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Victim No More (2022)
Fans have more fun.
In "Victim No More" we get Jill Whitlow of "Night of the Creeps" playing Dr. Romero; Catherine Mary Stewart of "Night of the Comet" as Megan Jarvis; and we get the voices of Amy Steel of "Friday the 13th, Part 2" as narrator and Kimberly Beck of "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" reprising her role as Trish Jarvis (Mahoney).
"Friday the 13th," the property, is lost in litigation purgatory. It's the fans who now never let Jason fully die. With the fans lately are some fine talented people, past and present. We can grouse about script, pacing, editing, line delivery-- Or we can enjoy that the fans have us covered, that we get to revisit not only Jason and Camp Crystal Lake, but lately some old friends from the franchise's past.
Thank you, Bob Heckman and Co. I'm a fan, I had fun.
Red (2022)
Oh, my goodness
If you can stick with it you kind get what the movie's creators WANTED to do: Skewer contemporary Western intolerance, stupidity, cruelty, and violence. It's not a good movie. It's hardly a movie, more a disjointed series of images and media voiceovers with some movie thrown in here and there.
In a nutshell: A foster kid was bullied, befriended by a demon, convinced by the demon to commit suicide, returns as Red, an entity that frightens and kills others in revenge.
The Polterguys are the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of modern horror.
Have a nice day.
A Deadly Legend (2020)
Not great, but shows some promise.
Nobody should claim that "A Deadly Legend" is a great horror movie. Clunky script, some wooden acting, dodgy editing, and a mish-mash of plot points that don't come together as an effective whole.
That said, "A Deadly Legend" is a style of low budget genre movie that I like. Without knowing anything about the history of its making, I would bet a big molasses cookie that the idea for this movie started far outside the movie industry. One or two or three people with an idea and a lot of passion. Somehow the money came together, a story grew, and a cast and crew put together. During shooting there were probably some days where people thought, what the heck are we doing? But, I'd bet that mostly people had fun with the project of taking creativity from idea to realization.
There seems nothing cynical about "A Deadly Legend," either its energy or its story. I like that. The creators, if they still have that passion for movie-form story-telling, should keep going. Learn from making this movie, keep creating, become better at it.
One call out: Lori Petty is amazing in this. In a movie where the acting ranges from flat to over-the-top, Petty's Wanda is in a class all her own. Without the character and Petty's spin on it, "A Deadly Legend" would have been far less enjoyable. At worst, we needed a scene that better establishes the relationship between Wanda and Mike, and Wanda and the rest of the central characters.
That's a fault throughout the movie. People show up, things happen, and we're left much of the time to piece together the relationships, the dynamics, and fit all of it within the context of the story. It seems like the creator(s) compromised tight story-telling in trying to feature as much of the ensemble cast as possible. The movie suffers for that compromise. Next time the creator(s) will do better, I'm sure.
A great horror movie? No. A project that shows some inherent skills and hints at potential greatness? Yes.
Army of the Dead (2021)
Little Dieter needs silence
Zack Snyder is good at spectacle and broad good guy/bad guy characters. Those strengths work OK in a zombie movie. You don't look to him for nuanced plot or complicated characters. He's given us his what he's good at, and that's not bad.
The scenes of the unfolding apocalypse and post-apocalyptic Las Vegas are done very well. The action scenes are over-the-top, just what you'd expect in a movie of this type.
Tig Notaro's character, Peters, gives a little speech about the relative importance of the members of the crew assembled to steal millions of dollars from a casino vault. She emphasizes that. Martin (Garret Dillahunt) is not what he seems and they'd all do well to make sure he doesn't leave with them. We know that Martin is a bad guy the moment he shows up. Only two of the characters in the movie as as basically perceptive as us, alas. Notaro and Dillahunt both did fine jobs with their characters, what they were given to do with them.
Dave Bautista, as Scott, did what he does best: playing an earnest lunk. Ella. Purnell played his daughter, Kate. She's the weakest link in the main casting with a character who's annoyed much of the time and annoying just as much of the time. Kate makes several irresponsible choices. The worst, if we're honest, cost the lives of most of the crew. Including the one person who motivated her worst decision, the zombie-napped mother Geeta, played by. Huma Qureshi.
The unlikely duo of muscle/philosopher Vanderhoe (Omari Hardwick) and nerd/artist Dieter.(Matthias Schweighöfer) offer the most fun. Their unlikely bond is the movie's most satisfying bit of character development with both actors giving more than the script provided.
Nora Arnezeder, as Lilly, gives a fantastic action performance as the coyote guide who takes the crew into Las Vegas. She should be given more roles, she's one to watch.
Ana de la Reguera, as Maria, had the thankless task of being aboard just to reveal a late love interest in Scott, only to have her head treated like a twist off cap. A bit of contrived pathos that did nothing for the plot except give Dave Bautista a reason to gape and look upset.
Amazing work by zombie king Zeus (Rich Cetrone) and his zombie Queen (Athena Perample).
When you ask yourself questions like:
How did that little bit of gasoline power an entire casino and for so long?
And, how can a helicopter still function after years of neglect on a rooftop in Las Vegas?
And, why didn't Mr. Tanaka and the military and government people in cahoots with him simply give the crew the combination to the safe?
And so on.
Just keep telling yourself, it's a fun action zombie movie. Relax and enjoy your time in Las Vegas.
It just occurred to me. This movie neatly fits into the world of 2016's "It Stains the Sands Red." If you'd like a zombie movie with a stronger plot and complicated characters, try that movie next.
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House on Haunted Hill (1999)
And then the CGI budget kicks in
Decent remake of a decent original. This House was made at that time when Hollywood was falling in love with CGI. A-list movies became plots that depended too much on CGI. Like this movie. Good acting, re-tooling of an only-OK original horror script. It generally falls apart when the CGI becomes the story. If nothing else, it's a fun time capsule of its late 90s/early 00s period.
Plan Z (2016)
It works
There's some great stuff in "Plan Z." There are also flaws in the plot and the editing. Still, as lower budget zombie movies go, you can do far worse, several times over. Overall, I like what the crew and actors put together. Some of the movie shows real talent. Bonus: Lacking a budget, the makers had to rely on a lot of implied and outside-the-frame graphic stuff. I liked that, nice change of pace. I'll watch for Stuart Brennan's work.
Finally, did I miss something in the first part of the movie, or was his mate stuck in the toilet for a week before he thought to call his best friend?
Mummy Reborn (2019)
"Can't you just read the subtitles?"
"Mummy Reborn" doesn't take itself seriously. You can relax and also not take it seriously. For a low budget hot mess the actors do an OK job, chiefly Tiffany-Ellen Robinson as Tina, Tara MacGowran as Karen, and Louis Findlay as Duncan. The central plot could have been made as a 20 minute short. Instead a plodding first act is further padded by, among other things, an inexplicable stoner party in the woods. Filmed mostly during the day on what looks like somebody's one acre property. Is this great film making? Nope. Looks like they had fun making it. And it's far from the worst of recent low budget horror. Loss of one point for cover art that has zero relationship to the characters and story. Carey Thring (credited in the movie, but not on IMDB) gives a baffling double feature stinger during the credits.
Vyzhit posle (2013)
Penalty for poor use of score
This MIGHT be an interesting series out of Russia. I turned it off halfway through the first season's first episode because of the unnecessarily loud and unrelenting score. I'm sure the creators hoped that the wall-of-pointless-sound would add dramatic tension. In reality, it becomes comical, then annoying. Might give "Vyzhit posle" another chance, might not. Viewed via TubiTv in January 2020.
Body Keepers (2018)
Low-budget indie amateur fun
"Body Keepers" is excellent fun as long as you do not expect sharp writing, amazing actors, clever editing, and excellent sound design. The flaws ARE the fun in this kind of movie. There's nothing wrong with enjoying how the score is so loud in places that you can barely hear a character speaking. It's entertaining to watch an actor trying so hard to pull off disdainful coolness, but coming off as wooden and one-note. Movies need to be experienced in terms of their creators' abilities. I hope the people who made "Body Keepers" had a blast making the movie. If movie-making remains a goal, keep going! I'm sure everybody involved learned something. If you hate this kind of movie, here's a tip: look for the production company's name at the start of the movie. Avoid that production company's movies, you are unlikely to find anything that you will enjoy. Have a nice day.