I realized I never did one of these when I opened my little blog and i've got a lot more followers than when i started sooo...
Hello! My name is Remus, but I use Rem here! I am 20 years old and I am a trans man! I love horror and comics and a bunch of other nerdy shit! Cause well that's what i grew up on!
This blog started as one of those aesthetic board blogs cause I love collage making, and its a lot easier to do digitally cause you don't gotta cut out all the little pieces.
I still take requests for those little collages buuut now i mostly do reviews and recommendations of movies i see in the theater or that are near and dear to my little heart! Usually to know if my requests are open my bio will say the crypt is open! meaning you can shoot something at me and i might review it with my brain! (or any of my other organs)
Here's some links you might wanna look at: DNI stands for do not interact! (meaning the kinda people I don't wanna be looking at my blog or interacting with it) / My blacklisted content is movies I just really don't wanna do, i don't wanna write about and i don't wanna watch...sooo if you have a request you should really look at it. / FAQ stands for frequently asked questions! This is meant to be updated as needed soooo if you got a question and you're worried its already been answered? click that little link! / Requests. Worried I've already queued up a board or review that you wanna see? Check this tab before you send me a request! if you don't, no hard feelings :)
DNI - BLACKLISTED CONTENT - FAQ - REQUESTS
ââââ Crawling back into my Tomb now, Buh Bye!~ ââââ
Something I really was not expecting from 28 years later was the commentary on zombies and how we have come to perceive them (culturally speaking) as completely deshumanized bodies that we can kill gleefully.
28 years later is constantly reminding you that its zombies are infected people, not mythical creatures completly removed from us. That doesn't make them less dangerous, or killing them in self defense (or even mercy-killing them) wrong. But it does give a sinister spin on the "zombies killer" warrior figure that a lot of zombie media come to present as a given.
The movie does that through two main narative devices. Humanizing the infected and deconstructing the ideology behind the zombies killer figure.
It humanizes the infected notably by:
Introducing the Alphas. They are an extra threats sure, but they are also capable of reasons.
The entire plot with the pregnant infected woman.
The fact the everyone in Great-Britain is treated the same by the outisde world, infected or not.
Isla's disease. Isla is sick from a mystery illness that impairs her mental capacities. Isla is not infected, but she is often confused and sometimes even physically lashes out in way that are violent (when she wakes up and break everything on her nightstand, in the same scene she also turns against Jamie). I don't think it is a coincidence that Isla is the only character in the entire movie that kills an infected with her bare hands, and then has trouble remembering it. It is also not a coincidence that she is the first one showing compassion on screen to an infected.
The fact that Dr Kelson treats infected and non-infected in the exact same way in death and does not immediately turns to killing the infected to defend himself from them.
It deconstructs the figure of the zombie killer by:
Having Jamie being a troubling figure and an even more troubling father figure. He insists on taking his son on his first killing trip three years before it is common to do so (something the movie points out explicitly twice). He says he likes the smell of rotting carcasses. He lies to make his son appear more heroic (I am not saying that Spike was cowardly or anything, but still Jamie does embelish how this first hunt went).
The community that sanctions this kind of attitude is very much coded as conservative in an uncomfortable way. It is for example, routinely visually compared with English history (through the display of medieval battles and images of the boers war). However everytime it is compared to the medieval era (the mythical chivalric) the images shown are very clearly extracted from movies and artistic depictions rather than rigourous reconstruction. The only real images shown are from most recent colonial wars in which England commited war crimes.
It is nice to see a zombie film not taking the zombies as acceptable killable meatsack as a given.
I just finished tusk (2014) last night and honestly...I think I'm missing something. People LOVE this movie and there are people who are HORRIFIED by this movie...and I didn't feel either? There's people online saying its worse than human centipede and while i loved the first human centipede and liked the second one I didn't think this movie was more graphic or horrific at all? People adore this movie but I just really didn't think it was all that funny? I could tell it was trying to be but the jokes just didn't land for me. Some people I saw were talking about how even though he's an asshole you still feel bad when he goes through the transformation...but like I didn't? Maybe that's an empathy thing on my part but I don't know.
TLDR: I didn't like this movie and I really wanted to.
I wanted to review it but I feel like I'll get eaten alive for disliking it when it feels like a lot of people really enjoyed it so please if you love this movie tell me what I'm missing here. What do you guys love about tusk?
I watched Alien: Romulus and here's what I thought!
As always friends Spoilers under the cut!...đ˝
Gosh first can I apologize for not being as active recently? I've seen this movie 3 times and am just now getting to writing my review! Might as well torch me now! haha. Seriously though I'd like to stay active on this blog it's just hard to find stuff to talk about sometimes when I come away from these movies.
I'd like to start this off by saying this is going to be a pretty glowing review. If you haven't seen Romulus, or any of the alien movies...What the hell are you doing here??? Get out! Go see it! If for some reason you cant get out and go see it please spare yourself spoilers until you can find it on streaming! This franchise from what i've seen so far is one of my favorites. If you love sci-fi, body horror, bad ass female leads, or slimy slithering creatures in general you should really give this one a chance.
I feel like a lot of people wanna talk about this so lets get it out of the way. Rook. The artificial person we meet when things start heating up. Obviously he is a CGI rendition of Ash's actor from the first movie Ian Holm. You may be screaming at me right now about ethics. How this took a job from an actor. How technology is bad because it's going to take work from actors. I hear you. I was on the fence about this too. In truth AI replacing human workers is a topic near and dear to my heart because it's something that worries me as an artist myself. However, Reading about how Alvarez got permission from Holm's widow. How Holm felt almost blacklisted from hollywood after so many years in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. It made my opinion of this soften. If that makes you disregard my review or even me as a person I understand. I'm happy I was able to give you my thoughts and that you gave me your time.
Now, The CGI of Holm's face is....not the best? His eyes and mouth move strangely if you pay too close of attention however it was something I could easily ignore as the movie progressed. Overall however with the other effects I think this movie did very well! I loved the way the facehuggers looked and moved and we even got to see up close the egg laying...tube...thing? Forgive me I'm not well versed in facehugger anatomy. The chest burster actually having to work to burrow it's way out and the xenomorph's acid just all of it felt really great!
I only very recently watched the second alien movie and I intend to watch the rest of the alien sequels in the near future so don't be upset with me! However it seems like if you've only seen the first two this one will make plenty sense. I've seen people complain about the pacing being really slow and the only thing I really have to say to that is...The first two movies, at least to me, felt equally as "slow." However I wouldn't necessarily say this is a slow movie! It kept me interested each step of the way. Usually I hate watching something that feels like it's dragging it's feet so I feel like if the movie were truly a drag someone with my attention span would have noticed.
On the subject of noticing things this movie has a TON of fan service and nostalgia. There's quotes from the previous films, Visual references, and even a nod to the video game Isolation! Some people really lay on a lot of flack for that kind of thing but it's been 7 years since the last alien movie so it's kind of something I expected if that makes sense? Also If it's something I love, I'm usually a sucker for fan service! Yeah some of the quotes felt kinda off in the dialogue (Personally when Andy says he prefers the term artificial person, That felt like an off moment to me? I could be nit picking but it just felt like it didn't flow with the previous dialogue.) But over all I liked easter egg hunting on my second and third watch.
In terms of characters there were some misses like Navarro where I really wanted to learn more about her but we don't really get the chance. We see and learn a lot about Andy and Raine's relationship as siblings but its hard to tell what the other's relationships are to each other until they outright say or are on their deathbeds.
Overall I liked the effects, the action, the pacing and the characters. It did fall flat in some spaces but honestly I think it's one of my favorite movies of the year next to Immaculate.
4.5/5 Facehuggers!
âď¸I watched Maxxxine! Does this series close out on a high note?âŚâď¸
As always friends, spoilers are under the cut!âŚ
Let me just say this movie was a banger of an ending!!
The movie has so many little references to its predecessors specifically the movie pearl. Seeing Theda Baraâs star, soldiers marching on set, pearlâs dance being recreated by a young Maxine, and even some parallels between Pearlâs audition and Maxineâs the difference being Maxine walks out confident and telling the other girls they might as well just go home instead of in tears.
In this movie we see the trauma Maxine has from her time in Texas. She has somewhat frequent flashbacks to the events. Seeing Pearl in that window, feeling Pearl assault her, even seeing her friends pass on. All of this Maxine has to compartmentalize she has no time to ruminate or work through it she has to keep moving forward.
