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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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Midsommar OK/G
The director, Ari Aster, was also behind last year’s Hereditary which I thought was overrated
but still didn’t dislike it (you can read my review for it in the
archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com; click on January under 2019). I didn’t dislike this either. For the most part. It is almost 2 ½ hours and certainly feels
so, so you definitely need patience.
Knowing it was marketed as a horror movie, I knew something sinister was
behind this outwardly peaceful Swedish cult community, as should anyone that’s
seen similar movies. Some of it is
predictable as well (again, if you’ve seen movies before it will be). Aside from needing the aforementioned
patience though, the film generally had my attention until it got too bizarre towards
the end (never thought I’d say that).
The conclusion appeared to be weird just for the sake of being weird and
instead of making me think back to prior events, it just made me want to read
Wikipedia’s synopsis to see if I missed something (which I did do and it did
provide some info that I failed to pick up while watching). Perhaps it was too much to take in the first
time? It’s happened before so
perhaps. Ari Aster definitely knows how
to make movies with an apparent love for the horror genre, but perhaps his next
film will be his crowning achievement in my opinion? Perhaps.
10/9/2019
In the Tall Grass OK/G
An adapted film based on a short story by Stephen King
available on Netflix? I had to see
it. I never read the short story which
he co-authored with his son, Joe Hill, but that’s about to change since a
collection containing it (Full Throttle) recently became available at my
local library. Initially it was only
available in e-book format and I haven’t given in to the modern way of reading
as long as the print versions are still available (I’m old-fashioned that way),
or I wait until they are in cases like this.
Anyway, this adaptation was directed by the guy behind Cube and the same concept is very much
apparent here---a group of people are stuck somewhere (here, tall grass) with
no easy way out (initially). You’ll
likely be reminded of Children of the
Corn as well (at least I was), although there’s tall grass instead of corn
and no murderous kids. I originally
thought it was going to be lame with just a few characters stuck in this very
limited and confined setting (the action exits the tall grass for a bit, but
takes place in it roughly 80% of the time), but it does get a bit bizarre (we
are in King territory after all and the apple doesn’t stray too far from the
tree either). There are no direct
answers when all is said and done, but there is closure (sort of) and I took a
little something from it. I still think
there’s more to this world than what we were presented with though. Perhaps the short story will provide more
information? It may not be the greatest
King-based film I’ve seen, and there’s many fitting that list, but it’s still
decent enough to check out as I would imagine fans are apt to do anyway. 10/6/2019
Bonus review:
Creeped Out: Season Two OK
Being a fan of the first season of this modern Are You Afraid of the Dark? (not the new
series either), meaning a horror anthology series geared more towards the
younger crowd, I hate to say this second season wasn’t as impressive (read my
review of the first season in the archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com;
click on January under 2019). That still
doesn’t mean I don’t look forward to watching anthology films/shows and won’t
ever stop watching them. Roxanne
Benjamin put it best in regards to horror anthologies in a recent Fangoria
article in that “there’s a first act and a third act, and there’s not really a
second act.” In other words, all the
filler is eradicated from these stories that wouldn’t last a feature film; it
seems some feature films should take that approach though as well. Anyway, this season had 10 episodes instead
of 13 like the previous season (technically 12 since one was a two-parter), all
under a half-hour. The best of the bunch
this time include a revenge tale utilizing an Irreversible approach (“Tilly Bone”), a Chopping Mall-ish one involving a mechanical Santa (“Splinta
Claws”), a Black Mirror-ish episode
involving modern technology that dangerously controls everything in our lives
(“Help”), and one that might appall those with any kind of entomophobia
(“Itchy”) which actually had a clever resolution before the inevitable
cliffhanger. Some of the segments were just
okay, including a Twilight Zone-ish
tale involving parallel dimensions at a hotel (“The Many Place”), a progressive
yet standard “be careful what you wish for” story with an ironic twist ending
(“The Takedown”), and one that’s a blatant Breakfast
Club rip-off with a demon added (“The Unfortunate Five”). And, of course, there were some less than
okay entries---an evil baby tale where the adults obviously don’t believe the
older sibling (“Only Child”), one involving a dangerous app (“No Filter”), and
one where playing video games somehow enables one kid to travel ahead in time
(“One More Minute”). Again, I wasn’t so
crazy about this season as much as last; none were exactly spectacular (“Itchy”
being my personal favorite though) and none were entirely detestable, but I still expected them to be better as a
whole. As I also stated, I still
anticipate watching horror anthologies (film and TV) and generally enjoy when I
do watch them. That being said, I will
watch any more seasons they decide to make with this series; I just hope
there’re better pickings next time. 10/9/2019
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
The Fanatic >>>B/EH
Slaughterhouse Rulez >>>EH/OK
The Standoff at
Sparrow Creek >>>OK
---Sean O.
10/10/2019
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