Shellby Orks

Why am I watching this? It wasn't until the end credits started rolling that I realised, oh this is a youtuber movie!

A group of youtube paranormal investigators goes missing, and the sister of the lead wants to find her. When a chap turns up, claiming to be involved, she gets more clues that leads her into investigating her sisters last movements. She finds something out, but something has found her.

So... this isn't really anything special. You can tell the beats before they happen, and the movie ends with over ten minutes of credits, a lot of which are kickstarter backers, because this is kickstartered! (Not by me.) And that youtuber who is behind this is... Chris Struckman... whom I recognise, but I can't name his channel at the moment.

There are some notable actors in here, with Keith David getting a brief cameo, and Michael Beach getting some actual scenes. The movie switches from being "documentary" into being a more standard movie, and there are sudden moments of budget with drone shots and not terrible creatures.

It's a mix of a movie that could have used another pass to smooth things over. It's fine as a first pic.

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Puzzle Mechanic - NO!

There's a puzzle mechanic in a point and click game I've seen twice now in two recent games, and no sir, I don't like it.

Behold this image:

(Image from this video.)

The part of the puzzle you are dealing with is in the green box. The other knight (and sometimes spears) come at you, either high, middle, or low, and you need to block appropriately.

How do you block? By the buttons in the red box. How do you press the buttons? By mousing over and clicking.

This wouldn't be so bad if you could actually press buttons on your keyboard, but nope, you need to move the cursor. And you aren't looking where the cursor is, because you are reacting to what is happening on the right.

If I had dedicated buttons, or is what just one option (for high or low, click or hold to change) then fine, I could concentrate on the green. But when I have to make sure I don't overshoot moving to the other button in time, sod off!

(It can become a long memory sequence of "high, middle, low, low, high,..." etc, but it's a long sequence, and I can't remember that long.)

Don't make this a new trend in puzzles, games!

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Labirent

Turkish thriller of a race to stop a terrorist attack.

Fikret is the leading officer who is trying to stop the attack, but he has a past of failing an operation before. He's still maintaining professionalism, running assets, and hunting down leads. He and his team manage to capture a few places as the movie goes on, but they are definitely barely keeping on top of things. Some luck, some planning... and some getting betrayed gets in the way of trying to stop the final attack.

To be honest, a lot of this is pretty standard fare. We get some good example of agents in the field, keeping an eye on things, and tracking people through the street, but there's nothing particularly notable about this attack that makes this movie stand out in that regard. There are some more personal touches with the lead agents and some of the people they deal with, which is probably what kept me watching more than "going into a room and grabbing people" (which happens a few times).

Decent enough, but nothing amazing.

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Prelands: Baddator

Sure, I could start watching Desert Bus, but there's a movie to watch!

Dek (I kept wanting to call him Derek... hi Derek!) is a Yautja who has to prove himself, so clearly the thing to do is to go after the creature that can't be killed. Makes sense to me! While there, he finds Weyland-Yutani is already there and littering the place with synthetics, so he has to pick up after them. After several encounters, we get the real final boss... Capitalism!

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi gets a lot of acting to do with facial prosthetics, but does damn well. Elle Fanning get her own challenge with causing special effects nightmares with her legs. And the monkey from Lost in Space also gets a new role!

There is a lot of action in this (duh!) with most of it as learning for Dek to employ later. There are also comedy beats, so there is release as well as tension.

Enjoyable movie, good continuation of the Predator franchise.

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Kifn

No. that's the actual name, not a misspelling of knife or anything. This is a Kurdish horror movie.

Strange things are afoot for Pari, so she looks into her history in the form of video tapes. Video tapes and horror, that's a good mix. Weird things are a happenin', and eventually not just to her (disbelieving husband, ha!). She gets help from an old woman, and she is helped... and we find out that the woman was helping her husband first. Unfortunately, it's not that easy, as there's an actual curse involved, and we turn from Paranormal Activity to Exorcist.

From what I'm reading this is a) the first Kurdish horror movie, and b) "just" a rehash of Turkish horror movies. I definitely can't say this is feeling original, but it's nice to see non English horror movies with non-English folk lore causing problems. (There might be some parts that those in the know go "oh yeah, it's a one of them" but aside from naming movies similar to above, it's original enough to me.)

While not amazing, it's a good first try.

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Knowing Last Summer

It's not a remake or a reimagining, it's just another sequel.

