Horror Movie Talk

Horror Movie Talk: Horror Movie Review

An opinionated and accidentally funny horror movie review show. Each week, this horror movie podcast covers a new release in theaters or an older flick on streaming/VOD. New episodes come out every Wednesday.

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Episodes20

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Wednesday · 1 hr 18 min
Zombeavers Review
Synopsis In this horror comedy, we’re introduced to three sorority sisters looking for a fun, boys-free getaway at a riverside cabin. Of course, the boys show up anyway, bringing plenty of relationship drama along with them. But the real trouble begins when toxic waste creates a colony of bloodthirsty zombie beavers that just won’t stay dead. What started as a carefree getaway quickly becomes a frantic fight for survival Review Zombeavers is one of those movies that has a huge following, and is incredibly hard for me to review objectively because it is so not for me. I understand the type of movie it is and it’s intent but I feel like things still could have been improved to make it more watchable: better dialogue, characters, pacing. I honestly like the idea of zombie beavers, but it has to be done a little better than this. The movie is very self aware in that it really is parodying horror tropes in general which makes you feel in on the joke but when the majority of the characters are hard to connect with in anyway you lose the attention of your audience. Around half way through I was waiting for something more to happen, develop the characters or don’t this fell somewhere in limbo. When the action starts it’s pretty consistent. Goofy special effects are actually something I liked about this but something can be goofy and silly but have decent dialogue. I know there are die hard lovers of this movie but the whole time I was just wishing I was doing something else. The movie definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously so you shouldn’t either but that being said it’s still a two out of ten movie for me. Score 2/10
July 22 · 1 hr 24 min
In The Mouth of Madness Review
Synopsis The late Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator tracking down the whereabouts of Sutter Cane a famous horror novelist who has gone missing right before the release of his new novel. Trent suspects that the whole thing is a publicity stunt for the novel’s release, but as he searches for Kane, he finds the line between Kane’s fictional world and reality start to fray and overlap in disturbing ways. Review John Carpenter goes full Lovecraftian, melding his trademark independent film sensibilities and impressive practical effects with cosmic horror. If you look at his Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB ratings, you will also see that this is his last major film with significant critical and audience praise. It marks the end of an era where scrappy 80s gore and body horror was supplanted by slicker high budget meta narratives. This movie ushered in the new era with the likes of Candyman, The New Nightmare, and Scream. standing between two eras, this definitely has more of an esthetic aligned with the scrappy indy vibe of Romero and Carpenters previous work. The idea takes center stage and isn’t handled preciously. It presents itself as a cool thing and lets the audience take a little ride without delving deep into the psychological or taking itself too seriously. Kind of like a Stephen King novel actually. I picked this one because of the passing of Sam Neill and he does a great job here being the everyman descending into, you guessed it, madness. We also get Happy Gilmore’s grandma being freaky af, Vigo the Carpathian, and a very young Hayden Christiansen. Like I said before, it’s a fun ride that doesn’t take itself too seriously. My only criticism is that it does rely on some repetitive cinematic moves such as jump scares and arbitrary time loops. But it’s all to service the films uneasy vibe and give impact to the singular moments of cosmic horror. Score 7/10
July 15 · 1 hr 29 min
Evil Dead Burn Review
Synopsis Alice is a French woman who loves to smoke cigarettes. And her husband, Will, is an asshole. When the two get into a big fight at Will’s younger brother Joseph’s birthday bash, Will drunkenly drives full speed into a pedestrian, flipping his vehicle. The car catches fire and Will dies a horrific death. As the family gathers together for the funeral, Alice must face the scariest thing of all…in-laws. But not just any in-laws, but in-laws who are slowly taken over by the forces of Evil who want to burn your flesh off the bone like a candle stick. Review of Evil Dead Burn Evil Dead Burn is a stand alone film, and while it definitely seems to be connecting itself to some events in Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead (2013), it does so in subtle ways. You don’t really even need to see any previous Evil Dead movie to enjoy