EvilPhoEniX

Esther is back! The prequel obviously falls short of the cult-classic original and was a losing battle beforehand, but I still have to admit that as a psychothriller it works relatively well. William Brent Bell has made his second best film after The Boy, and the effort certainly can't be denied. We follow Leena Klammer, who escapes from an asylum (a pretty decent massacre right off the bat) and cleverly infiltrates another family posing as their missing daughter. Visually it looks B-ish, but it didn't bother me that much. The acting is passable, and the family is pretty twisted, which I liked (some of the dialogue is unexpectedly quite sharp). The main twist that comes in the first half is cleverly contrived and the whole film immediately takes on a different tone, with the psycho atmosphere building up nicely. The film is spoiled a bit by the fact that it's a prequel, so we know nothing can happen to Esther. The gore could have been more nutritious, but that's not really the point. I had fun, there were elements I liked a lot, some things could have been better, but in the end, satisfaction prevails. Slightly above average. 65%.

A decent and inoffensive thriller from Netflix. I find director Babak Anvari to be a total bum. I suffered through his two horror flicks (Under the Shadow and Wounds), but his third film is relatively satisfying and maybe he can surprise in the future. The film focuses on a young man who breaks into rich people's houses and paints them graffiti in the living-room, but he stumbles upon something unpleasant in one gentleman's basement that could endanger him and his loved ones. Though not very original, the film is a combination of several others like Don't Breathe and various home invasion movies, but it is definitely entertaining, suspenseful, nicely shot with a fine villain (though we don't get to know as much about him as desired) and a delightful twist in the middle that is definitely unexpected. There were a couple of scares that worked well, but it's slightly disappointing that the finale isn't intense and tense enough, it's a bit of a let down. I was quite disappointed that the film avoided violence (there was one scene calling for a butchering). Anvari still has room for improvement, but for a boring evening, I Came By is good enough. 6/10.

Unpleasant anxiety and intense survival vertigo! Fall is an unexpected surprise that can rank among High Lane, Gold, Frozen, A Lonely Place to Die and more. Scott Mann isn't that good of a director, but he's good at B-movies and can occasionally conjure up some fine stuff in those waters. (The Tournament is guilty pleasure as fuck and Bus 657 was good too) and Fall is definitely among that. In terms of story, it's straightforward, but that doesn't matter at all, there are other attributes at play here and they work flawlessly. Becky and Hunter are best friends who decide to climb a 610-foot radio tower, and they have pretty compelling reasons to do so. The opening is slightly slower, but it doesn't significantly matter, because as soon as the girls get close to the tower a very uncomfortable and anxious spectacle begins, where people suffering from acrophobia will get sick and wriggle their toes. Both girls are likeable and quite smart, so any rescue attempts are very believable and make sense. You'd think the director would just make a pure mountaineering survival film, but he managed to incorporate other elements (two unpleasant and atmospheric nightmares), some brutality and vultures – they get quite a bit of space and are very unpleasant – and there was a very good twist. The atmosphere, adrenaline and suspense work practically throughout the entire runtime and thanks to the great cinematography and especially the very intense music, it makes for a beautifully nerve-wracking thriller for little money that works and entertains, and that's plenty enough for me. 7/10

A reenactment of the 2019 national disaster where Notre-Dame, a symbol of Paris, burned down. Jean Jacques Annaud is an experienced director, though it must be admitted that his best years were two decades ago, but this he chose a rather attractive subject matter that begged for a film treatment, even if he took his own way of doing it, and that didn't sit well with me. There's no main character, so there's nobody to root for, and the film lacks any emotion because of it, which is a pretty major problem. It's shot in a modest way, it looks quite made-for-TV at times, but that didn't detract significantly. The beginning of the disaster itself is handled decently and there is definitely a high level of negligence on the part of the workers. Something like this could definitely have been avoided with the right attitude. The running time could have been shorter, watching firefighters put out a fire for an hour gets a little tiresome, especially when there's no one there to yell. It should probably be seen, but I can't say that I enjoyed watching it. 5/10

I found the first part funnier and more interesting, but still better than average in Czech comedies. Langmajer enjoys his role, but at times he was borderline awkward, which is to be expected given the premise. I found the passage at the construction site the funniest, I laughed a lot there. It’s neither too bad nor very good, but it did entertain. 55%.

Netflix surprised with a decent Danish thriller about infidelity. The film starts out as a classic drama/thriller about a married couple where everything seems to be going fine until the wife starts suspecting the husband of infidelity, and of course the husband does have a mistress. I like the fact that it doesn't behave like a classic infidelity thriller, but unravels a much bigger and more interesting mystery that makes the film appropriately quite unpredictable. It's interesting what direction the film eventually starts to take, and the outright first twist manages to properly shock (and the ones that follow are very good as well). You can say that the atmosphere and suspense works too; there is a little crime investigation and a pretty intelligent decision by the wife. Thanks to a playful script, decent actors and a fine atmosphere, this is an honest genre film that shouldn't offend anyone, on the contrary it can please most. Despite the slower pace, I enjoyed it very much. 7/10.

Best UFO movie in decade? Nope. Actually god damn YES! Jordan Peele is back and will once again divide audiences into two camps, though this time he'll get a bigger ovation than he did with the overrated Us thanks to the awesome material. Peele is a bit unconventional here, the social undertones aren’t as intense as in his previous films, there is a fair amount of humour and there are considerably fewer symbols and metaphors, yet he's made a unique and impressive genre film that again isn't as horror as it could have been, but I'm very pleased. Nope is definitely a horror film that manages to win the audience over with its strong cinematic aspects, and it looks really beautiful, especially in IMAX. The cinematography by Hoytema is a masterpiece in itself, some of the shots are breathtaking (and that's not something you see often in the horror genre), and the casting is great. Kaluuya is good, but next to Keke Palmer he seemed slightly like a shadow, because here she gives perhaps the strongest female performance in 15 years (emotions, screaming, speech, voice), an absolute acting tour-de-force from an unknown actress, whom I immediately want to see somewhere else. The music is well chosen and especially the atmosphere works fantastically, it's very uncomfortable, creepy, weird and unnerving in places. There are quite a few exciting and spectacular horror scenes that I will remember in the future (The chimp, a house covered in blood, a horse's head in a car, the digestive process of the villain and the screaming of the dead still ring in my ears). I'm perhaps only the final act away from a full score, which ironically is weaker than the previous ones (most people complain about the action-packed finale, but I wouldn't call it so, you can immediately imagine a spectacular Secret War style alien massacre and it doesn't really happen). I just wasn't sure if I liked the final scene or not, but you can't deny the creativity. Peele will definitely be making horror films in the future and I'd quite like to see a slasher or pure ghost story from him. Better than Arrival for me. Story 4/5 Humour 2/5 Violence 3/5 Fun 4/5 Music 4/5 Visuals 5/5 Atmosphere 4/5 Suspense 4/5 Emotion 4/5 Actors 5/5 Total: 8/10.

A decent survival flick with lions in the Savannah. If you accept the fact that Beast is a horror B-movie with no higher ambitions, serving only as a survival action/thriller with a bloodthirsty lion, it can be reliably enjoyed. If you start addressing the script – is anyone really addressing the script here? really? Only an intellectual brat can expect twists and turns and a compelling plot here. That sometimes someone doesn't act logically? Well, kids don't think, they act, and not everyone is logical, so I find these criticisms completely silly and irrelevant, but back to the film. It starts slower and gradually introduces us to the main characters. I appreciate the fact that there are not a bunch of stupid teenagers, but a family with a father and two daughters, whom the viewer can root for far more than annoying teens, plus Idris Elba is a likeable doctor, so he knows what to do in a situation like this probably more than any of the grumbling viewers, and Sharlto Copley as a zoologist and their guide (his dialogues about nature and animals are informative and fine) hugging with the lions is just great. Once the first encounter with El Diabolo takes, the real survival fun begins. The lion has great CGI, so that's a big plus (no one wants those rubber and plush animals seen in other similar movies), and he plays his role as villain perfectly. His entrance is scary and uncomfortable, he looks properly bad ass and they quite smartly explain why he does what he does, which I wasn't expecting. I also enjoyed the great visuals, the beautiful cinematography rounding off the African landscape there could have been more animals, I was hoping for a crocodile but was pleased with the snake at least), decent music, decent action (the scene with the poachers is pretty atmospheric), plenty of suspense and a few brutal shots (mutilated people), had there been some severed limbs I would have been very happy. The finale is a nice build up to 4 stars for me. An awesome intense duel that is brutal and raw (I thought of The Revenant right away) and a pretty clever ending. Beast is similar to Aja's Crawl, and anyone who loves animal horror like I do (if they are crafted with skill of course) should have little to complain. I was a bit disappointed with the music from the trailer, which wasn't in the film after all, I was looking forward to it, it sounded properly creepy. Beast meets those basic criteria, and that's enough for me, because genre films like this come out barely once a year. 7/10

Very nice surprise. The Good Neighbor seemed to me like an unremarkable thriller with a simple plot, ordinary actors, ordinary title and poster – well, in short, it was uninteresting – but I am all the more surprised by the honest old school thriller I got. The story revolves around David, who moves to Latvia to start a new life and befriends his neighbor David, who is rumored to be a weirdo. One night they go out for a drink to get to know each other better, but while driving home drunk they hit a woman on her bike, killing her, and a very unpleasant situation in their new town begins. David is a journalist and he gets to handle this case, which I thought was very cool and unconventional. David and Robert have to stick together to keep the truth from coming out and of course there will be obstacles. It's skillfully shot, very suspenseful, there's a pretty solid load of twists and turns, maybe every 20 minutes something interesting happens, sometimes predictable, but with that load I don't mind it at all, sometimes you wish something wouldn't happen and it does! There were even a few dead bodies (no gore but I didn't mind this time), I enjoyed the atmosphere and the whole situation escalates interestingly, and Rhys Meyers plays the weirdo really well. It has a touch of Nordic thrillers, maybe because of the setting in Riga, and I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it. Small but very effective and fun thriller. 75%

The Korean John Wick or a variation on The Man from Nowhere. Korea's summer season is on fire and this is another great entry into the action genre. Story-wise, it's an action classic that just won't get old. A retired hitman gets the nod to take care of a young teenage girl, but when he gets involved with the wrong people he has to not only save her, but kill a bunch of bad guys too. We're used to more convoluted and original stories in Korea, but when there are top visuals and great action, there's not much to complain about, unless you're an intellectual brat and universally hated nitpick. Jang Hyuk is a new rising Korean star who has already impressed me in the blockbuster The Swordsman and here he proves once again that he has what it takes to be a solid action hero. He doesn't have the charisma of Lee Byung-hun, and it's not as good as Man from Nowhere – that one had stronger emotions and a more interesting story, but there's no point in comparing all the time. The main character does everything one cool expression and I liked that. They could have shown a flashback of his past, we don't learn much about him, but there's simply no time for that because 90 minutes is not enough and the action is waiting. I think there is plenty of action and it's filmed well. The R-rating is used enough, the head shots in particular are cool, and there’s plenty of them! There's some decent fisticuffs or knife fights – Korea is the best at that, so they are a joy to watch. The best part is the longer passage in the brothel, where the body-count is about 50, and of course the final duel with the mailn villain, a Korean Russian dyed blonde, a first class scumbag and arrogant bastard, a pity he didn't get more space, because he could have become iconic, but the fight was really great. Quick exchanges, great cinematography, there were even knives – everything was there to keep me satisfied. It lacks something for a full score, but I'm satisfied, I enjoyed it. I'll never grow out of this. I'm glad Korea is still making these realistic and manly stories, because I wasn't impressed by the second Witch or Carter. Story 3/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 4/5, Action 5/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5. 8/10