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The Spiral Staircase | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list, but I did like the premise so I was looking forward to seeing it. I liked this film a lot. It's really fun watching older murder mysteries; seeing the way that tropes have grown and changed over the years is fascinating. But it's also equally fascinating to see the way things have stayed the same - the eclectic group of characters is definitely something that has continued to be portrayed in modern murder mysteries. One of the things that this movie explores is violence against women, and in particular, violence against vulnerable women. Looking at this issue through the trope of a murder mystery is very effective at forcing an audience to look at a real issue by packaging it in a fun and somewhat familiar plot. The film is quite slow moving, which always surprises me in films that have such a short runtime. Particularly for a murder mystery. With only 80 minutes to play with you'd expect the action to n...
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The Invite | Film Review

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  When Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogan) invite their upstairs neighbours over for dinner, the night takes an unexpected turn that forces the couple to examine the future of their marriage. I'd heard such great things about this movie when it first came out, including many predictions for Oscar nominations, so of course I had to see it! To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. I liked the movie, but I didn't fully understand all of the exceptional praise it was receiving. The cast is a definite standout though. They're all fantastic and feel authentic in their roles. The dialogue is really fun and quippy, particularly at the beginning when we're getting to know the characters. It gives an interesting insight into who they really are. But with that, the film is very dialogue-heavy, to the point that it definitely feels like it could, or should, be a play. And it stays like this until the end, so if you're not a fan of dialogue-heavy movies, or just don't ...
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Jacob's Ladder (1990) | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  I'd only seen the 2019 remake of this movie, so this was a new watch. I had no idea how close or far apart the movies would be, or if they'd have the same twists, but I liked the direction the newer one went in, so I was looking forward to seeing this version. I also always look forward to psychological horrors in particular, which made me even more intrigued about this one. I really liked this movie. The beginning of the film does a good job of establishing the character of Jacob. You really feel like you know him and he's a great character to follow. We get the psychological horror aspects from almost the very beginning; we have a character who very obviously cannot trust his own mind, and that's a really interesting dynamic from an audience point of view. This is the character we're following, so if he can't trust his mind, we can't trust anything we see either. And the more the film leans into this, the better it is. It's great that the film can do...
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Colony | Film Review

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  When a bioterrorist attack causes a zombie-like reaction from its victims, the survivors must work together to stay alive. I hadn't heard of this film until it came out, but after seeing that it was directed by Yeon Sang-ho, who also directed 'Train to Busan', the best zombie movie I've ever seen, I was really hopeful about it. I loved this movie. It had a great start. There was a build-up that gave us enough necessary character information to make us care, while also being short enough that we could get into the main plot quickly. We got to know the characters as much as we needed to, and once we get into the story we really get the chance to build connections with them. You care about them really quickly, which makes you all the more invested. The zombies are designed really well, in a way that's genuinely scary while also feeling fresh and different from the designs used in previous movies. The film is so engaging and fast-paced that you don't want to look ...
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Near Dark | 100 Movies Bucket List

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I'd never heard of this film before seeing it on the bucket list, and seeing that it was another vampire film didn't really fill me with confidence. But the fact that it's directed by Kathryn Bigelow really intrigued me, as this isn't the kind of film I'd associate with her.  I didn't love this one unfortunately.  From the start it feels a lot more grounded than a typical vampire movie. It's very rooted in reality.  It gets into things right from the start. It takes less than 15 minutes for our main character to be bitten, which is great. We know what we're here for, we know what vampires are, we don't need a long explanation. The characters aren't the most interesting. We only ever get to know them in this situation, so while the vampire aspect is interesting, it gets old, and eventually we have to be able to either connect with, or somewhat like, the characters to stay interested in the story.  The issue is that some of them are two-dimensional...
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Forbidden Fruits | Film Review

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  When a newcomer joins their cult, Apple (Lili Reinhart), Fig (Alexandra Shipp) and Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) soon find their inner darkness exposed. I didn't know much about this film before it came out, but it starred a group of great, recognisable actresses so I was excited to see what they would do with it. I liked this more than I thought I would! I've already mentioned the cast, and they're absolutely the best thing about the movie. All of the actresses do such a great job with their characters and really elevate the material. The film knows what it is and really leans into being campy, which is so much fun. The characters are absurd, and because of that, a lot of the dialogue hits the ear wrong and generally the whole thing feels somewhat badly written. But this is probably just down to the story itself and the character creation rather than the actual writing. It was really hard to tell where the story was going, but it's interesting and engaging enough that i...
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Carnival of Souls | 100 Movies Bucket List

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  I'd never heard of this film before, and went in fairly blind, so I knew almost nothing about it when I pressed play. This film was fine, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. It grabs you almost from the very beginning with the shock of the opening scene. Having no idea what was about to happen, it really takes you by surprise. This is a ghost story, and one of the most interesting things about it is the images of the ghosts. If we weren't on the main character's side before, seeing what she sees endears us to her. Even though there aren't a lot of special effects, the make-up alone makes the ghosts look scary. I liked the horror scenes a lot more than the world-building ones. I didn't care much about the background characters so it would have been nice if a bit less time was spent on them. Despite being a shorter movie, it feels longer than it is, in both a good and bad way. Good because it feels like we get a full story with real characters. Bad bec...
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