Malignant

Oh this is a tough one...

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Malignant. The trailers hooked me with the weird melting/shifting rooms and it looked promising, and after seeing it I know for an undisputed fact, people are either going to dig this movie or they're gonna be like what the actual f*** is this stupid shit. It really is that kind of split. Because the movie isn't really what you would think, the trailer paints it as this poltergeist, haunting, mental breakdown of a young woman with undeniable supernatural happenings going on, but the film goes off on many a twist and turn taking an almost mystery of this young woman named Maddie who is revisited by horrible memories of her past and an imaginary not so friendly friend. The thing about this movie is it feels very dated and yet modern. It feels like a horror film somewhere in the span of 1997 to 2008, with the tropes and specific details of how the film is presented with the editing and music. I actually fricking love the music though, gives me Exorcist 2 flashbacks. And yet you get some mighty good, creative, and inventive camera work and effects that could only scream modern day filmmaking. It's such an oddity, but I will fully say I like it. I even appreciate it in a way, cause so much of the more dated stuff could not be unintentional it almost seems like a throwback to the sort of direct to DVD horror films of the early 2000s in a sense. The actors can be a bit off putting at times but our lead, Annabelle Wallis...holy shit she's good, and a fine screamer too. You could almost read into the film as the monster, this personification of repressed and traumatic memories come back to haunt and stalk our main character, sort of thrusts it into a drama at times. And the only real way to defeat it is to make peace with the past, focus on your loved ones, and rise above what you are and were. Maybe I'm giving it far too much credit, but I did get a sense of that in the direction. I'm not even fully sure if I would recommend seeing it in theaters, it's good and I had a good time with it, but I see this having a much more stronger impact and wider audience once this hits video. So come what may, give it a watch if only just to see it for yourself. 3 stars, 7/10, this was a fun week and I'll see you soon.

The Mummy (2017)

Oh Sofia Boutella......

What is wrong with people? All I heard about this before I saw it was this movie sucked, it's garbage, nothing really nice about it, and it was awesome! Now I might be biased because I am a very big fan of the Universal Monsters. I thought this movie was great! The action was decent, the comedy was hit or miss but nothing to ruin the movie, the horror aspect was quite good although I must admit it fell into the trope of jump scares, and even the cast ranged from not bad to holy hell can I marry you! Tom Cruise was fine, he did the job and he did it well so no complaints there, Russel Crowe as Dr. Jekell was an interesting choice but I would be lying if I said it was bad, Annabelle Wallis's character was just bland so I don't blame the actress I blame the character for not doing much to get me invested in her. And then there is Sofia. Oh God Sofia.....wow. Like dude, wow. You wanna talk great? You wanna talk awesome? You wanna talk sympathetic, creepy, terrifying, and a touch sexy? Bam, Sofia Boutella in The Mummy! Perfect! Love, love, love her in this movie! You are my golden girl now Sofia! Huh, what's that? This is supposed to be a review, so talk about the movie? Well fine then! The story was a great twist on the usual Mummy lore, with a princess destined to be the next pharaoh of Egypt until the pharaoh has a son and denies her of her throne, so she kinda....snapped and killed the pharaoh and the baby (kinda dark), and she even makes a pact with the Egyptian equivalent of Satan! Nice. But she gets captured, buried alive, and her tomb is not discovered for over 3000 years. So Tom Cruise wakes her up, thank you very much Mr. Cruise, she decides to wreck shit and be you know awesome and she even takes a certain fancy to Tom's character, damn you Mr. Cruise. But Russel Crowe has this kinda sorta secret league where they hunt monsters, and they try to take her down. So that's basic plot, and I found myself very interested cause I want this to work so bad. I need a cinematic universe of Universal Monsters! The monsters are back after 86 years. High time for a comeback! Go see this movie, if for no other reason than for me. You people can have your superhero movies always, but who has got the love for the monsters? I certainly do. So of course I highly recommend to see this movie in theaters, go watch it, be introduced to a new world of gods and monsters. And see if you can pick out those easter eggs in the glass jars! I have faith in you. Until next week.....