Mercy Black (2019)

Mercy Black is a 2019 horror movie over on Netflix that takes place 15 years after two girls stab another in order to summon a spirit known as Mercy Black. Marina Hess is finally released by her doctor and moves in with her sister Alice and son Bryce. It isn’t long before she is reminded of her past tho when Alice’s boyfriend Will who is interested in writing a book starts asking questions and Bryce discovers the truth.

Worse yet, after spending years discovering Mercy Black isn’t real and she was sick, Bryce now hears and sees Mercy. I don’t want to say much more because there are a lot of twist and turns and a rather odd ending that you will probably see coming a mile away anyway. The movie is getting pretty mixed reviews, IMDb gives it 5.0/10, Roger Ebert a 1.4/5 and Rotten Tomatoes a 33% (28% audience) tho Google users have it at a respectable 78%. Tho as you can see, it is mostly negative reviews.

I see why it is having this effect, most of the movie falls flat and fails at being scary the vast majority of the time. The acting, however, is nice and the ending is pretty interesting if not predictable. If you like B movies, by all means, check it out, but don’t go into this expecting anything other than that. Just a B horror movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Nun (2018)

The Nun is another movie from The Conjuring series that tells the story of, you guessed it, where the nun from The Conjuring 2 came from. Given how creepy she is this seems like it should be an awesome idea and concept. The problem is the movie is relegated to a needlessly convoluted story that bounces around and relies on jump scares for its horror as opposed to any real suspense or horror.

The movie starts in a cloistered castle with two nuns searching for something in a hurry and terrified. One is killed by something and the other hangs herself. Not long after a young man from the local village in Romania finds the nun and the Vatican sends a priest that is known as a miracle hunter and a soon to be nun to figure out if the place is still holy.

People in the town don’t speak of the place, and the man that found the nun, Frenchie, doesn’t want to go back but he basically wants to sleep with our soon to be nun Sister Irene sp he goes anyway because why not.

Soon after arriving weird things start happening, the nun Frenchie tossed in the ice house isn’t how he left her, Father Burke ends up buried alive somehow which somehow wasn’t the universal sign for leave now.

The story will also bounce around a ton and for no real reason. The blood of Jesus is also involved. The best part of the movie was the ending which ties in nicely with The Conjuring movies themselves and Frenchie himself being possessed and talked about in one of the classes taught by Warrens. This for me was the worst movie in a franchise I enjoy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Annabelle: Creation (2017)

Annabelle: Creation is a great example of a solid movie that is a horrible origin story that was never needed that I don’t think anyone asked for. The movie itself is perfectly fine. It involves a group of girls and their caretaker who happens to be a nun, being taken in by a doll maker, Sam Mullins and his wife Esther, as orphans. Years earlier they lost their 7-year-old daughter and they felt now is the time to open their home.

The movie starts off much like most, girls being girls running around the big house, picking on the little one, getting used to the place, being told not to go into a room and of course going into the room and unleashing a ghost. So maybe not so much girls being girls or even kids being kids but a movie being a movie.

From here it is a steady trip of things slowly escalating from bad to wore. The movie is rather newer so I don’t want to spoil things too much. The movie does a pretty excellent job of making things tense and suspenseful while not relying too much on cheesy jump scares and the little girl getting hit by a car is disturbing not for what it shows or does, but for what it doesn’t show and how it does it.

My issue comes when it comes time to explaining how Annabelle came to be in a doll. See this whole explanation takes place in about a 3-6 minute time period in the movie. After the explanation is done there is no real touching on it again either. There is also a twist ending that makes no real sense in the capacity of the franchise in my opinion. They just seemed to try to sneak an origin story and twist ending into a movie that didn’t need both and to me hurt the movie. Regardless it was a fun movie, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Silence (2019)

The Silence is a 2019 horror movie from Netflix and follows the trend of don’t make noise or you will die. It is actually quite similar to A Quiet Place except The silence is based off a 2015 book by Tim Lebbon. The book goes into more details about certain things but all in all the movie does a pretty good job explaining some things, but we will get there.

The movie starts by showing some miners busting through a wall and unleashing what appears to be some bats. These bats quickly swarm and kill them and thousands are released into Pennsylvania. We are then introduced to the Andrews family, most notably Ally (Kiernan Shipka) who lost her hearing in a car accident and Hugh (Stanley Tucci) which this may be the first time he hasn’t played at least a semi-gay man that I have seen. I mention this because he does that amazingly so I wasn’t sure how I would feel seeing him here as a straight man in a serious role, and he played his part amazingly as did the rest of the Andrews family.

