KWIF: stunts meet concrete

We interrupt the 31 days of halloween for a temporary respite into non-spooky, non-scary territory. 
KWIF=Kent's Week(ish) in Film. I tend to write these things on weekends, but I also watch most films on weekends and sometimes time doesn't allow for both. There was appointment viewings in theatres this past week, movies that I suspect would come and go rather briskly that I really wanted to see, so I made a point of getting to them before some of the bigger films of the fall (eg. Primetime, Digger), and also getting Lady Kent out to them as well (a rare but enjoyable treat). And then I did a bit of companion watching.

This Week:
The History of Concrete (2026, d. John Wilson - in theatres)
The Stunt Driver (2026, d. Michael Dowse - in theatres)
The Stunt Man (1980, d. Richard Rush - tubi)
Stunt Rock (1978, d. Brian Trenchard-Smith - tubi)

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I really, really enjoyed the HBO series How To With John Wilson (Season 1 | 2 | 3) and it's still so sad to me that we've been without more John Wilson for three years now.

If you didn't watch the show, well... how to describe? Wilson is an avid videographer, travelling with his camera running capturing unique details and keeping meticulous notes on what he's captured. In How To... Wilson would explore (sort of) a "how to" topic (kind of) through an array of edited-together images from his vast library of footage, to punctuate (or counter-punch) a point, while pontificating on the topic at hand in voice-over in his uniquely dry, humorous, stammering fashion (his episode on scaffolding has resulted in Mayor Mamdani taking action). He would also have interviews set-up to discuss the subject matter at hand, but would also talk to strangers he encountered on the streets and wind up deviating from the topic at hand into these curious and unique tangents, which he would then attempt to bring back around to the topic at hand. How To... was a wholly unique and neurodivergent lens (I'm not even certain Wilson is neurodivergent, but his storytelling style very much is) with which to view our world.

With only a few Wealthsimple ads to tide us over in the years since, Wilson finally returns with a full length feature (101 minutes) that isn't a How To... movie but, you know, basically is.  

The History of Concrete, technically, is a documentary, but what it's documenting isn't really what it says on the label, and how it's documenting it is pretty singular (unless taken in the context of Wilson's prior work, at which point, it's more of the same...and that's not a negative, far from it).

Every episode of How To... would open with Wilson's voice over welcoming us by way of images of the city he loves: "Hey New York" is bascially Wilson's catch phrase at this point. This film opens with Wilson delightfully playing with such. For the familiar and the fans, it's like a door being opened and welcomed into a friend's house. They may have redecorated and moved things around, added an extension on back and slapped on a coat of paint, but it's still familiar, and inviting.

Wilson's entry point into thinking about and exploring concrete comes from his pitiful attempt to self-patch some concrete outside his house in hopes of preventing so much basement flooding during heavy rains. His poor patch job, critiqued harshly by a neighbour, sparks the idea for a film project...and then he has to pitch to get funding. There's no tension here...it's clear that we're watching a film that's been made, but it does start the narrative that even Wilson's ambling camera is still answerable to someone.

Exploring the cement thread, both its strength and frailty, takes Wilson to Rome to look at ancient concrete structures and ask strangers who don't speak English as to the secret of how the structures have lasted so long to futile effect. Returning home, he encounters in Queens a "spiritual" 52-day, 3100 mile marathon run on the cement sidewalk around a high school and returns throughout the film to check in on its progress. He visits a concrete convention in Vegas, and ponders New York concrete structures that are coming apart. 

Wilson's approach to the topic is both humorous and informative, but also hardly being hard-hitting investigative journalism. His interest takes him deep into industry as well as onto the surface, including the only sidewalk-gum-removal business in the city, and then tangentially, like into tattoo preservation (unless you're already familiar with this practice, you're not ready for it when you see it).

The History of Concrete returns Wilson to the more personal nature of How To...'s first season. Wilson's gateway into the world of concrete, but he's also documenting his career successes and failures, like being at a celebrity dinner hosted by GQ as one of their "Men of the year" and also losing a Depends advertisement gig. The decision to make a documentary feature, in the current environment, finds purse strings clutched tight unless it's about murder or a musician... and so Wilson goes out in search of a musician to document, a tangent that gets simultaneously dark and hopeful, presented with both humour and empathy.

It doesn't matter if you've seen How To... to enjoy The History of Concrete. Sure there are a few nods in the early minutes to, well, Wilson's life as presented previously in How To... that will get knowing "ahhhhs" out of fans but really, just like any episode of How To... it stands as a singular document that works just fine on its own, but also better as part of the whole.

Does The History of Concrete truly elevate itself to "cinematic" status, does it truly differentiate itself from from what we've seen on HBO or Vimeo? No, not in any major way, but that's the sign of Wilson making his art authentically. While some AI may have stolen his voice, I don't think there's any way to truly emulate Wilson's collages, or his ability to connect (or disconnect) with people, and to go where the vibes take him and his camera. There will no doubt be emulators, weirdo kids who grew up on Wilson's style and try to replicate that, but I don't know if Wilson's work will ever not feel unique.

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The trailer for The Stunt Driver plays like it's a "Heritage Minute", which, if you're not Canadian you're probably not familiar with. "Heritage Minutes" are 60-second full-cast productions that present snapshots of Canadian history, like Jacques Cartier misunderstanding what the natives were saying and thinking the land was called Canada, or Joe Shuster handing off a drawing of a man in tights to his friend Lois as he boards a train.  

"Heritage Minutes" have never really gone away, but they hit sporadically, and they've been cropping up in theatres lately, both classics and newer ones. There were little tip-offs in The Stunt Driver trailer that this wasn't legit...mainly because there was so many scenes edited together. 

I thought The Stunt Driver, based on the trailer, would be a retro-styled mockumentary, following a very hoser-accented Canadian in the late-1970s as he dares to be daring, and aspires for a big jump over the St. Lawrence River. It seemed so heightened and silly and embracing the era with all the hair and polyester and wood panelling and stubby beer bottles... and, Jay Baruchel in the lead... like, this had to be a comedy right?

But it turns out The Stunt Driver is based on a very real person, stunt driver Ken Carter (Kenneth Gordon Poleschuk), and his big idea to jump the St. Lawrence was very, very real.

It also turns out I had some memory of Ken Carter sitting deep in the recesses of my brain. I don't remember much, but little pieces of trivia were sitting there that kept smacking me upside the head as I watched this dramatic-but-with-a-light-touch film about this specific period of time in his life.

Carter (Jay Baruchel), "The Mad Canadian", performed his stunts around the world, and like pro-wrestlers and football players, put his body and his life on the line for entertainment. In his late 30's, hobbled by injuries but undeterred, he scoffed at cross-border rival Evel Knievel's attempt to "jump" the Snake River Canyon in a rocket, and was determined to have his own, more inspirational (and successful) jump.

He gets rocket car designer Dick Keller (Ed Helms) to help him on his crazy quest, and enlists sports agent Bill Wilkins (Dan Bakkedahl) to sell the TV rights to ABC's Wide World of Sports. Carter's wife, Gloria, is fully supportive, though they both dream that the success of such a stunt will be enough for a comfortable retirement.

What follows is a string of setbacks that start to sink Carter into a hole, both financially and emotionally.  Time twists on and Carter can't seem to quite get off the ground. Literal years pass, but the dream never dies... that is until his first successful test of the rocket car shakes him to his core and he never quite recovers.

Presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio with, most likely digital cameras with a digital grain process added to make the film look like TV of the era (with actual footage of Carter's jumps, and crashes, judiciously cut in), the film feels incredibly Canadian, as it should. It's not a film that's mythmaking or putting an idol on a pedestal, it's a film about a very human man, and I found Carter's motivations and fears very touching.  

It's also a film about failure, and about having to live with the spectre of failure, something that Carter really couldn't shake. A couple of points in the movie, Carter states that he does what he does to be remembered... but he was forgotten anyway. Director Dowse and Baruchel -in his first really transformative role- do a really great job at resurrecting his memory, but, unfortunately, there were only 7 people at my screening. Hopefully its jump to streaming gets more eyes on it.

While Evel Knievel has cemented his place in American pop-culture history, Ken Carter didn't ever reach the same place of notoriety in Canada. In some respects films like The Stunt Driver, just pure Canadiana, are essential to our entertainment ecosystem. I have yet to watch the NFB documentary The Devil At Your Heels from which much of this film was derived, but I imagine that there were more than a few elements added or excised for dramatic and comedic effect.  This is a truly solid, stoic, entertaining piece of Canadian cinema that respects its subject when it could have pushed the comedy to real extremes, perhaps to bigger success, but less authenticity.

---

The Stunt Man was given three Oscar nods at the 1981 Academy Awards. Richard Rush was tipped for best director, Peter O'Toole as best actor, and best writing (adapted) for Rush and Lawrence B. Marcus. I wasn't aware of this film until six or seven years ago. I had added it to my watchlist in letterboxd very early on in using that app, though I don't remember exactly when I did so or what triggered it.

Based on the novel of the same name by Paul Brodeur, it finds Cameron (Steve Railsback), a Vietnam veteran, on the run from the law. We don't really learn why until deep into the third act. He narrowly escapes arrest and, while running, finds himself on a bridge facing a car that's seemingly trying to run him down. He lobs a piece of scrap at the windshield and dives out of the way. The car disappears into the river below... but it's not long before people and vehicles and helicopters start appearing...Cameron's on a film set and he sort of just killed the stunt driver.

But not to worry, for auteur director Eli Cross (O'Toole), the show must go on. It cannot afford the shut-down time of a police investigation nor any other delay.  The only reasonable answer is for Cameron to pose as the now deceased stunt man, with promises of excellent pay and a ticket out of country when the shoot is all said and done.

But it's hard to hide something like a car going off a bridge, and the local police are already agitated about the film shoot's disruptions to the community. For Cameron, it feels like the walls are closing in. And Cross, well, his intentions start to seem more and more suspect. He seems to be intentionally torturing Cameron, dangling hope and security in front of him. It's been so long since Cameron has had good things in his life, he doesn't know how to relax.

And then there's Nina (Barbara Hershey), the starlet of the film, who for some reason takes a liking to Cameron, despite his outbursts and wild eyes. He's a bit of a wounded puppy, and a bit of a rabid dog. He's out of his depth with her, but she doesn't mind, at least for now.

The Stunt Man is a satire about filmmaking while also offering a commentary on the mistreatment of America's soldiers during and after the war, as well as examining the effects of PTSD (though, somewhat naively). It flirts with being a drama and a comedy, and the film-within-a-film is a war film and so there are elaborate WWII sequences requiring extensive stunts that are shot both from the view of the camera within the film and our external POV. There's a bit of a mystery to Cameron's backstory, and intrigue and suspense around Cross' true intentions (is he really intent on making snuff fillms?).

The Stunt Man tries to do it all and only succeeds at some. It seems to know intimately how films are made (as an experience filmmaker like Rush should) but also shorthands some things (like shooting full action sequences in one take), deceives the audience in many ways, and sometimes portrays a reality that is so obviously false that it's hard sometimes to buy into the reality of the film.

Railsback as Cameron is an uncomfortable fit. As the film shifts -- sometimes frantically -- through its genres, Cameron is meant to as well, and I'm just not sure if it's Railsback who isn't up to the task of navigating them, or if anyone really could. Hershey, likewise, has a hard time finding consistency in this picture. She doesn't have as much heavy lifting to do as Railsback, nor does Nina face as much whiplash, but for a 1980's woman, she seems decades behind.

It's O'Toole who steals the show (but definitely not the lead). As Cross he gets to be shifty and playful and confounding and melodramatic and mysterious and dangerous, and does so with easy consistency. It's a terrific performance, in an ambitious, but messy film.

It feels like The Stunt Man could not be remade today, not without being a period piece. It seems so impossible for someone to disappear if they wanted to. But also if The Stunt Man were to be remade, it would be the rare instance where it would be better suited as a TV show than a movie. The depths of the characters could be better explored, the themes of reality versus fiction could be given greater weight, as could the exploration of trauma and even a proper reckoning with post-Vietnam America. There's also an extensive cast on the periphery here that is given so little screentime, there's room for an ensemble to develop out of this.  But would I actually watch it...?

---

As we conclude this impromptu "stunt week" (I had plans on rewatching The Fall Guy and Hot Rod but didn't get to them) the "Ozploitation" mock-doc Stunt Rock no doubt got added to my watchlist during a lazy Sunday afternoon scrolling through Tubi and watching its preview clips.  

Stunt Rock is not a documentary, nor is it a mockumentary, but somewhere in between. It's honestly not too dissimilar in tone to the prior year's Australia-set ABBA: The Movie, where it was sort of a concert film that was totally disinterested in being a concert film.  Stunt Rock is disinterested in really being a stunt film, and instead wants to be a concert film, but all these stunts just keep getting in the way.

It's a truly bizarre hybrid, where Australian stunt performer Grant Page makes his way to America to perform on a totally made up TV show starring Dutch actress Monique van de Ven. When he gets Stateside, he meets up with his cousin, Curtis Hyde who performs with the band Sorcery. Sorcery's schtick is mediocre hard rock whose stage show includes Hyde and Paul Haynes performing as duelling sides of darkness and light in a display of pyrotechnics and stage magic.  Honestly, it's not a bad sight, but is stage magic stunts?

The moments where we see Page stunt performing, there's some pretty big set-ups, but almost all the stunts he's performing are done so simply for the sake of being stunts. There's no narrative here, there's no plot objective, just a "can we do it?" attitude. And so, with stunts being performed with no direct intention, it's not that they're not impressive, but they're also kind of boring, and lacking theatricality. Perhaps that's why Page felt the need to cede half the movie to a rock band and a magic show... the devil-vs-wizard magic show is somehow far more enticing and entertaining.

There's no story to Stunt Rock. There's little threads about a reporter following Page and they hook up, or van de Ven nagging Page to let her do stunts, or Page trying to contribute to the Sorcery stage show... but that's not a plot, those are just events.

Stunt Rock is not unentertaining but it also feels somewhat quaint, which I hate typing because it really undermines the talent and professionalism of everyone involved. But it's not even close to the thrill of watching, say Jackie Chan outtakes, or parkour videos.

31 Days of Halloween: Moar TV

Below, 2026, Netflix
Carrie, 2026, Amazon

This was the show I was anticipating for this season. 

A few months ago, I remember there being trailers for two media releases regarding the mythological Kraken. One, the Norwegian movie I watched and was disappointed with, but I couldn't find any evidence there was another movie released, ignoring any mockbusters that showed up. But it turns out, it was this TV series.

Its not like they are hiding anything -- 1986, fishing village in Newfoundland (actually set in NF) is being relocated, complete with the (floating) family home being towed by a small fishing boat. This  is something they actually did during the resettlements of the 50s to 70s, to bring families from isolated fishing communities closer to services. Their house gets snagged and when dad goes to inspect the cause, the house, and dad, are sucked down below. His son gets a brief look at a gargantuan eye before they cut the rope and the house is gone.

Fourty years later. The new community is suffering what the old one did and is in danger of resettlement once again. Most money is made from the distillery, made from ice burg water, and tourism. Calvin Penney (Josh Hartenett, Trap), the now grown kid from the opening, makes a meagre living pulling ice from the water and selling to the distillery, but the latest chunk turns out to be more stinky mucus than water. He brings it to scientist Dr Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis, Halt and Catch Fire) to find out exactly what it might be. Meanwhile he deals with his kids, including Wade (Charlie Heaton, Stranger Things), the son who has stayed with him, and Mary (Ruby Stokes, Lockwood & Co) who lives in Montreal, but has come home for a visit, BF in tow. 

Not as much goes on in this first episode, as did with Carrie. Its more about exposing the viewing audience to the setting, which is faithful in geography, not so much in the casting and accents. Newf will always be a challenge, especially the remote community accent which can be unintelligible to the average ear, but the success of these actors ranges from barely passable (I wasn't sure Mackenzie Davis was even trying) to mostly authentic. They do a cute scene where Wade talks to his AirBnB tourists while setting them up with a fried baloney breakfast, and it took me a moment to realize they were challenged in understanding what he was saying. But they toss in a "Screech-in" ceremony, for the tourists, to ask forgiveness, or invite mockery, depending on your viewpoint. This show will not be treated gently by actual Newfoundlanders.

But the monster. What will it be? Probably the same as the movie, in that the climate affecting changes by stupid humans are waking up things that should have been left asleep, or in deep oceans. There's no hint of Lovecraftian background, so it was just end up being a big squid. Still, I am onboard.

***

Carrie episode two spent its time dealing with the fallout of the tampon-shower-first-period-bullying incident, and introducing the remaining supporting cast, including teachers Miss Desjardins (Amber Midthunder, Prey) and Mr. Peist (Rahul Kohli, iZombie), as well as principal Grayle (Matthew Lillard, Scream), and guidance counsellor Mr Morton (Tim Bagley, Grace and Frankie). We also get to know more about the Queen Bitch Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), who quite frankly, is not having a good family life either, and setting us up to be conflicted by "nice girl" Sue Snell (Siena Agudong, Resident Evil) who spends equal time going along with the terrorizing led by Chris, as she does in questioning her own actions. Despite her "niceness", I suspect she will play a larger part in the final events than the interviews are leading on.

Also, Carrie's mom is being setup as quite the villain. She was not a prepper's "kept woman". She was her own religious fanatic, building her own xenophobic viewpoint of the world outside their house, and her simultaneously protecting Carrie from it, as she is poisoning the girl to any honest understandings. Luckily, Carrie is more than up for the task, both thoughtful and a quick learner. Problem is that with puberty's awakening, her powers are becoming.... more prevalent, and she's realizing she has some control.

Still not sure how I feel about the Xavier School for the Other Psychic Girls side plot -- wonder if they will attempt to connect it with Firestarter and its franchise.

31 Days of Halloween: Carrie

2026 - Amazon

How do I write about TV again?

Every year, at least one TV show appears near-to or during the season. This year, we get at least three, which are automatically on the slate: Yaga which starts at the end of the month, the Newfoundland shot and based monster-in-the-water series Below that starts tomorrow on Netflix, and this one, the latest from favourite Mike Flanagan.

Insert Fanfare Emoji

There have been a lot of Carrie adaptations, the debut novel from Stephen King, going all the way back to the 1976 De Palma / Sissy Spacek movie. Then there is its "sequel", the terrible The Rage: Carrie 2 in the 90s, and the 2013 version with Chloë Grace Moretz, and there was also a 2002 made-for-TV movie written by Bryan Fuller; it was meant to be a backdoor pilot, but that never happened. I will also mention there were two stage productions, but I refuse to even dig into them.

This is Flanagan, whom we love love love, but I have to admit... I had no great anticipation for this one. I might have to admit no great fondness for the King story, despite it being his first. It was likely my fifth or six of his books. I might have soured on it due my own high school drama; nothing involving buckets of pig blood, but I do not look fondly back on those years. But I will watch it, and I will enjoy it despite getting in my own way.

It begins with the death of Carrie's father (Tahmoh Penikett, Dollhouse), a construction worker, but more importantly, a prep'er and anti-government whacko who kept to himself. Nobody at work knew him at all. It continues with the authorities finding Carrie(ta) and her mother (Samantha Sloyan, Midnight Mass) in the closet. Nobody knew they existed. But, I should say it begins with the simul-cast preamble, interviews with people regarding the incident that started in the high school gymnasium during prom, and ended with the entire school burned down, and most of the town. The same interviews explain that, pending funds being setup for the now widow and her daughter, Carrie (Summer H Howell, Night of the Reaper) has to go to school and mom has to work.

Smart move from Flanagan, as most people watching already know the story behind Carrie in that a young girl with powers gets a bucket of pigs blood poured over her and she ... explodes, taking everyone with her. Not literally, but powerful telepathic response. So, we know the ending, but do we know the story.

The setup is familiar enough. Carrie is new to this world, pretty much all of it. She's weird but resilient, open to every new experience. High school girls are demons, cliques within cliques. New people are fodder, new & weird even more juicy. Her first few days of homemade clothing, sexual awakening, popularity machinations and her first school shooting drill do not go well. We also see that there is an emerging conflict between Carrie and her mother, as Carrie begins to understand how much she has been kept from.

The episode ends as the torture begins. Carrie gets her first period, something her mother neglected to prepare her for ("my daughter is a child...") and the other gym class girls go wild on her, throwing feminine protection at her, while filming her confusion and panic. The episode truly ends with the introduction of something new, an Xavier style school of other girls with psychic powers, one who is sensitive to Carrie's awakenings.

Like all Flanagan, we begin with characters, good and bad, slow burning our way into a story. He's brought only a few of the usual suspects along so far, but I suspect more will come along.  Its a sold opener.

31 Days of Halloween: It Ends

2025, Alexander Ullom (feature premiere) -- download

Sorry about the last post. Google has decided I said something "adult" and has hidden it behind a "you have to sign in" link. They won't tell me what I said -- after 15 years of writing here, its not like I am saying something suddenly disruptive, but I have an idea. But anywayz, the movie was about gangs of LA, bad cops and vampires.

The first challenge with this movie was getting over the Gen Z protagonists, all of an age where they have been going to college and are about to, or have just entered "real life". They are obviously all life-long friends, but... wow, are they insufferable with each other, almost intolerable. Maybe being horrible to each other was their schtick? In most movies this would end up leading to reveals of deep seated historical resentments and betrayal, but no, this is just who they are. 

So, unlike most "road horror movies", we don't start with the overhead shot of nothing but trees and a car's headlights breaking the gloom. We get a brief glimpse from the forest floor, looking upwards, but then we are just in the car, the kids (and to me, at my age, they are kids) heading out to... we don't know; all we know is that its the first right and just up the road. But as soon as they make the right, dusk becoming night, they notice there hasn't been a turn off for a while, and the GPS on their phone just says "go straight." Eventually they, but mainly the aggressive driver Tyler, agree to do a U-turn and head back. Except, it ends. They way they came in has become the impassable forest.

And that's the premise of the movie. The road has mysteriously become all that there is. Tossing traditional horror movie structure to the wind, it becomes more scifi, more existential dread, more psychological terror, than anything else.

So, Tyler (Mitchell Cole, Against the Spread), Fish(er) (Noah Toth, Unfix), James (Phinehas Yoon, Smoking Tigers) and Day (Akira Jackson, Against the Spread) are the kids. Two of them are in / just finishing college. James has entered the ratrace, and Tyler joined the military but has never deployed. They are together for the first time in a while, to ... help one move? The ambiguity of their gathering is a very intentional technique, which becomes highlighted as the movie goes on, as time passes, as they begin to forget life before the road. 

So yeah, there is the road, and its structure, and its elements. At the beginning of the trip, after noticing there are no turn offs, and turning back to The End / The Beginning, they discover the woods are full of people - screaming, yelling, grabbing, clawing people who are desperate to get into the car. "Help me!!!" they cry out. The friends never ask what is going on, of the strangers, just panic and drive away, Fish has been clawed-at and injured, the rest just freaked out. They drive. Eventually night becomes dawn becomes day. They stop. After about 1 minute 30, the people come screaming from the woods again.

Each of them reacts differently to the situation. James is calm, unemotional and trying to put together reasons from what's going on. Fish is having panic attacks. Tyler is aggressive and angry. Day just tries to be diplomatic. They eventually notice that the gas isn't going below a quarter tank, and they don't have any need for bodily functions, and they don't get tired or need to / can sleep. A few things change, or new things happen, the longer they drive: fewer people, and then, abandoned cars, and finally other people who abandoned those cars, and just ... gave up, lying on the side of the road, alive but unresponsive. But mostly it is the same, for a very very long time.

And that's it. That's the movie. The driving, the friends, the conflict, the ideas, the time, the talking and the talking and the talking, the talking to survive madness, the talking to distract, the talking because what else is there to do. There are no explanations, and that becomes apparent, despite James believing he can figure it out given enough road. The metaphors for what is going on are numerous, and despite being the filmmakers intent, as someone much older than him, I don't suffer from not knowing what is coming next. I know what is next -- more of the same. And, well that's pretty heavily an element of the movie too. 

Movies without resolutions can be maddening. The "ending explained" posts are probably having a field day with this movie, and I suspect they will all get it wrong. I rather liked the movie, but maybe because I am rather intimate with existential dread these days, it just felt comfortable. And once they were settled into what they were suffering, I had more sympathy for the kids.

31 Days of Halloween: Night Patrol

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31 Days of Halloween: Hokum

2026, Damian McCarthy (Oddity) -- Amazon

Yes, a proper horror movie including creepy Irish mythos, ghosts and a haunted top floor to an quaint, old hotel. Oh, and a Dick American, but these days they are a horror unto themselves. We rather enjoyed McCarthy's last one, Oddity, creeped out by the actual oddity thing that played the titular role, and followed it not a few days later with his Caveat. He is keen on the creepy and if I can say one thing about this movie, it's that it elicited the first "AHHH!" jump scare in years -- I actually yelled out loud. 

The preamble gives us Ohm Bauman (quite the name; Adam Scott, Little Evil) sitting in his expensive concrete house, late at night, writing on his laptop. The book is about a conquistador seeking a lost treasure in the desert, which comes down to the treasure map stuck inside a bottle, and the only way (questionable) for him to smash the bottle, is on the back of a kid's head. But beyond the shitty whiskey fueled conundrum of his writing, he is also haunted by a ghostly figure he sees in shadows.

Later we find Ohm in Ireland, bringing the ashes of his mother & father to be scattered near the quaint inn where they had their honeymoon. Quaint means odd characters, like the one who killed a goat with a hand-crossbow and a creepy old man in a wheelchair who likes to scare children with tales of Irish witches dragging children through Hell at the end of chains. Ohm is not a shy man, letting everyone know his opinion on killing goats and scaring kids with stories. Oh, and the guy in woods drinking milk laced with magic mushrooms, who shares his uisce beatha ("ishka baha", or "water of life"; moonshine) with Ohm. Rural regions of any country are always colourful.

Ohm doesn't exactly endear himself with the staff of the hotel, quite literally burning the hand of the bellhop (Will O'Connell, Top Boy), who wants to share his manuscript with the famed writer, with a spoon heated from the candle inside a hollowed rutabaga jack-o-lantern (it's Halloween season), but the bartender Fiona (Florence Odesh, Foundation) doesn't draw his ire, nor he hers. Not long after being asked to drink his last at the hotel bar, she and the bellhop find Ohm having hanged himself. I guess the catharsis that brought him to Ireland did not go well.

He awakens in the hospital, weeks later. There is no awkward checking out or police, but its sure awkward when he goes to the hotel to collect his belongings. Now weeks after the Halloween party, and he learns Fiona disappeared that night, not long after finding Ohm. He learns that Jerry (David Wilmot, Bodkin), the mushroom milk guy, is their prime suspect, him being a vagrant with a shady past, and Ohm is compelled to track Jerry down, as her feels somewhat beholden to Fiona. 

Instead of a suspect, he gets a story of Fiona being murdered, Jerry having seen a ghostly visage of her, leading him to believe she is in the hotel's Honeymoon Suite, which has been cut-off since some sort of witch situation years ago -- the suite being accessible only via a chained & locked elevator, so the police (garda) never even bothered looking at the rooms. Jerry has already stolen the key and knows the hotel will be empty after that night, it being the end of the season.

Buuuut Jerry gets caught by the Fergal (Michael Patric, Frontier), the goat hand-crossbow guy, and is carted off, leaving Ohm to inspect the more-than-properly eerie Honeymoon Suite. He is helped by Mal (Peter Coonan, The Alienist), the concierge of the hotel, who finds Ohm after Fergal drives off with Jerry. And sure enough, he finds Fiona's body! She's in a dumb waiter that leads to a basement that has also been sealed off for years. Mal had led Ohm upstairs, hoping to put the whole thing to bed, not expecting Ohm to trigger the dumbwaiter's hatch and discover her body. He's the murderer, and rushes off, locking Ohm inside the room, chaining & locking the elevator behind him. 

This is when things get properly fucking scary. Interestingly enough, McCarthy does not present the movie with Ohm losing his shit. Sure, things have gone from weird to murder-y, and Ohm does start seeing ghostly visions, but he keeps his head, trying to figure a way out, while being haunted by memories and ghosts. You see, Ohm has had ghosts his entire life because, as a child, he acidentally killed his own mother with his father's gun, and his father drank himself to death afterwards. Mom is the effective jumpscare that got me, an apparition following around behind Ohm in her bloodied yellow dress. 

But that's nothing compared to the Barbarian style tunnel in the basement, that ends in a pair of "don't open me" doors. But no way out; just cinderblock walled up stairs. Oh, and the witch ghost that follows him up and OUT of the dumbwaiter. That's alright, Ohm remembers the chalk circle of protection and spends the rest of the night in honeymoon bed and she's gone by morning. Then a bloodied but determined Jerry shows up, having escaped Fergal and come back to find Mal, who already has a story cooked up about dropping the drunken Ohm at the airport. But Ohm has remembered what Jerry told him about Fiona's ghost pulling the long mechanical bell ringer, and alerts Jerry who goes upstairs to free Ohm. Alas, he is killed by Mal but not before Ohm can steal the keys to the still locked elevator (dude, you should have just left it opened until everyone was dead dead) and goes down into the witchy hallway to hide, hoping to fend her off with his chalk. It kind of works? He is captured in chains as well, but more importantly, Mal is carted off into the room at the end of the hall ... that is the doorway to Hell? Ohm, with the insistence of his mother's ghost, cuts himself free of the chains, escapes upstairs, and then back downstairs again via elevator and is rescued from the burning building by Fergal.

Again the hospital, the tale of woe is shared with the bellhop. Bodies were found, including Fiona's, but not Mal's. Mal had gotten Fiona pregnant and was worried by both what his boss and his wife would say. Fucking, men. Ohm has been saved, and relieved of his life long guilt and decides to finish off his conquistador story with a happier ending, as Fiona had asked.

Wow, I won't be doing recaps like that very often. It makes me tired before I can even mention how well-crafted the atmosphere of the movie was, being both eerie and ... capable? We even get some traditional questioning of our ghostly experiences, by the bellhop admitting he spiked Ohm's whiskey with Jerry's magic mushrooms, which probably explains utterly terrifying visions Ohm had (like the bunny costumed kids show host that blames Ohm for his mother's death) but not how Mal is carried off into Hell. Did he see ghosts? Was it all guilt and magic mushrooms? Hell of a lot to go through for family therapy. Yep, lots to chew on in this movie.

31 Days of Halloween: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

2026,  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett (Abigail) -- Disney+

We were rather charmed by the first movie; Kent liked it as well and he also enjoyed this one. 

So, to roughly recap the first one, which I should have mentally done before clicking Start on this one, but waitress Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving, Azrael) married into the old money Le Domas family. On their wedding day the whole family gathers at the gothic mansion to observe an old family ritual -- pull a card from a puzzle box, which denotes a traditional game. Unfortunately Grace pulls "Hide & Seek" which says the rest of the family has to hunt her down; hide until dawn, or die. Grace gets quickly fed up and dispatches everyone who comes up against her, and survives until dawn, only to witness the remaining family explode to gorey goo, subjected to failing to abide by the curse. 

This movie picks up on the doorstep of the mansion, the morning after, Grace covered in blood, her wedding dress and yellow hightops soaked with blood and gore. She passes out and wakes up in a hospital; handcuffed to the bed. Its not like murdering a bunch of people (in defense, of course) and burning down their house would go unnoticed. She is to be questioned by the cops, but is interrupted by the arrival of her "emergency contact", her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton, Freaky). The sisters do not like each other, Grace having walked out on her younger sister when she was 18, seeking to create a better life, before inviting Faith back into it.

Interesting. It was hard not to compare the similarities between "Ready Or Not" and the Zazie Beetz flick "They Will Kill You" but this sequel sets it up to even more similarities. 

Meanwhile a bunch of other Old Money Families are receiving phone calls from a lawyer mentioning that the Le Domases have died and a new seat has opened up at the table. Its like the John Wick world but with devil worship instead of assassination. While Grace and Faith argue it out over their family drama, one of the potentials, Bill Wilkinson (Kevin Durand, The Strain), shows up at the hospital with all his best knives, seeking to take out Grace before she can take the seat. But that's against the rules; just as he's about to kill Grace, he explodes into gooey bloody bits -- the Devil, or Mr. Le Bail (Belial? get it?) as the movies call him, has a standard gimmick. Immediately after, the Lawyer (Elijah Wood, The Monkey) appears wearing a gas mask, immobilizes Grace and Faith and takes them away.

Faith has been mixed up in Grace's (new) family drama even before she can get a read on what the fuck is going on. They awaken to Exposition Time, where the Lawyer explains that any of the families' chosen hunters who kills Grace, gets the ring, which provides ultimate power. The two girls run out into the golf course and the Game is Afoot. 

Each of the hunters has their own gimmick: the twins have a flintlock pistol and a weird fisted warhammer. Viraj Rajan (Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Brilliant Minds) wears a mask and swings an east Indian sword. El Caido (Nestor Carbonell, Bates Motel) uses a sniper rifle, badly. Wan Cheng Xing (Olivia Cheng, Warrior) has her own sword. And each of their attending family members hang out in the green room watching the show unfold. If there family member dies, they can either forfeit the chance, or sign up (in blood) to take the hunter's place. If any of them kill each other then they explode in gore, along with any surviving family members. 

Creative fights, violent deaths, betrayals and subterfuge, and quips galore, eventually leads to Grace making a bargain with Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy, Fear the Walking Dead), to marry him -- he gets the ring, no death required. Except Grace turns the table on that, essentially dooming every single fucking one of the cult, family members and supporting staff all, much to the amusement of The Lawyer. Grace and Faith get to walk out into the sunrise with the cult gone and ... well, the cops are still probably gonna hunt her down.

I still find it weird that we can consider Satanic Activity, murder, mayhem and exploding people as "fun" but there we are -- Horror Adjacent. There's not a lot deep going on here, but some light commentary on Good vs Evil being useless constructs when it comes to running the world. We also get some fun cameos (David Cronenburg as the Danforth patriarch, and that short gooey scene with Durand) and all the Canadian supporting actors you can shove into a movie; and Michelle Gellar as Ursula Danforth.

I think we need a proper horror movie up next.

31 Days of Halloween: Handsome Guys

2024, Nam Dong-hyup (feature premiere) -- download

Or Haenseomgaijeu.

This Korean movie is billed as a remake of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, which we are huge fans of -- my post does not give it justice, and I think its time for a rewatch and a new post. In the original movie, the "evil" turns out not to be some supernatural entity in the "cabin in the woods" but more along the psycho lines that the college kids assume should be attributed to Tucker and Dale, but ends up being One of Their Own. This remake decided to embrace the classic cabin aspect of the movie and ... well, I will get to that.

Kang Jae-pil (Lee Sung-min, The Moon) and Park Sang-goo (Lee Hee-joon, Badland Hunters; weird; I wouldn't paste "full names" if they were English names, but I somehow seem compelled to do it here) are not hillbillies, in the traditional sense... is there even an equivalent to Alabama or Tennessee in South Korea? Would I even recognize the cultural tropes, if there were? Either way, the guys are definitely weirdoes -- odd haircuts, weird style and socially awkward to the extreme, without even noticing it. Especially to the group of influencer kids they meet at the rest stop / convenience store -- wow, South Korean rural roadside convenience stories are pretty much small department stores. The influencers are on their way to a majestic lakeside "cabin", a trope influencers have spread world wide, while the two friends, carpenters by trade, are on their way to a weird house, entirely not traditional Korean-style, that Jae-pil sunk their savings into. The kids are there to pickup snacks and booze, while the boys are picking up reno gear, all sharp objects that could be used to kill people. When one of the girls is startled by Sang-goo, and she is further frightened when he tries to help her up, the tone of conflict is set between the two groups.

It should be noted that the movie has a Satanic exorcism preamble where an American priest fails to exorcise Baphomet from a young woman, and we see a pentagram carved into a stone in the basement of an old .... cabin in the woods. Not like I need to fill in blanks for you, but it does show a distinct departure from the original movie, in that their will be real supernatural Evil here.

I commented that should "Tucker & Dale" ever be remade, the kids would definitely be "influencers" and we would take even greater glee in watching them jump into a woodchipper. Why is it we so dislike influencer kids? Its almost like they have influenced us into thinking that.

So, the boys get to their house, and begin cleaning it up, while the influencer kids do what they do best, snipe at each other and pick favourites. Oh, I forgot to mention, on the drive up earlier, the kids hit a goat in the middle of the road, and just leave it there. When the boys come by soon after, they are found by a pair of buffoonish cops, carrying the tarped dead creature out of the road. The lead buffoon assumes they are doing some illegal, in fact, he needs them to be doing something illegal, as two so completely ugly, clownish dudes cannot not be doing something illegal. But they aren't so they have to be let go. Goats, Satan worship, you get it.

Now where was I ? Oh yes, both groups at their houses doing what they do, which ends up with Mi-na (Gong Seung-yeon, Aloners), the girl who got frightened by Sang-goo, the "nice girl" who is ostracized by the rest, down by the lake while the boys are fishing and, again, they startled her and she falls in. Let's just say the lake has a drop and she sinks like a stone, requiring Jae-pil to dive in to save her. She also requires some resuscitation, and the next morning she awakens in their somewhat-cleaned-up house, initially scared at what these weirdos are doing with her in their house, but quickly charmed by Sang-goo's harmless friendly behaviour and the massive breakfast spread laid out. The two end up getting along swimmingly while Jae-pil goes out to do yard cleaning (wood chipper, chain saw, etc.). The kids have noticed she is missing and wander around looking for her, coming across the boys cabin. They are immediately convinced the boys have kidnapped her, but one of the kids, the Mean One, really only cares that Mi-na has his phone. And he's an influencer that cannot be without his phone.

What follows is a tragic black-comedy of errors. Its not presented as well as the original movie, but basically each of the kids are compelled to attack the Jae-pil, starting with just after he (chain)saws into a log full of wasps, those big nasty Asian wasps. The kids run screaming as he runs screaming from  the wasps, waving his chainsaw around like the mad man they all assume he is. One of the girls is impaled. The horrified boys attack, but a mislaid power cord electrocutes one, and trips the other, who falls into the planter box, which looks like a coffin Sang-goo "made" Min-na build (for herself) -- said planter box has lots of exposed nails. Ouch. And then the final kid jumps at Jae-pil, who has made it back to his wood pile, chipper munching on the rotting wood he has cleaned up, and the kid misses Jae-pil and .... grrrinnnnnnnd .... tomato paste.

All of the kids have very quickly died due to their own ineptitude and misunderstandings. And, well that pentagram in the basement under the boys cabin is suddenly lighting up with fiery symbols  -- one symbol for each dead kid. Except, the count is off and ... ohhh, electrocuted kid is not dead. And his awakening, as well as the return of the kid I forgot to mention has an unfortunate run in with the not-dead goat (I admit, I nodded off during that brief sequence) leads to the final act that is ... well, if this movie is a remake of "Tucker & Dale", then the final act is a very blatant nod to the original orginal Evil Dead complete with cackling possessed people in basements. And drawing on some pretty common tropes from Asian horror that I have commented on before (religion, destiny, legacy, family), the just-woke-up-from-a-coma younger brother of the original possessed women from the preamble has to fight off the proper now-raised Baphomet devil kid. Oh, and the buffoonish cops get mixed up in it as well.

It was actually a pretty decent remake of the original, capturing enough to make us smile, and being new and culturally appropriate to probably appeal to an entirely different audience. It doesn't have the bite of the original, and that is mainly because it does draw upon horror tropes as being actual horror, instead of all just a "ooops, we misunderstood" comedy of errors.

31 Days of Halloween: The Old Dark House

Usually I copy & pastedit the preamble from previous years. But considering this series has been going almost as long as the blog, its getting more than just a bit long in the fang. So, here is a list of previous year's entries: 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. 

This year has been a bumper crop of Horror and Horror Adjacent movies & TV, enough that I have at least half of the month downloaded, Listed or otherwise planned. And, of course, we still have tons from previous years that were skipped over for one reason or another. 

Full disclosure. This movie was suggested by a drag queen's Reel -- the glee with which they described the movie as a Halloween must-watch inspired this as the kick-off. And if I watched it purely for the camp fun, I would get it. Unfortunately, all we got was a terrible movie with no real plot, but for some of the truly fun camp moments.

This 1932 version adaptation of the 1927 novel by Benighted by JB Priestly, which was supposed to be a commentary on classes in post-WWI Britain, is a lesser known film by James Whale, the guy who did Frankenstein. It was considered lost for a while, but found again in the late 60s and more recently come to home media. We watched it on YouTube.

It actually opens with some potential. The Waverton couple, and their friend Penderel (Melvyn Douglas, Captains Courageous), are lost somewhere on the backroads of Wales -- it actually takes some paying attention to catch this is in Wales, as everyone but a later character is just speaking with the bland Transatlantic accent. They are caught in a storm, lost in the middle of nowhere, bickering and yelling at each other, while Penderel quips in the back seat. The storm and muddy road are quite impressive practical effects, including the landslide that almost takes out the car. But finally they make it to a creepy mansion... on the moors?

This Old Dark House (the house, not the film's title) is not quite the trope originator, but it is definitely one of the early definers of the genre. Its a massive edifice owned by the uber-eccentric Femm family: effete Horace (Ernest Thesiger, The Bride of Frankenstein) who should have been an undertaker, his cranky hard-of-hearing sister Rebecca (Eva Moore, Of Human Bondage) and their scary hairy mumbling manservant Morgan (Boris Karloff, Frankenstein) -- this is proper non-sensical grumbling & growling, not Arthur Webley from Hot Fuzz West-country speak. The travelers are not exactly welcomed into the house, but begrudgingly accepted but, "NO BEDS !!" as Rebecca constantly screams. The are soon joined by Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), with his proper "Northern" accent, and his pretty chorus girl Gladys (Lillian Bond, The Picture of Dorian Gray).

A lot of focus is put on atmosphere. Margaret Waverton (Gloria Stuart, The Invisible Man) is all wet and yucky so Rebecca let's her change in her room, the room with the very wonky warped mirrors that leaves your face like a horror show, and hint -- don't open the windows when a Nor'wester is blowing. Also, she changes into a satin evening gown -- interesting choice. When they all sit down for dinner ("Have a potato!" Horace says menacingly) it seems genial and threatening at the same time. Meanwhile Morgan is getting drunk on gin in the kitchen, enhancing his own menace from leering to a Very Mean Drunk. And when the electrical lights go out in the storm, Rebecca wants Horace to go up four flights (exactly how tall IS this house?!?!) to grab the big lamp, but he won't have anything to do with it, and coerces Philip Waverton (Raymond Massey, Arsenic and Old Lace) into the task. And then there is the cackling ("Did you hear something? Must be the storm...") and the Locked Attic Door.

Eventually the family secrets do come out; kind of. The Waverton's find Sir Roderick Femm (Elspeth Dudgeon, in thick makeup playing a very very old man, one of her very many barely credit roles), the ancient infirmed patriarch who warns them the family is cursed. And then "never mentioned before" brother Saul (Brember Wills, Carnival) gets out of his locked room, first bemoaning the family is keeping him against his will, before discovering the carving knife and giving up the charade by harrying Penderel with his tales of being obsessed with fire. By this time, Morgan has gone on a drunken violent rampage, the ladies are locked in the cupboard and the boys (but Penderel) are locked in the kitchen. In shambling melee, Penderel and Saul fall from through second story railing and Saul is killed; Penderel only gets a bump on the head. Morgan, now sobering up, takes away Saul's body, his face torn in grief. In the morning, Horace emerges from his room with nary an "oh my" look on his face, considering half the house is wrecked. Rebecca looks onward with a sour face. Nobody seems to acknowledge their brother is dead.

I am not quite sure Whale intended on this being a campy comedy of a film, and I will leave that treatise for the film's cult following, but he most definitely did intend on all the queer coding. I am not quite sure by into the Waverton's being a bearded couple, but despite Penderel's I-just-met-you-but-I-love-you to Gladys, he is definitely played as the Gay Best Friend to the couple. And then there is Horace asking Philip if he can show him his bedroom, instead of getting the lamp his sister wants. Meanwhile Saul flirts / threatens to kill Penderel, switching mood with each heartbeat. Its most definitely a movie of its age, but I can see how it didn't hit well with audiences until much much later.

KWIF: Resident Evil (+3)

 KWIF=Kent's Week In Film. Sniffles. Cough. Sneezes. Vertigo. Madness. Stress. Rage. Anxiety. Sleeplessness. Aches. Indigestion. Reflux. In no particular order, and often on repeat. Let's talk about some movies and forget about the rest of the week.  I was hoping mirror this week's KWIF with last week's by watching another Cary Grant black and white comedy, another disaster flick from the '70s, another Fukasaku film, and Onslaught, set in the same shared reality as The Guest...but Onslaught is already gone from theatres and not quite yet on demand. Feh.

This Week:
Resident Evil (2026, d. Zach Cregger - in theatre)
Message From Space (1978, d. Kinji Fukasaku - tubi)
Avalanche (1978, d. Corey Allen - tubi)
Topper (1937, d. Norman Z. McLeod - tubi)

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I'm in danger of repeating myself (like that doesn't happen all the time), but I don't play video games so when the director Zach Cregger says that his latest film, and the latest adaptation of the Resident Evil video game franchise, is meant to evoke the feeling of playing a Resident Evil video game, rather than a straight adaptation of a game's story, I can't really tell you whether he was successful or not. The most I know about the Resident Evil franchise comes from binge watching the Milla Jovovich film series and listening to accompanying podcasts about the series. The most I've ever seen of the video games would have been commercials that I would have caught the first fifteen seconds of on youtube before hitting the "skip" button.

I have, however, seen Cregger's previous films, Barbarian and Weapons, and enjoyed them both. As time has passed, I recognize that Weapons and Barbarian are quite different types of horror movies, and that Weapons is much more my speed and style of horror than Barbarian was. Resident Evil is likewise a much different horror movie than Cregger's previous, but it absolutely proves he knows exactly what he's doing when he crafts his stories in bringing them to the screen. Barbarian and Weapons weren't flukes, this guy's got the goods as a horror auteur.

Where Weapons is a creepy, slow burn, non-linear, ensemble piece with a mystery to be unveiled that begins in a heightened reality, Barbarian starts extremely grounded, presenting as a situational horror that is rooted in the deep discomfort of never truly knowing what another person is thinking (or capable of), and then builds into escalating levels of surreal and then traditional horror.  Barbarian is genuinely scary and intense, while Weapons is primarily creepy. Resident Evil is scary, intense and creepy. Honestly, it maybe the most "horror" horror movie I've actually ever seen (I'm not a neophyte, but I'm also no expert), while also having Cregger's sense of humour sprinkled throughout.

It's largely a one-hander film. We follow Bryan (Austin Abrams) as he is takes on a critical, life-saving medical transport job. He has to go "up the mountain" to Raccoon City (makes me think they transported Raccoon City out of the midwest and into the Rockies somewhere) in the midst of heavy snowfall for which his economy-class vehicle is not equipped.  While driving he learns his girlfriend is pregnant talking to her over the phone, and he reacts badly. And then he hits something.

It kicks off from there. It starts out really small, and kind of funny, and just very slowly escalates. It's barely five minutes into the film before Things Are Happening, which is incredibly smart of Cregger. Weapons felt more like a sprawling novel adaptation, like prestige (not "elevated" thank you) horror, at 128 minutes. Resident Evil is over in sub-90 before the credits start. It is simply the story of someone who gets caught up in what is effectively a disaster and has to navigate his way through it. 

The closer Bryan gets to Raccoon City, the more things escalate.

There's not much to the plot here (not unlike a video game). There's a framework for Bryan to navigate. There are obstacles in his way. There are undead creatures that emerge that he has to face or flee. And there are sort of clues that could be interpreted as logic puzzles presented before him that he may or may not think through.

Yeah, from a character and story standpoint, it's thin (not absent, just thin), but boy is it thrilling. And gross. And scary. And gory. And clever. And funny. 

Abrams' first big role was as the titular Dash in the teenage Christmas romcom Dash and Lily, which is one of the best romcom TV shows ever made and one of the best Christmas romcoms ever made, and one of the best teenage romcoms ever made, and Abrams was great in it. His next big appearance was in Wolfs and managed to stand out sandwiched between George Clooney and Brad Pitt, as well as putting in a great performance as part of the Weapons ensemble. But this is a spotlight. Resident Evil succeeds or fails on whether you like this guy enough to care if he makes it through this horror show in one piece or not. And you do. It's hard not to like Abrams. He's got a pluck, a charm,and a down-to-earth, fallible quality that makes him seem so ... normal. He's an everyman, not a surperman. You never get the sense that anything Bryan is doing in this film is outside of what someone like Bryan is capable of. 

I mentioned the incredible opening act of Hope a few weeks back, just a propulsive 45 minutes of exceptional cinema teasing out the monster while following a woefully unprepared character through the chaos. Resident Evil basically does the same thing but instead of just throwing the character into the thick of it, he slowly wades into it. And it only does that. Where Hope then deviated into trying to tell a larger story, Resident Evil is just as non-stop propulsive a film, and it doesn't take its focus off Bryan. He is the larger story.

Just as I cannot compare this to the video game series, I'm also not a gore hound, so I can't really tell where this fits on the goriest movies ever list. I imagine it's not at the very top, but it's well past the middle. It's incredibly well made that grabs you from the start and doesn't let go. Toasty's going to love it.

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What a weird film Message From Space is. In part this statement is made because I watched Message From Space after watching Legend of the Eight Samurai. Both films are directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Both films feature Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter) and Etsuko Shihomi (Sister Street Fighter) and baby-faced Hiroyuki Sanada (he looked so young in Eight Samurai, it seems impossible that he could be in another film 5 years earlier). Both films are based off the classic 1800's Japanese serial Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin. The difference is that Message From Space is a sci-fi space opera adaptation of the material while Legend of the Eight Samurai is a sword-and-sorcery translation.

In Message From Space, the planet Jillucia has fallen to the tyrannical Gavanas Empire. The small hovel of unenslaved Jillucians send their princess Emeralida (Shihomi) off planet with warrior Urocco (Makoto Satō) and eight mystical Liabe Seeds that will reveal the fabled eight warriors that will help free their people from enslavement under Emperor Rockseia XXII (Mikio Narita) and his nasty mother.

The first chosen of the liabe seeds are roughneck pilots Shiro (Sanada) and Aaron (Philip Casnoff), as well as their shifty pal Jack (Masazumi Okabe) and also Meia (Peggy Lee Brennan) who is rebelling against her affluence by hanging with these low-lifes.

Much of Message From Space feels like live-action anime, for better or worse. While Eight Samurai had a definite Star Wars influence, with shot recreations and Japanese fantasy interpretations of Star Wars elements like the stormtroopers, Message From Space feels less like a rip-off of Star Wars than a capitalization on its success.

The best aspect of Message From Space is it's space ships and flying sequences. There is an anime energy to the astronautics and it's a pretty visceral viewing experience. There's definitely a bit of the trench run from Star Wars in what they were emulating here, but it seems more like the speeder bike sequence from Return of the Jedi and the podracing sequence from The Phantom Menace...as if Lucas watched this film and took a couple tries to match its sense of speed and excitement.

The ship designs are all over the place, but most of them are pretty great. Just like Star Wars, they feel cobbled together, like model kits that have been kit bashed and put together in unintended ways but making for unique and interesting looking pieces.  My lack of experience with manga and anime is such that I don't know if Message From Space was a huge influence on anime, or vice versa...or if it was sort of a feedback loop. One of the space ships is just like an old school sailboat with giant masts that I know I've seen in anime before.

It's a shame then that pretty much the rest of the film is nonsensical dross. The characters are poorly constructed with little to no development over the course of the film. There's not a single character arc in this film that carries any weight or resonance. The dynamics between the characters is underbaked at best, without any real sense of who these people are to each other, and what they mean.

The story itself is all over the place, progressing in a staccato fashion that has no sense of coherency or flow.  Oh, it takes big swings (the Gavanas have built rockets into Jillucia and move the planet into our solar system, and then proceed to blow up the moon) but none of the movements feel in concert with one another. 

Even though the effects are clearly on a tight budget and pretty unrefined, there is a quaintness to them that is appealing. There's effort put into this production that's pretty easy to appreciate, so it's just the more disappointing that it amounts to a pretty underwhelming film as a whole. As much as I prefer sci-fi to fantasy Legend of the Eight Samurai is the superior, and more rewarding of these two bizarrely similar films.

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As mentioned last week, one of my slow-burn projects is to watch all the 70's disaster movies. I love the formula of these, and hope we one day see it again, but I don't think disaster films will ever be the same because of modern digital effects and production design.  Disaster films of the '70's era are great because of the technical limitations and the creative solutions in visualizing the disasters and their aftermath.  They're also great because of their sprawling ensemble casts and the willingness to kill them off.  

Avalanche was Roger Corman's New World Pictures entry into this fray. Starring Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow and Robert Forester, it's not quite as low-rent a cast as you might expect for a Corman-produced B-movie version of a disaster flick...except that the remainder of the cast is a veritable who's who of "who's that?" No other names or recognizable faces involved (at least not 50 years later anyway).

Hudson is the proprietor of a new ski resort that faces some controversy over the ecological impacts of its development. Farrow plays Hudson's ex-wife, coming to the resort as guest of the owner, who has plans to woo her back if he can ever escape all the damn meetings he's in. Forester plays a celebrated photographer and naturalist who lives nearby and is concerned about the amount of snowfall happening on the mountaintops.

The film is mostly interested in the love triangle of Hudson, Farrow and Forester, while making it apparent to the audience that Hudson's aggressive advances of Farrow are unwelcome (so much arm-grabbing). There are other characters introduced, like Bruce the champion skier, and his mentally unstable girlfriend Tina, and the maybe unnamed skater that Bruce cheats on Tina with sending her into a dark spiral, and Tina's ex-husband the news reporter. There's also Hudson's mom and her chaperone, the resort's accountant McDaid (there's no romantic entanglement there, but there should have been). 

Where your average disaster film would spend about a half hour cutting between each of these characters before setting off the main event, here it takes about an hour before the titular avalanche kicks off.  Usually some aspect of the oncoming tragedy could have been prevented if not for the hubris of one of the characters, whether the disaster could have been prevented, or at least more lives could have been saved with early warnings. Here, however, despite all this set-up of Hudson not listening to Forester about the building snow on the mountaintops and how all of Hudson's ongoing development work and cutting down of trees will increase the likelihood and severity of an avalanche, the whole event is kicked off because of a totally random plane crash. Hudson had no true culpability here.

The avalanche, as might be expected from a Corman production, is a budget production, alternating between miniatures, stock footage, Styrofoam boulders and blowing soap flakes, and superimposition effects. It's delightful in its cheesiness. By the time the avalanche is over, there's barely a half hour left in the film to deal with the fallout of the avalanche, and, I have to say, it's pretty tepid. The carnage is not insane, and the response is pretty immediate. Two of our three leads are leading the rescue effort, and Farrow is just sort of off to the side, so nobody we've spent any quality time with in the movie, besides mom and McDaid, are in any immediate danger. Putting underdeveloped characters in peril is not very exciting.

Avalanche is a sub-par execution of the disaster film formulae. It's obvious that budget constraints were the reason for it spending 70% of its time on silly romantic entanglements and hashing and rehashing the same background details over and over. But at the same time, it is one of the most 1970s movies I've ever seen. The hair, the moustaches, the clothes, the earth tones, the wood... everything, the ski suits and snowmobiles and luggage, the dancing (oh the dancing) and the finger snapping, the live music in the lounge, the corny competitions being held at the resort...all of it is pretty damn glorious if you want a hit of pure 1970's into your eyeballs. I had a great time.

I forgot, when watching Avalanche this past week that I had actually seen it before, as part of Netflix's Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Gauntlet season back in 2017. It's not a memorable film, nor is it even close to good, but it still delighted me. 

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I have been reading film critic Nathan Rabin's series over on his substack on Manic Pixie Dream Girl movies. Rabin coined the term 20 years ago and his series of reviews of films featuring the character trope is a means of reckoning with its success in entering the pop culture lexicon as well as its misuse. A Manic Pixie Dream Girl is the construct of a male writer who imagines a lively, care-free woman who will snap a boring, depressed guy out of his dull-ass colourless reality and teach him how to live...and love. They are a complete fantasy, typically women who exist solely for the purpose of uplifting the most average of men out of their utter average-ness.

In Rabin's current writings, he's starting looking back to film's before he coined the phrase to find earlier examples of the MPDG in cinema, and there's no shortage of them (Barbra Streisand in What's Up Doc? being just one example). Without meaning to step on his spot, I submit Topper as being yet another one...only in this case, the twist is it's Manic Pixie Dream Ghosts (thanks to Lady Kent for coming up with that one).

In Topper, George and Marion Kerby (Carey Grant and Constance Bennett) are two affluent, hard-drinking gadabouts who seem to have less than a care in the world. When we first meet them, George is driving through the countryside sitting on the back of the seat of his convertible and driving with his feet.  They're heading into the big city for a board meeting in the morning at the bank (George is the majority stakeholder or something, I didn't actually follow) which means they have all night to party.  Marion takes delight in flirting with buttoned-down Cosmo Topper (Roland Young), a respectable man who really would just like to dance and let loose and play, but his prim and uptight wife Clara (Billie Burke) won't let him.

George and Marion get into a car accident because George is probably still drunk and speeding, and they die. They emerge as ghost and take the whole damn thing in stride (I guess if you die fully lit, you remain fully lit forever in the afterlife). They wonder why they haven't passed on to the pearly gates, and, they surmise, that they need to do a good deed. Marion's immediate thought is they need to teach ol' Topper how to let loose, and thus the flirtatious, vivacious, playful, life-loving, liberal woman starts messing with Cosmo, and he, of course, loves it.

How could he not? Constance Bennett's performance as Marion is so damn alluring. She's designed to be, of course, so that Topper will follow her anywhere and everywhere. In the wrong hands, Marion could be seen as mean-spirited, as really fucking with Topper, but Bennett gives the impression that Marion is genuinely delighted by Topper, and her flirtatiousness is strictly that. She's married to George of course, but she has the liberty, and desire, to run around with men who amuse her.  And it's true, Roland Young is kind of adorable. From the get go you understand Topper is a man burdened by rules, a man longing for fun and joy and pleasure, but he lives in a reality that seems to deny him that. And so he needs a Manic Pixie Dream Ghost to unshackle him.

Of course, Mrs. Topper finds out her husband has been running around with another woman, and part of the story is about Clara loosening up, and learning that being buttoned-down and polite society is seen as uninteresting (the society women she wants to hang out with only come around after Marion gets Topper thrown in jail and reported on in the newspaper).

For Grant, this seems like it was a contractual obligation... he had so many pictures to make in a year with a studio, lending his big name and handsome face to a marquee and poster, but he's barely in the film. This is Constance Bennett's show (and what a show). Normally a lack of Grant screentime would be a bit of a downer, but not here. Eventually George has to come back into the picture to reign Marion in. As footloose and fancy-fee as George is, even he realizes when Marion is being too much of a pixie, too much of a dream girl. In a just world, George would have been Clara's Manic Pixie Dream Guy/Ghost (and in a non-sexist world, he would have been right alongside Clara in helping Cosmo live life to the fullest).

It takes a little too long for Topper's premise to come to fruition, but when it does it's a very fun, often funny, and fully spirited tale. I would love to get a remastered version of the film as the Tubi version had quite poor sound quality (especilly for my half-deafness) and washed out contrasts. Apparently there are two Topper sequels which is baffling given how it ends, but I'm also very curious.

KWIF: tubi-ular bells

 KWIF=Kent's Week in Film. An annoying end-of-summer cold as well as intense end-of-quarter workdays and TIFF wreaking havoc on showtimes downtown all conspired to keep me out of the theatre this week. Movies got watched, but maybe not what I would have seen otherwise.

This Week:
The Philadelphia Story (1940, d. George Cukor - tubi)
Starflight One aka Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983, d. Jerry Jameson - tubi)
Legend of the Eight Samurai (1983, d. Kinji Fukasaku - blu-ray - also on tubi)
The Guest (2014, d. Adam Wingard - tubi)

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The Philadelphia Story opens with a shock. Cary Grant's C.K. Dexter Haven being thrown out of his home by Katherine Hepburn, playing his wife Tracy Lord. She snaps one of his golf clubs in half and he, enraged, restrains himself from striking her. Instead he puts his meaty hand softly on her face and then pushes her to the ground and walks away. He's a hurt man unsure of where to place his emotions, and so his act is clearly a show of dominance rather than intending to be violent. But it is still so shocking. It's still violent.

Let's be clear...assault is assault, and this constitutes assault. But it's also kind of funny because it's so unexpected. It shouldn't be funny, but I couldn't help but laugh. The jaunty, whimsical music is also telling us to not take it too seriously. It's a very weird note to start this movie on.  Throughout the film, unfortunately, there are multiple snappy remarks about domestic abuse that are meant to be funny, as striking one's wife was just an accepted part of a domestic relationship back then apparently. Thankfully, there's no further physical violence upon women in the film. 

After that very brief (and did I mention shocking?) opening scene, when we next cut to Tracy, she's getting married again. We learn that she's from an affluent family (as was Dex) and that she's marrying George Kittredge (John Howard) a man of new money who isn't as well versed in high society. Their marriage is to happen on the weekend.  Macaulay Connor (James Stewart) is a writer assigned by his editor to cover the wedding, with his partner, photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) to accompany him. They both question how they will get access to the wedding, and the answer comes with Dex leading the way. Yes, Dex is going to crash the wedding (but also introduce Mac and Liz as friends of Tracy's brother who's away in South America...) The jig doesn't last long but there are reasons they go along with it.

Tracy is  passive agressive in her welcoming of these people into her parent's home, and certainly isn't welcoming of Dex appearing back into her life, not at this time.  Mac is a crusader and an artist, and has genuine disdain for the wealthy, and certainly has no real desire to pursue this assignment. But when Tracy finds Mac's book of short fiction (or was it poetry) at the library, she's kind of smitten by the deep thinking, soulful man she'd so easily dismissed, and Mac, meanwhile, sees she's not the vapid snoot he assumed she was.

And so here we have a strange love pentagon where Mac, who is with Liz, now finds himself falling for Tracy (and Liz keenly aware of it and really just kind of relaxed about it, as if this is something Mac does all the time), and Tracy, likewise, falling for him, while getting married in a day or two, and then Dex is lingering in the peripherals dropping hints (or giving gifts) about their past when times were really good and romantic. 

Based on the stage play of the same name by Philip Barry, which also starred Hepburn and she also produced it. She was also the instigator for bringing the play to the big screen as a means of hopefully getting her out of movie jail after a string of bombs. It's a very sharp, twisty, unexpected story that doesn't follow traditional romance or romantic comedy beats. Most of the struggle of these characters and what they are feeling is internalized. For all the words they spew (it's a very punchy, fast-talking script) they aren't talking as much about what's really going on inside, merely hinting at it.

Hepburn here is fully in charge. This is Tracy's story, and she's not willing to fit the role that any man wants to put her in... not Dex, not her father, not George, and ultimately not Mac. Because Tracy is so fiercely independent, so frustrated with the patriarchy, she rebuffs it, and refuses to submit to it. As a result, these men who proclaim to love her have put her up on this pedestal, that she's a goddess or a queen, something other.  

Dex spent his years of marriage treating her like she was a wild horse that needed to be broken, because that's the role women were expected to play, to be submissive to their husbands. What alternative examples were there? He called her goddess, but he refused to worship her...even worse, he just refused to respect her. Mac, meanwhile, sees her, sees the person she wants to be, but also still elevates her to royalty status, someone above him... they're not equals.  He's drawn to that imbalance, but even though she's into it now, it's apparent she wouldn't put up with it long. And then George, the man she's supposed to marry, idolizes her, but also wants her to fit in a box, and play the role of kept woman, be at his side, and that definitely won't work for her.  

And while the point of the movie is Dex -- still seething with contempt, jealousy and little boy hurt feelings -- sees Tracy with these other men, and how other men act around her, and how she responds to that, and realizes he played it all wrong, that she wasn't meant to be a possession or a god, that she was meant to be supported and loved and given the same respect and companionship that he himself wanted from her.  At least I think that's the realization he comes to. As I said, this is Tracy's movie, and Dex disappears throughout much of the film a surprising amount. I really thought the possibility here was that Tracy learns to love herself and that she doesn't need a man in her life for any sense of fulfillment.  But that's not how the films of the 1940's worked.

This is the most interesting I've ever found Jimmy Stewart playing bitter and spiteful and turning that around into a dashing romantic lead. Hepburn I've not had much experience with, but this gives her the opportunity to be hard and sometimes comically nasty, but also flirty and vivacious. It's amazing to watch her face transition from stern to soft. The Philadelphia Story is a tremendous romantic comedy, the wordplay razor sharp, the comic setpieces are small but uproarious, and everyone involved is completely on point. Maybe not a flawless story, as we're still dealing with the affairs of the wealthy as if they're all that matter (and this is a film that is warning us not to judge them so harshly, which, from a modern lens, I cannot agree with at all), but what entertainment!

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One of my slow-burn projects has been to watch as many of the 70's disaster flicks as I can stomach. There are obviously the biggest of big - The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure -  but there's also a plethora of try-hards and hardly-tryings that came out of that era - your Earthquake or Juggernaut.  They all follow the same formula, which is spending a half hour introducing all the players we're going to follow through the film, as well as teeing up the disaster to come, and then having the big disaster set-piece killing a whole bunch of people, and then having our survivors (those we met in the opening act) traipse through the aftermath trying to find safety... and we're never quite certain who will perish along the way.

