Dahmer-Monster, The Jeffery Dahmer Story: Netflix Should Be Ashamed And The Victims Families Should Sue

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A dramatic retelling of the life and crimes of Jeffery Dahmer, played by Evan Peters.

I think this series would have been a lot better if Ryan Murphy hadn’t been involved in it. Murphy brings his trademark soft core porn feel to this series and we have a lot of scenes of Jeff touching himself or of him and his victims, sometimes during and sometimes after death. To say this show fetishizes the crimes committed by Dahmer for cheap thrills would be an understatement. There was no need for half of the intimate scenes we got, in the context of the show and considering as well that Dahmer’s victims families are in some cases still alive it felt to be the height of bad taste.

I think Evan Peters fit well in the role, he brought the right level of detachment and coldness to it. However, in many other ways his performance was quite limited and felt very reminiscent of Peters’ performances elsewhere. I think very much like Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson and Michael Cain Peters is a one note actor.

Overall, a good and at times very compelling series, however, after watching it you will feel like you need a shower and be angry at Netflix for sexualising a series of brutal murders.

Pros.

It is compelling

Peters

It is watchable

Cons.

It fetishizes events

Peters hits his limits

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Old Man: Stephen Lang Has A Bad Day

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An old man, played by Stephen Lang, who lives alone in the woods is surprised to receive a guest.

I think this film is entirely dependant on Stephen Lang to break even. By that I mean if you judge this film by the sum of its parts then you get a very pretentious, but not a very deep film. Add in that a lot of the thematic beats have been hit before and you have a recipe for a bad film, however, Lang’s masterful performance which is able to be compelling, sinister and also strangely warm all at the same time really raises this film up and out of the dirt. Truly this film does not deserve Lang.

I saw some listings that had this film as a horror, I would say that is untrue. It is far more of a claustrophobic thriller, and in this area the film does have some success as there are a number of tense moments between the two men and the whole film keeps you on edge.

Overall, a fine film made better by Stephen Lang without him this film would fall apart.

Pros.

Lang

A number of tense moments

It is watchable

Cons.

It is predictable

It is overly familiar theme wise

It has pacing issues

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Black Adam: Time To Put The DCEU Out Of It’s Misery

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Black Adam, played by Dwayne Johnson, escapes from his prison to then engage in deeply generic superhero shenanigans.

My my if this is the best the DCEU can produce then it really is in need of a reboot pronto.

This is the most generic superhero film that I have seen in a while, this film is so obsessed with giving us mind numbing CGI spectacles that it forgoes anything even barely resembling a story or character instead choosing to use an off-putting barrage of mostly badly done bang bang effects.

Johnson is playing himself, which is fine is you like that but not if you actually wanted Black Adam to have a personality beyond ‘oh look The Rock has super powers now.’ They try and give Black Adam somewhat of an upsetting backstory but the fact that the Rock can’t emote in any real way just kind of kills that off early on.

The Justice Society are annoying, I suppose this is what the film wants as it wants you to cheer on Black Adam as he beats them up. I thought that Doctor Fate, played by Pierce Brosnan, was easily the best of them and the film and then the film goes and kills him off. To do this and try and give him this big heroic send-off doesn’t work as we haven’t seen him in any other films and he has barely been introduced or developed here so his death has very little impact beyond angering fans of the character such as myself. I thought that they might bring him back in a post credits scene, but no they have to bring back Superman, played by Henry Cavil, again because God forbid they have the film be standalone.

Overall, weak and generic.

Pros.

A few cute moments between Atom Smasher and Cyclone

Some interesting comments on America as the world’s unwanted policeman

Cons.

The Rock is miscast and can’t emote or do anything beyond play himself

It is one big CGI mess

They brought in Doctor Fate only to kill him

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Luckiest Girl Alive: Exploiting Pain

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The struggles of a young woman, played by Mila Kunis, as she makes her way in the world.

Netflix needs to take a long hard look in the mirror releasing this only a few weeks after Blonde, both films which can be viewed as exploitative and as fetishising sexual violence and female misery. I have read to a degree that some think this film could have done with a trigger warning, or to have not gone as hard as it did, but I would argue that the real issue is that the subject matter wasn’t handled well at all, lacking any kind of grace rather being instead a brute force act of shock. I can understand to a degree the director choosing to do things the way they did to show the true horrors of life for a young woman but at the same time I would argue that this verges into a new form of torture porn along the way.

Additionally, unlike other reviewers I don’t think Mila Kunis was the right lead for this film. Though she does have some acting talent which has been shown more in her recent dramatic work I just don’t think it is strong enough to carry this film. If anything the weakness of Kunis’ acting abilities are only brought to the fore here and from that she is crushed under them.

