If you’re going to watch “Species” for any reason, you have to see it for Natasha Henstridge. Surely, the cast is dynamic with the likes of Michael Madsen, Forrest Whitaker, and Ben Kingsley respectively, but Henstridge is a pretty great scene stealer rivaled only by Marg Helgenberger. I vividly recall “Species” grabbing a ton of attention back in 1995 mainly for the fact that “Species” was such a unique and erotic bit of horror and science fiction, and for the most part, it’s an okay movie. But what saves it is Henstridge and the great effects.
Tag Archives: Thriller Drama
Chronicle (2012)
If history has taught us anything, it’s that time and time again it all comes back to the same old adage. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. A bold mix of “The Craft” and “Akira,” director Josh Trank completely embodies such a notion with “Chronicle” a film that demonstrates what occurs when sentient power is put in the hands of three people with major chips on their shoulders and a god complex. “Chronicle” is in essence a superhero movie without a comic book source, but deep down it’s a brilliant examination of what could happen if real amazing power were to belong to average human beings with their own vendettas and selfish goals. No matter how good a person, deep down we all know it would become incredibly disastrous and absolutely and chaotic.
Mandy Lane: Pretty Poison
Women are trouble. They always have been and they always will be. To the lovelorn man with a taste for old fashioned romance, women are their poison, the source of inspiration, bliss, torment, and their downfall. “Double Indemnity,” “King Kong,” “Cleopatra,” “MacBeth,” the list goes on, but the one true defining theme in all of fiction is that women can make or break the man, and Jonathan Levine’s “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” is the truest depiction of the power of the beautiful woman and what they can do in a world that idolizes, idealizes, and fetishizes women. Levine’s film is something of a slow boil horror thriller, one that is based around love for a blond beauty named Mandy Lane, and how she inspires a stalker, male admirers, female admirers, and a slasher lurking in the shadows. This is all set to the tune of the real monster. Her name is Mandy Lane and in the final scenes of Levine’s cult classic, we learn that even the dirtiest of monsters can have an angelic face that few men can resist.