Tag: Horror

REVIEW: Re-invented ‘Renfield’ entertains

Maybe this should’ve been the movie to launch the Dark Universe. Renfield should meet Elisabeth Moss’ character from “Invisible Man” in the sequel, honestly.

“Renfield” picks up in the present day, decades after the titular character became a servant to Dracula (Nicolas Cage). The former attorney, who tried to pull off a land deal with the vampire, now lives a life where he has superhuman abilities, but has to use his powers to get humans for the Count to feed on.

Growing tired of the life he has, he decides to join a relationship therapy group not only to vent, but also track down the abusive partners to give to Dracula. In one attempt, though, he crosses the dangerous Lobo crime family. This puts a target on Renfield’s back, and at the same time, Dracula becomes angry with him because the vampire senses disloyalty.

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REVIEW: Poor execution buries ‘Cocaine Bear’s’ potential

I think a more entertaining movie about a forest animal high on cocaine would be one focused on a moose, but this was inspired by a true story so it is what it is.

As the title suggests, there’s cocaine in the movie, lots of it. More specifically, it’s cocaine that’s dumped from a smuggling plane over a forest in Georgia, where it’s then ingested by a black bear.

Knowing the cocaine needs to be recovered, a mob boss sends his fixer Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to pick up the drugs. Meanwhile, Sari (Keri Russell) is a mother whose daughter skipped school to go to the forest with a friend. Sari goes in the forest to look for her daughter and, like Eddie and Daveed, come across the dangerous cocaine Bear.

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REVIEW: Manic energy in ‘M3gan’ makes it a fun watch

Another addition to my never ending list of reasons why I fear a robot uprising.

The titular doll in “M3gan” is basically an android built by Gemma (Allison Williams), a robotics engineer working at a toy company that releases advanced products. While she’s at work on her latest project, her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident.

Gemma’s niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), survived the crash and is now living with Gemma, but the girl has become depressed and reclusive. In trying to help Cady, Gemma activates M3gan to be a doll and friend to the girl. However, M3gan was still in the testing phase, and the artificial intelligence in the doll has the potential to be dangerous.

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REVIEW: ‘Bones and All’ is a compelling movie about monsters among us

Hannibal Lecter, eat your heart, or I guess someone else’s heart out.

“Bones and All” is a love story, that just happens to include cannibalism. Taylor Russell stars as Maren in the film, a young woman who is an “eater,” a human being who has an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The film picks up with her being left by her father (Andre Holland) who tells her she must live on her own, after he spent years trying to hide what she is.

Maren decides to go on the road and find out about her mother now that her father has left, and along the way meets others like herself, including someone her own age. That person is Lee (Timothee Chalamet), a young man who decides to go along with Maren on her journey, and the two build a connection.

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REVIEW: A rather limited ‘Menu’

Some movies have so much packed in that they may have worked better as a mini-series. Others have a concept that’s stretched too far, and would be better served as a short film.

“The Menu” is an example of the latter.

The movie centers on a couple going to an island that’s home to an exclusive restaurant. The establishment is run by the laser-focused Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), a man who demands perfection in his kitchen.

The couple is Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), and they are just a few of the wealthy guests who go to the island expecting the fanciest of fancy meals. However, Slowik has much more intense things on the menu for his affluent customers than just food.

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Halloween Adventures in B-Movie Horror 2022 Part 2

Back with another dive into B-Movies and this time around I did some time hopping.

For Part 2, I have movies from the 80s, the 90s, and even a flick released this year. Spoiler alert, the newest one was also the worst of the bunch.

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REVIEW: ‘Halloween Ends,’ thankfully

A trilogy with a promising start, a messy middle and a head-scratching finale that makes you think they didn’t plan things through.

It applied to the new “Star Wars” films and it’s how this recent “Halloween” series went, too.

“Halloween Ends” picks up four years after the events of the first two films in the trilogy. After killing Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) daughter and many others on Halloween in 2018, Michael Myers has completely disappeared. Laurie is now living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and is writing a book about her experiences.

Fate causes their paths to cross with Corey (Rohan Campbell), a young man who after was involved in a fatal incident which was blamed on him. While Laurie is first sympathetic to Corey, she soon learns that he might be a factor in Myers coming back.

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Halloween Adventures in B-Movie Horror 2022 Part 1

It’s the other most wonderful time of the year. Oktoberfest beers, pumpkin spice lattes, leaves changing to beautiful colors, and of course, Halloween.

With the return of the spooky season, I’m going back to the world of B-movie horror and checking out what it has to offer. For this first installment, I’m going with a mix, with a UFO flick and a pair of slashers.

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REVIEW: ‘Smile’ will have horror fans smiling

Here in Minnesota, we know all about misleading smiles. It’s called being passive aggressive. The smiles in this film, though, are much more devilish.

Parker Finn makes his feature directorial debut with this new horror film, with Sosie Bacon playing the protagonist Rose. A doctor in a psychiatric ward, Rose regularly works with patients and it’s what brings her into contact with a troubled woman at the movie’s start.

The woman, a PhD student, says she’s been seeing a sinister figure who takes the form of people with an evil grin, before taking her own life. At first, Rose deduces that the woman must have been suffering from a mental ilness, until the same evil force begins appearing before her, too.

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REVIEW: Getting to know ‘Pearl’ is amusing and frightening

The beginning of Pearl’s path from sweet farm girl to the woman she became in the film “X” is on full, technicolor display in this prequel.

Taking place in 1918, “Pearl” follows the titular character, played by Mia Goth, as she descends into madness. There are a few factors pushing her there, but the main one is her mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright).

Ruth is a domineering woman, never showing compassion to her daughter and instead deriding her for wanting something beyond the farm life. That something is a career in dance, but as time gets closer to an audition that could give Pearl an escape, things begin to happen that awaken a darkness in the character.

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