Board 8 > 2022-23 Horror Topic: Yes Chef!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yeah, Boogeyman felt like a PG-13 horror movie, but it did a lot with the theme of grief that I really appreciated too. The monster design though was absolutely A+ though and probably the best part of the movie. Really stunning that they could show so much of the bastard and he's still effective. But they had a lot of ideas. Some of the set pieces they had were tremendous too, and I think that's something that gets overlooked a lot in horror movies sometimes. Some of them were just so simple but just had added touches and placement that worked so well.

I think your placement is probably right, but I probably would've snuck it to the bottom of A tier.

Well among the film's flaws I'd list:

Sadie's subplot with her former best friend and the "high school mean girls" crowd felt a little shoehorned and ended up unresolved completely. The film's runtime topped just over 90 minutes so it's difficult to add in too many plot threads. I also felt all of those characters were just tropes, and not one I enjoyed seeing and not ones that felt self-aware.

I really would have liked to see more subtle, psychological horror in this. Considering it is PG-13 and a bit bound to not show blood and gore, though it implied the death of a very child early on that's about it as far as boundary pushing went. Boogeyman is supposedly a monster driven by grief and seems to possess an array of different powers and abilities; I'd have liked to see something like they did in the IT movies with Georgie; some on the screen stuff and can give you a chill. Perhaps they were being true to the source material (I haven't read it) and maybe doing that would have made him too much like Pennywise, but yeah.

All that being said, I consider the films I put into my B tier to be good movies. I'm not a terribly hard to please person when it comes to movies usually, so I would say I like things more often than I dislike them. B tier films are ones I would say I recommended seeing, but that they may have some flaws here and there to stop them from achieving greatness (in my opinion, at least). C tier movies are the sort of "take it or leave it" kind; they're not bad, but you aren't missing out by missing out either. Stuff below that I would recommend against seeing, of course.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (what a title) is out in limited theaters, but sadly too limited even for Hollywood South as I can't find any showtimes for it around here. Bummer. More fuel for Amazon Prime probably.

Seems like it's a Frankenstein drama horror story; interested to eventually check it out for uniqueness sake.

A lot of good horror movies have come out this year, but I'm struggling to find more than 3 released so far that I would call truly great. Like last year had The Black Phone, The Menu, Smile, X, and Pearl , all instant hits I would watch again right now if I only had the spare time, and this year has had M3GAN, which is really a lot better conceptually than it is in execution, Infinity Pool, which is a solid existential type horror I can't find much fault in, and Nefarious which is carried by some phenomenal acting, but also bogged down by some heavy-handed right wing political influence in its writing. I mean there's been some great moments in say Scream VI, and Beau is Afraid among other recent films, but man I guess I'm just hoping for more like last year. Are my expectations just getting too high?

I mean I didn't really care for Smile and thought X was just okay but I DID really love Barbarian and Nope

I'd say this year is almost on par since we didn't get The Menu until like November but I'm hoping for something really good yet to come. I did love Beau Is Afraid a lot though, would be my #1 so far this year if not foe Across the Spiderverse

I'm watching Beau is Afraid tomorrow and I really hope it's excellent. I agree I haven't really highly enjoyed too much of the horror slate this year besides M3GAN and Evil Dead Rise (which I still had plenty of issues with).

Snake5555555555 posted...

I'm watching Beau is Afraid tomorrow and I really hope it's excellent. I agree I haven't really highly enjoyed too much of the horror slate this year besides M3GAN and Evil Dead Rise (which I still had plenty of issues with).

At the very least you won't be bored

Well I certainly liked Beau but not sure what I think of the last bits yet.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Well I certainly liked Beau but not sure what I think of the last bits yet.

The last bits are what made the movie make sense though!

Glad you liked it, it's a lot to process

M3GAN still holds up upon 2nd viewing

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

The last bits are what made the movie make sense though!

I dunno about that. It still found it hard to tell what really happened by the end, but maybe I don't have the galaxy brain evoked right now. I still liked it, it's just super weird and I'm not one to dwell that much on hidden meanings and messages enough.

