reviews

Point-Counterpoint: Divergent Takes on Evil Dead Rise

Kalie Zamierowski, , , , , , 2 Comments

I have taken to watching a film most nights before I go to sleep.  Not every night—but often—it serves as something to look forward to at the end of a work-filled day.  I can indulge my passion and build my expertise in my genre of preference, horror, or I can stretch myself and watch something else.  Either way, I find movie-watching a delightful way to end my day, and so I sat down two nights ago to re-watch Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1981) in preparation for Evil Dead Rise (2023) which Michael and I saw last night at the movie theater.  In my estimation, Evil Dead (1981) is a riot.  It’s just raunchy enough, conceptually uncomfortable, and weirdly hilarious.  It lost me a little bit at the end as a lot of movies do (I think many movie endings feel drawn out, or maybe I just have a poor attention span), but in general, what fun to watch, and what a unique take on monstrosity; possession films aren’t usually among my favorites, but I really like the Evil Dead.  So I guess I was expecting something with a similar tone when I saw Evil Dead Rise last night.  What I got was something much more macabre, and, in my opinion, probably more captivating for its bleak vision.

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Point-Counterpoint: Divergent Takes on Evil Dead Rise

Feel the (Bright)Burn: Strengths and Shortcomings of the Inverted Superman Mythos

Kalie Zamierowski, , , , , , 2 Comments
Photo Credit — Brightburn

Well, the long-awaited evening arrived.  I’d been looking forward to Brightburn with at least tenuously high expectations since Michael told me about the premise oh-so-many-months ago.  The film’s situation sounded fascinating – an inversion of the Superman mythos, in which Superman is embodied in an evil 12-year-old child – and the previews looked plenty scary.  Couple that with the fact that I really like Elizabeth Banks – and she’s one of the main forces behind Shrill, a show I’ve been singing the praises of a la twitter for months – and this was definitely a film I had to see when it came out.  “How about we see it Saturday” Michael suggested sweetly.  I replied, “I’m going on Thursday night when I get off work, whether you go with me or not.”  So, I’m not quite sure if I would have put my money where my mouth was – I don’t go to the movies alone much, and I hadn’t asked anyone else along – but luckily, Michael capitulated, and after a quick four hour shift at Torrid, I met him at the coffee shop across the street and we zipped to Tinseltown, where we were two of six people in the theater to see one of the first screenings of Brightburn.

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Feel the (Bright)Burn: Strengths and Shortcomings of the Inverted Superman Mythos

An Insanely Long Series: Reading Psycho Bit by Bit

Kalie Zamierowski, , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Anthony Perkins is Norman Bates.  Point blank.  There are no two ways about it.  Except, of course, when he isn’t Norman Bates.  And what an unusual experience it is to envision someone else fulfilling the role, especially since it’s been years since I’ve seen the Gus Van Sant remake.  The beauty of the comprehensive exam is that I can select the books I put on my lists (based on a unifying theme), and I was really excited to add Robert Bloch’s Psycho.  Of course, I’ve seen the original movie many-a times, but I’ve never read the text, and like any horror fan, I was immediately interested in how the novel would compare with the film.  I decided, then, to do what I did with The Shining.  In “Let’s Not Overlook Anything” I blogged about the Shining in small increments and spent a considerable amount of blog space discussing one or two scenes.  I decided I would do the same with the text Psycho – blog a little bit about each section as I read it.  So this is my “insanely long series,” my observations about Bloch’s Psycho.  And my first observation is that Bloch’s Norman Bates is fascinating.

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An Insanely Long Series: Reading Psycho Bit by Bit