that Dr. Derby has been going a bit off the rails, to put it mildly, since her first encounter with a patient named Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). Asa kept making claims about out of body experiences, a problem that he kept linking to his father, Ephraim (Bruce Davison). Although it's easy to believe that Asa has mental health issues, it soon becomes easier for Dr. Derby to believe that there's something to his feeling of being taken over by another entity.

Made with what seems to be fairly limited resources (I would imagine that the budget went mainly on the cast and a couple of very impressive practical effects moments), Suitable Flesh won't necessarily draw people in from the opening moments. It takes a while to really settle in to what it wants to deliver, with that time laying groundwork that helps to acclimatise viewers to the wild ideas at the heart of the script. Paoli has adapated many Lovecraft tales before this one, of course, but he does some of his best work here when it comes to translating a head-scratching concept from page to screen in a way that doesn't lead to complete confusion and unintentional comedy.

Lynch does a very good job of working with everyone in a way that feels in line with the material. The emphasis here is on macabre fun, and the tone is perfect throughout, although it's just a shame that this is a film that has received comments for the amount of sexual content when it still feels rather tame compare to the films it is otherwise successfully emulating. Lynch keeps a lot of humour and transgressiveness onscreen, but there's a sense that he remains slightly restrained, trying to balance things out between the potential craziness and the ability to have the film be a marketable commodity.

Graham has a lot of fun in her lead role, going wonderfully over the top when playing the wilder incarnation of her character, I'd be tempted to even say that it is her best role in years, and Crampton is as good as she always is alongside her. Lewis moves between understandable nerviness and unnerving cool confidence, Davison makes a strong impression with his few scenes, and Johnathon Schaech is the confused husband of Graham's character, and someone who proves to be surprisingly easily seduced by some of the new ways in which his wife wants to fool around. Graham Skipper has a small role, a lot of fun as the kind of pathologist who eats his lunch over a corpse on the slab, and Hunter Womack is a likeable security guard who gets caught up in the escalating madness of a satisfying third act that pulls out all the stops.

Weird, wild, and brilliant, Suitable Flesh is a real treat for horror fans. The pairing of Lynch and Paoli is a rewarding one, I hope this isn't their only collaboration, and if they make any more vehicles for some of my favourite actresses then all the better.

8/10

Saturday, 28 October 2023

Shudder Saturday: When Evil Lurks (2023)

For those who saw it, Terrified was probably one of the best horror movies of 2017. More people still need to see it though. Anyone impressed by When Evil Lurks, a film by writer-director Demián Ruga that manages to equal his earlier film, will have something extra to look forward to if they are a complete newcomer to his work. The two films together show someone capable of delivering intense horror experiences in very different ways, one being creepy and atmospheric while the other is visceral and punctuated by moments of shocking violence.

Starting in a small village, this is the tale of a possessed individual ready to give birth to an incarnation of evil. Some people try to improve the situation by moving the body far away from any populated area, but they lose it in transit. That starts a race against the clock, with brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomón) attempting to stop the spread of the evil as they try to protect family members.

Much more of a straightforward flowing narrative than his previous feature, not including his segment in Satanic Hispanic (which I have yet to see), this is a film that prowls across the screen like a dangerous animal. Viewers soon start to learn the rules of engagement, making everything that bit more intense when you realise how much trouble our protagonists are in.

The cast do a good job, spending most of their time trying to conquer a sense of rising panic as they figure out a way to stay out of the grasping clutches of a growing evil presence, but it also helps that they weren't too familiar to me (a comment on my own ignorance of their work, not a comment on however many film roles they may have had before this). There's a feeling that anyone could be removed from the action at any moment, and nobody seems destined for a life lived happily ever after. Rodríguez is a good lead though, and his character is the constant driving force of the film. That's not to say that he makes the right decisions, but everything he does is understandable and with good intentions.

Rugna seems to be having a lot of fun here, having given himself a perfect storyline that can allow him to set up some stunning set-pieces (and at least one moment here had my jaw hitting the floor in disbelief at the grimness and savagery of it). This is for viewers with a strong stomach, as well as those who don't mind films in which children are just as endangered as adults, and it certainly lives up to the hype I've been hearing for the past couple of months.

