Mini Reviews

There is a potent rage throughout Ginger Snaps towards being forced to become a woman by one’s body and the inability to have a choice in those matters. The majority of this comes from Ginger, who's the sister transitioning into a werewolf of the the main duo. Whereas the other sister, Brigitte, is more of an accomplice than leader role.

While Brigitte has rage about the circumstances surrounding Ginger becoming a werewolf and with their differing feelings about that change. For the first time in their close lives they are faced with an unexpected challenge tht puts them on opposite sides for the first time in their lives.

Ginger in a lot of ways embraces being a werewolf even when faced with possible solutions from Brigitte but Brigitte is always of the mindset that they are both working towards ending this curse or virus. Ginger takes out her rage on male characters up until the climax of the movie, typically reacting to advances rather than enacting them. She puts all boys and men into the same box to justify her murdering them which is common in the Feminine Coming-of-Rage subgenre.

On brand for movies made during the 2020s Totally Killer presents a time travel multiverse slasher tale that's both Back to the Future and Scream coupled with a good SNL skit. The rage within the movie is more about rage towards circumstances than it is about society.

Jamie, the main character, is angry that her parents won’t let her go out, she’s angry that after she does her life then falls apart. Her anger only increases when she realizes that the people at school don’t seem to care about her grief. This transitions into her anger in the past, 1987, towards the teenage versions of the adults in her hometown who impede her attempts to save them.

On top of people not listening to her warnings she's faced with various outdated offenses, beliefs and principles. Her rage is focused and controlled; she channels it in order to try and save people from a killer. I really like that Jamie shows up as a mostly formed person, she still has a lot of growing to do but she has the foundational knowledge to stand up and advocate for herself. She can tell what is right versus wrong in ways not as readily common in previous generations' horror films.

When I arrived at the theatre I knew 2 things about The Monkey (2025). The first that it’s a horror movie and the second thing, it’s about a wind up monkey toy. On a random evening after work I went in with a blank slate and mid expectations to find that this Stephen King based movie is a pure delight.  The setting of Maine was an early giveaway but the narrated family curse had tinges of King’s horror touch throughout. Directed and written by Osgood Perkins, who plays the quiet male Harvard student in Elle Wood’s law school class in the movie Legally Blonde (2001).

Humor throughout is multi layered, jokes often double or triple entendres or witty callbacks to earlier mentioned details and foreshadows. Theo James is the lead times two, playing both brothers in a set of identical twins, Hal and Bill. The brothers are opposites 

The humor is multi layered throughout and characters are expertly portrayed, especially by the lead, Theo James, who plays both twin brothers, Hal and Bill. Not only opposites the brothers are also adversaries, the slightly older twin, Bill, taking a bullying and domineering role over the younger, Hal.

From the opening scene motifs are introduced that are immediately recognizable in football culture. The fan shrine coupled with religious symbols throughout the room and even as jewelry the family is wearing beautifully set the tone. It felt clear that the intense relationship between religion and football was being called out right away, displaying the fervor like fandom at every level, down to the sweating husk of it all.

After a near fatal accident that leaves him with a traumatic brain injury and risk of further complications if he plays football the main character, Cameron Cade portrayed by Tyriq Withers, risks his health when he's offered an alternate route into being drafted to the Saviors, his dream team. The current team quarterback legend, Xavier White portrayed by Marlon Wayans, invites him to train for a week at his estate.

What seems like a gift from above and an answer to his prayers soon begins to feel like a curse as the training intensifies and crosses boundaries Cameron didn't realize he had. Teetering between fact and fiction the narrative tiptoes between reality and mental projections to blur the lines between what is happening and what is just in Cameron's head.

Cam (2018) is a Netflix film that kept me guessing if it was horror for much of the first third of the movie. I was intrigued irregardless because it’s a movie about a cam girl who enjoys her job and takes it seriously, along with her colleagues in the space, not a common topic for films. Cam girls alone is an occupation not typically the focus of a film let alone the focus of a horror film, it’s known as the safer way to do sex work with the online barrier of protection and the possibility of more control on the sex workers part. Alice, portrayed by Madeline Brewer, who has since gone on to play key roles in The Handmaid’s Tale and as Bronte in the final seasons of You, seeks to dominate the cam charts, maximizing revenue.

All of a sudden her account is hacked by someone posing to be her, except this person is identical to her and can impersonate her perfectly. This is shockingly not a spoiler and rather the core plot driver for this psychological horror film. Beyond the typical horror elements like jump scares, suspense building, and dangerous near-death scenarios, Cam includes the horrors of misogny in American culture, even in the sex work industry and amongst the people participating in the industry. Rather than a celebration of women’s body Alice makes her way to the top of the cam charts by making faux snuff films, the violence against her drawing in huge, drooling crowds.

A shadow hangs over most people—purpose. What is your purpose, how can you make money from your purpose, are you fulfilling your purpose…and so on. Even when our purpose is misguided we measure ourselves against that imaginary standard in our minds. The 2024 Netflix film Dead Talents Society or 鬼才之道 brings purpose to the afterlife. Catherine, a ghost known as an underworld diva haunts a hotel and in this fictional afterlife she is surpassed by her mentee, Jessica, at an awards ceremony for best scare.

Jessica’s virality and adaptation of their craft to online videos causes Catherine’s own popularity to decline. At the same time a newer ghost finds out she has 30 days to live due to her sister throwing away her certificate, an earthly possession that symbolized her life. The newer ghost, also referred to as the Rookie, is joined by her best friend Camilla on her quest to stop herself from disappearing. They decide to try out for the Dead Talents Society in order to win a pass to stay in the living world if they get signed by an agency.

Following the first movie’s ability to create fear and suspense using only laptop screens as the “setting” the 2nd installment to an unlikely franchise pushed the found footage twist even further. Opting for a real world spin rather than leaning further into the pass-along-evil style of the first film’s vengeful ghost that wipes out her former friend group. Still tempting into betrayal territory and keeping that theme alive the protagonist in Unfriended: Dark Web finds the laptop that the film is taking place on.

Despite his noble intentions to use the laptop to continuing developing an app that will help him and his deaf girlfriend communicate better he still begins with a heavy negative karma. That negative karma follows him right into a group video call with his friends, similar to the first film’s set up that allowed for the events to unfold with all the character’s “present” for the action. Without going into too much detail about the plot, as much of it is unique and unexpected, the concept treads past laptop video calls into other video capable tech. The expansion of the world with those additional concepts is fun and opens up a plethora of possibilities for what felt like it could be a dead end to a story at the end of Unfriended.

Tick, tick, tick, tick…BOOM! The plot of The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) centers on an older woman with a dementia type illness so aggressive and sudden it is the focus of a documentary. This documentary is what provides the “found footage” of what is the horror movie, following the woman’s middle aged daughter who’s come home to help care for her mother. Hints start to drop early on that something is amiss but while things are building in the first quarter of the film it starts to feel genuine and like a serious project about real subjects. Things are kept fairly low key for quite an extended build up then all of a sudden a volcano of action erupts. Deborah’s condition becomes worse and more mysterious as the film reveals additional information about Deborah, her daughter, and their family.

The quality is high enough to feel like a cinematic movie similar to the found footage style of As Above, So Below (2014) and later film, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021). The more cinematic style and approach to the filming felt more intense and heavy, and the scenes of intense gore and action struck harder with more a physical reaction to the onscreen action. Watching The Taking of Deborah Logan feels a lot like watching Paranormal Activity 2007 and it makes sense that about every 7 or so years a found footage comes along that turns things up a notch and sets the bar a bit higher.