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:

Killer Countdown - 1BR (2019)

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
Movie Name/Year: 1BR (2019)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Length: 1h 30min
Rating: TV-MA
Director: David Marmor
Writer: David Marmor
Actors: Nicole Brydon Bloom, Giles Matthey, Taylor Nichols
 
Blurb from IMDb: After moving to Los Angeles, a young woman discovers her seemingly friendly apartment complex is actually home to a dangerous cult.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
The biggest reaction I had to 1BR was falling asleep.
 
I don’t dislike films with a cult at the center of them. Some of them are quite good. Midsommar (2019) comes to mind – a movie I though was fine but got better the longer I sat with it. That’s what a good cult flick should do. It should make you question everything. It should be subtle until it’s not. Oddly enough, Hot Fuzz (2007) also does the cult subject justice.
 

1BR didn’t have the same kind of subtle storytelling. I never questioned myself. I never even questioned her. Everything was so overt and yet exceptionally slow.
 
The ending wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t enough to save the hour and a half of drooping eyelids.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 89%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 52%
Metascore – 56%
Metacritic User Score – 6.3
IMDB Score – 5.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Attack of the Killer Donuts (2016)

Streaming Service: Peacock
Movie Name/Year: Attack of the Killer Donuts (2016)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
Length: 1h 25min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Restless Nomad Films, Rogue State, Level 33 Entertainment, Showtime Entertainment
Director: Scott Wheeler
Writer: Nathan Dalton, Chris De Christopher, Rafael Diaz-Wagner
Actors: Justin Ray, Kassandra Voyagis, Michael Swan, Kayla Compton, Lauren Compton, Chris De Christopher, Fredrick Burns, C. Thomas Howell
 
Blurb from IMDb: A chemical accident turns ordinary donuts into bloodthirsty killers.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
Before I write anything about Attack of the Killer Donuts, I feel it necessary to remind people that it’s important to judge a film based on the way it compares to flicks that are similar. I wouldn’t compare something like Rubber (2010) to Carrie (1976), after all. They might both include telekinesis, but they’re still very different projects.
 
That’s important to remember because I enjoyed Attack of the Killer Donuts. It was a good movie for what it was: a corny, parody-esk, B-creature feature. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if I had something mind altering, but it was still decent. This is exactly the kind of thing I would want to sit down and watch with some friends, and drinks, during a night in.
 
Attack of the Killer Donuts never tries to be anything it’s not. It tried to be as silly and dumb as humanly possible. It wanted to get a laugh however it could, and it was successful. It always went just far enough to hit that ‘so bad, it’s good’ balance that is so difficult to obtain.  
 

I have to note that there’s this one character, played by Fredrick Burns (Punching Henry, Cleaver Family Reunion, Litorra), that approaches every scene he’s in as if it were a hardcore action flick put out by the makers of Die Hard (1988). Every time he’s on screen, hitting his part as straight as possible, it amused me to no end. Especially since he does it alongside C. Thomas Howell (SEAL Team, The Wrong Path, Beast Mode). The last time I saw Howell he was playing George Foyet, one of the most terrifying serial killers in Criminal Minds (2009-).
 
Seeing Howell act like a dumb ass hit extra hard for me.  
 
I thought Attack of the Killer Donuts would be among the strangest films I’ve seen, but it’s not. It’s very much in the vein of Attack of the Killer Tomatos (1978). It’s just sillier and updated, with better video quality.
 
Do not let Peacock fool you with the thumbnail, the video quality is actually very good.
 
You know what? I’d watch Attack of the Killer Donuts again. I would definitely have a drink in hand, though.
 
Maybe a special brownie.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 44%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – 7.6
IMDB Score –3.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13
 
P.S. There’s a short after-credits scene.
 
