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Reviews
Ghost Wars (2017)
Expected Typical (i.e. Crappy) B-Movie SyFy Quality - was Greatly Surprised
Watched the pilot last night, so that's pretty much all my review is based on. Having sat through all the increasingly-rancid 'Sharknado' films (among others), being a SyFy production I hadn't much hope ... but am a HUGE Avan Jogia fan (think he's pretty underrated as an actor, actually), and I figured if Vincent D'Onofrio was on-board the script had to have something -
And was pleasantly surprised by a spooky, effective, restrained, well-acted, decently-written, and intriguing pilot with a WAY-cool cliffhanger ending that definitely left me hungry for episode two! Even the special effects, usually laughable on SyFy productions, are a step up here. Had SpikeTV put this kind of effort on quality with "The Mist' and given it a better cast, better writing, and better effects, it might have made it to season two.
Jogia is Roman Mercer, the social outcast of a small, remote Alaskan town mostly thanks to his mother (who's long-since took off) and her obsession with the paranormal. Roman sees ghosts, and wants to seriously see the back end of this town that hates him, and the pilot opens with him at a bus station and ready to leave it, even as he confides his plans (or lack thereof) to a friend who, herself, ends up being a ghost only he can see
A freak accident keeps Roman from leaving, however - and in fact gets him blamed for a few deaths of his fellow travelers via local weirdo Doug Rennie (Meat Loaf Aday himself, no less!) and a makeshift posse he starts putting together for revenge. There are residents - actual human ones - sympathetic to Roman's plight and the heavy burdens he bears (including D'Onofrio's Father Carpenter, who himself seems to be holding some demons - or secrets - within), and as the spirits Roman can see begin to take on a malevolent form, even attacking the town residents, more deaths are racked up and those left around realize not only are they up against a nasty gang of ghosts who are (for some reason) seriously ticked off ... but that Roman Mercer, the guy many of them have spent the kid's whole life torturing, may be their only hope of surviving.
I feel I need to watch the pilot again - it's so dark in spots (literally, as in the lighting), and there were a couple times I wasn't 100% sure of what I had just watched - but in terms of acting, writing, story, tone, atmosphere, effects, violence and retaining your interest, hopefully things will only get cooler and creepier from here.
Little Evil (2017)
Better than I thought it'd be, thanks to the last 30 minutes - and Bridget Everett!!
Original Netflix productions can be hit or miss, but when I saw the trailer for what appeared to be a parody of sorts of The Omen - well, as big a fan as I am of the original trilogy there was no way I could miss that. Adam Scott stars in the horror comedy Little Evil as Gary, a real estate agent who's finally found the woman of his dreams in Samantha (Evangeline Lilly), the two marrying after a whirlwind courtship. The only fly in the ointment seems to be Sam's five-year- old son Lucas, whom Gary didn't get to spend much bonding time with prior to the wedding - and sure enough, early in the film as Gary is trying to settle into being a stepdad and husband, viewers slowly learn that something fairly sinister and unnamed happened at the wedding ... something somehow related to Lucas, who hasn't exactly taken a shine to Gary. In fact, it would appear Lucas might be downright evil - a sentiment echoed by Gary's group of stepdad friends (led by the hilarious Bridget Everett as Al, who steals every scene shes's in and, in fact, nearly the entire film), who've all felt the same about their step-kid(s) at one time or another. But no, creepy little Lucas really IS evil, complete with a demonic goat puppet (LOVE Reeroy!) and the ability to make people harm themselves, and soon it becomes necessary for Gary and Al to find a way to stop both Lucas and the oncoming Apocalypse - all with, somehow, not killing Lucas and ruining Gary's marriage. For the first hour of Little Evil I thought the film was good/okay; I laughed out loud in spots, yes, and the performances are fine even if the film itself sometimes didn't seem sure of when it was a comedy and when it was going for scary. But then a flip in the plot happens, something I didn't see coming, and the last thirty minutes of the film made me kind of fall in love with the whole thing (look for Sally Field in a terrific supporting role that's worth seeing the movie for alone). Having not seen many films about step- parenting the anti-Christ to compare it to, I can still say - without hesitation - that Little Evil is a very strange, very funny indie comedy that for-sure puts a check-mark in the "plus" column of Netflix original productions.