Fifteen and fourteen years, why am I starting my first blog post this way you may be asking. Well lucky for you, I’m about to tell you. Hop on the way back machine with me all the way back to the year of 2009 and 2010 when the very under appreciated, (only a 5.5 star rating on imdb) Friday the 13th remake and the very underwhelming Nightmare on Elm street remake graced us with their presences on silver screens across the world. Since then, we’ve had a handful of fan made titles that certainly scratched the itch but they were not big time studio releases of these beloved franchises. The reasoning behind me bringing this up is the franchise that Hollywood seems to not be able to get enough of. That franchise I am referring to is Halloween. We can not seem to figure out the Jason and Freddy situation and God Dog it here comes more Michael Myers to wet your collective whistles. Last October Mirimax landed the TV rights to the Halloween franchise, becoming teammates with Malek Akkad’s Trancas International Films to bring Haddonfield during the fall to the small screen. Early reports suggest that this new tv series will have zero continuation strings to the David Gordon Green’s Halloween trilogy, I guess evil did die tonight. Mirimax head honcho Mark Helwig in a recent interview has stated, “It’s a creative reset completely and going back to the original film.” Now my gut reaction to this news was of course, excitement because any new mount rushmore slasher content is good content, but at the same time I may have a bit of Michael Myers fatigue. So with that being said I hope that with it being a tv series it will allow some of the older characters that we haven’t seen in awhile, I’m looking at your Daniel Harris, to breathe more than they would in another feature film. If the producers don’t rely solely on Michael, Loomis, and Laurie, this TV series may have some enticing juice. Please call D. Harris!
I refused to see the first one and most likely wont see this sequel but Winnie the pooh: Blood and Honey 2 will have a three day run at theaters starting 3/26 to 3/28. So if that’s your thing then go do that thang! I wish it the best. I guess.
This week’s reviews are in and let’s just get this out of the way as quickly as humanly possible shall we. I saw Blumhouse’s new pepperoni pizza Imaginary. Now I have no interest in bashing films because I have never made a movie and I can be sure that it is incredibly hard to be produced. That being said, Imaginary quite simply is just not a good film. My review strategy for very sub par films is going to be either me saying just don’t waste your hard earned money on it or to not mention the film in question at all. Lucky for me I was accompanied by a beautiful date who grinded it out with me and for that reason alone, Imaginary will always have a special meaning and made it a great experiene. The actual film though in my humbled opinion is a please just skip it and use that money to fill up your gas tank instead. Blumhouse, if i can speak for all of the horror community, do better.
The other film I watched this week that I will touch on here is the new found footage film Frogman. Now if you know me, you know I love a good Found Footage Horror so I was excited going into this one considering the trailer looks almost like a beat for beat Blair Witch rip-off. With BWP being one of my favorite movies of all time, that gives you an idea of the bar I had set for it going in.
Okay so just got done watching Frogman. Basically a trio heads out to film a documentary on a local legend of Frogman and as their investigation gets deeper and deeper their problems begin to stack. Understandably so the formula to any found footage horror movie is that the first act has to establish one, meeting the characters and two why are these said characters setting out to film the documentary that you are about to watch. Well when this first act takes up almost 45 minutes of the film, that’s a problem. Grant it the cast is very likeable (outside of that fake southern accent) and very funny, almost to a fault. Where most FF Horror shines in the terror factor this one does not. Even when the crew eventually gets out into the woods to start hunting down Frogman, there is no tension or sense of danger. By the final act our trio stumbles upon a sequence that involves a ritual that indeed has a few shock moments but all in all it didn’t really meet my expectations. I’ll say if you are a found footage superfan and completionist like I am ,then check it out. If FF is not really your bag, I would suggest you leave Frogman unfound for the rest of time. I watched this on VOD (VUDU)
The Last Rites section will consist of a random bag of all things, whether that be Horror related items I have recently bought, Local events I have been to or announced, trailer first reactions, and whatever the hell else I’m excited for this week. The first edition of Last Rites is going to start out with a bang, a bang that includes a new Horror centric movie night here in the Valley ran by the amazing people from Chandler AZ’s own, Terror Trader. Starting March 21st Terror Trader presents SPOOK-O-RAMA! Teaming up with nearby Pollack Cinema’s for a weekly Horror movie extravaganza!! First movie up is the almighty Fede Alvarez’s masterpiece in bloodshed, EVIL DEAD! So if you live in or around the Phoenix, AZ area go to Terror Trader’s website or IG for all future info.
New trailer this week that I’ll mention is the new one starring Nic Cage entitled Arcadian due out April 12th. A Father and his twin teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse during the end of the world. Terrors are risen to even higher stakes once the sun sets. I’m totally down for this one! At first it gave me The Village vibes thinking that Nic Cage’s character is imagining the horrors that are occurring at night, which still could be the case but by the second half of the trailer you can clearly see the creatures attacking the characters. This looked solid and anything with Cage is entertaining at least.
Out this week on Physical media; The Big Cameron three in 4K Aliens, True Lies, The Abyss. I will most likely eventually get all of these, but Aliens for sure….. “mostly.” Poor Things starring Emma stone. And lastly a product that I cant recommend enough, Scream Factory’s blu-ray of Stephen King’s The Shining. Yes the TV miniseries directed by Mick Garris. It’s very long but I enjoyed it so much more as an adult.
This being my first Blog I know it’s atrocious and that’s okay. We can only get better, funnier, and bloodier from here. Thanks for reading. PS. Next week come back for my Late Night with the Devil Review! It’s going to be a big week everyone!
Terrified State 