Werewolf By Night | Halloween 2022

Marvel Studios has given us a spooky Halloween special this year. Werewolf By Night takes its inspiration from the 1930s-1950s classic Universal monsters. That gives this special a little different look than most Marvel productions.

Ulysses Bloodstone (Richard Dixon), leader of a secret group of monster hunters, has passed away. His legendary magical Bloodstone has to find its next owner. The top hunters gather to decide who should receive the stone. They will need to enter a labyrinth in order to find and kill the monster held within. The hunter that kills the monster and retrieves the stone will become the next leader of the group.

The majority of Werewolf by Night is in black and white. While it gives the special a spooky feeling, some of the details in the makeup work is lost. In old black and white movies or television shows, the objects we saw as white on screen often weren’t white in person. Famously, the living room from The Addams Family television show was pink. The color gave the black and white show some depth. I wish that the makeup artists in Werewolf by Night used the same techniques. We probably would have been able to see some of the makeup a bit better if they were pink or red in person.

Despite being disappointed by the makeup, the special itself wasn’t terrible. I thought the big twist was quite obvious from the beginning, especially with this specific title. With that said, I did enjoy the action scenes. Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly), the estranged daughter of Ulysses, was absolutely amazing. I would have watched an entire series of just her fighting anything. Her fight scenes made up for the lack of drama in the story.

While I don’t think this will be considered one of the best pieces of Marvel media that has been released, it is a decent watch. It is a little less than an hour long so it won’t take up a ton of time. But if you like the old school Universal monsters like Dracula or Frankenstein or The Werewolf, you will probably find some enjoyment here.

Sissy | Halloween 2022

An influencer, a childhood friend, and a childhood bully. The perfect combination for a night of…well, murder. It’s spooky season. We knew this was going to end in murder.

Cecilia (Aisha Dee) is a mental health influencer. While out shopping, she runs into her best friend from childhood, Emma (Hannah Barlow). Emma invites Cecilia, formerly known as Sissy, to join her new friends at a bachelorette weekend in the country. Unbeknownst to Cecilia, Emma is still friends with Alex (Emily De Margheriti), Cecilia’s childhood bully. The weekend takes a dark turn when Alex continues to bully Cecilia and no one steps in to stop her.

Both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed Sissy. The way that we got to see all of the ways that Emma bullied Cecilia, both in childhood and as an adult, was brilliant. It also highlighted poor Cecilia’s descent into madness. She wasn’t a psychopath, she wasn’t out for revenge, she just wanted the bullying to stop. Alex even got Emma’s new friends, Jamie (Daniel Monks) and Tracey (Yerin Ha), to participate in the bullying, even though they thought Cecilia couldn’t hear them. After all of this torment and trauma, Cecilia’s actions were not surprising. As a matter of fact, my husband and I agreed that there was only one person that didn’t deserve their bloody fate. No, I’m not going to spoil which one it was. I’ll let you watch the movie and guess yourself.

And, yes, I think you should watch Sissy. It does get bloody and a bit gory but it’s not prolonged gore. You can avert your eyes for a few seconds and still not miss any of the story. I’m not sure that the writers intended this to be an anti-bullying story. I think we’re supposed to feel bad for the victims. But I think this is a wonderful way to show people that they shouldn’t bully other people. You never know if the bullied person is going to finally go on the attack.

Mr Harrigan's Phone | Halloween 2022

Cell phones aren’t scary, right? Stephen King wants to prove you wrong with Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.

When Craig (Jaeden Martell) was a young boy, he was hired by the elderly billionaire Mr. Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) to read to him twice a week. As Craig gets older, he continues to visit the old man, resulting in them becoming friendly. Well, as friendly as Mr. Harrigan can get. One Christmas, Craig wins $3,000 from the scratch off lottery ticket Mr. Harrigan gifted him. He saves most of the money but decides to use some of it to buy Mr. Harrigan an iPhone to match the one his father gave him. Craig teaches Mr. Harrigan how to use the phone, though the old man is reluctant. After Mr. Harrigan passes away and Craig places in the phone in Harrison’s coat pocket at this burial, Craig continues to call the phone to vent about the troubles in his life. Those people then start to die themselves. Is Mr. Harrigan avenging his young friend from beyond the grave?

This movie version of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is based on a novella Stephen King published in a 2020 collection called If It Bleeds. As this is a short story, it’s only about 88 pages long, there isn’t a lot that happens. The back story that we get for Craig is basically that his mom died, leaving both him and his dad (Joe Tippett) very sad. I don’t think his dad even gets a name in the movie. For Mr. Harrigan, we’re told that he’s hated by a lot of people…I think because he was a rich businessman that may have been an asshole? I’m not completely sure. And there’s a scene where Craig looks in Harrigan’s mysterious closet after the elder man dies. Somehow Craig figures out that Harrigan was like him, in that his mother also died when he was a boy. I know that King is trying to equate Craig with Harrigan but it comes off messy. There are scenes to insinuate that Harrigan was an uncaring rich man that maybe bullied the people that worked for him where Craig does nothing but care for the people around him and he is terribly bullied by Kenny Yankovich (Cyrus Arnold) at school. I think it would have been better if we just left it as the revenge being Harrigan’s way of showing Craig that he cared for him, even if he couldn’t show it when he was alive.

Does all of that mean this was a bad movie? Not at all. It’s just not very interesting. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is something that you watch when you want a movie that won’t make you think too hard. Or if you really like Stephen King, I suppose. It wasn’t a waste of 106 minutes but it wasn’t super enjoyable either. Very middle of the road.

Who Invited Them | Halloween 2022

Shudder usually has a lot of original movies this time of year. Some are good, some are not so good. Today, I’m going to take a look at Who Invited Them to see if we should invite them.

Adam (Ryan Hansen) and Margo (Melissa Tang) have bought a new house in the Hollywood Hills. Of course, they throw a lavish housewarming party, inviting all of their friends and coworkers and bosses. As the party simmers down for the night, one couple sticks around much longer than the other guests. Realizing that neither of them invited the mysterious couple, Adam and Margo try to get them to leave. But when it turns out that Tom (Timothy Granaderos) and Sasha (Perry Mattfeld) are the neighbors, the homeowners decide to get to know them better and spend the evening drinking and laughing and talking and snorting coke. When the evening starts getting really weird, Adam and Margo begin to suspect that their neighbors aren’t who they say they are. If only they knew the truth behind the “couple.”

Who Invited Them is a weird movie. For a majority of the runtime, nothing happens. I kept waiting for a jump scare or one of the couples to break and kill the other. However, all we get is a lot of talking. Sure, the movie is pretty suspenseful but it takes a very long time to get to the pay off.

My other issue is that there are a lot of questions at the end of the movie. They aren’t good questions like “Did they get away with it” or “What happens next?” Instead, they are questions like “What was the point of this character” and “What happened to everyone else?” There just isn’t a lot of resolution to be had here. Maybe the original plan was to make the movie longer or maybe they plan on having a sequel. As a movie on it’s own, though? It isn’t satisfying enough to justify watching it, which makes me sad because I enjoyed the suspense. But you can’t have a movie that is all suspense and no payoff.

Unless you literally have nothing else to watch, I would recommend staying away from Who Invited Them. All it is going to do is make you long for a better movie.

Flux Gourmet | Halloween 2022

I have no idea what I just watched. How the hell am I going to review this……

Flux Gourmet is the story of a culinary sonic art collective during their recent residency. The trio consists of the leader: Elle (Fatima Mohamed), and the two technical performers: Lamina (Ariane Labed) and Billy (Asa Butterfield). Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie) runs the residency program and tries to help the group improve their performance. The whole thing is being documented by journalist Stones (Makis Papadimitriou), who is having a problem with flatulence.

So, despite being listed as a horror movie, I definitely would not classify it as horror. There were a few scenes that were a little on the gross side but there isn’t anything that happens that would make it horror. Occasionally, the group is attacked by a competing group that lost out on the residency. But they don’t really attack any of the people until the very end. It’s only equipment that is attacked.

