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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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The Haunting of Bly
Manor (Season One) G
This new Netflix series loosely based on the novel, The
Turn of the Screw, by Henry James (which I haven’t read) is 9 episodes with
the longest being 65 minutes and the shortest being 45. I did see the filmed adaptation, The Innocents, but barely remember
anything, and the other recent adaptation, The
Turning, is one of the worst movies I’ve seen this year. This series bears no real connection to The Haunting of Hill House series also
released on Netflix two years ago, other than Mike Flanagan’s name being
attached (he created this and wrote/directed the first episode) and a few
familiar faces returning as different characters. It seems there are plans of making this an
anthology series much like American
Horror Story wherein a story will be loosely adapted into a Haunting series with some of the same
performers returning each season. Reading
beforehand that this wasn’t connected to Hill
House was the sole reason I even bothered with it. I didn’t dislike Hill House, but I wasn’t too much a fan of the horror juxtaposing
with the drama, the drama seeming to take center stage more often, and felt it
ended much too sappily (you can read my review for it in the archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com). I did like this series better and part of it
could be that I went in expecting more of a gothic romance (which I read on the
website provided below) instead of a straight-up horror show. It does
contain a romance, more than one, and the series is definitely gothic. It is also a ghost story and gothic ghost
stories don’t need to be scary to be effective, as proven here. It isn’t always the most fast-paced, as many
gothic ghost stories aren’t, but I was enamored enough from start to finish to
want to continue. It does get a bit
weird halfway through, but in the sense it spices things up a bit (kind of reminding
me of a season from that aforementioned anthology series), and everything is
explained as best as it can be by the end.
The ending this time is more depressing, but effectively as opposed to
how sappily (or at least too positively) it could’ve ended. 10/13/2020
Bonus review:
Tales from the Hood 3 OK
[Tales from the Hood
is one of my favorite anthology films.
It is nearly perfect. Not only
were all the segments, including the wraparound, intriguing, but the entire
film contained an underlying sense of dread.]
That was the beginning of my review for Tales from the Hood 2 which you can read in its entirety in the
archives---www.abcreviewarchive.blogspot.com. I also said this---[The same director returns
along with a sidekick that was the writer of the first, plus Spike Lee returns
as executive producer.]---and the same applies for this threequel. I also said this---[All in all, it certainly
wasn’t the worst anthology film I’ve seen, but it is still a sequel after all
to a much greater predecessor.]---which also applies and that’s the last I’m
going to crib from that review. The
wraparound segment here involves Tony Todd (the original Candyman for those unaware) taking a little girl into an abandoned
building to see her mother; the little girl tells four stories (the segments)
while they make their way through said building. The first one, the weakest one, is a typical
“revenge from beyond the grave” tale that includes an evil clown I wish was
utilized more. The second one involves an
irritating white racist that is so stereotypically over-the-top racist,
bordering on parodical, making me anticipate his inevitable demise; it does end
with quite a clever, albeit loopy, reveal though. The third one reminded me of a film from 2005
(I obviously won’t reveal) after it ended and it did take me by surprise
considering I thought the segment was initially going down a completely
different route. The last one began kind
of goofy and involves a villain being cursed to “walk in his victim’s shoes,”
but the phrase takes on quite a different meaning than you’d think. The wraparound segment contains a comeuppance
that’s not uncommon for a horror anthology segment with a cute (I guess you can
say) nod to the first film. As I
implied, this collection wasn’t great, most segments contained reveals better
than what came before, but you could do worse when it comes to horror anthology
films. I, personally, would just tell
you to watch the first film, again or for the first time. 10/10/2020
Other
movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
The Bay of Silence >>>EH
Save Yourselves! >>>OK
The Silencing >>>OK
Solo (2013) >>>EH
---Sean O.
10/14/2020
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