There are some minor complaints, including some supporting characters not given enough to do, and a third act that is quite a step down from everything preceding it, but I was pretty consistently impressed by this. It feels a bit different from many other horror films out there, it's genuinely disturbing at times, and it solidifies Rugna as a formidable talent within the horror genre.

8/10

Friday, 27 October 2023

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

There are many people who believe that they need to watch a movie at least twice to firmly form their opinion on it. I am not one of those people. I do have times when I am forgetful though, which leads to a gap of a year or two in between viewings, which makes me very late in actually offering up a full review. Bizarrely, my opinion usually remains about the same as it was during my first viewing. Sometimes, although it is very rare, my opinion changes. Having first seen Annabelle Comes Home a few years ago, I forgot to review it and thought no more about it, other than to dismiss it as a slick and silly mainstream horror. Having just rewatched it as part of my spooky season viewing choices, I actually now think it’s a pretty good film. Many hardened horror fans may roll their eyes and protest my opinion, but I stand by it.

The plot is quite simple. It all starts with the Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga turning up to remind you that this is part of a connected horror movie universe) taking possession, no pun intended, of Annabelle the doll. Locking her up in a glass case in their room of forbidden and dangerous thingummybobs, all seems well. But, gosh darn it, they head out one evening and leave their young daughter (Mckenna Grace) in the care of a couple a teen babysitter (Mary Ellen, played by Madison Iseman, who is then joined by Daniela, played by Katie Sarife). You would expect nothing to go wrong, especially after the Warrens specifically say “do not go into the room of forbidden and dangerous thingummybobs, it will not end well.”

Oops.

The only film to date directed by writer Gary Dauberman (and you have to think this is a reward for his work in helping to grow such a popular horror “franchise”), Annabelle Comes Home throws a lot of spooky stuff again at the wall here, and Dauberman can take comfort in the fact that at least some of it sticks. Although Annabelle herself remains the central baddie, there’s a variety of spirits out to terrorize and trick our young leads (even if some do a lot worse than others, with a certain canine presence being a rather dire addition to the roster).

Dauberman may not have the knack for clarifying the set-ups and geography of the location, those two things have helped James Wan maintain his position as a fan favourite to many modern horror fans, but he puts everything in place, provides a handful of decent characters, and crafts one or two moments that feel impressively creepy.

Grace, Iseman, and Sarife are all likeable in their main roles, even when breaking rules that have been given to them for a very good reason, and Michael Cimino ends up being equally enjoyable in the role of Bob (a young man who has a crush on Mary Ellen, and inevitably turns up at the house when he would really be better off staying as far away from it as possible). Although not onscreen for long, Wilson and Farmiga have a couple of good scenes, and I didn’t mind the way they were used to effectively bookend the main story.

If you want something unique or terrifying then you already know to look elsewhere. This isn’t going to shake you to your core. It’s an enjoyable “ghost train” though, and makes great use of Annabelle by allowing her to be joined by a fresh selection of malevolent entities. Safe and somewhat predictable, admittedly, but also enjoyably atmospheric and spooky enough to make it a decent choice when you’re after some polished mainstream horror fun.

7/10

Thursday, 26 October 2023

Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

Although I put it off for many years, and didn’t hear anything from people who might want me to prioritise this as a viewing option, I decided to finally watch the last of the films that make up the original Psycho film series. Considering the obvious diminishing returns of each instalment, although that is not to dismiss the greatness of the second film, I hoped that this would still provide me with some fun.

Listening to a radio show, about killers who have committed matricide, hosted by Fran Ambrose (CCH Pounder), Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins once again) decides to call in and share his own informed viewpoint. He doesn’t agree with the views expressed by one of the guests (Dr. Leo Richmond, played by Warren Frost), and decides to give listeners the benefit of his life story. This allows us to then see a young Norman (Henry Thomas) living with his mother (Olivia Hussey).

Written by Joseph Stefano, this is a largely disappointing finale for a very unlikely film series. I am not sure that any of us really wanted to see Norman’s childhood (not until they found a better way to do it anyway, with the Bates Motel TV show) and the third act tries to add suspense and twists that fall completely flat. Having said that, it still partially succeeds as an ending for the character of Norman, giving him a closure that feels deserved, for both himself and fans of the series.

