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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/Beyond G
This is the seventh film of the anthology franchise! Ninth if you include the two spin-offs! [The only other ones I reviewed were V/H/S/99, as a haiku review, in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2022/11/speak-no-evil.html,
and V/H/S/85 in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2023/11/vhs85.html;
in the latter review, you’ll see my ratings only for the other four, plus links
to reviews of the spin-offs, Siren
and Kids vs. Aliens]. I’ll admit I wasn’t too enthused upon hearing
this one was going to be more sci-fi; don’t get me wrong, I like my fair share
of sci-fi flicks---The Faculty, Annihilation (review of that in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2018/03/mooby-reviews-3818.html),
Alien isn’t bad (just the first one from
memory), and I guess pretty much any movie with aliens would count (in that
case, Killer Klowns from Outer Space,
Night of the Creeps, Critters, Attack the Block, E.T., Mac and Me, lol, just to name some)---and
it could very well be a cousin genre to horror, but I guess I’m just not a fan
of hokey special effects, especially digital ones, often associated with them (even
practical ones have been corny too, John Carpenter’s The Thing being an example, the effects the main reason I’m not a
fan of it). Sci-fi as a theme though,
I’m all for (to me, The Twilight Zone
is a better series than The Outer Limits). This film certainly had otherworldly
elements, but obviously caters to the horror crowd, given the franchise’s roots. The wraparound segment is presented as a
docuseries about alien encounters, the other segments “recordings” of such
encounters. It starts off with a bang in
an entry that plays like a shoot ‘em up zombie videogame in a derelict house; the
undead, or whatever they are, have a distinct look (they aren’t the only
creatures here either); bloody good fun segment that does not disappoint. The second one was probably my least fave. It takes place in India (yes, that means
subtitles) and involves a female pop singer with a deadly secret; it’s rather
formulaic, but very gory (seems like a tactic often used these days to
compensate for what lacks in the script).
The third one was another good one involving a birthday skydiving
excursion gone wrong, very wrong. Those
that make it on the ground aren’t safe from harm either. The extraterrestrials here undoubtedly give
the ones in the V/H/S/2 segment, as
well as its spin-off (Kids vs. Aliens),
a hefty run for their money, and probably most evil aliens in entertainment. I wish this segment was longer (hey, Kids vs. Aliens happened). The next one involved a dog lady with a
rather sinister agenda. This one was
probably the least sci-fi, although likely qualifies conceptually, a concept
not exactly unique, but, again, the violence that occurs makes the segment a
little more unique. Lastly, a girl
filming in the Mojave Desert enters a spaceship that, at first, appears to have
beneficial advantages, but notice how I put ‘at first’ in big bold
letters! This one should’ve been a bit
longer; not that I wanted it to be, but it should’ve because it felt a bit
lacking (I didn’t dislike it though, nor did I any of them). Like many an anthology, it may not have been
perfect collectively (as least two of the segments were great though), but I
enjoyed it enough, more than I thought given I wasn’t looking forward to it too much, to recommend it. 10/4/2024
Bonus reviews:
Hold Your Breath OK/G
Southern gothic film on Hulu taking place in Oklahoma during
the 1930s (shot in New Mexico though). A
woman (Sarah Paulson) lives with her two daughters on a farm while her husband
is away working. Dust storms occur
frequently which can make one sick, maybe even die if caught in one (hence they
try sealing every crevice in the house during them). An entity may be in these storms too, based
on a ghost story the young girls read. There
was a very eerie quality to this film, a pervading sense of unease, which I did
admire. It does end up feeling clichéd
though, style ultimately trumping substance, but such style it does have…10/3/2024
It’s What’s Inside EH/OK
Ever wanted to be someone else? A group of friends get to do just that in
this Netflix thriller when they get together the night before a wedding. One of their friends whom they haven’t seen
for a while (you’ll see why) brings a machine that somehow allows them all to
switch bodies with someone else in attendance.
There was something I admired about this film, there really was, in that
it defied expectations, in addition to being well-shot with some nice use of
color here and there. I liked how it didn’t
go the body count route it was set up to be, and what I thought it would be (there are deaths though, but not in
the way you think). However…this made me
think too much, and not in the way meaningful discussions will be generated
afterwards, but in the way you need to stop watching several times to take
notes and keep track of everything.
There’s eight people you need to follow and I couldn’t take keeping up
with who was who and when, even though they did have pictures of the real
people attached to the bodies they were in, occasionally showing the real
people in a parallel shot (that aforementioned nice use of color). I couldn’t imagine reading this in a book
(it’s not, it was written and directed by Greg Jardin, this being his
feature-length debut), because if it was confusing watching this all visually…cue
head shake! Mr. Jardin, clearly you have
ambition, but you tried a little too hard here, buddy. 10/4/2024
Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):
Blackwater Lane >>>EH
Didi (2024) >>>OK/G
(Sometimes in
Mandarin with subtitles)
King on Screen >>>OK
Sasquatch Sunset >>>OK
---Sean O.10/9/2024
