EvilPhoEniX

Sébastien Vaniček and his instant ticket to the A-Horror League. I'm gonna go give out prizes, because this is where history is made. So Vaniček made a dream debut (right on the lines of the recent successful debutants like Robert Eggers, Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, Zach Cregger), the best spider horror film of all time (it's quite funny that the previous king is already 30 years, Arachnophobia), kicked off this year's French wave and at the same time made the best horror film of the year – no one could ask for a better way to start. Whether Infested will be dethroned by the new Alien or Nosferatu at the end of the year is another matter, but until then it can enjoy the pedestal merrily. And now for the film. After a long time, I experienced very uncomfortable feelings with horror, and since ghosts and demons don't do anything to me, spiders as a real evil definitely had an effect. The housing estates of the French ghetto evokes an interesting atmosphere in itself, you don’t get to really form much of a relationship with the characters but that didn't bother me. The craftsmanship is excellent and once it gets going, it really is a spider atmospheric hell crammed with jump-scares like Sam Raimi's Drag me to Hell, and I twitched along decently (I also praise the aptly chosen musical score!). Admittedly, it got more intense as the spiders got smaller, but even the big ones had something going for them – that's where the CGI came in handy. It's a bit marred by the ending, I was expecting a bigger carnage, the mass battle spiders vs cops was over too quickly for my taste, and the whole thing ends quite hastily – I could have easily managed 20 minutes more – but these are minor flaws in the beauty of a film that is born once every three decades. Anyone who doesn't appreciate that is an arrogant scumbag and an enemy of the state and me. 9/10.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, from Radio Silence, deliver their tried and tested recipe once again. Why change something that works. Here we have a group of thieves who kidnap a little girl and are tasked with guarding her for 24 hours in a huge mansion, but what seems like an easy job soon will cost them their lives – they have no idea whose daughter Abigail is. A very likeable cast (I enjoyed the original introduction to the characters, where Melissa Barrera uses details to identify everyone like Sherlock Holmes), the big surprise is Kevin Durand, who is a very funny insert throughout the film, and it was nice to see Dan Stevens as well. The film has a very fast pace, nice visuals, effective jokes, it's decently suspenseful, there a few twists and turns at the end, and it's also decently gory (the house ends up painted in blood from the roof to the basement, so evil can't be pissed) The final explosion was literally a gore epic!!! Too bad the atmosphere doesn't work much and some of the vampire rules change to serve the script, but never mind that, it's the cool ride that they promised, and delivered. Quite possibly the best Vampire movie of recent years? And if you doubt about it, give me a better choice. 8/10.

What The Bear is to restaurants, The White Lotus is to hotels. Both are in the industry for me, so it's definitely an issue that's very close to my heart, plus it's all set in Hawaii and it's nicely exotic. But it's more drama than comedy, though some there are some entertaining black-humored. The cast is great the clash of the Hollywood boobies with Alexandra Daddario and Sydney Sweeney is real eye-candy, the director was very crazy, the twists and turns and the nicely escalated relationships on all sides are good, and who ends up being in the casket, I really didn't expect. I was expecting a more bizarre choice of characters though, after all, I know from the hotel business that you run into all sorts of weirdos, and these ones were even normal compared to reality, and they also could have pointed out the guests' complaints more, but otherwise I'm cool, it flows very well. 75%

The most praised film of last year from South Korea is finished and it is a very important historical work for country. 1979 was a very dark time in Seoul, where a coup was carried out after the assassination of the president, with various military factions fighting for power over the Korean state. It's a dense atmospheric political-war piece that will grip even the uninitiated viewer. There are two top actors on both sides of the barricade, with Jeong-min Hwang playing the bastard who wants to take over the state and Woo-seong Jeong the good guy who wants to stop him. I'm not a big fan of political thrillers, but this one has such a sinister and uncomfortable atmosphere woven throughout, where the tension builds and builds incredibly, that I almost didn't breathe. Top craftsmanship, top actors, top dialogue, top atmosphere and there was some action (not much of that though), and all the intrigue and power struggles are rendered very believably. A scary and crazy night on 12.12.1979, where the ending quite pissed me off. 8/10.

Nice surprise. The movie has a fun premise, where Kryštof Hádek has a sick mother, she probably doesn't have much time left, so he decides to please her by introducing his pregnant neighbour as his girlfriend and also by being a father, only it all gets classically out of control. Kristína Svarinská was divine, she played great, it's funny, sweet and touching and nicely made. I enjoyed it I'm happy to rate it. 7/10.

Another big series surprise this year, which escalates in the end in such a way that I almost had a heart attack. The series has a very interesting story about a young teenage girl who involuntarily inherits an illegal gun shop from her dead uncle, where only a select breed of people (assassins, cleaners, etc) are allowed to do business, and a bounty is put on her head, i.e. all the shop customers go after her, and it's an action-packed home invasion as fuck. I was a little worried about how a series set in one house being attacked by a bunch of nutters would work, but luckily it works and it ended up being a little different too. It has a very unconventional narrative that creates plot twists through flashbacks, and we learn more about the protagonist and the other characters – some of the twists are cool and it's definitely a well thought out show. MInhye is excellent as a female assassin who protects the young teen (btw the teen knows muay thai and guns so she also lends a hand). After the first five episodes I was happy with an above average series, but from episode 6 onwards it's pure carnage! Episodes 6 and 7 are pure flashbacks where we learn the background about the deceased uncle, who was a mercenary, and that was a real action packed massacre. It also introduces the main villain, a cruel ruthless bastard who kills innocents for pleasure (I haven't seen a bigger motherfucker in a long time!). I was screaming with happiness and excitement and thinking that if the whole series was just about him, he'd probably drive me away fast. The finale is another decent action-packed load that closes all the necessary loops, serving up uncompromising action and twists and turns and making the series the action event of the year. The choreography is top notch, it's exactly the rough, fast, brutal and contact style that I love from South Korea and, most importantly, everyone pulls out a knife, so there are at least five knife fights that deserve a spot on YouTube! Any lover of action, great stories and most of all Korean work can't miss this. Awesome! 8.5/10.

It's not a groundbreaking horror film that is shockingly violent or scary, but it gets points for its original concept (and they say it’s not possible!) and for being different, definitely a film that can't be compared to anything else. The film manages to win the viewer over from the beginning with an artificially contrived Talk Show that is simply fun, and once it gets into the horror gear, it’s fine too. I liked the faithful 70's retro feel, the performances from everyone involved (Dastmalchian shines for perhaps the first time) and the decent atmosphere. Surprisingly, it's also decently brutal at the end, and there's an interesting twist. So even though it's not a genre film that should be attacking the top rungs of the horror charts, it's definitely something that should be supported for being fresh and different. Paranormal a little different. 75%.

Jason Kwan delighted me with his debut Chasing the Dragon, so I gave him a chance, since he has all Hong Kong veterans and it’s a joy to see them together. Plot-wise it's admittedly clichéd, we have cops trying to catch a drug boss played by Andy Lau of course, alongside him is undercover cop Gordon Lam, and they have an interesting relationship. The commander of the cops is Simon Yam, but he can't take on another role, and the lead detective is my favourite Eddie Peng, the only main star who knows martial arts, but he only gets a chance to perform once, luckily they set him up with Philip Keung, so that one knife fight was really cool and nicely shot. I also liked the Mexican mercenaries shootout with the attack on the wedding and a very nice virtual hacker fight where he starts selling drugs online on the Darkweb and the cops try to bring him down. I found the finale weaker, the shootouts didn't really grab me that much, but I had fun. 6/10.

I like Alex Garland's work and even though he makes films that aren't exactly audience friendly, he hasn't stepped on my toes once so far, so I was curious to see how he'd handle a slightly different material, more audience friendly, with a blockbuster format and on a very topical subject, and it's great, though not without its faults. It's a war road movie set in a war-ravaged America with an apocalyptic tinge that has a very slow pace most of the time, but thankfully it works thanks to convincing actors, decent dialogue and an uncomfortable atmosphere. I was a bit bothered that we don't see the birth of the conflict but are thrown somewhere in the middle, and also that the whole film is from a journalists point of view, I would have liked to see what's going on in other parts of America or some behind the scenes from the government on what the president is currently dealing with/planning, but never mind. The highlights are two scenes: the confrontation with Jesse Plemons, which has a very chilling atmosphere and a great build up, and then the finale – I was worried Garland would give us a three-minute shootout but he surprised us. We actually get more than twenty minutes of military action! A massive attack on the White House and it has it all: amazing sound of weapons, perfect cinematography, gripping atmosphere, in short it looks really dense and authentic, a perfect dreamlike action war finale. Of course, the few naturalistic shots are nice, but there could have been more of them. 80%

Tasteless, infantile and almost unwatchable. The humour is in the style of Charlie Chaplin's worst work with a brain aneurysm, so if you're 10+ enjoy. It's a series of gags with no story and no wit, creativity or intelligence. It's all about beavers, sorry people dressed up as beavers and is it funny or does it lead to anything funny? It doesn't. A laughably unconvincing farce where lasting two hours was almost a superhuman feat. I was praying for Jigsaw to walk in the door and end this torture. In a sentence, black and white silent crap. I have not been as embarrassed watching a film as I was here in a long time. The film is lucky I don't give Boo! ratings and I appreciate that it must have taken quite a bit of work to create, but that's all – never fuckin more (maybe under the influence of various substances it can work). 3/10.