Chucky: Hail Mary

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Chucky, played by Brad Dourif, is captured by the kids and turned good, meanwhile a bigger badder Chucky doll finds its way into the school and brings a new Chad-sense to his murdering.

I liked this episode more than the previous episode, I think the idea of a good Chucky is interesting and I like that it gives Dourif a chance to play against type, at least in terms of this series. I think the idea of another Chucky that is jacked is silly, but therein lies the charm of me its dumb but it’s the right kind of dumb.

Moreover, I preferred the more lively pace of this episode when compared to the previous week’s episode as it felt like more was happening and less like the series was playing for time. Plus this weeks murder is far better than last weeks, not only does it feel more rewarding the gore is also a lot better, Chucky giving a nun a heart attack last week was not as funny or as satisfying as they probably imagined it would be.

In a wider sense the series is getting better and I do like where they are heading with it, even if it is down from the fun week in week out craziness of the first season. Hopefully the second half of the season will be better.

Overall, an above average episode made better by the prospect of a good Chucky.

Pros.

Good Chucky

The stupid idea of Chad Chucky

It feels more lively

Cons.

There is still a lot of teasing and no delivering

The cliches are still there and are starting to effect the story

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Chucky: Sinners Are Much More Fun

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Chucky, voiced by Brad Dourif, arrives at a Catholic school.

To be blunt with you this wasn’t a very good episode. Very little happens and most of it is just set up for things happening later in the season, that is not to say the things being set up aren’t interesting but they aren’t present in this episode so it doesn’t bring it up.

Moreover, the whole school setting is proving incredibly cliché everything that you would imagine when you think of strict religious boarding schools is shown here and nothing is subverted or done in any form of clever way, its tropes through and through.

I am glad to see Devon Sawa return to the show this time playing Father Bryce and he certainly does manage to bring with him a certain level of gravitas, it is just a shame that his character is clearly being written again as a cliched trope, really just being there to bully the kids and do little else.

I think the wider world stuff is far, far more interesting than what is going on in the school and the idea of Nica, played by Fiona Dourif, and Chucky working together to take out Tiffany, played by Jennifer Tilly, is interesting and one that I will be keen to see how it plays out. Plus the arrival of Glen and Glenda will hopefully spice this season up somewhat.

Overall, a weak set up episode.

Pros.

Nica and Chucky working together

It is watchable

It sets up some interesting things for later on

Cons.

Teases and set up make this episode feel like filler

Everything to do with the kids at school is dull

Father Bryce is a cliché

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American Horror Story NYC: Thank You For Your Service

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Gino, played by, Joe Mantello is abducted by the killer and Dr. Wells, played by Billie Lourd, further explores the origins of her mystery virus.

I am still quite enjoying this season of AHS I think that the mystery is interesting and that both strands of it are coming together nicely. I am keen to keep watching as I want to know where it is all heading.

Moreover, I liked that this season is really hitting on how hard life was for LGBTQ+ people in this time and place and showing how the cops not only don’t want to know but actively at times hate them. I think the scenes wherein Adam, played by Charlie Carver, was detained by the police simply for speaking out about his experience and held without merit were both infuriating and also moving.

Where this season is losing me is like all Ryan Murphy series the fact that many scenes just boil down to softcore porn. Now, I don’t mind this when these scene service the plot in some way, but more often than not it just feels stuffed in to both pad for runtime as well as to titillate Murphy and Co.

Overall, the second episode continues to further the mystery in interesting ways, but the constant forced sex scenes are holding it back.

Pros.

The mystery

The performances of Lourd, Tovey and Mantello

A degree of unpredictability in what might happen next

The ending of the episode

Cons.

The needless sex scenes

Pacing issues

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Terrifier 2: More Isn’t Always Better

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Art, played by David Howard Thornton, is back at it again.

I have been looking forward to this for a long time, and my expectations were both met and not met at the same time.

I liked that the gory carnage of the first film continued on and if anything this film was even more ambitious taking things to a whole new extreme. However, therein lies an issue I have with this film, if anything the violence goes way beyond what the first film had and does cross into a place of being gratuitous and nasty. I think the gross out spectacle of this film is put before everything else and as the film gets carried away with its larger budget it never stops to think about how far is too far.

