The blog of author Stacy Kingsley - Stacy Kingsley

Movie Review - JIGSAW

12/31/2020

*I was going to write about 2020 and how we are finally at the end of a terrible year, but I am not sure that the next year will be any better....yet. So, I am going to leave you with this movie review, and we will see if the world is less of a dumpster fire at then end of January."

Jigsaw is the last thus far in the Saw series. From IMDb the plot summary states that bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one suspect: John Kramer, the man known as Jigsaw, who has been dead for over 10 years. Logan Nelson, the local coroner, is trying to figure out who the killer is, because unless a man can come back from the dead, someone is framing a dead man.

The Saw series is an interesting series, and how it ended with the last movie seemed to close a loop, which I really enjoyed. It was the same with the Final Destination series. I enjoyed how the last movie linked the series of movies together, even if I didn’t like all of the movies themselves. I thought the last movie in the Saw series did that too, bringing the movies together and ending a loop in an interesting and exciting way. While I didn’t care for all of the movies, I did enjoy the ending and the way they were brought together.

This movie didn’t have anything new or exciting that the last bunch of movies didn’t have. There were the traps that people had to try to figure out before it took their life, and there were grotesque and dramatic death scenes that involved as much blood as gore as possible. The characters were nothing new, all there because of some deed they had done which had either taken another life or affected another life.

I didn’t, however, expect the ending. I was a little surprised who and why they ended up killing people, and how everything had progressed.

This wasn’t a good movie, and seemed pointless. There was really no reason for this movie to be made, unless it was being made to keep the franchise running. But in reality, everything should come to an end. I feel that if they had stopped at the last movie it would have been better, because the last movie closed things up in a way that, to me at least, was satisfying. This movie added nothing to the rest of the franchise, and is a one off that isn’t necessary. It didn’t keep the integrity of the series, and like a lot of series not every aspect needs to be continued or made (think the Solo movie, I mean did it really need to be made???).

Skip this movie, and go with something else, or go back to the beginning and watch the original Saw movie.

Movie Review - IT: CHAPTER TWO

10/14/2019

So, what can I say about IT: Chapter Two? It is the second half of the first movie, where all of the children we have met in the first movie have grown up and changed, and forgotten what happened to them that one horrible summer.

I hated this movie. I thought it was dull, and it only kept some some of the good parts of the novel, or even the television mini-series. I would have liked it to be a little closer to what the first movie, the novel, or even the original mini-series was like. I did not think that the use of Pennywise was well done, and I do not think that the characters were more interesting or more developed.

One scene I really, really hated was the scene when Beverly visits her old apartment, and is greeted by an old woman who is very welcoming. I think the director or writer or whoever developed this awful scene should have been fired. there was unnecessary humor, that was not only not needed, but it didn't add anything to the story, or the entire film. It was so silly I almost left the theater, because it was ridiculous.

Another thing I didn't care for was the length of this movie. It is an hour and forty-nine minutes, and it felt like it was an hour and forty-nine minutes. When I took a look at my phone to see only an hour had passed I was very frustrated. So yes, yes this was very slow and ridiculous. There were several moments in the movie that frustrated me. I didn't need this to be a humorous movie, I needed this to be a scary movie. I needed for this to be Stephen King scary. Instead I got a whole lot of discussion, a too little Pennywise. What made the mini-series and the novel scary was the clown. The history behind him, what he was, and how he behaved, this made people everywhere scared of clowns, and here there was a lack of clown.

I also still stand by my original assertion that I don't think Bill Sarsgard is scary as Pennywise. He just doesn't have it in him.

Luckily, I only paid three dollars to see this movie, but even that seems too much. It was not only too much money, but it was too much of my life spent on one thing, which neither scared me or held my attention. I should have been home reading, or sleeping, or having sex, anything but watching this movie.

Movie Review - MaleVolent

9/30/2019

The film MaleVolent is about a pair of siblings Jackson and Angela who run a profitable ghostbusting company, using fake Psychic Angela to hook desperate homeowners. When they are hired to investigate a haunted foster home, they discover that it is the same place where a group of young girls were silenced by a sadistic killer. Angela starts having issues, seeing and hearing things that aren’t there, or at least that aren’t supposed to be there. But they find that the supernatural is not their problem, and humanity might be.

The beginning of the movie didn’t grab me much, mostly because I thought that it was the same as a lot of other movies just like this. A group of people faking the ghosts, get money by making people believe they have gotten rid of the ghosts, and instead they end up being killed by a real ghost, but instead it isn’t the ghosts that people have to worry about, it is the real people.

When the sibling and their crew arrive at the old foster home they find the mother of the home to be off-putting and aggressive. Her son is a known murderer, having murdered several of the young girls she had taken into her foster home. He not only tortured the girls, but sewed their mouths shut, before killing them and placing them on display. The mother claims that the girls were the problem and that her son was the innocent victim, only doing what they forced him to do.

This movie wasn’t great, as there were some very slow moments that made the movie drag at times. But, there were also a lot of frights, and I got goosebumps several times as the creepiness of the movie built. There were some good moments that didn’t rely on jump scares, like most movies do these days, jump scares for ghosts.

The end of the movie moved a little too far into the grotesque, and it wasn’t needed as it was creepy enough. I feel like they might have added it so that there were some moments of torture to shock the audience. It was also incredibly sad as Angela realizes that her life is never going to be normal again.

Not a fantastic or great movie, but to watch it on streaming, it wasn’t bad. The time used to watch it was worth it for the end, and the revelation that sometimes things are not always what they seem, and sometimes people deserve to have the ghosts haunting them.

Movie Review - HELLRAISER: JUDGEMENT

9/10/2019

I was hesitant to watch Hellraiser: Judgement because Hellraiser: Revelations was just so damn awful that it just about ruined Pinhead for me. Not only was the actor in Revelations awful, but the entire plot of the movie was also terrible. When I found that Judgement had been released I was leery, but decided I would give it a shot, and if it turned out to be as bad as Judgement I’d just give up on any new movies made in the Hellraiser series.

Before I start this review, I want to say that I will always find Doug Bradley the best actor for Pinhead, and no one else quite grasps the character. I wish he had returned, but understand that because he didn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement he wasn’t going to reprise the role. I do have to say the actor who plays Pinhead in Judgement was not as bad as the actor who took on the role in Revelations, and they took the makeup closer to what the original makeup looked like in the original movies.

Judgement involves a cop and his partner, who is also his biological brother, who are running after a serial killer who kills those who are “sinners” of sorts. As the movie moves on we find ourselves in the office of a cenobite who has the job of finding the guilty and punishing them.

There are little bits of both heaven and hell in this movie, as we get to see both sides of the story, and what happens when one side wants the accused to live. There are such sights to see, but the question is who is in control, and who gets to open the box.

A lot happened in this movie. A young female detective is sent to find out which brother may be having a breakdown. There is adultery, which is standard in a Hellraiser movie, as whoever opens the box has something to offer, and usually it is their destructing soul. In the end, everyone gets what they deserve, like most of the Hellraiser movies. And we get to see just what happens when one disagrees with Heaven and doesn’t quite do what is asked of them.

I thought this was more interesting than the last movie, but nothing could be worse than that travesty of a film. I enjoyed the direction and the new cenobites I was introduced to. I also thought the theme of being judged before being sentenced was interesting. There wasn’t quite enough Pinhead in this to make it follow the rest of the films, but that could just be me because I thoroughly enjoy the idea of him. I also have to say that I really loved the ending, and thought it was a creative way to end the film, sending someone back to be who they were, making them relive what they had tried to escape.

Don’t be afraid of this film. It is better than it looks and is 100% better than the last monstrosity was.

Movie Review - READY OR NOT

8/26/2019

The plot of Ready or Not is very short if you look at IMDb. In fact it reads: A bride's wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game. Now, if you've seen the trailer you know that the game the family plays is Hide and Seek, and you might wonder how that can be something terrifying? Well, the answer is quite simple, you've just married into a cult who worship a being who requires a sacrifice every now and then.

