Ink of Blood

So. This isn’t the first horror movie I’ve seen based on exorcisms in the Catholic church. Thinking back, The Rite is one particular movie that stands out in my mind.

I haven’t read any of the writings by the real Gabriele Amorth, so I can’t really speak to how accurately this movie kept to those. Considering it’s a horror movie, though, I strongly suspect that a lot of liberties were taken with the original source material.

The opening scene of this movie was fairly stereotypical, with Gabriele carrying out what seemed to be a normal exorcism…if a little theatrical. Those theatrics made sense later on, as Gabriele was forced to explain himself in front of his peers. After all, as he put it, some people needed psychiatric help, some people needed theatrics…and a very few actually need to have an exorcism performed. And, of course, this movie is primarily about one of those cases.

The movie is a fairly stereotypical horror movie. All of the jump scares were expected and didn’t really have an effect on me. Probably the strongest part of this movie was the character of Gabriele, who was about as far from a stereotypical priest as it’s possible to get. He was sarcastic and made jokes and came up with any excuse to have a drink of whiskey. Honestly, I thought Russell Crowe did a really good job in this role. It was also really good to see the hints of Gabriele’s past…the guilt that he carried that the demon could use to get at him.

I was intrigued by the links in to the Spanish Inquisition and the history of the church, as well as the reveal of what the demon’s true motivations were…what it really wanted from Gabriele. I didn’t find Julia or Amy to be particularly strong characters and I think a trick was missed in how the demon could have played on them individually. The psychological aspects could have been done a lot better and made the movie a lot creepier.

I did enjoy the interactions between Gabriele and Esquibel. It was nice to see the friendship that formed between them through the course of the movie and that it played a part in how things ended.

On the whole, this movie was entertaining, but I felt like it was something I’d seen done before. Nothing new was really added to the genre and while the characters were interesting, I did find myself just waiting for the inevitable. I would like to see a movie that relies less on the jump scares and gore for the sake of gore, and more on the psychological aspects of horror.

I watched the original Shazam! movie and was very interested in watching the sequel when it came out. So when I had the chance to watch this at the cinema, I was immediately interested.

The very first scene of this movie introduces the threat of Hespera and Kalypso, the Daughters of Atlas who are attempting to gain their powers back and bring their own realm back to life. They are immediately shown to be ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to further their goals, killing everyone in the museum that held what they wanted to retrieve without any kind of hesitation or remorse.

This movie was obviously set some time after the first one and it was really good to see that there were some tensions and conflicts forming between the family. And it was also really sad to see Billy trying desperately to keep everyone together and working as a family, even though he wasn’t at the point of being able to call Rosa and Victor Mom and Dad. It was especially good to see Mary trying to juggle being a superhero along with her need to work and go on to further education. And it was also really good to see Billy’s relationship with Freddy, who was really annoyed by his older brother’s (only by a month) overprotectiveness, but it was obvious they really cared about each other.

On the subject of family, I really loved how accepting Rosa and Victor were of all their children. From the start, it seemed like they made a huge effort to interact with all of the children…and I could feel Rosa’s sadness when Billy insisted on calling her and Victor by their names, rather than Mom and Dad.

There was a lot of humour in this movie that really helped to defuse the tension. Plus, the actors who played the adult versions of Billy and his siblings did a really good job of showing the mannerisms and personality of the younger forms. And the tension in this movie really came across well. I was on the edge of my seat a lot throughout this movie and I was so caught up in watching it, I didn’t take my phone out to check the time even once!

I also really liked the interactions and relationship that formed between Freddy and Anthea. I really felt that was one of the strongest parts of the movie and there was a lot of character development on both of their parts. I’m not a big fan of romance shoehorned into every movie, but this was a particularly sweet one that was given time to grow.

All in all, this was a movie I really enjoyed that had engaging characters I really cared about and moments that had me laughing out loud. It’s definitely a movie I’d enjoy watching again and if you enjoy superhero movies and liked the first Shazam!, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

Also, there are two extra scenes after the movie is finished, so if you do watch it, make sure you stay until the end!

