Tag: horror

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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Speak No Evil “Review”

Release date: September 13, 2024 (USA)

Director: James Watkins

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Based on: Speak No Evil; by: Christian Tafdrup; Mads Tafdrup

Budget: $15 million

Music by: Danny Bensi; Saunder Jurriaans

The cast of the movie does an excellent job throughout this feature.

I honestly fell in love with these couples and the friendships created at the beginning of this film. Watched the trailer? Still plenty of surprises in store despite clueing you in to something going on. Haven’t seen the trailer? No worries, nothing will be spoiled here even from the previous line and the pictures used.

A similar pacing to that of blink twice which was a good film and worth checking out. I enjoyed the slower setup with Speak No Evil over Blink Twice as I loved the characters. James McAvoy is SOLID and brings out so much emotion from all the cast from the children Ant & Agnes played by Dan Hough & Alix West Lefler along with the Agnes’s parents played by Scoot McNairy & Mackenzie Davis. Last but not least the partner of McAvoy’s character (Paddy) Ciara played by Aisling Franciosi. Solid performances and without going into spoilers, had me experiencing many sets of emotions throughout.

Blum house & Universal have another solid good film on their hands and I’m excited as we step ever closer to Black Phone 2 coming next October to (Fingers Crossed) to see the world that their developing into a universe of Blum house horror. Universal Horror Nights will either have an amazing set of mazes next year or 2026 will be the reveal of what’s to come for Blum house Universe.

I’m so pumped and excited to hear what you all thought of this title. M3GAN 2.0 releases next year along with Black Phone 2 among a couple of other titles in 2025 which ends the year with Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 in December.

I’d give Speak No Evil an 8/10 for doing such a great job. An American psychological thriller film that I’ll look forward to returning to one day. Maybe it’s time to checkout the original 2022 Danish Film that this remakes on.

Thank you all for your time coming by for another Popped “Review” and I’ll see you in the next batch with Transformers One which I’m very excited to Watch…..More on that during the “Review”.

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Cuckoo “Review”

Release date: August 9, 2024 (USA)

Director: Tilman Singer

Distributed by: Neon, Weltkino Filmverleih

Budget: $7 million

Music by: Simon Waskow

Produced by: Markus Halberschmidt; Josh Rosenbaum; Maria Tsigka; Ken Kao; Thor Bradwell

WOW! Just seeing this cost 7Mill compared to Borderlands 100+ Mill is insane. This is a great film straight up. Great characters, excellent suspense and actually an evil that is scary.

Going to be vague to allow mystery for your viewing experience. No spoilers here. One of my fave Neon movies in quite some time.

Little about the story setup: Seventeen-year-old Gretchen reluctantly leaves America to live with her father at a resort in the German Alps.

Some unsettling scenes, twisted and creepy characters mixed with great writing. Character growth and development. It was such a great breath of fresh air after watching Borderlands.

Plagued by strange noises and bloody visions this resort has some deep layers to pull back truly Alice in wonder land style with how deep does this rabbit hole go.

It’s been a minute that I’ve felt uneasy and a little scared in a horror movie. I’m happy this film brings that feeling back and gets an almost perfected batch of popped popcorn in horror granted to this feature. I was close to giving this a 9/10 however some flaws weakening the end with such a strong beginning and middle. I dropped it down to a 8.5/10 as it ends solidly despite a slight hiccup.

Save your Borderlands money and go watch Cuckoo. Thanks for coming by Popped for your movie “Reviews” and I’ll see you again real soon with Alien.

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Trap “Review”

Release date: August 2, 2024 (USA)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom

Music by: Herdís Stefánsdóttir

Production company: Blinding Edge Pictures

How should we start this “Review”. It’s M. Night Shyamalan’s best movie post 2020? Not on the level of Split but maybe Glass? If that gives a pictures lets open the door to Trap.

I applaud the trailer for setting up this movie. It does a great job of setting the scene and informing the viewer what this movie is about. The movie dives a little deeper in than the trailer reveals but the intro and the trailer work nicely hand in hand to one another without revealing anything futher.

Thoroughly enjoyed the dynamic relationship between the daughter and her dad as we navigated the scenes developing during this feature. I can’t go into much detail to contain the trap and the inner webbing of threads revealed throughout the movie.

I was very entertained throughout the majority of this feature. Hitting 8/10. Sadly without going into much detail the “plot twist” that M. Night placed on this movie could have audiences split. It brought my score down to a 7.5. However depending what they do next with this world/universe could bring it up or drop further without some solid writing.

I recommend everyone interested in the trailer / film go watch it. Then lets discuss the feature afterwards because there’s a lot to be discussed. A small post feature scene before the credits fully role. Nothing to stick around for at the end of the credits. Save yourself 5 minutes :D.

Appreciate you for reading this Popped “review” and next up should be Borderlands next week sometime after the movie premiers Thursday 8th.

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Twisters “Review” & Longlegs “Review

Release date: July 19, 2024 (USA)

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch

Story by: Joseph Kosinski

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures

Based on: Characters; by: Michael Crichton; Anne-Marie Martin

Debated separating these two reviews as I’m behind. To be honest you’re not missing out on anything so lets tame the beast of these two.

Twisters starts off with a fun group of characters and loved seeing Nik Dodani…..however, that’s shortly lived before you’re left with the worst character of the movie Javi played by Anthony Ramos.

Every time he was on screen I was tuning out. I’d have cut his whole character out. Focused on David Corenswet (The new Superman) being the opposing group and made a better movie.

There’s some stakes created about an hour in. That’s ruined by the lack luster energy going into the finale. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s only just above average with a tornado level of 5.5 / 6 out of 10.

Loved Glen Powell and his wrangler buddy. The tornado wranglers were the best parts of the movie. Honestly thinking back to how tuned out I was after that intro I’d go with a 5.5 / 10 barely above average movie. Let’s get into Longlegs a better movie but still only a 1 time viewing experience.

Release date: July 12, 2024 (USA)

Director: Oz Perkins

Distributed by: Neon

Budget: <$10 million

Cinematography: Andrés Arochi

Produced by: Dan Kagan; Brian Kavanaugh-Jones; Nicolas Cage; Dave Caplan; Chris Ferguson

It’s a good thing these movies are cheap to make because this is very niche audience focused horror movie. I wont spoil this movie as for some, this is a good movie with some aspects preventing it from being better.

On the contrary the reason why people don’t like this movie as much are the reasons why I enjoyed it. So check it out and be prepared for a slow burn of a feature before getting into the good stuff.

Even then the good stuff is short lived with Nicolas Cage on screen. I wanted more from his character! That being said this had some excellent performances in moments however it wasn’t enough to keep myself and my brother in law engaged as he ended up falling asleep during this.

A 1 time viewing experience for sure but I wouldn’t go above a 6.5/10 into a solid good. Just a good for this one.

All going well next week Deadpool & Wolverine comes to save the end of summer 2024. Some gems dropping between then and November. Let me know what Fall movies you’re looking forward to after D&W.

Thanks for reading this double dose of ehh and here’s hoping we can fill the top 10 with 9’s before December. I believe there’s 4 more titles left to bump off then the true contenders fight it out for the 2024 top 10 list for Popped. Blog

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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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Poolman “Review”

Release date: May 10, 2024 (USA)

Director: Chris Pine

Distributed by: Vertical

Production companies: AGC Studios; Shiny Penny; Wicious Pictures; CatchLight Studios; Barry Linen Motion Pictures

For a movie not on my list what so ever and happen to see it releasing this week with 3 other titles the dice were rolled. When a 3 sided die is rolled 9 times and there’s 3 1’s,2’s &3’s the decision was made to watch all 3. If it wasn’t to try hit 50 movies in 2024 I truly would have been home watching WWE as during this performance it was announced: Logan vs Cody!

What can I say about this movie other than it was very slow only picking up at the final 30 minute mark and didn’t get me interested until then. The trailer did a fantastic job drawing me in unlike the film did.

With such an incredible cast I was hoping this would have been the better movie of the day. I was bored. Everyone did a fine job with their acting. The story once it picked up was okay. But it wasn’t anything worth sticking around an hour to get into the slight interesting content.

The film is about a Los Angeles pool cleaner Darren Barrenman played by Chris Pine as he’s approached by a femme fatale to help uncover corruption in a shady business deal.

If you’re into the movie by this point then maybe it’s a movie for yourself. I’ve watched slow movies before that were worth the pay off getting to the end. I’ve watched artsy movies that have entertained and intrigued my curiosity. But sadly nothing hit and thus it makes the number 1 slot for me personally on my bottom 5 movies of 2024 thus far.

But hey May 25th is looking very cool specially since that’s my wife’s birthday :D. We’re going out on the 18th for an event and doing nothing on the 21st for mine so maybe I’ll get to watch this match before we go out for dinner.

That aside, go watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, have an epic time and I’ll go finish the 3 movies that released this weekend by watching “The Last Stop in Yuma County” and hopefully have a better time than the performances watched today.

Do you have a bottom 5 list yet for 2024? How about movies you’re looking forward to in Summer and the remainder of 2024? Let me know in the comments and keep an eye on my 2024 lists tab on the home page to follow along with my predictions of Summer 2024 Grossing.

Thank you all for reading another popped review and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.

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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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