A Quiet Place Part II signified the return to the movie theaters following the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, the John Krasinski (Promised Land, Away We Go) directed sequel to 2018’s surprisingly successful A Quiet Place was tabled for its March 2020 release just before the global pandemic ravaged the world. I give movies like Tenet, News of the World, and Wonder Woman 1984 much credit for releasing their films during the year, knowing they would earn far less revenue than if they had waited. I don’t fault movies for delaying their release, but I applaud the big-budget ones that did not. While 2020 allowed more independent films to take center stage at the theaters that continued operating during the shutdown, those movies didn’t necessarily succeed. It was an abysmal year overall for movies. I did go to the theaters 10-15 times between mid-March 2020 and mid-May 2021. Except for once or twice, only a dozen or so people were at my shows.
Category Archives: Horror
Old (2021)
So highly ambitious, so incredibly flawed, but oh so engrossing is M. Night Shyamalan’s (Signs, The Sixth Sense) return to form his latest mind-**** Old. Suppose you’re new to Shyamalan (which I would understand if you are a bit younger and have avoided all of his critical flops since 2002’s Signs, Old might be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen. For the rest of us, we know that somewhere in the film will have a twist. It’s a matter of either trying to figure it out (which is something we inherently do now) or trying to enjoy the ride. I attempted to do both. I succeeded in enjoying the ride. I did not figure out the twist. There’s also the idea that Shyamalan might try to do one of these types of movies without a twist so that it also can be something that plays in your mind. All in all, I was able to set aside all of the many, many imperfections associated with Old and appreciate it for what it was worth and then some.
Wrong Turn (2021)
I recall watching the original Wrong Turn movie in the movie theater in 2003. I enjoyed the movie so much that I bought the DVD when I discovered it in the previously viewed movie bin a few years later. I went over fifteen years between viewings because I wanted to wait for that perfect dark and stormy night to revisit this gem of a film that introduced me to the slasher movie genre. Unfortunately, my rewatch of the movie fell flat. I thought the movie was so poorly made and cheesy that I couldn’t believe I had initially been spooked by it. However, as I look back, I realize this was because I had nothing to compare it against. Of course, there were the Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and Halloween movies, but those had all been established franchises well before I was born. And honestly, I had no interest in watching any of these.
American Psycho (2000)
My recent apparent 2020 trend of alternating between Christian Bale, Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe movies continues with my review of Mary Harron 2000’s cult classic American Psycho. In his first lead role, this film introduced an experienced but still grossly undiscovered Bale (The Fighter, Ford v Ferrari) to the screen.
American Psycho seems like a movie that most people have seen. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve at least heard of it. I’ve seen it three or four times, and each time, I think I will end up liking it more than the time before. And that’s not saying a lot because I wouldn’t say I liked it the first time I saw it and got upset with myself for watching it every four or five years. I want it to be good. It’s just not. The main reason is that it is too obscure. I’m not too fond of zany or batty. I also sometimes like everything laid out before me, so I don’t have to think. American Psycho makes you think, but you have to think too hard, and then you wonder if what you thought was correct or wasn’t anywhere close to being what Harron intended.
Crawl (2019)
In the tradition of other monster movies such as The Meg, Piranha 3D, Lake Placid, and Anaconda, where the beasts of nature wreak havoc on the community, comes Alexandre Aja’s (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) Crawl. This movie is a lot of fun. And by this, by no means am I suggesting it is perfect. It is far from perfect. However, it is a good escape film built around horror.