After seeing X at the cinema last year, I was interested in seeing the movie that was the prequel to it…showing the path that Pearl took that ultimately ended with her becoming the serial killer as seen in X.

It was hard not to feel some empathy for Pearl, given how difficult her life was and the hard relationship she had with her mother. I didn’t really like Pearl as a character, but I did feel for the person stuck in a life that she really didn’t want, waiting for her husband to return home from the war and having to deal with an illness that a lot of people in the town were suffering from.

This movie did a really good job of feeling like a very old-style movie. Right from the start, I felt like I was pulled into the world of the movie…however, parts of it felt more like a stage production than a true movie. Almost like it was perhaps an idealised version of Pearl’s story?

It was interesting to see the progression of Pearl from a trapped, isolated wife to the serial killer that she becomes before the events of X. Right from the start, it is very clear that there’s something wrong with Pearl. After all, she goes from dancing in the barn, pretending that the animals are her audience, to killing a goose with a pitchfork and feeding it to an alligator…and that’s one of the very first scenes of the movie.

It was very difficult to see the condition that Pearl’s father was in during this movie. I wasn’t sure if he’d had a stroke, or if there’d been an accident of some kind…but Pearl had clearly had a very close relationship with her father, although some parts of it were a bit strange, such as Pearl bathing naked with her father in the room with her.

Parts of this movie were very gruesome, but I didn’t really feel much of a connection to many of the characters in this movie. A lot of them, I was seeing through Pearl’s eyes…and because she didn’t really seem to care about the people around her, that’s probably why I couldn’t really care about them either.

There was quite a creepy/intense scene towards the end of the movie, where Pearl picks up an axe and stalks after one of her victims in broad daylight…which was actually when a lot of the violence happened. That felt quite surreal, as a lot of the time in slasher/murder movies, the violence takes place at night time, or at least in a darkened house.

All in all, this movie was okay to watch. I wouldn’t choose to watch it again, but the atmosphere and feel of the movie were quite good. If you have seen X, this movie does show Pearl’s background, so I think it’s good to watch in that respect.

I was really happy to be able to watch this movie some weeks before it was due to come out at the cinema, thanks to Cineworld putting on a secret unlimited showing that turned out to be this movie.

Having watched two of the previous live action Dungeons and Dragons movies, I was really excited to see this movie as well and on the whole, I really did enjoy it. The movie didn’t take itself too seriously and there were a lot of really good moments of humour in this…and there were serious aspects, too, along with a lot of good character growth.

I have to say, the storyline wasn’t entirely what I’d expected when I saw the trailer originally. I’d expected the movie to be more focused around Sofina and the threat from the Red Wizards of Thay, especially after Edgin reveals his own personal experience with the Red Wizards. However, the real plot revolved around the betrayal of someone who’d once been a friend and Edgin trying to get his daughter back from her ‘Uncle Forge’.

Getting to see different parts of the world and history of Dungeons & Dragons in this movie was really good. Thanks to Xenk’s character, I had the chance to learn a bit more about the people of Thay, who just about everyone claimed were the bad guys. I was disappointed that Xenk didn’t have more of a role to play in this movie, as I felt he would have had some really interesting interactions with the main characters…especially with Edgin, whose personal history with the Thay caused a lot of conflicts between them.

I really liked the character development and the interactions between the main group, but something about the history between Simon and Doric didn’t really ring true. Of course, it could have just been that Doric had a lot more on her mind than remembering someone who’d tried to court her once…especially as she apparently said that Simon made her feel sad.

Holga was a great character, but Michelle Rodriguez definitely gets type cast to the tough woman character. I did like her close relationship to Kira, though. It added a nice touch to her character, making her come across as more than the stereotypical fighter. She did have a romance prior to the events of the movie, but although I did get to see her interact with him, I don’t think it added nearly as much to her character as her relationship with Kira did.

I especially liked the scene where Simon has to make use of his coin to bring the dead back to life and the first attempt at asking five questions fails miserably, due to accidental wording. I honestly feel like I would have done something similar, wasting my five questions by asking questions I didn’t intend to ask. Then again, the coin could be used multiple times, so the failure didn’t really set the group back at all.

On the whole, this movie was a lot of fun to watch. There were some really nice moments in it and the characters worked really well together. It would have been good to have more of the wider threat shown, that had been indicated in the trailer, but the characters might not have had such strong development if that route had been taken.

This is a movie I’d enjoy watching again, as it was really good to see more of the wider world and there were some great moments of humour. If you enjoy fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still has great character relationships and development, I would recommend this movie as one to watch.

I was really happy to be able to see this movie in a double bill showing along with Scream 5. While the character of Sidney wasn’t going to appear in this movie at all (which was very disappointing), the two characters I liked the most from Scream 5 (Sam and Tara) were in this movie, which was really good.

The opening of this movie seemed very predictable, with a woman waiting for her date in a bar, getting a phone call and then ending up walking down a dark alleyway…which, of course, ends with her getting murdered. And then the predictable scene ends with the murderer removing his Ghostface mask, revealing himself to be a student of the teacher he’d just murdered, ‘practicing’ in preparation for him and his accomplice to murder Sam and Tara.

And ultimately, a new and different Ghostface kills the student, which results in Sam’s driving licence being left at the scene, making her a person of interest in this new spree of murders.

Once again, the relationship between Sam and her sister is one of the best parts of this movie. Even though there is tension between them, due to Sam wanting to protect Tara, there’s also that need from Tara to protect Sam in return; from cutting off their mother when she did the same to Sam, to punching Gale in the face…which is a nice nod to the original movie, while still adding something new to the scene.

It was good to see Mindy and Chad make an appearance in this movie as well and one thing that was really good was seeing the way the four of them handled being the survivors from Scream 5; the Core Four, as Chad called it. And speaking of Chad, I thought he had a lot more depth in this movie than he did in the previous one. It was really good to see the gradual forming of a relationship between him and Tara. I appreciated the slow burn, rather than them immediately jumping into bed together, especially considering how few movies have anything building before the main character jumps into bed with their love interest.

The use of the previous Ghosface masks and costumes was quite good and a way of building tension, making it unclear exactly what connection the new Ghostface killers had with the previous murder sprees. And adding a whole new level of tension to this movie was the fact that the rumours about Sam claimed that she was the one responsible for killing Richie and Amber from the previous movie. In theory, the fact that there were three survivors of the previous massacre should have allowed those rumous to be quashed…but then again, it seems like Gale (who never learns her lesson) was at least partially responsible for those rumours. And it just made me dislike her character even more. I seriously don’t like her.

It was really good to see Kirby make an appearance in this movie, as she was a great character in Scream 4, and I liked seeing her interactions with Mindy, since they’re quite similar in their love for horror movies. And Mindy was just a great character all round, especially with her listing off all the potential suspects.

This movie was pretty gruesome in the death scenes, but I can’t really say it was much worse than the previous Scream movies. Some of the scenes had a lot of tension in them and I was definitely on the edge of my seat, waiting to see if the characters I cared about were going to survive or not. As Mindy pointed out, no one was safe in this movie.

This movie was really good and entertaining. Again, it was predictable, but the main characters definitely made this movie worth watching. If there is a Scream 7 coming out, I really hope that Tara, Sam and Mindy will have a lot of focus on them.

I watched this movie last year, when it first came out at the cinema. And this week, I watched it a second time, in a double bill showing of Scream 5 and Scream 6.

Scream 5 begins in a really similar way to the original Scream, complete with the very first victim answering horror movie trivia in an attempt to save the life of a friend. And then there’s the inevitable initial attack from the killer, which leaves the very first victim dead.

And that’s where Scream 5’s opening scene differs from the original. Because despite being horribly wounded and the opening title coming from what seems to be the final, fatal slash, Tara isn’t actually dead. And the attack on her brings her older sister, Sam, back to Woodsboro, where everything started.

Scream 5 is very formulaic in how it follows on from the other movies in the franchise. It becomes clear after the third attack that Tara’s core group of friends all have connections to those involved in the original massacre. The exception is Wes, who’s the son of Judy Hicks, the Deputy Sheriff from Scream 4. In Mindy’s words, this should make him the safest of all, but as this is a requel, that means no one is truly safe.

Mindy is a much more interesting character than her twin, Chad, who comes across as a fairly stereotypical jock. Mindy fills the role that Randy, her uncle, had in the previous movies. She’s the horror movie buff, who tells everyone the rules of surviving the ‘fan fiction movie’ they’ve now found themselves in. Which, weirdly enough, everyone seems to accept, even when the killer is attacking in broad daylight.

Sam’s connection to Billy Loomis, one of the original murderers, is quite an intereesting aspect to not only the storyline as a whole, but also her character. It added more fraught tension to her interactions with the others and, in particular, her sister.

One of the strongest things about this movie was definitely the bond between Sam and Tara. And also, despite her injuries, Tara was one of the strongest characters in her own right…perhaps the strongest. I would have liked it if her romantic connection to Amber had been kept in from the original script. There aren’t many lesbian characters in mainstream movies and although the inclusion of Mindy was a nice touch, it would have been good to see a movie actually take the progressive step of having a gay main character.

It was, of course, good to see the legacy characters from the previous movies, such as Dewey, Grace and, of course, Sidney. I’m not so sure the hints of something paranormal or supernatural going on really worked when it came to Billy Loomis’ appearances, though. Those might not have been intentionally paranormal, but that was definitely the impression I was getting by the end of the movie.

All in all, I did really enjoy the movie. It was predictable, but still entertaining in its own way. And Sam and Tara were great, engaging characters who I really cared about. And as I’ve already indicated in having seen this movie a second time, it’s a movie I wouldn’t mind watching again.

So. Last year, I watched the prequel to this movie and I was immediately intrigued by the storyline and the characters. I remember looking for more information on the characters and storyline after having watched the movie, so when I saw the sequel was out this week, I made a last minute decision to go and see it at the cinema on Wednesday.

What was really good was that there was something of a recap before the movie actually began. That really helped to get me back into the mindset of the world of the movie…and also helped because, when the movie actually started, it picked up right in the middle of a fight scene; one where the main characters were in pretty serious trouble and it looked like at least one of them was dead.

One of the main things I liked about this movie was that, even though the main characters are strong and powerful, they can still get hurt. And they still need recovery time. So the battle with the two demons actually felt like there were truly high stakes.

I have to say, the character of Zenitsu is one that really intrigues me. I find the idea of a character being a formiddable fighter when he’s unconscious, but not while awake, to be a really intriguing one! Since Zenitsu has no memory of the actions he takes while unconscious, and he’s much more serious compared to how he is awake, it almost seems like he has a split personality. I’m particularly interested to see if those two sides of Zenitsu ever get reconciled in future episodes.

Inosuke was the strangest character to me in the previous movie, though he made a lot more sense to me when I realised he did in fact have a human head! I loved his confidence and his strength, although there were certainly times during the movie I found myself wondering why he wasn’t actually dead.

It was good to have the opportunity to see more of the history of the demons. It was really good to see Gyutatro’s history as a human. Everything he went through made his character seem much more sympathetic and I could fully understand his decision to become a demon. I couldn’t really empathise with Daki to the same extent, although I did find myself tearing up when they were arguing and Tanjiro intervened.

One really powerful moment in the movie did strike me towards the beginning, where Tanjiro seems to experience a memory with Nezuko during the initial fight. Nezuko tells Tanjiro she wishes he’d understand how she feels, which almost seemed to relate to the present Nezuko, transferred to a demon. I would have liked to see more explored with that possibility.

The movie did end on something of a cliffhanger, although part of the storyline did get resolved. There were some really good moments of humour in this movie, along with the action and the more intense, emotional scenes. There was a really nice balance in this movie and the main characters were really easy to care about. This was definitely a movie I’d enjoy seeing again in the future…and I hope that there will be more movies released in the cinema, hopefully much sooner than another year’s wait.

If you like Japanese anime, I definitely think this is one to check out. It probably helps to have some knowledge of the series beforehand, but I found both movies pretty easy to follow without having had any prior knowledge.