What movies have you seen recently?

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The Watchers (2024)
on Max

I have recently seen the first two third of this film with Dakota Fanning. She plays a woman named Mina. Mina works in a pet shop. Her boss asks her to deliver a bird in the parrot family a day's journey from their town. The car she is driving breaks down in a forest. The electronics fried. She walks on foot and finds a person that urges her to hurry. It is getting dark. "They" will be out soon. They enter a single room heavily armored building. One wall is a mirror. There are two other people. They stand before a the mirror, hands locked, urging Mina, to join them. The stand. Then there are noises. "They" are called the Watchers, and they are watching the four of them.

There is no escape from this forest. Any attempt to escape won't be reached before the sun sets. Once the sun sets, the Watchers will hunt them down.

I don't know how this is going to end. I tend to think only Dakota Fanning will survive. Two of the characters seem like "disposable" characters. The third is an older gray haired college professor of folklore. She is the strong one. She knows the "rules." I don't know who will survive and who will not. I'm rooting for all of them, but what are the chances of that happening?

Now for the the last third of the film...

Lover of birds. I'm sorry I don't know the exact "make and model" of the "parrot." I tried to find a picture of the bird, by doing an image search for The Watchers, but I could only find pictures of the "meat bags" and "coffin stuffers."¹ Again, I don't know who or what survives.



¹ reference to the AI poet Bender Bending Rodríguez. Famous for the tome Bite My Shinny Metal A$$

Caddo Lake (2024)

This was a GREAT film. It is confusing, to the viewer and the characters. The story, the characters and story unfolds slowly, but it slowly, then quickly, then suddenly reveals itself in the end. It comes full circle and makes sense.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
on Max
Owen, a shy and withdrawn seventh grade boy meets ninth grader Maddie. She is obsessed by the television show that airs at 10:30pm, Saturday night, just before The Young Persons network shows old black and white TV shows. Over the years, they both become obsessed by it, until it goes off the air, and Maddie disappears. Then eight years later...

How do I describe this film? Take 1 part The Mighty Boosh, 1 part David Lynch, 2 part The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and 4 parts Jane Schoenbrun (the writer and director of the film) and place it in a blender to make one wonderfully weird drama.

It is a horror drama. An unexpected horror drama.

Brigette Lundy-Paine, who I know as Casey Gardner from Atypical plays the role of Maddie in this.
I said it reminded me of The Adventures of Pete & Pete. After picking at my brain memories and remembering that title, I realized that Michael Moronna and Danny Tamerelli play Neighbor 1 and Neighbor 2 in this film. They played Pete and Pete back in the day! Is The Pink Opaque based on The Adventures of Pete & Pete? I don't know, but the film reminds of that feel. The Pink Opaque is the television show that Maddie and Owen are obsessed with?

Weird and wonderful. My sons and I use to LOVE watching The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Correction
The Pete and Pete show aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1996. My youngest son was one in 1992. My older son was three. I think I watched it because I really enjoyed it. Surprisingly, my youngest son vaguely remembers it. My older son doesn't remember it.
It's on YouTube, and Amazon Prime, with I no longer subscribe to.

The Theresa Saldana Story, came out in the 80s.

She played herself.

Last night we watched TWO movies:

The Monster of Phantom Lake [2006]
<=>"The Unspeakable Horror that Menaced the Fate of the Human Race!"



The acting is unnatural. The monster looks poorly made.
IMDb estimates the budget for making this movie as $3,500.
Set your expectations accordingly.

We went in with low expectations and enjoyed the film.
<=>And hope to get some more of the same from the same source!


Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies [2016]
<=>"The hills are alive with the sound of bloodshed"



Start with a remote mountain ski-resort in the Alps. Add zombies!

A reasonably good zombie film. Again, set your expectations accordingly.



Both films were dumb fun. We're not complaining. We liked them.

Watched two documentaries today. First...
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (2024)
Well done. Each member of the band is featured, and the documentary reflects the story Bruce wanted to tell in his concert.
Bruce Springsteen Talks Road Diary | Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band | Hulu
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band | Official Trailer | Hulu

The other was not a documentary as much as an interview. Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets. George Stephanopoulos interviews Bruce Springsteen about his past and the above documentary. It was a good as well.
Watch "Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets" Sunday 10/9c

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

The Donald Sutherland classic in which aliens take over the earth, not with metal spaceships, but with seeds spread through space to take over human beings.

Trap.

A loving father, who is also a vicious serial killer, takes his daughter to a concert, only to learn it's an elaborate set up to catch him. But where did this plan to capture him originate?

I confess I preferred the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers [1956].

Show Spoiler

When I saw the [1978] version, with Donald Sutherland, the twist at the ending caught me too off guard.

The Blood Beast Terror.

Peter Cushing investigates murders on a remote English estate, to find the killer is a horrific experiment created by a mad scientist.
Like most horror movies from the sixties, it hasn't aged well, but it was fun to watch.

Blood And Snow.

A woman, covered with blood, is rescued by a team working in an arctic oil operation. But is she the victim of violence, or something worse?
Though a rip off of The Thing, it was still a decent enough scifi-horror movie.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Just finished watching my favorite Halloween film of all time. Definitely one of my favorite films for the last 57 years. (I'm 65) As a kid, I loved the dark threatening night scenes. In my teens, I appreciated the story and the message. When I became a dad, I was jealous of Atticus Finch. He always knew what to say. Tonight, my thoughts were how every second of music in this film enhances the scene.

This was the first film for Mary Badham (Scout), Phillip Alford (Jim), and Estelle Evans (Cal). I have always liked the character of Cal.

The Babadook (2014)

Another favorite Halloween film.

I just watched The Devil's Disciple, 1959, based on a George Bernard Shaw play, set in the American Revolutionary War. Starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. Worth a watch.

Betwixt Now And Sunrise: The Authentic Cut.

A writer, who can best be described as a Bargain Basement Stephen King, is on a book tour when he ends up in an apathetic little town where Edgar Allen Poe had once slept at. There, he finds rumors of a serial killer who apparently thinks he's killing vampires, as well as a town secret of a mass child killing decades ago. Encouraged by the eccentric and annoying sheriff, he wants to write a book he can be proud of instead of the the crap he churns out, and solve the mystery. His investigations take place both in waking, and in his alcohol and drug induced sleep, in which he and Edgar Allen Poe work together to uncover a lurid past. In the end, he rediscovers his own past trauma of losing his daughter, which he feels he could have prevented had he been sober.
I was surprised to learn this was a Francis Ford Coppola film, as much of it hadn't been particularly good. Still, it was an enjoyable watch, despite its many flaws.