Tagged: Movie Review

Sam Was Here (2017)

Directed by Christophe Deroo

Viewed on Shudder

    A few days ago I was trawling through Shudder, looking for movies to watch when I stumbled upon Sam Was Here, a uniquely premised horror movie whose summary promised a mix of Black Mirror, Rob Zombie, and David Lynch. That struck me as an incredibly strange mix of directors/shows that diverge strongly in terms of visual style, storytelling conventions, and even their typical mediums, which, even though I’m only a huge fan of one of those listed folk, made me instantly curious as to how this mixture would turn out. If that sounds interesting, join me as I venture further into Sam Was Here!

Bird Box (2018)

Directed by Susanne Bier

Viewed on Netflix

Summary: Sandra Bullock sleepwalks through this dull, monotonous, disappointing horror movie that has somehow taken the internet by storm.

If you’ve been on the internet in the past two weeks, then I probably don’t need to introduce Bird Box, what with the memes and viral ‘Bird Box Challenge’ that Netflix is begging people not to do. Oh, also that fact that more than 45 million Netflix accounts have seen the movie. So if you’re reading this and have a Netflix subscription, or have the password to someone’s account, then there’s a good chance you’ve probably already seen it. Before I get into my thoughts on the movie itself, I have to admit my sole reason for watching the movie was to check out what made so many people interested in it.

Escape Room (2019)

Directed by Adam Robitel

Viewed in Theatre

Two things before we get into Escape Room. The first is a PSA, because there’s one scene, pretty late in the movie, where a room begins flashing strobe lights and there was no warning before the movie or on the poster outside the viewing room that indicated there would be any reason that people who have certain kinds of epilepsy might be triggered by things in the movie. That’s not okay. The Incredibles 2 snafu last year is still fresh in my mind, so why did no one at SONY, a multinational corporation, think about this? Very irresponsible. The second is that this is a horror movie released in January, which is typically not a good sign. Now that we’ve front loaded this with bad news, let’s talk about Escape Room!

Terrified (2017)

Directed by Demian Rugna

Viewed on Shudder

Summary: Abundant scares and quick pacing make this Argentinian horror instantly accessible to all horror fans, even though it is a bit uneven.

I try to watch as much foreign horror as I can. There are so many great movies out there that I just haven’t seen because not all f them are dubbed/subtitled or even get distribution where I live, so when I’m able to see a movie from a country I’ve never seen one from before, I get pretty excited! I had just that opportunity today with the movie Terrified, a horror film from Argentina that I’ve heard quite a few good things about! And I should watch this before the American remake comes out… I would normally not be thrilled about such a new movie getting remade, but this remake is being produced by a filmmaker I love, Guillermo Del Toro, so bring it on! Woah, got really off track there. On to Terrified!

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Directed by John McPhail

Viewed in Theatre

Some of you may be wondering, “What the hell is Anna and the Apocalypse, I’ve never heard of it?” That is a perfectly good question, because frankly I hadn’t heard of it until days before it came to a theatre near me, and even then it’s only because I follow people on Twitter who talk about horror movies. I saw no posters at the movie theatre I go to regularly, no trailers or anything to let me know it was coming, it just arrived one day! I guess I can’t be too surprised about that, given that this movie may not have the most cross genre appeal given that this is a Scottish Christmas Zombie Musical, perhaps the first film in that very specific subgenre. Before I get into the good and ill of this movie, I will just say this, if the idea of seeing a Christmas Zombie Musical sounds at all interesting, go see the movie. It might not be playing near you right now, but I get the feeling it’s making the rounds through select markets, so it could show up at any moment. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dig a little deeper into Anna and the Apocalypse!

You Might Be The Killer (2018)

Directed by Brett Simmons

Viewed on Shudder

You Might Be The Killer may be the best example of why you should never judge a movie by its plot summary. The summary here basically says that Sam, our main character, flees from a masked killer at camp and slowly realizes that he may be the killer, and that he has to have his friend Chuck help guide him through horror movie tropes to try and survive the night. I figured this would be a really hokey tongue in cheek tribute to 80s slasher movies and I am not a huge fan of those kind of nostalgia trips but I decided to watch this because it was featured on Shudder and thought I may as well give this a chance and boy, am I glad I did because I don’t think I have ever been as surprised by a movie as much as this one.