To be completely honest, I did not understand the point of the film at all. Neither did my husband. I was waiting for some sort of twist where maybe Jan was actually murdering the people she picked for the residency or Elle was going to cook one of the audience members or something. I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen and nothing did. All that happened was a man had a lot of intestinal distress and talked a lot about wanting to fart but not wanting anyone to hear his farts. Yes, the movie focuses on farts way too much.

Should you watch Flux Gourmet? Well, it’s currently available on Shudder. I don’t know that I can say not to watch it because I’m sure some of you will be curious about this weird thing after my mess of a review. However, I will say - if you decide to watch Flux Gourmet, try to go in with an open mind. Oh, and if you figure out the point of the movie, can you please tell me? I’d really like to know what the goal was.

My Best Friend's Exorcism | Halloween 2022

Even though the novel came out in 2016, I had never heard of My Best Friend’s Exorcism before. It sounded like it might be cute and funny. I got a little more than that.

Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) are best friends. They are sophomores at the local Catholic high school with their other friends, Glee (Cathy Ang) and Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu). When the group decides to have a girls’ weekend at a lake house owned by Margaret’s family, it is crashed by Margaret’s obnoxious boyfriend, Wallace (Clayton Royal Johnson). Wallace gives them all acid tabs and suggests they go skinny dipping. At the lake, the girls argue. Abby and Gretchen head back to the house but they come across a creepy abandoned house instead. As they investigate the house, the girls get separated. Abby, thinking that Gretchen is behind her, runs out of the house. However, Gretchen has been taken by something evil. Can Abby save her best friend or will the demon kill everyone?

Usually, when horror movies are set in the 1980s, there are some vague references but you don’t necessarily get full-on 80s nostalgia. In My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Abby and Gretchen have all sorts of 80s posters on their walls and they talk about marrying Boy George (who didn’t come out as gay until 1995). Even the super religious Lemon Brothers performing at the local mall was a throwback. (Yes! We had concerts and shows at malls!) I’m assuming all of this came out of the novel by Grady Hendrix. If so, good job Grady!

I did quite enjoy the movie. The fact that Abby refused to give up on Gretchen, despite the fact that Gretchen was being a straight up asshole to everything was awesome. No one else realized that Gretchen was acting odd but Abby saw it and did something. I even liked how different Abby and Gretchen’s families were. Gretchen’s was the “perfect” Catholic family while Abby’s was a bit neglectful. (Welcome to the 80s!) Even adding in Glee and Margaret as friends that also sort of backstabbed each other was a nice touch. But I think my favorite part may have been Christian Lemon’s (Christopher Lowell) exorcism. It actually had me laughing.

So, yeah, go check out My Best Friend’s Exorcism. It’s a light playful romp. Sure, there are a few scary parts and there is quite a bit of puke but there isn’t any gore. So, like a little Exorcist mixed with maybe a little Heathers mixed in? Demon possession that is bad for the possessed but is worse for the people around her. Just like the 80s!

Under Wraps 2 | Halloween 2022

Last year, Disney gave us the Under Wraps remake movie. This year, we get a brand new sequel. Here we go!

Marshall (Malachi Barton), Gilbert (Christian J Simon), and Amy (Sophia Hammons) are best friends. Gilbert and Amy have been spending a lot more time together since Amy works on the school newspaper and Gilbert has a scare-themed column, now that he’s no longer scared of everything. While Marshall still gets to hang out with them, he is feeling a little left out of the group. As the boys help Amy prepare for her father’s Halloween-themed wedding, they find out that a new mummy has gone missing from the museum. It turns out to be Sobek (TJ Storm), the former best friend of their mummy friend Harold (Phil Wright). Sobek is also in love with Harold’s mummy girlfriend, Rose (Rryla McIntosh), and he wants her back.

