Walden

2023 Uncork’d Entertainment

Rated: Unrated

Length: 1 hr 42min

Horror ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Shane West and Kelli Garner.

“I’m the ghost of the courtroom…….recording every truth, every lie, every murder.”

This is the movie synopsis from the Official Walden Movie Website:

People collect sweaters, Walden Dean collects the testaments of justice, he is a stenographer and being the ghost of the courtroom, his mind is agonizingly crammed witnessing the torrent of injustice, until now. Discovering he has a terminal illness sends him into a rage that has been simmering deep within him for years and now he is about to take justice into his own hands, in the most gruesome ways imaginable. But there is a more gruesome piece of business Walden will need to deal with, a pedophile serial killer right on his small town’s own doorstep.

Emile Hirsch stars as Walden Dean, the mild mannered, very polite, very straight laced, very geeky, bow tie wearing fourth generation stenographer in a small southern town. He is practically married to his job and his stenography machine. He cleans it religiously and takes it with him wherever he goes. In the beginning he is a teetotaling Church man who prays religiously. During the course of the movie he transforms into a ruthless, crafty and clever drunken vigilante murderer with no remorse for those who have spread their evil while destroying innocent lives. He literally starts drinking whiskey by the bottle while he pops pain pills and gets worked up about his next vigilante execution.

Kelli Garner stars as Emily Duperon, the sixth generation southern woman who just moved back to her hometown to get away from the big city. She meets Walden at a stenography contest and takes an interest in the quiet “sevant” stenographer. After her repeated flirtatious advances they become romantically and physically involved. Briefly before Walden turns into the drunken vigilante. I liked Kelli in this and thought that Walden and Emily’s relationship was something the movie should have explored more. Writing this I thought, geez, they were meant for each other. Look at their names, Walden and Emily…..the lovely stenography couple.

Shane West and Tania Raymonde star as the two detectives that start investigating the murders that start to happen around town. David Keith as the “Bad, very bad man Judge Boyle. Luke Davis plays the mentally disabled grown man with the IQ of a ten year old General George. There are quite a few stories going on here and is sometimes a little hard to follow.

There is the mystery of the missing Mexican boys, all approximately the same age. Brought to light by the disappearance and eventual discovery of the murdered body of Cal Pepper. General George becomes a suspect because he is friends with all the neighborhood children, having the IQ of a ten year old.

There is the relationship between Walden and Emily, the estranged relationship with his widowed Father, the troubled relationship Walden had with his promiscuous Mother, the strange and intimate relationship with the Judge, and his close friendship with General George.

In the end you see that a lot of these things are intertwined and make sense as it comes to a conclusion. There are some questions if you start looking too deep. Like why are there so many crimes in such a sleepy looking little southern town. Why is it that a court stenographer geek suddenly flips and becomes his drunken, murderous alter ego yet still prays for his victims. Why is it that he seems to leave no evidence and the Police never get any clues from the crime scenes. It’s like everything is a mystery, and even that is a mystery.

It is quirky, a little dark, a little bizarre but yet, homey and pleasant in a small southern town sort of way. Would you like some ice tea with that? Yes I would. I’ve watched it twice and I like it. It is different but sometimes different is good. I think the ending lands itself to a sequel although I haven’t seen any news of one.

Worth a watch.

Two Thumbs Up!

The Pope’s Exorcist

2023 Sony Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 43min

Horror ~ Thriller ~ True Story

Directed by: Julius Avery

Starring: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney and Franco Nero.

“When we jeer at the Devil and tell ourselves that he does not exist, that is when he is happiest.”

Russell Crowe stars as Father Gabrielle Amorth, The Pope’s personal exorcist. As we learn in the movie he answers to no one but The Pope. He is tasked with handling the most extreme cases of possession that the Church encounters. He travels by moped and carries his case filled with Exorcism tools and Holy water. In the first case in the movie, Father Amorth goes to an Italian village where a man is being possessed by a demon. He asks the farmer to bring in the pig that he saw him with outside. Father Amorth then proceeds to trick the demon into leaving the man’s body and possessing the pig. As soon as he does they shoot the pig, killing it, freeing the man from the demon.

Father Amorth is then sent to San Sebastian Abbey, where a widow and her two children have come from America to renovate the building. They inherited it when her husband died in a horrific car accident. He was impaled in the car and her son Henry, who was in the backseat, witnessed the horrible death of his father. He has not spoken since, and upon removing a stone in a basement wall, has apparently become possessed. As Father Amorth begins to investigate the boy and the demon, he senses something deeper and sinister within the property.

He uncovers evidence that the church long ago covered up something deep within the property to seal off a demon and a gateway to hell. He has to learn the name of the demon in order to defeat it and free the little boy Henry before the Demon destroys him. He learns that the demon is Asmodeus, The King of Hell. And he goes head to head with the Demon to free Henry, assisted by Father Esquibel, a younger less experienced priest.

It is supernatural horror at it’s best. The little boy possessed by a demon conjuring, cussing, screaming obscenities, and wreaking havoc on the poor little boy’s body. Peter DeSouza-Feighoney plays Henry, the little boy. He is a newcomer to the movie scene, this being his Hollywood debut. Peter…I give you a standing ovation for that performance. WELL DONE! Alex Essoe plays his mother Julia, she has done a number of horror movies. I am not familiar with her work but I like her and will keep an eye out for her. Father Amorth is a very likeable fellow, completely faithful to his faith and his work. He even carries around a little flask of whiskey to quench his thirst after fighting with The Demons. I really like Russell Crowe in this, I thought he did a really good job of portraying Father Amorth.

This is based on the true life story Of Father Gabrielle Amorth, a Roman Catholic Priest who performed over 60,000 exorcisms in his lifetime. He also helped found The International Association of Exorcists. He wrote more than 30 books in his lifetime, I have bought this one and am reading it now:

There is a sequel in the works, slated for release sometime next year, THE POPE’S EXORCIST 2 with Russell Crowe again playing Father Amorth. I am looking forward to it, I am becoming a fan of Father Amorth and this movie series.

It is Horrorful Halloween season and I will be watching and reviewing a lot of Horror movies over the next couple of weeks.

This was a good one.

Yes I recommend it.

Two Thumbs Up!

A Quiet Place Part II

2021 Paramount Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 37min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: John Krasinski

Starring: John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou.

“RUN!”

Day 1

Evelyn (Emily Blunt and Lee (John Krasinski)Abbott, along with their daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and son Beau are at their son Marcus’ (Noah Jupe)baseball game in Millbrook, New York. When suddenly the sky is filled with what looks like an incoming meteorite. The game is quickly called and everybody disperses and is told by the police they should probably go home. Before people can get out of the main street, Aliens start attacking the townspeople and anything that makes noise. Chaos and sheer terror ensue and The Abbott’s are separated. Evelyn, Marcus and Beau end up in the middle of the street behind an upside down Police cruiser. The camera zooms in on Marcus holding his hands over his ears and grimacing in terror. And fades away to…..

Day 474

The end of A Quiet Place where Marcus is holding his hands over his ears and grimacing in terror behind the water heater. Evelyn, Regan, Marcus and the new baby decide to leave the family farm and head to the nearest signal fire Lee had documented on a map. They make it there and find it is tended by their old friend Emmett. Regan and Marcus find a radio channel broadcasting the song Beyond The Sea repeatedly. Regan figures out it is a message being broadcast from a radio station on an Island just off the coast and decides she needs to go there with the earpiece her Dad made. They have discovered that it severely hurts the aliens and she wants to use the Radio signal to broadcast the noise and destroy the aliens.

After she disappears by herself, Evelyn convinces Emmett he must go and bring her back. Emmett does and catches up with her but is convinced by Regan to help her get to the island so they can broadcast the signal and save humanity. Evelyn leaves Marcus alone with the baby to go back into town and get medical supplies and Marcus is left to fend for himself against an alien. And from here it really gets intense as Regan and Emmett try to make it to the radio station, Evelyn tries to get supplies from town and get back to Marcus and the baby, and Marcus tries to keep an alien from killing him and the baby.

This is an edge of your seat thriller. I found myself jumping at times when things happened unexpectedly. Again Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe do an excellent job. Cillian Murphy as Emmett is a nice addition to the cast and story. The Aliens seem even more frightening in this one than they did in the other two movies. The last half of the movie where they are all on different quests gets extremely intense. I think this is my favorite one yet.

Excellent Sci-Fi Thriller!

Two Thumbs Up!

You might also like:

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE

A QUIET PLACE

A QUIET PLACE SERIES STORY AND TIMELINE

A Quiet Place

2018 Paramount Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 30min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: John Krasinski

Starring: John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe.

“Who are we if we can’t protect them? We have to protect them.”

Day 89

Lee(John Krasinski) and Evelyn(Emily Blunt) Abbott have taken their children, Regan(Millicent Simmonds), Marcus(Noah Jupe), and Beau into town for supplies. Regan is deaf which helps them be quiet as they all use sign language to communicate. After they load their backpacks they head back to their farm outside of town. They walk barefoot on sand paths they made to keep from making any crunching sounds the Aliens might hear.

As they near a bridge Lee stops in terror as he hears a loud siren sound coming from behind him. As he turns he sees their youngest son with a toy he has taken from the store and turned on. Lee starts to run hoping to get to his son and turn off the noisy toy before the Aliens come. Regan and Evelyn watch in horror hoping Lee can reach Beau in time….

