Red Rooms

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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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Red Rooms                                                                  EH

I’ve been looking forward to this Canadian film (French-Canadian, so that means it’s mostly subtitled, with a few parts in English) since reading about it in Rue Morgue awhile ago.  It also made it on many top ten lists and (as of this writing) has a 95% rating out of 85 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, so I guess you can say my expectations were a little high.  In it, a woman attends the trial for a man who murdered three girls, even sleeping outside nearby just to get a spot in line.  The title refers to these sites on the dark web depicting such murders.  It is a slow-burn, but I did think it was going to lead somewhere, having a good build-up and all (plus, I kept thinking of all the rave reviews), but it completely fell short for me.  When it ended, I was like, ‘Seriously?!  That’s it?!  What the hell did so many people, horror fans mostly, see in this?’  I researched spoilers to see if maybe I missed something or wasn’t reading it right (it has happened in the past), but, nope, I learned nothing else upon reading an explanation, nor did it make me want to watch it again.  This is just another case wherein I disagree with the majority.  I shouldn’t have to feel bad about that…1/15/2025

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

Goosebumps:  The Vanishing  >>>EH

        (Disney+/Hulu; 8 episodes)

Here for Blood (2024)   >>>EH/OK

Laced (2024)  >>>OK

#MissingCouple  >>>EH/OK

Never Let Go (2024)  >>>G

New Normal (2023)  >>>EH/OK

      (In Korean with subtitles)

The Silent Hour  >>>OK

Tomorrow and I  >>>EH/OK

   (Netflix; In Thai with subtitles; 4 episodes)

---Sean O.

1/21/2025

Squid Game (Season Two)

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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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Squid Game (Season Two)                                         G

I liked the first season of this Korean Netflix series, but didn’t think it was as good as the hype (you can read my review for it in here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2021/11/squid-game.html).  I did not think they needed another season, let alone two (the third and final season, as they say, is coming sometime this year); you’ll see I wrote at the end of the first review that the novelty has already worn itself thin.  I was also a little hesitant seeing the episodes (seven, this time) were all roughly an hour (some a bit shorter, some a bit longer).  I gave in a week after it was released (the day after Christmas) and, lo and behold, I actually enjoyed this season a lot more than I thought I would.  The main protagonist, played by Lee Jung-jae, returns and re-enters the games for a different reason, said reason backfiring, thus he’s stuck again.  The games are different, other than one, and there’s more characters (obviously), the characters being one of the main reasons this works (we do get to know most of them well enough); there’s enough bloodshed too.  There are a few instances where scenes go on longer than they should, i.e. when players choose whether they want to continue or go home (I mean, come on, you know they’re not going to go home because then there’d be no show), but the episodes do generally go by pretty quickly (a plus, given how long they are), and I never felt forced to continue (also a plus).  Since I knew a third season was coming before even watching this I didn’t necessarily expect a conclusion, and there isn’t one.  I actually want to watch the third season based on how surprised I was with this season, but I hope it actually is the final one; otherwise the novelty will definitely wear itself thin…1/5/2025

Bonus reviews:

Booger                                                                                    OK/G

I watched this twice, and I often don’t do that in such proximity (it is barely even 80-minutes though), but there was something strangely compelling about it where I needed to run through it again before knowing my true opinion.  I also read up on other reviews to see if I missed something (like I always do whenever I don’t feel satisfied but want to).  It’s not perfect, but definitely unique and won’t be for all tastes.  In it, Anna and Izzy are best friends that live together.  Booger is the name of the cat that entered their apartment one day via the fire escape.  Izzy dies.  Booger bites Anna on the hand some time afterwards and she gradually exhibits feline tendencies, i.e. eating cat food, coughing up hair balls, etc.  It’s not as silly as it sounds, or as silly as it could’ve been (not the way Nightbitch was; that movie sucked); it’s an indie psychological horror film with a very simple concept that occasionally goes down the rabbit hole, ultimately portraying how one processes grief (as one review I read also clarified).  People grieve differently, as I always say (and needless to say), and Anna’s way surely stands in a class by itself.  1/10/2025

Get Away                                                                    EH/OK

