Week Ending 10/11/24
Yes, Hockey has been back. The Buffalo Sabres laid two goose eggs in Czechia to usher the new season in last weekend against the New Jersey Devils. But now the rest of the league is up and running too. And the Sabres are back in North America to hopefully get some wins (sadly, last night didn’t start the trend).
It’s been an eventful time in the NHL too. Johnny Hockey’s tragic death alongside his brother. Igor Shesterkin rejecting an 8 x $11-million contract because it was too low. Dominik Hašek refusing to participate in the Global Series despite it being in his home country and involving his former team because he sees any involvement with advertising the NHL as a betrayal to the Ukrainian people who are still under siege from Russia. The Colorado Avalanche icing the first player to ever have the same first and last name in Ivan Ivan.
And then there’s Prime’s FACEOFF: INSIDE THE NHL, which I keep forgetting to watch. Maybe next week if I have the time. I’ve already committed to review Peacock’s HYSTERIA! and a couple movies, so it might have to wait a bit longer.
What I Watched:
CADDO LAKE
(streaming on Max)
**Potential spoiler—according to the studio**
Despite the studio classifying it as a spoiler, Celine Held and Logan George’s CADDO LAKE’s time travel component is its structural foundation. They asked for critics to refrain from mentioning it pre-release—a stipulation that would have forced me to hold my thoughts until after it debuted if I wasn’t already scheduling it then anyway. Why? Because it’s an integral talking point. Admitting that doesn’t mean you should ruin the results of its impact. It simply allows you to speak on its necessary implications towards the characters’ baseline motivations.
Because it means absolutely everything to both Paris (Dylan O'Brien) and Ellie’s (Eliza Scanlen) actions throughout. He’s trying to find answers as to why his mother had seizures—a condition that led to her death via a car crash he was in too. She’s trying to find her missing stepsister (Caroline Falk’s Anna) a day after reminding her mother (Lauren Ambrose’s Celeste) and stepfather (Eric Lange’s Daniel) that they weren’t her real family. This desperation is what leads them to an area of Caddo Lake that should be underwater if not for the current drought. A place housing an unexplained phenomenon that pulls them through time.
Think of it like the drug in Benson and Moorhead’s SYNCHRONIC. You don’t know exactly where you’re going in time, but you will stay in the same geographic spot in space when you go. It’s disorienting at first, but both catch on quickly to realize they might be able to stop the tragic events currently driving them. If Ellie gets it right, she can prevent eight-year-old Anna from going out onto the water that night. If Paris gets it right, he can make sure to be driving the car the day his mother dies. We know quite early, however, that what’s “right” to them isn’t necessarily what’s right. It doesn’t mean their journeys won’t provide them what they need, though.
It’s easy to guess what’s happening at the start considering the ways in which Held and George purposefully keep these characters apart. This is also one of the reasons I wouldn’t consider “time travel” a spoiler since the filmmakers are never trying to hide it. In fact, they are using our desire to “figure it out” as a means to push us off the scent of how they’re utilizing it. Because the first act is very specifically drawn to make us assume a connection between Paris and Ellie that they can later subvert in the second. For all we know, they aren’t even from different times. Maybe they simply live on opposite ends of the lake.
To go into more detail would be giving away spoilers, so I’ll stop there. All you must know is that Held and George are meticulous. So, don’t go looking for plot holes. This is a closed loop with everything accounted for in the sense that time can never change. You’ve always gone back and done what you’ve done. The chicken is the egg. This film isn’t therefore about altering events as much as altering Paris and Ellie’s sense of self. By having the opportunity to go on this fast-paced adventure, they’re able to escape the limitations they’ve placed upon themselves as a result of their pasts. We so vehemently want our lives to make sense that we too often apply intent to moments that inevitably ensures we can’t move on.
O’Brien and Scanlen are therefore crucial to the film’s success because everything we see and feel is a product of their epiphanies. They want to save the people they lost so badly that they’re willing to sacrifice themselves in the process without asking whether that person would want them to do so. And what makes CADDO LAKE so powerful is its ability to open their eyes to this fact without needing them to relive the nightmare. Because it’s not about showing them that they can’t do what it is they wish to accomplish. It’s about showing them that they might have already done it. This butterfly’s wings already flapped. Paris and Ellie are now merely able to see the results.
It makes for an extremely hopeful film despite the looming darkness brought on by past ghosts and present anger. By meeting these characters at their most jaded and closed off, there’s nowhere else to go but the clarity of healing. That doesn’t mean everything will work out for a happy ending. Just that the black cloud they’ve let consume them for too long might dissipate before their fate is sealed. It’s all convoluted enough to warrant the studio issuing an insane clarifying note so critics don’t get the wrong idea if they can’t quite wrap their heads around everything, but none of the hoops we jump through are without both narrative and emotional function.
- 8/10
DADDY’S HEAD
(streaming on Shudder)
You can’t blame twelve-year-old Isaac (Rupert Turnbull) for losing himself after the sudden death of his father in a car accident. He’d already lived through losing his mother a few years earlier and now he’s forced to go through it all again. Unlike back then, however, the only person he has now is a stepmother (Julia Brown’s Laura) to whom he barely speaks. And since she’s as new to being a mother as he is to being her son, warmth is in short supply opposite awkward silence. So, it makes sense Isaac would latch onto an idea that his father isn’t dead after all. That he’s the only one “special” enough to see the being that visits him at night is Dad.
Written and directed by Benjamin Barfoot, DADDY’S HEAD bills itself as a psychological horror about grief a la A MONSTER CALLS or I KILL GIANTS. Unlike those two focusing on the child alone, though, Barfoot has an adult to consider as well. Isaac buries himself in video games so he doesn’t have to cope. Laura numbs herself with alcohol to sleep after spending the evening watching old videos of her late husband. This creature that invades their house and hides in the forest trees is thus as much a potential manifestation of his subconscious as it is hers. And that’s where things kind of fall apart.
Why? Because you can flirt with the edge of reality and fantasy when it’s just one person experiencing the phenomenon. Everything a character “sees” could therefore be explained as acts they don’t realize they’re performing themselves. To have two characters (and soon three with the addition of Nathaniel Martello-White’s family friend Robert) witness these events, however, means they must really be happening. That fact adds a wrinkle that must be accounted for through explanation—whether overt or implicit. Barfoot sadly never provides either. He merely uses the monster for his needs without considering its place in the film.
So, despite being a pretty cool little beast (think a dark, demonic humanoid skittering around with a bright mask of Isaac’s father’s face), its presence is a complete manipulation. It exists to push Isaac and Laura to the ends of their sanity with seemingly no rhyme or reason beyond a throwaway line that it is “alone” too. Okay. Alone from what? A creature from where? It can’t be made up, but it also doesn’t seem to be real—so, is it a group hallucination? Has stepmother and stepson’s grief somehow merging together? If so, give us some acknowledgement. Give it some agency of its own to make an epilogue discovery meaningful.
In the end, it’s all surface thrills—the last thing you want your psychological thriller to be. Do Isaac and Laura learn anything from the incident? We can make our assumptions considering Barfoot bookends the whole with the boy grown-up, but the script ignores the actual period of that growth. What we’re seeing is the catalyst for change without any of the change. It’s like a ninety-minute introduction to the real tough drama that skips past it for a quick, bow-tied conclusion instead. Its unexplained terror is left unexplained for a cut to black that renders everything we saw moot. Because if none of the fallout is deemed worthy of our attention, why should we bother caring about the chaos?
- 4/10
FALLING STARS
(limited release & VOD)
When Gabriel Bienczycki (directer/producer/cinematographer) and Richard Karpala’s (director/producer/writer) FALLING STARS begins with text that presents the notion of a “harvest season” bringing witches from the sky to reap unsuspecting human souls from the ground, we assume the words are foreshadowing for a folk tale come to life. What we soon discover, however, is that those words aren’t myth within the world on-screen. They are fact. And while people have learned to co-exist with this threat as a part of their reality, finding an equilibrium has proven impossible. Because no matter how safe or respectful you are, your next step outdoors beneath an evening sky could still be your last.
Some people simply adhere to the curfew by staying indoors when the threat level is high (although this can never be an exact science considering the witches have been arriving earlier and in greater numbers each year). Some follow archaic rituals that form barriers meant to protect them from being taken. Others wait for the harvest and look up at the stars in the hopes one of them will choose them next. And while a select few may just get lucky enough to survive an attack, the danger doesn’t end upon killing a witch before it can steal you away. Rules still apply as far as honor and humility are concerned. Don’t look at the body too long and don’t desecrate it in any way.
To bring us into this high concept world on a shoe-string budget, Bienczycki and Karpala introduce a trio of brothers preparing a protection rune. Because Mike (Shaun Duke Jr.), Sal (Andrew Gabriel), and Adam (Rene Leech) have zero fear, we assume they’ve done this before and it’s worked. Unfortunately, they’re missing a crucial ingredient. So, instead of going inside their house to wait until morning to procure it, they call Rob (Greg Poppa) for assistance. Yes, he has what they are missing, but he’s also the only person they know who’s killed a witch. The decision is thus made to throw caution to the wind and pray it’s early enough in the season to go into the desert, dig up the body, and see it with their own eyes.
The only real budgetary expenditure above payroll and permits is thus the corpse itself. By making it scary and real enough to put the fear of God into this quartet, the rest of the suspense can be built via the constant presence of an invisible threat. These witches move so fast that the governmental alerts are for “wind” rather than rapture. And if there’s any solace in being taken, it’s that it happens so instantaneously that witnesses would swear you simply disappeared. Bienczycki and Karpala must therefore only create a scenario with which to mark these brothers as fair game to all witches in the area and let the uncertainty of their fate drive the narrative towards its inevitable collision between hubris and power.
It’s a solid result with some impressive yet minimal world-building to help the conceit feel lived-in even if the moments providing it don’t have much bearing on the plot itself (see J. Aaron Boykin and Samantha Turret as an AM radio DJ and producer adding flavor while padding runtime). These are the limitations true indie productions must face, though, and the filmmakers do well to ensure we can invest in the peripheral exposition regardless of our understanding that’s all it is. The maneuver works better when the connection is personal via the brothers’ mother (Diane Box Worman) delivering an effective monologue, but audiences for these films generally know what to expect.
So, don’t expect much action. The horror lies in the reality that these witches don’t need to fight. All we require to know what’s happened is watching whatever the victim was holding fall to the ground because they are no longer there. Because FALLING STARS isn’t about defeating these witches. No one on-screen is even pretending that’s an option since they’re at a distinct and undeniable disadvantage. It’s instead about accepting one’s mortality and humanity by learning to accept responsibility for one’s actions and to suffer the consequences if it means saving any innocents placed in harm’s way as a result. These characters knew the risk they were taking. Now it’s on them to set things right despite it.
- 6/10
TERRIFIER 3
(in theaters)
It’s been five years since the murders from TERRIFIER 2 and Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) is exiting her latest psychiatric stay in hopes of getting her life back. Aunt Jessica (Margaret Anne Florence) and Uncle Greg (Bryce Johnson) are happy to comply with her young cousin Gabbie (Antonella Rose) desperate to spend every waking hour with her new “big sister from another mister.” But it’s not quite the happy ending Sienna should receive after slaying her demon (David Howard Thornton’s Art the Clown) at the end of her and brother Jonathan’s (Elliott Fullam) nightmare. Family and pills only go so far to curb visions of the dead.
I went into Damien Leone’s latest TERRIFIER installment blind, so Sienna’s introduction after an infamously gruesome prologue (I get people walked out and threw up, but the gore in this franchise is way too cartoonish to even begin making me feel squeamish) was a welcome sight. Why? Because I wasn’t certain Leone would follow up the mythology building he started in Part 2. Since the short from ALL HALLOW’S EVE and the original TERRIFIER feature both focus upon random events and kills for blood and laughs, I wouldn’t have been surprised if TERRIFIER 3 pivoted to a whole new narrative again. Thankfully, it doesn’t.
Most fans probably wouldn’t care since they’re here to see how the VFX and gore one-ups itself (the prosthetics butchered here look and feel like the actors to a disturbing level, so the budget was well spent), but I personally need more investment than that. Story was the reason Part 2 finally got me on the positive side of things with this IP. Sure, the whole “Sienna is the savior of humanity against Art the Clown’s evil because her father drew it in a comic book before losing his mind and committing suicide” is hardly a solid plot foundation, but it did tell me that Leone might just have a plan. Even if he doesn’t, sticking to a main through line at least helps provide focus.
The film is thus exactly what you’d expect from a slasher sequel starring its predecessor’s survivors. Whether paranoia or reality, Sienna knows Art is back. And if Art is back, we know he’s coming for her. So, it’s Leone’s job to get us there with memorable horror and additional insight into his master plan. That means another holiday for maximum public exposure (there’s nothing like a mall massacre at Christmastime with the villain dressed as Santa) and supplying Sienna PTSD to remember the dead and her repressed past (including a cameo from Jason Patric as Dad). Add yuletide motifs (milk and cookies, beer-guzzling Saint Nicks) and pop culture fad (true crime podcasts) and neither Art nor Vicki (Samantha Scaffidi) is without victims to terrorize.
The kills are good. I could have done with a bit more variety beyond the constant bludgeoning of flesh to a pulp by hammers and knives, but we do get some nice chainsaw action too. A few are actually conducted off-screen for redundancy’s sake (although we’re still over two-hours in runtime) and surprise reveals, but I don’t think we’re missing too much. I’d say at least three heads get fully ripped apart, so … do you really need a fourth and/or fifth? Bask in the cameos from genre mainstays like Clint Howard and SFX legend Tom Savini instead. Dig into the demonology research and a scene of Sienna’s sword being forged in fire that excited me more than anything else Leone has yet thrown our way.
And the more he seems to skew away from the cheap vaudeville gags towards that sort of sinister hellscape, the more invested I become. Because while watching Thornton have a blast toying with his food and being able to sing along to Leah Voysey’s “The Clown Café” or Jon and Al Kaplan’s “It’s A Terrifier Christmas” are great, I’m all-in on discovering what evil force is truly at work beneath the white paint. Art the Clown loves public transportation, but something happens here to suggest Leone might be taking us to a whole other world or dimension in the future. With TERRIFIER 4 already in pre-production, I’m ready to find out.
- 6/10
Note: I’m now hearing the “walkout” controversy might have been disingenuously manufactured by inviting patrons to a free screening of a “new holiday movie” only to show them TERRIFIER 3 without any warning about its content.
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw ABDUCTION (2011), CADDO LAKE (2024), and THE LONGEST YARD (2005) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Chris Rock dropping an f-bomb in THE LONGEST YARD.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 10/11/24 -
THE APPRENTICE at Dipson Amherst & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
AVERAGE JOE at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
BLINK at Regal Transit & Quaker
BUFFALO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL [10/10 - 10/17] at North Park Theatre, Hallwalls & Burchfield Penney
JIGRA at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
LOOK BACK at Regal Elmwood
MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT at Dipson Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
PIECE BY PIECE at Dipson Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
SATURDAY NIGHT at Dipson Amherst, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY at AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
TERRIFIER 3 at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
VETTAIYAN at Regal Elmwood & Transit
VICKY VIDYA KA WOH WALA VIDEO at Regal Elmwood & Transit
Streaming from 10/11/24 -
DADDY’S HEAD – Shudder on 10/11
Thoughts are above.
IN HER PLACE – Netflix on 10/11
LONELY PLANET – Netflix on 10/11
MR. CROCKET – Hulu on 10/11
STING – Hulu on 10/11
THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN – AppleTV+ on 10/11
TUESDAY – Max on 10/11
UPRISING – Netflix on 10/11
JUSTICE – Netflix on 10/16
NAPAD – Netflix on 10/16
SWEET BOBBY: MY CATFISH NIGHTMARE – Netflix on 10/16
BROTHERS – Prime on 10/17
LOUDER: THE SOUNDTRACK OF CHANGE - Max on 10/17
OUTSIDE – Netflix on 10/17
THE SHADOW STRAYS – Netflix on 10/17
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (10/8)
THE DEVIL’S TRAP (10/8)
THE FORGE (10/8)
GOOD GIRL JANE (10/8)
HAUNT SEASON (10/8)
HELLBOY: THE CROOKED MAN (10/8)
CHOSEN FAMILY (10/11)
DOMINIQUE (10/11)
FALLING STARS (10/11)
Thoughts are above.
MAFIA WARS (10/11)
NEVER LET GO (10/11)
SEVEN CEMETERIES (10/11)
THE SILENT HOUR (10/11)
UNICORN BOY (10/11)