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.
Continue reading Smile (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.
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.
What was that 2022-released movie about some terrifying, highly intelligent entity that identified and hunted its targets in a way that was anything but human? It might have been called 
I have a weak spot for an “actually could happen” horror film that plays on social phobias that many of us experience. When one of these movies is based on actual events, my interest piques even more. The best example I can give is the 2003 film Open Water, which, despite its