Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire

Two years after his death, Elie Wiesel’s boyhood Romanian home was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti. Even in 2018, nobody was really shocked. Today, it would just be more of the same. Wiesel spent most of his adult life remembering the horrors of the Holocaust, in hopes they would never be allowed to repeat. Imagine how painful 10/7 would have been for him had he lived to see it. Apparently for the sake of tidiness, director Oran Rudavsky ignores such recent tragedies entirely. His resulting film feels like it might have been produced in the days closely following Wiesel’s death. However, Wiesel still has much to tell us by example, when Rudavsky documents his life and work in Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, which opens in theaters this Friday.

Wiesel was a survivor (but his parents and younger sister were not). That will always define his identity, especially because Wiesel started writing and speaking to bear witness, before acts of public remembrance were encouraged. Although not an immediate bestseller, Night became an acknowledged classic that paved the way for more such works.

Rudavsky also chronicles Wiesel’s personal rebirth, marrying his wife Marion, with whom he had the child he once resolved to never bring into the world, their son Elisha. This might be the most inspiring aspect of Wiesel’s story, which Rudavsky does full justice. Instead of an unknowable voice of conscience, Wiesel emerges an acutely human and humanistic husband and father.

However, Rudavsky (who also helmed the entertainingly neurotic rom-com The Treatment) quickly dispenses with Wiesel’s life-long support for Israel with one soundbite expressing empathy for those who identify as Palestinian and one talking-head claiming Wiesel refused to criticize the democratic nation publicly.

The film ignores the controversy that ensued when the London Times refused to publish Wiesel’s ad criticizing Hamas’s use of children as human shields during the 2014 Gaza War. Instead, Rudavsky devotes considerable time to more pressing controversies, like Pres. Reagan’s 1985 visit to the German Bitburg military cemetery. (Seriously, it garners over eleven minutes out of a total 86-minute running time.)

Watcher, on AFN

Julia's predicament is similar to Jimmy Stewart’s in Rear Window, but instead of a broken leg, she is hobbled by a language barrier. She also has a useless husband, who makes a poor substitute for either Gracy Kelly or Thelma Ritter. Regardless, she starts to suspect the serial killer stalking Bucharest is watching her from across the street, but nobody takes her seriously in director-screenwriter Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, which airs Tuesday on Armed Forces Network.

Francis’s family used to speak Romanian when he was young, so he feels at home in Bucharest. Julia doesn’t, at least not yet, but she was about to give up on her acting career, so she agreed to relocate. Nevertheless, she feels immediately feels socially and culturally isolated. She also has the sensation of being watched. It looks that way too, judging from the illuminated silhouette, behind the curtains of the apartment opposite them.

As an unnerving bonus, the serial killer known as the spider has killed several women in the neighborhood. Julia wonders if all this creepiness might be connected when a mystery man starts following her. She never gets a good look, but he seems drably non-descript in an ominous serial killer kind of way. Of course, the cops do not take her concerns seriously and Francis tries to explain everything away as a product of stress and suggestion.

Despite Shudder and IFC Midnight handling the domestic distribution for Watcher, it really is more of De Palma-esque thriller (the term “Hitchcockian” really ought to be reserved for a select few), rather than a horror movie. However, it works rather well on those terms.

Nocturnal Bucharest is definitely creepy. In fact, some of the most unsettling sequences tie into the anxiety you might remember from being out too late in a foreign city, where you really do not know the language. Okuno also captures the unnerving feeling of being watched. (And seriously, why would their furnished apartment come without curtains?)

Okuno has discussed Francis’s disbelief in feminist terms, but Julia’s frustration is more universal than that. Too often, people ignore warnings and suspicious behavior, because acting on it would be awkward. It seems easier to explain it away, but that often leads to bigger trouble long-term.

The Antique: To Be Georgian in Russia

It wrapped filming on-location in St. Petersburg the day before Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Consequently, it is likely to be the foreign film shot in Russia for the foreseeable future (unless a Chinese production requests permits). Frankly, they did not receive a very warm-welcome, much like the Georgian characters it follows. In 2006, Georgians like Medea already faced discrimination and harassment, even before the mass-deportation. However, Medea finds an unconventional safe-ish space in Russudan Glurjidze’s The Antique, which is now streaming on Film Movement Plus.

Medea’s name is a coincidence. She never murders her children. Medea’s only sin involves antique smuggling into Russia. Even before the 2006 expulsions (which the EU Court of Human Rights ruled violated the Europpean Convention on Human Rights), Medea intuitively sought out under-the-radar living conditions. It turns out she could purchase a spacious but dilapidated flat at a surprisingly affordable price, but the other terms were unusual.

Like a Putin-era sitcom, Vadim Vadimich sells his title to Medea, but she must agree to cohabitate with him as her flat-mate. They could not be more opposite. She is a young Georgian, while he is aa crusty old Russian nationalist implied to have served in shadowy state security positions during his younger, more lucid years. However, it sort of works for a while, but bad things are brewing.

Salome Demuria lights up the screen as Medea, despite her quiet reserve. She is smart and even witty. Consequently, some of her best scenes come bantering with the disembodied voice of Manana, the owner of her dodgy antique “import/export” firm, who oversees the warehouse via surveillance cameras and speakers.

Likewise, Sergey Dreyden is quite poignant depicting Vadimich’s slow decline. Even subtitled, Leila Alibegashvili’s voice for the unseen boss drips with attitude. Plus, Vladimir Vdovichenkov stirs up their fragile flat dynamics in unpredictable ways, as Vadimich’s semi-estranged son.

Stranger Eyes: Lee Kang-sheng is Watching

When it comes to trade-offs between security and personal liberty, Singapore reliably opts for security. Indeed, surveillance cameras are common sight in the city-state. Yet, there is no footage of Little Bo’s abduction—or is there? At first, her parents hope the mysterious DVDs left under their door might yield a clue to her whereabouts. However, they increasingly feature footage of her father, Junyang at his most embarrassing moments. Somewhat logically, Junyang starts stalking his stalker, hoping he leads to some answers in director-screenwriter Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes, which opens today in New York.

Junyang blames his mother Shuping, because during the brief time she called, he lost sight of his daughter. Whatever it was, she could have told him later, since she lives with Junyang and his wife Peiying. Of course, Peiying took it hard, obsessively reviewing all their recent video of Litle Bo and anymore they could get crowd-sourced. Initially, the DVDs the mystery stalker left were welcome, but they soon took a dark, intrusive turn.

Thanks to surveillance cameras, Det. Zheng identifies their neighbor Lao Wu as the stalker, but he cannot tie him to Bo’s abducton. Nevertheless, Junyang assumes Wu must be involved or holding back relevant video, so he returns the favor, developing an unhealthy fixation on the obsessive Wu.

That all makes Stranger Eyes sound more thrillerish than it is. Instead, Yeo prefers contemplate voyeurism and obsession in the age of omniscient surveillance and hyper-online over-sharing. Frankly, the audience hardly has any better sense of Junyang’s personality than if we were watching him through security cameras. Instead, Lee Kang-sheng (Tsai Ming-liang’ longtime collaborator) more successfully hints at the complexities of Wu, who emerges as a figure of sadness rather than menace.

The Terminal List, in The Epoch Times

Prime's prequel series THE TERMINAL LIST: DARK WOLF keeps the pacing brisk and the combat brutally grounded. Yet, throughout the entire season, the cast and crew show great sensitivity towards American military servicemen and the challenges they face. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Somnium: California Brainwashing

Dr. Katherine Shaffer’s treatment could be called “brainwashing for success.” If that sounds like the worst self-help program ever, it is because it is. Yet, since her clinic is in Hollywood, she has plenty of clients. Dakota certainly cannot afford her program, but she needs a job, so she starts working as the clinic’s night-minder in director-screenwriter Racheal Cain’s Somnium, which opens this Friday in LA.

Dakota left her small Georgia town with considerably more dreams than money. Rather recklessly, she faces potential eviction almost as soon as she moves in. Unfortunately, nobody is hiring, because of Newsom and Bass. Then she almost stumbles into the Somnium clinic, where Dr. Shaffer hires her, with practically no questions asked.

She will work the night shift, watching over patients in the sleeping pods. As part of Dr. Shaffer’s therapy, they receive subliminal positive reinforcement that will help them achieve their goals when they wake—except when it goes wrong. According to Noah, Shaffer’s deputy, sometimes the treatment drastically alters patients’ personalities. He should know, since he is conducting some kind of secret off-the-books research during late night hours.

Since she works nights, Dakota should have her days free for auditions. However, she has had little luck on that front either, even though Brooks, a mysterious producer, offered vague but tantalizing promises to help career. Frankly, it is weird that Dakota wants to be an actress, because she obviously has never seen any movies. Otherwise, she would have recognized Brooks as the sinister serpent that he clearly is.

As a film, Somnium exhibits loads of atmosphere, but most of the tension comes from whether or not Dakota will be rendered homeless and destitute. At times, the film seems to promise the laidback California-cool rendition of A Clockwork Orange, but Cain frustratingly keeps all the mind-warping skullduggery beyond arm’s length. Clearly, she prefers to imply rather than show, but at some point, genre business must be taken care of.

The Toxic Avenger, Starring Peter Dinklage

He was born in a notoriously violent and grotesque Troma movie. Less than seven years later, he was starring in a children’s cartoon. It didn’t last long, because what’s haye point of watching Toxie if he can’t stuff a bullying bad guy’s hands into a deep fryer? In the original films, his name varied from Melvin Ferd to Melvin Junko, so giving him a fresh name change to Winston Gooze is really no big deal. Regardless, he will experience plenty of body horror while in engaging in gruesome acts of payback throughout director-screenwriter Macon Blair’s rebooted The Toxic Avenger, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

Poor Gooze is still a put-upon janitor (wielding a trusty mop), who is done wrong by life in general and his boss, mobbed-up nutritional supplement tycoon Bob Garbinger in particular. First, Garbinger’s company rejects his insurance claim for life-saving treatment. Then his thugs beat Gooze and leave him for dead in a vat of toxic goo. Frankly, that last part was an honest misunderstanding. They were supposed to kill J.J. Doherty, a whistle-blower collecting evidence of Garbinger’s dangerously foul environmental practices. Gooze just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although Gooze looks like a giant oozing disfigured freak, he now has superhuman strength and healings powers, which are obviously handy traits for a vigilante. Yet, Gooze fears his new twisted form will further traumatize his stepson Wade, who is still reeling from his mother’s death (prior to the start of the picture).

Troma still co-produced Blair’s reboot and studio chief Lloyd Kaufman even makes a Stan Lee-style cameo, but civilians who are not fanatically devoted to the indie studio will be happy to have more cooks in the kitchen. As a result, the new film is not quite as cartoonishly vicious as Troma’s vintage 1980’s releases, including the original 1984 film. Admittedly, “watered-down” is not a term many critics will apply to Macon’s reboot, but it does not quite have the same ferocity, which is a good thing.

In fact, there are flashes of pleasantly dry wit, delivered with appropriate cynical world-weariness by Peter Dinklage. He has a great voice for voice-overs. Frankly, based on his intro, he would probably make a terrific Batman for the DC Animated Universe. He also helps humanize Gooze, even when Luisa Guerrero takes over as the body of the Toxic Avenger.

The Quay Brothers’ Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass

Frankly, the level of care in this clinic is appallingly low, probably because most of the staff sleeps all through the day. Yet, in their defense, it should be conceded their patients never fully die. They exist in a kind of limbo, resulting from the localized time distortion. If that sounds confusing, just wait until you start watching Stephen & Timothy Quay’s Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, "presented" by executive producer Christopher Nolan, which opens this Friday at Film Forum.

The Quay Brothers based this hybrid stop-motion-animated film on Bruno Shulz’s episodic novel, which also inspired Wojciech Jerzy Has’s surreal but more manageably titled The Hourglass Sanatorium. True to their reputation, Quays managed to make their take even trippier. Sadly, Sanatorium is one Shulz’s few surviving works, because the National Socialists destroyed most of his manuscripts, along with Shulz. Has alludes to the author’s tragic fate, whereas the Quays avoid any Jewish subtext.

The Quay Brothers also remain largely untethered from the constraints of narrative structure. In many ways, their new feature flows like Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which Sanatorium also resembles stylistically, especially the live-action framing sequences that share a dreamy look and atmosphere, very much akin to Maddin’s films. The Quays employ an antique crypto-projector to reveal visions of the main narrative thread, as well as several confusing off-shoots.

The main puppetry spine of the film follows Jozef as he travels to the Sanatorium Karpaty, to take charge of his late father’s body and effects. However, when he reaches the Sanatorium, creepy Dr. Gotard explains to Jozef that even though his father is dead in the outside world, he still technically lives (but mostly sleeps) in Karpaty, because patients are essentially caught in what we might consider a time-lag. That lag also induces sleepiness throughout the Sanatorium.

The Quay Brothers create some absolutely arresting darkly fantastical imagery. However, trying to impose logic onto their latest film will cause diamond-splitting headaches. They have made it intentionally hard to follow, which grows increasingly frustrating.

Nevertheless, their vision is evocative and immersive. At times, watching Sanatorium feels like getting dropped headfirst into a newly discovered Kafka novel, which rather makes sense, since Shulz helped translate Kafka into Polish. The twilight vibe is transfixing, but also anesthetizing.

Hellhunters, from Marvel

In this alternte 1944, Col. Nick Fury has yet to lose his eye. Sgt.Sal Romero will lose something even greater: his very soul. At least he contracts with a better class of demon. Before Johnny Blaze, Zarathos resurrects Romero as Ghost Rider ’44 in Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Hellhunters, illustrated by Adam Gorham, which is now on-sale at your local comic shop.

On the brink of death by exposure, a platoon of retreating National Socialists are offered a Faustian bargain by the demons known as the Unhallowed. When their senior Juncker officer hesitates, Captain Felix Bruckner accepts, by putting a bullet in his commander’s head. Transformed into demons, Bruckner’s undead men start turning the tide of the war. Unfortunately, they start with Romero’s squad of paratroopers.

Bruckner is particularly sadistic when killing Romero. That makes the Sergeant amenable to Zarathos offer of vengeance. Technically, he is also a demon, but Zarathos and the Unhallowed are sworn enemies. Romero will be his tool for vengeance, rather than the object his torments, but it was still a pretty lousy deal.

Regardless, what is done is done, so Romero teams up with an elite Allied unit already hunting the Unhallowed. The Howling Commandos currently number only three, but Agent Carter and the mystical Sebastian Szardos (a.k.a. Soldier Supreme), commanded by Col. Nick Fury, have no fear of the supernatural. They are soon joined by a relentless Canadian soldier named Logan and Bucky, Captain America’s teenaged sidekick, who takes macabre pleasure in killing National Socialists and taking trophies. Unfortunately, Eisenhower cannot spare Cap from the Normandy landing.

It is fantastic to see Marvel return to their WWII era characters and timelines. Johnson makes smart use of the Howling Commandos, Logan, and Bucky. Yet, Ghost Rider ’44 emerges as the star of Hellhunters, who deserves his own series. He shares a kinship with Blaze, but also forges his own identity. (Plus, just the idea of a WWII Ghost Rider summons memories of Steve McQueen in The Great Escape).

Red Sonja: Rebooting the Hyborian Age

Casting 6’ 1” Brigitte Nielsen as the “She-Devil” made a lot of sense, but the notorious 1985 fantasy bomb committed many grievous cinematic sins. Without question, the worst was the absence of her iconic chainmail bikini. To its credit, this film does not make that error. The wardrobe is legit, but there is also a little bit of the warrior spirit in M.J. Bassett’s Red Sonja, which releases this Friday on VOD.

Essentially, Roy Thomas “created” Red Sonja to be Conan the Barbarian’s female colleague in hacking and slashing. Technically, he took the name from another Robert E. Howard story, but that Red Sonja was a non-Hyborian warrior, of Ukrainian descent, seeking vengeance against the Ottoman Empire. (Obviously, Putin never read “The Shadow of the Vulture,” either.)

Like Thomas’s Sonja, Bassett’s Sonja became a wanderer after her family was brutally murdered, but she is more of nature-loving seeker, on a quest to reunite with last remaining Hyrkanian people, instead of the cynical hedonistic anti-heroine fans know and love.

Thanks to her upbringing, this Sonja immediately defends the forest creatures from Emperor Draygan’s pillagers, which gets her condemned to the arena as a gladiator. So far, very Conan-esque, right? Wisely, the arena armorer only gives her wooden swords and for protection, only supplies the intentionally impractical chainmail. Of course, Sonja refuses to play ball. Instead of earning her freedom by slaying her fellow Damnati, she foments revolution against the empire instead.

There is a lot of conspicuous CGI in this Red Sonja, but that is part of its eccentric charm. Frankly, it is forgivable, because it helps depict the kind of grandly over-the-top fantasy world that fans appreciate. It also distinguishes Bassett’s film from the maligned 1985 movie. There is no shortage of slicing and dicing, as fans would hope. Plus, there is some impressive animal handling, like that of Sonja’s loyal mount, who is pretty smart for a horse.

Bassett previously helmed the better-than-you-might-expect Howard-adaptation Solomon Kane, so he clearly shows an affinity for the pulp writer. The action and fantastical elements work quite well. However, Tasha Huo’s screenplay lacks the sexy attitude that made Red Sonja a geek-favorite in the first place. While Gail Simone’s recent comics and novel embrace Sonja as a Hyborian Age feminist, her recently asserted bisexuality further enhances the franchise’s sexual overtones, but that is all entirely absent from the film.

Still, they have the chainmail bikini (whereas the cover of Simone’s recent novel inexplicably depicts a piece of snake jewelry). Matilda Lutz’s portrayal of Sonja would ordinarily be more than sufficiently compelling for a popcorn fantasy, but she lacks the fierceness fans would expect from the She-Devil. Oddly, she is too vulnerable and too human.

FrightFest ’25: Where is Juan Moctezuma

Juan F. Moctezuma II might be the only filmmaker who ever cost Roger Corman money. According to filmmaker and Moctezuma scholar Alaric S. Rocha, Corman financed the filmmaker’s final masterwork, but the Mexican auteur disappeared with all the film and negatives, never to be heard from again. It is hard to believe Corman could get played like that, so maybe that’s our first clue something Andy Kaufman-ish is going on in this documentary (should that be in quotes?). Either way, Rocha provides an affection tribute to Mexican macabre cinema in Where is Juan Moctezuma, which world premiered at FrightFest 2025.

Juan F. Moctezuma II is not Juan Lopez Moctezuma, who directed several horror films and had producer roles on two Jodorowsky films, but they share remarkably similar career arcs. However, Rocha’s Moctezuma now remains shrouded in mystery after disappearing with 1,000 Paths of Death, a sort of supernatural riff on The Searchers that Corman paid for (seriously, do you believe the King of the B’s would let that happen?).

Regardless, Moctezuma cuts a swath through every Mexican genre tradition, including Aztec folk horror and 1960s leftwing protest allegories. He too worked on Jodorowsky’s first two Mexican productions, just like his near-namesake.  Along the way, he earned a fitting nemesis, The Scorpion, the luchador who married Moctezuma’s muse. In fact, many of his films were deliberately conceived as gambits to win her heart back.

Professor T: Overboard

After three seasons of therapy sessions, you would think Prof. Jasper Tempest would have made some progress overcoming his OCD quirks. Unfortunately, he started making headway by the third season, but then the murder of his former student and primary police contact Lisa Donckers sent him spiraling backwards. Tempest’s shrink, Dr. Helena Goldberg, initially recommends a return to crime-solving as therapy, but she will also request his consulting detective expertise for personal reasons in “Overboard,” which launches the fourth season of Professor T, premiering tonight on PBS.

A death on a cruise ship is a premise worthy of Dame Agatha. However, initially only rookie DS Chloe Highsmith suspects foul play in the presumed drowning of Ophelia McQueen. To be fair, DS (and acting DI) Dan Winters might be a bit distracted mourning Donckers, with whom he had a rather complicated relationship. However, revelations of some nasty texts and further suspicious circumstances prompt a more pointed investigation.

It turns out, Dr. Goldberg is an old friend of McQueen’s mother, so she would like Tempest to apply his anti-social genius to the case. Of course, Tempest is incapable of responding with grace, but eventually he starts his own investigation, with all the prickliness of his first season self. At this point, the only person of his limited social circle willing to help happens to be his free-spirited Aunt Zelda Radclyffe, who agreed to visit while Tempest’s mother tours Europe. Frankly, she really came more for the dog, but she can drive.

Fortunately, this will be a case Tempest can solve like Nero Wolfe, without access to the crime scene. Yet, he still gets himself into trouble. Regardless, writer Stephen Brady pens some clever parsing of witness statements. Still, it seems like this episode fails to capitalize on a promising crime scene. However, it accomplishes its primary goal: getting Tempest back in the game.

Shyamalan Nights: Trap

Lady Raven's latest concert could be the next Altamont or Woodstock 1999, because Cooper Abbott bought a ticket. People often die around him, because he is a serial killer. Somehow, an FBI profiler figured out he would be at the concert, so she floods the arena with police. However, the killer will be extremely dangerous when cornered, so collateral damage is highly likely in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which screens tomorrow as part of a retrospective of the hot-and-cold director’s work.

While conceived as a Hitchcockian thriller breaking out amidst a Taylor Swift concert, Saleka Shyamalan’s songs are frankly more appealing. She is also surprisingly forceful portraying the fictional mega-popular idol, Lady Raven, in key dramatic scenes. Abbott’s daughter Riley is a huge fan, so he bought floor tickets to celebrate her good grades and apparently as consolation for some bullying she has endured. Seriously, if anyone should be able to [permanently] handle a snobby mean girl, it ought to be Abbott. Maybe later.

Currently, he has Spencer, his latest victim, stashed in one of his lairs. The police are desperate to catch Abbott, so they have taken Lady Raven and the stadium staff into their confidence. Time is running out for poor Spencer and Abbott has some nasty tricks up his sleeve to keep his hunters off-balance.

It turns out working for the fire department is helpful for a serial killer, because you know about all the buildings that have been abandoned after failing fire inspections. That is a rather clever detail from Shyamalan. Abbott’s firefighter profession also adds a further ironic layer. Everyone loves firemen, because they are protectors, but Abbott betrays that public trust, as well as that of his family. (Indeed, Shyamalan shrewdly paired Trap with Hitchcock’s Shadow of Doubt, which also exposes a hidden monster to an unsuspecting family member.)

There is plenty to criticize in other Shyamalan films, but casting his daughter Saleka as Lady Raven should not be reflexively dismissed as nepotism. Her songs certainly fit the setting and she really delivers in the second half, when Lady Raven suddenly becomes personally ensnared in the manhunt drama.

Hartnett is sufficiently creepy as Abbott, but not beyond what we generally expect in these serial killer-next-door characters. However, Hayley Mills (yes, from The Parent Trap) brings a wonderfully steely presence as Dr. Josephine Grant, the profiler. Yet, the biggest surprise comes from Allison Pill, who is really terrific appearing in the third act, as Rachel Abbott.

Ne Zha II, in Cinema Daily US

NE ZHA II smashed global box office records, but it doesn't live up to the hype. Ultimately, the Chinese animated hit loses its human perspective, undermined by weak characterization, hhard to follow cosmic-scale battles, and shticky English voiceovers. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Primitive War, from Fathom Events

Somehow, Robert McNamara left this part out of the shameful book he wrote to disavow his responsibility for presiding over the Vietnam War. Of course, it is fictional, because living dinosaurs were never discovered in-country. However, it aptly represents the bad decision-making imposed from above on junior officers, NCO’s, and their squads and platoons, by politicians and senior officers. Fortunately, Vulture Squad has a talent for improvising and an aversion to buck-passing. Consequently, when they discover a top-secret Soviet operation unleashed dinosaurs in Vietnam, they take decisive counter-measures in director-screenwriter Luke Sparke’s Primitive War, which is now playing in theaters, via Fathom Events.

Col. Amadeus Jericho allowed Sgt. Baker to hand pick the “Dirty Dozen”-worthy members of his Vulture Squad, because he knew Baker could get the job done. Thanks to their latest rescue operation, there will be two less missing POW’s. Obviously, their next mission will be dicey, considering Jericho’s caginess regarding the on-the-ground circumstances. Baker’s men are supposed to extract any surviving Green Berets and report any unusual observations. Presumably, the dinosaurs will qualify.

It turns out this is all the Soviets’ fault, particularly Dr. Borodin, the mad scientist whose experiment opened a wormhole, which all the really dangerous dinosaurs stepped through (as well as some of the herbivores, like stegosauruses and brontosauruses). Baker even captures a motivated informant, paleontologist Sophia Atalar, who was recruited by Borodin to study the dinosaurs. Despite his orders, Baker realizes Vulture Squad must stop Borodin’s research by any means necessary. However, to reach the hidden Soviet base, Baker and his men must evade a squad of raptors and a pair of very upset tyrannosaur parents.

It is important to note some of the worst dinosaur effects come in early scenes, so resist snap judgements. As the film progresses, the quality of the dinosaur renderings improves dramatically. In fact, some of the later scenes are shockingly cool. In all likelihood, if Primitive War had released a year before Jurassic Park, it would still be considered legendary.

Regardless, the depictions of warfighting are always viscerally gritty and realistic. There is nothing cartoony about Vulture’s Squad’s recon and rescue business. If anything, depicting the battles and wartime conditions took priority over the dinosaur apocalypse. Yet, the mordantly sly, cynical, and foul-mouthed dialogue rings even truer than the scrupulously realistic blood and muck.

The ensemble cast couldn’t get much grittier either, starting with Ryan Kwanten as steely Sgt. Baker. Arguably, this is his best film work in years. The rest of the squad also looks and acts credibly battle-tested. Sparke does not exactly over-indulge in backstories or character-building, but Carlos Sanson, Nick Wechsler, and Aaron Glenane have sufficient screen presence to differentiate and distinguish their characters.

Ron Howard’s Eden

In the 1930's, the Germans had a nasty habit of fighting with their neighbors. That was even true of the small colony on Floreana Island in the Galapagos. Would-be philosopher Friedrich Ritter and his partner Dore Strauch only had six neighbors, but they fought with all of them. The feuding took a scandalous turn that stoked decades of controversy in the German press and spawned three films. One was a French TV movie adapting a Georges Simenon novel transparently based on the case. The second was the classy “true-crime” documentary” The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden. This is the third. Director-producer Ron Howard recruited a famous cast, but like previous filmmakers, he shows strangely little interest in the Germany the Floreanans had expatriated themselves from in Eden, which opens Friday in theaters.

Strauch believes Ritter will save the world with his manifesto, but to contemporary ears, it sounds like a warmed-over fusion of Nietzsche and Rousseau, at least before he goes a little crazy. Heinz and Margaret Wittmer are the next to arrive. The couple seems to have an inkling of how bad things will get in Germany. They also believe their ailing son Harry will benefit from the tropical climate. The Rittmer’s instinctively look down on their square, middle-class neighbors, but they grudgingly start to respect the Wittmers for doggedly scraping out a home for themselves.

Unfortunately, “Baroness” Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn lands several months later, along with her two himbo lovers. She has grandiose plans to build a beach resort, but she is ill-prepared for the conditions she finds. As the self-dubbed Baroness’s supplies dwindle, she and her men set their eyes on the Wittmers’ supplies, making them a direct existential threat to the family. Yet, Ritter probably hates her even more, because of the way the Baroness needles his vanity.

Screenwriter Noah Pink offers explanations for the deaths on Floreana, but in real-life (if such a thing still exists), the truth has yet to be established beyond a shadow of a doubt. That is a large part of the story’s appeal. Regardless, despite its ultimate uncertainty, The Galapagos Affair is a much better film, in part due to a more sophisticated vibe (suggesting comparisons to Michael Bradford’s White Mischief). In contrast, Howard aims more for the overheated tone of an old school primetime soap opera. Frankly, he and Pink frequently neglect the mystery/thriller elements, focusing instead of the island’s festering jealousies, sexual power games, and [not-so]-micro aggressions. Consequently, it is often grabby, but in a lurid kind of way.

Jude Law is certainly fun to watch shamelessly chewing the scenery as the arrogant and wildly self-important Ritter. Daniel Bruhl anchors the film, portraying Heinz Wittmer with dignity and intensity that it maybe does not fully deserve. To her credit, Sydney Sweeney so thoroughly transforms herself into the hardscrabble Margaret Wittmer, a perpetually offended wokester could watch the entire film without getting “triggered”—at least not by Sweeney and her “good jeans.”

Dragon Heart: Adventures Beyond This World

Admittedly, these two teens are about to die, but don’t think of it as a downer. This way, the lucky cousins will learn their purposes in life—short though they were. Yet, unlike Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come, they might be able to return to their interrupted earthly lives, so they apply their epiphanies with their memories intact—maybe, just maybe. Unfortunately, their journey of self-discovery entails more than just one trip to Hell. They must visit several in Isamu Imakake’s Happy Science-produced Dragon Heart, which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Blame the kappa, who lured Tomomi Sato and her visiting cousin, Ryusuke Tagawa into treacherous currents. Apparently, that was that, but Ameno Hiwashino Mikoto, the god of the local Shinto shrine invites them to explore the spirit realm. Much to their surprise, the tour quickly takes on Divine Comedy parallels.

First, they materialize in a violent gangster world, where the damned constantly murder each other. From there, they fall into a bizarre Lynchian hospital, which dispenses a distinctly sinister variety of care, very much in the surreal tradition of Inoperable or Fractured. It is a nightmarish place, yet it is also where they witness the redemption and rescue of a tormented soul. That plants a seed with Sato and Tagawa, giving them a notion this might be something they want to do.

However, it will take some doing before they can start saving souls. To get to that point, they must escape from a snake queen and find the hidden enclave of Shambhala to start their advanced spiritual training.

Dragon Heart is the latest anime feature based on the teachings of the Happy Science movement. In terms of the level of proselytization, this film falls somewhere between The Mystical Laws and The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim. There are times when the spiritual content feels very heavy-handed. Yet, the uninitiated would be hard-pressed to explain the film’s foundational doctrines, beyond generalities like believe on God and recognize the soul is man’s true form rather than the body. Indeed, for pagans, the film seems to freely mix Shinto, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian symbolism, cafeteria-style.

Regardless, the level of animation remains surprisingly high. Imakake worked on several major anime properties prior to helming Happy Science’s animated features (including Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, and Lupin III), so the level of animation is always professional grade. In fact, many of fantastical landscapes are really quite visually striking.

Countdown, Season 1-B, on Prime Video

Everyone loves to get the old gang together, except maybe a Federal multi-agency counter-terrorism task force, because it means they must have detected signs an unknown party or parties is planning something horrific. At least Special Agent Nathan Blythe’s team already developed a strong working rapport, except maybe the ones who had a romantic relationship. Regardless, the task force must play catch-up to prevent the assassination of California’s governor (and possibly also the President) in season one’s second-half storyline of creator-showrunner Eric Haas’s Countdown, which starts/continues tomorrow on Prime Video.

Viewers who followed Countdown’s initial dirty-bomb plot master-minded by Volchek, the evil Belarusian know the episode that wrapped up all the loose ends concluded with the start of a new case. Secret Service Agent Ryan Fitzgerald was stuck processing low level threat reports from the “muzzle pile,” basically the Secret Service’s equivalent of the slush pile, because he is relentlessly annoying. However, one call to the tip-line was suspicious enough to follow-up. Agent Fitzgerald found a dead body and a cryptic manifesto that apparently mentions the governor a lot and the President a little.

That is obviously more than enough to put Blythe’s task force back in business. The combination of manifestos and threats against elected officials can move even the most incalcitrant bureaucracies. When rugged Det. Mark Meachum and the team search the crime scene and find a subterranean firing range below the rented summer cabin, with the governor’s photo as the target, it gets everyone’s attention, especially the governor’s.

Weirdly, Gov. George Shelby looks and acts like a prickly cross between Gavin Newsom and Greg Abbott. Ther is something about Shelby to rub every viewer the wrong way. Yet, in a way, it is refreshing to see a major streaming series present a recurring character using a wheelchair, who is tough and ambitious, rather than simply serving as a cheap source of inspiration.

Nevertheless, the pacing of season 1-B lags behind that of 1-A. It also lacks similarly apocalyptic stakes—no disrespect to Shelby. Plus, the task force does not seem to really be up to speed yet. Throughout 1A, the always managed to keep just one step behind Volchek. However, their unknown manifesto writer completely runs circles around the team throughout the final three episodes, without reaching anything close to a conclusion.

Still, the chemistry continues to click amongst the cast. Jensen Ackles shows even greater star-power as hard-charging Meachum. The good news is Meachum fully recovered in episode ten and his death wish was cured along with his tumor. He is even starting to make career plans—gasp—despite getting dumped by DEA agent Amber Oliveras after his recovery. To add an insulting irony, she subsequently took up with his surgeon, her friend from the “old neighborhood,” Dr. Julio Beltran.

Frankly, it doesn’t really make much sense to have a DEA agent on this task force, whereas the previous case involved drug cartels smuggling radioactive material across the border, on behalf of the terrorist. Yet, her will-they-or-won’t-they chemistry with Meacham will not be denied.

DC Horror Presents…

While Marvel gets more credit for integrating traditional monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein into its 1970s superhero universe, DC always had its own horror chops. After all, they had the Creature Commandos and the long-running House of Mystery was “hosted” by Cain, who sort of has a place in the DC universe. Periodically, the major heroes battle the supernatural, but they never like it, not one little bit. Unfortunately, many of them must face the dark side in the anthology DC Horror Presents…(the ellipsis makes it scarier), which goes on-sale today.

Frankly, it kinds of seems like cheating to contribute a story focusing on super-villains, like Dollhouse and Dollmaker. Nevertheless, David Dastmalchian & Leah Kilpatrick do exactly that in “Love You to Pieces.” However, they certainly capture the spirit of vintage horror comics while artist Cat Staggs cranks up the gore well above what EC Comics could ever hope to get away with.

The next story is even darker, while fully embracing the challenge of placing iconic characters in a new horror context. The Boulet Brothers rise to the challenge, forcing venerable Wonder Woman to confront a supernatural force that hits very close to home. This encounter will leave a permanent mark on Diana’s psyche, in which ever universe and timeline it might take place. Butch Mapa’s art and Kristian Rossi’s colors also really pop off the page.

LaToya Morgan’s “Living Doll” takes an approach similar to “Love You to Pieces,” this time focusing on Scarface. However, his presumed victims’ Batman and Wonder Woman Halloween costumes lend it further DC-ness. In this case, artists Tom Derenick and Walt Barna really lean into the gore, in a fan friendly way, of course.

Yet, Aarons Sagers’ “Superstitious Lot,” stands out as the clear highlight of what was originally issue #2. It might seem like another super-villain spotlight, but hopefully this story serves as a backdoor pilot for Tennyson Stacks, a.k.a. Dr. Spooky, the Carl Kolchak-looking paranormal investigator summoned by Oswald Cobblepot, loved and feared as The Penguin, who has been haunted past reason. It seems that all those henchmen he betrayed have come back for vengeance. In addition to the fresh new character and the clever concept, Sagers also delivers a sly cameo for you-know-who.

Francesco Francavilla finally fully embraces the bat in “The Chthonian Dawn,” also delivering the most striking art of the four-issue run. It starts as one kind of horror, but suddenly turns into a more Twilight Zone-worthy “oh the horror, oh the horror” tale. Plus, the guest-starring role for Abby Arcane aptly fits the story’s themes.

Frustratingly, Patrick Horvath’s “The Brooding Public” starts with a truly horrifying concept, but it is poorly served by patchy storytelling. To compound the problems, the cartoony art conflicts with the grim apocalyptic themes. However, it is nice to see an underutilized character like Adam Strange get a feature spot. If this story could be smoothed out and tightened up, it could make a worthy companion to the short film, DC Showcase: Adam Strange.

Arguably, Catwoman counts as both superhero and super-villain. Regardless, she finds herself the victim of a sinister O. Henry-from-Hell curse in Patton Oswalt & Jordan Blum’s “The Diamond Steals Back.” At times, the story is surprisingly poignant, but it ends with a deliciously macabre punchline, which probably represents Oswalt’s funniest work in years.

Tales from the Void, Season One

Maybe the word “void” is a fitting way to refer to a creepypasta subreddit. Evidently, that is how the community sees itself, since all the stories adapted for this anthology series came from r/NoSleep short fiction horror community. Some contributors parlayed their stories into book deals and a handful have even been optioned. Of course, many have been largely ignored. Perhaps fittingly, and certainly not unexpectedly, the quality varies greatly throughout the 6-episode first season of creator Francesco Loschiavo’s Tales from the Void, based on r.NoSleep stories, which releases tomorrow on BluRay.

Shrewdly, the opening episode, “Into the Unknown” is the best of the six (and the only one provided for review when the series debuted on Screambox). The darned thing just shows up one day in the parking lot of a large, somewhat isolated apartment building. It is like a giant square, non-reflective black flat-screen TV that hovers in the air. It also appears invisible to cameras and film, as Harris discovers. He is the only one exhibiting intellectual curiosity about it, but plenty of his neighbors are obsessed.

Harris’s friend Anton has the night-watch, while Bill (who seems to hold some kind of building captain position) and his hired goons guard it by day. Increasingly paranoid, Bill fears the Square must be some kind of government experiment and/or a threat of unknown origin. He is determined to protect the building, especially Harris, from the Square, no matters how much it hurts.

Throughout it all, director Joe Lynch maintains a moody atmosphere and skillfully builds the mounting paranoia.  The adaptation of Matthew Dymerski’s tale lacks the black humor and snappy attitude of many of Lynch’s film, particularly Mayhem and Everly, but it creates a sense of a self-contained community, under extreme stress.

Conveniently, the second episode, also happens to be second best in quality too. “Fixed Frequency” harkens back to 1980s teen horror, following three punky kids who prank their neighbors, by hacking their baby-monitors. Juan does not think it is very funny to terrify young mothers, but he plays along with Kurt and Cedric, because of peer pressure. Then, at their last house of the night, they hear an ominous bogeyman voice talking back to them through their walkie. It seems like he is exactly what they pretended to be—and he is coming for them next.

Helmed by Loschiavo, “Fixed Frequency” perfectly hits the right nostalgic notes. If anything, it feels a little truncated, but that suggests how effective the set-up is. Of all the first season episodes, this one could most easily be fixed-up into a feature length treatment.

Unfortunately, “Starlight,” also helmed by Loschiavo, is by far the most predictable. It follows Whit Barnett, a would-be influencer, who is as abrasive as he is pathetic. Yet, he has been selected for a mysterious new game show, which, of course, is exactly what we think it is. Oh, that crazy dark web.

Scary Movies XIII: Noise

It is a lot easier to close your eyes than to close your ears. Ironically, in this case, Joo-young’s hearing aid finally represents an advantage. She has so much underdog cred (working a blue-collar factory job, with her hearing impairment), Joo-young looks like a natural “final girl” candidate. Regardless, finding her semi-estranged sister will be her primary goal in Kim Soo-jin’s Noise, which screens tonight as part of Scary Movies XIII.

Joo-young briefly lived with Joo-hee, but she tired of her sibling’s erratic behavior, so she moved out—right before things really got weird. According to the cops, Joo-hee has been missing for weeks. Yet, as soon as Joo-young moves back in, the crazy neighbor below complains of the constant noise coming from their empty apartment. This noise-rage taps into reportedly common Korean complaints, stemming from high population density and cheap concrete construction. Such inter-building noise is less of an issue here in New York. That’s why we love our “pre-war” buildings.

Indeed, the brutalist apartment complex is rife with weird, disconcerting noises. Even Joo-young can hear them when her hearing aid is turned on. Joo-hee’s boyfriend, Ki-hoon, does not have that option, but he doesn’t understand the degree of the audio distortion he will have to contend with when he offers to help Joo-young find her sister.

Rather cleverly, the FSLC paired Noise with the similarly audio-themed Rabbit Trap for their press screenings, but the public screenings fell on different days. Maybe that is just as well, because the two films together constitute an exhausting sensory overload. However, that also means both sound teams did some incredibly potent work.

Kim also cleverly capitalizes on Joo-young’s reliance on voice recognition apps and her on-and-off hearing aid to cleverly build suspense. Yet, despite a vibe and style clearly inspired by classic J-horror and K-horror, screenwriter Lee Je-hui maintains a coyness whether the film is supernatural horror, or a devious murder mystery of human origins and design. Either way, there are some deeply unnerving moments, thanks in large measure to the sinister sound.

Chainsaw Day: Chain Reactions

Roger Ebert famously gave The Texas Chainsaw Massacre only two out of four stars. Yet, he conceded the quality of the performances and productions values might surprise viewers, “not, however, that you’d necessarily enjoy seeing it.” Ebert was hardly alone. At the time, Tobe Hooper’s career-making film was decidedly divisive amongst critics. Unfortunately, viewers really do not get a sense of that diversity of opinion in Alexandre O. Philippe’s Chainsaw Reactions, which has a special nationwide “Texas Chainsaw Day” screening this Monday, along with the 1974 film it documents.

Fifty years and change later, everyone involved with Philippe’s doc takes it as a given that Hooper’s film is a classic. Again, he uses an approach like that of Lynch/Oz, essentially presenting extended critical analysis from five experts/critics/fans, while showing evocative clips from the film. Fortunately, these five waxers-poetic repeat themselves far less than the cast of Lynch/Oz did. However, the lineup of Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Australian film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama will not appeal to all fans equally, to put it diplomatically.

Still, listening to Miike and King discuss anything horror related will be an opportunity few fans would want to pass up. Miike’s perspective is particularly notable, explaining Texas Chainsaw’s reception in Japan and tracing its influence on some of his more extreme films, like Ichi the Killer. King also has some worthy contributions, but he never mentions Hooper’s Salem’s Lot, which remains one of the best King adaptations of all time.

Annoyingly, many of the fab-ish five still reflect the same general perspective, especially when trying to score polemical points with respects to the alleged rising level of violence permeating American society. However, the film would have benefited from the more nuanced analysis of Joseph Lanza writing in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Film that Terrified a Rattled Nation, which situates the film within the context of late-1960s and early-1970s violence, definitely including the New Left-adjacent Manson Family Murders, which go unmentioned in Reactions.

Scary Movies XIII: Rabbit Trap

Daphne Davenport was on pace to become another Laurie Anderson or Naim June Paik. She describes her concrete-adjacent electronic-distorted found music as “influential” rather than popular. Unfortunately, true fame will probably elude her, because she is a character in a horror film. She hoped to discover some inspiring natural sounds with her recording engineer husband Darcy, but they also find a sinister wild child in director-screenwriter Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap, produced by SpectreVision, which screens tonight as part of Scary Movies XIII.

Daphne is the “artiste” and Darcy is her enabler. He spends hours doing the legwork, roaming the Welsh moors, making field recordings of squishy-squashy natural noises, which she samples into her industrial soundscapes. It is a reclusive life, but apparently, they needed to get away from the London scene. They are also clearly carrying a lot of baggage that they never discuss, but it comes to a boil when the kid shows up.

Even the Da-Da’s notice how cagily their visitor remains nameless. However, the wild child brims with knowledge regarding the local animals and flora. The strange youngster even seems to have a special connection to the rabbits, especially the dead ones. Indeed, the nature child should remind Nat Kind Cole fans that “Nature Boy” is actually an extremely creepy song. Yet, despite this squirreliness, Daphne forges an unhealthy attachment to “the child,” which encourages not-so-subtle attempts to undermine her marriage.

Soon, Darcy starts freaking out over their little stalker’s behavior. He also passes out and loses time after ill-advisedly walking into a fairy circle. Admittedly, the little weirdo warned him not to do it, but he did so anyway, losing time and consciousness as a result.

In some ways, Rabbit Trap is like an Enys Men, flavored with an extract of Blow Out, which makes it ten times more grounded. The folk horror runs heavy in these parts. The atmosphere is thick and it has amazingly clear audio fidelity. The grungy 1970s period details are also highly evocative. Frankly, this is a world you wouldn’t want to visit, but it definitely sounds massively eerie.

Witchboard, Chuck Russell’s Reboot

It used to be a garden variety Ouija board that picked up a bad passenger, but for the reboot, it has been upgraded to a very rare and very evil antique. That will not be a trade-up for those who handle it. At least the food is better this time around, because the setting moved from California to New Orleans. However, a young woman still falls under the sway of a creepy forerunner to the magic 8-ball in Chuck Russell’s Witchboard, which opens today in theaters.

Emily, her fiancé Christian, and their friends were out foraging for mushrooms when she stumbled across the evil board. They weren’t for recreational purposes. They are for the opening of Christian’s hipster restaurant. Apparently, everyone was so busy planning for the premiere, they missed the news of the museum heist that made off with a notorious witchcraft relic.

The board still basically works the same way. It just has more bells and whistles. Ominously, Emily grows increasingly obsessed with the board’s divining powers, after it leads her to her misplaced engagement ring. Indeed, the recovering Emily has an addictive personality that makes her acutely susceptible to the board’s malevolent influence.

Nobody really thinks about why the board was there in the first place. Anne Ricey-looking Alexander Babtiste, a wealthy expert in the dark arts, commissioned the theft, but was double-crossed by the hoodlum now decomposing in the forest. Ill-advisedly, Christian’s torch-carrying but well-meaning ex, Brooke, refers Christian to Babtiste for occult guidance. Clearly, he does not have Emily’s best interests at heart.

Russell and co-screenwriter Greg McKay’s screenplay wildly departs from the 1986 original, but Babtiste’s shadowy conspiracy to resurrect a notorious 17^th Century witch is the best thing going for the film, admittedly in a wacky and outlandish kind of way. There are times when the film ventures quite deeply into the tall weeds of left field (to compound metaphors).

Went Up the Hill: A Ghost Story

When you reach a certain age, nursery rhymes start sounding creepy. Jack and Jill are definitely old enough, so maybe the irony of their names should have been their first warning. He journeyed to New Zealand’s least populous South Island to mourn his long-estranged mother, but maybe she isn’t really gone, at least not completely in Samuel Van Grinsven’s Went Up the Hill, which opens today in theaters.

The late Elizabeth’s grieving wife Jill is surprised to see Jack at her wake, while Jack is surprised that she is surprised, because Jill called him, asking him to come—or so he thought. Nevertheless, Jill immediately agrees he should be there and runs interference with Elizabeth’s inhospitable sister Helen. Jack never really knew the mother who gave him for adoption at a very young age. Yet, he and Jill quickly bond in their radically different forms of grief.

Jack yearns for answers from his mother, which Jill helps facilitate when Elizabeth’s spirit (call it whatever you prefer) takes possession of her body. The supernatural communication works both ways, allowing Jill to talk to Elizabeth when she possesses her son, in turn. The process just requires both son and wife to be asleep, allowing Elizabeth to jump from one body to another. Initially, the ghostly encounters are consoling, but viewers soon start to suspect the deceased profoundly mistreated both Jack and Jill.

Went Up the Hill is an unusually elegant and austere ghost story—so much so, some critics argue it isn’t really horror. Yet, Van Grinsven’s film is far scarier than supposed horror movies like Get Out or Bodies Bodies Bodies. Those films have their merits, but they aren’t really scary. In contrast, there are moments in Hill that will chill you to the bone and make your hair stand on end. In terms of tone and potency, it compares favorably (but does not surpass) Assayas’s Personal Shopper.