Going 20 years into the future and changing from zombies to…reindeer? Just goes to show you that anything is ripe for horror, provided it’s done with care and attention. I can’t recall if I’ve seen any other classic films coming out of Finland (recent comedies and action, sure…), but The White Reindeer reinforced my desire to get better acquainted with the country’s film history. Blending folk horror with scrappy filmmaking that is both indebted to the Hollywood studio template as well as alien to it, the film has doses of magic even in its more mundane moments. After the pallor of White Zombie, it was great to have The White Reindeer bolster my enthusiasm.

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – White Zombie (1932)

Being Film #17 for Hooptober 2025

Sometimes a movie is so good, it doesn’t matter the condition you see it. In a world of 4K, Dolby Vision, IMAX, and other buzzwords for the highest of definitions, a picture ultimately rests on its construction and execution. That being said, I wish some of that visual pizzazz could have been used in the tired, washed out low-budget schlock that is White Zombie. Alas, I watched this dismal Bela Lugosi vehicle in a terrible colorized transfer, so alarming in its greenish, vomit-like hues I was scrambling to find my original TV remote so I could at least turn the color off and have a measure of relief. Would a better viewing experience have made the film better in my eyes? Maybe in the literal fashion, but I think that would be it.

ChrisOctober 1, 20251 Comment

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)

Being Film #16 for Hooptober 2025

In the end, there’s really no escaping the shadow of what Guillermo del Toro brought to Mike Mignola’s Hellboy character in his two films. You can argue they’re not truly what Mignola intended with the character, mixed too much with del Toro’s sympathy with the monsters, but those two films stand as a monument to how to present the fantastic on film. About the only to really do (takes notes, Neil Marshall) is to scale it back, own the story, and just drive your perspective home. And the audience and critics seem to bury Hellboy: The Crooked Man in the dirt, I’m here to tell you not only is it good, it’s really good: nasty and intimate and capable of moments that get straight to the heart of what makes Mignola’s stories so indelible. Ignore the critics and take this one on its terms; you won’t regret it.

ChrisSeptember 28, 2025Leave a comment

the blackening: the cast stares at the camera, the light of a television lighting their faces

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The Blackening (2022)

Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2025

The Blackening has a lot to say about black identity, about the tropes and cliches of how black actors are handled not just in horror films, but throughout the visual medium. It also wants to be funny, and it wants to be scary. It also wants to be very much for black audiences, but because this is a studio film, it has to balance that with being universal enough to draw in a wide audience. Tim Story has a lot of experience with that kind of thing to varying degrees, and I’m happy that this one lands on the same side of the fence as Barbershop: genuinely smart, funny, scary, and can balance its message without sacrificing everything else The Blackening needs to be. Yup, I really enjoyed this one.

ChrisSeptember 28, 2025Leave a comment

image from the film Together: alison brie and dave franco trapped in a hole, the opening casting light down on them

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – Together (2025)

Being Film #14 for Hooptober 2025

Tone is such a fickle thing. So hard to maintain, and if you find it too late, it’s nearly impossible to get back and adjust the rest to match, either in reshoots or the edit. Together is a case in point: beautifully acted, some truly gnarly effects work, an overarching theme about co-dependency…and yet. All of those don’t matter if the tone is off, and my biggest issue with Together is that by the time it really finds its footing we’ve spent an awkward first half of the film that lingers a bit too long, marring an otherwise outrageous and fun second half.

ChrisSeptember 28, 2025September 28, 2025Leave a comment

devil fetus header - a young nam stands in the center of a grid of fire

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – Devil Fetus (1983)

Being Film #13 for Hooptober 2025

I never thought I’d see a film like Hausu again. That movie, a psychedelic fever dream from Nobuhiko Obayashi, was off the walls and inventive in a way I never expected, and never expected to see again. I am so happy to be proved wrong by Devil Fetus, an on the surface low-budget Hong Kong horror flick that stretches every single dollar to provide some hilariously over-the-top effects and set pieces, going to some bizarre corners in a delightfully schlocky mess I enjoyed the hell out of.

ChrisSeptember 26, 2025September 28, 2025Leave a comment

Cinema Dual (TEST SITE)

Examining a life through the media we consume. In other words, I’m reviewing all of my physical music media in alphabetical order, one day at at a time. Except when I don’t, as has been the case for the past few years. Still, we march onwards…Coffee essential, but not mandatory

Category: Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The White Reindeer (1952)

Hooptober 12.0 – White Zombie (1932)

Hooptober 12.0 – Hellboy: The Crooked Man (2024)

Hooptober 12.0 – The Blackening (2022)

Hooptober 12.0 – Together (2025)

Hooptober 12.0 – Devil Fetus (1983)