By BFI - BBC News, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72775449
Enys Men - (2022)
Arthouse horror can be much scarier than your average slasher or haunted house movie - and
Enys Men is just the kind of offering that's going to burrow down deep, because of it's dreamlike ambience and because the isolated location it was filmed in feels haunting enough as it is. It's about a wildlife volunteer (played by Mary Woodvine) doing a scientific study on certain flowers in the region (a very specific group of flowers) through observation. This constant observation bleeds over into the environment as a whole, with an abandoned mine, ruins, and rocks all taking on more and more sinister appearances as time flows forward. Is the young girl she's with her daughter, friend or even a younger version of herself? Ghosts from disasters both recent and very old are all about, and familiarity with the area only serves to make them more present - in fact, the volunteer is becoming a permanent part of the place she's examining so closely. This was fascinating, and very disturbing in a creepy kind of way.
8/10
By Eiga.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74324464
Godzilla Minus One - (2023)
Every time Godzilla made an appearance in
Godzilla Minus One I was overwhelmingly entertained, and of the opinion that the action in this film is the best Godzilla-based explosive destruction I've ever seen. When we were dealing with the human characters, everything became a lot less thrilling and a lot more average. I'm not saying bad - Japanese men and women had to deal with much survivor guilt after the war, and to explore that isn't a bad idea. I have to say though, that Japan as a culture and society dealt with their part in the war a lot differently than Germany did, and it shows, with the war looked upon as a "tragedy" that befell Japan instead of something they actually did. Anyway - many people rave about this movie, and I can see why. If the human drama had of grabbed me just a little more, this would be a point higher.
7/10
By Universal Pictures - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74399518
The Exorcist : Believer - (2023)
This earned a lot of money at the box office, and it earned quite a bit of eye-rolling from me last night. It was so hard to shoehorn Ellen Burstyn's Chris MacNeil into this movie, and once she was in it felt so odd and contrived. To Danny McBride : the
Halloween franchise wasn't enough? Now you want to produce three
Exorcist films to blight the mainstream cinema landscape? All of that stuff aside though, and just judging this as a horror film on it's own, this had a moment here and there. Ann Dowd didn't fare too well though, and the screenplay was certainly lacking.
5/10
By Scanned from the DVD by User:johantheghost., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3539606
The Impostors - (1998)
Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci feature as Maurice and Arthur, two out-of-work and out-of-luck actors who accidentally stow away on a cruise ship in this ode to 1930s screwball comedies and the silent films of the golden age of Hollywood. It has loads of heart and charm. Full review
here, in my watchlist thread.
7/10