Bingo Hell – Film Review

Posted on October 3, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Gigi Saul Guerrero

Writers: Gigi Saul Guerrero, Shane McKenzie, and Perry Blackshear

Starring: Adriana Barraza, L. Scott Caldwell, Richard Brake, Joshua Caleb Johnson, Clayton Landey, Jonathan Medina, Bertila Damas, Grover Coulson, Kelly Murtagh, and David Jensen

Rating: ★★½

The newest in the Welcome to the Blumhouse series, Bingo Hell, is available on Amazon Prime now. Welcome to the Blumhouse is a joint venture between Bumhouse Productions and Amazon Prime, to release stand alone horror stories that are linked by themes. Four films were released last October and four more are being released this year with the first two being Bingo Hell and Black as Night.

Bingo Hell follows a group of senior citizens who are all frequent visitors to their local bingo hall, where they raise funds to support the community and have a good time. One night the power goes out, and they call it a day. The next morning, they wake up to find fliers attached to their doors saying the bingo hall is under new management. Big prizes are up for grabs, bigger than anything the residents of Oak Springs have ever seen before. It sounds too good to be true and as people start disappearing and dying, it becomes clear there’s something else going on.

The story has been done before in every which way possible. It’s a new person coming to town who charms everyone but one person, who doesn’t trust them. It’s a tried and tested formula and for the most part it works with Bingo Hell purely because the cast is so strong. The main group of characters who care about their community and their bingo hall are all fantastic. The interplay between them makes this film worth watching.

The effects are also fantastic. There’s a scene where someone tears their own skin off, and it is eye wateringly gory. There isn’t much beyond that though that’s actually scary. There’s no tension or jump scares, it’s also not funny enough to be a comedy horror. It just moves along at its own pace. If the characters weren’t so interesting the whole thing would fall flat.

The film spends enough time with the characters, specifically Lupita (Adraiana Barraza, The Strain) and Dolores (L. Scott Caldwell, Lost), that you do care enough about them to keep the rest of the film entertaining. Once the horror starts, it’s very predictable and takes a long time to really get going. There are some great moments in there, but they are also long sequences that are really bland in between.

Bingo Hell has a great title, excellent characters but has no true horror. It’s entertaining enough, but falls squarely into that category of watch if you can’t find anything else and since it is an Amazon Prime original, there will always be something else.  

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Bad Candy – DVD Review

Posted on October 2, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Scott B. Hansen and Desiree Connell

Starring: Corey Taylor, Zack Galligan, Derek Russo, Kevin Wayne, Michael Aaron Milligan and Kenneth Trujillo

Rating: ★★½

After being shown at FrightFest back in September Bad Candy is about to be released on DVD and digital platforms. It’s out just in time for haloween, which couldn’t be better timed. Bad Candy is an anthology of horror shorts, where all of the stories are linked together with recurring characters and a radio show, where Corey Taylor (Slipknot singer) and Zak Galligan (Gremlins) tell the stories we are watching to their listeners.

There is a real mixed bag with the stories. The first one, about a girl who can draw anything to life, is good, but ends too soon. It’s strange that some stories start to get going and then just end, especially as some of the later ones go on for far too long. There are still good elements from all of them, even if some feel under baked. There’s a jester monster who appears in all of the stories and seems to be the one punishing people and once he gets involved the segment isn’t far from being over. You don’t get that invested in each segment, as they end so quickly.

The performances are decent enough for a horror film like this. There’s nothing spectacular but they get the job done. Corey Taylor gives it everything he’s got as the radio DJ telling the stories. It would have been nice for him to narrate them as well, outside of the in-between scenes.

The effects are all over the place. Some of the CGI is passable and the practical effects and puppets are great. It’s just when the CGI is bad, it’s really shoddy and that’s the problem, like in so many horror films. It’s really distracting, and while the film isn’t particularly scary, it makes it laughable at points.

There are so many shorts in this anthology. Some of them feel unfinished and could do with being cut out. The second one, which features a man putting razor blades into candy just doesn’t do anything. It’s a nice idea, but it lasts about five minutes and just ends. The child gets the candy, trips up and the devil monster that is the running connection between the stories turns up then kills the old man. That may be a spoiler but the whole scene is so short that it feels more like a pitch for a longer idea. In the end it just pads out the film, which feels too long by the final half hour anyway.

The segments with Corey Taylor and Zack Galligan are the best bits. Corey Taylor brings his charisma in full force and really elevates the film and the nod towards Galligan’s role in Gremlins is smile worthy. It’s their segments that bring the whole thing together and bookends the shorts.

