Infect Me With Your Love

Film: 28 Years Later
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on various players.

28 Days Later is not just one of my favorite horror movies; it’s one of my favorite movies. I was wildly disappointed in the sequel, 28 Weeks Later. The first 10-15 minutes are brutal and fantastic, and then it becomes a series of plot holes. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have returned to the series, though, and have inexplicably skipped having 28 Months Later, going instead for years. I was guardedly optimistic going into this one. I adore the first movie, but I’ve been burned by a sequel before.

The lore is something that definitely needs to be addressed here. The second movie ends with what seems to be the Rage virus being released on the European mainland, a fact that would quickly lead to the virus spreading across all of Europe, into the Middle East and Asia, and potentially into Africa as well. We get a snippet at the start of the virus spreading in the Scottish highlands, with a young boy named Jimmy Crystal (Rocco Haynes initially) escaping, and also watching his minister father willingly give himself over to the infected in what he believes to be something like the Rapture.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 2024

The Contenders:

Anora (winner)
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked

...But No Mule

Film: 40 Acres
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on gigantic television.

I’ve said a couple of times in the past that one of the subgenres we’re going to start seeing more and more of is environmental-based horror. Environmental disaster science fiction is going to be just as much a thing in coming years. 40 Acres is absolutely a film in that subgenre. While this is an action movie in a lot of respects, the entirety of the film turns on climate catastrophe and famine.

We are in the new future, and the world has experienced a massive catastrophe. A fungal blight has destroyed crops the world over, plunging the entire planet into a massive famine. While food is a prized commodity, it is arable farmland that is the true prize. Any place where actual crops can be grown is more valuable than anything else.

Let it Rot

Film: The Shrouds
Format: Streaming video from Kanopy on Fire!

David Cronenberg makes movies that are upsetting. He took a break from overt horror movies for a bit, but the movies he made were still upsetting in real ways (and I remain convinced that Eastern Promises is the most depressing movie with a happy ending I have ever seen). Lately, he’s slid back into horror films. The Shrouds is a film that touches on horror, but only in the sense that there are clear body horror elements to it, which is par for the course with Cronenberg. This is much more a science fiction drama with disturbing romance elements, but since it’s Cronenberg, horror is certainly going to be an element.

The Shrouds is also a film that has a suitably bizarre premise to get things going, something that Cronenberg is no stranger to. That’s not a necessity for Cronenberg, but it is pretty common. The central premise of The Shrouds is that there are people who, so distraught in grief by the loss of a loved one that they would want to be able to see the body of the body of that loved one decaying in the grave.

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

I watched some television in January as well. I finished a show from Shudder called Horror's Greatest, and it was a decent look at different aspects of the horror genre. I also finished the Fargo television show as my workout show, and I cannot recommend the show enough. Even if the stories weren't great (and they are), the cast list is one of the most impressive ever put together. The most out-of-the-norm show I watched was the She-Ra cartoon series that is soon being removed from NetFlix. Normally, that's not really my speed, but when an openly pro-gay, pro-trans, pro-feminist show that is not completely transferred to discs is about to disappear, potentially forever, I think it's important to watch.

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

My stated goal—usually one that I fall very short on—is to watch 400 movies every year. That sounds like a lot, but it’s a movie a day plus three movies per month (2 in February). That being the case, I need to watch 34 movies in January to be on pace. I watched 31, so I’m a touch behind, but not terribly so, and it feels like something easily surmountable. I did watch a ton of movies off the big list of stuff to catch up on, so that’s a help.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 2024

The Contenders:

Sean Baker: Anora (winner)
Brady Corbet: The Brutalist
James Mangold: A Complete Unknown
Jaques Audiard: Emilia Perez
Coralie Fargeat: The Substance

Ever Since I Was a Young Boy, I've Played the Silver Ball

Film: Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
Format: Streaming video from Peacock on Fire!

The first Phantasm movie is a weird horror classic—the sort of movie that invites you into the mind of Don Coscarelli, who clearly has more ideas than he knows what to do with. The Phantasm movies are famous for the flying chrome spheres that reveal head-stabbing blades and drills that drain people of blood and for the presence of the undertaker-adjacent Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). The first movie is a fever dream of murder and aliens, as is the second. By the time we’ve reached Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Coscarelli has lost the plot in a lot of ways.

That’s the thing about the Phantasm movies: they don’t make a great deal of sense. Are they supernatural horror movies? Is the Tall Man actually connected to aliens on some distant planet? If so, why resurrect the dead? The reality is that you either buy into the insanity of the films and the series or you don’t. If you buy in, you’re going to see some things that don’t make a lot of sense but will stick with you.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 2024

The Contenders:

Sebastian Stan: The Apprentice
Adrien Brody: The Brutalist (winner)
Timothée Chalamet: A Complete Unknown
Ralph Fiennes: Conclave
Colman Domingo: Sing Sing

Not That Kind of Bone

Film: Bone Lake
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on various players.

When I saw that there was a movie called Bone Lake, I did immediately think that it was going to be a porn parody. Perhaps of Swan Lake? It’s not, of course, but that name is certainly sounds more like erotic thriller (in a crude way) than the horror movie it is. To be fair, it is equal parts horror and erotic thriller, so the name is doing double duty. “Bone” in this case is both the actual physical bones of victims as well as the more prurient use of the word as a verb. This fact is even lampshaded in the trailer.

What is interesting to me about Bone Lake initially is that the premise is one that is obvious. There’s a twist moment here that, if you don’t see it coming, you need to get off your phone and actually watch the movie. That first twist is followed by a second one that lands solidly. It’s not one that is necessary for the movie to work, but it comes as a surprise, and it genuinely does raise the film a bit in my estimation at least.

Herbert West Returns

Film: Beyond Re-Animator
Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on Fire!

For horror fans, the first time you see Re-Animator is one of those pivotal moments. It either solidifies exactly why you are a horror fan or you start to question your decisions. Needless to say, as a horror fan, it’s a film that I genuinely love. It’s disgusting, disturbing, transgressive, and funny. It’s clearly a horror film that is happy to have comedic moments without really being a horror comedy. So it’s not surprising that there’s actually a Re-Animator trilogy. Most people know Bride of Re-Animator (the natural name for a sequel to a Frankenstein-esque story), but Beyond Re-Animator is far less known.

Sadly, that’s probably for a good reason. Of the three movies in the series, this is clearly the least of the three, and not merely because it’s the third film in the trilogy, which is traditionally where a series tanks. The issue here is that it deviates from some of the established rules of the franchise.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 2024

The Contenders:

Mikey Madison: Anora (winner)
Karla Sofia Gascón: Emilia Pérez
Fernanda Torres: I’m Still Here
Demi Moore: The Substance
Cynthia Erivo: Wicked

Stay Tuned!

Film: The Running Man (2025)
Format: Streaming video from Paramount on Fire!

I don’t pay a lot of attention to new releases, although I do pay a little attention to them. In 2025, of all of the coming movies, the two I was the most excited about were The Long Walk and The Running Man, both based on books written by Stephen King under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. The Long Walk made some clear changes to the book, but it kept the story generally the same, and it was generally a successful adaptation. But I was just as excited for The Running Man, which looked to be a legitimately accurate adaptation of the original book.

I need to stress this, because when I mention the book The Running Man, people get visions of Arnold Schwartzenegger and Richard Dawson. It’s a fun movie, but it’s not anything like the original story, which was transgressive, dystopian, and sweeping in a way that the first movie couldn’t approach. But sadly, The Running Man was getting lackluster reviews and didn’t stay in theaters long enough for me to see it there. I’ve seen it now, and there is a problem at the heart of it. To talk about it, though, we need to put this whole thing under a spoiler tag for both the movie and the original Bachman/King book. Consider yourself warned.

Deadbeat Dad

Film: Frankenstein (2025)
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on various players.

I am not shy about my love of the work of Guillermo del Toro on this blog. I don’t often go to the theater, but Frankenstein is the first live-action del Toro film in a bit that I haven’t seen on its release. GdT has a reputation of loving his monsters. He’s also someone who, if you go through his films carefully, always makes humans worse than the monsters he shows us (or makes the standard vampires worse than the mutant vampires in Blade II). This is a running theme for him, so Frankenstein was an inevitability.

The running wisdom of the original Mary Shelley novel is that smart people realize that Frankenstein is the doctor, not the monster; wise people realize that Dr. Frankenstein is the monster. Del Toro is going to stay true to this. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is absolutely the villain of this story, while the creature (Jacob Elordi), while monstrous in appearance and sometimes in action, is clearly being depicted as an innocent.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 2024

The Contenders:

A Complete Unknown
Conclave (winner)
Emilia Perez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing

Jane's Addiction Approves

Film: Caught Stealing
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on gigantic television.

Long-time readers of this blog will know of my constant enjoyment of film noir, including neo-noir. I also tend to like Darren Aronofsky, although he is frequently hit-or-miss. Aronofsky doing noir has a lot of potential, so Caught Stealing is a film that certainly had a great deal of potential. I feel the same way about Austin Butler. I haven’t made my mind up about him completely as an actor, although he certainly has the look. Say what you will about him, he’s certainly pretty.

Caught Stealing takes place a couple of years before the turn of the last century in New York. Former baseball standout, San Francisco Giants fan, and dive bar bartender Hank Thompson (Butler) has his life not so much together as built the way he wants it. He works at night, drinks too much, and spends his nights after work with his nurse girlfriend Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz). Everything is fine until his British punk neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat while he goes back to London to visit his ailing father.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 2024

The Contenders:

Anora (winner)
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance

Bad Bunny

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

There are times when, to follow a movie where it wants to go, you have to give in to some ridiculous premises. Caveat is a movie like that. There’s going to be a moment early in the film that beggars one’s ability to willingly suspend disbelief. If you can manage to deal with the fact that the movie demands that you accept something completely ridiculous, you’re in for some good scares and an interesting concept.

Isaac (Johnny French) is a man with significant amnesia and no real direction. This makes him the perfect person for a job from his landlord, Moe Barrett (Ben Caplan). Barrett has a niece named Olga (Leila Sykes) who suffers from bouts of catatonia and lives by herself in an isolated house. Barrett wants Isaac to go and stay with her for a couple of days. Essentially, if she is left on her own for too long, something bad can happen to her, because she can zone out for long periods of time. Isaac agrees to the job, especially because he’s going to earn £200 per day.

I Think the Stripper Likes Me

Film: Anora
Format: Streaming video from Hulu Plus on Fire!

My goal was to get through my set of Oscar films by the end of the year and to save the Best Picture winner, Anora, for last. I did save it for last, but circumstances prevented me from getting it watched until tonight. There was a part of me that didn’t really want to watch it (although I was far less enthused about The Apprentice). There are only a couple of ways for this story to go, and really only one interesting one, and on the surface, the characters didn’t appeal to me at all.

To give the elevator pitch, Anora is a far more realistic version of Pretty Woman. Exotic dancer/escort Anora “Ani” Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) dances at a club and for a fee frequently has sex with her clients. One night, a customer named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) wants someone who will speak Russian with him, and Anora gets tapped. Vanya is in New York City from Russia alleged for school, but he spends most of his time playing video games and partying. How can he afford this? His father is a Russian oligarch and a billionaire.

What I've Caught Up With, December 2025 Part 2

When it comes to catching up on television, I knocked out some big shows in December. These include Batman: The Animated Series and the follow-up, The New Batman Adventures (same voice cast, more stylized art). I also finished both Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return. The biggest removal, though was Lucifer. It's a fun show, but as often seems to be the case, it started to drag once it moved from network TV to NetFlix.

What I've Caught Up With, December 2025 Part 1

I realize that January 1 of any year is an arbitrary place to start making changes, but it does feel somehow natural. As always, my goal is always to watch 400 movies over the course of the year. Mathematically, this works out to one movie per day plus three additional movies per month. It’s not that much, and yet it’s a goal that I almost always fall short on.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Animated Feature 2024

The Contenders:

Flow (winner)
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot