Horror Movie Talk

Synopsis Until Dawn follows Clover and her group of friends as they travel the country following her missing sister Melanie’s trail. After meeting a kind old man at a gas station who points them in the right direction, the crew finds themselves waiting out a rainstorm in a spooky abandoned motel. Clover is desperate to find her sister, and clues within the building lead her to think that Melanie was here. All seems to be going according to plan until disaster strikes and our young hip protagonists are plunged into a life-or-death fight with a masked maniac Michael Myers wanna be. Review of Until Dawn I did not know that this was a movie adapting a video game until the movie started with the PlayStation Logo. Having not seen the trailer and bringing zero experience playing Until Dawn into my viewing experience, I think I was set up perfectly. The premise of the movie, which I’m going to spoil now so if you don’t want to know skip this part but I assume it gives this away in the trailer and game, is that people who enter the motel are stuck in some sort of hellish time warp, causing them to relive their deaths over and over. The movie did a great job of setting up the characters in the beginning and I was starting to feel very invested in their relationships when suddenly every character except for Clover was killed within 5 minutes. I was baffled and about ready to give this movie a very low score for undermining its own character development, when suddenly I was introduced to the time warp aspect and it all finally made sense. Its a really fun idea, and it has the built-in advantage of being able to pack in lots of fun and gory death scenes without losing its main cast or requiring a ridiculous amount of characters. I felt that the acting was pretty good, the story was far more filled out than most video game movies are, and the themes that emerged towards the end were satisfying. The movie suffers from some of the same things other video game movies like Silent Hill suffer from, such as needing to introduce all of the iconic bad guys without having the time to tell the audience who or what they are. Who is this masked killer? Don’t worry about it. He’s just evil. Who is this witch? Don’t think too hard. She’s just one of the bad guys. I enjoyed this movie quite a lot more than I expected to, but it is still far from a perfect film. Score 8/10

This week we review Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Is this movie cursed, or is Horror Movie Talk cursed? Stay tuned to find out. Synopsis Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Michael C Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack returning from Chicago with ill gotten gains to their hometown in rural prohibition era Mississippi. They immediately work on establishing their own juke joint to entertain and profit off the locals. They go around town recruiting old friends and relatives to help and successfully have a grand opening. When the music pierces the time and space as it is prone to do, it captures the attention of nearby evil… things. Wacky hijinx ensue. Review of Sinners Ryan Coogler writes and directs his first horror film coming off of his success with blockbusters like Black Panther and Creed. Here he obviously draws inspiration from Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, where it feels like one genre and then suddenly shifts into a horror film. However, we are given fair warning from the opening scene that shit is about to go down. There is a lot going on in this film. It explores a lot of ideas about good and evil, guilt, exploitation, racism, the transcendence of music, and pro tips on how to eat pussy. Not all of these themes are fully explored or necessarily land, but I have to respect the ambition and swing for the fences attitude of Coogler with this film. The film does have a great cast, with fully fleshed out characters and relationships. It spend a lot of time with the setup so that when the killing starts to happen there are real stakes (no pun intended). It feels like a Stephen King novel in the best way. A large element of the film is the music, with several musical sequences featuring blues, folk music, and weird afro-blues-rock-hiphop-pop fusion. The musical director on the film is swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, which is probably the most promising new film composer in recent years having scored The Mandelorian, Oppenheimer, Black Panther, and more. In my opinion, he is out of place here, and a lot of the musical score seems out of place and distracting. For a film about delta blues and juke joints, they seem almost embarrassed to include a lot of it. Overall, the film was very good. It held my attention, features a setting and characters that are interesting, and delivers some great monster moments. Score 9/10

