Review: Cold Moon

(imdb.com)

What counts as a horror film? For some, horror movies are exclusively supernatural in nature. Haunted houses and aliens, werewolves and vampires, these movies represent a pretty narrow perspective. But for others, the broader definition includes thrillers like The Gift or The Invitation; movies designed to create a sense of dread or by definition, horror. This second world, the one in which more movies count in the genre because they truly deserve to, is the one that should be the rule, not the exception. Unfortunately though, this opens up the door to some bad ideas and some even worse films that horror sites must review. Movies like Cold Moon.

Following an investigation into a young woman's murder, this southern thriller is an absolute mess of a movie. With little actual direction and a main villain that is relatively unstoppable or suspected by the characters until the ghastly images he sees cause him to go insane, Cold Moon is like Gone Girl if Gone Girl was filtered through a horrendous, supernatural lens.  It stars Josh Stewart (Interstellar), Robbie Kay (Fugitive Pieces), Candy Clark (Zodiac), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), all playing what is probably their worst roles to date.


The stupidity of the characters is constantly on full display. One scene where a character just leaves his car at the beckon call of a masked man possibly seeking help is completely ridiculous and unrealistic. There is no actual substance, rhyme or reason to him willingly getting out of the vehicle, and yet, here we are with two dead main characters. Then there's the awkward male gaze in one particular scene seems negligent considering it serves little purpose outside of showcasing a barely clothed woman in the woods with her fully clothed boyfriend. It’s a smaller part of a whole mess, but important to note nonetheless.


But the character work isn't the only thing wrong with Cold Moon. All too frequently, the dialogue relies on buzzwords like rattlesnakes and phrases like "the sticks," making blatantly clear that the filmmaker's perception of the South is relatively shallow, Its score - melodramatic and overstated - removes any sense of suspense or atmosphere. The flashback cutaways seem pulled from dramatic PSAs from the 90s.


Cold Moon is bad, almost offensively so. It's predictable, uninteresting and drearily tossed together. Viewers able to stick through this movie in its entirety deserve a reward, especially considering the film gives little to satisfy. They'll find little quality in this mystery thriller- if you can even call it that.

 

Review: Rings

(imdb.com)

Horror sequels are a thing. There is no way around it. They're going to make them and they're going to make them a lot. What does need to be a thing however, is awful, no holds barred trash fires like Rings. I get it; the dislike for movies like Sinister 2 or Woman in Black: Angel of Death hold some warrant, but never again do I want to hear that horror movie sequels like these are as condemnable as the third installment in the long since dried The Rings series. This movie sucks, sorry there isn't some critical way of putting it. When something is this bad, it doesn't deserve to be examined seriously or academically. It just sucks. 

Note: Rings is a third, not a remake. Rings opens up as sort of a reboot to the old mythology put forth by the original two, but quickly devolves away through unexplainably complicated additions to the story, with what I'm guessing were hopes that no one remembered the actual plots of the previous two. This one follows Matilda Lutz (L'Estate Addosso) as Julia, a girlfriend and hopeful final girl who wants to find out why her boyfriend isn't texting her back. She goes to his college, barges in on one of his seminars and gets caught up in a science experiment involving Samara. Rings also features Alex Roe (The Fugitives) as boyfriend Holt, Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) as seedy science professor, Gabriel, and Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket)  as former priest and watcher of Samara's grave, Burke.

The list of atrocities committed by Rings is pretty extensive. So let’s look first at the scares since that's what really matters, right? Surprise, there are none! That is except for one- a bird hitting a windshield is this movie's sole jump scare and claim to fame. If I really cared to ever watch this movie again, I could just as easily Windex my window and wait for the same effect. From shaky CGI to the lukewarm suspense that would make even the most committed fidget, Rings seems so careless, it's as if it was just made to make money (this is the movie's only purpose, in case you couldn't pick that up).

Then, there's the acting. All around weak at best, sometimes worse than even expected, Lutz seems uninspired and unable to actually carry the role of a scream queen. Even after the dialogue attempts to set her up as strong-willed and independent woman, she quickly folds into half-hearted screams and acting that would make a freshman acting class cringe. Galecki also offers up a raw chicken quality as the professor who on one account is supposed to be "edgy" and "cool" but then also creepy for taking advantage of graduate students. You could also call out the D'Onofrio as well, but it's starting to feel a little repetitive. He's weak, but his storyline is equally awful, so maybe he's not entirely to blame (I'm being generous).

There is nothing salvageable about this tedious mess of a film. I could continue knocking on each and every aspect of how bad this movie was, but instead I'll say this: half of my theater got up and left midway through the movie. The other half, talking and on their phones, never sat still, captivated by the horrors of Rings. This movie is the type of car crash (oh there's one of those in this movie too, if that entices you), that you actually want to look away from because as noted, Rings sucks. I give it one square out of 10 rings because, like this movie it doesn't fit in.

Side note: I said The Bye Bye Man had an early ticket for worst of 2017, I rescind that. By comparison, The Bye Bye Man deserves Academy Awards.