End of summer crapfest
In this week’s Criticize This! we take a look at a Lee Daniels possession flick, a fun Canadian B-movie, and a pretentious slog of a film that’s now available on digital.
THE BIG ONE
Lee Daniels’ first foray into horror is so much more than “the Black Exorcist”, as some have called it. It’s really a drama about an alcoholic single mom (Andra Day) trying to stay sober and raise her three kids in a stable environment. While she struggles with being the ideal mother, there are hints that it used to be much worse for everyone.
The movie begins shortly after the family has settled into a new home, where strange things soon start happening. Swarms of flies, bad smells, a dead cat in the basement – if we’re comparing it to other horror movies, it feels more like The Amityville Horror than The Exorcist in the beginning. Then the kids start acting weird, especially the youngest, Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins), who is found bashing his head against a door one night.
Even when all hell breaks loose, The Deliverance is not a scary movie. But with a solid cast, which also includes Glenn Close, Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas from Stranger Things), and Demi Singleton (Serena Williams in King Richard), it works on a different level and is an enthralling watch.
Unfortunately, most critics are not seeing what we saw in the film, and it currently has a sad 41% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with a 75% audience rating.
“What starts out as a sincere dysfunctional family drama turns into a hokey supernatural horror thriller that erodes any chance of us taking it seriously,” Keith Garlington wrote in his review of the film. Another negative review said that the movie “is stripped of spookiness and nuance, coming very close to becoming the camp classic of 2024.”
We didn’t think it was campy or hokey at all. If we had to find a complaint with the film it would be with Close’s character, who felt placed in the movie by executives at Netflix in order to have a white person in it (although in the poster for the movie they’ve darkened Close’s skin colour, and it just looks wrong). Close was great in her performance, but the movie would have been just as good without her.
In one of the more positive reviews, Andrew Parker wrote that it’s “ominous, creepy, and delivers the goods without ever once speaking down to the audience.” Daniel Hart says it best in his review, writing that “The Deliverance has far more meaning than its presentation. It deserves analysis, especially with the amount of mirroring that takes place.”
Our take: This is a solid drama that’s a great long weekend couch watch. Just don’t expect it to make you jump.
The Deliverance is now streaming on Netflix.
IN THEATRES
Scared Shitless
If a movie title like ‘Scared Shitless’ doesn’t pique your interest, then this is probably not your cup of tea. If it does, however, then you’re in for a hilarious, weird, and fun ride.
Steven Ogg, best known as the voice of Trevor in the video game GTA V, is perfectly cast as Don, a seasoned plumber who finds himself battling a bizarre, phallic-like creature in the pipes of an apartment building, along with his germaphobe son, Sonny (Daniel Doheny). Ogg really owns his role and is 100% believable as a blue-collar worker. Doheny also stands out opposite Ogg, and both play off each other’s strengths wonderfully as father and son.
Along with a stellar supporting cast that includes Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall, Superstore), Chelsea Clark (Ginny & Georgia), and Marcia Bennett (The Last of Us), Scared Shitless has great practical effects (courtesy of Psycho Goreman director Steven Kostanski), an excellent soundtrack filled with ’80s Canadian rock, and a very short 76-minute runtime.
While there are only a handful of reviews for the film currently online, they are all mostly positive. In her review for Eye For Film, Jennie Kermode said that it’s “a future cult favourite, and fun from start to finish.” And Kat Hughes wrote in her review that the movie is “packed with as much heart, humour, and gore as humanly possible.”
Scared Shitless is now playing at select film festivals.
Also in theatres this week: The AI horror movie Afraid, starring John Cho and Katherine Waterston, is in wide release, and the baseball movie You Gotta Believe, starring Luke Wilson and Greg Kinnear, is playing in select theatres.
TOP BOX OFFICE
STREAMING
Kinds of Kindness (VOD)
Kinds of Kindness is classic Yorgos Lanthimos, and if you’re watching because you enjoyed his Oscar-nominated Poor Things last year, it is going to try your patience with its slow 163-minute runtime and probably turn you off from ever seeing another movie of his in the future.
The movie is a combination of three equally strange and absurd stories, all starring Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, and Hong Chau. The way it’s structured, it almost feels like it was made specifically for film festivals and critics, which could explain why it has a 72% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with a low 49% audience rating.
It’s not completely terrible, and there are a few enjoyable things about it (the cinematography and Margaret Qualley’s performance stand out), but don’t even bother giving this pretentious slog of a film any of your time unless you’re a serious fan of Lanthimos’ full body of work.
Also streaming this week: M. Night’s Trap, Borderlands (which still has a 10% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes), and Harold and the Purple Crayon are all on VOD, Abigail is on Prime Video, and The Watchers is on Crave.
COMING SOON
Directed by Jason Reitman, Saturday Night tells the story of the very first ‘Saturday Night Live’ broadcast on October 11, 1975.
Going off the trailer, it looks like they’ve nailed the ’70s set and vibe, and have found believable actors to play the original cast members. We’ll know if it succeeds after its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10 (it opens in theatres wide on October 11).
Check out the trailer for Saturday Night on our YouTube channel and let us know if you’re excited for this one or not?
ON DISC
As we say goodbye to summer and head into pumpkin spice season, there’s no better time to talk about David Gordon Green’s ‘Halloween Trilogy’ on 4K Blu-ray, which includes Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends.
These movies might not be as good as the original Halloween, but they are far superior than all the other sequels to come along, as well as the Rob Zombie remakes of Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009).
James Jude Courtney’s portrayal of masked killer Michael Myers (credited as ‘The Shape’) is excellent in these films. The way he walks and moves is the way Michael should, and you know he’s not messing around when he’s on his killing spree of an entire fire department in Halloween Kills.
The highlight to the trilogy of course is Jamie Lee Curtis’ return as Laurie Strode, who is now older and way more badass (she has an arsenal of guns and knows how to use them). This trilogy also pays homage to many of the Halloween sequels in small ways, including the non-Michael Myers Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and brings back other original actors like Nick Castle and P.J. Soles.
While some of the violence might be a bit over-the-top, and Halloween Ends is admittedly not the greatest, this is still a worthwhile, old-fashioned slasher trilogy to get you into the spirit of the season.
Each movie in the ‘Halloween Trilogy’ 4K Blu-ray set looks and sounds spectacular, especially in the darker, quieter scenes. Special features include an extended cut of Halloween Kills, deleted and extended scenes for each movie, and a gag reel for Halloween Kills.
You can buy the ‘Halloween Trilogy’ 4K Blu-ray on Amazon.ca for $51.99.
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