“From: Season Two” Packs in More Terror and More Nagging Questions

We were granted access to Episodes 1 through 5 of “From” Season Two from MGM. Mild Spoilers abounds.

With the brand change, and the penchant for studios to cancel their series, lately fans of “From” have been aching for news about a second season. Thankfully, MGM granted fans of the high rated horror series a second season and for better and for worse, it offers up mostly the same neat twists, turns, and terror, but there are even more nagging questions that are propped up for the audience. Some fans might love this, and some might be turned off, immediately.

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Martha (2019)

Director Christopher Haydon’s short film is both a compelling drama, and a rather captivating mystery. In its own way it’s a horror movie, but more a horror movie about loneliness, isolation, and repetition. The entirety of “Martha” is meant to be cryptic, as Haydon begins the film on a single scene of a woman sitting in a hall with a single red balloon.

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Air (2023)

Director Ben Affleck’s latest is a movie that is about as niche as you could ever dream up. It’s a movie with appeal, sure, but appeal to only a certain subset of audience members. For those hoping for a strong character based drama with conflict, and twists, and laughs, “Air” is unabashedly void of any of the aforementioned. In its place is an unofficial ode to corporations that lures us in with the gratuitous eighties nostalgia. Hey, remember Dire Straits? Remember Hulk Hogan? Oh man, wasn’t “A Team” a good show? Remember Nike? The shoe–not the heinous sweatshop labor accusations.

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The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

It feels a lot like the studios behind “The Pope’s Exorcist” is intent, or at least trying, to build a new horror hero in the vein of the Warrens a la “The Conjuring.” While normally I would never root for a film to fail, I hope we don’t get any sequels because I can’t picture Gabriele Amorth being a dynamic or even compelling horror protagonist. Even with his first film, Gabriele Amorth is explored as a massively skeptical priest pulled in to an extraordinary and genuine exorcism. There really isn’t much beyond what we learn about Gabriele Emorth or “The Pope’s Exorcist” for that matter.

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My Top Five Movie Radio DJ’s

With “John Wick: Chapter 4” further dominating the box office and garnering much acclaim, it’s managed to stir a lot of ballyhoo from fans. In particular its use of great movie references that it utilizes to advance the narrative is a huge highly. In the climax as John Wick is on the run, a radio DJ (Marie Pierra Kakoma) pops up to inform everyone over the air waves on where he is, this leads to a big turn of events in Wick’s fight for survival. The obvious “The Warriors” nod is a brilliant callback, and one that inspired me to recollect some of my favorite movie Radio DJ’s.

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Belle de Jour (1967) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Luis Buñuel’s film is not just a celebration of protagonist Severine’s penchant for sadomasochism, but it’s also an examination of her desire for it. When we first meet Severine, she’s riding in a carriage with her husband. After some words are exchanged, he violently tears her off and drags her in to the woods. There she’s tied up, whipped, and savaged by his two coachmen, both of whom delight in taking advantage of her. We then see it’s nothing more than a depraved fantasy from a woman who is absolutely bored. As someone who is a part of the elite, who finds herself in the mountains at a ski lodge every weekend, she desires something so much more that money can buy.

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STRAIN 100 (2020)

If you like your apocalyptic fiction compiled a lot of the same old tropes you’ve seen a thousand times, then “Strain 100” might be up your alley. It’s “The Walking Dead” with a convenient dash of “The Last Of Us” thrown in, and none of the real social commentary or rich character focus. For all intents and purposes, “Strain 100” has some good ideas and fun moments of zombie carnage, but it’s bogged down by so many editing and writing problems from the outset. The zombies are pretty much the best aspect of the movie, truth be told.

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