Antebellum (2020)

Successful author Veronica Henley finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it’s too late.

From the trailers Antebellum looked very promising, I really liked where they were going with it and thought it would be interesting. Then the reviews came out some even calling it “the worst film of the year” still I went in with an open mind hoping I would like it….I didn’t. There are a ton of problems with Antebellum, I’ll start with the acting and writing because that’s the least of this movie’s worries. The acting and writing are both terrible, I feel incredibly bad for Janelle Monae it really seemed like she was trying with a very poor script but even her performance wasn’t good at all. Sure it was the best out of everyone but that doesn’t make it good, the writing is horrendous a lot of it is a bunch of it is uninspired garbage that leads to some very over the top performances that are just really bad because they feel out of place. There’s the ridiculous twist that I won’t go into much, but again it’s one of those twists that is so ridiculous and feels so forced. The main thing I want to talk about is how Antebellum is uses black trauma as shock value and nothing more then that. Those of you who have followed me for a long time know I hate movies that call themselves disturbing when they do the bare minimum and include blood, a rape scene and so on just for shock value and nothing more to it. No story, no background information, no build up absolutely nothing. Well Antebellum takes some brutal scenes and really exploits black trauma and claims to be disturbing, the problem is those scenes in particular have almost no development and are clearly there for shock value and nothing more. The movie tries to throw in some symbolism but that’s the writers trying to justify their terrible movie and saying “hey look we put symbolism in our movie that means it’s good!” It’s really a shame about this movie, it had some good ideas but the execution was terrible, I know there’s some people who really liked this movie and more power to you if you liked it. But for me I found Antebellum to be nothing more then a movie desperately trying to be disturbing but failing on every single level.

Disgrace To Cinema F

Alone (2020)


A recently widowed traveler is kidnapped by a cold blooded killer, only to escape into the wilderness where she is forced to battle against the elements as her pursuer closes in on her.


Alone takes a very simple premise and manages to make the execution actually very thrilling, I was a bit worried this would be more on the generic side. But thanks to some surprisingly strong acting from Jules Willcox and Marc Menchaca and some very natural writing the movie really works. I was especially surprised by the writing, in a lot of these movies the writing tends to go over the top, while it is not perfect at times it does manage to be more grounded than a lot of other thrillers. I feel like what works really well for this movie is the atmosphere combined with the setting, it gives off this suspense feel the movie is going for and it has you at the edge of your seat. As I said before the performances from the two main leads are quite great, they both have this natural feel to their roles. Sure sometimes it feels a little overdone but for the most part they are very grounded, overall there really isn’t much else to say! Alone is a strong thriller that works on many levels, sure it may not bring anything new to the genre but at least it accomplishes what it’s set out to do.

8/10 B+

Follow Me/No Escape (2020)


A social media personality travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful VLOG. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, they enter a cold world of mystery, excess, and danger.

Follow Me/No Escape (I don’t care at this point) is a Mad Libs version of Hostel, a social media influencer and his friends travel to in this case Russia and end up in a Escape Room. Something worth noting the director of the film Will Wernick directed a movie called Escape Room (not the one that was released in theaters that was actually decent) so the only two movies this director has done is two escape room movies…well done. As for the movie itself as I said before it’s a lot like Hostel, there’s blood and torture but the kills are poorly done. Acting wise the movie is terrible, that’s mostly due to the very poor writing that really does a bare minimum attempt to create an atmosphere. What absolutely kills this movie however is how predictable it really is, the twists are some of the most predictable twists and the most pathetic excuses as well. Towards the end the movie becomes desperate and fires so much at the viewer but none of it sticks, it’s all complete garbage elements that have been seen and done far better in other horror films. I liked some of the ideas of the traps, sure the execution was piss poor but the ideas themselves I thought were interesting. Otherwise the movie is garbage and should definitely be avoided.

1/10 F

Lost Girls And Love Hotels (2020) and Alive (2020)


Haunted by her past, an English teacher explores love and dust with a dashing yakuza gangster in Tokyo.

Alexandra Daddario gives a fine enough performance otherwise everything else is on the weak side, Lost Girls and Love Hotels is one of those movies that seems like it’s trying to say more but doesn’t really show that. Nothing really ever happens and the movie just sort of ends, the script is very weak and not interesting at the slightest, the characters are poorly written and the movie itself doesn’t do much at all. It’s basically some sex scenes and then some dialogue, it’s a weird hybrid of Lost In Translation and Fifty Shades of Grey..not worth your time.

3/10 D-


A severely injured man and woman awake in an abandoned sanitarium only to discover that a sadistic caretaker holds the keys to their freedom and the horrific answers as to their real identity.


Remember Vile (2011)? Saw 3D? Hostel? Would You Rather? Well Alive is pretty much those movies but in 2020. Alive feels very outdated, a lot of the cliches in these torture movies are present, the movie mostly consists of people being trapped and screaming while bleeding. It’s pretty much everything you have seen before in these movies, I feel like Alone was a movie that was originally supposed to come out in the late 2000s or early 2010s but for whatever reason did not. The acting is poor, the writing is terrible, and the direction is laughable. Alive has some sort of atmosphere and some good shots that are pretty cool, but everything else like I said is the exact same thing as other torture movies. Unless your a fan of the subgenre I don’t recommend it…

3/10 D-

The Devil All The Time (2020)


Sinister characters converge around a young man devoted to protecting those he loves in a postwar backwoods town teeming with corruption and brutality.


The Devil All The Time is based off of a very dark book, from what I’ve heard it’s quite disturbing and has almost everything in the kitchen sink that can be considered triggering. So making a movie out of that would be a very hard task, meaning they would have to cut stuff out and so on. Luckily this adaption is masterfully done in every single way possible, let’s start with the acting. Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgard and Robert Pattinson all give fantastic performances. A matter of fact everyone involved does a fantastic job and gives very raw performances all around, but the best piece of acting for me is Robert Pattinson’s “delusion” speech which you have probably already seen a snippet of it from the trailer but WOW was it impressive. Robert Pattinson plays his role extremely well to the point where it’s uncomfortable, which is honestly what this a whole movie is a huge amount of disturbing events that goes on in this one town. The atmosphere of the film is top notch it really captures you in this haunting and dark atmosphere where anything could happen at any given moment. The direction from Antonio Campos (Director of Christine (2016) ) knows how to capture everything from the atmosphere, the disturbing feel to the dark tone he really blends it all together to create a very dark film. It’s very Neo Noir and It uses those elements quite well, it combines the setting with the dark tone and the characters to make a haunting experience. The writing is very raw, not once during the film does it feel manufactured or doesn’t feel forced. As far as the plot there really is not much of it, which is not a bad thing at all because it really works in this movie’s favor. There are also some pretty brutal scenes that are quite impactful, this movie is the type of disturbing that doesn’t need shock value all it needs is a few brutal scenes, realistic performances and a disturbing atmosphere. Overall The Devil All The Time is masterful in every single way possible, it is going to be divisive but I do recommend checking this one out as soon as you can!

10/10 A+

The Paramedic (2020)


Angel works in an ambulance service. After a tragic accident, his personal life begins to deteriorate as he becomes more and more suspicious of his partner Vane.

The Paramedic is the start of Netflix’s horror movie lineup for Halloween a lot of platforms are doing it (Shudder and Amazon Prime) this was a very weak start. It’s clear that Netflix didn’t have any faith in this movie because the advertising is non existent. Which I can easily see why because there is seriously nothing interesting here, the story has been done to death numerous times it’s basically Misery but the plot is changed to a Ex lover wanting revenge, some Misery type movies have worked in the past but this isn’t one of them. The acting isn’t really great a lot of it just feels way too wooden, parts of the movie feel like they were completely written and directed by different people. It’s also very predictable as well, it follows pretty much the same cliches as a lot of these movies do. The only few things I can say that I liked were a few shots and the suspense was there but it wasn’t used correctly. Overall The Paramedic is one of those disposable horror movies that might be okay if you have nothing else to watch but otherwise ignore it.

4/10 D+

Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite (2020)

A supervillain parrot hatches a devious scheme to break the long-standing truce between cats and dogs.

