East of Eden: Series Overview Making A Monster Likeable

Summary: Steinbeck gets the modern audience treatment

So in the book Florence Pugh’s character was a monster no other way around it, however here as she said in an interview she is more of an anti hero and Pugh wants audiences to love her. That was the first red flag.

Netflix are once again content to show they cannot make anything of quality anymore and must instead ruin older books and IPs in order to try and stay relevant.

The morality of the show itself is warped in a very modern Hollywood kind of way. It is full of victims and oppressors as that is the only way Hollywood can see the world anymore, the true evil character cannot be Pugh’s character as she is a woman.

Overall, cancel your Netflix subscription

0/5

Pros.

None

Cons.

It’s poorly paced

The characters are unlikable

The modern dayisms

Pugh

The ending

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Ring: The Original Evil Videotape

Summary: a cursed videotape is doing the rounds killings people.

In many ways this is very very similar to the American version, which shows just how much that film took from this.

This film is slightly better than the US remake in that it takes things slower and does need to be having a jump scare or overtly over the top moment every few minutes in order to try and maintain attention. The mystery itself is the central focus here.

Moreover, the ending is also better, with the moral ambiguity of the protagonist returning home to show her father the video tape to save her son, you get an added layer of character complexity.

Sadako is less overly frightening here and is more of a figure of pity, however that isn’t to say she doesn’t have some moments where she does become terrifying.

Overall, a slower pace makes for a more atmospheric horror film that some audiences may struggle with.

3/5

Pros.

The atmosphere

The mystery

The ending

Cons.

The pacing

Some needless characters

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A Banquet: Not Eating Your Peas Is The Ultimate Teenage Disobedience

Summary: a girl has a strange otherworldly experience and her mother must try to keep it from consuming her.

There is something quite disturbing about this film, and that is it’s mythology, it is very hard to pin down drawing on Japanese folklore, cosmic horror and the works of Lovecraft and possibly even ancient mythology.

The conflict between mother and daughter and later grandmother, is interesting but not wholly new. It is interesting to explore these matters through the idea of chosen one archetype structuring.

The horror is more atmospheric than jump scares so imagine a slow burn rather than constantly bang and then then next thing.

Overall, a good horror film with a strong sense of building tension and dread.

3/5

Pros.

The performances

The atmosphere

The layered mythology

Cons.

The pacing

It is depressing

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Just One Gift: Sleep Tight On Christmas Eve

Summary: a child gets a present early on Christmas eve from an evil source.

This short really works through the reinvention of the idea of the bad analogue to Santa, we’ve had Krampus, but here the film introduces a demon or possibly devil figures and merges the idea of gifting giving at Christmas with deals from the devil. It’s a very novel and interesting concept.

The pace, which is obviously affected by it being a short film, is used very well and nothing is needless every single second builds the tension.

The main downside is the cinematography is a little spotty in places and a little shaky where it shouldn’t be, this can be jarring.

Overall, a good horror short that has a novel spin on the idea of evil Santa.

3.5/5

Pros.

The pace

The twist of evil Santa

The tension

The ending

Cons.

The cinematography

It could do with more dialogue

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Colony: 28 Days Too Late

Summary: a bioweapon is unleashed in a shopping centre turning people into hive mind zombies.

So this film was quite the disappointment, Train to Buscan is a good film and even it’s sequel had some merits but this film just feels flat. It feels like a tried rehash of so many other zombie films.

The pacing is also quite brutal, on at over 2 hours a lot of this is needless talking and plots about backstabbing. There are times when you just wish the film would hurry up, but it doesn’t.

Overall, a slog that shows that maybe zombies are played out.

2/5

Pros.

It’s got some good action

The hive mind aspect is interesting

Cons.

It’s badly paced

It feels done before

The ending

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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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Leviticus: Taking Aim At The Wrong People

Summary: two young LGBTQ teens face the supernatural and prejudice.

Lets be blunt in the West most LGBTQ+ teens do not face being forced into conversion therapy, maybe in backwoods areas living about 50 years in the past but not in the modern west, and that includes Australia.

