Old Man, Starring Stephen Lang

What will soak your butt faster, the storm outside the cabin, or the moonshine inside? The mason jar of “old mule” (it has a kick) comes courtesy of your unstable and standoffish host. He is a rather crusty cuss, who must have a reason for isolating himself in the Smoky Mountain woods in Lucky McKee’s Old Man, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on-demand.

At least for now, the old man will simply be known as “Old Man.” When Joe, the lost hiker, knocks on his door, he introduces himself with a shotgun in his face. The Old Man is distrustful, especially considering how vague Joe’s story is. However, he would not turn out a traveler in need, especially with a storm approaching.

As they settle in over some ‘shine, the old man tells violent anecdotes that may or may not be true and Joe confesses to some of the personal problems he was hoping to escape. Eventually, things veer into folkish horror territory, when their conversation turns towards local native lore, which may or may not explain what is going on.

Experienced cult film fans might have a general idea where the film is headed, but McKee brings it all together pretty effectively. This has to be his best film since he contributed to the anthology film Tales of Halloween. The film is largely two people talking, but McKee maintains the claustrophobic tension nicely.

Of course, the key to it all is Stephen Lang’s riveting performance as the Old Man. He is definitely building on his cranky old horror guy persona established in VFW and the Don’t Breathe films, but he covers a much broader and more intense emotional spectrum as the Old Man. He goes to some dark places. Frankly, it is easy to imagine this film depended on getting him, because it is hard to picture anyone else in the role.

Lancaster, in the Epoch Times

LANCASTER is an intelligently organized documentary about the British WWII bomber (their equivalent of the "Flying Fortress"), the operations it flew, and the men who served as its crew. EPOCH TIMES review now up here. 

Next at the Kennedy Center: Let My Children Hear Mingus

The music of Charles Mingus is so rich and rewarding, there are three repertory ensembles dedicated to performing it: the Mingus Big Band, the Mingus Orchestra, and the seven-piece Mingus Dynasty, all of whom operated under the watchful eye of his widow, Sue Mingus, until her death earlier this year. It will be the Big Band who have the opportunity to introduce Mingus’s music to PBS viewers hoping to get a little hipper. Their concert celebrating the Mingus centennial (4/22/1922-1/5/1979), Let My Children Hear Mingus airs this Friday, launching PBS’s newest performing arts showcase, Next at the Kennedy Center.

Despite some interview segments featuring bassist Christian McBride, Jason Moran, and Robert Glasper, the Mingus Big Band performs most of the music, which makes sense, since they are the experts. However, they are joined by one legendary guest, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, who was a long-time Mingus sideman, as well as a leader in his own right. Clint Eastwood relied on McPherson perform the original alto solos for his Charlie Parker bio-picture Bird, so you know he is the real deal—and he still sounds great.

“Boogie Stop Shuffle” is an appropriately up-tempo opener for the Big Band on their own and “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” is a beautiful showcase for McPherson. Reflecting the preoccupation at PBS for social issues, we get not one but two renditions of Mingus’s scathing segregation protest song, “Fables of Faubus,” one from the Big Band (featuring Frank Lacy’s vocals) and another from Moran, in a duet with vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow, laying electronic supplements over his piano. Moran and Muldrow also interpret “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” Mingus’s elegy to Lester Young.

However, the Big Band and McPherson are a better fit for Mingus’s “So Long Eric,” a more rousing but equally mournful tribute, aptly written in honor of his lifelong friend, Eric Dolphy. You have to give bassist, music director Boris Kozlov credit for nailing the bass intro, while McPherson plays with the kind of passion Mingus always demanded of his band.

In fact, this is by far, the best number included in the broadcast. It really captures the excitement of live performance, especially when McPherson and the rest of the sax section take turns soloing. It ends with an archival Mingus performance of “Don’t Let It Happen Here,” again, emphasizing Mingus’s political themes. (Of course, viewers cannot simply enjoy music, they have to be assured of its “relevancy,” right?)

Argento’s Dark Glasses, on Shudder

Looking elegant is often a requirement for giallo characters and Diana is definitely stylish in her dark sunglasses. Tragically, they are now part of her mandatory uniform, after she was blinded during a stalker’s attack. As she acclimates to her new reality, she must also fend off the obsessive serial killer in giallo-master Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, which premieres Thursday on Shudder.

In a bit of foreshadowing, Diana irritates her eyes while observing a solar eclipse. Remember kids, keep making those pinhole cameras. Unfortunately, Diana’s chosen field of sex work often attracts psychopaths, both movies and real-life. The man with a black van has already slashed several of her colleagues to death. That will be a white van, after he transfers some paint during his latest escape.

Diana was supposed to be his next victim, but she technically escaped with her life when he rammed her car into incoming traffic. Not only was she blinded, young Chin’s Chinese immigrant father was killer and his mother was rendered comatose, with little hope of revival. Initially, he resents Diana, but they soon form an unlikely bond. He will be part of her support system, along with Rita, a volunteer counselor for the newly blind, and Nerea, her new guide dog—especially Nerea.

Dark Glasses is a decent psycho-stalker horror film, but it feels remarkably similar to Argento’s Do You Like Hitchcock in its tone and intimate scoop. However, the former film also knowingly riffed on and channeled Hitchcock, which gave it a more distinctive identity.

In the case of Glasses, Argento gives viewers a blind woman and a young orphan in jeopardy, for double the manipulation. However, it represents a return to his signature style, after the much-maligned gothic horror of Dracula 3D. Honestly, it still looks cool. The bloody violence pops off the screen, just as it does in his best films. It is based on a past screenplay that was mothballed due to the production company’s insolvency, but it feels like a deliberate effort to get back to basics.

Messages from Ukraine, in Comic Art Form

You have to give the University of Toronto Press credit for their faith in Ukraine. Even for “instant books” it takes weeks, more likely months, to acquire, edit, design, sell-in, and print a new title. Ukraine now appears to be winning back territory (so of course, Putin has responded with more war crimes), but the prognosis for the invaded nation was probably not as optimistic when this title started the publication process. However, it had an urgent point to make, which is still valid. Former Ukrainian participants in a Swedish program for migrant policy specialists (SAYP) react to the initial horrors of Putin’s invasion in Gregg Bucken-Knapp & Joonas Sildre’s graphic novel Messages from Ukraine, which is now on-sale at online booksellers.

When Putin launched his full-scale war, Bucken-Knapp and his co-workers immediately reached out to their Ukrainian colleagues, offering them shelter in Sweden, if they could somehow reach the Scandinavian safe haven. Many of the initial responses they received have been collected here, illustrated by Sildre (who also took an active curatorial role). Some decided to stay and fight, while others decided to flee—in a few cases carrying their pet cat or gerbil with them. For those under siege in Mariupol, it was already too late to leave. Some expats considered returning to fight, while others continuing applying their training to assist their own migrant countrymen in Romania, or other surrounding countries.

Frankly, the short Messages (30-some pages of art, plus supplementary text) probably would have had more power if it had more fully developed two or three survivors’ narratives, rather than telling multiple sketches. People really need story and character development to move them to action. There are some viscerally expressive images in Messages, but its fragmentary nature limits its power.

Presumably, Bucken-Knapp & Sildre felt compelled to represent as a variety of voices, which we can respect. The results still have great value and timely significance documenting the shock and horror of Putin’s war—and the proceeds go the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, so it is an altogether worthy endeavor.

Professionals, on CW

Special operators (a.k.a. professionals) are a lot like teachers or economists. Some are good and some are bad. Only lawyers and government bureaucrats are mostly evil. The Swann Corporation happens to have both good and bad operators on the payroll. Visionary genius Peter Swann has the good ones and his half-sister Zora has the bad ones. Initially, he is not sure Zora realizes how bad her lover’s outfit truly is. Regardless, he needs protection from his rivals in showrunners Michael Colleary & Jeff Most’s 10-episode Professionals, which premieres tomorrow on the CW.

Swann had a grand ambition to launch a revolutionary satellite that would give his lover Dr. Graciela Davila advanced warning of global pandemics. Their goal would be to prevent them rather than profit off them. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening, since the rocket exploded on take-off.

As luck would have it, Davila happens to know someone with the skillset Swann needs. She was once involved with Vincent Corbo in a previous war zone. Of course, Corbo immediately figures out the explosion was sabotage, but it had to be an inside job. It does not take long to connect the dots to Luther Bruhn, who has apparently charmed Swann’s half-sister, Zora.

Clearly, Swann has trouble with his board, which ill-advisedly includes at least one Russian gangster. He also has to worry about his rebellious daughter Jane, who is not being treated right by her wannabe gangster-rapper boyfriend. Corbo must also contend with his own family distractions, supplied by his angry carjacking brother Danny. To protect his screw-up sibling, Corbo waylaid Europol officer Kurt Neumann, stealing damning evidence against Tariq Basari, the eurotrash crimelord Danny was indebted to. Inconveniently, that means Neumann will be coming for the Corbo brothers.

Professionals is largely conventional, but it features some really crisp action scenes. It might not sound like a CW show, but it stars Tom Wellin (all grown-up from Smallville) as Corbo. This is definitely a departure from young Clark Kent, but he is believably rugged and hardnosed. Wellin also develops a decent odd couple rhythm with Brendan Fraser’s Peter Swann. This is obviously an older, heavier Fraser compared to his Mummy glory days, but he well-suits the sheltered but brilliant tech mogul.

As Davila, Elena Anaya convincingly mediates between them while their buddy-relationship blossoms. Of course, for teenage boys, the real star of the show will be Tanya van Graan, playing Corbo’s subcontractor Romy Brandt, who certainly looks like she belongs in a South African-European co-production. Corbo’s crew, including her, Nick Rasenti as Jack “Hacksaw” Smythe, and Stevel Marc as Tyler “Trig” Raines, bring a lot of energy and human dimension to the series beyond mere comic relief and sex appeal. It is a likable crew that inspires confidence, which is critical to hooking weekly viewers.

Grimcutty, on Hulu

He is sort of the newer, hipper, deadlier version of the Slender Man. Fittingly for Halloween season, he is also the latest creepy internet meme to get his own horror movie. Naturally, he likes to kill kids it targets on the internet, but its power comes from an ironic source in John Ross’s Grimcutty, which premieres today on Hulu.

Asha Chaudry’s younger brother Kamran is a talented jazz musician, so he is understandably her parent’s favorite, especially after she quit the track team to focus on posting ASMR videos. Still, they freak out like concerned parents should when they read reports of the Grimcutty phenomenon. They aren’t quite sure what it is, but apparently someone or something using the Grimcutty online persona has convinced several teens to cut themselves and even commit suicide. Judging from the prologue, one little boy even stabbed his mother, because of his Grimcutty visions.

Initially, Asha and her friends are convinced this is merely the Satanic Panic of the 2020’s. Unfortunately, her father is particularly susceptible to this kind of paranoia, because he was already insisting on phone-free family outings. However, when Grimcutty starts attacking her, she realizes the urban legend is a very real threat to her life. Along with her school’s online queen bee, she will try to trace the Grimcutty hysteria back to its source.

Grimcutty has a clever wrinkle that will probably make a lot of teens sit their parents down to watch it, like a reverse afterschool special. Frankly, it arguably writes a new set of survival rules, just for the film, which it scrupulously adheres to. The problem is Grimcutty looks too much like an old school Syfy original movie bogeyman.

Quantum Leap: A Decent Proposal

Given current cultural fixations, it shows unusual restraint on the part of the writers to wait until the fourth episode to have Dr. Ben Song leap into a woman’s body. By leaping him into the early 1980s, the algorithm chose a time when men were men and women were women, who sometimes met each other in hip night clubs like The Whiskey a Go Go. However, Song’s latest host, Eva Sandoval is there on business: bounty-hunting. Song must track a skip while navigating her workplace romance with her partner in the latest episode of Quantum Leap, “A Decent Proposal,” premiering tonight on NBC.

It is 1981, when the entire world was watching the Royal Wedding. Jake wanted to start planning one of his own with Sandoval, but his proposal caught Sam off guard. According to Addison Augusitne, his holographic companion (and lover before the leap), the two bounty-hunters never tied the knot, which doesn’t sit well with Song. However, Augustine is convinced the leap is more about Tammy Jean, who skipped out on her parking ticket hearing and was never heard from again.

Again, the 1980s details are smartly chosen for quick nostalgia value. Director Rachel Talalay (who helmed Tank Girl) does a nice job conveying Eva and Jake’s romance, without leaning into in-your-face gender-bending possibilities. She and the cast just make us root for the couple to get their act together.

The Winchesters (Pilot), on CW

The thing about prequels is that we know where it’s going better than the characters do. Fans of Supernatural have seen the sacrifices John Winchester will make for his sons, but he did plenty of hunting before that. Much like his sons, Winchester has father issues of his own, not that he had much opportunity to spend time with his absent father. That is not all bad, because it gives him a commonality to bond over with his future wife, Mary Campbell, whose dad is also missing. The family that hunts together first gets together in the pilot episode of The Winchesters, which premieres Tuesday on the CW.

On his first day home from Vietnam, Winchester meet-cutes Campbell in a DNR-kind of way. Of course, cute does not last long in horror. The next time he encounters Campbell, she is saving him from a demon. As it happens, they were both following up leads regarding their fathers. Apparently, Winchester’s old man was part of “The Men of Letters,” a secret society dedicated to fighting supernatural threats. Presumably, Winchester Sr. largely cut ties with his wife and son to protect them from his business. In contrast, Campbell’s father trained her to be a “hunter” ever since she was a child.

Together with Campbell’s Scooby-Doo-Mystery-Incorporated fellow hunters Latika Desai (the shy one) and Carlos Cervantez (the cocky one), the future Winchesters follow demonic clues to New Orleans (they even have a similar van). Obviously, Winchester is keenly interested in Campbell, whereas she wants to spare him the chaos her father forced upon her. Yet, the mutual attraction is already evident.

Frankly, Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly have better chemistry in the pilot (as Winchester and Campbell) than co-leads Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki exhibited in the only Supernatural episode we’ve seen, “Crossroads Blues” (S2E8)—but its depiction of Robert Johnson was pretty hip. So far, showrunner Robbie Thompson nicely balances their courtship with the monster-hunting.

Mystery Spot, Starring Graham Skipper

If the lyrics “get your kicks on Route 66” don’t mean anything to you, the idea of roadside attractions will probably be lost on you too. Regardless, there used to be one next to this fleabag motor inn. Since it burned down, the motel has become a vortex of bad karma. Several visitors get caught up in it during director-screenwriter Mel House’s Mystery Spot, which is now available on VOD.

Rachel just checked into the room next to Nathan, who films endless audition videos in his room, for a project that apparently will never be fully cast. It is strongly implied that each hungry thesp disappears after they record their videos, but it is unclear whether he is responsible or if the blame lies with the shadowy production company that hired him. Leon definitely suspects Nathan is guilty of something, which is why he has the motel under constant surveillance. Apparently, the cop is on extended leave, or he might have possibly left the force after his partner was killed in the line of duty, at this very same motel.

Partially to her own surprise, Rachel sort of-kind of befriends Nathan, Leon, and Max, the owner-front desk clerk, who manages to be creepy and kindly simultaneously. Like Rachel, he is also mourning his late husband. Usually, nobody really goes there, unless they are “auditioning” for Nathan. However, she feels an affinity for the “Mystery Spot,” the burned-out shell of the next-door roadside attraction that featured furniture on its walls and ceilings, because the laws of gravity supposedly did not apply there.

Mystery Spot looks cheap, but House’s screenplay is impressively ambitious. It is questionable whether it all becomes clear at the end, but the head games are deeper and more sophisticated than those of the average Christopher Nolan-knock-off. House’s characters and their motivations are so ambiguous and nuanced, it is hard to make snap assumptions.

Werewolf by Night, on Disney +

Believe it or not, Marvel’s dirty little movie secrets are mainly horror films. In the 1970s, they integrated many public domain movie monsters into Marvel Comics, with titles like The Tomb of Dracula. Subsequently, licensing the Marvelized monsters to Japanese anime producers might have seemed like a good deal in the early 1980s, but now they pretend Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned and The Monster Frankenstein never existed. Later, Man-Thing premiered as a Syfy movie in 2005, just as the MCU franchise was about to take off. Since then, Marvel has been gun-shy with respects to its old monster characters. However, for this year’s Halloween season, they have produced a one-hour special featuring two of their 1970s era monsters. The good news is Man-Thing gets some redemption in Michael Giacchino’s Werewolf by Night, which premieres today on Disney+.

Ulysses Bloodstone is dead, so his custody of the mystical Bloodstone must pass to another. It should have been his estranged daughter Elsa’s birthright, but she must also participate in the ceremonial contest devised by her spiteful stepmother Verussa, along with the other monster hunters. They are mostly a nasty, sadistic lot, except Jack Russell, but he doesn’t really belong there. He is actually a monster (the original “Werewolf by Night” and friend of all terriers), who infiltrated their ritual gathering.

We soon learn Russell’s good friend Ted Sallis, a.k.a. Man-Thing, was abducted by Verussa to serve as the quarry in their competitive hunt. Russell does not want to kill anyone—and he shouldn’t have to since the moon is not yet full, but the other hunters are perfectly willing to slay their competition, including him and Elsa Bloodstone, for the sake of the prize.

Somewhat counter-intuitively given the title, Bloodstone is the focal protagonist of Werewolf by Night, rather than Russell. Maybe they should call here “Elsa the She-Wolfhunter of the MCU,” to attract Nazisploitation fans. Regardless, throughout most of the special, the aloof, mercenary Bloodstone is much harder to root for than the loyal and affable Russell.

In fact, the screenplay credited to Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron has several conceptual problems. Most fundamentally for a Halloween special, it refuses to be a satisfying monster-hunting horror movie, instead becoming a deadly Kumite/Most Dangerous Game-style thriller, with supernatural characters involved. After watching the special, we’d really like to see Russell and Man-Thing take on a demonic Jack the Ripper in New Orleans and the surrounding bayous (Disney+, email me if you’d like a treatment).

Alas, Werewolf by Night is never scary, but the opening sequences designed to evoke vintage Universal monster movies are very cool. The black-and-white cinematography (with spot-red for the Bloodstone) is nostalgic in the right kind of way. Depicting Russell’s transformation in silhouette is a similarly clever through-back device. The detailed design work of the Bloodstone trophy hall is also terrific. Everything looks great, the story is just underwhelming.

Don’t Look at the Demon, from Malaysia

In horror movies, you scoff at secretive, long-practiced rites at your own peril. That is especially true of protective rituals, because chances are, you will need them later. This small reality TV crew on-location in Malaysia certainly will. There is something profoundly evil terrorizing the house they are about to investigate in Brando Lee’s Don’t Look at the Demon, which opens in today in theaters nationwide.

Jules wants to cancel the painful tattooing ceremony her Skeleton Crew team are filming, but the Thai Buddhist Monk basically tells her to cowboy-up, since she is an American. Besides, he knows she has the “gift,” so her mind she be more open to such phenomenon.

Jules uses that sensitivity he detected to select their next case. Expat couple Ian and Martha Benchley are convinced they are being tormented by poltergeists in the fashionable Fraser Hill manor, but initially, Jules cannot pick up on anything. Just when they are about to dismiss the Benchleys as attention-seeking cranks, something big and uncanny shocks them out of their dismissiveness. This case is genuine and it will be extremely dangerous.

We get the usual reality horror ritual of setting up cameras around the house, but the Skeleton Crew crew is in way over the head. Quickly realizing the danger, Jules turns to the old monk for help. However, the baggage she carries from her own childhood encounter with the demonic makes her especially vulnerable to the entity threatening the Benchleys.

Reportedly, Don’t Look at the Demon is the first Malaysian-produced film to get a reasonably commercial theatrical distribution in America, beyond a few art-houses. Initially, it seems relatively conventional, even though Lee’s execution is tense and atmospheric, right from the start. However, the more it delves into local ritual and lore, the feeling of dread also deepens and intensifies. In many ways, Demon compares very directly to Banjong Pisanthanakun The Medium, but it is more accessible for general audiences—and not merely due to the predominantly Western cast.

Look at Me (short), Featuring Savion Glover

If you never saw and heard Savion Glover’s collaborations with McCoy Tyner, you missed something great. The dancer’s upcoming “duet” with a past-his-prime rock drummer looks far less promising, especially to the exasperated gala director who paired them together. The resulting verbal confrontation (with tap accompaniment) took on a life of its own for director-screenwriter Sally Potter, who spun it off from the film it was originally part of, to stand alone as the short film Look at Me, which screens this weekend in New York.

You can tell Adam’s gala concert will be nauseatingly didactic, because he plans to have Savion Glover (playing himself) and Leo performing on-stage in cages. It is to benefit the “wrongly incarcerated,” as if Manhattan’s DA prosecuted criminals anymore. You can really tell Look At Me was not made by a New Yorker, once you take a gander at the apartment Leo shares with his lover. Who might that be? Take a guess.

The problem is Leo only seems to know one speed. He can’t help playing harder and faster than Animal from the Muppets. However, this isn’t his gig. When Adam not so gently reminds him of that fact, it unleashes a torrent of resentment from the drummer.

Frankly, the way Potter and actor Javier Bardem depict Leo just does not match the way most musicians I know conduct themselves. In the real world, Leo would have already reached some kind of consensus plan with Glover and would improvise accordingly. Working musicians are professionals. Yet, Potter has Bardem explode, so his rage can express predictable grievances rooted in identity politics.

However, it is interesting to see Chris Rock in a role requiring him to “stand his ground,” in some respect, after that thing that happened. It is a nice performance and quite the contrast to his established image.

Given the cast and Potter’s reputation, Look at Me will probably reach several hundred times the audience average shorts manage to garner. It is debatable whether that is a good thing for actual gigging musical artists, because the film reinforces the negative stereotype of musicians being unreliable, self-destructive head-cases. At least viewers can hear Glover’s percussive feet and guitarist Fred Frith on Potter’s soundtrack. Not recommended, Look at Me screens with Orlando, Friday through Monday (10/7-10/10), at the Metrograph.

Hellraiser (2022), on Hulu

Amongst their many sins, the Weinsteins were irresponsible stewards of the Hellraiser franchise. After the lackluster Hellraiser: Judgement, rebooting and retconning away some of the accumulated lore wasn’t such a bad thing. There is still plenty of gore, but the S&M fetishism is somewhat dialed down in David Bruckner’s Hellraiser (2022), which premieres today on Hulu.

Quite fittingly, Selena Menaker acquired the notoriously evil puzzle box for her wealthy boss, Roland Voight, in the sinister-looking city of Belgrade, during the prologue. Despite his desire to master its infernal secrets, he disappeared from the world under mysterious circumstances and his estate was mothballed. A few years later, Riley McKendry, a recovery drug addict, agrees to help her low-life boyfriend Trevor steal the last remaining box in his old storage unit. Of course, that holds the Rubik’s cube from Hell, which she accidently activates.

However, it draws the blood of her infinitely more responsible brother Matt instead of hers. When he inevitably disappears, to suffer the demonic Cenobites’ torments in their Netherworld (known as the Lament Configuration in previous films), she immediately makes the connection with the box. However, Trevor and Matt’s boyfriend Colin assume it is the crazy junkie in her, coming out again. Nevertheless, she convinces Trevor to help her research Voight’s lurid past, starting with the infirm Menaker.

The reboot got a lot of cheerleading publicity from the announcement a woman had been cast as the Hell Priest (a.k.a. Pinhead). Jamie Clayton is certainly makes a scarier, more interesting Pinhead than Paul T. Taylor in Judgement, but she still cannot match Doug Bradley regal wickedness as the original.

To compensate, Goran Visnjic contributes some colorful human villainy as Voight, while Haim Abbas performance as the guilt-wracked Menaker is unusually complex for the horror franchise. In general, the Cenobites look more Giger-esque this time around—so British action star Selina Lo is nearly unrecognizable as “The Gasp.” The real trouble is Odessa A’zion and Drew Starkey have to carry a large portion of the film, but their portrayals of Riley and Trevor completely lack charisma and common sense. It is hard to picture a less appealing on-screen couple.

Let the Right One In, on Showtime

Traditionally, vampires were tall, dark, and handsome, lustily populating hot-blooded, sexually-charged gothic horror stories. Then Tomas Alfredson’s 2008 film adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel introduced viewers to a tiny, pale vampire leading a lonely existence in a bleak, frigid Scandinavian suburb. Now, Showtime’s series adaptation relocates its story to New York City. So much for that distinctive vibe. At least there is still a twelve-year-old (looking) vampire in creator Andrew Hinderaker’s Let the Right One In, which premieres tomorrow on Showtime.

Eleanor Kane and her father Mark move around a lot, because she is a vampire. They have finally returned to New York (which always reminds people of Blackeberg, Sweden), because her dad hopes finding the vampire who attacked and turned Eleanor a decade ago will hopefully lead to a possible cure.

Of course, “young” Kane will be home-schooled and kept safely locked inside the apartment. He will do all her hunting, just like Eli’s old familiar in the film. Despite his caution, she still manages to befriend Isaiah Cole, the bullied little boy living next door. That inevitably alarms her protective father, especially when he learns Cole’s mother is a NYPD detective. Yet, he is also happy to see her finally making friends and enjoying herself.

Big Daddy Kane believes he might have stumbled across a lead during his blood-hunting, after he kills a junkie exhibiting vampire-like symptoms. For background on the new designer drug, the desperate father targets a low-level pusher, who just happens to be Isaiah’s dead-beat dad. Small world, right? This is all somehow connected to Claire Logan, a brilliant medical researcher, who just learned a few months prior she had a shocking connection to the undead.

Right, there is a lot here fans of the Swedish Right One (or the American Los Alamos-set remake) will not recognize. Look, I do not want to always be the “Remake Cop,” but what made Alfredson’s film and the St. Ann Warehouse theatrical production so special was the chilly, austere vibe (it snowed on stage and it was magical). That is not here. Yes, it incorporates the outsider friendship that blooms between Eleanor and Isaiah, but her relationship with her father takes precedence in the series. By calling it Let the Right One In, Hinderaker is inviting these comparisons, so why not create something entirely new, or at least call it From the World of Let the Right One In or Let Another Right One In or whatever.

That would have better served the series, because once fans get past their disappointment over how the urban chaos that squeezed out all the original’s Spartan intimacy, they might appreciate the things that works. Demian Bichir is terrific as Kane, especially the way he portrays how the desperate father holds on to his Catholic faith. Based on the first five episodes, Right One is surprisingly faith-friendly, without ever getting preachy.

Young thesps Madison Taylor Baez and Ian Forman are quite professional and appealingly sympathetic playing Eleanor and Isaiah. Anika Noni Rose and Jimmie Saito (as Cole and her partner Ben Jones) also have good cop chemistry together doing all the police procedural business.

The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin, Georgia’s National Epic Animated

Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is sort of like the Georgian Troilus and Criseyde. Like Chaucer’s heroic verse, it chronicles lovers separated by war and strife, but Rustaveli’s epic poem is arguably of far greater importance to Georgian literature than Chaucer’s epic is to English letters. It spans years and oceans, so it is maybe not so surprising the first film adaptation of the modern age is animated. If Prince Tariel and his beloved Nestan are not reunited, the good knight Avtandil will at least die trying in Mirza Davitaia’s The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin, which opens tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Rustaveli’s epic is often referred to as The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, but Davitaia’s film and his graphic novel before it drapes the knight in “Tiger’s Skin.” The tiger print must be slimming. It is definitely the same classic story. When we first meet Tariel, the Prince dutifully serves his king, whose daughter he ardently loves and is loved in return. When the king repays their loyalty by marrying her off as part of a diplomatic alliance, both react badly.

As a result, Nestan’s aunt angrily sells her into slavery, but is almost immediately overcome by such remorse, she commits suicide. Tariel soon sets off in search of his distressed love, but as the years pass, he also seemingly disappears from the world. It will be the herculean task of the brave knight Avtandil to find them both, before he will be allowed to marry his own great love.

It is easy to see many heroic archetypes Tiger’s Skin shares with other great epic poems, but Davitaia’s adaptation also expresses pronounced themes of martial comradery and manly fellowship. Eventually, it comes down to three friends storming a Dungeons & Dragons-worthy stronghold to rescue the Princess.

Davitaia’s animation incorporates rotoscoping techniques that are surprisingly effective. It intensifies the vibrancy of the colors and the contrasts between them. The exotic scenes of the various royal courts and palaces pop off the screen, almost like Peter Max paintings. The animation also conveys the chaos and intensity of the battle scenes, which have appropriately epic scope.

Walker: Independence (Pilot), on CW

Like many people today, Abby and Liam Walker have left the corruption of Massachusetts in search of opportunity in Texas. Unfortunately, the corruption has followed them. Liam was supposed to be the town’s new sheriff, but he was murdered on the trail. She was also left for dead, but leaving-for-dead works just about as well in westerns as it does in horror. Naturally, she wants revenge and the suspicious new replacement sheriff goes to the top of her list in the pilot episode of Anna Fricke’s Walker: Independence, which premieres tomorrow on the CW.

After she and her husband were gunned down in the dead of night, Walker wakes up in an Apache camp. For understandable reasons, the noble (and rugged jawed) Calian is reluctant to walk her all the way into town, but he will be her first ally. Shortly thereafter, she will have an awkward first meeting with irresponsible outlaw Hoyt Rawlins, but they will also forge a weird alliance of convenience.

According to Calian, the town’s deputy is a decent fellow, but newly installed Sheriff Davidson gives off seriously villainous vibes. It turns out he is also from Boston, but he was part of the corrupt machine there. Cautious about announcing herself, Walker finds temporary employment with Kate Carver, a showgirl of some repute and Kai, an immigrant Chinese laborer. At the end of the episode, we also learn one of them has a secret sideline that should wear well throughout the first season.

Independence is a Yellowstone-like prequel spinoff to the CW’s rebooted Walker. None of the characters from the contemporary series could credibly guest-star, since there is roughly one hundred and forty years separating their timelines, so fans of the original Chuck Norris series could pretend it is a prequel to it instead.

Indeed, they might want to, because Independence shows all kinds of potential. Comparing pilot to pilot, Independence might represent the rare spinoff that far surpasses the quality its parent series. Whereas Walker presented itself as the corporate diversity seminar version of the Texas Rangers, Independence is nicely setting itself up as an old school western. It is very clear Abby Walker intends to get justice or revenge, which ever comes first.

Project Wolf Hunting

Nobody ever had fun on a ship in the movies and they probably never will, unless the Love Boat eventually gets adapted to the big screen. There will certainly be no love, fun, or safe spaces on this cruise. The Korean Justice Department procured a cargo ship to secretly ferry ten highly dangerous extradited criminals from the Philippines. The bad news is the bad guys have a plan to hijack the ship. The worse news is there just so happens to be someone more dangerous than them on board. Things will get spectacularly messy in Kim Hong-sun’s Project Wolf Hunting, which opens Friday in theaters.

There was an “incident” at the airport the last time the cops brought back a group of extraditees, so they want to keep this one on the down-low. Unfortunately, the sinister, serpent-like Park Jong-doo managed to replace several crew-members with his thugs, who will easily take control of the ship. The surviving cops think they are merely facing a Die Hard-type situation, but it gets worse.

Unbeknownst to the cops and criminals alike, a strange and savage humanoid is also somewhere on the ship. The shadowy cabal pulling all the strings brought a replacement doctor on-board to keep it safely sedated, but in all the confusion, it inevitably rouses, proceeding on an awesomely gory rampage.

It bears repeating there are absolutely no safe spaces in this movie. Wolf Hunting is the kind of film in which people are bludgeoned to death with their own limbs. It is all about action, energy, and adrenaline. Yet, there are a few characters that are sufficiently vivid, most viewers will feel bad when they meet an unfortunate end. Seriously, don’t get too emotionally involved.

Ruzowitzky’s Hinterland

Sadly, too many Vietnam veterans could relate to the indifferent and sometimes hostile homecomings these Austrian POWs experienced after WWI. In retrospect, this turned out to be a terrible long-term social policy. Fully cognizant of the scars he carries, former Lt. Peter Perg is skeptical he can transition back to civilian life, but the ex-cop agrees to help his former colleagues hunt for a serial killer preying on his fellow army veterans in Stefan Ruzowitzky’s Hinterland, which releases Friday on VOD.

This is 1920 Vienna, but it looks a lot like Tim Burton’s Gotham. Using digital technology, Ruzowitzky immerses his cast in a highly expressionistic urban jungle, inspired by Dr. Caligari and other silent films of the era. It looks amazing, like film noir from Hell, in a good way.

However, Hinterland also has a narrative of some substance to go with its stunning visuals, unlike many would-be dazzlers that forget the other elements that produce a worthy film. Perg has a real case to investigate and macabre clues to uncover, as further horrific murders are discovered.

Initially, the only one who really wants him involved in the case is Dr. Theresa Korner, a woman as you might have guessed, whom the police commissar reluctantly promoted to her current medical examiner position during the War, simply because there were no qualified men at the time. Yet, she also remembers first-hand Perg’s brilliance during previous cases.

Ruzowitzky does not ring this bell obsessively, but it is pretty easy to see from their treatment from interwar society why many of Perg’s fellow veterans would be radicalized by the National Socialists. Ruzowitzky also nicely shows the not-so cold war being waged between the Communists and various nationalists in the city’s streets and back alleys. Ironically, even though a great deal of the picture was digitally generated, Hinterland has a keen sense of time and place.

Deadstream, on Shudder

If you seek attention in a horror movie, you will get attention, but not the kind you want. Shawn Ruddy, a live-streaming un-fluencer agrees to spend the night in a haunted house for followers and sponsors, but the nasty spirits he riles up are far more dangerous than he anticipated in Joseph & Vanessa Winter’s Deadstream, which premieres Thursday on Shudder.

The disgraced Ruddy really screwed-up with some kind of ill-conceived bum-fighting video. Freshly re-platformed and re-monetized, he is hoping his haunted escapade will launch his comeback. Knowing what a scaredy-cat he is, Ruddy chucks his car’s spark plugs into the woods and drops the key to the front door through a grate in the floor. Obviously, he will soon regret doing this.

Evidently, Mildred, a frustrated Mormon Emily Dickinson hanged herself in the house. Subsequently, several kids also met untimely ends in the spooky manor, all of whom start scaring the heck out of Ruddy, which he duly live-streams. That is why he is so surprised when Chrissy, one of his “followers,” crashes the party, even though the evil house is completely locked and boarded up.

Deadstream shares a similar premise with several previous movies, such as The Deep House (and the graphic novel Creeping), but the execution is so energetic, it often reaches heights of true mania. Granted, Ruddy is a total jerkweed, but co-director-lead thesp Joseph Winter defiantly leans into his cowardly, self-absorbed shortcomings. He also plays off the weirdness Melanie Stone brings as Chrissy quite effectively.

They Crawl Beneath

Bugs and worms tend to grow large out in the desert, like in It Came from the Desert or the Tremors series. At least that franchise had some humor to help the wacky premise go down easy and some survivalists, who were properly supplied for a siege. Unfortunately, the Barstow cop at the center of this film gets caught flat-footed in Dale Fabrigar’s They Crawl Beneath, which releases today on VOD and DVD.

Danny Moritz has been crashing with his slacker Uncle Bill, while he and his girlfriend Gwen Bishop have been fighting about everything and nothing. Inconveniently, old Bill did not have a proper jack, so when the mutant worms attack while they are working under a vintage muscle car, Bill gets crushed to death, leaving Moritz alone, precariously pinned underneath, and potentially at the mercy of the toxic worm-things.

Frustratingly, the film is stuck right there with Moritz, trapped under a car, in Uncle Bill’s garage, which is sealed up like a prison, for unlikely reasons. Of course, Moritz passes in and out of consciousness right when his colleagues from the force come to check on him. Indeed, nearly everything about Tricia Aurand’s screenplay will have viewers slapping their foreheads, especially when Moritz starts arguing with his mental projection of Uncle Bill. It might be time to temporarily retire this device, considering how effectively Panhandle and The Flight Attendant recently employed it.

It is too bad the narrative is manipulative to the point of annoying, because the practical creature effects are really cool. It shows a low budget creepy-crawler film get look professional. Sadly, the quality of writing is not much better than drive-in staples like Kingdom of Spiders.

Reginald the Vampire, on Syfy

Apparently, vampires aren’t so woke after all, since they happen to be such nasty fat-shamers. If you don’t have six-pack abs, you’re not getting turned. Reginald Andres is the exception. His sire did not plan on turning him, but it was the only way to save the nebbish Andres in executive producer-showrunner Harley Peyton’s Reginald the Vampire, which premieres Wednesday on Syfy.

Andres is a nice guy, but he never had a chance to fulfill his potential. Stuck working at the Slushy Shack, he carries a torch for his co-worker Sarah Kinney, but he lacks the confidence to recognize she kind of likes him too. However, Maurice Miller can see it.

Having just arrived in Akron, the vampire has already become a regular at the Slushy Shack (these vamps can still consume regular human food). Since he is a cool vampire, Miller “glamours” Andres to ask out Kinney. When she says yes, he agrees to tutor the now fully cognizant and somewhat panicked Andres for his big date. Unfortunately, that is why Andres happened to be with Miller when vampire enforcers from Angela Hibbert (the local vampire queen bee) came to deliver a violent message. They couldn’t resist feasting on Andres, so Miller offers him a choice (after the resulting carnage). Die and stay dead or die a few seconds earlier and come back reborn.

Of course, it is not quite that simple. The vampire Reggie is locked into his old schlubby human body, which definitely makes him an outlier among vampires. In fact, they consider him a freak that should be eliminated, especially Hibbert, who was originally Miller’s sire, but is now his deadly rival.

There is a lot of vampire intrigue in Reginald, but it is the characters that really wear so well over the course of the first five episodes. Arguably, Peyton’s adaptation of Johnny B. Truant’s novels perfects the balance between fannish humor and vampire peril better than just about any film or series since Buffy and Angel.

Jacob Batalan (Ned Leeds in the Spider-Man movies) portrays Andres as a genuinely likeable loser, while Mandela Van Peebles is super-cool and smooth as Miller. Frankly, the latter looks so much like his father in his younger days, the show almost makes us wonder if Mario Van Peebles might be a vampire masquerading as his own son. Em Haine is sweet and quirkily off-center enough to be a good match for Andres, but never to an annoying extent.

Bring It On: Cheer or Die, on Syfy

Even if it is not wildly popular when it airs on Syfy, it would be great if this sequel inspired more mature straight-to-DVD franchises to reinvent themselves in the horror genre. The Sniper and The Marine could fight zombies, The Cutting Edge could feature stalkers on ice, and the steamy Wild Things thrillers could easily accommodate a Carmilla-like vampire. However, the long-running Bring It On did it first, when a mysterious slasher starts killing the Diablos cheer squad in Karen Lam’s Bring It On: Cheer or Die, which premieres this Saturday on Syfy.

Twenty years ago, one of the Diablos cheerleaders died during an aerial stunt, partially due to jealous sabotage from within the squad. Abby Synger’s estranged mother was one of the guilty cheerleaders. Now, she is on the Diablos cheer squad, but strict Principal Simmons has flatly banned any aerial moves. That means they always finish dead last (so to speak) in competitions. However, this year Synger wants to be different. She and her co-captain convince the squad to give up their Halloweens, so they can secretly train their prohibited routines, to surprise everyone at the state meet.

Conveniently, the newest team member can get the key to the old shuttered high school, because she is Simmons’ adopted daughter, but she assures everyone she is no snitch, including her sister, who is also on the team. Inevitably, once they are in the spooky old building, someone dressed as the Diablos mascot starts knocking them off, one by one.

There is no doubt Cheer or Die will be too restrained for most slasher fans. This film is not so scary, but neither is A24’s critically anointed Bodies Bodies Bodies either. Halina Reijn’s screenplay got more laughs out of its chaotic premise, but screenwriters Rebekah McKendry and Dana Schwartz scribbled out some reasonably clever, appropriately attitude-heavy dialogue. Alten Wilmot gets most of the laughs as vain Mateo Adamos, one of the guys who throws the girls into the air and catches them, at least if he were allowed to.

Quantum Leap: Somebody Up There Likes Ben

In the previous series, Dr. Sam Beckett often jumped into a body just about as it was about to be clobbered by a haymaker. Sooner or later, the new leaper, Dr. Ben Song was bound to get similar treatment. He is somewhat fortunate his chin music comes from a mere sparring partner at the start of tonight’s Quantum Leap episode, “Somebody Up There Likes Ben.”

Obviously, the writers of the current continuation series are somewhat familiar with the classic Paul Newman boxing film, so give them points for cinematic literacy. The 1970s vibe is also pretty cool, but unexpected. The big non-spoilery development of this episode is the fact Song somehow managed to leap beyond his own lifetime. There will be other technical difficulties for the team that might have a bearing on the ongoing mystery as to why Song was compelling to leap without warning.

Obviously, winning Danny Hill’s title fight will most likely factor into Song’s efforts to set things right. However, he also must help the fighter’s manager-brother start dealing with his PTSD. To its credit, this episode demonstrates great empathy for Vietnam vets like Daryl Hill, who is indeed callously called a “baby-killer” during the hour-long drama.

Solar Opposites Halloween Special, on Hulu

Normally, Tales from the Crypt’s Crypt Keeper is our host for horror stories. This time he is the guest star, when Terry and Jesse, the two younger pro-Halloween aliens from Planet Shlorp, mad scientist him out of a purloined corpse as a way to celebrate the scary season. Chaos and foul language ensue in A Sinister Halloween Scary Opposite Solar Special (a.k.a. Solar Opposites S3 E12), which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.

As fans of the series know, Korvo dislikes Earth, but he really, really hates Halloween. Yumyulack isn’t too crazy about either, but he is less emotional and more contemptuous expressing his distaste. However, Terry and Jesse, who act like the kids of the space-expedition-turned-family are totally down for it. Frankly, they show us why Halloween, which very much is a nostalgic throwback to small town Americana, can never be canceled (outside of pandemics or inclement weather)—because an army of kids would rise up in arms.

Excited to participate in the neighborhood house decorating campaign, Terry and Jesse plunder a grave, reviving and mutating the body into an EC Comics like horror host, who constantly spouts off little macabre anecdotes—in the voice of John Kassir, from the long-running Tales from the Crypt franchise. Naturally, the Crypt Keeper drives Korvo to distraction, but Yumyulack is not around to be annoyed, due to a rather unfortunate misadventure.

If you have not seen Solar Opposites before, it is easy to pick up the gist of it from the Halloween special. Think of it as My Favorite Martian with cussing and oral sex jokes. It is raunchier than The Simpsons but it also has a sharper edge, while being far less didactic. Just about anyone across the political and cultural spectrums can laugh at the Solar Special without ever feeling attacked.

Blumhouse’s Compendium of Horror, on Epix

In the future, the Blumhouse production company might have their own episode in talking head horror documentaries like this. They do not toot their horn so much in their own survey, but a lot of their comentators’ talking-points sound very much like the same old stuff we’ve heard before. However, Robert Englund’s narration definitely gets you in the mood to rewatch a lot of the films discussed in showrunner James Buddy Day’s five-part Blumhouse’s Compendium of Horror, which premieres tomorrow on Epix.

Blumhouse and Day break down horror by general chronological periods, starting in the 1930s, with the classic Universal monsters. This is generally the best episode, as long as you won’t wonder where the silent German expressionists are. Next, “Atomic Nightmares” episode does a pretty good job chronicling the rise of Japanese kaijus and their low-budget American mutant cousins. However, the pejorative use of the term “red scare” to describe the themes of films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers is not entirely appropriate, given what we now know about Soviet covert activity at the time. At this point, nobody seriously denies the US Communist Party was wholly controlled by Moscow and actively abetted Soviet agents engaged in espionage.

Bizarrely, Hammer, Universal’s British successor, is almost completely ignored in “Unholy Dreams,” which largely focuses on 1960s and 1970s horror as an expression of the counter-culture’s interest in exoticism and the occult. Even more troubling, it completely misrepresents Friedkin’s classic The Exorcist as a subversive attack on conventional Christian values. The truth is William Peter Blatty, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel, was a devout Roman Catholic, who believed the Church was our last, best, and possible only defense against evil. If you were to compile a list of the great Catholic films of the 20^th Century, The Exorcist would rank towards the top—very possibly #1. To so badly misunderstand and distort its significance reveals the problematic biases of the critics who appear in Compendium.

The next episode is somewhat better, discussing 1980s slasher films in the context of the sensationalistic media coverage of real-life serial killers. The final fifth episode was not yet provided for review, but there is a good chance it misses an important point. As a genre, horror is at a turning point. It has never had greater prestige. Yet, as Compendium often points out, in the past, horror has often reflected society’s anxieties, sometimes without consciously intending to do so. Recently, many horror films have stopped reflecting widely held fears, opting to tell viewers exactly what they should fear instead. There have been dozens of climate change horror movies, but really none of them amounted to much.

Wayne Wang’s Life is Cheap … But Toilet Paper is Expensive

Yat Boon jai (a.k.a. “The Man with No Name”) is right about one thing when he accepts this dodgy courier gig. It would indeed be a last chance to see the real Hong Kong as it truly was before the 1997 handover, which turned out to be a national tragedy for Hongkongers. Unfortunately, the naïve Asian American with a taste for flashy cowboy apparel will be in over his head navigating the HK underworld in Wayne Wang’s Life is Cheap … But Toilet Paper is Expensive, which also had a rocky reception when it was originally released in 1989. Ripe for reappraisal, a new, slightly revised and freshly restored print of Wang’s film is now screening at the BAM cinema.

The unnamed courier, who actually seems to have a name on imdb and other online sources, has no idea what is in the briefcase he carries for his boss’s colleague. He doesn’t want to know, as long as it is not drugs. He is supposed to give it only to “Big Boss,” but apparently it is not important enough for the senior Triad to make time to see the Courier. As a result, he is left with too much time on his hands. His boredom leads to danger when the Courier starts hanging with Big Boss’s femme fatale mistress, Money.

Life is Cheap generated controversy when it was originally refused an “X” rating, eventually becoming one of the first films to carry an NC-17. It is hard to fathom why. Admittedly, there is a hand-chopping motifs that often recurs, but it looks cheesy compared to modern gore. Wang also captures some duck butchery that might disturb some viewers, plus it all builds towards a truly scatological punch line, but it still seems tamed compared to its reputation.

Frankly, Wang’s pseudo-documentary style, often incorporating long monologues resembling interview segments, might have been ahead of its time in 1989. Fifteen years ago, Life is Cheap might have suffered in comparison to other Jia Zhangke docu-hybrids and the like. However, in post HK “National Security” Law 2022, it feels like a sad elegy to a ruckus Hong Kong and a vibrant local culture that no longer exists. Gone are the days when the son of American immigrants from Hong Kong can return to their homeland, to film a gritty, experimental gangster movie, guerrilla-style on the city’s streets.

In fact, the film reaches true heights of elegiac lyricism when martial arts legend Lo Lieh appears in one of the docu-interludes, portraying a former pianist, who cut off his own arm rather than compromise his integrity during the Cultural Revolution. Life is Cheap might be getting a new lease on life here in America, but there is no way you could screen it in Hong Kong today.