Director Mick Garris doesn’t do anything great, although he’s slightly hampered by a script that feels very comfortably within the TV movie parameters it was given. Things feel as if they are being marked off a checklist, from character details to shot choices, but there’s some fun to be had as viewers watch the important moments that turned Norman into what he is/was.

Perkins is very good once again in the main role, but he’s consigned to a supporting role in his own story, setting the scene for the other main players. Thomas and Hussey do well enough, although both are a bit over the top at times, and the focus is on familiar references and touch points ahead of natural and realistic characterizations. Pounder is perfectly fine as the DJ, Frost doesn’t get to do much (seemingly only there to have a character similarly named to someone else from the very first film), and Donna Mitchell plays someone pivotal to the whole plot, but also disappointingly undeveloped. Maybe giving her a bit more material instead of making time for a John Landis cameo could have helped things slightly, but what do I know?

I can’t say I hated this though. It was a bit of a chore at times, and some moments came close to being laughably bad, but I was ultimately won over by a cast all trying hard with very uneven material. I might never rush to rewatch this, but I am glad I finally got around to it. There’s an inevitable sense of satisfaction after joining Norman for the full journey.

5/10

Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Prime Time: Frogs (1972)

Some days you want to head to your local cinema to see the latest horror genre releases, some days you are browsing titles available online and see a thumbnail image for Frogs. I am not saying the latter is a good turn of events, but it’s how I ended up deciding to watch this movie. I knew nothing about it, aside from the title, but I was ready to be bemused and delighted. Well . . . I was certainly bemused.

I don’t even know where to begin with the plot summary for this. You may think you know the central plot idea, frogs gone wild, and it’s certainly part of the experience, but there are actually various creatures turning deadly here (including snakes and spiders). The main characters are a wildlife photographer, played by a discomfortingly bare-faced Sam Elliott, and a large family, headed up by patriarch Ray Milland, who live in the middle of a swamp area that is about to become much more dangerous to humans.

Directed by George McCowan, calling this balderdash is actually overselling it. McCowan doesn’t do much to help the material, the visuals are ugly and there’s not one bit of energy in any of the moments you might call set-pieces, and the script, written by Robert Hutchison and Robert Blees, isn’t even awful enough to laugh at. It’s just dull, with no characters to feel invested in and no real feeling of proper threat.

Elliott tries hard to be a solid central figure, even without the power of his moustache to help boost his screen presence, but he cannot overcome the weak material he has to work with. Milland is equally powerless, although he has one or two fun moments that allow him to grandstand in front of people who are forced to stay in his company. The rest of the cast includes Joan Van Ark, Judy Pace, Mae Mercer, Lynn Borden, Adam Roarke, and David Gilliam, none of whom really stand out. And numerous unidentified frogs, of course.

If you want a silly animal attack movie that is actually fun, but still quite awful, then I recommend Night Of The Lepus (the infamous “giant rabbit” movie). In fact, I recommend almost anything over this one, which is poorly-made and, worst of all, consistently dull. This would have been a very different film if directed by William Grefé, I know that much, and I think I will wash this one out of my brain by revisiting my Grefé boxset.

Awful stuff, and not just because they missed the opportunity to use the tagline “Frogs . . . everybody croaks.”

2/10

Tuesday, 24 October 2023

Saw X (2023)

I think everyone knows what this is about by now, but stay far away from reviews if you’re a complete newcomer to the series. Everyone else will already know what they’re going to get.

Although this is called Saw X, it could easily have been called Saw 1.5. John Kramer aka Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dealing with a cancer diagnosis that seems terminal. There’s hope on the horizon though, a cure mixing therapy and unapproved drugs that means traveling to Mexico. Kramer heads there, pays his money, and starts to hope that he will be cured. As those who have seen the rest of the movies in this series will already know, there’s actually no cure. Realising the whole thing was a scam, Jigsaw plans to play a game with those who have made money preying on people in his situation.

With a number of inventive traps and a handful of potential victims, mainly people who you could easily view as deserving of their fate, Saw X is a satisfying extra instalment in this long-running franchise. There’s some good gore, an attempt to keep this rooted in the convoluted and dense continuity already established, and a finale that reveals a couple of extra details while the familiar music starts to build and overwhelm your sound system.

