Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Fear Street: Part Two - 1978 (2021)
Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery
Length: 1h 49min
Rating: R
Director: Leigh Janiak
Writer: Leigh Janiak, Zak Olkewicz, Phil Graziadei, R.L. Stine
Actors: Gillian Jacobs, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr., Olivia Scott Welch, Sadie Sink, Brandon Spink, Chiara Aurelia, Marcelle LeBlanc, Eden Campbell, Ted Sutherland, Michael Provost, Drew Scheid, Emily Rudd, McCabe Slye, Jordana Spiro, Ashley Zukerman
 
Blurb from IMDb: Shadyside, 1978. School's out for summer and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.

 
Selina's Point of View:
We're catching up on the Fear Street movies we missed, so expect part three next week. Cat and I discussed it, and we couldn't believe we had skipped reviewing these. It was an easy choice to fix that oversight. R.L. Stine was childhood for both of us.
 
It was a great idea for the three parts to be released in the same month, since two and three start where the last left off. It keeps the movies fresh in the mind of audiences. When there's a situation like this, where it all leads into each other, this should be common practice. Think about how much better it would have been to watch something like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) at the beginning of the month and then The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) at the end of the same month if they'd come out the way the first three Fear Streets did. There could have been special showings where theaters put them back-to-back with a short intermission for bathroom breaks. I would have paid out the nose for that.
 

But I digress.
 
Like in the first part, Fear Street felt nostalgic. It followed all the horror movie rules that we once had laid out for us in Scream (1996), and it had the familiar setting that we saw in Friday the 13th. It also has that distinct R.L. Stine flair to it, though I'm sure the movie took liberties with the original material.
 
I did like part one a little better, though not enough to make a difference. They're on equal footing with story, and slightly campy acting, but the kills in part one were much more creative. Part two was bloodier though. It depends what you want from your slasher flick.
 
I look forward to seeing how the third movie ties in, and if there actually is an end to Sara Fier. R.L. Stine's endings aren't always happy. That makes it a little difficult to predict.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 88%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 81%
Metascore – 61%
Metacritic User Score – 7.0
IMDB Score – 6.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina's Rating – 3.5/5
 
P.S. Don't look at the IMDb page before watching the movie, it spoils something.
 
Movie Trailer:

Fear Street: Part One - 1994 (2021)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year:  Fear Street: Part One - 1994 (2021)
Original Title: Fear Street: 1994
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Length:  1h 47min
Rating: R
Director: Leigh Janiak
Writers: R.L. Stine, Kyle Killen, Phil Graziadei, Leigh Janiak
Based On: Fear Street book series by R.L. Stine
Actors: Maya Hawke, Charlene Amoia, David Thompson, Ryan Torres, Noah Bain Garret, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Ashley Zukerman, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Matt Burke, Matthew Zuk, Olivia Scott Welch, Jeremy Ford, Elizabeth Scopel, Eric Mendenhall, Todd Allen Durkin, Jordyn DiNatale, Lloyd Pitts, Kevin Waterman, Emily Brobst, Keil Oakley Zepernick, Michael Chandler, Lacy Camp

IMDb Blurb: A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.

Selina’s Point of View:
I’m going to start by saying I was a rabid fan of R.L. Stine as a kid. I read every single Goosebumps that came out. Hit up the Scholastic book fair with the few dollars my mom gave me and bought out any R.L. Stine books I came across. Because of that, Fear Street: Part One – 1994 felt like a warm childhood hug.

It’s a horror that utilizes a bread slicer as a weapon, so I understand how strange that sounds. Cat and I have been discussing what goes into the definition of a “comfort movie” for someone, and I think this fits right into that discussion. My favorite comfort movie is Jurassic Park (1993), after all, and people get eaten in that.

But I digress.

I never read the Fear Street books, but the story still feels familiar. It’s reminiscent of 80s and 90s horror flicks like Friday the 13th (1980) and Scream (1996). It follows a lot of the same familiar horror movie rules and still manages to end in a way that’s a bit unexpected.

There are some plot holes that could be attributed to either the books or the adaptation. I have to hold it against the film, though, because I’m unfamiliar with the original material. Some people die in situations that don’t make sense, seeing how the secondary characters manage to stay safe as long as they do.

Despite that, the acting is on point, and the film is a pleasure to watch. For horror fans, I could absolutely see it being someone’s comfort flick.