this film. If you enjoyed the tone and style of Evil Dead Rise, you will find that exact vibe in Evil Dead Burn. It is incredibly violent from start to finish, with almost no breaks in the gore. The movie starts off horrific, is horrific for 2 hours, and then ends horrifically. I had a really good time with this movie, but I was stressed out the entire time. It can be exhausting to watch people get their head bashed in for the entire runtime, so if you are someone who struggles with the really nasty gore scenes in horror movies, I would probably sit this one out. Its hard to say if this film is more violent than the previous 2 in the franchise, but it certainly isn’t less so. The major difference I noticed in Evil Dead Burn was that a lot of the violence was akin to that of a physically abusive partner (throwing you around, punching you, and hitting you with things). The past films have focused a lot more on ripping and tearing the flesh (which of course we do get in this movie) but I think that the type of violence on display in Evil Dead Burn fits really well with its overall theme of overcoming an abusive partner, as well as breaking the cycle of an abusive family. Score 8/10
July 8 · 1 hr 24 min
May Review
Synopsis May is about a young woman named May who grew up in a strict home with an overbearing mother. Since she was a child May has had a lazy eye. Mortified that her daughter might have a physical flaw, May is forced by her mother to wear an eyepatch to elementary school. I’m sure you can see this villain origin story beginning to form. Now and adult, May’s social skills are a bit stunted. She is lonely, with her only friend being a porcelain doll given to her by her mom. The bulk of the movie is about May looking for love and friendship. But maybe May is just too weird for those things. Review of May May (2002) is an odd movie for sure. Every scene feels a little awkward, by design. Every character is just a bit weird, and I think that plays to the movie’s themes well. May of course is the weirdest one, but her downfall is much more about being an absolute psycho than social awkwardness. More than anything I think this movie can be used as evidence towards the point Bryce made on a recent episode that Hollywood ugly and normal person ugly are not the same thing. I find it funny when a movie takes a gorgeous actress and puts her in glasses with messy hair and tries to convince me the woman is not still gorgeous. I think this movie would be really interesting with a gender swap using a fairly ugly man because I think ugly men are one of the things we as a society fear the most sometimes. The entire movie is laced with some pretty erotic imagery that made me feel weird in my tummy at times I probably shouldn’t have felt that way. I think overall the movie is definitely interesting, and has some strong moments. But I wouldn’t say it was great. Just good.
July 1 · 1 hr 34 min
Blink Twice Review
Synopsis After cocktail waitress Frida and her friend Jess meet tech billionaire Slater King, they are invited to join him on his private island. Along with his friends and a few other women they are brought to a beautiful island filled with bottomless drinks, great food, and a party that never seems to end. Although this vacation truly seems like a dream, things are a little…off. This dream soon begins to unravel and what’s revealed is a true nightmare. Review of Blink Twice I chose Blink Twice to review this week because it’s a film that I sort of stumbled upon the first time I saw it, so I didn’t really know much going in, and I was just so pleasantly surprised. Now watching it for my 3rd time not only does it hold up but I found it almost more enjoyable due to being able to appreciate a lot of the effort put into the foreshadowing that you don’t catch until you know what happens. The themes of different power dynamics within our society are explored in a satirical way while also bringing real world intense horror elements that aren’t your typical dark figure in the corner Kravitz was able to visually capture this well using day and night as a tool as well as some memory devices that help the audience and the characters keep track of time and the different worlds the characters are living The cast is great, it is incredibly well acted and believable and the pacing may be a problem for some viewers but it kept me engaged waiting for the reveal so to say. I like that you know something is going to happen you just aren’t sure how yet or exactly what it is going to look life Overall it was very fun to watch, it’s beautiful, dark and at times extremely horrifying Score 9/10
June 24 · 1 hr 38 min
Leviticus Review
