Text-Only Middling Reviews

Spoiler-Free Introduction

Prior to starting horror reviews and considerably increasing the variety of horror I watch I didn’t love old movies, in fact I avoided them. Once I watched Night of the Living Dead (1968) originally for this post I left shocked and sucked into a new world of horror I’d previously left unexplored. My intention when I wrote the post was to cover an important horror moment for Black creators in honor of MLK Day and continually came across Night of the Living Dead (1968) over and over. Only 3 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated barriers to voting for minorities, particularly Black Americans, Night of the Living Dead features a Black lead character. Being a trailblazer is not uncommon for horror films, creators, actors, and studios, often ushering in new eras of media by proving an audience exists for an idea. To watch Night of the Living Dead on HBO Max now click here.

Synopsis & Review

During my watch of this film it is striking to think of the fear inherent in watching Black characters in media as a Black person. My first watch I sat with anticipation for something terribly racist or offensive to happen surrounding race but it never quite happened. I became so accustomed to bad endings at one point that I avoided Black media all together, not wanting to indulge in media that exploited the pain and suffering through stereotypes, brutality, and lack of representation in stories about Black Americans. Duane Jones delivers a strong leading portrayal of Ben, a man who is treated like any other man in the film and rather is judged by his actions or ideas rather than the color of his skin. His race isn’t even outright acknowledged in the movie and he’s just a leading survivor in the group facing a zombie apocalypse without any idea what zombies are.

The first character to be introduced is not Ben however and is actually another main character, Barbara, portrayed by Judith O’Dea and her brother Johnny, portrayed by actor Russell Streiner who is uncredited with the role. While visiting their family’s graves at a cemetery in Pennsylvania the siblings are attacked by a man who is recognizable in modern day as a zombie or undead person back to eat humans. In the eyes of the characters however they don’t know what a zombie is and are initially under the impression that a mad man is attacking rather than a viral outbreak. The zombie kills Johnny who famously taunts Barbara due to her fear about the cemetery just prior to the zombies appearing and in horror she flees to a nearby farmhouse. Inside the farmhouse she finds what appears to be a half eaten person, the farmhouse resident, on the stairs and Ben then arrives mistaking her for the resident. Notably rather than being rotting corpses the zombie-like creatures look more like sullen, hypothermic in Black and White film people who are brainwashed in a hive mind state; but that is somehow scarier.

Ben is all action from jump and fights off the approaching horde that are headed right to the house and after making it inside boards up the windows and doors. Barbara is basically catatonic and unable to communicate anything, including that she saw the zombie in the graveyard eat and kill her brother. Ben searches the house and finds a rifle and Barbara finds there are people taking shelter in the farmhouse’s cellar. The group, Harry Cooper portrayed by Karl Hardman, his wife Helen portrayed by Marilyn Eastman, and their daughter Karen portrayed by Kyra Schon took shelter in the cellar after running from the zombie people who rushed their car and caused them to flee to safety in the farmhouse. Karen was bit by one of the zombies after their car got overturned, which from a modern perspective is obviously the beginning of her demise but to them they believe she is ill and injured rather than transforming into a ticking time bomb they’re locking themselves inside the farmhouse with. Also in the cellar are a couple, Tom portrayed by Keith Wayne and Judy portrayed by Judith Ridley, who also sought shelter in the farmhouse after hearing an emergency broadcast warning about the killings.

Tom and Ben jump into securing the house while Harry worries that being out of the cellar and above ground isn’t safe, scurrying back down to the cellar with Karen. More and more zombies gather outside of the farmhouse, building a scattered horde and making it increasingly unsafe to exit the house. Once they feel secure inside they listen to the radio and TV broadcasts and find reports of what is being called an “army of corpses” that are mass murdering people across the east coast. The broadcasts also report that armed militias of men are clearing the countryside of the undead, ensuring they are really dead by shooting them in the head or causing other damage to their brain or burning them. Information is also provided to them about survival centers they can travel to for safety and protection from the government.

The zombies are being attributed to reanimations resulting from a Venus space probe exploding and releasing radiation. Needing medical assistance or supplies for Karen the group resolves that Ben will go outside and refuel his car at a gas pump on the farm and then pick up the group and take them to the refugee camps. In the first ever preparing-for-the-zombie-battle prep the group makes a plan to get this done after back and forth about what the best course of action is. The plan they settle on is Ben’s—to have Harry stay inside and throw Molotov cocktails from a second story window to divert the zombies while him and Tom get into the truck and get to the gas pump. They’re fortunate that the undead in their universe are slow and rather unintelligent, groaning and stumbling along to the loud noises and movement.

Using torches and Molotov cocktails they’re able to burn the remaining undistracted undead as they pass safely to the pump to refuel the truck, but the gas spills and causes the pump and truck to catch fire in all the madness. Despite there being some time to flee Judy, who’d been rather needy up until that point and had tagged along on the mission, gets her jacket caught which causes her and Tom to be blown up. The explosion leaves only Ben alive and takes the truck out of the picture. Ben makes it back to the house but Harry is overly cautious (understandably) and doesn’t want to open the door and let him back in. Unfortunately for him Ben isn’t the one to play with and he breaks the door down and gets back inside anyways.

Back inside the surviving people try to come up with ways to get out of the situation safely but are interrupted by a less than encouraging news broadcast. The power cuts out during this broadcast, leaving them in the dark, and the zombies finally break into the house via the doors and windows in jarring fashion. All at once the house becomes a death trap rather than a sanctuary and everyone kicks into their own action, Harry grabbing Ben’s gun until he is shot by Ben. After being shot Harry goes back down to the cellar and dies with his daughter, Karen who then dies and then reanimates and then eats him. Rather than biting her Karen stabs her mother to death, adding to these zombie’s lore and abilities while clarifying some intelligence exists.

Barbara and Ben are able to keep the horde out for some time after the family is dead but she is dragged outside and away by the reanimated version of her brother, Jonny, from the start of the film. The horde is then inside the house and free to keep advancing towards Ben but he makes it down to the cellar and is able to kill Harry and Helen who’ve reanimated. Ben is able to survive the rest of the night and through to the morning when he emerges from the cellar once he hears guns and sirens outside and goes upstairs to get a lookout. In the most jaw dropping shock ending the armed group shoots Ben sniper style in through the upstairs window where he looks out to investigate the noise. The rescue team believes they’ve just killed another zombie and comes inside to check that all the zombies are dead, and no survivors remain. Ben’s body is thrown on the fire with the rest of the undead corpses, an unceremonious ending for the first big zombie movie protagonist.

