Mutant
rules. Still need to see Neon Maniacs.
@RadicalThrasher oops didn't see your tag somehow. Yeah just 2 more nights to go, but here's the rest of my list:
24. Fallen
I appreciate the gritty neo-noir detective vibe, but the ease with which the demon can possess people makes it all feel a bit frivolous to me. Denzel, as usual, rules.
25. Land of the Dead
Been
YEARS since I last watched it, I knew I liked it, but I didn't really remember liking it
THIS much. Damn what an awesomely entertaining flick. Tons of gore (mostly practical), tons of action, tons of interesting characters, a very gritty tone, also a new (at the time) creative twist on zombies with the Big Daddy character leading a zombie revolution.
Also over the years I've come to appreciate Simon Baker as an actor, whereas back in the day I thought he was a miscast pretty boy (fuck Home and Away). Really surprised by how much shit this gets.
26. The Babadook
Much like The Nightingale, this was nice
looking, but ultimately pretty mediocre in the writing and relentlessly on-the-nose with the messaging. Jennifer Kent has yet to impress me, although she did a good job at making you hate the kid and sympathise with the mother in the first act, to the complete reverse in the second act.
27. The Exorcist: Believer
One immediate problem I had is that it had very little build up. What makes the original Exorcist so effective is that it sets a level of normality that is eventually violated by the possession, but The Exorcist: Believer felt like it immediately started with jumpscares and camera tricks and generic spooky horseshit that made me roll my eyes. A generic modern horror in every sense of the word.
Nice to look at, but other than the lead, all the performances were absolutely forgettable. It had a few interesting ideas, like the Haitian Vodou angle, a faith that is typically depicted as antagonistic in cinema. But they didn't do shit with it, and it just felt like an empty pro-black virtue-signal. The writing was just so flat and boring. I think it's time for David Gordon Green to go back to comedies and indie flicks.
28. Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
Hadn't seen this since like 2008. Honestly not that bad, if only they hadn't shot it with such dogshit lighting because they were afraid the Xenomorphs and Predators would look like guys in suits. Spineless decision. It's so dark you can't see half the cool shit happening. That said, I just upped the brightness on my TV a bit and it was more or less okay. The film has absolutely no remorse for civilians lmfao. This would've been a modern action/horror classic if they'd lit it properly.
29. Resident Evil
Still feel about the same as I always did. Besides completely fucking the lore up and that shitty Licker CGI, it rules. Has all the markers of a cool action/horror, and I especially like the tone. Early 00's nostalgia galore with Michelle Rodriguez chewing up every second of every scene she's in.
