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Reviews
Goosebumps (2023)
Middle Episodes are really good. The final, not so much...
I want to start off by saying I was a huge fan of Goosebumps when I was younger and appreciated the campiness of the 90s tv show. I will say that I do appreciate how this show decided to go darker instead of campier, but I have issues with it so far, mainly the pacing and boring subplots. I don't know how but in the first episode and the last two episodes, the pacing is atrocious. Nothing happens for the longest time except a bunch of dialogue and then all of a sudden, everyone needs saving. I can give a pass on the first episode because overall, it does a good job of introducing our main characters (with the exception of Allison who disappears for some reason by episode 3). I cannot give a pass to the last two episodes but especially the season final. Too much of it was focused on Margot and Lucas' relationship to the point that the actual conflict was fit into the last 15 minutes. And how did the entire town get turned into puppets, especially the parents of the main characters? That would have been more interesting to see rather than the whole scene of them in Seattle. This is a side note, but I'm more interested in the parents' backstory and current storyline more so than the kids' storylines. Which brings me to my second complaint. The amount of unnecessary sub plots. I really don't care about any of their relationships. It gets tedious to hear about Issiah and Lucas fighting for Margot, who, in my opinion is one of the most boring, one note characters. I really do like the dynamic between James and Isabella though and wish the writers would draw more focus to them. I also need the writers to stop forcing romantic storylines and focus on their friendship and fighting "evil" more. Overall, I really liked the middle episodes, especially "Go Eat Worms", "Reader Beware", and "You Can't Scare Me". This show has so much potential to be good, but I really wish they would ditch the romance subplots and either, focus on their pacing or increase the runtime for each episode. I would have given it a higher star rating but I cannot express my extreme disappointment in the season final which knocked my star rating down by 2.
*The acting was pretty solid all around. I was mainly watching this for Justin Long and Rachael Harris, but everyone did great.
What We Found (2020)
I wanted this to be good, but it just fell so short!
To start this review, I forgot half of the characters' names by the end of this film due to a lack of attachment to any of them, but I digress about that. I would say the main problem with this film is the lack of personality from any of the characters. Marcus is the typical geeky, nerd kid with some 13 year old tumblr girl platitudes (which let me just say, he's no "tech geek". He couldn't even decrypt an IPhone, but is considered as such. But now I'm just being petty, so I won't remain on that topic). He has this dialogue that makes him seem younger than he actually is. Holly has an abusive father, which definitely is a cop out because it is only briefly mentioned and instead of going to the police when she had the chance, she remains silent but vocally defiant against her father. This storyline is not delved into any deeper than face value providing as a tension starter in some scenes. Grant, who I could have sworn was named Garret, is completely irrelevant to this friend group. He goes to a fancy high school and has a crush on Holly. His only personality trait is as Holly calls him "selfish". Personally though, I think his only trait is being the rich friend who never quite knows what's happening. Together, the three friends' storyline is beyond boring, and I had to fight the urge to skip through their dialogue scenes, which are very shallow and do not work to provide insight to their characters. I don't have a problem with filler, fun dialogue, but when that is the only thing being written, it slowly becomes less amusing. Also, Grant is the only one to look and act like a high school freshman. Holly and Marcus act and speak how I would have in 6th grade. Then we have this corrupt cop, Steven who had this "mysterious" past, which, if you've seen any cop shows, you can probably guess what it is (hint: Elliot Stabler has probably done this on several occasions). I was sure he was going to be caught up in the drug cartel of this town, which would have made him a bit more interesting. It would have also explained why he didn't tell the Captain that he took that tip from Marcus. Moving on to Clay, the typical bully. Not much to say about him. He just pops in to stir up trouble. I would like to make a point in saying throughout the entire film, he does nothing but bully the friends and blackmail a cop, yet suddenly, at the end of the film, his character does this complete 180, which I did not find redeeming, but rather awkward and out of place. Finally, we are given a character who at least has a little personality, Katherine, but in this film, that doesn't mean much. Katherine reveals something about her past, which can only be described as the most interesting thing in this movie though again, it seems to be placed at a rather odd time in the film. Lastly, we have Cassie, who is the missing girl. The movie had focused so much on the three friends that they barely had anytime to create a personality for this girl. Now the problem becomes, I don't care about this girl at all possibly due to the fact that she is portrayed as being this perfect person. I would have liked to have seen a flaw or at least some kind of secret revealed about her at the end, just to humanize her. This leads to my nonchalantness when we do discover she was dead, which let me point out, was very rushed. She was missing for maybe 15 minutes out of the movie, she turns up dead, they interrogated one suspect, and no other players/suspects are introduced. A joke of a "thriller". I guessed who it was as soon as they were introduced. In fact, I figured out who it was 30 minutes into the movie and why, but I was really hoping there would be a twist. Nope. How can you write a "murder mystery" type of storyline, but not introduce any serious suspects or provoke the audience to think "Could it be them?" ? On top of all of this, the ending was so unbelievable + rushed, that I cannot accurately describe what happened. The final interaction between Katherine and Steven (almost called him Kurt) makes little sense as we have already discovered that the court documents are sealed, and the PD covered it up. If she really wanted him to transfer, she would have put in a request when the incident first happened. Finally, the final interaction between the friends as they look up into space proved just how much Cassie's death didn't matter, but rather the show down with the drug dealers was the main "moment" though again, this really wasn't character development. Nothing seemed to have changed by the end of the movie except the main character's relationship status. The ending sealed this movie as one of the worst I've seen. Between the shallow dialogue, shallow characterization, shallow "mysteries", unrelatable characters, lack of a solid storyline, a hundred mini storylines, and the straightforwardness, this movie disappointed and infuriated me beyond belief. I actually forgot someone had been murdered or what the "storyline" of this movie even was! Another problem I had with this movie was when Katherine said how "Bad things keep happening in this town," but nothing is really shown or talked about besides her past, the kid killed in the beginning, or Cassie's murder. And to further that point, how was this drug cartel not on the police's radar? I mean, the guys weren't exactly James Bond. They were still hanging around town with no protective measures. And if you are going to introduce a drug cartel storyline, I better see more of the drug dealers, so I know what the stakes are that Clay along with the three friends are put at. The drug dealers much like Cassie's death were laughable. I really wanted this to be good, so it would show that independent writers/directors can make just as good of movies as the big shots, but this was not it.
Sidenote:
The acting was good though. No fault to anyone there. It would have been a powerful cast if the writing would have been more powerful and more thought out.
Slasher (2016)
Canadian Horror Story: The Gore, The Scares, The Story!
I had been ignorant of this showing, watching the likes of American Horror Story. Then, a couple weeks ago, an article popped up about this TV series, which sounds compelling. I could not stop watching this show once I started. Let me break it down by season.
The Executioner-
This season begins with a bang! Not even three minutes in and already two people are dead. It was, to say the least, a tad unsettling. As the season progresses, we learn that the killer is choosing his victims based on the seven deadly sins, which was fascinating to me. Each episode I would try and guess who was going to die for what sin. Great storyline. Great sub storyline, however, the reveal was a little anticlimactic. I suspected the Police Chief knew more about Ariel than he was letting on.
Negatives about this season:
I DESPISED the main character, Sarah. I'm not sure if it was the actress or the writing, but her character was bland! When first introduced to her, I was half hoping she would be the first victim. Sadly, she survived all 8 episodes. The killer reveal was just okay. I deduced, for the most part, it was Cam.
Overall, it set the pace for the rest of the seasons, and they got rid of the lead actress. 8/10
Guilty Party- This season enhanced everything from last season. The kills, the storyline, the characters! We follow six friends who return to their old summer camp, now a self-care (meditation, wholesome) retreat, to bury their dirty secret once and for all. This season really delved down into the questions of "Pure good or pure evil" and "What would you do in that situation?" These characters were not the most likable group, but they had characteristics that everyone possesses, making it hard for me to fault them. Overall, solid storyline that came perfectly to an end in the last episode, solid killer who was set apart from the Season 1 killer, realistic characters and killer who were shown to express the emotions you would assume one to have in that type of situation and a beautiful setting. 9/10
Solstice- Where to start on this work of greatness? So this season opens up to a rave/party scene. Already, the entire mood is different from the other seasons. The writers seemed to disregard boundaries. Anyways, Kit dies and murders begin happening on the anniversary of his death..yada yada... you think this is the same old same old slasher film. Absolutely not! Episode one sets the tone, showing that all of these characters are connected whether they want to be or not. From episode 2 onward, everything changes. The kills in the last season are nothing compared to this. I'm a strong stomached horror watcher and I had to turn away when the biology teacher was murdered. This season has something for everyone. Gore. A mystery. Sex. The problems of high school. Failed love. The "What-ifs" of life. Racism. Homosexuality. And the connection you have with other people that you might not even realize. What this season does best is never throwing any of these things in your face. And for me, this is what sets it apart from other horror movies or shows (specifically American Horror Story)
One tiny thing that I have to complain about this season is I do not understand why Kaili (Erin Karpluk) was murdered. Aside from her just watching the confrontation between Kit and Justine in the hall, I don't remember anything that would have warranted the gory death she received. The fact that she died and the raging racist Dan didn't actually infuriated me.
Overall 9.5/10.
Final opinions: This show is extremely underrated and needs to be advertised better. If more people knew about this show, I can guarantee they would be hooked since this series isn't just for horror junkies.