Name: JPRoscoe
Email:
Bio: Follow me on Twitter @JPRoscoe76! Loves all things pop-culture especially if it has a bit of a counter-culture twist. Plays video games (basically from the start when a neighbor brought home an Atari 2600), comic loving (for almost 30 years), and a true critic of movies. Enjoys the art house but also isn't afraid to let in one or two popular movies at the same time.
Posts by JPRoscoe:
The Old Dark House (1932)
October 15th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: The Old Dark House
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Mystery/Suspense
Release Date(s): October 20, 1932
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
It was a dark and stormy night…
A dark and stormy night has left travelers Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey), his wife Margaret (Gloria Stuart), Roger Penderel (Melvyn Douglas), Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton), and Gladys DuCane (Lilian Bond) stranded at the home Femm home. The Femms are different and odd and hiding a secret in their old dark house. With the storm raging, the secret will come out…and it could be dangerous.
Directed by James Whale, The Dark Old House is a horror film with comedic aspects. The film adapts the 1927 novel Benighted by J.B. Priestley. The movie was considered “lost” in 1968 when a copy was discovered in Universal Studio’s vaults and restored. The film is now considered a classic of early horror by many critics.
Who is in the attic?
The Old Dark House has all the earmarks of a Universal horror movie. It has Bela Lugosi (in an early role) along with a classic cast and a dark and brooding house complete with moody lighting. While the movie does have a lot of comedic aspects and performances, the movie really rises the creep factor.
Though it doesn’t really have a mystery, the movie feels a lot like a classic Agatha Christie set-up. It has strangers in a strange house…but without the murder. Instead you have a mystery building to a climax, and a great creepy old man brandishing a knife. It is all a strange hodgepodge of events and characters and that is what makes it good.
The cast is great. The “normal” people of the film are solid actors for the type of film that The Old Dark House was. The film features the first American film of Charles Laughton (playing a very Charles Laughton character). Unlike the eloquent Dracula, Boris Karloff is a big bruiser type character, but I think Brember Wills steal the show as the maniacal Saul Femm who is unleashed upon Melvyn Douglas in the last act of the film.
I’m kooky…and I have a knife!
The movie is really aided by the skills of James Whale. It has a true atmosphere with candlelight and dark corridors. The title The Old Dark House may seem like a lazy title, but it sets up the atmosphere. The movie oozes gothic horror which adds to the story and cast.
The Old Dark House is an old movie. It has an old movie style of storytelling, an old style of acting, and an old look. This may not be for everyone, but if you are a fan of classic horror or cinema, it is definitely worth checking out. The film was adapted again in 1963 by William Castle and the comedy aspect of the story was amplified even more…but if you have a choice, stick with the original.
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Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
October 14th, 2018|
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Game Info
Game Name: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Developer(s): Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Platform(s): Wii U/Switch/3DS
Genre(s): Strategy/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): November 13, 2014 (Wii U Japan)/December 5, 2014 (Wii U US)
ESRB Rating: E
Yeah! Stars!
Ready for adventure! Captain Toad and Toadette are out seeking treasures, but a problematic giant bird named Wingo threatens Toad’s treasures, Toad and Toadette must uncover all the gold, stars, and diamonds before Wingo…and Wingo won’t take it lying down!
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Susume! Kinopio taichou) is a strategy puzzle action-adventure game. The game serves as a prequel to the Wii U’s Super Mario 3D World released in 2013. A deluxe edition with a Captain Toad amiibo was also released in addition to the stand-alone game. The game was well received upon its release and was ported to both the 3DS and Nintendo Switch (which included bonus Super Mario Odyssey and multiplayer levels).
Super Mario 3D World was fun but short. One of the odder parts of the game was when you dipped into “Adventures of Captain Toad” minigames throughout the levels. They were fun little puzzle games that weren’t too difficult, but they still made you think a little. Here Captain Toad goes solo…and for the most part, it is a good thing.
