Tag: horror

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