Cat’s Point of View:
I was rather surprised to discover that we hadn’t already reviewed the Fear Street trilogy that had premiered as Netflix Original features back in 2021. I remembered that I had watched them and enjoyed them. I also recall distinctly writing about them. Alas, it was apparently just regarding my #12 entry on July 2021’s Top 20 list, where I placed all 3 together as a unit due to their release dates following only a week apart within that same month. I digress…

When the newest Fear Street movie, Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025) hit Netflix recently, it took me back to my fond memories of watching the first three. It would be weird if we covered the newest without visiting the trilogy that came first, though. Thus, here we are.

I was happy to watch Fear Street: Part One – 1994 again to refresh my memory. This time, my daughter was excited to watch with me. She hadn’t been into horror movies when these first released. We fell all the way down the rabbit hole and binged the trilogy. I’m only covering the first installment here, however.

Part One sets the stage for the overall adventure. There’s a good bit of lore both touched on in obvious and subtle ways. Some of the characters don’t seem to have quite as much depth in this first bit of story, but trust me when I say that things do develop as the overall 3-part story arc progresses.

From odes to the era in which this movie was set and the slasher genre to the details that highlighted the contrast between neighboring rival towns of Sunnyvale and Shadyside, this really felt like a R.L. Stine book come to life. Of course, he is the author of the Fear Street series these stories were adapted from.  One of the aspects I appreciated about these films, beginning with Fear Street: Part One – 1994, was that the production team wasn’t afraid to lean into the darkness and give the teen-scream series an R rating. Stine’s Goosebumps series felt more appropriate to the PG-13 range. R. L. Stine is great for offering chills for a wide age range.

One thing to note about this trilogy is that it is not, in fact, an anthology as I originally guessed. Each movie leads directly into the next. While the three films lean heavily into the time mentioned in their titles, they are exploring an interconnected story that spans hundreds of years. The end of each movie closes with “to be continued” and dives right into a sneak peek at the next installment. It was very easy to binge all three, and Netflix also offers an option to skip the recap in the next installment.

If you’re a fan of slashers, I’d highly recommend giving the Fear Street trilogy a try. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 84%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 63%
Metascore –  67%
Metacritic User Score – 5.8/10
IMDB Score – 6.2/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4.5/5

Movie Trailer:

Bloody Axe Wound (2024)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Bloody Axe Wound (2024)
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Length:  1h 23min
Rating: R
Director: Matthew John Lawrence
Writers: Matthew John Lawrence
Actors: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Burke, Sari Arambulo, Matt Hopkins, Jeff Riddle, Eddie Leavy, Jaden Slater, Sage Spielman, Lizzy Cenicola, Jahdey Wright, Molly Brown, Angel Theory, Margot Anderson-Song, Taylor Watson Seupel, Chet Siegel, David Littleton

IMDb Blurb: Abbie Bladecut's family business, a video store, has thrived by disposing of teenagers to mimic horror movies. As the first female slasher, she battles gender bias while realizing the harsh realities behind the mass murders.

Cat’s Point of View:
I’ve been intrigued by the trailers for Bloody Axe Wound. I got the vibe that it would be a nostalgic ode to the slasher genre with a splash of family dynamic and a little coming-of-age on the side.

I wouldn’t say that Bloody Axe Wound didn’t deliver those elements. It was successful in its own odd way in ticking off all of those check boxes. It was just… missing something.

Nevermind the plot holes big enough to drive a bus through, the production was just lacking something I can’t quite put my finger on.

All of the acting was pretty spot on, though. I wish there was more screen time for Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Rampage, Supernatural, The Walking Dead), but I did get a kick out of his trademark sadistic glee in the brief time he was there. Billy Burke (Revolution, Batman: The Long Halloween, Fire Country) was a great choice for the slasher dad. I also loved seeing Angel Theory (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Kinderfanger, The Walking Dead) playing another signing character here, and she had some sick dance moves.

I also think that this had the potential to be real break out roles for Sari Arambulo (Abby Normal, A.P. Bio, The L Word: Generation Q) and Molly Brown (Senior Year, Evil, Dexter: Original Sin). I just don’t know if the overall production did them justice.

Overall, I was entertained by Bloody Axe Wound. I appreciated the scattered references to 80s movies – whether it be slashers or coming-of-age classics.