Synopsis Two young men who are either 16 or 25 discover they like kissing. Their parents don’t like them kissing. So they call the gay exorcist, the kind that exorcise the gay out of gays, not the normal type of gay exorcist. The zealous christians who adhere to the Old Testament beliefs about gays use witchcraft (which they seem to be fine with) to curse the two mates with a sex demon. Review of Leviticus I was interested to see how they would handle the deep and complex issues of religious trauma for gays. Unfortunately, they handled these issues as clumsily as a back of the bus handjob between two teenagers. There really didn’t seem to be much depth behind the characters or relationships that would have made this movie really interesting. Instead we get a repetitive and oppressive reliance on the gimmick of the movie revealed in the trailer. A supernatural entity that appears as the person you lust over to lure you in, so that it can harm/kill you. If you are expecting more, it’s not here. There are a couple of lines in the movie that act as ciphers for interpreting the message of the film, but they don’t give much depth to the themes. I’m sure that this movie will be meaningful to many people that watch it, and it being released during pride month is obviously intentional, but for me it was a miss. Score 4/10
June 17 · 1 hr 37 min
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Review
Synopsis In South Korea there are 7 super-haunted locations, and Gonjiam the abandoned asylum is one of them. This movie follows a team of ghost hunting live streamers as they attempt the biggest stream of their lives. Picking up 3 female volunteers and one bro volunteer, the Horror Time crew breaks into the haunted asylum and begin streaming it to the world. But things do not go as planned for the jaded paranormal investigators, and they are quickly in over their heads as real occurrences present themselves. You could even say they are experiencing some sort of incident in a ghostland. Review of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum This is my second viewing of Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. I first heard of this movie from our facebook group a while back and checked it out with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised. For a movie I had never heard of before, it was actually pretty fun to watch. Coming back to the film about a year later I am able to see some of the flaws a little clearer. Mikayla mentioned that found footage is hard for her because the camera motion makes her feel nauseous. Well that really becomes a problem for this movie as there are like 20 moving cameras switching back and forth. Each character is equipped with a go pro looking directly at their face, a pov cam, and some of the crew even have handheld cameras just to bump that multicam number up. One of the dudes has a wide fisheye camera that is so confusing to look at that you literally can’t even tell what’s going on when they cut to it. It also takes about half the movie’s runtime for anything scary to really happen. With those negatives out of the way, I think this movie provides some seriously scary scenes, creepy atmosphere, and visuals that will stick with me for a long time. I still like this movie, it just isn’t quite as good as I remember it being. If you like found footage style horror and foreign films it’s worth a watch in my opinion. Score 6/10
June 10 · 1 hr 17 min
Scary Movie (2026) Review
Synopsis Picking up 26 years later we see our four original characters Brenda, Cindy, Ray and Shorty reunited but for all the wrong reasons. They are once again being targeted by a masked killer. With the introduction of some new characters and new spoofs, the audience is taken on a journey to find who the killer is before it’s too late. Review of Scary Movie 6 Scary movie 6 being released after the longest gap in the franchise with the return of the Wayans brothers was promising a lot, I’m not quite sure if we got all that was promised The movie does deliver with with multiple parodies of more recent popular horror films like the substance, weapons, smile and a lot more but some jokes fell more flat than others I find it really hard to give a score to a comedy as it is often super subjective and I’m just not into the scary movie franchise all that much, not really my kind of comedy It wasn’t a miserable experience and just for the nostalgia I’m sure there are plenty of people that liked this film but for me it was a major miss There were plenty of bits/points that I found funny but more that weren’t than were Score 4/10
June 3 · 1 hr 50 min
Backrooms Review
Synopsis A failing furniture store owner and aspiring architect Clarke is trying to work on himself in therapy when he stumbles upon a hidden portal to a labyrinthian series of rooms. These “backrooms” have an uncanny nature about them. They don’t seem to have any logical floor plans, scale, or use case. They are like a memory of a room, and not a room itself. As Clarke explores deeper he is confronted with a danger within that might consume him if he stays too long. Review Backrooms as a concept started as a creepy and tongue in cheek 4chan comment and them was adapted and thrived on youtube as a series of shorts. Now the creator of that series helms a hollywood movie starring oscar nominated actors. It accomplishes a great feat in bringing a very specific flavor of horror to the masses. Liminal horror. the unsettling feeling of the spaces between spaces. whereas most horror would focus on the scary, or horrifying, or dread. The word the exemplifies Backrooms is uncanny. It’s the feeling of something being just off enough to capture your attention. The plot and the characters seem like secondary concerns compared to maintaining the weirdness of the production design, but are just complex enough to give the audience something to latch onto. The personality flaws and trauma of the protagonists seem like a key to unlocking the secrets of the backrooms. But by the end of the movie, it’s just as ambiguous and dreamlike as the beginning. It’s hard to list out what works so well in the movie, but I found it uniquely enjoyable and disturbing. Score 10/10
May 27 · 1 hr 20 min
Passenger Review
Synopsis Passenger is a road trip movie about two love birds who leave the city life for a chance at van living. Already sounds horrifying to me, but to each their own. After witnessing a brutal crash in the middle of nowhere, the couple begin to experience paranormal phenomena that keeps them on their tires. See what I did there? Through utilizing their resources of old van ladies, gym parking lots, and gas station info books they may just survive…the PASSENGER. Review of Passenger Coming into this movie right off the back of obsession was a bad look for passenger. I would have loved to judge this movie based on its own merits, but unfortunately I had just watched one of the best horror movies ever made a week prior. But anyways, passenger was truly boring to watch. The stakes of this movie just felt so low. Like, get off the road you two. The monster or demon of the movie just didnt scare me. I think so many horror movies are doing too much with their monsters these days. It is plenty scary to have an old man stare at you in the middle of the night in a parking lot, why are we also making his face look like an ancient demon? Why does he need to have weird glowing eyes and sharp teeth? That to me is just far less scary than a stranger who wont leave you alone. This movie leans heavily on jump scares. This doesnt always have to be a bad thing. I can appreciate a good jump scare. But I just felt like the jumps in this movie were cheap, and undeserved. Yes, a loud noise that comes out of nowhere will startle me, but did I have fun? Not really. There was one single scene that I thought was good, and even that had a needless jump scare shoehorned into it. Anyways, this movie was an hour and a half and it felt like it took up my whole night. I did not enjoy this. Score 3/10
May 20 · 1 hr 44 min
Obsession Review
We are Obsessed with Obsessed, Are you? Listen to our latest episode of Horror Movie Talk as we break down the finer points of this indie horror darling. Synopsis Bear is a shy and awkward guy who you could say is “obsessed” with his coworker and long time friend Nikki. Unable to profess his love to her, he looks for a little help from the “one wish willow” which will grant any wish. Upon making his one wish things rapidly change in his relationship with Nikki where the obsession isn’t just one sided. But… he soon realizes that there are unforeseen consequences to having her love, as things take a turn for the worst. Review or Obsession This movie really had me torn on whether I liked it or not. Multiple times I thought “man I hate this movie”. That did improve during my viewing of the film and after but I did find that I was trying to convince myself that I liked it when the truth is it just wasn’t all that enjoyable for me With that said, I did like the concept and respect what they were trying to do, and there were some strong scenes that stood out in a good way some of the humor lands but overall it’s just an uncomfortable experience that can get repetitive and honestly isn’t scary I do think it is worth a watch, there is some interesting social commentary but as a whole it would be a much better short film and frankly just isn’t worth all the hype. Score 6/10
May 13 · 1 hr 24 min
Misery Review
