Year: 2012
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Descriptions of sexual assault and horror noises/sounds, lots of screaming and uncomfortable noises
Summary: A sound engineer who works on nature films gets more than he bargained for as he travels to Italy, only to find out he's working on a horror movie.
I was shocked to find out that a lot of people don’t like this movie. I think the plot summaries of it do not do a good job preparing you for the film, giving the wrong impression. I don’t even think my plot summary does a particularly good job of it…!
It has really good acting, AMAZING sound, though the plot leaves a lot of things were unanswered and I don’t really understand it all, I see it as a descent into transgression, people being meaner to each other as time goes on, crossing boundaries, the main guy being told to be rude, and even the last scene with the actress who takes over from the previous woman. I think it’s showing a descent of the main guy from a soundman for something benign to being swept up and overtaken by those around him, hence the scenes where his language changes and the ending scene.
I don’t think this movie is for everyone. It’s definitely more of an auditory experience than the plot itself. There’s no outright horror aside from that which is described for the movie. If you’re someone who likes a foreboding, uncomfortable atmosphere in horror but not necessarily the gore, guts, killers and monsters, I think you might like this; but if not, maybe just skip it.
Year: 2009
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Physical domestic abuse (child to parent, once child to sibling, once parent to child), Animal death (mentioned), Blood [light], hospitalization [/scenes in a hospital]
Summary: A mockumentary revolving around a large family in Japan.
Saiko! BFB:TLF is one of my favorite types of horror movies. It's not gorey, there are no supernatural beings, this movie just revolves around a seemingly normal family that just leaves you with the feeling of unease the further along you get into it. The mood the movie sets is perfect, from the Canadian “documentary crew” coming to see this family (along with some fun mispronounced Japanese from the host trying to be informative), to the amazing acting by everyone involved. I'm sure if I was younger and came across this by chance, I would probably think it was just another travel documentary.
This movie's underlying storyline is very smoothly executed and easy to miss, but I think putting together the pieces is part of the fun of the movie.
Year: 2024
Rating: 4.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Horror, blood/gore (I could be forgetting things)
Summary: A father and his daughter attend a pop star's concert as a killer is on the loose.
I am not a M. Night Shyamalan fan. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a fan of his movies. What I do know is this is not convincing me further. A good portion of this movie is solely a plug for his daughter’s career. I’m no fan of nepotism but you know, I won’t explicitly knock people for using family in their projects… If they can do the work. Her singing is… I guess standard pop, nothing too interesting for me (I like pop, but her voice isn’t my thing), but not atrocious either. Her acting… well…….
However, her acting wasn’t what confused me about this movie– the whole set up and plot did. No one knows who the killer they’re searching for is, but they know he’s going to be at a concert with roughly 3000 dudes there [there are many other people at the concert, but fitting a vague idea]. Absolutely makes no sense. Also, perhaps I have not gone to a big enough pop concert, but I have been at larger concerts… When does the main act have an intermission anyway…?
I think this movie could’ve been interesting. At first, I thought the direction they were going to go was there’s two killers and this dude is paranoid when theyre not even searching for him. I would’ve found that more interesting…! However, it was this guy Mission Impossible-ing his way out of every situation. At a certain point, it just became comical. I wasn’t even mad. Maybe that’s why my score isn’t as bad as my review thus far makes it seem. The ending? I just had to laugh too. Laugh why I spent 1h45m on this, waiting for it to get better. It’s stupid. My god is it ever. But I can’t even say it’s the worst thing ever. Least this movie doesn’t have weird ableism in it like some of Shyamalan’s previous works I’ve also disliked… Just an incoherent plot.
These are movies I watched but didn't write reviews for. Any comments made here are made months later as I polish these.
The Final Girls (2015) ... 7.0
Fine enough horror movie. The backbone of it is quite sad and touching.
Strange Circus (2005) ... 7.5
I might rewatch this to write an actual review; I think the twist was unexpected. (Big content warning for this movie)
Ring (1998) ... 7.0
Okay movie; I think I heard so much about this movie-- both good and bad-- that it just kind of landed at okay.
The Forest of Love (2019) ... 7.5
Another one I might rewatch, but in particular, via the mini-series because I think that would add a lot to it.
Ichi the Killer (2001) ... 8.0
Fun! I might rewatch this as well!
Pieces (1982) ... 7.0
A fun watch, especially the ending was so silly it made it worth it.
Eaten Alive (1976) ... ???
Genuinely unsure how to rate this even months later. The atmosphere is amazing however.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) ... 6.0
The only thing I wrote for this was "horror themed Once Upon A Time before Once".
Spasmo (1975) ... 6.5
I actually did a review of this, but I'm holding back on releasing it because I really want to rewatch it. I think the start was kind of slow but the ending was unexpected and interesting and I want to go back and rewatch it with that in mind.
10:12pm .. .. // 01.12.2025
These reviews were originally written in September 2024, but I never got around to organizing them during that time, hence the date discrepancy.