horror Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Monster Summer,’ starring Mason Thames, Julian Lerner, Abby James Witherspoon, Noah Cottrell, Nora Zehetner, Patrick Renna, Lorraine Bracco and Mel Gibson

November 10, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mason Thames in “Monster Summer” (Photo courtesy of Pastime Pictures)

Directed by David Henrie

Culture Representation: Taking place in Edgartown, Massachusetts, in 2000, the horror film “Monster Summer” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A group of teens and an ex-cop try to solve the mystery of an apparent witch who is targeting children for spells and kidnapping.

Culture Audience: “Monster Summer” will appeal mainly to people who like watching teen-oriented mysteries about the supernatural and don’t mind if the screenwriting and some of the acting are substandard.

Julian Lerner, Mason Thames and Abby James Witherspoon in “Monster Summer” (Photo courtesy of Pastime Pictures)

Corny to a fault, “Monster Summer” is a lightweight horror movie about a group of teens and an ex-cop trying to solve a supernatural mystery involving a witch. Amateurish acting and a weak screenplay lower the quality of the film. “Monster Summer” can be watchable to some viewers, but there are enough cringeworthy moments for the movie to not be worth the time for anyone looking for a compelling and interesting mystery story.

Directed by Davd Henrie and written by Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano, “Monster Summer” takes place during the summer of 2000, in the Martha’s Vineyard small city of Edgartown, Massachusetts. It’s somewhat fitting that this movie takes place in 2000, because a lot of “Monster Summer” looks like a very outdated made-for-TV movie in a world where we now have Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Much of the story’s mystery is clumsily told.

In “Monster Summer,” the protagonist is Noah Reed (played by Mason Thames), who’s about 13 or 14 years old. Noah, who is an aspiring journalist, lives with his kindergarten-aged sister Lilly Reed (played by Emma Fasano) and widowed mother Abby Reed (played by Nora Zehetner), who operates a bed-and-breakfast business from her home. The family is grieving over the death of Mason’s father, who was a journalist/writer. Like a lot of kids in Edgartown, Noah wants to eventually move out of Edgartown and do something ambitious with his life when he’s old enough to get his own place.

Noah (who is intuitive and likeable) is on a Martha’s Vineyard Little League baseball team with his three best friends: neurotic Eugene Wexler (played by Julian Lerner), tomboyish Sammy Devers (played by Abby James Witherspoon) and confident Ben Driskel (played by Noah Cottrell), who is the star player on the team. One day, all four pals are caught trespassing in the shed of a cranky neighbor named Gene Carruthers (played by Mel Gibson), a retired police detective who has a reputation for being a mysterious loner.

Gene, who is divorced, has a tragedy in his past: In 1965, his 5-year-old son disappeared. Gene was under suspicion for this disappearance, but no arrests were ever made, and his son was never found. Gene’s marriage did not survive this family tragedy. Gene’s ex-wife is still alive but hasn’t been in contact with Gene for years.

Noah has a semi-secret crush on a schoolmate named Ellie Evans (played by Lilah Pate), but Ellie is attracted to Ben, who asks her out on a date. Ellie eagerly says yes. Ben doesn’t find about Noah’s crush on Ellie until after Ben asks Ellie on the date, and Noah graciously tells Ben that he’s okay with Ben and Ellie dating. Ben and Ellie go swimming in a nearby lake for their first date.

But something bizarre happens on ths date: Ellie and Ben both see what looks like an elderly witch when they’re underwater. The witch attacks Ellie and Ben. And the next thing you know, Ben is recovering in a hospital and is soon discharged.

After this attack, Ben seems to be in a daze, and he barely talks. Ellie tells Noah that she and Ben were definitely attacked by a witch, who cackled right before a bright light flashed where they were. Ben isn’t talking much, but his version of the story is different from Ellie’s. According to Ben, there was no witch and everything was an accident. Ellie’s story sounds far-fetched, especially to people who don’t believe in the supernatural.

Noah tells Gene about this strange occurrence. Gene doubts Ellie’s story that Ben was pulled down in the water by a mysterious force because there’s no physical evidence that Ben had these types of injuries. But then, another “witch attack” happens to another teen named Kevin Lampkey (played by Gavin Bedell), who was at a campfire party in a wooded area called No Man’s Land, when he was lured into a secluded place by the witch disguised as a teenage girl. Kevin also become nearly mute after this encounter.

It’s enough to convince Gene to join Noah in this investigation because Gene confesses that he believes his missing son might have also been kidnapped by something supernatural. Other characters that appear in the movie are Miss Halverson (played by Lorraine Bracco), a bed-and-breakfast guest in Noah’s family home; a baseball umpire (played by Patrick Renna) who is always at the teenagers’ Little League games; and Edgar Palmer (played by Kevin James), the cynical editor of the local newspaper.

“Monster Summer” has an awkwardly constructed story that lurches from one scene to the next. One of the worst scenes is when Noah and his pals confront Miss Halverson when they suspect her of being the witch. Thames and Gibson (who seems to be permanently typecast as playing grouchy characters) show capable acting skills, but many of the supporting cast members don’t have this level of talent. Longtime actors Bracco and James aren’t in the movie for very long to make much of a difference.

The mystery in “Monster Summer” just isn’t very interesting. By the time secrets are revealed, and there’s an inevitable showdown scene, it all looks haphazardly thrown together. “Monster Summer” isn’t a complete waste of time, but viewers’ time is much better spent on the abundance of higher-quality entertainment about supernatural mysteries.

Pastime Pictures released “Monster Summer” in U.S. cinemas on October 4, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on November 8, 2024.

Review: ‘Your Monster’ (2024), starring Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster and Meghann Fahy

November 9, 2024

by Carla Hay

Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey in “Your Monster” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“Your Monster” (2024)

Directed by Caroline Lindy

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the comedy horror film “Your Monster” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An actress, who is living with a cancer diagnosis, is pining over her playwright/director ex-boyfriend, when a beast-like monster from her past comes back into her life to comfort her.

Culture Audience: “Your Monster” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Melissa Barrera and don’t mind quirky movies that are unfocused and dull.

Tommy Dewey and Melissa Barrera in “Your Monster” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

Horror and romantic comedy are genres that often do not mix well. “Your Monster” is proof. The movie’s tone is erratic. The “beauty, man, and beast” love triangle story is quite boring, even with good efforts from the cast. The musical subplot falls flat.

Written and directed by Caroline Lindy, “Your Monster” (Lindy’s feature-film directorial debut) had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The movie’s concept could have been intriguing if it had a much better screenplay. Sometimes, “Your Monster” wants to be cute and whimsical; other times, the movie wants to be dark and edgy. The end result is a movie that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.

“Your Monster” (which takes place in New York City) begins by showing protagonist Laura Franco (played by Melissa Barrera) being discharged from a hospital where she had surgery for her cancer. “Your Monster” (which was actually filmed in New Jersey) never details what type of cancer Laura has. It’s one of many unanswered questions in the movie’s disjointed plot.

Laura and her best friend Mazie Silverberg (played by Kayla Foster) are both actresses, mostly in local theater productions. Laura is introverted, reserved and passive. Mazie is flamboyant, extroverted and ambitious. When Mazie arrives at the hospital to bring Laura back to Laura’s home, Mazie is still wearing her nightclub clothes from the night before (a shaggy jacket and tight maroon leather pants) and immediately starts flirting with a hospital orderly.

