On The Movie Deep Dive, we dive deep into Adam Elliot's Memoir of a Snail, a poignant, stop-motion journey through themes of trauma, resilience, and hope. This captivating tale, featuring Sarah Snook as Grace, explores life's heaviest burdens and the shells we carry—whether from grief, insecurities, or the influence of others. Through beautiful storytelling and visual artistry, Memoir of a Snail balances humor and heartbreak, making it a truly unique animated experience. Join us as we discuss its layered narrative, symbolic visuals, and more in our review of this introspective masterpiece.

In this episode of The Movie Deep Dive, we break down Speak No Evil, the unsettling psychological thriller from Danish director Christian Tafdrup. This eerie tale follows Bjørn and Patrick as their fragile friendship spirals into horror, blurring lines of politeness and moral boundaries. With disturbing performances by Morten Burian and Fedja van Huêt, the film explores themes of social pressure, toxic masculinity, and the dangers of ignoring intuition. Join us as we dive into the intricacies of this brilliantly dark narrative and dissect its spine-chilling conclusion. Don't miss our review of one of the most intellectually haunting horror films of the year!

https://youtube.com/shorts/_D1-Z8lDALM?si=-c42E84R-QKZTzV7

Honestly, just watch Totally Killer and save your time. The nostalgia was good at least, and the morale conundrum in the second half. Otherwise, meh sadly.

Do Not Enter (No Entres) is the new film from Paraguayan director Hugo Cardozo, whose previous film Morgue was a hit in its home country. It got international distribution and the inevitable announcement of a US remake, which, perhaps fortunately, never materialized.

For his sophomore film, Cardozo has chosen the found footage format to tell the story of Aldo (Lucas Caballero, Death Knows Your Name) and Cristian (Pablo Martínez, Superclumsy, El Regreso de Lucas), a pair of aspiring YouTube celebrities who can’t seem to find a way to go viral. That changes after they find an abandoned mansion in a walled compound, and film themselves exploring it. Deciding that an encounter with a door with a mind of its own wasn’t creepy enough, Christian digitally adds a ghost to the footage. The resulting video gets more response than all of their previous videos combined.

Since that was a hit, they decide to go back and film some more, this time at night. It’s not long after they enter that the strange events start. A chair flies across a room and what should be a warning to them, a painting of a high ranking military figure, possibly Alfredo Stroessner the dictator who ruled the country from 1954 to 1989, falls from the wall. If this was his house, no wonder it’s haunted.

Read The Full Review On Voices From The Balcony

The best thrillers keep you guessing. They stay one step ahead of you and string you along with one puzzling event after another. The make you gasp when the big twists happen, and leave thinking about them for the hours, days, and months that follow. But to do that, the twists need to work while still feeling surprising. That’s not an easy accomplishment.

And Zoë Kravitz (Kimi, The Batman) is trying to direct a thriller like that — a movie that is equal parts timely, inventive, and surprising with Blink Twice. The plot, while audacious and ridiculous on the surface, feels eerily similar to the horror stories being told in the media today about many of pop culture’s biggest figures.

Blink Twice review

Family is inseparable. No matter how fractured and disjointed it can be at times, family is who you rely on to get you through the rough patches in life. Adam Elliot‘s 2024 animated movie Memoir of a Snail, in which a young girl Grace experiences nearly every form of trauma and loss imaginable, displays this in perhaps the clearest, most emotional gut punch you’ll see all year. It’s crafted with such a precise thumb on its own pulse in terms of tone and imagery that you’d be hard-pressed to find another director capable colliding this style with this material.

Memoir of a Snail review

Sean Baker's style evolves in Anora, a movie that actually ends up being many movies and has a rare amount of character freedom. While you still get many of the elements that Baker is known for, such as authentic dialogue and a protagonist that's basically a Willy Loman of the sex trade, he takes the character of Anora further than he has any of his other protagonists.

My full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM_25aZTyRM

In this age of Blumhouse assembly line productions, very little surprises me when it comes to films that deal with hauntings and possessions. And yet, along comes a little movie like "Talk to Me", the feature film directorial debut of Australian twin YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou aka RackaRacka, that sets out to recalibrate the horror genre for the age of social media and taps into primal fears that resonate with a 21st century audience. Read the full review here: https://short-and-sweet-movie-reviews.blogspot.com/2024/10/talk-to-me-2022-movie-review.html

Join us on The Movie Deep Dive as we explore Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated sci-fi masterpiece, Megalopolis. After decades in the making, this film defies easy categorization, blending futuristic visuals with ancient philosophical themes in a bold experiment only Coppola could bring to life. In our review, we dive into its dazzling cinematography, the layered performances by Adam Driver and Giancarlo Esposito, and its complex, sometimes erratic, storytelling. Is Megalopolis a visionary triumph or a cinematic misfire? Let’s unpack the genius, the chaos, and the legacy of Coppola’s latest epic!