While I did get this ending, and felt it was really effective at shocking and eliciting a strong response as well as the fact that horror movies don’t typically have happy endings. Generally when they do there’s usually one last remaining scene that implies things aren’t as finished as we’ve been led to believe or even worse than initially. I still wanted Ben to survive though! In large part because he did almost everything right in the zombie-apocalypse scenario and the reward should be surviving, not making it to the point of survival and then getting taken out by not-zombies. Since it is so close to the ending of the movie it didn’t sting as badly. We weren’t forced to watch the movie without Ben and at least we have a definitive conclusion to his story. The movie is entertaining, gross, and triumphant. I can’t imagine how mind breaking this would have been from the perspective of someone in 1968 sitting in the theatre without a zombie template.

Conclusion

The movie is entertaining and even from today’s perspective the gore is spot on and unsettling to watch while adding to the horror of the experience. Watching the black and white gore felt scarier at some points than over the top modern day horror gore of similar nature. I loved that Ben did what we would’ve recommended he do from our POV in the future, minus the not so planned attempt at the refueling of the truck. He has good instincts for defense and can critically think about outcomes based on their survival options, standing up for his opinion with the group. Although this is a good trait when he’s right ultimately he’s going to do what he thinks is best regardless and when that doesn’t work there is collateral like Tom and Judy. It is shocking to see him punch out Barbara but honestly, she had been pissing me off too and I can’t say I wouldn’t have done something similar for her to pull herself together in the bizarre circumstances they faced.

Although many horror titles have tempted the concept of a society unaware of zombies experiencing the zombie apocalypse, like The Walking Dead universe, Night of the Living Dead is the official first. There is a believability about this in this 1968 film that can’t be faked and is captured in the acting portrayals, makeup, costume design, and even zombie elements. The decisions don’t always follow the same lore we identify as standard for zombies today (unintelligent means of murder like an animal or sole desire to eat people as examples), but these random decisions make the film feel personally more unpredictable than a modern horror film. The film follows the characters learning about the undead assailants alongside the audience with new information revealed evenly spaced in the plot, hitting key inflection points.

The decisions of the family that run contrary to their best interest are believable, opening themselves up to being potentially doomed without realizing. The information that the recently deceased are susceptible to becoming undead also isn’t revealed until later around when Karen reanimates and officially poses a threat to the group that had only been suspected and theorized before. The family meets a tragic end all around but the scene of the daughter, Karen, consuming her mother, Helen, is visually and emotionally intense. The chain of events is a clear path from action to consequence for Helen and the fact that she’s not killed by being eaten but rather stabbed with a gardening tool is savage and feels more personal. It feels like her daughter is still somewhere in that undead form harboring some sort of resentment that made her kill her in the way she did rather than a more zombie-like way.

Spoiler-Free Introduction

When it comes to Better Watch Out, the 2016 Christmas film directed by Chris Peckover, I didn’t plan on being fully engaged when we put this movie on. It was more of a random choice from a list of holiday movies but I was pleasantly surprised how engaging the seemingly obvious plot becomes. I went in assuming Better Watch Out would be a typical babysitter horror film of being confronted by evil and must defend the child against that evil. Sooner than I anticipated this anticipation was met with an outcome I didn't quite predict. I expected a burglar or group of burglars would break in and then attempt to murder them but instead the danger lurked in a more unexpected origin.

Synopsis & Review

The main protagonist doesn't change however, the babysitter, Ashley, played by Olivia DeJonge, gets more than she bargained for. While she’s babysitting, Luke, played by Levi Miller, has set up a fake intruder with the intention of saving her and then using that knighthood to try and seduce her. He believes there's a mutual interest between the pair and gives off massive budding incel energy, which comes to fruition when he literally feels it is his right to date his babysitter. Enlisting the help of his friend, Garret, played by Ed Oxenbould, helps him accomplish this feat which she does believe initially.

The 2 young boys go as far to convince Ashley that the murderer kills Garret, really instilling just how dangerous they want Ashley to believe the circumstances to be. Despite the audience becoming aware of the revelation that Luke is behind the night she is alarmed and angered. She rightfully tells this demon child to get therapy and attempts to leave. Unfortunately Luke’s obsession knows no bounds and upon this attempt Luke slaps Ashley who falls down the stairs. An unconscious Ashley is then duct taped to a chair and Luke proceeds to torment her with a twisted game of ‘Truth or Dare’. 

Ashley’s boyfriend Ricky, played by Aleks Mikic, arrives on scene and after an unsuccessful attempt to knock him out he’s coaxed into being duct taped to a chair alongside Ashley with the threat of being shot. I have to say, as much as Luke is doing awful and terrible things, the actor’s portrayal of this character is what truly makes the movie. From voice cracks to the well acted juxtaposition between sociopathic actions and middle school boy thoughts Miller’s performance is what kept my interest. In a horrifying scene which I am glad they did not fully show, Luke decides that he wants to know what would actually happen if you smashed someone’s head with a swinging paint can like in the movie Home Alone. I have to give it to the actors because despite them not showing it, the reactions of the actors told me everything I needed to know about the gruesome outcome of this wretched experiment. 

After this murder the twelve year old mastermind even gets Ashley’s ex-boyfriend, played by Dacre Montgomery (shout out Stranger Things), to come over who he then convinces to write an apology letter to Ashely outside before coming in. Seeing Billy from Stranger Things in 2010’s ‘swag’ fashion had me shook to the core in the best and most hilarious way. Nonetheless, while this is happening Garrett is finally being of some use and coming to his senses as Ashley convinces him that he’s expendable to Luke and the best thing to do is to let Ashley, now tied up in Christmas lights, go. He agrees and begins to untie her. Luke however is outside killing the boyfriend by stringing him up over a branch, armed with what looks like a suicide letter he is confident this murder will just look like the ex-boyfriend, now framed as a guilty killer, taking himself out. 

After this Luke goes inside to find Garrett trying to free Ashley and after some dialogue Luke shoots Garrett in the chest, killing him. I didn’t feel as bad as I should have about this because he should’ve stopped Luke far before anyone got killed but then again he did agree to participate in the original fake murderer plan so how innocent was he to begin with. Now defeated and resigned to her fate, Ashley shares a moment with Luke just before Luke stabs her in the neck, killing her. This next part had me triggered. I have been led to believe through the actions of this character that Luke is a criminal prodigy of sorts, willing to go the distance and conscious of evidence that will point his way. He’s even aware of the story of the crime and making it make at least some sense. Do I think he’s created a hard to believe mess? Absolutely. But, I do believe that not many would have assumed he had anything to do with it. However, his grand plan is to pretend that he slept through the whole massacre happening downstairs?!!

Not only that but that the killer had zero interest in harming him or even making sure that he couldn’t identify them. It makes absolutely zero sense to me that police would believe this shit. There are four…..four dead bodies downstairs all killed in gruesome and very loud ways, how the fuck would he have not woken up, even drugged. Also, why would the killer drug him? I understand that the police believe that the ex-boyfriend committed these murders but what a weird way to go about it. If the ex really wanted to kill Ashley why would her babysitting be the time to strike and not when she’s walking outside alone, or home alone, etc. Whatever, this just pissed me off because it made a lot of sense up until he got into bed completely untouched to complete his story and didn’t state that he’d been tortured and traumatized too.

Conclusion

Now, I really liked this next part. After whining to his parents that he has no idea what’s going on and they confirm he’s safe blah blah blah they look out of the upstairs window to see Ashley, my girl, being rolled out of the house on a stretcher into an ambulance. They’re informed that she miraculously survived by placing duct tape over her neck wound, slowing the bleed. Ashley then flips off Luke who is still watching from the upstairs window, and Luke mentions he wants to visit Ashley in the hospital. I would hope that Ashley spills as much as possible in the ambulance ride and at the very least casts suspicion on Luke. Regardless, we hit the credits at this point. Better Watch Out (2016) ended up being a nice accidental find. A Christmas themed horror movie that doesn’t follow many of the clichés and even nods at being a darker version of Home Alone (1990). If you’re looking for something a little more bloody than your average Christmas movie that isn’t littered with Christmas tropes I would recommend Better Watch Out.

Spoiler-Free Introduction

Come Play (2020), written and directed by Jacob Chase, is about a child who is communicating with a monster entity that seeks to take this child. I'd wager that the probability of a well-rounded horror movie along those vague lines of having about 30% chance of being fire and 30% chance of being mid and 40% of being trash. Come Play doesn't disappoint and offers surprises coupled with intrigue throughout the film despite much of the core horror elements being known from the trailer. The main character is a lonely child named Oliver who happens to have autism, portrayed by Azhy Robertson; this young actor's performance is amazing and he ties it together in ways that most child roles in horror don't typically do. This child, Oliver, is frankly one of the only characters to root for throughout the movie. To watch the movie now with an Amazon Prime subscription click here.

Synopsis & Review

From the start we jump right into the action, the monster, Larry, seeks to take children and lure them through communicating via an eBook called, “Misunderstood Monsters,” that updates throughout the movie. The story updates are part of the tool that Larry uses to communicate with the children it is grooming to take. It is quickly apparent that Oliver's parents struggle with raising a special needs child, his mother, portrayed by Gillian Jacobs, in particular struggling with a lack of understanding for Oliver and his father, portrayed by Winslow Fegley, struggling with caring for Oliver while dealing with the relationship frictions between Oliver and his mom.

Solid tension that brings the viewer to the edge of their seat is built through the use of crunching noises accompanied by flickering lights and moaning sounds whenever Larry is present or closing in. Along with sounds, the ability to only see the monster, Larry, through phone and tablet cameras makes it feel the monster could be anywhere, even right in front of the characters, at any time. At one point we even see Oliver using a distance measuring tool to show that Larry is swiftly approaching Oliver to attack and despite those being the only elements in the scene it's scary, intense, and well done. This is a really cool way to make horror without having to show the monster in every scary scene and avoiding sub-par CGI or bad cloak and dagger devices.

Due to Oliver's struggles making friends at school Larry hones in on his loneliness and seeks to remove him from what Larry considers a phone obsessed and lonely world. His loneliness is what attracts Larry to Oliver to begin with and seems to be the driving force behind the luring and connection. His mom makes circumstances more difficult unbeknownst to him like lying to a classmate's mother and putting him in social scenarios where he is set up to fail. It is infuriating to watch Oliver be bullied by classmates but the performance by those young actors are extremely good and able to invoke a feeling of anger towards the behavior due to the believability and fluid action of the scene typically seen in scenes with adult actors.

Conclusion

It is clear that Oliver's mom is meant to be on the not-so-awesome side of the spectrum when her character arc results in her sacrificing herself to save Oliver. She takes Larry's hand instead of Oliver's in a scene that is the horrifying culmination of events, the full abilities of Larry having been displayed at this point. Throughout the movie it isn't clear the extent of Larry's abilities due to the ever reaching tendrils technology has reached into everyday life. The concept of smart devices being used to haunt and torment families is no longer a new concept but I think this movie tells that story really well and creatively while being extremely modern.

Spoiler-Free Introduction

The movie Candyman 2021 delivers on the promises that the trailer makes, particularly if you're going in not expecting the previous movies to be entirely intertwined in this installment. In the original Candyman that came out in 1992 Tony Todd portrays a fictional but vengeful spirit that kills people who speak his name 5 times into a mirror. Much of the first movie doesn’t pertain to the modern remake and instead takes the legend and develops it into a narrative fit for the time and style of 2020’s horror films. Taking place around the real Cabrini-Green Homes public housing project in Chicago, Illinois that has since been demolished, murders in the area are sometimes attributed to Candyman and the victim inviting him to take them by saying his name. To digitally rent or buy Candyman 2021 now click here and to purchase the DVD version to add to your physical collection click here.

Todd's portrayal in the original brought the supernatural horror to life on the big screen, a performance that is still famous to this day. His performance stands apart in part because of the scenes he filmed covered in real, live bees. In addition to being covered in bees he filmed the bees coming out of his mouth, which is a truly horrifying and haunting scene that lives as an image in horror fame. The idea of bees coming from inside of your body and out through your mouth is insane and a drastic way to show the internal decay of Candyman. Although Todd is included in the 2021 remake he isn't actually seen on screen until the very end which is a good device to build suspense for fans while also lightly incorporating the lore from the first film.

Showing scenes from even earlier than the first film Candyman 2021 opens in 1977 with the murder of a Black homeless man with a hook for a hand. His name is Sherman Fields and he’s accused of giving candy to a white child that had a razor blade in it due to being known to give out candy to children. He’s beaten to death by police but he’s silently absolved after his death when the razor blade incidents continue occurring. This already shifts the tone of the movie to directly include police violence which hadn’t been the case in the 1992 version. Fields’ murder is seen by a young boy in Cabrini-Green which sets forth events revealed later in the movie.

Synopsis & Review

Following the flashback to 1977 the opening shots that include the credits are disorienting with the use of backwards studio logos, upside down shots of downtown Chicago, and unsettling higher pitched string music. The elements effectively set the atmosphere on edge, like a fragile balance destined to be broken. Following the police murder of Sherman Fields (portrayed by Michael Hargrove), mentioned earlier in this post, and the unsettling upside down shots of Chicago as the sun sets, Troy Cartwright (portrayed by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is shown walking down the street with his boyfriend Grady Greenberg (portrayed by Kyle Kaminsky). The couple have flowers and wine in the year 2019 and they’re on the way for Grady to meet Troy’s sister, Brianna “Bri” Cartwright (portrayed by Teyonah Parris) at her place.

