Finally! This is what a Godzilla movie was meant to be! Since 1954, there have been 37 movies with “Godzilla” in the title, with another (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) set for a 2024 release. Of the 37, only four are animated. Almost all are Japanese-made. The handful of American-made films, including Godzilla (1998), Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), are mediocre at best. These films failed to execute in many ways, something Takashi Yamazaki’s (Lupin III: The First, Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura) nearly impeccable Godzilla Minus One does not.
Category Archives: Horror
Bones and All (2022)
If a story about a pair of two young, hungry lovers devouring the flesh from a still-warm body that one of them has just killed sounds like your cup of tea, Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name, I Am Love) Bones and All is the movie for you. If a plot line that revolves around cannibalism revolts you, this would be a hard pass. In either case, if there’s one December. 2022 release to skip the concessions on, that film is Bones and All.
The Menu (2022)
Mark Mylod’s (What’s Your Number?, The Big White) The Menu is far from a movie that usually interests me. It’s exceptionally outrageously strange while still trying to come across as something meant to be believable. I’m also not much of a fan of dark humor. Films like American Psycho, This Is The End, Burn After Reading, Blazing Saddles, The Cabin in the Woods, Little Miss Sunshine, The Favourite, Birdman, In Bruges, Inglorious Bastards, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Being John Malkovich, Borat, A Simple Favor, Hail, Caesar!, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, The Cable Guy, Jo Jo Rabbit, The Ref, Trainspotting, The Big Lebowski, Funny Games, The War of the Roses, Adaptation, Heathers, Rushmore, Death to Smoochy, Snatch, Knives Out, Observe and Report, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Game Night, or The Lobster don’t do it for me.
Smile (2022)
If watching the trailer for first-time feature director Parker Finn’s Smile evokes memories of a particularly disturbing videotape from an, at the time, unknown movie that had the casual horror filmgoing fan cowering their eyes behind their hands for the better part of two hours, it’s because it’s supposed to. I’m referring to, of course, the 2002 classic The Ring, and the comparison I’m making is the phone call the watcher receives after watching the videotape that tells them they have seven days to live. Likewise, the trailer for Smile informs us that when the viewer sees “it” (what “it” is, we are uncertain), they will soon die. While there are both similarities and differences between the two films, what is certain is that The Ring generated $129 million domestically at the box office, which Finn would gladly like to duplicate.
Barbarian (2022)
The most important advice from the various reviews I read about Barbarian, Zach Cregger’s (Miss March) first stab (pun intended) in the horror genre, was to know as little about the film as possible before watching it. As many of the reviewers I respect mention this in the early parts of their reviews, I will do the same. If you need some assurances before making a decision, watch the first part of the trailer. If you have enough data to decide, cut off the trailer.