The Deliverance (2024)

Since Shudder let me down, I moved over to Netflix to check out The Deliverance. Somehow, I missed hearing much of anything about this one. So let’s check it out.

Ebony Jackson (Andra Day), her mother - Alberta (Glenn Close), and her three children - Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), Shante (Demi Singleton), and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) have just moved into a new home. Sadly, they are plagued by a number of personal problems. Alberta has cancer and her insurance stopped covering her treatment. Ebony has a history of alcohol abuse and physically abusing her children. As a result, Child Protective Services caseworker Cynthia (Mo’Nique) has to check up on the family frequently. However, since they have moved to the new house, the children have been exhibiting a variety of strange behaviors. It isn’t until Bernice (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), a Pentecostal pastor, tells Ebony that a demon is after her children that things start to come together.

Normally, I’m not a big fan of demon possession movies. A lot of them come off as hokey or over the top. This one was actually pretty good. While it is based on a true story, there were so many holes in that story that it needed a movie to make it make sense. Thankfully, The Deliverance did a good job of bringing the story together in an interesting way that kept my attention the entire time. Every time I thought I would pick up my phone to scroll through social media, something else happened to drag me back in.

Rating: B

In A Violent Nature (2024)

There were a few horror movies that popped up on streaming services in September that seemed interesting. In A Violent Nature was one of the movies Shudder produced this year. I wish that meant the movie was good…

A group of friends take a locket from the remains of a fire tower. Unfortunately, this was the only thing keeping the corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett), a developmentally disabled man who died when he fell from the fire tower, in the ground. Johnny rises, stumbling through the forest in search of the locket. And he is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way.

In A Violent Nature is the most boring horror movie I have ever seen. The movie is based on the idea of “what if we followed Jason through the Friday the 13th franchise instead of following the victims? The answer is “please don’t do that. It’s stupid.” There are so many long, drawn-out shots with no soundtrack (beyond the natural sounds of the forest) of Johnny walking through the woods. And most of the time, we only see the back of him. There is one shot where we see his face and, to be honest, I wish we didn’t get that shot.

Most of the kills are also boring. The only interesting kill is the woman doing yoga on a mountain. Feel free to turn the movie off after that one. It doesn’t get any better. I have seen people say these are the best, most innovative kills they have ever seen. They are straight up lying.

Do not watch Violent Nature. As a matter of fact, let’s try to erase it from existence instead.

Rating: F

#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead (2024)

#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead appeared on my radar because it claimed to star JoJo Siwa. I’m not sure that I would say she stars in it. It’s really more like a feature. Well, let’s go…

A friends group, mostly made up of internet influencers, is heading to a music festival. On the way, their van breaks down. Police officer Shaw (Michaella Russell) happens past and recommends the group find someplace to stay because their van won’t be fixed until the next day. Sarah (Jade Pettyjohn), the only one in the group with no social media presence, finds them a house nearby. Shaw drives them to the house, promising to contact them when the van is fixed. One by one, each of the friends is murdered…apparent retaliation for the suicide of Collette (Siwa), a former friend of the group.

This is one of those movies that has a terrible plot, a lot of blood, and a fair amount of gore. It’s also one of those difficult to rate movies. All of the characters are terrible. But they are supposed to be terrible. That is why the entire plot happens. So…I don’t know. I can’t say that I enjoyed the movie but it’s not nearly as bad as some of the other horror movies I’ve watched. I guess if you are looking for a movie where a bunch of vapid college students get killed in weird ways…maybe you’ll enjoy it? At the very least, I don’t think you would regret watching it.

Rating: C

Terrifier 2 (2022)

Art the Clown is back in Terrifier 2. The first Terrifier movie was really bad. So bad that I’m not really sure why they made a second one. Since the third one is coming out later this year, let’s take a look at the second installment to see if it is any better.

Immediately after the events of Terrifier, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) has, somehow, been resurrected. After murdering the coroner, Art goes to a laundromat to clean his costume, where he sees a Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) dressed in a clown outfit similar to his own. A year later, high schooler Sienna (Lauren LaVera) is preparing her Halloween costume - an angel warrior based on sketches from her late father. Her younger brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam), has become obsessed with Art thanks to some artwork in their father’s sketchbook. It seems that their father has predicted that Sienna, as the angel warrior with a sword, will kill Art the Clown. But is that really possible?

First, let me say that this movie was better than the first. Not that it was difficult to accomplish. Does that make it a good movie though? Ehhhh.

The storyline is a big improvement. However, there are some very big plot holes that bug me. We never get a reason why the unnamed father of Sienna and Jonathan drew pictures of Art the Clown or why he predicted that this angel warrior he drew when Sienna was a “little girl” was going to kill him. Their father supposedly died of a brain tumor. Why would he know anything about Art? And why is Art attacking this family?

At least the characters or the acting makes up for it, right? Not really. Barbara (Sarah Voigt), mother to Sienna and Jonathan, is pretty awful to them. She spends most of her screen time screaming at the kids. It’s kinda annoying. The only person that isn’t terrible is Allie’s mom (Amy Russ), who only appears for about five minutes.

I wouldn’t say that the movie is worth watching. From what I can gather, if you plan on watching the third movie, you will need to watch this and the first movies. It might be better to avoid the franchise altogether.

Rating: D

Terrifier (2016)

Since Terrifier 3 will be coming out this year and I have never seen any of the Terrifier movies, I turned on the first movie in the series to see what I was in for. I am kinda sorry that I did.

Halloween 2017 - two friends, Tara (Jenna Kanell) and Dawn (Catherine Corcoran), are heading home from a party when they run into Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). Art creepily follows them to a pizzeria, where he gets kicked out for smearing feces on the wall of the bathroom. After the women leave, Art murders the two pizzeria workers. Meanwhile, the women discover the tires on Dawn’s car have been slashed. As they wait for Tara’s sister, Victoria (Samantha Scaffidi), to pick them up, Tara convinces an exterminator named Matt (Matt McAllister) to let her into the building he is working on so she can use the bathroom. Art captures everyone and murders almost everyone.

This movie is bad. There were so many times I turned to my husband to ask him if I missed something. According to the Wikipedia page for Terrifier, this movie was supposed to showcase Art the Clown and writer/director Damien Leone’s practical effects. Unfortunately, Leone left out any sort of plot or character development. Great horror movies make you care for at least one character. Usually it’s one of the people the killer is going after but sometimes it’s the actual killer. Terrifier doesn’t make you care for anyone. We literally know nothing about Art and the victims are killed so quickly after their introduction that they are almost nameless strangers. Leone really should have lowered the body count in order to spend a little more time with the characters. Or he could have spent more time with Art so we could get a feeling of why he’s doing this. As it stands, this movie is pretty unwatchable. I really hope the next two movies are better.

Rating: F-