EvilPhoEniX

A generic and forgettable mainstream exorcism flick that should have been straight to VOD. The trailer was nice and pretended to be something refreshing, but it's drowned in clichés and unimaginative horror scenes. The very idea of a nun who resolutely believes that performing exorcisms is her calling is quite passable. The actress is likeable and the school of exorcists is something we may not have seen before, but they could definitely have squeezed more out of the relatively appealing premise, instead they relied more on the stuff seen a hundred times over. Fortunately, the film is only 90 minutes long and goes by pretty quickly, and I liked that it wasn't about only one possessed person, there were more (the little girl managed to be creepy), but I still found it underwhelming. The atmosphere doesn't work at all, every potentially interesting scene is ended with the cheapest jump-scare (not a single one worked for me in the whole movie), the finale in the catacombs does have a nice setting, but that's about it. It's classically PG-13, so no violence, the plot doesn't draw you in much and you don't care much about the characters. Watching it, I felt like I was watching a regular movie. Had I seen it movie at home, I would go even lower with the rating maybe. For myself, I recommend going to see Smile without a second thought. 5/10.

Art is Back! Terrifier 2 has been a huge success overseas. It is even one of the highest rated horror films of the year on Imdb, and there are articles in the newspapers about how American audiences are vomiting and fleeing the cinemas, which is of course a marketing ploy that shows up once a year for at least one horror film. Terrifier 2 is slightly better than the first. Damien Leone can conjure up some decent stuff for little money, and given the success of the second installment, he could do a little more ambitious work in the third. What's nice about it is the 1970-80s retro look, you can see a trashy B-movie from a bygone era that you don't see much of nowadays, but there's a lot of honest effort in this one. Art is a pretty iconic character that could be lumped in with Jason, Myers and others. I'm a bit disappointed that he is silent throughout the film, if he'd dropped wisecracks while doing his thing I'd probably be happier. Anyway, he's twisted in a big way and does nasty things to his victims. The bed scene is the definite highlight of the film! He scalps a woman, breaks her and rips off all her limbs, skins her and salts her! Mortal Kombat fatality, you can't make that up! I'll definitely remember this for a long time! The gore is good, it pays homage to Fulci and Savini, sometimes you can see it’s a dummy, but it's not downright annoying like in other movies. The finale in the haunted house is also awesome due to the interesting setting, and it must be noted that the little creepy girl is the scariest part of the whole film. The main character is likeable, the music is okay, so even though it could have been half an hour shorter and some of the dialogue was slightly painful, I didn't mind it at all. This year, along with The Sadness, a clear must-see gore ride for the Better Ones, the Evolved Ones, the Chosen Ones who give the middle finger to all those intellectual fuckers and art nerds. 8/10.

Squid Game star Lee Jeong-jae tries his hand at directing for the first time and delivers a solid spy political thriller based on true events. Hunt is set in the 1980s where two top agents who are also rivals with each other try to track down a spy from North Korea, I'd call it a high stakes thriller. There are double agents, infiltrators, brutal interrogations, temporary alliances, double-crosses, lies, dictatorial pawns and horrifying revelations. For non-Korean audiences the plot will be slightly convoluted, there is so much information that it is difficult to navigate at times and multiple viewings seem a necessity, but I still managed to enjoy the film. The two rival Korean stars in the limelight, Lee Jeong-jae and Jeong Woo Seong, are my favourites and Hwang Jung-min is a delight in a smaller role. The performances are superb, you can see all the money, there's one impressive twist and the action is good too, though I have minor reservations about it. The trailer touted a proper action load and unfortunately that doesn't happen, there's less action than I would have liked and it's hardly brutal at all. Technically, however, it's on a high level and the shootouts have a lot of pizzazz (the shootout in the building is awesome). The best part is of course the finale, where they plan the assassination of the dictator and it's a 15 minute action romp with tons of dead bodies. So for me, traditionally good Korea and a well deserved success. 7.5/10.