A group of young adults are a bit reckless last summer, and now that is coming back to bite them.. by first killing off people who are not them, so good aiming on that killer! When the actual friends start dying, you know you are halfway through the movie, and then it's a matter of surviving to unmask the killer, who is...

Actually, I did work it out before the reveal. To be honest, when this movie came out I saw others talking about, so there is a small chance I remembered, but on the other hand it is heavily signposted and if you take any moment to think about it, you can work it out too.

The problem with the premise of the series is that it starts with a group of young people doing something stupid, and getting punished for it... but the fact that they did something stupid (and it was quite stupid here) means that you aren't necessarily invested in caring about them, which leads to not caring if they actually survive or not. Certainly the main "hot" girl was extensively vain, making me wonder if the movie wasn't even pretending I was supposed to care?

I hadn't seen the first movie for a long while ago, so I'll believe the movie that they were the same actors for those cameos. And the new actors are fine, but see above about not caring about their characters.

We have a promise for another movie, but it's not something I'm hanging out for.

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Aterrados

Horror? Foreign Language? I'm sure there are just as many duds as in english, but this one is a cracker!

In Walter's house, there's a strange being, that is there and not there. It(?) causes an accident that kills a child, and a neighbour's wife. This brings it to the attention of a cop, his friend who has seen some things, and two colleagues who are around and they all decide to investigate. Ooops.

Creepy atmosphere? Check! Horror moments that don't pull punches? Check! Building moments of tension? Check! I am here for all of this!

The investigators come across as quite reasonable, and approach the situation with caution, but also (in so far as you can with paranormal event) rationality. It doesn't help. The scariest things can be the mundane of the neighbourhood... or they can be otherworldly creatures that are there if you look at things just right.

Definite recommendation!

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Flankenstine

Of all the Franky adaptations, this is GDT's one.

Out on the ice, a ship encounters a raving madman who tells them a story of the time he created a monster. Then the monster takes his turn to tell of the time he turned into a man.

A lot of this is a pretty faithful adaptation, although it goes with the "electricity" origin the movies made. And for some reason Elizabeth is just some woman Victor knows, not his wife to be. I'm sure there are deep reasons for that, but the biggest change is the end of the movie in which the message of the story is changed.

Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi put in the full work to get Victor and the Creature on screen, and well done to them. We get Charles Dance, Christoph Waltz and David Bradley giving great performances, if too briefly for some of them. But I couldn't buy Mia Goth as Elizabeth. I can see what GDT was aiming for, but she wasn't doing it for me (and those outfit choices weren't helping).

A lot of people are already saying this is peak movie, and... I salute them even as I don't agree.

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Alien Abjuration

From way back in 1998 comes this found footage alien invasion movie.

A family sits down for Thanksgiving dinner (complete with kid with new video camera), when the lights go out. The circuit box is fried, and then they come across some aliens doing a little cow vivisection. And interrupting that puts them right in the sights of the aliens. While people try to hunker down in the house, others go off trying to get help, but then they don't come back. Guess those who remain inside will live out the night, right?

This is presented very much as VHS style movie, and there's a weird overpixilation when the aliens are on screen, giving them a easily recognised visual kick. The people go through some of the standard alien issues and while I'm trying not to judge it too harshly for the time, it does feel rather generic. And it doesn't help that there's a kid who can't act, but she gets important parts of the story to convey with her characterisation.

If I had seen it at the time, I'm sure I'd be more taken aback by it... but it clearly has a "this is actually just a movie, not a real event at all" overall vibe so that, while I can appreciate it, it doesn't get to be that impressive.

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Tap Continues

The flower people are saying things again!

After being a little popular because of the previous movie, Tap broke up... but now they are getting together for a one off concert! We follow the trio as they get together a fortnight before the concert, and follow them through various issues, such as finding a new drummer, dealing with an a-hole promoter, and other relatable situations, and then we get the concert!

Woo! That concert! Talk about leaving the movie on a high note!

Although getting there does go through some ups and downs. There are guests such as Paul McCartney and Elton John, there are new faces such as Kerry "Bosh!" Godliman and Chris Addison, but... while there is a storyline that does address being older, and coming back after personality clashes and such, there are also odd moments they just feel like they are there because there needs to be odd moments in the movie. (That whole Ghost Tour bit, what?)

It's great to see Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Rob Reiner back again, and I definitely recommend, but I'm glad this isn't longer than 90 minutes.

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