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Reviews
Like Dogs (2021)
Lots to like, decent watch.
The first act is well done, the music early on is distinctive. It does what a horror or suspense film does and that's make you ask questions about what's going on. This film doesn't spell everything out for you with needless setup. The guards talking to Lisa in a voice like they use for dogs was hilarious to me. But in a way that felt appropriate for the plot.
There's a twist in the middle that was promising. Also around that time the film introduces George and Erica. They take away from all the mood and tension that was built up. Particularly George as Erica seems rather helpless if not pointless.
It still manages to remain interesting wondering what the end goal for Lisa would be. But it doesn't take too much longer for the plot to seemingly run out of ideas. By the time the Fischer shows up it really feels like the concept had run its course.
At that point George just keeps talking and talking. The more he did, the more it took me out of the movie. The actor did not vibe the way that character seems like it was written. It almost felt like he struggled in the role. Even then, the character would have had a better portrayal if he spoke significantly fewer lines, and the film had him show more than tell. Then again, judging by the 'tablet sabotage scene' I don't know if he would have had the skill to portray a villain effectively anyway.
Also by that point the soundtrack had gotten boring as well. It's resorted to a series of deep sustained notes with an occasional muffled percussive bang. It went from something pretty cool in the first 10 or so minutes to this generic stuff. I didn't notice when it changed really, but by this point I was done with that music.
Anyway, there's a few more twists that really cheapens the Lisa character, and George too. This final act is severely disappointing. It left me asking "really, that's what this led to?"
The Hopewell Haunting (2023)
Great horror/suspense
This film was enjoyable to watch and is worth finishing despite the sometimes slow pace it presents. There is a certain humility to this film with regards to what is common in horror being made along side it.
If you are used to typical derivative horror film making styles, this could be a divisive viewing for you. It does contain mediocre acting, and low budget sets but it also does not try to be bigger than it's own britches in that regard. Those qualities don't take away from the film. You simply accept that this is what it is and let the story guide you. It is easy to emphasize with the characters.
I wouldn't ever view this again, but I am glad that I saw it.
The Odds (2018)
Too long
For a 1 room movie with only 2 actors The Odds wears itself out pretty quickly. Especially due to the movie subdividing itself using rounds that you can count. By round 5 I found myself going "it's only on 5, lets get a move on". It never really did get a move on in soon enough time to keep me hooked.
It is a pacing issue that created a sort of struggle to remain interested. I didn't truly care what the challenge was each time, it felt secondary. Then because those rounds chop up the movie, it has no real flow or pacing. It resets every 20 minutes or so, and what little nuggets of extra information aren't compelling enough to feel rewarded for staying.
That said, the guy looks like he's doing his best Fox Mulder cosplay.
Nefarious (2023)
Worth a watch
The movie was enjoyable on a general level. Characters are acted well and are believable. It is shot well and the color pallet is nice. The sound is ok, the soundtrack is kind of lacking.
However, I didn't really watch this movie so to speak. I put it on while doing something else in the same room. Despite that it never felt like I missed anything that the film was delivering to me. This is a movie that you can listen to passively, and not miss a beat.
The characters needed to do something besides talk to each other. Which would provide more sets to film in. 90% of this film takes place in the same room with occasional raised voices and spikes of intensity. Otherwise, I've felt more riveted watching JCS interview videos than this.
This film didn't do anything to grab my viewing attention. It felt like listening to a very stripped down audio book with all the setting descriptors cut out.
Shookum Hills (2021)
Monster movie night
The movie was alright, kind of a low-mid budget vibe that took itself extremely seriously. In hindsight it works well enough as a basic monster flick. If you are in a monster movie marathon kind of vibe, this one will fit right in. But don't feel too bad if it's one of the ones you forgot about the next day.
It presents a cadre of randos from different economic, philosophical and educational backgrounds put together for a D&D quest to go to a dungeon. This dungeon is full of your basic "guy in a suit" monsters. In addition to that, the exposition for these monsters is taken straight from The Descent. It felt disingenuous to roll with it that way. The movie plays out like a college D&D campaign. Even down to the redneck murder hobos.
