Other Mommy: What Jessica Chastain Is Reduced To

Summary: a mother’s indifference let’s a demon in.

So where to begin with this, the film shows how Chastain’s character is a terrible person and mother, she had an affair in her first marriage she actively didn’t want her kid as it meant giving up her freedom. However, unlike modern films where that might try to be redeemed or shown as okay in modernity, the film here has her be unlikeable and has the demon mimic here due to all of these things. The issue is the ending lets her off the hook, she is shown trying to be a part of a happy family but is still sad, the father and kid should have left and she should have been left with her actions. All that is to say that Chastain’s character is deeply deeply unlikeable.

The film does do a lot of jump scares as the director has talked about, most of them don’t land. Where the film is at its best is with creature design, sometimes during an Other Mommy attack, the creature will change its proportions, and this looks great on screen, it’s really well done.

If you have seen a lot of these sort of films or just enjoy horror then this is nothing special really it’s very par for the course. There are scenes wherein a team of ghost hunters go after Other Mommy in an almost militaristic sense ala, Demonic, but sadly this is short lived.

Overall, not as bad as you’ve heard but not good either.

2/5

Pros.

The effects work

It doesn’t try and make Chastain’s character likeable

Cons.

It’s generic

The ending is too forgiving

Most of the jump scares don’t work

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The Prince of Darkness: John Carpenter Goes Deep

Summary: a mixture of hard science and religious horror.

This film reads like someone who has read a science book trying to force that into a film about the devil. The science talk is not thought through or well developed it’s just the occasional term thrown in to try and pretend to be intelligent. The pseudo intellectual science talk mixed with the various out there religious talk becomes quite jarring after a point.

Moreover, the film has a really creepy romance where a clearly older man preys on a younger woman in a relationship. The film tries to say this is okay because she is into it too, but the age gap just feels pretty icky.

The ending of the film also doesn’t make a lot of sense and really clarifies the point that the film doesn’t have a coherent internal logic it’s just a lot of rambling posturing nonsense.

Overall, Carpenter is starting to lose it by this point.

2/5

Pros.

Some good visuals

A few good scares

Cons.

The terrible dialogue

The bad pacing

The weird choice to have the score play over dialogue early in the film.

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Insidious Out of The Further: A Failure To Commit

Summary: a woman has the power to bring the demons and ghosts out of the further and is then targeted by said demons and ghosts.

This film had promise, were the old people scary no, was the new cult leader figure scary no, but the idea of setting up a return of all the previous baddies happening at the same time and essentially having the further spill out into our world and then having another few films battling it was good.

The appeal of having the film end with the heroes failing but escaping and then having Elise say from off screen I think you’re going to need some help, back in the human world, would have been great. Bringing back all the past protagonists to face down all the demons and ghosts now in the human world would have set up something epic.

Yet it just ends and ties everything up and all the ghosts and demons get trapped back in the further the end. How utterly disappointing.

This film squanders any promise it had.

Overall, a disappointment.

2.5/5

Pros.

It’s watchable

It has some good ideas

It introduces an interesting new character

Cons.

The villains aren’t scary particularly when they show them to you

The ending is awful

It lacks vision

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Evil Dead Burn: Is That It?

Summary: the deadities go after a family after they discover an ancient weapon that can kill them.

So this film was watchable and had some good gore but that’s really it, it didn’t do much of anything new either in terms of horror more broadly or in terms of the franchise.

Another thing that was odd was that the humour which is a staple of the Evil Dead franchise was mostly missing as the film played it straight, this was a bad choice.

The film once again showed the evil side of the nuclear family and turned the film into a depressing PSA on domestic abuse.

Crucially it was an Evil Dead film that wasn’t fun.

Overall, watchable if the low point for the franchise.

2/5

Pros.

The gore

It is watchable

Cons.

The lack of humour

The return of Ellie is fairly meh

It is something you have seen before

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Devil May Cry Season 1+2 Overview: The West Doesn’t Understand The East

Summary, a man who has no talent other than victimhood and using that as a means to attack a beloved cartoon and making a name for himself vandalizes a different property.

Out of all the video games you could make into a TV show DMC has a lot going for it, it’s pretty easy to get it right. Yet somehow they managed to get it wrong. This shouldn’t shock anyone after a good first season of Castlevania they managed to ruin that in short order.

Here is little different with modern politics entering into source material that in some cases is decades old, always in the most cringe ways. We also have a girl boss, who didn’t even arrive in the series until DMC 3. You could have had a strong female character in Trish but no. The series wants to ignore any aspects of the games it doesn’t like.

In many ways this feels like simply taking characters and putting them into something else this doesn’t feel in anyway like DMC and it feels painful trying.

It feels like the hello fellow kids memes forced into a couple seasons of a netflix show.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s short

Cons.

It’s nothing like the games

Where’s Trish

It’s boring

Its inserting modern dayisms left right and centre

None of the characters are likeable

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Passenger: A Homeless Demon Film

Summary: A couple who have taken to van life soon start to realise that the open road at night can take a chilling turn.

The reviews for this film were terrible, and whilst it certainly wasn’t the best film, it also wasn’t terrible. Yes it was over reliant on jump scares, yes a lot of the story had been done before and done better. However, bringing in aspects of the Hobo Code and some lesser known Catholic mythos did give it a unique flavour.

It was also interesting that this film had a demon in it but it didn’t go down the possession route as one might expect. Furthermore, seeing two random civilians be able to kill it at the end rather than calling in a priest or a demonologist was a nice change of pace as well.

One thing that will cost this film points is the shameless product placement, when the couple sit down to watch a film it is of course a Paramount film, this is also a Paramount film and the amount of time that shot lingers for is artistically bankrupt.

Overall, if you like horror films there is some novelty here. However, if you want something truly fresh this isn’t that.

3/5

Pros.

Some new stuff

Seeing regular folks beat the demons

Some good scares

Cons.

An over reliance on jump scares

Some aspects are predictable

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Lily’s Ritual: Seedy and Creepy

One of us was able to see this at a film festival in Spain last year, and after things stopped getting in the way they were able to write up a review.

Below is that review.

A young woman is inducted into what she thinks is a wiccan sisterhood but it turns out to be something more sinister.

This film was enough to make you uncomfortable, not in the ways the film wants you to be uncomfortable but because it felt like a creepy old man directing and recording a group of young women in various states of undress and wetness, in terms of their clothing.

Moreover after the twist happens, the demon is interesting and the blood effects work. However the end wherein it is dancing around is just a little too pretentious, it is as though this film thinks it’s art.

Overall the film couldn’t decide if it wanted to be soft core or an art film.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s short

Cons.

It’s creepy

It’s pretentious

It’s poorly acted

It’s dull

The twist is fairly obvious

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To The Devil A Daughter: Nightmare Orgasms

Summary

Christopher Lee leads a satanic cult, intent on bringing a demon into the world.

At this stage I am cleaning up, these next few days will be the last of my Halloween watches before we get back into more regularly scheduled programming. As you know I am a big Lee fan, as such I couldn’t let Halloween pass without watching a Lee film. Here we are on that front.

I have to say this is not one of the strongest Hammer entries, I feel that The Devil Rides Out is much stronger, and gives Lee more to do. He is the antagonist here, and other than a few mind powers scenes that mimic his Rasputin film, he is not given much of substance to do, other than look evil.

The plot around this young lady from Germany and her parents involvement in a satanic cult, is not so much a head scratcher, as a film that leaves you entirely baffled it is so convoluted that you don’t know which way is up by the end of it, and have no idea what has remotely happened.

There is one scene that I would be remiss not to mention which is Hammer in all of their late seventies weirdness, and in this scene the central young lady is supposed to be having a bad dream yet is moaning like she is in the throws of sex, this scene lasts a long time. Take that as you will.

Overall, a good idea ruined by trying to do too much.

2/5

Pros.

There is some great unintentional comedy

Lee is a good villain even if he is given nothing to do

Cons.

It is convoluted

It has needless nudity and sexual elements that do seem to serve a purpose

The characters are not well developed

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Conjuring Last Rites: The End Of An Era

Summary

The Warrens are back for one final adventure.

I want to state right away that as someone who knows about the Warren’s and their life this film bothered me, there was next to nothing from the actual account of the Smurl Haunting that happened here and the Warren’s did not retire from doing cases in the 80s.

That aside I would say that this is the second best Conjuring film overall behind only the second film. Mainly that is because the horror really works here, yes there are the usual jump scares, but the level of craziness than happens just elevates it and makes it seem like a true showdown unlike anything the Warren’s have faced before. Additionally, the ending as shmaltzy as it is works well, it is nice to see the Warren’s get their happy ending after teasing the death of one or both of them since the second film. I thought seeing all the characters from prior films in the church at the end was also a great little nod to the series and its history.

In many senses this feels like it could be the last Conjuring film, however, with the amount it made at the box office that seems incredibly unlikely now.

Overall, a good horror film and a rewarding film for fans of the franchise.

4.5/5

Pros.

The horror

The ending

More than just jump scares

It treats its characters with care

The sense of finality to it

Cons.

It is in no way based on a true anything

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Blood On Satan’s Claw: Seventies Era Teenage Nudity

Summary

The Devil comes to the south of England.

In many ways this and many films like it are a forgotten art form, the focus on folk traditions and atmosphere over jump scares and wild moments, is something few filmmakers do anymore.

I would argue therein lies this film’s greatest strength, its sense of time, place and environment. It feels like a very specific world, and one in which you become fully invested and sink into. The horror builds slowly over time and escalates more and more until it hits a crescendo.

Whilst I appreciated some aspects of this crescendo, such as the practical costume design of the Devil/Demon, I thought others came off as a little needless. I am talking about the rape scene, which is long and drawn out, as well as the copious amounts of nudity in the film, which feels done to get teens on-board rather than for story based reasons, such as in the Wicker Man.

Overall, an interesting film that cuts its own character, but one which may also make some people feel uncomfortable.

3.5/5

Pros.

The setting

The atmosphere

The very British sensibility to it

The creature design

Cons.

There are a few script issues and things that don’t make sense

The rape scene is uncomfortable

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