Tomorrow: Guilt Is Both A Motivator And Destroyer

A Hollywood makeup artist faces a moral quandary for the ages.

So this film really captures the flawed nature of the human condition, it shows us as we are, base creatures that often do bad things, but also presents the spark of wanting to change, wanting to do the right thing in the end, in that sense this film is optimistic.

I found the characters to all be well rounded and to reflect the above message, I would say that what could be a very predictable sort of film manages to go in a surprising direction, and the ending hits a chord and leaves you thinking.

I think there is something beautiful about this film as it presents such a challenging view on life. I think there was a real chance that the lead protagonist could have felt unlikeable, however, I think the film manages to redeem them even though they are fundamentally flawed.

Overall, a touching examination of the human capacity for guilt.

4.5/5

Pros.

The message

The characters

The ending

It gives you something to reflect on in the end

It is well paced

Cons.

Some of the side characters need a little more to shine

If you enjoyed this review, then please head over to my Patreon to support me, I offer personalized shoutouts, customised film recommendations to suit your personality and tastes, the ability for you to pick what I review next and full access to my Patreon exclusive game reviews. Check it out!

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

Silent Hill: Tip Toe Through The Fog

Summary

A forgotten gem.

There is something so video gamey about this film, but that is actually a compliment. Now of course you can enjoy this film without having played the game with which it shares a name, the first time I saw it I had not played it. However, if you have played the game there is a lot to enjoy here, lots of little nods.

It is very early noughties in how it presents yet I find that quite charming, moreover, much like the games it draws very heavily on J-Horror and there are narrative elements that reflect this and which become apparent if you are a fan of those sort of films. The same can be said for the horror, which I found to be quite effective.

The only downside is that the acting isn’t very good giving this film a so bad it is good kind of quality, and if you like that then you’ll get a lot out of this film.

Overall, it is very much a videogame film in much the same way the Paul W.S Anderson Resident Evil films are and you’ll either love it or think it is naff.

3.5/5

Pros.

The scares

The J-Horror influence

The videogame nods

The story

Cons.

The acting is bad

The pacing needs work

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

Salem’s Lot Original Version: Public Sex By A Lakeside Is All The Rage

Summary

The residents of Salem’s Lot find out that the trouble of being from a small town is all the damn vampires.

So this is an odd one in terms of my reviews, technically it was a TV series, but I saw it as one long film at a re-release, so it is both a TV review and also a film review.

This is a much better adaptation than the more recent Salem’s Lot film chiefly as it actually gives the characters time to become established before it starts killing them off. The greater effort in character work makes the deaths more impactful and makes the wider project more engaging.

As someone who has read the book and watched now both this and the newer version I can say that this has a worse ending than the film from last year, probably the only way in which that film is better. In last year’s effort the hero and his sidekick drive off into the sunset, possibly to fight more vampires, whereas here we get a whole extra ten to fifteen minutes showing them doing it. Whilst the vampire fighting may sound cool it really isn’t and ends up becoming tedious during this section.

In terms of vampire horror this is basically just Dracula in small town America, and if that is your thing then you’ll enjoy this for sure.

Overall, a good vampire film but nothing that will set the world on fire.

3/5

Pros.

It has a good atmosphere

It builds up the characters well

Some good vampire moments

Cons.

The ending

The pacing is quite slow at times

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

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

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

Creepshow Two: Second Time Is The Charm

Summary

Creepshow returns in a fat cut off kind of way.

So herein we go down from five tales to three and things are all the better for it.

The first tale, which is woefully politically incorrect by today’s standards, is a fun romp with a Native American flavour, it is fun seeing the Chief cutting down all the people who wronged his adoptive family using Native American weapons and tactics. It makes one think why haven’t we seen more films about Native American society or the fight back against the Europeans, that could be interesting ground to explore and lead to some good epic action films.

The second tale is the weak one as is often the case in a horror anthology with three parts, it focuses on a group of young people who get trapped on a raft by some goo that is intent on killing them all. Not only is the premise incredibly flimsy, you also have the fact that one of the lead characters casually assaults one of his female raft mates in her sleep, and before this he was presented as a hero. This move comes incredibly out of left field and is jarring.

The final tale about a mysterious hitch-hiker that stalks the woman who killed him is entertaining and has a nice creepy vibe to it that ends the collection off on a high note. Couple this with a fun animated wrap around story that ends also on a high note and you have a sequel that in many ways surpasses the original.

Overall, a better film than the first.

4/5

Pros.

It has two strong stories

The aesthetic remains strong

It has some good chills

It is funny at times, on purpose

Cons.

The second story is not good and the sexual assault scene feels poorly conceived

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

The Long Walk: Stephen King Slop

Summary

A group of boys go for a walk.

So the easiest way to describe this is to call it Stephen King slop. In that frame I mean if this film was not based on a short story by King it would not have been made, it is very forgettable and there is nothing novel about the premise.

Basically it is a forced march, people die if they stop walking. It is a comment on dystopia’s and authoritarian states, I must say I am thankful that I have not seen lots and lots of online comments going oh this is modern day America, however, it seems very likely that the people who made it wanted those sort of comments.

