EvilPhoEniX

Pennsylvania, cemetery, death metal, gore, the Inquisition, rituals! Another in the line of underground low-budget Evil Dead-style horror films with decent gore, even though you have to wait almost 40 minutes for it, and ultimately it’s not as much as I would have liked, but still definitely something to watch for gore fans. Otherwise, it’s traditionally storyless with a cheap look and terrible actors, occasionally some joke works, and I liked the religious setting, but the film might have shocked seven years back, today it's more for a better average. 6/10.

I was quite looking forward to Phobias as I like anthology films and phobias, but this is so uninteresting and boringly made that it hurts. For one thing, the film doesn't feel like a anthology. The segments have no interesting story, twist or title. Of the characters, I wonder who had what phobia, somehow I didn't pick up on that, but mostly they were supposed to be extreme and the presumed crazy doctor didn't really put on a good show. There’s no gore, zero tension, zero atmosphere, no theme. Pretty much useless, the kind of movie for late-night TV. The only interesting scene was the fight in the restaurant, but considering that it wasn't an action movie, it's woefully lacking. At least it's not downright cheap and you don't get bored, but what good is it if nothing much interesting happens. 4/10.

After Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow made this 9 minute short with dinosaurs and it's visually beautiful and atmospheric. 8/10.

After Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, Fede Alvarez experiments and creates more or less a new subgenre of horror and for me he succeeded. The mini-series has nice episodes mostly 15 minutes each. It's all done with phones and voices, and you wouldn't believe how uncomfortably stiffing the atmosphere can get at times. Not a single story is downright bad, they all balance between average to above average (the best were 2, 3, 5, and 8). I like that they all have one thing in common and that is a time paradox. Alvarez takes on a looming post-apocalyptic event, cosmic dimensions, time travel between past, present and future, physics and science, and goes about it in a decidedly intelligent and engaging way. The episodes feature a lot of familiar actors, have an interesting story, the atmosphere is nicely mysterious and it's definitely pretty creepy and chilling in places. At the end, everything is nicely explained and a story of apocalyptic proportions is concluded. I enjoyed it, I had fun, but this form doesn't suit everyone, I'm open to new possibilities and originality is to be appreciated. 8/10.

“When you try to avoid conflict, you create conflict. Who said that? I don’t know .. Bruce Lee maybe.” An unexpected surprise and an incredibly entertaining film! The story focuses on a couple in love who have been together for 14 years and are still having as much fun as they did at the beginning. Their relationship is in a word, perfect, but to their acquaintances it’s unnatural, unrealistic, sci-fi, weird, and they are slowly being treated like Martians! The film takes on a nice paranoid vibe after the arrival of a mysterious man claiming interesting things, and from that point on, a mystery full of questions, sex, lies and shocking revelations begins to emerge. I enjoyed it a lot, I would love to have Kerry Bishé at home immediately (that's the woman every man dreams of!). The black humour worked for me, the acting is excellent, the stiffing atmosphere was good, and even though the finale is resolved conversationally, I was satisfied there as well. A solid mystery genre film spiced up with sharp black humour. 8/10.

A 3 hour intense case about a notorious Scottish serial killer named Dennis Nilsen, who confessed to 15 murders of men, whom he strangled, dismembered, boiled their heads and had homosexual intercourse with. He is now being questioned and tried. The series has a Mindhunter vibe and the atmosphere is pretty tense and chilling in places. The dialogue is polished, David Tennant's performance is absolutely gripping, and I enjoyed Daniel Mays as the detective a lot. I liked that you has no idea whether Dennis Nilsen is telling the truth or whether he is pulling all the cops' legs, and there is power in uncertainty. The highlight is the trial, which is breathtaking. The opening scene when the killer is caught after finding the remains of human bodies in the garbage and the killer tells the police to go upstairs, he has the rest in the closet! Very good and definitely a must see for serial killer fans! 8/10.

Snyder's comic book dark vision! I honestly didn't believe Zack Snyder could do it, but after Justice League, he's definitely repaired his reputation. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't looking forward to it and I suspected I would slag it, but in the end it's surprisingly good and the thing I feared the most (the fact that I would have to sit through two hours I already knew and didn't care much about) was proven wrong, and I found myself wondering quite often whether a scene was new or an old one, which is probably a plus. At first I was bothered by the 4:3 format because I’m not quite used to it, let along for four hours, so in that respect the film is a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, there are four epic climaxes every hour, so the time passes very quickly, the characters get more space (Flash is excellent with his jokes and slow motion reminiscent of the best of Quicksilver), the action is epic and pleasantly brutal. I really liked the first new featuring Zeus and Ares appeared, that one had balls. I was a a little disappointed by the entrance of Superman, somewhere after three hours and he probably had the least amount of space of all of the characters, and at times I wondered where Batman was at all 😃 But overall it’s more sweeping and compact, the story and the characters fit together better, and thanks to the decent action and awesome music it's a solid dark comic book movie that I won't be repeating, but I had an unexpectedly great experience. 8/10.

A decent black and white short from the director of The Babadook. A mother struggles with her son's fear of a monster hiding in her closet. It's dark, creepy, suspenseful and decently scary in places. Worth a watch despite the black and white format. 7/10.

Weird, trippy, extreme, hallucinogenic and psychological madness from South Africa! The story focuses on a junkie named Barry who is a living wreck, his life is unenviable, and to top it off he is abducted by aliens who send a scout in his body back to Earth to explore it! The actor playing Barry, Gary Green, has such a nasty looking mug that he will give anyone nightmares. He embarks on an exploration of a town full of sex, strange people, drugs and violence, and though there's no outright gore, which is a shame, it's weird, disturbingly repulsive and creepy more or less all the time. The first half hour is solid madness that's not very nice to watch. (Barry's unexpected birth and dancing trip at the disco is almost physically uncomfortable). A strange film for an obscure and marginal audience. 6/10.

The sea is the salty grave of pirates!! Netflix has made the best pirate genre thing I've ever seen and fans of history and pirates should not miss this. It has a semi-documentary style telling an epic story with beautiful visuals, great costumes, and a driving narrative, complete with explanations by seasoned historians, and it works beautifully. The series takes us through the formation of the Pirate Democratic Republic in Nassau to the end of the golden era of the pirates and it's gripping, spectacular and so engaging that my jaw was on the floor several times while watching. The actors were cast with absolute verisimilitude and aptness and of the pirates, the trio that impresses most is Black Sam Bellamy, a fair and wealthy pirate of his time, Charles Vane, a tyrant and psychopath also famous for torturing and abusing prisoners, and then of course the most famous Edward Thatch, who had to wait a while for his greatest fame, but it must be admitted that his transformation into the absolute embodiment of the devil and madman known as the legendary Blackbeard is nicely portrayed. I mean, as soon as he goes insane and steps out onto the bow of his ship with a lit beard, three pistols and yells out to the open sea “I am Blackbeard” I had goosebumps up my arse probably. Other strong moments are capture of the largest slave ship Whydah, and the introduction of the corsair and pirate hunter Captain Woods Rogers, who was the nemesis of all pirates and a ruthless man. The series is well-paced, packed with nice plot twists, intrigue and betrayal, and there are plenty of sex scenes (most famously the pirate Anne Bonney, who fucked everyone at the age of 16!!). There is also strong dialogue and a tight development of all the characters. The only thing that disappointed me is the action, which wasn't as much, and I would have liked a more spectacular finale maybe, but either way I enjoyed it very much. 9/10.