A family of four (the father played by Nick Frost) heads to a remote Swedish island for vacation.  Let’s check off the clichés.  The family is given warnings about going to the island.  The fact they’re going to a remote island, said island only accessible by ferry, said ferry not returning to the mainland until after the “holiday” celebrated there (one based on a historical tragedy).  Uh-huh.  They’re then urged to return back the minute they set foot on the island.  No, there’s no Wicker Man vibes!  Not with that classic set-up in a movie called Get Away!  And of course the warnings won’t be heeded, because then no movie!  We find out right away the isolated house (no way!) they are staying at is being monitored (again, no way!).  You almost think you’re watching a parody despite the semi-serious tone.  There is a twist that was a little too obvious for me fairly early on (sorry, I’ve seen too many movies), said twist actually making me prefer it continued down the clichéd path it was setting us up for; it ends up being a violent black comedy (yes, it is violent).  Despite all the intended clichés and foreseen twist though, I did still kind of, somewhat, in a teensy-tiny bit way, enjoy it, but not really; it does come off as a bit too tongue-in-cheek for me where the horror and comedy don’t mesh well.  I did enjoy it more than Frost’s other recent film, Black Cab, though; definitely.  1/10/2025

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

Before (2024)  >>>OK

   (Apple+; 10 episodes)

Hauntology  >>>EH/OK

Invoking Yell  >>>EH/OK

   (In Spanish with subtitles)

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action  >>>OK

                        (Netflix; 2 episodes)

Juror #2  >>>G

Kneecap  >>>EH

   (Often in Irish with subtitles)

Mothers’ Instinct (2024)  >>>OK

The Piano Lesson  >>>EH/OK

                  (Netflix)

Piece by Piece   >>>EH

The Wild Robot  >>>OK

---Sean O.

1/11/2025

Apartment 7A

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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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Apartment 7A                                                              EH/OK

Prequel to Rosemary’s Baby, which is one of the best, if not the best, Satanic films.  Yes, I like it better than The Exorcist and The Omen; it’s also a great example of what one might label cozy horror too.  Was a prequel really necessary?  Prequels and sequels never really are, unless they’re planned from the get-go.  (There was also a TV movie sequel in 1976 and a TV movie update in 2014).  I didn’t hate this film, nor did I think it was necessary either.  I mean, we already know what goes on in the apartment building, what the old couple’s intentions are (as well as some of the other characters), and ultimately what befalls the main character (here, a young woman aspiring to be a dancer), so there was no mystery to it.  I tried giving it the benefit of the doubt, as I always try doing, judging it as a standalone film.  It kind of worked as a character study initially, there being a slight Black Swan quality to it, but it eventually just suffers from sequelitis (ahem, prequelitis) and comes off as a remake more often than not.  There is only one Rosemary’s Baby.  1/2/2025

Bonus reviews:

The Front Room                                                          B

Brandy in a horror movie?  Research tells me the last time that happened was I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.  This film is labeled a horror/thriller, but it’s really just crap; it was gross more than once too.  I’d take that mediocre sequel from 1998 over this any day.  Brandy isn’t even the problem here, not really; that dishonor goes to her stepmother-in-law played by Kathryn Hunter, whom comes to live with her and her husband after her own husband passes.  She is one of the most irritating, despicable characters I’ve ever seen on film, and I care not if that was the intention.  I hated this movie.  Hated, hated, hated it.  Definitely one of the worst of 2024.  1/3/2025

The Old Man in the Rocking Chair                             G

Short modern giallo film (roughly 20-minutes) released two years ago (currently available on YouTube; popular composers Pino Donaggio and Goblin are included on the soundtrack).  [Giallo is basically an Italian slasher film, for those that don’t know].  The violence in this is so over-the-top, but is the sole reason it totally works.  I recommend this one.  I actually wish it was maybe 20-to-30-minutes longer, not necessarily feature-length (an hour total, at most), because I feel there’s a bit more to this story that could be interesting.  And apparently this was a remake of an even shorter film released in 2019, also written and directed by Eric Yoder, which I couldn’t find anywhere to view, but I have a sense this updated one is better…12/30/2024

That Christmas                                                            G

(haiku review)

New film on Netflix.

Charming and not quite sappy.

I think I liked it.  12/21/2024

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

Amber Alert (2024)  >>>OK

Bird (2024)  >>>OK

Birder  >>>OK

Cuckoo (2024)  >>>B/EH

   (Sometimes in German and French with subtitles)

Here After (2024)  >>>EH

   (Sometimes in Italian with subtitles)

How the Gringo Stole Christmas  >>>OK

The Inheritance (2024)  >>>EH

Last Straw  >>>OK

Mind Body Spirit  >>>EH/OK

The Naughty List of Mr. Scrooge  >>>EH/OK

Nightbitch  >>>EH

Rap World  >>>OK

   (Available on YouTube)

Sweetpea (Season One)  >>>OK

                (6 episodes)

Trim Season  >>>OK

An Urban Allegory  >>>EH

   (Short film; In French with subtitles)

You Are Not Me  >>>OK

   (In Spanish with subtitles)

---Sean O.

1/4/2025