“You will survive Christmas in the mountains. I promise”

Someone should have told that character about making promises that you can’t keep. In this horror film, which felt more like a dark comedy if you ask me, a newly formed blended family and their au pair find themselves doing battle with a group of evil toys. That’s right, you read correctly, I said toys, and on Christmas no less. Now, the premise of evil toys is nothing new. I for one still can’t look at a Chucky doll without internal feelings of dread; however, where those films were able to instill fear, Toys of Terror just doesn’t do it, largely due to the film’s overall pacing. It just takes too long to get off the ground. Plenty of sizzle, but by the time we get to the steak, much of the runtime has been depleted and all the intrigue has bubbled out. While it is not the horror film that I expected, there were still some elements of the film that were worthwhile despite a bit of a lackluster conclusion.

I was very much impressed with the quality of this film. Of late the quality of horror films that I’ve reviewed have not been great, and this film helped to restore my faith in the genre. While I am past the era of these types of movies scaring the bejesus out of me, I still admire a creative story that isn’t completely predictable. There are some elements of the film that were somewhat predictable, but overall the premise and story quality kept the project from being stale. The film reminds me of what Terrence Howard said in Four Brothers: “Keep knocking on the Devil’s door long enough and sooner or later someone’s going to answer you.” Great line and sound advice, which this film appears to expand upon. While the film is probably still falls into the B- movie category, the production quality and diligent work of the cast ensures that it falls into the higher spectrum of the B-movie category. The film features Ryan Guzman (television series 9-1-1) as a priest specializing in exorcism for his many followers on social media. As you can probably guess, he is far from the real deal and looking to catapult his little production into a massive following and huge payday, when he comes face to face with a real deal demon and he has to actually practice what he’s been pretending to preach. Rounding out the cast is Kyle Gallner, another television fixture best known for his performances on Veronica Mars and Smallville.

The film opens up right in the action, as Father Max (Guzman) works tirelessly to free an innocent man possessed by a demon. After a momentous struggle, the man is freed in front of an audience of thousands on social media. Then it’s revealed that the entire ordeal was fake and that Max is not a real priest, but an actor hoping to tap into a niche market. The whole setup is the brainchild of Max and his childhood best friend Drew, in order to make a profit. Drew is hoping to expand their enterprise, while Max is merely hoping to grow his own hype. It is abundantly clear that Max is more self-serving than Drew, who has unwavering loyalty to Max for reasons that become clear later in the film.

The Twilight Zone is simply one of those pop culture staples that everyone knows about even if they’ve never seen a single episode. Because of SYFY channel I’ve gotten to see the original show as well as the reboots that would follow. While I’m not as passionate about the anthology series as others, I certainly can appreciate its impact on the not just the sci-fi/horror genre but the history it’s had on television as well. I was curious about this new incarnation of The Twilight Zone, but I was less than enthusiastic about Jordan Peele being involved with the show.  As much as I’m a fan of Key & Peele, his foray into horror and sci-fi has left me more than underwhelmed. Being a fan of anthologies and with a little bit of curiosity, I went into Season 2 of The Twilight Zone with an open mind, and the result is a bit of a mixed bag.

My biggest complaint has more to do with the overall visual style of the show. I’m really not liking the desaturated look for every episode, but what’s more frustrating is the show’s overuse of negative space in the frame. It’s obviously a conscious decision to have so many shots with so much head space or the focus of attention on a third of the screen. Sometimes it works for the scene, but a majority of the time it just looks like pretentious garbage. If it seems like I’m being harsh, well, I’m glad, because cinematography 101 should be: understand the value of focusing on the subject. Sure, many other directors and camera ops can get away with this, but it’s not something that should be used all the time.

Well despite being typecasted, Liam Neeson delivers an entertaining film with Honest Thief. The film depicts the story of a prolific bank robber who after falling in love, decides to turn himself in exchange for a reduced sentence. A caveat of this deal is that he must also return the money he stole; all nine million dollars of it. It isn’t hard to figure out where the story goes from here. Naturally, the FBI agents assigned to the case immediately get greedy upon seeing the money and make plans to keep it for themselves. Where the film deviates is when they agents try to kill him, they are caught by their boss and forced to kill him and frame Neeson for the crime. I was prepared for the greed, but not the murder of one of their own, so that provided a decent twist, or it would have had it not been one of the big selling twist featured in all the promotional trailers for the film. Sometimes Hollywood ruins a good twist by providing too much information in the trailer. Rounding out the cast is Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Robert Patrick, and one of my favorite actors, Jeffrey Donovan.

To briefly summarize again, the film follows former Marine and demolition expert Tom Dolan (Neeson), a master thief whose precision and dedication to his craft has earned him the moniker, the “In-and-Out Bandit.” For years, he has operated without detection and even the threat of being caught until he meets Annie (Walsh), a recently divorced grad student who he falls head over heels for. Wanting to spend the rest of his life with her without the risk of future imprisonment looming over his head; Dolan stops robbing banks and contacts the FBI to make a deal to turn himself in and the money in exchange for a reduced sentence.

As a directorial debut, I’d rate the film as average. There’s intrigue, but it is light on explanations. The film is also a bit of a slow burn, as I was a quarter through the film before anything of substance began to happen. When it comes to the horror genre, that is a bit long to wait. The film appeared to be focused on trying to get the audience to invest in the characters in the beginning more than moving the plot along. Once things began to happen, the intrigue began to build more, and the story was able to maintain my interest. That said, I’m still confused as to the overall setup for the film. Despite its 88-minute runtime, the film had more of an indie-student-film vibe to it. It has a talented cast that included Liana Liberato (Light as a Feather) and Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead), but with the exception of Liberato’s character, the cast is a bit one-dimensional. All in all, while intriguing, the film felt a bit underdeveloped.

The story follows a young couple, Emily and Randall (Liberato and Noah Le Gros), as they arrive at Randall’s family beach house. There is tension between the couple due to a recent change in their circumstance; Randall has left college and is encouraging Emily to do the same. He even goes as far as to suggest the romantic notion of living at the beach house year-round. Adding to the tension, the young couple find that another couple is also staying at the house; Mitch and Jane Turner (Weber and Maryann Nagal), old friends of Randall’s parents. Ultimately the quartet decide that there is plenty of room for all of them to stay at the house.