(Toasty covers a lot of the modern disaster flicks - check the "disaster" tag - which tend to just follow a single protagonist surrounded either by family or, like, a research team, and not the ensemble of disparate characters as per the 70's formulae.)

Hal Linden (Barney Miller) plays Josh Gilliam, the head designer of the Starflight, a cutting-edge rocket-fuelled plane that will climb to the upper atmosphere and move a 400mph, making a direct flight from L.A. to Sydney in two hours. While the simulation tests don't reveal any outright problems, Josh feels reluctant about the rocket system, and worries something will go wrong with the inaugural flight to Australia.

Pilot Cody Briggs (Lee Majors) is having domestic issues, his marriage is hanging on by a thread, and he's reluctant to commit to single mom Erica Hansen (Lauren Hutten), the press secretary for Starflight's parent company, Thornwell Aviation.  She, and her daughter will be on the plane, as will dozens of press people, a wanna-be aeronautics mogul, a gold thief, and a contest winner chosen from the Thornwell employees who worked on the plane.  As well, last minute, the plane is held to allow for the loading of the recently deceased ambassador from Australia in his coffin.

Despite the set-up of something being wrong with the plane, it's in fact, outside events which cause the tragedy to happen. A experimental satellite rocket launched too early explodes in the atmosphere which sends debris hurtling towards the Starflight. Their only option to avoid it is to climb higher using the rocket boosters. The only problem is the debris struck the ship and now they can't turn the rockets off. They rocket into space, into orbit of the earth, with a limited supply of food, power and oxygen. The plane is out of fuel, and they have no heat shields to even re-enter earth's atmosphere. How ever will any of them survive.

Space shuttle Columbia, that's how. Somehow, over less than a two-day span in this film, NASA manages to land the Columbia four times and launch it three. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for an nearly billion-dollar experimental rocket plan that only seats like 40 passengers (and you thought Fly Emirates was expensive...) but turning around launch times in two hours is not only improbable, but impossible.

Presented on Tubi in glorious 4:3 aspect ratio, I was wondering if Starflight One was a TV movie given that it has a run-time of nearly 2 hours and figuring most TV movies are, like, 90 minutes given that they have a 2 hour timeslot to fill and that they have to run commercials...but I forgot that back in those days that networks would block of 2 1/2 or 3 hours for "event" movies. It's most definitely a TV movie. I mean, look at the cast list. Even with John Dykstra on special effects, this is special effects on a TV budget. Once the Starflight reaches zero gravity, there's only a scene or two of people floating, and from then on it's painfully obvious that the actors are trying to mimic weightlessness by slowly bending and straightening their knees. It. looks. bad.

The far-fetched idea, the cliched formula, the bad cast of characters (I mean, the gold thief just got married and is going to Australia on a honeymoon with his unsuspecting bride, and they don't use that for anything other than to have gold bars in the cargo bay... at least the Australian ambassador's coffin is used as an air-tight transportation unit to shuttle a dude from Starflight to Columbia, but it's still a dully executed sequence)... Starflight One is a tired regurgitation of better ideas.  The most interesting part of the film is the love triangle between Cody, his wife and Erica, but Majors seems to be taking a paycheck and can't be bothered to invest in caring about the emotional life of this character. The big "I love you" scene between Majors and Hutton is up there for one of the worst on-screen kisses I've ever seen, beaten only by a kiss that happens between them later in the movie when they're saying goodbye, perhaps forever (Majors doesn't even attempt to participate in the kiss, and you have to wonder what was going on behind the scenes for such a dispassionate effort).

That said, as badly executed as it sometimes is, and as poor an example of this genre as it is (and pretty much the end of the era for this kind of disaster movie), it's still so in the mould that it is kind of watchable (kind of), even if most of the entertainment value is laughing at its absurdity.

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A note to my future self... if you get a recommendation for any sort of Asian action film from the 70's or 80's, check Tubi first before dropping any coin on a blu-ray release. Watch the film and then decide if you like it enough to want to watch it again, uninterrupted by commercials and in a much better quality presentation, and care enough to delve into special features.

I've seen many a samurai movie, and I genuinely love the genre, and I've seen many wuxia fantasy films which I also like. I'm less versed in Japanese fantasy which sort of bridge these two, or if that's even a common thing. Legend of the Eight Samurai plays out less like either of those two niches and instead feels very much like an homage to the made-in-Italy sword-and-sorcery movies of the 60's (which I guess also trickled out throughout the 70's and came roaring back in the 80's).

Princess Shizu (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is on the run. Her family has been murdered, and it's only Shizu  which stops them from fulfilling the revenge curse of the Motofuji clan. The evil Hikita Gonnokami Motofuji (Yūki Meguro) and his lover/mother, the witch Tamazusa (Mari Natsuki) have discovered the secret to immortality (it involves taking a bath in a massive blood pool) and are on the path to ruling Japan and possibly the world so long as they vanquish their enemy completely. 

But Shizu finds her own destiny is tied to eight samurai ("dog") warriors whom she collects along the way (these include actors like Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter) and Etsuko Shihomi (Sister Street Fighter)). But continued run-ins with vainglorious outcast Shinbei (a young Hiroyuki Sanada) turn from disgust to admiration to love in pretty rapid succession, with a lot of contrivances and complications along the way.

Legend of the Eight Samurai is a loose adaptation of a classic Japanese serial from the 1800s ( Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin) that was definitely an attempt to Star Wars-ify such fantasy tales (there's even a Luke-and-Leia-rope-swing moment which is composed pretty much exactly the same). While there are moments that feel like Star Wars homages (including the sort of Stormtrooper-y samurai hordes), I couldn't escape the feeling of the many getting-the-band-together fantasy adventures I'd seen over the years. While visually the big sets and setpieces, the rotoscoped animated effects, and the use-what-we-got outdoor environments felt of the 60's era, the synth-heavy soundtrack from Nobody, and the oh-so-'80's power ballads from John O'Banion feel very much of their time. The style of fantasy and the tone of music don't mesh innately, but at the same time it makes for a very distinctive production.

It's not that I disliked Legend of the Eight Samurai, but I had a hard time settling into it. It's...different. It moves at an unfamiliar pace, and it often seems to lack focus.  It's always hard to watch a film where the protagonist (Princess Shizu) is really so defenceless, and the heroic figure (Shinbei) is a real aggravating rascal for much of the film, but eventually comes around (young Sanada is so damn cute though) to being the inevitable eighth samurai (not really a spoiler, is it?). If I watch it again, it will have to be in dialogue with maybe other adaptations of the source material, or director Fukasaku's work... or maybe I just want to hear those cheesy ballads again, because they're so spot emulations of the hit songs of the era that it's astonishing that I've never heard them before.

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And finally this week, I decided to watch The Guest after years of saying "no thanks" due to fundamentally misunderstanding what type of movie it was. It's a psychological action thriller that takes on the feel of 1980's action and horror movies but in a 2010s setting. I thought it was just a psychodrama in the Cape Fear, Pacific Heights, Single White Female vein where someone who isn't what they seem completely insinuates themselves into the lives of an unsuspecting victim, demolishing their reality from the inside.

And it is sort of that, but also not. 

Laura Peterson (Sheila Kelley) and her husband Spencer (Leland Orser) are still grieving the loss of their son, who died in combat overseas, when turning up at their door is David Collins, a veteran from their son's unit, and a friend with a message for them.

They invite David to stay with them, and he's so respectful and kind and courteous. He helps out around the house and starts mentoring their bullied son Luke (Brendan Meyer). Their daughter, 20 year old Anna (Maika Monroe) is wary of this stranger, something about his vibe puts her off, that is until she catches him in nothing but a towel coming out of the bathroom, and she's fully switched on. But the glamour spell doesn't last. Little things tweak her, and she's right to worry.  What the family doesn't see, but we the audience, is the way David's face drops anytime someone turns their back to him or leaves a room, and the way he peers out windows in anticipation. David instigates a fight with Luke's bullies at a bar where he utterly demolishes them, he defends Anna's friend from a toxic ex-boyfriend at a party, he provides comfort and guidance for the family...it seems like David is the good guy, but the tone of the film, everything from scene composition, to the tone of the music to Dan Steven's steel blue eyes and wry, unnerving smile feel off. And then there's the cutaways to a shadowy government contractor led by Major Carver (the late, great Lance Reddick) which maybe intone David is a victim and on the run...?

The Guest comes from director Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), whose latest film in theatres (at the time of writing), Onslaught, is not a sequel, but in the same world as this film. That most definitely looks like an action movie, and it was conversations in media around that film which alerted me to the fact that The Guest was not much at all what I was expecting. Rather than being tense and uncomfortably dramatic, this is more heightened intensity and pulpy, with shades of John Carpenter and James Cameron pumping through its celluloid veins. It's not a very surprising movie, but it seems to know exactly what its doing and how it wants to do it. It may not seem the most logical leap from this to giant apes and lizards, but Wingard proved he knew how to capture tone and create an movie that is fun and exciting that also thrills.

[Poster talk... there's not a single good poster for The Guest. Most of them feature either David or Emma in silhouette against vibrant neons that intone/imply nothing. There is a poster of Stevens with a ditty bag slung over his shoulder that implies just a little more but not enough. And then there's the follow-up posters, once again using the vibrant colours and shadowed figures just with big bold quotes from critics. They do not sell the movie at all. Paired with the trailer, which make it out as another sort of secret psychopath story this was a poorly promoted movie.]