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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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V/H/S/85 OK/G
Sixth entry of this anthology franchise taking place in the
much-beloved Eighties. According to my
archives, this is how I rated the others:
V/H/S---OK/G, V/H/S/2---VG/E, V/H/S: Viral---OK, V/H/S/94---OK,
and the only one I wrote a review for before this, a haiku one, was V/H/S/99 in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2022/11/speak-no-evil.html. Looks like I didn’t dislike any of them, the
second being my favorite (I do remember liking it a lot when watching for the
first time, but I highly doubt I’d rate it that high if I watched it now, but
who knows?). This one has five tales
with a wraparound I wasn’t too crazy about, it involving an otherworldly
specimen being studied in a facility (might’ve been too weird for me by the
time it concluded). The first one
follows a group of friends spending some time at a lake before their excursion
turns very deadly. I thought it ended
too soon, but it luckily ties in with another (later) segment, featuring an
ingenious form of revenge. Even though questions
were answered, I actually wouldn’t mind these two segments adapted into a
feature-length film (I feel there’s still more to the story); hey, it worked
with Siren and Kids vs. Aliens (reviews for those are in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2016/12/mooby-reviews-121316.html,
and here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2023/01/kids-vs-aliens.html). Two other ones were merely just okay, not
terrible at all, one involving an earthquake in Mexico causing some to come
across ancient deities underground whom aren’t exactly benevolent, the other
involving a virtual reality program with the ability to cross over into
reality. The final one was pretty good,
about murders being recorded on video before they happen; it certainly doesn’t
skimp on the violence. Therefore, I
didn’t dislike any of them (except for maybe the wraparound), at least three
out of five definitely passing, making this entry worth a gander and a worthy addition to the
series. 11/22/2023
Bonus review:
Creepshow (Season
Four) OK
This season of the Shudder series began with a whimper before
getting a little better. The series
itself started off with a bang in season one (review in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2020/01/creepshow-season-onejay-and-silent-bob.html),
and then just became okay subsequently (my review for season two is in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2021/05/creepshow-season-2in-search-of-darkness.html,
season three in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2021/11/candymancreepshow-season-3.html);
the two specials weren’t bad (review in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-dark-and-wickedthe-mortuary.html). There are six episodes with 12 segments total
here, the first three I wasn’t crazy about at all. “Twenty Minutes with Cassandra” began as what
could’ve been a decent creature feature before becoming more of a drama, thus
making it much less effective, maybe even silly; “Smile” was lame and totally
unoriginal, dealing with a camera that takes photos of near-future events (an
original Twilight Zone episode is
just one example I’ve seen the concept before); and “The Hat” is just uber-goofy, involving a
“hat creature” (uh-huh) enabling a writer to pen numerous stories
(horror-comedy doesn’t always work for me, and way to be subtle containing a
writer named Stephen Bachman. Stephen King? Richard Bachman?
Soooooooo clever!). The fourth segment,
“Grieving Process,” was a bit better than those that came before in a twisted variation
of ‘what one wouldn’t do for those they
love.’ Next, in “The Parent Deathtrap,”
our protagonist is haunted by the ghosts of his parents he murdered; there’s a
bit of a Beetlejuice/The Frighteners vibe going for it. “To Grandmother’s House We Go” features corny
werewolf effects, but they are practical at least, and not entirely detestable,
the entry itself being minimally satisfactory.
“Meet the Belaskos” is about a world in which humans and vampires
co-exist, not necessarily harmoniously (of course), and may be more of a sappy
romance between two young lovers (human and vampire), but it kind of works
(conditionally) and does deliver the gory goods when necessary. “Cheat Code” is a gateway horror segment
about a cursed video game with deadly consequences for anyone playing it, and
would pass as an acceptable Are You
Afraid of the Dark? episode, albeit an R-rated one. “Something Borrowed, Something Blue” is just
okay, slightly, and “Doodles” has been done before (an artist’s drawings
eventually occur in reality), the gore likely being its sole redeeming quality,
but it did have a pretty clever denouement.
“George Romero in 3-D!” was a decent zombie tale (surprise, surprise)
about an unearthed, unpublished comic book series coming off the page after
viewing it through the titular glasses, and the final segment, “Baby Teeth,” I
wasn’t a fan of largely due to the terrible creature design of a certain
childhood mythical being. So, in
essence, this series began and ended with a whimper. I would absolutely not go so far as saying
the middle was a bang, because the segments most certainly were not grand, but
they were okay, passable (8 out of 12), and I think it’s safe to say that even
just an “okay” entry in an anthology format would be enough to classify more as
a hit than a miss. 11/24/2023
Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Good Burger 2 >>>B
(Paramount+)
Monument (2018) >>>EH
(In Polish with
subtitles)
Night of the Hunted (2023) >>>OK
When Evil Lurks >>>OK
(Shudder; In
Spanish with subtitles)
---Sean O.
11/26/2023
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