Terminator: Dark Fate - Review

I realise this movie isn't strictly horror but it's the (probable) end of a franchise that began as very much in that genre, and still contains many elements of terror; unkillable assassins targeting final girls, a nightmare future, even some body horror. So indulge me as I post this action sci-fi review in this horror blog.

This movie is an oddly fitting culmination to the trilogy of failed attempts to make a new Terminator trilogy. You may have heard it trumpeted as something approaching a grand return to form but I'm afraid I found no such glorious comfort; this movie has different issues than the previous three but they are no less egregious and ultimately, despite vastly improved action and a stellar return performance by Linda Hamilton, it joins them in my heart as equally fine "what-if" alternate timeline tales which don't come close to the first two movies or the lore they establish. I'll try not to be overly explicit but slight possible spoilers follow so be warned.

The movie starts out like another attempt to make a sequel to a stellar James Cameron sequel; Alien 3. In much the same way as that movie's introduction rendered the entirety of what you went through in the second movie completely moot, this film in it's very opening scene wipes out existing lore, established characters, developments & a lot of logic. And that's before the credits roll. It's a baffling move that the movie fights to recover from for the next two hours with only partial success right at the end. Why the writers chose to develop the storyline this way is unclear, and much as I don't wish to embolden such claims I can see the argument that it was just an attempt to make a more culturally & gender diverse redo of T2. Ultimately the plot winds up being exactly the same, despite attempts at clever rebranding. In a universe where a key message is "no fate but what we make" it seems like the nightmare of human apocalypse to machines & AI is inevitable, which again leaves the movie struggling for a story reason to exist.

The film wipes the previous three movies out of continuity, in seeming acknowledgment of their flaws, only to cherry pick elements literally from each of them to paste onto a remake of Terminator 2. It all just feels like we've seen it before but this time the disrespect to lore and underlying repetitive nihilism leave me not really caring. This isn't helped by a new character that everything hinges on who we never get anything close to development for, believability and who we are not given anything to connect emotionally to in any way other than to invoke characters you know to compare them to (a big mistake). The performance itself is also awful, the worst in the film and one of the worst miscastings I have ever personally felt.

It's not all bad though, as I've said. Linda Hamilton gives a performance that elevates everything and emotionally propelled me right back to the feeling I had of loving this woman in Terminator and especially T2. Mackenzie Davis is also fantastic, coming off as effortlessly tough and complex as a protector with more character than the person she so wants to protect. Arnie returns to something like we saw in Genisys with an aged T-800 showing a balance with some well-acted humanity in the machine and the most levity the film gets through some great humorous lines and asides. And there is a moment that came very close to eliciting the same response as a certain thumbs-up through molten steel (and which did have some people in my screening openly weeping).

The action is mostly amazing, with Deadpool director Tim Miller you'd have a certain expectation here and he delivered for me. The film is a little too long and so the final, most intense action sequence was hard for me to really register and focus on, I struggled to tell where each character was ending up and how. But the new antagonist is a clever idea that lends itself brilliantly to some awesome, unique and clever visuals and fight choreography. And with another great performance from Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's Ghost Rider) who encapsulates the menacing smarm of Robert Patrick with the relentless dread of Arnie's early model (credit to the VFX people as well here).

Sadly the movie writes out two of it's most interesting characters, leaves huge logic gaps and has no interest in anyone else (a key character literally disappears from the narrative left behind never to be mentioned again). But like all the other Terminator movies I found the whole very enjoyable and entertaining, possibly because I just like the franchise. And by the end I felt like the movie had fought back to leave me genuinely thrilled, entertained and moved. But it's also finally got me too tired of seeing a franchise I once loved offering nothing particularly new. Judging by the abysmal box office this franchise won't be back, and I'm ok with that. It ended with the conclusion of T2, gave us a decent trilogy conclusion if we want it & three tales of alternate timelines that entertained but must stand alone because they have nowhere to go. I liked this, I'll buy it, I'll watch it again. But do I want to see more? Negative.

*** (3/5)

Halloween Night part 2 - Jesse's Revenge

A Nightmare on Elm Street part 2 - Freddy's Revenge

As I mentioned yesterday I only had time to watch one horror movie this Halloween night. I wanted something short, familiar but that I'd never really seen & I have an Elm Street box set that I still haven't worked through yet. So I decided to finally watch the first sequel to the original movie. Spoilers follow for a 30 year old movie. 

I had read a lot about this film during my Film Studies degree when I was at university. This film is infamous as a prime example of a "queer theory" reading, something which has permeated through to pop culture and discourse around the movie. It was pretty blatant but with some things which don't fit necessarily. But we'll get to that. 

The movie opens with a pretty fantastic sequence, especially for the 1980s as we are straight into a nightmare involving a school bus careening into a cavern that winds up looking like an old death-metal album cover. The titular antagonist appears to a helpless Jesse (mocked by & powerless to protect two women, interestingly) and forces him to wake with a pretty girly scream if I'm brutally honest. Still the best sequence in the film though, it's just a shame it's literally the first few minutes. 

The plot, such as it is, develops from here and really kicks the queer readings into high gear; Jesse has a girl friend who he has yet to make a move on, despite visible interest. When prompted on this by the hunky school bully he proceeds to wrestle him in a homo-erotic display that would make the volleyball scene in Top Gun blush. It's also established here that the strict gym teacher has a masochistic streak with his boys, even being rumoured to frequent S&M fetish clubs. In the 80s it's probably quite deliberate that homosexuality was viewed as a similar deviant fetish, which I don't love. The shades of films like Carrie here are kind of cool but the film doesn't linger beyond any interest in the "male deviance" it wants to set up. Indeed Jesse's next nightmare sees Freddy almost caressing Jesse as he literally says that he "needs" him because "he's got the body"; a stretched reading perhaps but given the set-up it's hard to ignore. 

This leads us into the main thrust (no pun intended) of the movie; ostensibly a possession plot that Freddy wants to "come out" of Jesse into the real world, stalking his subconscious & making him act in ways that he finds uncomfortable. On face value this plot could have been a really interesting horror twist on the ideas set up by Wes Craven's first movie but the film makes no attempt to reconcile this with any of the "rules" established there. Instead a lot of critics have read this story as a horror allegory for closeted homosexuality. It's hard to disagree during the film's most notorious scene in which Jesse genuinely sleepwalks into a gay bar, encounters his "deviant" teacher & goes back to the locker room with him for a punishment that seems way past a school employees jurisdiction. During this punishment "Freddy" (acting through Jesse & as an unseen force) strips the teacher naked, whips his bare butt raw with towels, claws down his back and then slashes him to death. I promise I'm not making any of that up! I could review this scene but honestly it was so overly blatant that I just found it hilarious. Is that good? I'm guessing not for a horror movie.

The film proceeds with Jesse finding himself compelled to attack his younger sister; either an attempt to negate the queer reading or an incredibly troubling equating of homosexuality to paedophilia. Thankfully this is brief and we end up at a house party where Jesse begins to finally make out with his girlfriend. In the heat of passion Freddy's tongue begins to emerge from Jesse. This is a possible homage to the original "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy" scene but it confused me; is it another attempt to move away from the idea that only homosexual passion is triggering the "deviance", is it implying bisexuality or is it a symbol of disgust? Either way the film doesn't take long to return to form; subtext rapidly becoming text as Jesse runs to his (now befriended) school bully's room to stay the night. Again, I had to laugh as I wanted to try & review the movie fairly and not read into it but then it gave us this exchange;

At this point I gave up any attempt to look beyond the obvious interpretation and surrendered to the fact that all the critics were very right. From Jesse "birthing" Freddy in Alien-style when sleeping next to Grady, to eventually having Jesse cured by the loving kiss of a good woman. It doesn't help that Jesse actor Mark Patton was also gay and has since described in detail how incredibly uncomfortable he was with the things he was made to do. Check out his writing and both his documentary and "Never Sleep Again" for more fascinating insights than I can get into here.

Regarding my attempt to review the horror elements here, the movie doesn't fare well. Every murder takes place inexplicably in the real world, abandoning the entire established lore and unique point of this universe. Indeed both Robert Englund (Freddy) & several production crew have stated this as their least favourite Elm Street movie, mainly for that reason. And as Freddy chases teens round a pool party like a generic slasher he ends up looking totally ridiculous, with none of the powers and thus menace he was imbued with by his debut.

Overall this is certainly a fascinating movie. In a way it's worth watching just to believe it and understand the masses of writing & making-of material surrounding it (which seems largely better than the movie). There's some occasional good effects, some surprisingly decent acting and it's all wonderfully eighties-tinged. Easily the worst Elm Street movie I've ever seen but far from the worst horror. Watchable to study, laugh at or just kill 90 minutes watching schlock. But as a representation of Freddy; this film is a total nightmare.

**1/2 (2.5/5)

Halloween Night 2019

It's that time of year again. Time for my annual Halloween viewing post. Feel free to go back to previous years to see more and discover the origins (involving a cinema and an all-night horror fest).

This year was a little different. I usually like to try and watch three horror or Halloween-themed movies but this year time just wasn't on my side. I did watch one movie for the first time, which I'll discuss later, but also three or four other pieces of Halloween entertainment from the ridiculous to the sublime. Let's start with the first thing I watched...

NOT GOING OUT - HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

This actually aired on the night of the 30th but I honestly didn't know it existed until checking Twitter later that night. As such I watched it on BBC iPlayer as the very first thing in my traditional Halloween viewing night. I'll be honest I was less than impressed. For a supposed comedy it seemed like it forgot to be funny, and for an extended 45 minute runtime the lack of any discernible humor was very noticeable. There was literally one decent gag and it was in the first two minutes. Following this comment from main character Lee regarding taking the kids trick-or-treating;

I did have a slight chortle at wife Lucy's response; "don't worry, next week we'll be back to wholesome British traditions like celebrating a terrorist plot to overthrow government by burning a scarecrow".

A lot of the episode seemed like it was trying to build tension and act as a possible audition to make & direct a future horror movie, like someone saw Edgar Wright go from a horror sequence in Spaced to making Shaun of the Dead and desperately wanted to copy him. There are some good horror worthy angles and shots but naturally in a comedy they just seem out of place here without careful handling. 

Overall, the costumes were cool. And there's a certain charm in the effort here. But this is not something I'll ever want to revisit and don't feel especially glad to have watched, sadly. 

*1/2 (1.5/5)

CELEBRITY JUICE - HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2019 

I was always told that if you have nothing nice to say then not to say anything at all, so this may be brief. In all seriousness though Leigh Francis (aka Keith Lemon) always brings a real effort to Halloween costumes, and that was evident again here. It was especially cool to already see a cosplay of Harley Quinn from a Birds of Prey movie that's only released a trailer and isn't out for several months. It was clear that effort had gone into the games, from the make-up and props to the locations used being transformed into a horror maze. It was clear that everyone involved was having fun and the atmosphere was probably great, but in the end it just felt like watching a Halloween party that someone filmed which you weren't invited to. Like the zombies that were peppered throughout the episode this show has gone rather lifeless and needs to be put out of it's misery I think. 

** (2/5)

AHS: 1984 - THE LADY IN WHITE

Thankfully it got better. I watched a decent episode of Modern Family (their last Halloween episode in this final season). It was great but not especially noteworthy for longer reviewing. And so I turned to the latest episode of the current season of American Horror Story. 

  Full disclosure; I have been watching these every Thursday anyway but it was still pretty fortuitous that an episode fell on Halloween. I'm loving this season. Unashamedly ripping off 80s slasher films like Friday the 13th (made super blatant in this episode) but doing it with reverence, style and some brilliant acting! 

Special mention has to go to franchise veteran Lily Rabe who makes her return for a guest spot in this installment which turns out to be crucial. She is essentially playing the Mrs. Voorhees of this show, but with more tragedy, pathos, menace, emotional impact and significance. I can't praise this highly enough. 

  The entire cast are great here and it's hard to single anyone else out; the characterizations range from camp to classical but everyone is doing their part absolute justice. One last special mention to occasional AHS star John Carroll Lynch who steps up an already great performance to genuinely make you feel for what could have easily been a soulless monster cliche. 

Slightly less successful is the storyline with Brooke & "Donna" encountering yet another killer; another franchise returnee in Dylan McDermott, who doesn't acquit himself as well. It pushes believability too far but gets away with it (just) by seemingly being a cool play on Thelma & Louise used to boost our protagonist up to the "final girl" role with enough feminine strength & smarts to actually seem like she might survive this. 

In my opinion this has been the best season of AHS in a long while, and easily my favourite since Freak Show. There are some sillier moments that threaten to undercut the reality but the 80s setting covers them well enough for me. The story has also been genuinely engaging and interesting. Whilst I'm sad there are only two episodes left I'm truly excited to see what happens next. 

****1/2 (4.5/5)

There was one more thing I watched but I'd like to devote more time and review it separately tomorrow. There is a lot to say and that has been said about what I watched. I'm pretty shocked I haven't seen it before because I've certainly heard about it. So until tomorrow; don't have nightmares...

Happy Halloween everybody. Hope you all had a safe but spooky fun time. Sleep well...

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

It Chapter Two Review (Spoiler Free)

The modern film "landscape" is an odd one. It seems like a movie comes out and after a couple of days the story is written and there's consensus on that movie. The movie's status is written in stone and any different view is disregarded or attacked. This is foolish for many reasons but a big one is that I have found myself frequently disagreeing with the collective "critics" consensus. This movie was a prime example. 

  To clarify it seems like the story of this movie is that it was fine but disappointing. Not as good as the first, overly long, less scary and generally not as engaging. I disagree with every part of this. Firstly (and I know I'll be declared crazy for this) I actually think it's better than the first movie, at least for me. I found it difficult to find fault with, very effective and affecting, didn't really feel the length of time dragging and, although neither film was really terrifying, pretty scary at times (literally and emotionally).

I feel like I understood and connected to what this story was trying to say. To me it's about how we grow up and forget it but our childhood is always a part of who we are. That can mean bad experiences sure but also really good ones. Ultimately it's about the connections we make. I'm sure I'm not alone in having really dear friends who I don't really think about but when we get together the bond and connection is immediately strong and emotionally brings everything right back. Ironically for a film that contains a chant about darkness overcoming light the central themes of the movie are the total opposite; you may feel different, ostracized, freaky,... a loser. But you are loved and capable of love and that is stronger than fear. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but that was my experience when watching.

There's also a lot to enjoy for horror and Stephen King fans. Without spoiling there's a couple of awesome, unexpected cameos and literal scenes & dialogue specifically referencing iconic other horror movie moments. At times it seems like a love letter to the genre. It's not always slavishly kind either with one particularly meta running joke that's hilariously on the nose. 

  The casting of the adult Losers Club truly bowled me over. Honestly every member seems entirely like the same person as their young counterpart and all showcase some brilliant acting. The adult Henry Bowers is less impressive but since that character is basically a cypher anyway that's a minor nitpick. 

Overall this movie is not without fault. Some people will find it too long. At times the "quest" structure does come off as hokey and there are perhaps a few too many cheap jump scares which are always less effective than the more emotionally invested terrors. The music too is sometimes intrusive, not letting scenes do their work without seeming to metaphorically scream "YOU SHOULD BE SCARED".
  But these gripes are minor and take very little away from a film that I truly loved. It got me feeling engaged, scared, choked up and finally really keen to watch it, and the whole It saga, again. Disagree? That's fine. I've always been a Loser. 😊❤🤡🎈

****1/2 (4.5/5) 

MM 

Halloween Night 2018

Anyone who knows me or is a regular reader of this blog (If such a thing exists. Hi) will know that every year on Halloween night I like to close the curtains, grab a blanket and watch some seasonally appropriate content (usually a triple bill of horror movies). This year was no exception. So without further ado let's get straight into my thoughts and reviews of what I watched last night. Be warned that there are spoilers ahead.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Believe it or not I had never seen this movie before. Sure I'd heard about it and knew it was the great outlier, the only movie in the Halloween franchise not to feature the iconic Michael Myers, or indeed connect to the overall narrative in any way. I read a while ago that the intention at the time was for the Halloween franchise to transition into anthology stories, linked only by being connected to the night of Halloween itself. This is abundantly clear when watching the movie as it feels less like a complete film and more like an average episode of something like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Not bad but hardly worthy of the Halloween brand name or the talent involved from it (for example John Carpenter and Debra Hill returning as producers).

The story presented is a deeply strange mixture of occult horror, corporate satire and a heavy dose of science-fiction, the latter of which really threw me and rather unravels the film's verisimilitude (fabricated reality). There are some times when this clashing of genres works by coming off as eerie and unnerving but sadly the overall effect is just a mish-mash, a story at odds with itself and which ends up with zero internal logic. The evil scheme of the films villain is, for my money, never really explained to any level of satisfaction. Something about the old Celtic ritual of Samhain (pronounced Sah-Wen. No idea). The implication seems to be that he's appeasing some evil force or appealing to it for prosperity maybe? But if that's the case the man has an army of ultra loyal, hyper realistic androids, almost indistinguishable from real people and able to replicate them in a matter of hours (As with the heroine. At least a subversion of the "final girl" trope that this franchise created). Why engage in a bizarre and convoluted plot involving stealing a huge chunk of Stonehenge (it's never explained how, just that they had a rough time transporting it. Sure), microchips in Halloween masks and organising everyone around a signal pulse? Just use the android army if you want to rule the world. And if you want riches, you have a fleet of super advanced androids and you're selling latex masks! Maybe it was just for the "craic" (the Irish villain is said to love a great practical joke) or maybe he just really hates children. Certainly he seems to blame the corporate assimilation of the day on them, like a militant Christian who wants to murder everyone in a Santa hat. Whatever the case this whole plot is beyond hokey and impossible to take seriously, a far cry from the visceral real terror of the two preceding entries in the franchise.

There are some good points though. The early sense of atmosphere that the film sets up is actually pretty evocative of the earlier Halloween movies, helped along by lighting and photography. There's a lot of usage of the "man hiding with his back to frame" shots that were so disconcerting when it was Myers on the loose (here it's the killer androids). And of course the musical score co- written by the great John Carpenter himself is hard to fault. And as much as I hate the bloody jingle that seems to pepper the film every two minutes it is damn catchy and will stick in your brain.

Some of the kills too are memorable, but for very different reasons. The special effects rather let the film down at times when things are explicitly shown but there are some things you don't see directly which are effectively unnerving (a skull ripped apart, a drill through the face and a pretty epic decapitation by sheer pulling force being the stand out kills). Unfortunately there are as many killings that are memorable for the wrong reasons, soliciting laughter instead of scares for this viewer. An initial crushing by car looking like someone lost their favourite sex toy, a headless robot and a fight with a loose limb being the worst offenders here.

Overall then the film starts quite well. It's eerie, the villains seem menacing and unknowable (like Michael Myers) and most of the kills are good for their day. But around half way through the film completely devolves into a terrible schlock B-movie and never recovers. Indeed the resolution of the film is literally non-existent. An extremely nihilistic and affecting end (which reminded me of the likes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is awesome but not really earned. And so the overall impression is that you have half a story when you exit the experience. What exactly was the villainous endgame? What happened to the real heroine? Where did all these resources come from? Just what is the power of Stonehenge and where is it from? These are questions to which I will never get an answer. Mostly because they don't matter. And that's weak storytelling.

This film was not the worst time I've had watching a scary movie. I know there are some real fans of it. The basics of the premise are really intriguing and could have made for an interesting story with more work, ac rewrite and more attention to internal logic. And if you're just looking for a schlock B-movie then it's more than passable. But for me there are zero memorable characters or performances and despite the name the film can't hold a Jack-o-lantern candle to its predecessors.

**1/2 (2.5/5)

Ju-On: The Grudge 2

I bought this particular film a long time ago (literally years ago) and have just never got round to watching it. I absolutely love the first movie (the Hollywood remake is ok too) and bought it on sale because I was really intrigued to see more.

The plot of this film centres around the same cursed house and it's inhabiting ghosts as the previous movie, this time menacing and murdering the cast and crew of a paranormal investigation TV show that is filming there. Specifically the main character (other than the returning ghostly Kayako and Toshio) is the "horror queen" Kyoko and the through-line of the plot involves her pregnancy. This is creepy and affecting from the start immediately setting up a plot point that is both baffling and terrifying.

I refer to a through-line because the film is told in a series of vignettes. These are non-linear and occasionally overlap as well as skipping indiscriminately through time. This left me finding it very difficult to engage with the story. Events would happen then in the next "vignette" would not have occurred for the characters yet, leading me to be very confused for a large chunk of time. Dead characters reappeared before their deaths but after I'd witnessed them and then the film even gets into areas of showing dreams of events that never happened or dreams within these dreams. This is unsettling but really confusing. Additionally there are moments where effect can precede cause. A particularly powerful and awesome vignette concerns a woman bothered by banging on her wall at the same time every night, only for us to learn that she is hearing her own murder echo backwards through time. As a huge fan of sci-fi and time travel stories I really dug this but I can easily see how even this could leave some viewers lost. The film maintains this level of complexity and does not hold the viewers hand through it. Whilst this can make for some excellent emotional depth and surprises I can't help but feel that it may be an unnecessary gimmick and that the story told chronologically would be just as effective and certainly easier to understand and engage with.

There's lots to love here though. The ghosts that appear throughout are as memorable as ever. Whilst I was more unnerved than scared I can certainly see how some viewers could find these scenes terrifying. For me they were just incredibly inventive and instantly iconic. I don't want to spoil too much but there are lots of haunting deaths, all very different but brilliantly shot. The ending (a scene in a hospital) in particular is one of the best horror scenes I've seen in a while, a perfect combination of shock, terror, disgust, emotional trauma and white-knuckle intensity that will probably stay with you for a long time, especially if you're a woman.

The acting is impressive throughout with perhaps a little bit of generic character for some of the lesser "cannon fodder" background characters being all I could criticise. The whole thing looks incredible with some truly commendable direction, lighting, effects and sound design (the iconic sound of Kayako is very present and still creepy as heck). The ending is again rather nihilistic and open but left me intrigued to see more and hoping that the story developed the ideas here in future sequels. I would have preferred leaving with firm answers but that's just personal preference and the ride was excellent, if a little hard to engage with due to the story structure. I highly recommend this though.

**** (4/5)

The Simpsons Halloween Special V (aka Treehouse of Horror V)

Full disclosure; I did actually have a third film planned to watch on Halloween night. Thematically it fitted into a theme of sorts that I was running with but alas it wasn't to be. Quite simply time got away from me. Feeling tired I began reconsidering that the movie I planned to watch may be more appropriate for a separate review soon, and without spoiling it you'll see why when the time comes. And so, with the Halloween spirit still upon me I decided to spend a brief 22 minutes watching one of my favourite TV specials.

Sure it's not strictly horror but the episode leans heavily on these tropes to parody them. The Shinning spoof on Kubrick's The Shining is simply pitch perfect. Copied shots, familiar beats inverted for humorous effect and some ingenious gags make for perhaps my favourite Simpsons Halloween vignette. If you have any familiarity with the movie then you must watch it, you won't be disappointed.

Time and Punishment is more of a Twilight Zone style sci-fi horror tale, playing with the idea of the butterfly effect really cleverly (although this theory is never directly referenced). The concept allows for multiple "what if" scenarios to be seen, each fascinating and often unsettling in various ways. There is even room for cameos by the great James Earl Jones, Peabody & Sherman, the aliens Kang & Kodos and possibly the greatest ironic punchline I've ever experienced ("oh look, it's raining again").

Nightmare Cafeteria, whilst the weakest of the stories, does contain the line of the episode ("Oh I'm bad at this") and present a memorable take on a familiar story which even allows for the hilarious inversion of a now iconic Bart Simpson line.

No scares here then but masses of laughs, great reverence for all things horror and an amusing overall special presentation from a show at the height of its powers.

****1/2 (4.5/5)

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. Be seeing you soon.

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

MM

Halloween (2018) - Review

In this review I will be discussing the movie in broad terms. I will allude to, but not divulge, plot points and character motivations. However, everyone's spoiler sensitivity is different and if you truly want to go into the film blind and not even being coloured by my views then I recommend reading this after seeing the movie for yourself.

There's an old, rather overused, phrase that goes "don't believe the hype". Although I have no idea of the intention of whomever first said this phrase it has come to mean that something which is praised or lauded is actually terrible. I bring this up because this applies on so many levels to my thoughts on the new Halloween movie. I really want to say "don't believe the hype" on a basic language level but not to say this movie is terrible, or even bad. And so I'm conflicted, torn about how I feel and what I really think. And ironically that is a perfect metaphor for the way I felt after watching this film.

 Firstly there are some things you should know before even setting foot into the cinema to see this movie. Don't worry, they're not spoilers;

Whilst the film obliquely hints at these things in dialogue I think it's best the audience know in advance, and for the purposes of this review it's important because it raises a question that could apply a lot; why? Why does the film throw out all of the other sequels/reboots/timelines etc? It should be for valid story purposes. Some may even feel like it is. But I left with the overall sense that it was more to build up hype than anything else. By positioning this movie as the only definitive sequel to the original classic Halloween (1978), this movie is basically assuring you before you buy a ticket that it's better than all of those movies. For me personally, this is not the case. Although I don't want to start the game of ranking this alongside other sequels or against similar examples of the genre I do feel it's fair to expect that given it's function as a direct replacement for a couple of existing movies (Halloween 2, Halloween H20) that it's of a high enough quality to earn it's usurping of them. I'm not sure that's the case, and thinking on it I truly believe that I personally prefer at least Halloween 2, and would argue that it's a better movie. It's worth pointing out that this film even copies a couple of important plot beats from it, which also seems rather like a cheat, or at least a bit lazy. 

The only other possible reason for this film's retconning of the franchise is a legitimate story one. Without getting too spoiler heavy it should be obvious that this film wants to set up that Laurie Strode (a returning Jamie Lee Curtis) has both a daughter and a granddaughter (thus contradicting previous sequels in various ways). This film is unashamedly a feminist story about three generations of women from the same family finding power and fighting against an aggressive, predatory male force. Read into that what you will, I'm not prepared to step into that powder keg. I will say though that I found the treatment of male characters in service to this narrative to be just a tad troubling to me. It's a minor niggle but the father of Laurie's daughter is never even mentioned, even when it should be important to the plot. Other men are either inept or inexplicably evil. It's not a big deal though and not really noticeable within the movie, and there are male characters who get to be funny and somewhat caring if you really go looking as well.

This is the women's story though, and especially Laurie's. The decision to have her be basically Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 could have been handled badly but actually makes perfect story sense, and the one part of the hype machine I will agree with wholeheartedly is that Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely knocks it out of the park. Although I feel it would be unfair to expect this movie to come anywhere near the original I will happily say that her performance is greater than anything from 1978. Kudos should also go to the rest of the cast, but especially Judy Greer and Andi Matichak as Karen and Allyson Strode, who manage to hold their own alongside such an outstanding bit of acting. 

But this is a horror site reviewing a horror film and I should definitely take some time to examine through that particular lens. My thoughts on the original Halloween are pretty clear (just do a search on this blog). I feel that it's greatest strength is the spooky and menacing atmosphere it creates throughout. Does this new movie do that? Sometimes. Tonally the film is certainly interested in that mood, but not all the time. As such it almost seems to have ADD, as if we'd be bored to feel one emotion for a protracted amount of time. But what about the kills? Despite a couple of iconic moments the '78 film isn't really all that bloody or gory and kills remain mostly off screen. For the most part this is true here, and that would be fine except that the movie itself points out (through a character's dialogue) that audiences in 2018 are far more desensitized and less easily scared. The film says that but then at every opportunity to really shock completely chickens out in ways that make certain scenes baffling and again left me asking that big question: why? Why was this scene here? At least a couple of times I didn't really find a good answer to that. 

Let me point out however that there are still a few moments that are gory, and more sensitive viewers might well find them really extreme. I personally didn't but maybe I'm just one of the desensitized generation the film hints at. Likewise the film has lots of "jump scares" but they're almost all "Lewton's bus" situations. Named for the scene in Cat People (1942) where the director, Val Meet in, builds tension then pierces it with a shock that is a perfectly normal non-scary event, like a bus pulling up. I find these types of scares in 2018 to be cheap and ineffective myself. Some people will jump, several in my screening did, but it just annoyed me as I sat scowling at the lame effort. There is one really good and effective scare but unfortunately it's spoiled by being included in the trailer. It's still a great moment though. And there are some nice horror moments like these to be found alongside the other attempts to scare, certainly I wasn't scowling the whole time. 

On other positive notes if you are a fan of the 1978 Halloween movie as much as I am then there is a lot you'll get a kick out of. Moments including camera angles, shots, props, kills and even the on-screen naming of Myers as "The Shape" all call back to that original film. It never comes off as just fan service though and is pretty pleasing to watch throughout.

As for Myers, yes he remains a force of nature. The film has no interest in humanizing (like Rob Zombie tried) or trying too hard to add complexity and extra ability. He still doesn't talk, run or even move especially fast (although in fairness he is a man in his 60s at this point). As such he remains as eerie and powerful a presence as ever, for better or worse. It fell down on the far more positive side for me. 

In conclusion the film has an overall rather incoherent tone, veering between moody horror, extreme gory horror, comedy, revenge flick and PTSD drama. Things that shouldn't work often do though. I heard some people annoyed at the comedic moments when a lot of others were laughing and I myself found them to be some of the best parts of the movie. Additionally the film takes the idea of using shadows to it's extreme and to a point where several times I literally couldn't make out what I was seeing, on a giant cinema screen. There was honestly a murder which I suspect had a gruesome aftermath but I'm judging purely on another character's reaction because all I saw was smudged blurs against pitch black. In 2018 spooky atmosphere should be possible without making your audience literally unable to see what's on screen. What really works here is the film's subversion of the traditional "final girl" trope. Far from damsels in distress struggling to survive the ladies in this film are capable and pro-active, although outside of the Strode family there is still vulnerable teenagers for The Shape to hack his way through. A particular story moment that occurs around the middle of the film is something I can see being very divisive. The movie seems to be playing this as a huge shock moment but it just fell a little flat for me. The film is also not really interested in exploring it, or anything outside the Laurie vs. Michael dynamic and moves on quickly. This is a problem throughout as characters disappear from the story never to be addressed again, leaving us wondering exactly what their fate is and what their purpose was to the story being told.

Halloween 2018 overall though was not bad. I was just hoping to come out of this film with far more glowing things to say than "It's not bad". Don't believe the hype but do go and see it and decide for yourself what you think if you have any interest in this franchise. 

***1/2 (3.5/5)

MM

Venom - Spoiler Free Review

Let's get this out of the way early and start by saying that Venom is nowhere near as bad as some people are making out. If you went in for immature humour, cartoony violence/references and a badass looking character then it delivers. There's a LOT of problems but it's a fun ride, just with no real substance. It seems short and flies by. You can see the potential throughout which gets frustrating when it's squandered but there's plenty to like.

  There's no getting around the fact though that this movie should never have been attempted without any reference anywhere to Spider-Man and it ends up feeling very slight with no sense of threat, conflict or menace. In that respect the post credits scene should have been the movie that was made instead of a tease of a movie that will most likely never happen.

Tonally the film and it's star don't know what they're doing, veering between drama, buddy comedy, dark humour, superheroics and action, whilst that's never boring and some of the acting and interactions are really good there's absolutely no exploration of the horror aspects of the character with an opportunity wasted to deal with things like body horror, possession and identity (i.e the monster within). None of that is remotely touched on in this movie, heads are bitten off bloodlessly and mainly off screen and this is inexplicably played for laughs, with the characters on screen acting accordingly. There's a particularly bad scene where a character addresses having done something horrifying for a second then basically shrugs and goes back to making goofy jokes.

There's a handful of neat cameos and moments for hard-core fans of the comics but there's no real impressive-seeming threat as I mentioned and the finale comes down to watching two balls of near-identical sticky tar trying to hump each other. The movie absolutely should have embraced a higher age rating and leaned into the violence and truly dark humour. A good solo film of Venom really should be darker too (meaning in tone and subject, not like this movie where everything is 100% at night and it's often hard to make out what's going on).

There'll be people who really enjoy themselves and I agree that on a schlock B-movie level its a success, it's weirdly greater than the sum of it's parts and often works despite it's flaws. Decide for yourself if you're interested in seeing it, but go in with no expectations.

*** (3/5)

MM