Where to Watch: Included with subscription MGM+ Kanopy. Rental on most other platforms.
Genre: Psychological thriller
Writer: Morgan Lloyd Malcolm
Director: Guillem Morales
Cast: Naomie Harris, Natalie Dormer
Synopsis: Follows Heather and Carla, they will meet after having not spoken in years. Heather is about to present a very unexpected proposition that could change their lives forever.
Review: I had my eye on this smoothie for a couple of months. I love the actresses, and I thought that it seemed like a pretty tense thriller.
I finally sat down to watch it, and I am so glad that I did. I’ve suggested it to a few people since then. The movie is definitely a psychological thriller. They’ll keep you guessing throughout the movie. Leading up to a wild ending that you could not predict. I don’t wanna say much about this movie. But it is well written, meticulous, and truly wild. I am very interested now in somehow checking out the play that it is adapted from. It is the same writer for both which is cool!
Opener: Narrow Head, co-headlining tour with Saves the Day who is playing the 20th anniversary of “Through Being Cool.”
Band Members:
• Buddy Nielsen – vocals
• Gavin Caswell – guitar
• Jason Milbank – guitar
• Steve Carey – drums
• Daniel Wonacott – bass
Review: Senses Fail has got to see the band I have seen the most. I have been seeing them since high school at Warped Tour and I try to see them every time they are in town. I have seen them on many anniversary tours. I saw them play “Life is Not a Waiting Room” and “Still Searching” on anniversary tours. When I was at s conference in Atlanta in 2019, I hopped on Bands in Town to see who was playing and got last minute ticket to the “From the Depths of Dreams” tour. And last month I saw “Let It Enfold You” for the 20th anniversary. And this wasn’t even the first time I saw it played for an anniversary! In 2014, I saw them play it for the 10 year anniversary. It is my favorite album of theirs and I hope to see it in another decade for the 30th anniversary.
The show was at the House of Blues in Boston, a venue that I surprisingly haven’t been to in a long time except for seeing Bowling for Soup there a month prior when they played their second album, “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve” in it’s entirety. It is a great venue of a 1000 people. It is right outside of Fenway and the MGM, a new favorite menu. It’s a lot of fun coming out of the show there at night and seeing all the bright lights. They have the downstairs floor and upstairs balconies, which I imagine cost a little more. It’s pretty quick and easy to get a drink there. I just wish that the only option for water was not Liquid Death. I don’t know how that company has monopolized the concert industry, but it really doesn’t taste good enough for a seven dollar canned water.
There is something about an anniversary tour. A Time Machine back to simpler days. Seeing a favorite album of yours from when you were a teen and being instantly transported back to those days.
My friend and I got there for most of Saves the Day set. We hadn’t really listened to them and hadn’t seen them since high school. We had a memory of seeing them playing an acoustic set at Work door and met them after. Nothing will ever be quite like Warped Tour again. Especially the one they’re doing next year.
Anyway, Saves the Day put on a super fun show with really trippy background visuals. I go to a lot of concerts and the bands mostly have a giant backdrop and that is the background of the show. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that both Saves the Day and Senses Fail had different videos during each song of their set lists.
Senses Fail played my favorite album, with the audience singing along to every lyric. The bonus songs were Bloody Romance, Calling All Cars, Can’t Be Saved, and the final song was a cover of My Chemical Romance’s Helena with Chris Conley, the singer of Saves the Day.
Premise: In 1993, a mysterious children’s show host, Mr. Crocket, magically emerges from television sets to kidnap young children, brutally slaying their parents in the process. After Mr. Crocket snatches her son, one determined mother embarks on a perilous quest to track down the demonic entertainer and rescue her boy.
Cast: Jerrika Hinton, Elvis Nolasco, Ayden Gavin, Kristolyn Lloyd, Alex Akpobome.
Review: If you ever wondered what it would be like if someone made a movie that was The Ring meets Pee Wee’s Playhouse, look no further. I, at first, thought of this as more of a Mr. Rogers inspired character. But it wasn’t long until I got the Pee Wee vibe. I won’t give away much but the whole set of characters on his show comes alive.
Every Halloween, Hulu unveils a new release of original horror movies. When I first saw the trailer for this one, I was hooked. It is really original. It definitely has some parts that are inspired by other movies, but the premise is original and we really need that right now.