I will say while I loved this movie the twist at the end isnât hard to spot. Atleast it wasnât to me. Her father makes a return and tries exorcising Maxine for his own film about the corruption of Hollywood on their children. We see sprinkles of it through the movie the biggest hint to me was hearing his voice in the introduction recording of a young Max, and seeing signs about Hollywood stealing their children. Plus he was a loose end that needed wrapped up.
The aesthetics of the movie were phenomenal. I really felt wrapped up in all this warm hazy Hollywood 80s glamour and glow. The shininess and dinginess of it all makes it really captivating. It was almost shocking when the haze and glamour got ripped from us when violence started. Seeing this sort of underbelly to it all. That like the director Maxine works for says that things were just as shitty and awful back then as they are now. A man follows Maxine into an alleyway and pulls a knife on her only to immediately cower when she pulls a gun on him. She flips the tables and makes him strip, suck her gun, and lay on the ground only for her to turn his balls into hamburger meat under her heel.
Throughout the movie thereâs this self preservation aspect that I noticed. Not only is Maxine defending herself repeatedly from these men who want to take advantage of her and harm her (the guy in the alley and this skeezy detective that works for her dad) but also her desperately needing this real acting role. The director tells her she needs to act as if her life depends on this role and Maxine tells her bluntly that it actually does. Maxine never has time to sit down and process what happened in Texas or work through itâŚbut then again do we always get the time to perfectly work through our traumas? Maxine takes things into her own hands, pushes herself, and outwardly tells the cops when her coworkers start turning up dead that they need to save themselves.
When all is said and done I loved the movie and loved the end however I couldnât help but feelâŚnot fully satisfied. I wanted max to get a happy ending and she does for sure but thereâs this whole narrative about the past coming back to bite you and we see her dad again but once heâs taken care of thereâs no aknowledgement of what happened in Texas. Thereâs note that people know about it and police have been investigating itâŚbut thereâs no tie off to whether they drop it or what happens to Maxine because of the investigationâŚitâs just brought up by her father over and over and then kind of dropped.
All in all a killer watch. I didnât really feel it had a whodunnit feel like some people had said but it definitely had a mystery going for it.
Don't adjust those sets...spoilers in 5..4..3..2...
First off sorry for not being able to find a gif from the movie! Tumblr gave me a real hard time with that one.
Second off I would like to say I do not support the use of AI art. I think it is abysmal. I watched this movie with my partner after saving up points at our local theater for free tickets. If this still supports the movies we see in some way please let me know and I will be sure to find another way to better watch these movies without supporting their actions...đ´ââ ď¸đŚ It just may mean you get your reviews a touch later!
Onto the movie. The aesthetics were very enjoyable I could appreciate the ties back to satanic panic and the fascination with the occult. The costuming, the filming of the movie, it all felt right and very few times did I feel my immersion in it break. I feel like maybe there were one or two shots where the actors looked too well made up if that makes sense.
One fun fact my partner pointed out was that you can see the twin towers in the opening shots and the city cut aways because they were built 4 years prior! I really liked that this movie didn't shy away from showing us the towers mostly because I feel like that's something that would have broken the idea we are in the 70s.
While the filming was fitting and awesome the effects were....I would say B tier at points. I think it adds to the charm of course I can always appreciate a homemade effect but it does slightly pull me out of this being something that really happened. Don't get me wrong I know it's not trying to be the next Blair witch "true story" but i feel like there is some level to this that wants the audience to feel that this is real.
My partner notes too that cutting it from a television camera view to the audience view might have helped as well!
Onto the fun stuff, we get hints throughout...sorry no, not hints...we get TOLD throughout the movie that our star of tonight's show, jack delroy, is in a fraternal organization...sorry, i mean cult. He is in the Bohemian Grove cult. We get told there are rumors of this in the opening almost documentary style retelling of Jack's fame and struggles with being as good as Johnny Carson. We'll come back to that.
Tonight is 1977. Halloween night. Sweep week. A night where Jack really needs to scrape in the views. He has no idea that the plans he has this evening will go awry...recently his wife madeline who will be reffered to by her "special nickname" mini has passed away from lung cancer. Tonight's show is also jacks first one back and man is it a doozy. We get to see how he banters with his co-host and honestly kind of berates him. I had this struggle with jack where I wanted to like him but every time I tried I just got these kicks and hints that he was kind of an asshole? But it's show biz, who isn't? His first guest is a medium who intends to commune with the dead. He seems like other shoddy Vegas types until he accurately assess a family who lost their son and brother to suicide. It's later revealed to be a bunch of hooey when the next guest a renowned skeptic chats with the family and realizes they were questioned prior to the show.
The first chilling moment we get that isn't the use of AI art is the medium seemingly becoming possessed by the grieving spirit of mini however no one claims the name and only later does jack reveal he thinks the message was for him.
I'm not gonna foot around it. The use of AI art while not overly used and egregious it's present. Personally it being present feels like an issue. It bugs me and it should bug you. I know many people want to cut it a break for being an indie film but it doesn't take much to put some money towards what was it? 5-6 pieces of art? Yeah some people will have higher rates for working on this but I'm sure they could have found someone to do the art if they felt theirs wasn't up to par. I don't think they're fully evil or anything for it. I don't support AI art but I can understand the other side of the argument. However when you turn a blind eye to one film and it does well it doesn't matter if it's an indie project or not. It makes the big guys think hey we like this. Give the devil an inch and he'll take a mile right?...
That all being said I could ignore the cut aways kind of??...I paid attention for mistakes the first few times before the sight of them just elicited an annoyed eyeroll from me.
As the movie progresses we meet the skeptic. He's offering checks to people who can prove without a doubt that they're the real deal and he says hes not lost a nickel yet. The medium claims he doesn't want the money and when Jack vouches for him and says the last message was meant for him the medium's behavior gets more and more erratic before he finally spews black vomit all over the studio including onto the skeptic.
Little do we know on the way to the hospital our medium turns up dead. This starts to brew panic in the crew and our co-host as our next guests are brought on. June and Lily. Lily was found as a 10 year old by the authorities as the only surviving member of a satanic cult that kind of parodies the satanic church and Anton lavey. Lily is possessed by a demon she calls mr.wriggles. mr.wriggles is an interesting one alright! Wether it's trauma, the demonic possession or my boyfriend's theory- autism. Lily exhibits off behaviors like staring directly into the cameras and seeming very monotone at times. It isn't until Jack pushes for and honestly...kind of corners June on live TV that June and Lily decide to showcase Lily's ability. Man does this demon have something to say.
The demon begins by noting that him and Jack know each other hinting at a tie between the Grove cult again. Before intent focuses again on June. Calling her out for her and jacks relationship and telling her to remember what happened to his last whore. Possession doesn't cease until June slaps the girl. Let me tell you I didn't trust this at all. June goes to undo the straps after some crazy electrical issues and levitation and I just felt uneasy the whole time. That typical feeling while watching these movies of "are you stupid??" Lily in my eyes had a very sinister look to her still that later gets touched on again. We then get the skeptics explanation and recreation with hypnosis. Making our co-host believe his phobia of worms is suddenly real life with them wriggling from his neck stomach and lastly eyeball. Only for us to cut back to reality with his activation phrase and see that none of it was true. They watch the tape back and realize that the whole audience was hypnotized because none of that truly happened on their TV sets. However when watching back what happened with Lily it triggers the girl.
She levitates and glows while her head splits open. She immolates the skeptic when he offers the hefty check in exchange for his life and hangs her guardian/doctor by the necklace meant to keep the demon at bay. And unfortunately our chunky loveable co-host gets his neck snapped when trying to "the power of Christ compels you" the demon away. It isn't until we get this gorgeous dream like sequence after Jack seemingly gets away. Him going through the routine of the show only to try and escape. Him telling us to turn off our sets and stop watching before we get a sequence with the cult and him drinking from a chalice as he meets his wife. She reveals that he sacrificed her health for fame. He didn't know. And this is where I felt sympathetic for him....the entire time he was unaware...he murdered her unintentionally. And so she asks him to murder her in the physical. Take the ritual knife from Lily's old home and finish her off before the cancer can take her....only for him to plunge the knife into her and reveal that the dream was fake. And he has stabbed Lily to death. He stands and we get a heart wrenching scene of him trying to say the skeptics activation phrase to wake up while surrounded by the carnage he somewhat unknowingly caused...
Overall I give this 3 worms out of 5.
The AI made my eyes roll and the effects were corny but the premise and scenery and aesthetics were beautiful. I sort of reccomend it if you can watch it in a non supporting way.
Confession time! Is Immaculate worth the watch?...
As always my friends spoilers under the cut âď¸
I'm not going to wait until the end to tell you I loved this movie. It's beautiful and brutal and I loved it.