Laura is feeling depressed not just because of her health problems but also because her former live-in boyfriend Jacob Sullivan (played by Edmund Donovan) left her about a year after she got the cancer diagnosis. A flashback shows their breakup, where Jacob tells Laura that he can no longer handle her health issues and he says to her: “You need a caretaker.”

After coming home from the hospital, Laura doesn’t have a caretaker. She’s all alone and wallows in self-pity about it. She cries so much, there’s a montage in the movie about her re-ordering boxes of tissue from Amazon. And what a coincidence: The same Amazon delivery guy (played by Jake Nordwind) is the one who shows up at her door every time for these deliveries. It’s all just a way to have a scene of Laura making the delivery guy uncomfortable when she hugs him and literally cries on his shoulder.

And where is Laura’s family? Apparently, she doesn’t have any family members who live near her. When she arrives home from the hospital, her mother (who is never seen in the movie) has sent packages of food and $5,000. Laura’s mother is never mentioned again. It’s one of many inconsistences in the movie’s screenplay. What kind of parent sends care packages to an adult child with cancer but then never contacts the child to check in on that child’s well-being?

Laura’s cancer eventually gets forgotten about in the movie when the cancer goes into remission and the story shifts to her obsession with being in the musical that Jacob wrote for her to star in, but because of her cancer diagnosis, Laura will no longer get to star in this musical. The musical, which Jacob is directing as his Broadway debut, is titled “House of Good Women,” but don’t expect to see a coherent plot for this musical. It’s another missed opportunity that “Your Monster” didn’t have a good “musical within a movie” storyline.

Before Laura got cancer, she was not only the inspiration for “House of Good Women,” she also helped Jacob develop this musical, whose main character is named Laurie. Laura played this character in workshops of this musical. And she feels that she has a right to at least try out for the role.

There are a few awkward scenes where Laura shows up unannounced and uninvited to audition for Laurie. Her audition is a flop. The role of Laurie goes to a well-known TV actress named Jackie Dennon (played by Meghann Fahy), who is flirtatious with Jacob.

Laura is disappointed in losing out on the role. And she’s predictably jealous of Jackie but tries not to let this jealousy show. Out of pity, Jacob offers Laura the role as Jackie’s understudy. Jacob is surprised when Laura say yes.

Mazie gets a supporting role in the musical. Laura, Jacob, Jackie and Mazie are the only people on the musical’s team to get any significant dialogue or insight into their personalities. There’s a flaky stage manager named Dan McBride (played by Ikechukwu Ufomadu), who is briefly seen for short moments of comic relief.

What exactly does all of this have to do with the monster in the movie? The name of this creature (who looks like a wolf man) is literally Monster (played by Tommy Dewey), and he’s been a figment of Laura’s imagination since her childhood. A flashback scene shows that Laura and Jacob have known each other since they were kids. (Kasey Bella Suarez has the role of Laura at about 8 or 9 years old.) Jacob treated Laura like a doormat even back then, much to Monster’s disapproval.

Monster suddenly re-appears in Laura’s life when she’s still pining over Jacob, and her cancer hasn’t gone into remission yet. Monster’s personality is every romantic comedy stereotype of a platonic friend who will inevitably turn out to be more than a friend for the lovelorn protagonist. Monster cracks jokes and uses sarcasm to mask his true feelings. He’s dependable and always ready to give advice to Laura, who’s so caught up in trying to impress Jacob, Laura can’t see that her “soul mate” is right in front of her.

However, since Monster is part of Laura’s imagination, things get weird when Monster and Laura actually develop a sexual attraction to each other that is consummated. Monster, who has a bit of a bad temper, gets jealous when it’s obvious that Laura isn’t completely over her romantic feelings for Jacob. “Your Monster” is trying to make some kind of statement about how women should be allowed to have self-love and feminine rage after a heartbreaking end of a romantic relationship, but the way this movie goes about this messaging is chaotic and dull at the same time.

The scenes in “Your Monster” look like mini-skits and don’t flow very well as part of one cohesive story. The movie’s comedy is also uneven. For example, a scene at a Halloween party—where Laura is dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein and Monster shows up as himself—should have been hilarious but isn’t.

One of the big problems with “Your Monster” is that it never shows enough of the good times in the doomed relationship of Laura and Jacobm in order for viewers to understand why Laura is willing to put herself in embarrassing situations, just so she can be in the same room as Jacob after they broke up. Jacob is a one-dimensional villain in the story, so viewers won’t know what Laura saw in him in the first place. The movie does an inadequate and incomplete job of showing the musical collaboration that Laura and Jacob had before their breakup.

Of course, Monster is the “voice of reason” when Laura makes a fool out of herself for Jacob, but this Monster character is ultimately shallow. Monster’s smugness also gets irritating after a while. The person who evolves the most in the story is Laura, but her personality change (especially in the movie’s last 15 minutes) just never looks natural or genuine. Barrera and Dewey have fairly good chemistry in their scenes together as Laura and Monster. However, much of the dialogue in the movie sounds more like conversations between underage teenagers, not adults.

As for the musical scenes, they’re not terrible, but they’re not special. Barrera (one of the stars of the 2021 movie musical “In the Heights”) has good singing talent, but the original songs she performs in the movie—the solo tune on “My Stranger” and the ensemble number “Little Miss Polka Dot,” both written by the Lazours—are somewhat forgettable. Barrera also performs a cover version of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You.” “Your Monster” has sporadic moments of eccentric charm, but the movie’s identity crisis is ultimately too big to overcome.

Vertical released “Your Monster” in U.S. cinemas on October 25, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 12, 2024.

Review: ‘Azrael’ (2024), starring Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett

November 9, 2024

by Carla Hay

Samara Weaving in “Azrael” (Photo by Gabriela Urm/IFC Films)

“Azrael” (2024)

Directed by E.L. Katz

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of Earth, the horror film “Azrael” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) who are all connected in some way to a cult-like community.

Culture Clash: A woman from this community tries to escape, with varying results.

Culture Audience: “Azrael” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Samara Weaving and who don’t mind watching a horror film that has almost no one speaking and a very flimsy plot.

A scene from “Azrael” (Photo by Gabriela Urm/IFC Films)

“Azrael” has adequate acting, but the screenplay is too weak, nonsensical and repetitive in this horror movie about a woman trying to escape from a cult in the woods. The movie’s gimmick of having almost no speaking gets tiresome very quickly. Even if “Azrael” had been a short film, the movie’s vague and sloppy storytelling prevent it from being an impactful horror film.

Directed by E.L. Katz and written by Simon Barrett, “Azrael” goes on a repeat loop of the movie’s title character Azrael (played by Samara Weaving) being captured by the cult, escaping in the woods, and then going back to where the cult lives, only to be captured again and possibly escaping again. Viewers will learn nothing about where this movie takes place, how this cult community was formed, or even how this protagonist ended up in the cult. (“Azrael” was actually filmed in Estonia.)

The only clue about why all of this is going on is in the beginning of the movie, when there’s a caption that says, “Many years after the Rapture, among the survivors, some are driven to renounce their sin of speech.” There is no other information about this apocalypse, which has caused the survivors to live in these woods in ramshackle living quarters, such as cluttered outdoor camps. The church where they worship is in a run-down shed, but somehow in this desolate apocalypse, they have enough lighted candles in the church to make Pottery Barn proud.

The characters in this movie have names, but these names are never revealed to viewers in the actual story because almost all of characters in the movie don’t talk. There’s also nothing in the movie that shows their names, unless viewers watch the end credits and see that the characters actually have names. The only character in “Azrael” who talks is truck driver named Demian (played by Peter Christoffersen), who speaks in a fabricated language that sounds like it has elements of Spanish and Portuguese. There are no subtitles when Demian speaks.

“Azrael” begins by showing Azrael and her lover Kenan (played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) by themselves in the woods. Kenan has made a fire, but Azrael quickly puts out the fire. Why? It’s soon revealed that Azrael and Kenan have run away from the cult, which has cult members looking for these runaways.

Even though Azrael extinguished Kenan’s fire because the fire’s smoke would probably attract attention, it’s too late. Cult members quickly descend on the hiding place and capture Kenan and Azrael. Kenan’s fate is shown early in the movie, which has Azrael mostly on her own after she’s forcibly separated from Kenan.

These captors are a bunch of generically menacing people, such as Anton (played by Johhan Rosenberg), Luther (played by Eero Milonoff), Liesl (played by Rea Lest), Isaac (played by Sebastian Bull Sarning) and Sevrin (played by Phong Giang). They have weapons, such as guns and knives, but oddly don’t always use these weapons when you think they should. Don’t expect to learn anything about the cult members who chase and hunt down Azrael in the woods.

The biggest horror elements in “Azrael” have to do with mysterious creatures that lurk in the woods and can only be described how they’re described in the movie’s end credits: Burnt People. The cult members in the story go into hyperventilating trances to summon these Burnt People, who like to eat humans. Expect to see several scenes of people’s faces, necks and other body parts getting torn off and devoured. Don’t expect to find out anything about the origins of the Burnt People, who are both feared and worshipped by the cult members.

There’s also a muddled subplot about a pregnant cult member named Miriam (played by Vic Carmen Sonne); her concerned mother Josefine (played by Katariina Unt, who is one of the leaders of the hunt to find Azrael; and Josefine’s dying mother (played by Elvira Erli). And when there’s a pregnant woman in a horror movie with mysterious demonic creatures running around, you can easily figure out why there’s pregnant woman in the movie, and you can almost do a countdown to the scene where she gives birth.

Every time Azrael escapes, she willingly goes back to the cult’s encampment by herself to spy on the cult members. The first time it happens, it looks strange and counterproductive to her goal to escape from the cult. After it happens again and again, that’s when you lose all hope that this movie is going to be any good.

Azrael keeps going back to her tormenters because it should come as no surprise that “Azrael” is one of those “one person against several others” revenge movies with shootouts and gruesome murders. All the horror elements in “Azrael” are just gory and superficial ways to dress up what amounts to a “victim-turned-vigilante” movie with “woman in peril” stereotypes in the scenes involving chases and captivity. Unfortunately, “Azrael” is such a poorly constructed story with hollow characters, there’s very little to care about once this monotonous film reaches its predictable end.

IFC Films released “Azrael” in select U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. Shudder premiered the movie on October 25, 2024.

Review: ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3,’ starring Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri

November 7, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3”

Directed by Anees Bazmee

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Kolkata, India, the horror comedy film “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (a direct sequel to “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A fake psychic has encounters with ghosts who have a complicated family history.

Culture Audience: “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,” the movie’s headliners and horror comedies that are intentionally silly.

Madhuri Dixit in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (Photo courtesy of AA Films)

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” is an unnecessarily convoluted sequel that makes this horror comedy neither scary nor amusing. It’s a bloated mess with silly shenanigans and an awkwardly contrived plot twist. The jokes pander to the lowest common denominator, while the story is too confusing for anyone who is not familiar with the “Bhool Bhulaiyaa” franchise.

Directed by Anees Bazmee and written by Aakash Kaushik, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (which means “Labyrinth 3” in Hindi) is a direct sequel to “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2,” which was also directed by Bazmee and written by Kaushik. “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” is a quasi-sequel/reboot to 2007’s “Bhool Bhulaiyaa.” “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” isn’t a perfect movie, but at least it has a more coherent plot than “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.”

In “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” (which takes place in Kolkata, India), Ruhaan Randhawa (played by Kartik Aaryan) is still working as a fake psychic named Rooh Baba. He claims to have the ability to communicate with the dead and the ability to exorcise demons from people. Ruhaan has a sidekick named Tillu (played by Arun Kushwah), who is a little person and who is treated in the movie like some kind of circus curiosity instead a complete person with a real personality.

One day, Ruhaan gets hired to exorcise a demon from an attractive woman named Meera (played by Triptii Dimri), whose unnamed uncle (played by Rajesh Sharma) has hired Ruhaan for this exorcism. It’s all a setup. Meera really isn’t possessed by a demon. She and her uncle only wanted to get a video recording of this fake exorcism to expose Ruhaan as a fraud.

Meera’s uncle uses this video to blackmail Ruhaan into going to the family’s Rakht Ghat palace. Why? It turns out that Ruhaan looks exactly like Debendranath Chatterjee (also played by Aaryan), a prince of this royal family who died about 200 years earlier. Debendranath was the younger half-brother of feuding princess sisters Anjulika Chatterjee (played by Vidya Balan) and Manjulika Chatterjee (played by Madhuri Dixit), who both had a rivalry over who would have more power. Anjulika was the eldest of these three siblings.

Debendranath’s mother was a servant, not the king’s wife, so there was jealousy from Anjulika and Manjulika when the king decided to make Debendranath the heir to the throne. People who know about “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” know that the ghosts of Anjulika and Manjulika were the main ghosts in the story. The addition of a previously unmentioned younger half-brother named Debendranath in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” just seems too gimmicky and fake. It’s just an excuse to have a sequel and have some of the cast members portray dual roles.

Meera’s family believes that Anjulika and Manjulika are haunting the family palace, so the frightened family has moved into an adjacent barn on the property. With no access to the palace, the family members have to live like peasants and even have to do things like ration their toothpaste, as shown in a rather unfunny scene. Meera and her family move back into the palace because they believe that Ruhaan is a reincarnation of Debendranath and could possibly help them get rid of the ghosts of Anjulika and Manjulika.

Three characters from “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” make their return in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3”: a local priest named Chota Pandit (played by Rajpal Yadav); Chota’s older brother Bande Pandit (played by Sanjay Mishra); and Panditayeen Pandit (played by Ashwini Kalsekar), who is Bade’s wife. All three of them are opportunists and moved into the palace when it was vacated. They refuse to leave after Meera’s family moves back into the palace.

Meanwhile, the family plans to sell the palace. A renovator named Mallika (also played by Balan) has been hired to make home improvements before the palace is sold. More chaos ensues when a prospective buyer named Mandira (also played by Dixit) arrives and there are signs that the palace continues to be haunted. The plot twist is foreshadowed when Ruhaan appears to be possessed by the spirit of Debendranath.

“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” is the type of sequel that is made only slightly less muddled if viewers are familiar with what happened in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.” The song-and-dance scenes in “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” are elaborate with good cinematography. But ultimately, these musical scenes are empty and serve no purpose but to extend the movie’s overly long run time of 158 minutes.

The acting performances are adequate but are overshadowed by most of the characters being shrill and/or annoying. The inevitable romance between Ruhaan and Meera has all the superficiality of the cover of a romance novel. Anyone who sees “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” will not find that much to care about these characters and will not see any reason why this movie needed to exist except to be a cynical cash grab.

AA Films released “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” in U.S. cinemas and in India on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘Heretic’ (2024), starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East

October 31, 2024

by Carla Hay

Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in “Heretic” (Photo by Kimberley French/A24)

“Heretic” (2024)

Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Utah, the horror film “Heretic” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two young Mormon missionaries visit a potential convert in his home, where he traps them for sinister reasons.

Culture Audience: “Heretic” will appeal mainly to fans of star Hugh Grant and horror movies with many themes about how religion affects people’s lives.

Hugh Grant in “Heretic” (Photo by Kimberley French/A24)

“Heretic” is a very talkative horror film for the first third of the movie, where there’s much discussion about faith and religion. The acting performances are compelling, even when some of the plot twists aren’t very credible. Mind games outweigh any gore.

Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, “Heretic” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie’s biggest action scenes don’t happen until the last third of the movie. There’s a lot of “slow burn” tension that eventually increases and turns into effectively suspenseful moments. “Heretic” has some absolute surprises that would have had more impact if the movie’s ending hadn’t been so conventional.

“Heretic” has three characters that get the vast majority of screen time in the movie, which takes place primarily inside one house in an unnamed suburban city in Utah during the course of 24 hours. (“Heretic” was actually filmed in British Columbia, Canada.) The date in the story is November 7, in an unnamed year in the 2020s. The movie successfully conveys the feelings of foreboding and dread of the two visitors who become trapped in the house by the house’s owner.

The opening scene of “Heretic” shows the two young Mormon missionaries who will become these kidnapping victims. The characters in the movie aren’t identified by their first names, perhaps as a way to keep them at a certain emotional distance from the audience. Not much is told about the personal backgrounds of any of the characters in “The Heretic.”

Sister Barnes (played by Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (played by Chloe East), who are both in their late teens or early 20s, are sitting outside on a bench as they talk about the evils of pornography, but they’re curious enough to watch porn anyway. Sister Paxton says that when she was watching a porn movie, she could practically see the soul being sucked out of an actress in a sex scene. These missionaries both agree that the Tony-winning musical “The Book of Mormon” (which they’ve been forbidden to see) is obscene and isn’t representative of Mormon missionaries.

Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton have opposite personalities. Sister Barnes is introverted, brooding and emotionally guarded. Sister Paxton is extroverted, perky and talkative. Sister Barnes seems to be more “street smart” and more intellectual than Sister Paxton, who is more likely to know about pop culture than ancient philosophy. Sister Barnes is more of a planner who likes to take charge of a situation, compared to Sister Paxton, who seems to be more spontaneous and easygoing.

Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are both devoted to their cause of going to people’s homes to preach to them about the Mormon religion to strengthen the faith of those who are already Mormon, or to convert those who are not Mormon. It’s later revealed that Sister Barnes is still emotionally scarred from the death of her father, who passed away of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, when she was a child. Sister Paxton’s parents are still alive and married, but she grew up in Portland, Oregon, and is still trying to adjust to this smaller city in Utah.

Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, who travel by bicycle, have been out almost all day. It’s almost getting to the end of the day when it will soon turn dark. Their last appointment of the day is with someone named Mr. Reed (played by Hugh Grant), who lives in a Victorian-styled house in a fairly remote wooded area. All that these two missionaries know is that Mr. Reed wants to learn more about the Mormon religion.

When they arrive at Mr. Reed’s house, he seems very polite and friendly. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton explain to him that they can’t go inside any home with a man unless there’s another woman who’s in the home. Mr. Reed says that his wife is baking blueberry pie in the kitchen. It has started to rain, so Mr. Reed invites Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton inside. During the course of the movie, the rain turns into heavy snow.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Heretic,” Mr. Reed lies about having a wife in the house, and he traps the two missionaries. Long before Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton find out that they’ve been kidnapped, there’s a huge stretch of this 110-minute movie where it’s nothing but Mr. Reed, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton having an increasingly comfortable conversation. The first red flag is when Mr. Reed asks Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton: “How do you feel about polygamy?”

Mr. Reed reveals that he studied theology when he was a university student, which is why he says he is fascinated with different religions. It’s obvious that Mr. Reed is not only highly intellectual (he quizzes the missionaries about different topics about religion, faith, history and spirituality), but he also has some very crude and twisted intentions. It’s explained at one point that Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton can’t use their cell phones because the house’s walls and ceilings are made of metal.

Music plays a prominent role in “Heretic,” most notably in a scene where Mr. Reed plays The Hollies’ 1974 hit “The Air That I Breathe” when he lectures the two missionaries about life’s “re-iterations.” He explains that Radiohead was sued for plagiarism for Radiohead’s 1992 hit “Creep,” because of the melody similarities to “The Air That I Breathe.” Lana Del Rey was later sued by Radiohead for plagiarism because Radiohead claimed that Lana Del Rey’s 2017 song “Get Free” was a plagiarism of “Creep.” Mr. Reed’s point: Religions, just like some songs, really aren’t original and are just of re-iterations of things that previously existed.

Grant is quite masterful at playing a villain who is both charming and sleazy. Mr. Reed is able to intrigue his victims because as soon as he shows his sleazy side, he puts on the charm and makes his victims question if they are being paranoid or are judging him too harshly. Grant’s performance is one of the reasons why “Heretic” is not as boring as it could have been in the first third of the movie, which has nothing but talking. However, some viewers might grow a little impatient to get to the action scenes, which happen much later in the movie than what it looks like in the “Heretic” trailer.

Thatcher and East give worthy performances as these two contrasting missionaries, although viewers still won’t feel like they really know Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton by the end of the movie. Just like many other horror movies, “Heretic” will make viewers wonder why these missionaries didn’t leave when things started to get weird with Mr. Reed and it was obvious there was no wife in the house. “Heretic” makes the point that these missionaries have been taught to be obedient and fulfill their mission as much as possible with every person they meet. In other words, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton are more trusting and more compliant than perhaps the average non-missionary person would be in the same situation.

Although the surprises in “Heretic” are mostly clever and truly unpredictable, a few twists just don’t ring true at all. For example, one of the missionaries has a complete change in personality toward the end of the film, which shows she had been deliberately hiding certain aspects of herself all along. This personality reveal only comes conveniently during the part of the movie that turns into a slasher flick and there’s a “life or death” battle.

A few plot holes are revealed early on in “Heretic.” One of the biggest plot holes is Mr. Reed used his name and real home address to make the appointment, which is in the records of the church where Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton work. When the two missionaries aren’t back at the church when expected, they’re considered missing. A church official named Elder Kennedy (played by Topher Grace) then goes looking for them.

Therefore, no matter what happens to these missionaries, there’s a record that the last place that they were supposed to be for the day was at Mr. Reed’s house. It would automatically make Mr. Reed a person of interest if there’s a police investigation of these missing missionaries. Mr. Reed is meticulous and cunning in many other aspects of his kidnapping plan, so it seems quite stupid of him to leave such a big clue that would make him the target of an investigation.

The screenplay flaws in “Heretic” don’t ruin the movie, but they lower the quality of the film, which undercuts the premise that Mr. Reed is supposed to be a criminal mastermind. A true mastermind would not make the obvious mistakes that Mr. Reed makes in luring these two missionaries into his trap. “Heretic” is at its best with its sharp dialogue and intense psychological horror scenes. The movie is not quite the non-stop thrill ride that it appears to be, but it has enough to keep viewer interest to see how everything is going to end.

A24 will release “Heretic” in U.S. cinemas on November 8, 2024. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in select U.S. cinemas on October 30, 2024.