The characters each have one defining characteristic to them and they are not much beyond that, all very one dimensional. Moreover, there are lots of things that happen that you just have to turn your brain off to and ignore as if you thought about it too much your brain would explode as they make no sense. The fact that the kid that wins the overall walk doesn’t sleep and doesn’t need to due to the fact that he has had a tough life and is an orphan is one such thing you will notice over the course of the film.

Overall, deep unneeded.

1.5/5

Pros.

A few funny moments, unintentional.

It is short

Cons.

It is dull

The characters are one dimensional

You have seen things like this before

The ending is predictable

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

Clown In A Cornfield: Clowns Are So Overused

Summary

A group of clowns is terrorising small town America.

I had been meaning to watch this for some time, but I hadn’t gotten around to it until recently, and as I have I found myself quickly becoming disenchanted with it. For a start it presents itself as a horror comedy film, yet it does not really stand up slasher cliches rather it just replicates them.

The clown twist is perhaps the only novel thing about the film, although we have seen it in other films before, just not really in slasher cinema. Once the clowns take over mid-way through the film things start to get more interesting and become more crazy. The teen angst of the first act really slows things down.

The film ends with a decided meh, and that is how I would describe the whole effort really, an effort in meh. It fails in its attempts to be either scary or funny and doesn’t make fun of sub-genre tropes or try and do anything really knew with them.

Overall, it is a streaming film through and through and one that should never have been released in cinemas.

1.5/5

Pros.

A few good kills

It is short

Cons.

The teen angst

The ending

The pacing

Some of the other twists

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

A Haunting In Connecticut, Ghosts Of Georgia: A Waste Of Katee Sackhoff’s Time

Summary

A family living in Georgia experiences a haunting in Connecticut.

There is something very noughties about this film, the editing style and the shifts between black and white and colour is quite jarring. Stylistically it feels almost out of place with the decade this film released in, and the effect has a repetitive quality to it.

The lead is terrible, it is hard to say if it is her or if it is the writing, it has her lay in a night gown on her side in a filled bath to show that she is troubled, but it is safe to say that she has taken a class in the Alaqua Cox school of acting as her expression does not really change at all during the film. It is a shame that this film wastes Katee Sackhoff as the secondary female lead she would have been much better in the main role, she easily outshines Abigail Spencer as every turn.

The horror and mystery of the film is very much been there done that, it focuses on a creepy old man ghost hanging out with and bothering a little girl, seen it before, and has the ghosts of this former stop on the underground railroad be central to the horror. It is very early jump scare sort of techniques as they are all very predictable.

Overall, other than Sackhoff there is very little about this film to make it recommendable.

2/5

Pros.

Sackhoff

A few unintentionally funny moments

Cons.

The horror is very predictable

It feels generic

The black and white to colour shift is jarring

patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

The Lord Of Misrule: Posh Lady Vs The Folk Devil

Summary

A posh English Vicar, Tuppence Middleton, runs afoul of an ancient God.

There is a good sense of place here, and a certain folk tradition, however, as the film progresses you start to realise you have seen this before. The good and fresh ideas that this film presents in the first act that then get turned into repetitive slop in the end.

The mythology of the film’s antagonist is interesting but never fully explained, which feels like a missed opportunity. Ralph Ineson is as always great, however, his character makes little sense, as the opening frames his character in the procession to see off the beast and having lost a son to it, yet then being the evil cult leader servicing the beast in the end.

Whilst I appreciate what this film was trying to do in terms of aesthetics and an adherence to British folk tradition, it was just creatively hallow.

Overall, good ideas wasted with generic storylines.

2/5

Pros.

The ideas

The setting and the feel of it

Cons.

The ending

Making Ineson the villain again

You feel like you have seen it before

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below

Help Support My Reviews

Pirates Of The Caribbean World’s End: Bring Back Johnny Depp

Summary

The pirates cast realise that there is no film without Jack Sparrow and so go to Davy Jones’ locker to get him back.

Watching this re-release makes one even more confident in the belief that Johnny Depp is the heart and soul of the Pirates franchise. Not only does his performance anchor the film, but he is a truly likable protagonist, something that modern Hollywood is lacking.

Despite being a long film this film flies by, and has something for everyone with great action, romance and laughs. There is even a little horror peppered in here and there, for people like me. For the most part the film works well across the board.

The main issue with the film is that there are filler scenes that could easily be cut out, as I said earlier for the most part the film is well paced, however, these filler scenes make the film feel just slightly slower at times and that holds the film back.

Moreover, the film leaves far too many lose ends open and I know they thought they were going to do more films, and did, but considering this is the last film with Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom you would think that they would have given them more of a conclusive ending.

Overall, a near perfect film that just has a few slow scenes holding it back.

4/5

Pros

The action

The romance

The comedy and the horror

It feels like a good ending for the franchise and Jack

Cons

Will and Elizabeth deserve a more definitive ending

A few bloated scenes

https://www.patreon.com/c/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Or if you would rather send me a donation if Patreon isn’t for you then please find a link to my donations page below