Horror

Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter

  • Title: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
  • IMDb: link

An odd mix of western and horror genres, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter leads a betrayed Jesse James (John Lupton) and his wounded friend Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder) to the door of Dr. Frankenstein’s granddaughter (Narda Onyx) continuing her family’s experiments along with the help of her reluctant brother (Steven Geray) in and abandoned mission in the Old West.

Various subplots include the outlaw who betrayed Jesse hunting him down and a local woman (Estelita Rodriguez) who leads a desperate Jesse to the Frankensteins, despite knowing how dangerous they are. Made as part of a double feature for Saturday matinees (both it and Billy the Kid Versus Dracula were filmed in a combined 8 days), the film is cheap, rushed, and isn’t much notable for anything other than its bizarre premise.

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Fresh

  • Title: Fresh
  • IMDb: link

In this twisted take on modern dating from director Mimi Cave and screenwriter Lauryn Kahn, Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Noa, a young woman with bad luck in dating (and worse taste in men). After a meet-cute with Steve (Sebastian Stan) in a grocery store, the pair get together uncharacteristically quickly for Noa to the concern of Noa’s bestfriend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs).

It turns out there is good reason to worry when Noa turns up drugged and chained to a wall in Steve’s basement. Steve has plans for Noa, or at least parts of her, for his unusual fetish and business he chose not to disclose during the twenty questions they shared over their first few dates getting to know each other. Awakening in captivity, Noa discovers Steve abducts women like her (and the other women chained up in separate rooms) and slowly removes and sells off their meat to his clients.

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Angel #1

The reimagined Buffyverse continues in a new series for Angel who is now a TV detective with Cordelia while his friends continue to fight monsters and things that go bump in the night in his absence. Angel #1 gives us a look at Angel’s life on-set while the action from the comic comes from Fred (who apparently is now a Slayer?), Spike, and Wesley taking down a mummy. Things go fairly well, until Wesley gets stabbed with a cursed dagger.

I’ve lost touch with BOOM! Studios’ Buffy comics, so I’m not exactly sure who the bloody interdimensional being skulking around for the issue is supposed to be. As for Angel, Fred’s attempt to buy Wesley some time (and save him from a curse) has unexpected consequences for Angel setting the stage for some soul-searching (so to speak).

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The Djinn

  • Title: The Djinn
  • IMDb: link

Written and directed by the team of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, The Djinn plays on several classic horror tropes including children and monsters and the unforeseen price of asking for wishes from a demonic source (Hint: it’s never a good idea).

The film takes place entirely within the apartment of the mute pre-teen Dylan (Ezra Dewey). On night when his father (Rob Brownstein) is at work, Dylan makes use of a satanic book of spells left over from the apartment’s previous tenant and makes a wish. To see his wish granted, he’ll need to survive an hour of being hunted by a malevolent creature known as the Djinn (a mix of CGI and performances from multiple actors including John Erickson, Donald Pitts, and Tevy Poe).

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Silent Night

  • Title: Silent Night (2021)
  • IMDb: link

At the end of the world, we come together and celebrate with those we love. That’s the basic idea behind the dark comedy Silent Night which sees old friends reunite for Christmas as the whole world is slowly being enveloped in a deadly gas cloud. Governments have given up and have provided suicide pills for their citizens, to avoid the more painful death brought on by the gas (which, if the children are to believed, may either be caused by environmental factors or the Russians).

The hosts for the Christmas party are Nell (Keira Knightley) and Simon (Matthew Goode) along with their twin boys (Hardy Griffin Davis and Gilby Griffin Davis) and younger son Art (Roman Griffin Davis) who is one of the few guests not so keen on mixing suicide and yuletide cheer. The other guest who is anti-pill is the younger wife (Lily-Rose Depp) of another member of the group (Sope Dirisu) who has recently discovered she is pregnant.

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