Review: ‘The Substance,’ starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid

October 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

“The Substance”

Directed by Coralie Fargeat

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area, the horror film “The Substance” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A famous TV aerobics instructor injects herself with an anti-aging liquid called The Substance, which creates a spliced younger woman from her DNA, and things go horribly wrong.

Culture Audience: “The Substance” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in provocative horror movies that have a lot to say about the extreme things that people can do to hold on to youth and beauty.

Margaret Qualley (pictured at far left) and Dennis Quaid (pictured second from left) in “The Substance” (Photo courtesy of MUBI)

The sci-fi horror movie “The Substance” is both a gruesome portrayal and a dark satire of vanity and insecurity about aging and society’s beauty ideals. The movie’s extremely gory and chaotic ending could’ve been better, but the performances are riveting. The visual imagery in “The Substance” is deliberately unsettling and might be downright nauseating for some viewers.

Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Screenplay. At the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, “The Substance” won the Midnight Madness Audience Award. Most people who like “The Substance” will admire its bold and risk-taking approach in depicting how society’s beauty standards can be toxic and cause destructive self-loathing. People who dislike “The Substance” will mostly be repulsed by the movie’s body horror, which (it cannot be said enough times) will be too disturbing for some viewers.

“The Substance” takes place in the Los Angeles area, but the movie was actually filmed in France. The opening scene shows an unidentified person wearing black gloves injecting something into an egg yolk. The egg yolk then self-duplicates. This scientific procedure is a foreshadowing of what happens to the main character in the story. “The Substance” invites viewers to think about what decisions they would make if they were in the same circumstances as this protagonist.

The movie’s protagonist is Elisabeth Sparkles (played by Demi Moore), a successful aerobics instructor on TV with a show called “Sparkle Your Life.” Elisabeth (a bachelorette with no children) is famous enough to have gotten her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, during a montage showing people walking on Elisabeth’s star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, it’s mentioned that Elisabeth has become a semi-forgotten has-been. A man accidentally drops a ketchup-covered hamburger on the star. This imagery of the Walk of Fame in the beginning of “The Substance” is referenced at the end of the movie.

What happened to Elisabeth? A flashback shows Elisabeth leading an enthusiastic workout to an admiring class for one of her TV episodes. And this day happens to be her birthday. Elisabeth is in her 60s, but she looks 20 to 25 years younger than her real age. Elisabeth doesn’t know it yet, but her career is about to go on a downward spiral.

Elisabeth is feeling upbeat and cheerful. She graciously thanks her colleagues in the TV studio when they wish her a happy birthday. The women’s restroom is out of order, so Elisabeth decides to use the men’s room. While she’s in a toilet stall, she overhears her boss Harvey (played by Dennis Quaid) enter the restroom and have a private phone conversation that is degrading to women.

Harvey—a high-ranking TV executive with an unknown title—is very egotistical, sleazy and sexist. He is verbally abusive and callous to his subordinates. Harvey values female employees only if they are young, conventionally beautiful, and can make money for him. Harvey openly tells people that a woman’s expiration date is the age of 50. And you know what that means for Elisabeth.

Elisabeth is driving down a street when she gets distracted by the sight of a billboard of herself getting replaced. Because of this distraction, Elisabeth gets into a major car accident where a truck crashes into her car. Elisabeth ends up in a hospital, where a doctor (played by Tom Morton) tells her that she is lucky not to have any serious injuries. A creepy male nurse (played by Robin Greer) feels Elisabeth’s spine and says to her, “You’re a good candidate.”

Not long after Elisabeth is released from the hospital, she gets an unusual delivery at her home: a flash drive wrapped in paper. The flash drive is labeled The Substance. And the paper is a hand-written note with a phone number and this message: “It changed my life.”

Elisabeth is curious, so she inserts the flash drive into a computer and sees a video presentation for The Substance. A voiceover for the presentation says, “Have you ever dreamt of being a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect. One single injection unlocks your DNA, starting a new cellular division that will release another version of yourself.”

The presentation further explains: “The two versions have to co-exist. The one and only thing not to forget: You are one. You cannot escape yourself.”

Elisabeth decides to try The Substance and places an order for it. She gets a package with a key card, a hypodermic needle and a small bottle containing lime green liquid. The number 503 is on the key card. Elisabeth later finds out that 503 is the customer number that she has been assigned.

When Elisabeth calls the customer service phone number that she was given, an unidentified male voice reminds her that if she injects The Substance (the green liquid), then whatever person is created from Elisabeth will always be part of Elisabeth. “You are the matrix,” the voice tells her. “Everything comes from you. And everything is you. This is simply a better version of yourself.”

Elisabeth is also given instructions that she and the spliced person who will be created from The Substance have to equally split their time in the real world every week. If exceptions are made, there are consequences. Elisabeth and her spliced alter ego being cannot be seen in public together at the same time. When one of them is active, the other has to remain unconscious.

Elisabeth injects The Substance for the first time while she’s naked in her bathroom. And the effects are almost immediate. Elisabeth collapses on the floor as a new person emerges from her spine. This newly created person is Sue (played by Margaret Qualley), a perky woman in her 20s. The movie has a fixation on showing extreme close-ups of Sue’s body parts, especially her rear end.

Sue is not a clone of Elisabeth. Rather, Sue looks like she could be a younger biological family member of Elisabeth. If Sue or Elisabeth starts to feel run down when her time is running out and it’s time for the other person to “take over,” the person who is feeling run down gets a nosebleed. The Substance can be injected to rejuvenate whoever gets injected.

Harvey seems to forget all about Elisabeth (whose show he was going to cancel anyway), and he gives Sue her own exercise show called “Pump It Up,” which becomes an instant hit. Problems arise when Sue gets addicted to her newfound fame and fortune and doesn’t keep her end of the bargain to split her public time with Elisabeth. It should come as no surprise that Sue essentially wants to take over Elisabeth’s life and keep Elisabeth hidden for as long as possible. The consequences are quite grisly.

“The Substance” doesn’t do a very good job of explaining how Elisabeth’s “disappearances” during the week aren’t noticed by many people in her life. Even if Elisabeth had no family and no friends, someone on Elisabeth’s level of fame would have people working for her who would notice that her disappearances keep getting longer. Perhaps it’s the movie’s not-so-subtle way of stating that women of a certain age become more “invisible” and less noticeable as they get older.

However, “The Substance” does hit the mark in its commentary on how people can be conflicted over how much youth and beauty (or lack thereof) can have profound effects on people’s lives because of how society judges people based on physical appearances. Many people act like these prejudices don’t affect them, but the reality is that these prejudices affect everyone, whether people want to admit it or not. This reality is never far from the sci-fi surrealism of “The Substance.”

Elisabeth and Sue are supposed to be the same person, but Sue’s eventual greediness in not wanting to give equal time for Elisabeth to live is an example of the self-sabotage that people can engage in for short-term pleasure. On a different level, “The Substance” can also be considered a scathing criticism of the plastic surgery that people get to look younger, but the plastic surgery (if not done correctly) can actually make them look deformed or unnatural. Although “The Substance” has been described as a feminist movie, “The Substance” shows that women aren’t the only people with the desire to hold on to youth and good looks.

Moore is perfectly cast as self-conscious and complicated Elisabeth, who goes through a form of torture when the shallow and ambitious Sue decides to take over Elisabeth’s life. Qualley also gives a standout performance as Sue, who never seems to be completely human. That’s because Sue was created as a fully formed adult only when it comes to her physical appearance, instead of going through the human psychological/emotional experiences of maturing from childhood to adulthood. Without the character-shaping experiences of maturing from childhood to adulthood, Sue can only be described as somewhat soulless with an underdeveloped personality.

What happens to Elisabeth during the course of the story is more than a “be careful what you wish for” warning. It’s also the movie’s way of saying that going to extreme lengths to hold on to youth and beauty doesn’t just harm the person who goes to those extremes. It also harms society because it’s a part of a system that profits from making people feel insecure about natural aging, in order to sell products and services aimed at making people look younger. The real horror in “The Substance” isn’t just in the bloody gore but the fact many people in real life would make the same choices that Elisabeth makes to look young and beautiful at any cost and regardless of any damage it causes.

MUBI released “The Substance” in U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. MUBI’s streaming service will premiere “The Substance” on October 31, 2024.

Review: “Smile 2,’ starring Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Gallner, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Dylan Gelula and Ray Nicholson

October 16, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Smile 2”

Directed by Parker Finn

Culture Representation: Taking place in mostly in the New York City area, the horror film “Smile 2” (a sequel to 2022’s “Smile”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people, Asian people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Pop music superstar Skye Riley, who is about to start a comeback tour after recovering from a tragic car accident, becomes haunted by a demon that causes her to have nightmarish hallucinations that people are giving her sinister smiles.

Culture Audience: “Smile” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the first “Smile” movie and stylish horror films that are effective in being creepy and gruesome.

As flashy as it is gory, Smile 2 is a rare sequel that’s better than the original movie. Naomi Scott gives an impressive performance as a pop diva haunted by a sinister demon spirit. This movie improves from 2022’s “Smile” in almost every way, although it would help if viewers say the first “Smile” movie to understand many of the scenes in “Smile 2,” especially the opening scene.

Parker Finn wrote and directed “Smile” and “Smile 2.” Instead of copying its predecessor, “Smile 2” goes further in character development, production design, visual effects, cinematography and the movie’s overall story. The “Smile” movies are about a demon spirit that gets passed on to a different person after that person goes insane within a week (including hallucinating that people have sinister smiles), and the possessed person commits suicide while smiling, which is the demon’s intention. The demon then possesses the person who was the last one to see the dead person alive in the same room, even if the possessed person dies from something other than suicide.

The first “Smile” movie (which takes place in New Jersey) was mainly about solving the mystery behind these mysterious deaths. A police detective named Joel (played by Kyle Gallner) was investigating. Mild spoiler alert: By the end of “Smile,” Joel became possessed by the demon. This is necessary information to understand the full context of the opening scene of “Smile 2.”

“Smile 2” (which takes mostly in the New York City area) begins six days after the events at the end of the first “Smile” movie. Joel is desperate to find someone who will become posssessed by the demon because Joel knows that he will die soon. He has chosen a ruthless drug dealer/murderer named Yev (played by Roberts Jekabsons), who lives and works with his brother Alexi (played by Zebedee Row). Wearing a hooded mask and armed with a gun, Joel goes to the criminals’ house and does a home invasion that goes horribly wrong.

There’s a shootout that leaves both brothers dead (the demon can only possess people who are alive) in the living room area. Joel is wounded in one of his shoulders. Just as he is about to leave, a drug dealer who buys from Alexi and Yev suddenly appears and startles Joel. The other drug dealer is named Lewis Fregoli (played by Lukas Gage), who understandably gets freaked out by this crime scene that he sees in this room.

Some colleagues of Yev and Alexi also show up shortly afterward. These cohorts see Joel and the bloodbath inside the house, but Joel is in another room. Another shootout ensues, but Joel escapes into the street outside, only to be hit by a car. Lewis was the last person to see Joel alive in the same room. And you know what that means.

“Smile 2” then introduces viewers to the movie’s main character: a pop music superstar named Skye Riley (played by Naomi Scott), who is on the verge of starting a comeback tour. Skye has an image and style that is very similar to Lady Gaga. During a talk show interview on “The Drew Barrymore Show” (Barrymore portrays herself in this cameo role in “Smile 2”), it’s mentioned that this is the first interview that Skye has done since she was in a car accident the previous year. The car crash killed her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson (played by Ray Nicholson), who was driving the car. Skye was the only passenger.

A toxicology report determined that Paul and Skye both had intoxication levels of cocaine and alcohol in their systems at the time of the accident. Skye’s interview on “The Drew Barrymore Show” is a way to redeem herself, promote her upcoming comeback tour, and introduce her new hairstyle. At the time the accident happened, Skye had long black hair. Now, she has a short blonde hairstyle. In some scenes in the movie, it’s shown that Skye has a nervous tic of pulling out strands of her hair when she’s feeling stress or anxiety.

In “The Drew Barrymore Show” interview, Skye admits that she was abusing drugs and alcohol during the period of time when the car accident happened. Skye says that she’s been to rehab and is now clean and sober. She also makes public apologies to her fans, her family and her business team. Skye noticeably leaves out any apologies to Paul’s loved ones. (Paul is prominently featured in marketing materials for “Smile 2,” but he’s not in the movie as much as those marketing materials suggest. Ray Nicholson, a son of Jack Nicholson, will remind some people of Jack Nicholson’s performance in the 1980 horror film “The Shining” in how Ray Nicholson does Paul’s creepy smile.)

The car accident left Skye with long scars on her front torso and on her back. She is very self-conscious about these scars and is still suffering from back pain. Due to her history of substance addiction, Skye cannot get a drug prescription for the pain. And so, out of desperation, Skye secretly goes to the home of her former drug dealer Lewis (who is also her former classmate from high school) to illegally buy Vicodin, after she gets a message from Lewis on her phone.

When Skye arrives at Lewis’ place, she sees him very strung-out on cocaine and babbling about how he’s seeing strange visions. Lewis also tells Skye that whatever is haunting him is in the same room with them. The trailer for “Smile 2” already reveals that Lewis commits suicide in front of Skye by bashing his own head in with a cylinder block from a weightlift. And because Skye was the last person to see Lewis alive in the same room, you know what that means.

The rest of “Smile 2” shows what happens as Skye begins to mentally unravel. With the wrong screenplay, sloppy direction or an untalented cast, “Smile 2” could have been very tedious and badly performed. However, this movie maintains its suspense throughout with good acting and has some truly impactful and memorable scenes that might be too unsettling for sensitive viewers. Some of Skye’s nightmares include flashback memories to what happened in the moments right before the car crash that killed Paul.

In addition to Scott’s standout performance, “Smile 2” has solid performances from supporting characters who are close to Skye. They include her caring and ambitious mother/manager Elizabeth Riley (played by Rosemarie DeWitt); Skye’s sardonic best friend Gemma (played by Dylan Gelula), who reconciles with Skye after they were estranged; Skye’s loyal personal assistant Joshua (played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley); and a record company executive named Darius Bravo (played by Raúl Castillo), who works with Skye and greatly admires her.

The scenes depicting the music industry and concert performances are very realistic. Scott (as Skye) performs some original songs in “Smile 2,” including “New Brain,” “Grieved You,” “Just My Name” and “Blood on White Satin.” At a meet-and-greet backstage with fans, Skye has an encounter with a creep named Alfredo (played by Ivan Carlo), who has to be escorted out by security when he gets too aggressive with Skye. It won’t be the last time that Skye sees Alfredo.

Later in the movie, Skye meets a stranger named Morris (played by Peter Jacobson), who says he’s an emergency room nurse with an idea to help her. This is the most awkward part of the movie because Skye meets Morris at a diner after he randomly texted her messages indicating that he knows her secret. Morris says his brother died of the same curse that he knows that Skye has. He suggests a radical solution to get rid of the demon.

“Smile 2” has enough to satisfy fans of the first “Smile” and win over fans who are new to the “Smile” franchise. There are a few parts of the movie that become repetitive in hammering home the point that Skye is having these terrible hallucinations. What’s realistic is that Skye is not a completely sympathetic character and is prone to having diva tantrums. Even though the odds are stacked against Skye for her to survive the curse, “Smile 2” does a skillful job of keeping viewers guessing about what will happen until the visually stunning last 15 minutes of the movie.

Paramount Pictures will release “Smile 2” in U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024.

Review: ‘Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit,’ starring Việt Hương, Diệu Đưc, Trung Dân, Dạ Chúc, Duy Anh and Mỹ Duyên

October 8, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit”

Directed by Nguyen Huu Hoang

Vietnamese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Vietnam, near the Mekong River, the horror film “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” features an all-Vietnamese cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A vengeful ghost called Ma Da possesses, kidnaps and kills people, and a single mother fights to get her daughter away from this evil spirit.

Culture Audience: “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching idiotic and boring horror movies.

Việt Hương in “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” (Photo courtesy of Lotte Entertainment)

Hokey, unfocused and very derivative, “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” is a limp horror movie that struggles to keep its ideas afloat. This story (about a mother battling a vengeful ghost) has terrible acting, sloppy editing, and tacky visual effects. It’s a complete time waster of a film that has a twist ending that makes this already bad movie even worse.

Directed by Nguyen Huu Hoang, “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” does not have a credited screenwriter, which is usually an indication that whoever wrote the movie is too embarrased to be publicly associated with it. “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” takes place in an unnamed village near the Mekong River, which is supposed to be haunted by an evil ghost named Ma Da. Children are warned not to go near the river.

The story is that Ma Da (played by Mỹ Duyên) was a teenage girl who committed suicide by jumping into the river and drowning. She re-emerges from the river to target souls whom she thinks are spiritually compatible with hers. Ma Da then possesses the person she targets (the targeted person’s eyes turn black during this possession), she kidnaps them, and usually kills them in the river.

One of the residents of this village is Bâ Lê (played by Việt Hương), who makes a living by fishing for corpses in the river and selling their bodies for organ donations. She should not be surprised that her creepy and disgusting job will attract an evil spirit. But Lê shows throughout this movie that she’s less-than-smart and makes all the predictable nonsensical decisions that people do in horror movies.

Lê is a single mother to a daughter named Bé Nhung (played by Dạ Chúc), who’s about 5 or 6 years old. Lê and Nhung live with Lê’s mother Bâ Vu (played by Diệu Đưc), who is retired. Lê tends to be a high-strung workaholic. Her mother Lâi is much more laid-back and nurturing.

One day, Nhung finds a girl doll that’s about 6 inches tall on the ground of a swampy marsh area. The doll has stringy, long black hair, a watermelon-colored blouse and a white skirt. As soon as Nhung finds and keeps the doll, you know that bad things are going to happen. A flashback show that Ma Da was holding the doll when she committed suicide by drowning.

Nhung starts having nightmares. She also has visions of a shadowy female ghost figure who keeps following her when she’s awake. (We all know who this ghost is.) Lê has a hard time believing Nhung because every time Nhung cries and says she’s seen the ghost, Lê doesn’t see anything.

Other villagers who end up getting involved are a shaman/medical examiner named Ông Dân (played by Trung Dân) and Lê’s confidant Ông Lương (played by Thành Lộc), who works with his father in the village’s medical examiner place. A friend of Lhung’s is a boy named Hiếu (played by Duy Anh), who’s about 8 or 9 years old and who acts like he’s her bratty older brother. He likes to tease Lhung a lot with mild pranks.

Hiếu disappears one night. The word quickly spreads in the village that Ma Da must’ve taken Hiếu. “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” is so poorly written, Hiếu and his disappearance are not mentioned again for a very long stretch of the movie, which has a flashback scene at the end to finally show what happened to him.

Before the movie gets to its atrocious ending, there are many cliché-ridden jump scares that are not terrifying at all. Nhung disappears and reappears with no explanation. And there are several muddled action scenes of Lê in the water. Ma Da is barely seen in this mostly darkly lit movie. (Ma Da is supposed to look like a drenched teenage girl in a red dress.)

A movie about an evil spirit that haunts a community should at least tell more about the origins of this evil spirit. But “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” doesn’t even bother to make that effort. All that’s left is a movie that throws together a lot of dull, predictable elements seen in other horror films, but without making them part of a cohesive story—just like puzzle pieces that do not fit. Viewers of “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” should not expect a coherent story or a reason to care after the film’s awful ending is revealed.

Lotte Entertainment released “Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit” in select U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. The movie was released in Vietnam on August 16, 2024.

Review: ‘Never Let Go’ (2024), starring Halle Berry

September 30, 2024

by Carla Hay

Anthony B. Jenkins, Halle Berry and Percy Daggs IV in “Never Let Go” (Photo by Liane Hentscher/Lionsgate)

“Never Let Go” (2024)

Directed by Alexandre Aja

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of the U.S., the horror film “Never Let Go” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A single mother and her 10-year-old twin sons live in isolation in a wooded area, where she has taught them that they will be in danger or killed if they let go of the rope that ties them together when they go outside.

Culture Audience: “Never Let Go” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Halle Berry and movies that are mildly suspenseful but leave too many questions unanswered.

Halle Berry in “Never Let Go” (Photo by Liane Hentscher/Lionsgate)

“Never Let Go” is marketed as a horror movie, but it’s more of a bleak psychological drama about mental illness. Although it’s oddly intriguing about what will happen next, the story becomes repetitive and clumsy, with an ending that falls flat. The performances from the principal cast members are solid, but “Never Let Go” seems it would have been much better as a short film.

Directed by Alexandre Aja, “Never Let Go” was written by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby. It’s one of those movies that looks like it’s trying to be a like Stephen King short story. However, the characters just become a bit one-note after a while. It’s a movie that focuses mainly on a family of three people, but by the end of the movie, there isn’t much that’s revealed about these three people.

In “Never Let Go” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. state but was actually filmed in the Canadian province of British Columbia), the family of three at the center of the story live in an isolated wooded area. The family members are a widow who is only identified in the end credits as Momma (played by Halle Berry) and her 10-year-old fraternal twin sons Samuel (played by Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (played by Percy Daggs IV).

Samuel is the quieter, more obedient twin. Nolan is the more extroverted and rebellious twin. Samuel likes to remind Nolan that he’s three minutes older than Nolan, as if somehow that gives Samuel more authority over Nolan. Samuel is always worried about following their mother’s rules. Nolan is more interested in breaking the rules, especially when he’s very curious about something.

Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, viewers see that this is a very strange family. Momma is extremely paranoid and has taught her sons that when they go outside, they all have to be tied together by a long rope. And they can never let go of this rope or let the rope become untied when they’re outside.

Momma tells Samuel and Nolan that if they get separated from each other, then a shapeshifting demon call The Evil will get them. Momma says that The Evil will infect their souls and make them want to kill each other. Nolan and Samuel also do a ritualistic chant that includes the words “never let go.”

Momma, Samuel and Nolan all live in a ramshackle cabin with no electricity. The cabin was built by Momma’s father, who is now deceased. This family doesn’t have any vehicles. Momma wants to keep herself and her sons away from other people and from the modern world.

In other words, they don’t go grocery shopping. Momma, Samuel and Nolan instead hunt for food in the woods. They use a crossbow for some of this hunting. The family has a dog named Coda that helps in the hunting and foraging and is an all-around loyal pet.

The animals they eat include squirrels, frogs, insects and bird eggs. The forest doesn’t have any fruit trees but the family will occasionally eat leaves. And if they’re really hungry, which becomes more often as the story goes along, they might eat tree bark.

Momma tells her sons that they can’t eat anything without her permission first. The boys’ existence revolves around looking for food and doing what their mother says. She’s not homeschooling them or doing anything to teach them to be intelligent and independent.

When the inevitable happens, and the rope unravels, The Evil (played by Stephanie Lavigne) appears. It turns out to that almost every time Momma sees The Evil, it looks like a zombie version of Momma’s mother, who appears as a bloated corpse that has black bile coming from her mouth and hisses when she’s about to attack. Momma tells her sons not to look at The Evil.

The ghost of Momma’s father (played by Georges Gracieuse) also occasionally appears. And so does Momma’s dead husband (played by William Catlett), who just is seen suddenly showing up in the woods, saying nothing, and then disappearing again. It’s as underwhelming as it sounds.

What is the point of all these ghostly sightings or hallucinations? Momma is haunted by some childhood trauma. She tells incoherent stories about being abused by a horrible mother, who is dead but Momma thinks her mother is still out to get her and shows up as The Evil. And only Momma can see these demons. “Never Let Go” is not subtle at all in its obvious and trite symbolism.

Samuel is all too willing to believe everything that Momma says. By contrast, Nolan becomes more skeptical, especially when he begins to suspect that nothing bad will really happen if they untie the rope from each other. “Never Let Go” then becomes a bit tiresome as it repeats any of these four scenarious: Facing starvation, the family goes outside to look for food. The rope gets untied. Momma sees The Evil and gets even more anxious. Nolan wants to test the boundaries of going in the woods without the rope tied to him.

“Never Let Go” drops vague hints that The Evil plays mind games and is still around even when it can’t be seen. In a scene where Samuel and Nolan are walking together in the woods, Samuel thinks Nolan has loudly whispered, “She loves me more.” However, Nolan denies ever saying that comment. This line is later used in the movie to make some type of statement, but it’s just not effective enough, especially if viewers didn’t notice the first time that this line was uttered.

Not much is revealed about Momma’s personal background. At one point in the movie, she shows a Polaroid camera to her sons and a photo of herself as a blonde party girl. She says she brought the camera with her from the “old world” from her previous life. What does that mean? And why bring it up if the movie doesn’t do anything else with this information? Don’t expect this movie to give you those answers.

The most disturbing part of “Never Let Go” doesn’t have to do with The Evil but when Momma becomes desperately hungry and decides she has no choice but to shoot Coda and feed him to her family. The movie has a very intense and suspenseful scene where a distraught Nolan vigorously tries to stop his mother from shooting the family dog. After this scene is over, “Never Let Go” just becomes a bland survival story.

Berry gives a capable performance, even though she’s not in the movie as much as the marketing would have you believe. The real star of the movie is the character of Nolan, who goes through a predictable series of dilemmas. Daggs gives the movie’s standout performance as the spirited Nolan, who is the closest thing this movie has to a character with an interesting personality. With too many unanswered questions and a last-ditch attempt to turn this ghost story into a crime drama, “Never Let Go” is a muddled movie that stumbles around but never seems to find its way.

Lionsgate released “Never Let Go” in U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 11, 2024 “Never Let Go” will be released on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD on December 3, 2024.

Review: ‘The Shade’ (2024), starring Chris Galust, Laura Benanti, Dylan McTee, Mariel Molino, Germain Arroyo, Sam Duncan and Michael Boatman

September 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

Chris Galust in “The Shade” (Photo courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment)

“The Shade” (2024)

Directed by Tyler Chipman

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “The Shade” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few Latin people and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 20-year-old man, who witnessed his father’s suicide when he was a child, is haunted by visions of harpy.

Culture Audience: “The Shade” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching slow-paced horror movies that leave too many questions unanswered.

“The Shade” is the equivalent of a vehicle that runs out of power and gets stuck in the mud. This repetitive horror movie fails to answer crucial questions in this gloomy story about a young man haunted by a harpy. The technical aspects of “The Shade”—such as the movie’s cinematography, makeup and visual effects—are competent in creating an eerie atmosphere. The acting performances are average but watchable. It’s too bad that “The Shade” wastes its story potential by over-relying on the same “scare tactics” and not doing enough to explain why major things in the movie happened.

Written and directed by Tyler Chipman, “The Shade” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city. The movie was actually filmed in Massachusetts. The protagonist of “The Shade” is 20-year-old Ryan Beckman (played by Chris Galust), who is haunted by witnessing his father’s suicide when Ryan was a child of about 7 or 8 years old. The movie opens with Ryan having a nightmare about this suicide.

In the nightmare, Ryan as a child (played by Kellen Raffaelo) is driven to a graveyard at night by his father Randall “Randy” Beckman (played by Robert Marsella), who sets fires to a particular grave headstone. On the headstone is Randall’s name. His birth year listed as 1969, and his death year is listed as 2021. After setting fire to the grave, Randall shoots himself while a horrified Ryan watches.

The adult Ryan has anxiety issues and has been prescribed unnamed medication that he is reluctant to take, but he self-medicates by smoking a lot of marijuana. Ryan is also in therapy. His therapist is Dr. Derick Huston (played by Michael Boatman), who is compassionate and understanding. These therapy sessions don’t amount to much except Ryan telling Dr. Huston that he has trouble sleeping because of nightmares.

Ryan lives with his mother Renee Beckman (played by Laura Benanti) and his 9-year-old brother James “Jamie” Beckman (played by Sam Duncan), who likes to play video games with Ryan. Jamie and Ryan have an older brother named Jason (played by Dylan McTee), who is just as mopey and moody as Ryan, but Jason has a nasty temper and is quick to get violent.

Early on in the movie, Jason moves back into the family household because he has left college. Ryan is annoyed because no one in the family wants to say why Jason left college. One night, Jason is playing heavy metal music loudly in his room. When Ryan goes to the room to tell Jason to turn down the volume, he sees a harpy (played by Charlotte Stickles) hiding in the room. No one believes Ryan.

Ryan is a college student who has two part-time jobs: a pizza maker/delivery person at a pizza place and an apprentice at a tattoo shop, a place where he hopes to eventually work full-time. Ryan has a devoted and loving girlfriend name Alejandra, nicknamed Alex (played by Mariel Molino), whose sassy gay cousin Nicolas Silva (played by Germain Arroyo) is Ryan’s best friend. Nicholas is also Ryan’s college classmate and co-worker at the pizza place.

“The Shade” is nothing but Ryan repeatedly seeing the harpy, in between long, dull stretches of this 127-minute movie. At first, Ryan thinks he’s the only person who can see the harpy, but he eventually finds out that other people can see the harpy too. The harpy is supposed to represent grief, but “The Shade” can’t decide if it wants to be a horror movie or a psychological drama about grief that affects an entire family. Don’t expect to get any answers about why Randall “Randy” Beckman committed suicide. Worst of all is the ending of “The Shade,” which is a complete letdown after doing a shoddy job of building any suspense or answering vital questions.

Level 33 Entertainment released “The Shade” in U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 22, 2024.