Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Evil Dead Rise is a supernatural horror film from writer director Lee Cronin and is the fifth film in the Evil Dead franchise. It is not a reboot or remake, but a standalone entry in the same ‘universe’ as previous films. Rob Tapert returns as producer and Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are executive producers.

After a great little pre-credits sequence that takes place in the woods complete with an ominous cabin, the film shifts to Los Angeles. Guitar technician Beth (Lily Sullivan) visits her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids, teenagers Bridget and Danny (Gabrielle Echols & Morgan Davis) and pre-teen Kassie (Nell Fisher), in their apartment in the recently condemned Monde Apartments Building. While the estranged sisters talk about their recent issues, the kids are sent to get pizza. When they return, whilst in the basement parking lot, an earthquake hits, uncovering a hole in the basement floor leading to an old vault, as the building used to be a bank. Danny goes down and finds religious artifacts, three phonograph records, and a mysterious book. He takes them, hoping they could financially benefit the family.

Upon playing the records, an old priest’s voice is heard reading from the mysterious book, one of the three volumes of the Naurom Demonto , the book of the dead. The book flies open and the pages flip between images as an evil force is released and possesses Ellie. She is now a deadite. As she terrorises the rest of the people in apartments on her floor, and her family, they begin to turn into demonically possessed deadites. Beth must battle the undead forces and save as much of her family as she can.

This film is an entertaining and harrowing ride. The direction, Dave Garbett’s cinematography, Stephen McKeon’s freaky score, and the reliance on practical and make-up effects created an uneasy and creepy atmosphere throughout. The gore is impressive, as are the performances from the two female leads Sullivan and Sutherland. There are some thematic call backs to previous films too. The design of the ‘book’ is great. I would like to see more standalone like this. Exceptional horror. And yes, there is a chainsaw.

Creepiest line: “Mommy’s with the maggots now”

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight (2018)

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight is an adult themed animated superhero film from Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics. Directed by Sam Liu and written by Jim Krieg, it is based on an Elseworlds graphic novel created by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola that reimagines Batman in a Victorian-era Gotham City as he fights crime.

In this old-world Gotham, a mysterious killer of women nicknamed ‘Jack The Ripper’ by the newspapers has been terrorising the city. Police Commissioner James Gordon and Chief of Police Harvey “Bulldog” Bullock (Scott Patterson & John DiMaggio) have no leads. At the preview for the rich and powerful at the Gotham City World’s Fair, stage actress Selina Kyle (Jennifer Carpenter) berates them both for their indifference to the deaths of the poor and destitute women of the city.

Bruce Wayne/Batman (Bruce Greenwood) are looking into the killings. It is a case close to him as Sister Leslie, who runs an orphanage and sanctuary for women, was someone who cared for him after his parents died. On numerous occasions both Batman and Selina Kyle/Catwoman encounter Jack, but are unable to take him down. They speculate that he has had military training, is a boxer, and has had medical training, possibly a doctor. The investigation takes them to the Dionysus Club, the Gotham Cathedral and cemetery, Arkham Asylum, and finally the Gotham World Fair. Where they both square off against the infamous serial killer. And if you are not familiar with the story, you wouldn’t see the ending coming.

The film in story and visuals, takes a lot from the Jack the Ripper case, the H.H. Holmes case, Hammer Horror films, and the tales of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. And while the animation does show the killings graphically on screen, there is a darkness to the violence and the dialogue that elevates the story being told. Also, a shout out to the fight scenes in the film. The animated sequences move through fighting styles like various martial arts, boxing and street brawling with an eye to believability. The final fight is a highlight. DC does serial killer fiction. It’s chilling and exciting and masterfully done. And Anthony Stewart Head voicing Alfred. So extra cool.

The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

The Pope’s Exorcist is a 2023 supernatural horror film directed by Julius Avery and written by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos. The films is based on the books, 1990’s An Exorcist Tells His Story and 1992’s An Exorcist: More Stories by Father Gabriele Amorth, who indeed did work as the chief exorcist to the Vatican, being appointed to the position in 1986.

In the film, Father Amorth (Russell Crowe) is a down-to-Earth man, humorous, a little cheeky, practical and a learned man who rides a red scooter. In the opening scene, Amorth performs an exorcism not sanctioned by the church and is brought to a tribunal, with many of the younger cardinal’s sceptical of demonic possession. Amorth tells them most possessions are just disturbed or mentally ill people who can be cured with a little theatre.

In Spain, an American family, mother Julia (Alexandra Essoe), and her two children Amy (Laurel Marsden) and Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) have taken possession of an old Spanish abbey they wish to renovate and sell. They are all still traumatised by the death of their husband and father a year earlier. Soon after arriving at the house, Henry roams the abbey, comes across a hole in a basement wall, containing a religious seal that is broken. He begins to act strangely. The boy is possessed. After the local priest Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto) is thrown through a door, he requests help. And that is when Father Amorth enters their lives.  The exorcist soon discovers the possession is real and sets about trying to save the boy and the family from the demonic presence in the house with the help of Father Esquibel. They uncover a long-held secret the Vatican buried.

The possessed rival The Exorcist, with practical make-up effects and CGI enhancing the scares and the sense of dread and tension. Crowe is on form here, playing a character you want to follow and see succeed. An unsung hero of the cloth, if you will. The story, like The Conjuring films, holds a little more psychological weight knowing they were based on real events, well, to a point anyway. DeSouza-Feighoney is damn impressive as Henry and Franco Nero plays The Pope. A flawed but decent and entertaining effort.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a 2023 action-adventure superhero film from director James Wan, writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, DC Comics and Warner Bros.

In the five years since we saw him last, Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) was crowd king of Atlantis, got married to Mera (Amber Heard), has a son named Arthur Jr., and he and Mera split their time between the surface world and the underwater kingdoms. This is also personified in Arthur’s parents, Tom (Temuera Morrison) on and his mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) give aid and advice in not only raising a child of both worlds, but also with responsibilities of ruling a massive hidden world.

While all this is going on, David Kane/Black Manta (Tahya Abdul-Mateen II), has been looking for abandoned Atlantean technology in the hopes of fixing his power suit so he can take his revenge on Aquaman and his home. He is aided by a crew led by his second in command Stingray (Jani Zhao) and Dr Stephen Shin (Randall Park) who just wants to be proven right about his Atlantis theories. What this finds is the lost kingdom of Necrus frozen in the ice. They awaken the evil inside when Kane finds the Black Trident and is possessed by the spirit of the King Kordax (Pilou Asbaek) whose revenge matches Kane’s. The bad guy’s plot is to use an ancient abandoned fuel source Orichalcum, to heat the planet quickly to free Necrus, and use Atlantean royal blood to break the spell imprisoning Kordax and his army. Arthur breaks his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) out of prison to help, and an element of the buddy cop film is introduced. When baby Arthur Jr. is kidnapped, the whole weight of the seven kingdoms descends on the bad guys.

This film is fun. But it is not going to reinvent the genre. Wan is excellent behind the camera, Rupert Gregson-Williams score fits perfectly, the two leads and the villains are excellent, and there are even good moments for Dolph Lundgren and Martin Short.  While I liked this film, some won’t. It is very derivative of The Matrix, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. The visuals, humour and message make it a solid effort.

Babylon 5: The Road Home (2023)

Babylon 5: The Road Home is a 2023 direct-to-video animated film from director Matt Petters, writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski (the original series creator) and Warner Bros Animation.

After the events of the Shadow War, President of the Interstellar Alliance John Sheriden (Bruce Boxleitner) and his wife Mimbari ambassador Delenn, have officially relocated to Mimbar. While opening a new power station as part of his ceremonial duties, Sheridan starts to experience weird Déjà vu. When he finds out that the power station uses tachyons as a power source, he begins to panic. In the events of the season 3 two-parter “War Without End”, Sheridan became ‘unstuck’ in time, as his close proximity to the tachyon engine when it is activated, he disappears, becoming unstuck in time again. But unlike last time, Sheridan is also ‘slightly out of phase’ which causes him to not only shift between periods in time, but also into other timelines and universes parallel to his. Yes, this is a multiverse story, but one that is connected to the series in history and lore. And we get to see future, past and alternate versions of beloved characters from that series.

Sheridan must navigate through each place he arrives in, help where he can, all the while trying to reach the planet of Epsilon 3, the mysterious machine, and the fan favourite alien alley Zathas, which he believes will help him return to his own timeline. This movie is a fantastic 75 mins on not only fantastic animated sci-fi adventure, but of Babylon 5 as a pop culture mainstay. It is a celebration of the original show, made with the fans in mind. It wears this on its sleeve, along with the heart of the characters and both the science and spiritual messages that Straczyski is a master at.

The animation, handled by Studio Mir, is freak great. Stylised, uniquely designed, and moves well. No Christopher Franke score this time, but the music fits right in and hits all the right buttons. All the surviving members of the original cast return. Along with Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Peter Jurasik, Bill Mumy, Tracy Scoggins and Patricia Tallman step back into their characters. Everything I wanted. I was teary eyed.  

Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story (2022)

This documentary from 2022 is directed by Christopher Griffiths and Gary Smart that is about the life, films, and cultural impact of the actor/director Robert Englund.

The documentary trails the early life of this beloved icon, his first taste of treading the boards, early film roles, fame, people he has worked with, personal life, and Englund coming to terms with being a pop cultural icon and a horror legend.

While he has appeared in film and television in every conceivable genre, he is best known for playing notorious dream demon and child killer Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which consists of 8 films and a TV series.

I have always loved this man’s work. I first saw him on the TV mini-series ‘V’ (yes, I’m that old) when I was a youngling. His films have become a mainstay of my cinematic obsession, and not just the horror output. But I have to admit, his work in the horror genre is my fav and second to none. And he was never afraid of typecasting, he leaned into it.

The docos covers so much about the man in the two hour plus run time, some I knew and some I didn’t. It is presented with insight, love for the subject, a little animation, Sean Schafer Hennessy’s score, and a focus on the stories. And the ‘talking heads’ are a who’s who. Apart from Englund himself and his wife Nancy Booth, we also have Lance Henriksen, Eli Roth, Jill Schoelen, Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Amanda Wyss, Bill Moseley, Lin Shaye, Kane Hodder, Monica Keena, Kelly Jo Minter, Heather Langenkamp, Adam Green, Tony Todd, Miko Huges, Dennis Christopher, Tuesday Knight, Mick Garris, Corey Talyor, Dwight H Little, and old friend William Katt.

This is a gorgeous celebration of Rober Englund, his life, work, fans and much deserved icon statis.

He is a few of my Englund favs they covered. 976-Evil, The Last Showing, New Nightmare, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, Fear Clinic, Galaxy of Terror and The Phantom of the Opera.

Seriously worth watching.

Open Windows (2014)

Opens Windows is a Mystery Thriller Crime story from writer director Nacho Vigalondo that uses fandom, voyeurism, the internet and heavy influences from Hitchcock and Brian de Palma to make an ambitious and inventive film.

Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood), wins a contest to meet his favourite actress, Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey). Nick also runs an online fan site dedicated to Jill. When he is in his hotel room before the meeting/dinner, Nick is informed by Chord (Neil Maskell), Jill’s manager, that the dinner has been cancelled, Nick is devastated. But while online, Chord sends Nick a link to his laptop that opens a live stream. That live stream is of the cameras all around the convention Jill is currently appearing at, but also security cameras and the camera and microphone in Jill mobile phone. This makes Nick uneasy. At this point, Chord has Nick trapped and manipulates Nick. How, you ask? Well, Chord is not Jill’s manager, but an obsessed fan of Jill, who has set Nick up. The contest didn’t exist, the hotel has no record of Nick staying there, and all his devices are now keyed to stalking Jill.

What follows is a tense cat and mouse thriller, as Chord essentially directs Nick where to go and what to do, and none of it is good. Nick is helped by three French hackers, the ‘Triop’, who believe Nick is a master hacker, and they want to impress him. What makes this thriller interesting and unique, is that it is told through ‘open windows’ on a laptop screen. All the car chases, stalker moments, acts of violence, and our hero, are all portrayed via these open windows. An idea like this cannot be fully sustained over multiple films, it has no legs as a subgenre as tech evolves too quickly, but the story here is well crafted and holds your attention despite the tech of the time. Wood is our main focus and nails it, as does Grey as Jill whose performance is nothing short of amazing. Vigalondo’s direction, Jorge Magaz’s score, Jon D. Domingnez’s cinematography, and Bernat Vilaplana editing make this a gripping film to watch. A little film with big ambitions, highly inventive and a fun ride. With a great fucking twist ending.

Renfield (2023)

Renfield is a 2023 horror comedy from director Chris McKay and writer Ryan Ridler, from a story by Robert Kirkman, and released by Universal Studios.

This film has two major storylines, that could be separate films in and of themselves, colliding in gory and hilarious fashion. New Orleans Police Officer Rebecca Qunicy (Awkwafina) is pissed off that she on been relegated to traffic duty along with her partner Chris (Adrian Martinez), because she goes out of her way to harass and ultimately arrest the members of the Lobo crime family who are responsible for the death of her father. Their influence has kept her out of the way.

Meanwhile, Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is in a support group for codependent relationships. Why? Well, he is the bound servant of Dracula (Nicholas Cage) who has been tasked with looking after his master’s needs. Which includes finding him people to eat. And it weighs heavy on him. He uses the group to get better, but also to feed the other group’s abusive partners to Dracula. And one of these ‘victims’ is a criminal who, along with his two buddies, stole a large amount of drugs from the Lobo family. Renfield goes to get these bad guys for his master at the same time Teddy Lobo (Ben Schwartz) and his goons show up. After Renfield despatches the goons, Teddy and the drugs run a traffic checkpoint manned by Rebecca. The two stories meet. Renfield saves Rebecca the next night, and believes he could be a hero, or at least a good person. And take positive steps to change. But Dracula isn’t having it.

Dracula makes a deal with Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashlou, the woman with the deepest, smokiest, sexiest voice in film history) and Renfield and Rebecca are framed and are on the run from cops, corrupt cops, the Lobo crime family, and Dracula’s new army of familiars. What follows is a fun, gory, fantasy romp with horror elements amid the cop thriller style action and bombastic fight scenes. Hoult and Awkwafina and a great double act, and Nicholas Cage chews the scenery to perfection. The lighting used heightens the humour and horror of the scenes, as does Marco Beltrami’s score. I am so up for a sequel.