Tag: Horror Movie

Bring Her Back “Review”

Release date: May 30, 2025 (UK)

Starring: Sally Hawkins; Billy Barratt

Directed by: Danny Philippou; Michael Philippou

Producers: Samantha Jennings, Kristina Ceyton

MPAA rating: R

Distributed by: Stage 6 Films

By the creators of Talk to Me, we have their next horror film. Bring her back. Although the hype for Talk to Me disappointed my expectations. This feature, in my opinion, deserves it all. Let’s discuss.

With this being an early “Review” I’m going to keep spoilers away heavily. I’ll set the story up and go into the incredibly actors and some parrels before teasing you with my overall thoughts and score.

After tragically loosing their father and being placed in care of a new foster mother. Andy (Played by Billy Barratt) & Piper (Played by Sora Wong) step brother and sister have 3 months until Andy turns 18 and able to file for guardianship of his sister. Piper is blind which creates more of a protective nature for Andy to be there for his step sister.

Their new foster mother? Laura, (Played by the incredible Sally Hawkins) the person whom I feel is most similar to that of Hugh Grant’s character in Heretic. You never know during this feature if you’re safe or not. When situations can be trusted, and who can be trusted.

Bring Her Back deserves the saying “I was on the edge of my seat”. This title honestly got to me. I was literally cheering for characters, wanting people to die and beside myself on the options characters have within their situation. The actors and all those behind the scenes did an incredible job with the tension of this movie.

I often get asked. Was it scary. Scary is hard to define. For instant. Scary being jumpy? Creeped out? Un Nerved? Short of breath? How does one define someone’s meaning of scary. What I can tell you though. It sure had my feeling a lot of these emotions of scary. I mentioned at the start the hype for Talk To Me disappointed my experience of the movie as it didn’t reach those levels. I honestly hope that Bring Her Back does for you. It’s an easy 8/10 tier and worthy of re-watching if you can stomach it. To place this in at a 9 is pretty impressive for a horror movie. Then I thought. Well, the great horror films of my youth are Blu Ray worthy so why wouldn’t or couldn’t this be…..

Thus the score was settled. Popped gives Bring Her Back a solid 9/10 placing it in my top 10 list. Loved the ending which is where the solid throughout performance and directing of this movie is above that of Heretic. Placing it up there with Black Phone for doing a great job of getting into your psyche.

Want to know more? Then check out Bring Her Back in theatres opening May 30th.

P.S I’ve watched the trailers and even that didn’t prepare me for what unfolds in this feature. Buckle up and enjoy…. If you have the stomach for it.

With that fellow movie goers. Was our Horror feature batch from A24. A solid hit that I dread going back to watch and re-live it but alas I most likely will with my wife at the end of the month.

Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Review” of Bring Her Back and I’ll look forward to your thoughts in a couple of weeks time. Until then, come back Thursday with our “Review’s” of Lilo & Stitch along with Mission Impossible 8.

Until next batch, happy watching 😀

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Smile 2 “Review”

Release date: October 18, 2024 (USA)

Director: Parker Finn

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Budget: $28 million

Cinematography: Charlie Sarroff

Music by: Cristobal Tapia de Veer

Welcome to the second “Review” in this week’s batch. Following that of We Live in Time. Buckle up for this “Review” you may experience a twist like no other!

Don’t Drink The WATER – Crazy is source

Shall I start with the jaw-dropper and move into the why! to save people time and only dive into detail for those interested? Go watch M. Night Shyamalan’s trap over this film or The Substance. You can skip Smile 2 if you’re waiting on a sequel to Smile.

“Review” Begins

The intro to Smile 2 started off strong. Setting the film up as a direct sequel to Smile following the events at the end. This molded nicely into the introduction of our main lead which turned out to be black mold and not the most perfect analogy to avoid spoilers.

I will attempt not to spoil and yet get close to the line while explaining my disappointment in this sequel to Smile. Summed up the amount of “scares” that occur has plenty of time to bore the viewer if you’re not connecting with our main lead and those around her. You’ll either tune out awaiting the next scare or jump scare which will be wasted on you as it’ll occur during your pit of boredom that it had no affect.

There was 1 true jump scare for me personally, that occurred after 1 hour of watching this film. For those coming over from watching Terrifier 3 this past weekend, Smile 2 will seem like a baby film. Even those interested in this kind of horror will find themselves feeling desensitized and may even have scenes lost on you because the movies had time to create that feeling of boredom.

