‘Hokum’ Review: We’re Checked In To This Haunted Irish Hotel Horror Starring Adam Scott

Reviews /

We’re big fans of Damian McCarthy’s Oddity over here at Screen Love Affair. It was easily one of the best movie theatre experiences we had back when we saw it at Fantasia in 2024. So expectations were high for McCarthy’s third feature, Hokum. With each film, McCarthy has upped the ante, and this is no different, with a bigger budget, a bigger star in Adam Scott, and bigger distribution courtesy of Neon. But does Hokum deliver? Well, it never quite reached the heights that Oddity did for me, but nevertheless I loved it. I do wonder how much of that comes down to the contagious energy of a Fantasia Festival crowd, which was missing here. Still, I had a blast watching this. I will admit that I’m the exact kind of person this movie was made for. I’ve always loved ghost stories and been enamored with the way horror can excavate both the extremes of human darkness and the depths of human emotion. In Hokum, as in Oddity, McCarthy does so through the lens of Irish folklore and the contained powder keg of a single haunted location. The movie follows Scott’s Ohm Bauman, a successful yet depressed alcoholic writer, who visits a small hotel in Ireland to finish his latest novel and put his deceased parents to rest. If the setup of a writer holing away in a remote hotel until things begin to unravel sounds familiar, well the movie deliberately riffs not just on The Shining but also another Stephen King touchstone, 1408. Yet, Hokum still feels fresh and entirely its own. Part of that comes down to its setting and its rootedness in Irish folklore. McCarthy imbues the movie with the tone and sensibility of a supernatural parable or Gothic folk tale. It’s a story about storytelling and the way that stories, like folk tales or novels, can help us process feelings like grief and guilt and heal our wounds. I loved the framing device and thought it was a really unique way to structure a horror movie. There’s a similarly dark sense of humour and cynicism lurking here as there was in Oddity, but Hokum offers a bit more hope, too. I’m a sucker for stories about traumatized, grieving oddballs finding some kind of kinship with one another, even if only temporarily. Not everything here fully works, however. Bauman is such an overt asshole at the beginning that it almost beggars belief, though it does provide a lot of the movie’s early humour. And his tragic backstory is also very dark and only glancingly drawn, so the emotional climax of the movie doesn’t totally land. But when the movie gets to the extended spooky puzzle box it’s been building toward, it delivers one of the best contained horror set-pieces in recent memory. This is where the movie truly sings. And it’s where Hokum had me like putty in its hand, along for the ride with Adam Scott’s character with no way to get off. The first half of the film is really just place-setting for that exquisite third act. It takes its time getting all the pieces in place, and some of that definitely feels disjointed and lacking in scares. But boy is that third act an all-timer, proving that McCarthy truly has the goods. He just understands how to build atmosphere and tension—and when exactly to release it. Verdict Hokum isn’t perfect, but if you like atmospheric folklore-laden supernatural ghost stories, the movie has a lot going for it. Despite some disjointed character work and plotting, the spooky core of the film—rooted in masterful performances, a killer setting, and the fundamentals of horror craft—is one for the books.

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‘Together’ Review – Alison Brie and Dave Franco Stick Together in this Darkly Funny Romantic Horror

