Kat Takes: The Movie Blog

Can't believe this wasn't more popular, it's actually great! Like it's not Terminator 2, but it's clever and fun and has some twists. M3gan is still a dick, so that's consistent. I guess if you wanted it to be more of a horror movie, you'd be bummed bc it's like sci-fi/action/comedy, but I feel like it actually works better in this genre. Probably the same as with Happy Death Day and the sequel bc both of those are great, but people hated on the second one for not being horror anymore. Idk when I've seen a sci-fi movie with such a range of roles for women. Usually there's about one, who fights in heels and is someone's love interest. All the stuff about big tech felt really topical but more like you're laughing about it rather than making big statement or sth.

So I knew this was like a cult movie I'd never seen and what with graveyard/undertaker setting, I figured some kind of haunting. WRONG! The plot is totally batshit and you'd never guess what this movie is about. Entertaining, especially if you don't mind 13yos driving, drinking and shooting guns. The weak point is similar to in the original The Thing where somebody glances at something for half a second and then magically knows this whole big backstory. But this movie is really not about having a logical narrative. Quick and enjoyable if you don't ask too much of it.

This was... fine. Not worth the length for me. The costumes and scenery are lavish and beautiful as you'd expect from Guillermo del Toro, but much of the added backstory felt trite and predictable to me (the forbidden love interest, the mysterious benefactor, etc.). Interestingly, one of the parts that works best is one of the few parts actually closer to the book, where the monster is at the farm. What the movie also lacks is the moral complexity of Shelley's monster. Here, the monster is violent but always in self-defense or with some mitigating factor, whereas the monster in the book does straight-up evil things but eloquently justifies them with his own suffering (a little like Candyman). Would love to see a Frankenstein movie close to the book!

Nice classic feel. I enjoyed this even though it seemed overly obvious at first, bc that was all just the setup for a million twists. It's based on a play by Ira Levin and it definitely feels like a play. A little bit of an Agatha Christie vibe, too. It's not exactly a mystery because you know pretty soon whodunnit, but it keeps you guessing about which sociopath will outmaneuver the other. Good use of a quirky psychic.

So this isn't groundbreaking but def worth watching because it's solid, entertaining and has working internal logic and not crazy plotholes. The demon's appearance is kind of generic but they don't make the mistake of showing it in detail too often, so that's a win. Lots of moral grey areas, especially with the mom and Riley's father. The costume choices, especially in the final showdown, were a bit outlandish and distracting to me. The mother-daughter dynamic felt real and developed. Maybe I was imagining it but I felt like the filmmakers must've grown up with a lot of Nightmare on Elm Street movies because I felt like there were small nods to the series throughout, like when she's standing in the mist in front of a house with boarded-up windows, only 1 number different from Nancy's house, when the mom says to wake her if it looks like she's in trouble, or when they go inside the demon's head similar to in Freddy's Dead. More creepy mome...

Lost Boys Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Better effects and less trashy than I expected! Actually a lot of fun. The body count is up there and the deaths are pretty wild. Just kind of silly feel-good horror.

I didn't realize this was a remake of a Korean movie or I probably would've watched the original. The first half seemed promising with like a mystery and tracking down the origin or the horror and all, but the ending was kind of ridiculous. There's also a part that's clearly supposed to be the dramatic climax cutting between the protagonist and his family, and it just didn't do it for me. The extreme brutality of the one murder didn't match the rest of the movie, again probably because it was a remake so they figured they'd include that OTT kill? Didn't come close to my fave mirror horror movie, Oculus.