Synopsis Eight college friends reunite the evening before one of their weddings to catch up, hang out, and unexpectedly play a game that will change all of their lives forever. Review I like this movie a lot. It’s so much fun. It’s fast paced, the lighting and editing keeps you highly engaged, and the plot is simple but effective. I love the interpersonal drama that carries most of the movie, and without giving too much away, how it all plays out is very interesting. The first time I watched this I definitely didn’t anticipate the final twist, which was really exciting. Although this isn’t traditionally scary, the thought of it happening to you sends a shiver down your spine. It’s a very fun, lively movie and I had a blast watching it again for the pod. Before we get into any spoilers whatsoever, I believe this is a movie watched best going in blind, so pause the show here and come back when you’ve seen this. Score 8/10

Synopsis The Woman in the Yard is a blumhouse produced movie about a family living on a farm trying to make ends meet after a disastrous car accident which left the father dead, and mother crippled. As this broken home traverses the everyday trials of a grieving family, a mysterious woman appears on a chair in their front yard. Attempting to speak to the woman reveals very little about her motivations, so the family barricades themselves in the house hoping to wait her out. Without electricity, a working vehicle or cell phones, the mother and her two children are completely isolated. Review of The Woman in the Yard The cinematography is strikingly beautiful for such a low effort film. While the acting ranges from really good at times to borderline over-acting, the script does not do our actors any favors. This leaves the film lacking in character development and meaningful relationships. The movie is very barebones as far as plot, and hardly anything of interest happens most of the movie. It starts with a good idea, but completely undercuts it by having the woman in the yard be normal looking and unthreatening. The ending is ambiguous, which may be a good thing for some viewers, but for me it contains too many loose ends and “what if”s. Score 3/10

This week we review Death of a Unicorn! Stay tuned to find out whether the laughs are real or mythological. Synopsis Paul Rudd plays the hapless single father Elliot to Jenna Ortega’s, art history student Ridley. They both go on a work trip to a remote estate of Elliot’s boss in a former wilderness preserve. While on driving there, they accidentally collide with a horse beast with a horn protruding out of it’s head. Just a single horn. Like a uni-horn. When they try to hide the evidence from the CEO and his family, wacky low jinks ensue. Review of Death of a Unicorn While this film has an interesting premise and a good cast, the words that kept playing through my mind while watching this is “half baked”. Not like the wacky movie staring Jim Bruer and Dave Chappell, but more like a mouthful of hot brownie batter. It sounds good, but is actually disappointing. While there were a few situations in which I did laugh, they were few and far between, because what this horror comedy lacked most was jokes and bits.  The characters were all 2 dimensional, which in a comedy can be counteracted with broad caricature, but the writing here attempts to be subtle and low key with poor results. In fact, Paul Rudd’s character, ostensibly the second protagonist ends up being so wishy washy, that I was confused if he was supposed to be one of the villains. Jenna Ortega isn’t as stone faced as usual, but she doesn’t have much to work with here. In fact most of her dialogue felt like it must have read [fill in later]. Probably the most successfully subtle character is Anthony Carrigan’s Griff the butler. There were some good gory death moments. The expected impalements are here. There are some good headsplosions. But it’s not enough. I usually think it’s a cop out to say a movie’s CGI is bad, but for a movie dependent on monster design, they should have spent a little more time and money dialing in the unicorns. Score 4/10

Synopsis Hush follows Maddy (Kate Siegel), a deaf writer living in the middle of nowhere. She settles in for a quiet night of working when her friend turns up screaming and bloody at her door, but Maddy does not notice. The assailant figures out Maddy is deaf and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues. Review The first time I watched this movie I really enjoyed it, but upon second watch it wasn’t as effective for me. I think it’s because if you know how it ends, it’s not going to be as exciting the second time around. I still liked it and Mike Flanagan is an incredible director, I very much enjoy most of the stuff he puts out. It’s a typical home invasion movie and the twist of having a deaf protagonist is inventive and works well. Kate Siegel is always great to watch, and the antagonist is pretty good as well. It’s a simple movie, and it works best to watch it without knowing what happens. It’s not the best, but it’s a quick 80 minutes and satisfies the horror itch. Score 6/10 http://patreon.com/horrormovietalk