Fantasia International Film Festival, Reviews /

Have you ever felt like you were losing yourself in a relationship? Writer and director Michael Shanks takes that fear and turns it into the central horror of his debut feature Together. Tim and Millie (played by real-life spouses Dave Franco and Alison Brie) have been together for a decade when they uproot their life in the city to move into a big beautiful home in the countryside. Millie is a schoolteacher and Tim is an aspiring musician, but he’s unsure of his place in the world and in his relationship. When we meet the couple, he seems to have lost his sense of individuality (tellingly, at their goodbye party with friends, Millie points out how cute it is that they inadvertently wore matching outfits—we cut to Tim changing his shirt). He doesn’t really know who he is outside of his relationship, and he’s chafing against that—he loves Millie but feels trapped. When the pair encounters a supernatural force in the vicinity of their new home, it puts the limits of their relationship to the test. The marketing of this movie gives a lot of its premise away, but I want to stress that it works best if you go into this one knowing as little as possible. What I can say is that this is a very strong directorial debut from Shanks. It’s marketed primarily as a horror film, but it’s also a very funny and very romantic movie at heart. It does a remarkable job of weaving those different threads together and balancing its different tones. There are consistent laughs, but also very effective scares, creepy moments, and body horror, not to mention a genuinely romantic core. Brie and Franco bring their real-life chemistry to the screen to make the film’s central relationship feel lived in and make us want to root for them, despite the obstacles and struggles they face. A recurring motif in the film is the idea of being oblivious to something rotting right under your nose, like a dead rat rotting away behind a light fixture. The rot creeps in so gradually that you don’t even know you’re breathing it in. At first, Tim and Millie’s relationship seems to have gone the way of the rat. They’ve clearly lost touch (ha!) with one another, and we wonder if the relationship has simply gone stale after all that time, even if they’re still in the room, breathing in the stink. But by the end, it’s clear that Shanks has a more hopeful, if twisted, view of love and relationships. The movie walks a fine line between exposing the flaws of its central relationship and asserting that they’re still right to fight for it anyway. One of my favourite things about horror as a genre is its ability to take grounded human experiences and emotions and amplify them through metaphor. This film takes the fear of commitment and of sharing your life with someone and amplifies it to its logical extreme as a metaphor, raising questions about what it actually means to build a life together and make compromises and become one half of a unit that is a couple. On top of the great tonal balance and central performances, the visual effects are, for the most part, phenomenal, with a perfect marriage (ha!) of practical and digital effects, aside from one pivotal moment that doesn’t quite land. Beyond that, the body horror is visceral and effective with just the right amount of restraint. The movie is a little heavy-handed at times, telegraphing certain reveals a little too much. But I really loved a lot of what it’s doing and had such a fun time with it at Fantasia, where the unparalleled crowd experience really made this a blast to watch. Verdict Together is the perfect horror rom-com for anyone who’s ever felt trapped, co-dependent, or lost in a relationship. But it’s also for the hopeless romantics and horror fans. It’s a remarkably well-balanced mix of genres and tones, anchored by the lived-in chemistry of its leads.

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‘The Monkey’ Review: A Delightfully Absurd and Funny Gorefest

Reviews /

The Monkey is exactly the kind of hilarious, madcap horror-comedy we need to inject a little life (and death) into cinemas this February. The latest from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins, The Monkey is based on the Stephen King short story of the same name and follows twin brothers who discover a mysterious wind-up monkey (don’t call it a toy) that belonged to their AWOL father. Soon after, people around them start dying in a string of bizarre and extreme accidents. With a setup like that, it’s hard not to have fun. I was unfamiliar with the original short story, so I can’t speak to its faithfulness as an adaptation, but I can say that going in relatively blind made for a great movie-going experience. Above all, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously—it’s easily Perkins’ funniest and most popcorn-worthy movie to date. So, if you’re one of the people who enjoyed the more humorous parts of Longlegs, odds are you’ll love The Monkey. Just be aware that, for the most part, this is a different beast, differing wildly from Longlegs in tone. As with Perkins’ other films, I don’t think this movie will be for everyone, but it sure as hell worked for me. I’ve mostly been a fan of his previous work, even the ones that have been less critically well-received. I liked Longlegs; I appreciated the strange, slow artfulness of I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in The House; and I loved The Blackcoat’s Daughter, which genuinely chilled me when I first watched it many years ago. The Monkey is a great addition to that filmography, though it might be lacking the depth or uniqueness of some of Perkins’ other movies. It’s also, by far, his least frightening movie to date. If you’re coming into this one expecting to be scared, you’ll likely be disappointed. As a horror movie, it sort of falls flat. But as an over-the-top horror-comedy, it provides plenty of laughs and some very creative kills that don’t pull any punches. If anything, it’s the moments when the movie tries to get overly serious or inject some family and relationship drama that don’t fully land. The throughlines are there, and the monkey as a metaphor for fathers passing down their trauma and darkness onto their own kids mostly works—but the characters themselves just don’t really have enough depth, and we as an audience don’t really have enough time with them to really care about their relationships with one another. Theo James does a fine job in a dual role as the adult version of twins Bill and Hal, making each twin feel distinct and clearly having some fun. Speaking of dual roles, Tatiana Maslany plays Bill and Hal’s mom, Lois, and was definitely the standout for me. She just knows exactly what kind of movie she’s in, and plays it perfectly. Beyond that, Elijah Wood and Adam Scott also show up in fun bit parts, making the most of limited screentime. Casting Maslany in a movie in which one actor plays two roles might be a clever nod to her turn playing multiple roles on Orphan Black, or else it’s a fun coincidence. Either way, the movie is full of similarly clever nods, running gags, and brick jokes that reward those who are paying attention and pay off to great effect. For such a dumb movie (complementary), it’s a lot smarter than it appears. What more can I say? It’s big, dumb fun, with a mean streak that schlock horror fans will love. Verdict The Monkey is for all the sickos who miss the Final Destination franchise. It’s unserious and stupid in the best ways, with some of the funniest, goriest, and most creative horror movie kills I’ve seen in a hot minute. While the movie tries for some deeper themes, it’s best when it’s not trying to be anything other than an absurd and silly gorefest. This movie won’t be to everyone’s taste, but those who are on its wavelength will lap it up.

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Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Presence’ Opens Strong, Nearly Doubling Its Budget in First Weekend

Editorials /

The latest from director Steven Soderbergh opened strong this past weekend, nearly doubling its modest $2 million budget. In total, the film grossed $3.7 million in its first three days of wide release. We reviewed the film last week, and gave it a positive rating thanks especially to the strong direction and camerawork from Soderbergh. While Flight Risk (starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Mel Gibson) was the biggest winner at the box office with $12 million, the budget of that film was $25 million. At Screen Love Affair, we think it’s important to celebrate film whenever we can. While others will try to frame Presence as a box office flop, this is an undeniable win for a relatively low budget movie. As a regular theatergoer, I follow Dan Murrell’s weekly Charts With Dan, not out of an obsession with corporate profits, but to understand how these figures shape the kinds of movies we get to see. While the fixation on box office performance often feels reductive, by reducing art to dollar signs, it’s impossible to ignore its impact on what gets greenlit. As fans of movies though, our focus should be on the stories and craftsmanship, not the dollar signs. Films like Presence prove that there’s still an audience for unique projects that can both enrich the cinematic landscape and still turn a profit. Not every film needs to rake in hundreds of millions, nor should every project require blockbuster budgets. There’s enough to lament about the state of cinema and the theatrical experience, so let’s celebrate the presence of every box office victory, no matter how small they may seem.

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Presence Review—A Supernatural Stunner with a Spiritless Script

Reviews /

Presence is the latest film from director Steven Soderbergh who has one of the more interesting filmographies I’ve seen. It includes the Ocean’s Trilogy, Magic Mike, Contagion, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and Logan Lucky, a movie I really, really like. He was my most watched director last year too, as over the holidays I watched the Ocean’s Trilogy and Logan Lucky again! I’m definitely a fan of his heist movies, but I was incredibly intrigued when I first heard he was directing this movie because it’s so different from his movies that I’m familiar with.  Presence is listed as a supernatural thriller drama with a very simple premise: “A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.” Personally though, I’d classify this more as a drama with supernatural elements and not really a thriller, even if there was one moment where it gave me some chills.  So should you make an appearance for Presence, or is this one better left ghosted? My Thoughts Writing this review feels a bit different for me because, as I start putting my thoughts together the night after watching the movie, I still don’t know what my final rating on the Heart-O-Meter will be. In the past, I’ve begun reviews with a clear rating in mind, only to revise it as I worked through my thoughts. This time, though, I’m writing with the specific goal of figuring out how I truly feel about the movie and whether or not the good outweighs the bad.  Let’s start off with what I liked, which was the direction and more specifically, the camerawork. From the opening scene of the movie (which is why I don’t consider this a spoiler) Soderbergh makes it clear that the camera is a character. It is the presence in the house. The movie has a ton of beautiful oners where the camera just floats through the house as the people living in the house go about their day. As we went up the stairs, there weren’t obvious shakes of the camera with each step, as if a human was walking up the stairs which allowed me to really buy into this effect. It was these early moments that I really loved what I was watching. It was such a unique and cool idea to have our “main character” be played by a camera. I’m just a humble film buff, so I have no idea if another movie has done something to this extent before, but damn did this feel so unique and cool.  Don’t worry though, if this sounds a little too weird for you, we’ve got plenty of humans in the movie too. Soon after the movie begins, a family moves into this house where this presence is tethered. Lucy Liu plays Rebecca (the mother), Chris Sullivan plays Chris (the father), and the two kids are played by Callina Liang (Chloe, the sister) and Eddy Maday (Tyler, the brother). West Mulholland also plays Ryan, Tyler’s friend from school. Before I dig into the performances, there was one downside to the choice to make the camera a character and it was how the movie transitions from scene to scene. Every time a scene concludes, we cut to black before it opens on the next scene. Sometimes this was done a bit more intentionally and organically but other times it wasn’t. For example, the presence in the house seems to feel most at home in the closet in Chloe’s room (as seen in the photo at the top of this review). Some scenes end with the presence returning to the closet, as if it’s sleeping, I guess, but sometimes we will just cut to black at the end of a conversation people have in the kitchen. Ultimately, I found that this hurts the pacing a bit as the movie feels like it’s constantly stopping and starting. At only 85 minutes long though, the pacing issues really didn’t bother me too much. Now, let’s talk about the performances. Of the entire cast, the only standout for me was Chris Sullivan, who delivered a strong performance as Chris. Even now, I’m struggling to determine whether the issue with everyone else was due to bad performances or awful dialogue, but I’m leaning towards the latter. I mean, this was some of the most awful dialogue I’ve ever heard in a movie. The worst examples were almost all from the younger characters too. It’s incredibly jarring when people deliver dialogue that just doesn’t sound or feel right. This was especially true with Ryan and Tyler who talk like nobody else on earth. The script was written by 61-year-old David Koepp and it definitely feels like a 61-year-old wrote what they think Gen Zers sound like without actually verifying that with anyone. I tried to move past it earlier in the movie, but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and I was quietly giggling every single time these characters said pretty much anything. This was such a big issue for me that it’s really what drags the movie down so much. To make things worse, the narrative itself wasn’t incredibly strong either and I had guessed where the movie was going about 1/3rd of the way in. I’m also not someone who watches something and tries to guess how it will end either, it just seemed so obvious to me at a certain point.  The kids are the main focus of the movie and so most of the narrative and emotional beats were weighed down by the absolutely awful dialogue they had. David Koepp in terms of box-office numbers is one of the most successful writers of all time, but if you look at his filmography, it includes some stinkers like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and The Mummy (2017). I really wish Soderbergh had a script that was half as good as his direction and camerawork because I think I would’ve absolutely loved this

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Review Roundup: Anora, Terrifier 3, and 5 More Films Worth Watching

Reviews /

Welcome to the first of three Review Roundups! We have 21 new reviews coming at you over the next week and we will kick things off with our first 7 in this review. Between work, covering the Austin Film Festival, and life in general, we’ve been pretty busy but we still wanted to get our reviews out for movies that you might have missed. So, without further ado, let’s jump into these rapid fire reviews. Anora A must see for sure. Sean Baker is a special filmmaker. He previously made The Florida Project and that movie has stuck in my mind since I first saw it in Ottawa years ago. Anora follows Ani, an exotic dancer portrayed by Mikey Madison, as she embarks on a whirlwind romance with Vanya, the son of a powerful Russian oligarch. For anyone unaware of Baker’s previous movies, they have this raw authenticity that you don’t see very often. One thing Baker does is populate his movie with real people from the locations they shoot in. Even if you didn’t know that while you’re watching, you can still feel that authenticity in the world and that emanates throughout his work.  Anora is surprisingly funny but manages to remain pretty grounded and raw. Mikey Madson certainly will be a frontrunner for that Lead Actress Oscar too. I had a blast watching this movie, both at an early screening for it at the Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal and again at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas.  I initially felt torn on the ending, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more it really suits the movie and remains true to its core.  Expect to see this one in my best of the year list and definitely give it a chance when it’s showing near you! Saturday Night I won’t lie, I didn’t think I would like this movie. The trailer didn’t work for me and I was worried this woulda been pretentious as all hell. But dammit, I liked this one! This movie takes place over the span of about 2 hours before SNL hits the airwaves for the first time. While SNL is a recognizable institution now, it wasn’t always. In fact, it would’ve been very easy for the show to fail, and the chaos of that is on full display in this movie.  The fast pace made this one feel like a breeze and there was a steady stream of jokes, heart, and bits to keep me engaged. I’m a bit of a TV historian too, so I was very aware of the story of SNL, the original cast, and the politics at NBC, so I thoroughly enjoyed all of those nods and bits. I do wonder if you’re not as invested in these people going in though if your enjoyment simply wouldn’t be the same. The thing that stuck with me most though was the performance from Cooper Hoffman. Cooper is the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of my all time favourite actors, and I’ve been eagerly following Cooper’s career to see if some of that magic has passed on. I think it definitely has, and one scene in particular stood out to me so much that it made me giddy. I genuinely can’t wait to see everything Cooper Hoffman will do in the future. Woman of the Hour Woman of the hour is directed by and stars Anna Kendrick in her feature film directorial debut! It follows the experience of Sheryl Bradshaw and the real life Dating Game Killer. Without giving too many details of what actually happens, Bradshaw was on the Dating Game TV show when Rodney Alcala was a contestant, who actually ended up “winning” a date with Bradshaw. Alcala though was in the middle of a spree of killings at the time for which he obviously hadn’t been caught yet.  Overall, I enjoyed this one enough and it was a solid directorial debut for Kendrick. If you’re a true crime person, this will definitely be up your alley. I did have a couple issues, namely Kendrick’s character’s involvement. It’s not that the performance was bad or anything, but the whole dating game angle just doesn’t weave very naturally into the story. Such a prominent focus on Kendrick’s character just feels out of place given how little she had to do with anything that actually happens in the case. The fact this serial killer ended up on the dating game is certainly weird, but aside from an intriguing premise, they just don’t manage to weave that angle into the movie very well.  This was pretty close to a half heart rating, but I do like the true crime genre and definitely enjoyed this one enough to justify a positive rating. The Apprentice A movie without an audience no doubt. If you love Trump, you don’t care to see the Hollywood take on the more formative years of the former (and now future) President of the United States. If you hate Trump, you’re probably not all that interested in learning more about what made him the man he is today. And finally if you’re indifferent to Trump, you’re probably sick of hearing about him over the last decade. With that said, there’s some solid stuff in this movie. I was impressed with what I felt was a bit more balanced of a take on Donald Trump. I certainly wouldn’t say it was even, but it didn’t play as fast and loose with the truth as you might expect it to, at least as it relates specifically to Trump himself. I really like the performances here from Sebastian Stan as Trump, who I would say emulates Trump more than he does an impression of him, and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, Trump’s friend, lawyer, and mentor. The movie does some fun things visually to match the vibe of the different decades it spans too which I liked. The only issue I really had was that I

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SLA at Fantasia: Cuckoo – Spoiler Free Review

Reviews /

I went into Cuckoo with as little knowledge about it as possible, only really knowing that it starred Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, and what a wild ride it was! Cuckoo first premiered at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, but Shea and I were lucky enough to catch it for its Montreal premiere at Fantasia. It was a packed house, and a really responsive, engaged crowd, making this a blast to experience. The audible laughs, gasps, and cheers really reminded me how great it is to see a movie with people who love movies. This film is, as I’m sure many reviews will put it, completely cuckoo (I know, I know—I’m sorry). The story follows Gretchen (Schafer), a seventeen-year-old girl, who moves to the German Alps with her father and his new family and begins to experience unsettling things in the small resort town in which they find themselves. I won’t spoil what happens, but the bird-related title may give you some indication, although I would bet you won’t be able to predict exactly where it goes. There are some high-concept ideas that writer-director Tilman Singer is playing with here, and while I don’t think all of them quite cohere, I will say that I was never bored while watching Cuckoo. The movie is a bit all over the place tonally, but it has a sense of oddball style and confidence in its imagery and ideas that I found really refreshing in a horror movie. While Midsommar may have breathed new life into creepy European towns as a setting for horror, the isolated and wooded Bavarian setting here, along with vintage-style costumes and set design, make Cuckoo feel like it was ripped out of another era, in a good way. Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens were by far the biggest highlights for me, though. Stevens gives a riotous performance, complete with silly German accent, as the mysterious and creepy Herr König, stealing scenes left and right. Every time he appears on screen, he’s a joy to watch, and, as he did in Abigail earlier this year, he provided some of the biggest laughs of the night. But, really, this is Hunter Schafer’s movie. If you’ve seen HBO’s Euphoria, you already know she can act her face off in a dramatic role, but it’s great to see her in something even more outside the box. Here, she gets to play a fairly wide range, from teenage angst to bloody desperation, and it’s a delight to see her in a role with plenty of physicality, digging into the genre muck to get bloodied, battered, and bruised—if you’ve ever wanted to see Hunter Schafer as a butterfly knife-wielding final girl, you won’t be disappointed. But she also gets to demonstrate some deadpan comedic chops and gives Gretchen plenty of heart. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but the mix of tones, along with the subject matter (think bird-related reproductive horror?), makes Cuckoo feel pretty unique. Not every idea or creative choice lands, but there are some truly laugh-out-loud moments, alongside some tense atmosphere and body horror, not to mention a beating heart running through it, with a surprisingly tender and affective payoff (there’s one scene in particular that even had me getting a bit misty-eyed). The film is very well-shot, too, with a great soundtrack and excellent use of music and sound design. The pay-off to everything the movie tries to set up and to its unsettling early moments may not be to everyone’s taste. It goes to surprising places and, at the same time, some people will probably feel that it doesn’t really go far enough. What all that means is that the movie also feels like it’s juggling too much. It wants to be an over-the-top creature feature, a disturbing horror/thriller, but also a quirky deadpan comedy and a meditation on grief and parenthood. To its credit, though, the result is a movie that’s dark and disturbing and gross and bloody and tender and funny and weird—in short, it feels quite singular. I can’t deny how fun a ride this was, even if it doesn’t really come together to form a coherent and meaningful whole. But when you’re having this much fun, does that really matter? Verdict Cuckoo – ❤️ Cuckoo is an uneven but undeniably entertaining thriller. There’s gore and gross-outs and blood and scares—but also plenty of laughs and even some tender moments that are surprisingly effective. That the movie can juggle so many different threads and tones, and still (mostly) work, is really a testament to writer-director Tilman Singer and stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens. Stevens is always a blast to watch, and he’s absolutely in his element here as an eccentric German resort owner with something to hide. And Schafer gets to bloody her hands as an iconic final girl, complete with a sick bomber jacket and butterfly knife. These elements of style may stand out more than any coherent thematic concerns, but who cares when the pieces are this fun?

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SLA at Fantasia: Shelby Oaks – Spoiler Free Movie Review

Reviews /

If you’ve ever talked to me about movies, chances are I have brought up a person whose videos I’ve watched on YouTube religiously for around fourteen years. That person is Chris Stuckmann. On a basic level, Chris and I shared the same taste in movies, but it was more his approach to talking about movies that really pulled me in. More than anything, Chris was a fan of movies first and foremost, and it was the passion above all else that has made me a long-time subscriber to his YouTube channel.  In fact, it was Chris’s approach that inspired the very website you’re reading now. I started Screen Love Affair because I love movies and I wanted to share that feeling with the world. Like Chris, I wanted to put that passion out there with the hope that someone will discover a new movie that inspires them, because they read about it here.  For Chris, though, talking about movies wasn’t enough. He has been a filmmaker since he was a kid and, as executive producer Mike Flanagan said tonight at the world premiere of Shelby Oaks, it was obvious that Chris would be here someday.  I was able to attend the world premiere of Shelby Oaks as part of the coverage we’ve been doing of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. We got to hear from Mike Flanagan, who was also there to introduce Chris before the movie. The cast and crew in attendance stuck around for a Q&A afterwards as well. If you’d like to see that and our coverage of the rest of the Fantasia Film Festival, be sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)! Shelby Oaks is a mystery-horror movie written, directed, and produced by Chris Stuckmann. The film stars Camille Sullivan as Mia, Brendan Sexton III as Mia’s husband Robert, Michael Beach as Detective Burch, Robin Bartlett as Norma, Keith David as Morton Jacobson, and Sarah Durn as Mia’s sister Riley.  As for the plot, I’ll only provide you with a fraction of the synopsis because I think it gives you more than enough detail to know what kind of movie to expect: “Mia frantically searches for her sister Riley, after Riley ominously disappeared in the last taping of a show by a group of paranormal investigators called the Paranormal Paranoids.” Before we get into the review itself, rest assured that like all of my reviews, this will be SPOILER FREE. Also, for full disclosure, I was a backer on the Shelby Oaks Kickstarter campaign. I have no financial stake in the movie or anything, but when Chris announced the Kickstarter, it was important for me to give something back to the person that had given me so much for so many years. So, without further ado, let’s get Stuckmannized!  My Thoughts To state it right at the top, I’m thrilled to report that this was a strong feature film debut for Chris Stuckmann! There was plenty of buzz and excitement around this one, especially amongst the sold out theatre in Montreal that came to watch the premiere.  The performances were great all around, but the real standout here is the lead performance by Camille Sullivan. The whole movie rests on her shoulders and she does a fantastic job conveying the grief and the hope that her character carries throughout the movie. Another standout for me was Robin Bartlett as Norma. She had the entire theatre in the palm of her hand for every second she was on screen and was a genuine delight to watch. Sticking with what I liked, Stuckmann’s direction was probably the biggest highlight of the whole thing for me. There was a confidence I could feel throughout the movie with almost every shot. Stuckmann isn’t just a fan of horror movies, he’s a student of the game, and he knows how to use the frame and audio to create specific feelings of dread in the audience. Even I, as a seasoned horror veteran, found myself getting drawn into these moments and experiencing some genuine scares. When I anticipated a jump scare approaching, Stuckmann would linger a beat or two longer than most horror movies. This restraint causes just an extra notch of suspense that really goes a long way when it comes to building and then releasing tension.  To contrast the horror, though, this movie is also really funny. There were plenty of laughs to be had, not in the form of annoying quips or forced jokes, but in recognizing the humour that can only be found in the horror genre. Oftentimes in horror movies, there are certain moments that are so absurd that you can’t help but laugh. Shelby Oaks succeeds where most horror movies fail in this regard, because it recognizes the humour in those moments, while lesser movies insist on trying to make the absurd scary, which causes a disconnect with the audience.  Another highlight was just the perspective of the movie itself. I won’t give anything away, but this was one of the best and most unique aspects of the movie. In a genre as populated as horror, it’s always impressive to me when you can do something new, and that’s what Stuckmann was able to do here.  When it came to the sound, I was a little more mixed. One of the things that really takes me out of a tense scene in a horror movie is when I notice the audio drop out completely. It’s not just a subconscious thing that makes it easier for me to pay attention to every little sound, it makes me acutely aware of the fact that something loud is going to appear on the screen suddenly. I lose all sense of tension as I sit there simply waiting for that thing to happen. When it comes to the sound mixing and design, I find a more subtle approach, with a very limited score throughout, keeps me a little less aware and prepared for

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Nunday Sunday – The First Omen & Immaculate Reviews

Reviews /

This past Sunday was lovingly dubbed “Nunday Sunday” after a brief workshop between Adriana, Sam, Ty, and myself. Why? Well, because last Sunday we went to the theatre for a double-feature of The First Omen and Immaculate! I figured since I saw them on the same day and they’re far more similar than I expected, I might as well review them together too.  So, were either of these movies a Revelation or did they cause a mass Exodus from the theatre?  The First Omen The first movie on Nunday Sunday was fittingly titled The First Omen. This is a prequel to The Omen (1976). Trying to think back, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen the original movie, but I did see the remake when I was a kid (thanks Gram). It was so long ago, though that, save for the name of the kid in the original, I didn’t remember anything about it.  Thankfully, though, none of that matters. As a prequel, it doesn’t rely on you having seen the first movie for it to work. How well does it work though? Just well enough to get a positive rating from me! There were at least a couple good scares and tense moments and a little twist that added a nice wrinkle to the story. The real standout to me though was the director, Arkasha Stevenson, and actress Nell Tiger Free, who played the main character Margaret. This was the first feature film for Stevenson, whose capable direction was good enough to take a familiar story and still make it an enjoyable experience. This movie had some style to it that I wouldn’t have expected to see from someone making their first feature film.  Free was also great, playing the various sides of Margaret perfectly. She’s asked to do some tough things in this movie, including a oner towards the end that wouldn’t have worked at all in lesser hands. Free so far in her career has mostly been in TV, but that includes projects with Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) and M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense). I hope to see more of her in the future!  If I had to fault the movie for anything, it’s that it was a tad longer than it needed to be and it covered very familiar territory. There was a clear gap between the end of the movie and the rest of it too, as they did a lot of work to tie things into the first movie. One particular line actually made me laugh out loud because it felt like it belonged in a superhero movie, not this horror movie. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad ending or anything, you could just tell this was all part of the obligatory aspects of the movie being a prequel. Verdict Overall, if you’re looking for some chills and scares at the movies, you can do worse than The First Omen! Immaculate Speaking of things worse than The First Omen, next up we’re talking about Immaculate. The first thing I want to mention was how many beats were the same in both of these movies. It was so absurd that Adriana, Sam, and I were laughing throughout this movie. I’m not really faulting either movie for this, but it was incredibly bizarre and noticeable, especially when watching them back to back.  Unfortunately, this movie suffered from the same issue as The First Omen, in that it was covering very familiar territory, but it lacked any of the redeeming qualities that The First Omen had. The movie just fell flat at nearly every point. The scenes designed to build tension were so poorly put together and all ended very predictably. Narratively, the movie was pretty boring and uninteresting too. Funnily enough, where I think The First Omen could’ve shaved a few minutes off, I think this movie might have benefitted from a bit more of a build. I won’t spoil what happens (though you can glean part of it from the title of the movie), but I actually felt like this revelation happened much too early in the movie. It could have done a better job of creating a more sinister vibe or even adding a few more horror elements. Once this reveal happens, the movie shifts focus a bit and doesn’t do much in the scare or tension departments. With that said, though, nothing I saw really suggested that they would’ve done much good with more sequences, so I’m happy they stuck with the 89 minute runtime.  If you didn’t know, Sydney Sweeney stars as Sister Cecilia (she also produced the movie) and nothing I saw here really changed me feelings on Sweeney as an actress. I haven’t seen all of her work, but in the things I have seen, I’ve always felt she was fine. Both the movie and her performance take a sharp turn in the third act of the movie. It was definitely weird and kind of funny, in a morbid horror movie sort of way, but I thought everything near the end was done much better at the end of The First Omen, including the performances from our main nuns.  Verdict I think you can skip this one. It might be more enjoyable if you don’t watch many horror movies, and the ending was enough to shock some of the younger viewers in my theatre, but it didn’t do anything to excite this seasoned horror veteran. 

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