This was not a new idea for a movie, there have in fact been others somewhat similar, but it was quite fun. I will state, as I left the movie I heard a woman say to her date that it wasn't a scary movie, and I have to say, I don't think it was trying to be scary as much it was a a psychological thriller, full of anticipation, and quite a bit of humor.

The characters were all quite fun and each seemed to have their own personality. You could tell who was who just by their attitude. Some of my favorite things in this movie were the characters of Emilie, who was inept at doing the job she was tasked to do, Tony Le Domas, the patriarch of the family who was often both surprised and dismayed by his family's task, and Aunt Helene, who was just evil enough that you wondered if she enjoyed the things she was tasked to do.

The main characters are Grace, played by Samara Weaving, who is a woman with no family of her own, and who is excited to finally be part of a real family, even though she finds her new husband's family odd, and Alex Le Domas, Grace's new husband. Alex has tried to talk Grace into leaving or marriage another way. In fact, he does state that he only proposed and married her because if he hadn't she would have left, and losing her was a worse thing than anything to him. When Grace pulls the card to play Hide and Seek she believes it to be a joke, until people start dying, then she realizes she is in a race for her life.

I really enjoyed this movie more than any I've recently seen. I thought there was a good balance of humor and horror, and I think the humor was perfect for the product (meaning it wasn't too much, nor was it over the top). I found the balance of the humor and horror to be so perfectly balanced I'm not sure there is anything I could compare it to.

I recommend this movie, and I want to warn you that if you are expecting a full on horror movie, this isn't what you will be getting when you see this. If you want more horror go see It: Chapter 2 when it comes out (unless you are like me and you found the character of Pennywise to be humorous).

Go see it. It's fun!

Movie Review - NIGHTMARE CIRCUS (1974)

8/19/2019

The 1970’s pushed out a whole lot of interesting horror and science fiction movies, and a lot of real stinkers. Nightmare Circus aka Barn of the Naked Dead aka Terror Circus is a 1974 movie that falls flat, even thought the idea behind it is an interesting one. From the IMDb website the synopsis is as follows: Three showgirls on their way to Las Vegas have car trouble and are stuck all night out in the desert. The next morning cheerful Andre offers them help in fixing their car. However, Andre is really a maniac with a lot of family problems; his mother ran out on him when he was a child so now he keeps kidnapped women chained up in his barn and trains them to perform circus tricks. Andre's father is still around of course, but because the old homestead is next to a nuclear test site he has been transformed into a raving homicidal mutant that Andre keeps locked up in a shed.

I thought this movie had an interesting idea, as the idea behind imprisoning women to force them to perform in a sick, twisted circus is fascinating. However, there were so many holes and things I didn’t quite understand, or believe. For example, Andre has over ten women chained in a barn, yet none of them, when chained together and walking around, think to fight and attack him. He is the only one there, and if they had thought to attack him, and take his gun, then they might have freed themselves. Instead they cry and whine in the barn, they listen to him as he says they are his now, and they belong to him.

When they have the chance to escape, they realize the full extent of Andre’s abuse and anger. Even then, I believe that some of them would fight, or at least try to work together to escape.

A huge problem with this movie was that for a horror movie, it wasn’t frightening, just a little uncomfortable at times. It is kind of a mix of Psycho and The Hills have Eyes. Not a good movie, not a bad movie, more a fun 1970’s campy film. Some might enjoy it and some might become annoyed over and over by it (like me).

Movie Review - FIFTY SHADES DARKER

4/15/2019

Fifty Shades Darker..... more like fifty shades of why the hell was this movie made and why am I wasting my time with it?

Anna has decided, in this part two to the fifty shades series, that she is willing to give Christian another chance, but only if he follows her rules. While she is still willing to be spanked, and is intrigued by some of his toys, she is upset by the way his past keeps finding her, and threatening her future with Christian.

This movie basically had zero plot, and the ending was so abrupt that I literally shouted, "Are you serious, that's how we're going to end this one?" Anna goes through the same motions she went through in the first movie, several deer in the headlights moments when she has no idea how to take care of herself, then she tries to take a stand just to fall back into her deer in the headlights ways. She is faced with the woman who taught Christian everything he knows, and she goes so far as to throw a drink in her face (oh the horror), and she is confronted by a former "slave" who threatens her life and wonders why Anna is so special, and Anna just runs away when Christian tells her he can handle it, then the whole situation isn't spoken about again.

I don't know if it is the story or the acting by Ms. Johnson, but this was not good. The character of Anna was not very likeable or interesting, and a lot of the time I found myself wanting to slap her myself. I am thinking the writing of this was not well done, as none of it remotely fit together. There was a lot of hey let's do this, then no let's do this, then maybe we should stop, and I just want to be my own person. Also, it wasn't believable that Anna's boss gets fired and she moves from his assistant to his job - yeah sorry, spoiler alert.

Also, there is zero chemistry between the characters, and the sex scenes are washed out and boring. I was not at all interested, or turned on, which if we're going to watch a movie like this, I expect to be turned on at least a little bit.

So, do I recommend this movie, absolutely not. Am I going to watch the last one, most likely yes because apparently I am a masochist. Should you watch these movies, no, in fact run away, no, in fact, why don't you just watch porn. Even the worst porn is more interesting than this crap.

Movie Review - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

4/8/2019

The Girl With All the Gifts does share some similarities with the novel, but it isn’t really a lot like the novel. There are a lot of places in the movie that the divergence is clear, and it starts in the beginning, which I think might also be understandable. The book has a lot of information in it, and they cut some of it, probably due to the length of the movie. If they had kept it all it would have been longer than it hour and fifty-one minutes.

This movie is about a girl, Melanie, a scientist, and a teacher, who are trying to survive a dystopian/apocalyptic future full of zombies, which are called hungries in both the movie and the novel of the same name. In one instance everything changes, and Melanie finds herself defending her teacher in a way she didn’t know she could, and the teacher, scientist, a couple of soldiers, and Melanie find that they need to find a way to safety, to the Beacon of hope. However, a landscape full of hungries stands in their way, and they don’t know if they will survive, if they will be eaten, or if they will become a monster themselves. Of course, one question a lot of movies like this pose is who is the real monster?

Throughout the movie, Melanie, played by Sennia Nanua, portrays an innocent, playful, inquisitive child, well. She does not know what she is, although she does know that she is different. While she does still seem to be the same character in the movie as she is in the book, I feel that the movie made her a tad more intelligent and inquisitive than she was in the book. She still loves her teacher, Helen Justineau, and she does what she can to help her, but she isn’t as curious about the other children, nor is she as frightened as she was in the novel towards Doctor Caroline Caldwell.

Speaking of the other children, the movie makes a hasty introduction, but it isn’t really as thorough of the book, so it feels as if some of the information that made the story interesting is left out. The interactions between the children and the instructors and soldiers, isn’t as built as it could have been. In the novel, the reader knows how Melanie feels about Helen because there are several interactions, however in the movie there is only one scene in the schoolroom, and one outside, before everything goes to hell. The viewer of the movie doesn’t get as much background on the rest of the children, so there is no reason for the viewer to have as much sympathy for them as there was built in the novel.

Throughout it was obvious that several things had been changed due to the time restrictions of the film. The only monsters they had to face were the hungries, whereas in the book there are not only the hungries, but also humans with nothing to live for but their own selfish survival. The ending is a little different, but it isn’t a bad movie. Part of it, like a lot of movies, are a little slow, but overall, not bad. I will say, this is another case of I prefer the novel over the film, but that isn’t always true. I felt there was more depth to the novel that was lost in the film’s translation.

Movie Review - OUT OF THE DARK (2014)

3/5/2019

Out of the Dark stars Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman, and Stephen Rea as American's who live and work in Columbia. Julia Stiles is the daughter, Sarah, of Stephen Rea, Jordan, and she has moved with her family to Columbia to take over part of her father's paper mill. They live in a fancy house with a nanny, who takes care of their young daughter, Hannah. Once their daughter disappears they realize that things are not what they seem, and their house is haunted by the past, as houses often are. Jordan has kept a dark secret from not only his daughter and her husband, Paul, but also the town surrounding the mill.

The only reason I watched this movie was because I had some time to kill while I worked on grading papers. I often have movies or music or something on in the background so that I am not sitting in silence, which annoys me. I should have chosen to sit in silence rather than watch this movie. It wasn't that it was a bad movie, but it wasn't developed and it didn't make sense why the daughter, Hannah, was the one being tortured by the ghosts when it was her grandfather, Jordan, who knew why the house was haunted.

I often don't like movies for one of two issues, one is the acting, and the other is often the plot or story, or lack thereof. The acting in this was just so-so. I thought Julia Stiles was wasted, in fact most of the characters were wasted in this movie. Stephen Rea plays another man looking for answers who is willing to sacrifice himself if he needs to, just like in the movie Fear.com. Julia shows a variety of emotions, but we don't know why she has decided to uproot her family from London to live in Columbia and work at the mill. We get almost no information about Scott Speedman's character, Paul, except that he is an illustrator for children's books. This is basically all of the information we are given about the characters. The problem with this is that I am given no reason to care about the characters, and at an hour and a half there should be a reason to care about the characters.

The plot of the story revolves around the deaths of a few children twenty years earlier, and a ritual holiday that is put on for them. The children disappeared after or just before their deaths, and no one knows where the bodies are. This movie tries to build up suspense, but the scenes are often so dark that it is hard to even tell what is going on. When the climax happens it is almost impossible to tell what is really going on because the scenes shift too rapidly between Paul, Sarah, and Hannah, and everything is dark. I don't know if it is really ghosts haunting the couple or if it is real people who are running around terrorizing the family.

The ending is predictable, which is not good for a horror film, and doesn't make it any more interesting. We never really find out why Hannah was the one who was focused on. I can't recommend this movie, This seems like one of those movies that the actors do just so they can make some money. It is too bad that this wasn't better than it was because often movies set in a foreign land can use the backdrop of that place to build fear. There are often local legends or legends that can be built upon to strike fear into the souls of audiences.

So, maybe skip this one and watch a movie like Zombie Strippers or the weirdly popular ZomBeavers.

Movie Review - YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

1/22/2019

2017 saw a movie that never really got much attention, even though it should have. You Were Never Really Here is about a traumatized veteran, who is not afraid of violence. His job is to track down missing girls. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death or his awakening.

Joe, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is a man who does what he needs to, providing he is paid. He has a job to do, and it is to track down missing girls who were taken in the name of sex trafficking. Most of the time he may not be successful in getting the girl, but he does exact vengeance when it is asked of him.

Joe, throughout the movie, does have some obvious issues. He takes care of his aged mother, and he remembers childhood trauma that causes him to risk his own life almost every night. There isn’t much given about his past, but the audience does see that there is one incident when he is working with either the military or after, that has caused him to take on the role of a paid savior.

This movie is a slow burn. It begins in a hotel room and ends in a diner. There are scenes which seem to be placed just to confuse the audience as to what is really going on, but overall it is a movie in something of the same vein as Leon: The Professional. Joe is sent to find and rescue Nina, the daughter of an elected official. Her father finds out who has taken his daughter and is understandably upset when he finds it is the man he is working on a campaign for. The man has been so taken with Nina that when she is rescued, she is immediately retrieved, setting off events that cause death to those Joe loves, and causing him to do what he has learned to do best, kill.

This movie was slow and weird, but there were several scenes that were interesting. One scene is Joe laying next to a man he has been fighting with. They are both laying on the floor, one dying and one exhausted from the fight. A song comes on and they both sing softly to it, holding hands as the man dies. There are several other intense scenes which makes one question the sanity of Joe, or what his plans are. He is searching for something, and in the end, like Leon had Matilda, Joe has Nine to save him from himself.

You Were Never Really Here is not a bad movie, but I don’t think everyone will enjoy it. It is a thought provoking movie, and for me, it made me wonder once again, about man’s inhumanity to man.