V/H/S Beyond (2024)

For the past few years, I have been watching Shudder’s V/H/S franchise. In 2021, there was V/H/S/94, which was decently good. Then 2022 was V/H/S/99, which I liked better. While I didn’t review V/H/S/85 last year, I did watch it and enjoyed it. This year, it’s V/H/S/Beyond and it’s scifi themed. I can’t wait to talk about it.

The “through-story” framework for Beyond is set up as an alien abduction documentary. In between all of the movie segments, experts tell us about a family that suffered from alien and paranormal experiences. The first movie segment is “Stork,” where a police unit is tasked with breaching a house that may be the center in a string of disappearing babies. Despite the fact that they hunt monsters, the unit comes upon more than they expected to find. “Dream Girl” is the next segment. A couple of paparazzi are told they need to get footage of the latest Bollywood starlet. Unfortunately, she is not treated well by her management and lashes out in revenge. In “Live and Let Dive,” a group of friends is celebrating a 30th birthday by going skydiving. As they are having fun before the dive, a flying saucer appears in the sky next to their plane. Needless to say, their skydive did not happen the way they wanted. “Fur Babies” is probably the most disturbing of the segments. It is also the only one that doesn’t really fit the scifi/alien theme. A group of animal activists go to investigate a doggie daycare center. Little do they know that the owner of the center loves dogs much more than she likes humans. The last segment of Beyond is “Stowaway.” A woman is in the desert investigating possible alien encounters. She sees a light fall from the night sky, which leads her to an alien spaceship. Of course, she sneaks inside. Which is actually a terrible decision.

I know that I normally give you a much deeper description of each segment. However, of all of the movies in the V/H/S franchise that I have watched, Beyond is, by far, my favorite. I love the science fiction and alien themes that run through the segments. Thankfully, all of the V/H/S movies are standalone. You don’t need to have watched previous versions in order to understand newer releases. If you don’t watch any of the other movies in the series, you need to watch this one. You won’t regret it.

Rating: A+

Hypnotic | 2021 Halloween Movies

I haven’t written a review in a couple of days because I have been extremely disappointed in the spooky movies recently. While a lot of the Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies are boring, the Halloween fare lately has just been bad. I might try to squeeze in two extra reviews over the next few days in order to make up for the two days I’ve missed but, to be honest, that will depend on the quality of the movies I find. Then again, maybe I’ll give in and write the bad reviews anyway. Until then, here’s one of Netflix’s newest releases.

Hypnotic is about a woman named Jenn (Kate Siegel) who is feeling stuck in life. She doesn’t have a job currently and she suffers from depression after the death of her child and subsequent collapse of her romantic relationship with Brian (Jaime M. Callica). She turns to psychiatrist Dr. Collin Meade (Jason O’Mara). Dr. Meade hypnotizes Jenn in order to help her overcome her troubles. But this is only the beginning of her troubles.

As I said before, boring movies are different from bad movies. This one is just boring. Before the movie even reaches the halfway mark, we know what is going to happen. Thriller movies are only thrilling when you don’t know what is going to happen next. The suspense comes from knowing something bad will happen but not knowing what that something is or when it will happen. Hypnotic spells it out for you. Even if it didn’t tell you up front what was going to happen, this plot has been done before. Multiple times.

The sad part of this movie being boring is that it actually has a decent cast. Kate Siegel was amazing in Midnight Mass, Jason O’Mara was in the acclaimed Amazon Prime series The Man In The High Castle, and Dulé Hill’s career is way longer than any of us realize. These are people that could have some stunning things with a better script. It makes me sad that their talents were wasted.

Needless to say, you shouldn’t watch Hypnotic. Go watch literally anything else. You’ll thank me later.

Midnight Mass | 2021 Halloween Movies

Midnight Mass is our second 2021 horror series from Netflix. They did pretty well with Squid Game but can the Americans outdo the South Koreans when it comes to horror? Let’s get to it.

Crockett Island is an isolated fishing village with a population of 127. Most people left the island for the mainland. However, a few have returned. Riley (Zach Gilford) has returned after spending a few years in prison for a drunk driving incident that killed a young woman. Erin (Kate Siegel) has also returned, although now she is pregnant. In addition. a new priest, Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), has arrived to temporarily replace the elderly Monsignor while he recovers from an illness. Shortly after Father Paul has taken over, miracles begin to happen. Leeza (Annarah Cymone), a teenager confined to a wheelchair, is able to stand and walk again. Older members of the community are beginning to feel the aches and pains of aging fade. Is God blessing the community or is something more sinister going on?

It isn’t often that I get blindsided by a twist in a movie. By the time the third act starts, I frequently know how things will end and I can just cheer for the main character. Midnight Mass not only surprised me, it kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. Would the show follow the lore or the religion? Would the characters figure out what is happening in their town? My husband and I would have long conversations about what we thought would happen in the next episode. While I’m not sure where the story would go from here, I really do hope that there is a sequel. Perhaps this could turn into an anthology like American Horror Story . It would make a pretty cool series where things are kinda related but also very different.

Just because I’m talking about the story, don’t think that the actors are lacking. Everyone is so convincing in their roles. I truly felt bad for them when things started to go badly. Well, I felt bad for most of them. There were some that I was hoping would get taken out. I’m looking at you, Bev (Samantha Sloyan). But every good show needs someone to offset the protagonists. And they were very good bad guys.

Now even though I enjoyed the series tremendously, I don’t think that everyone should watch it. If you are super religious, you might find the show a little offensive. But if you are comfortable in your faith or if you aren’t Catholic, I think you would enjoy the series. It is only seven episodes long. And I wish it were longer.