The Collection (2012)

Bigger, badder...worse

Do you remember that in the very first Halloween adult Michael Myers was a small, slender almost hunching guy, that only become bigger and stronger in the sequels? The same is true for the Collector. In the first movie he was bald, older pervert that liked to watch a couple having sex and dismember people in gruesome ways. In The Collection he is now a hulking guy with a beer belly, that has a whole building stuffed with traps and cages for...reasons.

They went the "bigger is better" route with this one, but it doesn't make for a better picture. Neither the Collector, nor our main hero Arkin seem to be the same people as we saw in the first movie. The script is more than ridiculous, nothing happening here makes any kind of sense. On the positive side is that it's a much nicer picture to look at, they put every cent on the screen, and I appreciated the fire effects.

TL;DR: an entertaining couple of hours if you don't think about the plot holes, but it's nowhere near as good as part 1.

V/H/S (2012)

A throwback to the 80s

...where two things were paramount when it came to Horror: boobs and gore. Remember this was the period before "elevated horror" and most of the directors in this anthology had their coming of age in the 80s (and it clearly informed their taste).

My personal opinion is: They put the absolut best segment at the start and the worst at the end (I would have made it the other way around), the actors did their best with the paper-thin characters that they got to play, the special effects are mostly good.

I also liked that the girls were basically always smarter than the male douchbags and that there was no sexual violence portrayed here.

On the other hand, the motivation for filming everything was not always clear (but the same could be said for any found footage film, at some point the camera men in both Rec and Cloverfield would have said "screw this I'm outta here" instead of keep filming, but hey, that's the rules of the genre, it is what it is). The super grainy picture got on my nerves after a while, and as mentioned, not every story here is a story worth telling.

But all in all, ok-is 5 stars it is, this is a good way to kill two hours.

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

A huge disappointment

I was looking forward to this movie, I like Mr. Dastmalchian, I love Horror and I like stuff with the devil. But this was tough to watch.

1. The look of the movie is terrible. The whole "live broadcast" part (75% of the movie) does NOT look anywhere near how broadcasts in the 70ies looked like!!. The clearly filmed this on Ultra HD digital cameras in 16:9, cropped the sides for a 4:3 image, and put a filter on top to make it look vintage. Well, they failed. It looks like a modern digital image that was cropped and had a terrible filter applied.

2. The acting was stiff. I blame that on the directors, because I believe the cast has more chops than this

3. Carson, Letterman, Conan, Leno, even Colbert. What do these talkshow hosts have in common? They are (were) charismatic and enjoyed being on stage. The always had a smile on their faces and a quip on their mind. This Jack character here does not seem to possess these qualities and I didn't buy for one moment that his show would have survived even a couple of episodes (he is just a tiny bit more convincing than Robert de Niro'd talkshow host in Joker, which might have been the least charismatic or funny talkshow host in movie history).

4. I realize recording sound on a budget production as this one is hard, but the ADR in this movie was brutal. The black PA seemed to say completely different things than what we heard, but even some of the dialogue between the main characters was ADR'd badly.

5. Some of the dialogue made no sense.

"I believe it's some form of deity that possesses her". 2 Minutes later: "Ladies and Gentlemen, after the break we will try to interview the devil". What??

TL;DR: despite their best efforts, not even a good cast could save this.

Liu lang di qiu 2 (2023)

Playstation 2 graphics and a plot that makes no sense.

The CGI (especially the water simulation) of this movie looks dated, very dated. Particle effects look ok, but our Chinese friends have yet to find out how to use motion blur to hide things and not make it look so video game-y.

The less said about the plot, the better. I mean, in comparison to this Roland Emmerich movies are documentaries! (Digital life? Thrusters to move the earth?? Seriously???)

1 Million characters get introduced and forgotten in a heartbeat. No build up, no tension, but fake looking explosions every couple of minutes. No one to root for. Western characters that are portrayed so stereotypical, if this was Hollywood, people would cry racism (the "american" co-pilot of the spaceship).

TL;DR: a showcase for eastern special effects (which seem to be years behind western ones), but as a movie it's ridiculous.

Alone (2020)

Ok remake of a swedish film.

This American remake of the swedish film Försvunnen (Gone) changes a couple of things while leaving the basic plot intact. Personally I liked the main actress from the swedish version more, but the main villain from the US version. The American version is also more shiny and expensive looking, while the swedish one is more raw and dirty.