A crime-drama/thriller from Australia based on true events. I was looking forward to The Stranger, but I'm not so happy with the result. It's a slow burn (extremely slow) where an undercover cop tries to get a confession from a murderer who kidnapped and murdered a child. Joel Edgerton is classically great and Sean Harris is also a great actor, he may be the one it all relies on. The downright interesting stuff starts with the police operation once the proper Australian manhunt begins (it is the biggest manhunt in Australian history). The investigation and evidence gathering is reminiscent of Zodiac, and in that way the film is interesting, but it's still pretty much an unengaging, drawn out affair. Personally, it lacks the violence or any downright violent scenes for me to be satisfied, it fizzles out like that, but it's not a bad film at all, it just manages to win over a very patient audience. 5.5/10.

After the great X comes a steep fall that leaves bitter aftertaste. Ti West isn't my favourite director, in fact X is the only film I liked from him, so I was definitely curious about the prequel and the original villains, and the rave reviews overseas indicated it was going to be a hit, but here comes quite a disappointment. It's a bit hard to judge because Pearl definitely has its qualities, but from a horror perspective it's a big bummer. X gave a flashback to the hixploitation films of a bygone era, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in particular came to mind for everyone, it had juicy gore, creepy bad guys and soft porn in the first half. Pearl unfortunately has none of that and goes in a different direction, which will no doubt disappoint most viewers. Let's summarize the pros first. The setting in the wartime period of 1918 is nice, a very unusual time for a horror film, so welcome. Mia Goth gives the performance of a lifetime, she's good, psychologically disturbed, believable and able to command attention. The dialogue is also engaging and the cinematography isn't bad either, but that's it unfortunately. If this was a drama, it would be a decent film that is well made and acted, but horror fans will get nothing here. No hint of atmosphere, no gore?!! Okay, that one scene at the end it’s not enough. It's neither creepy nor dark, in fact ‘horror’ seems to me to be a misnomer. It's a psychological study of a disturbed girl in an unconventional period and if you accept that you might be OK, but for my taste it was a heavy slow burn drama and I certainly not what I was expecting. The five-minute monologue and the family dinner during the storm (quite possibly the best scene of the film) was interesting. 5/10.

The big return to Middle Earth in series form could have been more impressive, but it probably disappointed most fans. I’m one of the more satisfied viewers, because even if it doesn't reach the quality of Peter Jackson's trilogy, it's still better than any other recent fantasy show. Amazon opened their wallets and made one of the most expensive series, although you would expect that the money went on action and surprisingly there is not much of it, which is the only major criticism for me, but otherwise I had a great time and looked forward to every episode every week, which is a positive card for me. The lore of Lord of the Rings is very cool at the core and all the races, characters, cities, names, weapons, creatures fascinate me and entertain me a lot. Some plot lines were weaker. The Hobbits, we all agree on that, are the least interesting line. I enjoyed Arondir a lot (the much criticized black elf is ironically one of the best characters) and the villain Adar is excellent (though he didn't have enough space). Galadriel and Halbrand especially in Numenor were a blast, Durin and Elrond were great as well, so the characters grew on me and none of them downright annoyed me. The best episode is Udûn, an action-packed ride with orcs, I was roaring with bliss there, and delighted by the fact that it's surprisingly brutalfor a PG-13. I enjoyed the dialogue, the visuals, the production design, actors, the darker atmosphere and the lots of Easter eggs. I personally didn't have a big problem with it, and I believe it will all go dramatically better with more seasons. So more promise of action, darkness and lore. 7.5/10.

What to do with a comedy that is not funny and a horror movie that is not scary or brutal? This is pure overhyped mess. I was quite looking forward to Deadstream, the reviews were positive, but I'm going to have to go strongly against the grain because I just didn't find it good in many ways. The protagonist is a big problem for me, a whiny unsympathetic moron whom I didn't find funny or entertaining, I felt awkward most of the time, and the whole movie feels like a child youtuber playing “Silent Hill” on Twitch and squealing like a woman while doing it. The acting is so tragic that it would have been bad even in a C-movie. The very concept of the main character spending the night in a haunted house is fine, but I didn't find the house creepy either, in fact I found it so cozy that I would have slept there just fine too. Add to that a lot of bad SFX, worse than Raimi had 40 years back in Evil Dead and there's something to be said (obvious dummies). The plot is weak, the gore is rubbish, the scares didn't impress me one bit, I found it absolutely not funny and the first hour is a heavy cringefest and quite tedious, too. The finale was relatively okay and the found footage form isn't as annoying here as elsewhere, but the financial shortcomings are damn near everywhere. Host and Grave Encounters are gold in comparison. Plus I take it as propaganda of influencers and youtubers, which I hate from the bottom of my heart. 4/10

A surprisingly good little mainstream horror film from a debutant that could be an asset to the genre in the future. I was expecting a flop from Smile after the trailers, one that would end up in the 40-50% range, so the result is very satisfying. It's a combination of It Follows and Truth or Dare, but it takes only the best of both and even surpasses them both in quality. It's got a fine mystery around mysterious suicides and I enjoyed a lot the gradual discovery of what's behind it. The main character slowly starts to get paranoid, ugly things happen to her and her life slowly falls apart. The film has a slower pace at times, especially in the middle, but when it comes to the scares it's honest and effective. There are only a few scares but they work well, the atmosphere can be chilling and I liked the finale where there is a decent amount of creepy shots, and there was actually a bit of violence which I wasn't expecting here at all (when the entity rips the skin off its face I was thrilled). So all in all, a nice surprise, but it won't be quite for teenage girls as it seemed at first glance, they will be laughing most of the time in the cinema. 7/10

When there are only five people in the theater for a new movie on its first weekend, it doesn't bode well. I was quite excited to see The Woman King, but left the theater bored and disappointed. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics are blown away by the film, normal viewers not so much. Some complain about the woke propaganda, others complain about the inaccurate and twisted history – I personally don't care about this and went to enjoy the film, but unfortunately it failed to do much to engage me. I definitely enjoyed the unconventional setting of African culture, where we get a glimpse into the 19th century where women defended the Dahomey kingdom in Africa. A wicked time where women had only two options: marry, work and be someone's maid, or stay a virgin and fight for their country. Oscar winner Viola Davis is great, the young Thuso Mbedu was a surprise, and John Boyega as the king is also fine. Visually, the film looks average, the budget was not probably generous and the plot is not gripping enough to keep the viewer immersed. There is some interesting information and dialogue, but I was pretty fed up by the end. There's very little action, really only at the beginning and end. The finale is definitely a bright spot, the mass battle was good, though the PG-13 rating spoiled it slightly, if it was a R-rated and heads and limbs were flying I might start to be satisfied. I would also single out the scene with the training of the young recruits, which had plenty of suspense, and there was one pretty decent and unexpected twist, but even so I was bored for most of the time, and those two hours felt like three. I don't recommend going to the cinema, only for big history buffs. 5/10.

The reboot of the horror classic Hellraiser for the modern era by the skilled David Bruckner turned out very well for me. Bruckner delivers another decent horror flick after the weaker Dark House and he becomes a very strong guarantee of quality. He showed in both The Ritual and Southbound that he can handle atmosphere and gore and he proves that now, I like his directorial style a lot. I personally consider the original Hellraiser to be an overrated classic. It was definitely an interesting experience at the time it was made, but from today's perspective, I find it to be a mediocre film. The actors, dialogue, script, visuals simply don't impress today and the gore is also laughable. I definitely found the second part better, so this reboot didn't have such a hard time this time and of course it surpassed all the previous entries for me. The first half is a bit slower and not much happens, but I didn't mind it that much. Quite quickly Bruckner won me over to his side and the whole plot and mythology around the puzzle box kept me entertained. The characters are fine, but are definitely not the film’s brighter things. Once the action moves to the castle it starts a proper dense horror hell of a ride like I can't even remember this year. Excellent music and visuals. The Cenobites' arrival on the scene is fucking brilliant. The atmosphere is uncomfortable, their appearance is fucking disturbing and visually stunning (the creativity of the makeup artists is impressive) and the gore is a delight (sure, there could have been more of it, but when it comes down to it, it's TOP quality). There are a lot of interesting and unusual shots that I've never seen anywhere before, so a joy to watch. The final skinning is legendary and quite possibly the most impressive since Martyrs. I also enjoyed the lore and overall got a good feeling from it. I hope Bruckner makes a sequel that will be even wilder, then I'll happily go full on. 8/10.