Category: 2.5 stars
Average.
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Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)
Last we saw the Paranormal Activity franchise as part of Paranormal Octoberty, Toby/Tobi was granted a physical body and I guess the apocalypse happened, or something. Not very easy to continue that story, so 6 years later we have a reboot! Or an attempt at an anthology that’s somewhat related to the previous films while not actually continuing the story? How very Halloween III: Season of the Witch of you, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Was it worth it? I mean… not especially, but was it better than Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension? Read on to find…
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Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Look, I’m not going to say that Paranormal Activity 2 is a bad movie. It’s fine, 5 out of 10. I just think it’s the start of a slippery slope for the franchise. The first Paranormal Activity–which I covered last week as part of Paranormal Octoberty, hi, gotta throw a plug for the event into every intro paragraph, yes–was a decent stand-alone horror film with hints at something larger. But 2 really starts to dive deep into the lore of Katie and her family, and it’s not always great. I mean, we’re not at time traveling witches yet, but I…
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Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Welcome back to 2024: A Star Wars Event. Hey, remember at the beginning of the month when I mentioned that I was eventually going to do some synergy crossposting over on my comic blog, Chwineka Reads? Well, that time has arrived! You can check out the first post about Star Wars #1 (1977) now and expect more to come. I absolutely am going to get sick of Star Wars well before this event is done… And with that positivity, let’s get Revenge of the Sith over with.
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Hostel: Part III (2011)
The Hostel series may only be three movies (as of writing), but it too entered that stage franchises tend to fall into where the original creator leaves and has nothing to do with later movies. Mr. Eli Roth chose not to work on Hostel: Part III, but didn’t stop production or anything. Instead it’s a film that has elements of Hostel, but enough differences that the whole thing feels… off. Also it now takes place in Las Vegas, because sure, why not. Welcome back to Saw-mhain!
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Saw IV (2007)
I think just about every major franchise reaches a point where the original creators are no longer directly involved in it. George Lucas sold Star Wars, Clive Barker absolutely hates most of the Hellraiser movies after his first two, and co-creators Mr. James Wan and Mr. Leigh Whannell were just producers for Saw IV. So how was it with them taking a backseat? Find out in the latest chapter of Saw-mhain!
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Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)
Sometimes it’s hard to put into words why a movie didn’t resonate with me. Using a recent example, Antlers was a perfectly fine movie with a pretty basic ending, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations. And that’s the case with Broadcast Signal Intrusion. The creepy atmosphere is on point, but the ambiguous ending just didn’t land. And I’m usually a huge fan of ambiguous endings! So let’s analyze what I think didn’t work.
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The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Most people don’t have perfect memories. Details get blurred, forgotten, or flat out exchanged. For example, the iconic line “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,” in Jaws was actually, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and so on. I bring this up today because while most of the Return of the Living Dead series is completely forgettable, one element of it seems to have been associated with Mr. George A Romero’s movies and has flavored how the public thinks of zombies. Just little things I’ve noticed during October of the Living Dead.
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Land of the Dead (2005)
I have a specific type of brain rot where I associate some actors with specific roles and just see them as that character no matter what they’re in. Mr. Joel McHale will always be lovable loser Jeff Winger, no matter how serious his role in Becky tries to be. In this particular case, Land of the Dead features Luigi Mario and King Koopa. They even have a climactic fight amidst a zombie revolution! And the whole movie was just okay.
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Mad God (2021)
Mr. Phil Tippett is a legend. He’s partly responsible for the visual effects in classics like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, RoboCop, and also movies like Starship Troopers. And even if he hadn’t proven his talent on those films, Mad God is a surreal tour de force that proves he’s a master in his field. Too bad it just didn’t leave much of an impression on me!
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The Gillymuck (2018)
This blog has been on a very, very relaxed schedule due to my job. I’m working a lot now, which doesn’t give me time to watch as many movies as I used to. Throw in that Movie Night is still online only and we watch two films instead of three, and sometimes I struggle to find something to review for the week. In this particular case, I remembered a trailer I saw a while back and decided to check out that movie. So, uh… long story short, it wasn’t a trailer–it was just a very short film. Oops.
Chwineka Watches 