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Slumber Party Massacre (2021)
Fun little slasher remake
I had so much much fun watching this one. It's not to be taken serious and you can see everyone who took part in it had fun making it. The actors, although playing tongue in cheek roles, were good, believable and actually likeable. The story moves forward and actually has something new to offer. If you compare this low budget outing to the high profile Halloween Kills, it's painfully the superior movie.
Looking forward to next movie of this director.
Antebellum (2020)
Gripping movie with minor flaws
Before watching this movie I'd read a few articles covered on BloodyDisgusting, but I hadn't seen any trailers, so I went into the movie neutral. I had the pleasure of seeing it in a cinema.
The first act was hard for me to watch with the systematic physical en mental torture of 'slaves'. Nothing too gory was shown which helped the psychological suspense and trauma I was experiencing. Up until the second act I thought this was going to be a gripping period movie about slavery. I especially apreciated the serious tone of the first act which was complemented with great cinematography and the acting of Janelle Monáe as Eden/Veronica.
The second act had a surprise twist and it kept me guessing which direction the makers were going for. This is something I don't mind, if done well, and in the case of 'Antebellum' I think they tackled it well. In terms of story twists and designing them it made me think of 'I See You' (2019), another great movie I recently watched during the pandemic or 'Incident in a Ghostland' (2018).
The tonal shift in acting in the second act stood out a bit after the seriousness off the first act like the character of Jena Malone, who underwent a slight change in acting from serious to campy. The family of Veronica, although cute, felt a bit too sugarcoated for my taste acting wise. But especially Gabourey Sidibe's character was guilty of overacting, something she doesn't do in other roles like Precious (2009) which also has a butterfly on its movieposter. It not only made her character very one-dimensional, rude and unauthentic, but it forced the other characters also to make a tonal shift in acting. In the end it didn't ruin the movie, but it kept me from rating it with 9 stars.
I did like the subtle racial vibes from the hoteldesk worker reacting non-verbally to Veronica and the awkward table placement in the restaurant she arranged.
The ending, although brief, paid off for me. It's scary there are people who think of black people as an inferior species who organize themselve to erradicate them and their rights right under our nose in ways of a hobby. This made the horror feel real for me because it's a reflection of what's still happening on a daily basis to this day.
Many reviewers compare this movie to the 'The Village' from 2004, but I see more connections with 'Hostel' (2005) in which an evil organization kidnap and torture innocent people for pleasure. Change those psychopaths to racist psychopaths and the tourists to black people and it makes for an equal disturbing but less schlocky experience.
I see many 1 star 'reviews', without any elaboration, telling the movie sucks because it's not horror or because people felt tricked by the promotion of this movie. Such a shame and a disservice of the movie, its makers and the subject matter. Go see it for yourselves.