Synopsis Eraserhead is a movie about an awkward man named Henry who reconnects with his lost lover Mary over a lovely dinner of small chickens. They’re the same as the big chickens except for small. After finding out the shocking news that Mary has given birth to Henry’s child, the two get hitched and strap in for the slow steady life of a settled family. The baby soon causes turmoil in the young couple’s life and Henry must learn what fatherhood truly means in the depths of the sleepless nights and constant screaming. There’s some other stuff that happens but honestly I don’t know what any of it means. Review of Eraserhead Eraserhead is one of those movies that I want to like more than I do. The whole time I’m watching it I’m sitting there thinking to myself “Yes! This is so unique and thought-provoking. I’m so glad art like this exists! …how much longer is left of this movie? I found myself checking the runtime at several points hoping it was almost over only to realize only 15 minutes had passed by. However, to this movie’s credit, it truly is a spectacle. Many have likened this movie to what experiencing a nightmare or a strange dream feels like. Time moves awkwardly slow, a low hum and sharp static hang over most of the scenes, and even the mere movements of the characters feel so off. If you are going into this movie expecting to understand it or get the message, you may be disappointed to find that there may not even be one. Though despite Lynches ethereal style of movie making I still feel like I caught themes of the stress of marriage and fatherhood, dealing with overbearing prudish in-laws, and the horror that is whatever newborns simply are. As a father of a small baby myself, I felt an attachment to the small creature that they attempted to pass off as a premature child, and the sheer fragility of an infant felt close to home for me. This movie pulled off the exact feat it was going for. It made me feel something. Even if that something was an eerie, stilted, boring, nervous feeling, at least its something. I said a lot of negative things but in reality I actually do find value and even enjoyment in this movie in a weird kind of way. Score 7/10

Due to recent controversy with the recent Scary Movie episode featuring Horror Movie Talk (HMT) owner David Day, We are releasing the following announcement to the press.

This week we’re reviewing SCARY MOVIE, a spoof of 90s slashers and more. Here to defend 90s humor with me is David Day, stay tuned. Synopsis A masked killer stalks a group of dumb teenagers a year after they accidentally kill a man. Borrowing from the major plot lines and scenes of Scream and I know what you did last summer, this slapstick raunchy comedy properly spoofs the major teen horror movies of the late nineties. Review of Scary Movie It’s been a long time since I originally saw Scary Movie in the theater, and to me it was a breath of fresh air. You can debate the consistency of the quality of humor, but what you can’t debate is the pace of the humor. The jokes per minute is strong in this movie, and even if one bit doesn’t land, there will be another one that will in about a minute. What is really crazy is how timely some of the jokes are in a movie 25 years old. You’ve got mentions of diddy parties, trans in competitive sports, and teacher sex scandals.  Score 10/10

Synopsis This film follows the teenage Jessie, played by Elle Fanning, who moves to LA with dreams of becoming a model. She meets some veterans in the industry, Rubi, Gigi, and Sarah and forms a friendship turned rivalry with them as they all try to make it to the top. Jessie soon learns the ways of the cutthroat world of modeling, and how everyone around her would do heinous things for her youthful beauty. Review I absolutely love this film. This is my third watch, and I swear it has gotten better every time I’ve seen it. The cinematography, coming from the iconic Nicolas Winding Refn, is something to be revered. The way he uses color and light and blocking to symbolize changes in character’s personalities and ways of life is astounding. This film is gorgeous, and the message it conveys is something that women can all understand and relate to, regardless if you’re a model or not. It’s a deep dive on beauty standards and the predatory nature of society towards women, and little girl’s beauty in general. This isn’t scary at all visually, but there are some horrific scenes and imagery that might make you look away from the screen. All in all, it’s a fantastic film, and criminally underrated. Score 10/10