Movies I wish I had skipped. This could be for any number of reasons: the film was made sloppily, the narrative didn’t engage me, or I simply could not connect with the film in any way for whatever reason.
After being terrorized over and over by Chucky (Brad Dourif), the serial killer trapped in a child’s doll, Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) seemingly has things under control, given he keeps the head of the doll behind lock and key with a blowtorch ready to melt him out of existence.
Meanwhile, Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) is held in a medium-security psychiatric facility after being Continue reading Cult of Chucky (2017) Movie Review
This review of Saw: The Final Chapter is part of the Saw Franchise Retrospective series in anticipation of this month’s release of Jigsaw.
If nothing else, the Saw franchise is consistent in its formula. A Saw film generally has two plotlines that are crosscut until a final reveal that either brings them together or brings them both to a “surprising” end.
Saw: The Final Chapter is a different beast. Continue reading Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010) Movie Review
40 years after a brutal murder took place at a house in Amityville, New York, a family moves in. The mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) wants things to be normal for her two daughters (Bella Thorne and Mckenna Grace) in spite of the medical condition of her son (Cameron Monaghan).
Given this condition, it makes little sense that he would be in a house and not a hospital, but we can let it slide. It is the reason why the family moves to the house in the first place, and it is an excuse for Continue reading Amityville: The Awakening (2017) Movie Review
This review of Catherine Breillat’s Anatomy of Hell is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.
In Anatomy of Hell, a woman (Amira Casar) pays a homosexual man (Rocco Siffredi) to watch her in her bedroom. This is after she saunters through a gay bar, committing herself to the tragic isolation of none of them wanting anything to do with her, and slits her wrist in the bathroom.
The things she has him experience in her room are sexual, to a degree. They are pornographic only insofar as they extend to Continue reading Anatomy of Hell (2004) Movie Review
This review of Saw VI is part of the Saw Franchise Retrospective series in anticipation of this month’s release of Jigsaw.
It was only a matter of time before Saw went socially conscious, and it does it in the only way it knows how: by pitting a smarmy insurance company suit (Peter Outerbridge) in a warehouse full of amusement park death traps.
Before this, however, we get the signature cold open trap, which is as silly and ridiculous as you would think. One thing to note about this scene that makes it more than merely a lazy and audience-baiting torture introduction is Continue reading Saw VI (2009) Movie Review
This review of Saw V is part of the Saw Franchise Retrospective series in anticipation of this month’s release of Jigsaw.
Continuing in the tradition of the Saw franchise, which somewhere along the way became more of a police procedural than a horror series, Saw V follows the exploits of Jigsaw’s protege (Costas Mandylor) as he corners in on the FBI agent who is cornering in on him, Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson).
Strahm finds himself early on in a trap which, unlike other Jigsaw traps, is not designed to have a feasible escape. With some quick thinking and a pen, he is able to Continue reading Saw V (2008) Movie Review
Breathe, which marks the directorial debut of famed motion capture actor Andy Serkis, is about the real-life story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), who after being inflicted with polio chose not to live the sedentary lifestyle that the disease relegated him to.
It is one of those heavily emotional films about Continue reading Breathe (2017) Movie Review
This review of Franck Richard’s The Pack is part of the New French Extremity Retrospective series.
Charlotte Massot (Emilie Dequenne) is running away from something. Her car is packed full, and she is driving until she runs out of CDs to listen to. Along the way, she picks up a hitchhiker (Benjamin Biolay) and they wind up at an off-road bar. When the hitchhiker disappears, Charlotte is too curious not to investigate the bar further.
Too bad for her, as she gets conked on the head and winds up in a Continue reading The Pack (2010) Movie Review
This review of Saw IV is part of the Saw Franchise Retrospective series in anticipation of this month’s release of Jigsaw.
Following the death of John Kramer (Tobin Bell), aka the Jigsaw killer, a tape is discovered in his cadaver’s stomach detailing a new game. Two police officers related to the Jigsaw case, SWAT member Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Lt. Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), disappear.
Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) is tasked with solving the latest Jigsaw mystery.
But who cares, really? Saw IV continues the Continue reading Saw IV (2007) Movie Review
Crime novel adaptations to the screen seem to not be faring too well. Last year’s The Girl on the Train is the most recent example, but now we have The Snowman to take up the mantle. Let’s just hope that Murder on the Orient Express does some justice to its source material and to the medium of cinema.
The Snowman begins in a flashback, in which a child witnesses the abuse of his mother at the hands of a police officer. This flashback establishes our killer, but it doesn’t Continue reading The Snowman (2017) Movie Review
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