The Blackening tomorrow on Juneteenth, haven't had enough time to watch any new indie stuff on platforms, but can't miss a theater film.

I just saw Sick that came out this year on Peacock.

Actually shockingly good movie. It's set during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak and two college girls go to quarantine in a cabin by the lake, but someone is trying to kill them.

It featured some really clever usage of home invasion horror that I feel is normally played out, but it had some great directing that made it stand out. Really great directing, honestly. And I thought it was going to be more of a horror comedy from the trailers but it really didn't turn out to be aside from a few gags.

If you're looking for an easy watch, I recommend it. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Renfield
12. 65

B Tier

13. The Boogeyman
14. The Pope's Exorcist
15. Infinity Pool
16. Stalker
17. From Black
18. Malum
19. Inside
20. Nefarious
21. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier

22. Enys Men
23. The Strays
24. Consecration
25. Trinket Box
26. Spoonful of Sugar
27. Unwelcome
28. The Black Demon
29. Hunt Her, Kill Her

D Tier

30. Leave
31. The Headmistress
32. Children of the Corn
33. Fear
34. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

35. The Outwaters
36. Skinamarink

The Blackening was a pretty strong horror comedy, probably the best one this year (I ranked it under Beau, but I don't consider that in the genre even if some list it as such). Very self aware and with a lot of good laughs. It isn't the perfect film or anything, but among things I'd praise it on are the acting and the writing (except for one thing I'll mention). I was a little worried as they started to introduce the cast, because it's done so after the intro and it seems like there might be too many of them for a film with a shorter runtime, but they made everyone very distinct and the actors put on really bombastic performances that set their characters apart from each other very well. The one knock I'd mention is I was able to see the twist very early on and call out who the killer was, though perhaps it was intentional. I wasn't super thrilled on the sort of lazy "white rednecks with the Confederate flag" as henchmen, a little bleh for me. Even with those reservations though, I did like the "villain" before the reveals, sort of has a Jigsaw or Ghostface style inspiration to it. But yeah, good stuff, gets a strong recommend from me.

PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I just saw Sick that came out this year on Pe

I have this on my master list file of things to try and watch for 2023, but as I don't have Peacock and not sure I want to commit to another service I'll barely use, I'm not sure how I'll get to watch a few of the films on my list.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Renfield
12. 65

B Tier

13. The Boogeyman
14. The Pope's Exorcist
15. Infinity Pool
16. Stalker
17. Kids vs. Aliens
18. From Black
19. Malum
20. Inside
21. Nefarious
22. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier

23. Enys Men
24. The Strays
25. Consecration
26. Trinket Box
27. Spoonful of Sugar
28. Unwelcome
29. The Black Demon
30. Hunt Her, Kill Her

D Tier

31. Leave
32. The Headmistress
33. Children of the Corn
34. Fear
35. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

36. The Outwaters
37. Skinamarink

Wasn't planning on seeing a film tonight, but wound up watching Kids vs. Aliens while we were visiting some friends. Despite the intoxication and atmosphere, I tried to look at this movie as objectively as I was able. It's pretty good stuff. It isn't at all like I had imagined it (it's been on my watch list for several months now). I was thinking this would be like... Mars Needs Moms but with horror elements. Kinda a hokey bad kids movie, but it's definitely not a movie for children despite starring them. Most of the characters aren't particularly deep and many are just outright tropes, but the acting is above average and I enjoyed the cheesy 90s vibe I got from it. Nothing groundbreaking, but a solid effort and well written. Placed in the recommend category.

watched bodies bodies bodies again tonight

still a very fun time

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Renfield
12. 65

B Tier

13. The Boogeyman
14. The Pope's Exorcist
15. Infinity Pool
16. Stalker
17. From Black
18. Malum
19. Inside
20. Nefarious
21. They Wait in the Dark
22. You're Killing Me
23. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

24. Enys Men
25. The Strays
26. Consecration
27. Trinket Box
28. Spoonful of Sugar
29. Unwelcome
30. Hunt Her, Kill Her
31. The Black Demon

D Tier

32. Leave
33. The Headmistress
34. Children of the Corn
35. Fear
36. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

37. The Outwaters
38. Skinamarink

You're Killing Me watched. Follows a pretty standard formula, but the acting performances are strong. They carry they film. This was one of Anne Heche's final roles as well. She's pretty dastardly here for sure. I will say that very often I was left questioning the character's motives, so the writing here I wouldn't say was on point and probably the weakest aspect of the film as a whole. It felt like the production value was good, because it wisely used just a single location to film the entire film, which I've noticed works quite well since I've been watching these indie horror films. I'm torn where to place it on my list exactly, but for now I would give it a decent recommendation so I have it trailing my B tier. I had to adjust Kids vs. Aliens just a bit, and made a few other minor adjustments as well. Nearing 40 films watched for 2023!

Watched Run Rabbit Run on Netflix because the girlfriend really likes that actress from Succession.

It was not very good. It has the bare minimum to keep you somewhat interested throughout it, but it never delivers on creep factor aside from a couple scenes which they probably built the movie around. Also has a completely terrible ending that just screams they had no idea how to end it.

So of course it's #1 on Netflix.

Yeah, I saw a Google ad for that film, some review saying "the next Hereditary and The Babadook" then I looked at the review score and thought better of choosing that movie right off the bat. Sure we'll watch it soon, though still behind 1 other film on Netflix but I haven't had that much interest in We Have a Ghost yet.

saw The Blackening this week

really fun movie

Seeing Insidious: The Red Door tomorrow night. Reviews seem mixed to poor so far, I guess that's probably about par for the course lately for this franchise, though I will say I liked The Last Key well enough.

Cleft Lip Key Fingers was a good monster for The Last Key. I just remember the trailer doing the sound mixing in one of the scenes in the movie a ton better than the actual movie did itself.

Other than that it left zero lasting impression on me.

Oh come on

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1677320176113426437?t=1oXRDUJfLnAQibNervJwMw&s=19

I enjoy the Purge movies with the exception of the last awful one but that premise just sounds very bad.

The Forever Purge was horrible. Somehow that one sounds worse

Having your movies take on social issues doesn't work if you inherently don't understand the social issue

also, literally the first comment

https://twitter.com/dawnyredd/status/1677322326096871427

Please let this die in development.

Johnbobb posted...

also, literally the first comment

https://twitter.com/dawnyredd/status/1677322326096871427

Maybe they have a black gay state, and a white gay state.

do gays and lesbians get separate states? what about bisexuals? or mixed race people?

what's even more concerning is the amount of people in the twitter comments that are just blown away by such a deep concept

The Red Door was better than I expected, but I wasn't expecting much since I hated The Last Key or whatever it was. It also had the most effective jump scares I've seen since Smile. Also I wasn't expecting such a wholesome ending. Solid 7.5/10

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Insidious: The Red Door
12. Renfield
13. 65

B Tier

14. The Boogeyman
15. The Pope's Exorcist
16. Infinity Pool
17. Stalker
18. From Black
19. Malum
20. Inside
21. Nefarious
22. They Wait in the Dark
23. You're Killing Me
24. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

25. Enys Men
26. The Strays
27. Consecration
28. Trinket Box
29. Spoonful of Sugar
30. Unwelcome
31. Hunt Her, Kill Her
32. The Black Demon

D Tier

33. Leave
34. The Headmistress
35. Children of the Corn
36. Fear
37. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

38. The Outwaters
39. Skinamarink

It could be that this year has been a little light on jump-scare reliant horrors, but I found the latest chapter of this divisive franchise to be pretty good overall. Sure there are moments of "eh" and things that seem a little too over the top, but there are a handful of really well executed jumpscares that don't go the way you'd predict, even if you know something is about to happen. Nothing got an audible response from me, but several of them did get some good actual jumps, which has been pretty rare so far in 2023. I found it to be a likable film, plus Ghost does the outro track so that's always a positive thing. If you found the last film to be bad, this one is very unlike that one in most every way so perhaps give it a shot.

Anything For Jackson was surprisingly good dry horror comedy

I like that one a lot! Very fun movie.

