Do you want a slasher movie that somehow has a film budget, but an SOV Sensibility? Well; ‘The Last Slumber Party’ is the movie for you! This, somewhat generic, late 80s slasher piece pretty much gives you the absolute barest minimums you need in order to enjoy a slasher pic. But with the added bonus of some surrealist arty horror moments thrown in for good measure!
The plots…Well; the plots about as generic as it gets really, 3 girls are looking to let their hair down by hosting a slumber party at one of the girls parents house. the father of the house happens to also be a doctor working on a psych ward, and wouldnt you believe it! One of their more ‘Out there’ patients has escaped the ward dressed in scrubs and armed with a particularly sharp scalpel! And to confuse things a bit! There are ALSO 3 horny jocks ambling about looking to crash the slumber party for good times and beers, even though the girls are on STRICT instructions to have NO beer and NO BOYS!
And what follows is about 50 minutes of girls idling around a small mansion in states of undress, while the dudebros randomly break in and out of the house to get fresh and the killer slowly makes his way to the house, picking off a few people along the way. with the remaining 20 or so minutes of the film being the main reason to check this one out. Some pretty decent kills, and artsy dream sequences that just about help pull this film up out of the dregs into something half decent and worth your time.
Dont be fooled, the script for this really isnt anything special, outside of the dream sequences, this is a heavily padded feature where we spend more time watching the girls dancing in the kitchen and wandering around the house than we get ACTUAL plot setting…maybe with some more atmospheric lighting or even a jumpscare or two things could have been a bit different. But its just a hell of a lot of walking and exposition. intersperced with an ultra low body count on the ‘slasher’ front.
The dialogue feels drawn out and overcomplicated, presumably again, to help pad the runtime. The characters are all ultra generic stereotypes of the genre…Basically if you’ve ever caught a slasher film, your likely WAY too familiar with these character tropes…and thats kind of dissapointing, because while I know these kinds of characters are a given, its really more what you do with them that makes them work to their full potential, rather than just putting the tropes in the scenario and watching it play out.
Throw in a somewhat underwhelming ending and an act structuring that just seems to get stuck at one pace for the full runtime, and youve got yourself a horror movie thats solely flying by the tone and vibes its putting out on a script level…and thats about it.
I will say, this feels a bit like a Horror comedy in places, and when its being more light hearted, it really lands the punches well. But this one kind of reminded me of ‘Nightmare Sisters’…But not as sharp or well constructed…and I didnt like ‘Nightmare Sisters’…So when im saying your the poor man to that…thats not great.
On every other front, its the bare minimum…the directions flat, predictable and kind of lifeless, barring the arty moments where it does get a *bit* of a bump in quality…But not enough to really fully win me over. Cast directions fairly flat and lifeless too, this is the kind of movie where you can tell the cast and film makers were excited to say ‘Fuck’ on screen, because the cast deliver their ‘F-bombs’ with a pointedness that can only come from someone being a bit *Too* excited to swear on screen…their physical presences are limited purely to scripted instructions and their dialogue deliveries are largely D.O.A.
The cine is largely bland, mostly locked off shots in mid or close up. theres no dynamics in the setup for this one, and while I will say its pretty decent on the B-roll, there are moments where they clearly forgot to shoot coverage, because the edit will just flat out hard cut away from some scenes with no transitionary shot creating a very jarring experience. Compositions and lighting are uninspired. theres maybe a half dozen half decent shots in this thing…But otherwise its very utilitatrian in its approach, which felt a bit clinical to me…Not helped at all by the fact that the killer for the film isnt really particularly engaging or interesting to shoot, its a guy in a surgical mask…they never reveal what he looks like under it, and given large chunks of the film take place in the hospital, it just kind of all blurs together.
Performances, as mentioned are flat, even the kills lack any kind of siginificant animation or ‘Depth’ to them…people just die in this film and noone really gives it any kind of attention. they just move on, theres no mourning, no sense that we should even really care these characters are gone, and that combined with the fact that the characters themselves just arnt given that much depth or characterization, leaves the whole thing feeling quite underwhelming.
Oh! and the soundtracks kind of D.O.A as well, a handful of tracks largely at the beginning and end of the film. and very little in the way of incidental music. Most of the film plays out to dead air or ‘on set’ audio…its quite dissapointing.
‘The Last Slumber Party’ has its moments, and it doesnt really do anything so horrendously that I could call it ‘Bad’ inherently…but it didnt do anything to really wow me or win me over either. It’s a true neutral. Definitely not main feature fodder, but it could play well as an appitizer, or the middle part of a triple feature bill…clocking in at just over 70 minutes. if your looking for a slasher and your in a hurry, this’ll give you everything you need in compressed form…but not everything you want…nor everything at a breathable pace.
I’d wanted to pick up ‘Children of the Damned’ for a couple of years, ever since catching ‘Village of the Damned’ a while ago and wondering how they’d handle a sequel to that film. Being honest, it feels almost like it writes itself, given the last film ends with the children being blown to pieces and the ‘alien’ element of the kids seemingly freed into a coporial form to escape the village and explore the wider world. It could have prompted an interesting sequel dealing with rebirth, revenge and an aliens view on the darker side of humanity.
But ‘Children of the Damned’ isnt really that…in fact, its kind of forgettable…Or at the very least doesnt seem to pack the atmospheric punch that ‘Village’ had in spades.
So the films kind of more of a sideways sequel to ‘Village’ than anything else. essentially the film doesnt really acknowledge the last film in any capacity, a lot of the ‘origin’ plot points have been airlocked, and barring a single line from one of the children about how they’ve ‘Died before’ Im pretty sure this thing has just lifted the idea of ‘psychic killer alien children’ from ‘Village’ and implanted it into this films world.
The plot opens with a group of scientists testing the mental agility of some children, one of the kids ‘Paul’ isnt just significantly quicker at completing the puzzles, he’s able to solve puzzles that the other kids cant even comprehend. On seeing Pauls genius, the staff really want more information about his circumstance. But his mothers cagey on details around Paul, his father or his birth. and after a bizarre accident befalls Pauls Mother, she confides in them that she was a virgin at the time of Pauls birth, there was no father, and shes known since the birth that something wasnt quite right with him.
The scientists continue their testing, visitng various embassys where similar stories and children emerge. All the while Paul is under the care of his distant aunt, who doesnt really know much about whats going on. She takes Paul being a kid for granted. and when the scientists become keen to take Paul in for further observations. He hypnotises his aunt, travels to each of the embassys to collect the other ‘gifted’ children and the lot of them hold up in an abandoned cathedral. All the while the scientists slowly begin to piece together that Paul and the other kids are somehow all linked together, that they have mind control powers, and that they may not even be of this earth! And when word spreads about the supernatural children, the embassys work quickly to mobalize a military response to the children, considering them a threat to humanity. Even though our scientists seem confident that isnt really the case.
Essentially, this felt like a bit of a letdown after ‘Village’ on pretty much every level.
The script doesnt command the same level of atmosphere as ‘Village’ the first entry felt like a bit of a hybrid of a Nigel Neil script crossed with ‘The Twilight Zone’ there was a real sense of atmosphere, forboding…the unknown!. This film feels more like a moral tale, that underplays the unknown and plays things almost like a 50s ‘atom age’ picture. The first film had genuinely unpleasent moments of horror. This film? the kids barely get to use their supernatural powers, and when they do, its mainly hypnosis or telecommunication. Which sucks. its dull!
This could have been a pretty easy win. Set the film in a smaller rural village, have the spirits of the children from the last film ‘possess’ the bodies of random children from this smaller, less developed village and have them slowly hypnotise and manipulate this small community into paranoid brutalists murdering each other because they dont know whos ‘possessed’ and who isnt. Instead? we get a plodding thriller with horror elements thats essentially an anti-nuclear war picture. that doesnt have the courage of its convictions to BE an anti nuclear war film till the last 20-30 minutes or so.
The pacing is slow and plodding, this is a dialogue heavy film that feels like it has to spoon feed you every. single. plot detail, not matter how big or small…its dragging its heels for the most part and as such a LOT of the more interesting or unique moments that made the first film so engaging…are just missing from this. Put it this way, this is the kind of movie where you can just…flat out leave for 10 minutes, and if you come back, you either wont have missed anything, or one of the characters will do you a 3 minute long recap of everything thats just happened. At that point, I kind of wonder what the point of engaging with the media is.
The characters are all pretty dull, the children in the last film had a unique look and identity, as a hive mind it meant there was a lot of opportunity to play that up and create an unsettling look and feel…But here? thats relegated, all the kids purposfully look different (for the cold war messaging) and they really dont play that much on the supernatural element, the ‘eye glowing’ effects that felt fairly regular in the first, get wheeled out a couple of times MAX in this one. and we dont really get any kind of set pieces apart from the VERY VERY end of the film. and thats not caused by the children.
I will say they handle the act structuring fairly well, the film does have a few fun moments in the plotting and the ending is fairly bombastic…But it kind of lacks the power of the originals ending. that film ended with a defeated ‘bittersweet’ sacrifice. This films ending is trigger by some berk accidentally dropping a screwdriver onto a wire, that completes a circuit by mistake…it feels less refined as a work is what im saying.
Direction wise, its kind of unremarkable too. Not bad by any stretch, but it feels smaller, everythings handled in close ups or mid wides, we’ve shifted from a countryside village to a city…and that location change really harms the films looks and feels. the grungy city vibe helps make things feel more ‘cop drama’ esq…but the village location helped add to the sense of helplessness, the feeling that all of this was happening beyond the realms of city community and safety. As such, this film looks and feels more like a kitchen sink drama, than a supernatural scifi horror sequel. and its just kind of beige for it.
Theres some interesting scene setups dotted throughout, and given this is a studio pic, I wasnt really expecting anything to be inherently BAD int he direction…but it is kind of just ‘going through the motions’ for lack of a better descriptive.
The cines much the same, theres some nice lighting moments here and there, the edits tight enough, special effects are a bit lacking…but shots are well composed for the most part…theres just…no sense of adventurousness…the first film had TONS of interesting or unique moments that really helped lift it up. this? this just feels like some guys filming what they think will work…its ‘safe’, and overly ‘safe’ at that.
throw in a kind of unremarkable soundtrack to boot, and you have a really quite dissapointing follow up. I cannot stress how much potential, and how easy it would have been to have made a sequel to that original film that managed to keep the atmosphere and build on the lore…and they seem to have shelved that idea in favour of cramming ‘The Children’ into a shelved 50’s cold war thriller script whether they fitted in or not.
Would I rewatch this one again? maybe?…I guess? Like I say, it wasnt BAD inherently or anything…But if I want that kind of ‘quatermass and the pit’ style sci-fi horror…This film isnt the one to provide it. I’d say if you saw ‘Village’ and liked it, maybe check this one out…but temper your expectations…if you havent seen ‘village’ your not missing out.
As another year winds down to a close, I decided this year to do something a little bit different. Last year, at the end of the year, I put together a letterboxd list of my ‘Top 10 films I’d seen in 2022 for the first time’. They didnt have to BE films made in 2022, they just had to be movies that, to me; were a first time viewing. And I quite enjoyed the experience honestly. It made for an interesting journey back through my Letterboxd diary list for that year to shortlist out the films i’d watched for the first time, and to see which ones, thanks to the passage of time, had matured into something I’d genuinely enjoyed.
There were movies i’d loved on the first watch, but had soured over the months since checking them out, by contrast there were films I thought were absolute stinkers for which, the passage of time had actually mellowed my views and given me a new affection towards them. Movies like ‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ and ‘Thriller: A Cruel Picture’ were no brainers, but the likes of ‘SGT. Kabukiman: NYPD’ genuinely caught me off guard!
So! With 2023 only 2 days away from completion, I thought i’d do it all again and pull up my ‘Top 10 First time watches of 2023’. Frankly; given theres still 2 days left of the year, im a little bit concerned even at this point that I may get one final amazing movie land in my bluray player before the years out…But! We do have to cut these things off at SOME point… Some may surprise, though I reckon anyone who’s been paying attention to my Letterboxd and youtube channel will probably have a pretty easy time guessing which movies made it into this list.
They wont be in any particular order, there isnt really a ‘best film of the year’ situation here (thats not how we roll) Instead, these are just 10 films that left a profound impact on me that I absolutely would recommend you guys, gals and NB sweethearts check out at your next convenience. SO! With that out of the way…
Starting things off we have a film that I *very* nearly watched this time last year before life got in the way and it *just* slipped back into the first couple of days of January. ‘Elvis’ was one of the first 4k discs I picked up and I was absolutely blown away by both its lavish and sumptuous attention to visual detail, AND the script itself. Dancing a very fine line between campy TV movie and a visual feast. ‘Elvis’ is probably one of my favourite Baz Luhrmann films to date. A kaleidoscope of golds and reds.
This truely felt like a film pushing the boundaries of the medium itself (as of 2022) in places, and it made me very excited of what lies in store for us in the coming decades. While it absolutely can be accused of boiling down Elvis to ‘just the basics’, with some moments of the film bordering on ‘Dewey Cox’ levels of simplicity. I found that aspect of the production charming and it only further enhanced the campy elements for me. With it shooting well past the 2 and a half hour mark, it unfortunately wont be one I have time to sink into again in a hurry, which is in fact one of the only bad things I have to say about it. Had it been closer to 90 or even 120 minutes, i’d have been much more likely to rewatch it. But even so, this was a delight.
