Next to Dylan from Wes Craven’s New Nightmare or Franklin Hardesty from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Vicious Fun’s Joel is perhaps the most irritating horror movie character ever written. He is so annoying that he almost makes the film unwatchable. I prayed for his cruel death. An abrasive horror film critic stumbles across a support group for serial killers which includes former WWE superstar Robert Maillet as a Jason Voorhees wannabe who wears a welding mask instead of a hockey mask. Yes, that’s the type of goofball humour we are dealing with here. The ghastly group discovers Dylan is a fraud and vows to silence him…permanently. And that’s as much plot as we get in this very long string of awkward, disjointed set pieces. Not scary. Not funny. Not good.
Capitalizing on the success of Godzilla versus Kong, Netflix’s new Godzilla anime series is light years better than Planet of the Monsters and its lame sequels. It has everything a Godzilla fan could want including supporting characters or should I say… supporting Kaiju…such as Manda, Anguirus and a host of others. In that way it is very much like Godzilla: Final Wars. Singular Point introduces a cast of geniuses who must unravel a bizarre mystery involving a mysterious red mist and strange signals before the Earth itself is destroyed by invading Kaiju and an evolving Godzilla. The look of the series and the animation itself are simply stunning. The plot is a bit muddy and some of the character voices pierce your brain like that splinter to the eyeball in Zombi but Godzilla fans especially can rejoice that Netflix finally has a binge worthy Godzilla series.
Movie posters aren’t just marketing props they are art to many people. 24×36: A Movie About Movie Posters explores the rich history of the movie poster and the sometimes uncredited artists who create them. Artists, collectors and industry insiders share their stories surrounding the unforgettable images and the evolution of the posters that trigger all sorts of movie memories for us. An entertaining and educational documentary? It’s true. It’s true.
For those who are twiddling their thumbs waiting for the next season of Big Brother USA to start this week here is something to make those days click by faster. In Dead Set, the houseguests and producers of Big Brother UK who are broadcasting live, find themselves hunkering down as a zombie apocalypse rages in the outside world. After all, they are in the safest place imaginable: the Big Brother house. We have a good amount gore, human drama, monster drama and lots of clever moments. A fun, compelling take on the zombie genre with cameos from real Big Brother UK houseguests like Imogen Thomas, Helen Adams and Brian Belo.
Despite having a main character who has all the charm of a rabid dog, despite relying on juvenile tropes like…’poor people good’ and ‘rich people bad’, despite having almost bloodless Netflix-rated kills of the stabby-stabby kind, despite being headlined by yet another Scooby Gang modeled after the Stranger Things crew to the point of Maya Hawke being in Fear Street, despite its killers being as generic as generic can be…Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is definitely worth watching. One gets the feeling that director Leigh Janiak and her crew have their horror hearts in the right place. Janiak cut her teeth on such TV fare as Panic, Outcast and Scream: The TV Series and the film Honeymoon way back in 2014 and has directed all three Fear Street movies for Netflix. We could be witnessing the rise of a new horror icon in Janiak. Deena and her pals join forces to battle an ancient evil that is behind their town of Shadyside being designated as the murder capital of the United States. Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.) is not only a computer geek but loves the greatest rock band in the world: Iron Maiden. Needless to say, on top of being a fairly solid horror film Fear Street Part 1: 1994 also has a kick ass soundtrack.
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