Let's get it started, with my first review...
What if Superman, after falling to Earth and being raised right by a loving couple, went down a darker path than usual and ended up more of a super-villain than a superhero? Such is the premise of Brightburn, and it's a fascinating one, with loads of possibilities moving forward.
Granted, it's not completely unprecedented- Superman himself went rogue in Superman III, exhibited some iffy behavior in Man of Steel and the DC follow-up films and has gone to some really dark places in the comics as well (see here). Even so, Brightburn goes significantly darker overall than any of these, particularly in regards to his age at the time.
Say what you will about some of the stuff Superman has done over the years, he was at least an adult when he did them, and his actions were primarily directed at villains, save some of his run-ins with Batman, which got brutal. Here, the Superman proxy is just a middle school kid when he breaks bad, and boy does he go real dark, real quick. We're talking full-on murderous, not merely misbehaving badly.
This leads to some remarkably graphic scenes- this is definitely not a superhero movie for the kiddies, that's for sure. One of the best things about superhero movies finally breaking the "R"-rating barrier with movies like Deadpool and Logan is that it finally allows films to go where few have dared to tread in the past- the only ones I can think of are maybe the Blade films and Spawn.
The film is produced by James Gunn, whose brother Brian and cousin Mark co-wrote the screenplay together, and share their relative's quirky sensibilities. Only more so the kind of thing he used to do, back in Gunn's Troma days and his early Hollywood efforts like the Dawn of the Dead remake (which he wrote) and Slither (which he both wrote and directed), as well as the twisted pseudo-superhero flick Super, which gets a nod here.
Relative newcomer David Yarovesky (The Hive) does the directing honors, while the film stars Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games series, The Uninvited) and David Denman (The Office, Outcast) as the adoptive parents and Jackson A. Dunn (Shameless, Avengers: Endgame) as little Brandon Beyer, the alien who gains superpowers as he hits puberty with a vengeance.
The end results are pretty damn entertaining, especially if you like your superhero movies dark as a moonless night, or if you like the idea of a superhero horror movie. The film doesn't skip on the gore, with some of the FX even making me cringe a bit, which takes a lot these days, so make of that what you will- the car crash bit (emphasis on "bit") is pretty wow-inducing, and the film features any number of great stalk and kill sequences that don't necessarily go the way you might think- at least at first.
The Gunns know their horror, to be sure. I can't recommend this one enough- I was thoroughly impressed and I would be surprised if this one didn't make my Best of 2019 list. We'll see, but until such a time, you should see it, too, if you like the general premise- it's a lot of fun, and that kid is pretty damn good at being creepy. 😈
After a certain point, I started avoiding movie trailers like the plague because too many of them kept giving away major plot twists- in particular looking at you, Terminator Genisys and Pet Sematary remake- but inevitably I'm going to be exposed to at least a few as a moviegoer, in spite of my efforts to show up late, but not TOO late. One of the ones I did see was for this movie, and I remember thinking: well, I can skip that one, having just seen practically the entire film in a nutshell.
Well, as it turns out, I was somewhat wrong. Yes, the trailer gives away the general premise: a group of underage teens trying to get an adult to buy them booze run into trouble when an older lady agrees to do just that, but one condition- that the teens party at her house so that she can keep an eye on them and keep them out of trouble. Or is she the actual trouble? If you guessed yes, then you get the general idea.
But, as it turns out, the film actually has more going on than at first meets the eye. For one thing, it's directed by, of all people, Tate Taylor, of The Help and Get On Up fame, which also helps explain how he landed such a high profile cast for a horror movie, including Octavia Spencer as Sue Ann, aka the "Ma" of the title; Allison Janney as Sue Ann's crotchety boss; Juliette Lewis as the mom of the main teen character; Luke Evans (Beauty & The Beast) as one of the other parents; Missy Pyle (Mom, A Haunted House 2) as the trashy Mercedes; and Taylor himself as a local cop.
Sometimes directors working outside their traditional lane can lead to some interesting movies, i.e. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, William Friedkin's The Exorcist, Richard Donner's The Omen, et. al. Ma is one of those movies. Screenwriter Scotty Landes' clever script concentrates on character in a way few horror movies do, giving one a chance to get to know most of the major players before going completely gonzo in the final thirty minutes or so.
We not only get to know Spencer's indelible Sue Ann well, we even learn to sympathize with her- at least until she starts dropping bodies left and right. Structurally, I found myself thinking of Brian De Palma's classic Carrie- if Carrie had managed to survive her ill-fated Prom Night and didn't strike out at her oppressors the night of the festivities, and instead stewed over things for a few decades before finally snapping, then you might have this movie.
Mind you, "Ma" doesn't possess any superpowers- unless you count her dope moves on the dance floor and her ability to throw a rager as special skills- but she certainly has a mean streak if you get on her bad side, and trust me, you don't want to do that. If certain elements of the film are predictable, especially to longtime horror fans, or even fans of, say, the more twisted breed of Lifetime true crime-style movies, then it doesn't make the film any less entertaining, thanks to that game cast and able direction and scripting.
Special shout-out to two of the teens in question: Diana Silvers (Booksmart) and McKaley Miller (Scream Queens), who play, respectively, the new girl in town, Maggie, and her new best friend, and resident troublemaker, Haley- those two are headed places, career-wise. While I figured out where the movie was headed more or less, I still enjoyed the ride, and it wasn't without twists not ruined by the trailer, which was a welcome surprise, and just as importantly, I really liked most of the main characters, especially Maggie and her mom and, of course, Ma. By all means, check this one out- it might just win you over like it did me.
The sixth installment in the ongoing Conjuring franchise, The Curse of La Llorona is basically a variation of the original Poltergeist, only with a Latin flair. Unfortunately, it also falls prey to the whole "white person problems" trope, as the female lead is, in fact, a white woman- in this case, Linda Cardellini. I mean, don't get me wrong: I'm a fan of her from way back- I actually watched Freaks and Geeks when it initially ran on TV back in the day, long before it became a cult item, and I've followed her career through the likes of the Scooby Doo movies and the more recent heights of her Emmy-nominated turn on Mad Men and her fantastic role on the dark comedy series Dead to Me.
My problem is not with her, but the fact that the filmmakers saw the need to insert a white person into the proceedings when there was no real need for it. I mean, there's plenty of Latina actresses that would have been fine in the part, from Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz to someone like Eva Longoria or even Sofia Vergara, all of whom have decent followings and fall within the appropriate age range of a widow with two kids. I don't think it would have affected the box office one way or another- people who saw this went because it was part of the Conjuring-verse, not because of the race of the actors in question. Horror is pretty bullet-proof that way.
Anyway, it is what it is, and Cardellini's just fine as a social worker, Anna, who gets more than she bargains for when she's tasked with a welfare check of a Latino woman with two young children who may be in danger, or possibly even missing altogether. When she gets there, she discovers that the kids are there and relatively safe, but that their mother has seemingly gone off the deep end, keeping them locked in the closet, convinced that an evil known as "La Llorona" is after them and she is the last line of defense against her.
All concerned are brought in, with most, including Anna, thinking that the mother has lost her mind. Her kids are placed in a child services' shelter for the time being, where they are indeed kidnapped and later killed. Everyone concerned think it was the mother, but it soon becomes readily apparent that there was more going on than meets the eye, when Anna and her own kids start experiencing weird occurances at their own home. After a certain point, Anna herself is the subject of an investigation, as she scrambles to find out what is really going on.
The film is fine, as these things go, but it doesn't really bring much new to the table, beyond a fictionalized version of the classic "La Llorona" mythos. As tends to be the case in these movies, jump scares rule the day, and though the final set-piece in the house, as a renegade former priest (an indispensable Raymond Cruz, of The Closer and Major Crimes, bringing a welcome dose of wry humor to the proceedings) helps Anna out is not without tension, you can pretty much predict how all of this will play out early on, especially if this isn't your first ghost story rodeo, much less not your first Conjuring one.
Perhaps it would have made a difference if the director was Mexican himself, or if the movie had gone full Mexican, as I suggested, by jettisoning Cardellini in favor of a Mexican actress, but, given the script, I'm not so sure. It's not, as I said, that the film is markedly bad, it's just sort of bland and generic. I do think there's a decent film to be made from the "La Llorona" legend, but this, alas, isn't it. Nonetheless, it cleaned up at the box office, grossing a whopping $122 million on a mere $9 million budget, so you can count on more, probably.
Quite frankly, it may be the worst of the Conjuring-verse to date, though the first Annabelle was no great shakes. Still, that series course corrected with the second film- maybe this one will, too. You never know. Either way, director Michael Chaves has been hired to do the next proper entry in the Conjuring series, part three, for better or worse, with originator Wan knee deep in DC waters with the Aquaman series and various other endeavors. He doesn't do a terrible job here, so maybe he'll knock that one out of the park. We'll see. But yeah, this one is pretty skippable. 😞
I watched this one on Netflix on a whim, when I saw that it starred Modern Family vixen Sarah Hyland. I'm a fan of hers from that show, and thought it might be fun to see her in a horror flick. It revolves around a group of friends that are headed to Coachella, but decide to take a tour of various occult-related sites in Los Angeles en route, leaving a few days early to that end. Bad move, as they are subsequently drawn into various satanic shenanigans that only get progressively worse as the film goes on.
Oddly, Hyland, saddled with a thankless "good girl" role, is the least interesting thing in the movie, though, sadly, the main cast falls firmly into the whole "who can be the most annoying" trope, which will leave most viewers ready to see them bite it ASAP- never a good thing. There's Hyland's character's BF, David (Steven Krueger, The Originals) an entitled prick who goes out of his way to seem "edgy" but is anything but, and their Goth buddies, couple Seth (Justin Chon, the Twilight saga) and Elise (Clara Mamet, Neighbors 2- also the daughter of David and half-sister of Zosia, of Girls fame), who are the main ones spearheading the whole occult-driven thing.
This is one of those horror flicks where everyone seems to make the worst choices at every turn, and I know, without them, we wouldn't have a movie, but, trust me, even by dumb horror movie standards, this group is borderline mentally challenged. Case in point, they follow some Satanists to an isolated locale to see what they can see, then later on invite one back to their hotel, even after seeing her participate in a freaky ritual. If this had been the late 60's they'd have probably invited the Manson family over, too, given the Goth couples' fan worship of the crew. (They pay a visit to the house once occupied by Sharon Tate to take a selfie!)
I will say that the cult chick in question, Alice (Sophie Dalah, Dead Night, Night Drive) is the best thing in the movie, and the only time the film really comes close to being genuinely creepy is in the scene in the hotel where she goes full-on Satanist, much to the horror of all concerned. That's what you get for inviting a confirmed wackadoodle into the mix, idiots. All of this promptly leads to a downward spiral which most will be able to predict the endgame of moving forward, including the "twist" ending.
Hyland doesn't get much of a showcase here, but I suppose I've seen worse. However, I say that as someone who has seen a lot more B-movies than the average viewer, so take that with a grain of salt, as we're talking about a movie with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, for whatever that's worth. Still, I watched it to the end, so that's something, I guess. Keep an eye on that Sophie Dalah, though- she might be one to watch in the future. As it stands, this one is imminently skippable. 😝
Well, that about does it for now. Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for the next installment of Octoberfest soon! 🎃
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