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The Ritual 2017 ★★★★
Aka: The Blär witch mägik
Aka: Midsommar featuring the Sproose Moose
More than anything else, this is a showcase for Rafe Spall's range as an actor and the arc his character goes on. From cowardly turning away from his friend being killed in a robbery to ending up as the “final boy”, even helping along a limping friend who he clashed with earlier.
Is the story original? No. It's one of “those don't mess with nature, don't go here, cause here be monsters” stories. One of those horrors where, if you listen closely, at one point you can actually hear Cillian Murphy's character from 28 days later. “This is a bad idea. You know why? (pause) Because this is a REALLY bad idea.” The prologue is middle aged guy banter with nothing really standing out, except for the Belgium joke.
Does that matter? Horror aficionados will recognize that a good execution can make a movie just as well as a good concept does. And I must say that this one was executed very well. Well done jump scares, the monster's toying with Luke and his friends is well shot, the Wicker Man-like cultists are suitably eerie just like the hallucinations taking Luke back to the liquor store on that faithfull night.
Nice, moody and eerie with good acting all round. Good stuff.
Black Mirror: Crocodile 2017 ★★★
Black Mirror goes nicely bleak with a tale of an unwilling accomplice who gets in way deeper than she had wished for.
Movie buffs will recognize elements from I know what you did last summer and Shallow grave (ie you think you know your friends, but you don't really). Charlie Brooker makes for excellent writing with plenty of moments where Mia seems in the clear before having the rug pulled from under her. With a suitably bleak ending and with Andrea Riseborough (from Possessor, check that one out, btw) excelling as the frightened and determined Mia.
Maybe not top-3, but certainly one of the better episodes.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire 2024 ★★
Well... they tried. They certainly tried.
Some of the scenes did try (and even partially managed) to recall the goofy charm of the original. But in the end, it just did not work.
The bad jokes (the whole Stay Puft subplot) outweighed the good ones (the Spin Doctors joke or the one about Mary Todd Lincoln).
The callbacks to the original more often were forced in than adding to the plot.
The finale was predictable and never fully captivated.
Walter Peck was the best example: bring him back because William Atherton is still alive, make him mayor because reasons and them turn him into a watered down doing his shtick version of what once was.
The original Ghostbusters became a classic, even though logically it should never have worked in the first place. Now it's just become cookie cutter family friendly stuff.
Two stars.
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