While I wouldn’t generally watch this movie again, I wouldn’t steer anyone away from it that is interested in watching. Just take this B-movie with a grain of salt. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 27%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –58%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – 2.3/10
IMDB Score – 5.0/10
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

Movie Trailer:

Azrael (2024)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Azrael (2024)
Genre: Horror, Action
Length: 1h 26min
Rating: R
Director: E.L. Katz
Writer: Simon Barrett
Actors: Samara Weaving, Vic Carmen Sonne, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Johhan Rosenberg, Eero Milonoff, Sebastian Bull, Rea Lest, Phong Giang, Katariina Unt
 
Blurb from IMDb: In a world where no one speaks, a devout female-led community hunts down a young woman who has escaped imprisonment. Recaptured, Azrael is due to be sacrificed to an ancient evil in the wilderness, but fights for her own survival.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
Azrael is an interesting flick, mainly because of the minimal dialogue.
 
Any film with minimal dialogue has a great deal more to accomplish than a normal one. In normal movies, there’s always something going on. Even if the characters are just sitting together, they’re talking. They’re engaging with each other and the audience. Then there’s the exposition. Nobody wants a ton of it, but it’s useful to have, especially in flicks where the setting is not the world we’re familiar with. Minimal dialogue films have to compensate for all of that with more riveting visuals and a story that speaks for itself.
 
I read some summaries of Azrael before I watched it, so I knew what was going on. I’m not entirely sure someone going into it blind would have come to the same conclusions, but the story would still make some kind of sense to them. They would pick up either Walking Dead (2010-2022) vibes, with the various not-so-nice camps, or catch a cult vibe. Both would fit. I kind of like that there’s room for interpretation.
 
The only issue someone might have while watching would be the various moments that sayings popped up on the screen. If they were interpreting something different, that would absolutely take them out of the moment. Even for me, knowing what it was about, the screens of writing slowed things down and took me out of it. Aside from the first explanation, the director should have just trusted his actors and setting to tell the whole story and his audience to not need handholding.
 

Speaking of actors, I love Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, Mayhem, The Babysitter). She is a modern goddess scream queen, and I will never be able to go on quite enough about her. Of course, I’ve mentioned before that one of the reasons I find her so mesmerizing is her scream. It portrays fear, sure, but there’s a primal rage in there that cannot be ignored.
 
So, how is she in a movie where her character has no voice?
 
Weaving taking this role that prevents her from using her most iconic feature, was a great idea. It allowed the rest of her acting prowess to take over. I was never bored when she was on screen. I understood her expressions and felt her pain in the silent, breathy, screams. She presented herself as no less scream queen, even without her voice.
 
I liked Azrael. It was different and dark. Everything I love in a post-apocalyptic flick.  

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 71%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 59%
Metascore – 52%
Metacritic User Score – 4.0
IMDB Score – 5.4/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Monsternado (2023)

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime Video
Movie Name/Year: Monsternado (2023)
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Length:  1h 21min
Rating: Unrated
Director: Tyler-James
Writer: Derek Miller
Actors: Derek Miller, Chloe Karr, Graham Miller, Jase Rivers, May Kelly, Lila Lasso, Michael S. Siegel, Danielle Scott, Nick Adamson, Hannah Pauley, Daniel Subin, Adam Rojko Vega,  Charlie Kemp

IMDb Blurb: A tornado, infested with prehistoric monsters, has formed in the Bermuda Triangle, and is making its way towards land. Now the city must fight to survive against these deadly creatures.

Selina’s Point of View:
It’s been a while since we’ve done a low-budget horror flick like this, but when Cat told me she came across a movie called Monsternado on Amazon Prime, you know I had to dust off my B-movie-loving heart and throw it on.

Anyone following the blog for a while knows that I very much enjoyed the Sharknado (2013-2017) films and the intertwined Lavalantula (2015-2016) tie-in flicks.  Clearly, Monsternado paid as much homage to those as it did with a few other movies, such as Robocop (1987), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), and Anaconda (1997). I imagine there were more, but on a single watch-through that’s what I caught.

Movies like this need to be judged by a different standard. No one needs to compare Monsternado to classics like Bride of Frankenstein (1935) or more modern monster favorites such as A Quiet Place (2018). That’s like bringing a rubber chicken to a knife fight. Something like Monsternado needs to be judged against flicks like The VelociPastor (2018) and Zoombies (2015).

As far as that goes, Monsternado was fun. It had pop culture references that made me giggle, wacky acting that made me face-palm, and plenty of badly rendered monsters. All of which is exactly what I would expect from a movie like this.

The problem came when it took itself too seriously.

There was a trafficker storyline was way out of place, especially near the conclusion of it, and a few moments where the levity was replaced by an odd attempt at actual drama. When it was just a bunch of actors having fun, though, it was cute.

It’s not something I’d watch to take my mind of the day, but I would throw it on with a few drunk friends during Halloween. 

Cat’s Point of View:
When I was browsing through movies on Prime Video, I couldn’t help but notice the new offering of Monsternado. Of course, we’re huge fans of the Sharknado franchise. I was hoping that this new movie would follow suit and lean in so that it fell into the “so bad it’s good” if not at least decent category.

Unfortunately, much like a puzzle bought at a garage sale – the pieces here just didn’t fit together, and it seemed like there were extra bits just thrown in because they were roughly the same size.

There were several things that just yanked me right out of the vibe of Monsternado. The first was the distracting disconnect between the setting the production team was clearly going for with the story, and the obvious shooting location. I get it that shoestring budgets don’t allow for much in the way of effects or props, perhaps, to create the illusion of taking place somewhere other than where the filming is happening. There are ways around that, however. Different camera angles or even simply temporarily hanging a canvas your art department just whipped together could easily have masked the issues here.

Why am I irked? This felt lazy or haphazard. The film was clearly shot in London, but was pretending that it was in the United States somewhere. Major London, UK landmarks were plainly visible outside of office windows, they made no attempt to mask that the vehicles had steering on the opposite side of US cars, and there was even a sign inside a building that flat out said London. I might have been able to overlook the cars if the freaking Gherkin building (you know, the one shaped like a giant Fabergé egg) wasn’t visible from the window. They could have at least just put up some paper blinds.

Don’t even get me started on the actual “nado.” It looked like the effects were swiped from the Sharknado movies and then they just threw an octopus in the spinning mix just so they could say “no, no, this is different, see?!” I really found it hard to buy it. The waterspouts were clearly 99% sharks. I felt let down that the movie had promised ancient monsters and failed to deliver on any rudimentary level outside of the weird giant bugs and the flying dinosaurs. The poster lied. I wanted my T-Rex.

Further, I get that it’s plausible for weird things to get spawned from the Bermuda Triangle, but the technobabble that the scientist in this film was, indeed, babbling about just made no sense and was clearly something made up to sound smart.

Sharknado and its sequels that followed captured lightning in a bottle. They had several factors working together that, while absolutely ludicrous, still made the whole thing work as an entertaining experience. Sharknado never took itself too seriously. They seemed to anticipate what the silliest idea would be for the story and then went after making it happen. They also grabbed a few familiar faces to pad out the cast. The sequels were fun for the quirky cameos, but the first movie was able to stand alone with its cheesy plot and clever crafting.

Monsternado, which released a decade after the first shark-storm offering, clearly tried to make a grab for the creature feature niche that was carved out by its predecessor, but failed to take into consideration the elements that made the trailblazer successful.

The movie took itself too seriously and lacked the levity and enjoyability that its template had.
Unfortunately, rather than laughing I was groaning and regretting the loss of my time. But hey, we watched it so others don’t have to. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –33%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 2.6 /10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 1.5/5

Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating - R

Movie Trailer:

Speak No Evil (2024)

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
Movie Name/Year: Speak No Evil (2024)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Length:  1h 50min
Rating: R
Director: James Watkins
Writers: James Watkins, Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup
Based On: A 2022 Danish-Dutch movie of the same name.
Actors: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, Kris Hitchen, Motaz Malhees, Jakob Højlev Jørgensen

IMDb Blurb: A family is invited to spend a whole weekend in a lonely home in the countryside, but as the weekend progresses, they realize that a dark side lies within the family who invited them.

Selina’s Point of View:
I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t love the original version of this film. I felt they were going for slow tension, but it ended up feeling more like drama. I mentioned that critics loved the film, but that audience scores were probably going to reflect something else.

It looks like I was right, since the 2022 version of Speak No Evil is sitting at 84% for critics and a mere 58% for audiences.

The one thing I did like was the ending. It was bleak and horrifying. Everything you could want from a psychological, slow-burn horror. It was memorable, to say the least. In fact, it makes me remember the entire film as better than it actually was. Going back to my old review confused me, because my 1.5 rating definitely should have been slightly higher just for the impact of that ending. I think it should be more of a 2.5.

That brings us to the 2024 version.

I’m fairly certain that Americanizing this film ruined it.

Speak No Evil (2024) felt more like the slow-burn the 2022 version was going for. The acting in both was infallible, but the direction and production quality of those small off-putting moments that raised the tension throughout the film hit harder. I knew what was coming, and I still felt tense. I’m assuming that’s when some producer butted their nose in and reminded the director that Americans don’t love down endings and need action.

They replaced that memorable, lasting, bleak ending with an action sequence—the big battle. Took the bite right out of it and made it as forgettable as any other film.

With the upgrade in quality of the majority of the film, having the same brutal ending would have made it a near-perfect horror offering. It would have catapulted the 2024 version of Speak No Evil to the top of my list. I’d be praising it to anyone willing to listen and throwing it on at Halloween parties for years to come. Instead, they pulled out all its teeth and made it a joke. Padding that ending means that I won’t remember Speak No Evil (2024) by next week.

Shame.

Cat’s Point of View:
I remember rolling my eyes and asking “why?” out loud when I learned that Speak No Evil (2022) had been remade. I had enjoyed the original, which is also currently available for streaming as well (just don’t forget to turn on your subtitles unless you speak Dutch or Danish). We had reviewed the original movie when it premiered on Shudder at the time of its release.

Before watching for this review, Speak No Evil (2024) was one of the 2 final hold-outs from the movies in my top 10 of September2024’s Top 20 list. This one was a solid #6 on my must-see countdown. The only reason I had waited this long to watch it was so that I could have a fresh experience for this review, so that Selina and I could compare the two films together. I reasoned that if I let time lapse after watching, I likely could have gotten the movies mixed up. Now that I’ve seen the newest iteration of Speak No Evil, I am positive there would be no mistaking one for the other; even though they do follow a lot of the same points within the plot.

Selina and I were of two minds about the 2022 movie. I felt that the slow burn and awkward drama precursor to the horrific sharp left turn in the final act caused the film to have a more lasting impact. The bleak nature of the story left me staring at the screen with my soul weeping.

I didn’t know at the time, but I’ve since read that the original writer/director wanted the finale of the first Speak No Evil to be inexplicable in order to stand out from films where everything gets spoon-fed to an audience and tied up with a bow by the end. While I understand and applaud that decision, it would probably be the root of why there has been such a kneejerk reaction to the abruptness of the change in tone for the final act of the 2022 film.

The new Speak No Evil handled the pacing a little more deftly, though managed to maintain the slowly building awkward and sinister tension that permeated the story.  I applaud the changes that tweaked the fresh vision of this horrific scenario of wolves masquerading as sheep and the inevitable outcome.

I also discovered that some of the differences between the original movie and its remake were specifically created to gear the newer telling of the story to American audiences. The finale of the original Speak No Evil was intended as a satirical reflection on Danish culture; which, it seems, they felt wouldn't have resonated as well with the target audience. With that frame of reference, I understand why they made some of the changes.

The production team was absolutely brilliant in casting James McAvoy (Glass, The Sandman, The Book of Clarence). When he has embodied an antagonistic role, he is absolutely terrifying. This is about as far away from Narnia as you can get. His range is phenomenal. For that reason, I would have watched the new iteration of Speak No Evil even if I didn’t have a vested interest in seeing if making an “American remake” of the story would screw everything up or not.

I also liked how this new story ‘flipped the script’ between the parent of action and their more milquetoast counterpart. The ending is brutal and horrific for different reasons this time around, and the haunting aftermath was palpable as the credits began to roll.

Out of the pair, I’d have to say that I prefer the remake. Both, however, are fantastic at accomplishing exactly what they set out to do.

If you enjoy a psychological, twisty, and thrilling horror tale maybe check this new Speak No Evil out – even if you didn’t vibe with the first one… and maybe even if you did.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 83%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 83%
Metascore – 66%
Metacritic User Score – 6.9/10
IMDB Score – 6.8/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4.5/5

Movie Trailer:

Aftermath (2024)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Aftermath (2024)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length:  1h 37min
Rating: R
Director: Patrick Lussier
Writer: Nathan Graham Davis
Actors: Dylan Sprouse, Mason Gooding, Megan Stott, Dichen Lachman, Derek K. Moore, Jason Armani Martinez, Mark Dancewicz, Daniel Rios Jr., Ashley Pynn, Mark Pettograsso, Shahjehan Khan, Mark Irvingsen, Joshua Wolf Coleman, Will Lyman, Nick Apostolides, Jared Frenke, Tanner Zagarino, Kevin Chapman

IMDb Blurb: A returning war veteran, stricken with PTSD, unwittingly gets trapped with his teenage sister on Boston's Tobin Memorial Bridge as a heavily weaponized group of ex-military revolutionists take everyone hostage.

Cat’s Point of View:
The trailer for Aftermath intrigued me. It released in a month where there was at least one other action thriller set on a bridge. While the other film had action royalty among the cast, Aftermath looked like it just might be the more relatable of the two in terms of story. Both narratives seemed a little far-fetched, but entertainment doesn’t always have to make complete sense, right?

There was also the bonus of checking out the action chops of Dylan Sprouse (Dismissed, The Duel, Beautiful Disaster). My daughter and I have enjoyed following the Sprouse twins’ careers, considering we practically watched them grow up on TV while they worked on their Disney projects. (My daughter was a massive fan of their shows so I ended up watching it all, too.)

I am also a fan of Dichen Lachman (Altered Carbon, Jurassic World: Dominion, Severance) and have enjoyed her work, which was also a good selling point for Aftermath.

I was not disappointed with either of their performances.

This was an interesting departure from the horror genre for up-and-comer Mason Gooding (Scream VI, Fall, Heart Eyes), as well. His part in this story was a little more out-there and I think he over-sold it just a little bit. Leaning into the unhinged bad-guy certainly pushed this plot along and created tension, so I wasn’t entirely put off by it.

I was surprised to learn that this was the screenwriting debut for Nathan Graham Davis. I’m interested in seeing the stories he brings to the screen next. If this was his beginnings, I’d hope things only improve from here – and this wasn’t a bad place to start.

Was Aftermath the best offering within this genre I’ve watched in the past year? Not really, but I was buying what they were selling. The effects and prop/sets departments really did a great job blending seamlessly the elements shot on sound stages and on location. My untrained eye couldn’t tell the difference.

While Aftermath likely won’t be a film that sticks out in my memory over time, I was entertained while watching it and didn’t feel that my time had been wasted.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 17%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – 5.6/10
IMDB Score – 5.1/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Movie Trailer:

Trap (2024)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Trap (2024)
Genre: Horror, Crime, Thriller
Length: 1h 45min
Rating: PG-13
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Mark Bacolcol, Marnie McPhail, Kid Cudi, Russ, Marcia Bennett, Lochlan Miller, Vanessa Smythe
 
Blurb from IMDb: A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event.
 

Selina's Point of View:
Trap got mixed reviews, at best, but I rather enjoyed it.
 
Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, Black Hawk Down, Sin City) is a brilliant actor. Early in his career, he pushed himself out of the heartthrob rom-com box and hasn't really looked back since. It was a great move, because he has a range that I don't think people fully appreciated back then.
 
Saleka Shyamalan felt a little green and now I know why. This was her first full-length feature film acting role. As M. Night Shyamalan's (Signs, Knock at the Cabin, Split) daughter, she was likely bound to step into one of his movies eventually. He has a habit of tossing himself into his work whether or not he should, so it was only a matter of time before he did it with his daughter. Luckily, she fit the role and really made me believe her. There were parts of her acting that felt a little rushed or tense, but considering the scenes, it worked. It may have even been on purpose. I'd absolutely be open to watching more of her in the future.
 

And, yeah, M. Night tossed himself into Trap. It was a smaller part than he normally takes though. I didn't even realize it until after the fact.
 
I kept waiting for the typical Shyamalan pitfalls. I originally missed his cameo, which is one. The other is his signature twist, which he uses whether it fits the flick or not. Trap didn't really have one, but there were scenes that were absolutely designed to make us think it would. Honestly? I think that's the best thing he could have done for this film. Waiting for that twist I wound up pulling twists on myself.
 
Trap wasn't a masterpiece, but it was a solid thriller with fantastic acting and some laughter thrown in. I was cautiously optimistic, and I think that was the right feeling going into it.
 
It was fun.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 57%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 64%
Metascore – 52%
Metacritic User Score – 5.2
IMDB Score – 5.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina's Rating – 3.5/5
 
P.S. Short scene just after the start of the credit, absolutely worth seeing.
 
Movie Trailer: