Tag: thriller
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MaXXXine (2024)
I just saw MaXXXine and it was somewhat disappointing, sadly. The terminus of what until now had been a pretty great trilogy, starting with ‘70s-set slasher pastiche X (2022) and then World War I-set prequel Pearl (2022) – the latter shot back to back with its predecessor and starring writer/director Ti West’s collaborator Mia Goth…
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Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
“There’s nothing wrong with Ellen. It’s just that she loves too much.” Oh, there’s something wrong with Ellen, all right. Possibly the first and probably the best of the “psycho girlfriend” genre in cinema, made famous by Glenn Close’s and Michael Douglas’ sleazy Fatal Attraction (1987) – and Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut Play Misty for Me…
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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
I just saw Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and it was good. It’s certainly better than any of the recent Star Wars “sagas”. A prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, it tells the story of that film’s female lead, Furiosa, who in this one begins as a little girl in the Green Place of…
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The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
So I just saw Da Strange Peeps: Chatper Wun, and surprise surprise, it was a colossal mound of turd. Full disclosure: I’m not really the person to review this movie because I hate the Strangers franchise and concept. The first film, written and directed by then-newbie Bryan Bertino in 2008, was in his words loosely…
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Dracula AD 1972 (1972)
Dracula AD 1972 is one of the not fondly remembered Hammer films to star Christopher Lee as the eternal bloodsucker, the penultimate entry before The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) finally stuck a stake in the franchise’s heart. When AD came out it was widely panned and it seems to have retained its dire reception…
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The Baby (1973)
One of the… stranger horror films of the 1970s, director Ted Post’s The Baby was recently reviewed on YouTube channel RedLetterMedia’s “Best of the Worst” strand and described as one of the best that they’ve seen on that show. It’s certainly something. The plot sees Mrs Wadsworth (Ruth Roman) meet social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette…
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Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
I just saw Love Lies Bleeding and it was really good. A lesbian romance crossed with a crime drama and set in the 1980s, it stars Kristen Stewart as a mulleted gym clerk, Lou, whose father, Lou Sr (Ed Harris), is a dangerous criminal in the Nevada desert. One day a young woman called Jackie…
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Immaculate (2024)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that we’re in a glut of the sub-genre that is Catholic horror movies, after last year’s The Nun II (2023), the upcoming First Omen (2024), and now Immaculate, directed by Michael Mohan and written by Andrew Lobel. How about, for once, a horror movie where a couple of atheists sit…
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Madame Web (2024)
You know superhero movies are in trouble when studios start downplaying the fact they’re superhero movies. Sony’s marketing for Madame Web has focused on its supposed properties as a “suspense thriller”, which is a bit like trying to sell I Spit on Your Grave as a screwball comedy. Of course, anyone sensible knows it’s going…
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Jade (1995)
Why was Joe Eszterhaz the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood at one point? Maybe I need to watch more of his movies to find out, but I’ve seen a fair few now, and my overall impression is that he’s a witless hack who can’t write well-motivated characters and can barely even plot coherently. Harsh? Perhaps. But…
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