Thursday, February 25, 2021

Wrong Turn

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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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Wrong Turn                                                                 G
Is this Wrong Turn 7?  Technically, if you go by release dates.  It’s being marketed as a reboot with The Foundation as an alternate subtitle.  If you’ve seen the previous six Wrong Turn movies, which I would assume you have if you made it this far, you pretty much know what to expect, right?  A group of people go into the West Virginia woods (here, it apparently takes place in Virginia) and some of them die at the hands of disfigured inbred hillbillies.  Like any slasher/body count movie, I assume one watches these films for the kills and characters, emphasis on the kills.  This film starts out somewhat how you would expect before taking a (ahem) turn in a completely different direction.  Forget this being labeled a reboot, this is almost a complete re-imagining!  You don’t even need to see the other six films to watch this one.  In fact, the slightly more sophisticated viewer would probably prefer this film over the other entries which they likely refer to as “uninspired.”  They probably could’ve gotten away with simply titling this The Foundation instead of associating it with the franchise.  It kind of had a bit more in common, at least thematically, with a certain M. Night Shyamalan film.  There is violence though for those that may be expecting it.  I’m going to recommend it for being different than envisioned and actually working for the most part (it is a bit lengthy though at almost 2 hours!), even though I may have also been a fan of the other “uninspired” entries.  Well, I liked the first one despite its predictability, and the first two sequels weren’t bad; parts 4, 5, and 6 were…whatever; I didn’t detest any of them.  Just keep your expectations low with this one, as I’d imagine you would, and you as well might end up liking it better than you thought.  It’s still no masterpiece, no, and, yes, I know, opinions are always subjective.  2/23/2021

Bonus reviews:

They Live Inside Us                                                     EH
Feature-length expansion of a segment bearing the same title from the anthology series, The Witching Season, which you can read my review for from the archives here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2020/10/halloween-party.html.  As you’ll see in that review, if you read it, I thought the segment in question could’ve worked as a feature film.  Unfortunately, it didn’t.  In the vignette, as well as this film, a writer enters a supposed haunted house and tries writing scripts containing horror villains.  Now, there could be both pros and cons when expanding a story.  The biggest con here was the unnecessary filler---the protagonist endlessly searching the house, taking care of his daughter, etc.  Roughly the same amount of time is spent here on the “scripts coming to life” scenes as in the series; the segment was roughly a half hour and this film was a little over 100-minutes; that’s a lot of extra filler, which was, as I said, unnecessary, in my honest opinion.  Just watch The Witching Season, if you haven’t already, which contains four other segments in addition to the much-condensed version of this and will take up less of your time; it’s still available on Tubi (meaning free).  2/23/2021

Behind Her Eyes                                                         G
I gave in to viewing this 6-episode English mini-series available on Netflix after reading a recommendation from someone at Entertainment Weekly.  In it, a young single-parent begins having an affair with her new boss while also secretly hanging out with his wife.  You can probably deduce that will all lead to drama.  In that aforementioned article from EW, I was informed there was more to the story than that basic premise and I can assure you there is.  The series, each episode roughly around the 50-minute mark, is engaging for the most part, always making you sense there is indeed more to the story that will eventually be revealed.  I can say everything is tied up neatly by the conclusion and can’t say it was disappointing, although I was reminded of at least one film which I won’t disclose lest I reveal too much.  Decent time-killer, hopefully remaining just a one-part mini-series, for those looking to watch something of the psychological thriller sort.  2/24/2021

Other movies and TV show(s) I’ve seen and their ratings (see above):

Horizon Line  >>>OK/G

I Care a Lot  >>>OK
   (Netflix)

Kajillionaire  >>>B

Nomadland  >>>OK

Shadow in the Cloud  >>>OK

The Sister (season one)  >>>OK
   (Hulu; 4 episodes)

---Sean O.
2/25/2021

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