By and large most sects of Christianity have also come to accept LGBTQ people, not that you would know from this film. In many ways the horror herein is a means to attack Christianity even though it has long since accepted them. There could be an idea made that they are too afraid to go after the groups that do not accept them as that would be un-pc the Church makes for a better target.

The horror here is nothing new, they try and say it is different as it features LGBTQ characters and themes but honestly queer horror has evolved far beyond this sort of thing. In many ways this film is based around putting identity first and trying to make a statement but that has been done before what this film is trying to say has been said better before.

The real issue here is that this film feels like it is trying to mimic other queer horror films from the recent past.

Overall, one or two good scares but by and large just more of the same you have seen before.

1.5/5

A few good scares

It is well paced

Cons.

It is repetitive

The commentary feels outdated

It is directing ire in the wrong direction

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The Ice Cream Man: Eli Roth Is Back On Form

Summary: an evil ice cream man is giving kids ice cream that makes them kill their parents.

Thanksgiving was a good film, but it has been a while since we last heard from Eli Roth so expectations were high for this film and for the most part he delivered.

Now there is a hullabaloo about oh no the film uses AI, to that we say grow up most films do and just don’t tell you, see Supergirl. If you think the effects shots in Brand New Day didn’t have any AI involvement then you need to put the beverage down and get serious.

The thing that is perhaps the hardest to understand is what the tone is, as the film is both very dark and also very silly, you could argue it is a comedy horror perhaps. Once you adjust to it it’s okay.

The film feels both fresh but also like it is calling back to A Nightmare On Elm Street in one key way.

The best thing the film does is how it ends, it ends in a way not typical at all for horror films, as the villain basically wins, most films have the killer stopped, the demon exorcised, the ghost sent on etc, this does not.

One thing that was not so good about the film was a line of dialogue where a 12 year old girl says “I’m a 12 year old girl of course I know how to make myself sick”. Bulimia is a very serious condition and it should not be made light off particularly with teens who are often prone to eating disorders and suicidality. It’s a throwaway line it’s not like they dwell on it but it’s a clumsy line that harms an otherwise good film.

4/5

Pros.

The ending

The gore

The tone once you adjust

The Ice Cream Man

Cons.

The Bulimia line

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Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma: The Musings Of A Pervert

Summary: everything wrong with modern horror.

Where to start, one could start with the filmmaker who made this made I Thought I Saw The TV Glow one of the most unwell horror films ever made that made trans people look bad. He is not a filmmaker that should have been given a bigger budget to make another film.

You could mention how Gillan Anderson has exploited the LGBTQ+ market for years, pretending that she is Bi-Sexual when she only ever dates men, but won’t say that as then she’ll lose gigs like this.

You could also mention Hannah Einbinder and her hate filled views about Israel and the Jews and how she embodies the very worst of modern progressive values.

Much like with many modern progressives the director of this film has to make his personal identity central to it. The film heavily features trans messages, the Jason stand in, is claimed to be both a boy and a girl, you can only be one or the other, and dies due to the camp councillors being bigots. The eye roll is real.

At times the film would almost be funny if viewed as a parody but it just inst that. Einbinder’s character is brought in to update his horror franchise and make it less transphobic, again it borders on parody.

Anderson’s character is in a polygamous relationship she doesn’t like, but no doubt it is still better than monogamy as God forbid you conform. Anderson can only climax if she thinks she’s being watched by the killer from her old slasher franchise and then has age inappropriate sex with a much younger Einbinder.

Einbinder character creates a new version of the slasher franchise wherein the killer kills her parents, agent and superiors, one wonders what the incredibly on the nose message the director/writer wants us to see here. She then later dies in the film within a film by being stabbed with a spear as she orgasms during sex. There is something deeply sick and perverse about this film.

Overall, this film shouldn’t be made and the director should not work again.

The film is flopping even on a tiny budget

0/5

Cons.

The age inappropriate relationship

It makes lesbians and the broader LGBTQ+community look bad, as they only seem to have dark fetish sex

It is badly paced

It borders on parody

It is entirely disconnected from reality of any kind

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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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