Adventures & What’s Up – October 2023

ADVENTURES

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving (in Canada) was the big event this month as well as our 8th wedding anniversary which happens to usually be about the same time. While we forgot to take a picture of the actual Thanksgiving dinner which had an oven-roasted turkey, roasted delicata & butternut squash and mash potatoes, we did end up eating the turkey for two more days, one of them was the day after making a “hot chicken” but with turkey. Delicious meal courtesy of my husband.

Toddler Update

October was an eventful month for development as Triple V got to 16 months which just meant that he suddenly is having all these development leaps from suddenly getting on his feet on day to walk slowly to progressing incredibly fast by the end of the month. As part of the follow-up for the previous months’ curve drop, we finally got the dietician appointment which was overall pretty good as the dietician told us that he was having a good variety and balance in his diet and gave us some tips on how to efficiently work on hunger and body weight as he is pretty active throughout the day and gave some recipes for making yogurt melts and puree melts. Other than that, the big event was Halloween where you can see he dressed up a cute little panda. It was a pretty cold and he isn’t supposed to eat any candy so we didn’t partake in any trick or treating but did go out for an evening walk in costume to check out the neighbor and join into the fun. Although he was more focused on his own walking than anything else, it was a nice evening out.

Halloween Marathon

Talking about Halloween, we need to recap the Halloween Marathon which has been fully updated on its page HERE. We only got 8 movies reviewed even though I did have a few other ones watched but never got around to getting those reviews out. There will probably a gradual release of horror reviews especially since my intention to catch up on the The Conjuring films and finishing the Final Destination series as well as Tremors films are still on my to-do list. One of my lesser yielding technically but in reality, I did prep a bit just the writing was a little slower.

WHAT’S UP

Books

Currently reading: Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain

Suffice to say that nothing too exciting is happening in terms of reading as I bounce between bedtime reading of Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain to re-reading a lot of bedtime stories to my toddler. On top of that, October is full of other everyday life commitments so it became hard to work on anything more book-related. As we near the end of the year and re-evaluate, probably reading will take a turn back to how it was next year. However, I haven’t read a whole lot of Jin Yong wuxia novels but seen a lot of movie and TV adaptations. Flying Volant of Snowy Mountain is one that I had a seen a TV adaptation back in the late 90s or early 2000s but really liked the plot so here we are.

Movies

• The Barn Dance (short 1929)
• Creepy Crawly (2022 Review)
• Zero to Hero (媽媽的神奇小子, 2021)
• Final Destination (2000 Review)
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998 Review)
• No One Will Save You (2023 Review)
• Rushmore (1998)
• Cars 3 (2017)
• Coco (2017)
• Wynken, Blynken & Nod (short 1938 rewatch)
• Fast X (2023)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• Once Upon A Studio (2023 short)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
• Final Destination 2 (2003 Review)

This month is full of Halloween marathon and Disney Plus movie picks mostly because I got the Disney Plus 3 months deal so now I’m working through a lot of the nostalgia, Pixar and Wes Anderson films as well as the new horror picks that made it on the catalogue right in time for October’s horror month. On top of that, I even managed to get a Thai creature feature screener review up as well as well as a bunch of 90s horror films and their sequels. At this point, it seems like working through franchises I’ve left on the original films is a big theme in this current phase.

In terms of recommendations from this month, Final Destination, No One Will Save You and the rewatch of Wynken, Blynken & Nod was definitely highlights. The Royal Tenenbaums stood out from the Wes Anderson catalogue so far and I’d recommend that as well.

TV

• Michelle Wolf: It’s Great To Be Here (2023)
• You Are My Glory (你是我的荣耀, 2021)
• The Oath of Love (余生, 请多指教, 2022)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)

Currently binging: Let’s Fall In Love S3, Call Me By Fire S3, Singing With Legends S5, Crush Over 2023, Light Chaser Rescue, American Ninja Warrior S13, The Midnight Club

As the year approaches its end, my WeTV streaming service is ending at the end of the year so I’ve been working through some of the C-dramas that has been on my watchlist. The service is a bit pricey in comparison so for now, I have no intention of renewing so working hard on getting through a few more series. However, the two that I’ve caught up with were pretty good. There’s a very healthy and positive message from the stories and focuses a lot on reality and the balance of work, life and self-improvement. Its a pretty nice overall. Not quite one of the best of the year for me but still delivered some good times. Not being frustrated at c-dramas in general is a pretty big win usually.

As for Netflix, I’m always there for Mike Flanagan’s new series. Last year, I didn’t get around to Midnight Club but this year, I wasn’t going to miss out on The Fall of the House of Usher which was so good that I suddenly have an urge to brush up on my Edgar Allan Poe literature which I know the basics of but never have dived very deep into it other than the little bits in College English class. Its also gave us the push to start up The Midnight Club. Reviews for those coming up soon.

Games

• Trek of Yomi (incomplete)

Currently playing: Forza Horizon 5, The Legend of Tianding, A Short Hike

There’s been a good bit of gaming lately as I’m about to work on the backlog and unsubscribe from PC Game Pass for a while however with a lot of the games I intended to play on the leaving list, I had to give those a quick look to see how I felt about them. Trek of Yomi is the only one here as completed mostly because the combat is more than I could handle as parrying is one of those gaming things I don’t have down and eventually even the casual mode was a little too much so while the story and the game was like playing a samurai movie, I’m listing it as incomplete because I can’t beat it.

