I enjoyed the first Smile movie. It had a cool premise, and generally the execution was good too. I purposely didn’t look at any of the reviews before watching Smile 2, so as not to have any bias before watching. I was really disappointed with the sequel, and then bewildered to see the glowing positive reviews of the movie afterward. It made me wonder if I was missing something. Spoiler alerts ahead, so beware.
My biggest problem with the movie is that I had no idea what actually happened. Whereas the first movie had a significant amount of hallucination, Smile 2 was one big hallucination. And what really killed the movie for me was the ending. Although it wasn’t a bad ending in itself, it rendered the entire movie meaningless. Basically nothing that they showed in the movie actually occurred. And I have no idea what took place. It made the movie pointless.
It’s not like the entire movie had nothing good going for it. There were some good scares, some good scenes. My favorite was the part where all of the dancers attacked the main character, but just like the rest of the movie, that likely never happened. You can’t have a movie that is almost entirely a hallucination, but that is what they chose to do here. This is not a movie worth watching, even if I’m in the minority.
The new Salem’s Lot is yet another disappointing adaptation of a Stephen King story or novel in a long list of them. I feel more often not they get Stephen King wrong. Many of the reasons are the same for these failures and the most prominent being that they didn’t stay true to the original source material, and where they veered away and did their own thing is where the plot went awry. This is particularly true with the ending of the movie. Spoiler alerts present so if you don’t want to get spoiled skip the next part and for that matter skip the movie. It’s not worth watching.
The folks behind this movie had this brilliant idea that the vampires, including Barlow the head vampire who has been alive for centuries, would all stay in the trunks of cars at a drive in movie theater during the day instead of this massive mansion that could be protected and fortified as is done in the novel. This is stupendously absurd. All it would take is someone to go during the day to the drive in movie theater with a crowbar, pop open the trunks of the cars (including the one Barlow was in), and kill all the vampires. And the brilliant protagonists thought it would be a good idea to this just as the sun was setting. It’s not believable that a vampire could have lived centuries and be so idiotic. In addition, the dialogue and much of the movie was just cheesy. This was a weak adaptation that is not worth your time.
I’ve watched a string of horror movies in the theater lately including The Watchers, Longlegs, and Trap. I’ve enjoyed each of these to a certain extent. They were all in the category of good not great. Speak no Evil eclipses each of these movies without question. There was a lot that I liked about this movie, but what stands out at the very top of the list of what makes this movie a winner is the performance by James McAvoy. He is without a doubt on the short list of my favorite actors these days. He is fantastic in every movie I watch him, and this is no exception.
The movie has a really nice build to it. In this movie, the Daltons, an American family, meets a British couple while on vacation, and they invite the Daltons to their country home. There are immediate warning signs, but Paddy, played by McAvoy, and his wife explain them away. However, each incident gets more alarming. It culminates when their son, who can’t speak, warns the Daltons that this family is not what it seems. Then the craziness really starts, and the movie delivers on the nice buildup.
This is a well written movie that has great tensions but no real scares. In that sense, I’m not sure it’s really a horror movie. It’s more of a mystery thriller but regardless of how you classify the movie, it’s well worth the watch.
This was a book that I really wanted to like. The opening prologue was really strong and promising, but unfortunately there were too many things that held this back from being an enjoyable novel. The first was the writing style, which I generally don’t think worked. It was meandering and not at all tight. It was also overly long. Horror works best in a shorter form, making it more hard hitting with chills. The longer it goes, the less effective horror generally is. In this case, there were long stretches of not a whole lot going on. This book could have used some serious editing and reduction in length.
Another issue was the characterization. By and large, I didn’t find the characters to either be compelling or easy to root for. The worse character was Maddie, the main character’s mom. Whenever she was on the page, I had a strong urge to forward past that section. Finally, the longer the story went, the more convoluted the plot became, supporting my thought that this book was too long.
On the plus side, there were some interesting concepts in this novel, and the prologue was good. Other than that, there is not much that I can offer as far as positives in this novel. Therefore, I would recommend skipping this one.
Watching the trailer for M Night Shyamalan’s latest movie Trap, it appears that the whole movie is given away in the trailer. To a certain extent, this is true. The basic plot of the movie is revealed. But this movie is more than just what is revealed in the trailer—a serial killer, wonderfully played by Josh Hartnett—goes with his teen daughter to watch the Lady Raven concert. Lady Raven, played by M Night’s daughter, is basically this movie’s version of Taylor Swift, although to my surprise the character plays a much bigger role than just singing and performing on stage. At the concert, the FBI stages an elaborate trap to arrest the serial killer. What really makes this movie is the strong writing that’s shown in the cat and mouse game played between Hartnett and the police and FBI at the arena as they try to hunt him down. This movie also had a good bit of humor, including some laugh out loud moments.
The movie had some downsides. Mostly they center around some plot elements that lack believability. M Night is known for his big movie twists. This movie had a small twist at the end, but definitely not one of those monumental, jaw-dropping twists. Josh Hartnett does a great job in this movie and puts out an enjoyable performance. This is a good not great movie, definitely watchable but not one of M Night’s best movies.
When I finished watching Longlegs, I had to ask myself, did I like this movie or did I not enjoy it. One thing is certain, it’s a movie you won’t soon forget. The thing that I came away with more than anything else is that this was certainly a disturbing movie, and if a horror movie is disturbing, then it means it has done its job. I haven’t been scared from watching a horror movie since I was a kid, so they don’t have that effect on me any longer, mostly because I am analyzing and dissecting the movie as I watch it. The other thing that I particularly liked is that this movie had a good mystery component to it.
On the downside, I found myself confused at times while watching it, trying to figure out what was happening. However, the last few scenes did explain things well enough that I think I have the movie figured out. Nicholas Cage did an incredible job as Longlegs, even though he did not spend much time on screen. Either he’s truly demented, or he’s a damn good actor. I’m guessing it’s the latter. As I mentioned, this is an unsettling movie, and there are very few movies that make me feel that way. If you’re squeamish, don’t watch this, but if you enjoy horror this is a must watch movie.