Don’t go anywhere, We’re about to get crackalackin on our review of Misery, one of Stephen Kings most successful and critically acclaimed novel adaptations. Synopsis When world class author Paul Sheldon takes a spill he falls under the care of Annie Wilkes, his Nurse. As Paul regains his strength to learn to walk again, he also finds himself learning to love again. Little does he know that Annie Wilkes is his #1 fan. As Annie becomes his muse for his next novel, Annie tries to remain professional and hide her true feelings. From the Director Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally comes the feel good romantic comedy of the 90’s, which asks, why unrequited love can lead to such… Misery. Review of Misery Misery is a horror movie that proves you don’t need all the bells and whistles of the genre to be truly terrifying. Sometimes all you need is one truly unhinged person and no escape. Kathy Bates performance is truly impressive and well deserving of her academy award win. She is convincingly able to portray a cavalcade of mental health disorders at the flip of a switch. Going from Manic fan girl to menacing anger, to unnerving disassociation. James Caan comparatively has light work being nonplussed at Annie’s theatrics. William Goldman’s adapted screenplay deserves a lot of credit for its tight pacing, the smart addition of a sheriff character, and great dialogue. Rob Reiner had a lot to prove with this film in expanding his credibility as a director outside of comedy. It undeniably is a great thriller, but my one criticism is that it is often visually uninteresting. It might be intentional, but the over reliance on monologue long closeups felt claustrophobic at times. It’s said that Reiner studied the films of Hitchcock before shooting Misery, but I don’t see anything close to that level of visual storytelling. Overall, this is a great movie. The tension never lets up and Kathy Bates performance is required viewing. Score 10/10
May 6 · 1 hr 35 min
Hokum Review
Synopsis Ohm is a writer struggling to let go of his past. In an effort to move on, he travels to Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes. When he checks into the very hotel his mom and dad stayed at on their honeymoon, Ohm learns about the witch said to haunt the building. Some shady business is afoot. But, having some shady business to attend to himself he goes to his bedroom with a rope and a dream. Fiona, an employee at the hotel stops him from committing the ultimate L, and is later discovered to be missing. Ohm sets out to find the woman who saved his life and hopefully return the favor. Review of Hokum Hokum is directed by Damian McCarthy, who also directed both Caveat and Oddity, which are both great movies. Hokum follows suit with the same feel and spooky imagery. If I could describe Damian McCarthy’s style in one word, I would call it unsettling. While I think I like the premise of Caveat and Oddity better than Hokum, the themes were better in this film. At hokum’s core there is a message about self-forgiveness and allowing yourself to heal what is broken within. The main character Ohm, played by Adam Scott, who you may recognize from Krampus (or like Parks and Rec and Severance), is a man who did something terrible and never let himself forget it. He became the villain in his own story and lets that show in the conversations and interactions he has with others. But just like the story he is writing, maybe our character will learn to do something selfless. It’s beautiful, shocking, and unexpected. I will say that I was hoping for a little more out of some plot lines. The witch feels like a subplot that barely makes it into the movie, but maybe I’m just being nitpicky. Score 9/10
April 29 · 1 hr 34 min
Veronica Review
Synopsis Verónica takes place in 1991 Madrid, Spain, where, during a solar eclipse, a teen girl and her friends decide to try and contact their deceased loved ones using an Ouija board. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned, and one of the girls, Veronica, begins to experience horrifying supernatural events while trying to care for her 3 young siblings. As things ramp up and she becomes more isolated, it is up to her to try to right her wrong. Review of Veronica I was super happy when this won the Patreon poll. I saw this movie when it first came out, and it brings a lot of nostalgia for me. I was working on my bachelor’s in Spanish, and it was definitely a hot topic among my classmates. With that nostalgia aside, it’s just a great movie. You get everything that you could want from a possession/haunting film and although there are a lot of horror movie tropes, they are well executed in unique ways. The addition of her 3 young siblings really ups the steaks especially considering that she’s only 15 and is constantly caring for them. The film is well-paced and takes its time, but gives you plenty of scares along the way. I love the design of the apparitions. I feel like you don’t see that a lot. I also like all of the mouth horror. The film also covers themes of isolation, self-doubt, and grief in a beautiful way. The cuts between scenes are well done, and the integration of the true story isn’t too heavy-handed. It’s honestly hard for me to find any big criticisms of this film. Score: 9/10
April 22 · 1 hr 41 min
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Review
