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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated
1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going
to review every single movie I see. I’m
going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the
rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future). You can always ask me why I gave the ratings
for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses
under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Slasher: Season One G
I finally got around to watching this show (an anthology
series like that of American Horror Story
or True Detective) I put on my
long list of ‘to-watch’ titles, thanks to social media for reminding me of
it. In the beginning, I wondered how an
8-episode series (available on Netflix) being generally 43 minutes each (almost
6 hours!) could effectively sustain itself considering a slasher film under 90 minutes overstays its
welcome half the time, if not more than.
Well, as you can see by my rating, it did work and characterization was
a big factor in making that happen.
Characterization is very important to a slasher feature as we typically
spend more time with the potential victims than the villain. If they only focused on the kills (as
impressive as they may be), the film would be no more than 15 minutes and
completely lack characterization, making it more akin to a snuff film. Part of the fun in the Friday the 13th films, in addition to Jason Voorhees and
all his kills, are the many characters we get to meet before all but one (or
two sometimes) meet their demise. This
series takes place in a small town called Waterbury where a young woman returns
with her husband to the house her parents were murdered in almost 30 years
prior (which is one of the first scenes you see). Being it’s a small town, everyone pretty much
knows everyone and most people have secrets.
There are a good deal of characters and we get to know them all well
enough regardless of how early they bite it.
There’s enough to keep you occupied, regardless of originality, which
made me binge-watch the entire season in less than 24 hours. And there is violence, not often, but quite
gory at times. I did figure out who the
killer was fairly early, but, come on, I’ve seen enough of these to pay
attention to every character. Also, as I
know I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really care who the person behind the mask
is as long as I enjoy the rest of it (as I mostly did here). Plus, the killer usually isn’t revealed until
the end (here, it’s the end of the 7th episode), so we have to be
occupied before that, otherwise it’ll be a dull movie or TV show (which this
surprisingly wasn’t). On to season two
(see below) and season three is premiering this week as of this writing, so it
looks like I chose a good time to begin this series, as should other slasher
fans who haven’t yet! 5/19/2019
Slasher: Season Two OK
Well, like many sequels (even though this is an anthology
series), this season wasn’t as good as the first (see above). I definitely didn’t hate it though and don’t
regret watching it, and I still binge-watched it in one day like I did the
first. The episodes were a bit longer
this time (roughly ten minutes give or take) and the characterizations weren’t
always as captivating; some I didn’t get to know well enough, some I could care
less about (not uncommon for a slasher feature though). The setting was more fitting this time for a
general slasher---a former camp, now a commune, isolated, transportation
destroyed (gas siphoned from vehicles), communication cut off (I believe this
took place in the past as I don’t recall cell phones), too far to walk due to
the cold---but I got bored more than once (must’ve been those extra ten
minutes!). It takes place in the present
at the (now) commune, but there are many flashbacks to when it was a camp five
years prior and a group of camp counselors (now at the commune) were
responsible for a murder. I think it
would’ve been better if the story took place during camp to feel more slasher-y,
but the creators sort of managed to make it work the finalized way. The deaths are definitely gorier, making at
least one of the “sequel rules” from Scream
2 true here (the deaths are more elaborate in sequels), but, like I said,
this isn’t a sequel and the only connection to season one was the re-appearance
of some of the performers (not characters).
I actually didn’t figure out the killer this time, but when they were
revealed (at the end of episode 6), it was simply a ‘whatever’ reaction. There was a twist though that took me by
surprise, not fresh, but I didn’t expect it here, and it ironically brought to
mind the original Friday the 13th. I liked this season more than disliked it,
but like many sequels and anthology shows/series for that matter, they can’t
always be good or equally as good as other parts (as nice as that would
be). I’m still looking forward to season
three being released this week (as of this writing)! 5/21/2019
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Aquaman >>>OK/G
Arctic >>>OK
Everybody Knows >>>EH/OK
Isn’t It Romantic >>>EH
The Man Who Killed
Hitler and then the Bigfoot
>>>EH/OK
Wanda Sykes: Not Normal
>>>OK/G
---Sean O.
5/22/2019
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