Category Archives: Long Reviews (>400 Words)

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Halloween Horror, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Creep 2 (2017) Movie Review

Creep 2 is the Patrick Brice-directed follow up to 2014’s Creep, the mumblegore sensation starring Brice and Mark Duplass. In that film, written by the two but perhaps mostly just ad-libbed on the day by them, Duplass plays Josef, a man who hires a cameraman to make a film for Josef’s unborn son.

Of course, there is much more to it than that.

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In Creep 2, Duplass is back, and his deranged character goes by Aaron this time around. Aaron hires Sara (Desiree Akhavan), the host and one-woman crew of the webseries “Encounters.” With her Youtube series utterly failing, she is willing to Continue reading Creep 2 (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Loveless (2017) Movie Review

Loveless, Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s follow up to the Oscar-nominated Leviathan, truly lives up to its name. Bleak in both style and tone, the epic drama follows the disappearance of a young boy (Matvey Novikov) and the effect it has on his mother Zhenya (Maryana Spivak), his father Boris (Aleksey Rozin), and their respective lovers.

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The film implicates its audience in its social commentary—the gratuity of the film’s elongated final shot makes that pretty clear. But it is Zvyagintsev’s sense of Continue reading Loveless (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Cult of Chucky (2017) Movie Review

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.

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Meanwhile, Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) is held in a medium-security psychiatric facility after being Continue reading Cult of Chucky (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010) 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.

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Saw: The Final Chapter is a different beast. Continue reading Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Amityville: The Awakening (2017) 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).

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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 →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Indie Films, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Anatomy of Hell (2004) 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.

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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 →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) Movie Review

With a title like Brawl in Cell Block 99, one might think that S. Craig Zahler’s second directorial effort is an exploitation film filled with B-movie action. There are elements in the script and set pieces that signal toward grindhouse action, sure, but Brawl in Cell Block 99 is more than just a B-movie. It is a clever, exploitation action pastiche.

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Following Zahler’s first film, Bone Tomahawk, which seamlessly blended genres without sacrificing the artistic beauty or history of those genres, it is no surprise that Continue reading Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Saw VI (2009) 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.

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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 →

All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Saw V (2008) 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).

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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 →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Breathe (2017) 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.

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It is one of those heavily emotional films about Continue reading Breathe (2017) Movie Review →