Thursday, November 9, 2023

Slotherhouse/Insidious: The Red Door

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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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Slotherhouse                                                                EH
For those of you that may be unaware, yes, this is about a killer sloth.  Said sloth was snatched from Panama and ends up in an American sorority house.  Now, obviously my expectations weren’t very high, and I was actually looking forward to it given there’s never been a killer sloth movie before (a Google search yielded no other results).  Well, apparently my expectations may have been a little higher than I thought.  I thought this could’ve ended up pretty decent judging from the beginning wherein our furry slasher slaughters a predatory animal.  I didn’t have too much fun with it after that, and given the inane concept, it could’ve been so much fun.  It was a little too inane for me though, to the point where I was laughing internally at how egregious it was, and not in the so-bad-its-good way.  Somehow this sloth knows how to use a computer, drive a car, and basically anything else a human can do.  I know, I know, given this inane concept I’m supposed to just set my brain aside and enjoy the ride, right?  There’s plenty of so-bad-its-good flicks, or even just so-bad-its-watchable ones, but I just wasn’t digging this.  There are a few bloody moments, but they definitely held back lots of times, because, oh yeah, this was only rated PG-13 (I doubt that helped with ticket sales during its limited theatrical release anyhow).  Making this a hard R and going all the way with the violence might’ve made this dud a bit more worthwhile.  11/5/2023

Insidious:  The Red Door                                            B/EH
This fifth film, both chronologically and release-wise, of the franchise was a cash grab and nothing more.  It takes place nine years after the second-released film, Insidious:  Chapter 2.  In the beginning (nine years prior to the primary storyline), the father of this family (played by Patrick Wilson, who also directed this entry) and the one son, Dalton, are put through a session in order to repress their time in The Further.  Dalton (played by Ty Simpkins) is in college now and an assignment requires him to dig into his subconscious which I don’t think needs telling that nothing good comes from that.  This film adds absolutely nothing new to the franchise (hence the ‘cash grab’ comment).  It wasn’t fun and the intended frightening parts were akin to cheap jump scares in that I knew something was coming and, when it did, was more irritating than spooky, thus ineffective.  This is assuredly the top contender for most unnecessary sequel of the year.  I could say I was more or less a fan of the series before too.  According to my archives, I gave Insidious 3 ½ stars out of 4 (when I used to give star ratings; that was based on my first viewing too, because I definitely wouldn’t rate it that high after recently re-watching it), Insidious:  Chapter 2 a G rating, Insidious 3 an OK rating (that was my least favorite entry before this), and you can read my review for Insidious:  The Last Key in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2018/01/mooby-reviews-11318.html. This franchise has overstayed its welcome.  I honestly would’ve been fine if they ended with Chapter 2.  11/8/2023

Bonus review:

Trauma Bond                                                              OK
I would’ve never heard of this short film written and directed by Jaina Cipriano had Jaina herself not contacted me asking to review it.  Roughly 33-minutes, available on YouTube (here is the link---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5OvSeZDaw4), it involves two women planning on hanging out for the night before another woman shows up whom one of them invited.  This guest is very boisterous, bordering on the eccentric, and things take a slight turn towards the bizarre after she does something to one of the women.  The film is well-shot and the characterizations are surely notable, but there is definitely more to this story than what we were shown.  Perhaps you have feature film ambitions for this project, Jaina?  I’d be interested in an expansion.  Clearly you’ve demonstrated you can make movies.  [Research tells me Jaina only directed one other short film, You Don’t Have to Take Orders from the Moon, also available on YouTube, which I happened to check out as well; Trauma Bond was better].  11/5/2023

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

American Horror Stories (Season Three)  >>>EH
                        (Hulu; 4 episodes)

Cobweb (2023)  >>>OK

A Haunting in Venice  >>>EH

The Mill (2023)  >>>EH/OK
            (Hulu)

---Sean O.
11/9/2023

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