Movie Nights: Week in Review 1.5-1.11
This week was full of frights and final girls.
Influencer
We liked this one a lot. Cassandra Naud plays a con artist and clearly unstable young woman CW, in this suspenseful thriller. CW is set on doing a little more than ruining some influencers lives. First she finds Madison, a girl traveling in Thailand alone. She befriends her, steals her passport and ultimately maroons her on an island. It is made clear she has done this multiple times before by photos of other girls pinned on her wall in her darkroom and graves on the island. She does this latest job a little too sloppy and this is the story of her lies unraveling. The story is believable, high paced and unfolds well. This movie also has a killer score which is always a plus. We LOVED the ending. Definitely worth a watch if you like psychological thrillers.
Photo credit IMDB
Ready or Not
One of our favorites, this one is funny, dark and fast paced. The dialogue feels authentic and natural, the jokes don’t take away from the movie or make it too silly. Samara Weaving and Adam Brody really carry the main humor but its humorous throughout situationally as well. The violence in it is so much fun and this is just a wild ride. We loved the progression of the dress getting dirtier and bloodier throughout the night, she wore seventeen different versions of the dress in the film and they all flow seamlessly. You can really tell what care and thought they put into it. The kills are a mix between brutal and hilarious, what more do you want in a horror comedy? We LOVE Grace, our main character. Samara Weaving kills this performance and is so funny. With an iconic ending shot this movie is great from start to finish.
Photo credit IMDB
Alone
Alone is full of anxious moments, poor decisions, and tension. This 2020 survival thriller is shot in the beautiful Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon for the most part, giving us that horror in the woods vibe. It follows an arguably foolish woman as she is stalked by a killer on the road and through the woods. Jules Wilcox plays our main character, a woman who seems to make all the wrong moves and isn’t very likable in our opinion. Marc Menchaca does an incredible job playing this creepy murderer. He has the classic look of a Jeffery Dahmer style serial killer and we dug that. One part we really enjoyed watching was the realistic foot injury, if you’re going to do the “running girl falls” trope it’s nice to see something more creative than a broken ankle. We loved the ending, despite almost hating the main character. By the end you gotta root for the final girl and she
Photo credit IMDB
Barbarians
This one was a little bit of a slow burn, a more chill opening and the first half of the movie left us wondering when the horror would begin. None of the characters are especially likable and neither of the couples really feel like a good fit. The social media guy “Lucas” is beyond annoying and all of the characters just interacted so awkwardly with each other. Main Characters Iwan Rheon, Ines Spiridonov and Tom Cullen all give fine performances; it's just not enough to carry the boring plot. It feels more like watching a drama for most of it. When the horror does start it gets broken down for you with little title scenes for each part which felt kind of overdone. The masks in the movie were creepy and there is some terror when some men invade their home but overall it lacked many horror aspects or depth. This was essentially a movie about a dinner party that went wrong and left us feeling a little unsatisfied. We didn’t love it, if you’ve seen the masks you’ve already seen the coolest part of the movie, it didn’t have anything extraordinary that made it worth watching.
Photo © IFC Midnight
Totally Killer
This one was fun pretty much from beginning to end. Kiernan Shipka is our main character, a teenager that time travels to 1987 when the “Sweet Sixteen Killer” resurfaces 37 years after horrific crimes have been committed in her town. It’s a great horror whodunnit with a back to the future twist. They do a great job of towing the line between humorous and horrific. We loved the little recreation of crime scenes in the beginning, it was adorable. All the excessive stabbing throughout was fantastic, we loved the 16 stabs per victim being the killer's MO. We love a killer in a good mask, it was shot well and flowed nicely. The scenes of them in the Tilt-a-whirl time machine were creative and different. The music works really well throughout to create a fun 80s vibe and makes the slaughter a lot more fun. Worth a watch if you’re looking for a horror comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Photo © Amazon Content Services LLC
Death Proof
SPOILER ALERT: This one is gold, a horror classic. Starts off great with a fantastic soundtrack that fits perfectly throughout and we love the dialogue between the friends while driving to the first bar. All the characters work really well together and feel relatable. There are so many memorable scenes in this film, two of our favorites being the iconic lap dance in the first bar, followed by the amazing first kill scene. We also love love love the car crash scene with the first group of girls Jungle Julia, Butterfly and Shanna (Sydney Tamiia Poiter, Vanessa Ferlito and Jordan Ladd) . The way we get to see the crash from each angle for each of the women in the car was incredible. The movie feels like a beautiful mix between a serial killer slasher and a 70s’ action exploitation film. The humor is heavy throughout but never a distraction from the moment. Kurt Russell gives an incredible performance as the murderous Stuntman Mike. The second group of girls he stalks are so badass and fun to watch(Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms and Zoe Bell). Two of them are stuntwomen from Hollywood and they give Stuntman Mike the ride of his life! It starts with Zoe Bell holding onto the top of a car using only belts and ends in his demise. These final girls do it right by killing him at the end with a heel to the skull. This is a MUST see but we’re betting most of you already have.
Photo by Andrew Cooper/Photo Credit: Andrew Cooper, SMP - © 2006 Dimension Films. All Rights Reserved.
Kill of the week goes to Butterfly getting her face scraped off by the tire on Stuntman Mike’s Death Proof Car.
#ad