The movie overall felt 1 note. It has only 1 mood and does not deviate from it. This makes it hard to feel like it has progressed anywhere meaningful. So go walk away and take that bathroom break, grab a snack on your way back, and jump right back in.
The camera work was too dark, however, a large portion of it does take place at night. I don't think it worked all that well. It has shaky cam, fish eye cam, blurry cam, looking at the cam corder-cam and syrup covering my eyes-cam. Would it hurt to have the camera be consistent for once? It made the movie feel like a test bed for different lenses.
Clearly the camera inconsistencies are there to obscure the monsters as much as possible. As to avoid wearing out the "guy in a suit" look too quickly.
The Lion King (2019)
It doesn't work.
My kids have been watching the original Lion King near daily after pre school. To mix things up we put this one on instead. It struggles to recapture the magic the original still has. However, that is a high bar to achieve.
It looks beautiful, the voice lines are great, and the music is nice. However, it looks too realistic to then apply dialogue to. It simply doesn't work and makes it a challenge to vibe with the movie. The dichotomy of extremely realistic looking animals talking like cartoon characters is too disruptive.
This makes me wonder if it was shown to a test audience at all. Or if it was just shown to the crew who worked on it, who would be reluctant to speak against it.
The only thing that truly works for this film is the opening song because there's no dialogue. Even the title card for the film name felt jarring not being in red.
The Sound (2017)
Not sure how to feel, but I didn't mind that I watched it.
This film does a decent job creating a mood but it also does a good job at compromising that mood. Ultimately the film isn't that frightening because it can't maintain its own suspense. Most of the film takes place in an abandoned subway tunnel network so you can expect it to be dark and spooky. Phone and computer screen glows were used to illuminate the main character in the dark set. Which worked well. But it also regularly interrupts that vibe to splash the screen with text message overlays and shaky-cam angles from the shadows. The big moments and creepy occurrences were less impactful because of these deviations.
It has a plot twist that wasn't bothered with concealing itself. The final act of the film feels weak and less dramatic as a result. The main character was not doing anything that makes you grip the edge of your seat due to this knowledge. It's more like "well, she'll find out sooner or later and it will wrap the film".
Lastly, I quite liked how the ghosts were made to look ghostly. It was fairly simple but seemed to work well enough. A gigantic missed opportunity was that the graffiti figures didn't do anything. There was a lot of potential play with using those to creep the audience out. Have their eyes change, or move subtly. The camera is clearly framing them as the center of attention, make that attention worth it. Because it never was. There was never any resolution to being forced to look at them so often. They never amounted to anything so what could have been the most creepy element of the film simply didn't matter.
Risen (2021)
Tonally 1 note. Boring.
This film is loaded with really bad green screen effects and other VFX that look like what was common for films 20 years ago. Call of Duty from a decade ago looks better than this.
The lead actress spends all her scenes staring off into the distance. It makes sense conceptually for her character but that does not mean it is a good idea for film. It is awful for film, she is boring and it is the biggest drag on the film. Give that character a quirk or make her a side character. Do something, anything interesting to have her do more than stand there in a lifeless state for every scene.
If it wasn't clear, the film needed an experienced writer. They couldn't even make their main character compelling. Other characters are mere tropes, their dialogue is predictable, boring and not engaging.
A film shouldn't be 1 tone. It needs a range of emotion present so that the characters and events feel human. This has no range. Even the music and color pallet contributes to the dreary boring atmosphere. A good film could use this strategically to build towards something. This film doesn't do that.
All Eyes (2022)
Pretty good popcorn-campy horror
The most disappointing thing about this film is that we didn't get more time with Don.
If you let yourself be entertained and don't think too hard about it, this film won't do much to interfere with your enjoyment. Lots of truly bad horror films insult your time and break the experience. This film sets out to be a "bad" horror film from the get go, and it does that very well. It has campy moments, a basic plot, low budget production and absurd "super serious" moments that will crack you up at how silly it all is.
It does feel about 10 minutes too long though. Part of that issue is that the main character portrayal (both acting and writing) struggles to carry the film to its conclusion. The Don character pretty much stole the show here (and the guy in the intro). So this film does end up with a typical horror movie final act, sadly. You'll be itching to finish it right about when it does decide to finish. You can even skip the epilogue and it wouldn't detract much from the experience.