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Scare Me (2020)
A different kind of anthology movie
Yes, it's an anthology movie.
Yes, it only has 4 cast members and only two of them are main cast.
No, they're not playing different characters in each story.
Honestly, I think we could do with a couple more anthologies like this one, this comes across like a perfect 'Saturday night with a friend or two' scenario where you sit around together, either around a campfire or a fireplace in someone's cabin (rented or otherwise) and tell scary stories. Yeah, some of the stories you tell might be a bit bleh, but it's the TELLING that's the whole point. The fun is in the way you tell the story. And honestly, this movie does a pretty solid job telling the story it has to tell.
It didn't give me much confidence in Aya Cash's range as I'd only seen her previously in The Boys and You're The Worst, and her character here comes across as pretty similar to Gretchen in YTW, but she does it really well and I don't imagine she's actually like this in person so even if she doesn't have the range of someone like Gary Oldman, she's great at what she CAN do.
Josh Ruben, on the other hand, I don't remember seeing in anything else but I enjoyed his work here and will definitely check out some of his other roles.
Honestly, if you don't go in expecting big scares or big-budget anything, if you just go in with an open mind and a hope to see some interesting work, you likely won't be disappointed. It doesn't do a lot, but it does what it does very well.
The Outer Limits: Under the Bed (1995)
It's not terrible? I guess?
This episode, like the last couple, doesn't quite feel as much like wasted potential as most episodes so far. They have a decent cast, a decent (if kinda overdone) premise, and they don't try to do too much with it.
The effects for the 'creature' are pretty good too, all things considered, and they don't overhype or under-deliver when they do finally reveal the 'boogeyman'.
In the end though, I do still kinda feel like my memories of this show as a whole are far too coloured by rose-tinted glasses as it's still not living up to what I remember. Maybe it'll start to pick up a bit over the nest few...
The Outer Limits: Corner of the Eye (1995)
The best so far?
Len Cariou + Chris Sarandon SHOULD = a really good drama-based experience, and while this one isn't at all bad (possibly even being the best episode so far), it's not quite as great as it should be.
The premise is good, the cast is solid, including a young and almost unrecognisable Callum Keith Rennie, and it's well-paced even if it could have benefited from even just another 5 minutes in the climax, which was actually pretty well handled all things considered.
That's the only real problem though, the ending feels kinda rushed, like they misjudged everything by just a few minutes and panicked to get to the finish line...
The Outer Limits: Living Hell (1995)
A great premise let down by bad casting
What really is a great premise for a science fiction thriller - a man shot in a mugging receives an experimental chip implant designed to help regulate his brain and heart activity and ends up connected to a serial killer - is ultimately handicapped and hamstrung by weak casting in the lead role.
I have no doubt that Sam Robards (son of the great Jason Robards) is a very capable actor considering he's still working pretty solidly, he just doesn't feel like a great fit for this story. Neither does Elizabeth Peña, for that matter, though that may be because I'm just not a fan of hers to begin with. I mean, she's not terrible or anything, she's just kinda...there? The star though, for me, is Don S Davis, even in his limited appearance.
They really did waste a great premise with terrible casting...such a shame.
The Outer Limits: Virtual Future (1995)
Getting...better?
Although the story still isn't all that great, at least they don't completely waste their two leads - Josh Brolin and David Warner, both of whom are really good here, even if David Warner is leaning hard into his typecasting as a shifty businessman. The story itself is very Stephen King's The Dead Zone with the twist of a VR Project that can see the possible future rather than someone with tactile clairvoyance.
While the story could easily have been filled out to feature length without risking too much, they did pretty good in filling up an episode of this series.
Honestly, though, I'm starting to wonder if nostalgia isn't doing a LOT of heavy lifting in my favourable memories of this show.
The Outer Limits: The Choice (1995)
Underdeveloped
This episode REALLY would have benefited from a longer runtime, closer to that of the pilot episode - Sandkings - because there's definitely potential here.
Thora Birch is decent as a Carrie-esque young girl with apparent telekinetic abilities who, rather than being mistreated by an over-bearing religious nutter in the shape of Piper Laurie is instead well loved by concerned but caring parents in the shape of Page Fletcher and Sandra Nelson. Enter a 'nanny' who seems to have similar, if weaker, abilities and a shadowy 'government agency' that are hunting women with these abilities and you've got a somewhat promising combination of Carrie and Firestarter. Again though, they don't fully commit, seemingly choosing to go in a more teen-friendly direction.
They also commit the heinous crime of utterly wasting the wonderful Frances Sternhagen...
The Outer Limits: White Light Fever (1995)
More wasted potential.
I think I'm going to have to look into William Hickey's filmography to find out if he was always this old, and always played self-centred old curmudgeons. He was certainly good at the role, especially here and in Mouse Hunt. As good as he is, though, he's wasted here in a script that wants to have things both ways at the end.
Also wasted here is Bruce Davison as the doctor employed by Hickey's cantankerous billionaire to help him cheat death permanently by building a pacemaker-like cage for his heart, and threatening to pull all the funding AND destroy all records concerning this life-saving work.
If only they'd committed to an actual ending...
The Outer Limits: The Second Soul (1995)
Wasted potential
This episode really could have been something special. ALL the makings are there - a solid cast lead by Mykelti Williamson, Rae Dawn Chong, and D. W. Moffett in an intriguing story about an alien race making contact and asking for Earth's help, as well as some realistic-feeling story beats - but it's all kinda squandered by foolish script decisions which ultimately leave the ending feeling really kinda flat. What SHOULD have been a great episode with some powerful human moments, ended up being all smoke and mirrors.
Perhaps if Hollywood's creatively bankrupt Remake Machine turned its sights on shows like this, and remade some of these episodes to fully reach their potential, they'd be in a better financial position...
The Outer Limits: Blood Brothers (1995)
Could have been better
Another sadly predictable, though still very well acted, episode of The Outer Limits, with the only real highlights being the opportunity to see a rather young Tom Cavanagh as a lab assistant to the always-fun Charles Martin Smith.
The story itself, though very capably handled, is the age-old tale of altruism vs greed when a possible Cure To Everything drug - effectively an immortality elixir - is discovered by a scientist just trying to find a 'better cure' for viral infections. The ending is also pretty predictable for anyone who's spent any decent amount of time watching science fiction movies and TV shows.
Still, it's well worth a look even if just for the cast.
The Outer Limits: Valerie 23 (1995)
Predictable but highly enjoyable.
Not just enjoyable because we get to see some full-frontal female nudity (that's really just a bonus, especially as Sofia Shinas is stunning anyway) but also because we get to see William Sadler (who's always a joy to watch on screen) and Robocop's Nancy Allen.
The story IS predictable - a wheelchair-bound scientist working on synthetic human skin gets the chance to 'test run' a robotic companion the company he works for is also working on, he and his physiotherapist get unethically closer, the robotic companion gets jealous - but it's well-acted and well-written, and maybe I'm just a bit biased because being a bit of a shut-in myself I like the idea of having a robotic companion like this one, even without the intimacy.
The Outer Limits: Sandkings (1995)
More 'interesting' than 'great' but still good
Probably the most interesting thing about this episode in this day and age is seeing 3 generations of the Bridges family on screen together - Lloyd, his son Beau, and HIS son Dylan - playing those same positions of grandfather, father, son. Oh, and getting to see a younger Kim Coates.
The story itself is decent enough, too - creatures found in a soil sample from Mars, by Earth scientists, are deemed too dangerous to live but the man who made the initial discovery takes matters into his own hands and hi-jinks ensue - and it's all acted capably by the aforementioned actors and Helen Shaver.
The 'moral' is pretty predictable, but really, it's the journey that we're here for and it's a decent enough journey.
Kristy (2014)
There is no Kristy, only Zuul
I'm kidding, there's no Zuul either. Seriously though, the film is called Kristy and the 'aim of the game' for the killers is to kill Kristy, but THERE'S NO KRISTY ANYWHERE! They just kill random girls and call them all Kristy!? I think the killers have been doing too much meth. Either the killers or the script writer.
On a more serious note, it's really not that bad a movie, it's just kinda slow getting anywhere, and I was kinda taken out of it a bit at the start because both the lead - Haley Bennett's Justine - and her boyfriend - Lucas Till's Aaron - look like brother and sister. Beyond that weird casting choice though, is a decent enough movie. I wouldn't rush to watch it again, but I also wouldn't warn anyone off it, I'd just kinda warn anyone who wants to watch it not to get your hopes of it being great too high.
Passengers (2008)
Lionsgate+ lied to me!
So, yeah, Lionsgate+ lied to me. They used a still from the 2016 sci-fi "Passengers" to advertise this one, I haven't seen the 2016 one so I kept waiting for Michael Sheen to pop up in this one. He didn't.
I'm not that mad about it though, this was still a very good movie AND it has David Morse! He's not Michael Sheen but I think I love him more than I do Michael.
Anyway, they also marketed this as a horror/romance and there's not really a whole lot of either if you ask me. Sure, there's a sex scene, and there's some scenes of a patient coming onto their therapist, but that's about it.
I think what really sold this for me, though, was maybe twofold - it's got a really good cast with David Morse, Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Clea DuVall, Diane Wiest, and Andre Braugher; and it's got a really interesting final act that I didn't quite see coming. That MAY be because I don't go trying to predict what's coming though...
Seriously, it's definitely worth a look even if you just watch it for the cast.
Civil War (2024)
What's so civil 'bout war anyway?
So many of the people writing reviews for this movie seem to have missed the entire point of this movie. It's not ABOUT telling you who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. It's not ABOUT telling you what everyone's politics are. They SPECIFICALLY don't refer to the President by any kind of identifier - no name, no party affiliation, nothing - other than "The President", because it's not about politics in that regard. It's about how politics can so easily divide us. The focus is on the journalists for a friggin' REASON, people.
If you want to know who's "good" and who's "bad", put yourself in each person's place. If you're part of "The Western Forces of Texas and California" then you see yourself as the good guys and you see "the United States Military" as the bad guys, but if you're one of the people following this "three-term President" then you see yourself as one of the good guys and you see the Western Forces as the bad guys. The entire point is that you DON'T KNOW the political leaning of either side other than what the movie tells you about what everyone is fighting over, which is next to nothing.
Anyway, rant over. I really enjoyed this movie. Not in a "wow, that was a fun movie!" way, but in a "I couldn't take my eyes off the screen because it was so engrossing" way. I appreciated that there was next to nobody that I'd seen before aside from Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons (who isn't even credited anywhere) because it helped keep me in the movie rather than taking me out. I also REALLY appreciated that they didn't 'Hollywood-beautify' Kirsten Dunst to make her seem younger than she is, they let her play someone with noticeable age in her face.
In short, this movie is just further proof that Alex Garland and A24 are both cementing their place as a director and.a production company, respectively of course, worth watching closely.
May (2002)
Perfectly odd
A little warning first: this movie doesn't hold your hand and spoonfeed you. It expects you to actually watch and think. If you can't do that, then best give this a miss. Now that that's out of the way...
For my money, this is one of those rare gems that you really SHOULD watch if you have even a passing interest in movies that are 'off the beaten track'. It has moments of darkness, moments of lightness, touches of comedy (but not the belly-laugh kind of comedy), and just a few moments of horror. Sometimes all of these at once. But mostly it's the story of an odd little bean of a woman named May.
May doesn't quite 'fit in' anywhere because she's, as I said, an odd little bean. She'd been bullied when she was young because of a lazy eye and now yearns for acceptance by others but doesn't quite know how to relate to anyone except her best friend Suzie - a doll in a smallish glass display box - and this movie is the story of her journey attempting to connect with others and fumbling it one way or another until she makes one big decision...
Truly, it's worth a watch, especially if you're sick of carbon-copy prequels and sequels and rip-offs and movies that spell everything out for you like you're a 7-year-old just learning to make your way in the world.
Borderlands (2024)
What. Is. THIS?
Even just with the cast they have, this SHOULD be at least a 7-star movie, bordering on 8-star. I mean, there's Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gina Gershon...umm...did I mention Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis?
Seriously, how did this mess get made? It's almost like the writers looked at one short cut-scene from one Borderlands game and had a stroke mid-thought or something. The dialogue is atrocious, the 'humour' is terrible and spread thicker than Vegemite on an Australian's sandwich, the 'action' has literally no weight to any of it...it's just a big old mess. Thank Handsome Jack it's on Prime to watch for free because that's the only way anyone would be dumb enough to watch it. And yes, I'm calling myself dumb.
Disturbia (2007)
What kind of clown names their kid Kale??
But seriously, aside from the RIDICULOUS name given to Shia LaBeouf's character, this is a pretty capable reworking of Hitchcock's movie Rear Window.
Shia plays his usual charismatic, affable, ever-so-slightly-nerdy-and-awkward style well here, Sarah Roemer is decent enough to make her Ashley more than just "the hot girl next door", and Carrie Anne Moss is...there? She really could have been replaced by almost anyone because she's barely there.
David Morse, however, is the real star for me. Even though his character is absolutely nothing remarkable, and doesn't distinguish himself at all from the dozens upon dozens of similar villains in similar movies, there's just something about David Morse himself that always gets me invested.
All that being said, it IS a capable movie, but it's not a Must Watch. It's definitely a You Could Do Worse movie, though, so there's that...
Possessor (2020)
So perfectly Cronenberg
This is definitely a weird one, and there were actual moments when I had to look away because my stomach couldn't handle it. Which is rare because I can almost always handle movie gore, it's real-life gore (like medical operations) that do me in.
That being said, I had trouble taking my eyes off the screen for the rest of the movie, it was that good. It's very strange and disjointed, typical of a lot of Cronenberg Sr.'s work, but it's really not that hard to follow if you pay attention. It does help to have a background in Cronenberg Sr.'s work (and maybe even a good bit of David Lynch), but even if you don't have much grasp of any of that, a little bit of attention paid, and a good helping of brain power, will see you through pretty solidly.
It also helps that, along with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Sean Bean, you get to see more of Tuppence Middleton and Christopher Jacot. Andrea Riseborough is absolutely the star here though, and not just because she plays the main character, but also because her performance is just incredible.
Revenge (2017)
One of my favourite revenge movies.
Gee who'd have thunk it, a revenge movie called...Revenge? Brilliant! I'm kinda joking, but it is a clever move considering the state the movie industry is in lately.
My ONLY gripe, and this is a highly personal one, is that I'm a weak-minded monolingual White Man, and I had no idea this wasn't 100% in English, so I couldn't do anything during the 'slower' sequences because that's where all the talking was. That being said, it's a very minor gripe and probably even served to keep my eyes on the screen for the whole movie, ensuring I missed almost nothing that was happening. It actually took NOTHING away from the movie, and if anything just kinda reminded me that I need to get my act together and start learning other languages.
The action sequences though? Incredibly fun! Yes, there are a lot of "that's not how that works in real life" moments here, but this isn't real life and if that's how this movie wants those things to work that way for stylistic reasons (or really, any reasons) then that's how it works for THIS MOVIE. Also, when I read that they kept running out of fake blood while shooting this, I was expecting scenes akin to the blood fountains in Kill Bill or in Wednesday Addams' Thanksgiving Day play, but they ended up being far better, at least as far as the plot here is concerned.
Matilda Lutz is VERY good as Jen - a woman who goes from being a very intentionally, and consciously, sexual and incredibly tempting woman to a very determined and deadly killing machine. Again, there's a number if things about specifically HOW she does things that make no sense in the real world but they make sense for this movie's heightened reality, and they do nothing to detract from how Matilda portrays Jen's determination. Vincent Colombe and Kevin Janssens are also really good as the piggish Stan and ultimately cruel Richard respectively, but Guillaume Bouchède is ultimately completely forgettable as the lazy Dimitri, a man who is almost never seen without some kind of food in his hands and mouth.
I don't know why it's labelled as a horror though...maybe because of all the blood?
Lake Mungo (2008)
It could have been more.
Another solid Aussie effort in the Found Footage/Documentary genre, but it could have been so much better than it is. The cast are decent enough, even if a couple of the boys look more like they're trying to act natural than just being natural.
They also try just a little too hard with the twists and revelations and could easily have left one or two out, and followed one particular one that does get kinda forgotten.
What it does best, though, is really just capture that quintessential Aussie character that literally nothing else can mimic, not even the most well-meaning Hollywood movies can replicate it.
The Tunnel (2011)
A solid effort, well worth a watch
JUSTICE FOR TANGLES!
This movie is another example of how good Aussie film-making can be. For every The Hunt/The 7th Hunt you get this, or Talk To Me, or even Razorback. While it's not particularly scary like Talk To Me and Razorback can be, it's still a solid, well-made entry in the Foundumentary genre, or whatever you want to call it when Found Footage meets Documentary.
The cast are all pretty good for what this is, with a special shout-out to good ol' Peter Overton who adds at least a little bit of realism to the documentary stylings, but the real star for me was Luke Arnold as Tangles, he's ALWAYS fun to watch.
They did a pretty good job with the barely-seen antagonist here too, using the lighting (or lack thereof) of the tunnels to reveal just enough of it to give you the creepy vibe they're after while still hiding enough of it that they didn't have to risk a bigger budget on makeup/prosthetics that might have ruined the whole thing anyway.
It's not necessarily one of the best Found Footage movies out there, but it's very well made and it's definitely FAR from being among the worst. Like Dashcam...
Alligator (1980)
Aged pretty well, all things considered
For a mutated Jaws clone, this isn't too bad really. It was never gonna reach the heights that Jaws did, but then I don't anyone expected Jaws to reach the heights Jaws reached, so there's that, but it's also no Santa Jaws, so there's that too...
The cast are all pretty decent at their jobs too, especially Robert Forster as the cop investigating a series of apparent murders, and Robin Riker (who's pretty damn cute here) who plays a herpetologist whose father flushed her pet baby alligator down the toilet when she was younger. That being said though, the acting doesn't seem that demanding here, and in fact if this was made today, as it is, I think even Jamie Kennedy would be in with a shot.
What we're all here for, however, is the alligator itself. And in the end it's not that badly shot. Yes, some of the scenes are obvious miniature sets and not at all convincing, but that's beside the point. The alligator itself is a hell of a lot more convincing than in a lot of other Jaws clones. Even some of the more recent ones...
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
The hype is warranted
I really didn't know what to expect going in to this movie. The promotional poster gives me Conjuring/Insidious/etc vibes, but it has Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch in the cast and I've always associated those two with movies that are a bit more on the thriller/tension side of things than The Conjuring and co. Besides, Stephen King had high praise for it, and as well-made and enjoyable as they are, the aforementioned movies aren't that scary to me. What I got was far better than I expected, given all that.
Granted, I didn't find it all that scary when all is said and done, but I DO think they did an incredible job with the tension and the creepy, oppressive atmosphere. The 3 leads were fantastic too. Olwen Catherine Kelly was especially good considering she was playing a dead woman, and had to actually LOOK dead - meaning no movement at all, no blinking, no breathing...granted she wasn't technically acting, and was 'just' exercising incredible control over her body, but it was still impressive.
I wouldn't say there's a great deal of "actual horror" insofar as there's nothing I would call gore, no brutal murders shown, no mutilation aside from the actual autopsy procedures, but it's still one of the most engrossing and enjoyable horror movies I've seen in some time.
Oddity (2024)
Much better than I expected.
Carolyn Bracken does a VERY good job here, playing twin sisters with starkly different personalities, and there were times when I genuinely forgot I was watching the same actor playing both parts. It's just a shame the rest of the cast weren't on her level. That being said the others aren't terrible, exactly, with Tadhg Murphy's Olin Boole being the standout of the supporting cast and Gwilym Lee's Dr Ted not too far behind.
The story itself isn't really anything new - one twin gets murdered and The Wrong Man is seemingly convicted, so the other twin comes to find the real killer who turns out to be...", but having the surviving twin be blind IS kinda fresh. However, this movie's real strength lies in Carolyn Bracken's performance as both sisters, handily backed up by a pretty solid tension building up around the situation.
Yes, it probably could have been 'better', but to be perfectly honest I really enjoyed it as it is.
Azrael (2024)
This movie DOES NOT SPOONFEED YOU! You've been warned.
The problem that most people seem to have with Azrael is that the movies doesn't hold your hand, it doesn't spoonfeed you every detail, and it doesn't spell ANYTHING out. If you need any of that from your movies, turn away now.
For those who don't need to know every single detail of who/what/why/where/when handed to them on a platter, this might just be something you'll enjoy. I know I did.
It's an interesting premise - it looks like either the world is post-apocalyptic, or we're seeing some kind of cult/commune that sprang up in some kind of Eastern European forest (based on my limited knowledge of forests, all gleaned from other movies), or perhaps both. Literally NOBODY in this cult/commune talks, they all communicate through whistles, body language, or head/eye gestures, and the only explanation for this lack of speaking is a couple of passages of biblical-seeming text that pop up here and there on screen. The wind seems to suggest the passage of some kind of otherworldly/demonic force, and there's at least one creepy humanoid creature in the forest that's drawn to blood. Beyond that, you'll have to watch to find out what it's all about.
Trust me, though, it might just be something you'll enjoy if you don't need every single detail of a story's setting spelled out for you. Plus, it DOES have Samara Weaving...