Friday, February 9, 2024

Last Night at Terrace Lanes

-------------------------------------------------------------------
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).
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Night at Terrace Lanes                                        OK/G
I was in when I heard this was a horror movie set at a bowling alley, written by Adam Cesare, the author of the Clown in a Cornfield books (there’s a third one coming out later this year!); I found out while watching that one of the co-directors of The Blair Witch Project was one of the producers too.  The only other horror movie set at a bowling alley I can think of is Gutterballs (which I gave 3 out of 4 stars, according to my archives), and, ahem, I guess those Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama movies (my review of the second one is in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2023/02/m3gan.html); hell, there aren’t too many movies involving bowling period (Kingpin, The Big Lebowski…I should pitch a movie or TV series set only at a bowling alley!).  Anyway, was this movie actually as cool as it sounds?  Kind of.  As the title clearly states, the titular bowling alley is closing up for good after the night; a bunch of cult members wearing masks happen to arrive this night and slaughter everyone, obviously for cult reasons (obviously); that is, of course, except for a few survivors whom must do whatever it takes to survive while locked inside this alley.  It definitely doesn’t have the highest budget and certainly isn’t without its flaws (the violence in the beginning involving internal organs being the main one---I thought it was kind of lame), but there are enough pros (at least for indiscriminate horror fans) to make it worth watching at least once.  It’s barely even 75-minutes too.  2/6/2024

Bonus review:

Orion and the Dark                                                     G
DreamWorks animation available on Netflix involving a young boy (of the title) that fears many things, the dark being one of them.  Dark is personified here, its very own character, and he confronts our protagonist one night, asking him to tag along to see what he does, hoping this will conquer his fear.  Off they go, meeting up with other entities associated with the dark (Sleep, Quiet, Insomnia, Sweet Dreams, Unexplained Noises).  Based on a book of the same name (by Emma Yarlett) and written for the screen by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I’m Thinking of Ending Things), taking place during more than one timeline (one primarily), this movie is funny at times, imaginative too, reminding me a bit of Inside Out (not as good, no), much more than Elemental did (my review for that is in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-bear-season-2.html); it is undeniably charming (gah!).  Too early to say, but it might end up being a contender for the best animated feature of 2024…2/2/2024

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

The Bell Keeper  >>>OK

Chariot (2013)  >>>EH

Dark Windows  >>>OK

Daughter (2023) >>>EH

Fingernails  >>>EH
          (Apple+)

God is a Bullet  >>>EH/OK

Past Lives  >>>OK/G
   (In Korean, and English, with subtitles)

Santa Isn’t Real  >>>EH/OK

The Tourist (Season One)  >>>OK/G
            (Netflix; 6 episodes)

Us or Them  >>>OK/G

---Sean O.
2/9/2024

No comments:

Post a Comment