Bria Lou Reviews

  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 ...

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...

  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...

  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...

  When a family are trapped in their home with no way out, they have to work together to protect themselves from the dangerous threat outside. This film was on my radar for a while before it came out because I'm a huge fan of Wagner Moura, so I was excitedly anticipating it! There are some major flaws with this movie, but I did enjoy it. The first point, which is why so many people watched this as soon as it came out and are still watching it - the concept is so inventive and original! The starting point is really simple, but could go in so many different directions that you really want to see what happens. Even just watching you feel trapped, both in the film's house with the family, but also in your own house! It's so claustrophobic that watching it becomes an intense experience. The cast are all great and play their parts really well. The young actors are fantastic and felt really authentic, as did all of the performances. These are characters that we can really root for...

  While on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales, a group of six friends find a backpack containing more money than they've ever seen. But when the group becomes split on deciding whether to hand the money in to the police, long-held secrets are exposed, and the friends discover that they don't know each other as well as they thought they did. T.M. Logan is my favourite author, so his books are always pre-ordered as soon as a new one is announced, and this one was no different. Unfortunately I didn't love this one as much as some of Logan's other novels. I did like that it got right into the story. Everything started really quickly, the money was found before we even knew who most of the characters were, which worked in its favour because the story was a lot more interesting than the characters themselves. From the beginning, I was intrigued to see how it would end, but again that was more about the story than the characters. It moved quite slowly after the initial excitement ...