Director Kevin Greutert seems to be a good choice for helming these movies, having helped to bring things back on track with the previous instalments he directed, and the script, written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg, manages to reframe our iconic horror villain as the hero of the hour without making it too intolerable. Despite the actions of various characters in the series, Jigsaw himself has always tried to set up his games with a strict set of rules (the main one being that anyone who survives is free to live their life with a renewed appreciation.

Bell is as good as ever in the main role, helped by the fact that he was already of a certain age when he first played the character, meaning he still looks the same nowadays and just has to cough and look ill in between his deadly lessons in morality. It’s a bit harder for Shawnee Smith, reprising a key role, to look younger than her years, but I appreciate that the makers of the film don’t try anything too silly to signify her youth (e.g. having her skateboard onscreen and talking in tiresome “coolspeak”). Smith does as well as Bell in terms of playing her character in line with how viewers know her from this time period. As for the potential victims, naming them in any kind of order might give an idea of their importance in the grand scheme, which is why I will just name Synnøve Macody Lund, the head of the whole operation and the one that we all know must be due a very special fate before the end credits roll.

The ridiculousness of everything is once again offset by the creativity and nastiness, a few moments here made me properly wince and wish for it to move away from the impressive gore effects, but it’s a shame that the pacing isn’t as good as it needs to be, although that is affected by the foreknowledge and familiarity that most viewers will have, which means a lot of time spent just waiting for the pieces that need moved into place for the grand conclusion. This feels unavoidable, admittedly, but the whole thing could have been streamlined by removing one or two moments of Jigsaw underlining his rules and methodology. And, I will say it, add another one or two victims to keep the blood and gore outweighing the screentime that doesn’t focus on deadly traps.

A good time for Jigsaw fans, even if it’s completely unnecessary and disposable.

7/10

Monday, 23 October 2023

Mubi Monday: Blue Steel (1990)

It is a happy coincidence that I have spent the past few months hankering for a rewatch of Blue Steel and it has now appeared on the MUBI streaming service. I couldn’t remember many details, but I remembered liking it. I hoped it would hold up as a solid thriller.

It does.

Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Megan Turner, a young woman who we see at the start of the movie finally achieving her dream of becoming a cop. She is barely on the streets for a few hours when she foils an armed robber in a store (a small turn from Tom Sizemore). One of the customers lying terrified on the floor is Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), a man impressed by Megan, and also impressed by the gun dropped by the robber. Taking the gun away for his own personal use, Eugene complicates the situation for Megan, who is subsequently investigated for shooting an “unarmed” man. And things get even more complicated when people turn up dead, shot with bullets that literally have the name of our heroine on them. What could make the situation even worse? Maybe Megan and Eugene becoming romantically involved with one another?

Co-written by director Kathryn Bigelow and Eric Red, Blue Steel is a 1990 thriller that feels as if it belongs in a later part of the decade. It has everything you expect from this type of thing, including a supporting cast of characters containing one or two people you know aren’t going to make it to the end, but one or two elements that help it to stand out from the crowd.

The first USP here is Ron Silver’s villain, equal parts charming and completely psychopathic. Silver is the kind of actor I miss nowadays, we don’t have a modern equivalent, and he is superb here, especially once he drops any facade and reveals his true nature, at a surprisingly early stage in the proceedings.

The second USP here is the brilliant commentary on the fetishization of guns. From the title to the opening credits, from the motivation of the villain to the changing power dynamics that depend on who is or isn’t armed at any one time, Blue Steel isn’t just a typical thriller with gunfights here and there. It’s a film that uses the broken mind of one man to show just how strange and dangerous the typical American “gun-worship” mindset is.

Curtis is fine in the lead role, if a bit unconvincing, but her main reason for being onscreen is to look attractive while holding an attractively alluring weapon (in the eyes of the villain anyway). Elizabeth Peña is the best friend, which immediately puts her in danger, and Clancy Brown is a gruff detective who enlists the help of our lead, which immediately puts HIM in danger. Kevin Dunn is a standard superior officer, reminding our lead of the rules and her duty, and there’s an enjoyable little turn from Richard Jenkins, the sharp lawyer defending his “innocent” client, as well as welcome, albeit brief, performances from Louise Fletcher and Philip Bosco, playing the parents who view the career choice of their daughter in very different ways.

Although it feels a bit flat during the final scenes, and those thinking Bigelow would throw more action scenes into this will be disappointed, Blue Steel works as well as it does because it never loses focus. It’s about a dangerous man falling in love with a woman, but he falls in love with her only because he sees her attached to a gun. And it’s a gun that drives almost every decision in this film, by being present or being absent.

8/10

Sunday, 22 October 2023

Netflix And Chill: The Curse Of Robert The Doll (2016)

It has been about eight years since I watched Robert, a spooky doll movie made to cash in on the success of Annabelle. This was the movie for those who weren't satisfied by the shots of Annabelle sitting there and just looking spooky. This was the movie that said "of course the doll moves, and it kills, and there's no need to be ambiguous or atmospheric". Oh, and it was apparently based on a true story. Robert has since had a good four or five sequels (maybe more, maybe some are prequels, either way you can consider it a potential cash cow for someone) so I figured it was time to check out another instalment in the series.

Robert has been placed in a museum. A young woman (Emily, played by Tiffany Ceri) takes a job at that museum, spending her nightshifts cleaning the exhibit areas, and soon starts to get freaked out by the presence of the spooky doll. She has good reason to, because Robert is able to get out of his glass case and kill people. As the bodies start to pile up, Emily and the security guard she has formed a connection with (Kevin, played by Jason Homewood), needs to convince people of the reality of the situation, which coudl also convince them of her own innocence.

Once again written and directed by Andrew Jones, The Curse Of Robert The Doll is probably a tiny bit better than the first movie. Or it's maybe just as bad. I would be lying if I told you that I remember anything from my viewing of the first movie. There are at least two human characters here making a reappearance (Jenny Otto, played by Suzie Francer Garton, and a toymaker, played by Lee Bane), which makes me think that Jones has at least attempted to maintain some continuity here. Of course, that's easier to do when it's only the second movie in a series, but I've seen some sequels that immediately discarded everything we'd seen in the first movie (yes, Full Moon Features, I'm looking at you).

The acting isn't superb, but nor is it awful. One or two people stand out for the wrong reasons, but Ceri and Homewood do well enough in their roles, Steven Dolton is a typically gruff detective, and Nigel Barber enjoys a small amount of screentime as the owner of the museum that has "lucked out" in gaining possession of the deadly doll.

As well as the writing and directing duties, Jones also takes on the editing. His approach is quite crude and clumsy, and unhelped by the lacklustre cinematography from Jonathan McLaughlin or weak score from Bobby Cole, two names that appear again and again throughout the filmography of Jones.

Although it avoids being painfully bad, The Curse Of Robert The Doll is disappointingly lazy from start to finish. Even the doll itself doesn't look as scary or menacing as it could, and it doesn't have any sense of escalation. We know from the start that Robert is a dangerous killer doll, which leaves us just waiting for the main characters to get up to speed. They piece things together far too slowly, and the moments that show Robert in full-on menacing mode are just a bit silly.

3/10

Saturday, 21 October 2023

Shudder Saturday: Night Of The Hunted (2023)

Director Franck Khalfoun has given us some great films. He made a strong debut with P2, and also gave us the impressive remake of Maniac. So it's a shame that he has helmed this, a remake of a Spanish horror movie, Night Of The Rat, that I have yet to see (and, sadly, only going by this mess, am now not in any rush to see either).

Camille Rowe plays a young woman named Alice. We know a few details about Alice that are shown or told to us from the earliest scenes. She is supposed to be heading to an appointment at a fertility clinic, but she is also not necessarily as keen on the idea as her partner is, considering she seems to have just slept with a work colleague. Anyway, the film really gets going when Alice ends up at a gast station in the middle of nowhere, becoming the prey of a sniper who starts to speak to her through a walkie-talkie. That's the concept, and it is, in theory, a good one.

While Rowe does a good job in the lead role here, and while there are a couple of decent bits of bloodshed to punctuate the cat and mouse scenario, there's a disappointingly juvenile approach to the characters. For how good Khalfoun is as a director, his writing, with Glen Freyer (reworking that original screenplay by Rubén Ávila Calvo and David R. L.), is absolutely atrocious. Alice has to be full of flaws, a whole assemblage of traits that can continue to feed the rage of the sniper. That's bad enough, but the sniper himself is a complete caricature, the kind of guy who began his journey decades ago with conversations that ended with him saying "ït's political correctness gone mad", voted for Trump, gets enraged at the thought of someone specifying preferred pronouns, and wants to fight back against everything he perceives as "woke". IF viewers had more of an inkling that this was all an act, an attempt to fool our lead into misunderstanding their motivation, then that might be more interesting, and fun, but it doesn't ever seem that way. And neither Khalfoun nor Freyer given our lead enough time or energy to refute so much of the bile being spewed forth through that walkie-talkie.