Movie Trailer:

The Long Night (2022)

 

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: The Long Night (2022)
Genre: Horror
Length: 1h 31min
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: Sprockefeller Pictures, Adirondack Media Group, El Ride Productions, Hillin Entertainment, Well Go USA Entertainment, Shudder
Director: Rich Ragsdale
Writers: Mark Young, Robert Sheppe
Actors: Nolan Gerard Funk, Scout Taylor-Compton, Bobby Davis, Deborah Kara Unger, Erika Stasiuleviciute, Jeff Fahey, Kevin Ragsdale,  Russ Gladden, Scott Daniel, Wendy Oates
 
IMDb Blurb: A devoted couple's quiet weekend takes a bizarre turn when a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader come to fulfill an apocalyptic prophesy.

Selina’s Point of View:
The Long Night was a chore to sit through. By 20-minutes in, nothing had happened. There had been one jump scare, and it was removed from context to be used as a transition from the boring prologue to the boring first chapter.
 
Expecting that first scene to be slow and full of conversational exposition, is a given. In any world with a supernatural twist, that’s probably what’s going to happen. I can forgive that. The 5-minute driving scene that tells us about something we could have been shown, the 5-minutes quietly walking around in nature, along with all the other moments that could have been left on the cutting room floor, added up to a whole lot of desire to fast-forward.
 
When the horror did start, it was super basic. At least when it made it sense. There were these little deviation scenes that were bizarre and, also, out of context.

 
I have nothing good to say. I even hated the cinematography.
 
Everyone knows that flipping the picture makes for an acceptable representation of the main character’s life being turned upside-down.  It’s not my favorite, but I can get passed it. This movie, however, utilized the tactic more than an entire season of Stranger Things (2016-). Usually when it wasn’t necessary.
 
Even the big unmasking scene was not shocking. Anyone watching for any length of time could have called it.
 
I’m sorry, there are better cult movies and much more interesting flicks to see on Shudder. 

 
Cat’s Point of View:
I struggled a bit while watching The Long Night. It was a compound issue, really.
 
Try as I might to maintain focus, the story didn’t grab me effectively enough to keep me invested and ward off the fidgets. I considered it a win, though, that I didn’t fall prey to narcoleptic fits during my viewing.
 
Another factor that kept me disconnected from the production was that it was hard to keep from rolling my eyes at all of the stereotypes that The Long Night leaned on heavily in regards to the South. It was as if the story fell out of the trope tree and hit most of the branches on the way down. It seemed like the production team only had an understanding of the region based on films just like this one.

 
That being said, one of my few positive notes about The Long Night was the location chosen for filming. The historical property in South Carolina which was used was actually rather stunning and The Long Night benefited greatly from its remote and eerie antebellum charm.
 
Try as I might to relate to these characters, I just couldn’t manage to invest in their plight. There were only a few really effective moments that succeeded in sparking some dread, as a horror movie should – it, unfortunately, wasn’t consistent. The film as a whole could have benefited greatly from a more aggressive edit.
 
The Long Night wasn’t the worst cult-related movie I’ve seen, but there are certainly many that are far better. 
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 36%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –32%
Metascore – 41%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 3.6/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating –1/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Son (2021)

Streaming Services: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Son (2021)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 98 minutes
Rating: NR
Production/Distribution: Belladonna Productions, Elastic Film, Park Films, RLJE Films, Shudder
Director: Ivan Kavanagh
Writer: Ivan Kavanagh
Actors: Andi Matichak, Emile Hirsch, Luke David Blumm, Cranston Johnson, Blaine Maye, J. Robert Spencer, Rocco Sisto, Kristine Nielsen, Erin Bradley Dangar, Adam Stephenson, David Kallaway, Ethan McDowell
 
Blurb from IMDb: When a young boy contracts a mysterious illness, his mother must decide how far she will go to protect him from terrifying forces in her past.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I’m on the fence about Son.
 
In the beginning, it had me. The scares were effective – to say the least. I normally watch my horrors in a completely dark room, but I felt the need to turn on the light for this one. I’m not one to get caught by jump-scares in movies, either. I watch so many horror films, that those kinds of scares tend to be predictable for me. So, for it to catch me in a way that made me as uncomfortable as it did… that was a feat.
 
Needless to say, my expectations sky-rocketed at that point. If the very beginning of the flick was that scary, then I was certain the rest of it would be on the good side of insane.
 
Not so much.
 
Son took a weird turn. The subtle creepiness turned into something a little more ‘in-your-face’ – which took away what made the beginning so terrifying.
 

I wound up predicting the ending about a half-hour in. After that, there were no surprises. I knew what the mom would do, I knew what the kid would do, I knew what the cops would do. It was as if the movie had it’s very own fated ending – and no one stepped off their path.
 
What could have become an instant classic – fell back to the tropes.
 
I can’t say it was a terrible movie. It still has one of the best beginnings in horror movies from this year. The rest wasn’t exactly painful to watch. It’s not something I would steer people toward, but I wouldn’t warn them against it either.
 
It’s alright. It’s a little upsetting that it wasn’t better, because all the components were there. It could have been a game-changer… it just needed a different twist.
 
Son will appear on Shudder, July 8. If you have the subscription, check it out. Let us know how you feel.
 

Cat’s Point of View:
As the credits rolled for Son, I found myself torn.
 
On one hand, the story seemed to follow a decent progression and was generally fine all-around. Nothing was egregiously bad. On the other hand, I didn’t find myself on the edge of my seat at all.
 
Son just felt long and predictable – to a point. There was a twist I didn’t see coming. I have to give props for that.
 
I had a hard time connecting with the mother character. That’s a rough one for me, since her plight is really the focal point of the film. I was on board at the very beginning, but at some point, things just seemed to unravel – at least as far as my attention span went.
 

There was a little more expectation from a movie with Emile Hirsch (Ten Thousand Saints, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Comeback Trail), but I guess sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
 
I’d say that Son was generally a decent movie for its genre. Perhaps in the wake of something as amazing as our last film, this one just pales in comparison. 

My experience could have also been colored by exhaustion.
 
You can always check it out for yourself on Shudder, later this week!
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 72%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 48%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 5.5/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
Movie Trailer:

Spiral (2020)

Streaming Services: Shudder

Movie Name/Year: Spiral (2020)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 90 minutes

Rating: NR

Production/Distribution: Digital Interference Productions, Hadron Films

Director: Kurtis David Harder

Writer: Colin Minihan, John Poliquin

Actors: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, Jennifer Laporte, Lochlyn Munro, Chandra West, Ty Wood, Thomas Elms, Paul McGaffey, David LeReaney, Darius Willis, Aaron Poole, Darius Savon, Megan Tracz, Jasmine Nagy, Lara Taillon, Michele Wienecke, Jaron Melanson

Blurb from IMDb: A same-sex couple move to a small town so they can enjoy a better quality of life and raise their 16-year-old daughter with the best social values. But nothing is as it seems in their picturesque neighborhood. And when Malik sees the folks next door throwing a very strange party, something shocking has got to give.

Selina’s Point of View:

I had some preconceived notions for this film and they were mostly wrong.

Before watching, I had not yet taken the time to view the new trailer. So, I was only operating off of the short clip I included in the Top 20 list. Based on that, I assumed what I was getting into would be a basic cult-centric film with some little tweaks that made the story more interesting. If you watch the clip, it won’t be hard to see why I got that impression.

In reality, what I got was a social commentary with a psychological thriller twist. It caught me off guard. Not in a bad way, though.

As it turns out, Spiral isn’t just a film meant to shock and horrify. It probes an important lesson that people seem to be mostly immune to. It’s a project meant to show the dangers of generalized fear and anger; especially in the form of ideas like homophobia and racism.

The story took place in the 80s, starting about two weeks before I was born.

Although people were more accepting than they had once been, homophobia still ran rampant in the 80s and 90s. Even as late as 1998 there were horrific instances of that kind of hatred exhibited in the USA, such as with the dead of Matthew Shepard. Even now, there are still people in many countries that could be killed for their sexuality.

I think it’s important to remember that we have come a long way, but that we still have a lot of road ahead of us.

But I digress.

Delving into such real-life hatred-based ideologies causes Spiral to hit home a little harder than it would have otherwise. It felt terrifying.

Only in the end was I able to discern exactly what was going on in the quiet town the main characters moved to.

Spiral went through so many plot twists that I didn’t know which way was up most of the time. A few scenes were super predictable, but that made the stuff I didn’t see coming hit even harder.

I did feel like there was a bit of a pacing issue, though. As much as I enjoyed the content and twisty-turny road to the conclusion, I felt nearly every single minute that passed by. It was a relatively normal length, but it felt SO much longer. That makes me wonder if I’ll remember it as positively as I do at the moment.

When all is said and done, I did enjoy the film. It was well written and directed, the actors were very good in their parts, and it had a phenomenal message. I’d recommend it.

Trust the Dice did get early access to this movie. If you are looking into seeing it for yourself, it will be streaming on Shudder 9/17.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 6.2/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4/5

Trust the Dice Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13

Movie Trailer:

Ready or Not (2019)

Streaming Services: HBO Max, HBO NOW, HBO Go, DirecTV

Movie Name/Year: Ready or Not (2019)

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Mystery

Length: 95 minutes

Rating: R

Production/Distribution: Fox Searchlight Pictures, Mythology Entertainment, Vinson Films, TSG Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Argentina, 20th Century Fox, Big Picture 2 Films, Forum Hungary, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Hispano Foxfilms S.A.E., Odeon, Press Play Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Writer: Guy Busick, R. Christopher Murphy

Actors: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, John Ralston, Liam MacDonald, Ethan Tavares, Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, Daniela Barbosa, Chase Churchill, Etienne Kellici, Andrew Anthony, Elana Dunkelman, Kate Ziegler

Blurb from IMDb: A bride's wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game.

Selina’s Point of View:

The movie I was supposed to watch today got delayed in release. Since I had Ready or Not on my want-to-watch list, I thought I’d finally take the time. I’ve heard a ton of good stuff, after all.

Of course, that’s a gamble. There’s been so much hype about this film that there was a chance that this flick could never live up to its reputation. I’ve learned to keep my expectations lower when the hype is high, in the hopes of giving the movie in question the best chance I can. I reminded myself that this could just be a slasher flick with a slightly unique script or something. People tend to go overboard in praising stuff like that – myself included.

So, with my expectations managed, I sat down to really watch Ready or Not.

The hype is so real.

Ignoring the fact that I’m predisposed to enjoying comedy/horrors already, this film had everything going for it. The plot was already interesting and the trailer brought that home. Then there was Samara Weaving (The Babysitter, Bad Girl, Mayhem) acting her ass off as one of the modern-age scream queens. She was surrounded by people like Mark O’Brien (Goalie, Marriage Story, The Front Runner), Adam Brody (Promising Young Woman, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Shazam!), Andie MacDowell (Lovestruck, Cuckoo, Christmas Inheritance), and all the rest, who were bringing their A-games as well.

Every time I thought I knew what Ready or Not was serving me, it switched things up just a little. Not enough to make me question if the change fit, though. Every time a twist hit the story, I just got sucked even more into it.

Then came the ending… which was the most perfect ending to a film I have ever seen. It was satisfying, it was horrific, it was funny… and any other ending would have cheapened the story. I firmly believe that any other writers or directors that could have touched this movie would have changed the ending and ruined it. I’m not familiar with the writers and directors of this film, but you can bet your ass that I’m going to be seeking out more of their projects in the future.

I loved Ready or Not. I cannot stress that enough. This is one of the best horror movies ever made. Twenty years from now, people are going to look at it as one of the classic greats. And if they don’t, they’re wrong.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 88%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 78%

Metascore – 64/100

Metacritic User Score – 6.8/10

IMDB Score – 6.8/10

CinemaScore – B+

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 5/5

Movie Trailer:

Midsommar (2019)

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime Video

Movie Name/Year: Midsommar (2019)

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

Length: 148 minutes

Rating: R

Production/Distribution: B-Reel Films, Nordisk Film, Square Peg, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, NOS Audiovisuais, Universum Film (UFA), Entertainment Film Distributors, Gutek Film, Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD), MM2 Entertainment, Metropolitan Filmexport, Paris Filmes, Phantom Film, Phars Film, Roadshow Films, Tanweer Alliances, Weltkino Filmverleih, Ascot Elite Entertainment Group, A24, BF Distribution, Cathay Cineplexes, Corazón Films, DeAPlaneta, Digi-Optic Films, Dutch FilmWorks (DFW), Eagle Pictures, Elevation Pictures

Director: Ari Aster

Writer: Ari Aster

Actors: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Ellora Torchia, Archie Madekwe, Henrik Norlén, Gunnel Fred, Isabelle Grill, Agnes Westerlund Rase, Julia Ragnarsson, Mats Blomgren, Lars Väringer, Anna Åström, Hampus Hallberg, Liv Mjönes, Louise Peterhoff, Katarina Weidhagen, Björn Andrésen, Tomas Engström, Dag Andersson, Lennart R. Svensson, Anders Beckman, Rebecka Johnston, Tove Skeidsvoll, Anders Back, Anki Larsson, Levente Puczkó-Smith

Blurb from IMDb: A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown's fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Selina’s Point of View:

A reader recommended this film to us. It was on our list anyway, but we opted to move it up on the schedule because of the suggestion.

Normally, I’m all for a slow-burn psychological horror, but the pacing really irked me this time.

I want to say that after all the fast-paced action we’ve had lately, that I was happy for the shift in tone… but I really wasn’t. That’s not a fault of the movie, though. It’s my problem and probably caused by this seemingly never-ending lockdown. I’m not going to hold it against the film, but it means that I need to look at it from a technical perspective if I’m going to be fair.

From that side of things, Midsommar is brilliant.

Almost from the very beginning of the trip to Swedan, the film does a great job of making the audience feel isolated and anxious right along-side the main character. Especially since it follows the harrowing scenes of her initial loss.

Everything that looked like it might be a jump scare or a trope from the trailer, turned out to be something vastly different. I had it on my Top 20 for the month it came out, but knowing what I know now… it should have been higher than #13. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from a trailer whether or not things are going to fall into a basic routine. This one doesn’t.

I appreciated the use of Futhark runes. As an absolutely useless talent, I can read Futhark to a minor degree. I decided to learn for an RPG game I was doing about 10 years ago and now I always get excited when I see the lettering in a film. It’s a very minor understanding. Super basic. Still, it helped me get deeper into things because I understood more of the background art than others might.

I’m not saying you need to go out there and learn Swedish or Futhark runes to enjoy the movie, though it’s an idea if you’re stuck being bored.

Even before the real horror starts, writer/director Ari Aster (Hereditary, The Turtle’s Head, Beau) brings the creep factor. You never feel like it’s a normal vacation. The setting always puts you on edge. You can tell something is very wrong, but you can’t tell why. Not until the first blood is drawn.

I do, very much, enjoy the ending.

It’s beautifully put together and I absolutely believe that I would have enjoyed it much more if I watched it in January or something. I’m going to watch it again when the lockdown is over and give it more of a chance.

  

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 83%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 63%

Metascore – 72/100

Metacritic User Score – 6.4/10

IMDB Score – 7.1/10

CinemaScore – C+

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

Movie Trailer: