Year: 1992
Rating: 7.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Sexual assault, murder/death, general sexual content, car accident [hit and run], mentions of pedophilia (not shown)
Summary: A woman named Kitty is trained by an assassin to follow in her footsteps.
This movie is categorically Not Good… But I did enjoy it. Is my love of women clouding it? Maybe. I mean, I wasn't going in thinking it'd be a good movie at all--it's messy, weirdly fast past and feels like whiplash. However, it was a fun experience. I think the general plot of bisexual and lesbian assassins, where there's a focus on killing creeps, is a fun idea.
The outfits and shots of this movie were really nice and smooth– like, surprisingly so. The ending was unexpected in terms of the very last scene. While this movie isn't high brow, I had fun with it, and that's all I can ask for.
Year:
Rating: 5.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Murder, nudity
Summary: Set in the 17th Century during the English Civil War, it’s centered around 5 men who end up coming together to find a treasure in a field after 4 of them have become war deserters. The film slowly descends into a hallucinogenic vision as it goes on after the bulk of the men have eaten mushrooms.
The film is a strange film and definitely has its own unique style and identity. I don’t really think it resonated with me, but I can appreciate the filmmaker making a film they wanted to make. Acting is good, cinematography is good Perhaps it helps a lot more if you have a knowledge of the period of the time and it’s intricacies– but again, personally, it wasn’t a hit with me.
Year: 2006
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Discussions of statuatory rape
Summary: An unpopular teacher at a high school named Barbara befriends a newly hired teacher named Sheba. Their friendship starts blooming, with more than just friendship on Barbara’s mind, but she soon discovers that Sheba is having sex with one of her 15-year old students.
I think this movie is a really unique one if you can watch something to do with the subject matter. I feel they handle the subject overall with care (you can argue the main two don’t, but I think in a story like this where both of them are so fucked up, it works for their characterizations to just be thinking about themselves vs morality of a situation.). The acting is wonderful– it doesn’t miss a beat and it constantly felt tense, keeping the viewer in suspense as the story slowly unfolded. While the main two characters aren’t supposed to be likeable, I think they still made them interesting and well fleshed out.
Year: 1972
Rating: 3.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Incest, mention of sexual assault
Summary: A young girl named Marguerite lives in a rural mansion in Canada with her mother and grandmother and her sole friend, a doll she talks to. However, she yearns to connect with her estranged father, who eventually visits in order to obtain divorce papers from his ex wife in order to marry a new woman.
When I see 70s horror, I have a vague notion of what I’m getting into. This was definitely on the lower end of my expectations though.
I think it had a good set up– a strange young girl, watched over closely by her guardians– her mother and grandmother, an absentee father who she wishes to see, and dolls and botany. The setting was very nice to look at, particularly the internal shots. I think that must’ve been what drew me to the film in the first place.
I do think the main actress does have the look for the part of a creepy girl (minus… I don’t know how anyone thought she looked 15), but some of her acting was so comical, it was really hard to get into for me. I found myself losing more and more interest as it went on, eventually reducing me to wanting to speed it up just to get it done and over with quicker.
Also… I know it’s a movie, but if I was the to-be step-mother, I’d call child services on the dad and get the fuck out of there. I don’t know how I feel about the twist at the end. On one hand, yeah I'll give it credit– I didn’t expect that. I knew it wasn’t a supernatural movie from the get-go though. However, I don’t particularly like that brand of “twist”.
Year: 1989
Rating: 4.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Sex scenes without explicit nudity, non-sexual nudity, dysfunctional families, death
Summary:
A woman named Kay ends up in a relationship with a man at her job due to a tea reading and they begin a relationship. Soon into living together, the relationship begins showing signs of breaking apart. At the same time, Kay’s sister, Dawn, also decides to drop by and stay for an unspecified amount of time uninvited, leading to uncovering more of the family dysfunction.
I think this movie is a weird place for me. On one hand, I enjoyed parts of it, and think it had a good base… On the other hand, I feel it wasn’t developed enough. The acting was fine and I don’t mind that I didn’t feel like rooting for anyone in this story– Unlike something like Notes of a Scandal, the characters didn’t feel interesting enough for that to outweigh their unlikeability. The narrative of it kept me overall entertained but sadly I feel a lot of it was me expecting for it to pick up or do something more. What that “more” was? I don’t know. A lot was delivered and given out, and while I don’t mind “snapshot of life” sort of films, it just didn’t feel like it was all that well done.
Year: 1977
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Nudity, gore, horror
Summary: A girl named Gorgeous is getting ready for summer vacation with her widowed father, who has been away on work. However, when he comes back, he reveals he now has a new wife. Gorgeous writes a letter to her maternal aunt who she’s only met once asking if she can visit her for the summer instead. The aunt sends a letter back inviting her, and she heads out to the mansion with 6 of her friends.
This review is actually on a rewatch. My first time watching this film was actually more or less disappointing– and I think I know why. When I went into this film the first time, I expected something more horror-esque– and while this does have horror elements, this is not a film for someone simply going in for that. I’d describe this film as more of a campy art piece with horror elements than a straight up horror film.
On a rewatch with that in mind, I was able to experience this film in a way that I think did it justice. Since I knew I wasn’t going to get a horror movie, I let myself be swept up in the experience and the camp of the movie.
The movie is best taken for the fun and strange technical aspect of it to me– the effects are goofy sometimes, but it works so well. I’d liken the story to almost an RPGMaker game before they were a thing or more simply, a fun fairytale. It definitely has some parts that weren’t needed, but despite that it still is an enjoyable watch.
Year: 2021
Rating: 6.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Fantasy horror/body horror
Summary: A dream auditor travels to the house of an elderly woman who's behind on her taxes. As he watches her dreams, he finds out there's much more to the world than he thought.
I think this film had potential. I think it had some interesting ideas, but the execution just didn't land it. I think the acting was fine enough– I think the surrealistic nature of the whole scene complimented the acting and vice versa. I think the setup is interesting and unique. I think the look of the film is intriguing– I really appreciate the use of practical effects throughout the film, it adds a lot of charm.
However, the plot is the main issue in this film. The pacing is off and it just leaves you feeling like it's lacking– lacking what? Cohesion, a fleshed out plot, a place where it's really going. I can definitely see there were ideas at play, but it didn't come together to make a super memorial piece.
9:35pm .. .. // 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.