Tag: horror

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Barbarian (2022)

After Weapons, this was a must-see, as soon as possible. And this was just OMG all over again. This is even weirder than Weapons: so strange, so much it’s own thing, hard to convey, but as someone who likes horror that’s more weird than gore or scary, I’m here for this. There’s a kinship with Heretic, but this is better.

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Weapons (2025)

This was a fantastic movie. Such atmosphere, acting, characters, also music (there’s a track on the OST called The Flight—during the movie it was goosebumps, afterwards it’s a relive). And the biggest of all: such a balancing act of horror, thriller, and some weird dark comedy, that it could so easily fall apart—and it doesn’t. It’s a masterclass in directing. Also, the villain is just… chef’s kiss.

This made me instantly look up more about Zach Cregger and jump on to watch Barbarian literally the next day.

As for the cast, two notes. First, I haven’t really seen anything with Julia Garner, but I hope to see more, she has a captivating presence. Second, I have a newfound love for Benedict Wong: despite the shit that the 3 Body Problem was, his character and acting was easily the most interesting in that one, and he just kills it in this movie as well; I’m actively seeking out movies with him now. Okay, third, Amy Madigan’s Gladys is just pure genius, it’s a phenomenal character design, I was in awe.

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Spawn (1997-1999)

So this is supposed to be the OG Spawn comic-to-screen adaptation, since it’s created by McFarlane himself. It’s unlike any animated series I’ve seen before. Not because it’s 18+ in every sense, other have done that; I’m not sure how much before, but surely since, especially lately with ones like Invincible, where gore is done for sport. But Spawn is unique as being the most direct adaptation of a comic book: visual style, characters, narrative, topics and themes that I just didn’t think would be adapted to screen.

That said, it’s also a weird thing to watch, because it’s so much a comic book that it practically didn’t work so much as a film. For example, when a scene is so abruptly resolved like going from one comic panel to another. In a comic book that’s what I expect, but on film there’s something missing.

Anyways, as a Spawn fan, this was a must-see for me, and an important miss to make up for. But I won’t be coming back to it for a rewatch—I rather reread the comic books.

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28 Years Later (2025)

I was so confused first. I expected a typical Hollywood zombie movie and this was, well, I’m not sure what this was. Zombie arthouse cinema? It’s a weird one. I needed some time to settle and process it, but after a week I still went back thinking about it and it grew and matured as a memory. Now I think it’s a unique zombie film, and it’s a lot better that it’s that than a run-of-the-mill popcorn flick.

That chanting of the poem while the old war scenes are playing—it still just pops into my mind every now and then, months after watching it.

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Sinners (2025)

I was going in as “let’s give it a shot” and come out “omg yes”. The style, music, cinematography, vibes, and Jordan’s acting were all on top. The story was not that strong though, but how it was done won me over still.

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Alien: Romulus (2024)

There are pros and cons, but it’s easily the best Alien movie in a decade. In my ranking Alien and Aliens are on the high pedestal of 10/10, and then Alien 3 and Resurrection are both 6/10 movies. Romulus fits somewhere on the benchmark of the latter two, perhaps a half mark upwards, and definitely way ahead of any of the prequels or Predator crossovers.

What’s going for it:

  • I really appreciated ground time, showcasing what a mining colony looks like, streets, a slice of society, struggles outside of the scope of a single mission.
  • We got glimpse of a new part of alien life: we’ve never before seen them between bursting out as an alien baby and reappearing as a big black monster, and now we saw that there’s an in-between cocoon phase.
  • The whole movie was beautifully shot: colors, atmosphere, consistency of the retro-futuristic setting. As for props, the scenes were built amazingly well, and the aliens looked bad-ass.
  • Acting was fairly good, and the writing had no painful “why would you do that?!” moments.

What felt hmm:

  • The whole cast felt very young, had a bit of a Children of the Corn vibe to it. Although I could think that miners die young, working class has children early, so this is just what this society’s reality looks like.
  • Sometimes I felt that the retro-futuristic technology to be kinda gimmicky. Like I’d see today’s youngsters playing with old props, well, which is the case. Maybe it’s just a hiccup of my suspension of disbelief.
  • The alien-human hybrid was creepy but rather in an odd-weirdo than a frightening way. I liked the Newborn version better in Resurrection.
  • CGI recreation of Ian Holm looked underproduced.
  • There were a lot of plot vehicles that felt exactly like plot vehicles and not embedded well enough so that I don’t see behind the scenes. For example, “you have 36 hours to pull it off”, so there’s a time pressure; “now you have rather 20 minutes”, so the time pressure is elevated; “there’s no air in there”, so you have some limiting factor to overcome; “the gravity switches on and off every X minutes”, so we can use this later as a physical stunt; etc. I know elements like this are part of a story as it is, but still, I can hear the conversation in the brainstorming session how these ideas came about and what plot needs they answered. It’s just too on the nose, like an exercise at a creative writing class.
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Suspiria (2018)

It was a wonderful experience. Probably one of the most artful horror films that I have ever seen, and I’m much relieved to say that none of the art in it felt artsy but rather proper art film cinema. I loved how the tension kept pulsating: it went awry for short bursts, then got back to its track of narrative although with a growing feel of unease, which built up beautifully for the final catharsis. All of its visual style, camera movement, editing techniques, acting performances were just fit, and by that I mean there was nothing drawing more attention than needed, and so it was a perfectly balanced piece.