Moreover, the pace moves so breezily by everything that nothing really has a chance to sink in or to mean anything at all. The film aims for these lofty high art goals of replicating the human condition but it comes nowhere close as the technical failings mean it is hamstrung from the opening minutes, the pacing is truly quite bad being both overly long and rushed at the same time.

Overall, yikes Netflix stop profiteering from other people’s grief and pain. Lets hope this new form of grief induced torture porn ends early so we aren’t subjected to more films like this.

Pros.

It tries to tell an important story

Cons.

It is bleak throughout

Kunis isn’t strong enough to carry it

The pacing is awful

It fixates and fetishizes grief and pain far too much

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Rick and Morty: Juricksic Mort

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Dinosaurs return to Earth and they are super advanced and basically force us all into a comfortable retirement.

So unlike some that I am seeing out there on the social media sphere I don’t mind that this episode laughs at and shuts down ideas around the shows cannon. The Dinosaurs fix the space rift and Rick’s portal gun, which he fixes again later in the episode, and most of these big things from the end of the last season are quickly and unceremoniously wrapped up. That doesn’t bother me, what does bother me however is the fact that this episode is no fun at all.

It is not so much that this episode is boring but that there is nothing to it, the Dinosaurs show up put us all out of a job then humans get angry and want them gone really there is nothing new or inventive to that premise. Everything goes as you would expect it to and there isn’t even any humour in the episode that can help to make it better, most of the jokes fall down in a big way.

The only thing I particularly liked about this episode was seeing Lisa Kudrow voice a T-Rex that was a fun addition.

Overall, I really hope the last few episodes can pick this season up because otherwise I might not come back for season 7.

Pros.

Lisa Kudrow as a T-Rex

It is watchable

A few nice Jerry moments

Cons.

It is boring, trite and predictable

It is too smug for its own good

It wastes a pretty good premise

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The Curse Of Bridge Hallow: Marlon Wayans The Family Film Star

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A family moving into the suburbs are surprised to find that Halloween decorations are coming to life all over town.

Marlon Wayans in a family comedy? The phrase seems wrong doesn’t it, when I think of Marlon Wayans I think of his plethora of adult focused parody films or perhaps some of his surprising dramatic turns, but never once do I think of him as being a family film star. That said I actually liked him in this and thought that he was the best part of the film, without him this film would have been a lot worse that’s for sure.

I think the premise of the film feels very familiar and nothing new is added to it here, for the most part everything is incredibly predictable and you know where it is heading. Obviously as this is a family film the scares are fairly light on the ground, but Wayans does bring one or two laughs to make up for it.

The wider cast outside of Wayans might as well not even be there because none of them even register. For the most part they are a collection of phoned in performances and cliches lacking anything even remotely resembling character or personality, this is why Wayans and his character anchor this film so well as they at least bring some charm to proceedings.

Overall, a fairly average film made slightly better by Marlon Wayans.

Pros.

Wayans

A few funny moments

It is watchable

Cons.

It is very familiar and predictable

Most of the cast here aren’t very good

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The Midnight Club Season Overview: The Horror Series That Forgot To Be Scary

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of terminally ill teens spend their time telling each other scary stories and vowing to send each other signs from the afterlife.

What I am about to say might sound like horror heresy to some but stick with me, I think Mike Flanigan’s Netflix series have been on a downward spiral since Hill House, with this being quite clearly its lowest ebb.

I have quite a few issues with the season as a whole but I think the worst is just how teen angsty the whole thing is. You would be forgiven for thinking that what you are watching is a YA series rather than a horror one and really that is because very little time is spent actually trying to scare the audience and a lot more is spent having the kids make long speeches about how the adults just don’t understand them. This is accompanied by many, many long drawn out conversations about feelings.

Another fairly large issue with the season is how badly paced it is. For a start the whole thing could be cut down by a few episodes and be a lot better, a lot of the episodes are packed with filler and plot lines that just go nowhere which could easily be cut out at no expense to the show. Honestly in the back half of the season this show is a slog to watch.

I really do think the most damning piece of criticism I could give this show is that it is not what it claims to be, this is not a horror series in any way as it never sets out to scare you and the few scares it does include, to avoid claims of false advertising, don’t work at all.

Overall, Mike Flanigan should take a few years off from making horror content and go back to basics and really figure out what is working and what isn’t.

Pros.

It is watchable

Anya’s story is easily the best and is genuinely creepy

Cons.

For the most part this show is more of a teen drama then it is a horror series

It is not scary

It has horrible pacing

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The Winchesters: Pilot

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The CW is in desperate need for successful shows so now we are being given a spinoff/prequel about the Brothers from Supernatural’s parents.

So this episode was a mixed bag, in some senses it is nice to be back in the world of Supernatural again, in addition I also like the very active role that Dean, played by Jensen Ackles, is taking in the show being both the narrator and also turning up at the end, I think for this prequel series to work it needs to be tied in heavily to the original series. I think it is a shame that Ackles is still mainly acting through this franchise and think that he is a talented actor that deserves to breakout more, I hope he can return to the Boys next season.

Moreover, I think that Meg Donnelly, who plays Mary Winchester, is doing a hell of a lot of the heavy lifting here. She was the only new character who was both interesting and also charming the rest struggled to be either. I think that John, played by Drake Rodger, is a wet blanket and cannot possibly hold a candle to the Jeffery Dean Morgan version of the character we saw in Supernatural. The sidekicks were instantly annoying and one note, hopefully they don’t stick around beyond this opening arc.

Lastly I think that the opening mystery that this episode tries to set up is pretty boring all things considered and doesn’t really inspire confidence for where the series is going to go, however, it is worth noting that pilots are often quite rough and hopefully the later episodes will be better because if they carry on like this I will be checking out soon.

Overall, It is nice to see Dean again and be back in that world but ultimately this feels needless.

Pros.

Dean

The return to the world

It is watchable

Cons.

Most of the cast outside of Mary are dull and or one note

It has major pacing issues

The mystery doesn’t feel particularly interesting

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Invasion Of The Body Snatchers: Is Anyone You Know Behaving Differently?

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

People in small town America are switched with parasitic aliens who make doubles of them.

I have never seen the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers so I can’t say how this remake compares to it. Additionally due to my lack of experience with the original film I came into this one with fresh eyes not sure what to expect, I would say widely I enjoyed the film though there are a few elements where I think it can be improved.

I liked the paranoid thriller aspects of this film wherein we don’t know who is a pod persona and who isn’t right away, and as the number of pod people grows our heroes become more and more outnumbered both of these add to the stakes of the film as well as the greater sense of threat. However, the scaling of the threat is not done very well, these elements are brought in fairly early on and are at maximum from the get-go so there is no rising sense of things getting worse throughout the film, from the midpoint things are at their worst and it continues at the same level from there.

It is nice to see the familiar faces of Jeff Goldblum and Donald Sutherland, I would say both add a lot to the film though Goldblum probably steals the show. Outside of the two of them the rest of the performances are more of a mixed bag, I think this is more easily gotten away with due to the genre of the film and the fact some of the actors are tasked with playing aliens.

The pacing of the film leaves quite a lot to be desired, I would say the film could quarter its runtime and be better for it, as you approach the last act of the film viewing really starts to feel like a drag. It goes on for far too long.

Overall, a good paranoid thriller that could be better paced and performed.

Pros.

Some good paranoid elements

Goldblum

It is watchable

Cons.

The performances aren’t great across the board

The threat isn’t scaled up over the course of the film

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Rosaline: Reducing Shakespeare To Make Bland Tasteless Garbage

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The untold story of Rosaline, played by Kaitlyn Dever, Romeo’s ex-girlfriend.

Yikes another group of old people trying to right how they think Gen Z talk. This film is deeply unfunny on multiple levels and more often than not crosses over into irritating territory, I didn’t laugh once whilst watching.

Moreover, the titular heroine of Rosaline was deeply unlikeable for most of the film and behaved like a brat who used people for her own ends. Not only did this make her detestable it also meant that she needed to be redeemed by the end of the film in a narrative sense, yet the film just thought that it could cram all of her apologies and soul searching into a 5 minute sequence then move on which makes the whole thing feel incredibly shallow.

In addition to those glaring issues the film also has Rosaline using men for sex and then just chucking them treating them more as bodies than as people, and whilst I acknowledge that there is a long cinematic tradition of male characters doing this, in modern times it is seen as wrong to do so. As such if Rosealine’s character was male and behaved the same way their would be an outcry against this film yet it is okay because she is a woman? Surely for things to be truly equal if anyone regardless of gender just uses a person for their body and doesn’t even treat them like a human being it deserves to be called out as wrong. To ply further scorn, the film also includes an incredibly reductive stereotypical gay best friend character, played by Spencer Stevenson, which feels like it belongs in a film from at least a decade ago.

Overall, a terrible film that no one will fondly remember.

Pros.

A nice central romance

Dever is trying her best

Cons.

The lead is awful throughout

It is unfunny

Some of its characters are reductive stereotypes

It has nothing to say and isn’t a clever play on Romeo and Juliet

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