Ominous October - Wendell & Wild (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Wendell & Wild (2022)
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Length: 1h 45min
Rating: PG-13
Production/Distribution: Artists First, Gotham Group, Monkeypaw Productions, Netflix Animation, Netflix, SIF 309 Film Music
Director: Henry Selick
Writer: Henry Selick, Jordan Peele, Clay McLeod Chapman
Actors: Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett, James Hong, Sam Zelaya, Tamara Smart, Seema Virdi, Ramona Young, Ving Rhames, Michele Mariana
 
Blurb from IMDb: Two scheming demon brothers, Wendell and Wild, enlist the aid of 13-year-old Kat Elliot to summon them to the Land of the Living.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
For some strange reason, I saw Jordan Peele (Us, Get Out, Nope) credited as a writer for Wendell & Wild and still thought it was just going to be a cute, spooky, Halloween flick. Although it had some of that, it was also a gut punch that hit way too close to home for me.
 
Wendell & Wild followed the tale of a girl named Kat who lost her parents at an early age. As a result of that trauma, she got angry and started acting out. Adults wrote her off as a lost cause (for the most part), which made things worse for her. I suffered my own trauma at an early age and fell into a very similar cycle of acting out and being written off – which just made me angrier.
 
I don’t know the history of writers Peele, Henry Selick (Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach), or Clay McLeod Chapman (The Boy, Beyond the White Space, Late Bloomer) – but someone went through something as a kid because they got it exactly right.
 

You do get a lot of that goofy Key & Peele type of humor, but when the scenes really get into what’s at the heart of Kat’s anger the mood changes. I can’t really go into it without spoilers, but I will say that there’s a part near the end that hits so close to home that I straight-up ugly cried. Anyone labeled a ‘lost cause’ as a kid because they were forced to deal with trauma that adults struggle with, is likely going to feel the same way that I did.
 
I loved it. Even with the gut punches, I’d watch Wendell & Wild over and over again. It’s just not the turn-your-brain-off flick that I thought it would be. It’s extremely poignant and insightful.
 
It was also gorgeous. Every scene embodied the exact feel it was going for. Whether it was meant to be gross or heartfelt, the animation gave 100%.
 
Wendell & Wild is a film I would recommend to everyone. Not just teens, but to parents as well. I wish my mom had a flick like this to watch when I was younger. It could have made a huge difference.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 81%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 86%
Metascore – 72%
Metacritic User Score – N/A
IMDB Score – 6.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 5/5
 
P.S. Short after credits scene.
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Significant Other (2022)

Streaming Service: Paramount+
Movie Name/Year: Significant Other (2022)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Length: 1h 24min
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: Paramount Players, Quay Street Productions, ITVX, Paramount+
Directors: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Writers: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Actors: Maika Monroe, Jake Lacy, Teal Sherer, Loudon McCleery, Dana Green, Matthew Yang King
 
IMDb Blurb: Follows a young couple who take a remote backpacking trip through the Pacific Northwest and face sinister events leading them to realize that everything about the place is not as it seems.

 
Cat’s Point of View:
This October has been cram-packed with movies I’ve wanted to see. There were so many that I had a really hard time narrowing down to my personal Top 20 list for the monthly article. There were quite a few that looked great that just couldn’t make the cut. Significant Other was one of them. (It did land as #17 on Selina’s list.)
 
I was intrigued by the trailer when we watched during our stream, and earlier works from this writing and directing team had impressed both Selina and I. I had so many questions at the outset of watching Significant Other, yet thought I had the general gist of where this movie was going.
 
I was so wrong. That’s also not a bad thing.

 
One point I do have to mention upfront, however, is that there was a bit of a slow burn going on with character development at the beginning of Significant Other. It could have easily fallen into many other “couple camping in the woods” tropes. Then the whole thing turned on its head.
 
I was waiting for something significant to happen to shift the gears into the sort of tension the trailer depicted. When the moment came, it earned a gasp from me as if it had punched me in the gut. All of my earlier theories went flying out the window in one split second. The switch from romantic drama to sci-fi thriller was so abrupt it was fairly jarring.
 
Significant Other didn’t let up from that point forward.

 

I will admit that once the big reveal happened, some elements were slightly predictable. I didn’t mind that, however. I was down for the premise. In fact, I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel or series to follow up and show what happened next. I just wish it didn’t take quite so long to get to the ‘good part.’ Even so, I think Significant Other will stick with me for a while due to the combo of the twist and its exploration of emotional trauma.
 
If you have a subscription to Paramount+, Significant Other might be an interesting pick for a night in. It’s not the sort of flick, though, that I’d encourage anyone to subscribe over. (There are quite a few titles that are worth it, but that’s neither here nor there for the purposes of this article.)

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 69%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 63%
Metascore – 57%
Metacritic User Score – 5.5/10
IMDB Score – 5.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - V/H/S/99 (2022)

 

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: V/H/S/99 (2022)
Genre: Horror, Anthology
Length: 1h 49min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Shudder, Studio 71, Red Arrow Studios, Bloody Disgusting, Soapbox Films, CinePocalypse
Directors: Flying Lotus, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Johannes Roberts, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
Writers: Zoe Cooper, Flying Lotus, Chris Lee Hill, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Johannes Roberts, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
Actors: Various
 
IMDb Blurb: Witness a hellish vision of 1999, as social isolation, analog technology and disturbing home videos fuse into a nightmare of found footage savagery.

 

Cat’s Point of View:
We’re halfway through our Ominous October lineup, and I was excited to explore Shudder’s new V/H/S anthology offering for this midway milestone. Both Selina and I loved the last installment helmed by the horror streamer – albeit, some of the earlier sequels not so much. For that reason, I had V/H/S/99 listed as my #10 entry on my personal Top 20 List for October, while Selina had this as her #6 pick.
 
While I’m a bit of an eternal optimist, this is at least the 5^th movie in the franchise. I felt at this point that I should be realistic with my expectations. It’s been clear in the past that these can really be hit or miss. The hits land really hard, however, and I was sincerely hoping that V/H/S/99 would follow in the successful footsteps of V/H/S/94 (2021).
 
I have mixed emotions about V/H/S/99.

 
One thing that this new installment got right was the general grungy punk feel of the ‘90s. I was instantly transported back to the peak of the Blockbuster Video era and mix-tape cassettes on the shelf alongside CD collections. 1999 was a good year for me. I was off on my own doing the adulting thing, and I got married that year. The majority of V/H/S/99 fit right in with the vibe of that time period.
 
As another positive, I was glad that the shaky cam wasn’t too horrendous for an anthology of found-footage shorts. Sometimes these segments can get really out of hand with whipping the camera around as hapless victims panic and scramble from the villain du jour.
 
Beyond that, this latest incarnation of the V/H/S (2012) franchise fell a bit into the hit-or-miss category.

 
Overall, I enjoyed the experience. It just lacked the cohesiveness that V/H/S/94 gave us. The transition sequences did offer a little levity while underscoring the overall horror, but they were only loosely connected to the individual segments. When I say it connected at all, I’m being generous, to be honest. I have my own theory about what it represented and how it all tied together. It was something you could have expected from a lost and found VHS tape that had been recorded-over multiple times, in theory.
 
The individual entries in the anthology were decent. One shouldn’t expect anything flashy in these, since they’re meant to represent amateur home videos. The production value was great for all of its low-budget glory. I got some decent and satisfying spooks out of the experience, though I don’t know that there was anything truly terrifying among the offerings. If the over-arching transitions between each of them had tied them together somehow aside from fitting in the general timeline, it would have elevated everything just that much more.

 
I was also a little disappointed that they didn’t lean harder into the Y2K paranoia that gripped the world in ’99. So many thought it was practically going to be a doomsday with planes falling out of the sky and grids shutting down. I remember watching a live telecast of the transition to January 1, 2000, as the date crossed the globe. I had a knot in my stomach, worrying that lunatics were going to cause a self-fulfilling prophecy of anarchy whether computers went wonky or not. I think this particular anthology entry would have benefited from more of that than a single mention off-hand in one of the segments.
 
When stacked up to the prior V/H/S installments, V/H/S/99 wasn’t the worst, by far. It wasn’t, however, the best, either. I still have hope for this franchise, though. Perhaps they were a bit too fast to rush to production after the success of V/H/S/94. Hopefully, they won’t repeat these mistakes with the next announced installment of V/H/S/85, which is due out in 2023 sometime.
 
You can catch V/H/S/99 on Shudder starting Thursday, October 20^th.

  
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 69%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – 53%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 6.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating – R

P.S. - There is a brief scene following the credits.
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Hellraiser (2022)

Streaming Service: Hulu
Movie Name/Year: Hellraiser (2022)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 2h 1min
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: 20th Century Studios, 247Hub, Phantom Four Films, Spyglass Media Group, Hulu
Director: David Bruckner
Writers: Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski, David S. Goyer, Clive Barker
Actors: Jamie Clayton, Odessa A’zion, Goran Vidnjic, Selina Lo, Hiam Abbass, Brandon Flynn, Drew Starkey, Jason Liles, Aoife Hinds
 
IMDb Blurb: A take on Clive Barker's 1987 horror classic where a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites.

 
Cat’s Point of View:
Where do I even begin? When the original Hellraiser (1987) hit theaters, it was a big deal. The visuals from the trailers and posters promised some good scary fun and horror skirting the edge of taboo. Of course, at that time I still wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies, so I had to wait until much later to actually experience Hellraiser. The image of “Pinhead,” as the ‘lead Cenobite’ has forever been dubbed, and became enmeshed in pop culture so that it was inescapable even without seeing the whole film. You could say I was on pins and needles in anticipation of watching the franchise. (I couldn’t help it.)
 
It would be fair to say the same was relevant now, as Selina and I both listed this new Hellraiser as our #5 pick on October’s Top 20 list.
 
While some of the subsequent sequels weren’t necessarily as well-received, Hellraiser left a huge impact on the horror genre. That shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, since the source of the story came from the mind of one of the masters of horror, Clive Barker (The Midnight Meat Train, Candyman, Hellbound Laments). It was his novella, Hellbound Heart, which started it all. I’ve enjoyed his work and was happy to hear that this new incarnation of Hellraiser was returning closer to text than the prior iterations.

 
How so, you might wonder? It turns out that Barker really hasn’t loved the moniker that audiences have given his precisely-pinned purveyor of taboo and hellish “delights.” Thus, “Pinhead” has been rebranded a bit as the Hell Priest, or simply “The Priest.”
 
Another change-up came in the form of casting for this central character. I’ve heard mixed reactions to the fact that the new incarnation of the role went to Jamie Clayton (The Snowman, Sense8, Designated Survivor). Let me tell you, though; she did a phenomenal job with the part. In Barker’s original story, the Hell Priest was portrayed as a bit of an androgynous being with a somewhat feminine voice. Clayton nailed it. (Pun intended.) For those up in arms about the choice, just keep in mind that the original actor for Pinhead, Doug Bradley (Book of Blood, Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom, Dota: Dragon's Blood), went on Twitter to praise Clayton’s performance and show his support.

 
Finally, the aesthetic of the Cenobites got a bit of an update. Director David Bruckner (The Signal, The Ritual, The Night House) worked with Barker on some of these concepts for the film. They decided that the slick BDSM wear that we’re accustomed to seeing these otherworldly beings wear has become more mainstream these days, so wouldn’t deliver the same horror or shock factor that it did back when this franchise originally launched. Instead, this new Hellraiser gives us a vision of beings that truly take pleasure in pain and suffering.
 
Bruckner is a prime example of why we continue to relish diving into horror anthologies when they present themselves -- such as ABCs of Death (2012) or V/H/S (2012). Bruckner, in fact, directed the segment titled “The Accident” in the first V/H/S. You never know when a really promising director will pop up. I’m actually excited that he’s reported to be involved with the production of the upcoming V/H/S/85, which was just recently announced to land on Shudder in 2023.  I digress…

 
I really enjoyed how the story for this new Hellraiser played out. There were twists and turns as the infamous puzzle box of pain wreaked havoc upon the unsuspecting. I couldn’t even begin to list the elements of the production that really had me giddy, as it would be awash with spoilers. Hellraiser continued to pose the question of how far someone would go to get what they wanted, and also the choices made when given the opportunity. If you dig deep, you’d find questions of morality, lessons on being careful about what you wish for, and much more – but that’s not really why we watch these movies, right? It’s the body horror and slasher thrills that tend to draw the box office, but I can’t help but like the intellectual side of it, too.
 
Odessa A’zion’s (Nashville, Am I OK?, Good Girl Jane) character, Riley, had a compelling story as the primary protagonist. I was invested in her struggle as she fought her own personal demons even before she had to take on literal ones. Her experience with the cursed puzzle box was quite the rollercoaster.
 
I’m actually excited to see where this franchise goes from here.
 
You can find Hellraiser streaming on Hulu. Its October release this year was well-timed as a great addition to this spooky season's Halloween watch lists.

  
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 67%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 64%
Metascore – 56%
Metacritic User Score – 6.1/10
IMDB Score – 6.2/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Dark Glasses (2022)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Dark Glasses (2022)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 1h 26min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Alamode Film, Canal+, Ciné+, Cinobo, Getaway Films, Lumix Media, Ministero della Cultura, NonStop Entertainment, NOS Audiovisuais, Panda Lichtspiele Filmverleih, Pierrot Le Fou, Rai Cinema, Regione Lazio, Russian Report, Shudder, Sky, Urania Pictures S.r.l., Vision Distribution, Wild Bunch International
Director: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
Actors: Ilenia Pastorelli, Asia Argento, Andrea, Gherpelli, Mario Pirrello, Maria Rosaria Russo, Gennaro Iaccarino, Andrea Zhang
 
Blurb from IMDb: Diana, a young woman who lost her sight, finds a guide in a Chinese boy named Chin. Together they will track down a dangerous killer through the darkness of Italy.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I think Dario Argento (Creepers, Opera, Deep Red) put all the horror tropes from the 80s into a bag, picked them out blind folded then wrote a movie around what he pulled. I was seriously hoping to get something a bit better, especially from Argento. Then again, most of his best works are from the 70s and 80s. Maybe I should have expected this.
 
I’ll admit that the worst of my fears were circumvented. Whenever there’s a story written with a specific disability in mind, you need to worry about how it’s going to be handled. The trailer for Dark Glasses made me worry about how they would represent blind people. I think it could have done better, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
 
I did think that some of the scenes going into how the protagonist learned to navigate her life as a newly blind person were decent.
 

The scene with the first kill was also bad ass. It gave me the impression that there would be some body horror and a slasher feel. The rest of the flick didn’t live up to that promise though. There wasn’t much body horror after that except for the tiniest amount at the end.
 
All-in-all, Dark Glasses was basic. It was a trope-filled, slow, disjointed film. Definitely not one I would choose to watch again.
 
If you plan to check it out, it will be available on Shudder this Thursday, October 13.
 

Cat’s Point of View:
When a trailer opens with the statement that the film you are about to watch was created by a country’s “Master of Horror,” it sets a couple of expectations in motion.
 
When we watched the trailer for Dark Glasses prior to putting together October’s Top 20 list, there were some red flags in the teaser that pointed to potential issues. There was a concern about the perception of those with vision impairment, and whether the crux of the horror would be based on that concept. I’m generally quick to play devil’s advocate and lean to the optimistic side of things. I guessed that it was a perception the trailer put forward rather than the actual plot of the movie. I was somewhat correct, there. I do, however, remain irked with the amount revealed by trailers these days. At least it didn’t give away everything this time.
 
Unfortunately, while the newfound vision impairment of the protagonist wasn’t at the core of Dark Glasses’ issues – it certainly had them in spades.
 
My points of contention with Dark Glasses came from the entirety of the rest of the movie. It was just clunky. The introduction segment was far longer than it needed to be. There was nearly 6-minutes of practically nothing. If I were really grasping at straws I could maybe write some of it off as building tension from a ‘what the hell is going on’ perspective, or even the symbolism of celestial events. It just felt pointless and had me looking at the runtime because it felt like forever.
 

When the story got moving, it was somewhat compelling – but felt a little stilted all the same. I felt some emotion for the characters involved, but also had a lot of eye-rolling going on. I don’t think I fully recovered from my initial annoyance if I’m honest. I didn’t quite connect with all of the practical effects, either – mostly at the end.
 
Bless their hearts, they tried.
 
I do have one other positive to offer for Dark Glasses, believe it or not. I didn’t have problems following along, as I sometimes do when I haven’t really connected with a subtitled movie. Perhaps I was more invested than I thought I was, or it made enough sense for me to piece things together without feeling like I was struggling to read a book and watch something at the same time.
 
Dark Glasses does fit into our theme of ominous and chilling films to partake of in October. It wouldn’t, however, be at the top of my list of recommendations… if there at all.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 50%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – 45%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –5.0/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (2022)
Genre: Horror
Length: PG-13
Rating: 1h 44min
Production/Distribution: Blumhouse Productions, Ryan Murphy Productions, Netflix
Director: John Lee Hancock
Writer: John Lee Hancock, Stephen King
Actors: Donald Sutherland, Jaeden Martell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Joe Tippett, Cyrus Arnold, Iván Amaro Bullón, Thomas Francis Murphy, Colin O’Brien
 
Blurb from IMDb: When Mr. Harrigan dies, the teen who befriended and did odd jobs for him, puts his smart phone in his pocket before burial and when the lonely youth leaves his dead friend a message, he is shocked to get a return text.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
It’s hard to say what I make of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.
 
It was a slow burn, mostly narrated. There were some social implications, and it was a bit preachy in parts. It was also very much a Stephen King (Mr. Mercedes, Castle Rock, Firestarter) story. The obligatory bully. The odd protagonist. An ending that borders on unfulfilling. I’ll admit that I suspect there’s a lot more depth in the original story. I haven’t read it, but the way some of the actors chose to play their characters indicated that there might be some insight in the novel that wasn’t utilized for the film.
 
The structure was also a little off. It felt like a horror story told by someone while drunk. It lingered in areas that didn’t matter and gave less answers than it should have. It also included characters that were completely inconsequential – again, I suspect that’s an adaptation issue.
 

All that said, I was never bored. I was able to pay attention and I had an investment in the story. I may even buy the short story and give it a read.  
 
The issues I have lead me to believe that my problem is not with Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. I think it’s with this adaptation. I could be wrong. The original story could have the same issues, but I’m guessing the problems come in the translation of page to screen.
 
Would you like Mr. Harrigan’s Phone? I think that depends completely on why you watch horror films. If you’re watching horror because of the thrill that comes with a quick burst of adrenaline, then you likely won’t enjoy this film. If you tend to prefer story-based horror flicks, ones that are more about examining the nature of humanity and are subtle with their supernaturality, then Mr. Harrigan’s Phone could be up your alley.
 
Either way, it’s not the kind of movie I want to watch around Halloween. It just doesn’t have that vibe.
 

Cat’s Point of View:
I may have mentioned it before, but just in case I haven’t – I’m a fan of Stephen King. That being said, I’m all too familiar with the adaptations of his work. Some are definitely more successful than others. Then, too, are the ones that King hasn’t liked, but audiences have really enjoyed – such as The Shining (1980).
 
Confession time. I haven’t read King’s story that Mr. Harrigan’s Phone was adapted from. Unfortunately, for that reason, I really couldn’t speak to whether or not this interpretation did justice to the written word. I’ve read King’s novels for the most part and haven’t delved into his shorter works yet.
 
My reaction to Mr. Harrigan’s Phone is purely from my experience with this Netflix Original movie.
 
Unfortunately, I can’t say that this was the most enjoyable translation from the written word to the screen.
 

Don’t get me wrong, though, the performances were all on point. It was worth the time spent just to watch (and listen to) Donald Sutherland (American Hangman, The Undoing, Moonfall). I’ve also been impressed with Jaeden Martell’s (The Lodge, Knives Out, Metal Lords) work thus far. They both brought depth to this production.
 
The production quality was generally fine, as well.
 
Where I feel that Mr. Harrigan’s Phone falls a bit short was, perhaps, in the production choices regarding length, and the like. They took a short story and padded it out into the screenplay for a nearly 2-hour movie. A good half-hour or more could have been trimmed and the overall experience would have probably worked better. It was hard to stay focused and invested in what was going on. Then again, at the same time, that’s almost ironic given the message of the actual story.
 
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone fell into the ‘it was okay’ category for me. I can’t say that I’ll remember details about it down the road, but I’m not upset that I watched it. Anyone looking for thrilling scares during the Halloween season might look to a different title, however.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 38%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 61%
Metascore – 55%
Metacritic User Score – 6.5
IMDB Score –6.0/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Deadstream (2022)

 
Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: Deadstream (2022)
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Length: 1h 27min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Winterspectre Entertainment, Jared R Cook Productions, Stonehaven Entertainment, Blue Finch Films Releasing, Koch Films, Mis. Label, VOD Factory, Velvet Spoon, YES TV, Première TV Distribution, Shudder
Director: Vanessa Winter, Joseph Winter
Writers: Vanessa Winter, Joseph Winter
Actors: Ariel Lee, Cylia Austin-Lacayo, Hayden Gariety, Jason K. Wixom, Jaxon Harker, Joseph Winter, Marty Collins, Melanie Stone, Pat Barnett, Perla Lacayo

 
IMDb Blurb: A disgraced internet personality attempts to win back his followers by livestreaming one night alone in a haunted house. But when he accidentally pisses off a vengeful spirit, his big comeback event becomes a real-time fight for his life.

Cat’s Point of View:
When we watched the trailers for movies coming out this October, Deadstream caught my attention. I enjoy watching paranormal investigation shows now and again so the premise of Deadstream was right up my alley – and great for the beginning of the spooky season.
 
In addition to TV and streaming service paranormal content, I have been known to watch a few YouTube streamers’ videos now and again. I get a kick out of urban exploration videos sometimes. 

My point is that Deadstream latched on to this particular corner of paranormal “entertainment” that has a somewhat blurry line with “social influencer” and brought a fresh spin to the haunted house genre.
 
Let me tell you, this was a wild ride.

 
I got exactly what I expected from Deadstream, and then some. I laughed, rolled my eyes, and then even covered my eyes in a few places. There were good thrills and face-palm moments. What else would you expect when sending a cowardly guy into a legitimately haunted house alone? I believed everything they were selling me, and it was fabulous.
 
Deadstream got a phenomenal amount of mileage out of the practical effects and skillful editing. There were very few moments where CGI effects were necessary – and that’s a feat when you’re dealing with ghosts. I’d say a good 90% of the practical effects looked pretty good. 

With a lower-end budget, Deadstream exceeded my expectations. I caught an interview with the writing/directing team, and they revealed that a good number of the ‘creatures’ (or ghosts, as the case may be) were developed and created in the garage of the effects artist during the Covid-19 lockdown. I was impressed.

 
It was no surprise when the dynamic writing/directing couple of Vanessa Winter (Devil's Got My Back, Studio C, V/H/S/99: To Hell and Back) and Joseph Winter (Abandoned in Space, It Came From the Lab, V/H/S/99: To Hell and Back) explained in the same interview that Deadstream was essentially a love letter to the creature features of the 80s, but with a modern streamer spin. I was really feeling the Evil Dead (1981) or Army of Darkness (1992) vibes. I can’t wait to see their segment in the anthology releasing later this month.
 
Joseph Winter also gets big kudos from me for taking on the lead role. He went all-in with his portrayal of the embattled streamer, Shawn. I appreciated the depth that they gave to the character beyond the activity shown in the haunted house framework. Melanie Stone (Chasing Shadows, We're Alive: Frontier, Cupid for Christmas) was also a fun addition to the small cast. I won’t give away spoilers, but I nearly jumped out of my skin a few times she appeared on the screen.

 
There were a lot of jump-scares. For this sort of production, I pretty much went in expecting to be startled every few minutes, so it wasn’t shocking or annoying. It’s just something to keep in mind while watching. I also have to hand it to this production team – for a “found footage” genre movie, Deadstream has steadier camera work than I was expecting…especially when the primary camera was attached to a moving person.  A little shaky-cam was unavoidable in this format, but it really wasn’t as bad as I was worried that it could be. 
 
I love a good horror comedy, and Deadstream was an absolute delight to kick off Ominous October. Join us this month for our spooky selections!
 
You can catch Deadstream premiering as a Shudder original starting Thursday, October 6^th.

 
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 92%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – 66%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 7.2/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4.5/5
 
Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating – R
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Phobias (2021)

Streaming Service: Hulu
Movie Name/Year: Phobias (2021)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 85 minutes
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: Defiant Studios, Kodiak Pictures, Vertical Entertainment
Director: Camilla Belle, Maritte Lee Go, Joe Sill, Jess Varley, Chris von Hoffmann
Writer: Joe Sill, Maritte Lee Go, Broderick Engelhard, Chris von Hoffmann, Camilla Belle, Jess Varley
Actors: Leonardo Nam, Macy Gray, Martina Garcia, Hana Mae Lee, Ross Partridge, Lauren Miller Rogen, Rushi Kota, Monique Coleman, Alexis Knapp, Charlotte McKinney, Steve Park, Christine Little, Sisa Grey, Katia Gomez
 
Blurb from IMDb: Five dangerous patients, suffering from extreme phobias at a government testing facility, are put to the ultimate test under the supervision of a crazed doctor and his quest to weaponize fear.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I went into Phobias knowing it was an anthology. Not a problem, I enjoy a good anthology. After all, we just saw V/H/S/94 (2021) earlier this month and that was pretty damn good. I also enjoy learning about fears. I wrote a series of short stories, and poems, when I was in college, that went into various lesser-known phobias. It’s how I learned about hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – which is my favorite word in the English language. (It’s the fear of long words. Psychologists are savage.)
 
Long story short, Phobias should have been right up my alley.
  
Each segment did have some decent aspects to it. You find out the back story for the characters one-by-one. I thought they made for interesting short stories. The problem was that they edited everything together in a strangely jarring way.
 
The movie starts off with, what I’d describe as, a prologue. I’d find that acceptable if it came before the opening credits, but it didn’t. Instead, it opened that way and then went straight into the framing device with no warning.
 

I think it was done that way on purpose. The creators wanted us to be confused and disoriented as we started the meat of the story… but I don’t think it worked the way they intended. Instead of slowly catching up as the framing device continued, I had to pause for a moment and collect my thoughts. You never want to see that.
 
The rest of it was structured fine, however, and I enjoyed the end twist. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only issue.
 
One of the characters that we learn about makes the ending feel bleaker that it was meant to. I can’t really say more without spoilers, but trust me when I say that it irked me quite a bit.
 
If anything, I’d like to see a full-length film on the main character. No other stories, just his. If they made a sequel and dropped the anthology aspect, I think it would have the potential to be golden.
 

Cat’s Point of View:

Here we are, just days before Halloween. You would think that at this point in our Ominous October it would be the perfect time for some phobias. You wouldn’t be wrong – just… not Phobias the movie.
 
I have always tried to find something positive to say about the films that we review – especially when I wasn’t as entertained as I hoped I’d be. For that reason, I’ll start with the plus side.
 
When we first saw the trailer for Phobias, what stood out to me was the cast. I’m always interested in seeing Macy Gray (Percentage, November Rule, Dutch) step out of her comfort zone as a musician and throw her hat into the acting ring. Added to that was the draw of recognizing Leonardo Nam (Cat Run 2, Sneaky Pete, Westworld) as well as Steve Park (Snowpiercer, Kajillionaire, Warrior) and the combo of Hana Mae Lee (Unleashed, Patriot, Love Beats Rhymes) and Alexis Knapp (Cavenmen, The Anomaly, Urge) from the Pitch Perfect (2012) trilogy. (Sadly, they didn’t have any scenes together.) I guess you could say another mark in the plus column was that the cast performances were fine.
 
Anthologies are tricky things. The most successful ones tend to have a cohesive framework around the individual short films. Without that, you might as well be watching a short film playlist on YouTube or the like rather than a full-fledged cinematic production. Phobias employed a successful concept to connect the short film segments together. That being said, so did the much-lamented The ABCs of Death (2012). The tie that binds is not always strong enough on its own to keep the wheels from falling off the bus, so to speak.
 

Beyond the narrative that connected the shorts together in Phobias, everything else didn’t quite jive. There were a few jump scare moments that got me only because I startle easily. I just didn’t feel any real sense of dread from the overall experience. Everything just fell a little flat and left me with an overall ‘meh’ feeling.
 
I can’t fault a production for having a shoestring budget. It’s what they do with it that counts. Phobias tried to offer some snazzy effects, but they came across a little too over-the-top more often than not. Subtler effects in some places would have been more effective than the flashy nonsense they attempted. Visual effects are supposed to immerse you in the story and draw you in so that you forget it’s not real. Nearly every moment I was painfully aware that this was wasting my time.
 
The idea behind weaponizing fear and a collective of shorts highlighting various phobias was interesting – but the execution failed to meet expectations mostly because the stories within the shorts didn’t always reflect the fear they were supposed to focus on in a clear way. There were at least 2 that didn’t seem to be reflecting a phobia at all. Ok, to be fair, one of those clearly had an issue but it didn’t match with the story presented. 

 
I wanted to like Phobias. Alas, this is one of those experiences that I likely wouldn’t recommend to others – unless I wanted them to share the feeling so I could rant about it without spoilers. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 57%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 43%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 3.6/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - Night Teeth (2021)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Night Teeth
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Length: 107 minutes
Rating: TV-14
Production/Distribution: Netflix, 42, Unique Features
Director: Adam Randall
Writer: Brent Dillon
Actors: Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Debby Ryan, Lucy Fry, Raúl Castillo, Alfie Allen, Marlene Forte, Ash Santos, Nandy Martin
 
Blurb from IMDb: A college student moonlighting as a chauffeur picks up two mysterious women for a night of party-hopping across LA. But when he uncovers their bloodthirsty intentions - and their dangerous, shadowy underworld - he must fight to stay alive.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I do enjoy a good vampire story. I much prefer the creatures of the night that we get from pieces like Nosferatu (1992), but I’ve watched a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992, 1997-2003) in my day. I shipped Spike and Buffy. Clearly, I’m not altogether against a bit of will they/won’t they in my bloodsucker media.
 
That’s a good thing because Night Teeth was more the later.
 
There was some meshing of genres going on. I definitely felt the weight of the crime genre sneaking into my horror/action. I enjoy when that kind of thing happens. Night Teeth managed that aspect in a successful way. Unfortunately, not all of it succeeded.
 
I’m going to stress that I didn’t fully hate it. There was some good action, some Wick-style world-building, and the acting was pretty decent. I didn’t really cringe much at the script, either. That said, there was something missing.
 

It was incredibly anti-climactic, almost like the ending was rushed. It hit every note of what I expected to happen and gave very little in the way of push back to the protagonist. You can’t take the conflict out of the climax or the whole audience winds up with cinematic blue balls. That’s what happened here. You don’t even need to start the film. You can lay out your prediction right now, just looking at the movie poster, and probably wind up correct. Someone got real lazy in the end.
 
The protagonist also made a ton of decisions that didn’t make sense. What was happening to him shouldn’t have led to the actions he took.
 
That all said, I was mostly entertained. Still, on a second watch, I think I’d wind up with a more negative view of it.
 
As it stands, I’d say it’s an ok film to have on in the background of a Halloween party. As long as no one concentrates on it for too long.
 
Don’t overthink it.
 

Cat’s Point of View:
Night Teeth took me on a literal ride through a single action-packed night in the life of a fill-in chauffeur and his passengers out to paint the town red… in more ways than one.
 
I had a lot of fun with Night Teeth. I’ll admit, my expectations weren’t very lofty for this production, but the trailer struck enough of a chord with me that I had the film listed on my personal Top 20 Movies Coming Out in October 2021 list.
 
I’ll admit right off the bat that quite a bit of my interest stems from my general love for the vampire genre, but also because I really enjoy Debbi Ryan (Insatiable, Horse Girl, The Opening Act) as an actor. I’ve watched the progression of her career from the Disney Channel fare through her more mature work now. She brings a little something extra to her parts that I can’t quite put my finger on. Night Teeth was no exception.
 
While I’m on the topic of the cast, I feel I should also mention that Lucy Fry (Mr. Church, The Darkness, Bright) was also a lot of fun. She is no stranger to playing a vampire. I enjoyed her performance in this movie a good deal more than her role in Vampire Academy (2014), however. It could be the difference in tone, but it is what it is.
 

The two ladies weren’t the only stand-outs among the cast of Night Teeth. Alfie Allen (John Wick, Game of Thrones, The Predator) played a significant part here. I wish I could see past his former character of Theon Greyjoy these days, but that’s on me and not him. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Alita: Battle Angel, Critical Thinking) stood out considerably more with this performance than in other movies I’ve seen him in. I appreciated his character growth throughout the course of the film. Needless to say, the casting team for this Netflix production was on point.
 
Night Teeth runs a bit of a predictable course, yet still managed to be entertaining on the journey so I didn’t mind that I knew exactly what was coming. The cinematography was slick and the shots were gorgeous. There wasn’t a lot of wasted time on B-roll as you sometimes get, either. The action flowed smoothly and the effects were damn good. I enjoyed the nuances of the incorporation of the SUV, as well.
 
Night Teeth would definitely be a fun pick to watch with friends, leading up to Halloween weekend, or even beyond.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 35%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 50%
Metascore – 44%
Metacritic User Score – 6.0
IMDB Score – 5.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5
 
Movie Trailer: