I have to give it to this crew of the Orphan prequel, they really pulled off a bunch of parlor tricks of sorts to give the impression Isabelle is actually younger than the first film. I'd say it works 80-90 percent of the time, with many production tricks for sure. I caught a podcast recently (Boo Crew) with the director that was pretty fascinating, as he explained how they made it work.
I actually liked it just as much as the original, it had a wonky wink wink campiness at times that balances off well with the rest of the story. Hoping we see a third film which you could do as both a prequel further on the character origins and also reveal that Esther actually survived the drowning from the original.
I finally got a chance to watch The Black Phone last night on Peacock (I signed up for a month just to watch this and The Northman). I'm a big Scott Derrickson fan. Sinister is one of my favorite new generation horror movies, and I really liked the sequel, too. I absolutely loved this movie. I thought it had a great story, and the acting was top notch. Ethan Hawke (a favorite of mine) did a great job as The Grabber. Derrickson did a wonderful job of building that feeling of anxiety.
When Fin was trying to escape and he was unlocking the door, and finally did and ran out, my anxiety was shooting through the roof.
I loved the integration of the ghosts, which reminded me a lot of Sinister (and made me want another installment). My anxiety was so high by the end that I ended up tearing up at the end. Well done.
So caught Pearl, the prequel to X, over the weekend. Going into it, I was a bit confused on what this exactly was since I really did see much about the film beforehand. Was it the Maxine characters former life in the religious cult that was referenced at the end of X (with a name change?) or what is happening here?
Well, I never caught while rewatching X (which still holds up great) that Mia Goth actually played both Maxine as well as what was the Pearl character as well (main antagonist, creepy old woman). The girlfriend actually noted this when we watched together...."is that the same gal playing both roles?" Sure enough.
So with that said, it made more sense knowing this ahead of time, going into this film. It starts in 1918, so that gives you an indication of where the timelines are. Tons of reference points to the other film, as the location is the same as the X film. Anyhow Goth really does a great performance here, that starts slow burn like a mofo, but then after a very lengthy monologue that I'm still amazed Goth remembered (this was a one take that went at least 3-4 minutes if not more) this character completely went a full heel turn. It was really a turning point scene to remember for sure. From that point on, the film goes bonkers to the finale.
Some of the dialogue and build prior to this scene was a bit rough and raw (Goth and Ti West wrote this film in two weeks while in a covid quarantine) and the character development wasnt too great, but the last third of the film made up for it.
So caught Pearl, the prequel to X, over the weekend. Going into it, I was a bit confused on what this exactly was since I really did see much about the film beforehand. Was it the Maxine characters former life in the religious cult that was referenced at the end of X (with a name change?) or what is happening here?
Well, I never caught while rewatching X (which still holds up great) that Mia Goth actually played both Maxine as well as what was the Pearl character as well (main antagonist, creepy old woman). The girlfriend actually noted this when we watched together...."is that the same gal playing both roles?" Sure enough.
So with that said, it made more sense knowing this ahead of time, going into this film. It starts in 1918, so that gives you an indication of where the timelines are. Tons of reference points to the other film, as the location is the same as the X film. Anyhow Goth really does a great performance here, that starts slow burn like a mofo, but then after a very lengthy monologue that I'm still amazed Goth remembered (this was a one take that went at least 3-4 minutes if not more) this character completely went a full heel turn. It was really a turning point scene to remember for sure. From that point on, the film goes bonkers to the finale.
Some of the dialogue and build prior to this scene was a bit rough and raw (Goth and Ti West wrote this film in two weeks while in a covid quarantine) and the character development wasnt too great, but the last third of the film made up for it.
Not sure if you are aware, but A24 has already greenlit the final part in the trilogy, MaXXXine. I haven't seen either X or Pearl yet (I don't have a lot of time to get to the theater for movies), but I'm stoked to see them. I'm a big Ti West fan. I revisted House of the Devil and The Innkeepers last week, and I still love both movies.
Not sure if you are aware, but A24 has already greenlit the final part in the trilogy, MaXXXine. I haven't seen either X or Pearl yet (I don't have a lot of time to get to the theater for movies), but I'm stoked to see them. I'm a big Ti West fan. I revisted House of the Devil and The Innkeepers last week, and I still love both movies.
Yep, so will that be fast tracked like this one? They had a short teaser at the end of Pearl, basically just showcasing the Hollywood sign saying "Maxxxine" instead of the usual letters, with Obsession (old Sat Nights Main Event theme) playing in the background.
I was shocked to hear X and Pearl were, essentially, filmed back to back. I can't recall a horror franchise that had its first and second film literally released within 6 months of each other.
So ended up going to the Fathom presentation of Jeepers Creepers 4 or Jeepers Creepers: Reborn last night locally (I think it's also showing tonight and tomorrow in a very short theatrical run) and holy fuck, was this TERRIBLE!
The rewatch of all of the other JC films was also an enduring chore to do. The first film is still great and has that tremendous sense of dreadful aura and creepy vibes all over the place. It's a shame none of the other films could even come close to this. I will say though, there was certainly some instances of Victor Salva having some odd scripting in terms of his clear desire to push gay overtones. But it was nothing like part 2, that makes Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge look tame in that aspect. It was so forward and overt that it made the whole film pretty uncomfortable, and I was shocked not only did the producers allow Salva to have that free reign creatively, but it's still crazy part 2 did an incredible $120 million in box office numbers. I just thought the film also didn't follow up the way it should have been with Trish in the lead. Instead we got the weird Ray Wise storyline (which SHOULD have probably been the direction on a part 3 or 4, 23 years later after the Creeper run in parts 1/2) as well as the team on the bus that was just a fucking mess. And part 3 being a sequel to 1 and a prequel to 2, just a piss poor output that was bordering on hardly watchable (Breck at the Creeper was literally the only good thing about it all), but at least Salva was not allowed to go into weird themes like he did particularly with 2.
So we get to this reboot, re-imaging, whatever this was supposed to be. Everything Victor Salva and ANY association with any storylines he developed in the original trilogy, everything was wiped out. Even to the point where in the story, they play off the other films as fictitional canon that was created from the "real" myth of the Creeper in the area. Kinda giving the idea that the filmmakers tried a bit to do what New Nightmare was (to a degree, and very badly executed). They even full on did a reboot scene to start off the film very similar to the first 20 or so minutes of JC 1, then cuts off once the scene reaches the hole by the church where the bodies fall down into and we see one of the main characters watching the film on their cell phone. This then leads to the "real" Creeper coming out of the woods after, presumably, 23 years in hiding. And everything goes incredibly downhill from there.
Pretty much every bad horror trope you can imagine was used here, seemingly as an homage slightly to other major horror franchises, a few stood out as overtly bad. We got the New Nightmare tones, and also Halloween 6 vibes too as
they went full on cult of Creeper here, with a shrine for him to return (it wasn't clear HOW this shrine made him return) and feeding him blood and bodies en masse, just a god awful direction it takes. AND the cult and Creeper target a pregnant woman to presumably take her baby for some sort of power to the Creeper, this wasn't explained AT ALL what this was all about.
Plus there was a Horror Hound festival as a storyline that went nowhere (I feel bad for HH being attached to this) that had tons of blatant cosplaying of Freddy, Pennywise, Jason, etc so much to the point where it became overkill.
Beyond all that, the characters were insanely unlikable, and the effects were fuckin brutal. I'd say 80 percent of the film was behind a greenscreen with really terrible backgrounds seemingly out of a video game. The Creeper look was pretty weak as well, there was moments of it working to a degree, but by and large the character and the look didn't really connect. The story was beyond all over the place in many off the wall directions that made little sense.
I had a free ticket to this thankfully, but for those who paid $20 for a Fathom Event ticket to this, ouch! This was bordering on unwatchably bad many times over.
Even without Salva's involvement (and apparently, outright dissing his work), I'm shocked that they made a Jeepers Creepers 4 in a post #MeToo era considering his criminal history.
Yep, so will that be fast tracked like this one? They had a short teaser at the end of Pearl, basically just showcasing the Hollywood sign saying "Maxxxine" instead of the usual letters, with Obsession (old Sat Nights Main Event theme) playing in the background.
I was shocked to hear X and Pearl were, essentially, filmed back to back. I can't recall a horror franchise that had its first and second film literally released within 6 months of each other.
From what I've been reading, yeah, I think they want it out this year, and if they haven't already started shooting, they'll be doing so right away.
Regarding Jeepers Creepers, I'm with @Pumpkin Spice Kamala on this one. The fact anyone would touch that IP with everything known about Salva just disgusts me.
I'm with both of ya....this never should have been made. Given the output, it's clear it was a bad idea from the get-go.
And sad to say but they clearly set things up for another one (I wont spoil how but it was a few scenes of face palming stuff I audibly groaned at in the theater), and I guess the idea is a seperate rebooted trilogy here. I can assume we will never see part 5 given the results here.
Also, this. It's a great horror movie, and the fact that there's still no Blu Ray announced is a bummer and further proof of the downside of Disney acquiring Fox.
Since I was on the Jeepers Creepers run (and I think I'm still reeling from JC Reborn, the worst film I've seen all year for sure) I decided to be a glutton for punishment last night and check out the film that kinda got Jeepers Creepers going, Victor Salva's first real noteworthy film, The Clownhouse. Very low budget, very amateur feel for this, and bad set pieces, etc.
This wasn't as bad as I feared it would be after it got going, but this was a strange film that I dont quite get HOW this got enough noteriety that it led to bigger projects (JC). I'm still confused how Francis Ford Copolla also connected to Salva through this shitstain story. There was certainly an unsettling tone to this, though. The premise also was pretty creepy....inmates from an asylum escape and kill clowns at a local town circus and go on a murderous rampage, leading to them chasing around a trio of boys in an old creepy house. But the real unsettling stuff was the Salva subtext, which I dont need to go into too much other than to say this was abundant literally in the first 10 minutes, in a really bad and gross way. I was shocked Sam Rockwell was in this too,
You can't even really find this film hardly anywhere, it took me a YouTube search to locate a bad resolution copy of it uploaded there, probably for good reason. This has no right to be readily avaliable.
Since I was on the Jeepers Creepers run (and I think I'm still reeling from JC Reborn, the worst film I've seen all year for sure) I decided to be a glutton for punishment last night and check out the film that kinda got Jeepers Creepers going, Victor Salva's first real noteworthy film, The Clownhouse. Very low budget, very amateur feel for this, and bad set pieces, etc.
This wasn't as bad as I feared it would be after it got going, but this was a strange film that I dont quite get HOW this got enough noteriety that it led to bigger projects (JC). I'm still confused how Francis Ford Copolla also connected to Salva through this shitstain story. There was certainly an unsettling tone to this, though. The premise also was pretty creepy....inmates from an asylum escape and kill clowns at a local town circus and go on a murderous rampage, leading to them chasing around a trio of boys in an old creepy house. But the real unsettling stuff was the Salva subtext, which I dont need to go into too much other than to say this was abundant literally in the first 10 minutes, in a really bad and gross way. I was shocked Sam Rockwell was in this too,
You can't even really find this film hardly anywhere, it took me a YouTube search to locate a bad resolution copy of it uploaded there, probably for good reason. This has no right to be readily avaliable.
Clownhouse was a favorite of mine when I was younger. Movie soured for me when I found out the director molested one of the young boys in the movie. Obviously I didn’t know that until much later.
It was available on dvd but only for a very short time. Seems like region free copies have driven the price down on eBay, but I sold my copy for fairly good money years ago.
Yeah if you werent aware of the Salva factor here, I could see this being a cult classic kinda in that it was low budget, yet creepy as fuck, and at times, effective in its approach.
The first scenes though just got me in a gross way, with the interactions with the boys in the house.
I actually really liked Powder as a kid and I still have a soft spot for it but it is a very weird flick. Naked Sean Patrick Flannery was an image that impacted me and Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum helped that movie.
I always found Jeepers Creepers to just be obnoxious. Couldn’t stand the characters, and the writing seemed especially bad. Only seen it once, don’t plan on revisiting it.
When it was obnoxious people getting killed by a deranged lunatic chasing them down for no reason, I was in. Then manbat reveals itself and any positive elements are gone.
There is no reason why Justin Long survived until the end. Unjustifiable.
So this week I've been getting started early on the annual October horror movie a night run, I started with Clownhouse on Sunday and I figured, fuck it....I'm doing a clown week of movies (and then I got a ticket to Terrifier 2 next Thursday as well)
Anyway checked out some crazy kooky kinda documentary kinda mockoumentary called Wrinkles the Clown, it was a really easy watch at only an hour and 15 minutes, I had never heard of this guy but this was a real situation in Florida with creepy viral videos of this clown all over the place. I wont spoil shit on this as there's a few great twists and turns in the narrative which is more or less a true story. More than anything its a showcase as well as how some reacted to this creepy clown and how this kinda (I guess?) started a national trend of clown violence in a way near the end of the last decade, or at least clown paranoia. Anyway this crazy shit is on Hulu
Took a break from the clown week of horror to check out Smile last night, in an empty movie theater surprisingly. Maybe that played a part in my feelings, but I thought this was a really effective and psychologically creepy one that really hit some strong notes of legit terror and scares really well. Certainly in that category of "elevated horror" for sure. I think I read this was originally greenlit for Paramount Plus but the studio loved it so much that they moved it to a mainstream release theatrically, I can totally see why they did this. Alot of the film moves along a reallty unsettling flow of deeper and darker moments relating to past trauma from the main character, and it tows the fine line of "is she really just losing her mind or what is really at play here?" really well. As the film goes on, it just gets more tonally dire. Between Barbarian and this one, these are two of the best mainstream horrors in quite some time, for completely different reasons. There may be a warranted follow up to this, but time will tell.
For sure want to see Smile, but they gave away an amazing scare in the trailer, and I’ve never forgiven them for it. Without saying much it’s the upside down bit at the car window. That would have been great to see at the movies for the first time.