Under Wraps 2 is a weird movie. It wants to be a whole bunch of different things but it doesn’t want to follow through on any of them. First, we have the triangle between Marshall, Amy, and Gilbert. While I understand why Marshall feels left out, there isn’t any reason he couldn’t put more effort into being a part of the friendship. He steps back and gets jealous whenever Gilbert and Amy have a simple conversation. The writers should have turned this into a romantic triangle, to mirror the Sobek/Rose/Harold triangle. As it is, we have two friends that share a similar interest and the third friend being stupidly distant, even when they are doing something all three enjoy. Even if the writers didn’t want to make that trio romantic, it would have been much more enjoyable if Marshall was shown turning evil, like Sobek.

Second, we have the mummy triangle. It’s really not much of a triangle. We see a ton of Harold and Rose interacting since they are together for the entire movie. Sobek, however, doesn’t even arrive at the same location as them until the almost the end. We’re told that Harold and Sobek were best friends but there are zero indications of that. I’m honestly not sure how historians would have known they even knew each other. The same goes for Rose and Sobek. We should have gotten some sort of memento or something in their coffin/tomb/thing to show their relationships. Otherwise, it looks like Sobek is evil just to be evil.

Then there is this “buddy movie” feel. The writers wanted to make this all of the friendships have this funny light air to them. Instead, they are all just weird. We have Buzzy (Melanie Brook), who is there for no real reason but is somehow shoehorned into almost every scene as if she is the same age as the teenaged leads. Harold and Marshall have a weird sort of friendship in the movie, where Marshall is extremely emotional over what is going on with Harold yet they barely spend any time together on-screen. I understand why they wanted to make Marshall and Harold best friends. The writers need to learn the “show don’t tell” basics of writing.

With all of that said, there are some good parts of the movie that might make it worth watching. We do get another big dance scene but this time it’s both Harold and Rose dancing, not just Harold. I think that may be my favorite scene. Also, all of the scenes between Amy’s dad, Pop (Claude Knowlton), and his groom-to-be, Carl (Antonio Cayonne), are awesome. I’m sure someone somewhere will complain about the gay couple in the Disney movie but screw them. They are much more loving than most straight Disney parents. Those are pretty much the only two reasons to watch Under Wraps 2. You’d probably do better watching something else.

The Munsters | Halloween 2022

Rob Zombie - singer, songwriter, filmmaker - has rebooted the 1960s sitcom The Munsters into a 2-hour film. I watched a lot of the reruns on television when I was a kid so I was looking forward to seeing the 2022 version of The Munsters on Netflix. Did it live up to it’s predecessor? Let’s take a look.

The Count (Daniel Roebuck), an ancient vampire, is trying to find a husband for his daughter, Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie). He would prefer a rich vampire but Lily has fallen in love with Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips), a creature formed from dead body parts put together by Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang (Richard Brake). Lily and Herman date for awhile before getting married. Just before their wedding, Lily’s older brother, Lester the werewolf (Tomas Boykin), gets Herman to sign over the deed to The Count’s castle to The Count’s ex-wife, Zoya (Catherine Schell). With nowhere to live in Transylvania, the family moves to Hollywood, California for a better life.

I wanted to like this movie so badly. I have fond memories of watching the old TV show as a kid. This version doesn’t have any of the heart or comedy that the series had. For one, they spend way too much time on Dr. Wolfgang getting the parts and putting Herman together. We don’t need to see him building a Frankenstein monster to know Herman is a Frankenstein monster. After that, they spend an agonizingly long time on Lily and Herman’s courtship. The movie doesn’t actually start to get good until the family travels to the United States, which is pretty much the end. While there are a handful of funny moments, there aren’t nearly enough to make up for the 110 minute runtime. As a matter of fact, my husband and I noted that there was an entire 40 minutes at the beginning that was completely unnecessary.

On top of that, none of the lead actors are strong enough to carry the movie. Zombie has this weird on-again-off-again accent for Lily. I think she was trying to replicate Yvonne De Carlo’s accent but it was terrible. Phillips was OK as Herman but he seemed to lack the good-natured heart that Fred Gwynne gave him. And don’t get me started on Roebuck. I don’t think he ever saw any version of Lily’s father. The Count is supposed to be a loving sarcastic man. Roebuck’s Count was just dull.

