Movie Nights: Week in review 4.19-4.25
This week was a win with some sick thrillers and nostalgia watches.
Smile (2022)
We really enjoyed Smile, the opening shot is great, we love the colors and transitions throughout the film and the actors give great performances! It definitely gives It follows vibes but is much more brutal and gory which we love. Wild to think this was Parker Finn's Directorial debut! Our main character is a woman named Rose (Sosie Bacon- Kevin Bacon’s Daughter!) she is a therapist who witnessed a patient kill themselves in front of her and comes to believe she’s inherited a curse from them. She is in a terribly unsupportive relationship with Jessie T Usher who doesn’t believe her and pushes her further into her own “delusions”. The story unravels really well and has really bloody and creative kills. There are a few jump scares but the movie doesn’t rely on them overall to be scary the creepiest part is the eerie smiles throughout. There are some pretty cool effects throughout. We loved the way it was edited and it was genuinely unsettling, we loved it.
Photo Credit IMDB
Disturbia (2007)
Disturbia is a fun teen thriller starring Shia LaBeouf and directed by D.J Caruso. We love this one, it is just too much fun not to and it has a great soundtrack. It starts with Kale (Shia) getting put on house arrest for assaulting his high school Spanish teacher. Bored after his mother revokes his Xbox privileges he takes to spying on the girl next door and watching his neighbors. When he starts to become suspicious that one of them, Mr.Turner (David Morse) is a killer, he and his friends take it into their own hands to get to the bottom of it. This one is fast paced and keeps you entertained throughout. It is a bit predictable but it is enjoyable nonetheless.
Photo Credit IMDB
Halloween H20: 20 years later (1998)
Halloween H20 is one of our favorites, it is just so much fun. We love getting to see Jaime lee Curtis return as Laurie after 20 years, it was a realistic depiction of what her life might look like and we loved it. We also love Josh Hartnett and he is so great in his debut role as John, the teenage son. The Killer’s mask is very silly looking in this installment but other than that it’s classic Michael Myers shenanigans. You care about the characters a little more than the average slasher sequel but really just Laurie and her son. The tension builds well and the suspense has a super 90’s vibe. The setting feels like fall and we get some really fun and bloody kills throughout. In our opinion H20 is the second best Halloween Movie after the original.
Photo Credit IMDB
Urban Legend (1998)
Urban Legend is a really cool concept for a slasher with a fun cast of including Jared Leto, Tara Reed, Michael Rosenbaum, Robert Englund and even an uncredited cameo from Brad Dourif. This one has a super 90’s vibe and we’d loved it since childhood. A complaint about this movie from other people is that it is trying to be “Scream” or “I know what you did last summer” but this doesn’t bother us because we want all the slashers! This one is brimming with teen scream vibes and has some decent performances throughout. Is it predictable? Yes but that isn’t why we watch a slasher, we watch for the fun! Definitely worth a watch if you’re into 90’s slashers at all.
Photo Credit IMDB
Freeway (1996)
Freeway is so much fun and super nostalgic for us. This very dark comedy/thriller stars a young Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland. Growing up in a very broken home, her mom is completely insane (Amanda Plummer) working on the street soliciting men in cars for sex and her stepfather abuses and harasses her in her mother’s absence. They both end up getting arrested and to avoid going back into the system our main character “Rose” decides to run away to her grandmother’s house. (This movie is a twisted take on Little Red Riding Hood) She ends up getting a ride with a serial killer and that is just where the fun starts! For such dark subject matter this movie is shockingly hilarious, the dialogue is so well written and entertaining. Reese Witherspoon does a phenomenal job in this role, she really makes the movie, she is a character you love and hate but still root for. You also get a little taste of Brittney Murphy who also gives a great performance. There are a lot of dark twists and turns with some disturbing and horrific elements including some graphic sexual dialogue along the way but more than anything this movie makes us laugh. A must see for horror comedy fans.
Photo Credit IMDB
Red Eye (2005)
Red Eye is a fun psychological thriller starring Rachel McAdams as Lisa and Cillian Murphy as Jackson, two strangers who meet in an airport. They are both fantastic actors and give great performances, the chemistry they have works really well for these characters. It has some really great tension building throughout especially when they are on the plane, that setting adds claustrophobia and other fear elements (being on a plane is horror in itself). Red Eye is also by Wes Craven who is one of our favorites so that earns this one bonus points. It gets a little wild towards the end of the film once they land the plane and we didn’t love the ending but overall it’s worth a watch if you’re looking for a short and sweet PG-13 thriller with some familiar faces.
Photo Credit IMDB