Sydney Sweeny did phenomenal. As far as I am aware this was her first horror role and she knocked it out of the ball park. Sister Cecilia has definitely made it onto my list of final girls I adore and if I am being perfectly honest, I don't think anyone could have portrayed this character better. Sydney's mannerisms and the way she speaks with apprehension are so perfect for our almost fish out of water character.
If you hate religious horror, pregnancy horror, or violence, infanticide and gore I really wouldn't watch this. I love religious imagery but I don't usually keep in mind if something is religiously unseemly or blasphemous because personally I hold no bearing for the Christian faith any more.
Jumping into the plot
Sister Cecilia comes to God or let's say God came to her as a child when she fell into an iced over lake and died for several minutes before being brought back. This experience made her feel that she wanted to devote her life to God.
Something I deeply enjoyed and I'm unsure if this is common among portrayals of nuns or Catholicism. I feel like I've heard a lot or seen a lot of this naivety of not knowing what sort of thing you're getting into. While sister Cecilia genuinely doesn't know the horrors she faces ahead, when constantly questioned about her choice to become a nun, Cecilia stands firm in her stance that this is what she wants. The only reluctance is moving from Detroit to Italy as the church she attended back home closed. She is a fish out of water as I said before in a country where she doesn't speak the language around people she does not know.
We get hints that something is off the first thing being the opening sequence where we can assume the previous mother-mary-to-be gets her leg snapped in two and buried alive after trying to escape the convent. Sister Isabelle is cold and harsh to Cecilia while everyone else including mother Superior is warm to her. Mother Superior even complimenting her beauty profusely upon seeing her. Father Tedeschi, who contacted Cecilia and personally invited her to join them, confides in her about his faith and why he chose to become a priest.
I feel as if in a way we are drawn in with her. The convent is a sort of hospice for older nuns and so when Cecilia after taking her vows sees one lying on the ground she goes to help. I think it's around here when she passes out that they some how impregnate her?? I will say I was not very clear on their method of this. The priest later explains that on the nails used during crucifixion they found flesh and bone and enough DNA but how exactly the process worked I don't think they ever explained and honestly I don't think they needed to.
When Cecilia is found to be pregnant it was interesting to me that we never get her opinion of it. She seems fine with it generally but her face during the initial ultrasound seems distressed....and well who wouldn't be distressed. We get a scene where they interrogate her about having intercourse and breaking her vows which is strange to me when later it's revealed they knew. Maybe it was a front to keep up with her and a red herring for the audience but it was a little odd to me that they knew everything about her and hand picked her only to grill her so harshly about it.
Theres two scenes that imply this as a pattern before it is revealed and one of them is Isabelle trying to drown Cecilia. The entire time she screams and raves about how it should have been her...for me it sort of clicked into place later that she was so mean to Cecilia because she knew that they had chosen her. From their initial meeting when Isabelle protests mother superiors orders to tour Cecilia around she is put in her place and told to do as she says and it feels sad in a way to me? Maybe I could make some commentary about infertility and longing for something you can't obtain but I don't have a horse in that race and don't feel well versed enough to speak on it. Only that it leaves me with a softened heart for Isabelle's circumstance and slightly more angry with Cecilia's as here was a woman who was willing and open...and instead you choose to take away this young woman's choice in the matter.
The second scene Cecilia is caring for one of the older nuns and remarks about the same cross scars that she later receives being on an older woman. It's kind of vile to imagine how long they must have been doing this and how long they've gotten away with it at the expense of all of these women...
This movie visually was stunning and the reveal and third trimester is a wild ride. Our girl Cecilia is smart and capable and has all the makings of a final girl. I think really it's only chance that her hospital plans fall through when she uses the blood of a chicken to fake a miscarriage to get access to a hospital outside the church. When crying and...smelling?? The bloody sheets mother Superior just so happens to look under the bed to find the bundled up chicken corpse. Even when the call is made to stop the car Cecilia makes a fucking run for it barefoot through the fields.
Even through everything Cecilia remains rebellious. Her spirit doesn't seem to break only bend on occasion. The chase through the catacombs was nerve wracking and had me clenching my jaw and gripping the arm rest the whole ride. Then we get the ending and boy is it a fucking ending.
Cecilia kills father Tedeschi and climbs out of a hole in the catacombs wall. She, after all of that running while being in labor, squats down and squeezes out this baby in this gutteral scene where we just get a close up of her face. In a way, and not to get too reachy or overly analytical, it makes me think of eve. How no one was...really there for her except adam to witness the birth of their children. How there was no medication to take. Nothing to do. Just sit and cry and scream and spit and push. Cecilia's child is never shown on screen. We can only assume it's a similar look to its siblings in the jars of that basement lab. It's breathing heard hindered off screen as it does nothing but breathe not even cry...and then Cecilia bites off the im umbilical cord and kills the infant Cain and Abel style.
Over all this is a really fantastic movie. The ending had me wanting more which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The visuals were stunning I loved the costumes especially the mother Mary scene where they unveil her and tears just roll down her cheeks. The acting was phenomenal and I think it's even worth a second or third watch from me. I couldn't appreciate the nail gore (makes my teeth hurt and makes me cringe) but overall I could appreciate the beauty of this movie. Happy Easter everyone!
I saw Immaculate a few days ago and was wondering if anyone would care for my thoughts on it! I likely have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, and I don't feel any analysis or rehashing I have of it will be nearly as good as anyone elses but I know some people do tend to enjoy my little ramblings <3
As much as I liked the new exorcist movie, there is a few things that I need to point out.
I wish we had more scenes of Katherine before she got possessed, her death wasn't that impactful.
I think that Chris became an expert on exorcisms as a way for her to better understand what happened to Regan.
Chris being blinded by possessed Katherine was completely uncalled for, in my opinion.
I wish we had more confirmation about wether the demon was Pazuzu or another demon.
I did like how they combined the various religions to exorcise the girls. I thought they would do something like that when I saw the trailer.
I didn't like the movie that much but I agree with your points. We see very little of Katherine or her past just that her family is religious to kind of counter Angela's home life being non religious. I agree with you about why Chris became an expert I'm just not sure it felt right in my opinion? If I remember right (and I could be totally remembering this wrong because it's been a while since I saw the first one) in the first exorcist movie they leave at the end to get away from what happened, and while that's a very understandable action I'm not sure why someone who wants to get away from it all decides to commit their life to understanding it.
I agree that the blinding was uncalled for, it felt like throwing a legacy character into peril just for the sake of shock. Also without the confirmation of pazuzu it feels like all of the exorcist related material is sort of just tacked onto the tail end of the film. Like this could have been a plain old exorcism genre movie without the famous predecessor's name attached. It felt like they called it an exorcist movie just to get people to come out and watch it. But it was really interesting the spin they put on it by including different faiths yeah!
Over all I just wasn't particularly fond of the movie but that doesn't mean I don't see and agree with a lot of your points!
Tbh I found Katherineâs death kinda weird like it felt really unnecessary. She was just as innocent as Angela. They did something stupid but sheâs the only one that pays the price because of her dad?
The scene with her in hell was just ⌠really sad. Katherine deserved better!
Actually both girls did ⌠I feel the movie did nothing for us to really CARE about them. I really wish the girls had more scenes together before their possession. Just so they had more âcharacterâ if that makes sense.
I agree with you completely! They're never really fleshed out and Katherine does nothing to deserve her death. The movie just does a really poor job on all fronts in my opinion! Thank you for the insight!
This review gets a little touchy feely but as always friends spoilers are under the cut...đ
So Saw X, our first prequel sequel (I think...I haven't seen spiral yet or jigsaw, sue me) takes place between saw 1 and 2. Our friend John Kramer, being told he only has months at best a year to live, gets the idea to go to Mexico for miracle surgery and medicine to cure his cancer! The only issue is the miracle is...well a lie. This movie does phenomenal with it's over the top effects. The blood, the bone, the only effect I thought was sort of meh was when we see a person's severed head later.
Over all the traps this go around are pretty good. I think they could have been a bit more over the top but they honestly didn't need to be. Jigsaw isn't playing in his home turf. The fact he is making something out of nearly nothing is really phenomenal to me.
This movie spares almost no time making you sympathize with John. He is dying and we are reminded of that this whole movie. He is not content to die easily. We are also put in a unique situation where we see John endure one of his own traps, given one of the less pain inducing ones. And we get to see how John reacts to an innocent being put into his traps. And we see a lot of really heartfelt moments between John and Amanda (my favorite relationship of the franchise) we see more of that father daughter like connection between them that really pulled my heart the first go around.