Lava + Running + Toad = Will Killer
Despite a simple concept, the game is clever and evolves a lot during the course of the game. It is divided into three chapters with the first chapter devoted to Toad, the second chapter to Toadetta, and the third chapter with the characters switching back and forth (the gameplay remains the same). There are different levels were Toad runs or levels where you have to manage and control multiple Toads and with things like light and dark, the game tries to switch up the feel of the worlds. The game has the popular Nintendo “gimmee” bailout if you die too many times though it doesn’t stop you from falling or dying in poison. The bosses are relatively easy and there are very few completely frustrating levels.
The controls for the game are solid, but did pose a few problems. The camera is quite slick…when you are puzzle solving. If you are in a more action based level, it can be a bit frustrating to try to manage the camera while running or throwing radishes. For the most part, it keeps it together, but there was a level or two where I was getting pretty frustrated by the fifth or sixth attempt.
Wingo is coming at you!
The graphics are as good as a cartoon Mario based game can get on the Wii U. There is a lot of detail and style, but due to the game’s format, it feels more like a download game and therefore it isn’t the most complex graphics. Like most Mario games, the sound is primarily simple and Toad just utters squeaks and squeals or short phrases (which can get a bit annoying).
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was another solid, fun game for the short-lived Wii U and a worthy purchase for Switch or 3DS owners. While the game is good overall, it is best played in small doses since it can become repetitive. It is original, and you can’t go into Captain Toad expecting another Mario game or you might be disappointed. Toad was always my favorite character to play with in games like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Kart…it is nice to see a Toad go solo.
Related Links:
Super Mario All-Stars: 25th Anniversary Edition
House (1985)
October 14th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: House
Studio: New World Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Comedy
Release Date(s): December 6, 1985 (Premiere)/February 28, 1986 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Your lipstick really brings out your snaggleteeth
When Elizabeth Hooper (Susan French) kills herself, her nephew Roger Cobb (William Katt) finds himself inheriting her old home. Cobb and the house have a strained relationship since it is where his son Jimmy (Erik Silver/Mark Silver) disappeared which led to the breakup of his marriage to actress Sandy Sinclair (Kay Lenz). As Cobb tries to come to grips with his time in Vietnam and start writing again, he begins to discover that the house could hold some more secrets…and with his neighbor Harold Gorton (George Wendt), Hobb could find a way to repair his shattered life.
Directed by Steve Miner, House is a horror comedy. The film was met with average reviews but gained a cult following over the years.
I’m tired of being the fall guy!!!
House was always on television growing up. There are some horror movies that easily translate to the small screen and network TV, and House was one of those films. As a result, it felt like I watched House a lot though I didn’t particularly like it…and watching it again, I still have the same problems with the movie.
The plot for the movie is all over the place and has way too many plotlines. The story could have simply been about his son disappearing in the house and his quest to find it, but it is mixed with this odd totally ’80s Vietnam veteran story. Its attempts to balance humor and horror don’t quite mix as well as something like Evil Dead 2 and instead of being scary, the movie generally comes off as laughable with little to no scares (something that a horror comedy still needs).
Ok…let’s throw in a Vietnam storyline
The cast is kind of interesting. William Katt plays the tortured author, but I still wish he was sporting his ’70s (and early ’80s) afro. The movie also brings in some ’80s TV comedy actors. George Wendt stepped out of Cheers for a moment to make the movie, and Richard Moll put Night Court behind him to play Big Ben. It doesn’t necessarily help the film, but it at least makes it different than a lot of horror films from the time.
Visually, the movie is also up and down. You have some great designed creatures like the monster woman and the little critter characters, but it also feels you don’t get to see them enough. While the previous mentioned characters are kind of cartoonish, the zombie work on Big Ben is actually quite good…and the movie utilizes it more.
House will be a “fun” movie for a lot of people who grew up in the ’80s, but I always found it kind of a bore. I don’t like the tone of the movie, and it feels like with some tweaking and writing changes that the movie could have been a better film. With a modest success, the film started a franchise, and House was followed by the unrelated House II: The Second Story in 1987.
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House II: The Second Story (1987)
House II: The Second Story (1987)
October 14th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: House II: The Second Story
Studio: New World Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Comedy/B-Movie
Release Date(s): August 28, 1987
MPAA Rating: PG-13
What this horror story needs is more cowboy ghosts…or not
Jesse (Arye Gross) and his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) have just inherited Jesse’s family estate. When Jesse and his friend Charlie (Jonathan Stark) unearth Jesse’s cursed great-great grandfather “Gramps” (Royal Dano), Jesse and Charlie discover that Gramps is being followed by a curse. Gramps possesses a crystal skull and the crystal skull is being hunted by Slim Reeser (Dean Cleverdon) who will stop at nothing to get it. As Jesse’s life begins to fall apart, adventure and horror await!
Directed by Ethan Wiley, House II: The Second Story is a supernatural horror-comedy (with more focus on comedy). Following House in 1985, the movie was critically panned.
I was a fair-weather fan of House and only really remember House II from the advertisements. Watching House II wasn’t a fun trip back to the ’80s…it was a painful trip back to cheap horror comedies that milked a PG-13 rating in the hopes of a bigger audience.
It is time to get Politically Incorrect!
House went to off-the-wall horror while House II replaced it with almost like an Indiana Jones type adventure. The story shares no characters from the original House and only has a house with doorways to different worlds and times. You get a dull Wild West adventure combined with dinosaur creatures and with Aztecs and a crystal skull…I guess it should have foreshadowed the disappoint of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The cast is also bland. The highlight of the crew would probably be veteran actor Royal Dano as Gramps with Arye Grosse and Lar Park Lincoln as the yuppies. Jonathan Stark plays the “best friend” who’s wild and Amy Yasbeck is his girlfriend. The movie also features Bill Maher as a slimy boss of Lar Park Lincoln’s character with John Ratzenberger as the comic relief (like his Cheers costar George Wendt served as in the original movie).
…oooo the horror of sacrifices.
While some of the creature designs (like the original movie) are creative, they are largely derivative of other ’80s Muppet-like creatures and creatures. The first movie went for horror and monsters while this movie has ghosts, cute creatures, and dinosaurs.
House II: The Second Story is kind of a miserable movie. It isn’t scary, it isn’t funny, and it isn’t so-bad-it-is-good. There are much worse movies than House II, but in its mediocrity, House II fails harder than a really bad movie. House II: The Second Story was followed by a sequel called The Horror Show (in the United States) before returning to the traditional title House IV in 1992.
Related Links:
Ghost Stories (2017)
October 13th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: Ghost Stories
Studio: Warp Films
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): October 5, 2017 (London Film Festival)/April 6, 2018 (UK)/April 20, 2018 (US)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
I just wanna hug!
Professor Goodman (Andy Nyman) is a skeptic who believes that the unknown tortures those who fear it. Goodman as the host of a popular debunking show is contacted to investigate three stories of the unknown and afterlife. Investigating a night watchman named Tony Matthews (Paul Whitehouse), a disturbed young man named Simon Rifkind (Alex Lawther), and a businessman named Mike Priddle (Martin Freeman), Goodman will be faced by the unknown…and it could reveal the truth!
Written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, Ghost Stories is a horror anthology film. The movie was originally released at the London Film Festival in 2017 and received a wider release in 2018. It was met with positive reviews.
I’m always up for a new horror movie and I always like anthologies. I heard some good stuff about Ghost Stories and was anxious to see it. While I think that Ghost Stories is an interesting movie, I wasn’t as impressed as I hoped to be. Due to story aspects, a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect for the rest of the film.
Is running over the Devil covered in my insurance?
Ghost Stories is best when it is being an anthology. The movie starts out with an investigator who is called in to investigate three cases. The cases are rather mundane (in a horror sense). The first story is a pretty typical ghost story with a man being haunted by a child. The second story isn’t supernatural as much as demonic in nature and feels like a classic pulp horror tale. The third story has a shocking ending, but is also rather typical, but I do like that the stories have no real answers…then the walls crash down (literally). The twist is too obvious and the final scene feels more like The Wizard of Oz than the horror that the story was cultivating.
Andy Nyman is a believable as a researcher (and kind of reminds me of David Costabile). The movie’s first two subjects played by Tony Matthews and Simon Rifkind are good in their “normalcy” and add credence to their stories. Martin Freeman provides a bit of a problem to the film. First it is obvious that the “old man” is in make-up (and I thought it was Martin Freeman just watching it), and it ruined the reveal and the final act. He also really changes the tone of the story (even in the ghost story segment he feels like a caricature before it is revealed he is). If you are creating an illusion in your head as Nyman’s character is, I don’t think you’d make a joke of the horror.
Welcome back to your own private Hell!
While the “old man” make-up isn’t very good, the rest of the movie does most of the horror based on less is more. You get a pretty good view of the ghost girl, but the other creatures are just flashes. This is a bit frustrating at points (especially during the second story), but the film does a good job building suspense through the movie.
Ghost Stories is a bit of a mixed bag. It is so close to being really good and original, but an ending that feels tacked on doesn’t help the story. I realize throughout the film there are moments littering the stories that hint at the ending, but it feels like the full fruition of the story never comes to be. I will always give horror anthologies a chance and this is a decent anthology…but not a great one.
The Hidden (1987)
October 13th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: The Hidden
Studio: New Line Cinema
Genre(s): Action/Adventure/Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): October 20, 1987
MPAA Rating: R
Get into my belly!
A killer has come to Los Angeles, and it seems to take everyday people and turn them into coldhearted killers. LAPD Detective Thomas Beck (Michael Nouri) finds himself teamed with FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), and Masterson soon finds Gallagher has some strange theories about the killer and his abilities. The killer seems unstoppable, and Masterson worries the real danger could be Gallagher…but the truth will be revealed!
Directed by Jack Sholder, The Hidden is a science-fiction police horror thriller. The movie received relatively positive reviews and has gained a cult following.
The Hidden is one of those movies you might have seen and remembered aspects of it. Despite being set pretty heavily in the 1980s, the film and story still hold up…and The Hidden is a fun and rather underseen thriller.
Strippers with machine guns!
The Hidden seems to have almost the same tone as They Live which is much more widely scene. They both are police procedurals and both involve secret aliens willing to kill. The Hidden however seems to ratchet up the violence a notch and provides humor by having characters (who don’t look like serial killers) killing…even at a point with a dog on the attack. The relationship between MacLachlan’s alien hunter and Nouri’s Beck is kind of the heart of the movie (which also has a bit of an Alien Nation feel at times). This relationship is nicely interwoven with the killer alien’s quest to gain power.
Kyle MacLachlan is a great actor for the role of the alien hunter. His characters from Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks have always had a detached nature to them, but they still can be put in a “serious” movie without the movie becoming completely comedic. Michael Nouri plays the typical 1980s hardcore detective and he works well with the odd Gallagher officer. Chris Mulkey, William Boyett, Claudia Christian, Clarence Felder, and Ed O’Ross all are fun as the various “skins” of the body jumping alien (I especially like Boyett’s heart attack prone business man). The movie also features small roles by Danny Trejo, Clu Gulager, and horror genre star Lin Shaye.
Light ’em up!
The movie is very ’80s based. The characters, the music, the cars, and Los Angeles all are oozing with the styles of the period. From Boyett’s alien walking around with a boom box to Christian’s stripper look, the movie has a gritty feel that just comes from the decade it was made.
The Hidden is a fun movie, and a movie that has held up. The movie is a nice balance of laughs, surprising moments, action, and science-fiction while it continues to trucks along. It deserves a bigger viewing audience and some recognition as a fun, little oddity. The Hidden was followed by a sequel The Hidden II in 1993.
Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
October 12th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: Insidious: The Last Key
Studio: Blumhouse Productions
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): January 5, 2018
MPAA Rating: PG-13
I’m dead but I keep coming back…
Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) remembers the horror of her childhood and leaving it all behind. When she is compelled to return to her old home with Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson), Elise finds the old horror which lurked in her house isn’t gone. Elise discovers that her estranged brother Christian (Bruce Davison) and his daughters Imogen (Caitlin Gerard) and Melissa (Spencer Locke) have been pulled into the horror. Elise is about to find out about the evil that has haunted her dreams.
Directed by Adam Robitel, Insidious: The Last Key is a supernatural horror film. The movie follows Insidious: Chapter 3 from 2015 but serves as a prequel to the original 2010 Insidious film. The movie was released to mixed reviews but a strong box office return.
The Insidious movies have been slowly going downhill. Though the first movie wasn’t anything great, the following sequels also have been mixed to “meh”. Insidious: The Last Key is like every other Insidious movie released so far.
Who are the people in your neighborhood?
The film makes the story unnecessarily complex in an attempt to deepen the plot, but it comes off as more confusing than clever. You have Elise’s backstory with her father and the corrupting demon and then you have the primary demon storyline. They are one and the same, but they are presented in a non-linear fashion that doesn’t really enhance the story.
The Insidious series really painted themselves into the corner with Insidious. Lin Shaye’s character was probably the most interesting character in the first movie, but they also killed her in the first movie. This leads to flashbacks and ghosts of this character. If they had decided to use the character as the primary character early on, it would have made the story stronger. Now a few movies in I still find the comic relief team of Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell) more of a distraction than humorous…the comedy isn’t strong and it is like an unfunny Ghostbusters. The film also introduces too many characters with Elise’s family played by Bruce Davison, Spencer Locke, and Caitlin Gerard…it seems like one daughter would have served the story better.
Always walk your pets
Once again, the demon design is the high point of the film. I like the Key Face demon and the much creeper Lipstick-Face Demon is only teased (again). The great designs are part of the reason the film is a let-down since I feel that the demons aren’t used to their full potential or creepy nature as the film builds to a conclusion.
Insidious: The Last Key is another rather forgettable entry in a pretty forgettable series. While the first film had its moments (but still has a plot that that is largely cliché), the movies have gone downhill. Insidious: The Last Key promises to not be the last in the series…maybe we’ll finally get the showdown with the Darth Maul Lipstick Demon of the first film…but at this point, do we care?
Related Links:
The Langoliers (1995)
October 11th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: The Langoliers
Studio: Laurel Entertainment Inc.
Genre(s): Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): May 14, 1995-May 15, 1995
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Time eating monsters? Don’t be ridiculous!
Brian Engle (David Morse) finds himself on a cross-country flight when he learns his ex-wife has died. Falling asleep Engle wakes up to find almost all the passengers and crew of the plane gone. Left behind is a teacher named Laurel (Patricia Wettig), a recovering addict named Bethany (Kimber Riddle), a violin student named Ace (Christopher Collet), a British agent named Nick (Mark Lindsay), a new grandfather Don (Frankie Faison), a mystery writer named Bob Jenkins (Dean Stockwell), a businessman named Rudy (Baxter Harris), a blind girl named Dinah (Kate Maberly), and a businessman on the run named Craig (Bronson Pinchot). When they land in Bangor, Maine, they discover they’ve been displaced in time and something is coming. Craig Toomy has called them the Langoliers…and the Langoliers are hungry.
Directed by Tom Holland, The Langoliers was a two-episode miniseries airing on ABC from May 14, 1995 to May 15, 1995. The film is based on the Stephen King story “The Langoliers” that was published in Four Past Midnight in 1990. The miniseries was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Miniseries or a Special.
Attack of the badly generated meatballs with teeth!
Stephen King was having a resurgence on TV in the 1990s. The It miniseries and The Stand both received positive reviews and critical acclaim…and then the deluge came. A lot of Stephen King’s “not ready for film” books were made into miniseries. The Langoliers was a so-so novella and even worse as a miniseries.
The first problem with this series is that it was a half-hour Twilight Zone split into two hour-and-half parts. It just doesn’t have enough story, and the story it does have feels a lot like rehash. The classic Twilight Zone “Odyssey of Flight 33” took a similar story (and even was halfway referenced in this miniseries). They add in a few characters like the over-the-top Bronson Pinchot and the “magic girl” Dinah who always seems to be a character in King novels.
The cast is relatively strong (in a 1990s TV movie-type cast), but the dialogue doesn’t help them. It is clunky and hard to speak. It seems like they are all on different pages on acting style. David Morse is dramatic in the role while Dean Stockwell speaks flowery speeches on the ideas of storywriting. Patricia Wettig is rather unmoving as the lead female while Mark Lindsay Chapman is really weak as the British spy agent. Bronson Pinchot is completely unhinged the entire show and really the only reason to watch it. Stephen King makes a cameo near the end of the film as Pinchot’s boss.
When a movie ends in a non-ironic jump freeze frame…it isn’t a good movie.
The movie also isn’t helped by the aged special effects. Even in 1995, the Langoliers looked stupid and over twenty years later, they look awful. They are really bad computer generated attackers that just aren’t scary or good looking…the Langoliers appear and they are laughable.
The Langolier isn’t a good film. It isn’t scary and it isn’t fun. The ideas of the movie have been rehashed over and over again in shows like Twilight Zone, Lost, and Manifest, and the movie provides little new to the story (other than the ending and starting of days). If you have hours to kill on a Stephen King miniseries, you might just avoid The Langoliers…the eating of time isn’t worth it.
Related Links:
Children of the Corn (1984)
October 11th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: Children of the Corn
Studio: New World Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie
Release Date(s): March 9, 1984
MPAA Rating: R
Hey guys…want to kill some adults?
Vicky Baxter (Linda Hamilton) and Burt Stanton (Peter Horton) are travelling through the rural Nebraska countryside when tragedy strikes. The two travel to the town of Gatlin for help but find the city abandoned except for strange packs of children that hide among the shadows. Vicky and Burt do not know what really going on in Gatlin. The children have risen up at the commands of a young preacher named Isaac Chroner (John Franklin) and his lackey Malachai Boardman (Courtney Gains) and killed all the adults over the age of nineteen. Now, Vicky and Burt are the children’s target and getting out of Gatlin alive could be impossible…He Who Walks Behind the Rows must be fed!
OUTLANDER!!! We have your woman!!! …and quit calling me a Steven Tyler wannabe!!!
Directed by Fritz Kiersch, Children of the Corn adapts the 1977 short story “Children of the Corn” written by Stephen King and published in Penthouse (March 1977) which was reprinted in Night Shift in 1978. The short story was previously adapted into the short film “Disciples of the Crow” in 1983 and also adapted in 2009 for the SyFy channel. The movie was met with largely negative reviews but a big box office return and has gained a cult following over the years.
Stephen King was already a legendary name in horror when I was young. Carrie, The Shining, ’Salem’s Lot, and Cujo were already becoming the stuff of modern-day legend. I remember seeing the poster for Children of the Corn (too young to see it) and being scared of the idea…when I finally did see Children of the Corn as a kid, the horror of the story stood out more than the goofy nature.
Who says the Midwest is boring?
The scares in Children of the Corn are rather genuine. Creepy kids always are a good selling point in a horror film because killing kids is wrong…even if they want to kill you. This plot idea provides a lot of scares in general, but the movie does get waylaid by the end with the demonic aspect of the story aka “He Who Walks Among the Rows”. While it does fit in with some of the bigger Stephen King mythos, it feels rather random here, and if you aren’t expecting it, it isn’t as horrific as funny (having watched the movie from childhood, it doesn’t bother me as much).
The cast is young but solid. Linda Hamilton is a better actress than most of the actresses that this type of horror movie recruits and had barely done anything at this point. Her boyfriend was played by Peter Horton who had appeared in a number of TV shows and went on to thirtysomething fame. Western character actor R.G. Armstrong gets the “don’t go to town” paranoid old man role that populated horror movies at the time. It is the combination of John Franklin as the creepy Isaac and Courtney Gains as the evil Malachai that make the movie. The other primary children played by Robby Kiger and Anne Marie McEvoy do struggle with the roles and it is unfortunate that they couldn’t have been a bit stronger child actors.
Isaac’s been on a bit of a bender… “He wants you too, Malachai!!!”
The movie does well when it is building the horror on the brutality of the children. The sacrifices and scenes like Malachai cutting open the cheek of Linda Hamilton to torture her are graphic and creepy. The later moments in the film where He Who Walks Behind the Rows is burrowing and going after people is less effective, but if you are a kid growing up surrounded by cornfields, it still can work.
Children of the Corn is a tough movie to rate. I find it rather effective in many points, but I definitely see the weaknesses of the plot, acting, and visuals. It was ingrained in me by the time I could judge the film efficiently and rates a bit higher than it probably should. I still like to hear “He wants you too, Malachai!”…and try to rewatch the movie every couple years. Children of the Corn was followed by Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice in 1992.
Related Links:
Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992)
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999)
Malevolent (2018)
October 10th, 2018|
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Movie Info
Movie Name: Malevolent
Studio: Catalyst Global Media
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): October 5, 2018
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
We can really dull down this story if we try!
After the death of their mother, brother and sister Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) and Angela (Florence Pugh) are participating in a ghost hunting scheme to pay Jackson’s debts. Unfortunately, her mother’s curse is coming to Angela, and Angela is starting to see things in reality. When a woman called Mrs. Green (Celia Imrie) calls Jackson for a particularly haunted home where a group of girls were killed, everyone on the team could be in danger.
Directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, Malevolent is a supernatural horror thriller. The film was released on Netflix on October 5, 2018.
Netflix Originals have kind of been on a decline. Originally, the streaming service picked some pretty solid extra content…but now it seems to want cheap thrillers. While there are tons of good horror film that they could stream, movies like Malevolent get top billing. Malevolent isn’t the worst film, but it feels like very generic horror.
Make it stop!!! (or at least make it scarier)
The movie is predictable. You have people scamming the system (smartly set in the 1980s to avoid cell phone and internet stuff) and they encounter real horror. The movie meanders through the short runtime and only peaks in the last fifteen or twenty minutes (and peaking is a stretch since it is all the things you expected to happen). It ends in the obligatory twist that isn’t much of a twist and is wrapped up in a blasé fashion…it’s kind of like getting socks for Christmas. You might need them, but it isn’t interesting.
The cast is lifeless. Florence Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes have little depth or variety and the opportunity to liven up the cast through Ben’s girlfriend played by Georgina Bevan or the camera man Frank played by Stephen McCole was squandered by generic casting. Celia Imrie shows potential as Mrs. Green, but she too is almost a stock character from horror films and really doesn’t develop past this cliché.
We’re here to stay…
Visually the movie also misses the mark. It is a movie about ghosts and ghosts haunting a creepy English mansion. Instead of shocks and surprises, the movie doesn’t push the visuals. It is also presented as an isolated manor, but a major road is clearly visible in scenes from the front of the house…making the desperate and speedy escape at the end unnecessary.
Movies like Malevolent think they are bigger than they are. If Malevolent is the first horror film you’ve ever seen, you might be surprised by it, but I’m guessing most viewers have seen a horror movie or two…or one hundred by the time Malevolent pops up on their radar. If it is a kid who finds the movie on the streaming service, it was also rather disappointing…just a few jumps and plot twists you can see coming from miles away. It isn’t bad horror, but it is dull horror (which is almost worse than being bad).
