4.5 star(s), 45-50 minutes per episode, Disney+
Finally. Finally. FINALLY!
With the debut this week of its latest streaming series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially entered a phase where it’s paying proper respect to its darker, scarier characters and storylines. That’s right, the MCU is ready to embrace the horror genre, which for a longtime fan like myself, who grew up reading “Werewolf by Night, “Tomb of Dracula,” and “Moon Knight,” means that all is right with the world.
Based on the first three episodes, I’m here to tell you that “Moon Knight” may well be the best live-action, streaming series that Marvel and Disney have unleashed.
I still have the first issue of “Moon Knight,” released by Marvel Comics in November 1980, and I’m happy to report that while the new Disney+ series retains the bones of the character’s origins, it expands on the mythology and the man beneath the cowl in ways that are far superior to the original book. For the uninitiated, the original source comic tells the strange tale of Marc Spector, a soldier of fortune, who runs afoul of a local warlord and is left for dead in an Egyptian desert. Spector is seemingly revived by the spirit of Khonshu, a moon god who also serves as a vessel of vengeance.
It’s funny how the comic sprints through Spector’s story in its first issue, whipsawing from his death and rebirth to Spector adopting multiple identities and using a small fortune to create what is essentially his own Bat Cave complete with a plane, nifty weapons and one iconic white cowled costume. For me, Moon Knight, the character, was always Marvel’s attempt to draw on DC Comics’ Batman to create its own damaged but determined vigilante.
“Moon Knight,” the show, thankfully takes its time, at least in the early episodes, and it establishes its own mythology, introducing fans and first-time newbies to Steven Grant (one of Spector’s identities in the book), a nebbish retail clerk, who can’t understand the violent dreams he experiences each night. Eventually, Grant learns that he suffers from a personality disorder, meaning another persona, Spector, resides in his brain. And that’s not counting the spirit of Khonshu, who we learn struck a deal with Spector, which was basically renewed life in exchange for a lifelong fight to avenge those in need. It’s not clear yet whether “Moon Knight” also will introduce some of Spector’s allies from the original book.
What matters most is that everything from the character design (Khonshu’s mystical white robes and bandages are fantastic) to the acting (Oscar Isaac couldn’t be better, and he’s as good here as Robert Downey Jr. was back in 2008 when he introduced fans to Tony Stark) to the violence and terror that exists within Moon Knight’s world are rendered with care and jaw-dropping attention to detail.
More than anything, I am most pumped about the possibilities and doors that this show opens, and I don’t even know how I will contain myself if “Moon Knight” serves as a gateway to seeing “Werewolf by Night” on screen. Finally.
4 star(s), 86 minutes, Shudder and streaming
Welcome to the world of Hellbenders, who are witches who turned their back on Heaven and bent their bodies toward Hell.
Or, in this case, welcome to the latest feature by the Adams Family (John Adams, his wife Toby Poser and daughter Zelda Adams), where this multi-hyphenate collective (they write, direct, star and perform their own original music) continue to flex their muscles following 2019’s stellar “The Deeper You Dig.”
“Hellbender” is a coming-of-age tale at its core, but it’s also a raucous, harrowing, rock-and-roll odyssey of dark discovery, cranked to 11 and populated with well-timed moments and extended sequences that feel like a touchdown spike at the end of a beautifully orchestrated fourth-quarter drive.
The first big showcase of witch-y power is magnificent, culminating in an explosive burst of impressive effects that go beyond the film’s (likely) low budget.
Prepare to be wowed.
4 star(s), 91 minutes, Shudder and streaming
Writer-director Sam Walker’s wildly entertaining feature debut, “The Seed,” starts off as a wicked satire about social media influencers that slowly reveals surprising layers of depth before morphing into a gory slice of body horror cum alien sex orgy cum planetary takeover via mind control and galactic fertilization.
“The Seed” assaults viewers with a slew of hallucinatory visuals, propelled by a fantastic score, and it never fails to hold your attention all the way through its batshit crazy third act.
Highly recommended.
4 star(s), 106 minutes, Netflix
Hot on the heels of 2021’s most unexpected delight, “Free Guy,” omnipresent star Ryan Reynolds and re-energized director Shawn Levy reteam for a hysterical and heartfelt ode to cult classics from the 1980’s like “The Last Starfighter” and “Big.”