On The Movie Deep Dive, we're dissecting Don’t Move, a suspense thriller produced by horror legend Sam Raimi. With a gripping premise and a cast led by Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock, this film promises high tension and survival horror but doesn’t quite deliver. We break down the film’s missteps, from its underwhelming character development to its missed opportunities in creating real suspense and psychological depth. Is Don’t Move worth the watch or one to skip? Join us for the full review, and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

I’m on a J-horror kick this Halloween season. It’s a subgenre that I’ve been fascinated with for quite some time, but never really gotten around to doing a thorough deep dive. I’m a big admirer of the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Satoshi Kon, but I’m less familiar with filmmakers like Hideo Nakata, Kaneto Shindō and Takashi Shimizu. So I’m doing a lot of discovering this October and laying my eyes on a bunch of acclaimed international pictures I hadn’t seen before.

One of those new movies for me is Ju-on: The Grudge, a 2002 cryptic cult classic that is equal parts scary, eerie, and mysterious. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the American remakes of The Grudge from the couple decades since this movie became an international hit, but I had never seen any of the movie that began the craze for this franchise.

Ju-on: The Grudge (2002) review

Winona Ryder’s star power is at the center of Heathers, the 1989 teenage dramedy that became a cult hit and spawned many, many future imitators. It has just about everything, from crude high schooler humor to big, starry performances from the likes of Ryder and Christian Slater, to ONE DEAD, GAY SON (whom his dad loved very much)! It’s an eventful movie that packs a lot within 103 minutes, and director Michael Lehmann never takes the material too serious, often opting for a dose of absurdist situational comedy to intensify the plot in motion.

Heathers review

https://youtube.com/shorts/ptn8X8DYJHk?si=DL7EORe5FYQQvkF6 Think of it as a religious/political version of 12 Angry Men. A solid film with good acting/writing/direction!

Salem's Lot is a throwback to classic vampire horror, following Ben Mears as he returns to the creepy little town of Jerusalem's Lot, only to find himself and everyone around him pulled into a full-scale vampire invasion. At its core, Salem's Lot has all the right elements: vampires, spooky houses, suspicious locals, and a dark history lurking beneath it all. The cast is packed with likeable characters and solid performances, especially Lewis Pullman as Ben and Makenzie Leigh as Susan, who make a convincing pair trying to make sense of the nightmare unfolding around them.

http://www.beentothemovies.com/2024/10/review-salems-lot-2024-film-starring.html

In this episode of The Movie Deep Dive, we’re unpacking the wild party scene in Blink Twice and drawing comparisons to the infamous Freak Off Party hosted by Sean 'Diddy' Combs. How does Blink Twice capture the extravagance and energy reminiscent of Diddy’s legendary parties? We explore the vibes, the music, the ambiance, and the cultural impact of these iconic celebrations. Join us for this cinematic showdown to see how Blink Twice stacks up!

The Shining is one of my favorite movies of all time and certainly my favorite horror movie ever made. While that’s not entirely why I haven’t seen Doctor Sleep until now (five years after its 2019 release), I couldn’t help but feel as though Mike Flanagan‘s continuation of the Torrance family through now-adult Dan was fighting an uphill battle for I even hit play. And after middling critical assessment upon its release, I decided to skip over it.

Until now. I’ve officially seen Doctor Sleep. And I have to say.. I wish I had decided to skip over it for an additional five years. Doctor Sleep is a dreadful continuation of Stephen King‘s widely acclaimed horror novel, as well as an unworthy companion to Stanley Kubrick‘s indelible landmark horror picture from 1980. It avoids many of the stylistic choices that made The Shining a deliriously inviting movie, and many of the darkest motifs that made King’s world so riveting in the first place.

Doctor Sleep review

It seems 2024 was the year of the M. Night Shyamalan family. His daughter Saleka made her musical and acting debut in the filmmaker's new film "Trap", and earlier this year, her sister Ishana Night Shyamalan, made her writing and directing debut with "The Watchers", a horror film that her father produced. Unfortunately, despite a modest $30 million budget, "The Watchers" ended up being a box-office misfire, raking in just $33 million worldwide. Read the full review here: https://short-and-sweet-movie-reviews.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-watchers-2024-movie-review.html

https://preview.redd.it/91pvs9vtfgxd1.jpg?width=201&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcf80652b80368ee4c30cc58d74252be1f20d7a9

Mr. Crocket tries to create a chilling horror experience but, unfortunately, misses the mark in almost every way. With a promising setup, the film struggles to deliver on scares, character depth, and story coherence, leaving viewers more frustrated than frightened.

Story and Atmosphere

https://preview.redd.it/5lbutgmnggxd1.jpg?width=251&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=845154849e1cb3e2ed9beb5d07de5ee851dc7cc8

The plot centers on the mysterious Mr. Crocket, but rather than building suspense, the story meanders without a clear direction. Relying on predictable jump scares and horror clichés, Mr. Crocket lacks originality and atmosphere, failing to immerse viewers in a sense of dread. Without a structured storyline or buildup of tension, the film falls short of creating a memorable horror experience.

Characters and Performances

https://preview.redd.it/1mjxswepggxd1.jpg?width=299&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cd148183b98663b3c0d64cfae8059511af46c36

Characters in Mr. Crocket are poorly developed, with little background or motivation to make them relatable. The title character lacks any real menace, while the supporting cast feels forgettable. The performances are uninspired, and the actors struggle to bring intensity or believability to the story, further weakening the film’s impact.

Visuals and Direction

The direction is inconsistent, with no clear vision for the horror tone. While there are attempts at eerie visuals, they’re mostly bland and lack creativity. Pacing is off, with dragging scenes that fail to contribute to suspense, making it difficult to stay engaged. Overall, the direction doesn’t manage to capture the horror experience it aims for.

Final Thoughts

Mr. Crocket is a disappointing entry in the horror genre, failing to bring anything fresh or compelling. Its predictable plot, lackluster characters, and ineffective scares make it a struggle to sit through.

Rating: 3/10 — a forgettable horror that misses the potential to leave a lasting impact.

In today’s episode of The Movie Deep Dive, we’re diving into Coralie Fargeat’s chilling new film The Substance, a horror thriller that exposes society’s obsession with youth and beauty. Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, the movie tackles themes of identity, body autonomy, and Hollywood's relentless ageism, exploring the high cost of chasing eternal youth. From neon-soaked horror to unsettling commentary on the entertainment industry, The Substance pushes boundaries. Join us as we break down the shocking scenes, characters, and messages behind this unique horror experience.

In this episode of The Movie Deep Dive, we’re tackling Smile 2, Parker Finn's bold sequel that dares to go beyond the typical horror formula. With Naomi Scott leading as a tormented pop star battling inner demons and supernatural horrors, this film expands on the first Smile by exploring themes of addiction, grief, and the pressures of fame. Is Smile 2 a worthy continuation of the franchise or does it get lost in its own ambition? Tune in as we dive deep into the scares, the themes, and whether it lives up to the original!

In this episode of The Movie Deep Dive, we’re taking a closer look at Venom: The Last Dance, the latest installment in the franchise that sees Tom Hardy reprise his roles as Eddie Brock and his mischievous symbiote, Venom. While the film promises wild buddy antics and outrageous action, it often stumbles by straying from the successful formula of its predecessor. Join us as we explore the film’s missed opportunities, lackluster pacing, and the underutilization of talented cast members like Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Is this really The Last Dance for Venom? Tune in to find out!

MadS reminds me of the joys of finding undiscovered independent horror movies. Although it’s gained some steam within the genre’s diehard community, MadS still feels as though it’s being underappreciated. Because for a film as muddy and down-to-Earth as this one is technically, it’s a thrill ride about as absurd as anything you’ll see in 2024.

MadS (2024) review

Much has been said about how screenwriter Ronald Bass' previous foray into comedy-dramas dealing with a man diagnosed with autism, Rain Man, perpetuated outdated stereotypes about how people on the spectrum are mathematically immaculate savants, even though that is in actuality a very, very rare combination. That's a worthy criticism, but I'm willing to give that film a pass since times — although sadly, maybe not attitudes — were much different then and I like to think that we as a people have a much greater awareness of autism now than we did back in 1988.

Of course, you'd probably call shenanigans on that after watching Mozart and the Whale, an autism-based love story inspired by the real-life romance between Jerry and Mary Newport. In the right hands and if handled delicately, this could've been something special; Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct, with Robin Williams and Téa Leoni starring, and I would've liked to have seen that version. In the hands of Petter Næss and with Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell starring, this is as cartoonishly shallow a cinematic depiction of the trials and tribulations of living with autism as you can get.

In theory, it's refreshing that the majority of the characters are people with autism, so it's not yet another story about a lone autistic protagonist surrounded by a neurotypical supporting cast. In execution, however, these are some of the most overacted caricatures you'll ever see in your life, with the actors' performances so lacking in humanity that they feel more at home in an especially awful episode of The Big Bang Theory. Næss' camera practically encourages the audience to gawk at these people, which feels gross and makes his and cinematographer Svein Krøvel's up-close-and-personal approach to framing come across as intrusive and frankly insidious.

Despite being inspired by a real-life autistic couple, Hartnett and Mitchell fail to convince as a romantic pairing because they lack the chemistry needed and their relationship isn't fleshed out enough. Hartnett gives the shakiest performance of his career doing his best Raymond Babbitt impression in a role that makes itself so abundantly clear that it was written with Williams in mind. It's beyond obvious that these two are blatantly incompatible with one another, a fatal flaw for a romantic comedy, with the one thing they have in common being autism and nothing else, and yet Bass' lazily contrived screenplay repeatedly insists that they belong together.

Then again, pinning the blame solely on Bass and Næss is probably not the wisest move, as the producers at Millennium Films were said to have taken creative control entirely away from Næss in post-production and re-edited the film to make it much more of a comedy than initially intended, complete with an upbeat, poppy soundtrack and a more quirky score. The results are absolutely disastrous, with the editing by Lisa Zeno Churgin and Miklos Wright constantly abusing cross-fades and adding inappropriate music cues to scenes that were clearly meant to be much more serious.

For example, there's a scene where Hartnett's character, a hoarder, comes to home to see that his apartment is cleaned up and everything has been rearranged, which subsequently leads to him freaking out and getting into argument with Mitchell over how she had no right to do this, which is entirely fair on his part. The use of rapid-fire quick-cuts and shaky-cam indicates that this was an intense dramatic moment, but Deborah Lurie's irritating music instead plays it for comedy, as if he's in the wrong for reacting like this. So rather disgustingly, we as an audience are encouraged to laugh at an autistic man having a meltdown over his difficulty with adjusting to something much different from what he's used to.

Mozart and the Whale is a film scripted with little thought and cut together with a complete and total lack of thought. Most people who will watch this film probably know next to nothing about autism — not that I'm an expert on it myself —, and when the film ends, they'll know even less about autism. What is there to learn from something that treats a vulnerable community of people as a mere collection of whimsical eccentricities to point fingers and guffaw at like attractions at a P.T. Barnum circus show? When your film has Mitchell dressing up as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for Halloween and it fails to leave any kind of impression on me, you're doing something profoundly wrong.

*****Spoiler Alert

How Real is Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moores character in the 2024 horror film The Substance)?

The Substance was so grotesque and gory that for those of us with a weak stomach, it was so hard to watch. I hated it. In fact, I put my friend in movie jail for picking this movie for movie night. But after you get past all of the gore (and trying to figure out which decade the movie took place in), the major theme of this movie haunts your mind and you ask yourself how real is Elisabeth Sparkle? How real is it where to be loved, you have to be societies version of beautiful? Beauty equals Love. The more beautiful you are, the more loved you are (forget who you are as a person). How real is it, that you don't feel worthy to be loved unless you look a certain way? Despite how 99% of viewers had the same "damn is that Demi Moore?!! She looks amazing for....(then we google)....she looks amazing for 61!" reaction in the opening scene, Elisabeth Sparkle herself could not see anything outside of any phyiscal flaw she had (despite how minor it was in reality). This in turn automatically deemed her unworthy of love in her mind. She spends the rest of the movie fighting to be loved even if it's just artificial fake love. She is like all of us in the fact that she needs to be loved, however her disease is she believes her physical appearance is the only way anyone is able to love her. The love she desperately fights for, is a love that is solely 100% dependent on how she physically looks. One scratch, one scar, one flaw, one mistake, and like that, her love is instantly gone. The pressure of maintaining that kind of love is crippling...literally. She fights to be beautiful, even when its to her ultimate demise (recall the scene where she is about to terminate Sue, but she looks at the messge in the flowers "they're going to love you" and she stops). So how real is Elisabeth Sparkle? Very, especially in the world of obesity, plastic surgery, and social media. If you ever thought you would have a better life, a more successful career, more friends, a better partner, higher self esteem, be happier, and basically be more loved if you just looked better (in your eyes), than Elisabeth Sparkle is very real. How much of our self worth is wrapped up in the superficial? How much more value are we putting on the outward vs the inward? What belief have you had about your physical self, that has unintentionally led to certain life decisions and/or the current life path you are on? People will naturally put their focus, time, and energy into whatever they believe (consciously or subconsciously) that makes them feel loved or gives you a sense of purpose (family, work, hobbies, etc). Unfortunately in Elisabeth Sparkle's case, it was physical appearance. Where were her friends? Her family? Her church? Her therapist? her circle, to tell her she was so much more than her looks??? This is the danger of when you only have you to consult about you. It ends exactly with the fight Sue had with Elisabeth. The desired version of yourself, beating up, tearing down, hating, and trying to kill the current version of yourself. Its the ultimate fight between who you are and who you so desperately want to be. In addition, the Substance brings to life everyones fear of hating your present state while forgetting that it can always get worse. Like when I was in college and gained 10 lbs, and I thought I was so fat, but oh 20 years and 50 lbs later, what I would give now to be that college weight! The more you do to alter the present state (i.e. plastic surgery, facial injections, etc) the worse you can make your future state that we a lot of the time, have no consideration for. This movie was beyond vanity. This was 100% the story of full blown body dysmorphia.

Terrifier 3 is a wild, brutal ride that takes Christmas horror to a shockingly intense level. Damien Leone has truly outdone himself, blending an unsettling holiday backdrop with gut-wrenching horror that doesn't shy away from showing the worst of Art the Clown's twisted mind. As we catch up with Sienna and Jonathan, five years after the traumatic events of Terrifier 2, they're still haunted by the memories of that Halloween night. Just as they start to believe they might be able to move on, Art returns, more horrifying than ever, this time with a demented take on the Christmas spirit and a terrifying new partner, Victoria Heyes, possessed by the eerie Little Pale Girl.

http://www.beentothemovies.com/2024/10/review-terrifier-3-2024-slasher-film.html

Venom the last dance had alot going on. Still not a huge fan of the comical eddie/venom combo but there were some good things here. Not going to spoil to much here but have a full review on my channel

https://youtu.be/rIWVUuFbzJw

Welcome to the Weekly Discussions & Feedback Thread of r/moviereviews !

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Like with Deadpool & Wolverine, I enjoyed The Marvels but muat admit that this is a lower-tier entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and given how much I loved Captain Marvel, WandaVision, and Ms. Marvel, this could've and should've been better than what it is. What really saves this film for me is the camaraderie between the leads: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani play off of one another beautifully and I really did love seeing these contrasting personalities struggling to find common ground and work together as a team.

While I adore Larson as much as anybody, for my money, it's Vellani who's the film's MVP, exploding with glee and spunk. Dar-Benn, on paper, is yet another standard Marvel villain, but Zawe Ashton throws everything she's got into this role and her performance arguably brings out some hidden layers to her character that make her more compelling both in terms of her personality and her sheer presence.

Shockingly for one of these films, the colors pop; you can tell director Nia DaCosta is cooking with gas, putting real thought into the lighting and shot composition, which takes lessons to screw up when your cinematographer also shot 12 Years a Slave and Judas and the Black Messiah. The action sequences are also a lot of fun, bursting with energy and making creative use of how our heroes switch places whenever they use their powers; it's chaotic but in a good way.

With all of that out of the way though, what everyone else said was true: the editing is a mess. It'd be unwise to pin the blame on DaCosta and especially unwise to pin it on Catrin Hedström and Evan Schiff. The latter cut his teeth on John Wick sequels and Birds of Prey, so I'd like to think he knows what he's doing.

The Marvels feels like it was supposed to run as long as a typical Marvel production, but then Darth Feige and his bullet-sweating stooges went into panic mode, barged into the editing room, and said, "No, you gotta cut this and you gotta cut that! Trim this sucker down to an hour and forty-five!" As a result, the story and characters are stripped down to just the essentials... which would've been fine, honestly, if it wasn't so noticeable.

Thus there's not much breathing room, scenes don't flow into each other as smoothly as they should've and rely too often on ADR to cover up missing chunks, and some otherwise very interesting thematic and narrative details aren't explored as thoroughly as they could've been, so the film is paced like it feels longer than it actually does. DaCosta is a wonderful talent, and I'm glad she's bouncing back from this film's failure with Hedda and 28 Years Later: Part II – The Bone Temple, but it's a shame Marvel got scared and didn't utilize her to her full potential, although the end result is still an enjoyable enough time.