Category: Movie Reviews

The Sadness – Flash Review

The Sadness is a 2021 Taiwanese horror movie directed by Rob Jabbaz. It stars Brent Zhu, Regina Lei and Tzu-Chiang Wang

What’s it about?:
A rage virus hits Taiwan and two lovers on opposite ends of the city try to find each other.

Is it good?:
It is. I think?

Did you enjoy it:
Kind of? Look, I’m not squeamish at all but there are a few scenes in this movie that left me staring at the screen in shock. I’ve seen just about everything. One of the first movies I remember writing a review for was High Tension and that’s a movie that really isn’t afraid to “go there.” The Sadness is hyper violent and it never pulls back or shies away from doing the things that most other horror movies only hint at.

Tzu-Chiang Wang was phenomenal as “The Businessman” though. One of the best villains I’ve seen in a movie in quite some time.

Do you recommend it?:
I do not. You know those horror movies you love that are so supremely fucked up you just can’t in good conscience recommend them to another living soul? This is one of them.

Final thoughts:
Definitely not for the squeamish. There’s a solid lovers trying to reunite story here but there’s some pretty disturbing imagery throughout.

X – Flash Review

X is a 2022 movie directed by Ti West and starring Mia Goth.

What’s it about?: The quest to make a porno movie in rural Texas

Is it good?: Yes. It’s very good. It’s superbly shot and acted. The score is phenomenal and while there aren’t many “scares”, the tension and dread are top notch.

Did you enjoy it: I don’t know. I wanted to? Again, if you’ve seen a Ti West movie you already know it’s beautifully shot and the tension is handled masterfully. My complaint is a petty one. Stop putting young people in makeup to look like they’re in their 80s. They also did this in Midnight Mass and it was so distracting it took me right out of it.

Do you recommend it?: I do. With the added note that I was ripped right out of the movie every time Pearl (played by Mia Goth) was onscreen. It shouldn’t bug me this much but it does. I can see other people not caring and they will probably enjoy it a lot more than I did.

Final thoughts: It’s good but I am nothing if not petty and the makeup bothered me to the point that I stopped caring what went on.

A Creepshow Animated Special – Review

2020
Animated Anthology
Directed by: Greg Nicotero

What a beautiful surprise to wake up to on a dreary and cold Thursday morning. Let’s get this review started.

Survivor Type
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland

Since childhood I’ve had an irrational fear of being stranded and/or trapped places. Kiefer Sutherland plays a surgeon who crash lands on a deserted island and has to do drastic things to stay alive.

What a solid way to start the animated special off. Kiefer Sutherland gives a great performance as a man constantly pushing his mental and physical limits as his body starts to fail him. There were a few genuinely shocking scenes that were easier to buy in an animated format than in live-action. The only downside to this was I kept thinking that Graham Rowat would have been phenomenal in this role

Twittering From the Circus of the Dead
Starring: Joey King

A bored teenager live-tweets from a zombie circus.

I tend not to enjoy anything zombie related since most of the stories are lazy rehashes of the exact same tropes and plot points almost beat for beat. This was a welcomed exception to that.

It started off a little slow but Joey King does a great job of selling everything and the story comes together really nicely as it plays out.

Final thoughts:

At only 45 minutes in length it zooms by really quickly and leaves you wanting more. 2021 can’t get here soon enough (for many, many, many reasons) so that we can all enjoy season 2 of Creepshow.