If you’re a fan of popcorn thrills, you really can’t go wrong spending time with “The Adam Project.”
Reynolds stars as Adam, a time-traveling pilot who escapes a vicious galactic war in 2050 by warping back to 2022 to warn his parents that one of his father’s inventions might actually work a little too well and could spell the end of the universe. After accidentally encountering his 12-year-old self—boy Adam is played to perfection by Walker Scobell—they team up to prevent the end of existence.
It’s fun, fast-paced and satisfying like a Cherry Coke slushy on a hot summer day.
4 star(s), 95 minutes, streaming and Blu-Ray
This little-known early slasher from 1982 is outrageously odd and surprisingly well-acted, offering an early standout performance by genre icon Steve Railsback and a magnificent Final Girl in the form of Keegan (Jo Ann Harris). The kills in “Deadly Games” are varied and distinctly brutal, almost mean-spirited at times. The film also offers what might be one of the most loathsome detective characters ever. He’s cold, indifferent, soulless and sociopathic, and that’s while acting in an official capacity.
The reason I can’t stop recommending “Deadly Games,” though, is because the movie detours frequently into pure mind-fuck mode and it concludes with one of the most WTF endings of any movie I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot.
4 star(s), 90 minutes, streaming
I’m here all day, every day, for this new wave of genre horror flicks that explore what it means to be female in the 21st century, from unbridled misogyny and slut-shaming to outright dismissal of worth. In my opinion, there’s no better forum than horror to dig into raw, real issues. It’s like coating a bitter pill in candy flavor to make for easier digestion.
“Take Back the Night,” the debut feature from director/co-writer Gia Elliot, opens with a hard slap of reality, toggling back and forth as Jane (Emma Fitzpatrick) is both being interrogated for suspicion of filing a false police report and inching closer to the edge of a subway platform as she contemplates jumping in front of the next oncoming train.
Elliot then rewinds, showing viewers what led to this penultimate moment, and properly introducing Jane as a free-spirited artist who parties just as hard as her male counterparts. She gets high at a gallery showing, has random sex in a bathroom with a married man and tries to help an obnoxiously drunk female patron safely find an Uber.
While walking back to the gallery, Jane also gets attacked by a shadow monster, and barely survives. She somehow staggers to a local hospital, only to be thrust into an exam room, coldly probed and tested for sexual assault, and then grilled by a female detective. Jane keeps using “it” to describe her assailant, but because of her past history (Jane was previously committed to a psychiatric hospital for drugs and theft), the detective doesn’t take her seriously. Neither does her sister.
In an effort to convince herself she’s not crazy, Jane starts investigating other mysterious instances involving other local women, all of whom were ignored and/or ridiculed for making outlandish claims that couldn’t be confirmed. And she slowly starts preparing for another confrontation with the shadow creature.
“Take Back the Night” is powerful stuff told in a way that’s both insightful and entertaining. It calls forth moments that shake you, if only because they are real and represent the hurdles that many women must scale when describing abuse and demanding action.
Though it doesn’t stick the landing quite like Mary Lou, “Take Back the Night” is not to be overlooked. Combined with “Lucky,” the similar-in-theme and equally awesome thriller written and starring Brea Grant from 2020, Elliot’s debut confirms that these kinds of critical female stories won’t be relegated to the shadows any longer.
3 star(s), 150 minutes, streaming plus 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-Ray and DVD
Guillermo del Toro’s latest, “Nightmare Alley,” didn’t win an Oscar for Best Picture, and frankly that’s probably good. His remake of the 1947 pulp noir about a grifter (Bradley Cooper) who parlays an experience with a sideshow attraction into a center ring existence as a famed mentalist, doesn’t hold the same wonder as his earlier, better works. That’s not to say “Nightmare Alley” isn’t a good movie; it is. Every frame of del Toro’s meticulously realized period pulp has purpose. But what it lacks—a soul— mirrors the emptiness of Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle, and the resulting march to Carlisle’s undoing proves to be a cold, if gorgeously rendered, exercise in comeuppance that fails to connect.
3 star(s), 80 minutes, streaming, Blu-Ray and DVD
I give credit where it’s due, and Blaine Thurier’s latest, “Kicking Blood,” about a female vampire who decides to stop drinking blood and revert back to human after being inspired by an alcoholic going cold turkey, has plenty of inspired moments to keep viewers enthralled. I wouldn’t say this is the best vampire movie I’ve ever seen, not by a long shot, but it is a fresh take that mines unexpected territories with solid execution, which in and of itself is worth championing.
3 star(s), 85 minutes, Shudder and streaming
Director Jennifer Reeder has been on a tear of late with 2019’s “Knives and Skin” and a standout segment in 2021’s “V/H/S 94,” but her latest, “Night’s End,” a harrowing take on the haunted house genre, about Ken Barber, a damaged divorcee (Geno Walker), who was downsized out of his job and lost his family due to his drinking as a result, is rough sledding early on.
“Night’s End” punches the gas in its third act, revealing its endgame with a fantastically realized manipulation that appears to usher in some demonic global Armageddon, but it’s almost too little too late.
Part of the problem, at least for me, centers on Reeder’s decision to make Barber’s daily existence so suffocating and obtuse that it serves to alienate viewers, at least for the first hour, which is a long time when a movie’s runtime is just over 80 minutes. It also doesn’t help that all of Barber’s interactions come via webcam conversations with his ex-wife, her new husband (Michael Shannon, making an unexpected appearance), his best friend (Felonious Munk) and a shady medium with ulterior motives.
Reeder has the goods, and I suspect she’s well on her way to delivering a genre masterpiece sooner rather than later, but “Night’s End” feels like an exploratory mission to hone her creative juices more so than a fully realized stab at horror greatness.
3 star(s), Amazon Prime
Brutal, gory, satirical, gleefully disruptive. This eight-episode animated companion to Amazon Prime’s deliriously good “The Boys,” features a standout roster of creative talent, including Garth Ennis, Awkwafina, Ilana Glazer, Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, Andy Samberg and Aisha Tyler, who penned the various stories. With bite-sized run times and no shortage of hallucinogenic visuals, “The Boys Presents: Diabolical” is way more than a placeholder while we wait for the third season premiere of “The Boys” in June.
2.5 star(s), 85 minutes, streaming
It’s not often that I find myself truly let down by a movie that fails to capitalize on its promise, but boy howdy, did “Asking for It” leaves me thoroughly frustrated and wanting so much more.
Writer-director Eamon O’Rourke’s feature debut about an underground female militia hellbent on exacting revenge against misogynists, sexual predators, alpha-males and extremists features a fantastic cast (Kiersey Clemons, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Ezra Miller, Gabourey Sidibe and Radha Mitchell) whose talents are wholly squandered by his script.
“Asking for It” starts strong, and it hits hard, particularly in showcasing the ways that young women are victimized and traumatized by men who see them as less than human toys meant to be used and discarded. But once the action kicks in, and the core plot commences, O’Rourke basically abandons common sense and forgets the fundamentals that make for a good, entertaining and enlightening flick.
2.5 star(s), 158 minutes,streaming, Blu-Ray and DVD
Let it never be said that the prolific Ridley Scott lacks for ambition, and also let it never be said that Lady Gaga wasn’t born to be an actor, but neither Scott’s immense talents as a director nor Gaga’s ability to channel a fully formed femme fatale are enough to elevate “House of Gucci” above a pulpy ripped-from-the-headlines thriller that could easily have debuted on a lesser streaming cable network.
“House of Gucci” has moments of inspired WTF-ness, most notably whenever Jared Leto commands the screen in full method madness, and it doesn’t squander appearances by Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino, but it just never completely clicks, which is a tough hurdle to overcome when you’re asking viewers to commit to nearly three hours of scheming and histrionics.
2.5 star(s), 85 minutes, streaming
I feel like “The Spine of Night” is the perfect slice of violent animation that fans of “Heavy Metal” have been craving since Ralph Bakshi stopped making movies. As a narrative feature, there isn’t much here that you haven’t seen before. The animation style harkens back to the 1980s, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s an acquired taste, and also a taste that many have moved on from with the ascent of Pixar and other studios. There’s also a slew of popular actors giving voice to characters, from Patton Oswalt and Lucy Lawless to Richard E. Grant and Joe Manganiello, but that alone wasn’t enough to keep me captivated.
2 star(s), 85 minutes, streaming
Delmar Washington’s feature debut, “Outsiders,” is important for its fearless approach to depicting racial relations in a small community where prejudice often trumps common sense, and its sly efforts to disguise its true nature (is this a drama, a thriller or a science-fiction hybrid) helps hold your attention. I can’t say that I loved it, but I do believe there’s an audience waiting to discover “Outsiders.”
1 star(s), 85 minutes, streaming
As oddball Argentinian horror imports go, “On the 3rd Day” had potential to be a surprising discovery. Then I hit play on my DVD player.
1 star(s), 94 minutes, streaming
I’ve watched thousands of movies, and I can honestly say I have never understood the appeal of Mark Neveldine (“Crank”) as a director or Cole Hauser as an actor. That’s just me.
“Panama,” which uses historical events to help inform a fictitious action thriller, pairs them together with Mel Gibson in a movie that defies expectations, meaning it’s even worse than I expected it to be.
1 star(s), 96 minutes, streaming, Blu-Ray and DVD
Way back in the early 2000s, director Craig Singer showed a lot of promise when his early films, “Perkins 14” and “Dark Ride,” were featured through After Dark Horrorfest’s “8 Films to Die For” franchise.
Well, it sure isn’t the early 2000s any longer, and Singer’s latest, “6:45,” about a troubled couple vacationing on a strange island and dealing with a “Groundhog Day” style occurrence, feels like interminable punishment.
1 star(s), 107 minutes, streaming, 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-Ray and DVD
It’s crazy to think that 20 years ago, the first live action “Resident Evil” debuted, and it remains one of the best video game adaptations ever made. But this attempt to cash-in, and possibly revive, the franchise flounders and frustrates at every turn. I tried three times to make it all the way through, and I just couldn’t do it.
1 star(s), 95 minutes, Hulu
Writer-director Damien Power wowed genre fans in 2016 with “Killing Ground,” a brutal and relentless low-budget survival thriller. His latest, “No Exit,” is not nearly as good. If anything, this tale of a drug addict who escapes mandatory treatment to try and reach her mother’s deathbed, only to be waylaid by a winter storm and stranded in a welcome center with an eccentric cast of characters, feels like a pale imitation of Quentin Tarantino’s superior “The Hateful Eight.”
1 star(s), 115 minutes, Hulu
“Deep Water,” the latest star-studded feature to eschew the traditional theatrical opening and land directly on a streaming platform, is notable for two reasons: It will forever exist as the first and only on-screen pairing of former lovers Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, and it marks a return to directing by Adrian Lyne following a 20-year absence.
Trust me when I tell you that “Deep Water” is no “Jacob’s Ladder” or “Fatal Attraction” or even “Indecent Proposal.” Its story, however, a reworking of a classic novel by Patricia Highsmith, is right in Lyne’s wheelhouse, which means there’s plenty of sexual tension and deviant behavior.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t offensive to see de Armas’s Melinda basically slut-shamed throughout because she plays a woman who thirsts for physical connection by collecting a revolving door of stunt penises to make up for her loveless marriage to Affleck’s cold Vic.
There’s some pulpy fun to be had, but it’s not enough to mask the glaring toxic masculinity that never gets addressed in any meaningful manner.
1 star(s), 63 minutes, streaming
“Follower,” the latest found-footage-hybrid to try and incorporate social media and horror, hails from writer-director James Rich. While it has some creepy moments, particularly early on, you’re seen this story about isolated females being hunted out in nature by a deranged sociopath way too many times for the one gimmick, a live-stream on the dark web, to elevate “Follower” above the glut of other, similar features already available.
Also Available as of March 29
“Surf Nazis Must Die!,” “Deep Hatred,” “The Institute,” “You Are Not My Mother,” Bryan Loves You: Collector’s Edition,” “Come Drink with Me,” “To Sleep so as to Dream,” “Signal,” “Nightmare – Collector’s Edition,” “Sin Eater,” A Writer’s Odyssey,” “Heckle,” “Moon Manor,” “The Long Walk,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “The Last Possession,” “I Am Mortal,” “Creation Stories,” “Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol,” “The 355,” “Golden Voices” and “Alligator: Collector’s Edition”
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This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2022.