Fellowship of Filming(s)

The Bad Seed (1956)

The Bad Seed is a 1956 American psychological thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones and Eileen Heckart.

The film is based upon the 1954 play of the same name by Maxwell Anderson, which in turn is based upon William March’s 1954 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by John Lee Mahin.

Without giving too much away, this movie takes on the topic of “are serial killer tendencies genetically passed on from parent to child”. A different take on the nature versus nurture debate of child rearing. Though there are several points worth arguing about throughout the movie, such as “if nature was the answer why did it skip a generation?” and if it was nurture, what happened?

The whole movie revolves around a little girl named Rhoda and her mother Christine. Monica is their upstairs neighbor and landlady, and Leroy the handyman. Let’s just say that Rhoda acts a bit older than her age and is praised for it.

Honestly, this movie was done very well, from book to stage to screen even if it was in the 1950s when there wasn’t a lot in the way of special effects and many events happened off screen. This movie has been remade a few times since, once for TV and twice more as a movie.

My Rating: ★★★

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Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Flowers in the Attic is a 1987 American psychological drama film directed by Jeffrey Bloom and starring Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, Kristy Swanson, and Jeb Stuart Adams. Its plot follows four youngsters who, after the death of their father, are held captive in the attic of their abusive grandmother’s sprawling estate by their cruel and manipulative mother. It is based on V. C. Andrews’ 1979 novel of the same name.
via Wikipedia

I have read the Flowers in the Attic book by V. C. Andrews, and another book in that series, and another series by the same author, so I am already a fan of this storyline, even if it is a bit creepy and taboo.

Yes, there is a decent amount of incest here, and if that is going to bother you I suggest skipping this post altogether, here go read this one about unicorns instead.

Okay so this follows the book pretty closely, which I appreciate so much. If you don’t know the plot or backstory, the children are the product of a few generations of incestuous relationships and so are the black sheep of a prominent family group. Since they have fallen on hard times their strict grandmother has taken over their care which is to essentially make them disappear. Unfortunately it does work, perhaps a little too well.

This actually reads a little bit like a dark Hallmark movie. Huh.

My Rating: ★★★

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Eloise (2016)

Eloise is a 2016 American thriller film directed by Robert Legato and written by Christopher Borrelli. The film stars Eliza Dushku, Robert Patrick, Chace Crawford, Brandon T. Jackson, Nicole Forester, and P. J. Byrne. The film was released on February 3, 2017, by Vertical Entertainment.
via Wikipedia

I love the idea of spooky, haunted, abandoned places, especially if it’s a hospital or asylum. This does bias me a bit towards movies that feature them, so take this review with a pinch of salt if it’s not your thing.

This very much starts out with a weird call to action – prove your aunt is dead so you can be sole inheritor of your late father’s estate.

But, admittedly, this turns out to be a very family oriented movie, so it works, kind of? It’s not the best reason to get the plot moving, but it’s not the worst either. It just could be better. So to circumvent a whole host of red tape (and a cute girl), lets cut to the chase where we assemble a group of “experts” and go hunting through an abandoned, locked building to find a death certificate shall we?

I do like the way the spooks are portrayed in this movie, it’s not your unseen ephemeral beings playing tricks, it’s also not specters showing themselves for a jump scare. Our group of protagonists and transported into their world and experience it first hand, playing on their individual fears, literally scaring them to death as a means of “therapy”.

The ending seems appropriate since the call to action was a bit suck to begin with. Not a terrible movie in my opinion, in fact pretty decent considering it was free to watch with ads on Vudu.

My Rating: ★★★

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10 Minutes to Midnight (2020)

A character-driven night terror, TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT begins when veteran punk rock disc jockey Amy Marlowe (Williams) is bitten by a rabid bat on the eve of her final graveyard shift broadcast. When a raging storm traps Amy, her mysterious replacement (Nicole Kang, “Batwoman”), and the uneasy staff inside their small-town radio station, reality begins to fracture as they move further and further into the graveyard shift.The film draws inspiration from classic horror tales brought to life by Stephen King, “The Twilight Zone”, and other forgotten late night horror anthology programs. Also woven throughout the mayhem is a melancholic meditation on the perceived disposability of women over a certain age and a reflection on metaphysical mortality: the death of who we were and who we thought we’d be.
via IMDB

This movie opens up with the plot already in motion, the two biggest events are already in progress so we’re jumping right in to what’s happening. The storm outside really isn’t referenced much, we don’t hear thunder, we don’t see lightning or pouring rain, but it is very dark outside. I think it would have helped the movie out a little bit more if the storm was seen out the windows a bit more, or if the wind and thunder crashed a bit.

The plot is simple in terms of typical vampire movies, person turns into vampire, vampire starts biting people. However… it’s the complex relationships of the people trapped in the radio station that gives this movie it’s interest. It’s not as simple as “just a bunch of coworkers”.

And then there’s the bit about two thirds in that turns everything upside down. Enjoyed that very much.

My Rating: ★★★

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Too Wong Foo (1995)

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a 1995 American road comedy film directed by Beeban Kidron and starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three New York City drag queens who embark on a road trip. Its title refers to an iconic autographed photo of Julie Newmar that they carry with them on their journey. Newmar additionally appears in the film as herself.

The film was released on September 8, 1995, and was in the number 1 spot in the North American box office for two weeks with a worldwide gross of $47.8 million. Critical response was mixed, with particular criticism towards the plot and its familiar elements, but the performances of Swayze, Snipes, and Leguizamo were lauded. Swayze and Leguizamo both earned Golden Globe Award nominations as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
via Wikipedia

This was not the first time I watched this movie. I was much, much younger the first time I watched it and I remember not being able to understand all the nuances. Now I am a much older person who has seen quite a bit more out of life and oh my mercy is there a lot to say about this movie now.

This movie is a product of the times and uses language that not many of us would use now. However, at the time it was appropriate to use those terms and I will forgive it for that.
I have been following Trixie Mattel and if she is anything to go by – Drag Queens are not in drag 24/7.
Drag Queens are still very misunderstood and this is very unfortunate.

As a Midwesterner from small town America there are very many relatable things in this movie for me and I find that unfortunate too. The small mindedness of some individuals can make life extra scary, and the journey of finding yourself is never truly over.

I didn’t cry, but I did enjoy the good people of the town coming together and throwing out the oppressive, ignorant, antagonists. I think this movie is due for an updated version.

My Rating: ★★★★

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The Thing (2011)

The Thing is a 2011 American science fiction survival horror film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., written by Eric Heisserer, and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Eric Christian Olsen. It is a direct prequel to the 1982 film of the same name by John Carpenter, which was an adaptation of the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. It tells the story of a team of scientists on a Norwegian Antarctic research station who discover a parasitic alien buried deep in the ice, realizing too late that it is still alive.
via Wikipedia

When I went to watch this I was unaware that this was a prequel, I honestly thought it was just another remake of an older movie with better special effects (the effects are really good though, the thing is pretty creepy). And here I find out after a quick Google that it is not a remake. Huh.

Anyway. I have not watched the original movie so if you’ve come looking for that kind of review I apologize. This is a review as the movie is, by itself, with no further bias from another movie.

Okay so. I liked this movie. There were some stereotypical characters here, the boss guy who is in it for the recognition and if you don’t like it, you can leave, and he does not care about anyone’s safety except his ow; the big guy who does all the heavy lifting and doesn’t speak English, (I like him, I think he was my favorite); the friend who wasn’t really a friend; the girl who lives; etc.

The Thing itself was decently horrifying, and then it mutated, because well, I have a passing awareness of what the Thing was before I watched and I’m assuming you do too. I think the ending even ended pretty well for a prequel. It left just enough that you could figure out what was happening, but giving it some kind of closure. I liked it.

My Rating: ★★★

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Final Destination 5 (2011)

Final Destination 5 is a 2011 American 3D supernatural horror film directed by Steven Quale and written by Eric Heisserer. It is the fifth installment in the Final Destination film series and a prequel to the original film. Final Destination 5 stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, and Tony Todd, and follows a young man (played by D’Agosto) who has a premonition and saves a group of people from death when a suspension bridge begins to collapse. However, they soon learn that they cannot escape death.
via Wikipedia

For the final installment of the series we are treated to a different age group – we aren’t high schoolers, or even college students, we are a group of co-workers on a work retreat bus trip. On a bridge. There are even sailboats involved. It’s much less fiery than then last few incidents, but more chances of drowning and getting squashed by vehicles.

Sam is our main man for this one, tasked with preventing the gruesome demise of his co-workers, friends, ex-girlfriend and boss. It’s quite the social dynamic this time around. And they brought back our good friend, the coroner from the first two films. I loved seeing him again. He adds another layer of foreboding to the atmosphere. There is another character that would have been great to bring back too, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

I am pleased to see that another theory was brought up between the survivors and that it worked, and that it drove one of them crazy, leading to a very thrilling climax. This was a good one.

My Rating: ★★★★

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The Final Destination (2009)

The Final Destination (also known as Final Destination 4) is a 2009 American 3D supernatural horror film written by Eric Bress and directed by David R. Ellis. It is the fourth installment in the Final Destination film series and the second standalone sequel after Final Destination 2 (2003), and stars Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, and Mykelti Williamson. Produced by New Line Cinema, the film follows a group of people after they escape a car crash during a race, with Death stalking and killing them one by one.
via Wikipedia

Originally meant to be the final movie in the series (it’s not, there’s one left!) The Final Destination is another standalone in the series (similar to Final Destination 3). This time we’re at a racetrack when our protagonist (back to a guy this time, the previous two were girls) has an ominous premonition.

To be fair, there really isn’t anything special about this installment in the series, the gore is toned down (maybe why it didn’t get the best reviews?), and we go through the spiel of “what is it?” and “how do we stop it?”, again – which I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it’s good to go back to basics when a series gets to be a bit long winded, but this might be what makes it the weak link here.

But, the characters don’t try to make sense of what is going on, there was more backstory in the first two movies, I would have liked them to come up with a new theory, or even the old theory at the very least.

I do like the credit roll though, it’s a nice throwback to previous movies.

My Rating: ★★

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Final Destination 3 (2006)

Final Destination 3 is a 2006 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wong. A standalone sequel to Final Destination 2 (2003), it is the third installment in the Final Destination film series. Wong and Glen Morgan, who worked on the franchise’s first film, wrote the screenplay. Final Destination 3 stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman, and takes place years after the first film. Winstead plays Wendy Christensen, a high school graduate who has a premonition that a roller coaster she and her classmates are riding will derail. Although she saves some of them, Death begins hunting the survivors. Wendy realizes photographs she took at the amusement park contain clues about her classmates’ death. With survivor and friend Kevin Fischer (Merriman), Wendy tries to use this knowledge to save the rest of them and ruin Death’s scheme.
via Wikipedia

So the first two movies in this series continued a plotline with similar characters, this movie does not do that. We get a completely different group of high school seniors just wanted to have one last blowout night at an amusement park. The other difference with this movie is that our heroine has the yearbook digital camera and the photos she took are the clues to the mysterious accidents the eventually befall all the survivors of the night at the amusement park.

I have to say that this movie was the one that I remembered the most, and maybe that’s because of how gruesome the accidents become in this one. Well, let’s face it, all of them are fairly gory, but how the two popular girls meet their end has been living rent free in my brain for a lot of years.

Because of that I think this movie gets a decent rating from me, I mean how many movie scenes do that for us?

My Rating: ★★★

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Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2 is a 2003 American supernatural horror film directed by David R. Ellis. The screenplay was written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress, based on a story by Gruber, Bress, and series creator Jeffrey Reddick. It is the sequel to the 2000 film Final Destination and the second installment of the Final Destination film series. The film stars Ali Larter, A. J. Cook, and Michael Landes.
via Wikipedia

This is a direct sequel from the first movie, but our main character from the last movie, Devon Sawa, has been murdered by a random falling brick. Sad.

However, it all starts again when our new protagonist has a premonition about a car crash on Highway 23. This time we have more information because only a year ago Flight 180 exploded after take off, and there is a singular survivor, Clear Rivers.

So we’ve set the scene and people are dying horrifically again, but this time the death order is backwards? That’s weird. Through a series of rather gory events, we figure out just what exactly is going on, and make a plan to end it for good this time. I liked the storyline better with this one, there was more to it then “you don’t cheat death”.

My Rating: ★★★