Sounds Scary!

Film: Undertone
Format: Streaming video from HBO on gigantic television.

One of the issues that horror has as a genre is that what scares us is always going to be subjective. While there are certainly some visceral things that will get to a lot of people, some things work on us and other things don’t. Look at The Blair Witch Project, for instance. You can find horror fans who think it’s one of the worst horror movies ever made, and you’ll find others (like one of my brothers) who considers it one of the scariest movies in history. I bring this up because I get the sense that this kind of divergence of opinion will be the norm for Undertone (or undertone if you prefer the more stylized version of the title).

Before we launch into the movie itself, I want to talk about the aspect of this that needs to be discussed in some detail regardless of anyone’s actual opinion on the film. Undertone is an exercise in minimalism. While there is a full cast for this film, only a couple of actors appear on camera, with everyone else appearing only as voices through the phone or over the internet. Undertone was made for about half a million dollars, close to a shoestring these days, and while that’s obvious in retrospect, it’s not obvious while the movie is running.

What I've Caught Up With, June 2026 Part 2

I’m still watching The Sopranos as my workout show, and should be just about finished (but possibly not quite) by the end of July. I’m very close on finishing The Americans as well. On the MCU front, I rewatched The Defenders, which feels like a huge lost opportunity. I also watched The Inhumans, the easiest MCU show to skip and in which every single character is a miserable ass. I watched the last season of High Potential, which continues to be a great show, and also watched Hilda, which is great and should be watched by any kids interested in anything. Finally, I finished Gen V, and am now finishing The Boys so I can be done with that universe completely.

What I've Caught Up With, June 2026 Part 1

On pace for June for me is 33 movies, which is exactly how many I watched. I didn’t catch up at all, which still puts me at 7 movies off the pace for the goal for the year. Hitting the minimum goal is a good enough accomplishment for now, and July offers the opportunity to catch up. As seems to always happen, I was on pace to catch up a bunch and had a week where I watched almost nothing. If I can avoid those weeks, I’ll be on pace in no time.

Shearers Out

Film: The Sheep Detectives
Format: Streaming video from Amazon Prime on Fire!

When I first saw the poster for The Sheep Detectives, I figured it was an obvious miss. I liked Babe well enough, but talking animal movies aren’t really something I seek out, and there’s always a sense of CGI talking animals hitting that uncanny valley area that I find disturbing. And then the reviews started coming in and they were almost entirely positive. So when it showed up on streaming, I figured it was time to take a more serious look at it.

There are certainly some initial similarities to Babe, of course. It takes place on a farm, there are plenty of sheep, and all of the animals talk. But, The Sheep Detectives is a murder mystery, and it’s the sheep who need to try to figure out who killed their shepherd, because the local police are not specifically inept, but completely inexperienced in dealing with any serious crime like murder.

Grim(m), Indeed

Film: The Ugly Stepsister (Den stygge stesøsteren)
Format: Streaming video from Hulu on Fire!

I genuinely appreciate the fact that horror movies are starting to get attention when it comes to award season. In the past, a horror movie getting a nomination for anything was a shock, and a lot of those nominations were for categories like special effects. There’s been more respect for the genre, especially in the last couple of years, and that respect has shown up in nominations across the spectrum. Such a case is the nomination for Makeup and Hairstyling for The Ugly Stepsister (or Den stygge stesøsteren if you want the Norwegian title).

And don’t get it twisted; The Ugly Stepsister is very much a horror movie. It’s also a sort of fantasy romance and a very dark comedy, but this is body horror before it’s anything else, and it goes to some very uncomfortable places. The fact that this comes from a tradition of a classic fairy tale only makes this that much more effective.

Emergency Broadcast System?

Film: This is Not a Test
Format: Streaming video from AMC on Fire!

Is the zombie subgenre played out? I think you can make a pretty good case for that even if I don’t specifically agree with it. The problem with zombie movies is that it’s very difficult to distinguish one movie from another after a while. A movie needs to either be really innovative and do something different or it needs to be made so well that it can’t be ignored. The Girl with All the Gifts presented very different zombies and an interesting version of the zombie plague. Train to Busan was simply pure, high-octane action. Both work because of that. Since This is Not a Test doesn’t have the wall-to-wall insanity of Busan, it’s going to need to do something new.

Sadly, it does not. Zombies and high school kids is something that has been explored before and in interesting ways. Dance of the Dead (zombies at prom) and Anna and the Apocalypse (zombie Christmas musical) did something new. Kids trapped in a high school while zombies rage outside was definitively handled by the Korean show All of Us Are Dead. This is Not a Test follows a lot of the same path. There is a difference here, but it’s not a notable or interesting one.

Back to the Drawing Board

Film: Sketch
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on gigantic television.

I genuinely try to go into movies that I watch wanting things to be good, and I always try to approach every film as neutrally as possible. I admit that I went into Sketch with some real reservations. Sketch was produced by Angel Studios, which is run by the Mormon church. These are the same people who made Sound of Freedom, and who generally make movies that are available in theaters as “special events” on a random Tuesday. To that point, the “Special Features” section of the DVD has a promo for the Tuttle Twins; if you’re not familiar, they are libertarian cartoons for kids, or more appropriately, right-wing propaganda for children in grade school.

But, I watched it anyway, and it does seem to be evidence of the idea that even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut. Sketch is inventive, fun, and actually feels in a lot of ways healthy in terms of the psychology of the kids involved and the family situation. This was far better than I expected. Sometimes, you just have to take a flyer on something and it pays off.