Daniel Holguin

Halloween Kills is an exceptional sequel to Halloween 2018. Sure, it’s not AS good, but it’s still a good, brutal, and enjoyable movie. You’ll probably enjoy this movie much more if you go in knowing what to expect: Michael Myers killing people and the town trying to kill him. It’s not much more than that. But it does what it’s trying to be well. Somehow, the idea of the killer just being unleashed upon the whole city is new and unique. Seriously, I don’t know how I’ve never seen this be done before. Michael is much more intimidating in this one, the kills are gruesome and scary. The ending falls flat, and is the lowest point of the film, but it doesn’t ruin everything else. Some scenes are far sillier than I would have expected, but it still makes great tension and terrifying moments. Overall, I wanted to enjoy it it more than I did, and I’m a little disappointed, but it’s still a good film.

Overall, a satisfying experience. The only problem I have is the length. This should’ve been longer, at least 110 minutes. The fact that Venom and Carnage only have one standoff is kind of awkward pacing. There was no warm up fight, there was no time for them to understand Carnage’s powers and how to take him down, it all happens in one scene. I was watching the 3rd act and I didn’t even realize, so when I started to realize that this was the final fight, I was like, “Wait, really?” So that’s my only issue. Everything is great. It’s surprisingly funny, Venom being the childish brat and Eddie being the stressed adult is a highlight. The way Carnage was created is weird, and doesn’t make much sense, but does it have to? Don’t walk in to a Marvel movie expecting everything to make sense. Also, it’s weird seeing Carnage be so tame in terms of his violence, because in the comics there were buckets of blood and gore whenever he even touched someone. So this should’ve been rated R, yeah, but it doesn’t detract from the quality of it. The effects look amazing, and the action is fun. In summary: A good movie that should’ve been longer.

I often review horror and new movies, but I had to come back to this because this is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. I saw this when I was a kid at a waterpark, and we left early to go see this. I wasn’t familiar with the title, and didn’t really want to go, but went anyway, because, obviously. But it ended up becoming one of my favorite vacation experiences of my life. Earth To Echo is a masterpiece of the coming-of-age and sci-fi genre. This movie started my love for found footage flicks. Earth To Echo is a movie about soon to be separated best friends going on one last adventure before they must say goodbye, but ends up being their best one yet. They end up finding a tiny, friendly, robotic alien, who’s trying to get back to his home world. These characters are very fun to watch, and are believable. Even when Emma, (someone who admittedly, I’m not a fan of) is added to the main cast, there’s still plenty to enjoy. This is a beautiful movie about friends doing whatever they must to protect each other. There are so many sweet moments like when the characters talk about their past memories and how they’ll miss each other. The experience of watching this is a magical, enlightening, funny, and even a bit of tearjerker. As someone who puts a high value on well written scripts and characters, this movie sticks the landing. Earth To Echo is a movie I highly suggest to those of all ages.

The Suicide Squad (2021) is the movie that deserved to make 750 million at the box office. It does everything the original did, but so much better. From the great action to the actually funny comedy, this movie stays entertaining the whole way, and isn’t an embarrassment to the superhero sub-genre. One of the biggest strengths of this movie is that it knows it’s a dumb movie, but still finds time to have serious moments between characters that are believable. It never takes itself too seriously while still being a great superhero movie. I love how each character (besides Peacemaker) truly feels like an underdog who gets their time to shine near the end. It’s not often that almost every main character in a movie is enjoyable, but this movie nails it. As someone who prefers horror over any genre. I love how gory this one is. It perfectly fits the movie’s tone. King Shark is my favorite character, because he’s one of my favorite kinds of characters in action movies. He’s dumb, but the strongest one of them all. He has some very funny moments, and some very badass moments. All these characters have that. This movie knows when to focus on comedy and when to be serious, and when it is time for the comedy, it nails it. I absolutely despise the first Suicide Squad, and I’m so glad this movie is as great as it is.

“Krampus” is a film that has many factors to enjoy. Between the actually scary monsters, the comedy, and the amazing character development, this movie will become a future cult classic. “Krampus” centers around a dysfunctional family who don’t get along. And after they finally push little Max to the limit, he loses the last of the family’s Christmas spirit, and summons Krampus. Krampus and his helpers kidnap put Max and his family through crisis, and as the situation becomes more dangerous, the family starts to finally get along. The thing that’s so great about “Krampus” is that it covers a topic that I don’t think we see enough: how people should stop judging others for thinking differently. It’s a topic that seems to grow more important as time goes on since 2020, and it displays it perfectly. Despite having great horror sequences, my favorite parts of the film is the character development as the family members learning to tolerate and help each other during a crisis. It puts great emphasis on just how ridiculous it is to not get along with someone because they’re different from you, and how you should put that aside and focus on who they are as a person. It accidentally displays how many people feel right now in the world, just wanting things to be the way they used to be, and for people to get along again. I love seeing the difference in the characters from the beginning and end of the film. The horror sequences are very entertaining, and actually pretty damn scary. And although it’s not 100% culturally accurate to the legend of Krampus, it works. The special effects look great, and the cast does pretty good performances. The comedy doesn’t always hit the spot for me, but most of the time, it does. This movie does have some problems, but to me, they’re easily excused by how it perfectly displays how people should be civilized and dismiss others’ differences. This is a movie that stays scary and funny, while also covering a very important topic. I highly suggests watching this with family. I think this movie can be enjoyed by people who don’t even like horror. A great family movie, and a great horror comedy movie. This is a masterpiece.

“Spiral: From The Book of Saw” follows detective Ezekiel Banks face a Jigsaw copycat targeting the police for corrupt actions. As the new killer continues to mess with his mind and his past, Zeek is left paranoid of who he can and cannot trust, while the only ones close to him fall victim to the new Jigsaw’s gruesome games. This was a very pleasant surprise. “Spiral” is a movie that anyone can sit down and watch without having seen any of the other “Saw” movies. It’s not often that we get one of these films where the whole movie is entertaining the whole way through. But that’s what this movie is. With Chris Rock’s amazing performance, an actually very interesting and entertaining plot, a bucket load of realism, and some gnarly traps, I think this is one of the best movies we’ve seen from this franchise. It does things differently, and that’s very important. Darren Lynn Bousman is an amazing director who knows exactly what the people want. And he delivered. This movie centers around the difference between a good cop and a bad cop. The cops we see killed have done wrong, some worse than others, and that’s a real problem these days. But it also shows that there are good cops who are trying to do things right, and I think that’s something that people needed to be reminded of. And this movie displays it perfectly. I highly recommend watching this, especially if you’re into crime thrillers. This movie is more proof of how we can still have great modern horror.

no monke. j

This prequel to a classic is an understandable mixed bag for most. To start off, the greatest part of this movie is that it maintains continuity well enough to seem like it really did come before Carpenter’s. Huge credits to this movie for that. That kind of stuff is not easy to do, especially with a movie like The Thing, where so much was simply discovered by the characters and left to our imagination. The acting is pretty solid. This movie, whether it is good or bad, I still pretty fun. My biggest complaint comes in the form of the half baked creature CGI. Sometimes it looks decent, and sometimes it looks downright awful. The biggest issue with the CGI is that there’s hardly any blood coming from the wounds that open up. And while it may be because of the body having possibly frozen the blood, it doesn’t look good at all. The color in it is all way too bright to be that scary. It looks like meat you just took out of the freezer. This movie’s over reliance on CGI takes the fun out of the original The Thing, since the most impressive part was the astounding practical effects. Another serious issue is the lack of originality when it comes to filling in blanks. This is obviously a prequel, but it uses many, many things that the original did. Reusing scenes, methods, and even some deaths. When there’s an original scene, it seems like they just remake scenes form the original just to extend the runtime. Overall, this is a movie that has problems, but is still scary, violent, immersive, and overall a fun watch.

The greatest film of all time.

A masterpiece. I am honestly shocked at how many 1 star reviews I’m seeing. This story is beyond creative, and it really gets you thinking. The acting for the Tethered is so convincing and disturbing. Great ending, as well. And despite what you think of this movie, at least it’s something new. It hasn’t been done before, it isn’t a remake or a sequel, it’s just a fresh idea delivered flawlessly by everyone who was involved. It’s not even that violent, and it doesn’t need to be. Lupita Nyong’o steals the show with her performance as both a terrified mother and a malevolent doppelgänger. Her voice is so creepy, and she does it all without any moments being unconvincing. The soundtrack is so sinister, and sets the mood perfectly. To be honest, I was entertained the entire movie. Something about the setting of this movie just really works for me. Everyone gave this their all, and no one disappointed. I love this movie, and if you know a good horror/psychological thriller when you see one, so will you.