Category: 4.5 stars
Near perfect.
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The Craft (1996)
For a lot of people my age–Millennials that are very close to the Generation X divide–the 90’s are a nostalgic time. Things were better back then, right? Or at least we didn’t have the maturity and capacity to understand how things were not good, haven’t been good for a long time, and that a lot of our current problems have roots back then. But, uh… at least the movies back then were good? Some of the movies. Okay, so this and a couple other movies that nostalgia goggles convince us were good. This intro is getting away from me… SO…
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The Blair Witch Project (1999)
I love The Blair Witch Project. It’s one of my favorite films (that I weirdly don’t own), but it’s by no means a perfect movie. Writers/directors Mr. Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick got amazing performances out of the small cast but through some rough means. And its financial success (under half $1 million budget against a $248.6 million box office) convinced every jackass with half an idea and a home movie camera that they too could make a found footage movie. But with those quibbles out of the way, now is my time to gush.
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The Void (2017)
Have you ever seen the music video for “Fantasy” by DyE? If you haven’t, here’s a link. He’s a French electropop artist and the song is pretty good! But the main reason I want you to see it is because it has a twist. A very… Lovecraftian twist. What starts out seemingly normal night suddenly becomes a nightmare involving realities beyond mortal comprehension. And I bring this up because that’s basically the plot of The Void, too.
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The Lighthouse (2019)
What’s this? A surprise Thursday post? That’s right, it’s time for another month-long event! Every weekday in October I’ll have a horror movie post ready for you, dear reader(s). In previous years I’ve done personal things like “Chwineka Watches 31 Netflix Horror Movies for October” (or CW31NHMO for short), but ain’t nobody got time for posting EVERY day. Also I have far more streaming services at my fingertips, so movies will be coming from all over the internet. Anyway, let’s start the month off with something actually good: Robert Eggers’ second movie, The Lighthouse.
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Mandy (2018)
Man, remember when I used to talk about good movies? I don’t! According to my lovely archives, the last movie I talked about that was generally considered “good” was last month. Watching two weeks of Mothman movies does horrible things to a person, so I need to take a break from the suck. So let’s talk about Mr. Nic Cage killing a cult while high on megadrugs!
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Logan (2017)
Mr. James Mangold did such a good job on The Wolverine, why wouldn’t 20th Century Fox give him another shot? And what a shot this is! The second R-rated X-Men movie after Deadpool, Logan goes in a slightly different direction to justify the rating: instead of cartoonish violence, Logan shows how ugly fighting to the death can be. And a bunch of “fucks,” but that’s a side benefit.
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X2 (2003)
Movie trilogies often follow a pattern: the first is fine, the second is superb, and the third is terrible. The X-Men trilogy is a wonderful example of this, in part because X2 (later retitled X2: X-Men United) is one of my favorite movies, and quite possibly my favorite superhero movie. This is the high point for the X-Men films; it’s all downhill from here! Well, except maybe for Logan and Deadpool, but still.
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The Old Guard (2020)
I first heard about this movie on Facebook when a (gay) friend had posted an article about it and the preview image was two male characters kissing. That was really all I needed to know, so I logged onto Netflix and watched it. And that, as it turns out, was the right decision!
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Lo (2009)
Look, I absolutely can talk about Batman non-stop for weeks on end, but for both our sakes I’d rather not. I still have several movies I own that I want to talk about, so that means the occasional break in the three or four weeks I’m going to be focusing on this particular superhero. So instead of something related like The Shadow, we have Lo.
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The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Let’s take a break from Batman movies for a little bit and review a movie that influenced Batman. Ever hear of a character named “the Joker?” Real deep cut reference, I know, but by all accounts this is the movie that inspired the creation of the iconic villain.
Chwineka Watches 