Showing posts with label Chris Kentis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Kentis. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Hush...Hush, Sweet Sarah

Film: Silent House
Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on Fire!

If you’d told me years ago that the Olsen twins had a younger sister who was extremely talented and was going to take some really interesting movie projects, I’m not sure I would have believed you. Elizabeth Olsen is a real talent, though, and it’s worth seeking out her movies whenever possible, as she has been extremely successful in digging herself out from under the weight of her sisters’ careers. Silent Houseis one of her earlier films where she isn’t serving as third fiddle to her sisters, one of her first roles as an adult. To be fair, Martha Marcy May Marleen is a better showcase for her talents, but this will do in a pinch.

The main issue with Silent House is that there is no way to really talk about it in detail without diving head-first into spoiler territory. That being the case, this will contain a bunch of spoilers. I’ll do my best to keep them as far to the end as possible if you want to avoid them, but I’ll be up front here—I'm not entirely sure this is a movie that you can’t enjoy spoiled, mainly because it uses a plot device that you’ve almost certainly seen before multiple times.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Wednesday Horror: Open Water

Film: Open Water
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on rockin’ flatscreen.

It takes a certain kind of balls to make a shark movie these days. I get it, but it’s a massive risk. The minute you put people in the water and have sharks in the area, you’re going to be compared with Jaws on some level. Let’s be honest: most movies are not going to compare well with Jaws in general, and even a good shark movie is going to pale in comparison. When it comes to the sharks, Open Water is a bit of a bait and switch. There are sharks here, but they’re just a small part of the total story.

Prepare for a bit of a slow open. Susan Watkins (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel Kintner (Daniel Travis) have busy lives and demanding jobs, which means they don’t get to spend a great deal of time together. Hoping to improve their relationship, the pair takes a vacation to the Caribbean to go scuba diving. Thanks to the magic of movies, the two are quickly on an island and then on a dive boat heading out to deep water. Rather than staying with the group, the two go off on their own. Thanks to a mix-up involving another passenger, the count of divers gets mixed up and Daniel and Susan are left behind in the open ocean.