Once inside we also meet Anthony McCoy (portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is Bri’s boyfriend she lives with. She disses Grady’s wine and Troy then disses Anthony, claiming he hasn’t made a new piece in 2 years to which Bri ends up commenting Troy is salty they didn’t use him as their realtor for the apartment they’re in. Bri argues she paid more for her place because she liked the location close to her gallery but Troy retorts that he warned her the place was haunted. Anthony adds the backstory of the place to their conversation: it used to be Cabrini-Greene projects that were torn down. He comments that the place has been gentrified after it was demolished, a very modern issue many lower income communities are facing or were facing in America.

Bri informs Troy and Grady that the developers and city lied to the Cabrini-Green residents that they would make the housing project better and moved the residents around frequently. She says it was a bid to develop the areas around Cabrini-Green to further drive up the value of the eventual residences. Grady calls the group out about their disdain for this situation that they too are technically those people because they purchased one of those residences where Cabrini-Green used to stand. Everyone is silent and to break up that silence Troy offers to tell a ghost story and although Bri declines he proceeds, first setting the atmosphere by turning off the lights and lighting candles in the middle of the group.

He begins with, “This is a story about Helen Lyle,” which is the name of the main character from the 1992 original. This monologue feels like informing the audience what former movies will or won’t be included, focusing and honing in on the 1992 base story as a jump-off point. Troy makes note of Helen being a white grad student and explains that she set out to do her thesis on Cabrini-Green’s urban legends. The flashback style for this movie is giving Tim Burton and I don’t hate, backlit cutouts and puppet-like people figures emulating the spoken action on screen as Troy tells the story of the first film. He specifically mentions Helen’s pictures of graffiti and asking questions of the residents and says that she just snapped one day, the shadow figure grabbing a meat hook. He explains that she beheaded a dog and did snow angels in blood when the police arrived, taking her into custody that she immediately escaped.

Troy insists that what he’s saying is true but his source is “look it up” as he continues  his ghost story. Troy says that Helen went on a killing spree and then took a Cabrini-Green mother’s baby then on the night of the annual bonfire Helen arrived and presented the baby as an offering to place in the fire but the residents jumped on her, fighting her and claiming she was in a clouded state. They saved the baby but Helen walked into the fire and died there in the middle of the project. Rather than even talking about Candyman legend that rolled into the legend of Helen Lyle she’s now the most prevalent urban legend of the area which has somewhat transformed how it’s spreading. Bri and Anthony seem spooked by the story but Troy is still generally light hearted and just encourages Anthony to paint on his way out.

This sets Anthony up for failure in the sense that once he hears the legend of Candyman from his girlfriend’s brother he experiences no hesitation to dive in and learn more. Not only does Anthony feel drawn to the legend but he feels compelled to research the area and use the legend as inspiration in his work for an upcoming art show he is meant to be featured in. His art piece invites viewers to look into a mirror and summon Candyman by saying “Candyman” five times. Before that however we cut to the following day from the dinner and Anthony presents work to an art dealer, Clive Privler (portrayed by Brian King), who tells him his work is the same stuff he did 2 years prior. Clive threatens to replace Anthony in the upcoming summer show, revealing he took a risk by giving Anthony a solo show since he just got out of graduate school, presumably for painting.

Clive wants him to dig into his history and fulfill a niche of a Black backstory of Chicago for the art show. Anthony explains he’s thinking about a piece on white supremacy and how it creates spaces that neglect communities of color’s needs aka gentrifying an area. Anthony claims he’s from Bronzeville or the South Side of Chicago but Clive calls that background “kind of played” in response. Anthony offers up Cabrini-Green as an alternative focus and Clive seemingly takes this as Anthony is then shown searching the area on Google.

During his research he finds the story of Helen Lyle that Bri’s brother told and is inspired by the before and after the area. Anthony then goes to the projects to capture photos of what the projects look like now and he’s stung by a bee that is immediately eaten by a swarm of ants, leaving a bump on his hand. He breaks into one of the Cabrini-Green buildings and sees graffiti covered walls that include a chilling image of a monstrous figure resembling Candyman and he takes a flash photo of this, closely mirroring what Helen did in the first film.

Anthony ducks behind a building when he hears incoming sirens and a man, William Burke (portrayed by Colman Domingo), starts telling him that the cops used to leave the area alone but now frequent it. They end up at William’s laundromat that is also where he lives and he tells Anthony that things have stayed the same after Anthony asks about Helen. William means that despite many Black girls dying in the hood no one, particularly the white gentrifiers, know those victim’s names but they know the one white woman that died in the hood. Anthony not so slyly floats what would make someone snap like Helen did to dig more details from William.

William very matter-of-fact tells Anthony that Helen was looking for Candyman in the area. This is another mirror moment where Anthony is doing exactly what Helen did, asking questions of the Cabrini-Green residents about lore obvious to them and clearly brushed aside to the onlookers. William believes that Helen found Candyman out in Cabrini and says his Candyman was Fields, explaining Fields used to stare but also he’d hand out sweets to children. He explains the tale of the razor blade miscarriage of justice that I covered earlier in this post. He tells Anthony that the day he saw Fields killed wasn’t the last day he ever saw him and in the flashbacks Fields is wearing the iconic yellow coat, which feels like another addition of lore that differentiates this remake from the original.

The retelling is paused while Anthony crafts his newest work, his passion ignited for using the Cabrini-Green story in his work. When Bri gets home he excitedly shows her the new painting, and he explains that Fields started appearing around the area as a ghost and eventually the legend becomes Candyman instead of Sherman Fields. Anthony tells Bri that this story and work is calling to him and that he feels like what he’s supposed to be doing. Now he tells her the legend at the core of everything: say Candyman five times in the mirror and he’ll appear and kill you. Like a goof he suggests that they do it and Bri wisely declines but Anthony proceeds to say it despite her protests and does so into the reflection in the window behind her.

Following this initial piece and pitch to Bri going alright Anthony creates his entire show piece around the concept of the Candyman legend. It ends up being an interactive piece that includes a mirror to say Candyman into 5 times that opens into an alternate scene in another space of his abstract painting. Anthony explains the meanings are pretty literal in his work and it’s shown that one of the critics he’s trying to impress rolls her eyes at it behind his back. She calls him out for being an artist because she believes they are some of the worst gentrifiers, making the piece hypocritical in her view.