A film that was recommended to me by a viewer on my youtube channel, i’d vaguely heard of ‘Paperhouse’ before being asked to cover it, but I thought a lot of the promotional work looked a little bit uninspired, so I put it in my ‘to watch’ pile and essentially relegated it to ‘When I have a gap in the schedules’ status. Little did I know that arguably one of the best movies of that season was quite LITERALLY under my nose the entire time, a fact for which I apologise to whoever recommended this one to me for delaying it for so long.
Paperhouse, from a marketing perspective looks like some kind of drama, maybe with some very light fantasy elements (think ‘Celia’). But if you cut through the promotional materials, theres a much richer complex story being told here, One that strongly reminded me of the works of Guillermo Del Toro’s better offerings…Though miraculously, this one came first.
A dark and moody fantasy dealing with themes of abandonment, puberty and the ups and downs of life in working class England. ‘Paperhouse’ mixes bleak and gritty cinematography with an abstract fantasy edge to create an end product that Bernard Rose should be VERY proud of. It still blows my mind quite honestly that this thing is trapped on DVD. a 4k release of this film seems like a total no brainer, and I have to assume its caught in some kind of rights limbo because, other than a *slightly* shaky ending, the only other thing I could honestly pick fault with was the DVD presentation starting to show its age.
Definitely worth checking out if your smitten with young adult-esq fantasy fiction, ‘Paperhouse’ was a film I took for granted, and I regretted doing so every day after watching it.
Another totally pleasant surprise for me this year, this one was recommended by friend of the show ‘Triv’ from Trivial Theater, who brought it up during a podcast recording this year as a film she’d recently checked out that she thought i’d really quite like. And she ABSOLUTELY wasnt wrong!
‘Beyond the Seventh Door’ is a bit of an oddity, a Canadian SOV film that looks and feels like the kind of thing you’d have seen in the 90s as a physical gameshow on TV, such as ‘The Crystal Maze’ or ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’.
Its an oddity also in the sense that…for SOV…80’s SOV…It actually looks really bloody good! We have crisp and sharp video footage that feels right around broadcast quality, the set work is superb with spaces that have lots of moving parts, intricate detailing and interesting small details…This is a low/no budget SOV film that features a scene where our main characters have to solve a word puzzle that built into the floor ‘hopscotch’ style, and when they DO solve the puzzle one of the tiles on the floor starts lowering like an elevator. I have seen HUNDREDS of SOV flicks in my time…I’ve never seen one do something like that!
Littered with small references to the place it was filmed in, ‘Beyond the Seventh Door’ is pretty much the best SOV flick i’ve seen this year. And thats not even BEGINNING to mention ‘Lazar Rockwood’ who’s performance here is absolutely insane and only pushed this thing even further up my ‘must see’ list. If you have any good feelings towards SOV cinema at all, this is a must see in my opinion. A short but sweet fun little romp that has genuine passion behind it and hits all the right notes.
Towards the end of this year, I finally decided to plug a big gap in my horror knowledge and took the plunge in checking out the ‘Saw’ franchise. Part of this was down to the fact i’d only ever previously seen ‘Saw’ 1 and 2. Part of it was down to the fact that Shudder announced they would be streaming the first 7 films on their platform…and I figured at £4-5 for a months subscription, this would probably be the cheapest way to catch all of them, short of doing naughty torrents or paying £25-£45 for the privilege of a boxset.
‘Saw X’ is the latest entry in the franchise (coming out this year no less!) and it isnt so much what this film DOES, but rather what it DOESNT do…Set in between ‘Saw’ 1 and 2, ‘X’ breaks from the formula, doing the one thing i’d wished ALL these ‘Saw’ films had done in the first place. It tells a largely self contained story, in an interesting way that prioritizes character development over gory visuals.
This isnt a film where you need to remember the ‘lore’ of 8 other movies for it to make sense, and it isnt trying to essentially be a glorified ‘snuff’ film as the latter entries in this franchise ultimately ended up. ‘Saw X’ gives Jigsaw and Amanda a LOT more room to explore there own morals, hang ups and humanity. In such a way that NON of the other ‘Saw’ films have really bothered with. Its script is razor in it’s execution, flexing wildly between getting us to sympathise with Tobin Bells character, who ultimately believes that what he’s doing is morally sound. While not failing to remind us that he IS ALSO responsible (directly or indirectly) for multiple people now missing limbs or not being alive anymore.
Thats not to downplay the kills in this film either however which are some of the series best, with over the top gory slayings that dance a VERY fine line between being quite campy in there execution and downright unsettling.
With rock solid performances, some fantastic camera work, the sharpest script the franchise has had in *at least* 15 if not 20 years, and a score that felt oppressive and perfectly timed. ‘Saw X’ left a solid impression on me that didnt leave for quite a while, I almost feel bad I didnt get to catch this one in theaters.
Another one that I’d put off for years through a mixture of split opinions on what its trying to communicate, AND the shocking fact that this thing hasnt yet made the jump to HD. I caught ‘Idiocracy’ with my partner over the summer for the first time, and while it’s now seen as fairly trite to say this film was supposed to be a warning, not a documentary. I couldnt help but laugh in a somewhat worried way at just how many things mentioned in this film could, entirely realistically, happen in the real world in the very near future.
I appreciate that, by the time I have gotten to this film, the moment for it has well and truely passed. But as someone who went into this thing only knowing the absolute barest of plot points (a guy gets frozen in the early 2000’s and wakes up in the far FAR future in which humanity has almost entirely out bred and outpriced the intelligent from the planet and created a ‘coddled’ version of society that doesnt know why things are the way they are, but wont question it either) I honestly just found it quite funny. Yes its a bit sneering in places, yes it does dabble in Eugenics talk in places (largely the first act) but once it gets underway and it boils down to ‘average intelligence guy is basically the only ‘Einstein’ on a planet of idiots’, It falls into Mike Judges specialty area. Dumb humour. And from that point on, its just gut buster after gut buster for me.
Its a largely professional end product as well, which was a nice surprise. Given the budget and how easy it would have been to just turn this into a cheap and nasty ‘dumb people be dumb’ movie. It DOES at least attempt to add a bit more complexity and scathing commentary on society into the mix to bring it up to the next level. I think it’ll be interesting to see how this film ages over the NEXT 20 years…because if the 20 or so years between this film and now has made it feel THIS close to reality. Lord knows where the next 20 will take us. It’s not for everyone, but I personally had quite the soft spot for it.
A genuinely pleasant surprise to stumble on, I found ‘Deadstream’ literally at random one night while flicking around on Shudder looking for something to kill 90 or so minutes, normally I don’t tend to watch ‘Shudder Originals’ as my past experience with them hasnt been the best. But the marketing made this sound like it was some kind of ‘found footage’ horror film about a social media influencer livestreaming his time in a haunted house for clicks…and that sounded kind of neat for me…well…neat enough to take a 90 minute gamble on it.
Then the comedy hit, and I totally fell in love with it. Comparisons to ‘Evil Dead 2’ are kind of obvious with this one, I honestly wasnt expecting this to be a horror comedy, and a GOOD horror comedy at that! Its all presented as if your watching a livestream take place, and while some of the plot points are a *little* bit dubious (our main character has half a dozen ‘go pro’ esq cameras that he sets up around the haunted house that he can control, cut to and generally use at ANY time with NO interruption thats simultaneously able to be controlled by an Ipad, BUT ALSO has a wireless direct feedline to whatever software hes using to stream…thats a big mental leap for me to make honestly)
In some ways, the simplicity of the execution is kind of what draws me to it, I feel like had this been a much more polished affair, it wouldnt have the charm. Its that rough and ready, rogueish element that really quite won me over. Our lead character is charismatic, has a deep history that gets pooled into across the runtime leading to a nice slowburn release about his character.
Most importantly, its a movie trying to be a livestream, that ACTUALLY feels like a live stream! Which an astonishing number of movies really quite fail to achieve (its a similar problem that plagues scenes where actors play video games in movies…either they don’t look like they’re *Really* playing the game or the game looks less like a game, and more like an animation…
In either case, Deadstream is a big goofy and surprisingly well made feature that I feel would pair wonderfully with something like ‘The WNUF Halloween Special’ and is absolutely worth your time.
I can often be accused of being ‘late to the party’ on some movies. In many ways I prefer it that way because it means I rarely get swept up in the ‘hype’ that often comes with new releases. But it does then have the negative consequence of having to find the time to play catch up with the rest of the world.
This year, I decided I wanted to try and plug a gap in my Quentin Tarantino knowledge, at the start of the year i’d seen just under half of his movies, and (broadly speaking) I do have a soft spot for his work. ‘Resevoir Dogs’ and the ‘Kill Bill’ movies did a wonderful bit of upcycling in taking awesome moments from B-picture exploitation flicks and transplanting them into larger budgeted, studio driven productions…Part of me kind of resents that because I feel it downplays the importance of the cult source material…but then…part of me knows had he not ripped off a ton of exploitation pictures, audiences likely would have never appreciated them, or even known they existed…
My Tarantino gap was really everything after ‘Kill Bill Volume 2’, I’d seen ‘The Hateful 8’ but that was about it. So…as you can imagine, when I found out that Tarantino had gone MASSIVELY grander in his visions for his films post 90s…I quickly got quite invested. And by the time I got to ‘Django: Unchained’ well I just about lost my damn mind frankly.
Doing what he did with asian cinema, and the cult B-pictures of the drive in ‘Django’ takes the exploitation era spaghetti westerns and pulps them into a 2+hour long visual feast, arguably not just one of his best movies, but one of the greatest westerns of the 21st century (which…being honest, isnt THAT hard of an achievement…but it sounds cool…so im going to roll with it)
An Acidic anti racist script laced with scathing commentary on American culture and slavery. Django is unflinching in what it sets out to do, and it does what it sets out to do really bloody well.
With rich colourful visuals, an astoundingly powerful script, some of the strongest direction Tarantinos ever committed to film and a score that makes my hair stand up on end. Im getting to a point in life where I feel like I could say ‘Django’ is my favourite Tarantino film. Its almost certainly a peak for him as a creator that he hasnt *quite* managed to scale again since. But if you only catch one of his movies. This or ‘Reservoir Dogs’ are essentials.
Making it onto the list by literal DAYS. It was a total accident that I wound up catching ‘Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World’. I decided while on my Christmas Vacation that now would be a time to try and sink all the 2+ hour movies I had because I really don’t have the time to watch anything that long (or longer) while im working. This had been near the top of my ‘To watch’ list for a while, so I gave it a chance and didnt regret it for a second.
Essentially, it feels like the film makers got their hands on a list of every US comedian or entertainer from 1930 to the present day of 1963 who wasnt dead, called them and asked if they’d be interested in starring in a movie…and seemingly most of them said ‘Sure!’
Its SO densely packed with now LEGENDARY comedians you barely get a second to catch your breath before the next madcap scene is taking place. Its a non stop barrage of every single type of comedy you’d care to think of. And while I cant say there was much in the way of total gut busting laughs. It did have a consistently good hit rate for jokes, enough to keep you smiling and chuckling from beginning to end.
Everyone involved seems to know the tone this thing is working towards, Everyone seems to be having a really good time on set, the direction and cine are astounding for the time with grand comedic set pieces looking utterly effortless for the most part, the script is damn near perfect, the scoring perfeclty suited and highly memorable. This things slow burn, but very VERY rewarding. By the time the end credits came around, I knew i’d just sat through something quite special and I really cant wait till I next get an opportunity to watch it again.
‘Barbie’ was arguably my most anticipated release of the year, i’d been ready and waiting for it from the moment the very first ‘early preview’ trailer for it launched back in 2022, based on that trailer and the handful of set photos that had come out around it, I knew that there was something special going on behind the scenes with this one, and I absolutely was NOT disappointed.
They really don’t make movies like ‘Barbie’ anymore, an ultra colourful, seemingly harmless on the surface big dumb adventure comedy movie, the last time this kind of thing had a resurgence was in the 80s with films like ‘The Goonies’ or ‘Pee Wees Big adventure’ only…those films were ONLY really there to entertain. ‘Barbie’ has an added layer to it, which is beyond the bubblegum pop aesthetic and ‘head emptiness, is an acidically self aware script that directly attacks toxic masculinity, attempts to teach progressive feminism in basic terms both to a very young audience or to people who may not entirely understand the fundamentals and not only does it shine a light on those traits, it inverts them, inviting men to question their own flaws and women to question the very purpose of their own personal existence.
Traditionally; if I go to see a film in theaters, i’ll go once and then pick up the bluray/4k if I really liked it. I went to see Barbie twice in theaters, bought the streamable copy as soon as it became available and as of the time of writing I have the 4k release winging its way to my doorstep courtesy of Amazon.
Its a truely astounding work of our time that not only something like this would be released internationally, but that TWO major companies would have greenlit this given the film attacks those companies as ‘part of the problem’ amongst its many MANY other axes to grind. Im still kind of in shock the film got made at all letalone released, and its a testimony to it’s uniqueness in a sea of ‘Marvels’ and ‘Star Wars-es…’ that this became one of the highest grossing films of the year. A title I feel it rightfully earned.
While I will admit, sometimes it can get a little heavy handed on its messaging, i’d also suggest that…some people need that level of detail BECAUSE this kind of content is so alien to them. It can be a bit patronizing to people who get it, but the fact it boils things down to SUCH a simple level that even kids can understand it, I thought was honestly quite wonderful.
I was sold on the aesthetic of this thing before it even hit theaters, but to be hit with SUCH an ‘out of left field’ revelation that this film was smart, and wanted YOU to know it was smart…was the thing that absolutely made me fall in love with it.
Easily my favourite film released this year, My only concern now is the glut of ‘sanitized’ movies that’ll be coming in 2025 trying to do what ‘Barbie’ did, but in a safer…more studio friendly way…*sigh* ah well…the world probably needed a ‘Hot Wheels’ Movie that deals with gentrification anyway…
And last, but certainly not least. We have ‘Dr. Caligari’ probably my most anticipated purchase of this year, I nabbed it from Mondo Macabre last Halloween and it arrived just in time for me to include it in my youtube channel, where it (quite rightfully) took the season finale slot.
Its an 80s neu wave explosion in a paint factory of a movie thats *suggested* to be a sequel to the german expressionist film (maybe even a remake) but realistically…shares a name and a couple of plot beats, but not much else. And I absolutely adored it. The mashing up of the german expressionist movement and the 80s new wave movement was a totally inspired decision, the film looks unique, handmade and fairly lavish given the minimal set scenery (most of this takes place in a void with bizarre props and set pieces in the foreground)
The script is nuttier than fruit cake, but has a lot to say about the medical industry of the US, the characters are all eccentric, over the top, camp tastic and utterly delightful to be around. The direction is very considered with a rock solid edit, razor cine and scripting and a killer score. This is everything I want out of an art house movie and more, and it’s really put me on to Stephen Sayadian in a big way (my kingdom for ‘Nightdreams 4k’
Its just such a delight to sit through honestly, with not a single dull moment, I utterly loved this movie. And with news that ‘Cafe Flesh’ is also making its way to 4k in 2024. All I can say is…I look forward to talking about Sayadians work again this time next year.
…I knew I should have just called this one ‘Season X’ or ‘Not Season 13’ or something like that…Bizarrely the actual production of this season more or less went without a hitch. All these episodes were written, recorded and edited between late July 2022 and early January 2023. Before any of the crappy problems i’d had with this year really got underway… With only the last 2 reviews (Die hard Dracula and Dr. Caligari) happening later (Caligari was written, edited and uploaded in late April/Early May, and Die hard Dracula was written in July, edited in late august and uploaded in September)
Quite honestly, it feels like an age ago since I worked on these. im usually quicker at putting together a ‘Finishing the…’ post on these, but the series finished with a perfect dovetail into a TON of personal problems that basically wrote me off for most of July/August/September and October…
I can say that this season introduced me to a few films that im now very happy I checked out, that HAVE been on repeat rotation now for a little bit. Though, i’ve got to admit, because of life stuff happening right at the tale end of the run, I was kind of on autopilot for the back end of this season.
Even so, I think some of my best reviews are included here. Its overall a sturdy season that I think has a decent flow, and given that this was the one and only season of this year. Im quite proud with how it turned out…
The next 12 months (Seasons 14 and 15) are going to feel a little odd comparatively because not only have I had to split the original season 14 almost in half (with half making up half the run of Season 14 – Jan – June 2024, and the other half going into Season 15 – Sept – December 2024) But also because we’re going to be making less episodes overall…It means realistically, the next time I’ll get to sit and properly plan out a new season from Tail to Snout will be Season 16 (Feb – June 2025) which feels like a lifetime away…But planning for that will begin around August of next year…Which’ll crop up on us sooner than you’d think…
Anyway; im rambling…I wish I remembered more about the making of this season honestly. from what I can recall though it was just really smooth sailing right up till the last 6 or so episodes…then things started to get a bit messy…Messy doesnt mean bad mind…I had a lot of fun with this season…Messy here quite literally means…messy.
Season 12 was a season punctuated with several rather big moments for the channel, ones im very proud of. It was the season that helped us ease into monthly streaming, it was the season to feature our longest review (“Sweet Insanity” – Thanks to Peckingforgoodtv for being a good sport on that one!) it featured probably our most mainstream review (I Spit on Your Grave) and our most obscure review (Santa’s Pocket Watch)
It saw the wind down of “The Comedy Dining Experience” and probably our crowning achievement for the year, as not only did we smash through 150k views (for the 2nd time I might add) BUT! we also FINALLY hit 1000 subscribers after over 6 years of weekly uploads. It’s been a hell of a road, but its one im fiercely proud of, and one that I simply couldnt have done without the help of our wonderful viewers and the many friends and creators i’ve made along the way.
Latter in the year seasons (basically the September – December stint) are always a little less fun for me. Don’t get me wrong! they ARE still very fun, otherwise I wouldnt do them the way I do. But with the pressure to do spooky stuff at Halloween and Christmassy stuff at Christmas, it usually means that at least 8-10 of my 16-18 slots for the year are eaten up with a rigidly structured type of arrangement. one of the things I really love about the February – June/July run is the fact that it’s in total free flow. I can plan the season out months in advance, but all it takes is one release to creep into my radar and I can easily swap it into the schedules with no problem. With the September – December run, im not as carefree.
But this year was a little bit different, Being able to collab with so many wonderful people across this season really helped to keep things fresh and keep my interest on the ball. The fact this years halloween special theme was “Poundland Horror” meant I wasnt rigidly stuck to one genre for a full month and could relax into the season quite nicely. and even the christmas specials were perked up somewhat by being able to tackle movies like “Winterbeast” with George. It just made things a lot less dogmatic and more, just for the fun of it. Yes I didnt get to do everything I wanted to do this season, but I got like; 95% of it done, and thats good enough for me!
Of the two seasons that made up 2022, Season 11 was probably the most fun to work on, but Season twelve was almost certainly the most rewarding. The former was the last hurrah to my old system, and the latter was me basically relearning how to do my trade having upgraded all my kit over the summer. and Season 12b (Im not calling it Season 13, theres no way im cursing this thing right out of the gate) is going to be the biggest and longest season we’ve ever done to date! I honestly cant wait for you guys to see it when we premiere on Feb 3rd 2023!
All I can say is, Season 12 was a fun one, and I hope 2023 keeps that postive energy coming!
And with that! we’ve reached the end of another season, and once again we’re revisitng the ‘Silent Night Deadly Night’ franchise with probably the most infamous entry of the entire franchise.
Yes, we’re doing the ‘GARBAGE DAY’ movie. and honestly, this one was really quite the blur from a behind the scenes standpoing on the show, the last 3 months of the year were frankly pretty crazy and (to my admitted shame) this one ended up kind of being bashed out in a bit of a haze while dealing with a load of personal issues around work. Nothing too awful mind…just jarring. it’s something im still kind of dealing with now even, but I’ve gotten a bit of a better grasp on it. for now at least.
Anyway; enough of my problems! Silent Night Deadly Night 2! the film that made me wonder how on EARTH they followed up on this with 3 other movies. and…well, you’ll find out exactly HOW they did in a year or two. because…im not touching those movies again for a while let me tell you now!
Anyway! merry christmas and all that! we’ll be back in february! all my love x
Well, its a bit late! but heres the first of our christmas specials, and rather wonderfully, we’re welcoming back George from The Best Little Horror House In Philly to help us take on a stop motion cult classic like you’ve never seen!
The one big thing I can say about this is, I didnt actually pick up on the ‘Twin Peak’ themes and references (to my UTTER shame) until George sent his side of the script over! I was so busy focussing on the execution I totally missed it! but im SO glad George caught it, because as soon as I heard it, suddenly the whole thing took on a completely new life!
It’s kind of a good news/bad news with Winterbeast. the good news is Vinegar syndrome have done a lovely restoration of it on bluray! the bad news is, it’s part of the ‘Home Grown Horrors’ boxset which only has a limited number of copies left! So nab this while you can! and thank you SO much to George for jumping in on this one with me 🙂 he’s awesome and I hope we get to work together agains soon!
Probably the most surprising film of this season for me, I REALLY wasnt looking forward to talking about this one, it’s a catagory 1 Video Nasty however, so I kind of felt obliged to.
I was expecting over 90 minutes of rape and unpleasent grimness that would leave me feeling uncomfortbale. But instead I actually found the film strangely compelling an empowering. I absolutely dont agree with Siskel and Eberts take that this work is Mysoginistic. I think personally it comes from a place of very careful consideration.
As the credits rolled I actually felt more comfortable with the film that I had expected, and I actually kind of got on with it a bit more than say ‘The New York Ripper’ or ‘Night Train Murders’. This one was Palettable, and is absolutely one i’d watch again.
If Nukie is a film that isnt worth your Vitriol. Camp Blood 2 ABSOLUTELY is. my GOD this films dull and incompitent.
…thats all I have to say, Having now seen Camp Blood 3 (within the woods) I can say this is*probably* the most watchable of the 3. But thats REALLY not saying much.
This week! Dan and Ben take on Toxie! in the first of the ‘Toxic Avenger’ movies! a franchise thats 50% actually quite incredible film making and 50% hot gas.
TYTD Reviews 