Halloween (week) 2: the service of Vespas
It’s only been a week or so, but I’m well ahead of schedule for my scary movie-watching.
October
1. Dave Made a Maze (2017)
2. The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) Russell Crowe’s Italian accent is equal parts great and, as the kids say, a lot. He also drives around on a Vespa: I’m not sure it it was supposed to be funny, but by gum it was funny. The movie itself is well-made, and has as much connection to actual Catholicism as Paw Patrol does to FEMA.
3. Prom Night (2008). This movie was so generically uninteresting. It’s almost a relief to have what will surely be the worst movie of the month arrive so early. Has nothing to do with the 1980 Prom Night other than the title. Idris Elba will go onto far better thigns than this.
4. M3GAN (2023). Begins by paralleling a woman’s choices trying to take care of a new child without committing to truly parenting, with her recycling some old work ideas instead of truly committing to a new project. Then it turns into a killer-robot-doll movie. I watched the PG-13 version released in theaters: there’s an R-rated cut where M3GAN kills way more people.
5. The Meg 2: The Trench (2023). Another movie with very different first and second halfs. First half is a cast attrition thriller at the bottom of the sea. The second half is the movie they advertised and people paid to see: giant shark going nuts, Jason Statham throwing bomb-spears from a Jetski. Essentially a remake of the first film.
6. After.Life (2008). Christina Ricci wakes up on a metal table: Glum mortician Liam Neeson tells her sorry, but she’s dead now, sorry. Is she really dead? Can Liam Neeson communicate with the dead? Is this all in her mind? All in his mind?
7. Renfield (2023). How has Nicolas Cage never played a vampire before? His Dracula is right out of a silent movie. I could have done without the cartoonishly over the top violence — at one point Renfield stabs someone with a recently severed arm — for more of Renfield with a self-help book trying to quit his toxic relationship with the Prince of Wallachia.
8. Black Box (2020). Wow, bizarre theat Renfield and Black Box both count as horror movies. This is a grounded, psychological drama of a father with a tramuatic brain injury unable to care for his daughter, who seeks an experimental treatment. Serious, thought-provoking, and a clever analogy for real-life issues, like all good horror stories.
SPIDER-MAN OF THE WEEK
Baby Halloween costume week!
PRINCESS LEIA OF WEEK
MICKEY MOUSE OF THE WEEK
SUPER MARIO OF THE WEEK
UPCOMING APPEARANCE
DECEMBER 16 – BIG APPLE COMIC CON, New York, NY