2.5 Razors

Keeper

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Keeper
  • IMDb: link

In horror there’s a thin line between scary and silly and for far too much of the first hour of director Osgood Perkins‘ Keeper doesn’t click. A year into their relationship, Liz (Tatiana Maslany) goes away for the weekend with her boyfriend Malcolm (Murder in a Small Town‘s Rossif Sutherland) to his far-from-rustic cabin. Despite her concerns, she’s far from roughing it.

Out of her element, Liz begins to grow paranoid and starts to see or hallucinate odd things in her boyfriend’s home. The question becomes whether the not-exactly-reliable protagonist is imagining things, if something is clouding her judgement, or if there are dark and supernatural events occurring.

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Frankenstein

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Frankenstein
  • IMDb: link

At twice the length of 1931’s Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro‘s new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s tale of a mad scientist the fruit of his labors is an elaborate look into the life of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and the madness which spawned his creation (Jacob Elordi). I have a limited tolerance for melodrama, especially one without the wit or snark to undercut the tedium that all-too-often is the byproduct of the genre. Rarely have I seen a film that so earnestly, and so seriously, leaned into its melodramatic overtones.

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Frankenhooker

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Frankenhooker
  • IMDb: link

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, writer/director Frank Henenlotter‘s bizarre horror-comedy stars James Lorinz as a would-be scientist who attempts to bring back his girlfriend (Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen) after she’s dismembered in a ridiculous lawnmower accident. Needing body parts to fill out his Frankenstein-ish creation, Jeff targets Crack-addicted New York hookers who he kills off through the use of his new drug which make the group of half-naked women each explode in one of the film’s most memorable moments.

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Meridian

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Meridian
  • IMDb: link

One of several B-movies Sherilyn Fenn made during during the late 1980s, Meridian was released originally on home video in 1990 (the first of many releases under a variety of titles over the years). Part sexploitation thriller and part fantasy horror, the script adapts ideas from the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, while also weaving in ghosts along with its curse. While problematic, for a number or reasons including our lead falling in love with her rapist, the film has impressive production values for a B-movie with the castle, and the various statues and gargoyles across its lawn, making for a visually interesting backdrop to the proceedings.

Fenn stars as Italian-American Catherine Bomarzini who returns to her family’s castle for the first time in years, also reuniting with her more adventurous college friend Gina (Charlie Spradling) working nearby as an art restorer. Talked into seeing a traveling carnival just outside the castle grounds by Gina, who also invites the performers to dine with them in the castle over Cathehrine’s reservations, the night ends with the twin brothers (who hide the fact that there are two of them) drugging and each raping one of the women.

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Kiss of the Spider Woman

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kiss of the Spider Woman
  • IMDb: link

The 1985 film with William Hurt and Raul Julia was a more straightfoward adaptation of the original novel. 40 years later, director Bill Condon is a bit more ambitious in adapting the 90s Broadway musical with Diego Luna as political prisoner Valentin Arregui and Tonatiuh as his new cellmate Luis Molina, a gay window dresser arrested for public indecency.

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