It pains me to say this but “Fear the Night” is by no means top tier when it comes to survival home invasion thrillers. I love Neil Labute, and I love Maggie Q, I think they’re both great. I also love me a good home invasion film or survival film. But “Fear the Night” feels like someone along the way watched 2011’s “You’re Next” and thought: I can do that! “Fear the Night” has all the obvious influences with none of the context or subversive behind it. The villains even attack with their faces covered and garner their own hunting weapons including a bow and arrow.
Tag Archives: Thriller
Bird Box: Barcelona (2023)
Netflix’s 2018 surprise hit “Birdbox” was a pretty good movie that skated on thin ice from minute one since it was accused of aping the concept for “A Quiet Place.” But the efforts of a sequel have firmly placed it as a movie better off left as a one and done horror film. “Barcelona” is considered kind of a sequel and kind of a spin off, but in reality it’s kind of a glorified pilot. I don’t know if Netflix is planning more sequels down the road, or a TV series, but “Barcelona” feels like the first of many incoming spin offs. And it never once feels like a complete movie, but only a buffer and promise of things to come. And as a follow up to the original, it fails epically assuring I won’t be back to see how they further develop this premise.
Five Great Movie Fights Set on Trains
One of the best scenes of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is the big fight scene staged in and on top of a train, and it brought to mind some of the better train fights ever staged in film. There have been many as it’s been one of the more classic tropes in fiction, so I listed five of my all time favorites.
What are some of your favorite fights on trains or public transportation?
Vultures (2023)
Writer and Director Jacob Thompson’s “Vultures” is a short teeming with feature film potential. There isn’t a ton of exposition or extrapolation on the world he’s unfolding, but considering the limited budget, I think we get the point pretty well. Thankfully with a lot of good editing and direction we catch on almost immediately and garner a glimpse in to a pretty terrifying world.
The Black Mass (2023)
In the winter of 1978, a group of students were the victims of a serial killer, this story based on true events revolves around the students and the other victims in their area.
The Flood (2023)
During one Louisiana’s wildest hurricanes, a group of convicts attempts to breakout while in transport from one jail to another. While forced to stay at a local sheriff’s station, they end up facing off with more than wind and rain.
Quicksand (2023)
There’s that funny meme on the internet about how fiction always warned us about quicksand but very few of us rarely come across it. It’s funny also how there aren’t many movies revolving around the idea of being stuck in quicksand. Andrés Beltrán approaches the idea with a survival thriller that’s quite good, but doesn’t re-invent the wheel. When it comes to films of this ilk, everything you think is going to happen does happen, and the movie doesn’t mind hitting on those tropes along with handing us an ambiguous finale that felt kind of like a cop out.