From a fantastic 7 Game win streak (and points in 10 games) directly into falling down and skidding into a wall. The overtime loss to Calgary was a rally that didn’t make it all the way. The loss to Winnipeg could be argued that the Rangers didn’t play poorly, the other goalie stood on his head and spun around like a tornado to make ridiculous save after ridiculous save. The loss to Detroit was crap and then to Washington was embarrassing (they were on a 6 game losing streak!).
The defense just…stopped playing defense. Terrible passes all over the place, bad penalties, and more turnovers that led to odd-man rushes than you should ever need to count. Shesterkin frequently looked like he was being surprised by shots coming at him which is bizarre to see (which is an understatement).
That brings us to the Sunday game versus the LA Kings. The Rangers team showed up for this one, thankfully. 5-2 win against an excellent team. Everyone contributed, the defense in particular was flying all night. Trouba played possibly his best game of the season. Trocheck has been the best forward all week and he nabbed 2 goals in this one that gave the team a huge early boost. I hope he keeps up his play…the schedule for March is a gauntlet.
There are days left before the trade deadline and it looks like the Rangers’ front office is moving mountains to make a huge, final deal. The remainder of the regular season is going to be nuts. There are very close races in every division.
The New York Rangers almost swept another week of games. The 7th win in a row came against the Oilers in an amazing 3-0 and then 4-1 comeback rally to win the game in a 6 round shootout. Tremendous determination and teamwork were on display. They almost did it again last night against Calgary. The Rangers started off being embarrassed in the first minute of the game going down 2-0. They slowly pulled it together, forcing the game into overtime but a penalty gave Calgary the edge they needed to win the game. Still, they stole a point and are 8-0-2 in the last 10 games. They haven’t lost in regulation in almost 3 weeks.
We are still seeing slow starts and far too many turnovers. Those put you on the defensive way more than you want to be. The powerplay has improved this week (moved up to 10th in the league!) and the penalty kill is still good but could be better. Tarasenko scored his second goal last night, Mikkola is playing well, Trocheck is playing better, and Kakko and Lafreniere are continuing to put up points. Kakko and Laffy more or less won the Oilers game (amazing 3rd goal in regulation with Kakko doing some hard on the boards to dish it off to Laffy to bury the puck in the net AND they both scored in the shootout AND Laffy tied last night’s game). Chytil’s point streak has stopped but it’s not for lack of effort.
In the big news today, Julien Gauthier and a 2023 7th round draft pick were traded to Ottawa for Tyler Motte. We are now seeing efforts into improving the 4th line which currently is barely being used. Motte was part of the big trades last season that made a huge difference. The team didn’t keep him, which is a surprise, but now he’s back and it’s expected he’ll fit in well again. He should be fantastic on the PK. I liked Gauthier but he didn’t make enough of an impact on the team to raise his station. Given the right team and system, I think he can develop and thrive.
The Metro division is a bit of a warzone right now and that’s making the Eastern playoff battle interesting. The Rangers are just 2 points behind the Devils for 2nd place. Buffalo and Detroit are pushing to steal the wildcard spot and the Islanders, Penguins, and Capitals are leaving the door open for them. This week is another important one and the first challenge is Winnipeg at MSG tomorrow night. We’re very close to the final quarter of the season so playoff madness is beginning and the trade deadline is just 2 weeks away. Another Rangers trade is expected to bolster the bottom six further.
The Rangers went undefeated in their 4 games, including last night’s 6-2 win against Carolina, the #1 team in the Metro division (2 of Carolina’s 10 regulation losses are from the Rangers). This pushes the win streak to 5 in a row.
The big news was the mid-week trade with the St. Louis Blues. GM and President Chris Drury worked his magic again. Last season he brought in 4 great players to patch up the team’s holes and those moves got the team to the Conference Finals. Now with the huge score of Vladimir Tarasenko (RW) and the lower-line defensive pickup of Niko Mikkola, the team has gotten stronger. Fans and those in hockey media have been saying for years that the team has needed a high-quality top line RW. After Pavel Buchnevich was traded to the Blues 2 years ago because the Rangers didn’t have enough money to resign him, it’s been a pretty glaring issue. Sammy Blais was the major acquisition in that trade and it didn’t work because he got a serious knee injury at the start of last season and he hasn’t been able to rebound this season. The Blues took him back in this trade along with a prospect and 2 draft picks.
