Movie Review of Don't Let Her In

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2021's Don't Let Her In is the newest film from Full Moon and writer/director Ted Nicolaou, the tag team that gave us TerrorVision and Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys, plus cinematographer Howard Wexler, who gifted us Blade the Iron Cross. Richard Bland (Re-Animator) did the score.

In this horror-erotica feature, simply-pretty plain-Jane blonde Amber (Kelly Curran) and her soon-to-be rock star boyfriend, Ben (Cole Pendery) decide to rent out a room in their artists' loft to bring in some extra money. Along comes a vivacious woman in black, Serena (Lorin Doctor), who oozes sexuality. She makes occult bowls she sells for a living ... and Amber finds one in her underwear drawer. 

Serena makes quick work of their faithful relationship, seducing Ben into the best sex he's ever had right next to Amber as she sleeps, then morphing into a demon face at the climax, then waiting for Ben to travel on tour, for he's on his way to rock stardom because of her spells. She also makes Amber green shakes Minnie Castavetly. Once Ben's gone, here comes the brief, cheap thrill of a lesbian encounter that gives Amber the best orgasm she's ever had, then Serena turns demon-faced at the end, which, ironically, doesn't panic the couple. 

It's not long before Serena figures out Amber's pregnant--by Ben, not Serena--and Amber soon finds out Serena's up to no good, for she's bellowing satanic chants in her room. In truth, she wants to hurt the baby.

A mysterious long-haired dude in black shows up named Elias (Austin James Parker) outside the loft, demanding something be returned to him. He just happens to be Serena's ex-boyfriend, and he wants that demon sculpture Serena's got, which is why she's possessed.

I was sure this film was going to be about a succubus, and the watered-down softcore porn and the briefness of the movie turned me off. It didn't suck, but it didn't blow me away, either. I felt the sex scenes could've been longer and more hardcore (it's not a porno), and it should've been a two-hour film ... about a succubus. 

But that's just me. Maybe others will like it, so it's with a look. Enjoy!

My new novel, Book of Sprites, is live!

 

This sequel to Book of Shadows is my longest book at over 500 pages and is the funnest book in the Book of Shadows series. You won't believe what happens to Chady, and Kaiti's ghost and Lily the ghost cat haunt the new renter of Alex's old apartment, Chris, and his daughter, Polly. Don't read it alone and in the dark!

Here's the link: Amazon.com: Book of Sprites eBook : Braun, A. R.: Kindle Store Enjoy! 

Movie Review of Abigail

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Abigail, a 2024 horror comedy (although I didn't get the comedic edge), was written by Stephen Shields and Gary Busick and directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The plot follows a team of kidnappers who take the daughter of a powerful underworld figure, demanding a random of $50,000, unaware that they've been led to an isolated mansion only to be victims of a vampire.

Abigail (Alisha Weir), a little-girl ballerina, takes them out one-by-one, the first victim Mr. Cool Dean (Angus Cloud), who's beheaded and drained of blood. Charged to watch her is the vivacious Joey, played by Melissa Berrera whom I recognized from the Starz show Vida. She made it hard to concentrate on the film because she's got a stunning set of busoms--sorry. I also recognized Peter (Kevin Durand) from The Strain.

Alliances are made, certain people becoming victims of vampirism either willingly or unwilling, and the bloody gore fest leads you to wonder if any of them will survive the night. 

Most people have probably seen this one already. If not, enjoy!

Late Night With the Devil Movie Review

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Late Night With the Devil is a found-footage and documentary-style 2023 horror film written, directed and edited by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, and Fayssal Bachi. Desperate for better ratings in the 1970's compared to Johnny Carson--whom I watched religiously as a kid--a late-night TV host of a program called Night Owls, who worships at the Grove when he's off work, unleashes hell on earth into the studio and into the living rooms of the viewers. 

On Halloween night, host Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian), after losing his wife to cancer, has stacked the evening with creepy guests, including a medium, a skeptic, and a 13-year-old possessed girl named Lilly (Bachi) who was the only escapee from a house of Anton Levay-style Satanists after a fire. I found Lilly fascinating the way she stared at me through the camera, as if in the mind of the viewer. Also clever was the first movie about elite, demonic worshippers at the Grove. In fact, when Jack talks a parapsychologist into bringing out Lilly's demon, the devil says he knows Jack from worshipping among the trees. 

Jack's worst fears come true when pure evil is unleashed in the studio and on his life, leaving him without hope and in big trouble, big trouble!

Enjoy if you haven't seen it yet. \m/ \m/

Review of Bodies Bodies Bodies

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Bodies Bodies Bodies, a 2022 comedy-horror film, was loaded with potential, but dropped the ball, IMHO. It was directed by Halina Reijn and written by Sarah DeLappe, based on a story by Kristen Roupenian.

Seven young people gather for a Hurricane party, boozing and doing drugs. When douchebag Dave (Pete Davidson) gets killed, the six assume a murderer is lurking about, and they commence to kill each other out of panic. After the murder, blond lesbian Bee (Maria Bakalova) doesn't see a shadow figure lurking behind her. I wanted the figure to be a werewolf or murdering ghost, but they didn't do anything with it, instead opting to do a slasher film, which, for the most part, I don't think has much of a plot. 

The twist ending isn't unclever, but it didn't blow me away. 

Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Review of Countdown

 

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Countdown is an American supernatural horror movie written and directed by Justin Dec and released in 2019. In this chiller, a group of hard-working people find an app that tells them when they're going to die. 

At a party, a teenager named Courtney (Ann Winters) is in peer-pressured into downloading an app called Countdown that tells her when she'll die. It gives her three hours to live. No biggy, she'll just refuse to go with Evan (Dillon Lane), her boyfriend, into his car, as he's drunker than Cootie Brown, therefore outsmarting the app and changing her destiny. Or so it seems. But Courtney receives a message on her app that says she's broken the user agreement. At home, she's killed by an unseen phantom as her time runs out. Then Evan crashes his car. A branch impales the seat where Courtney was supposed to sit.

Evan Rachel Wood lookalike Quinn Harris, our good-hearted angel-of-mercy protagonist (Elizabeth Lail), disbelieves Evan's claim that the app accurately products one's death. Evan skips his surgery at the hospital and is told he's violated the user agreement. Then he tries to escape the hospital but is haunted by Courtney's ghost and is killed by the entity. 

Nurse Quinn enters the morgue and finds out Evan's time ran out on the app. Unfortunately having downloaded the app herself, she is given a short time and refuses to go with her family to her mother's grave, trying to change her fate. Again, the messages comes: you've violated the user agreement. She destroys her phone, gets a new one, then finds the app has downloaded itself.

After she escapes an attack of a demonic entity in the parking lot of the cell phone store, she meets young Matt (Jordan Calloway), whose Countdown app says he'll die in eighteen hours. This is when they learn the countdown's broken if the user tries to change the future. Then Doctor Sullivan (Peter Facinelli) sexually harasses her, then tricks the hospital staff into thinking it was the other way around. 

Quinn and Matt find Father John (P.J. Byrne), who figures out the app is linked to a demon named Ozhin, previously summoned by a Roma woman who told a prince when he'd die. Quinn and Matt meet again with the Padre and find if someone else dies before their countdown ends, they get to live. 

Time for Quinn to give comeuppance to Doc' Sullivan.

If you haven't seen this gem yet, enjoy!

Polaroid Movie Review

 

 

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Polaroid is a 2019 supernatural horror film based on the 2015 short film of the same title, directed by Lars Klevberg, the screenplay written by Blair Butler. The storyline follows high schooler Bird Fitcher, who's gifted a Polaroid camera from hell. She comes to realize that those who get their picture taken with it meet a horrid death. 

Sarah (Madelaine Petsch) and her bestie, Linda (Erika Prevost), go through a box of her dead mother's stuff when they find an old Polaroid camera. Being a typical teenager, Sarah has a photo taken of herself in lingerie for her boyfriend. But who's that shadow figure behind her? Sarah meets a grizzly end via the phantom that night.

Bashful high School student Bird Fitcher (Kathryn Prescott) is gifted an old Polaroid camera by her co-worker, Tyler (Devi Santos), who bought it from a garage sale. Said camera has the initials RJS carved into it. Bird takes Tyler's picture, then notices a weird smudge in it. 

Bird goes to a costume party with her friend, Kasey (Samantha Logan), and meets the latter's other friends, Devin (Keenan Tracey), Avery (Katie Stevens), and Bird's high-school crush, Connor (Tyler Young). Tyler's murdered by the ghost, and his photo comes free from the shadow, which has moved to Avery's picture. The entity hunts them down one-by-one.

Bird and Connor play detective and find that the camera was owned by photography teacher Roland Joseph Sable from their school in the past. Said teacher had been accused of torturing four students and killing three of them. Then they turn against each other, Connor and Devin fighting for the camera, and Devin is accidentally snapped by the cursed thing. Devin is arrested and attacked by the entity in his cell.

Bird, Connor, and Casey discover Roland's wife, Lena Sable (Grace Zabriskie), still lives. They visit her and find the camera actually belonged to their daughter, Rebecca Jane Sable (Emily Power), who'd been slow and had formed an attachment to the camera, but had been bullied by other students who took inappropriate pictures of her, causing her to commit suicide. But Sheriff Pembroke (Mitch Pileggi), one of the kids who tried to save her, now grown up, reveals to them that Roland molested his daughter, and the students had tried to rescue her. 

If you haven't already, you've got to check this movie out! Enjoy!