Weapons: Putting Naruto Running To Shame

A group of school children go missing and a concerned and blamed teacher, Julia Garner, sets out to find the answers.

I would advise you to go in blind to this, the less you know the better. This review will spoil things, I’ll keep the reveal near the bottom of the page so it is unlikely you will immediately see it, and I am letting you know so you can look away and come back later.

I think stylistically this is a strong film and in terms of originality this is one of the few films this year that does feel like something new. However, there are tonal problems, perhaps this was by design, or perhaps not. There are moments of the film where things are very clearly scary and supposed to be, and then there are other moments where things almost become a comedy and these two states of being do clash.

I enjoyed the cross over story path and how the film is subdivided into different sections based on different characters with each providing context to what you had seen before or would soon see. There was one key character that did not get a chapter even though I think she really should have, and I think this lack of backstory made the film have a few plot holes as a result.

The reveal of the witch at the end of the film and her magical powers came out of nowhere, the film does not present for the most part as a supernatural film and when it does go in that direction it works and makes sense. It also provides some good scares, however, the ending wherein she is entirely removed from being this fearsome villain and is chased through houses by a pack of feral kids is definitely not the right note to end on as it reduces her into being almost a comedy villain.

Overall, a good if imperfect film, the tonal issues and plot holes stop it from being the film of the summer.

4/5

Pros.

It is scary

It has a great sense of style

It feels original

It is inventive

Cons.

The ending breaks the tone of the film

There are too many loose ends and plot holes

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28 Years Later: Running Across Causeways

Summary

I had been looking forward to this film for a long time.

I have to say straight off the bat that I am a little disappointed, however, I will say that this is the first of a new trilogy and there is every chance that the next two films can fix some of the issues I had with this film.

Despite feeling disappointed with this film broadly, there are a lot of interesting new characters and the performances are all top notch, I don’t think there is one bad performance amongst the cast. Moreover, the world is vast and incredibly interesting to explore, from the beginning in the remote Scottish Highlands to the Holy Island community there is a lot there to work with.

I also thought the initial action sequences and the hunting section of the film landed perfectly and felt like edge of your seat fare. There is some odd cinematography and editing that feels a little more like an art film, you can see Garland’s instincts in that, but I thought this worked well and helped to give it almost a disorienting feel to it that added to the threat. However, within the hunting sequences we are introduced to the alphas and the evolution of the virus. These alpha infected can think and are harder to kill than other infected, very little is given into why they are this way I imagine that will be got to later in the trilogy, but they are kind of lame. The main reason why I say this is because they just have one move and that is to rip people’s head’s off, I would have liked more out of them than that, such as more examples of their education and ability to outwit people possibly.

In addition you also had the infected that gave birth to a none infected, which feels like we are heading into an art house direction of oh the infected are not so different to us and maybe we can find a way to co-exist, maybe at a later date an alpha might join the heroes side. This would be a terrible direction to head into. That scene in which the pregnant infected would not kill Jodie Cormer’s character despite her being right there breaks the lore and makes little sense. Just because they are both mothers does not mean she would not rip her head off.

The ending with the Jimmy Saville esque gang is a hell of a controversial way to end on.

Overall, a good film if a little disappointing.

4/5

Pros.

It has some good horror

The world feels dense and real

It sets things up nicely for the sequels

The performances

Cons.

The style at times

The art house elements

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The Last Of Us Season Two Overview: The Flaws Of Bella Ramsey

Summary

We return to the fungal zombie apocalypse.

So as someone who has played the games I knew what was coming and I will give the show props from not shying away from it. The death of Joel, Pedro Pascal, was controversial when the games came out and I knew it would be just the same here. Looking at the shows plunging ratings it is pretty clear that a number of people have checked out but I think if the show had saved it for the end of the season it would only have been worse.

I think the thing that has become glaringly clear in this second season is that Bella Ramsey is not a very strong actress and is struggling to carry the show on her own. They are becoming more and more reliant on Joel flashbacks and will no doubt have him appear as sort of grief induced visions over the third season to keep Pedro around. I think last season Ramsey’s inabilities were not so on view as they are here, but it is becoming ever more clear she was the wrong choice to play the character.

Moreover, I feel the pacing this time around feels slow, in many senses it feels like they are trying to stretch out the second game into three seasons to try and take it for all it is worth. I understand the idea to have one season from each of the girl’s points of view, but it does reek of filler. I wonder what the ratings will be like when it does come back.

Overall, very much like the game it started off well and then fell off a cliff.

2/5

Pros.

A few good scenes

It is interesting to learn more about the world

Cons.

Ramsey

It is using Joel too much as a crutch

The pacing

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I Know What You Did Last Summer: Bashing Men Is Bad For Your Box Office Who Knew

Summary

Screams little brother gets another go at things.

This film was a hugely mixed bag for me.

On the one hand there was some cheer worthy moments here and some funny scenes but on the other there was a deliberate attempt to bait the audience and a twist that makes little sense.

To the good first, it was nice seeing Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr back, and it was nice that this film had so much reverence for the original films. I also liked Chase Sui Wonders as the lead character and thought her friendship with Danica, Madelyn Cline, was the heart and soul of the film. The scene where it appeared as if Danica was dead was genuinely upsetting. However, this fondness was undone with the line from Wonder’s character’ and to think this all could have been avoided if men just went to therapy’. Now the killer of the film was Stevie, Sarah Pidgeon, a woman who after the gang killed her boyfriend decided to seek out Ray’s help. The reason why this final line is so infuriating is the killer is female, Rey helped but he did not set her on that path she did it all of her own accord, but rather than say that it has to be an open attempt to bash men. Why is all I can say to this? What did they think this line was going to achieve, whilst horror has a big female viewership the majority are still men.

There are also a lot of modern dayisms in the film, the main character is BI, as Hollywood thinks everyone is pan, there is needless teen drama, and there is a hell of a lot of therapy speak. In fact Danica’s soon to be husband is killed whilst she is in the bath listening to a motivational podcast, which adds a whole new spin to that line about men going to therapy, and feels like after Wonder’s character said it maybe Danica should have challenged it, as her walking that road meant she could not save her husband to be.

A hypocritical message to the end.

Overall, I was enjoying the film to some extent until that line right at the end of the film, it felt so needless and antagonistic that it really did make me leave the film with a bad taste in my mouth.

2.5/5

Pros.

Reverence for the original films

You do care about the characters

Bringing back the original stars

Cons.

The modern dayisms

The line about men needing therapy

How they bring back Freddie Prinze Jr only to have him be one of the villains

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Final Destination Bloodlines: The Franchise Does Not Escape Death

Summary

A family finds out they are living on borrowed time.

So I am a big fan of the Final Destination franchise and thought that a new film had a lot of potential to be good. However, after seeing it I was left sorely disappointed.

This is mainly due to the fact that outside of the return of Bloodsworth, Tony Todd, this film in no way feels connected to any of the previous films. Considering how the other films are somewhat referential and take place at least partially within a loop, I would have liked a broader connection to the other films.

Moreover, the idea of death going after bloodlines that should not exist directly contradicts the series lore that new life can stop death. Not only that but I take an if it isn’t broke don’t fix it sort of feeling to the film, wherein the idea of someone having a premonition about their death and stopping it works much better than what we got here. It makes little sense why the granddaughter of a woman who had a premonition would be sharing her vision years later. It would have made more in universe sense for her to have had a vision of her own death, and then when everyone thinks she’s crazy her granny shows up and goes it happened to me too.

In addition I had an issue with the tone of the film as it didn’t know whether it wanted to be tongue in cheek and a bit more jokey with it or whether it wanted to play it deadly serious. As it stands the film tries to do both and in turn we get the worst of both worlds.

Overall, a very average film only made better with the addition of the late great Tony Todd.

2.5/5

Pros.

Tony Todd gets a wonderful final scene

The ending kill

It has some promise it just doesn’t realise

Cons.

The tone is a mess

It doesn’t connect to previous films

It contradicts series lore

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The Corpse Washer: The Dead Are Never Really Gone

Summary

A series of mysterious deaths cause a commotion in small town Indonesia.

I am a big fan of Indonesian horror, and even I have to say this one was on the weaker end of the national sub-genre for me. I just thought that it was a little all over the place, despite having a few good moments the monster was not really properly explained at it was hard to figure out what was going on.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that this film is very badly paced, there is a lot of exposition and characters and it is hard to keep track of what is what and who is who. Where something like May The Devil Take You works is that it has a small number of characters and is more of a personal story, this features a village full of people and starts to spread itself far too thin.

The horror is more on the gore side than the atmospheric so personally I didn’t find it particularly scary but if gore is your thing then maybe you could find something to enjoy here.

2/5

Pros.

The freshness

Some good gore

Cons.

The pace

Too many characters

It is hard to follow

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Death Of A Unicorn: Hollywood Sticking It To Themselves?

Summary

A rich father, Paul Rudd, and his daughter, Jenna Ortega, kill a unicorn.

So before watching this film I had heard how it was an eat the rich narrative about the evil ways of the haves and how the have nots can get wrapped up in it. This made me groan as we have seen this before, but then I watched the film and groaned louder.

It is an incredibly on the nose message of these cartoonishly evil rich people who want to defile the corpse of a unicorn in order to cure cancer. Of course they want to sell this cure rather than give it away for free, which makes them then even more evil. Can you get the message yet? One has to ask are they evil or is the system that creates them evil, is the fact that America is one of the few countries in the world without free medical care not the real evil here, but no such nuance is thrown in the bin. The rich are bad and responsible for all the world’s ills. This feels like it was written by a naïve student who really doesn’t get how the world works despite daddy’s credit card funding self-indulgent narcissism in the form of instagramable charity work in deprived countries.

What for me makes this film worse is that it is Hollywood telling us the rich are bad, in the place where the director will be making over a million for the film, the actors will comfortably be making over a million for the film and where even the slightest hint of self-awareness is viewed with disgust.

Anyway once the evil rich people are dead, the Unicorns resurrected Rudd’s character the good working class father who can afford to send their child away to school, ah Hollywood really understanding the working class, and who also dresses in designer clothes. Have you got my point yet?

Overall, the sort of film that slowly and insidiously kills Hollywood.

2/5

Pros.

Unicorns are original villains

Some good kills

Cons.

The eat the rich message

The hypocrisy

The ending

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From Season Three: The Wheels Come Unstuck

Summary

Answers are revealed and far, far more questions are asked.

So, I would say upon reflection that this is probably the most polarising of the series released so far, I saw a lot of angry fan backlash to this season. For the most part I agree with it, I think the pacing this season was bad, I think this is likely a result of the writers strikes and then needing to make more of less. I think the fact that we only got a very limited amount of night scenes which are often the best in the show and a lot of this season happened over a couple of days was disappointing. Pound for pound we got a lot less of the monsters this season overall.

As for the mysteries and answers I thought Tabitha’s, Catalina Sandrio Moreno, time in the real world was a little too short lived, they could have done more there but they didn’t. Moreover, the reveal of the baby being a creature and Tabitha and Jade, David Alpay, being reincarnations of previous From residents all felt a bit too much like fan fiction. In the former’s case people liked Smiley and wanted him back, in the latter’s case it felt like they didn’t know where to take the mystery so read something on reddit and was like yes I’ll do that.

When the show was good, such as during the barn scene in the first episode and the ambulance scene later in the season, it was really good and reminded you of why you like the show. However, there was just too much talking and filler this season and that crucially was its central problem.

Overall, a step back from previous seasons.

4/5

Pros.

A few good scenes

Possible better reveals being set up

The man in yellow

Some good scares

Cons.

Far too much filler

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The Woman In The Yard: The Black Woman In Black

Summary

Like the Babadook but with black folks.

So for me if this was a short film and ran to about the forty minute mark I would be giving this a near perfect score. The first act where you meet a supernatural woman in black who is incredibly menacing towards a family in the middle of nowhere, and wherein the threat level is slowly ramped up over time is very good. The second act begins to fall apart as we get more of an idea of who the woman in the yard is, and then the third act which is both nonsensical and reveals the film to be a Babadook clone entirely ruins the whole film.

The woman in the yard,Okwui Okpokwasili, is a compelling monster, and her power set does make for some good scares. However, the filmmakers break the cardinal rule by telling rather than showing and when we learn that she is just a manifestation of the lead’s depression and that a lot of the broader more supernatural things that happen may well be in her head, you just go eh and lose interest. The Babadook which this film clearly wants to be did a similar thing, however, it left the ending ambiguous enough to the effect that you didn’t know if the Babadook was real or not this film spells it out for you.

Overall, a strong first act positions it above average, but then everything else stops it from getting into the good rating tier.

3.5/5

Pros.

The early scares

How they set up the woman in the yard

The lack of jump scares

The setting use

Cons.

When they reveal what the woman is

The ending

The pacing in the end of the second act and start of the third.

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Deadly Intent: The Shadows Of A Father’s Love

Summary

A mother, Rebecca Reaney, and child, Gus Barry, face the threat of an abusive husband and father, Peter Lloyd, from beyond the grave.

So anyone familiar with maternal horror will find that this is quite by the numbers. All of your standard hallmarks are there, overwrought mum, withdrawn kid, and some kind of supernatural threat. However, where this film gets some extra points for me is by having the spirit that is harming them being the father who tried to kill his son in life.

The exploration of domestic abuse and how the trauma can stick around long after the person has died made this film interesting to me and separated it out from being yet another Babadook clone. I also found interesting how this film approached grief showing how the mother is in no way effected by it and is instead overwrought by her fears of losing closeness with her son. This marks a distinct difference from how single mother grief is often depicted in these sorts of films and offered some much need divergence.

Overall, it pretty much is what it says on the tin, or in the summary, what you see is what you get. The reason I am interested in it is because it is different and provides a counter weight to other films in the maternal horror subgenre.

3/5

Pros.

It offers a different perspective on grief

The intimate ghostly connection and comments on domestic abuse

British charm

Cons.

The pacing

It looks very low budget

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