The ancient bats quickly start terrorizing the eastern seaboard and even the military is powerless to do much. Entire cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are quickly overrun and pretty much everyone killed.  This isn’t explained great on how this occurs with a few thousand bats escaping a cave but they do show that they reproduce very quickly when they kill, to the point in a few days there are millions of them.

They, of course, can’t see and hunt off the sound everything makes, and there is plenty more going on. The movie isn’t getting great reviews but I can’t see why. The acting and script are solid, the movie does what it wants to do quite well and there are no glaring plot holes or defects with some pretty tense scenes as well. I can only assume people are just tired of the formula which I honestly understand. It is worth a watch, but if you are tired of movies like A Quiet Place and Bird Box, this may not be for you. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Pet Sematary, 2019 (Savior)

So I feel I should tell you, I am probably going to make some statements that some may feel are a bit controversial. Some may agree, some may not. Feel free to berate me in the comments.

First, let me say this. The 2019 version of Pet Sematary is better than the 1989 version. Second, the 1989 version wasn’t all that good anyway. Third, how did I not realize the movie was spelled with an S?

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That really isn’t important, just weird I never noticed. On to the review. If you are reading this, I am sure you read the book or saw the original. In the grand scheme of things, the story hasn’t changed. Doctor Louis moves with his family to the country to slow down and spend more time with the family. His wife, Rachel as a troubled past that will come and go throughout the movie and then the kids Ellie and Gage try their best to adjust to the new life. Gage is young and his one job most of the movie and that is to be cute, and Hugo and Lucas (Yes twins) Lavoie do the job amazingly. Ellie (Jete Lawerence) also does a commendable job and plays her role very well tho I feel John Lithgow steals the show with his role as Jud.

As the movie goes on their cat, Church (sorry guys, no name here, Church was played by multiple cats) dies and Jud introduces Louis to what is beyond the place the locals bury their animals. To a place where the dead doesn’t stay dead. The cat comes back as we all know, but Church isn’t what he used to be. The friendly cat is hissing and scratching and bringing home dead animals and even stops Louis from getting some man and wife time with Rachel. The cat is truly evil.

Now I don’t want to go any further in the story as there are some changes, and you will be happy to know it has been reported a few places that the man Stephen King himself approved of the changes. I enjoyed the changes personally tho I do have to admit while the movie was good enough (but not great) it isn’t a very good book to movie adaptation. It was, however, a good movie. If you are looking for an accurate to the book experience you are not going to get it. If you are looking to simply be entertained, this is worth a watch. Tho before I go, anyone that has seen the movie can you answer a question for me and @torstenvblog? How the hell did they get the cow to the burial place? Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friday The 13th (2009)

There is so much an so little to say about the 2009 reboot on Friday The 13th. For example, Jared Padalecki plays the role of Clay amazingly. Tho we can debate how good of a character Clay actually is. This perfectly sums up the whole movie really. For everything the movie does right, there is a counterpoint that makes you question why some decisions were made. The opening scene, in fact, the opening credits are essentially the first movie done in about 2 minutes ending with the beheading of Jason’s mom with a machete. After this Jason as a child finds the machete and locket and a killer is born. This leads to the movie and the introduction of the characters. Well sort of.

We then meet a group of kids whose names I won’t bother telling you because in typical Friday the 13th fashion they are all basically going to have sex and get murdered. To the movies credit the murders are amazing and I won’t spoil them. Now, the opening credits end with a title shot of the movie name. Yes, this was the opening scene and nobody you have seen is a main character in the movie nor are they all that important except of course one.

Finally, we come to the movie itself. Fans of the series will be happy and sad. I say this because in the ’80s and 90’s all you wanted of a slasher flick was boobs and a body count and that is all you will get. You will be sad tho because all you will really get is boobs and a body count, and it is 2009. The formula hasn’t changed, the story is bare bones and the little attempts they have made at a story leave you scratching your head. Now I will be spoiling huge chunks of the movie in the next paragraph. The movie is 10 years old, if you haven’t seen it by now I assume the interest is not there. Feel free however to stop reading now and know that I was entertained, but did not feel the movie was good.

