Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare
Cinematic Sommelier
6.8
Part “Infinity Pool,” part “The Witch,” with a dash of “Mary Poppins”… I can comfortably say that I had no clue what was around the corner through 90% of this one.
The end credits were such a nice touch and pitch perfect note to end this one on. The characters were perfectly sinister, yet took their time unraveling as the story weaved its way to the credits rolling. One of the more psychologically twisted Shudder finds I’ve seen in a hot second.
6.9
One thing about this franchise – it’s always such a fun ride! This entry in the saga definitely had one of my favorite connected pair of short films and a really interesting underlying narrative piece that came back to tie up the third act. I wouldn’t say the best of the franchise, but it’s a close race with most of these, as they all have such great respective strengths. A fun ride.
6.7
This film was recommended to me as “it’s a solid horror film, but there’s nothing under the hood.” That was the perfect sales pitch. Like a dream from “Inception,” the viewer is thrust into the narrative with little preparation or explanation of where we are, why we’re here, or why we care. It’s through context (and having watched enough movies to know the gist of what we’re doing here) that I was able to put the pieces together in order for things to start falling into place. It helps that the characters are as one-dimensional as they come. Clear motivations and questionable morals/decision making. The recipe for a solid slasher movie. Just don’t ask too many questions. You won’t be able to get back into it if you do.
I will say that the deeper commentary here regarding social media and sense of self-importance is timely. The execution was clunky, but I greatly appreciated the message being delivered.
6.1
So… it’s kind of a rip-off of “Halloween 2”… but with more aerobics influence and a slightly more “pop” soundtrack. The kills are ridiculous, and a questionable amount of the runtime takes place inside solely the women’s locker room/shower… but that’s to be expected in an 80’s slasher. Ghost woman was an… interesting angle.
6.1
Oh… the opposite of Livestream. Gotcha.
You’ll be rooting for this guy to die the entire time. From the minute he hides the key to the lock from himself. He deserves every bit of what he gets. Which kind of kills the narrative of the movie, but makes it a nice popcorn flick.
Solid jump scares. Great camera work with the go pros and such. Not winning an Oscar anytime soon.
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 