The Black Phone (2022)

This movie is.... troubling...

Very troubling.

First ,you have the subject matter... Children abduction and murder...

Then you have, what children with a drunk and broken parent can go through.

I was... quite disturbed at certain parts of the movie.

The "lead actor" Mason Thames (who plays Finney) reminds me of Brad Renfro (may he rest in peace).

The main star of the movie for me is actually Madeleine McGraw (who plays Gwe, Finney's sister).

There were some rumblings of how great Ethan Hawke is in the movie... I think he was better in Sinister (2012)...

So, in summary, story is decent, acting good all around and direction was competent.

My main issue with the movie is

This is a dark movie.

It does not portray every single act of violence that occurs (thank goodness) and actually forces the audience to "imagine" the violence that happens to the captured children and that is one of the disturbing thing of the movie, for me...

So if you like movies which main objective is to appall you, this is THE movie!

My Two Sen

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Jul 16 2022, 11:28 PM

It's a Blumhouse production. That's their release tactics. Moderate hits can go sequel. The Purge, Happy Death Day, Split, etc... Furthermore the production cost is spare change to Universal and Joe Hill already drafted a roadmap to sequels.

Really? For me personally it was just alright. Started off promising, and the Grabber's character was portrayed disturbingly.

However as the story develops, it started to seem a little cliché. Sadly it didn't give me any surprises or plot twist I was hoping for all in all, I suppose still an entertaining watch.

I love Happy Death Day and is still hoping for part 3

That's why all in all, I guess it's an average watch for me.

Incantation (咒)



-> Taiwanese film on Netflix
-> Language: Mandarin

Plot (taken from https://www.hitc.com):
Incantation tells the story of Li Ronan, who believes that she has been cursed ever since breaking a religious taboo and disrupting a powerful shrine.

To Li Ronan’s horror, the curse starts to impact the people around her – focusing on her young daughter as it appears to feed off her growing fear.

My thoughts:

Horror footage kinda theme - just like Blair Witch Project/ Paranormal Activity, just better in terms of quality. The videos were high-res, not shaky and bright (so you could see the surrounding clearly).

It's worth a watch but not so much worthy of the hoo haa that was made to it. It bore some similarity to The Medium (Thai), to which I find The Medium creepier. There isn't much jump scare as opposed to shocking visuals that they'll show you. The film also aim to interact with the audience and that's something new that I'll give thumbs up to.

What I didn't like:


My rating: 7/10

Prequel to surprise hit X.

The Medium (2021)

A documentary style horror movie from the director of Shutter. Starts off really really great, but there's alot of mixed messaging towards the end. Hard not to compare this to The Wailing, as it gets pretty similarly crazy towards the end. But the found footage aspect did alot of disservice to the subject material IMO, those found footage cliche especially gets real annoying as they are supposed to convey thrill but fell flat. Overall, great 2/3rd, divisive 3rd act, decent gore and amazing atmosphere.

Also...truly amazing cinematography in this, hot damn. Rural Thailand area never looked this good on film.

6/10

This post has been edited by ray148: Aug 14 2022, 11:53 PM

well interesting, I loved wailing but the ending was a bummer. Ill definitely check this movie out.

Smile (2022)

Well, I admit, I was attracted to this movie by the trailer.

Some first years now, time writers or directors have been delivering good movies to us.

Especially horror movies.

If I remember correction, they directed movies like, Lights Out (2016, David F. Sandberg directorial debut) and Don't Breath (2016, technically Fede Álvarez second feature film)

Director Parker Finn (in his feature directorial debut) also wrote this movie.

The premised is not original and have to add, the delivery is.

Great to see Kal Penn in the movies again.

Sosie Bacon plays a convincing Dr. Rose Cotter.

Out of the three acts, the first act was directed perfectly.

The whole movie rested on Sosie Bacon shoulder and her character gets more and more troubled, so sometimes it was hard to see "her point of view".

At least that was my take away.

The little boy's birthday scene was a highlight to me, though I guess the outcome.

After that the movie became a little more predictable so that may have been my reason for feeling a little let down with the movie.

Overall I did enjoy it.

We have not had a good scare in a while, and this one does have a few good scares.

If you like horror, give this a try.

You know you want to.



My Two Sen

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Yes yes, people who are familiar to my reviews may know that I love horror movies.

There is a sub-genre of horror I do not enjoy.

Gore horror...

The Evil Dead series ARE the definition of gore.

I draw the line for gore at Drag Me To Hell.

Boy, is this movie's gore way exceeds that.

Having said that, I did find the movie as a series does do original stuff.

Well more likely Director & Writer Lee Cronin introduces past concepts with it's own unique spin.

I give it points for that.

What evil did to the family is unforgivable.

Having said that it will not be evil if it did not do that.

If gore is your cup of tea, by all means, go watch this.

My Two Sen.

The Boogeyman (2023)

What a treat!?!

An actually scary horror movie!!!

I was kept at the edge of my seat.

I had squirmed.

I had shut my eyes.

I was concern for the characters in the movie!!!

Good job Rob Savage!!! I shall keep an eye out for your work!!

My Two Sen

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Director: Patrick Wilson

Patrick Wilson (who plays Josh Lambert) is directing this? Really? Can he direct?

We are getting ahead of ourselves.

Although this is the fifth movie in this movie series, it is actually a direct sequel to Insidious 1 & 2.

It does take place 10 years after Insidious 2.

All the kids are bigger

The first part of the movie really shows off Patrick Wilson as a director.

It is obvious that the movie had been storyboard (pre-viz) I cannot fault (personally I would have added an additional setup scene, but I ain't no director) the first act!



My, how Ty Simpkins had grown.

It is a shame we may not get to see him as the next Iron Man in MCU because it is now M-SHE-U...

The frst two acts were great.

I would have added a little to the third act



There are complains online about it being boring. I admit same parts of the second and third acts could have been trimmed and overall I thought the movie was a tad short!

If you like the first and second Insidious, chances are you will like this!!

I know I did!

That my friends is, My Two Sen

Ps: There is a pretty kickass cover of Shakespeare Sisters ~ Stay by Ghost (ft. Patrick Wilson) at the end of the movie.

Enjoy



This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Jul 7 2023, 06:40 PM

Cobweb - anyone seen?

No watch "talk to me"? Haha.

The Last Voyage of Demeter - In short the movie expanded the single page narrative of Dracula sailing from Romania to London. So the entire crew of Demeter became food for Dracula is the premise of the movie.

This is an OK watch. Tamper your expectation cause this is not a reinvention of Dracula or deconstructing your typical humans trapped by a monster in one location. If I'm not mistaken the director did Trollhunter which was quite a cult hit. There's some competency in his film direction but being a Hollywood production, you can't shake off the over produced vibe. Rudimentary by the numbers script. It's not a shitshow but bearable to watch if you have time to spare.

The Nun II

Hello kiddies.

The seventh month (Chinese calendar has passed) and that has not stop the creepy ghouls from crawling out of the wood works and of course your local cinema for that matter.

After the release of The Nun 2018, there were criticism that it... lack scares.

I kinda like it.

I like how that movie "brought" the conjuring movies universe out of America

The setting was very spooky and have to add the story could have been scarier.

Fast forward to 2023, after a scary pandemic, can The Nun 2 conjure out more scares.

The short answer is YES!

Again the European setting after WWII is really "cinematic" the first kill is really BRUTAL!

The recall of Sister Irene is.... I lack tact... is really implausible. The only reason I can think if is her recall to the "case" is to have a fall "person" if the situation when south (eg Father Burke did not make it)...

Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) and the main lead. With additional characters Debra (Storm Reid, whom I last saw in Invisible Man), Kate (Anna Popplewell, syes I am as surprise as you) and Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey).

The second death is .... also brutal but strange as in no one queried about it (a delivery person dies/go missing and the store she worked for did nothing???)!?!

Then again I have watched enough horror movies to insist on logical when none exist... (I should have known better).


The scares are will designed and executed.

Overall this is a much better horror movie compared with the first The Nun.

Just don't try to look for logic.

My Two Sen

Haha am i the only one who thinks Saw X match the oldies very well

Here is the original which i am sure old farts are familiar very well hahahaha