EvilPhoEniX

Based on a short from the VHS2 short Slumber Party Abduction, the film is a likeable retro horror B-movie, with a lighter Stranger Things feel and references to older horror films. While the first half comes across as a teen genre flick, with a group of kids who like to play and one dude who bullies everyone and is a first class asshole. It all goes wrong at a house party where everyone is ambushed and kidnapped by aliens who need human skin as fuel for their ship. There are brilliant alien costumes, they look pretty creepy and the practical effects are a delight. The second half is quite suspenseful and there is a bit of gore (the best was the spilling of alien acid on a human), but I was expecting a bit more cutting and a wilder ride. The film looks slightly like it fell out of the 1980s, which will be a plus for fans of older films. The short running time of 85 minutes is an advantage, but I can't pull it off to better than average. 6/10.

Vampire baby borefest. Brad Anderson is usually a whiz and his movies are usually entertaining and smart (The Call, Fractured, Stonehearst Asylum). This was supposed to be the kick-off to the vampire season that's been rolling in on us this year, but it's so woefully dull and uninteresting that I can't even believe Anderson made it. A young boy is bitten by an infected dog and becomes a vampire, but instead of murdering half the town, his mother feeds him blood in a bag. Meh. In terms of craftsmanship, it’s fine, so at least it's not underfunded dreck. The actors do their thing too, though I didn’t like the little boy and I'm not too fond of Monaghan either. But the plot is too safe, formulaic, without surprises and very predictable. There aren’t any significant genre thrills here either, let alone gore or an action packed finale. There is no suspense or atmosphere, the whole thing is so bland. It's more of a family drama with light vampire elements and I didn’t enjoy it at all. 4/10.

An amazing B-movie action ride with and an excellent Butler! The skilful French director Jean-François Richet hasn't made a bad film for me yet, I even have his Mesrine: Killer Instinct among my favourites, and Plane is such a guilty pleasure that it meets most of my requirements. It benefits from an appealing premise that is perfect for a proper action film. It's part disaster plane survival and part fight for your life in hostile territory with the Philippine Guerillas, and I really enjoy that. Gerard Butler plays exactly the leading charismatic likeable guy he is wont to do here (he even drops a decent wisecrack here and there), and Mike Colter, who plays the prisoner-killer aboard the plane, is excellent. Butler, of course, has no choice but to work with the prisoner to get rid of the greater evil. A very unconventional team-up that works great all round. Colter is also a member of the French Legion, so he is in his element, and his experience gives him the edge over everyone. The action is excellent, there's only one fight, but it's very intense, but the shootouts are properly bloody and nicely shot, (there was even some awesome jungle “Splinter Cell” stealth action!) and sniper action has never been more impressive than here. The airplane scenes were also nice, with no shortage of dense atmosphere and more than solid build-up in places. There's absolutely no sparing of tension throughout the film and the bad guys are excellent, especially the two central scumbags, you can respect the hell out of them. I must also praise the scenes where they search for the missing plane. Tony Goldwyn gives a great performance, there's some solid dialogue and I enjoyed a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. For me, this is definitely a film I'll happily watch again due to its briskness, fun, action and the insane adrenaline rush it pours. My quibbles are mostly directed to the occasionally dodgy stunts and it's a shame there wasn't some deeper investigative line about the prisoner at the end. But regardless, great fun and satisfaction. 85%.

After a long time, a solid werewolf horror film with Norwegian mythology. The film is set in the Norwegian town of Nybo, where a young girl moves in with her police officer mother to start a new life, only to soon feel the horror very keenly when she and her classmates are attacked by a "wolf". At first the film feels like a Norwegian crime drama, where instead of the hunt for a killer, we have the hunt for unknown beasts. We also have a predator expert who points out that it's a lycan. The film feels very authentic and the you get the feeling that this could easily happen, even though you know it is fantasy and myth. This is what the Norwegians are good at. I liked the wolf’s background from the Viking period and the whole mythology around Lycans is explained nicely. I also have praise appreciate the look of the werewolf itself – the Norwegians have their own interpretation on it, so it looks more like a wild wolf, but with the characteristics of a werewolf. Finally, we get a proper monster that that makes a mockery all the stuffed animals we've seen over the last few years. The film also has decent performances, nice Norwegian scenery, and decently brutal shots of mutilated corpses. The sequence in the cave doesn't lack for great atmosphere either, and the finale in the streets is delicious – though I could have imagined a much bigger carnage. Good for me, a fan of werewolf and animal horror shouldn't grumble too much, among genre relatives this is definitely above average. Viewers uninterested in material only focused on the script and ignore the rest will be disappointed. And good for them! 7/10.

Balaguero off the chains and still in good form! After his cult hit REC, he may have made his best horror film. Finally this year I can shout my favourite phrase ‘What a fucking ride’! Balaguero cleverly combines two sub-genres here, where on the one side we have a crime drama with drug dealers and on the other side occult horror with witches, and both genres fit very well, so the result couldn't be bad. It has a highly attractive protagonist, Ester Expósito (after watching it I immediately went check if she has a video on pornhub and at least lick the TV!), who plays a dancer who escapes from work with a backpack full of drugs and hides in her sister's apartment. Pissed off drug dealers are scouring the city, but other dangers lurk for the main character: there are also witches in the apartment complex who want to resurrect a demon, The first hour is just things getting going, but it's a good watch thanks to the beautiful Esther, and things only to erupt into a pretty decent brutal massacre at the end (nothing crazy, but the bloodiest genre film so far this year without a doubt). The atmosphere, which is uncomfortable in places, is also good, there's some minor plot twists, the whole film has a great pace, it builds up nicely, and in a few scenes the film evoked Martyrs and Inside, which is a great calling card! The finale is a bit of a stretch though, the main character gets a crazy beating, she's slowly covered in blood and full of open wounds, but when she picks up the shotgun it's proper Female Heroism with all the trimmings. It's a bit of a shame that the demon only gets one scene, because it looked awesome and deserved more space, and of course Esther doesn't show her tits, which is the most disappointing thing, otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to give it a full score. 8/10,

A likeable little sibling to Top Gun about the first black pilot during the Korean War. Very underrated in our country, but the reason is obvious (racism and most comparing it to Top Gun, which is a losing battle beforehand), if you get away from that, you're in for an enjoyable war movie with fighter jets, of which there aren't many. Director J.D. Dillard tends to make cheaper films, and Devotion is his first major A-grade work, and he's certainly handled it decently. As for the cast, absolutely no reservations here. Jonathan Majors is a young talent and Glen Powell was in Top Gun as well, so he was downright born for these roles. Visually it's very good, it looks realistic and it's a good film to watch. The first hour is slower though, we have the classic character introductions and immersion into the plot, but I wasn't downright bored. Once the first action scene starts, the film picks up a decent pace and it's a ride to the end. The action scenes are very well done and look spectacular. I was pleased to see that it wasn't just in the air, but there was some ground combat as well, albeit brief, but the atmosphere could be cut. I also enjoyed the whole final mission, which oozed fatality and emotion, and the music was good too. So for me, a decent job. 7/10.

The finale of Sky Rojo is over and it is once again an ejoyable and fun ride. The first season is admittedly unsurpassed in my book because that's where the character of the pimp gets the most space and his wisdom and philosophizing takes the best of Berlin, so I enjoyed that a lot, plus it breaks down the whole brothel system in detail and it's sexy, intelligent and compelling. In season 3 it's purely about revenge and who's who. The new villain of the sicario from El Juarez is a pleasure to watch, he plays a fine nutcase and was a great fit here. The villains are very good and the trio of hookers works as well, especially Coral and Wendy are top notch. The tension is not spared here again, the music builds up solidly and there are more and more dead bodies. It's a pity that story-wise it doesn't dazzle that much, you can guess how it will all turn out, but I can live with that. The finale is nicely action packed and Asier Etxeandía deserves an Oscar, he can play these bad guys to perfection (especially the pimps!). A fun Spanish mini-series from the makers of Money Heist. Let's see what they come up with next time, now that both series are over. 7/10.

An excellent animation film, a really incredible ride that leaves the whole Pixar and the whole Shrek franchise in the dust. It has an attractive theme and finally an animation that is not only a story, but is also loaded with great action and great humour, a combination that always wins for me. The cat wisecracks non-stop, the visuals are almost revolutionary, the action scenes have great choreography and Wolf is the villain of the year, he gave me goosebumps. I loved that there are two other bad guys besides the wolf, which is nicely unusual and this whole cat adventure never takes its paw off the gas. I'm annoyed I didn't see it in the theater. Well done on all counts. 9/10.

A mythological Mexican legend of the witch who feeds on children! January has brought us two decent horror genre films so far. The first one is the surprising slasher Sick and the second surprise is this Mexican spooky tale, which just reaffirmed my fondness for witches and creepy grannies. Isaac Ezban has already made a decent mindfuck called The Incident, so he's not a complete newcomer, and technically Evil Eye is very good, which is always one of the mainstays for me, because underfunded horror films just don't do it for me anymore. The story is about two sisters who go to visit their grandmother. Their parents are trying to find a cure for the youngest sister and so they spend a torrid time with the grandmother because not only is she mean, grumpy, strict and unpleasant, but she's also a witch. The film has a slower pace but it doesn't get significantly boring, there are a few scares (nothing that would induce a heart attack but they are there), the atmosphere and the grandmother herself are the most impressive, she is simply creepy (she looks great stripped of her skin, that's where the makeup artists went all out), and the story of the nanny to the kids is also impressive and pleasantly creepy. Good for me, I can take this Mexican Folk fairytale. It could have been more intense and brutal, but I like witches better than ghosts and demons, so I'm satisfied. 7/10

A mainstream demonic haunting film with a Jewish theme. The Offering was released in American cinemas, so technically it's above average and looks nice. The Jewish culture gives it a novel touch and the morgue setting works well, it just could have used a little more gore when it comes to the scares. I liked that it has a pretty old fashioned feel to it and there is some interesting Jewish mythology surrounding the ancient demon (the demon's look is original and solid- just again he didn't do enough damage). There are a couple of atmospheric sequences that aren't entirely discardable, but the scares didn't strike me as too spectacular and there aren't many of them, I think. But it's a pretty good watch thanks to the short running time and the novel premise, and it's definitely a better average among similar stuff. I was kind of hoping for a little sibling to The Autopsy of Jane Doe, but unfortunately that didn't happen. 6/10.