J*A*S*M

A fun chain of black humour points and deus ex machina moments. Nothing more than that, but enough for a twenty minute run. Available on Vimeo.

Great stuff. Basically, a terrifically horrifying premise that the film carries with a pleasant and light tone. The flat in the story is visually retro-beauty, and with a well put together atmosphere. A horrifyingly Viennese fairy tale. Available on Vimeo.

An entertaining and original idea that easily maintains the curiosity of the viewer in its twenty minutes. It doesn’t lead into anything fundamental, but it’s good. Available on Vimeo.

Save for a couple of exceptions, the mythology episodes of The X-Files were always annoying, and the same goes for the first episode of the revival. The problem is mostly how confusing it is. Honestly, I am convinced that not even the showrunners – or Christ Carter even – are fully on top of all these conspiracies. Everyone is always ranting about something, talking in riddles, nobody gives a clear answer to anything, everything is in doubt, and it has never, and will never, lead to any proper conclusion. Nevertheless, is nostalgia as hell; the feeling of the 1990s is tangible, Mulder is Mulder, Scully is Scully, Skinner is Skinner… Basically, it’s The X-Files. I’m looking forward to the next episodes, in its way, this one has been a “necessary evil”.

A pleasant old-fashioned horror flick about a sexually frustrated priest and a church where everything smells quite musty. If it was twenty minutes shorter, I’d give it a four. 70 %

Was it really such an insurmountable problem for the creators to write at least one (!) of the main characters that was a little (!) likeable and not a idiot? Because these dull morons were truly unbearable, especially since the proper horror action doesn’t get going until the fiftieth minute. Until then it’s suffering, which unnecessarily hurts the film, because the setting is great, the POV through the glasses works fine and the demonic mayhem in the last third is quite decent. But the idiotic and annoying main characters overwhelm everything else.

It’s impossible to write much about Amenábar’s new thriller without spoilers. During the story I was truly surprised that an A-list director with an A-list cast has made such a B-movie - a trashy Satanist tale where much of the (to be fair, not insignificant) fun lies in comparing the intended effects of each scene with their real effects. It’s a lot of fun, really, and a horror guilty-pleasure for the most part, because I actually like this type of clichéd silliness with Satanist cults, rituals, etc. But in the end it breaks down, though not nearly enough for Regression to suddenly become a smart film, but too much for me to keep on making contemptuous fun of it. So nothing, basically. Maybe 60%, but it could move either way.

If it was an original film, Martyrs, by the brothers Goetz, could have deserved an average rating with lamentations of a wasted potential, but as a remake it’s the definition of offensive laziness. An excellent film that’s been devoid of style and all its sharp edges. An almost incredible softening up in every sense, which is exactly what shouldn’t happen with Martyrs, given the premise that moves the plot. All the changes in the story from the original (minimal in the first half, which dully and blandly follows the footsteps of the original twist, and a bit more in the second half) are for the worse; none of the creative decisions could overcome the final impression. It’s such a pointless and useless film that the creators, who didn’t have a very bad début with Scenic Route, have lost any sympathy that I could have even felt for them. Because if someone has signed up for this, it’s clear that they don’t care at all about artistic self-expression.

Cautious approval. If Blumhouse was self-critical enough to not release The Veil in cinemas but send it directly to the VOD networks, I’m going to oblige and give the film some mild compliment. I appreciate the visible production values; It’s a nicely shot film, with decent actors, an atmosphere that rears up its head here and there and also a nicely captured environment (by the way, much nicer locations that the recent The Forest, which should’ve been built on that, actually). However, someone went a bit too far with the filters, though what hurts the film the most is the performance of Thomas Jane, whose overacting is off the charts. Actually, you can’t even call it overacting, it’s such an over the top written character that it’s almost a parody that unnaturally sticks up from the rest of the film, and therefore it can’t be taken very seriously.

The beginning was great, somewhere around the middle I lost interest, but I finished the second half of Hotel, and I’m satisfied. For me, in fact the second best season of AHS (after Asylum). It helped a lot that Jessica Lange took a break (in the last seasons she was playing always the same character and it was boring already), and instead of her, Lady Gaga brought her own special aura. Hopefully, Murphy won’t make the same mistake and won’t let us pass the next season, like Jessica. I would also bring in some positive characters, though I could develop a taste for this panopticon of eccentricity.