Apologies- when I was moving stuff around my room I accidentally damaged my computer monitor cord and had to send off for a new one, so I've basically been sans internet for the most part for over a week. Good thing I had that new TV!
And I know what you're thinking: why not use that TV as a monitor- well, I thought of that, too, but I didn't have the right cord for that, either. It's just been that kind of week. I did have my phone, but I'm not writing and editing a freaking article on my phone, sorry. I love you guys, but there ARE limits, lol. And that includes going to a freaking Walmart for a power cord during a pandemic in a Red State where the numbers are rising everyday and not wearing a mask is seen as a damn political statement. 😕
But fear not- I have said cord now, and all is well. I'll be kicking off The Cronenberg Chronicles later this week- I've already got a leg up on that one, having had little to do but watch movies and TV shows over the last week, so hopefully I can start knocking those out asap. I'll also be doing my new column My Favorite Things soon as well- I'll use that to break up the Cronenberg stuff here and there.
Finally, I'll be doing the occasional Movie Round-Up as I watch enough newer movies to do it. I'll probably hold off on my proposed Franchise Review till July, though. In the meantime, here's my review of the two June holiday-themed episodes of Into the Dark. As ever, thanks for hanging in there! 😉
So, by now you know the drill- Into the Dark is a monthly feature-length anthology series from Blumhouse Productions, where each episode is tied into a holiday, more or less. Though some stretch that definition, or, at the very least, the holiday aspect is arbitrary at best. The newer one of these two episodes certainly stretches credibility in both areas, that's for sure. "Pet Appreciation Week"? That's not a holiday- hell, it's not even a DAY. But whatevs- I'm reviewing 'em anyway. Here goes.
Easily the creepier of the two June-themed eps, They Come Knocking revolves around Father's Day, and here, it actually is a fairly integral part of the plot, especially since it revolves around the trials and tribulations of a long-suffering father of two girls who recently lost his much-beloved wife after a nasty bout of cancer that resulted in his having to pull the plug, much to his older daughter's chagrin. Needless to say, this is a source of quite a bit of resentment, which doesn't exactly equal a happy Father's Day for daddy.
In an attempt to try and heal the wounds that bind them, dear old dad takes the fam to camp in an isolated spot where, once upon a time, he proposed to his late wife. There, he plans to scatter her ashes in hopes of putting her to rest in a more finalized way, so as to end one chapter of their lives and begin another.
One big problem- it seems that some new residents have taken up living in the area, and they may have a particular thing for hunting down children, given the recent spate of disappearances to that end in the area. Even freakier, they would appear to be children themselves. Just what the hell is going on here? And could the timing of dad's trip be worse?
To tell the truth, I'm still not entirely sure of the whole origin story of the killer kids in question. As far as I can tell, they're not that interested in the adults- they want kids like themselves, one assumes to recruit new members to the fold. They also seem to have supernatural powers- at several points they make the family think they see their late mother/wife, in an attempt to lure them out into the open, and thus, into the line of fire, as it were.
And yet, in spite of this, they don't seem to have the power to actually go into someone's place unless they're physically let in- much like a vampire, you basically have to invite them in. If you don't, they can't get in, which means really all one has to do is wait them out till morning, at which point you can make a break for it. (Reportedly, the kids are based on the urban legend of the "Black-eyed Children," which you can read more about here.)
To be fair, the film does address this, by having the action take place in an isolated locale- there aren't a lot of places to run to, and the ones there are, like a nearby junkyard, aren't exactly appealing either. Also, during the course of the first night of their attack, the creepy kids disable the father's car, so that takes care of that route of getting out of there. However, the film does fall prey to the usual horror movie clichés, in terms of dumb moves by the characters.
For instance, the next day, upon seeing the car is messed up, the father takes it upon himself to walk to the gas station to get help- and opts to leave his kids there! No loving father would do that, least of all while still reeling from the death of his wife and their mother. But if it didn't happen, the film wouldn't be able to separate them all and deliver some mild exposition, as we see another trailer that the kids attacked previously and get some clues as to what they're really up to.
For that reason, I get it, but in real life, yeah, it would never happen that way, unless the father was a real asshole, and this one isn't. Nathan, the dad, is played by an exceptional Clayne Crawford, who played the Mel Gibson role in the recent Lethal Weapon TV series spin-off.
I didn't watch the show, but I gather he was a handful to work with, ultimately getting fired from the show, which ultimately led to its demise after they basically wrote out one of the main characters and tried to keep going, which I gather didn't go over too well with fans. Whatever the case, he was fantastic here, and his character has a quiet strength that I'm guessing his character on Weapon was probably the opposite end of the spectrum from, going by the way the character was in the movie version.
Here, Crawford is heartbreakingly good, and really makes you feel the pain of unexpectedly becoming a father in a different way when your significant other is gone. Through flashbacks- perhaps a few too many, if I'm being honest- we see how much he struggles to let his wife go, and end her suffering, in spite of his kids' pleas to the contrary. His wife, Val is played by the Teen Witch herself, Robyn Lively (also of the OG Twin Peaks), aka Blake's stepsister: top that! 😉
Older daughter, Clair, is played by an equally affecting Josephine Langford, sister of Katherine, of 13 Reasons Why and Knives Out fame. She clearly inherited her big sis' good looks, along with her talent. She's actually 22, for the record, probably 21 at the time of filming, rather than being the teenager she plays here. You might also know her from the horror flick Wish Upon, as well as the TV series spin-off of the movie Wolf Creek. Or the movie After, if you're given to teen melodramas. She's a talent to watch, for sure.
Bringing up the rear is little Lia McHugh, as younger sister, Maggie, who, unlike her own big sister, has handled the loss of her mother by clinging more tightly to her father, not doing everything in her power to stay removed from him by drowning herself in music and the like. McHugh is a bit of a burgeoning Scream Kid herself, having already appeared in the likes of Totem, Along Came the Devil and The Lodge, as well as the TV show American Woman.
With this strong of a cast, They Come Knocking can't help but resonate emotionally, even if it comes up a bit short in the scare department. Yes, the killer kids are creepy, but most of the horror is of the jump scare garden variety, and I've seen too many of these movies to fall for most of that. That's too bad, as there was an even better movie to have been made here. If the horror had risen to the level of the emotion, they might have really had something.
I guess you can lay that at the feet of the writers, Shane and Carey Van Dyke, perhaps best-known for the decent Chernobyl Diaries, but also the ones behind such knock-offs as Paranormal Entity, Transmorphers and Street Racer, to say nothing of- gulp- Titanic II ! (Not a joke, I assure you. Well, sort of, in the more literal sense, lol. And if you guessed The Asylum was behind it, you get a gold star! 🎇)
On the other hand, director Adam Mason did one of the better entries of the show, the April Fools' Day-themed I'm Just F*ckin' With You. (See review here.) In terms of emotional growth, They Come Knocking is a big step forward for the director- who's better-known for such gorefests as Broken, Blood River and Hangman- I just wish it hadn't come at the expense of the scares. Oh well- nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Next up, we have the droll Good Boy, which ostensibly takes place during Pet Appreciation Week (June 7th-13th), which was not a "holiday" I was familiar with, even though I certainly have nothing against our furry friends. Why shouldn't they get a week, much less a day? No skin off my back. That said, it is a bit of a stretch as a holiday, obviously, so yeah, there's that.
Fortunately, the episode stars the much-beloved (at least by me) Judy Greer, who is worth her weight in dubious holidays or holi-weeks, as is the case here. I first became a fan of hers circa Jawbreaker and have been one ever since. Her long list of credits is too massive to list here, but you probably know her best for the likes of Three Kings, 13 Going on 30, The Village, Cursed, The Descendants, Carrie, Dawn and War of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World, the Ant-Man series, TV's Arrested Development and Archer and, most recently, the rebooted Halloween series.
Greer plays lonely lady Maggie, who longs to be a mom, but just can't seem to find the right guy. After finally giving up the ghost and taking steps to have her eggs frozen just in case, things rapidly start to go downhill in her life. Her cushy job at a local newspaper is seriously downsized when the powers that be decide to go all-digital, forcing her to go freelance, taking a big chunk out of her paycheck in the process. Her landlord keeps trying to sneak fees onto her bill at her rent-controlled apartment. Now, she may not even be able to afford the whole egg-freezing thing to boot.
Her condescending boss, Don (Steve Guttenberg!) suggest she get a pet as a compromise, which she doesn't take kindly to at first, but eventually caves and goes to a rescue pound to investigate. There she finds the downright adorable pooch she dubs Reuben, which looks just like a dog a friend of mine had once upon a time- think that dog in the old 80's teen comedy Up the Creek (see him- or her, as the case may be- in action here.)
This being a horror show, as you might have guessed from the title, there's more going on than meets the eye with little Reuben. For one thing, he has a mean grip on those toys of his- which include a stuffed Pooka, FYI, a cute bit of product placement- and an adversity to being put in a cage, to say nothing of being left alone too long. What's more, he seems to have a pre-natural talent for reading his owner: when she's in emotional turmoil, so is he. And when things take an even worse turn for Maggie, you better believe it doesn't go down well for Reuben.
Before you know it, the bodies are piling up- but how in the world could a tiny cutie like Reuben possibly be responsible for such gruesome, seemingly impossible acts? You'll just have to see for yourself, but let's just say that Cujo ain't got nothing on Reuben. Sadly, we never get an extended look at Reuben in his "other" form, but sometimes less is more. Besides, if this one goes over well, there's always the sequel, if Pooka Lives! was any indication.
I had a lot of fun with Good Boy all around. Greer is so inherently likable- as is Reuben, for that matter- and the supporting cast is pretty solid as well, including McKinley Freeman (Hit the Floor, End of Watch) as Maggie's prime love interest- and, unfortunately for her, also the cop investigating all those mysterious deaths in the neighborhood- Ellen Wong (The Void, Silent Night) as her bestie and former babysitting subject, Annie; Elise Neal (Scream 2, Tragedy Girls) as Maggie's doctor; and Maria Conchita Alonso (Predator 2, The Lords of Salem) as Bea, Maggie's landlord.
Yes, it's all a bit predictable, but unlike our previous entry, both the emotional stuff and the horror lands squarely where they should, thanks in no small part to Greer's empathetic performance. As a writer, I certainly related to the dwindling job opportunities brought about by changing technology- I, too, lost a cushy job recently, due to just that scenario- and I'm sure many women of a certain age can relate to having trouble finding a man these days, to say nothing of the perils of trying to have a child when everything is seemingly against you- not in the least, time itself.
Granted, none of this is remotely scary, but it isn't meant to be. Like Pooka Lives!, this is meant to be fun and enjoyable for horror fans, not to scare you out of your wits. It's definitely more horror-comedy than straight horror. As I've noted before, that can be a toxic cocktail, but here, it goes down smooth, thanks to that cast and some poignant writing, courtesy of yet another duo, Aaron and Will Eisenberg, who, interestingly enough, normally write for kids, such as their work on Netflix's 3Below: Tales of Arcadia. You'd never guess from their work here, though the end result is also a bit cartoonish- but in a good way.
In the director's chair is Tyler MacIntyre, who made Flicker and the aforementioned Tragedy Girls, which I just loved. As a former editor, he knows the value of "less is more," and he's clearly seen enough Creature Features to know that sometimes it's better to limit the view of the creature in question, a la Jaws or Alien. If anything, as I said, I could have stood to have seen a bit more of Reuben in his more monstrous form. But as approaches go, it's still a solid one.
I'll allow that Knocking probably carries with it much more emotional weight, being as it deals with true loss, not the loss of a job or the weight of one's biological clock ticking- worthy causes to write about, to be sure, but nowhere near as heavy as losing a loved one to the biggest bitch of them all: cancer. But where it fumbles the ball somewhat with the horror part, Good Boy gets it right by going for the funny bone instead of the patented jump scare. That's not to say it doesn't have a fair amount of gore, though- it's just played more for laughs, like, say, a Sam Raimi flick, than played straight.
As such, it's a tough call to say which is better. Knocking stuck with me more because of its more emotional core and affecting performances from the main cast, but Good Boy is more entertaining on a surface level. I guess I'd say if it's more straight horror you're looking for, it's definitely Knocking you want. But if it's sheer entertainment you want, you can't go wrong with Good Boy. It's worth its weight in kibbles in bits. 🐕👹
Well, that about does it for now. Thanks for reading, and join me later in the week for my much-anticipated deep dive into the work of rebel filmmaker David Cronenberg- it's sure to be a wild ride! 😃
No comments:
Post a Comment