leebutler Documentary, Review

Hot Potato: The Story Of The Wiggles (2023) – Everybody Clap

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 24th October
Seen: 27th October

When it comes to true cultural impact, there are very few bands who you can say have changed the course of history and also been massively popular. Obviously, you could throw in groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Kiss but any list of “culturally significant bands” that doesn’t contain The Wiggles is incomplete. With a set of brightly coloured skivvies and songs about fruit salad and driving around in a big red car, The Wiggles have dominated the world of children’s entertainment for over 30 years and have changed the lives of millions. It only makes sense that, like all truly great bands, The Wiggles would get to have a documentary of their own someday and just like the band itself, the documentary Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles is a truly brilliant piece of art that stands apart from others in its genre.

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leebutler Review

Fantastic Fest 2023’s Blonde Death

Over on Soda & Telepaths (Now called My Kind Of Weird) I wrote another review of a film that was part of Fantastic Fest, this time a film called Blonde Death which is a weird little shot on video film that apparently was just uncovered. Definitely a weird one but… well, go read what I said about it to know my full thoughts.

leebutler Action, Review, War

Sisu (2023) – Golden

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 27th July
Seen: 23rd October

Sisu Info

Some films are important art pieces where every little detail needs to be considered in a wider context, some films are prestige pictures that need to be given reference and explored in as careful detail as possible, there are even films that are family affairs that should be questioned on how appropriate they are to be viewed by children and if they can also be enjoyed by a parent who legally has to be at the cinema with their child or risk a charge of child abandonment… and then there’s films like Sisu that say “Hey, Nazi’s fucking suck right? Wanna watch an old guy shove a pickaxe in a Nazi’s piss slit?” and you respond with an enthusiastic and gleeful cry that can be heard from space because Sisu delivers on the pure Nazi-dismembering joy that everyone can and should enjoy.

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leebutler Horror, Mystery, Review, Thriller

The Boogeyman (2023) – In The Dark

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 2nd June
Seen: 18th October

In 1973, Stephen King wrote a short story called The Boogeyman. The short story was published in a magazine called Cavalier and eventually was part of the first collection of King’s short stories known as Night Shift, which is also how we got such stories/films as The Mangler, The Lawnmower Man and Children of the Corn. The great thing about this process is that King tends to have some great terrifying ideas that work well in film and a lot of these short stories have fascinating ideas that would work great in a horror film… the downside is that they’re short for a reason and in order to make something feature length any filmmaker has to take what King did and build upon it and that’s usually where things start to falter. 

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leebutler Review, Thriller

Disquiet (2023) – Hospitalized

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 14th October
Seen: 18th October

Disquiet Info

Some settings are just inherently creepy which makes them an ideal spot to put a horror film. Dark woods with no one around, the middle of the ocean and, of course, hospitals. Why hospitals are so creepy is hard to explain, most likely because it’s the kind of place where there’s a high probability that it’ll end up being the last place you see alive. It also helps that hospitals have such a familiar look (we’ve all been in one at some point) that we all instantly notice when there’s something wrong about one which is handy if you want to scare an audience. Of course, if you want to scare an audience the main thing you have to do is try and be scary, which is one of many things that Disquiet doesn’t even think about doing at any point.

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leebutler Horror, Mystery, Review, Thriller

Insidious: The Red Door (2023) – Don’t Knock

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 6th July
Seen: 18th October

For 13 years now, Insidious has been one of the biggest franchises in all of horror. What started as a way for James Wan and Leigh Whannell to prove that they could scare an audience without the gore that their Saw franchise became known for turned into a bona fide iconic franchise of its own that has spread out over multiple sequels, some telling the story of the Lambert family who end up entangled with spirits from another world while others focus on Elise Rainier, the medium who helped the Lambert family and who dealt with hauntings of her own. Like almost all horror series, the longer this franchise has gone on the more it has started slowly circling the drain so the question is how far down that drain is Insidious: The Red Door… about where it was last time, and last time I begged for them to stop this franchise so you can guess what this one made me feel. 

Actually you don’t have to guess, read on.

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leebutler Horror, Review

V/H/S/85 (2023) – Blockbuster Video

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 6th October
Seen: 12th October

V/H/S/85 Info

The V/H/S franchise is quite possibly one of the most fascinating series to be a part of the horror genre. Each film follows a very simple but effective structure, five short films all tied together by the gimmick of being found footage from a VHS recorder that has a larger overarching film showing between them. This has turned the franchise into a breeding ground for future major directors in the horror/sci-fi genre, some alumni of the franchise include Ti West (X, Pearl), Radio Silence (Scream, Scream 6), David Bruckner (Hellraiser) and Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs Kong) among a slew of others who have all made their mark on the genre. All of them connected through this strange little horror series using an old technology as the linking force. Now on its sixth film, V/H/S turns to a decade that was almost defined by the rise of the VHS tape and sees what horror it can find there.

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