The Horror Thread (1 Viewer)

[cpg]

Death of a Unicorn and The Woman in the Yard remind me of an Applebee’s commercial. Their food doesn’t even look good with their best efforts and the trailers for those two movies were the same.

Death of a Unicorn was particularly disappointing, especially considering the awesome cast and the real opportunity it had to take a solid shot at Big Pharma. And to be fair, it does land a few decent blows --but holy hell, it completely falls apart on itself.

My expectations were already low for The Woman in the Yard, and it’s not a total throwaway. It just doesn’t have anything new to say about complicated grief. Very by-the-numbers.

 

[bonnjer]

Just watched Oddity. Enjoyed it. Nothing revolutionary, but a good story.

 

[Zardnok]

The wife and I just watched Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls. Amazon classified it as Horror, so I am putting it here in the Horror thread. There was nothing scary about the movie, but we did laugh uncontrollably during most of it. Afterwards we were unsure what we had just watched, but agreed it was an incredibly enjoyable waste of an evening.

 

[Paul]

The wife and I just watched Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls. Amazon classified it as Horror, so I am putting it here in the Horror thread. There was nothing scary about the movie, but we did laugh uncontrollably during most of it. Afterwards we were unsure what we had just watched, but agreed it was an incredibly enjoyable waste of an evening.

Having never heard of it, I just looked at the trailer and lmao. It looks like a long SNL skit.

 

[zeetes]

The wife and I just watched Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls. Amazon classified it as Horror, so I am putting it here in the Horror thread. There was nothing scary about the movie, but we did laugh uncontrollably during most of it. Afterwards we were unsure what we had just watched, but agreed it was an incredibly enjoyable waste of an evening.

i'll have to check it out.

finished smile 2. i like it better than the first.

 

[cpg]

I wantedto write about Ryan Coogler’s Sinners without bringing up Jordan Peele’s Get Out, but I can’t, and honestly, I shouldn’t. Since Get Out dropped in 2017 and kicked off this whole racial allegory horror thing (at least in modern film), it’s become its own trope with some peaks (Get Out, Us, The Blackening) and valleys (Antebellum, Ma). Sinners is the latest, and while it’s entertaining, it’s leaning hard on a played-out “white devils” angle—literally, they use that term in the movie. It’s got a point, but man, it feels like low-hanging fruit in 2025.

The film’s set in 1930s Mississippi, with twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan) coming back to open a juke joint and running into vampires led by Remmick. The allegory’s solid: these “white devil” vampires are stealing Black Delta blues, turning it into something palatable for white folks. It’s a sharp jab at cultural theft, and the way they tie it to Jim Crow racism lands effectively. There’s even a bit where the vampires are Irish folk singers, which is kinda cool and suggests some shared struggle between Irish immigrants and Black Southerners. But then, you know, they’re just bloodsucking vampires, so that idea goes nowhere. It’s a fun detail, with no real gusto behind it.

Here’s my issue: making the bad guys vampires is lazy. We’ve seen this subgenre do way more creative stuff. Us had those creepy tethered doppelgangers, Barbarian gave us a messed-up gentrification monster, and even Nope had that wild UFO thing. Vampires? Nothing new. Remmick’s got some charm, and there’s a half-baked idea about a “post-racial” vampire crew, but they’re mostly just evil white dudes in fancy suits. I feel like Coogler is better than this.

And the proof is that if you strip the racial allegory away, you are left with From Dusk Till Dawn with better lighting and updated CGI. A cool movie, sure. But not really the "groundbreaker" hype it's currently receiving.

What saves it is the vibe. The 1930s Mississippi setting is legit -- smoky juke joints, dusty streets, all that. Coogler nails it. The soundtrack, with blues and spooky spirituals, is fire, especially when Sammie sings and weird stuff happens. The humor’s a highlight, too. Slim, this side character steals every scene with his one-liners. He’s proof the characters are better than the script they’re stuck with. Michael B. Jordan’s doing his best, but casting him as both twins was a bad call. Smoke and Stack are basically the same guy, and the script doesn’t help. You’re squinting to figure out who’s who, and not because of Jordan --he’s trying -- it’s just bad writing not giving him enough to differentiate the two.

Sinners is fun, don’t get me wrong. It’s got style, laughs, and a totally valid point worth making, even if it's a well-worn one by now. But it’s not pushing this genre (or the trope) anywhere new, and the vampire thing feels like Coogler playing it safe. There's room for more here, and the more people glaze ho-hum efforts just because they make a salient point, the more we’ll keep getting movies like this.

 

[cpg]

Trailers running ahead of Sinners...

 

[cpg]

I attended an advance screening of Clown in a Cornfield, the latest from Eli Craig (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil), and it’s a riot. This film is a silly, schlocky, irreverent blast, packed with over-the-top gore, sharp humor, and standout performances --especially from the criminally underrated Will Sasso and Kevin Durand.

Craig masterfully toys with 90s horror tropes, winking at the audience with a cheeky self-awareness that makes you briefly wonder if the film’s bad on purpose -- until he deftly proves he’s in complete control of the chaos. Less a love letter to 90s horror and more a playful pastiche, it pokes fun at both younger and older generations with some biting wit.

With Clown in a Cornfield and Heart Eyes, plus trailers for I Know What You Did Last Summer and Final Destination sequels, 2025 is serving up a hefty dose of 90s horror nostalgia, and I’m here for it.