Candyman (1992)
3.20 out of 4stars
“The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.”
A great supernatural psychological slasher horror that delivers quality thrills and social commentary. Tony Todd in the titular role is great, as is Madsen in the lead, and the Phillip Glass score enhances its uneasy mood well. The film just checked all the boxes for me. It balances real horrors alongside supernatural horrors, while storybuilding and sending messages in a continually enthralling and thought provoking manner. It delivers on the gore and tension with aplomb also. The villain is different, meaningful, frightening, and seductive. And the social commentary going on feels endless and still pertinent 30years later: projects, classism, race relations, obscurity, stereotyping, double standards, negligence, gentrification, small and large scale causation, etc. Even the college professor side character has notable symbolism. Surprisingly, I never knew this was based off of a Clive Barker short story.
Phenomena (uncut version) (1985)
3.10 out of 4stars
“From Dario Argento, an American girl that has recently transferred to a Swiss boarding school, discovers with the help of an entomologist that she has psychic powers that allow her to communicate with insects, and uses them to pursue a serial killer who is butchering young women at and around the school.”
A great supernatural horror mystery that brings an insecty twist and loads of visual flair to a weird and fun murder mystery adventure. I repeat again, I love Argento’s directing style. I can’t point out all the technical stuff, but I will define it as spellbinding and attractive and shows exactly what the audience wants or needs to see to experience scenes precisely as they are meant to. Some great shots and cinematography here. While the story and its elements are a little all over the place and some underdeveloped, it's never boring or incoherent. There is tons of mood, fast pacing, quality visuals, murders, suspense, a great score (save a few metal songs that feel a bit out of place), some well done gore, and metaphorical dribbles. Also, you get flys, bees, beetles, a chimpanzee, maggots, and more maggots, and other insects too. Some nice little droppings throughout about the extraordinary, or “unique”, different types of intelligence, abilities, and resiliencies some insects and even chimps exhibit (and even 1 or 2 about mother nature herself). There’s a lot going on and some of it is whacky, but not at all in a bad way. And the ending just shocks even more and cranks everything to 11. I won’t ruin it, but man it delivers and then some. Also, we get to interestingly see what a pre-nose job, and possibly other plastic surgery, teenage Jennifer Connelly looked like.
Fright Night (1985)
3.00 out of 4stars
“A teenager discovers that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire, so he turns to an actor in a television horror show for help dealing with the undead.”
A great supernatural comedy horror that has a silly fun 80’s vibe to with its modern day vampire twist. It all works, and kind of feels like a parody and homage of the 80’s and vampires altogether in an entertaining and true to material extensively form. Most memorable for me are the make-up effects, the soundtrack, and Chris Sarandon’s performance as the vampire. Sarandon’s turn is pitch perfect: cool, charismatic, entrancing, domineering, and frightening when need be. To be honest, all the side character’s are great and the main protagonist is the weakest link of the story, albeit he is written as the straight man of the film. The vampires look great and scary too.
Stonehearst Asylum (aka Eliza Graves) (2014)
2.75 out of 4stars
“In 1899, an Oxford graduate takes up a job in a mental asylum, only to discover that the "revolutionary" new treatments are inhumane, and that there is more going on than meets the eye.”
A great gothic mystery thriller drama that is a visually appealing period piece as well as a solid chess match amongst its main characters. It is a film that’s best to know nothing about going into given all the twists and turns unfolding throughout, so I will complete this review with that in mind. I found it solidly engaging and entertaining. The film is also a kind of genre mashup, able to fit into many cross genres and have a few different interpretations of its motives/events. My personal interpretation of this outermost “period thriller” is its commentary on mental illness during its time period of the late 1800’s. Treatments were incredibly variable and often experimental with a wide range or unknown results. Some people were wrongly considered or put into mental asylums as well at the time. At their worst, some acted as prisons and torture places for misunderstood people where “crimes against humanity” occurred on grand scales. Some, even to this day, act and react to these patients with treatments that are in the staff and management’s best interests instead of the “sick’s” own personal well being. Quality of life for the mentally ill becoming a secondary concern. At the end of the day, they are still people. Also at the end of the day, quality of life for those afflicted, especially in this realm of disease, is the most important goal of all. Some are highly functional and intelligent, some incredibly enslaved by their affliction and likely incurable. And to this day even, we still don’t know enough about mental illness or how the mind works and rarely is a treatment or a pill one size fits all, as oddly some commercials for prescription drugs would suggest. Mental illness is an invisible disease. All of this isn’t just a rant or expansion of ideas either, it directly relates to the film’s subject matter.
Black Sheep (2006)
2.40 out of 4stars
“When sheep-fearing Henry returns to his brother's New Zealand farm, he finds genetically altered sheep that prey on humans and turn their victims into undead, wooly killers. Shear madness ensues as Henry, an animal-rights activist, and a farmhand set out to stop the rampaging animals.”
A good dark comedy sci-fi horror guilty pleasure that delivers the b-movie fun with its absurd premise. You get all the zombie sheep and humanoid sheep chaos you could ask for. Gleefully gorey and violent with a couple of appropriately bizarre twists. The film knows what it wants to do and does it playfully with chuckle-inducement and visual treats throughout. Solid production values and acting(not that it has oscar worthy material by any means though) throughout too.
