Month: August 2023

It’s been a while, ladies and gentlemen.  Been busy with life and stuff.  I’m going to make this intro short and sweet.  As always, when I buy 4 or more movies on physical media, I will do one of these posts.  It’s my way of sharing with you guys what I’ve been watching and collecting as of late.  Well, I’ve picked up quite a few things on the way, so let’s get right to it, shall we?

And Soon The Darkness – Anchor Bay

This is my most recent one pick-up.  And Soon The Darkness follows two beautiful women who are on vacation in Argentina.  After missing the bus, they get into a fight and Amber Heard’s character storms off, leaving Odette Yustman’s character alone.  Stephanie(Heard)goes back to check on Ellie(Odette Yustman) only to find that she’s vanished.  She enlists the aid of an American ex-pat, Mike(Karl Urban)to help find her friend.  I love a good kidnapping thriller.  And Soon The Darkness isn’t a bad example, but if you’ve seen one kidnapping thriller, you’ve seen this.  It also doesn’t offer much in the way of twists.  It’s as straight-forward a thriller as one can get, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  This is also a remake of a 1970s thriller of the same name, but I haven’t seen that one, yet.  Still, this isn’t a bad way to waste 90 minutes.  It’s well-paced.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Kino Lorber

Most vampire movies are about a dime a dozen these days.  But it’s rare to see a vampire movie from Iranian film-makers.  It’s even more rare to see a vampire movie that is equal parts spaghetti western, boy-meets-girl romance, and horror movie all-in-one.  The film is also in black-and-white.  The best part about all of this?  It works.  It’s a good story, and it’s got some really great acting especially from Sheila Vand who plays The Girl.  It’s unique in so many ways.  It’s charming, it’s funny at times, and it’s incredibly heart-felt.  I was taken by surprise with this film, and I absolutely recommend it to anybody who happens to be a fan of vampire movies.  These are the kinds of movies the cinema was made for.

Holy Spider – Utopia

The second Iranian film on my list, Holy Spider tells the story of the notorious Spider Killer, who murdered 16 sex workers in the holy city of Mashhad.  A female journalist, Rahimi(Zar Amir Ebrahimi)is on the case, despite direct opposition from the local government.  Fighting against a misogynistic system, Rahimi tries to find and trap the serial killer who claims to be murdering in the name of God(don’t they all?).  Holy Spider is a phenomenal crime thriller that was banned in Iran because of its…views on Iran’s theocracy.  The movie was filmed in Jordan, since Iran refused(shocking, I know).  It’s an incredibly revealing look at a system that doesn’t value women at all and how that system inadvertantly creates monsters like the Spider Killer.  It’s a rough watch, but it’s really good.  I can’t wait to see more from these folks.

Babylon 5: The Road Home – Warner Bros.

Babylon 5 has been regarded as one of the greatest science fiction shows of all time.  Spanning 5 seasons, a spin-off show, and several DTV movies, Babylon 5 remains etched in the imaginations of many a sci-fi nerd.  It was one of those rare shows during the 90s that was serialized, not episodic.  That means each episode in each season led somewhere to a larger overall story-line.  It was brilliantly written with excellent characters and decent visual effects at the time.  Well, we’ve got ourselves a new animated movie set in the Babylon 5 universe.  You want to know something?  It’s really good.  Most of the original cast return to voice their characters, although some of the original actors have since passed away, but the people taking over for them do a fantastic job.  It’s a great combination of 2D and 3D animation that works for the story being told.  I’m kind of over the whole multi-verse/alternate timeline deal, but this little flick does an amazing job keeping everything going and telling the story in a way that you can follow.  If you’re a fan of science fiction and/or Babylon 5, this is one you should keep your eyes out for.  Highly recommended.

Trade – Lionsgate Studios

Human trafficking is about the ugliest thing that people can do to each other.  Movies and TV shows have been trying to convey that over the past 40 years.  Most of them make the mistake of focusing on the bigger picture when that image is made up of much smaller pictures, and that’s where Trade gets it right.  It focuses on 4 people: Adrianna, who was kidnapped along with Veronica to be sold off in the sex trade; Jorge, who is Adrianna’s brother, and Ray, a Texas cop searching for HIS daughter who was taken over a decade ago.  The film allows the audience to get to know these characters and how they forge bonds beneath horrifying circumstances.  It’s told in a personal way, and that is far more effective a story-telling tactic than just blurting out numbers of how many people are trafficked each year.  It’s a powerful film.  Do yourselves a favor, skip Sound of Freedom and watch this instead.

Justice League: Warworld

DC’s been a spot of trouble with their live-action movies lately.  They’ve been performing extraordinarily poorly.  Well, at least the ones that were connected to the old DCEU.  The animated movies have been equally bizarre.  Justice League Warworld tells three stories that follow each of the three main DC heroes: Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman.  I w0n’t spoil the overall plot, but it’s actually pretty interesting.  The art style is interesting, but not my favorite style.  That said, there’s plenty of action involved.  The first story is actually a Western, and you don’t see that in an animated DC movie.  The second is a Conan-style story, while the final one is a black-and-white detective story with a twist.  It’s all pretty good.

The Pope’s Exorcist – Sony Pictures

When it comes to horror movies, I have a passion for the supernatural.  Anything that deals with demons and angels gets my attention.  Possession stories are not easy to tell, especially when you’re trying to capitalize on the success of The Exorcist, the greatest of all exorcism movies.  That said, The Pope’s Exorcist is a lot of fun.  Most of that has to do with Russell Crowe playing the real life Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, Father Gabriele Amorth.  Crowe’s clearly having a blast with this, and it’s just a bonkers ride from beginning to end.

Fast X – Universal Pictures

Look, it goes without saying that the Fast and Furious movies have always been silly.  F9 took that silliness to beyond absurd levels and ended up being one of the worst movies in the franchise.  Now, I’m not saying that Fast X is believable, but it pulls back enough on the ridiculous to make it an enjoyable ride(pun intended).  What really makes this movie so much fun is Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes.  His character’s flamboyant style makes him incredibly fun to watch.  I also like this movie, because Dante is multiple steps ahead of Vin Diesel’s Dom for most of the movie.  It even ends on a cliffhanger.  I honestly can’t wait to see how silly the final movie’s going to be.  Vin wanted two more movies, but Fast X didn’t do well enough domestically to warrant a final trilogy, just enough for an eleventh.  Still, if you put yourself into a certain mode, this movie can be a lot of fun.

Scream 6 – Paramount Pictures

I’m not going to lie.  I didn’t like the last Scream movie at all.  I felt it was too identical to Wes Craven’s movie from 1996.  Thankfully, this new movie shakes things up quite a bit.  First of all, the movie takes place in New York City.  Secondly, the killers in this movie don’t play be the rules.  It doesn’t follow the standard slasher formula, which the series has been known to riff on.  There’s a scene in a subway car where a lot of people are wearing the Ghostface mask,   You had no idea who the killer was, but you knew that they were there.  That’s masterclass tension right there.  Also, the kills in this movie are the most brutal the series has seen yet.  I dug this movie because it changed things up and it’s all the better for it.

The Birds – Universal Pictures

Alfred Hitchcock was a master story-teller.  Whether it was North by Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo, or Psycho, Hitchcock knew how build tension and keep it nice and tight.  The Birds is HIS monster movie.  There’s no explanation for why the birds attack people in the movie, just that they do.  It’s a surprisingly intense little thriller that gets pretty gruesome at times.  The acting is top-notch across the board.  It’s one of the most iconic movies ever made.  Hitchcock never disappoints.

And with THAT, we come to the end of another glorious haul of movies on physical media.  Hope you folks enjoyed reading this, and maybe you find something interesting here.  That’s the idea, really.