I think this movie really played to my heart because of the moments where Amanda tells John she cannot continue his work without him. She isn't ready for him to die. And not to get too personal but when you have family with cancer or really any illness, or even family that is just...old. when you care about them and they do get to that stage it is really hard to deal with. There honestly are moments where, at least in my experience, they ask you what you're going to do without them. And that's a very painful conversation to have and I think Amanda and John do it well.
Honestly I couldn't have rooted harder for a group of people to die. The only exception MAYBE being Gabriela. However I really just couldn't garner sympathy for these people who had manipulated a dying man and multiple dying people...not even the most innocent among them felt redeemable to me but maybe that's just a symptom of my personal life with sick relatives.
I hated how annoyingly cartoonishly evil Cecilia got towards the end. Teasing John, telling him to do the scary voice. Putting a child in the trap. And mirroring all of those people who love to criticize the franchise. "He's such a hypocrite for putting them in the traps and saying he doesn't kill people" Just....everything about her was sort of infuriating to me. I hated how open ended they left her death. I hated that they even gave the chance for someone like her to return in the future. Maybe we need infuriating characters like her. Maybe sometimes media is supposed to piss us off a little. But I really truly and deeply could not stand Cecilia. Not just for her actions but her nasty fucking attitude along side it.
Overall? A solid 5/5 in my book! 10/10 maybe since this is the 10th movie. Classic saw editing still, along with that fun yellowed "we're in Mexico" filter to tie the whole thing together.
I watched Exorcist: Believer so that you don't waste your time...
As always my friends spoilers under the cut! âď¸
This movie....yeesh where do you start? It has none of the charm of the original. Relies heavily on cheap jump scares and feels personally like a generic exorcism movie with a weird abortion message and the exorcist legacy haphazardly stitched onto the ends. Angela and her father are fairly likeable, their story is tragic, dead mom and all. However they seem like a decent family. Katherine the possessed little girl who looked a bit like little Regan, her family in my opinion is less likeable. They're your typical white overtly religious babtist family which I've had my fill of in my life time.
The girls go to do a "ritual" in the woods, if you can call a pendulum reading a ritual. They light a candle and swing the pendulum and ask spirits to speak through them, particularly Angela's dead mom. Somehow this summons pazuzu? Umm well we aren't really sure it's pazuzu...it's never called by name in the movie. It seems to recognize Chris MacNeil when she joins the movie in the tail half buttttt in the first exorcist pazuzu seems to know karras and his mother without having met the two.
Speaking of the original, how can I not? All of the things related to the original are in the second half. We don't see Regan the entire movie except for a photo cameo and a very brief hospital visit at the end of the movie. Chris in the meantime has become an expert on exorcism from multiple religions for some reason....I suppose she didn't want to move on from the events of her daughter's possession. There are no priests connected to the original and when a priest finally steps into the spotlight to perform an exorcism he's killed pretty much immediately.
The girls chastise two characters harshly while possessed. Angela's father and her nurse neighbor. It's this weird anti abortion rhetoric we've all heard and maybe you're into that but I'm not...also if you're anti abortion maybe get off my blog...thanks. Anyways, they criticize the two for two separate events. The nurse had an abortion while trying to become a nun and hey remember when I said Angela's mom died before? Well it was while she was pregnant. Angela's father had the choice between saving his wife or his unborn baby and of course he chose his wife. However in a twist of fate his wife didn't make it regardless and they cut Angela out of her early.
Katherine really doesn't have a lot going on besides having a turbo religious family and doing this ritual. Ultimately she dies and Angela is saved which was really odd to me. I liked the twist they did, the demon said they could only choose one child to live. Katherine's father chose her, but the twist was they were choosing who to die. The only thing I didn't get was why the demon just....magically chose to be honorable to its word. Because as soon as Katherine is down for the count Angela is released and ok like nothing is wrong!
And life just...goes back to normal. Big whoop roll credits.
I didn't really care for this movie if you couldn't tell. As a standalone exorcism movie.... I'd maybe rank it higher but I'd say with confidence that I rate this 2/5 for the two eyes Chris MacNeil lost during this snoozefest
it's a drug allegory they use it as a party trick and as a way of escapism but it leads to physical issues and psychosis and eventually death
Ohhh okay! I think looking at it like a drug allegory does make me understand the film better! I may re-evaluate my review if I get motivation đ thanks friend!