Anthony proceeds to get drunk and then doesn’t take the criticisms disguised as compliments well and calls Bri’s group of associates out, being guided out by Bri while he continues shouting back and forth with Clive. Later on, back at the studio Clive closes up after everyone has left with his employee’s assistance as he rants that Bri is finished due to backing Anthony. The employee goes to examine the Say My Name piece and Clive warns her not to do it as a cool camera movement uses the reflection behind her to show Clive talking and the red-lit background in the studio from another piece while also showing her. The 2 start to hook up intercut with Anthony staring into a mirror in his workspace as a bee buzzes near his ear.

During the hookup the employee starts saying Candyman as part of their foreplay and the bee begins tapping against the mirror’s glass. A creative angle is used to show Candyman in the reflection, exposing he’s in the background of the studio right before he kills the couple. He’s invisible to Clive and is only visible in reflective surfaces despite impacting the environment around him like cutting the projection screen with his meat hook. Clive is hooked to the employee as part of a kink he’s delayed from running out of the studio and is drug back from the glass doors, the invisible form lifting his legs as he’s drug next to the girl’s body then hooked under the chin and lifted off the ground.

Both Clive and his employee’s bodies are discovered by Bri the next day when she arrives at the studio and Anthony is even more inspired to paint than previously. The area that he received the bee sting is starting to fester, looking increasingly infected and grotesque, spreading from the initial bite over half of his hand and down towards his wrist. A cut away shows him watching news coverage of the murders and he’s visibly happy when he realizes the coverage includes the mention of his art piece, Say My Name. He is proud and in awe and says, “they said my name,” which is a foreshadow for events to come. Bri and Troy are disturbed by Anthony’s reaction to the gruesome murder that she found of her associates. Later on that night we are from Bri’s POV and she dreams of her dad sitting in a window sill. He looks back at her to say he can fly before jumping out of the window intercut with her finding Clive and his intern, drawing a connection of the 2 events in her mind.

She awakes in a panic to find Anthony missing from the bed and in the bathroom, stuck in a trance like state. The next day Anthony is at the university library of the school Helen attended and an archivist is able to find a tape recorder and a file. The tape starts playing as a voice over and Helen is talking about Cabrini-Green and the violent occurrences that took place in the first movie. She hypothesizes that violence is a ritual in the area and that the “summoning game” is actually just a cover for that violence and a scapegoat. She believes them not wanting police involved is connected to the prevalence of Candyman being blamed for murders in the area, residents saying Candyman did it rather than the truth.

Helen believes that the mere suggestion of being followed after doing the summoning game explains the feeling of it happening for real rather than the victims telling the truth about things. While she talks about something lurking in a reflection the elevator Anthony is in that is entirely made of mirrored walls on the interior starts to malfunction. His disgusting hand is shown in more light and clarity when he takes his headphones out. Suddenly a piece of candy falls to the floor with a pink background and for some reason he decides to open it, cutting his finger on the wrapper in the process. He then looks up to see a bloodied and beaten Fields reflected back at him with a wild grin, startling Anthony but disappearing when the elevator doors open. After leaving the university he paints in a crazed trance state holed up in his work space while listening to Helen’s tapes. These tapes include interviews with residents that describe the Candyman murders from her 1992 research into the legend.

Anthony decides to visit the critic from his show, Finley Stephens portrayed by Rebecca Spence, at her apartment to discuss the piece she’s writing. She wants to get quotes from him about his work in light of the events, now interested instead of scoffing at his work. She calls his work eternal now that the murders happened and Anthony says he’s expanding the work into a series and plans to do a solo-show all about Candyman even saying, “spread the word,” like it’s some kind of charitable cause and she tells him she loves that, now clinging to his words rather than tuning him out. He calls out her switch up and she says it grew on her.

While she’s away in the bathroom Anthony starts picking at his nasty hand and steals a fabric napkin of hers to cover his rotting flesh, going to look for her. In her hallway is a  mirror however that Anthony believes he sees Candyman reflected in but suddenly instead of Candyman it’s his reflection as Candyman—seeing that his movements mirror the terrifying hook-handed figure in the mirror. Anthony also sees that Fields has a hook for a hand that mirrors his own rotting hand. Startled and disturbed Anthony runs out of the apartment but after he does the camera pans out to the outside apartment through the wall length windows and Finley is shown being violently lifted off the floor by an invisible force, likely Candyman, and thrown against the window and then back into the apartment. Presumably Candyman has killed her after Anthony has left her apartment, another victim in his wake.

Meanwhile at the important dinner with Bri and her colleagues that they’ve discussed multiple times his hand continues rotting and he’s distracted. In the midst of poaching Bri for their own abruptly everyone’s phones alert that Finley has been found dead and her husband is a suspect. In light of this news Anthony rushes out of the restaurant, causing a scene and alerting everyone to his weird behavior. He then goes to the laundromat to speak with William and he’s more than ready to yap about the urban legend. William explains that Candyman isn’t a “he” but rather the hive, trying to more closely incorporate the bee elements in this retelling. He lists 2 cases in addition to the Fields one that’s already been discussed; one is William Bell, who was lynched in the 20’s and Samuel Evans, who was killed during the white housing riots in the 50’s.

William states that there was an original however before all the rest, and while explaining this the scene is intercut with the images Anthony has been furiously painting, which appear to be the men from these legends. He says that Helen found the OG story also, taking place in the 1890’s about Daniel Robitaille. The story is shown through the cutout puppets from earlier in the film with audio additions like crying and an angry mob. Daniel painted portraits for the wealthy all around the country and was loved by his clients. Things went wrong after he was commissioned to paint a wealthy Chicago man’s daughter who he started an affair with.

She got pregnant and went to her father to confess the affair which causes him to hire men who he tells to “be creative” to hunt down Daniel and kill him in revenge. After being chased Daniel ended up at the tower in the Cabrini-Green area, collapsing from exhaustion and the mob proceeded to beat him. William explains they tortured him and cut his hand off and that they even shoved a meat hook where his hand once was. The hook is lore from the original movie and I’ve always wondered why they did that when the hook would be a weapon and figure it just needed to be explained but it was a wanted addition to the Candyman character.

The mob then smeared his chest in honey from the hives in the area which then made bees sting him relentlessly, explaining the rib cage bee hive that Todd reveals when he opens his trench coat in earlier films. A crowd watches Daniel as he is set on fire, which ultimately kills him right there in Cabrini-Green. William says a pain and subsequent story of pain like Daniel’s aka Candyman’s lasts forever and that that is what Candyman is—the stories of grievous harm that will always tinge an area even if it is unspoken.

