Summer 2024 is over and I am taking the time to look back at the films I saw this year. I am not a professional critic (I was so close once...sigh), so I am sometimes a bit behind on the movies since I can't get into screenings and what-not. However, I saw quite a few movies because I was unemployed for the summer of 2024, which always frees up a bit of time.
2024 has been a really good year for horror. I have seen quite a few movies that I really loved. The First Omen, Alien: Romulus, Infested and even the more recent Milk & Serial are all really excellent entries in the horror film genre. However, there were at least three movies that got a LOT of buzz and people seemed to rave endlessly about. However, in each case, the movie did not quite live up to the hype.
So, I am lumping those three into this one review. Two of these I think are good movies and probably should be seen, while the third one was a complete and total dud for me all the way around. Let's dive in.
Late Night with the Devil
There was so much buzz about this movie right at the start of the season. I happen to be quite a fan of David Dastmalchian, who stars in this movie. He is a great guy, a diehard horror fan, a writer, and an actor. There has never been a man who seems more fit to be a horror movie TV host than David. So, let me say upfront, he is terrific in this movie.
The movie is sort of a found footage movie where David plays a talk show host competing with the likes of Johnny Carson with his TV show Night Owls. However, ratings have been slipping, he recently lost his wife to cancer, and he decides to go all out one Halloween night by bringing on a young girl rescued from a Satan-worshiping cult. Well, as you can tell from the title, all Hell literally breaks loose.
The movie demonstrates early that it is going to break the found footage rules a bit, which is fine. It was honest about it, and those scenes were needed to fill in the story. I get that. And for about two-thirds of this movie I was right there with it. I was onboard. Then...well, the ending came and it did not follow the rules it had set for itself, and left me a little disappointed.
The actress who plays the possessed girl, Ingrid Torelli, is also great. In fact, the performances all the way around are great. There are some good creepy moments and Dastmalchian is outstanding at the talk show host Jack Delroy, but the ending just sort of fumbles the ball right on the goal line.
I still recommend this one. Maybe you'll have a different take on the end, and there is enough to keep you entertained.
Longlegs
Well, this one had the hype engine cranked up to 11 big time. "The scariest movie in years!" "The scariest movie of 2024!" Yeah...not quite.
I love Nic Cage. I am staying here that his performance in the amazing Mandy is one of my favorites. I also liked his more reserved (yet very Nic Cage) performance in The Colour Out of Space I also happen to like. I love Nicolas Cage being Nic Cage and doing the things only he can do. No one can chew scenery or deliver a line like this man and he is a national treasure and I love him. He is on fire in the few precious minutes he gets on screen here, so I have NO problem with his performance.
I also happen to like Maika Monroe. I have only seen here in the modern horror classic It Follows, but she was great there and she turns in a solid performance here, too. In fact, just like with Late Night, I enjoyed the performances in general all the way around. Glad to see Alicia Witt getting big time roles these days, for example.
The story involves Monroe's character (an FBI agent) investigating a series of family murders where the father ends up killing everyone in the damn house. No one knows why the fathers are suddenly turning murderous, but each murder has a note left by someone who signs it LONGLEGS.
The movie is creepy. Just like with Late Night, I was there. I was there longer than Late Night, in fact. Did I think it was scarier than First Omen? No, but it was suitably creepy and I was onboard. Then, right at the end, it fumbled again. I can't even say why, but it ended and I was left sitting and just kinda went..."huh."
Still, this movie has become divisive in the horror circles. People love it or hate it, and few are "meh." I guess I am one of the rare ones who drifts slightly toward "meh" but I also recommend it which is weird. For most of this movie, you'll be on the edge of your seat, feeling creeped out, and then...the end. It was so close to being an excellent movie (at least for me) and just sorta didn't quite cross that goal line.
In a Violent Nature
Hooboy...
I did not like this movie. In fact, I kinda hated this movie.
Look, people must be truly desperate for something they feel is "new." And this one, got a lot of buzz for being that. However, holy shit, this movie is a waste of time.
Look, I have never been much of a Jason Vorhees fan. Yeah, I watched the first three Friday the 13th movies back when I was a kid and my dad and I would watch rented horror videos together. I also went to a drive-in with a bunch of friends and saw the one where there's a psychic girl and Jason smashed a camper in a sleeping bag against a tree and it looks like he's smashing a giant tamale against a tree. But, he was just never going to scare me the way Michael Myers and Freddy.
The main character in this movie is a fourth-rate Jason Vorhees so, you've already sort of lost me. The plot - simplicity itself. A bunch of youngsters steal a necklace in an old fire ranger station, which awakens Johnny, and we follow him as he goes in a killing rampage.
This movie should be In a Ponderous Nature. Look, here is Johnny walking. And walking, and walking and walking and walking and walking. Look, here we are behind him and he's walking. Look, here's a brief side shot, and he's walking. Look here's an overhead drone shot and guess what...he's walking!
Since we see this entirely from Johnny's point of view, the people he kills are faceless nobodies. We don't relate to them. We don't know who they are. I couldn't even tell most of them apart. So, who cares when the get brutally murdered?
And, did I mention this is a slow movie? Do we need a 15 minute scene of Johnny setting a body on a log-splitter (I had to look that up), to cut its head off? No, we truly did not.
The kills are brutal, gory and just...hollow. Okay, so you pulled her head through the hole in her stomach. Who is she? Why do I care?
I didn't. I don't. Johnny is just a mindless thing so there's no relating to him. Sorry, but I want a movie that has SOME story and just seeing a bunch of graphic kills is not "revolutionary" enough for me to like this boring, plodding, stupid movie.
Then, like a final kick in the balls, comes the ending! WTF?!?!?! Do we need what feels like 13 hours of the final girl (who is she? NO CLUE!) in a pickup truck being talked to by another woman who relates some stupid story about a bear? NOTHING HAPPENS! However, the filmmaker keeps making it seem like something will and then...it ends.
Nope. Nope. Nope. No thank you. I hear this movie did so well they are planning to make a sequel. I will likely not be watching.
Conclusion - Two Near Misses One Strike Out
So, of the summer horror movies I give tepid thumbs up for Late Night With the Devil and Longlegs. However, I give a very vigorous and angry thumbs down for In a Violent Nature.
As always, these are my opinions, and you should probably see the movies on your own and make your own decisions.
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