Released: August 2023

Director: André Øvredal

Rated R

Run Time: 118 Minutes

Distributor: Universal Studios

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Cast:
Cory Hawkins: Clemens
Aisling Franciosi: Anna
Liam Cunningham: Captain Eliot
David Dastmalchian: Wojchek
Chris Walley: Abrams
Woody Norman: Toby
Javier Botet: Dracula/Nosferatu

There have been MANY adaptations of the character of Dracula.  From 1922’s unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu, to the various Christopher Lee films, to Francis Ford Coppola’s film starring Gary Oldman, and Van Helsing’s Richard Roxburgh, Dracula has captured the imaginations and nightmares of people all around the world for well over a century.  So many actors have played the famed vampire.  Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Rutger Hauer.  This year saw TWO movies dealing with the Transylvanian count:  Renfield and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.  Demeter is the one I will be talking about today because it’s one of those movies that takes a different approach to Dracula.  My favorite Dracula movie has always been a toss-up between 1932’s Dracula and Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation. Although, I will admit I do have a fondness for Mel Brooks’ send-up, Dracula: Dead and Loving It.  When it comes to serious vampire movies, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is one of the better ones.

The film starts in a port in Bulgaria, where the crew of the schooner, Demeter, take on mysterious cargo in the form of multiple boxes adorned with the symbol of a dragon.  After setting off for London, the crew discovers a female stowaway, Anna, in one of the boxes.  Strange things begin to happen over the course of voyage with crew disappearing one by one.  The ship’s newest crewmember/doctor, Clemens and Captain Eliot discover that Anna was not the ONLY stowaway on board.  The other “passenger” is an evil being that feeds on blood.  Anna reveals this beast to be Dracula.  The remnants of the crew are forced into a desperate battle for survival against a creature of unbelievable power.  Anybody who has read Bram Stoker’s novel or seen any of the adaptations will know exactly how this story ends.  It is inspired by the captain’s log which was part of chapter 7 from the book.  Yet, despite knowing how the story ends, it’s still incredibly compelling, because all the audience knew about the Demeter was that it arrived in London with all hands missing.  We could only surmise what had happened.  The Last Voyage of the Demeter explores this mysterious part of Stoker’s story in detail.  Obviously, there’s going to be liberties taken, because of the lack of detail in the captain’s log.  Despite knowing the outcome, this is an intense little movie.

Demeter differs from most movies based on Dracula, in which the focus isn’t on the monster himself, but rather the crew.  The interactions between the crew members is great.  Some of the characters are dirtbags, but most of them are just trying to make a living only to find themselves being threatened by something completely unnatural.  The reason why the chemistry between the characters is so strong is because of the cast.  Cory Hawkins plays Clemens, the newest member of the crew who tries to make logical sense of what’s going on.  Liam Cunningham is outstanding as Captain Eliot.  The character is tough, fair, and about ready to retire.  Cunningham brings the right amount of world-weariness that the character requires.  David Dastmalchian as Wojchek?  There’s something otherworldly about how David inhabits a character.  He’s a chameleon.  He can go from playing a goofy superhero character like Polka-Dot Man to a straight-faced Harkonnen in Piter de Vries in Dune.  Aisling Franciosi plays Anna, the stowaway.  The only other movie that I saw this actress in was The Nightengale, which was a very brutal period piece set in New Zealand.  She’s outstanding.  Her character is the only one that really knows what’s going on, yet she tries to help.

You wouldn’t think a movie dealing with Dracula on a boat wouldn’t be intense.  You’d be wrong.  The Demeter is not the biggest ship, but it’s big enough to have enough hiding spaces for a vampire.  If there’s a movie that I could compare this to, it would be Alien.  It sounds cliche, but it IS an apt comparison.  It’s also incredibly claustrophobic.  Between being out in the open sea with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.  It’s incredibly atmospheric and there were definitely times where I felt the hairs on my neck stand straight up.  The movie is a bit of a slow-burn, but when it all hits the proverbial fan, it hits hard.  When you’re talking about a movie that’s inspired by a piece of Stoker’s novel, you need to see the beast himself.  THIS version of Dracula, is not the sexy version that you see in the Christopher Lee films or even the 1992 film.  This thing is an absolute monster, and the creature’s design is incredible.  It’s clearly inspired by the 1922 film as well as Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.  The creature is played Javier Botet, a Spanish actor and writer who stands at nearly 7 feet tall.

For a movie that has only a 45 million dollar budget, it looks and feels a lot bigger than that.  I have to credit the film-makers for making the most of that budget.  It’s also surprisingly easy to see things going on despite the darkness in the film.  The set designs are incredible.  The schooner looks and feels like a ship that people have actually lived and worked in.  Same thing with the costume designs.  There is definitely some CGI here, but for the most part, the effects are practical.  Honestly the only negative thing I can really say about this movie is simply the fact as a fan of Bram Stoker’s novel and the various adaptations that have been made since, I know how this part of the story ends.  Between the outstanding acting, great atmosphere, and white-knuckle tension, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is not only a pleasant surprise, but it’s one of the better vampire movies I’ve seen in the last couple of years.  With all due respect to Nicolas Cage’s outrageous performance as Dracula, THIS one is far more terrifying.  Sadly, according to several box-office reports as of this writing, Demeter is going to flop, and it’s going to flop hard.  It’s too bad, there’s a great movie here for fans of Dracula and vampires in general.  It’s a lot better than I was expecting it to be.  I guess people are skipping it because they’re unfamiliar with this part of Dracula’s story.  Still, The Last Voyage of the Demeter comes as a must-see recommendation from me.  Check it out if you can.

WARNING! WARNING!  HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD!

I want to do something different with this post.  I want to talk about something that’s been my mind for a little bit.  Cliffhangers.  No, not Cliffhanger, the movie.  It’s an awesome movie, though.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out.  No, I’m talking about cliffhangers.  What is a cliffhanger?  A cliffhanger is a narrative tool that is used to leave the audience in suspense at the end of a story.  It’s a technique that’s been used in books, movies, videogames, and comics.  Anything that tells a narrative or story can use a cliffhanger as its conclusion.  The general purpose of a cliffhanger, as I said is to leave the audience in suspense, wanting more.  There are a number of reasons why someone would use a cliffhanger.  For instance, in television or film, someone could use a cliffhanger to split a story into multiple parts, the idea being to conclude the full story at some point.  A cliffhanger can be a very risky proposition, though.  There are good ways to use them, and there are bad ways.  The good ones will have audiences thirsting for more.  That’s what writers want.  The bad ones will end up pissing people.  That’s NOT what writers want.  I’m going to go over some examples of cliffhangers that are good, and some that are bad.  This is not one of my Best and Worst posts.  This is a little different.  Let’s begin:

First up is one of the greatest cliffhangers in television history: Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Best of Both Worlds” episode.  In this episode, Captain Picard is captured and assimilated by the Borg, a species of cybernetic organisms hell-bent on assimilating everything in the galaxy.  So, why is this episode so important?  First off, this episode is used to cap off Season 3 of the show, with Part II being Season 4’s premiere episode.  Narratively, this is huge for Star Trek.  We have a starship captain that has been fairly upstanding, resolute, and unyielding.  Then he has everything stripped away from him when he’s assimilated, including his individuality.  At the end of Part I, Riker is forced to use a weapon against the Borg, even if it means the death of Picard, now known as Locutus.  As soon as Riker says “fire,” the episode cuts to black and “To Be Continued” appears.  The crew had failed to rescue the captain before his assimilation, and now it seems that he might end up being killed.  You want to talk about leaving people hanging, this was the episode to do it.  Part II sees Locutus anticipating this attack because Picard had been briefed on it.  So, Commander Riker is promoted to Captain and he has to come up with a plan to rescue Picard and the Federation.  This episode of Star Trek was important for a number of reason.  First, it made Picard more vulnerable, and the effects of this episode can be felt throughout the entire franchise including Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  It gave audiences an entire summer of thinking about what was going to happen.  The interesting thing is, this episode could’ve only happened between Seasons 3 and 4.  Season 1 was still on shaky ground with the show trying to find its footing.  It would’ve been too much of a risk, as audiences hadn’t really connected with these characters yet.   This is how you end a season.  It’s not the only cliffhanger that The Next Generation would use, but it’s the best one.

Now, let’s talk about a BAD Star Trek cliffhanger: The season finale of Strange New Worlds.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Nu-Trek.  This includes the new movies, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds.  I’m focusing on the final episode of Season 1 of SNW because it’s bad in a number of ways.  I enjoyed the season for the most part, but the final episode was essentially a rip-off of the original series’ “Balance of Terror.”  “Balance of Terror” followed Kirk’s Enterprise into a cat and mouse chase with a Romulan war bird.  It’s one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek.  SNW rips it off by having Captain Pike in place of Kirk for most of the story as a result of a vision.  After Pike snaps back to reality, his first officer, Una, is arrested by his girlfriend, a captain of another ship.  The season then ends with Pike breaking the fourth wall.  The fourth wall is where the audience sits, and the general rule of thumb is that actors should never look into the camera.  Pike does this here, and that’s where it ends for Season 1.  Whatever issues I had with the episode in general, the cliffhanger part of it was completely unnecessary as far as the narrative goes.  It’s nothing more than an excuse to shock people.  It’s bad story-telling.  I guess the writers didn’t learn and ended Season 2 almost the same way with Pike staring at the audience.

Using cliffhangers essentially requires surgical precision.  You have to know where to end the episode and how to end it.  Same thing with movies.  In fact, the reason why I wanted to talk about this particular subject matter was Fast X, the latest entry into the Fast and Furious franchise.  While the franchise has definitely gotten sillier over the years, and Fast X is no exception, the decision to end Fast X with a cliffhanger was ballsy, especially when you consider that the next movie won’t show up until 2025 at the earliest.  However, Fast X had a really good cliffhanger.  Vin Diesel’s character is being hunted by Jason Momoa’s Dante, the son of an earlier film’s villain.  Dominic Toretto, not only sees his woman, Letty get arrested in Rome, he’s attacked on all sides from a government agency as well as Dante’s crew.  Dom loses his brother, while an ally turned traitor shoots down a plane carrying his friends, with Dom and his son driving off the top of a damn, only for Dante to detonate charges that would blow the damn.  The scene cuts, and we see Letty and Charlize Theron’s Cypher in Antarctica about to hitch a ride on a submarine with a cameo from Gal Gadot, who played a character that seemed to have died in Fast 6.  I actually liked that.  Look, even though we know that Dom and most of his crew will survive for the next movie, it’s very unusual to see the character get taken down a few notches like this.  Everybody loves a comeback story.

Certain stories, movies, and shows lend themselves to having an easier time handling cliffhangers than others.  Serialized shows like Game of Thrones is notorious for having cliffhangers, because of the stories that are being told.  You can’t tell those stories in a single episode, sometimes it takes an entire season, but it works for those shows, because there’s an overall narrative at play.  Star Trek: The Next Generation didn’t need to do that because it episodic, as in every episode was a complete story in and of itself.  It was unusual for a multi-episode story to happen.  But it did.  But it happened organically and it made logical sense for the stories to be handled that way.  You really can’t do cliffhangers in video games because gamers would feel that the game would feel like an incomplete experience, and it would be.  If you’re paying 60-70 bucks for a game, you want a complete narrative.  You can leave the ending open for a sequel, but you don’t end it with gamers left hanging.

Let’s talk about Lord of the Rings for a bit.  The first two movies ended with cliffhangers that didn’t really feel like cliffhangers.  Why?  It’s simple, each film had a satisfying conclusion even though you knew there was more to the story.  At the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, the fellowship breaks when Boromir’s killed, Frodo and Sam head to Mordor on their own, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli chase after the orcs that captured Merry and Pippin.  Anybody who has read the books knows what happens, but it still feels incredibly satisfying that each group heads off on their own.  While each film in the trilogy is a chapter in a long-running story, each film feels complete, and that’s why those endings work.  The Hobbit on the other hand…well, let’s just say one of those cliffhangers didn’t need to happen, because The Hobbit didn’t need to be split into three movies.  Two movies would’ve been plenty.  Horror movies, and slashers in particular, have a tendency to use the cliffhanger as a “GOTCHA!” kind of jump scare.  Meh…It’s amusing at times, but most of the time it’s unnecessary.  Saw is a franchise that relies heavily on a cliffhanger ending, but that’s a franchise that also relies on a lot of coincidental moments to try and connect each movie.

The cliffhanger can be a great narrative tool if it’s used properly and sparingly.  If you use it too much, people will learn to expect it and just shrug it off or get pissed and not bother watching the show/movie anymore.  It works best when it’s not actually expected, but feels organic and not forced.  I keep going back to “Best of Both Worlds” for that, because it’s written incredibly well.  Good cliffhangers need really good writers who understand the different methods that can help keep the audience engaged with the story and characters.  Otherwise, the movie/tv show will simply use it to artificially extend a show’s life, and that’s incredibly dishonest, and most people can pick up on that right away.

I’ve thought long and hard about whether or not I should take down my review of Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom, the thriller about child sex trafficking starring Jim Caviezel.  Well, an article by Vice has convinced me otherwise.  Someone on my Twitter feed posted it.  As of right now, I made the review private, so only I can view it.  Everybody else is out of luck, until I decide what to actually do with it.  The article mentioned that actual survivors of trafficking are being harassed by fans of Sound of Freedom for hating the movie.  It doesn’t surprise me, as most of the fans are a bunch of right-wing, single digit IQ morons who bought intot the bullshit that the grifter Tim Ballard was selling.  It also doesn’t help that actor Jim Caviezel willfully jumped down the QAnon rabbit-hole and started spouting bullshit conspiracy theories of his own.  This movie has done more to harm victims of trafficking than help.  Ballard is not a “holy warrior” out to fight human trafficking, especially since one of the funders of the film has been charged with felony child kidnapping.  That’s the kind of people that are behind this movie.  I didn’t want to think that Angel Studios knew about this guy, but what other conclusions can I draw?

If you’re a fan of Sound of Freedom, great.  Enjoy it.  But don’t think for one fucking minute that it’s honest about its message, because it’s not.  It’s trashy exploitation that throws a metric fuckton of misinformation at the audience, who again, are mostly made up of highly conservative and religious fucktards who can’t think for themselves and believe they are helping these kids by supporting this fucking movie.  Also, Operation Underground Railroad has been accused by many anti-trafficking organizations as inept, inadequate, and constantly getting in the way of actual progress.  Not only that, they don’t provide any sort of aftercare for the victims of human trafficking.  I am directly accusing Tim Ballard, Jim Caviezel and Angel Studios of fostering this kind of hostility towards actual survivors.  To these assholes, I say this: You would do well to listen to real victims instead of making broad assumptions which is what you do and what your fucking movie does.  It’s an outrage movie with a political agenda designed to target the left by manipulating the right and willfully ignorant.  To the people harassing survivors: Get yourselves educated on the subject matter before you accuse these people of being pedophiles and groomers.  All you are doing is projecting.  For those that are interested, I’m posting links to various resources and charitable foundations about human trafficking and how you can actually help.

Department of Justice: Special Programs and Initiatives

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Nomi Network

Adaptive Ops

National Human Trafficking Hotline

Polaris

Shared Hope

FBI

Hope for Justice

Free The Slaves

If you want to be part of the solution, then be a part of the solution, not the problem.  Operation Underground Railroad is part of the problem.  There are a lot more resources out there if you just look, and most of them are genuine about their mission and willing to provide details and information on how to participate if you choose.  There are real people stuck in this vile industry that need real help.  Attacking victims is extremely counter-productive and only keeps victims from actually getting help.  Don’t be an asshole.