The Evil Dead franchise is back!

And it's so atmospheric. They have so great sets. So much potential!

So why they gotta ruin the scares so much?

They're all cliché. They have them in every single one of these movies these days, just like with The Pope's Exorcist most recently.

The twisting body. Crawling on the floor. Sudden turns. Slow turns. Eye movements without body movement. Sudden personality changes. All that stuff. Worst of all they have that typical you're all going to die phrase - which you shouldn't need a mouth to imply.

The evil speaks for itself.

The main downside to American horror is maybe that it tends to overclarify, and exaggerate, to the point it's hard to immerse yourself.

The readings were way more atmospheric than the reaction-based horror that follows.

They build things so well and then just... break the spell immediately.

It's such a shame, cause I loved how it started, and where it seemed to be going. The erratic panning of the camera was so good, the eerie music, the impeccable atmosphere, the old recording, the book, the lighting, the settings, the characters...

There's potential for so much more traumatizing, tantalizing, titillating terror especially when the evil is of a kind that truly knows no mercy, and seems to take pleasure even its own pain.

And yet when it truly matters it falters.

They keep resorting to cheap thrills over total terror.

The movie has so many good moments it somehow manages to squander and throw away, that always end the same, or lead up to the same thing.

Not to mention if the evil's in the blood, or in injury, then why are only two of them really affected? The remaining duo are pretty much drowning in the red stuff too.

The one thing that oughta have made sense doesn't, and the remainder of the movie goes exactly the way you expect it to go.

I'm tempted to score this one so much lower and yet the atmosphere was masterful. There's no denying that. As was the cast.

If only they managed better with the rest.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

In the 1980's the war on drugs directly led to The Three-strikes Law. And for over 20 years it's been tearing families apart.

Letters, interviews - it's that kind of shizzle.

There's a girl in a Black Lawyers Matter shirt in the traditional Straight Outta Compton album style. Explicit style. I like her.

Movie conclusion: Drug laws are way too harsh.

It's a good documentary, and a feelgood movie about how people really can make a change.

Did they made a difference? 638 years served. 33 lives saved. Seems so.

Though I forget if this was in regard to the laws they're fighting, or the fight they're fighting... I'm late posting this. Never leave a draft unfinished.
Best watch the movie if you want to know for certain which it was!

It's a solid documentary, though it feels a bit too far from home for me to really connect with it. Probably most relevant if you are in the US of A.

As a foreigner I get good stories, and inspiration, but don't learn much otherwise. The drug feud and justice system that benefits more so the rich than the people are pretty well-known across borders. We like to say Only in the US, and act like the same thing isn't true over here but... we just have different kinds of injustices here. Same shit, different laws.

The problems are international, they vary in shape and form, but we really do need documentaries like this to shine some light on 'em.

Good watch.

 rated 3/5: not bad

Was it really true? Is it? Does it go past this?

What it is is a savage female prison camp, though unlike prison camps of the US of A this really is... both sexual and ruthless. They go all out here, like nymphos at a summer camp, yet the backstory's all but superficial and laughable. You really feel sorry for the victims. It's a story with no winners but... a true woman, of which the story continues.

I wonder if Basic Instinct fetched some inspiration from this one too, or if others filmatisized the knife in bed scene even earlier...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

For anyone who hasn't yet heard this soulful dole from this grand man in the land of coal here you go.

Might it be the most impactful track of the year? The one to finally ignite a revolution? To open some eyes? To change the world? To at least stir some temporal worldwide unity, sense of community, and make us all care a bit more about our neighbors? I hope so. This feels special... also. Also.

Alllright back to the North again.

But not North of Richmond! Don't fret! Just up to our own land, to our home land, to our closest counterpart here of coal land, to the cold land - it's becoming now, where I turn from a kid to a grown man. It's homely when it's summer. When the snow rolls in it's a bummer. It denotes that the time is over, and we bow for home and closure. With honor hold our composure. Which sucks man total disclosure.

See y'all in a month! Crops are growing. It's going well.

Found this one because of Donnie Yen - saw that it was a Shaw Brothers production in the credits - didn't know they were still going strong! Those guys produced an INSANE number of martial art movies in their prime.

And this movie is the stuff of legends too, it is. With mighty fights, special effects that play on the power of Chi, swords and wire, savage martial arts fencing and nimble hops across the rooftops!

Yet the special effects aren't always great, the motions not always realistic, and the plot's... messy, to say they least.

It's a story that clues you in as it goes, but maybe not enough.
Maybe they could've been clearer.

They seem to want to reveal all only towards the end, but it makes for a confusing series of deaths initially. They don't start with the backstory.
Not much of it, anyway. They reveal more of all the further they go.

It's also a love story, and that part of it I really enjoyed.

It's a tragic one, albeit. As movies of the sort often seem to be.

But it's poetic. As is the premise. It delves into contemplations on life and the world. To wars. To arts, as they are. The martial, as well as the marital, if we ever get that far.

It's fierce and wonderful and Donnie's great, but it's a farce too, even if it's an iconic one. Maybe the Shaw Brothers movies always kind of were...

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

A man who is having an affair with a married woman is dropped off on the wrong street when going back to his hotel. He takes refuge out of the rain when an old man invites him in. He turns out to be a mortician, who tells him the stories of the people who have wound up in his establishment over the course of four stories.

This here is a myriad of morbid fates, as told and gathered by an embalmer - the shapeshifter of truth, who invites a stranger from the rain into his humble habitation...

I thought this'd be a bit like the game with the same name. More of zombies than corpses. I mean... well, technically that'd be the same thing, but more carnage, and less story. This was... macabre with a moral. Death with a story. Stories. Plural. Individual fates that weave together to make for one surprisingly enticing movie.

The special effects and all haven't aged that great. It's the seventies - what would you expect. But the way they weave things together, and the way it goes full circle in the end... all in all it was way better than I thought it'd be.

I might've expected the end twist but it still delivered. It builds well.

With more modern film technique this just might've been a full-on five, top of the line, top score - I wish more horror movies focused as much on the intrigue as this one did...

It reminded me a bit of Mysrysare too, a series of cheap pocket books they had here in Sweden pre 2000's, with collections of shorter stories of the sort. The title basically translates to Cozy Thrillers.

They're really not cozy, but they're not overly grotesque or graphic either. They're thrilling, morbid and suitably moody, just like this.

A scary movie just like the stories they were all initially derived from.

Before you go to bed, just read a little... House Of The Dead.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle