Category: Lightning Round

Lightning Round: Rabbit Trap, Hell House LLC: Lineage and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (2025)

Married couple Daphne and Darcy Davenport are two musicians who moved from London to a cottage in Wales to complete their new album. By accident they record a mystical sound never heard before and gradually disconnect from reality.

Rabbit Trap is directed by Bryn Chainey which is his directorial debut. 

Rabbit Trap is one of those movies that has a lot of the right ingredients to make for an interesting little movie, but unfortunately drops the ball when it comes to adding detail to the story. Especially with its heavy use of being way too cryptic with the story. 

The performances are all strong here, Dev Patel has a lot of charisma as an actor and here is no different. It might not be one of his absolute best performances, but he does capture the mysterious atmosphere the movie is going for and does a really solid job with his chemistry with the rest of the cast. Rosy McEwen offers great support for Patel (although I really do wish the movie went a bit more into her character), even if she is given the least amount to work with. Finally there’s Jade Croot who gives a quite terrifying performance, as soon as Croot enters the movie you feel the atmosphere completely change into something haunting. That’s present throughout the entire experience and is by far the movie’s best asset, it’s a mesmerizing performance that gets under the viewers skin very quickly. 

When it comes to technical aspects, Rabbit Trap is quite strong. Sound designer Graham Reznick hits it out of the park, he takes the simple concept of sound and made it quite terrifying. There’s a mix of folklore here as well which does bring in some interesting moments. Cinematographer Andreas Johannessen and production designer Lucie Red give the movie this hauntingly beautiful feel and look that helps it standout a bit more. There’s this atmosphere that captures this feel of mystery where anything can happen or appear out of nowhere, the folklore like feel is also there something a lot of movies who try to go for this feel often miss. 

Unfortunately Rabbit Trap suffers from a lot of writing issues. As great as the acting is, there’s just not a lot of strong character writing here and the lack of development really shrinks the impact the movie attempts to go for. The story’s cryptic and confused results lead to the viewer getting completely taken out of the movie. 

Rabbit Trap falls short in what could have been a hidden gem that’s an atmospheric ride, but ultimately becomes quite forgettable.

Rabbit Trap is available on all VOD platforms.

5/10 C

Haunted by visions and recurring nightmares years after a near-death experience, Vanessa Shepherd finds herself living in the town of Abaddon, unable to break free from its unexplainable hold on her. When people around her suddenly and inexplicably begin to die, she soon uncovers her terrifying connection to the Abaddon Hotel, the Carmichael Manor, and the mysterious murders that have been occurring for decades.

Hell House LLC: Lineage is directed by Stephen Cognetti director of every installment in the Hell House LLC franchise (2015-2025) and 825 Forest Road (2025). Hell House LLC: Lineage serves as the fifth and final installment to the franchise. 

Dropping the found footage element of your series with its supposed final installment is an incredibly questionable move. I’m not going to sit here and act like the Hell House LLC franchise are these masterfully written movies, they are flawed but outside of Lake Of Fire (2019) they are at the very least fun and capture this Halloween (not the film) type of feel that works in the series’s favor. The documentary style combined with the found footage element made this series more interesting and enjoyable as the viewer tried to unravel what exactly is happening in these movies. Lineage unfortunately strips all of this a settles for a dull, boring (I hate using that word but it’s very accurate here) and mixed with poor acting, direction along with terrible pacing. 

The performances are terrible, everyone here is trying their best but with such an empty script and lifeless direction you can only do so much. The one who looks best walking out of this movie is Elizabeth Vermilyea (that’s not exactly saying much.) Lineage is incredibly lore heavy and attempts to expand the mythology of the franchise, but by this point it’s way too late. We get so many long a drawn scenes of incredibly dull dialogue that fails to bring the viewer into the movie. 

I do think the movie’s attempts at trying to breathe new life into the franchise are somewhat admirable but ultimately end up being incredibly misguided. While there are some great shots thanks to cinematographer Brian Keenan, that does not end up meaning all that much when the rest of the movie is a complete and total mess. The direction just does not have the same charm or excitement that the rest of the series had in the past, say what you will about Lake Of Fire (2019) but at the very least the charm was still there. With Lineage it feels like the energy of the franchise is gone, the atmosphere that made the previous movies fun is just not present here. 

Overall Hell House LLC: Lineage is easily the worst of the franchise, it’s a very confused and closing ending to the series that offers incredibly little to fans or casual watchers of the series. 

Hell House LLC: Lineage is available on Shudder. 

1/10 F

An upscale suburban mom brings a new nanny, Polly Murphy, into her home, only to discover she is not the person she claims to be.

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is directed by Michelle Garza Cervera director of Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022). The movie serves as a loose remake of the 1992 film of the same name. 

I had some sort of hope for this one considering Michelle Garza Cervera impressed with Husera: The Bone Woman (2022) a few years ago, unfortunately this feels like it was directed by an entirely different person. It’s also one of those remakes that completely fails to add anything interesting or try to tackle the story with a different approach. 

Maika Monroe and Elizabeth Winstead are great here, but unfortunately the Lifetime Channel like script bogs down any sort of power that the two’s performances could have brought to the movie. There are moments here where you even wonder “how did this not end up on the LifeTime Channel?” the thinly layered script gives the movie absolutely no room for any sort of suspense or atmospheric moments, it’s all just one implausible situation after another. 

The 1992 version is not a film I would say is one of my favorites, but it had the script, firepower and the atmosphere to back it up. All of that combined made it into a thrilling little ride that does not overstay its welcome. The remake however is dull and just does not have anything interesting going for it. 

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is available on Hulu.

3/10 D-

Lightning Round Reviews: Shell, Other, Vicious and Play Dirty (2025)

This is something I’m going to experiment with, the “Lightning Round” will be for films that I will give quick reviews due to not having a whole lot to say about them.

Desperate to reclaim her career, once-beloved actress Samantha Lake is drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon -only to uncover a monstrous truth beneath its flawless surface.

Shell is directed by Max Minghella who previously directed Teen Spirit (2018). 

I was considering on giving Shell a full review but then I realized I would just be echoing what the hundreds of other reviews are saying…that it’s a clone of The Substance (2024) and there’s just no way around that. 

The positives here mainly come from the performances and the visuals, Kate Hudson is clearly having a blast throughout the movie and Elisabeth Moss as usual delivers a solid performance. The visuals are striking with this retro futuristic style which ends up giving the movie at least some legroom to standout. The cinematography from Drew Daniels compliments this very well with sharp and detailed touches. 

Unfortunately the writing is where Shell struggles, halfway through the movie the pacing becomes incredibly uneven, the humor in the writing is a complete hit or miss (with most of it missing), plot threads are either not explored anywhere near enough to leave an impact or are just left dangling. The character motivations are also completely muddled and do not give the movie’s satire-like atmosphere any meaningful strength. 

The final act switches gears and becomes a B-grade monster movie that might have worked if the buildup was far stronger and actually matched the tone of the movie. Instead it feels completely out of place and leaves the viewer with a giant question mark over their head. 

Shell is a worse version of The Substance (2024) and you can easily spot this within the first 10 minutes of watching. 

Shell is available on all VOD platforms.

4/10 D+

Alice returns home after her mother’s death to find the house unchanged-and haunted by a dark presence. As fear builds, buried trauma resurfaces, and a terrifying truth is revealed.

I was pretty excited to see that David Moreau who previously directed MadS (2024) had another film releasing this year, sadly this was a misfire that I left more confused and not in the intriguing sort of way. 

Other strangely likes to withhold information from the viewer and treats that like it’s crafting a mystery when in reality it’s only making the viewer quickly lose interest. There’s the repeated point of Alice (played by Olga Kurylenko) still dealing with childhood trauma, but the movie never elaborates on that or does not even explore it either, it’s like a pop up that is constantly telling you the same thing over and over again. 

Kurylenko’s face is the only we see clearly throughout the movie, which in theory sounds like a neat stylistic choice. However the way the movie goes about with the execution is incredibly dull, the other characters who are supposed to leave this impact on the viewer do not end up doing so. Olga Kurylenko gives a fine enough performance but it’s not enough to make up for the botched execution. 

Lastly there’s the writing which does not have any of the creepiness or thrills that MadS had, it’s a very confused mess that is way too cryptic for its own good and has nowhere near the amount of disturbing or engaging material to connect the viewer to the experience. 

Other is available on Shudder. 

4/10 D+

A woman spends the night fighting for her existence as she slips down a rabbit hole contained inside a gift from a late-night visitor.

Bryan Bertino director of The Strangers (2008), Mockingbird (2014), The Monster (2016) and The Dark and the Wicked (2020) is back with Vicious and the best way to describe this movie is it feels like this horribly put together Frankenstein’s Monster combination of all of his previous films. 

First off there’s the nonconsensual premise of Mockingjay (2014) which at first is a bit interesting before Vicious starts to run into a wall with incredibly stupid decision making on Polly’s (played by Dakota Fanning) part. Next we have the claustrophobic feel of The Strangers (2008), there is a few moments here that do capture that feel decently well. But for the most part it comes off as a desperate attempt to aim for something that worked because it felt far more grounded, constantly trying to reach for it throughout the movie takes away from the writing and ultimately makes the movie suffer for it. 

There’s also the supernatural violence and dark atmosphere of The Dark and the Wicked (2020), Kathryn Hunter tries her best to bring this sort of energy into the movie but the script flat out refuses to give any meaningful story or interesting developments with the supernatural parts of it to work with. It’s a very basic haunting type of movie that attempts to throw in a bit of Saw (2004) which quickly ends up being more ridiculous than anything else. 

Finally there’s the anxieties and the thrills of The Monster (2016) something that once again this movie does not capture at all, there’s one or two jumpscares that are somewhat effective but a large majority of the movie is forgettable and has no investing way to bring the viewer into the movie. 

Dakota Fanning and Kathryn Hunter give solid performances but they are nowhere near enough to save this movie from ultimately being forgettable, I can absolutely see why the plans to release this in theaters was changed. 

Vicious is available on Paramount+ 

3/10 D-

A ruthless thief and his expert crew stumble onto the heist of a lifetime.

Play Dirty fails to capture the charm of Shane Black’s earlier crime films. While LaKeith Stanfield and Rosa Salazar do what they can with such a shallow script, the rest of the movie is yet again another terrible straight to streaming action thriller movie that offers very little to the genre. 

There’s a few entertaining action scenes that somewhat attempt to bring back what made Shane Black a solid crime film director in the first place, but those are quickly overshadowed by Mark Wahlberg giving yet another phoned in performance that leads no depth to his character. This is yet another case of the supporting characters being more interesting than the protagonist and where you wish the movie was about them. 

Whatever Shane Black had with The Nice Guys (2016) is long gone. 

Play Dirty is available on Amazon Prime Video.

3/10 D-