Bad Candy is a fine film. It’s nothing special, but is entertaining at points. This would be a good film for Halloween night with a few friends around. It’s not a classic, but it’s not really trying to be. Some cheap thrills and some entertainment.   

Bad Candy is on DVD and Digital 4 October from Kaleidoscope Entertainment

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The Guilty – Film Review

Posted on October 2, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Writer: Nic Pizzolatto

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Christina Vidal Mitchell, Eli Goree, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Peter Sarsgaard

Rating: ★★★★

The Guilty is a remake of the Danish film of the same name from 2018. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Joe Baylor, a police officer who has been transferred to work at a 911 call centre while awaiting trail about an incident that happened on shift. He receives a call from Emily (Riley Keough), a distressed woman who has been kidnapped by her ex-partner. He must piece together the information to make sure that she is saved before it’s too late.

Gyllenhaal gives an absolutely stunning performance as Joe. The entire film is set in the call centre, with the camera on him for almost every second and he brings the emotional weight to the film. It would be so easy for a film set in one place, with the action happening over the phone, to fall flat. Instead, Gyllenhaal makes this a tense and gripping thriller from the opening moment to when the credits roll.

As the film is completely focused on one person, you live through it with him, wanting to save Emily while at the same time living with the helplessness that Joe feels. He’s doing everything in his power to save Emily, but there’s only so much he can do behind a desk. The city is focused on the wildfires that are raging in the Hollywood Hills and there isn’t enough manpower to complete a full investigation. Joe is stuck listening to the struggles over the phone and you feel the same pain he feels, knowing there’s nothing he can do.

This is one hell of a tense film. It starts of slow to ease you in and then when Emily calls through you start to get a sense that this is a bad situation and slowly the tension ramps up until you’ve on the edge of your seat, living in anticipation while also wanting Joe to get out of his and go save her. But he can’t. He’s stuck trying to get others to help, but there isn’t enough information to pinpoint Emily’s location.

As to be expected with a film that is essentially one character having phone calls, describing what is happening, the film does feel a little stretched out in places. It barely reaches ninety minutes and does start to slow down a little in the middle. There is a twist towards the end that ramps everything back up and you won’t see it coming. Thankfully the film is on Netflix, so you can pause it to actually let everything sink in.

The Guilty is one of the most absorbing thrillers of recent years. It grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. Gyllenhaal gives a fantastic performance that carries the whole film. While there are moments where it feels  like it’s being padded out, such as a couple of additional phone calls interrupting the main plot (one which features a cameo from the fantastic Bill Burr), it’s still a great film. When it works it’s on fire, and when it slows down, it’s just a rest before things start up again. If you have a Netflix account, don’t let this one slip through into the endless watch list.  

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The Babadook – Film Review

Posted on October 1, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Jennifer Kent

Writer: Jennifer Kent

Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West and Ben Winspear

Rating: ★★★★

After writing and directing the short film Monster in 2005, Jennifer Kent wrote the script to The Babadook, a spiritual successor to the original short. Kent has since described Monster as Baby Babadook. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the final film was released in 2014 to critical acclaim. It’s the perfect Halloween film with a new twist on the haunted house genre.  

Samuel (Noah Wiseman) is obsessed with a monster that he believes lives under his bed. He’s built weapons against it and is constantly asking his mother, Amelia (Essie Davis) to check under the bed. Amelia is troubled and overworked, having to raise her son alone since the death of her husband. One evening she reads Samuel a storybook, The Babadook, which turns out to be a horrific story, giving Samuel horrible nightmares. He is convinced that the monster in the book is real and slowly Amelia starts to believe it too.

The Babadook is a scary film. The monster is terrifying, with a design that reminiscent of the silent era monsters such as Nosferatu. The atmosphere that Jennifer Kent creates is full of tension and horror. This is the kind of horror film that will make you curl up and spend sleepless nights thinking you can see the Babadook at the end of your bed.

This is only intensified by a powerful performance by Essie Davis as Amelia. She is intense and you can see the strain that life has put on her. Amelia is struggling with work and raising a son by herself. When the horror starts and Amelia starts to snap, she’s genuinely scary. You spend enough time with her and Samuel beforehand to make you care about both of them and not want either to be hurt. Noah Wiseman is also great as the attention seeking Samuel. He’s loud and obnoxious and while at first you can understand Amelia’s short temper with him, as the film reveals itself you start to understand why Samuel is the way he is. It’s haunting tale that feels very real, hidden under the disguise of a haunted house film.

Beyond the horror there is a very grounded story about grief and parenthood. Samuel’s dad died the day he was born and his death has hung over Samuel’s and Amelia’s life ever since. Samuel is an attention seeking child, and his mother doesn’t give him the attention he needed, she’s too preoccupied with a grief that she never got a chance to confront, barely mentioning Oskar at all. The monsters that Samuel is obsessed with are built on that oppressive guilt and The Babadook himself is a manifestation of that.

The only bad part in the film, is when the fabled Babadook makes an appearance, darting around the room and appearing on the ceiling. The effects don’t look great, and for a brief moment the tension and atmosphere dissipate. The horror is quickly brought back and the nail biting tension returns, but in what should be one of the scariest moments in the film it does fall flat.

The Babadook is a modern horror classic. It’s a tale about being haunted by your past and overcoming grief, but it’s also one of the most chilling and terrifying films of the last ten years. Jennifer Kent is a fabulous director and has created an all-time horror classic story and character.

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My Ranking of Daniel Craig’s Bond Films

Posted on October 1, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

With the release of No Time to Die, I thought it was a perfect time to take a look at Craig’s Bond films again. I was a big Bond fan as a child, loving Pierce Brosnan’s take on the iconic character, and Casino Royale was the first entry I got to see in the cinema and absolutely loved it. To me Craig is always going to be my James Bond and I can’t see anyone replacing him. In anticipation of Craig’s final outing, I re-watched all of his films. Here’s my ranking from the worst to best film in the Craig years of James Bond.

5 – Quantum of Solace

I’m sure no one is surprised at this being ranked lowest. It’s an absolute mess of a film. It’s recently been reported that this was due to writer’s strikes, and it does feel unfinished, but that doesn’t win it any graces. It’s hard to follow, really unengaging and doesn’t live up to Casino Royale in the slightest. I saw this in the cinema and didn’t like it, and now that I’ve watched it again my opinion hasn’t changed. There are still some excellent action sequences, the song by Jack White and Alicia Keys is fantastic, but in the end it’s still a confusing mess.

 4 – Skyfall

This is a hard list to write. Numbers 4, 3, and 2 are so close it’s hard to choose one. Skyfall has gone at number 4, because I think it meanders a bit in places. I’ve seen this film a ton of times, and I absolutely love it. It’s one of the best Bond films ever, and the fact that Daniel Craig has made better ones is just a testament to how good his Bond is. Skyfall was released 50 years after Dr No. It’s a great film with some exceptional set pieces and action sequences I just think it takes a little too long to get going properly.

3 – No Time to Die

It’s all over now. Craig is no longer James Bond. I’ve only just watched this and I loved it. I had hyped it up so much over the last few years. It feels like I’ve seen the trailer for it a hundred times, it’s played before almost every cinema trip since very early 2020 and I’ve never got bored of it. The film absolutely lives up and this is just a smidge off being the top spot and that’s because of the ending. It’s too close to the release to spoil anything, so don’t worry, I won’t. I just thought it was a lazy ending. I was so invested in the film, and completely drawn in. There were moments when my heart was beating faster with the tension. Then the credits rolled, and I felt a little cheated. It’s still an exceptional film and I will be seeing it again soon, probably in the cinema if I can drag Tabby again. Maybe the ending will grow on me.

2 – Spectre

I’m sure this will come as a bit of a shock, being placed so high. I know that a lot of people have issues with this film, but I really loved it. The opening long sequence, the reintroduction of Blofeld, great car chases and the way it links all of Craig’s films together. The final sequence at the MI6 headquarters. It’s a great action film that never gets boring or feels to long. It’s got a standard Bond premise about people taking over the world, but it’s still entertaining to watch. I also think Christoph Waltz is excellent as Blofeld.

1 – Casino Royale

There’s no surprises here. Casino Royale is the best Daniel Craig Bond film, it may even be the best Bond film of all time. It completely changed up the formula with a grittier and more grounded tone. Bond becomes a fully developed character. The villain, Le Chiffre, is excellent. The globe-trotting adventure is fast paced and exciting and when you finally get to the stylish casino sequence the film plays all the right hands. Then it doesn’t end there, it keeps going with a great car chase, torture scene and a twist. This film also has a lot of emotional weight to it. Eva Green’s character, Vesper, is an incredible character and her influence stays over Bond right through to No Time to Die.

Daniel Craig is Bond for my generation, and I can’t see anyone topping his performance. I know there will be a new one, announced sometime next year I imagine, and I’m excited for what comes next. I hope it’s someone unheard of and a lot younger than Craig, because I feel that a lot of his storylines revolve around him being too old, it would be good for some fresh ideas.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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