You guys ready for spoilers? Seriously if not, stop now. Go. You were warned. They spent a very large part of the movie-making Jason out to be a regular guy. He was a kid, grew up into a man. Built a ton of stuff, feels pain, misses his mother the whole nine yards. Then this dude gets stabbed through the chest and gets his head sliced up by a wood chipper. For reasons, I can’t understand they untie him and toss him in the lake. Now there was no need for this but surprise, twist ending. Jason leaps up through the dock and the movie ends with Jason grabbing Clay’s sister.  Basically, Jason goes from regular dude to immortal and doesn’t come back to life until they dump him in the lake. Worse off, the twist ending leaves you to assume his sister dies and he probably died trying to save her. Who knows tho, they have beat him once. It became a choose your own ending. A  decent enough movie was ruined by an ending that wasn’t even needed. Regardless, feel to let me know what you thought. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mark Hamill Is Chucky

It has been a long burning question in the horror world, who will be the voice of Chucky in the new child’s play. Well, we finally have an answer. He has been the Joker, He has been Luke Skywalker. Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts 3. Now, Mark Hamill will be Chucky in the new Child’s Play. Enjoy the video, an may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Forest Revisited (PS4)

I reviewed The Forest (PS4) when it first came out, but I thought after a few updates I would revisit it and let you guys know how the game is progressing. I won’t go into detail too much about the game itself, as you can just read my original review. Suffice it to say it is a survival horror game.

Some of my original complaints were of frame rate drops or some graphics issues when games were rendering at a distance. I am happy to say recent updates have mostly solved these problems. Obviously, no game is perfect. The caves are still insanely dark even with the brightness maxed out. There seems to be no fix for this. Some light sources help more than others, like the flashlight. But it is just one of those things you will have to deal with.

The more recent update has added some new caves and late game enemies. The stability has also greatly increased which is pretty nice, tho admittedly sometimes while in caves and transitioning between inside and outside there are some pretty big slowdowns. None of this is game breaking or even all that annoying, it does exist tho. The game is still worth a purchase for any fan of the genre. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Supernatural Ending After Season 15

As many of you know I am a pretty big fan of the show Supernatural, In fact, I have reviewed the first 13 seasons and will do season 14 as soon as it hits Netflix. Well sadly after the next season, fifteen, the show will be coming to its end. I am actually pretty ok with this tho. Many shows go on far too long to the point many people, especially its earliest fans kind of get sick of it and only watch it out of what they feel is an obligation. Supernatural never really seemed to get to that level, it will get to go out on its own terms before it is forced out. The only issue I can see is the ending, both Jensen and Jarad have said in the past they can’t see Sam and Dean simply retiring. I also don’t think fans would accept them simply going back to hunting and the show ends with Dean closing the trunk of the car and saying “We have work to do.” So I really think we need to be prepared for one or both of them dying for good this time. Either way, enjoy the video and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Haunting On Fraternity Row (2018)

Every so often I come across a movie that just hits the trifecta of a bad movie. The story is bad, the script is bad and even the twist ending felt thrown together and needless. The story is pretty standard horror fare. A college fraternity has its biggest party of the year and a demon is accidentally released. How was it released in this movie? Well, a pledge drops a keg of beer, it falls down the stairs into the basement and smashes a hole in the wall. I don’t really know how this released the demon, it seems to have knocked over a cup the demon was locked in somehow.

The script was also horrible, to the point the guy trying to figure out what was going on, whom I stoned the entire movie so nobody believes him, did not know what a hospice was and even after looking it up, still did not know what the hell it even was.  The rest of the movie is just as bad, most of the movie is full of equally as bad logic or crumby lines.  The movie takes forever to get to the point as well. You will spend the vast majority of it just watching them get ready for a party and just talking.

Once the party starts it is also mostly just them talking and drinking, the occasional topless scene and dancing and booze. When the big reveal finally happens there really is nothing scary, and the demon mostly just spends its time cockblocking everyone and occasionally ripping out someone’s eyes. This will slowly escalate until it just kills everyone at the party since it gets stronger as it eats peoples eyes.

The ending is a twist you honestly won’t see coming, and it makes pretty much no sense at all but at this point, you will just be grateful the movie is over. It is very rare I have nothing good to really say about a movie or truly regret watching it, but this is one of those times. Don’t waste your time on this one. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.