In terms of story we get more of a classic slasher narrative here than we did in the first film, we are introduced to new final girl Sienna, played by Lauren LaVera, and she and Art do battle. I liked LaVera’s performance and saw quite a lot of a young Jamie Lee in her, I think that if she sticks around within the genre she can easily become a new and beloved scream queen in time. I would say however, that the plot of this film falls apart in the last twenty minutes where things just happen and nothing really makes sense. The film is badly paced and does go on for too long, as you reach the end of the film where the narrative starts to eat itself you are quite ready for it to just be over.

Overall, more doesn’t mean better.

Pros.

LaVera

Art is still a great villain

I liked that this film deepens the lore

Cons.

The violence borders on the tasteless at time

The third act falls apart and then sets fire to the whole film

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Pearl: Who Asked For More?

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An origin story for everyone’s favourite old lady serial killer.

Honestly I have never been a fan of the films of Ti West often they struggle to appeal to me in anyway, some such as House Of The Devil and The Sacrament have shown promise but by and large I just think he is pretty talentless. X this film’s sequel which was released first only really had a buzz because of its goofy premise a slasher vs a group of porn stars, in actuality and in a technical sense the film is actually quite bland and quite a clear copy of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at times.

The more art house elements of the first one really struck me as delusions of grandeur, West has always dwelt in the shock value area of horror being gross out rather than cerebral, and though some horror filmmakers can crack both, David Cronenberg he is not. The arty elements of X didn’t work because they just seemed jarring and out of place and here they make a little more sense but you just don’t really care.

I think Mia Goth deserves praise for trying to make this character interesting despite West doing everything he can in a scripting phase to make sure she is just your typical psycho who cracks because their dreams are shattered, how fresh, Joker did this exact same thing much better a good few years ago now. I think at its core that is the issue with these films, it is nothing new and the lofty sense of self that it carries around is unearned.

Overall, Fine nothing new or interesting, but not awful either.

Pros.

Goth

It is watchable

A few nice gory images

Cons.

It thinks it is way deeper and cleverer than it actually

It borrows a lot from better films

It is badly paced

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Child’s Play: Don’t Get Your Kid A Doll And You Might Just Be Saving Their Life

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Little Andy Barclay, played by Alex Vincent, gets a Good Guy doll called Chucky, voiced by Brad Dourif, for his birthday little does he know that it will change his life forever.

Though I do enjoy the more light hearted fare that we got as the Child’s Play franchise progressed I have to say that I think the more serious approach of this film first worked well, maybe even better. I liked the wider focus on Chucky/Charles Lee Ray as an evil serial killer, who isn’t cracking jokes all the time, as well as the more serious look at voodoo magic.

I liked the plot of the film even if it does feel a little samey now as all other possessed or evil doll films take a similar line, I thought that it was engaging and I liked that most of the characters in the film just thought Andy was lying and tried to lock him away, it is more realistic.

Overall, it still holds up well though it may seem a little familiar to modern audiences.

Pros.

Dourif

A more serious tone

It has some good scares

The fact people don’t believe Andy

Cons.

It feels a little familiar and worn watching it in modern times

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Halloween Ends: On A Par With The First Film

5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Halloween finally ends

Spoilers

A lot of people have not liked this film, and most of the critical reviews of the film out so far have been deeply negative, I however enjoyed this film a lot. A little context before we get into it, firstly I really disliked Kills and everything it did to the franchise, secondly I went into this film with incredibly low expectations.

Lets get right to the end and start there. I enjoyed that this film killed off Michael Myers, played by James Jude Courtney, I thought the final showdown with Laurie, played by Jamie Lee Curtis was perfect and liked that they threw his body into a crusher just to make sure. In that same category I liked that the film didn’t kill off Laurie as I always thought the idea of both of them having to die for Halloween to end was dumb, I thought it was sweet they let her character be happy.

I also thought thematically this film worked a lot better with the idea of letting evil in and locking it out and protecting yourself being poignant frames for the film. I liked that the narrative of Laurie’s book intensively fed into the plot and direction of the film. Likewise I thought the idea of generational evil with Corey Cunningham, played by Rohan Campbell, being somewhat of the new Michael Myers was a nice twist. I thought unlike other passing the torch narratives this felt a lot more earned and a lot better structured, we see Corey be tortured by the town and finally break and then join forces with Michael even taking the mask from him at one point. However, I also liked that in the end Michael reclaimed his mask.

Lastly, I also really enjoyed how the film played with the idea of Michael being a supernatural entity. The franchise has kind of set Michael up to be almost unkillable, as he is evil itself, however, here we still see that he has regenerative powers seemingly gaining strength from killing but we are also confronted by his age and the fact that he can’t keep going forever. I think these two contrasting elements work really nicely together to give us a whole new side to Michael Myers.

Overall, a fitting end to a beloved horror series.

Pros.

Generations of evil

Killing off Myers

Laurie finally gets closure

The meta narrative of the book feeding into the themes and plot of the film

Giving Alison, played by Andi Matichak, a much bigger role then what she got in Kills

Cons.

None, I thoroughly enjoyed by time with it.

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Chucky: Halloween II

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Continuing on from the end of last season Andy, played by Alex Vincent, seemingly perishes destroying the last of the Chucky dolls. However, a few months later the original group of teens from the first season start to find themselves under attack again.

I still do like this show, even if I think this opening episode is quite weak. I think Brad Dourif’s Chucky is still al lot of fun and the show can really master tension when it wants to. I enjoyed the Chucky scenes we got in this episode.

However, my issues with this season premiere is that the writing feels quite contrived. Andy is seemingly killed off even though it is super obvious that he will be coming back, and the kids all find themselves sent to a Catholic boarding school at the end of the episode, can you get anymore cliché. Furthermore, this idea of a school for troubled kids reminded me a lot of the military academy setting for Child’s Play 3 so it seems as though the series is just recycling ideas from the films.

In addition to that I thought this episode really went out of its way to sexualise Alyvia Alyn Lind’s Lexy, which is extra creepy when you realise that the actor is only 15. This is not just a one off incident either as there were scenes in the first season that again put her character in very revealing and sexualised scenes. I understand that the show wants to tackle teenage sexuality, but it could have at least had an older cast playing younger rather than having minors play out sex scenes, it feels very inappropriate.

Overall, the season will need to do a lot more to keep me around, also stop sexualising a 15 year old it’s weird.

Pros.

Dourif’s Chucky

It is watchable

It can still deliver the scares and the tension

Cons.

It is creepy towards a minor

It feels deeply cliched

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Jeepers Creepers Reborn: The Youtube Sketch Parody No One Asked For

0.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The parody film to the Jeepers Creepers franchise.

I liked Iron Sky and enjoyed what they did with it, but that same style was never going to work with a serious horror film. As such what we get is a joke that takes various elements from the previous films and then spits them back at us through a fake out almost spoof lens. This film wants desperately for you to take it seriously, but ultimately it is so damned goofy and silly that it is almost impossible to do so.

Moreover, you can really tell this film was made on the cheap. Now I am not saying there is anything wrong with small budget films, but this one does it in all the worst sort of ways. It gives us lots of close up shots of the Creeper, and he just looks like a dude in body paint. This film goes out of its way to make the Creeper as tame and non-threatening as possible. Also don’t get me started on the baby cult thing.

Really I found there to be nothing redeemable about this film.

Overall, awful just awful.

Pros.

It is laughably bad at times

Cons

It is basically a parody of the series

The Creeper looks awful

The cult of the Creeper thing destroys the monster

It is not scary

It is aggressively average

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Orphan First Kill: Grey And Lifeless

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Ester’s origins are explored with the help of a simply awful lighting and colour gradient combo.

Really this film shouldn’t have been made. They add in some new twists and turns here, but for the most part it can’t hope to compete with the twist from the first film that Ester, played by Isabelle Fuhrman, who everyone thought was a child was in fact a grown adult. Once you know that twist a lot of the places this prequel goes to are not very exciting.

Moreover, as I said in the above summary there is some really quite poor lighting and colouring choices in this film that makes vast parts of it hard to see or tell what is going on, furthermore this is only worsen by a grey hue that seems to stick to the film throughout giving it a dull and lifeless air.

However, it is not all terrible as the film for the most part is very watchable. In addition a surprisingly out of left field evil turn from Jessica Stiles makes for captivating watching, the film would be a lot wore without Stiles in it that’s for sure.

Overall, a very average film that didn’t really need to be made.

Pros.

Stiles

It is watchable

The ending

Cons.

Once you know the twist from the first film it takes a lot away from this prequel

The lighting and colour work is awful

The pace is aggressively bad

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