Recent Viewings, Part 2

[indianasmith]

CURSE OF THE SIN EATER (2024) - Rick is a down on his luck construction worker who lost his mom to suicide a few years before.  Hired to work on a elderly rich man's estate, he receives an offer he can't refuse:
If he will eat one meal off of the old man's body after he dies, he inherits everything - the house, the multimillion dollar fortune, the servants, all of it.
Little does he know that when he snarfs down that meal, he is eating the old man's sins . . . . and inheriting the ghosts that haunt him!
Marvelous, very creepy film!   4/5

[M.10rda]

READY OR NOT HERE I COME (2026):
No "2" or colon in the title onscreen so none in this review. This was fine, really - we pretty much enjoyed it - but we really enjoyed the original, which stands nicely on its own and didn't require a sequel. The original four writers and directors all return and make an honest, logical attempt to expand the story, yet - eh!

Perhaps one inescapable issue, at least for us but surely for others as well, is RONHIC's implausible and distracting similarity to THEY WILL KILL YOU, which was released in theaters within a week of RONHIC. In terms of plot and characters, the films are very nearly... identical! Granted, RONHIC has better ensemble acting, more consistent production values, and fewer plot holes (though it does have a few). TWKY is a less-well made film in most regards, but it does have two things that RONHIC doesn't. The less important thing is that incredible first fight scene w/ Zazie Beats raining whupass all over the cultists w/ the sawed-off and the sword - RONHIC has no one scene that's quite as much fun.

The more significant advantage is that TWKY, for all its jank and cheez, actually feels like it has something real (and angry) to say about race and class. Comparatively RONHIC is escapist fantasy, and though I feel affinity for Samara Weaving's hapless waitress character, let's face it - she could've spared herself two movies of trouble by not getting engaged to a billionaire satanist.

Just sayin'.    3/5    Shawn Hatosy has become a really good screen creep, however - an even-better one than co-star Elijah Wood, whose entire career now seems to be playing The Creep.

[M.10rda]

I added a couple words to THEY WILL KILL YOU's title in my original post so I guess that doesn't speak highly of that film being memorable, either.       A very quick one:

OH WHAT A KNIGHT! (1928):
Pre-Mickey Disney short w/ Willie's contemporary "Oswald the Rabbit", another proto-Mickey/proto-Bugs. He's just Mickey but he's a rabbit, he's got a mule-ish friend who is sort of Goofy or Pluto, and he has a cute girlfriend who's a cat (so Advantage: Oswald). She's trapped in a tower and protected by a big mean knight ("Pete" in a suit of armor) as well as an enormous lion (her dad, maybe?). This is a refreshing slice of pre-code animation where characters can lose their clothes briefly, the bad guy can get stabbed repeatedly in the @$$, and if Muufy's tail is bitten off by an alligator, he can just pull it right back out to full length again. (Phew.)     3.5/5    Entirely pleasant.

[indianasmith]

THE ST. FRANCISVILLE EXPERIMENT (2000) - This was a found footage style movie that came highly recommended, but I must admit, it bored me to tears.  Six amateur filmmakers locked overnight in a haunted house; they spend most of the time scaring each other silly and trying to carry out cleansing rituals.  One character is so New Age she's downright painful to listen to, another keeps saying "I love all ghosts" over and over.  The payoff, when it comes, is quick, blurry, and inconclusive.  Ditch this garbage; watch GRAVE ENCOUNTERS instead. 1.5/5

[M.10rda]

I watched that one 20 years ago - on VHS! It's long too, right? Like almost 2 hours?

CHARACTER STUDIES (1925):
This is six minutes long and barely a film - it was really a gag made for a Hollywood party. Roscoe Arbuckle had publicly been persona non grata for about 4 years following the Virginia Rappe debacle. He directed this (uncredited) as a favor to Douglas Fairbanks, and in the next 5 years would direct a bunch of other films (also uncredited) before finally he was cleared of all charges.

Stage actor Carter DeHaven (apparently also in THE GREAT DICTATOR) opens a large trunk with the lid facing the camera and sort of fakes that he's putting on wardrobe pieces and make-ups. There are visible (though not egregious) jump cuts before "he" intermittently closes the lid and reveals that "he" has "become" six movie stars, including Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino, and Fairbanks. The thing is, they're all small-ish white guys in medium-wide shot, so - though those guys all apparently played themselves - you kind of have to take the stunt on faith.

However, the other two stars that DeHaven "becomes" are Arbuckle himself (who is a big white guy) and child actor Jackie Coogan, who of course was a tiny white kid. Those two "studies" pay off and probably got big laffs @ the party.

3/5    Coogan appeared in some wonderful Bad Movies in the 50s through 80s and eventually obtained immortality as the original "Uncle Fester".

[indianasmith]

PLAY DEAD (2022) - This was a freaking BRILLIANT movie. Chloe is a medical student who has had to drop out of school and is about to lose her home due to her father's life insurance company refusing to pay his policy when he killed himself.  Her little brother TJ decides to help get them some money by joining up with her ex to rob a pawn shop.  But the robbery goes south, the ex is killed (or is he?), and TJ is now a wanted man - since the incriminating evidence is in his partner's cell phone.  So Chloe decides to fake her own death to get into the morgue and nab the cell phone before the police pick it up.  But . . . something is screwy in this morgue, and the coroner isn't all he seems.  I'll leave it at that, but trust me, this one is TOTALLY worth the watch!