There’s two big questions when it comes to Cats & Dogs 3: Paws Unite, number one how the hell is Sean McNamara still finding work? This is the same guy who did the Bratz movie and several other garbage (Soul Surfer being his best) and number two is who asked for this? The first Cats & Dogs that came out in 2001 doesn’t hold up at all but at least it knew what it wanted to be. Kitty Galore which came out 9 years later in 2010 was one of the worst movies of the 2010s is highly considered one of the worst films of all time and it’s not hard to see why. Now 10 years later we have Paws Unite, which in some cases it’s worse than Kitty Galore but the overall movie is better. Kitty Galore was actually a theater release while this was a straight to digital on a Tuesday. Anyway the movie itself is as bad as you would expect the acting and voice acting are horrendous and some of the worst of the year, the writing is god awful with way too many fart jokes. The visual effects for the animals mouth’s moving is somehow worse than Kitty Galore. That’s probably due to a budget issue but that’s not an excuse seeing how this came from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment….I’m not joking. That’s what baffles me about this trainwreck it came from a huge studio so there is absolutely no excuse. Paws Unite is a completely different story that takes place 10 years after the last movie, the characters are terrible…they are pretty much walking talking early 2000s cliches. There’s the dog who’s supposed to be an old man, the main character dog, a cat thrown into the mix and then a bunch of other useless characters who don’t do anything but make stupid jokes. As I said before the visual effects are horrendous, they feel like they are straight out of the early 2000s, which is just amazing to me because the first movie came out in 2001 and they somehow look WORSE than the effects used back then. Overall what else can I possibly say? It’s Cats & Dogs 3 nobody asked for this heck nobody asked for this to become a series, but hey if Norm Of The North, Escape Plan, Puppet Master, Amityville, Children Of The Corn and many others can get thousands of sequels so can Cats & Dog. Please skip this movie at all costs it’s not worth your time and if you have kids I can assure you there are better options out there.

Disgrace To Cinema F

Rent A Pal (2020)

A strange VHS tape allows a lonely bachelor named David to find companionship with Andy — its charming and charismatic host. However, Andy’s friendship comes at a cost, and David desperately struggles to afford the price of admission.

Rent A Pal is a very solid movie, it does take awhile to get going. But once it does it shines really well, Will Wheaton and Brian Landis Folkins are the standouts. Both feel very committed to their roles and do deliver some really strong performances. The writing is solid, it definitely has it’s hiccups and does fall into familiar territory towards the end. But the movie does do a good job of tackling something somewhat new and does a solid job. My main criticism I would say is the final act not being as good as the first two, it’s not that the third act was bad it was just as I said before a little too familiar. A lot of plot elements during the final act have been done to death and it ends the way you think it’s going to. But overall Rent A Pal is a solid movie, It’s not something I think I’ll ever look back on but it’s a solid watch.

7/10 B

The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)


Two years after Cole survived a satanic blood cult, he’s living another nightmare: high school. And the demons from his past? Still making his life hell.


I honestly think McG needs to stick with horror because that’s where he is best at, the first Babysitter movie was a huge surprise and quickly became a favorite to watch around Halloween time in the horror community. His next movie was Rim Of The World which In short was a disaster and one of the worst of Netflix’s library, so I was worried about The Babysitter Killer Queen. Not only is The Babysitter Killer Queen a very solid movie but it’s actually one of those rare horror sequels that are better than the original. The acting (for the most part) was fine enough a few standouts are Jenna Ortega, Judah Lewis and Emily Alyn Lind. Everyone else wasn’t too bad with the exception of Bella Thorne who was just terrible, the humor actually worked well. Some jokes didn’t work nearly as well as others, but I did laugh so I’ll give credit where credit is due. Like the first movie it’s a ton of fun, the movie never takes itself seriously it knows what it’s trying to accomplish and for the most part it does just that. I feel like this need to be said while on the surface it may look completely different the movie does follow the first movie very closely, instead of a house where most of the movie took place in the first film it’s an island. Usually I would be completely against this but I’m this case I’m not. I think the formula does work well and creates the fun type of movie. Overall if you are a fan of the first film you will love this one!

8/10 B+

Unpregnant (2020)


A 17-year old Missouri teen named Veronica discovers she has gotten pregnant, a development that threatens to end her dreams of matriculating at an Ivy League college, and the career that will follow.


Unpregnant could have easily went down the wrong path, but the end result gives a very surprising and meaningful movie. The acting was overall very solid, Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira both do a very solid job in their roles. The chemistry between the two can be described like Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein from Booksmart, their friendship is very believable and actually feels really raw. Speaking of Booksmart this is exactly what this movie reminded me of, although it may not be as funny or good it still has it’s own ideas. The direction from Rachel Lee Goldenberg (director of Valley Girl (2020) ) She really steps up her directing from Valley Girl (2020) and tells a very meaningful story while also putting in some comedy. Which I feel like is what stands out about this film. Unpregnant takes a very heavy subject (in this case abortion) and puts in some comedy but at the same time including the heavy scenes with the characters having a conversation about the topic through the writing. The balance of comedy and the serious moments are just perfect and really do make this movie standout, sure not every joke lands but the serious moments really do a good job of showing how it’s a woman’s right to choose. Overall Unpregnant could have easily went horribly wrong and would have bit the dust as soon as it came out. But the amount of effort that was put into it helps this movie standout among the crowd.

8/10 B+