Final Prayer (2013) – Elliot Gardner

Found footage is either the bane of my horror experience or a delight, and Final Prayer is no exception to that idea. I really like the idea at work here, and I love the climax, though I wish it had been executed better, we don’t see enough, we don’t quite learn enough, though the fear…

Suspicion (1941) – Alfred Hitchcock

Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine star in Hitchcock’s Suspicion. Nominated for Best Picture, Fontaine walked away with a Best Actress Oscar, and she is nothing short of fantastic. Grant is Johnnie Aysgarth, a charming rogue with a penchant for detective novels, a penniless playboy who seems to be conning and gaslighting everyone from his friend,…

Starman (1986) – Best Buddies, and Secrets

Paul (Robert Hays) begins having dreams, something he hasn’t done before, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg for what is going to happen to he and Scott (Christopher Daniel Barnes) in Best Buddies. Written by Leon Tokatyan, it first aired on 24 October, 1986. As their road trip to find Jenny Hayden continues,…

Dark Skies (2013) – Scott Stewart

Keri Russell doesn’t often do genre films, and while I like the subject matter of Dark Skies, I wish she had chosen a slightly stronger film to be a part of. The last third of the film is just terrible and isn’t executed very well. And why are the Greys, which have been portrayed as…

21 Jump Street (2012) – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

I tried twice to start watching 21 Jump Street, the first time, I only got about seven minutes in, and couldn’t vibe with it. The second time, I got all the way through, and while I’m not the biggest Jonah Hill fan, and didn’t care for all of the humour, I really enjoyed this one….

The Church (1989) – Michele Soavi

Lamberto Bava stepped out of the director’s chair for Michele Soavi, but remained heavily involved in the production alongside Dario Argento. It was originally supposed to be a third entry in the Demons series, but Soavi wanted to make a slightly more elevated picture, and Demons 3 was forgotten to tell a different kind of…

The Exorcist: Believer (2023) – David Gordon Green

For the first few minutes of The Exorcist: Believer I thought that maybe the reviews were wrong, that they had been too harsh, or maybe didn’t understand what the film was trying to do. It’s opening felt, to me, very much in line with the original film, until the earthquake hit, and from that moment…

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Strike Zone (1989) – Peter David

Peter David delivered his first Star Trek novel with Stroke Zone. Originally planned to be a novel in The Original Series catalogue, it was changed and updated to take place near the beginning of season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Beverly Crusher is at Starfleet Medical, Dr. Pulaski has taken over as the…

Scratch One (1967) – Micheal Crichton

Michael Crichton’s second novel, which he wrote under his pseudonym of John Lange, is a fast-paced thriller that plays on the familiar trope of mistaken identity. This time out an American lawyer, Roger Carr, finds himself mistaken for a high-profile hitman and finds himself stuck between opposing sides in an arms deal which has its…

Escape Plan (2013) – Mikael Hafstrom

Escape Plan feels like a bit of an action throwback and leans into the escapist (pun intended) entertainment of the 80s and early 90s. And what better way to do that than with two of the biggest stars of the 80s Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger? Stallone plays Ray Breslin, a professional escape artist. He…