Still confused Anthony asks again if Daniel is who Candyman is and William proclaims that all of the men whose stories comprise the Candyman legends are real. He says that Candyman is how the community deals with the atrocities that have happened and still happen to them. Back at their place Bri has broken into Anthony’s studio and found his paintings, disturbed by them and his behavior. When he gets back he tells her he thinks he made a mistake and shows her his hand as evidence of how dire things have gotten. He tells her about William and that he knows about Candyman but she insists it isn’t real. Anthony lashes out after more back and forth and she leaves, insisting Anthony not follow her. The POV then switches back to Bri’s instead of Anthony’s to show her being consoled by Tony and Grady who express having trepidations about Anthony all along.

Switching again the POV is then across town and focused on the teen from the gallery opening, Finley’s daughter, who is in a high school bathroom with 4 other friends. She asks if they know about Candyman and suggests they do it. They agree and recite it in the mirror in unison. When they go to leave the door won’t open and one that is using a compact mirror hears buzzing and sees something behind her. One girl goes back for her vape and is brutally killed, a curtain of blood falling down as some of them look beneath the stall before one of them approaches that area. Cut to screaming and a student hiding in the stall who is listening to music but hears the screams and violence over her music and believes she’s being pranked.

Meanwhile Anthony’s hand is rank, fingernails falling off and everything so he finally decides to go to the hospital. Across town speaking with a colleague from their dinner who’d previously been interested in her talents reveals that her interests are more due to her connection to the tragedies and her own father’s tragedy. She’s interested in Anthony’s work, hoping to use Bri as a connection to get to him. Back at the hospital a doctor approaches Anthony and tells him, “Welcome back,” to which he’s confused, not remembering visiting the hospital ever before. She tells him that his chart indicates he was born at the hospital but he protests that he believes he was born in the South Side. Regardless she wants to admit him immediately for testing and monitoring after bandaging his hand up but he leaves in his painter scrubs.

He ends up visiting his mom, Anne-Marie McCoy portrayed by Vanessa Williams who also played the character in the first film. This reveal is more confirmation that Anthony is the baby from the first movie who was also named Anthony. Anne-Marie asks about his hand and he explains the hospital near Cabrini fixed him up but a side shot shows the infection has spread up his neck and coming along his jaw on the side of his face. He tries to talk about the fire in Cabrini, Helen and the baby but after he says the name she shushes him quickly and claps over her mouth, telling him to not say it. She admits that he was born in Cabrini and lived there 2 years but that she lied to protect him and give him the chance to grow up normal.

She also admits that he’s the baby that Helen took, removing any doubt if it remained about his past. She claims that she thought Helen committed the murders at first which cuts to more cutout figure puppets portraying the action she describes as she tells the story. She tells him that Candyman had a purpose for Anthony and chose him to be one of his victims in the fire and that Helen saved him. She says that she thought Helen killed Candyman in the fire, and the people in the area vowed to never say it again. She figures since he knows and used it in his art show that people yapped about Candyman despite the pact. Now, despite her efforts Candyman has found Anthony again and is taking him to be his victim. Anthony is angry, enraged by the confirmation and leaves in silence despite her begging him to stay. He is then in Cabrini as the sun is setting, drawn to a particular building when the lights flash and in a trance.

Cut to Bri at their apartment with Troy and Grady, getting her belongings and leaving Anthony a note. Worried however by him not being around she visits the laundromat that Anthony mentioned looking for him, making her way into the back office and opening a door that looks like it leads to a basement before saying “nope” and closing it. Unknowingly she locked herself in the back office however and is snatched by William before she gets the attention of a patron to help her. Without warning a flashback takes over of William, but he’s Billy—the child version of him, begging to hang out with his older sister and her friend. They are going into the bathroom and after shutting the door do the summoning game in the mirror, which he overhears. After saying the name 5 times he hears thuds and opens the door to see blood covered walls and his sister and her friend’s bodies on the floor. He also sees Fields in the reflection, smiling from the shower as bees buzz around the room with his hook raised to his face.

Back in the present William states that they have a witness and drags Bri’s body out of frame. Another cut takes the scene to the inside of an abandoned church with a phone call in the background overheard. It seems like a 911 call and the caller claims they saw the “Say My Name” killer, who he describes as a Black man in his 30s with a hook, over in Cabrini-Green recently. The voice sounds like the white man version of a Karen but it is revealed to actually be William once he ends the call. William then tells Bri he was baptized in the church they’re in.

Anthony is behind him, facing a wall while whispering in a trance. He says that Cabrini-Green got caught in a loop of occurrences that stained the area repeatedly, thinning the fabric between that place and another. William believes that it rotted the neighborhood from the inside out before it was torn down to be replaced for white people to move back in. Next William reveals a rotting Anthony that looks like a hive of holes is over his body now spread over his eye, turning it white. He then cuts off Anthony’s rotting hand and replaces it with the hook, Anthony clearly in pain in his trance, a tear running down his frozen face and whimpers escaping his mouth.

William starts reciting the new legend: Anthony McCoy was an artist who lost his mind and then the cops came and shot him in cold blood. He intends for people to tell the story so that Candyman can live forever as the police sirens begin in the background, William saying it’s the swarm coming. He pulls out candy that he says is the sacrament and he had me until he did that, that drives home he’s crazy. Bri manages to escape however while he’s wrapped up in his monologue and he yells after her asking if she wants a sweet.

Off screen we hear flesh noises and yelling in pain as William concludes shouting and Bri keeps running through the ruined neighborhood away from him. Her and William get into a scuffle after some cat and mouse in the ruined area and she stabs him to death in one of the abandoned homes. Anthony then approaches and says her name, collapsing into her arms as she begs him to get up. He tells her it’s okay as the approaching sirens get louder and police come in; off screen but lit with police lights Anthony is shot after screaming to put his hands up without a further question. I think it’s powerful to not show the cop but rather Bri to keep the focus on her and the emotional impact rather than the imagery of Anthony’s death or the perpetrators.

A shocked Brianna is arrested aggressively by the officers who are already crafting a story in the background for shooting Anthony on sight. They place her in a car and have muffled conversations amongst themselves, before one officer gets in. He starts talking to her in a condescending and accusatory tone. He claims cooperation will help and says that the officer who shot Anthony had to shoot because he was charged at. The officer tells Bri in not so many words that she needs to corroborate their story in order to make the shooting of Anthony justified self defense, making eye contact with her in the rearview mirror. He says that the other option is she’s an accomplice of Anthony’s and will go to prison for the crimes he committed and demands she pick from the 2 options. She asks if she can see herself in the mirror, agreeing to talk if he lets her.

The officer reluctantly moves the mirror for Bri to see herself and she says Candyman, once quietly at first then another time with slight hesitation. The cop hears between the second and third times and she’s saying it more confidently by the third. She starts smiling as she says it a fourth and fifth time, the officer in the car getting scared because it’s weird behavior out of context. Just as she finishes the 5th recitation string music picks up and the car doors automatically lock.