If you have never seen any version of The Munsters before, you might enjoy this take. However, there are some extremely dated references that you might not understand if you aren’t familiar with 1960s American sitcoms. To be honest, I would recommend you just stay away from this one. It isn’t worth your time or energy.

Lou | Halloween 2022

I’m at this weird part in my review schedule where the spooky/scary/Halloween movies haven’t really started yet. There are a few movies that fit the bill but most are in this “thriller” category, like Lou. Hopefully, Shudder will come through for me later in the month. For now, we have Netflix’s offering,

Lou (Allison Janney) is a loner who lives on a remote island with her dog, Jax. Hannah (Jurnee Smollett) and her young daughter, Vee (Ridley Asha Bateman), rent the house next door. During a major storm, Hannah’s ex, Philip (Logan Marshall-Green), kidnaps Vee. Without power or telephones, the distraught mother turns to her neighbor for help in finding her child. It’s during their trek that Hannah learns the truth behind Lou’s mysterious past and their connection.

Before I get into what I thought of the movie, I want to note my biggest problem with this movie since it’s an issue with a lot of movies nowadays. There is a large portion of the movie that takes place at night, during a severe storm. Needless to say, that means a lot of it takes place in the dark. So there are entire scenes, important scenes, where you can’t actually see what is going on. It’s really annoying.

With that said, I really enjoyed Lou. Allison Janney is such a badass. I’m used to seeing her in comedic or supporting roles. She absolutely rocked kicking ass in an action thriller. There wasn’t any point where I thought she was unbelievable. Jurnee Smollett, on the other hand, was a little annoying. As a parent, I understand the terror you feel when your child is in danger and you want to do whatever you can to save them. However, she straight up ignores everything that Lou tells her do to, putting everyone involved in danger. Girl, listen to your weirdo neighbor/landlady.

Do I think you should watch Lou? Duh, yes. If you don’t watch it for any other reason, watch it for Allison Janney being a complete and total badass at 62 years old. I really and truly hope that there is a sequel. I would watch every single movie about Lou, whether it’s about her current life or her previous life. I don’t think any of us would regret seeing more Lou.

We're All Going To The World's Fair | Halloween 2022

We’re All Going To The World’s Fair is an indie horror film that I found on HBO Max. I never heard about it before (it looks like it was only released in a small handful of theaters back in April) so I decided to check it out.

Casey (Anna Cobb) is a fairly typical teenager. She spends a lot of time in her room watching YouTube videos. One day, she decides to record a video trying the “World’s Fair Challenge.” The challenge involves chanting “I want to go to the World’s Fair” three times then wiping a bloody finger across your computer screen. After watching a video with strobing lights, the participants are supposed to start noticing changes in themselves. A few days later, she gets a message from JLB (Michael J Rogers) stating that she is in trouble. The two talk over Skype, where JLB convinced Casey to continue posting videos to document her deteriorating mental state. However, it seems like JLB thinks this is all a game. But it’s not a game to Casey.

Sadly, I didn’t understand the point of The World’s Fair. There are a lot of long, boring, drawn-out scenes that seem to have nothing to do with the plot. Scenes of Casey walking through the woods to a clearing where she talks about nothing. Or a scene of Casey filming local traffic near an AutoZone? From what I can tell, these are absolutely pointless scenes that just take up time. And while we do get a few scenes of Casey acting strangely, we don’t get anything to really connect them to the World’s Fair Challenge, other than this all happens after she did it.

I would have liked to have seen more videos of Challenge participants with a little more consistency in their “symptoms.” Sure, some people have physical changes while others have mental changes but without having all of the participants having some sort of common theme in their changes, it’s difficult to connect all of this to the Challenge. Or, if we’re going to have all of the participants have different results, give us some sort of mystical being behind the changes. Otherwise, all we seem to have are some mentally ill people making videos. It’s more sad than scary.

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend watching We’re All Going To The World’s Fair. It had a great premise with no payoff. I would love to see someone with a bigger budget or more resources remake the movie to add more eerie elements to the film. But in it’s current state, it isn’t worth the 86 minutes it takes to watch it.