Year: 1982
Rating: 7.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Animal death/Animal harm (fake), Blood/Gore/Guts, Body Horror
Summary: An Antarctic research station is shaken up after being invaded by a strange creature that takes on the shape of other living creatures.
I see why this has its iconic reputation. I mean, just from the shots of the evil tentacle dogs I was like, “Ohhh that’s where Resident Evil probably got the idea”. It really did seep its tendrils into popular culture and I definitely see why.
I thought it was a good film with a lot of tension. I never really knew who got infected and they did a really good job of making it so unsure. The monstrous things went from at times a little goofy looking to “oh, that’s so nasty, it’s setting off textural issues”-- which both I’m fine with honestly (to be fair: it was a lot more of the latter).
I guess the one thing that confused me was the ending. Like… You guys couldn’t have tried to come up with a better way that just “well, I guess we’ll freeze!” Like you had all that storage and mini-outposts… There were no more ways to make fire…? None…? At all? You couldn’t hole up in one room and make a little fire there and wait it out? Especially because there’s a good chance that whoever comes to rescue you will probably be like, “Man, we need to search this– Oh, what’s this Thing?” Like… Those recordings are presumably gone now too, probably the video evidence from the Norway team… I just don’t get it…
… Other than that, very enjoyable time!
Year: 1999
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Sickness, Death, Discrimination over bodies, Sexual conversations
Summary: A prostitute gets called by conjoined twins. After becoming homeless and seeing the one twin, Francis, fall ill, she helps take care of them.
This was a really unexpected and original film. It was overall really good– from the acting to the filming to the story. The story itself is unlike anything I’ve seen before and felt like a breath of fresh air. I don’t really have a lot to say about it, but it’s definitely an interesting film. It’s much more of a film spent on emotion and human connection than some grand plot and it does that very well.
Year: 1986
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Animal harm/death (seemingly a real dead rat; upsetting treatment of a dog ), Sexual harassment, Bullying
Summary: A group of teenagers received an invite to take a class. However, they soon hear from the teacher that there’s an intruder amongst them. Tension starts to increase as the teens start witnessing weird behaviors from the teacher’s assistants.
This is a film I had to ruminate on a little. It's unique in its approaches and that makes it hard to quantify. To spoil the ending: No one really ends up dying, despite the teacher, referred to as “Father” telling them to leave they must kill one person. I think it’s a unique deviation especially when you think of other horror films and those of the time. On the other hand, aside from a few themes, I guess it didn’t grab me like Chytilovia’s other film I’ve seen, Daisies, which really captured me. It’s not a bad movie, but it might be one I have to rewatch to like it more.
Year: 2024
Rating: 4.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Home invasion, Murder/blood/death, violence
Summary: A man quits his job and moves to the country with his girlfriend to focus on reselling goods at a high markup. Things turn sour, especially after he sells counterfeited bags.
This movie is a slowburn plot coming in at 2 hours that didn’t really need to be 2 hours. That being said, I didn’t outright hate the film. I watched it in a not-so-good mental state and I think it’s kind of what I needed at the moment and I don’t regret watching it.
There’s no issue with the acting and the cinematography but the plot made it trip. I guess it’s really a case of “really? All of this because someone got you mad over 1 thing?” Like don’t get me wrong– I’d understand wanting to kick someone’s ass who overcharged you or who underpaid you massively… But committing to murder and torture seems kind of insane. Like I feel nothing that should’ve been expounded upon really was and it left everyone feeling kind of 1 dimensional. For instance, the main guy’s girlfriend’s only personality trait is loving money. Adding on, there’s no real reason for his would-be assistant to decide to jump in and save him at the end so vehemently.
Again I’m not mad that I watched it, but I am very curious how it got award nominated-
Year: 1989
Rating: 6.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Incest, Abuse, Animal harm/Animal death (death is fake, but you do see a distressed animal), Sexual assault/Sexual harassment/General rape culture sentiments, Death/Murder, Nazism
Summary: A nazi elf is awakened and stalks a young girl.
Man, this movie feels like putting your head in a blender. It feels both like too much and too little at the same time. It’s one I struggle to put my feelings into words, especially because without subtitles, the movie was kind of hard to understand at times, especially when people put on thick, fake German accents. I just have to say it’s an insane movie but I had a good time and move on.
Year: 1989
Rating: 5.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Stalking, Watching someone in a state of undress, Violence/Death/Murder, Animal death (shown off screen but there is a part where the animal is partially dug up), Child abuse (shown off screen but heard), Arson, Domestic fighting (arguments)
Summary: After being released early from a psych program, a man who killed his abusive parents moves into the attic of a house that was recently sold to a famil
Lead actor Gary Busey said this film was, and I quote from wikipedia:
“it was a "NAR film." He explained that NAR meant "No acting required." Gary said: "I am the character!" ”
And it shows. This movie is like a Lifetime movie and for someone who likes really bad lifetime movies, I was thoroughly amused. I don’t think this is a great film and there’s a lot of stuff that is just too hard to look past logically to take it seriously (All the times Busey’s character blatantly has the lights on in this mini-room he built in the house, that has a window to the outside AND for some reason a grate…? And no one notices?). It’s not a particularly stunning movie, but if you want something that’s not so great but enough to make you laugh at some of the strange choices made, it’s definitely one to check out.
An interesting note is the movie originally having a different ending that saw Busey’s character having a redemption. It’s kind of sad because reading that ending I think would’ve been better, especially for the concept of breaking the cycle of abuse. It was really heavy handed at the end that he had fallen prey to that cycle and just because of that kind of shocking opening, it would’ve been nice to see redemption rather than being killed off.
Year: 1989
Rating: 5.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Abuse/Bullying, Murder/death
Summary: After being sent to a mental hospital for killing his mother, a boy escapes and enacts revenge on those who bullied him.
This movie had a lot of makings of what I’d consider a good movie of this kind, but I think the one thing that killed it is pacing. When it was steady and fast, it was really entertaining and honestly funny at times! But god there were way too many scenes of it crawling from point A to B. Not horrible by any means, but definitely needed to be tightened up.
Year: 2024
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Content Warnings: Death/Murder, Lots of gore, Cannibalism, Incest, Sexual references
Summary: A chainsaw-wielding killer breaks up a newly formed couple Tom and Maria’s happy day. As he chases Maria, Tom searches for her.
This is such a weird movie to describe– it’s romance, it’s parody, it’s a musical, it’s a slasher, it’s a comedy– it’s a weird mix of things that work well together! They do a really good job of playing with troupes and stuff while not making it feel stale or cynical. I think it’s just a fun experience with a lot of characters who are silly and a lot of nonsensical plot mechanics that make it a good time.
Year: 2025
Rating: 4.0 / 10
Content Warnings: Drinking, Drunk driving, Sexual references, Implied death
Summary: A cab driver encounters strange people before he intends to clock out of his shift to see an astronomical event.
I could see this movie being so much more than what it was. It was mainly 2 hours of meandering and wafting around without much of a plot or rhyme or reason. I get the approach the film was taking: It was supposed to more or less be a character driven film. Now, that would be all good and make sense… If there was much of any character development. We got insights into the lives of people but it didn’t really amount to much, especially in a 2 hour span. The people were a little strange but enough to really amount to much of anything. This could’ve easily been a short film with a lot of it cut out.
I have no issue with the acting or filming of it, but I guess I left frustrated wanting more than a general interconnectivity of humans vibe without much more backing for it.
10:20pm .. .. // 01.01.2026