These are my notes to remember what I watched and kinda what I thought about it. I’ve recently transferred my reviews to IMDb and made the list of almost 1200 ratings publicly available. I’ve included the individual ratings with my notes for each movie. These ratings are not absolutely comparable to each other—I rate the film on how well it suited me for the genre and my mood and. let’s be honest, level of intoxication. YMMV. Also, I make no attempt to avoid spoilers.
This was a strong, if too-long story of the damage done to a family by a haunted house. Whether the house is haunted is left open until the very end. That is, the show depicts very scary and haunted-looking apparitions but it’s always left open whether the house is actually doing these things or whether every associated with the house is just mad.
It’s more of an eight-hour movie rather than a TV season. There is a tremendous amount of character development. Carla Gugino (also in Gerald’s Game), Michiel Huisman (of Tremé), Henry Thomas (of E.T.) and Timothy Hutton all play very well.
Slowly, we realize that the house drives them mad (shades of Stephen King here). There are some really nice reveals as the show interleaves past and present. Parts of the present jut into the past, revealed via ESP or visions.
The ending is, on one hand, good, in that there is no grand monster in the house. Each person imbues the “room” with their own issues. It kind of reminded me a bit of the “room” in Stalker. However, the final ending is so pat (they more-or-less “heal” the house) that I removed a star.
This continuation of the film franchise in the world created for the Harry Potter films retains the child-like wonder of the originals as well as a bit of the darkness of the final installments.
In the timeline, this film is a prequel, telling the story of the rise of Grindelwald, who would go on to create the Elder Wand that is lost in time by the time Potter desperately seeks it as one of the “deathly hallows” in the finale of the previous film series.
Eddie Redmayne stars as Newt, a collector of animals and zoological lore. This makes him an outsider since all other magicians at the time consider animals to be beneath them, either slaves or enemies. It was a solid film, due in no small part to Redmayne holding it all together.
This movie was better than I expected it to be. It actually delivered a pretty good translation of Stephen King’s book to screen. They seem to be getting better at doing this.
The basic plot is that a rich and successful couple’s relationship is on the rocks. This is understandable because she’s basically a saint and he’s a manipulative, gaslighting asshole. Gerald (played by Bruce Greenwood) is clearly in his late fifties/early sixties, but his biceps look like he still works out at the high-school gym. He’s very fit, but it’s the body of a narcissist. Carla Gugino as Jessie is lovely and convincing as a woman in her mid-to-late forties. The gap of 15 years makes sense, in context.
They travel to a remote, isolated cabin for a sexy weekend where they plan to reignite the spark. He’s all ready with his viagra and his handcuffs and a gleam in his eye. During the foreplay, he refers to himself as “Daddy”, which completely turns her off. We find out exactly in flashbacks over the rest of the film when we meet her father, played by Henry Thomas (who ironically played Gugino’s husband in The Haunting of Hill House).
He gets angry and gives himself a damned heart attack. She’s still cuffed to the bed and the key is too far away to reach. He’s definitely dead as a doornail.
It’s Stephen King, so a hungry, friendly stray dog from before shows up, who’s not so friendly anymore. He’s just hungry. Jessie’s mind starts playing tricks on her, exaggerating details in the long night. Does she really see a man in the corner? Is it death? She must. get. free.
She eventually does get free, stumbling past death, bleeding and handing him her wedding ring. The epilogue provides illumination.