For those interested in the story of Smile, you can honestly watch the first film and wait for the third. Those wanting a thriller horror then check out Trap, Long Legs, and Cuckoo. For those wanting body horror, check out The Substance.

Smile 2 had moments of being a good watch movie at a 7/10 however I’d have to say this is above average at best giving it somewhere around a 5.5 or 6/10. I wish the ending wasn’t so rushed as it could have landed at 6.5/10 but that’s where I recommend The Substance as this movie just continued to fail on so much fronts.

Hopefully, Smile 3 grants us a true sequel to Smile without repeating the exact same formula on another individual without any of the good stuff we got to explore in the first film. Such a shame as the start had so much promise.

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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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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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Abigail “Review” “Rant”

Release date: April 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $34.7 million

Cinematography: Aaron Morton

Edited by: Michael P. Shawver

Let’s begin shall we because I’m going to cook and I’ll let you know when to get off before the main course is in the oven.

Abigail is a perfect example of why I’ve had such contrasted reviews to others recently. Trailers are a great marketing tool. Get the message out and gather interest buzz for an upcoming title. However, to much material is being shown and it’s impacting the movie experience.

The first hour of this movie is a lengthy version of the trailer. – If you didn’t see the trailer then excellent enjoy that first hour because it’s a pretty cool mystery and exploration of the movie before the reveal which so far I’m being totally spoiler free unlike the trailer.

A universe of sorts is created and draws the viewer in for those that have and haven’t seen the trailer. – This is your starters. I hope you enjoyed because from here some enjoy steak medium rare, others rare, medium, burnt, well done ext.

I put up with the meal thus far at around a 6/10 balancing having saw the trailers and being recommended this title by a friend….. sadly I ended up coming out with a 4/10 hoping to have watched Madame Web again.

Okay, let’s start the oven if you want to jump off here to not ruin your dinner.

Note to studios. Please make a teaser trailer and MAYBE 1 trailer before the movies release. Especially for movies like this where you spend so much time keeping the reveal (THAT’S IN THE TRAILER) away from the audience that already knows what’s to come. Be smart with the trailer and be deceptive and add mystery within to avoid this. To many trailers and way to many reveals are being shown. Challengers was another great example.

People informed me based on the trailer they expected more of what was being shown. Along with thought the plot took to long to get to where they wanted it to get to based on already knowing the characters from the trailer. I got to enjoy the ride of each character and the plot reveal due to not watching the trailers.

Okay steaks going into the oven now. Let’s get to what brought my 6 down to a 4. The meat and potatoes of my “Rant”.

When so many vampire movies exist and so much lore and tropes have been used. There’s a common and never touched established use of vampires. When you first become a vampire (By the way they literally mention this at the end of the movie which dumb founds me how this occurred) you’re a weak ass vampire. You’re stronger, you’re better than your human self. But never has a new vampire been stronger, even when that vampire is a kid been stronger than an older pre existing vampire which we know from the movie has been AT LEAST 2 years based on another vampire telling us that. Mind you a 2 year old vampire that needs help to kill the child vampire. O.O WTF! Who f$%ked that one up?

Abigail even mentions it takes a long time to learn all the cool shit…. so why didn’t she use any of that when the quirk of her character was that she was a ballerina? Utilize that rather than pushing down on a steak with a human O.O. Whoever wrote the ending of this movie needs to watch some good examples of vampire movies. BLADE the original Blade series. Along with True Blood tv show.

Another reason I bring up this rant and Blade is due to Blade being rebooted by Disney. PLEASE DONT FUCK IT UP!

Lastly for the 4/10 is the movie didn’t even follow its own established lore and plot. When one character is bitten and controlled. (Which took awhile to occur mind you) Why does the other human for 1 instantly get turned and 2 is able to control the master O.o.

If it wasn’t for writing this review / rant I’d of walked out during the 5 different endings this movie could of had. Every time throwing up an over used trope or gimmick horror scene done to death.

If you haven’t watched the trailer then check this out on streaming. If you’re still interested after reading all this then good luck and love to hear your thoughts over this overly cooked meal I’ve prepared.

Thanks for coming to Popped for this burnt batch but look forward to what’s to come with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes later this week.

Check out better Vampire movies/shows mentioned before or if this is 2020’s version of a Vampire going forth I’m out for this section of the monster verse.

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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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