Category: Horror 2024

Horror Movie Reviews for the year 2024

The Substance “Review”

Release date: September 18, 2024 (USA)

Director: Coralie Fargeat

Distributed by: Mubi, Metropolitan Filmexport

Cinematography: Benjamin Kracun

Music by: Raffertie

Production companies: Working Title Films; Blacksmith

The Brief “Review”

Use this “Review” for those that don’t want to ruin their appetite before devouring the candy that’s going to be presented to them. Healthy substance in the lack of substance holding back the onion from being peeled? What does all that mean?

Let’s begin!

I went into this film blind to only seeing the above poster. With a perfect time slot at the theatre I went to check out this movie which upon reflection could very well be my favorite new horror movie in quite some time.

I call it – The Everything Everywhere All At Once Candy Corn? Confused? So am I. Let’s keep it brief. It’s not for everyone but for those that enjoy this. It’ll be staying with your horror-loving self for years to come. It’s going into my top 10 movies of the year and I’ll even lock in an Oscar nomination while we’re at it.

Want some more?

If Everything Everywhere All At Once was a horror movie on society’s creation of individuals in the spotlight. By the way, the movie I’m referencing was my favorite movie of the year that it was released. 9/10 – Cinema

The “More” In-depth “Review”

The opening of this movie focused on an egg being injected and splitting into two, which was the most fabulous and bizarre experience entering a movie. I praise how brilliant it was coming out at the end. Most surreal and clever use of cinematography that just captivated me from the start.

What’s this movie about without spoilers and giving too much away? It’s your 50th birthday and after being in the spotlight for so many dozens of years you’ve noticed those around you have grown tired of what’s being offered and seek for a replacement. Someone younger and “Hotter” to be the eye candy going into future years to come.

Well, good news! I have the substance of your answer. So impactful you’ll birth yourself a younger one.

Loved the chapter-like story introducing Elizabeth Sparkle and introducing the layers of this tale forever being peeled back revealing so many different layers that the creativity was insane how deep the writing and creativity went.

The Substance is VERY R Rated and I’d recommend you be comfortable with your party members that you’re watching this title with. You’ll get to know ALL about these characters on an up-close and personal level. Spotlighted on and more in the frame than any other movie currently out at Theatres.

I mentioned it above but I’d lock in my Oscar nomination on this title. The category that instantly jumps out is that of the editing and sound effects/music. I’d have to display the categories before me to truly pick but I’d lock this title in for nomination for sure.

Remember you are one! This movie was horror done smart and I freaking loved it! It’s not for everyone. But those that enjoy cinema and horror can truly get to sit back and enjoy this combination as something new and horrifying in so many ways. The eye of beauty and the beholder of such envision can only come from within when faced with such hatred and ugliness in the world.

The onion layers will speak for itself. Will it affect you as you dive deeper in? Only by watching The Substance will you be able to tell. I was back and forth between a 8.5 and a 9 but the ending and the bow tie that I’m all about. I went with a fucking love it 9/10. Lets freaking GO! With that we have 2 8.5’s remaining on the top 10 of 2024 and I’m excited to see how this list wraps up going into November before we finalize the entries in order by end of December.

Thank you all for reading this “Review” of The Substance. Did you check this title out? Think I’m crazy for comparing it to Everything Everywhere All At Once? Then I’d love to hear in the comments section. This has been Prowen with another solid batch of Popped! “Reviews”.

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Blink Twice “Review”

Release date: August 23, 2024 (USA)

Director: Zoë Kravitz

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Amazon MGM Studios

Box office: $17.3 million

Cinematography: Adam Newport-Berra

Music by: Chanda Dancy

Little late on this one but glad I managed to see it. Trailers had me interested but wowzer was the trailers holding back on this feature.

No Spoilers on this one go in as blind as possible because this is one spicy movie once the ground work has been established. Going to be a little quick on this as its 2:36am at time of writing and I work in the morning haha.

For some viewers I’d add a trigger warning on this title. It pushes boundaries to the point of being uncomfortable but keeps you there short enough where you’re able to get back into the movie and not be holden to view something truly disturbing.

Again go in blind but if certain subject matter affects you then maybe have someone screen the title before. Despite this my wife said the movie was amazing despite having a subject matter in the movie. Slow burn, not quite to the amount of boring but slow enough where you may drift off. That is until the premise sinks in and you’re in for a horrific ride.

Movie has a very strong ending despite above average to good start. I came away from Blink Twice at a 7.5 making this a solid good batch. Great performances and premise I actually preferred it over the next “Review” coming right up. (Just by a smidge).

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A Quiet Place: Day One “Review”

Release date: June 27, 2024 (USA)

Director: Michael Sarnoski

Story by: John Krasinski; Michael Sarnoski

Budget: $67 million

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Based on: Characters; by Bryan Woods; Scott Beck

I’ll be separating this “review” as two parts:

Part 1 Spoiler Free – Part 2 Spoiler “Discussion”

Spoiler Free “Review”

If you’re a cat person or even more so a cat parent this movie will have you on the edge of your seat. Best character was the cat. We’re introduced to our therapy cat when Sam, our main human character played by Lupita Nyong’o is in a hospital being treated for her cancer.

You decide, is Sam driven by the love of pizza. The love of her father and the small things in life or the power of companionship? Something to think about as you watch this third installment that’s a prequel to the Quite Place franchise.

As seen in the trailers and it didn’t occur until seeing him in the movie. But Henri played by Djimon Hounsou is the guy from the island in Part 2. Possibly next year with the third part we’ll get to see what’s going on with him and the family we were introduced to in Part 1.

With the movie having a lot of quite scenes sadly they ran a little long or got boring before momentum built back up once more. Something keeping this movie back from being great is it never felt like the characters were in danger unless they purposefully did something stupid to get themselves into dire consequences.

Our other character alongside Sam is Eric played by Joseph Quinn. I’m not sure his connection to the franchise if any but these three human characters are played well enough. Sadly I just never connected with them and had all my focus on the cat.

This movies energy felt like part 2 rather than part 1. Nothing really seemed to have happened. No stakes were planted to keep you engaged. I really hope for part 3 to possibly wrap this franchise up, they look back at what made Part 1 so great and focus on that energy and feeling. I want the silence to feel impactful. I want to be silenced myself as I’m along side the characters on screen.

It’s moments attempted to create connection that failed and when they failed it prevented this movie getting on my possible re-watch list. With that I’d give A Quiet Place: Day One a 6.5/10. It’s another installment to this franchise giving “origins” to some characters that maybe we’ll get to see developed in a later installment. Let’s hope they find the secret formula before they create to many installments and ruin the franchise with mediocrity.

Spoiler “Discussion”

Some light spoiler discussion.

Who turned off the car alarm twice in this movie? (Yes the scenes were that quite / long / boring I had these thoughts in my head).

Is this an advertisement for therapy animals? Specifically by maybe a cat adoption agency or for hospital therapy?

How comes they talked during scenes with no surrounding noise when they already established they can only talk with surrounding noises? Continuity is a little broken in scenes. (Don’t worry no Abigail rants for this one).

Little bigger spoiler talk

When everyone is being evacuated already being informed to stay quite……wtf did a bunch of people start screaming O.o. Stupid!

It’s the decisions the humans made that kept me from being attached to anyone but the cat.

Does the cat make it? It was on my mind the whole time. Guess you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.

7/10 for cat lovers.

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The Watchers “Review”

Release date: June 7, 2024 (USA)

Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Based on: The Watchers; by A. M. Shine

Cinematography: Eli Arenson

Music by: Abel Korzeniowski

I didn’t know this was based on a horror novel until now. Fun fact 😀 – The Night Shyamalan family name was what brought my interest into this film. The Watchers was directed by his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan.

Her prior works were “Old” back in 2021 along with “Knock at the Cabin” in 2023 as a second unit director to her father who Directed them both. Knowing this information I can definitely see her style coming through which sets her apart from her fathers work. If Old was a dud, Cabin had promise, then I see her work improving which may give insight into this review before diving into the movie itself.

The Watchers sets this movie up perfectly to hook your interest. Some of the most epic of designs shown without being shown to the viewer. Less is more approach was taken and the sound work was let loose to captivate.

The feature introduces the audience to this expansive world within an untouched forest in western Ireland. We find ourselves following the story from the perspective of Mina and her MVP of a bird.

Something strange is going on within this forest, many individuals have gotten lost never to return. What happens when one goes past the sign of no return?

Well the Watchers shall be sure to inform you of this rather quickly upon nightfall. Stay within the light. Don’t turn your back to the mirror. Don’t open the door after dark and don’t go near the burrows. The Watchers see you but you don’t see them.

This will be a non spoiler review so I’ll be vague until the end when I tag spoiler section for all to be prepared.

Mina finds herself joining 3 other individuals whom fate aligns with her own. Stay within the shelter at night. Venture out during the day for resources / food and surrender this as her new way of living.

I’ll leave the story here for you to explore and if interested in somewhat more of a tease stick around for the tid bit spoiler section at the end.

I mentioned it earlier but I can’t express my love enough over the sound work in this film. I felt like things were around me. There was literally a scene that stole my breath away in complete tension. Who every created these watchers made the coolest designs.

Now before jumping into spoiler ish town. I’m giving this a personal rating of 6.5/10. It could have been a 7 and for others maybe a 7.5 however without going into further details I’d love you to explore this title and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Spoilers ish Town

Less is more was a key, however the more you see of these Watchers the less I was intrigued and more disappointed the film went a generic direction.

If you’re into D&D / Lore & Fantasy then you could very well dive into this feature and have a feast of it. That’s why my 6.5 – 7.5 rating comes from as you may enjoy the feature more or less upon those factors.

Not knowing this was based on a book I felt the story should have ended 20 minutes earlier and left to be baked in the oven a little more to flesh out an epic sequel.

It had what it needed to be a solid great movie but ended up being a good movie. I had a good time and enjoyed the journey. Just sad the film fumbled the ending.

Looking on the wiki I see this was impacted by the SAG-AFTRA strike. Maybe the book has a different ending and there’s hope for what made the beginning and middle so awesome?

Lastly yellow bird MVP.

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In a Violent Nature “Review”

Release date: May 31, 2024 (USA)

Director: Chris Nash

Distributed by: Shudder, IFC Films

Box office: $2.1 million

Cinematography: Pierce Derks

Produced by: Shannon Hanmer; Peter Kuplowsky

Welcome back to Popped! Fellow movie going lovers.

A movie not originally on my watch list I was recommended to watch this title and intrigued with a description of one of the kills in this feature.

In a violent nature takes an interesting approach to the slasher movie genre by taking the POV of the “Villain”. A leather face origins? I was quite excited to see that this title was a Shudder movie. What timeline we find ourselves to have Shudder movies on the big screen.

With Hollywood and big studios making budget cuts and movies with highly inflated budgets making them loose millions. I feel there’s a home for this style of film with extremely small budgets.

I appreciate what the creators were trying to achieve here. Even if personally I felt they missed the mark in some aspects. But where they didn’t miss the mark was the deaths and kills. This feature was a true torture porn flick going in on the details of each death.

To score this movie higher I’d of trimmed the fat and including some story details to attach me to our main character. Shortening the expositions when travelling the terrain of this universe would have been nice and prevented getting to realms of boring between fun moments. Tweaking the ending by saving an additional 10/15 minutes and this could have been a solid hour story with a unique and interesting perspective.

Until the ending I was at a 6/10 but sadly wasting 10 minutes on a conversation leading nowhere I had to drop it to a 5.5/10 praising the details of gore, deaths and story telling attempts. Failing on keeping my attention and having me care for this character on why he’s doing the acts that he’s doing.

Have you checked out In a violent nature? Curious to see what I mean by torture porn? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you in the thunder dome of the next review.

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Late Night With the Devil “Review”

Release date: March 22, 2024 (USA)

Directors: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

Distributed by: Umbrella Entertainment

Box office: $4.4 million

Cinematography: Matthew Temple

Produced by: Mat Govoni; Adam White; John Molloy; Roy Lee; Steven Schneider; Derek Dauchy

For a movie that wasn’t on my radar. Then the amount of buzz surrounding opening week put this film on my radar. I’ll have 2/3 different reviews for this feature from non spoiler to somewhat spoiler.

Non Spoiler Review: – The setting wasn’t for me but I’m glad I stuck with it.

Non Spoiler with more info Review: – The 70’s look of the film. The biography style intro to the host and his Night Owl passed before getting into the main show was off putting for myself. I was honestly ready to leave if it wasn’t for the first act of the main late night show bringing my attention back to the film.

Honestly I don’t want to say to much with this title for those on the fence as to not influence your experience. I’m glad I stuck with it and the first 20minutes (Guessing time frame) were the most slow / dryer parts to get through.

Before going into some spoiler info in the next section I came out with this feature for myself is a 6.5/10. I class this as a niche film like that of Lisa Frankenstein which I’ve yet to review. This could be someone’s most favorite movie of the year however not for all, specially those having a hard time getting into the beginning of the film. Which is important mind you for the show itself.

Spoiler ish Review: – Late Night With the Devil is set in the 70’s and focuses on Jack Delroy played by David Dastmalchian (Poker dot man from suicide squad) hosting a late night talk show and aiming to grow his numbers and beat the top competition.

The parts at the beginning setup his past / history which is used later for the film. It did drag me out of the film and needed some time to cook for me to get back into the experience.

The premise of Jack Delroy late night show is around a Halloween episode and focuses on proving a skeptic of the supernatural wrong in his skeptic beliefs.

I won’t go any further than that as I want you to experience the film and make your decision. I personally went from a 4 up to a 5 and slowly climbed to a 7 before settling at a 6.5/10 for my rating. Which is slightly below that of Lisa Frankenstein which got a 7/10 but fits in that niche horror/comedy genre.

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Sting (2024) “Review”

I was rather lucky to have seen this movie ahead of it’s release. My local theatre started to run mystery movies and this was the first in their mystery horror line up.

Going in I thought the movie was The Last Omen until I saw the trailer play prior. Once this title begun I was rather excited to finally see a new movie that I had not seen a single trailer for prior. In fact I’ve seen very little being mentioned of this title leading up to it’s release on April 12th.

I absolutely loved the setup of this feature introducing us to the situation and then going back 4 days prior to how these events unfold.

Now I’d like to keep this spoiler free but there’s a giant spider in front of our faces so let’s address that first. Despite Charlotte’s grand mother calling the exterminator to deal with noises going on within her walls. Charlotte is introduced as a meteor crashes though the attic window and reveals to her in a form of a spider (Alien Spider? o.O) lets name it “Sting”.

Charlotte is a rebellious 12 year old girl who takes quite a liking and fascination of this spider and uses the pipes to descend down from this apartment building of flats to her living quarters with her mother, brother and mothers boyfriend. The cinematography was remarkable and I can see this movie either being a niche film with strong followers or a solid good film for the masses.

As the poster suggests, this fear just gets bigger and I’ll allow you to dive into this 1 Hour 30 Minute feature to see just how deep this tale goes and if you’re strong enough to prevail against the webbing and do battle with moth balls.

On the descent down to Charlotte’s room I loved the use to get glimpses into all our supporting characters and taking perfect snap shots of their daily lives to grow and connect with throughout. I was pleasantly surprised by this feature and happily give it 7.5. Let’s not bash Imaginary once more but considering this was an R rating film you can see what having that safety net what can be done with your big bad.

Look forward to this title coming April 12th hopefully to a theatre near you. This was a first getting to review a title early and hope I intrigued and left mystery for you to enjoy what horror’s to come.

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Imaginary “Review”

Release date: March 8, 2024 (USA)

Director: Jeff Wadlow

Distributed by: Lionsgate, Lionsgate Films

Budget: $10–12 million

Music by: Sparks & Shadows

Production companies: Blumhouse Productions; Tower of Babble

Despite seeing a trailer for IF first, Imaginary was released this month to a fairly quite response. Now think back to January when I mentioned my hopes for Night Swim and I’ll recap those thoughts here.

I’m hopeful that once Black Phone 2 releases we get to understand what Universal is attempting with this horror verse their cooking up. Imaginary would be a great fit and a helpful boost for Night Swim if connected with 5 Nights at Freddy’s along with M3gan etc.

Possibly going in with low expectations from review scores, but I had a pretty good time in this one. I enjoyed the characters and was curious of the plot threads moving the feature forward. It’s not an overly long film but does attempt to throw in some twists and reveals for those invested.

A slight weakening towards the end and overall feature wrap up with repeated content from their competitor studio films. I enjoyed getting to know this family. Somethings that pulled me out at first was the cheap or poor “monsters/creatures” which didn’t feel scary or create tension when on screen.

The ending scenes were probably the weakest in my opinion with quick out of nowhere resolutions and “bow ties” to the story but I’m hopeful this goes somewhere within a horror verse….and please no sequel. Having a universe for the horror franchises will be fun to create a combination original movie using material from these mid movies to hopefully get something truly epic.

I can hope can’t I? Haha with that being said I felt this movie is a 6/10 putting it slightly above Night Swim as this movie actually has some enjoyable content that could bloom into something sinister with some extra cooking.

“Side note I looked up Sinister as this title was in my mind almost the whole movie” – If that interest you, then do yourself a favor and watch Imaginary. If my hopes come true then let’s discuss this movie in the comments as I could see this being my most favorite movie of all time if a potential sequel or sequel verse movie came from these foundations.

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Night Swim “Review”

Release date: January 5, 2024

Director: Bryce McGuire

Story by: Bryce McGuire; Rod Blackhurst

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Budget: $15 million

Music by: Mark Korven

Kicking off 2024 with this movie wasn’t very exciting or interesting.

In short this movie felt very mid and average you honestly aren’t missing much by skipping or seeing this one.

What I had hoped for was, “IT” in a pool was very much not the movie I ended up watching. My hope is that this is part of the Universal horror universe that’s speculated to come after the black phone sequel.

I’d give Night Swim a very mid Popped score of 5/10

Honestly I don’t want to keep you here longer and have better films to watch coming up later in 2024 but alas I want to “Review” / Discuss all the movies I watch in the year to document and track my top 10 list.

Stick around as Popped improves in each batch as I add to 2024. Look back at 2021,2 & 3 and track my movies of each year post pandemic.

Watch this movie if you’re interested in killing an evening or have an hour and half free to add another movie under your belt. Night Swim will constantly remind you that this family has a swimming pool.

I’m not going to spoil what little this film can offer so I’ll leave it here and let me know what you thought when seeing this film. Hey if this ends up being apart of that horror universe then I’ll revisit and develop this dicussion.

Thank you all for reading this and let me know what you thought on this entry “horror” film into the year 2024.

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