I'll begrudgingly admit that the technical side of things is perfectly fine, with the lone gas station location and the nearby sniper location always shown well enough to maintain the correlation between the two. The audio and visual work is unspectacular, but always clear enough, and there's at least some extra solace to be gained from the fact that the runtime clocks in at just over 90 minutes. It also helps that Rowe is an appealing screen presence, otherwise this would have been completely unwatchable.

A real mess of a film, and one that suffers from the fact that those making it obviously believe they are delivering some kind of insightful commentary. Unfortunately, they end up embarrasing themselves by (inadvertently, I hope) presenting something that isn't too far removed from the kind of propaganda piece that would be endorsed by the likes of too-stupid-to-be-that-smart-too-smart-to-be-that-stupid Ben Shapiro and co.

3/10

Friday, 20 October 2023

Grimcutty (2022)

The first full feature written and directed by John Ross, someone who seems to have been learning his craft over a number of years spent directing TV episodes and short films, Grimcutty is a horror movie that shows a manifestation of fear created while kids and teenagers become more and more engrossed in an online trend.

Our lead character is Asha (Sara Wolfkind), a young woman who spends some of her free time making ASMR videos for her YouTube channel. She isn’t reaching a huge audience, but she likes to think she is making progress. Like many other teens, her phone is her everything, whether it is for communicating with friends or making and uploading her videos. But there are times when her parents (played by Shannyn Sossamon and Usman Ally) try to spend time as a family without any distractions from mobile tech devices. This becomes even more of a priority when they hear about Grimcutty, a social media trend that has children pretending they see a strange creature before then attempting to harm themselves. Except . . . They’re not pretending. Not sure they trying to harm themselves. Grimcutty is out to get them, but the parents can’t see it.

This is another film that I forgot to review when I watched it the first time around, and the only reason for that was time and scheduling. Having seen many other people dismiss this, I was pleasantly surprised by something that tried to make the most of a fairly silly premise. It gets straight into the Grimcutty scares, and the creature is an interesting sight, not a million miles away from Death Note’s Ryuk, before the plot takes one or two interesting tangents on the way to a horribly disappointing final act. I wonder if it is the finale that soured many others on it, or if it was just too tame for those looking for some better scares.

Working well enough within certain limitations, Ross convincingly shows some teens in terror and numerous parents succumbing to overwhelming fear and a need to protect their children at all cost. A couple of key scenes help to show how the Grimcutty issue is affecting local citizens, but you it would have been nice to see a much bigger picture (either within the same zip code or possibly even nationwide). Considering some of the central ideas, Ross does a pretty good job of presenting some disturbing/potentially triggering content with a lack of ambiguity around the main characters. Nobody here actively wants to harm themselves, we viewers always know that Grimcutty is making it look that way.

The cast are a mixed bag, but Wolfkind is excellent in the lead role. She is believable and easy to root for at all times, and I even enjoyed the small clips showing her ASMR work (not my thing, but I am sure fans of that content can take that as a small extra plus point). Sossamon and Ally are generally fine as the parents, although the latter has to spend most of the second half of the movie becoming twitchy and harmfully obsessed in a way the viewers know could endanger the lives of those he is wanting to keep safe. It’s a real shame, and I think keeping him more ignorant and helpless could have been a much better decision. Others do what they need to do, whether they are helping or hindering our lead, but the only other person I will namecheck is Callan Farris, playing the younger brother who makes up the endangered central family unit. Farris isn’t overused, and he feels just right for his role, and the fate of his character really helps to make the finale better than it otherwise would have been.

There are a number of different directions that this could have gone, and most of them seem better than what we ultimately got, but I still enjoyed this for what it is. There is at least one great idea at the very heart of it, a really good lead, and a central creation that sits perfectly between fanciful silliness and very real threat. While the flaws become more obvious as I keep thinking on it, I had a perfectly good time with this while I was watching it.

6/10