While this happens outside the car an officers throat is slashed and this causes the other officers to begin shooting into that direction towards what looks like Anthony in Field’s bloody trench coat, surrounded by a swarm of bees and using his hook hand to slash them. We are able to see him through the car window past Bri with her still in frame, avoiding any glances towards the screams and sounds of carnage. Another officer tries to get in the car, banging on windows to be let in but he’s brutally killed by Anthony from behind, Bri crying and shaking but not looking. Anthony then stops and looks into the car at Bri who still won’t look, bees buzzing around him.

The cop still locked inside the car whispers in stunned fear, “who are you?,” which leads into a voice over monologue. Anthony’s monologue response to the question is as follows: “I am the writing on the walls. I am the sweet smell of blood on the street. The buzz that echoes in the alleyways. They will say I shed innocent blood. You are far from innocent but they will say you were. That’s all that matters.”

I wanted that to be just a little bit more impactful to really tie together Candyman’s new motivations that incorporated the original lore. I felt like this kinda bridged the gap for me but ultimately left me wanting just a little more pizazz and depth in presentation, drawing out the scene more since it is seemingly a culmination of buildup. That’s another thing: there’s a lot of stories and side stories going on due to the nature of the hive concept and it’s hard to keep track of all the significance each detail means to each story or what stories. The car just unlocks at the end of the monologue, which is kinda lame and anticlimactic, and the officer just runs down the street terrified.

Bri cautiously gets out of the now unlocked car and makes her way down the street towards where the cop ran. She happens upon Candyman, his head replaced with a swarm of angry bees and levitating off the ground, lifting the cop that ran up against a wall through a metal gate. Bri watches on in horror as the cop is killed and the figure floats towards her, the bees clearing little by little as he gets closer. Tony Todd is then revealed as the face within the swarm and he tells Bri to tell everyone the final words of the film before it cuts to the title. In this scene the use of CGI is apparent to age revert Todd back to what he looked like in previous Candyman films which takes some of the bite out of the scene’s intensity. I almost wish more real effects could’ve been used to regress his appearance to make the scare possibly stick better.

Again, I get it but I have to do a bit more legwork than I’d like to make the puzzle pieces fit on behalf of the movie. Some of the aspects were over-explained, like gentrification, while other aspects like exploitation, inter-community violence, and police brutality are mentioned but not expanded on enough to be pieces of said puzzle upon only watching Candyman 2021. Topics like gender roles in the Black community, the phoniness of some modern art spaces, childhood trauma, and relationship violence are brought up but only in cursory fashion. While I do like the movie and the way it crafts an entirely new narrative from a story while still maintaining much of the same material and bones of the original story is beautifully done I still wanted a little more focus in the narrative. I felt a little all over the place and then stumbled into the end rather than a gradual build that really packed the full potential punch of the ending.

Conclusion

At the time this film came out I found it to be revolutionary in the willingness to sort of display vengeance against the police and somewhat advocate for a push back towards police brutality. I was a bit confused because the limited knowledge I had of Candyman informed me that he seemed to target a lot of Black folk for a spirit that aimed to protect the Black community. Perhaps they mean he’s developed over time alongside the neighborhood to match the needs but that’s the sort of extra thinking I wish the movie did on behalf of the viewer. I did like explaining the first movie with the outlines to include the plot as a through thread that played a central role in Anthony’s own story.

For example here’s a snippet of what I wrote at the time and the original content of this post: “I absolutely loved this movie and left feeling unsettled, angry, betrayed, upset, and thoroughly pleased. Not only is the movie amazing but the social commentary throughout connects it to modern day racial struggles that the original touched on but didn’t explicitly focus on. Overall, I highly recommend any horror fan go out and see this movie while it is still in theaters, I know I’ll be purchasing a digital copy as soon as it’s released.” I ended up not buying a digital copy (though I had rented it more than once before it became available to stream).

Since the release of this movie much in the political landscape and racial issues have changed, particularly after the 2024 presidential general election. While I did feel that it expanded on the legend and still do I no longer think that the social commentary is anything crazy woke anymore. It seems like an obvious fact now in many circles that police target and kill Black people disproportionately and that many of these problems are deeply ingrained within the police communities serving Black constituencies.

We’re also under agreement that racism is alive and well—something that not even a decade ago would’ve received major pushback and disbelief. With this newer perspective I view Candyman as a half baked idea that could’ve been spectacular with more focus. I wish it did one issue really, really well rather than trying to cover a bajillion issues slightly. In stark contrast the original story focused heavily on the character Helen Lyle (portrayed by Virginia Madsen), a white masters student researching incidents she believed to be part of an urban legend myth at Cabrini-Green for her thesis.

The distance between the subject matter and the character allowed the racial elements to be parallel to the story happening to Helen rather than the story happening to her that is ingrained in her. She had a choice whereas Anthony is predestined. In the new 2021 version however the origin of Candyman is more closely intertwined with the brutal killing rather than the interracial relationship or Daniel’s desire. The brutality and unjustified nature of this and the subsequent murders on the same land is said to leave a stain on that place, and in Cabrini-Green’s instance this is Candyman, a vengeful spirit that has ever evolving motivations.

Spoiler-Free Introduction

Try as I might, despite my best efforts to watch a holiday themed horror movie this week I just couldn’t do it. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas this year and frankly after watching all three Black Christmas movies I needed a break. So, instead of a holiday movie this week I watched Hypnotic 2021, a Netflix original starring Kate Siegel as the protagonist and Jason O’Mara as the antagonist respectively.

Synopsis & Review

From the opening scene I assumed the therapist, Dr. Collin Meade (O’mara) bared resemblance to a Criminal Minds episode where the serial killer uses his patients' phobias to kill them. A woman is crushed in an elevator and I have to assume that he doesn’t have Saw level abilities to make her wander into a mechanically altered elevator that crushes her without the news getting a hold of the story. I did however find it interesting to see what someone might experience inside of their head when having a phobia, like claustrophobia, come into play.

We are introduced to the main character Jenn Tompson (Siegel) as she arrives at a friend’s get-together. We are informed through dialogue that she is struggling, hints like her bringing a dead plant because she drank the bottle of wine she meant to bring are made apparent. My problem with this throughout the movie is that she is a really put together appearing woman for someone struggling, unemployed, and in need of a life changing therapist. Her hair is done, her clothes are cute despite the costume designers best efforts to make Kate Siegel look frumpy in a knit sweater.

Also in this scenario we meet the therapist himself, Meade, who shouldn’t even be at this party considering he is treating Jenn’s close friend, Gina Kellmen, played by Lucie Guest. Already I know he is no good based on this fact alone and his general lack of boundaries having the audacity to give Jenn a card in the first place knowing the association between his patient Gina and Jenn. We also learn that Jenn has an ex-boyfriend Brian Rawley, played by Jaime M. Callica, whom she has a sorted past with but clearly still cares about. 

Of course Jenn ends up going to see Meade for therapy and goes under hypnosis. We as the viewer are not privy to what happens in this session, as neither Jenn is, she goes under and then wakes up and that’s it. We do however learn that within three months of that session she has secured a good job and per her therapist's urging is going to have dinner with Brian to discuss their issues surrounding the death of their newborn son years before. As she is leaving to get groceries for said dinner she gets a call from an unknown number, she answers and then blacks out only to come to with Brian choking in her bathroom.

Despite me thinking he would for sure be the first murder victim of Meade in Jenn’s life he is alive on a ventilator. Jenn blames herself only to piece together with memories and clues that she in fact bought sesame oil, Brian’s allergy, and put it in the salad for him during the blackout. In a surprising twist Jenn doesn’t just ignore this but instead starts to investigate hypnosis and crimes committed under hypnosis. 

The discovery that you can in fact be hypnotized and then be made to carry out crimes she compiles evidence and takes it to an officer who previously investigated Meade for this very crime, Detective Wade Rollins, played by Dulé Hill. She’s also roped her friend Gina, the one who introduced her to and recommended Meade, into this investigation despite Gina not believing her at first. Rollings is sympathetic but can’t do much at the moment as he has tried in the past and the police bureau uses hypnosis in crime investigations and doesn’t believe him about Meade. This is annoying but ACAB so it makes sense. As they leave Gina decides to mention that despite his protests before Meade has also used hypnosis on her, and at this moment I know that she will either be killed or try to kill Jenn. 

Before that happens however Jenn tries to catch Meade by recording him during one of their sessions. She’s not great at deceiving him and he has been stalking her anyways and is aware that she went to talk to the police with Gina. He lets her record it anyways and just uses the time to interrogate her about her mistrust around him. He creepily calls her “my love” which will become important later and I will bitch about that. As predicted he calls Gina and puts her under hypnosis to kill her, my problem with this is why the hell would she continue talking to him when she heard it’s him on the phone knowing damn well he uses death mind control on people? Also, she starts seeing a spider on her while driving with her husband but like she doesn’t have to crash or accelerate into traffic, she could’ve just pulled over and gotten out. Either way, she and her husband die in the crash. 

There’s some cat and mouse between Rollins and Meade, with Rollins being far too trusting in his presence even drinking his alcohol. It’s apparent that Meade only uses hypnosis on certain patients but we still aren’t privy to why that is at this point in time. I can’t believe that he’s letting Meade not only know he’s onto him but also calling him out on his turf, is this a man thing? Anyways, Rollins goes and tells Jenn his findings and warns her and then leaves only for Meade to show up moments later and use force like power to stop her dead in her tracks. Rollins gets attacked in his apartment by another one of Meade’s patients under hypnotic mind control, she’s somehow good at fighting and practically kicks Detective Rollins’ ass. He ends up in the hospital which I appreciated because I like his character and it annoys the hell out of me when they kill a character too soon and make the villain seem invincible only for him to be easily thwarted later. 

Jenn ends up going to see another therapist to talk about the hypnosis and maybe be hypnotized again and fuck that. I would never be able to trust another therapist again after this bullshit. Alas, this sweet lady puts her into a hypnotic state where she starts choking in the real world but in her subconscious she has visions of a house and a bracelet with the date of March 6th on it being given to her by Meade himself. Once she breaks out of this state to a horrified therapist they determine that that darn Meade has placed stop gaps in her subconscious so she can’t be hypnotized and released from his bullshit by anyone else. They do decide however to place their own suggestions in her subconscious as a defense against Meade. Now right here I thought, damn that’s genius, I wonder how this will play out. Well, not as intelligently as I assumed.

Like every gung-ho horror movie idiot, Jenn goes to the place from her dreams alone, despite learning that it’s Meade’s dead mentor’s home, in the middle of nowhere. Before she leaves she updates the recovering Rollins, cause he can’t catch some peace. This freaks him out but he stays his ass in the hospital bed where it belongs. Unfortunately, he gets a call shortly after that Meade is actually the son of the “mentor” who had ties to MKUltra and implanted false memories into patients. Xavier Sullivan, the mentor, refused to retire like most white men with ideas of grandeur. When Jenn gets there we are shown that uh-oh, Meade is actually Jamie Sullivan, the creepy son of creepy Xavier. I’ll admit some of these events might have occurred out of the order I’ve described them but it’s all the same in this scenario. 

In the face off between Jenn and Meade/Jamie we learn that he has been trying to recreate his wife and their happy moments with lookalikes and that Jenn has made it the furthest up in here. He has her hypnotized to sit still as he describes his creepy agenda. In a cliché he gets angry when he’s called insane. This bothers me because I think we can all agree that you can be insane and still be aware of being insane especially if you’re a trained therapist who has knowledge of what is psychologically “normal” and “abnormal”. Some more stuff happens and then we get to the point where Rollins is there trying to find and shoot Meade and Jenn is able to break out of the hypnosis kind of.

Conclusion

Side note, during the altercation between Meade and Rollins Meade uses a tire iron to hit Rollins and I want to know why everyone in horror movies just has tire irons laying around, I don’t think I’ve owned one in my life. Jenn gets the gun and shoots a fighting Rollins and Meade and thinks she has shot Meade and killed him waking up in the arms of Rollins on the couch. He calls her “my love” though and she instantly knows based on the stop gap placed by the good therapist that she’s under hypnosis. This pissed me off. Why the hell weren’t there far more stop gaps in place, was it a time issue, was it a fear it wouldn’t work?

My thinking is that Jenn and the viewer both know he’s used words such as ‘stop’ and ‘sleep’ so couldn’t they have just added those to the counter measures to stop some of this extra shit from happening? It seems like a pretty base level insurance policy to stay protected in face of an odd situation that is just missed. Regardless, she gets free, kills Meade, and Rollins survives. Like every disgruntled woman she cuts bangs in the flash forward. She has a great job and waits dutifully by the side of Brian for him to wake up from whatever is up with him.

Was it a great movie, no, was it a nice break from Christmas horror, yes. I didn’t have to think much, the plot, while predictable, also had satisfying elements. Not particularly scary other than the notion that someone could fuck up your whole life because they put you under hypnosis. I assume that the level to which he’s able to control her isn’t possible but I honestly don’t want to know if it is because the idea of people walking around being mind controlled in real life is actually terrifying. I left this viewing never wanting to be put under hypnosis.