This week, we’ll continue our marathon of all-new films.The latest installment in the ”Alien” franchise comes first, followed by the second “Beetlejuice” film. We’ll take a bad trip to a music festival in “Don’t Turn Out the Lights” and then wolf out in “Blackout.” Lastly, we’ll look at the new remake of “Speak No Evil,” and then you’ll find out what we loved and hated this week.
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Mainstream Films:
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Directed by Fede Alvarez
Written by Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Fede Alvarez
Stars Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaud
Run Time: 1 Hour, 59 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
We saw this at the theater and again at home, and we enjoyed it both times. It’s not a perfect movie if you think too deeply about the physics and some of the character choices, but it’s thoroughly entertaining. David Jonsson is especially good, giving us another view of one of the artificial humans who can actually be extremely human. If you’re a fan of the Alien movies, this is one of the better ones, and you should check it out.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a dark spaceship that suddenly wakes up, similarly to the ship in the first film. This automated ship has found the wreckage of the Nostromo, which was destroyed by Ripley at the end of the first movie. A chunk of material is brought aboard the ship, and then it continues on its journey as credits roll. The thing is cut open, and we see inside– the remains of an original alien xenomorph.
Rain wakes up, it’s time for her shift on a Wayland-Yutani mining planet, Jackson’s Star, which gets no daylight, ever. She sits with Andy, who is a little slow; he knows all the bad jokes and puns. Rain goes into the office for her off-planet travel papers; she’s got her quota, but the clerk changes the rules on her. As she comes outside, she finds a bunch of punks beating up Andy, who is a slightly defective android, and she has to reboot him after he goes into a kind of seizure.
Rain and Andy go to visit Tyler, Kay, Bjorn, and Navarro, who have detected an abandoned ship in orbit of their planet. Rather than wait for travel papers, they want to steal that ship, which probably has working cryo-units, and run away to another fully terraformed colony. They need Andy to access the system and get them inside the ship. It sounds like an easy plan; nothing can go wrong…
The group steals a shuttle and blasts off into orbit. Rain sees the sun for the first time. The derelict ship isn’t a ship, it’s a giant research station that’s slowly drifting into the planet’s rings; they’ve only got about 36 hours before the station is destroyed.
As they dock with the big station, we see that Bjorn doesn’t like Andy or synths very much, but since they need Andy, he tolerates him. Those two, along with Tyler, board and explore the big space station, looking for cryo-pods which they will need to survive the long trip. They soon find five of the pods, but they don’t have enough juice to make the trip safely. Andy turns on the station power, oxygen, and gravity. Tyler thinks they can find more cryo-fuel on the next deck.
Back on the shuttle, Kay, Tyler’s sister, admits that she’s pregnant. Navarro inspects the five cryo-pods that they’ve successfully stolen. The guys on the station hear a report that the Romulus/Remus station was built in two halves. Bjorn taunts Andy, saying he won’t be allowed on the new planet, so he can’t come with them. Andy isn’t happy about that, but his prime directive is to do what’s best for Rain.
Tyler and his group find a research lab. There’s a giant acid-hole in the floor, along with about half of a dead synthetic. They find the cryo lab, which has all the fuel they’re going to need for their pods. There’s an accident, and the lab goes into emergency lockdown. Rain and Navarro head to the lab to let them out. We see, but they don’t, that there are many xenomorph facehuggers in the room, and some are warming up.
They take the data module out of the dead synthetic and put it into Andy, which ought to upgrade his security clearance so that he can open the door. Andy reboots, which is going to take some time. Bjorn and Tyler realize that there’s something alive in the water they’re standing in. The facehuggers soon attack, but Andy wakes up in time to save them all by opening the door.
They get out OK, but so do a whole bunch of facehuggers, one of which gets on Navaro’s face. Andy explains what the creature is doing; he seems a lot smarter since they upgraded his chip’s AI. Andy suggests reactivating the dead synth on the floor for answers.
They plug it in, and we see that it’s Science Officer Rook, who looks exactly like Ash from the original film. Rook explains about the aliens, the seeds, and the chest-bursters. He says that they recovered the xenomorph’s body six months ago, which we saw in the opening, and have been experimenting on it ever since. Things got out of hand and killed everyone on the station.
The group uses some cryo fuel to freeze the facehugger and free Navarro. Did they get it off in time? Rook says the odds are 60/40 against her and points out to Andy that he needs to take the logical course of action. Andy doesn’t want to let Navarro back on the ship, so Bjorn zaps him. Navarro and Bjorn try to steal their ship as Andy attempts to stop them. Kay wakes up and watches Navarro grab her chest. She kicks the throttle by accident, and the ship launches and crashes into the station at another point, doing some damage along the way.
Suddenly, the computer announces that they have 47 minutes until the station will hit the planetary rings; the crash has changed their orbit. They need to cross from the Remus side to the Romulus side, but there are facehuggers everywhere. Rook points out to Andy that he has a new directive thanks to that upgraded chip he got; to finish the company’s mission with the aliens.
Andy tells the others that if they raise the ambient temperature, then the facehuggers won’t be able to see them. It works, but only barely.
On the other ship, Kay and Bjorn hide from the little alien that came out of Navarro. They find some kind of biological pod stuck to the wall, and Bjorn shoots it full of electricity. That seems to kill the thing, but then it drips acid all over him. Then the pod gives birth to a fully grown version of the xenomorph.
Kay escapes, but is knocked out. She hides from the monster just above her. Andy, Tyler, and Rain find her, but Andy refuses to open the airlock door to let her out; he sees the alien standing right behind Kay and knows they’ll all die if he opens the door. The creature gets Kay, and Rain and Tyler don’t take it well.
Andy wants to finish Rook’s mission, and then Rook will let the other two escape. He opens up the Romulus lab, and they see black goo. Mankind is too fragile for space colonization, so Rook and the company discovered the black goo from “Prometheus,” the ultimate upgrade for humanity. “We cannot wait for evolution anymore,” explains Rook. Andy takes samples of the goo and arms the two humans with pulse rifles.
The trio enter a corridor where the creatures have built a complex nest; this group has been active for a long while. They hear Kay moaning, and Tyler runs toward her. They cut her down, and Andy says she hasn’t been impregnated yet. She’s bleeding badly, and Andy says the only way to save her is to inject her with the goo. Rain doesn’t trust it, so they don’t inject her.
Tyler is grabbed and killed by the aliens. Andy is also knocked out of commission, so Rain and Kay leave him behind. Rain goes back for Andy, but Kay continues on to their ship. As soon as Rain leaves, Kay injects herself with the black goo. Rook tells her to start the auto-launch sequence to get her and the goo samples back to the planet below.
Rain finds Andy, removes Rook’s chip, and reboots him. Now, he’s just himself again. The aliens who killed Tyler return, and there are a lot of them; Rain has no choice but to turn off the gravity and machine gun them all. In zero gravity, the acid blood doesn’t eat through the floors, it just floats in puddles. Except now, they have to float through those puddles without touching them.
The gravity comes back on while they’re in the elevator shaft, and the alien blood from the previous scene opens a hole that starts decompressing the station. Andy and Rain make it back to the ship, where Kay is waiting for them.
The bottom of the ship starts dragging on the planetary rings, which starts grinding away the station like a giant strip of sandpaper. They launch their little ship just as the big station continues to grind into the icy rings of Jackson’s Star. Rain turns off the auto control, which Rook doesn’t like one bit but can’t do anything about. Rain says change of plans, they aren’t going back down to the mining colony, they’re going to the far away terraformed colony.
Rain puts Kay and her baby into a cryo-pod. Rain then puts Andy into pause-mode for the trip, and tells him he’s going with her. And he has a new directive - do what’s best for her and him. Before she can inject the cryo-pods with fluid and put Kay under, Kay starts convulsing and suddenly goes full term with the baby, and it shoots out right in front of Rain’s eyes– is it some kind of egg? The egg opens, and it’s got a mostly human-looking baby inside.
The acid on the egg makes it sink through the floor into the cargo bay. Rain goes down after it and soon sees that it’s gotten a lot bigger very quickly. Andy wakes up and sees the mess that’s left of Kay– and her vastly oversized baby. He unplugs himself to help. The new Prometheus-Human hybrid slashes Andy fatally and then goes to his mother for breastfeeding.
Something goes wrong with the air in the ship, and Rain has to put on a spacesuit. She goes back down into the cargo bay and figures out the manual release catch just as the alien crawls in behind her.
Rain kicks over the alien eggshell, which is still full of acid. It makes a hole in the ship, and both she and the alien are sucked outside. Luckily she hooked herself to cables. She manages to trip the final cargo-release catch and the whole cargo bay drops around her, and it breaks up in the ice rings along with the creature.
The autopilot kicks in, and the ship heads for the sunny world the group had planned to visit all along. Rain holds Andy’s brain chip and promises to repair him when they get there, and then she puts herself into cryo sleep.
Brian’s Commentary
Why would anyone do anything with a jerk like Bjorn? A crackhead would be nicer and more reliable to work with than this guy. A lot of the tension of the film seems to come from the six cast members yelling over each other.
This one takes place 20 years after the original “Alien” film, and 36 years before “Aliens.” A lot of the plot revolves around running from one place to another on the space station. It does nicely tie in the regular “Alien” films with the “Prometheus” stories with the black goo.
The standout actor here is David Jonsson as Andy. Every mannerism is robotic and alien, when he’s simple-minded and then when he’s upgraded to genius-level, it all still works.
Overall, it’s very good. I have a hard time believing that zero-g acid scene, but the rest mostly works for me.
Kevin’s Commentary
I’d go as far as to say this is my third favorite of the Alien movies so far, after the original and the first sequel. I liked how heavy they were with practical effects, and they recreated a lot of the vibe and feel of the original. The recreation of Ian Holm from beyond the grave to reprise his role as a ruthless android looked a little funky, but I thought it was forgivable taking into account how severely damaged he was. Like Brian said, David Jonsson nailed it as the benign android Andy.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson, Alfred Gough
Stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara
Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
They brought back several of the main characters and introduced some new ones, which made a nice balance. Though Brian felt some of the extras weren’t really necessary. It was amusing how hard they worked to have Jeffrey Jones both return and not return for his role. They kept the look and feel of the first one, the same humor with a foundation of horror, and it’s very well made. You’ll probably enjoy it a little more if you’ve seen the first one first, but it’s not vital. We thought it was a fine sequel.
Spoilery Synopsis
We fly over a familiar-looking town with familiar-sounding music. We eventually zoom into a strange-looking house with a strange-looking woman looking out the window. It's Lydia, and she looks like an older version of the girl from the first film. Except now, she’s the host of “Ghost House” a psychic TV show where she investigates hauntings. In the middle of taping, she sees a flash of Beetlejuice; her producer, Rory, calls for a break. She’s on pills which she says she needs to suppress her visions of the dead, and he doesn’t like that– but he can live with it.
Lydia gets a call from her mother, Delia, who is now a famous artist. She casually tells that Lydia’s father has just died. We get a claymation replay of the crash that killed Charles. Actually, it wasn’t the crash, it was the shark that got him.
The artist that Delia has been working with has an accident and ends up in the afterlife. The janitor of the afterlife, who looks a lot like Danny Devito, has an accident that breaks open a box that contains Delores, a woman in many parts. She staples herself back together and then sucks out whatever’s inside the janitor.
We cut to Astrid Deetz, away at school, who gets a very weird visit from Delia and Lydia. Back in the underworld, Bob wakes up Beetlejuice, who is still pining over Lydia. Wolf Jackson is an actor who played a detective in many films, and now he’s playing a cop in the afterlife. Wolf shows Beetlejuice a photo of the stapled-together woman. She’s out for revenge against Betelguese, “She’s a soul-sucker. She gets hands on you, and you're dead-dead.”
We get a flashback to human Beetlejuice, a grave robber during the plague years, when he met Delores. The two got married, and they had an unusual relationship. She was the leader of a soul-sucking cult, and she and Beetlejuice killed each other. Now she’s back, and she’s out to get him.
At Charles’s funeral, Lydia and Astrid talk about Astrid’s dead father. We see that Astrid doesn’t like Rory, who is weird and exploitative. Rory proposes to Lydia at the funeral; he wants to get married on Halloween, in just two days. He manipulates her into agreeing, which annoys Astrid and Delia.
Astrid rides off in a huff on her bicycle, and is nearly killed six different ways. She eventually crashes in front of Jeremy, a nerd. She explains that she doesn’t believe in ghosts and all that stuff. She goes home with him and sees that he’s got a copy of “The Handbook for the Recently Deceased.” They make plans for Halloween.
Beetlejuice has Bob dress up to look just like him, as a decoy. Bob’s shrunken head kind of gives it away. Beetlejuice reads in the paper that Lydia is getting married again, and he sees this as his chance.
Astrid goes up to the attic and looks at the little toy town that Adam built many years ago. She finds an ad for the Bio-Exorcist, Betelgeuse. She’s up there to look through old photo albums with pictures of her dead father. Lydia comes up and tells her to never say that name three times.
Lydia gets ads for Beetlejuice on her phone, so she goes upstairs and yells at the little town. Rory doesn’t understand, so she tells him the whole story.
Not believing the story, Rory says the name three times, and they find themselves in the model. Beetlejuice is there, pretending to be a couples counselor. All of a sudden, Lydia has a baby 'Juice' crawling around. Lydia gets them home, and Rory thinks it was a dream. Lydia wants to leave town immediately, but Astrid wants to stay for Jeremy.
It’s Halloween, and Astrid and Jeremy have their date. As they kiss, they levitate above the floor. “Don’t you know?” he asks. He’s a ghost, dead for 23 years, and she’s the first person that could see him he’s been able to talk to. He says he knows a way that he can come back to life.
Lydia talks to the realtor about Astrid’s first date, and the woman talks about the murder house on that street. Yup– it’s the same house, where Jeremy killed his parents and was killed evading the police. This is not the story that Jeremy told Astrid.
Jeremy opens a door to the underworld, and gets Astrid to read some words from the book. Lydia arrives and sees Jeremy’s dead parent ghosts. She arrives too late; Astrid has gone to the underworld with Jeremy. Meanwhile, Delia does a weird art ritual with snakes that aren’t as de-fanged as she thought.
With no other options, Lydia calls Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice explains Jeremy’s plan to trade lives with Astrid. She agrees to marry him if he can save Astrid. He blows a hole in the walls of the underworld, and all the Bobs make their escape into the real world. Detective Wolf is on the case for the illegal entry of Lydia into the afterlife with a bunch of dead cops.
Delia wakes up in the afterlife’s waiting room. Astrid finds out she’s been tricked, and Jeremy finds his way outside. Astrid sees her dead father on the way to the Soul Train.
Lydia and Beetlejuice look for the soul train as Delores looks for Beetlejuice. The soul train is literally THE Soul Train.
Lydia and Astrid get away form the train, but they end up outside, in the desert on the moon of Saturn with the sandworms. They’re rescued by Richard, Asrid’s father and Lydia’s dead husband, who was obviously killed by piranhas. Meanwhile, Wolf interrogates Bob about his part in the operation. Bob isn’t talking.
Delia gets tired of waiting in the waiting room and calls Beetlejuice to help her find Charles. Delores catches up with Bob, and he sure isn’t talking now.
Beetlejuice tricks Jeremy, which helps Astrid get her life back and sends Jeremy away. Richard shows her and her mother to the door back home. Astrid apologizes for not believing her mother. They’ve gotten home just in time for her wedding with Rory. Delia and Beetlejuice show up as well. Who exactly is Lydia going to marry? Beetlejuice makes Rory tell Lydia the whole truth. Turns out he is truly an awful person.
The wedding begins, and it’s a big, romantic musical number. Meanwhile, Wolf and cops tumble out of the underworld and head for the church. They pose no threat to Beetlejuice, but then Delores shows up, and he’s less pleased with that.
Lydia brings in a sandworm, who breaks into the church and eats both Rory and Delores. Astrid points out that the marriage contract with Beetlejuice and Lydia is null and void. She says his name, and he explodes.
Wolf and the cops wake up and take Delia back to the underworld with them. She promises to find Charles and haunt her daughter.
Lydia and Astrid hug; it’s been a long day for them.
We cut back to Delia, who runs into Charles on the soul train. Lydia does a final episode of her Ghost show, and she’s not going to do any more. Astrid eventually marries a real human and gives birth to– Babyjuice! Wait– was that a dream?
Brian’s Commentary
They went to great lengths to write out Charles Deets as a character, so much so that it was a joke in itself. Adam and Barbara, also from the first movie, get a throwaway line about “moving on.” How does Winona Ryder look thirty years older, but Catherine O’Hara looks exactly the same as in the first film? Does Jenna Ortega play exactly the same character in every film she’s in?
It’s still fun, but they have added a lot of stuff that they might have skipped. Delores and Wolf, for example. Beetlejuice himself is enough of a villain, they didn’t need to add more on top of him.
The makeup, practical, and CGI effects are all top-level good stuff, and everything here is extremely visual. Overall, it was a very good and worthy sequel.
Kevin’s Commentary
I liked this 90% as much as I liked the original. It’s very good, very well made. It was pretty funny how Jeffrey Jones was totally in the movie but not in the movie. If you enjoyed the original, you ought to like this one as well.
Don’t Turn Out the Lights (2024)
AKA “Blue Light”
Directed by Andy Fickman
Written by Andy Fickman
Stars Bella DeLong, Amber Janea, Daryl Tofa
Run Time: 1 Hour, 49 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
An annoying group of young people run into dark forces that conspire to harsh on their buzz of good times on a road trip. It was hard to root for them, but we all got through it. As you might guess, not everyone makes it to the end of the movie. We’d say you should watch it to find out who, but we wouldn’t really recommend you do that. It was on the tedious side and generally not very good.
Spoilery Synopsis
Carrie talks to a creepy little girl in the park. She gets a jump scare from her friend Gaby. It’s Olivia’s birthday party, and Chris is there, stoned and ready for a good time. It’s six minutes in, and Kevin says he’s already hoping for all of them to die. When Sarah shows up, at Olivia’s invitation, Carrie wishes she would die, too. They’re all going away for the weekend together: “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll” at the Blue Light Music Festival, which is only a ten-hour drive away! When Michael and Jason show up in an RV, they’re all set to go. Jason’s an ex-marine, and he seems way more serious than the others.
They stop for gas at one of those creepy country stations. There are a couple of rude old white guys who pick on the girls. A scuffle breaks out, and Jason wipes the floor with them. This soon results in the RV being chased by the redneck’s semi truck. Carrie wants to call the police, but the others talk her out of it; there are too many drugs in the RV.
They took a detour to lose the bad guys, so now they need to take an unplanned route to make up for the time lost. Carrie flirts with Jason afterward. They lose the GPS signal, so they have to guess at the route.
The group stops at a redneck bar to ask directions and Michael, who is black, stands out in the crowd. The bartender, Rusty, warns them to turn around and go the other way. “We’re closed,” he says in the crowded bar.
They all get back into the RV and drive on until they hit something. Micheal admits that no one knows he “borrowed” the RV from his uncle. The RV is broken, but no one has a cell signal. Michael goes out to see what they hit, but there’s nothing out there. Something happens to Michael outside, and only Olivia sees what it was; she instantly goes into shock and passes out.
They hear an animal making noises outside. Maybe– it also sounds vaguely human. Jason grabs a gun and goes out after Michael. Jason runs into something and the RV people hear shots being fired. They soon realize that something really nasty is right outside. Sarah tries to drive the RV away, but something is pulling it backwards.
Gaby thinks maybe it’s Michael and Jason pranking them, but Carrie shoots that idea down. Maybe even Olivia’s in on it, since she’s the only one who saw anything. Sarah thinks this theory makes a lot of sense, but Carrie isn’t swayed so easily. They come up with a plan to expose Olivia, who may or may not really be passed out; she could be faking it. Their plan doesn’t rouse her. She’s not faking it.
Something gets on the roof of the RV and makes a lot of noise. They finally decide to wake up Chris, but he’s clearly overdosed on something. He wakes up and says that he dreamed that Michael and Jason were dead.
Could it be a bear? Could it be those evil truckers? Guys from the bar? Maybe Jason had crazy PTSD and snapped? There are many theories. Carrie, Gaby, and Sarah argue for about an hour. Suddenly, Olivia’s gone. Someone calls Olivia’s phone from Michael’s phone.
They watch as Olivia walks around outside, but they can't get the door open. Olivia vanishes into the fog. The three girls inside can’t quite tell where Olivia is, so they argue some more. When Olivia disappears for good, the three argue some more.
There’s a knock at the door and the lights blink. This causes more screaming. Gaby decides it’s a good time to get outside and go for help. She opens the door and they find remnants of what’s left of Olivia. This results in more arguing and blaming. Carrie and Sarah console each other after Gaby leaves– until the lights go out.
Chris wakes up and wonders what’s been going on. He finds a book on demonology and Satanism. Michael’s uncle was apparently into some weird things. Chris says he can fix the RV if they can find some tools. As he and Carrie are outside fixing the engine, Sarah runs into some weirdness inside.
Carrie goes back inside and gets stabbed by Sarah. Chris bangs on the door, and they don’t want to open it. Chris sees a car coming and thinks they’re being rescued; he is not, in fact, being rescued. He ends up quite dead.
Sarah sees that Carrie has a pentagram tattooed on the back of her neck. Carrie runs outside as the RV basically “eats” Sarah. Carrie then runs through the woods as the sun comes up. She runs to a road and … vanishes.
Brian’s Commentary
These people are loud, obnoxious, and scream entirely too much. This goes on for forty long minutes until they remember that this is a horror movie. The various characters are all stereotypical “types” straight from an 80s slasher film.
There’s just way too much screaming. Not at a monster, but between the characters. Between the screaming and the loud jump-scare noises, this might be the most unnecessarily loud movie I’ve ever seen.
This was really, really, really bad.
Kevin’s Commentary
The characters were collectively on the wrong side of annoying, a trait that didn’t diminish much as they were picked off. It was too long before any action started. When it did start, it managed to seem on the tedious side. It was loud, not in a good way, and I didn’t care much for it.
Blackout (2024)
Directed by Larry Fessenden
Written by Larry Fessenden
Stars Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Motell Gyn Foster
Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
For being a werewolf movie, this didn’t have enough monster and action. A fortunate bright spot is Alex Hurt in the lead, who looks good in the role and does an excellent job with it. The script felt long and talky, a little too skewed to heavy on the drama. Kevin liked it more than Brian, the votes are a moderate thumbs up and a thumbs down.
Spoilery Synopsis
A couple is out for their anniversary, in a field under the full moon. He talks about feeling like a wild animal with her as they undress and go to it out in the middle of the field. Suddenly, they’re attacked by a werewolf. Credits roll.
We cut to Charley, who is obviously an artist. He’s moving out of his motel room, and a woman says that they caught some Mexican who killed those kids out in the field. He seems to know otherwise. Credits roll.
Charley confronts the mayor, Jack Hammond, about accusing Miguel of the murders; he’s just racist against Mexicans, even though he’s the one who hires them. Charley’s recently-deceased father was partnered with Jack in the controversial new Hilltop Resort project.
Charley goes to Kate, a lawyer, with some of his father’s papers. He’s found some questionable things on the permits that Jack got to build the new resort. He wants to “bring down” Jack and his shady dealings. She points out that Jack’s daughter is also Charley’s ex, and he just might be holding a grudge. He stops in to see Sharon, and he wants to tell her he’s leaving town. He’s also brought her a painting, but she doesn’t put up with his crap. He’s messed up inside, but she doesn’t know how to help him.
On the way to Earl’s place, Charley stops for gas and notices the full moon is out. He drives on, getting more and more distracted as it starts to get dark. The car starts swerving as he panics and screams and grows big teeth. Yep– he is a werewolf, which was unsure up to this point. Two guys stop to help when Charley crashes his car; neither survive the encounter.
As the Charley-wolf stalks through the woods, he passes various townspeople. In the morning, he wakes up in the woods, dirty and bloody. The police are already investigating the car crash and deaths. Officers Luis and Alice see similarities between this and the kids who got killed last month.
As Charley walks back to town, he passes and has conversations with various people. He goes to see Miguel, the guy that Jack accused of murder in the newspaper. Miguel says he saw an “hombre lobo,” a wolfman. Then they talk about Jack Hammond, who is trying to cheat all the Mexican workers. We get a flashback to what Miguel saw.
Charley gets a ride from the local pastor, who talks about all the rumors floating around town. They talk about Charley’s father and paintings. He eventually makes it to Earl’s house. Charley has instructed Earl to make him some actual silver bullets. “It’s very Lon Chaney.”
Charley says this all started when his father died. He started drinking more as he found out that his father wasn’t especially ethical in his partnership with Hammond. We see flashbacks as Charley tells what happened. He can’t remember what actually did happen to him one night; he was injured in the woods, but then it healed so quickly. He soon felt himself transforming into a werewolf.
It’s all very vague, and Charley doesn’t remember much, so Earl suggests it’s all just a delusion of some kind.
Alice and Luis, the cops, know that Earl is close to Charley and decide to go there. They’re getting pressure from Hammond to arrest Miguel. They talk about the point of view of wolves and flies. They get far too philosophical. They wonder if Charley thinks he’s a werewolf.
Charley and Earl load the gun with silver bullets and get ready for the full moon. They set up cameras to record what happens, and Charley makes a full confession. Charley changes in front of Earl. Luis breaks in and he and Earl shoot each other. Alice sees the werewolf, but she gets impaled on some artwork. Charleywolf runs off into the woods toward Sharon’s house.
We cut to Sharon and her new boyfriend, Stuart, talking about Charley and her breakup. Then they talk about salad. And pasta. Charleywolf shows up and chases her around the house. He attacks her, but Luis and the other cops arrive and shoot Charley, who runs back into the woods.
In the morning, Charley wakes up. Luis watches the videos that Charley sent to Sharon’s phone. Jack and Sharon talk about what happened to her last night. Sharon goes to Earl’s house and gets one of the silver bullets.
Charley calls Luis and keeps harping about arresting Miguel. The locals are also harassing Luis about the deaths last night, including Alice’s death. Luis tells the crowd about the werewolf, but they all just want the Mexican arrested, regardless of the facts. The preacher shows up and spouts cliches, which convinces nobody.
Charley confronts Jack Hammond, and Jack says he’s gotten calls from Kate about legal issues. Jack takes Charley to Luis and the assembled locals at gunpoint. Charley locks himself into a cell with Hammon as the full moon rises. Charley changes and everyone sees the result.
Charley gets out of the cell, walks through the crowd, out into the parking lot, where Sharon waits with her silver bullets. She shoots him twice, and he runs off yet again. As he walks through the woods, the gunshots take effect, and he turns human slowly.
As the sun rises, the townspeople go out searching for him.
Brian’s Commentary
There’s Charley, who mopes around town for an hour and half talking to various characters. There are also some scenes of a werewolf. There’s a lot more of one than the other. There are just far too many characters, and Charley seems to have to talk to all of them.
The animated “painting-style” transformation scene was really interesting, but it’s only about thirty seconds long. The other creature effects are pretty good. The lead, Alex Hurt, as Charley, does a great job here, but most of the other actors didn't really jump out at me, even the recognizable ones.
I’m not one to say every movie needs a car chase or a shootout, but this one was just far too talky, with no real action. Even the werewolf attacks are mostly just quick flashes; the editing here was very poor, from one scene of something that might be good to another interminable scene of dialogue. I think the problem here is that this isn’t a horror movie, not really. It’s a long drama with a werewolf in it.
BORING!
Kevin’s Commentary
I wasn’t bored, but I think that it was too long in the drama and short in the werewolf goodness that one should expect from a werewolf movie. But there was enough to entertain me. Alex Hurt was good, and there were enough good elements to move things along. I liked it more than disliked it.
Speak No Evil (2024)
Directed by James Watkins
Written by James Watkins, Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup
Stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy
Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
After seeing the 2022 Danish version, we were skeptical that the script could work with a more western setting and characters, Americans and British. But they made a few tweaks here and there, and we thought it was pretty effective. We were surprisingly entertained by this. It’s suspenseful and fairly realistic, the cast is good, and we’d rate it a bit higher than the original.
Spoilery Synopsis
Ben, Louise, and daughter Agnes are Americans on vacation in Italy. There’s an odd couple, Paddy and Ciara Feld, staying at the same resort. Agnes is eleven, but she’s also creepily attached to a stuffed rabbit toy that she’s in the habit of losing. Ben walks all over town looking for the rabbit, and he sees Paddy and Ciara everywhere; they look like a lot of fun. Their son Ant doesn’t speak. At dinner, Paddy mentions that he’s a doctor, and they all get to know each other. There’s an odd Danish couple there as well, and our group makes them really uncomfortable in a hilarious way.
Back in London, after the vacation is over, Ben and the family get used to their new home. None of them really wanted to make the move to London, but work required it. They get a postcard from Paddy, inviting them to stay with them on their farm in Devon. It might be a good change of scenery, but a week with strangers? Louise thinks they should go, so they do.
They arrive at Paddy and Ciara’s large farmhouse. Ciara shows everyone to their rooms, and Ant’s room looks a lot like a dungeon in the attic. Paddy is loud, charming, and lots of fun, in an overbearing kind of way. Ben is a lot more passive and worn down, and the difference between the two men soon becomes apparent.
Louise is a vegetarian, but her hosts have made an elaborate goose dinner. Paddy pressures her into eating it. Whenever Ben is alone, Ant comes up and makes mouth noises, trying to tell him something, but since he’s got a deformed tongue, he can’t communicate. We soon see that their parenting styles are different; Ant is mostly ignored, while Agnes is babied and coddled. Still, maybe it’s because Paddy and Ciara are British; their ways are strange.
The next day, they hike through the woods and swim in a cold lake. Louise isn’t happy with any of it, especially the stained bedsheets. “I don’t find them that pleasant to be around,” and wants to find an excuse to leave.
For dinner, a strange foreign man comes over. He’s going to babysit the kids as the two couples go out for dinner. He’s strange, and he can’t speak English very well, definitely sketchy, but Ben and Louise go along with it. Ant tries really hard to tell Agnes that something is wrong, but he can’t talk and can’t write in English. Dinner out is nice, with Mike - a friend of Paddy’s - cooking, and the British couple mention that they’ve been together for seventeen years. Ben and Louise argue later about their own lack of sex and lack of mutual support.
In the middle of the night, Louise goes looking for Agnes, whom she finds in the British couples’ bed. She gets Ben to pack up and leave right then. A mile away from the house, Agnes starts whining for Hoppy, the stuffed rabbit that she’s absurdly attached to yet can’t seem to keep track of. She goes into a full-on panic attack, so Ben gives in and turns around.
Ben goes inside the farmhouse to get Hoppy and doesn’t return right away. Louise goes after him and finds Paddy and Ben arguing. They want to know why their guests were sneaking out in the middle of the night. There’s a lot of awkward excuses from both sides, and they end up staying. Ant does manage to write a note to Agnes, but it’s in Danish, and she can’t read it. Agnes knows that something’s not right with Ant, but Louise makes excuses for the weird little boy.
Ben and Paddy go out into the country for some hunting and primal screaming. It comes up later that Paddy says he’s not a doctor; he was lying before. The truth is a lot sketchier than they were expecting– no, just joking, yes, he’s a doctor!
Ant and Agnes do a dance they’ve been working on, and Paddy is very critical of Ant’s ability. This just gets more and more abusive and no one is happy afterward. Again, Louise wants to leave, but Ben warns that they’ve been drinking all afternoon, and it might not be a good time for a drive. Ciara warns that if they leave, Paddy might take out his anger on her.
Ant steals some keys from drunk Paddy and takes Agnes to a secret basement storage room full of suitcases, shoes, and personal items. There’s also a scrapbook of Ant’s real family, and many other families. He points out the watch in the photo on his real dad’s wrist that’s now in Paddy’s large watch collection. It’s not super clear what’s going on, but Agnes figures out that Ant doesn’t really belong to Paddy and Ciara. Also, in one of the photos, Ant has a tongue that has since been cut out. He makes it clear that Agnes will be next.
Paddy wakes up and apologizes for being rude. Agnes shows Louise photos on her phone of the secret room and tells her what she knows. They let Ben in on the information, so now all they need is an opportunity to leave. They make up an excuse to go, but then they find that they have a flat tire.
Paddy insists that he can fix the flat, but then they spot Hoppy the rabbit up on the house’s roof. Ben climbs up after it, and it’s all very tense. They “save” Hoppy, and everyone says goodbye.
Paddy says, “You’re still not being completely honest, are you?” Louise gives a long story about how she and Ben are getting a divorce and won’t be together much longer. The family drives away in the car, planning to come back for Ant. As they drive away, they see Paddy throw Ant into the lake to drown. Then they close the gate remotely; no one is leaving.
As Ben swims to rescue Ant, Paddy gets Louise at gunpoint and makes her transfer all their money to their account. Mike will be coming to dispose of their car soon. “Why are you doing this?” “Because you let us.” Paddy gloats that Ciara was the first kid he kidnapped. Paddy gets ready to sedate Agnes before removing her tongue. Louise slashes Paddy with a box knife that she’d grabbed earlier, and the family escapes.
Suddenly, Mike the chef arrives, shotgun in hand, and he forces them right back inside. Ben and Louise barricade themselves inside Paddy’s house and look around for stuff they can use to fight back.
Mike climbs up onto the roof to get in through the gable window. Ciara comes in through the basement, and Paddy breaks down the door. It’s hide and seek time, and eventually, everyone fights. Mike is the first to die. Paddy gets blinded with drain cleanser, so that just leaves Ciara to kill her guests while he rinses his eyes out. She gets face-planted from the roof, so that takes us back to a really messed up Paddy who soon gets the drop on the others with his pistol.
Agnes injects Paddy with the sedative he was going to use on her, and he’s down. Ben wants everyone to get into the car, but Ant picks up a brick and beats Paddy to death rather excessively.
The four survivors drive away.
Brian’s Commentary
This is an English language remake of “Speak No Evil” (2022). A lot of the original film dealt with Europeans being so polite and passive, and that’s not going to work with Americans and Brits, although Ben is especially wimpy. It still feeds heavily on awkwardness and being just uncomfortable.
It’s very similar to the original film, but they did change the last forty minutes or so. The Americans do eventually fight back, something the original Danish people never did.
The acting is good all around, and it’s much more believable than I expected having seen the original. It’s pretty good!
Kevin’s Commentary
The changes they made to this version were pleasing, it really made it work. The passive nature of the Danish characters wouldn’t have been believable at all coming from Americans. I was dreading watching it a little, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. More so than the original.
Short Films:
Short Film: Code Red (2024)
Directed by Jack Albert
Written by Jack Albert
Stars Thomas Albert
Run Time: 4:23
Watch it:
What Happens
An injured scientist wakes up; he’s bleeding pretty badly. He hears gunfire, screams, and a roaring monster over the handheld radio. Then, he sees another scientist’s body being dragged away. He accidentally learns that water hurts the creature; how is he going to use that information?
Commentary
I’m not quite sure why the scientists have a locker full of glass water bottles, but I guess they have reasons. The creature design and effects are pretty cool and fit the look of the film perfectly. We don’t know what happened or why, but it’s a well-made scene from a larger story.
It’s good!
Short Film: Grampy (2024)
Directed by Graham Burrell
Written by Graham Burrell
Stars Ralph Cashen, Gene Connelly, Kerry Gallagher, RJ Pennington
Run Time: 14:15
Watch it:
What Happens
Jenny and Cody talk over dinner after a grief counseling support group. Cody says he misses his grandfather; this was his house. “You’ll always have a part of him with you,” she says. He responds by agreeing; he’s had his grandfather stuffed, and he’s upstairs right now. Surprisingly enough, she finds this strange. Then we see Grampy, and suddenly, Jenny is ready to leave. Except there’s a crazy storm, and she gets to spend the night in the room with the creepy dead man.
It just gets worse and worse…
Commentary
How bad could the storm have been to make her even consider staying? Something as mundane as taxidermy gets creepy when it’s someone you know. Still, that’s just the start of the weirdness here.
The acting and cinematography are excellent, as is the sound. In this one, we eventually do get a full explanation of everything that’s going on, and that’s actually the best part.
Short Film: Boogey Man (2024)
Directed by Valentin Lang
Written by Valentin Lang, Seamus Quinn, Lincoln Vickery
Stars Joshua Shediak, Libby Kay, Shannon Ryan
Run Time: 10:00
Watch it:
What Happens
Two lovers make out on the couch; she mentions that she’s caring for her roommate’s many plants and flowers. She stops in the middle of kissing to put plant food on one of the plants. While she gets that together, Josh picks his nose and wipes the booger on the plant. Then, she pours growth food all over that plant.
What could go wrong?
Commentary
When the roommate gets home, she’s going to have a hard time explaining what happened…
It’s really well done, funny, well-paced, and it looks really good. The special effects and makeup effects are sharp, and although it’s definitely not a comedy, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Short Film: Vonnis / Verdict (2024)
Directed by Walt Bladt
Written by Walt Bladt
Stars Joke Sluydts, Tibe Boone, Dimitri Duquennoy
Run Time: 9:03
Watch it:
What Happens
Linus lives alone on an old farm. He starts getting visits from his dead wife’s ghost, which brings up feelings of guilt and bad memories of her and a baby. He dreams of finding their corpses and then sees Diane looking healthy and whole again. Or is he really seeing her? Is she what she appears to be?
Commentary
It’s subtitled, but there’s not much dialogue, so don’t let that hold you back.
I’m not clear on what happened to Diane and Zeger; it looks like their house burned down or something, but that wouldn’t have been Linus’s fault, so why the guilt? Probably just survivor’s guilt from the way it plays out. It’s good!
Short Film: Scary Story: The Girl in the Woods Who Never Left! (2024)
By “Fear Fusion”
Stars Animated
Run Time: 5:22
Watch it:
What Happens
We’re told a story about a girl who saw a scary ghost. The ghost is terrible and terrifying and warns the girl to lock her door at night. Why would the ghost tell the girl how to avoid her? Maybe the ghost isn’t the girl’s biggest problem…
Brian’s Commentary
This came up in my YouTube feed, so I gave it a shot. We don’t normally pan indie films and short films, as they need to be held to a different standard than multimillion dollar blockbusters. Some of these films are done by a single person with zero budget. Still, WTF is this shit?
The story is formulaic and cliche. That’s not a killer in itself, as lots of horror stories are retellings and new imaginings of the same tropes. That’s not a deal breaker.
The “animation” is basically a slideshow of images, some photographic (maybe?), and some done by AI.
The narration appears to be done by computer voice, complete with bad English and typos. To make it worse, the bad English and typos appear on screen with the words being read highlighted– like karaoke.
Many people see AI as the future of entertainment. Well, maybe, maybe not, but stuff like this shows just how lazy a filmmaker can get. I assume it's all just AI-generated garbage to "game" YouTube's algorith-- this must be a successful tactic, as it popped up in my feed along with many actually good short films.
I mostly decided to feature this one just to troll Kevin. Let’s hear what he has to say…
Kevin’s Commentary
I couldn’t even finish this. AI should be used for things like detecting cancer and optimizing crop plans for farmers, not for creating things like this absolute garbage. It even looks like all the YouTube comments are generated by AI bots. This is the first time I’ve clicked on the thumbs-down on YouTube for one of the shorts we’ve reviewed, and I wish I could click it out of existence. It was a waste of the electricity required to create it.
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