Being Film #31 for Hooptober 2025 I don't remember exactly what they say about the best laid plans, but of course after finishing last night's movie and looking at my list I realized I still needed 1) a Canadian film, and 2) a post-apocalyptic film. And I really didn't want to watch Bird Box, so... Continue Reading →
Being Film #30 for Hooptober 2025 Here's the deal. I just realized I got all my requirements in for this year's Hooptober by review #29. So rather than watch films I thought I needed, I picked two films I needed. As in, "my stress level is so high I just need some FUN" needed. And... Continue Reading →
Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2025 Sometimes tone is everything. Have I said that before? That's the mental state I'm inhabiting this deep into Hooptober. Six days to go, six films to watch. Hopefully they all exhibit some of the grace and then of Moloch, a Dutch film that overcomes a convoluted story with a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #19 for Hooptober 2025 It's likely I went into Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (hereafter shortened to just Humanist Vampire...) in the best way possible: with nothing but that title and the poster in my head. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't something this delicate, romantic, and...funny.... Continue Reading →
Being Film #16 for Hooptober 2025 In the end, there's really no escaping the shadow of what Guillermo del Toro brought to Mike Mignola's Hellboy character in his two films. You can argue they're not truly what Mignola intended with the character, mixed too much with del Toro's sympathy with the monsters, but those two... Continue Reading →
Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2025 The Blackening has a lot to say about black identity, about the tropes and cliches of how black actors are handled not just in horror films, but throughout the visual medium. It also wants to be funny, and it wants to be scary. It also wants to be very... Continue Reading →
Being Film #14 for Hooptober 2025 Tone is such a fickle thing. So hard to maintain, and if you find it too late, it's nearly impossible to get back and adjust the rest to match, either in reshoots or the edit. Together is a case in point: beautifully acted, some truly gnarly effects work, an... Continue Reading →
Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2025 23 years later from 28 Days Later we get 28 Years Later, and while I loved writing that sentence, I didn't love it as much as I loved the film itself. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland return to their 2002 "fast zombie / don't call it a zombie film"... Continue Reading →
Being Film #7 for Hooptober 2025 Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Not so much a dud as a "well, I was definitely expecting more from this" kind of letdown. Maybe I finally hit the age where I just can't relate to the kids of today, because despite coming from a guy who's... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2025 I had the bar set low for The Black Phone, the latest horror collaboration between the writing/directing team of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. On one hand, I wasn't the biggest fan of either the Sinister films or Deliver Us From Evil, save for the gnarly exorcism. On... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 