Forza Horizon 5 is still the gaming playground I go to for a little fun everything once in a while. I did also check out Legend of Tianding which is a really fun game and a nice tribute to 2D action platformer games much like the 10 minutes that I played of A Short Hike which had a lot of elements I like in games for their fun, colorful and relaxing feeling.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023)

Director (and co-writer): Rhys Frake-Waterfield

Cast: Nikolai Leon, Maria Taylor, Natasha Rose Mills, Amber Doig-Thorne, Danielle Ronald, Natasha Tosini, Paula Coiz, May Kelly, Danielle Scott, Craig David Dowsett, Chris Cordell

After Christopher Robin abandons them for college, Pooh and Piglet embark on a bloody rampage as they search for a new source of food.- IMDB

Winnie The Pooh entered public domain last year and it seemed like it was the green light to take this property and give it a nice horror twist, because of course, why wouldn’t we need everything to have a terrifying counterpart. Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey uses the foundation of the original story to craft into a story about growing up. Think about it like Toy Story 3 but when the toys decide that they’ve been neglected and left to die and then decide to turn evil and never trust humans ever again, basically that is the simple way of putting this story.

The premise itself makes sense and it definitely can be weaved into a story like that understandably because the opposite of love is hate. Now that the believability of this story is good enough, does the film actually create the slasher horror fear that it needs. Before we proceed (since my reviews have been few and far between and incredibly light on horror lately) for those that haven’t followed here or just dropped by, I’m not someone who actually is scared by slasher films for the most part, usually its more a sense of tension more than anything else. Keep that in mind as you proceed.

Running on a budget of $100K, Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey is a British indie slasher film. In execution, the film delivers a few good elements. For one, the animated part of the story that kicks off the film to use A.A. Milne’s style of illustration and the alternate events that lead to this is pretty neat. The narration of the storytelling and the animated art is a nice touch for the film especially purposeful to start the film and helps thread some of the parts together. The cinematography with its environment and the lighting also does add a decently composed atmosphere for the dark retelling of Winnie The Pooh. Even the physical concept of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, who are the only two of the Hundred Acre Woods gang that pops up in this film is good. The mask for Winnie the Pooh is much more effective than a more generic pig mask for Piglet but does enforce the half animal half human tale that they are trying to spin. On a slasher horror element, there are some decent and unique kills for the cast of young female leads.

Unfortunately, the good elements of the film do end there. What makes things confusing here is really the question of how serious we should be taking this film. On one hand, a dark retelling of Winnie the Pooh does feel like its meant to be taken seriously but whether its the lackluster acting skills of the cast or the lackluster dialogue in its script, its all rather laughable. If the intention of the film was to be taken seriously, that might feel insulting but I’m not trying to be mean because I genuinely enjoyed this film because I had a really great laugh throughout the whole film. On one hand, it felt incredibly silly whenever anyone said anything or the choices they made but on the other hand, it also had some fun kills. What did take a little hit, probably due to its low budget, was the practical effects which also went along with the silly vibe. The best example being a kill where the eyeball popped out. If the film was trying to take itself seriously, probably it would execute films a little bit more with a Mike Flanagan flair of embracing the hidden/unknown but Rhys Frake-Waterfield took the path of showing the audience the aftermath of the kill probably to add to the gruesome and gory slasher element. I can understand why its done but not completely why some of it was necessary.

Overall, I went into Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey with very low expectations and it honestly wasn’t quite as bad as I expected it to be. There are some solid concepts, plot points and visuals. While I had a good time with the film once I embraced it in a different light, its not a film I’d consider to be a good slasher. There were some fun kills and I really wanted to like it but the film delivered me a lot of predictable moments as well. With all that said, I still can’t help wondering where they will go with the sequel.

Double Feature: Hocus Pocus (1993) & Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Director: Kenny Ortega

Cast: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw

A curious youngster moves to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century. – IMDB

Hocus Pocus was quite the popular Halloween family film back when I was a kid since it used to be on a TV quite a bit. I’ve always thought it was the case however based on Wikipedia, Hocus Pocus actually is a cult classic and garnered its popularity through these annual television circulation. Its been well over a decade that I’ve revisited Hocus Pocus at the very least so its more to see whether the film still holds the same charm that it had when I was younger at this point.

Hocus Pocus is a pretty fun adventure family movie. New kids in town trying to fit in, brother and sister, Halloween and costumes, waking up wicked witches and some musical elements, there’s a lot of things that work in favor for this type of film. It might not be some big box entertainment but for the fun little adventure nights it does do the trick as it can relate very well as a family film. Plus it even adds in a talking black cat. Of course, this probably isn’t suitable for very young kids considering there is a man that raises from the dead and despite its comedic moments of losing its head and such, it still might seem fairly creepy to the very little ones.

The Sanderson Sisters played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are the definite highlights of the film aling with Binx The Talking Black Cat. The witches are the really charming part of the film in general. Looking at a young Thora Birch as Dani, the young sister and Omri Katz as older brother Max, they have a decent sibling relationship but the acting really wasn’t that good.

Hocus Pocus is a 90s movie so while it might not have aged very well in terms of dialogue and digital effects but there are a lot of things here that are more practical or make-up so it actually doesn’t few too campy or silly. The only thing here is that while nostalgia plays a big factor here, it feels like I have slightly outgrown the film. The film structure is decent though as it may feel like its one thing and then takes a little twist which makes it pretty fun.

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lilia Buckingham, Froy Gutierrez, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Tony Hale

Two young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world. – IMDB

As much as I did love Hocus Pocus as a child, its been almost 30 years since the first visit and feels pretty unnecessary to do a sequel at this point but Disney being what it is of course headed down that route to reap the benefits of the now cult classic. While the younger cast is completely new, they did manage to get the Sanderson Sisters to return which is great since they were quite the highlight in the original film. Hocus Pocus 2 takes the obvious route of bringing them into the modern day with the new cast taking advantage of the technology and modern trinkets to fool the witches. What does a good job is also remembering while scripting that while technology might be an unknown for them and can be used against them, it sometimes still works in their favor.

The return of the Sanderson Sisters with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy reprising their roles is pretty nice. For one, it feels like they haven’t really  aged that much despite the fact that Bette Midler is now already in her seventies in real life. The film dives into their younger selves as to how the Sanderson sisters took the route of becoming witches and having some young actors playing their roles. Those parts do feel the weaker portion of the film as the kids basically kept to the personality and signature moves of the characters themselves but the part did loop back to become a useful part for the finale. In some ways, the film exists to give some sort of resolution to the whole storyline. The charm of the Sanderson Sisters has always been that they are the villains but there are still a wicked but clumsy side to their existence where they do have their own weaknesses as well.

The new additions here are the young cast playing the friends who wake up the witches and have the night to save it. To be fair, the roles still work pretty well. Perhaps the character trajectory feels a little more silly as they play around with witchcraft themselves to try to stop the whole thing from happening. The emphasis of the girls involved is a highlight to their own friendship which perhaps reflects a little to the good counterparts of the Sanderson Sisters themselves. Like teenagers, these friends have a lot more hurdles when it comes to dealing with parents and friends, etc. They also end up meeting another reprised role from the first film which clears up something from the first film with the dead boyfriend raised from the grave Billy Butcherson who is still played by Doug Jones, a man who has been in so many disguised roles.

Let’s be honest here and say that I had very low expectations for this sequel. It dials down to being made too long from its first film and seemingly stretching out a premise that doesn’t need to be done. While some of the script feels a little silly at times, there are some clever bits played in with the technology as well as the Sanderson Sisters being reprised so still delivering that charm. It even manages to wrap up the film with a  nice heartwarming bowtie which I thought was a pretty nice touch.

What’s Up & Adventures – September 2022

ADVENTURES

Halloween Marathon

Its the time of year again, even if I think its a bit hard to believe we’re already here. I’m going to admit right now that this may go very bad with very little output as mostly my sporadic lack of sleep does affect my writing efficiency. However, Halloween Marathon is something that I truly enjoy and with some changes in circumstances, via a one-month sub of a streaming service that I will talk about in the Movies section, I have some great choices to add to the line-up plus Netflix and Shudder has some nice stuff to watch as well. If you follow me on Letterboxd, you know what I’ve been watching and what reviews will be coming up. With that said, the first post for the marathon starts tomorrow. Expect TV binges and Double Features in the line-up.

Baby Update

Triple V has been quite a bundle this week as he passes his 3 months. For Chinese people, we like to celebrate 100 days so my mom got him some little gifts. On top of that, his 100 days also signified a change because he’s a whopping 15lbs now which means he can’t sleep in his bassinet anymore and had to be moved to the crib. The transition was the biggest highlight since we had just mastered some great sleeping habits in the bassinet to find that the transition to the crib felt almost like it was starting all over again, which was a little deflating on our already lack of sleep and slowly gaining back sleep stage. However, as I write this post, it was really only the first few nights with the first where Triple V decided he wanted to explore the ENTIRE space and started going in circles and then getting himself stuck and woke up and cried. A few days later, he is still doing it but all the trying to flip over and the getting stuck and waking up is done. He now wakes up mostly in desperate hunger and some weird need for attention in the early mornings but mostly he can go back to sleep fairly well or get himself out of the corner on his own. Slowly we will get there…

Exercise Update

Its been over 3 months so I’ve been taking longer walks now. I’m not jumping into intense exercising (not that I’ve done that in a long while) so its mostly morning and evening strolls with Triple V and they are gradually getting a bit longer. While I can’t remember to track everything, I still try to get one to two strolls a day nearby.

Broadwalk “Hiking” – Marais de la Rivieres aux Cerises

With the whole exercise chat, we decided that we would go for a little fall foliage since we seem to always miss it when we go during Thanksgiving. However, this year it seems everything is a little delayed so we were a tad early. There were some areas with a lot of trees that had changed colors but a lot of places that didn’t really have it yet. It was nice to take a little easy hike even we had already been here before (probably about a decade ago) but this time it was a little first road trip adventure with Triple V.

WHAT’S UP

Books

• The Summer I Turned Pretty (Review)

Currently reading: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3), Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle

Look at me and reading. I can’t really recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty and you can read all about it in the review. In terms of YA novel content, The Lunar Chronicles does a better job as Cinder is a stellar book and its sequel is passable so I decided to start that one up but then got attracted to my new purchases of Kiki’s Delivery Service (which I never read the source material before) and Howl’s Moving Castle (which I have but wanted to re-read). I should finish a part of that list during October, let’s hope.

Movies

• Spirited Away (2001 rewatch)
• The Reef: Stalked (2022)
• Howl’s Moving Castle (2004 rewatch)
• The Little Mermaid Live (2019)
• Waitress (2007)
• Hocus Pocus (1993 rewatch)
• Mary Poppins Returns (2018 rewatch, review)
• Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy (2022)
• Death On The Nile (2022)
• Turning Red (2022)
• The Maze Runner (2014 rewatch, review)
• Do Revenge (2022)
• Monsters University (2013)
• Incredibles 2 (2018)
• Jennifer’s Body (2009)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015, Review)
• Underwater (2020)
• Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018, Review)
• Antlers (2021)
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Captain Marvel (2019)

Currently watching: Nightmare Alley

As I mentioned before, I got a one month subscription to Disney Plus for the Disney Day deal for $1.99. Last year I got it, I forgot that it existed and didn’t really make use of it too much so we’re making back for it this year. There’s quite the catalogue even outside of the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars content so it was pretty good. There’s still a little less than half a month left so you will probably still see some more of this service’s titles pop up in the next month.

With that said, its been a very low amount of reviews written mostly because a lot of this is prep work for the Halloween Marathon or for Movies and Tea podcast. If its not, you should see those soon, probably after October’s marathon month. I do have an ambitious goal of catching up with Marvel’s films since I stopped at Infinity War so I buckled down to do it. You can see that I’m already slowly catching up.

My recommendations this month goes to Turning Red, Do Revenge, Underwater and the Maze Runner trilogy.

TV

• I Just Killed My Dad (Limited Series, 2022)
• The Oasis鄧錄圓魚洲
• The Rap Of China中國説唱巔峰對決
• The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (Limited Series, 2022)

Currently binging: Great Escape Season 4 密室大逃脫第四季, Love Between Fairy and Devil 蒼蘭訣, Call Me By Fire 2 披荊斬棘的哥哥, Heart Signal Season 5心動的信號, Hello Summer Relationship相遇的夏天, Rock & Roast Season 5脫口秀大會,

Oh boy, TV series will be hard to talk about unless you have a massive interest in Chinese Variety shows or dramas. Its honestly just the time of year where all the shows I like have gathered together to be released at the same time. Most of them are currently playing in the currently binging one. The standout is always Great Escape where Season 4 has truly notched up the fun element and they expanded and blended the Escape Room with other game elements.

I actually was planning on finishing Love Between Fairy and Devil before Netflix added it but got lured to watch other stuff and never got around to resuming it however, its a pretty great show and if you have Netflix, it makes it so much easier to watch.

Games

• A Plague Tale: Innocence (to be finished)
• Coffee Talk (Review)
• AI: The Somnium Files (not finished)

I’ve been taking a little more time on gaming when I have the time to spare. I mean, I have a fixed amount of time where I can do my own stuff when the little one naps or goes to bed at night so its not really a ton of time. However, with a lot of the Game Pass catalogue leaving during September, I tried to get through the ones that I wanted to play hence the unfinished two games. A Plague Tale: Innocence is actually pretty good but I saved myself the rush mostly because I didn’t realize that my husband bought it on Steam so I will get back to that eventually. AI : The Somnium Files is a pretty good game and super expensive to buy in general but its a visual novel with investigative elements and you can’t really rush those so I unfortunately didn’t get to finish it. I was pretty much a third into the game at that point looking at some of the game chapter breakdown. This one’s a little quirky and odd but there are some pretty graphic murder scenes in this one.

Now, lets talk about something that I did finish: Coffee Talk which is also a visual novel and once where you brew coffee while listening to what goes on with the customers. Its a relaxing game to say the least plus there are some fun drink blends that they include which were fun to discover as well.

Halloween Marathon 2021: V/H/S (2012)

The highlight franchise for this Halloween marathon is here as we dive into the first V/H/S.

V/H/S (2012)

Directors: Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence

Cast: Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Hannah Fierman, Drew Sawyer, Mike Donlan, Joe Swanberg, Sophia Takal,

When a group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for. – IMDB

V/H/S is a 2012 American horror anthology film which features a selection of found footage horror shorts linked together by a mainframe story which shows a group of misfits that go to burglarize a home owned by an old man to get a valuable VHS tape and one by one as they search through the house and through the tapes, one by one they disappear. The mainframe story itself isn’t exactly anything to call home about. In fact, it feels like its a background story that frames up these other stories well but feels a little more empty. It has a lot to do with the misfits really being shown as very unlikeable starting with their parking lot prank pulling up a girls shirt and their goal to earn more money going further doing bad things. There is a lot of suspense but its mostly unresolved. The mystery and creepy vibe does give it space for further sequels, of course.

Being a rather big fan of found footage style horror films, V/H/S has a decent variety of horror subgenres in its shorts compiled here. Not to mention its list of directors involved do have a lot of familiar names mostly with Adam Wingard (directing the frame short mentioned above), Ti West and Joe Swanberg. Another director in this group is David Bruckner which when this anthology released had directed primarily short films in 2012 but is more familiar now as he’s gone on to do Netflix British horror The Ritual (review) and recently, The Night House. Glen McQuaid is probably the lesser know director in this group with only a few films to his credit while Radio Silence rounds up the anthology and is probably now best known for its group of filmmakers making the awesome film, Ready or Not (review).

The first short in V/H/S that gets shown “Amateur Night” directed by David Bruckner is perhaps one of the most appealing ones which also ends up getting turned into a full feature called “Siren” afterwards. Amateur Night is a fantastic little creature feature of sorts as these guys try to get it on with these girls they pick up at the bar and it includes an odd girl Lily who eventually turns into some mythical creature or something. The found footage is from the angle of some surveillance glasses so making everything at eye level for the most part with the character wearing them. Its a great first horror short to kick off this anthology series and for myself, perhaps the highlight until it reaches the big finale.

“Second Honeymoon” by Ti West and “Tuesday the 17th” by Glenn McQuaid are a little odd overall or perhaps feels a little less surprising overall although the latter definitely has an interesting premise especially with the ‘slasher’ style that it chooses and the idea and design of the whole character that is the major threat. Its basically called “The Glitch” which tells all about what it is. The whole part is very static-y for the most part and it makes a lot of the details harder to grasp as its flashing through. Its a good idea and yet something about how it starts feels so hard to get into.

“The Sick Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger” directed by Joe Swanberg is an interesting premise. The endgame is a little abstract, at least in my interpretation compared to what I learned after some research. This type of story is odd but still has a sort of suspense where it lingers between the mystery of whether its supernatural or whether its something else. It plays well with the darkness and the whether there’s some other plot hidden. These sort of stories are pretty intriguing overall as it leaves a lot of room to guess. Its found footage style is through a computer screen which is the “screen life” style that I absolutely love as well.

Wrapping up the anthology is “10/31/98” directed by Radio Silence which is one of the longer stories as it sets itself on Halloween where some friends goes to the wrong house for a Halloween party and what they thought was part of a realistic haunted house set-up turned out to be some exorcism ritual being performed which takes them for a whirl when they need to figure out how to leave before they get caught. The whole setting really comes to life here. There’s a lot to love here. Apparently, there’s an alternate ending this segment which was shot as a joke that has a better ending.

Overall, V/H/S is pretty decent as a horror anthology. Most of the segments are pretty fun overall and have some clever twists and premise in general. As with most anthologies, there are some that stand out a lot more than others. For myself, the best ones were Amateur Night and 10/31/98 with The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger all working well.

Halloween Marathon 2021 Double Feature: The Boy (2016) & Brahms: The Boy II (2020)

The Boy (2016)

Director: William Brent Bell

Cast: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, James Russell

An American nanny is shocked that her new English family’s boy is actually a life-sized doll. After she violates a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive. – IMDB

At the first glance, The Boy feels like a generic horror film. Using dolls who come alive with evil outcomes isn’t exactly a novel idea at this point with Chucky and Annabelle taking its own stage. This also makes for some obvious horror tropes that show up in this film as well which feels a little predictable at times. However, the setting does itself a lot of favors as the mansion that its set in is the Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Nothing quite like a castle to capture the expansive space which is used incredibly well throughout the film as it navigates through the different areas of the house which all has its own purpose.

The foreigner going to a huge mansion for a nanny job is also a decent angle as the audience learns about the house and discovers its secrets along the way. The rules itself and her little observations along with the conversations she has and relationships she builds also brings a lot to the table as her story gets revealed. A girl running from her recent past to evade her own set of dangers and hoping that it doesn’t chase after her as well as facing her own losses which all become all too relatable in terms of the story of the family living in the house.

However, The Boy is its best when the big reveal is shown as it does has quite a shocking element. Of course, for those who are like myself who went into this knowing very little, I’m keeping that part spoiler-free. If there were any creeps, its definitely the big reveal that does pay off in the long run. In that element, it definitely exceeded expectations.

Sure, The Boy isn’t some top tier horror film with some sophisticated scares and for the most part, its more creepy than actually scary. However, it does have a clever twist reveal and the setting does have its haunting elements. There are some obvious issues with it but somehow, its always fun to find something that exceeds expectations and creates some surprises, right?

Brahms: The Boy II (2020)

Director: William Brent Bell

Cast: Katie Holmes, Christopher Convery, Owain Yeoman, Ralph Ineson, Daphne Hoskins, Keoni Rebeiro, Joely Collins

After a family moves into the Heelshire Mansion, their young son soon makes friends with a life-like doll called Brahms. – IMDB

Its a tad surprising to see that The Boy got a sequel mostly because the first movie does wrap up the situation enough and doesn’t really need to be further explored however, here we are! The sequel expands on the story in the future as years has passed between the first film’s events to the current events as a family moves into the guest house on the Heelshire Mansion property to heal from a burglary attack in their home that has caused psychological troubles to both the mother and the son. As they arrive and their son strays off into the woods and finds the life-like doll Brahms from the first film. Questions automatically pop up as to what has happened since and why its been buried outside. This makes the audience right away more aware than the characters themselves.

In reality, what made the first film shine was its use of the rather unique twist which gave it a lot of boost from its rather generic horror style. The sequel dials back to be a lot more predictable. It has to do a lot with already knowing what tricks the doll is capable of doing and knowing what it will do and rather just having that moment of building atmosphere to when it will do it. However, this film dives further into the lore of Brahms from the origins of the dolls to its dark past which changes the game a little for the film but still taking a more normal path. It ends up adding to the story which can be appreciated but it doesn’t feel too unpredictable that its much less enjoyable overall.

Brahms: The Boy II brings in Katie Holmes as the mother in the leading role. Its been a while since I’ve personally seen anything of hers and with what she had to work with, it was a pretty decent job. Whether its how the film tracks her character development from the traumatic start at the beginning to having to pull out the stops to protect her son from this doll before it would take him away. There is something rather sinister about the whole situation and the son played by Christopher Convery does a decent job as well. There are some well-executed horror moments in the film.

As a sequel, its pretty much exactly what would be expected. Even if it did build on the lore of the doll itself, the film overall is pretty bland. Its fairly predictable and expected. There’s not really anyone who says or does anything to unexpected and nothing too surprising that happens. It goes exactly as you’d expect a sequel from The Boy might go right down to the ending where it pretty much tries to set up the film for the unresolved issue under wraps, just in case it ever gets greenlit for another sequel.

Double Feature: Halloween (2018) & Guns Akimbo (2019)

After taking 2 days off to regroup, we’re back with the first double feature of 2021. Its still the remaining movies not reviewed from last year’s viewing. This time, its a look at 2018’s sequel of Halloween paired with 2019’s Guns Akimbo. Let’s check it out!

Halloween (2018)

Director: David Gordon Green

Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Haluk Bilginer, Will Patton, Rhian Rees, Jefferson Hall

Laurie Strode confronts her long-time foe Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago. – IMDB

The 11th movie of the Halloween franchise which has changed directors and had multiple versions of what its meant to be to finally get back to one that is set with Laurie Strode as a grandmother and mother who has grown estranged from her family because of her precautions towards Michael Myers and her past that has convinced her that as long as he is alive, it will never be safe however also having the means to fight back when needed.

Having a little drama and a story that catches up and brings the story back to the original 1978 storyline with Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween brings it all back with a Michael Myers and Laurie Strode 40 years after the incident and Myers still going to find her. As the story looks at Laurie Strode’s family situation and the current situation of Michael Myers, it also focuses on crime podcasters that end up triggering some part of Myers that causes him to go rogue.

At this point, Halloween seems to really be for the fans that have stuck around since the beginning, enduring its many sequels along with all the randomness and nonsensical story directions. Halloween 2018 is a great attempt at reviving the series especially as its a solid story as a whole. Sure, the story focuses on the family drama between Laurie Strode and her daughter, played by Judy Greer who faults her mother for giving her a traumatic childhood full of defense lessons and harsh upbringing perhaps of what she feels is paranoia and yet, that part did become a little nonsensical and frustrating in its own regards. What does make up for it is in the second half when the danger is undeniable and how the family will face it.

Michael Myers is a fantastic horror icon. One that truly shows the inhuman side of a monster that makes for a talk about whether he is human considering he seems to be indestructible. 2018’s Halloween brings all that back to perspective. No more reasons of why he does it or adding in unnecessary side story and just executing it as a slasher, one that gives once the victim a chance to fight back. Its not exactly scary or horrific as a movie but its still a thrilling and fun movie.

Guns Akimbo (2019)

Director (and writer): Jason Lei Howden

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Grant Bowler, Edwin Wright, Milo Cawthorne

A guy relies on his newly-acquired gladiator skills to save his ex-girlfriend from kidnappers. – IMDB

Guns Akimbo feels very similar to other movies in its own realm like Nerve or even Ready Player One. Movies with worlds rooted in a live game with rather extreme results. Its over the top and ridiculous. And yet, Guns Akimbo has this satisfying feeling to the adrenaline rush and its one that puts this main character, Miles who is a nobody at work find some empowerment by being a troll online, you know, the current day keyboard warrior that anyone with any presence online dislikes. He messes with the wrong people and they make his life hell by attaching guns to his hands and sending him on a deadly mission. With that said, it is ridiculous as a whole and there are movies in the same realm that definitely does a better job in terms of creativity and pacing, making this one probably a fairly forgettable experience looking back at it right now.

However, Guns Akimbo has a few things going for it. It has this not so serious tone. The characters seem to all just enjoy doing their over the top thing. Daniel Radcliffe is pretty fun to watch and probably one of the much more entertaining roles that he’s been in post-Harry Potter, but I could be wrong since I haven’t been really keeping track (side note: if you do have other movies to recommend of his, let me know in the comments below). The biggest motivation has to be watching Samara Weaving taking on another one of these over the top adrenaline rush movies and making it her own by creating yet another similar character but still unique in her own way. Its always a joy to watch her take on these characters and embody the character so well.

Thing is, Guns Akimbo has a lot of action and yet somehow, there seems to be a lot of time without action as well. There is this imbalance in execution of the movie as a whole. Its a little confusing on whether its trying to be more than just a mindless high octane movie. In some ways, the humor at the beginning goes to this character Miles getting extreme consequences for being an internet troll and then ends up having to run away, which is a great premise with tons of potential and the bickering between Miles and Nix also becomes quite a highlight moment. The story does lose itself a little on what its trying to achieve. Sure, this isn’t a movie meant for analysis and yet, I can’t help but feel while I was watching it that it doesn’t quite hit that extremity or high octane that it should have.

Overall, Guns Akimbo is very much like watching a video game come to life. Its fairly action-packed and Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving are fantastic in this. The tone and execution is a little imbalanced with what it wants to deliver and what it actually delivers perhaps. However, as a mindless entertainment sort of deal, it feels fun enough. There are definitely other similar movies that do a better job but there are still some worthwhile elements.

My October Adventures

In a blink of eye between 31 Days of Halloween and festival coverage, October wrapped up. Our partial lockdown has been extended for another potentially 28 days as Montreal hopes for the new cases/deaths number to decrease in the next month instead of the current constant. I’ve reverted in the middle of October to a partial work at home status which is kind of the best scenario that I could hope for. With that said, its been a fairly calm month as we kept to regional protocol and stayed home other than to pick-up the occasional food pick-up or grocery runs and mostly for work purposes. After a little glimpse at what’s going on personally, let’s see what I managed to muster up for this month’s adventures…its mostly recaps at this point. Let’s check it out!

Festival Du Nouveau Cinema 2020

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Festival du Nouveau Cinema ran for the majority of the month. It was a wild ride as this festival always has deeper movies and takes a little more time to process which makes the writing process in a tad of a delay since I’m not going to lie that the movie choices started a little rocky. Still, I wanted to do a little something for it and here’s the rankings from best to worst (obviously in my opinion) of the 19 films that I watched based on my current feelings and memories of them:

1. Topside
2. My Salinger Year
3. Red Post on Escher Street
4. Caught in the Net
5. Moving On
6. La Hija de un Ladron
7. Violation
8. Undine
9. Poissonsexe
10. Wisdom Tooth
11. Mum, Mum, Mum
12. Cocoon
13. The Book of Vision
14. Drowsy City
15. The Tremor
16. The Cloud In Her Room
17. Sin La Habana
18. Kill It and Leave This Town
19. Siberia

That’s the rankings. Half of the movies have been reviewed at this point and there will be the rest of the reviews going up in the coming week.

Halloween Marathon

This year was a little different as I aimed to do 31 Days of Halloween/Horror which overall worked out as I did mostly double features and then wrapped up the last few days with Blood in the Snow Festival coverage. There were some off days and I had fallen behind by one day with a week left and pulled it together to wrap up on October 31st. I consider that a win even though I didn’t count the TV Binge of The Haunting of Bly Manor as one of the days, which I probably should have. Out of all the movies, here’s the top picks that I saw in no specific order:

• A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
• Raw
• Unfriended: Dark Web
• #Alive
• Trick ‘r Treat
• Happy Death Day
• For The Sake Of Vicious

You can find all the reviews and full list of this year’s and previous year’s Halloween marathon HERE!

Blood in the Snow Festival 2020

Blood in the Snow Festival 2020 started up at the end of October and is going on until November 7th. Different from Fantasia Festival and Festival du Nouveau Cinema, its showing on Super Channel and has a specific schedule for the different features and programs airing. You can find all the info for how to sign up for Super Channel and schedule on the festival’s site.

I’ll be covering everything here: shorts programs, features, pre-feature shorts and perhaps the Web Bites if I figure out a good way to do it.

Trying New Restaurants

1930 Shanghai

1930 Shanghai is a restaurant that specializes in Xiao Long Bao which is the Shanghai soup-filled dumplings. They are one of my favorite foods. This place makes decent ones. While they look the same here, I had one order of the normal pork -filled flavor and then had one where it was chicken and mushroom. Both were really good.

Comon Restaurant

I’m usually not a huge fan of Fried Chicken nor do I tend to eat it a lot but my friend told me about this place and picked up some chicken. . Their take-out boxes for the chicken are in pizza boxes which is pretty creative. I ordered a Bibimbap which was pretty good but felt was a little overpriced for the size and the taste wasn’t anything too different from other places. The fried chicken is also pricier but it does taste really good. I ordered the Fried Chicken with Green Onions (pretty obvious) but unlike some other restaurants in Montreal, their chickens are all bone-in, which isn’t a huge problem since I like bone-in meats but definitely something that others might want to keep in mind if you want to try it out.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this weekly adventures!
What have you been up to? Any Halloween celebrations – simple or not?

Double Feature: Happy Death Day (2017) & Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

A sudden change in plans brings another double feature before we start the Blood in the Snow Festival coverage. A lot going on right now. Either way, 31 days of Horror is in the final few days and this pairing is Happy Death Day and its sequel Happy Death Day 2U. Let’s check it out!

Happy Death Day (2017)

Director: Christopher Landon

Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton, Rachel Matthews, Jason Bayle, Rob Mello

A college student must relive the day of her murder over and over again, in a loop that will end only when she discovers her killer’s identity. – IMDB

Riding between science fiction, slasher and dark comedy, Happy Death Day is quite the entertaining romp that its meant to be. Playing with the concept of an unknown time loop that takes our main character Theresa, mostly known as Tree who is a sorority girl with her own issues and a whole lot of enemies that keeps dying and waking up on her birthday as she tries to figure out who is her killer. It becomes quite a fun ride as she makes friend with Carter, the guy that lives in the dorm that she keeps waking up in and then starts connecting with how bitchy of a person she is to the people around her as well as embracing how avoiding her past has made her into this miserable person.

While the time loop isn’t really explained in the movie, it never really feels like it needs to either. Happy Death Day is at its best because of the humor that it delivers and the many different ways that Theresa changes throughout. With that said, Jessica Rothe captures her role as Theresa incredibly well. She has this charm and charisma that really adds so much to how she portrays the character. It also is rather comedic how she is the only one with the memory of all this and wakes up being different every time.

In reality, Happy Death Day is a really straight forward sort of movie. It delivers a few twists in her time loop and leaving the suspense in the air of whether she will escape her time loop or not. Its not so much that its scary but more that its a lot of fun to watch. Sure, the slasher bits can get a few jumps at the beginning but the threat of her being able to loop really does take away the horror of it. Still, its a different a type of horror film riding the line of horror comedy but a nice palate cleanser and really why I do love films that mix genres/subgenres so much.

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Christopher Landon

Cast: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, Ruby Modine, Steve Zissis, Charles Aitken, Laura Clifton

Tree Gelbman discovers that dying over and over was surprisingly easier than the dangers that lie ahead. – IMDB

While Happy Death Day should have been probably been a one movie deal and let it end at where it is, it was expected that with how well Happy Death Day did that it would get a sequel. Add it onto another unnecessary sequel. What the sequel aims to do now is give us the cause of Tree’s time loop in the first movie but this time, the equation has changed because that loop has caused a parallel dimension which brings in the help of the science students that caused in the first place who happen to be Carter’s roommate, Ryan and his friends. Tree needs to work with them to stop it and its a lot of the same as the first film with a lot of trial and error dying except this time mostly on her own terms instead of by the baby face killer.

The heart of Happy Death Day 2U is really on how charming Jessica Rothe’s character Tree is. The parallel dimension gives her another sort of revelation about her life. Personally, it brings in a little bit more seriousness to what should be more comedic but they do make it up with this montage of how she chooses to kill herself for each trial by the team to end the loop. Its a bigger cast to say the least and I do enjoy the dynamic of the science crew. They bring their own sort of humor.

The sequel is a lot of the same with some other stakes at hand but it feels pretty much the same and if anything, a little more silly than the first one but its just a fun little romp. Its definitely more sci-fi than horror in this more and more drama than comedy. Still, it was fairly entertaining. Not quite as good as the first one and not a necessary sequel by any means but its still pretty fun for my own standards. I just really hope they don’t do a third one because it really doesn’t need to dive even further.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen Happy Death Day and the sequel? Thoughts?

Double Feature: Truth or Dare (2017) & Truth or Dare: Extended Director’s Cut (2018)

Next up in the double feature is a pairing of 2017’s Truth or Dare and 2018’s Truth or Dare. The latter is an Extended Director’s Cut because that’s all Netflix has. Let’s check it out!

Truth or Dare (2017)

Director: Nick Simon

Cast: Cassandra Scerbo, Brytni Sarpy, Mason Dye, Alexxis Lemire, Ricardo Hoyos, Luke Baines, Harvey Guillen, Christina Masterson, Heather Langenkamp

Eight college friends head to a “Haunted Rental” for Halloween. But when they replay the game that made the house infamous, they awaken an evil spirit intent on stealing their souls. – IMDB

2017’s Truth or Dare is direct to video supernatural horror film which plays along the concept of a supernatural being in a house that gets unleashed when friends go there that chases them down for 3 rounds of Truth or Dare before leaving them alone. With a rather ambiguous sort of ending and a cast of part frustrating and part decent characters but some rather intense dare executions, Truth or Dare is an okay offering. Sure, there’s a lot of bad dialogue and one of the characters in particular were especially annoying to watch but there is an undeniable sinister vibe and a cameo of Heather Langenkamp as a previous survivor of one of these games.

Truth or Dare did have a pretty imbalance pacing. The beginning half was a lot of setting up the situation and getting the crew into this location which they soon realize is part of this “scary rentals” site which is never a good idea but they still go along with it. things spiral out of control really fast when their first dare is to make out with another girl or a truth about a secret, which brings up a whole lot of questions that they don’t seem to ask, and things from that point jumps up in intensity really quickly. Its all kind of a ridiculous sort of set up in story progression since the only thing that the previous survivor does is state the obvious but gives them pointers on how to make it out alive, which still leads to arguments about what needs to be done.

As much as it sounds like I’m hating on Truth or Dare, I’m honestly not. The characters are a little annoying and frustrating particularly the character Jessie and the dialogue in general is a tad uninspiring but the movie is sinister and the tension is effective enough plus some of the dares and how they need to be smart about sharing the dare to stay alive has some decent execution. Overall, some good some bad so an okay watch.

Truth or Dare: Extended Director’s Cut (2018)

Director (and co-writer): Jeff Wadlow

Cast: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, Sophia Ali, Nolan Gerard Funk, Landon Liboiron, Sam Lerner, Tom Choi, Aurora Perrineau

A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone – or something – begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare.  – IMDB

Let’s put it out there right away that I haven’t seen Truth or Dare’s theatrical release but I did do a little research on the differences to the extended director’s cut which is the version currently on Netflix. Extended Director’s Cut includes a lot more of the rated scenes that was removed to fit a PG-13 rating. I’m sure that it does add to the experience since Truth or Dare is its best when its in the process of the truth or dare segments. One part of it I’m not a big fan and it’ll be talked about later.

Taking a quick moment to compare (seeing as I did watch this back to back), Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare is definitely a bigger budget with a lot more familiar faces like Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Landon Liboiron (Hemlock Grove), Hayden Szeto (The Edge of Seventeen) and Violett Beane (The Flash) and a story that gives this Truth or Dare a deeper lore to discover. There are more concrete rules and a set sequence for them to follow. It jumps between Mexico and US and a lot of different backstories and secrets from the characters. All of these things having their pros and cons.

The flow of the story is decent and the truth and dare segments are pretty decent as they have that cringe and tension of when its going to drop. It has a sequence of how the truth and dare rounds go and the mystery of whether the previous person went which gives the viewers more knowledge than the characters. The only issue with those segments is the possession phase where the characters all change into these creepy smiling faces with kind of distorted voices which for one, isn’t as scary as they think it is and second, gets overused so becomes more frustrating and predictable than effective by the end. At the same time, the jumping from Mexico and US is a little crazy because its like a trip to the grocery story with their frequency, not to mention at one part they have a gun and can cross the border, which seems absolutely ridiculous. The next point is some illogical scenes that just don’t really make a ton of sense. I know these movies aren’t meant to be dug into detail and watched really for their face value but some things are hard to ignore.

The only thing I do have to say that really made up for the 2017 is that the characters here are much more bearable. Maybe its the cast and it has to do with the characters while still being fairly one dimensional still have a certain level of back story even though its fairly easy to figure out who is going to die and whatnot. Plus, the ending is a kind of a fun opening for a sequel or something.

As a final note, for myself, I’m pretty done with Truth or Dare concept. It seems like after back to back years of Truth or Dare premise, it can be tucked away and really doesn’t seem like they can do anything more unique since both of these carry the same kind of execution of some possessed and cursed game where the characters pretty much have a slim chance of getting out. But who knows, right? Someone out there will find a twist for it somehow. It always seems to happen at some point.

That’s it for this Truth or Dare double feature!
Have you seen these two? Which do you prefer?