We’re getting to the saturation point of reviewing. 24 reviews in 23 days. I’m beat, trying to get this wrapped up so I can take on the other writing stuff I’m putting off. Luckily, the films continue to show bright spots in the genre, perhaps none more so than Damien McCarthy’s sophomore feature Oddity, which was crafted at the same time as his great debut Caveat we covered in a past marathon. It takes the “Monkey’s Paw” approach with a wicked tale of deceit and murder, and just enough supernatural terror to be the legit first film to make me jump and scream in this marathon. I’ll take it.

ChrisOctober 8, 2024October 8, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – ‘Salem’s Lot (2024)

Being Film #21 for Hooptober 2024

Announced in 2019, shot in 2021, originally set for theatrical release in 2022 only to dribble out onto the Max service this past Friday, the long-awaited ‘Salem’s Lot took a meandering road to reach our eyes. And in the end it was neither a massive misfire not a surefire hit. It was slick, mean, thin in characterization but visually sharp and sumptuous and with enough good sequences that I came away having had a lot of fun with the film. Does it hold a candle to the original 1979 series shot by our marathon’s namesake? No, but I didn’t need it to be, either.

ChrisOctober 5, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – Unwelcome (2023)

Being Film #20 for Hooptober 2024

It can be a startling thing when expectations are upended. You think you’re familiar with something, say, a filmmaker based on a particular film. And you hear about their new film, and it looks like it treads similar ground. And it does, except it doesn’t. And in that thin veil of difference can lay everything. So if you’re a fan of Jon Wright and his alien SF/horror fest Grabbers and saw he has a new film, one that ALSO takes place in Ireland and features a bunch of little goblins terrorizing a family, you might think Ah! This should be right up my alley. And it is, but Unwelcome is tonally a very, very different beast, as are its featured villains, most of whom are all too human…

ChrisOctober 4, 2024Leave a comment

the angry black girl and her monster header

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)

Being Film #13 for Hooptober 2024

The beautiful thing about The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is how much of a “first film” it is, in the best possible way. The directorial debut of Bomani J. Story, this is a film very much full of ideas, using genre to get at the heart of gnarly and thorny issues that rise above with some truly sublime moments, even as the overall narrative and directing get a little, well…messy at times. But it’s so easily forgiven because behind every odd edit, every cheap (though some are fantastic) visual effect you can see the beating heart of a storyteller, and his cast matches the pump and thrum of that heart in perfect time.

ChrisSeptember 27, 2024September 27, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Being Film #11 for Hooptober 2024

Boy do I like Patrick Wilson. Guy is a phenomenal performer, handsome to a damn fault, and has made some really brave and interesting choices in his career. He also seems to really love genre, and I love that his passion for this franchise and these characters propelled him into the director’s chair for the first time for Insidious: The Red Door which concludes the story of the Lamberts. I wish the script held up its end of the bargain, because while there are the kernels of strong ideas and themes here, the door closes on the Lambert family in poor, dull, and rote style.

ChrisSeptember 23, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – Infested (2023)

Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2024

We’ve see a lot of films that are one thing on the surface and something else underneath. Infested, the French spider creature feature from Sébastien Vaniček in his feature debut is very much two things, but both are very much on the surface and striking in their forcefulness. You want a film to make your skin crawl with a bunch of eight-legged nasties that defy the laws of nature and do terrible things to you? You got it. You want to see some biting (ha!) social commentary on class and race and bigotry? You got that, too. You get a lot in Infested, and it’s a damn fine debut from a filmmaker on the rise.

ChrisSeptember 19, 2024Leave 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

Tag: 2020s

Hooptober 11.0 – Oddity (2024)

Hooptober 11.0 – ‘Salem’s Lot (2024)

Hooptober 11.0 – Unwelcome (2023)

Hooptober 11.0 – The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)

Hooptober 11.0 – Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Hooptober 11.0 – Infested (2023)