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Reviews
The Devil's Hour: Amor Fati (2022)
If you liked the show Dark on Netflix...
You will very likely love this this show. It has the same twisting clues and ideas. It is a lot more subtle than Dark in several ways, but it activates the same parts of the viewer's brain.
The acting of all involved is flawless. The writing is top notch and smart.
When a show really gets into your head like this one does, it has you looking over your shoulder and questioning the way you look at things.
A lot of US made shows have tried to get to this level of mystery and thought, but I think most American television creators dumb it down too much and think the audience is too dumb to appreciate it, which is why I am happy that streaming services make shows like this visible.
Hellraiser (2022)
It's both good and a remake/reboot/sequel all at once.
The new Hellraiser hits it's marks with atmosphere and gravity of the performances in it.
As most reviewers, even the ones who did not love the movie will tell you, Clayton as the Hell Priest is amazing and delicious. The main character played by Odessa A'zion also was very good at bringing several dimensions to her recovering addict character that could have easily been played like a caricature of "troubled final girl."
The online debate of "is it a reboot, remake or a sequel ?" Is a bit of a distraction, but my two cents are that it does exist in the same universe as the others, or at least the original, the second and Hellraiser: Hellseeker (which actually had a good story). It elaborates on why the box treats different people in different ways. The box makes some into new cenobites, it replaces ones who have been destroyed in one way or another, by placing newly evolved ones into the archetypes it needs (hence chatterer being seen so many times throughout the series).
As far as The Hell Priest, in the expanded Hellraiser universe that ventures outside the movies, into more books and comics, the mantle of The Hell Priest also evolves and changes based on Leviathan and it's needs (Dr Channard being a very good example). The box also went through a lot of configurations in the original ones, but I have seen some people saying it didn't.
So it is in the same universe in my opinion, but Leviathan had evolved just like human desire and suffering.
Critics have (and will continue to) give the movie mixed reviews I am sure. I however tend to agree with Clive Barker and Doug Bradley that it is new, it changes the right amount from the garbage of nearly all the sequels, but also captures the grim, erotic, visually amazing wonder in the originals.
This movie does have such sites to show you.
Prey (2022)
Solid and worthy.
Amazing cinematography, atmosphere, and acting. I just wish I could have seen it on the big screen. Kept to the Predator mythology very well. The native perspective is something that is not often seen in sci fi franchises.
I have seen a lot of reviews that claim the movie has some sort of agenda of social justice or something else ridiculous. I have seen a lot of "how could a 100 pound girl defeat a 7 foot tall alien with superior tech???" That kind of question makes me wonder about the thinking behind some other action sci fi franchises. For example in Star Wars, how could one X-Wing pilot take out the whole Deathstar on his own? Or in Aliens how could one space freight officer take on a whole nest of aliens?
The point of the movie (just like the others) is to tell a good and exciting story about someone doing something extraordinary against seemingly impossible odds. Unless I missed something and Star Wars Episode IV was pushing some king of blond white kid space farmer social agenda.
The action is wonderful. The creature design (whether you like some of the changes) was cool (and btw, the Predators do look different from one another from time to time, just like variants of all other known life), so I am not sure why that is such a thing.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Good production but misses the point.
The film had the right look, the acting was good, it was the right length. It kind of missed the point and brilliance of the original.
I can appreciate the almost impossible task of breathing life back into a franchise. One can be lucky if even a third of the fans of the original of any get behind it. The movie did what it set out to do in that it was bloody and entertaining. Some good nods to the original throughout. But it failed as it relied on gore and body count, where as the original barely had either.
Hooper managed to pull of a sense of slow burn and dread without relying on any of the tropes that it is strangely credited with starting. The sense of the otherworldly and hopelessness does not show up in the new one as it did the original. While this new one does have a bit of a sense of humor, it does not have the utter lunacy that the family created so well in the original.
If you do not compare it to the original it is fine and it checks several interesting horror boxes.