Day 472

The Abbotts spend their days on the farm going about daily chores. Evelyn is pregnant and Regan helps her with the daily meal prep. Lee spends his time taking care of maintenance and learning all he can about the aliens. He is also trying to engineer an ear piece for Regan to help with her deafness. They have installed patio white lights all around the property to show an all clear sign meaning no Aliens present. When there is an alien presence they switch the lights to red mode which emit a noise to help distract any alien presence.

The do all this while being extremely quiet. The Aliens have extraordinary hearing that allows them to hear the slightest noise from a great distance. They also communicate mostly with sign language and gestures. There is minimal dialogue in this movie. Evelyn’s water breaks just as she discovers an alien in the house and fights to keep herself from crying out. She makes it upstairs to the bathtub and just as she is about to give birth and cry out, her son lights the emergency fireworks display. The Alien leaves to chase the firework noise and Evelyn is able to noisily give birth successfully.

I was thinking Emily Blunt should have won an award for her performance, trying to give birth quietly while an alien is right there listening for you. I checked and she won The Screen Actors Guild Award For Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Supporting Role. There you go. I like Millicent Simmonds, she is very likable as Regan and she is deaf in real life which really added to the realism of The Abbott families relationship with each other. They all learned sign language on the set thanks to Millicent. And it was her idea that when Lee signs to her near the end of the movie, I love you, that he should also sign, I have always loved you.

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are married with children in real life, which also helped to add to the family chemistry. It is a very quiet world interspersed with moments of sheer terror as you make the slightest sound. Praying you didn’t get heard by the aliens. It is a terrifying Sci-fi thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I strongly suggest you watch A Quiet Place: Day One before you watch this. It will give you more understanding of what the Abbott’s are going through.

Highly Recommended!

Two Thumbs Up!

You might also like:

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE

A QUIET PLACE PART II

A QUIET PLACE SERIES STORY AND TIMELINE

A Quiet Place: Day One

2024 Paramount Pictures

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 39min

Drama ~ Horror ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by: Michael Sarnoski

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou and Schnitzel.

“New York City gives off an average of 90 decibels, that is the volume of a constant scream.”

Lupita Nyong’o stars as Samira (Sam), a terminally ill cancer patient living in a hospice facility outside of New York City with her cat Frodo (Schnitzel). She is a Poet/Writer who grew up in Harlem and is dealing with the last stages of cancer. Her Nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) convinces her to go into the city with the Hospice group who are going to see a show. She agrees to go but only if they can get real pizza in the city while they are there. Just as they are about to leave the theater and go get Pizza, Reuben gets a phone call from the facility telling him there is something going on in the city and they want the group to leave immediately.

As they are all boarding the bus they notice something in the sky falling down, like an asteroid has blown apart and headed for the city. Seconds later all hell breaks loose and Sam is standing alone in a cloud of dust similar to what 9/11 looked like. Before she can catch her breath people around her are snatched by things she cannot see. She makes her way back into the theater where she is told to be very quiet and rejoins some of her group and is reunited with her cat Frodo. She eventually makes her way out to head to Harlem for pizza along with Frodo and meets Eric (Joseph Quinn), who has no idea where he is and what is going on.

The three head out into the city together to survive and make sense of what happened. A Quiet Place: Day One comes in hard, fast and loud before it gets quiet interspersed with moments of very noisy terror. It is an Alien invasion and they quickly learn that the aliens are blind, can’t swim and have extra-ordinary hearing they use to destroy anything that makes noise. Lupita Nyong’o does an excellent job of portraying Sam dealing with Cancer, dying, pain, loss and terrifying Alien creatures who seem to be at every turn. All while trying to be quiet and keep her cat Frodo by her side.

Joseph Quinn as Eric reminded me of Robert Downey Jr. I thought he was excellent in this and will have to keep an eye out for him in future roles. BUT…….The Oscar goes to……DRUMROLL PLEASE!…….Schnitzel as Frodo The Cat. Seriously this creature needs some recognition for this performance. The three of them together make this movie. I’ve watched it twice and the chemistry of the three is incredible. Awesome work! I found myself on the edge of my seat, jumping numerous times, gripping the chair, biting my nails…ok, a little over the top. But seriously there is drama and horror as they make their way through the city. There are moments when it is absolutely terrifying.

This is a great movie! It’s everything you want in a movie. It is a perfect prequel to A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II. I debated about whether I should go back and watch I and II before this one but decided, since it is a prequel to watch this first. I am glad I did, it gives a greater insight into the story of the other two movies. Which I will be watching tonight and tomorrow.

So to wrap it up: