Mystery – Page 6 – Movie Meister Reviews

November 12, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Don’t Breathe 2 (2021) – Take My Breath Away

Released: 12th August
Seen: 11th November

The 2016 film Don’t Breathe was one of the best horror films of the 2010s, certainly one of the most fascinating. It was dark, unapologetically so, with a creative set of visuals (That I have talked about in a previous article) and a truly fascinating antagonist in the form of The Blind Man. It was a film that let every character live in the grey area, no one was perfectly good and no one was perfectly evil. It was a fascinating little film that really pushed some buttons… so the sequel decides to play it safe and just turn The Blind Man into a hero, because we can’t have nice things.

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November 11, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Antlers (2021) – Prickly

Released: 28th October
Seen: 9th November

Horror has always been a great genre for talking about the more difficult, darker topics that might be a little too much for other genres. The use of allegory and metaphor can be even more powerful than just discussing a certain topic outright, look at recent hits like Get Out which was just a 2 hour allegory for racism but touched on more elements of the subject than any drama could ever hope for. It’s a powerful tool when used well and Antlers certainly tries to use it and gets a lot out of it, but there’s something kind of off here that makes it fail to live up to its full potential.

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October 26, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) – God Damnit!

Released: 3rd June
Seen: 25th October

Ed and Lorraine Warren were complete and utter con artists whose damage to the people they claimed to help won’t be fully known for years to come. For literally decades they would go from town to town and “investigate” strange goings-on and somehow come to a scientific basis that this meant they found some form of demon. All the time just a whole mess of demons, it’s never mental illness or epilepsy or strange coincidences… nope, always demons. This would eventually lead to them taking part in the case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, which would become the basis for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. So now you know what I think about the people this is based on, don’t be shocked when that impacts how I view the movie.

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October 15, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Uncategorized

There’s Someone Inside Your House (2021) – Nobody Home

Released: 6th October
Seen: 12th October

The slasher genre seems to be enjoying another big resurgence lately. With the monster hit Halloween, the upcoming Halloween Kills and the Scream reboot (along with Candyman, The Fear Street franchise, Wrong Turn and Spiral to name a few) all getting a ton of attention it seems as though everyone wants to revive the darling of 80s horror that was the slasher movie. The trick with slasher movies is you need to have a good villain to work with, an interesting array of victims and hopefully a lot of creative gore to excite the fanbase… There’s Someone Inside Your House certainly has some of those and an interesting idea, but that’s about it.

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August 31, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Little Things (2021) – Little Point

Released: 18 February
Seen: 25th August

The Little Things is a police drama about a pair of cops hunting down a serial killer. The cops consist of one wild card cop, Joe “Deke” Deacon (Denzel Washington), and one straight laced rule following cop, Det. Jim Baxter (Rami Malek). Together they make quite a strange pair as they hunt for their killer. It looks like they might have it when they run into oddball Albert Sparma (Jared Leto) and they focus heavily on him but could the difficulties of their job make them unable to actually solve the crime? It certainly seems to stop them from making a film that’s as exciting as it should be considering the talent that’s on screen… yeah, there’s so little to talk about with this one that one of MY reviews starts with the plot instead of a wild tangent, I’m just as shocked as you are.

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August 6, 2021 leebutler Review

The Seventh Day (2021) – Give It A Goddamn Rest

Released: 28th January
Seen: 3rd August

A good staple of the horror genre, one that has been done time and time again, is the Exorcism movie. You know the drill, young person gets possessed by demon and ends up tied to a bed, an old priest and a young priest turn up to yell bible verses at them, there’s a little vomit and occasionally some magical torture until finally the demon is cast out and the child lives on. Basically, everyone saw The Exorcist way back in 1973 and decided they could do that too (except no one has ever come close to being even half as scary as The Exorcist). So, when I tell you that The Seventh Day is ANOTHER exorcism movie with nothing much of value to offer, just pretend to be shocked by that information.

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July 28, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

A Classic Horror Story (2021) – A Buffet of Horror

Released: 14th July
Seen: 27th July

I’ve made it no secret on this blog that I’m a big fan of horror films, in particular the low budget slashers of the 80s. Sure, they might not be the most highbrow films that are trying to impart some essential message about the meaning of existence but they are an endless amount of fun. Even if the film isn’t technically great, chances are good there’s at least a creative effect or a funny line or something that’s going to be worth talking about later. Recently Netflix impressed the hell out of me with their Fear Street trilogy, a series of films that paid homage to different eras of the slasher genre… well, A Classic Horror Story decided it wanted to try and do that too, only in about a third of the time.

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July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 leebutler Review

Things Heard & Seen (2021) – Unsee This

Released: 29th April
Seen: 26th July

In 2016, author Elizabeth Brundage released All Things Cease To Appear, a book that was popular enough to receive a coveted positive book jacket quote by Stephen King so you know it had to be pretty good. It was certainly popular enough to get noticed by Netflix who began production of the film adaptation in 2019, an adaptation they would call Things Heard & Said… because I suppose calling it “Boring Romance And Spookies” would’ve been a little silly.

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July 18, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021) – Bewitching

Released: 16th July
Seen: 17th July

In the last two weeks, the Horror community has been treated to the first two parts of the Fear Street series. Both parts have been outstanding, glorious slasher throwbacks that honoured the material they were referencing and didn’t skimp on the gore or lesbianism. They were truly brilliant and have been leading up to this, the final part of the epic story of Sarah Fier and the town of Shadyside. It not only has a lot of questions to answer but it has to live up to the spectacular first two parts… so, how is Fear Street Part Three: 1666? Exactly as good as it needed to be, which is to say, “downright spectacular”

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July 15, 2021July 22, 2022 leebutler Review

The Unholy (2021) – DAMN IT!

Released: 15th April
Seen: 12th July

Of all the horror genres there are, the is one that I’ve never been exactly fond of and that’s the paranormal horror. Things like Paranormal Activity or Annabelle where there’s a haunting and the film is usually nothing but a set of jumpscares surrounded by mediocre characters who don’t run for their lives when that’s the safe and sensible option. Sometimes there can be exceptions, the first Conjuring movie is a prime example of a film in this genre that understands how to put tension and real stakes in to make it work… we don’t have a film like that today, we have The Unholy and I hate it.

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