Synopsis After the sudden disappearance of a journalist’s young daughter in Cairo, his family is left shattered. Eight years later, they receive an unexpected call that their daughter has been found, although she is not quite the same. What begins as a moment of overwhelming joy turns into something much more disturbing. As unsettling events begin to unfold, her father and others start to dig into the mystery of her disappearance to find out what really happened to Katie during all those years. Review of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy I was really excited going into Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, the intro had me hooked and invested in these characters and the film is beautifully shot, even the gory parts. It does feel more like The Exorcist and Evil dead than a mummy movie but it was a solid attempt at doing something different. The special effects are incredible, I genuinely felt nauseated at certain points and had to look away. Unfortunately this doesn’t make up for an unnecessary 2 hour and 13 minute run time. Parts became repetitive and there were many scenes that were unnecessary or could have been compiled concisely into other scenes.What really lost points for me more than anything was the awful ending that was also way too long and turned almost comical but not in a good way. Score 5/10
April 15 · 1 hr 15 min
Incident in a Ghostland Review
Synopsis A single mother and her two teens travel to a rural house inherited from a family member. News reports tell of a serial killer that targets families, killing the parents, and living with and torturing the surviving teen girls. You can guess what happens next. But can you guess what happens AFTER that? Probably not. Review of Incident in a Ghostland This is an effective psychological horror that really plays with the audience in some impressive ways. It keeps you guessing exactly what kind of movie is this? Is this a torture porn slasher? Is it a supernatural horror allegory of unprocessed trauma? One thing is certain, this movie is fucking with your expectations. Incident in a Ghostland is directed by Pascal LAugier, who is probably most known for Martyrs, so the amount of brutality should be adjusted accordingly. It is a very dark movie, and only lets up briefly. It borders on too uncomfortable to watch and enjoy. However, it’s so darn interesting, that you have to keep watching. My one complaint is that the production design is cliche,a nd a little too over the top creepy with all the creepy dolls in the house. Another shortfall, is that the main antagonists never really get fully fleshed out, and remain kind of 2 dimensional. They feel more like scary video game monsters to avoid versus characters whose motivations are known and can be interacted with. I can’t say it’s an enjoyable movie, but it is good. I enjoy it on the level that it truly did play with my expectations and perception, which for a grizzled horror movie reviewer counts for a lot. Score 7/10
April 8 · 1 hr 9 min
Ouija: Origins of Evil Review
Synopsis In this prequel to the movie Ouija, we are given a family struggling to make a quick buck in the 1960s as spiritual mediums. But they aren’t just any regular spiritual mediums….they are frauds. Which I guess actually just makes them regular old spiritual mediums. But when 9 year old Doris discovers that she can speak to the dead for real using a ouija board the family business starts booming. As Doris’s spiritual talents begin to take on a sinister tone, the question on everyone’s mind becomes “who or what is Doris really talking to?” Review of Ouija: Origins of Evil I’ve been giving Ouija: Origins of Evil a hard time lately, because I remembered it being very bad. But then I rewatched it. And its still pretty bad. But not quite as bad as I remembered it being. The movie is directed by Mike Flannagan, a director who has brought us incredible movies and Tv shows such as The Haunting of Hill House, Hush, Gerald’s Game, Oculus, Doctor Sleep, and my personal favorite Midnight Mass. He has thoroughly proven himself to me as a director who can create something scary as well as emotionally impactful. This movie is not that. Its extremely cookie cutter, and doesn’t really even attempt to break the mold of a stereotypical haunted house movie. If you’ve seen any of the conjuring movies, you’ve seen this. If you’ve seen any of the insidious movies, you’ve seen this. If you’ve seen any movie with the words “the haunting of…” in the title, you’ve seen this. I could go on, but you get the picture. What this movie does well is pepper in some truly creepy imagery and a couple fun jump scares, however it fails to do anything outside of the box or make a group of characters worth caring about. Don’t get me wrong, the mother played by Elisabeth Reaser, and the priest played by Henry Thomas were great. But the kids in this movie are awful actors and I truly believe that with my whole heart. Score 4/10
April 1 · 1 hr 14 min
Exorcist III Review
Synopsis The film begins 17 years after the events of The Exorcist and follows the characters Father Dyer and Lieutenant Kinderman who have kindled their friendship from the shared tragedy of losing their friend Father Karras. A series of murders in Washington DC copycat the Gemini Killer, who has been dead for 17 years. Kinderman is befuddled that they include Gemini’s trademarks that were never revealed to the public. The investigation leads to a psychiatric ward and a supernatural suspect. Review of Exorcist III The Exorcist 3 certainly does a better job of carrying forth the themes and story of the first film, however it never comes close to matching its quality. That being said, it’s a vast improvement over the incomprehensible mess of Exorcist II: The Heretic. The film is written and directed by William Peter Blatty, the author of the original Exorcist novel. While the writing is good, and the characters and relationships strong, the direction is a mixed bag at best. It’s hard to put a finger on whether it is because of Blatty’s lack of experience, this being only his second film he directed, or because of the studio interference demanding a more direct sequel. The answer is probably both. The relationship between Dyer and Kinderman is the best part and the heart of the film. The dialogue between them genuinely feels like old friends sharing a laugh and challenging each other’s philosophies. Like the Exorcist, the dichotomy of good vs evil, and the nature of man is explored. Like the original, the forces of evil seem to be unhindered, and as such, the tone is oppressive and dark at times. The standout performance is Brad Dourif as the Gemini Killer. Rarely has Dourif been given the free reign to appear on screen as himself and deliver a truly scene chewing performance that displays his full range. It goes from calm meticulousness to unhinged rage within seconds. The things that hold back the film from being great are the unrefined visual style, and the obviously wedged in and tonally divergent exorcism in act 3. It goes from a tight and oppressive thriller to a bombastic supernatural bombardment in the last act. Score 7/10
March 25 · 1 hr 14 min
Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come Review with New Co-Host Mikayla!
Synopsis & Review of Ready or Not 2 This film picks up right where the first one left off with our protagonist Grace dealing with the aftermath of her wedding night gone wrong, except this time she is reconnected with her sister Faith and they have to “run and hide” from even more satanists under the rule of Mr. Le Bail. The film brings us A LOT of gore and even more laughs with not so subtle societal commentary. With a star studded cast including many horror movie regulars and our returning scream queen the movie was set up for success. It’s genuinely hilarious, self aware of the absurdity at times and it just works. There are a few pitfalls that we will get into in spoilers but overall it’s a great time to watch, so I am giving it a 9/10 …. What do you guys think? Score 9/10
March 18 · 1 hr 27 min
Undertone Review with Taylor W.
Synopsis Evy is a popular scary story podcaster recording a new episode from the home of her mother who is lying in hospice upstairs. As she takes care of her dying mother, Evy and her cohost listen to disturbing recordings sent in from an anonymous email. The more they listen to the recordings, the more Evy notices strange happenings in the house. Review I wanted to like this movie, but by the mid mark, I was just so bored. This is bad news for the movie, because it seems like it was tailor made for me. Having semi recently cared for a parent in hospice and being the host of a semi successful podcast with an annoying cohost, I was hooked immediately by the premise. I’ll even give credit where credit is due. The movie really does a great job of utilizing the theater of the mind of an audio format. However, it doesn’t pair the audio with anything particularly interesting to look at. I found myself thinking that truly this would have been better in an audio format as the camera Skinamarinked around aimlessly. If there was something interesting to see other than lighting changes for the first half of the movie, they were too subtle for my eyes. And by the time shadowy figures start appearing in the periphery, I was starting to doze off from the repetitive nature of the plot. I wanted to care more about the protagonist, but we aren’t given enough information about her motivations or history to really care about her. There were so many ripe emotionally fertile situations within the plot of the movie, parent dying, unexpected news, strained relationships, etc. However, when it comes down to it she seems like a cipher for the audience. Just a blank slate. I guess that might be what the filmmakers were going for, since the semi-stated thesis of the movie was the phenomenon of audio pareidolia, where the brain fills in random noise with recognizable patterns, such as speech. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s enough here to maintain the interest of the audience to have them try to fill in the blank spaces of the film with meaning by themselves. Score 4/10