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wfarrelly
Reviews
Katla (2021)
Creepy, very atmospheric, addicting
If you liked "The Returned" ("Les Revenants"), "Glitch", "Us", or even "Pet Sematery", you'll have much to like in the Icelandic series "Katla". Eerie, dark, forbidding (often literally so, as the nearly deserted town of Vik, Iceland, has been showered with ash from the Katla volcano for a year), and gripping, the plot moves somewhat slowly but is always engaging.
The story and setting are so grounded in a harsh, otherworldly, and unforgiving environment that the impossible becomes strangely believable. That the characters are tough, realistic, unfanciful sorts adds to the credibility of the supernatural events that befall them.
As each episode ends with a cliffhanger, it's very hard to stop watching. Just one more episode!
Dark Encounter (2019)
Disappointing
I was disappointed in this film, especially as it had a number of very good reviews.
Although the grieving family and friends that are the focus of the story are sympathetic and touching, and the acting is fine, the first hour of the movie can be largely summed up by "a group of people see lights and hear noises." Other than that, virtually nothing happens.
The last 30 minutes or so, when the action and plot finally pick up, is nearly a straight lift from another movie, 1988's "The Lady in White," with Lukas Haas and Len Cariou. "Dark Encounter" simply substitutes aliens for ghosts. I actually expected to hear "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" start playing on the soundtrack.
All in all, very disappointing.
Followed (2015)
Just as you start to lose patience, there's a clever payoff
I actually enjoyed this movie. Filmed as a home movie, it follows a young couple, David and Rachel, as they take a road trip from Chicago to Las Vegas. Along the way, David, who plans to propose to Rachel, begins to worry more and more that they're being followed, and that Rachel is the intended victim of a relentless stalker.
There's some wonderful scenery as they travel, including the Grand Canyon, and all the actors are quite natural and believable. Though there's not much action, there is some real suspense, and the couple is likable and you are drawn in to caring what happens to them.
However, just as the movie begins to seem as if it's endlessly spinning its wheels, and you wonder if anything's ever going to happen, there's a clever, surprise twist that, I think, most viewers won't see coming. There's also a little epilog that finally reveals that one missing piece of crucial information we needed all along.
Intersect (2020)
Truly an inexplicable mess
Pros: good child actors, not bad CGI aliens (although they pretty much do nothing, unfortunately for the story)
Cons: Oh dear, where to start? Bone-headed script, which scuttles the first hour's story of adult scientists working on a time machine that seems functional, but inconveniently kills its time-travelers; adult actors (so badly lit they appear grotesque) who are either wooden and detached or insanely hammy; and perhaps worst of all, a screenplay that abruptly abandons its first hour's sci-fi story and switches to an uninteresting, shallow, nerdy-kid-beset-by-schoolyard-bullies coming-of-age story. There is also a "twist" in the kid story that seemed arbitrarily inserted into the plot for no particular reason. Also in the kid story, one of the kids shows up as an adult (having time-travelled), and screams at his (still-kid) buddy, "I've been looking for you for 13 years!!!" However, they were neighborhood friends and the time-traveller knew where his buddy lived, so what the heck took 13 years? 13 minutes would have been a stretch.
The bad lighting was a real shame, and certainly did the actors no favors. Many scenes were shot in close-up, forcing viewers to focus on the adults' every facial flaw (and we all have them, but they shouldn't grab center stage). Wondering if our heroes ran into a plate glass window or had too many McDonald's cheeseburgers and beers or never took a shower shouldn't be more interesting to the audience than the movie's plot. But, sadly, that's the case.
The briefly-seen aliens had promise but did nothing but stand around. At one point, a character actually says, "They don't do anything." Of course, that turns out to be untrue, but that revelation uses only about the last two minutes of the movie's 2 hours. Then the story devolves into a confusing, meaningless "ending." Basically, it just stops.
Would telling the story in a linear fashion (instead of prolonged flashback) have improved the movie? Yes, but probably not enough to matter. The "Stranger Things" or "It" kid friends, bullies, and junior high romance, the "Species" icky science experiment that malfunctions, and the "Terminator" doomed time-traveler character have all been seen before, and by now, seen a lot. Oh, and adding Miskatonic University doesn't, by itself, make a story Lovecraftian. Just saying.