This movie was really cool. Innovative, fun, dark, supernatural. It provides backstory of the antagonist, which is really nice. You learn why he is the way he is. How he got there. How he does what he does.
I really wish that this got a theatrical release. I read that it started as a short film and I am so glad it got the funding to make it feature-length. It needed a full-length version. And it wasn’t too long. It didn’t drag on.
And the opening scene. You will be all in once that scene opens.
Review: These movies play a big part in my love for horror. I saw the first one when it premiered at the Independent Film Festival Boston in 2012. My friend used to work for a film rental company, and we would get free passes to the festival. I remember how much I loved the first V/H/S movie. Some people found it too disturbing, and some found it to be too much of a shaky cam, found-footage movie.
Since the release of the first film in the franchise, there have been seven anthology films, two spinoffs, and a miniseries:
1. V/H/S (2012)
2. V/H/S/2 (2013)
3. V/H/S: Viral (2014)
4. SiREN (2016) – Spinoff film
5. V/H/S: Video Horror Shorts (2018) – Miniseries
6. V/H/S/94 (2021)
7. V/H/S/99 (2022)
8. Kids vs. Aliens (2023) – Spinoff film
9. V/H/S/85 (2023)
10. V/H/S/Beyond (2024)
The only film I didn’t like in the franchise was V/H/S: Viral. I felt it tried too hard to be a political statement, and it didn’t really have any scare factors. SiREN was also decent, but I feel it worked better as a short.
Anyway, V/H/S/Beyond is a great installment. It is a little different, as they went more in the direction of sci-fi versus horror. But that doesn’t mean the movie isn’t filled with disturbing and terrifying things. Just like the ones before it, it features a bunch of new concepts and stories by new creators in the V/H/S franchise.
I didn’t know what score to give this movie. I don’t like when people compare and contrast things and give the follow-up an unfair chance. A lot of people, including myself, didn’t like Us as much as Get Out. Was that because it wasn’t as good, or because we were challenging Peele to make the same type of movie and avoid a sophomore slump? The first time I watched Us, I said, “It wasn’t Get Out.” And it wasn’t—it was its own movie. The second time I watched Us, I loved it. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t love V/H/S/Beyond as much as the first movie, but that’s fine. It’s its own movie—its own series of shorts made by completely different people. While this one focused more on sci-fi vs. horror, I still really enjoyed it. All horror fans love sci-fi, right?
I went into V/H/S/Beyond without watching a trailer. I didn’t want to know anything going in. However, right before watching, I did read that Justin Long, Mike Flanagan, and Katie Siegel were behind a few of the shorts, and that got me pumped.
Without giving away spoilers, Justin Long and his brother co-wrote and co-directed one of the shorts, and it is very reminiscent of a previous Long movie. This shouldn’t give anything away, as the scream king has a long list of horror films he’s been in.
The last short in the film is the one that will stick with me. It was pretty interesting throughout, but the ending was absolute chaos, leaving the protagonist in the worst-case scenario. It was pure terror.
Premise: A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid.
Review: Holy crap! This movie was such a ride. I feel like it was this year’s Barbarian.
It seems rare that a body horror movie makes it to the theaters. And even more that it has such a worldwide release and gets such great reception. There was The Thing, The Fly, The Human Centipede, Tusk. Of, course others. Now, there is The Substance.
I was excited for this one because I feel there aren’t a lot of female directors who make body horror films. And also because I love horror. And body horror.
I haven’t seen Demi Moore in something in a while and she was fantastic in this movie. Some people want her to win an Oscar, but horror never gets the awards it should. A nomination would be nice. Her descent into madness throughout this movie was, well, madness.
Margaret Qualley was also fantastic in this movie. She’s in pretty much every movie right now and now I can see why. Playing a younger, more spry version of Moore, she did a great job
Dennis Quaid was awful in this movie. In the best way. Although the second and third act are filled with some of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in some time, I will tell you the two things I found the most disgusting. The first being Dennis Quaid eating prawn on screen. Quaid plays the head of the network that produces Moore’s workout show and he plays a hyperbolic version of what this person is like in real life. At least, I hope it is hyperbolic. Maybe not. I mean, isn’t that kind of the whole point of this movie? How do people in Hollywood keep up with Hollywood standards? The other part I found to be the grossest was a scene with puss. It reminded me of the end of Requiem for a Dream.
The opening shot and last shot are the movie are beautiful and twisted and perfect. They are artsy and experimental and symmetrical. And they make a perfect sandwich out of the film. With everything in between being the meat. And there is a lot of it.
I wanted the film to go in a slightly different direction in the third act. It still did pretty much just what I wanted it to do, but slightly different. Regardless, the brief but powerful third act is wild. My girlfriend had to leave the theater right before it started into the absolutely descent into madness. Let’s just say, I think that Fargeat was trying to beat Fede Alvarez’s record for amount of blood used in a film.
Band Members: Jaret Reddick – lead vocals, guitars, Chris Burney – guitars, backing vocals, Gary Wiseman – drums, percussion, occasional studio backing vocals, Rob Felicetti – bass, backing vocals.
Review: I have been to a lot of concerts and checked a lot of bands off of my list, but Bowling for Soup is one of the bands that has been on my list forever and I had never seen them. That all changed on Saturday when I not only got to see them live, but I got to see them on an anniversary tour. I love anniversary tours.
I qhave been a fan of them for over 20 years and they have been a band for 30. I will never forget hearing “Girl All the Bad Guys Like” in 8th grade and really digging their sound. I have always read about how fun they were to see live, and even with a band member down, they put on a great show full of the hits, a full album, jokes, a wheel to select a random a song, conversations about how old we have all gotten, and more.
Review: The Happening, Old, a few others. I stood by M. Night’s side. I have always loved this man even though the horrible movies he makes are so horrible. But I don’t know if I can do it after this movie. What a terrible, terrible movie.
What is this Dr. Grant supposed to be like Clarice? The whole movie they talk about how successful she was at taking down 10 serial killers before. Has she taken all 10 down before by trapping them inside of a concert arena that was a fake show put on just to catch a killer? How oddly specific. And she still couldn’t catch him.
And a pop singer that somehow only had a limo driver but no manager, agent, security, or anyone else with her? What person would be that courageous? And the scene in the limo and bathroom with M. Night’s daughter using her eyebrows only to display emotion. I mean, a few days of acting school classes not have hurt. What an awful, awful, truly awful film.
And even M. Night’s cameo was too long. The whole two hour movie was almost worth it for the end scene with the merch guy.
I feel there has been a rollercoaster of his movies over the many years. Everyone loves a movie he puts out, everyone hates the next one. It took me about a year to laugh about how bad Old was. The movie was one of the first I had scene aftrr not going to movies for over a year due to the pandemic. I was so excited. The premise was great. The execution was not.
M. Night’s other daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, made a better movie called The Watchers this year. Go watch that instead.
Premise: After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.
Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe.
Review: This movie was a lot of fun. It has the original cast and has new cast members that really add to it. Jenna Ortega couldn’t have been a better choice to play Lydia’s daughter. Justin Theroux was insufferable, in a good way. Willem Dafoe played a dead action star turned detective and it was, somehow, his most sane role.
The film uses practical effects, props, and sets to make the movie feel just like the original. Even the sandworms weren’t updated, which I loved. The writing felt a little off, at times, but the movie came in under two hours, didn’t drag on, and was a great movie to see in theaters.
Premise: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe.
Review: This was one of my most anticipated films of the year and boy did it hold up. It also lead me down a deep nerd rabbit hole. One I haven’t been on in years. Since maybe even the Cloverfield days. I watched Alien I-IV, Promethesus, Alien: Covenant, and both Alien vs. Predator films prepring for this movie. I also started playing Alien: Isolation, a game I bought years ago and had been sitting on my shelf. And I spent a good amount of time on Reddit learning more about Wayland enterprises, the comics, the novels and so on.
I went opening night, on Thursday. I was able to get the popcorn bucket with the facehugger on it. The employee asked if I wanted the popcorn in the bucket or not. I didn’t even know that I had that option!
A lot of the reviews that I read about the movie said that it felt like a video game. And I guess it did, in a way. Because I had just played the game and the movies took place inbetween Alien and Aliens. I also read a lot of reviews that said the movie just felt like it rehashed from previous movies. While it did pay homage to previous movies it also
Fede Alvarez must have had a good time working on this film because he would like to make an Alien vs. Predator sequel and split directorial duties with Dan Tratchenberg who directed Prey, the most recent Predator film.
