YEAR IN REVIEW: 2022
So here we are the the end of 2022.
Today I take a look at all the movies I have watched and reviewed this year. Even though I didn't discuss endings (for the most part) I will definitely talk about some of the endings in this post so either watch the movie already or don't give a hoot for being spoiled.
My first post was Dolls, an 80s campy ass movie about killer dolls! Something resonated in me while I watching this movie. I usually just have the TV on for background noise but yo I actually paid attention to this movie this time. Reminded me on my childhood, really. If you read my About Me section of this blog I mentioned that I grew up on horror movies which absoluely included campy ones too. I was a young kid so those did scare the shit out of me. Especially the one scene where a clown pulled a kid under the bed which I am 99% sure it was a scene from Poltergeist but my kid mind thought it was much scarier back then.
I'm sure this won't come as a surprise to anyone but the one movie that I actually found myself rewatching the most was Tumbbad. My dumb ass incorrectly spelled this movie for a good while before I caught on it and had to correct every instance I typed it with 2 m's but unfortunately the link's typo is eternal. Kill me now. I fell in love with this movie from the first watch. I actually found myself watching it two or three times in the same day I originally posted. Mainly because I didn't know much of any Indian horror and this set such a precedent for me. The story flowed smoothly for the most part and the landscapes was pretty cool too. I read somewhere (not sure if accurate so take this with a grain of salt) that this was filmed at a location that hasn't been visited by people in 100 years. Tumbbad is a real village just fictional story. No Hastar. The thing I find it most amusing is in the movie it is deemed that Hastar is forced to being erased from existence which ties in to the real life story of there being no Hastar. But if you asked me, the reason why I was a little underwhelmed with the ending was because I legit thought that he was going to sacrifice his own son leading him to become the next monster. Tcha, y'know what?! A SEQUEL IS COMING! Very interested in how they will take this since the ending of the movie implied the mansion will now be in the hands of the Indian government. Who will unearth Hastar next?? We'll have to wait and see.
It's hard to put into terms what makes a movie sucky. Is it the bad acting? Bad production? Bad writing? All of the above and then some I guess. Which was hard to narrow down a single movie from ones I've reviewed that would be the suckiest I decided to put on my blog. I would have to go with Dracula.3000 which is totally an obvious choice. I am just trying to wrap my head around everybody's thinking process every step of the way making this movie. The script was pretty god awful. Intro graphics looks like they threatened a poor intern with a deadline beyond their capabilities, CGI by a probably nice young lad/lady but didn't have time to perfect anything but was left to turn in a 1st draft. I could go on. Why the fuck did they make the Orlock dude so...predictable looking? Everything about this movie was a mess. It almost seems like the casting for this movie was more of a "we have compromising pictures of you so you better act in this ,movie!!" kind of vibe. Most of those actors are extremely well known. It's a wacky rollercoaster but the more I thought I abput the movie days and weeks later I am still dumbfounded of all the actions that led to this final product.
Without a hitch, Memoir of a Murderer gets my vote for best Storyline. As I've already explained in the post, I admired so much how this story focused on the aspect of a serial killer that develops dementia of sorts. For real, that concept never crossed my mind but this movie encapsulates it amazingly well. I will say though that as much as I loved the overall story I really disliked the ending. Either that or maybe I'm misinterpreting it. I wasn't quite sure if the resurgence of bad guy was a metaphor for his primal urges or if it was literal that the character wasn't truly dead. I'll definitely rewatch this movie for sure though.
Kind of talking out of ass over here but I chose Last Night in Soho as the worst Storyline because as much as I loved the movie, I just couldn't get behind the plot that the main character was having a continuous recurring dream night after night. She was literally living her life and randomly the dream life paused and resumed the dream storyline as if it were a movie on Netflix and just got back from the restroom. I totally wasn't keen on that. And to top it all off, the scenes in her dreams was on events that took place in her waking world. It didn't make sense to know why she was essentially dreaming of past real events. We never got a REAL explanation on that aside from the real identity and all. The movie's production did real well with these plot holes and WTFs issue I had with it.
So with this topic, I thought along the lines of how much of a twist to a movie that I personally was left shaking to the motherfucking core. I find a lot of movie predictable nowadays but that doesn't mean it's not worth enjoying. That being said I garner Incantation with the best WTF plot twist. SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE ENDING I shit you not, I did not see the ending coming. It's absolutely possible others predicted it but I sure as fuck did not. The ending of Incantation concluded as the mother was trying almost helplessly to cure her daughter of this possession however it is finally revealed in the conclusion that the incantation spell us viewers were told to chant aloud to help her daughter is actually to summon the curse on ourselves. We were tricked to curse ourselves in the hopes that it will lessen the severity of her daughter. I was shook the fuck up. I know it's a movie and all but holy hell this was an interesting twist on top of already being a creepy found footage film. Kudos.
Sometimes, the more scarier movies are the ones that could actually happen in the real world. While there are a small handful of picks from my limited selection, I'll give my virtually useless award to Anatomy. It truly is freaky and I without a doubt believe events just like this happens or has happened a myriad of times in human history. Literally the aspect of experimenting on real people and having it on display in front of people who absolutely wouldn't know any better. Remember that reddit post I linked in the post? Yeah. The first time I read that shit my blood ran cold. Truth is indeed scarier in fiction. I don't care how much I screwed up that quote you get my gist. Stranger.
If you read this far: thank you. I often like to escape the mental tortures of my reality and delve into writing about things that intrigue me. I wish I could have wrote more reviews this year but I do have my limits that prevents me from being completely enveloped in this.
Thank you for reading my silly 1st annual retrospect of movies I have posted on in the year 2022. Here's to another frightful year!
