Genre

When I first saw The Strangers, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by how much that movie stuck with me.  Sure, there have been plenty of home invasion flicks over the years, but The Strangers is definitely right up there with the best like Funny Games and Inside.  Writer and director Bryan Bertino is one of modern horror’s underappreciated creators. He is so good at keeping things simple, utilizing small casts and single settings, and keeping the horror relatively grounded in reality.  With The Dark and The Wicked, he gives us his best work to date, and for me one of the best horror films in years. Personally, this is my favorite new horror release since 2016’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe.  I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me, and for as much love as I have for Hereditary, what The Dark and The Wicked did that honestly very few horror films manage to do is genuinely get under my skin.  This movie actually creeped me out, and it didn’t use big gory FX or go for cheap jump scares. This literally is a master class in creating tension and delivering a story to audiences that starts off in familiar territory but takes us in new and fresh directions.
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I always get a little worried when I’m handed a low-budget western. Despite it being one of my favorite genres, I’m just quickly turned off by a film when it visually doesn’t look authentic.  I like my westerns dirty and rugged, so when I see characters in costumes that look too clean as though they were just pulled from the rack, it’s a giant pet peeve.  What had me intrigued with the film was the involvement of Joe R. Lansdale, who happens to be one of my favorite writers, and he somewhat specializes in the “weird” western genre.  Bubba Ho-Tep or The Hap and Leonard series are what most would be familiar with from Lansdale. He may not have the name strength that Stephen King carries, but I’ve come to expect a good time from Lansdale.  Granted The Pale Door only has Joe  R. Lansdale attached as a producer, though his son was involved at some point with the writing of the script, so is that enough to make this film worth a watch, or is it a disappointment?
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Ever since The Walking Dead first aired. it seems the zombie genre was not only revived but milked for all it was worth, and still studios continued to bleed the genre dry to the point even most diehard horror fans are sick of the sub-genre.  I’m a sucker for zombie films, and even I have tired of them, but I’ll always hold out hope for some writer or filmmaker to come along and inject some creativity into the genre.  It’s possible; I mean, look how long the vampire stories have been around, or even ghost stories, and yet there still are new takes on the subject matter that get us excited about them again.  That’s where Blood Quantum gave me some hope. Zombies on a Native American reservation. I was hopeful for some indigenous lore being injected into this, giving us a fresh perspective…but alas, we get a watered-down, unoriginal, snooze-fest with a little bit of gore  to keep viewers somewhat interested.
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