Final Cut is getting a limited run on our art theater here, probably going to see it. Technically it is listed as a 2022 film (several that I have seen are as well), but I've been counting the American release as the release date. Not the foreign release or if they debuted it at a filmfest; that just doesn't really seem like the "actual" release date to me.

My only hangup is I've been trying to call the theater to verify if there are subtitles. It's a French film, and I would just assume there are going to be English subtitles, I just want to make sure before we drive all the way to that part of town. With foreign horror, I've only been focusing on stuff that has been getting dedicated western release dates. I'm not super stoked for it (horror comedy), but it has decent enough reviews.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Insidious: The Red Door
12. Final Cut
13. Renfield
14. 65

B Tier

15. The Boogeyman
16. The Pope's Exorcist
17. Infinity Pool
18. Stalker
19. From Black
20. Inside
21. Nefarious
22. Malum
23. They Wait in the Dark
24. You're Killing Me
25. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

26. Enys Men
27. The Strays
28. Consecration
29. Trinket Box
30. Spoonful of Sugar
31. Unwelcome
32. Hunt Her, Kill Her
33. The Black Demon

D Tier

34. Leave
35. The Headmistress
36. Children of the Corn
37. Fear
38. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

39. The Outwaters
40. Skinamarink

Managed to get to that late screening of Final Cut (and we were the only ones there; everyone else came to see Rocky Horror Picture Show, which this theater plays every Friday night). It was a pretty interesting movie! I had no idea what to expect from it going in, and for the first 30-45 minutes I had no clue what was happening in certain spots and why. But stick around and keep watching it; things get interesting for sure. I was pretty pleasantly surprised with this one, and seeing it on the back of the latest Insidious film makes me wonder which I liked more. I gave the nod to the traditional horror in this case because I feel critics have been way too hard on it in most cases, but these two films couldn't really be more different in tonal styles. I would recommend both to any fan of the genre tbh.

Also that's 40 films down for 2023. Still have so many on my list though, will try to tackle one more some time this weekend.

about halfway through the year

Excellent
Beau is Afraid
Knock at the Cabin
Infinity Pool

Great
The Blackening
Scream VI
Missing
Evil Dead Rise

Ok
Cocaine Bear

Not My Thing
Renfield
M3GAN

Objectively Terrible
Hypnotic
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

I feel like this is a lot less than I saw this time last year

I vaguely remember seeing Hypnotic advertised but I never found much evidence it really should be categorized as horror so I brushed it off. 65 million budget and 6.7 from the box office? Yikes, that's bad for any "horror" feature.

Of the theater stuff for the rest of the month:

21st: Natty Knocks & Cobweb

I can't seem to find any nearby showtimes for Natty Knocks (which sucks because I'm interesting since Danielle Harris stars in it and it reads basically like another version of the original Halloween). Cobweb is showing in multiple locations nearby so definitely checking that out next weekend.

28th: Haunted Mansion & Talk To Me

Though I am a big fanboy of the ride, I don't really know what to expect from this iteration of the film. The trailer makes it look pretty promising, but I'm on the side of the fence that the Eddie Murphy version of this was... definitely leaving something to be desired of. Talk To Me is what I'm really looking forward to though. With A24 putting their name on distributing this and a hot 97% of Rotten Tomatoes right now, this can the potential for an instant classic.

There's also Sympathy for the Devil with Nic Cage coming out this same weekend, though I am not super convinced it's really up for being classified as a horror movie.

v_charon posted...

I vaguely remember seeing Hypnotic advertised but I never found much evidence it really should be categorized as horror so I brushed it off. 65 million budget and 6.7 from the box office? Yikes, that's bad for any "horror" feature.

It's not horror really, it's a psychological sci-fi mystery thriller, kinda like Upgrade a couple years back

only unlike Upgrade, it's dumb and bad

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Insidious: The Red Door
12. Final Cut
13. Renfield
14. 65

B Tier

15. The Boogeyman
16. The Pope's Exorcist
17. Infinity Pool
18. Stalker
19. From Black
20. Inside
21. Nefarious
22. The Ghost Within
23. Malum
24. They Wait in the Dark
25. You're Killing Me
26. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

27. Enys Men
28. The Strays
29. Consecration
30. Trinket Box
31. Spoonful of Sugar
32. Unwelcome
33. Hunt Her, Kill Her
34. The Black Demon

D Tier

35. Leave
36. The Headmistress
37. Children of the Corn
38. Fear
39. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

40. The Outwaters
41. Skinamarink

The Ghost Within is a British based horror that had a limited theatrical run here in the US back in March. Unfortunately I couldn't locate any showtimes for it, after having recently boasted about how lucky I was to live in Atlanta. Eventually caught up to this one on Prime. It's good, definitely better than some of the other British films I've already seen this year. It's classically horror with a lot of good jumps and spooks, and they do well (mostly, until the end maybe) with the limited budget to keep things scary despite lacking a lot of resources. It does begin to suffer at some point from having unlikable protagonists and characters it's hard to root for, but the ensemble is good enough where I can mostly overlook that.

Sightseers was so bizarre but I liked it, more good horror-comedy

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

4. Re/Member
5. Beau is Afraid
6. The Blackening
7. She Came From the Woods
8. Knock at the Cabin
9. Bunker
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Insidious: The Red Door
12. Final Cut
13. Renfield
14. 65

B Tier

15. The Boogeyman
16. The Pope's Exorcist
17. Infinity Pool
18. Cobweb
19. Stalker
20. From Black
21. Inside
22. Nefarious
23. The Ghost Within
24. Malum
25. They Wait in the Dark
26. You're Killing Me
27. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

28. Enys Men
29. The Strays
30. Consecration
31. Trinket Box
32. Spoonful of Sugar
33. Unwelcome
34. Hunt Her, Kill Her
35. The Black Demon

D Tier

36. Leave
37. The Headmistress
38. Children of the Corn
39. Fear
40. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

41. The Outwaters
42. Skinamarink

While everyone was busy seeing Barbie and Oppenheimer we made our way over to Cobweb's limited release in theaters. Much to my surprise, the theater was fairly well stocked with others (possibly from people who couldn't get into the sold out blockbusters, many people arrived 15-20 minutes after the movie itself had started let alone the advertised start). Despite some of the worst theater eating I've ever heard from our nearby neighbors, this was a pretty good experience. Another member of my B tier... I guess that's not too surprising, I'm a lot easier to please than disappoint generally. The acting from the parents in this film is so unnerving though. They are so over the top and haunting, it's really jarring considering most of the time "bad parents" is a reveal much later in a film than it was here. The monster design is pretty cool, sort of a reversed evil Rapunzel in look and backstory. I get why she'd be angry at her brother, but he did help and free her so I was hoping she'd have been at least a little more kind to him. The ending could have been better and I feel like they shoehorned in the bully character and his family from earlier in the film to up the body count, but I still left the movie pretty satisfied. Plenty tense moments throughout, and again, especially from the parents.

Were the rumors that Cobweb is similar to Coraline true?

I wanted to see Cobweb, but I'll have to travel like half an hour for it. Somehow it's not in any of the theaters around here. Very weird.

The super limited showings and releases mean I probably won't check it out, unfortunately. I was very interested to see it though. Completely freaking bizarre that when horror movies are an easy profit in a sea of box office bombs that they'd sacrifice it to the Barbenheimer weekend. You could put it on literally any other weekend and it'd make it's profit back and then some, no problem.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Were the rumors that Cobweb is similar to Coraline true?

They share some similarities, but Cobweb pays homage to a lot of recent (mid- to late- 2000s) horrors. I think you would be very interested in watching it.

DO NOT HIGHLIGHT THESE SPOILERS UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING IT AT ALL:

There are nods to Hereditary, The Babadook, Coraline, Malignant, Smile, Antlers, and probably a quite a few more that I was unable to catch despite being a pretty avid horror fan. These nods range from very subtle to blatantly obvious. For example The Babadook reference is pretty much impossible to miss if you've seen the movie even once. Peter's mother literally makes the monster's signature pose in a nightmare sequence and I had to stop myself from pointing at the screen like Captain America in that one meme.

The acting is incredibly convincing, especially that of Peter's parents with Tony Starr giving the most intimidating portrayal I've ever seen him give, and I've seen all 3 seasons of The Boys; and, the twist that I thought the film was building up to took a left turn that I could never have foreseen, but in a good way. While Cobweb doesn't exactly stick the landing I like the concept of the ending they went for if not the execution of that concept. I think a recent horror video game pulled off this same kind of ending a lot better. MORE SPOILERS FOLLOW: The game I'm referring to is The Quarry, which also has an ambiguous/determinant cliffhanger ending depending on whether or not you shoot Cilas the lycanthropic child of the revenant fortune teller. Even if you do commit to the tragic act and unlock the "good ending" the ghost implies that you, the player, will never truly escape from her wrath and that she'll haunt you for the remainder of your life. Coincidentally The Quarry doesn't nail its endings either, but the post ending sting with the fortune teller ripping you a new one is pretty much perfect. Great acting from Eliza Vorez!

Talk to Me at this time tomorrow. Big hype.

Watched Talk to Me.

That is one god damn great film. Go watch it. Extremely quality indy film that was so tense and chilling. Outstanding ending. Loved the whole thing.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

5. Re/Member
6. Beau is Afraid
7. The Blackening
8. She Came From the Woods
9. Knock at the Cabin
10. Bunker
11. Cocaine Bear
12. Insidious: The Red Door
13. Final Cut
14. Renfield
15. 65

B Tier

16. The Boogeyman
17. The Pope's Exorcist
18. Infinity Pool
19. Cobweb
20. Stalker
21. From Black
22. Inside
23. Nefarious
24. The Ghost Within
25. Malum
26. They Wait in the Dark
27. You're Killing Me
28. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

29. Enys Men
30. The Strays
31. Consecration
32. Trinket Box
33. Spoonful of Sugar
34. Unwelcome
35. Hunt Her, Kill Her
36. The Black Demon

D Tier

37. Leave
38. The Headmistress
39. Children of the Corn
40. Fear
41. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

42. The Outwaters
43. Skinamarink

I probably placed too lofty of expectations on it, but that being said Talk to Me is still an excellent experience. It hits pretty hard and fast and comes out of the gate with the main plot without taking too much time to get you seeing what you came to see. I was impressed by the practical effects of the movie; they really do a great job with it to keep things very scary by leaving it mostly grounded in realism whilst still being a supernatural film. Another amazing thing is the lack of experience this cast has; many of the actors don't even have Wikipedia pages and the main actress Sophie Wilde only debuted two years ago apparently. Typically what makes a really great indie film is being able to get a good cast on board, which can be difficult given the nature of these lower budget projects because more established actors are going to demand a bigger payday. But yeah, this is a good one to check out in theaters. Ours was sold out last night for this one and it deserves it.

Man, still thinking about Talk to Me. The whole script is so crisp. Like if this was a big budget teenage horror they'd have some kind of stupid subplot looking into the origin of the hand and junk but this one doesn't waste your time.

I loved how it's just this really personal, self-contained story of this completely fucked situation they're in after messing with something they shouldn't have. It didn't need to be anything more than that and it's so good as a result.

I also really enjoyed the double meaning of "Talk to Me" and "I let you in" in terms of mental health. Where the lead is clearly having a ton of issues but doesn't really discuss them, and she doesn't really let anyone in except for one vulnerable person. And that same vulnerable person is desperate for someone to talk to him about his problems and let them in.

Just such a damn good film. They could easily make another movie with a completely different cast and it could probably be pretty excellent too. This concept has a ton of ideas they can do with it. But it's an incredible film.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

5. Re/Member
6. Beau is Afraid
7. The Blackening
8. She Came From the Woods
9. Knock at the Cabin
10. Bunker
11. Cocaine Bear
12. Insidious: The Red Door
13. Final Cut
14. Haunted Mansion
15. Renfield
16. 65

B Tier

17. The Boogeyman
18. The Pope's Exorcist
19. Infinity Pool
20. Cobweb
21. Stalker
22. From Black
23. Inside
24. Nefarious
25. The Ghost Within
26. Malum
27. They Wait in the Dark
28. You're Killing Me
29. Kids vs. Aliens

C Tier

30. Enys Men
31. The Strays
32. Consecration
33. Trinket Box
34. Spoonful of Sugar
35. Unwelcome
36. Hunt Her, Kill Her
37. The Black Demon

D Tier

38. Leave
39. The Headmistress
40. Children of the Corn
41. Fear
42. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

43. The Outwaters
44. Skinamarink

Haunted Mansion is one of those "you know what you're getting" sort of movies, which is why I placed it into my A tier because Genny and I both love the ride. On our last trip to Disney World I think we rode it 4-5 times, many of those back to back when we caught it with a light line. The film is a much more faithful representation than the Eddie Murphy version, which I don't have but I feel suffers a bit because at the time this was Eddie at his "most" Eddie; meaning that he sort of steals the film because he has such presence. It wasn't as much about the atmosphere as this one was. This is an ensemble cast where no one really dominates any of the scenes; they're just all capable actors. I really enjoyed finding the little references sprinkled throughout the film to the ride itself, and I've read some critics say it's basically a 2 hour long advertisement for the ride, which I guess... sure? I think it tells a more compelling story than that though, and while the setting and haunts are the stars of the show, I enjoyed the different characters they had here. It's not winning any awards, but as a big fan of the Haunted Mansion attraction I was very happy with it.

Seeing Meg 2 tonight. What's the opposite of hyped? I dunno, I doubt it'll be too bad but this is the sort of film that has a clear ceiling and while the first one wasn't great (and not bad either), I feel like that ceiling was probably reached. But we'll see I guess.

Til Death Do Us Part on Sunday. Sounds like a blend of Ready or Not and The Invitation; can only hope it's closer to the first of those films. Not sure what's up with wedding day horror films over the last couple of years.

S Tier:

1. Scream VI
2. M3GAN
3. Talk to Me
4. Evil Dead Rise

A Tier:

5. Re/Member
6. Beau is Afraid
7. The Blackening
8. She Came From the Woods
9. Knock at the Cabin
10. Bunker
11. Cocaine Bear
12. Insidious: The Red Door
13. Final Cut
14. Haunted Mansion
15. Renfield
16. 65

B Tier

17. The Boogeyman
18. The Pope's Exorcist
19. Infinity Pool
20. Cobweb
21. Stalker
22. From Black
23. Inside
24. Nefarious
25. The Ghost Within
26. Malum
27. They Wait in the Dark

C Tier

27. Meg 2: The Trench
28. You're Killing Me
29. Kids vs. Aliens
30. Enys Men
31. The Strays
32. Consecration
33. Trinket Box
34. Spoonful of Sugar
35. Unwelcome
36. Hunt Her, Kill Her
37. The Black Demon

D Tier

38. Leave
39. The Headmistress
40. Children of the Corn
41. Fear
42. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

F Tier

43. The Outwaters
44. Skinamarink

I decided to make a few minor adjustments and drop a few films from the B tier. C tier films for me are ones that I'd say aren't bad, aren't great. They won't waste your time if you watch them, but I also wouldn't go out of my way to say "watch this" at all either. Ultimately, I felt I liked Meg 2 more than a couple of B tier films but I was thinking to myself that there's no way I'd put the film itself as a B tier movie. So I decided to let it lead off my C tier for now. It is what it is; Jason Statham vs. Sharks. You wouldn't even have to see a trailer for this movie to imagine some of the scenes, but I will say that they just lean in heavy on the silliness which makes for some pretty fun moments. Other than this just not being an engrossing film, the weakest element was the cast of villains. They were super lame and pathetic, and not in any sort of redeeming way. Super annoying, like all 3 of them to varying degrees. Statham is fine here, which is good because it's like the only role he knows how to play after all. I wouldn't recommend it, but it could make for a good time with some drinks for sure. Okay enough, and hey, it's the best shark film so far this year!