daemon-21664 Reviews

Doctor Sleep (2019)

One of the better film adaptations of a King novel

[8/10 · 12 November 2019]

This is easily one of the better film adaptations of a Stephen King novel, and also one of the better films I've seen this year. Yet again, professional film critics have proven they mostly have no idea about the cinema of the fantastic (fantasy, SF, and horror). If you're a fan of the genre, you'll love this film - ignore the critics.

The Breaker Upperers (2018)

Uncomfortably funny

[7/10 · 2 August 2018]

A solid NZ film - with a comic sensibility that is variously awkward, dark, subversive, and squirm-in-your-seat vicariously embarrassing (in the best possible way). I can easily imagine this film appealing to Australian or British audiences, who have similar comedy traditions (think Norman Gunston, Kath & Kim, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen).

Hereditary (2018)

I feel ripped off

[2/10 · 9 June 2018]

The build-up to this film -- the trailers, publicity, advance reviews -- had all led me to believe I was going to the cinema to see the best horror film of 2018, something potentially in the same league as Friedkin's "The Exorcist", or Kubrick's "The Shining". But "Hereditary" doesn't deliver the goods. Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne deliver credible performances, but sadly they are let down by the weakness of the storytelling, which never rises above the trite and obvious. In fact, this film is such a maladroit mash-up of established horror tropes, I could be convinced the plot was generated algorithmically. I experienced a couple of mild jump-scares, and was grossed-out a few times; but overall, this film not only failed to inspire a sense of horror in me, it also failed to attain the suspension of disbelief that is prerequisite to genuine horror. Some scenes and effects are so poorly executed, they are actually laugh-out-loud funny rather than scary.

I cannot account for the praise that has been lavished on this film, or for the high ratings that it currently has on social media sites, except to suppose that the studio has paid a small army of online sock-puppets to generate hype. I expect this will be corrected in coming weeks, as more and more disappointed film-goers make their feelings known.