Tarasenko is friends with Panarin and it shows. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Breadman this happy. He got an assist on Tarasenk’s first goal as a Ranger. First shot, second shift, goal. It was nuts, which started the lead against Seattle, which they never gave up. And then Panarin went nuts last night and scored 4 goals! Mikkola is from Finland, and not only does Kakko now have a countryman right by him, they’ve played together in the junior league a few years ago.
So the Rangers’ locker room is buzzing and everyone is gelling on the ice. The power play has come back to life with Zibanejad leading the charge. Chytil, Lafreniere, Kakko or absolutely flying right now. They are all getting points all over the place! Together they are pulling off what we’ve hoped for years would happen.
If things continue like this, the Rangers are now incredibly dangerous. The skilled players are now spread out through all the lines making matchups much harder. There are way more defensive strategies opposing teams need to do now. There are goal-scoring threats all over the place.
Is Drury done? Can he make another move to shore up the 4th line even more? The trade deadline is at the beginning of March.
I haven’t written about the Rangers in a month, which is odd. I usually do it once a week, but the start of 2023 has been hectic. Thankfully the Rangers have kept themselves (and me) largely on track. A month ago their record was 19-11-5.
Going 8-3-3 means that more points than not have been added. That’s good but with competition so fierce, every point is essential. There were some tough OT losses (Devils and Toronto) and some outright terrible loses (Canadians).
The team wasn’t high-scoring this month. That’s in large part because the Power Play remains ineffective. There was one this week and something like 2-22. That’s terrible and has cost them games. The once-feared offensive special teams are now nothing to worry about—too much passing, too much waiting around, and not enough movement. Since a one goal lead is nothing in the NHL–if you are ahead or behind–getting the man advantage and scoring on it can change the course of a game. Last season’s special teams were integral to the long playoff run and that’s missing. The standings are so close that at the end of a week standings can look much different. Thankfully the penalty kill is doing well.
Galland seems to have found good remixed lineups this week. Kreider is on the second line with Trocheck and Vesey (Trocheck and Panarin haven’t clicked, unfortunately). The Kid line has been reformed and they’re thriving. Chytil is on fire with 8 goals and a handful of assists in the last 11 games. Sammy Blais has been sent down to the farm team in place of 2020 second round draft pick Will Cuylle. Blais’ knee injury has held back his play so much that it can’t be ignored any longer. Cuylle is on the fourth line to get used to the play of the NHL and he looks to be doing well and could likely take Blais’ spot. The fourth line is more or less a mash of misfit toys–by far the weakest line as it has been for years–but the win against Vegas last night showed that they can hang. And props to Halak for having his game of the season! He gave Vegas fits and the only one he let by was a fluke.
Turnovers and the power play are the most glaring issues that have been going on for far too long. Once again the moves at the trade deadline will be immensely important to patch holes in the Rangers’ game.
Stop-motion animation is one of the oldest and most labor-intensive animation styles. There aren’t many studios that are crazy enough to do this kind of work. It’s my favorite style as it’s truly three-dimensional art coming to life. You can see the brains and hands that put all of this in motion as it dances around in front of you. With modern technology aiding in the design of sets and puppets and expanded possibilities of scene complexity, it’s stunning what can be accomplished. Over the holiday I’ve had the time to dive into three great works.
Wendell and Wild– This is the latest show from legendary animation director Henry Selick. Based on a book by Clay McLeod Chapman, Wendell and Wild are two demons who convince 13-year-old Kat to summon them to the land of the living. The pair is stuck managing a more powerful demon’s balding head and they have much greater ambitions with the living. Kat feels responsible for her parents’ death and that makes her an easy mark to agree to the pact. Thankfully Kat has some good people looking after her and they help her manage her own crisis as well as her rotting hometown.
This show falls firmly into Selick’s wheelhouse as you can see many of his other shows (Coraline being the biggest one) peaking through here. Great visuals and animation that looks very clean. The story feels pretty rote and doesn’t do much that’s new. It’s still a good story but of these three movies, this is my least favorite.
Missing Link– Mr. Link is a sasquatch who finds Sir Lionel Frost, a great explorer, to help him find his long-lost family. Frost quickly agrees to help Link in the hopes that this will make him the envy of all of his peers. A rather selfish and egomaniacal man, Frost comes to learn a few life lessons in this globe-trotting adventure. The duo doesn’t travel alone after a wild run-in with compatriot adventurer Adelina Fortnight.
This is largely a buddy/fish out of water story and it works really well. Link, Frost, and Fortnight are different personalities who work as great foils to each other. It reminded me a bit of Indiana Jones and the Mummy movies (the ones with Brendan Fraser) but with one main cast member being a different species. The voice acting is great and it’s really funny.
This is a Laika Studios production who are responsible for some of my all-time favorite stop motion pictures, Paranorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. Stunning animation. The backgrounds are so rich and colorful that it makes you want to step through the screen. I had this on my list for a while, I regret not watching it sooner.
Pinocchio– Officially titled Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, this show is simply stunning. It’s a del Toro production done with animation. They went as far as lighting the sets to look like his live-action movies. There are a handful of monsters and they look like they came from The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth (in fact, you can run these movies in a row for a theme night). Just unending artistic beauty from top to bottom in every frame. The thing that really struck me is that the characters (puppets, actually) don’t look like they were made for a movie. It’s like they were living their lives and some camera guys with microphones showed up in this small town in Italy after the World War ended and decided to follow them around. Perfect voice casting as well.
Oh yeah, the story. Most people know the Disney version of this show and many of the big beats from the source material are used here, like Pinocchio getting manipulated into joining the circus and the whale swallowing Cricket and Geppetto. This is a rather deep dive into what it means to live a life. Why we do the things we do and how we treat ourselves and each other. This isn’t for young children. It’s pretty complex, it has a lot of scary imagery and it’s two hours long. I’d say ten, maybe twelve-years-old and up.
The Wood Sprite brings the puppet that Geppetto made in the grief of losing his son to life in an attempt to heal his heart and take away his crushing loneliness. She puts Cricket in charge of being Pinocchio’s guiding light. Together they attempt to raise Pinocchio. Mistakes are made by Cricket, Geppetto, and Pinocchio but they do come together in this gorgeous story of love and family. This adaptation is so touching to me in ways that the Disney version never reached.
The Penguins stopped the Rangers’ win streak at 7 (just after their win streak was ended) marking the best run of the season so far. The Penguins have hit their stride as well, it was a close game marred by bad penalties. In the following game, the Rangers thundered back against the Islanders, making a 5 point lead in the standings. Right now the Rangers have a wild card spot in the playoff standings. We’re suddenly very close to the halfway point of the season which means the playoff race is now taking shape. Eyes are now on the prize.
The Rangers are 8-2 of the last 10 at the Christmas break so going back next week (Washington, Tampa, Florida) they have a great wave of confidence. It’s going to be put to the test as the only team in that trio that isn’t doing well are Florida (really odd that they are under .500). The Metro division is incredibly tight. Carolina is killing it now with 50 points for first. The Devils have hit a brick wall at the same time the Rangers jumped over theirs which has allowed everyone to catch up to their once ridiculous record (which is still very good at 22-10-2). The Rangers are now only 3 points behind them. There are only 2 bad teams in the Metro, the rest are very close to the point where at the end of the week, the standings could drastically change. Carolina is the only one with any cushion and they’re playing at the top of their game. Where the Devils have faltered, Boston has had no problems retaining their game. 27-4-2 which is ludicrous. That’s 6 points ahead of Carolina and Vegas has gotten wobbly but is at a fantastic 49 points. No Devil’s level panic for them.
The Rangers are playing like we expected coming off of last season. Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil are absolutely heating up now. We’re looking at head and shoulders gains in points for career best seasons with all of them, which is incredibly exciting. They’re going to be adding a stack of points this season, giving the team much needed scoring depth. Kakko in particular could be catching fire very soon. He made a bad turnover that led to a goal in Thursday’s game but he bounced back with a righteous game winning goal. Miller is making one fantastic play after another. Julian Gauthier has made his case for never being scratched in favor of Sammy Blais. Panarin and Trocheck are scoring goals. Trocheck in particular looks like he’s much more comfortable now (he’s an excellent linemate to Kreider). Trouba is making fewer mistakes and has scored 2 goals. Fox and Zibanejad are reliable as ever. Vesey is doing great, he’s really made a case for himself that he’s rightfully playing in the NHL after getting a professional tryout with this team. It helps that he played with Kreider at the beginning of his career.
The Penalty Kill has been doing well with one bad game against the Penguins. Power Play has regained its potency but still needs work. Too many teams have adjusted to Zibanejad being the biggest threat so changes need to be made to get the potency up. They were 1-6 against the Islanders. They’re currently 13th in the league and it needs to be top 10. They can do that.
There’s a whole lot of season to go, but things are looking good. The momentum also gives the same vibes as last season where the right moves at the trade deadline that’s coming in about 2 months could mean a deep playoff run. There are like 2 missing pieces to making a dominant team.
What a difference a week and a ton of panicking can do. Four wins in a row: Blues, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and the Devils last night. That is legit competition right there. The game against Vegas was the best, a sound 5-1 clobbering. The others were closer games and were much more trying.
The Devils game was a rivalry match for the ages. Before this season the Rangers had beaten the Devils 9 out of 10 games. They’ve been terrible for a while. Last year they were good but injuries plagued them the entire season. In the first go this season the Devils won after the Rangers gave up an early 2 goal lead. This time, the Rangers did the same to the Devils and won in overtime. There’s been a rivalry between these two teams for ages but the competition level hasn’t been there so the big targets were moved to the Penguins, Capitals, and the Islanders.
The drive to win has been reinjected into the team. The lines have been shifted-even midgame to try to fix match-ups and effort-and it seems to be working. Gallant is making better choices and giving more players opportunities Kakko, Lafreniere, and Chytil have all scored. Braden Schneider is making tremendous strides, he’s coming up like K’Andre Miller has been. Scoring depth has been a problem and that’s improved this week.
Goodrow is playing with Panarin and Zibanejad, Trocheck with Chytil, Vesey with Kreider. These new pairings with the “kids” getting more time together and a part is diversifying the lines and making it much harder for teams to counter. I think predictability (and terrible aim) has been a problem.
The Power Play and Penalty Kill units are working again and that’s an integral part to winning. All of these good things need to keep improving. This is probably the most hopeful the fan base has been all season. Toronto is next on Thursday and that’s another big test. Besting Vegas, St Louis, and New Jersey gives a lot of confidence going up against another top team. That confidence was at an all time low during the losing streak and having this momentum should help a lot.
The big problem remains turnovers. Trouba in particular stands out for this. Panarin has been getting better but the dumb high risk cross ice passes at the worst times are still confounding to watch time and time again. More diciplin on this is needed.
After Toronto, it’s Philly and Chicago on the weekend. Those are easy games, but only if the Rangers don’t fall into their lackadaisical trap. They have to show up for every 60 minutes. All of these points are adding up and making a difference. Losing to the bottom teams has to stop in order to make the playoffs. The remainder of the week is very important.
Every part of the Rangers’ game is regressing. The time for concern is over, we have reached a low point that is unacceptable. Something or some things are broken on this team and all of it needs to be fixed.
Lost to New Jersey by blowing a 2 goal lead. Lost to Edmonton by blowing a 3 goal lead. Beat Ottawa. Lost to Ottawa in OT after blowing the lead in the last minute of the game. Got completely embarrassed by Chicago last night. In the last 10 days, the Rangers have lost to the worst teams in the league. Wins are so far and few between it’s like putting a full 60 minutes of competing in a game is an afterthought.
None of the systems are functioning now. There is no structure. The first Power Play unit is getting nothing done despite a stacked roster. It’s like 28 million dollars out there and they’ve scored once or twice in 8 games. They’re like 2-22 or something ridiculous like that. Tumbled down to 22nd in the league I think. Could be lower now. The Penalty Kill is now falling apart. Used to be reliable, and kept the team in games, and now last night against Chicago, they let in 3 goals! Three powerplay goals from a team that had lost 8 games in a row! Face off wins are sliding down, hitting posts instead of the net (4 last night!), or outright completely missing the net. The stupid high-risk passing that was going on when Quinn was coaching for some reason won’t stop. The odds of you making a pass through 3 players with their sticks on the ice for a one timer is so low I don’t understand the thought process. Time and time again these passes fail and become turnovers.
Easy points are being tossed away and the next four games are completely stacked. St. Louis tomorrow, which is our best chance to win because the Blues are either switched on or off. Then It’s Vegas, Colorado, and New Jersey.
The dysfunction is so bad that it’s hard to believe that the team is listening to Gallant. It looks like they expect to lose now so they don’t try. This bizarre apathy is taking root and at this rate, the playoffs will be embarrassingly out of reach. This is turning into the most disappointing season in a long time. It’s awful to watch. If they don’t turn things around by Christmas, I don’t think it’s possible that Gallant has a job in January.
The New York Rangers spent a week on the West coast just before Thanksgiving. In the four game trip, they went 2-1-1. Losing in OT to Seattle was disappointing but the loss to Anaheim was a disaster. A team with the Rangers’ talent cannot fail to a team at the bottom of the rankings. That’s just throwing points out of the window and the best way to make it harder to make the playoffs. Then the Rangers followed up that disaster with an embarrassing loss to Edmonton at home. Blew a 3-goal lead in the third period to lose 4-3. Depressing.
The thing is, the first two periods against Edmonton were great. Active play on offense and defense. They kept McDavid and Draisaitl from doing anything. Stopped plays from progressing in the middle of the ice. Getting the Oilers to get called on penalties. Scoring five times! Two were called off due to goalie interference and offsides but the Rangers were largely in control for the entire game. Then they stopped in the third period. Penalties were called on the Rangers that turned into goals (2), the last being the game-winning goal by Draisaitl. The Oilers just got to do whatever they wanted to do. Mindboggling.
It feels like the Rangers don’t have the killer instinct to win. They get too confident and play down, which puts them into a ditch they can’t climb out of. The come-from-behind win in LA last week is I think the only come-from-behind win this season. If not, it might be 3 total, something very low. And they came back from being down 2-0 after the first period in that one. It was like watching last season’s team tear things up!
Games keep falling away from them. They should be 14-5-3, not this wobbly just over .500 run that feels like it’s ready to fall apart at any time. Panarin hasn’t scored in 12 games now. The Power Play has gone completely ice cold. You need those player advantage goals to win games. Against Edmonton, the Penalty Kill fell apart. You need that defense to win games.
It’s disturbing to see how this team is playing now. The lessons learned and the momentum they had from last season are gone. Sure they didn’t keep the end-of-season trades they made (Copp, Vatrana, Motte) but the additions over the off-season and the core of the team are solid. This caliber of play is all wrong. Is this a confidence issue? Is something up in the locker room? Are players hurt? Is it a coaching issue? Do the lines need to be re-arranged?
There’s a pivotal game tonight against the Devils who are having the best season in like a decade. 18-4? The top three teams in the league with Boston and Las Vegas. The Devils are clicking and the Rangers aren’t. The Rangers have to play like a functioning team or they are going to get run over tonight. This is a major rivalry no matter what, but some serious pride is on the line here. This is the first meeting of 4 this season so it’s only a sample of what’s to come but it could be a telling matchup showing a team that is going to continue succeeding and another that might not make it out of the regular season.
I’m on the fence about this French horror film. I like the general ideas presented throughout the movie; the actors are very good and the look and feel of the production are high. The way characters interact frequently threw me off though.
Justine shows up on her first day at veterinarian school where her older sister Alexia also attends. She’s a quiet girl, a vegetarian looking to fit into this new environment. When she is pressured to eat meat, she ends up developing a taste for human flesh. Yeah, her freshman year is an intense one.
The first odd thing to me is how buck wild veterinarian school is in France. It’s like a college campus in Florida, with kids partying hard every chance they get and the hazing, which looks like it started generations before based on the chants and songs, is something to behold. It’s like the university’s social life revolves around Greek life without having sororities or fraternities to pledge to. This is all on me as this is just something that doesn’t match my narrow conception of what this kind of school is like. No idea how accurate it is.
The one thing that really made me question things is how Justine and Alexia interact once things start getting wild. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on with Justine even if you don’t know the synopsis of the movie. Alexia gets involved as things escalate but there’s this odd acceptance from Justine that doesn’t make sense to me. There are a few obvious questions she should be asking (You’re oddly ok with this, why? How do you know about this? Why did you do that? Whoa, why are you doing that?) and it’s never asked. Instead of talking, there are just, odd looks and…running away? It really takes me out of it. I kept thinking of all this stuff that should be happening to ground people’s natural reactions instead of things just pushing forward until the end.
That said, I really like the ending. It makes the subtle background info from the start of the movie come full circle into a new light. That’s always fun to see and is good storytelling. There’s some real skin-crawling stuff in here too. The makeup for Justine’s rash is incredibly real and watching her scratch like a maniac makes it impossible not to have your own visceral reaction to it. Violence and gore are pretty minimal, but there is some gruesome stuff shown and it looks very realistic. This will make a lot of people feel very uncomfortable. So despite my misgivings about how the story is told, overall it is a successful horror movie.
This neat little religious horror movie is from Poland. I’ve seen one movie from writer and director Bartosz M. Kowalski a few years ago (also on Netflix) called Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight. That’s a good homage to Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hellhole feels like a more mature and advanced effort from Mr. Kowalski. He’s growing in his craft and I think he’ll be able to make even greater films in the future.
In this macabre tale that takes place in 1987, we follow undercover police agent Marek into a monastery. There have been a lot of disappearances around the area and the rumors and evidence point to the monastery being the hub of it. Apparently, they handle a lot of exorcisms. Anything more than one exorcism once in a while is a lot if you ask me and these guys have blown way past that number only for the women to all die in their soul-saving efforts.
This movie does a really good job of setting up and exploring the mystery. Everything feels off right away and Marek is a great vessel for the audience to go through this nightmare with. He’s easy to like and root for. The atmosphere is fantastic, the oppressive fog of the area practically becomes a character. I like the pace of the movie, there’s a good amount of suspense and psychological horror. This doesn’t rely on violence or gore at all for its scares. In what seems like a big trend for me this Halloween, the ending really won me over. Some of the best direction and visuals are from the last five minutes. Leaves a lasting impression!
I think the Child’s Play movie franchise is one of the most consistent series ever made. Creator Don Mancini is involved in every single project, 8 movies, and now this TV show. I’ve watched them all except for the 2019 reboot. They’re all worth watching as Mancini always finds ways to make each story fun and wilder than the last. It helps that this series starts in the supernatural–Chucky is a doll possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
This nearly 35-year-old franchise changes with the times. From straightforward horror with a psychological bend to slasher movies with dark humor similar to what the Nightmare on Elm Street series steered into. Then when Mancini cranked up the insanity with Bride and Seed of Chucky, it leaned more on black humor and camp. From the second movie onwards these films never took themselves seriously. Mancini just wanted to have more fun with a killer doll and he’s done so. There’s a high bar of suspense of disbelief when it comes to a psychopathic antagonist that’s a 2-foot-tall doll made come to life with a voodoo incantation and Mancini just wants you to take a ride with him.
Chucky is a direct follow-up to Cult of Chucky, with many returning franchise characters joining the new kids of this story arc. The pilot gets right to the point when the main character, Jake, finds a Good Guy doll at a yard sale. This vintage doll has Charles Lee Ray’s soul inside because it’s impossible to keep a bad guy down for long when they can transfer their soul around (a major point in this show). Chucky gets to work manipulating Jake and his friends (smart decision to go back to the series roots by Mancini) to try and achieve his devious end game.
Chucky is simply a long-form Child’s Play movie. Brad Dourif continues his voice work as Chucky, Jennifer Tilly eats up every scene she’s in and the kills are all varied and interesting. All the franchise staples are here. They got a good budget for this as the cinematography and sets don’t look cheap and most importantly, the puppet work and death scenes are all well done. The only glaring issue is that making Chucky walk/interact with actors in full frame is the most expensive effect so they use a child actor as a stand-in for the puppet. They do this sparingly but the child is at least a foot taller than the puppet so it’s crazy obvious when it happens. So far in season 2, it looks like they avoid this by doing full digital erasement of the puppeteers and it looks good enough.
I ran through the first season to catch up before the season 2 premier and I find myself looking forward to the 44 minutes of mayhem each week.
This is the fourth show from Mike Flanagan for Netflix. I’ve liked them all so far aside from Bly Manor which I got distracted from watching after the first episode and never went back to (it didn’t grab me right away as Hill House did). Midnight Club is based on the book by Christopher Pike and is aimed more at young adults.
The show takes place at a juvenile hospice called Brightcliff. The eight kids all have terminal illnesses and voluntarily decide to go to this facility. They get a lot of leeway in what they get to do and it’s a comfortable place where they are well cared for. Their favorite thing to do is what they call The Midnight Club, where they gather in the library at midnight and tell each other scary stories. They also have a pact; when they die they will try to send a sign from the other side. This show is mostly about facing our mortality, and as these are teenagers, they are forced to deal with this much sooner than anyone should.
While this series is rather slow–Flanagan is never in a rush–I liked it a lot by the end. With a large cast there is a lot going on, hence 10 nearly one-hour-long episodes. The cast is excellent. Diverse and interesting, everyone has unique backgrounds and that is reflected in the stories they tell (the stories are taken from other Pike books). While death and children is already a heavy topic, it wouldn’t be a Flanagan show without the supernatural and cults involved.
I was surprised by how attached I got to a few of the characters, which is what propelled me through the show. It can drag on in places but I think the payoff is worth it. The main cast all get their time so no one is two-dimensional and forgotten about. The supernatural and cult plots propel the mystery of the show while to stories offer up the majority of the scares. There’s a lot of world-building done in this series and a lot isn’t answered at the end. There’s plenty to keep this going, which I hope they get to do. There’s nothing major in the violence and gore department, it’s mostly bump-in-the-dark and spooky threats like monsters and ghosts that bring the disturbing images. This is a very mature show though, the themes are heavy and the topics of fear, regret, hope, faith, and death are well discussed. The teenagers aren’t coddled, they’re respected as intelligent young adults. I really like the tone and messages of this show, it’s really well made.
This one is for the kids. Think Hocus Pocus but with fewer witches.
Halloween is a big deal in the town of Bridge Hollow. Everyone is gearing up for the big fair except for Sydney Gordon is mostly concerned about abruptly leaving everything and everyone behind in Brooklyn for this suburb in the woods. Her dad Howard took a new teaching job midsemester at the high school and it’s going to be an adjustment for everyone. Her life gets even more disrupted when she accidentally lets an ancient spirit out of captivity. This specter is on a mission to take over the living realm by bringing all the Halloween decorations to life to use as an army.
This is one of the better family movies I’ve seen in a while! It’s cute and goofy with just a little bit of scary moments (think giant spiders and clowns with big teeth) to keep everyone on their toes. I was really impressed by the VFX, they got a good budget to bring this script to life. The kids are fun, there’s a lot of running around to save the day and the funniest part is that we’ve reached the point where Marlan Waynes can be typecast as the awkward but loveable father.
Ben’s life is a bit of a mess. At 17 years old, his parents are getting divorced. He’s been acting out (there’s a story behind that broken arm) in frustration and good old-fashioned rebellion. His parents have separated and now Ben and his little brother go to live with their dad for the summer. His dad works at the marina and gets him a job there so he’s not going on vacation here. Things start out okay. He makes friends with his co-worker Mallory but he’s got to deal with some hazing from the local kids.
A couple and their two young kids move into the rental next to Ben’s place and they seem cool until Ben notices some odd things around their house. He investigates but doesn’t find anything but he can’t shake the feeling that something is lurking around them. The mother next door then starts acting really sketchy and Ben is put on high alert. Before long, the threat comes out of the shadows, and Ben is left to defend everyone from being taken.
This movie uses the most effective horror movie techniques to great effect. Keep your monster mysterious for as long as you can, giving only glimpses of it. Ratchet up the tension by making the threat slowly move closer to the protagonist in more and more disturbing ways. Isolate the protagonist; when no one believes you, it makes you an easier target. This makes survival feel even more difficult because the idea of help coming to save you goes out the window.
All of this with excellent cinematography and direction make The Wretched a lot of fun, I liked it a lot. There are a lot of nods to classic thriller and horror films that are done really well. The atmosphere is really great, the pacing is basically perfect and the ending is satisfying. Another horror movie with great VFX work that makes the monster look and feel real. There’s not much violence but scenes of body horror are used to get your hair standing on edge. I think it’s kept pretty tasteful. I highly recommend this one.
