Change Your Image
Khali_seaweed
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Wendell & Wild (2022)
Good, but way too busy
The story follows Kat, a rowdy girl fighting with the guilt and trauma of her parent's death. She is assigned to a catholic girl's school where she meets Raoul and Shiboan.
Kat revieces some sort of mark, turning her into a 'hell maiden' granting her with the ability to summon demons. She summons the demon brothers Wendell and Wild and asks them to bring her parents back.
Meanwhile Shiboan's parents, the owners of Klaxcorp are trying to demolish the town to build a prison to line their own pockets. Wendell and Wild are tempted by their promises of money and start aiding the Klaxcorp owners behind Kat's back.
The film's visuals were a treat! I love the artstyle they went with, altough unusual you get used to it pretty quick. I liked the character designs too, especially Kat's, those giant green afro puffs are wonderfully iconic!
The sound design was great too, I really like the song "I am a Poseur" from Kat's getting-ready scene the most, it's incredibly catchy!
I liked the diversity too, lots of multiracial characters and I was fan of the casual trans rep with Raoul.
Even though the film is very fun and wonderfully produced it fails in a few areas too, a common critiscism is it's tendency to be VERY busy. And I agree. The film could have still worked if Wendell and Wild were cut from the movie completely and all the focus went to Kat and her trauma. They honestly drag the plot down a little and I didn't find them all that likable. The ending felt very rushed too, and I find that some characters, the devil character being a prime example, turning their minds way to quickly.
Overall the film was really good! Just sucks that it was overstuffed.
Smile (2022)
Pretty good compared to some recent titles!
Watched in on a whim and I was pleasantly surpised by what was unfolding in front of me!
The story follows the therpaist Rose who's haunted by a malevolent entity that seems to spread through serial suicides. After her patient kills herself the entity latches itself onto Rose and starts haunting her.
I really liked the camerawork and the backgrounds, as an artist I loved the backgrounds. Everything from the soft pinks of the hospital and the desaturated palette of Rose's house. The spaces Rose finds herself in are gloomy and lonely feeling, another detail I liked were the lack of people when Rose is outside, adding to the loneliness. The camera turnaround was a little overused though.
Was the film scary? Personally I'd say yes, not everyone will agree with me but I think it was quite scary. The jumpscares did get me a few times! The scare at the birthday party after Rose's cousin discovers the cat's corpse in his presents was the one that got me the most.
Even though I liked the film I couln't really understand the ending. The creature takes the form of her mom and starts chasing her down in this lanky form and later traps her in this fale reality kind of situation after Rose had supposedly killed it with fire. I was left questioning many things. Can the creature even be hurt physically? How powerful is it if it can trap people in false realities? Things like these kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I think the ending could have worked better if the creature could have just killed Rose right then and there the moment she stepped into her mom's bedroom.
Overall I liked it a lot, but there were a few things that were lacking/redundant.
Thirteen (2003)
It hit me like a sack of bricks
Thirteen is a movie about wanting to be trendy and popular, to be on top of the social ladder, and damn did it deliver.
We follow Tracy, a girl who dreams of becoming like Evie, the most popular girl in school. Tracy goes above and beyond to be Evie's friend, stealing a woman's wallet, getting pierced and changing her fashion. But all it does is make her unhappy. Tracy's life has already been shaken up by her parent's divorce and Tracy's need to be the trendy girl creates tension with her and her mom Melanie. Melanie runs a hair salon from her home to be able to provide for the family. She tries so hard to be the 'cool mom'. Going out of her way to drive the girls to go shopping, letting Evie stay over, so on so forth. We find out that Evie lives in a neglectful household and does all this stuff to recieve the attention she craves. Her situation doesn't excuse anything, but it gives us a lot of insight as to why she is the way that she is. When Melanie refuses to adopt Evie after the girls ask Evie snitches on Tracy, showing Melanie and Brooke the drugs in Tracy's room and excluding her from the group. Evie's chance to live a happier life was snatched away from her, and she's angry at Tracy for it. This is such an asshole movie from Evie, but I can also understand since all she wanted was love.
I didn't see myself in Tracy specifically, but I did relate to it hard because me, a girl, growing up around girls like Evie and Tracy when I was the same age hit so damn close to home.
I highly reccomend it.
Where the Scary Things Are (2022)
Don't waste your time
I was drawn to it orginally because of the poster but I never got what I was hoping to see.
The characters are extremely unlikable, especially Ayla. She has 0 redeeming qualities, she wines, complains and overreacts at absolutely everything. The little kid, don't care enoygh to remember his name, was also exptremely annoying. 0 redeeming qualities as well. Everyone else is just shallow. They just kind of stand there and go along with everything. The climax wasn't satesfying at all. Snack's disagreement with everything came out of nowhere instead of having it gradually build up.
Jenni was kind of intresting I guess but they never expand on her. Who is she so scared of everything? What's her backstory?
I feel like the movie could have been 10 times better if they had made Jenni the main character instead and have her face her fears and show the asshole kids who's boss. But they didn't do that because of course they didn't.
The monster could have worked. But they didn't do much with it. It was barely a character at all. I can see the potential of some mysterious swamp monster but this was just not it. They had so much room for creativity yet all they do with the monster is put it in a room and have it kill people occasionally.
Whoever's reading this. I saw the whole thing so you don't have to. Please just go watch something better.
Last Radio Call (2022)
I liked it!
Not the best, but that's fine!
I looked at the credits and saw how small the team for this was. Most actors also picked up other work like editing, costume, makeup and filming. I'm pretty impressed with what they have created with their small team and (likely) small budget. The special effects were impressive!
The genre is found footage, which I've heard can be a very hit or miss genre in terms of quality. Last Radio Call had it's moments but I noticed it dragged a bit here and there. I liked the ending, it was very tense. I like the main character too, her acting (it's good guys what are y'all on?) her dialogue and her actions all do a really well job at how her character is desperate to figure out what happened to her husband.
Overall it's a pretty good watch. Ofc the occasional yawn is inevitable but it's better than some of the other stuff from this genre. I recommend it for a movie night with friends!