Alone (in both versions) is a tight little thriller, it's quite tense, believable (as in could happen in real life) and has a satisfying ending. It's not more or less. The best thing this film has to offer is to make you think what you would do or how you would react in these situations, and maybe prepare yourself a little bit for your next long roadtrip. Evil never sleeps, it just waits.

Joker (2019)

A remake of Taxi Driver and a very simplistic view at mental illness

I don't really know what to make of this movie. It's basically a remake of Taxi Driver, a movie about a lonely outsider that wants to belong and be a part of the world, in a world that rejects him. It is also a movie about how someone with a mental illness could break if that mental illness is not diagnosed and treated properly (something that unfortunately, we also see in the real world).

But then it's also the origin story of one of the most famous villains in the world, and we basically know the outcome of this whole ordeal - Arthur will not become addicted to drugs or alcohol, he will not become homeless or suicidal (as he would in the real world), no, he will become the Joker, a murderous maniac, the crown prince of darkness, the arch enemy of Batman.

I realize we live in a world where everything has to be bleak and dark, but for me personally these two themes don't match. I also don't like that the movie tried to wrestle empathy from the audience for this character. There are people in the real world that have suffered way worse and way longer then Arthur here, and have not become savages.

I will admit the movie is beautiful, and the acting by everyone involved is superb...except for DeNiro. I get why they wanted him (another reference to Taxi Driver), but he simply doesn't pass as a late night talkshow host a la Letterman or Carson.

Civil War (2024)

Alex Garland's worst movie by a mile

...and it's not even close.

There are so many things wrong with this movie (and none of them have to do with politics - which to be honest - were the least interesting aspect of this movie).

• The film tries hard to make us feel something for the characters...but fails to do so. Which might have something to do with these characters being one-note and as thin as cardboard cutouts (the disaffected pro, the hedonistc go-getter, the young rookie, the wise old guy).

• Not only are these characters uninteresting, I actively disliked two of them, at no point in the movie I actually cared if they lived or died (which just goes to show how vital inspired writing is, you can cast a great actor in your movie, but if you don't give them some backstory and something to do, it's for nothing)
• Their whole voyage is motivated by "this one great story" (to get an interview with the president), although no one reads newspapers anymore and surely no one cares for war-photography.

• These characters are so driven by their mission that they risk their own life and the life of others, and even get angry when some soldiers tell them the war might be over in a couple of days

• That they are allowed to be at the forefront of the escalade on the White House - not in a save distance or at least 5 or 10 minutes behind - BUT RIGHT BESIDES the first attacking soldiers, is just ludicrous.

• Just as the fact that they are in the midst of gunfire and a warzone, but not of them developes sudden deafness or other hearing problems?!

• How could the young girl get access to ANYTHING on this trip when she doesn't have press credentials?

• Why did no one check on this one character when they got shot, they had a bulletproof vest, maybe they could have survived?

• Why didn't "crazy soldier" and his fellow goons hear a car approaching them at high speed?

• How did it only kill "crazy solider" and his goon, but not one of our main characters?

• How could a round hit the character that was driving but not the one sitting right behind him, when the shots were fired directly at the back of the car?

I like Alex Garland, but his movies are often not as smart as he thinks they are. And on this one he definitely dropped the ball.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Subpar

Sure Quentin, shoot a movie on 70mm film, and the have it take place in a cabin for the most part. Sure Quentin, have all these great actors but then give them nothing to work with. Sure Quentin, have a chapter with your voiceover, although it doesn't fit the style of what came before and you DEFINITELY don't have a voice for voiceovers.

The Hateful Eight is QT's worst movie. Technically it's a marvel. It's beautifully lit and shot, has an impressive score and great acting.

Thematically, it's a disaster. It's both a who-done-it, and a character study. The problem is that we don't care who done it, and we hate the characters. I know, it's in the title, but there is not one character here that would be likable. This is a collection of thieves, murderers, sexists, sadists, racists, dimwitts, liars and much more. The least despicable character here is the character played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. But of course, she is the victim of the most abuse and torture (which might have been QTs point, to show how POC of women were treated back in those days, but to make such a point in a movie that seems to bask in its violence and hatred, seems kinda pointless).

All in all it's a pointless movie with not one likable character.

Shot Caller (2017)

Breaking Bad...but with plotholes

This is a good movie that could have been a great one. Unfortunately it's just a step too far in fantasy land for me. That a white collar guy that never hurt a fly would be put in a high risk prison after a DUI with manslaughter is improbable. But then that his only way to survive that prison is by joining a gang of white nazis and committing heinous crimes for them...no, sorry, he could have survived those 18 months without becoming a full fledged, tattooed and murdering gang member. He would have been released, his wife and child would be waiting for him, life would move on. But this movie made us believe that as soon as you enter a prison it's "join your gang" time.

Wolf Creek (2005)

A Film of two Halves

I really liked the first half of this movie. Great cinematography, likable leads, some romantic tension. Forboding mood as soon as they arrive in the outback. But then, the whole Horror part starts. And while I love me some Horror (it's the genre I probably watch most) I absolutely HATE when characters behave dumb in such movies. They had him, he was on the ground, bleeding, unconscious. I don't think I know ANYBODY that would let that @#$% live...and yet, they did.

I really think it would have been way cooler if they offed him, thought themselves safe and then his friends show up (the disgusting guys from the reststop maybe?) because they were always part of his "rituals".

That would have been way more shocking, way more depraved, and yet, would make more sense.

I guess they really wanted to have one single villain and build a franchise around him (how did that turn out?), ok, but then don't show characters having mercy or being too stupid to behave like real human beings.

The House That Jack Built (2018)

Turns out Lars' Inferno isn't as nearly as interesting as Lars thought

Just as in Dante's Inferno italian poet Virgil (here called Verge) leads our main character through several circles of hell, while Jack tells him a couple of episodes from his life and thoughts on philosophy, life, art, murder and so on.

I'll make this as short as possible: I have seen almost all of the New French Extremity movies and am a vivid fan of Takashi Miike - so nothing here shocked me. The musings about life, art, creation and so on we have also heard a million times before. I found Anti-Christ to be a tight little thriller with gorgeous images and was a huge fan of Dancer in the Dark. I'm also used to Lars' particular kind of negative worldview and mirror a lof his sentiments.

This however, wasn't it. Clumsy, repetitive, terrible pacing, worst of all: boring in places. It almost seems as if Lars threw Dante's Inferno, some serial killer films and his personal diary into a blender (or an AI app) to come up with the script to this.

Hugely disappointed.

Oppenheimer (2023)

Wasted potential

Oppenheimer could have been a focused film about the race to create the first a-bomb, all the problems they had to cope with and the men behind that endeavor. It could have also featured the emotional impact that this project had on its participants, before, during and after that enterprise.

Instead, this movie is more interested in politics. The biggest part of its runtime it devotes to a hearing (and the people behind it) that centers around if Oppenheimer should keep his security clearance (apparently there was smear-campaign against Oppenheimer instigated by a politician years after the WW2...at least that's what the movie tells us). I'm sorry, but on which planet is that the most interesting part about Oppenheimer's life? Why should anyone care if Oppenheimer lost his security clearance or his "reputation"?? (It's almost like...shooting a Batman flick and then focusing on politicians and politics, the least interesting part about the Batman universe...looking at you TDKR).

All in all, it's another dull Nolan bloat-pic. Too long, tries to tell to much, Nolan thinks he is the new David Lean and tries hard to make epic adventures, but where Lean had soul and loved his characters, Nolan's cold heart is apparent in ever scene (remember this is the guy that had unlimited funds to create dream worlds never seen before in Inception but came up with a concrete desert and a bland icescape).

As usual, great cinematography and score (although very Zimmer-esque). "Star-studdled" would be an understatement. Filled to the brim with great actors, to the point where it's a distraction ("oh look it's Matt Damon, oh look its Casey Affleck, oh look it's James Remar"...the list goes on and on). Cillian Murphy plays the haunted scientist convincingly, other parts not so much (the real Oppenheimer was a womanizer, the guy we see in the movie would have trouble picking up even one woman).

I await the day Nolan finds a little love in his heart and stops being so cerebral (the "most romantic" scene in his career, the one in Interstellar where Brand talks about her feelings for Edmunds was a showcase for how NOT to write about love...it boarded on satire). But I guess I have to wait a long time for this "cool Englishman" to change and will continue to watch his movies and be frustrated with the unnecessary time-jumps, bloated plots, russian doll like storytelling, partialy terrible editing and overuse of familiar faces.

Thank god then for director's like Villeneuve that perfectly blend the cerebral with the emotional and actually seem to know how human emotions look like.

Bull (2021)

Great film, lousy ending

I wholeheartedly agree with most reviewers here. GREAT performances by all involved, a couple of very gnarly kills, and a very interesting story. But then a twist, that wasn't deserved or even: necessary!

Usually these kind of things are signalposted in movies, or the filmmakers try to create mood that something is not quite right, but in this film... nothing, nada, niente. 95% of the movie is a very straightforward revenge slash man-on-a-mission film, then suddenly... that ending?! Which completely changes the film, and frankly, taints it a little bit.

This should be shown in film schools for all the right reasons (character development, acting, use of sets, working on a budget), but also the wrong reasons (how to screw up a film with an unnecessary twist ending)

Last Sentinel (2023)

Very slow but very atmospheric

Yes its a slow movie. Yes not much happens, and yes, if you think too long about it has quite a few plot holes.

But I still think this is a well done, nicely shot and well acted movie.

It's definitely not a party film or even something you want to watch with your date, but alone, in a lazy evening it might do the trick.

All in all I am happy that I saw it and felt entertained throughout, yet I also feel I wouldn't watch it a second time. It's more style then substance and both the warning about climate change and the notions about the ridiculousness of war were something we all have seen much better on other movies.

Haute tension (2003)

Vile, disgusting, horrific...but not for the reasons you might think!

High Tension, the father (or is it "the mother"?) of true masterpieces of the New French Extremity - mainly Inside and Martyrs - is still known (and adored by some) because it was just that - something new. And it was lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

However, unlike the two aforementioned movies, it does NOT stand the test of time!

That is not to say movie isn't shot well, lit greatly, scored nicely (minus the totally unnecessary Muse song in the middle), the acting is great, the special effects are great as well. It could have been all so great if director amd screenwriter Alexandre Aja didn't decide to include a totally unnecessary twist that does not make ANY sense even in the slightest!

Comparing this to movies like The Sixth Sense, The Others or The Village - there, the twists make sense and even more importantly - hold up even to repeated viewing. Watching The Sixth Sense knowing what is going on adds another dimension to the film, and the viewer recognizes how he missed (or misinterpreted) certains telltale signs and can appreciate how meticulous the screenplays were crafted.

Not so with High Tension: the twist that the male Killer does not exist and the real killer was our main heroine all along not only doesn't make sense, but opens up a can of worms- how could she kill the whole family while being in a room trying to connect a telephone? How could she kill a dog twice her size without being bitten? How could she have done all of that without even a drop of blood on her clothes? How could she drive a car while being in the back with Alex? How the hell did she even get this car when it was her first time on the countryside? Did she plan this months beforehand? Did she pay the car by cash or card? How could she hide in the gas station while her alter ego was talking amicably to the clerk? The answer to all these questions is simple: she couldn't have. Which leads to another conclusion: from the beginning the movie is lying to us! Nothing we see here took place. The "head" scene with the killer? Didn't happen. The tense car chase? Didn't happen. Marie fighting for her life? Didn't happen. All our emotions, our disgust, our fear for the two girls- for nothing. We have been manipulated.

I do understand that Aja and Co. (maybe) wanted to show the workings of a fractured or even schizophrenic mind, but they chose they absolutely laziest way to do so. I hate endings like "It was all a dream" with a passion, but even those can make sense within the movie's world. This does not.

1 star for the qualities mentioned above, another one because I can appreciate it's influence on modern French Horror.

97 Minutes (2023)

Independent Auteur cinema...

....but the independent auteurs are frat boys (or middle aged men in the middle life crisis trying to recreate movies from their youth).

I'm a middle aged man myself, but my God, if the 80ies and early ninetees would have been this bad, no one would want to recreate them. Cameron, Peterson, and all the other -sons crafted meticulous action films, with new ideas, great effects (for their time), awesome set pieces, bombastic music, legendary dialogue and actors that were hungry and wanted to leave an impression. All of that is missing here.

Don't bother to watch this turd, you get more value from watching paint dry.

Busanhaeng (2016)

Overrated

Let's make this short:

The good:

• Great acting
• Great zombie make up and movement
• Great to ok CGI

The Bad:

• Not gory or even bloody enough, the violence packs no punch
• "Emotions" are telegraphed through sappy music like in a bad k-drama.

• Ridiculous "explanation" with how the virus actually got on board the train
• The whole moral core ("career bad, taking care of family good") has been done to death by now
• Rules of infection arr all over the place (the speed of "turning" seems to change from seconds to minutes, depending on how the script sees fit. Also, talking Zombies?)
• No "hero deaths" for heros or even villains (except one)

TL;DR: People reading the user-reviews and expecting a mature zombie film with a big heart and lots of emotions will be disappointed. I would urge some reviewers here to turn down the volume in some of the "dramatic" scenes, the music does all the heavy lifting here. Without that, not much remains. A film as shallow as a fortune cookie.

Smile (2022)

Bland

If the 879 parts of Halloween, Scream and Friday on Elm Street taught us anything, it's that Horror Movies don't have to reinvent the wheel everytime to be effective. I am not even sure Smile tries to, but it fails miserably to be at least entertaining.

Smile is like a hodgepodge of different classics (The Ring - "if you see it, you will die in a couple of days", IT - demonic entity that feeds off of negative emotions), but it's just so bland. Everything is bland, from the look of the movie, to the music, the acting, the jump scares etc etc. The only two "highlights" are actually at the very beginning and the very end of this movie - the scene with Laura including her suicide (great FX) and the scene at the end with the "entity" (again, great FX). The only two things showing innovation are drone shots that were turned upside down and the title card including the accompanying sounds. But the rest is just terrible. Funny where it shouldn't be funny (the scene at the B-Day party will surely make a couple of "funniest scenes of the year" lists, its that ridiculous), hammy acting, unlikable characters, unbelievable story arcs etc etc.

I am rating this movie a totally bland 5/10 stars.

Black Christmas (1974)

A GREAT movie, period

Light spoilers ahead:.

So I just watched this for the first time in my life and although I am not a huge fan of slashers I have to say... this was just a great MOVIE, period.

First of all I would not call it a slasher per se (more like a mystery-horror-who done it) secondly it was smart, beautifully lit, shot and acted. It had little to no blood, but because we got to know these characters it was actually thrilling! The phone calls by Billy were DERANGED (I was actually surprised they got away with that kind of language, and I can't remember seeing a Horror made in the last decade that had similar dialogue/monologue...have we gotten soft?) I even think the whole POV stuff was pretty groundbreaking. Remember cameras were HUGE back then and they still managed to have a guy climb up a ladder with it on his shoulder (?), Kathrin Bigalow had to invent a whole rig system for similar scenes in Strange Days! And that was 30 years later.

All my issues with this film are in the third act! It's simply not believable that she wouldn't run to the policeman outside for help as soon as she learned the killer was inside the house (she didn't know he was dead in his car).

Speaking of which, who killed that cop?

Also, why would everyone leave the scene of the crime in the last scene and even turn the lights off and let her sleep, that doesn't make any sense, even for the 70ies.

Plus, if the police actually checked all the rooms (including the attic) as soon as there was the missing persons report for the first victim, none of the other murders would have happened.

These minor things aside, Black Christmas totally surprised me and I am adding it to my collection. 9/10 stars!

Neukdaesanyang (2022)

A very gory comicbook movie

Have you ever played one of the Resident Evil games where Nemesis or Mr. X follows you around? A huge, seemingly invincible brute that cannot be killed?

This movie has the same basic concept, sound design straight out of Robocop, a confined setting a la Die Hard and GALLONS of fake blood and violence. People literally seem to explode in fountains of blood, the first couple of times it's kinda impressive but (after you have seen it for the 30th time) quickly looses its appeal. Still, as a horror fan I kinda enjoyed it for the brilliant effects (most of them practical as far as I can tell).

Other things one kinda could compare this to is a slasher movie and even a comic book movie (or a Manga adaptation), simply because it's so OTT that the violence loses its punch after a while.

Pros:

• cool "monster" design
• awesome blood effects
• gory
• no rape or sexual violence

Cons:

• no characters to root for
• story is very basic (and pretty much just designed to show one kill after the other)
• the whole thing is kinda pointless really EXCEPT as a showpiece for the SFX designers
• wqy too long for that

They could have gone straight from "cops and criminals board ship" to "monster breaks lose", saved 40 minutes by doing that and maybe have the cops and criminals even work together and get to know each other. That could have been an interesting dynamic, but of course, then we wouldn't have as many kills.

Grave (2016)

NOT a cannibal movie!!

Every review here says something about cannibals and so on, but - last time I checked - cannibals didn't turn into uncontrolled, bloodthirsty, rabid human-dogs/wolves. I mean, the movie doesn't make a big secret out it: the second scene in the car, the fighting sisters separated by their peers on "leashes", the scene in the morgue, some of the dialogue, the obsession to get rid of body (and facial) hair to "fit in", the animalistic behaviour of the girls.

It's literally a movie about "the beast within", not about the taste for human flesh that is best served with Fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Great acting, good cinematography, good plot, nice ending. 8 stars it is.

The Wind (2018)

A frustrating experience

Think back to some of the greatest Horror movies of the last decade(s) - The VVitch, Midsommar, Hereditary, The Badabook, etc etc. Even if they let the viewer in the dark about what was going on, even if they had a twist, in the end, everything was brought to light and made sense (even if it was just in a metaphorical way). Even the "master of twists", M. Night Shyamalan, NOT ONCE made a film that didn't make "sense" in the end (even if it was just in a very "movie" kind of way). And even someone like David Lynch, whose movies seldom made "sense", at least put enough ideas and feelings into his stream-of-consciousness films, that the dreamlike trip was more interesting than the destination.

The Wind ain't that. This film leaves so much (too much) open for interpretation. It could be about a woman losing her mind because of loneliness and isolation, it could be her hubby betrayed her (but we don't know that for certain, as the only "proof" was written by a very unreliable character), it could be demons are haunting the prairie, it could be she herself was a demon, it could be that she simply snapped and killed two people because of jealousy or a broken heart.

Remember that only one of those theories can be true, but since the movie denies us any answers, what actually IS true becomes nondescript. So that is frustrating, but what's even more frustrating is that we had all the ingredients here for something great - willing and able actors, great cinematography in a beautiful landscape, great lighting and set-design, even the wardrobe department brought their A-game. The whole endeavor clearly wasn't cheap, I just wish the had spent as much time on the script as money on these obvious elements.

But the way it turned out I can hardly recommend The Wind and I am rating it 5 stars for the aforementioned qualities alone.

It's a shame really, this could have been great.

Runaway Train (1985)

Silly

I just saw this movie for the first time and I reckon a lot of the reviewers here saw it when they were more impressable and can't really see this objectively.

Let me make this as short as possible. The good things about RT are:

• the stunt work and
• the train sequences (although some miniature work is obvious)
• the willingness of the acting ensemble to go as far as the script calls them for

But then...

• the script is full of stereotypes (the broken hero, the apprentice, the evil stepfather, the damsel in distress)
• the characters remain very one-dimensional throughout the movie
• the film is sexist towards women
• it shows a prison ward to basically be a person that has power outside of his prison, even going so far as to physically assaulting a rail road employee and getting away with it (and also having an helicopter at his disposal lol)
• a lot of stuff that happens on screen is just very, very silly
• a lot of the decisions the characters make are clearly based on pushing the story forward, but are not based in reality. They are the decisions of a screenwriter, but not of someone being in this situation.

I couldn't care less who wrote the screenplay for this (and I bet if Kurosawa actually directed this we would have had a completely different movie on our hands), the way it stands RT is a very silly, very immature movie that pretends to say something about the human condition when in reality it's as deep as a puddle. The train sequences are impressive, the stunt work is great as well, but if you think this is as rich as some some of the reviews might have you believe, you are mistaken. Personally I am glad we left this kind of filmmaking behind.

Old (2021)

A bad M. Night is still a good movie.

Right, Old. So it's not M. Night's best film (it's not even in the Top 5) but it's also not his worst.

The main problem in my opinion was not the story (which was an OK "X-Files" or "Twilight Zone" kind of yarn...and had an interesting ending, which could have asked "how far are we willing to go to save thousands of people"... but wasnt couragous to do so) but it's main actors: The main couple have NO chemistry whatsoever together, they look badly on screen next to each other (she is a couple of inches taller than him), in the film she treated him badly, but even when they make up later in the movie and confess their love, it feels like watching two ice glaciers. Also why do their children haven NO resemblance to them (a pet peeve of mine).

I also didn't care for some of the MTV-like shots which weren't M. Nights style at all (maybe they were directed by his daughter that shot second unit?) and didn't fit the material.

It's still a good movie with some fascinating ideas, but for a M. Night movie it's a little bit of a let down.

The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

Gorgeous and truly unnerving

Right, so I love Horror, it's by far my favorite genre. But because I have seen almost everything there is out there (including some sick underground stuff), I'd say I am pretty desensitized when it comes to on-screen violence and terror. Yet this film managed to scare me (or at least build up an awesome feeling of dread) which I really appreciated. It's a pretty dark and grim film, not because of excessive violence, but because of the seemingly hopelessness of the whole situation. So it definitely might not be for everyone, but if you are interested in slow-burn (aka "elevated") Horror, definitely check it out.

This movie also features beautiful cinematography, great acting, and quite an "epic" feel for being almost shot in just one location.

Drawback is definitely the CGI, it's definitely looks sloppy/cheap in some shots, but no deal breaker.

I liked it very much and will buy it on Bluray for my collection.