It seems like every other year there’s an attempt to deliver fans a new “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” and like clockwork here comes “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Centered on Uncork’d Entertainment’s initiative to offer genre films based on classic nursery rhymes, director Jason Arber and writer Harry Boxley really don’t do anything new or creative with the whole gimmick that his movie is centered on. It’s, in a nutshell, a beat for beat, condensed remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” but dropped down in to the UK.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
“Hocus Pocus” has managed to become a huge cult classic since its initially slept on release in 1993. When you release a Halloween movie in the middle of the summer, you kind of expect the movie to flop. But years since its release, movie fans alike have caught on allowing it become an absolute classic. And I for one love “Hocus Pocus.” I loved it since I first saw it on VHS back in 1994. “Hocus Pocus 2” seemed like a far fetched idea until 2022 when there seemed to be potential for a follow up. With “Hocus Pocus 2” you kind of have to meet it halfway. It’s a follow up but it’s different than the original movie. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it a different movie and experience altogether.
The Beanie Bubble (2023)
There’s something interesting about the influx of films about capitalism and massive corporations being tailored as approachable biopics. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this growing sub-genre of corporate/consumerism biopics feels slimy and calculated. These aren’t movies so much as they are commercials and often cheerleaders for the idea of humanizing faceless corporations and “average” CEO’s whose life literally depends on a business decision. Despite some interesting aspects to it, “The Beanie Bubble” is yet another dose of corporate capitalism being lionized in a big budget, star studded movie. “The Beanie Bubble” is vaguely about the Beanie Babies craze of the 1990’s, but it’s a mostly fluffed up, mostly fictional account of Ty Warner and how he went from billionaire to has been seemingly overnight.
Storm (2023) [Beyond Fest 2023]
Apparently “Storm” is something of a proof of concept as much as it is a short horror film and I have to say that I love where it’s headed. Director Lena Tsodykovskaya is a wonderful visual director who is capable of creating something of a really polished horror film. “Storm” is such a great meta-horror movie that I was sucked in from the opening. I don’t know if this concept can be stretched in to a ninety minute horror film, but for what it is “Storm” is a well realized and engaging horror film that smashes the fourth wall.
Bottoms (2023)
It’s pretty disappointing going in to a movie expecting so much and leaving it felt like it could have been so much more. While many have sung the praises of Jennifer Seligman’s “Bottoms,” I am sad to have left it feeling generally indifferent. It has an interesting premise and has a good time taking its LGBTQ premise and fitting it right in to the myriad coming of age high school comedies, but so much about “Bottoms” felt so under developed and incomplete. Apart from its absolutely bizarre premise, “Bottoms” spends most of its run time trying to figure out what it wants to be.
A Shining Example (2023) [Fantastic Fest 2023]
Director Clarke Wolfe really has her eye on the ball when it comes to delivering darkly comic horror, and “A Shining Example” seems like she has so much more in store for us. Wolfe’s short horror film is an ode to “The Shining” that’s set in contemporary times dropping us in to a much more relatable conflict. What’s interesting about Wolfe’s film is that she sets up so much ambiguity that we’re never quite sure what’s fiction and what’s character Aiden’s imagination taking shape when all is said and done.
On Fire (2023)
A family living in the woods is faced with doing all they can for survival when a wildfire cuts them off from the road as it closes in on their home. Escape looks unlikely, but they forge forward.