Firestarter is not only a disappointment, it’s a strange disappointment. It promises to deliver on multiple levels and, yet, fails at every attempt. It’s billed as a horror, but it’s not scary. It’s billed as a thriller, but it doesn’t pull the viewer towards the edge of their seat. It’s also billed as a family drama and science fiction, which it certainly sports elements of, but neither genre is interesting or exciting in this movie….
I find it strange that Blumhouse Productions would continue with The Purge series. Financial returns and core fanbase aside, The Purge had just about explored all of its themes, politics, and ideologies – and all of it was practically satirized in jet black manner with Blumhouse’s The Hunt. It’s almost expected that a new Purge movie would just be going through the motions, which is exactly what The Forever Purge does.
The Hunt is more politically charged than expected. It’s also more cartoony than expected. It’s a sardonically funny thriller that points out hypocrisies of right-wing and left-wing beliefs, and favours extravagantly violent finales over mutual understandings. Cynical, yes; but The Hunt is a really ballsy movie for strapping on a blast suit and barrelling through such edgy, non-partisan material.
In The Invisible Man, the titular character – once a spooky Universal Classic Monster – receives a contemporary reimagining by writer/director Leigh Whannell.
Curiosity is a quality that keeps on giving. M. Night Shyamalan, for instance, is a filmmaker who is eager to explore his own craft. And while his back catalogue has included projects that have snowballed out of his own range, he’s at least owning his ambition and finding original stories to tell audiences. His latest collaborations with indie empire Blumhouse Productions have been great vehicles to anchor his passion projects and visual filmmaking. Such is…
The Purge wasn’t a typical horror film. It was an intense bottle film that found ways to give movie goers the heebie-jeebies by poking holes in assumably safe conditions. It also showcased nimble newcomer James DeMonaco, a skillful director who could use paranoia and predictability to deliver an engrossing movie. DeMonaco directed the next two Purge movies – films I never saw but I’ve been eager to catch up with. Hopefully, those films are better…
By: Addison Wylie Around the time Patrick Brice’s sex comedy The Overnight hit theatres, movie goers were also presented with the filmmaker’s take on the horror behind obsession and abandonment in his seedy DIY flick called Creep. Creep is told from the perspective of Aaron, a videographer who is rolling lots of tape because he’s been told to. Aaron has answered a Craigslist ad posted by someone who was in need of a cameraman to document a personal…
