Nothing makes a demon feel welcome like a child experiencing trouble at home.  If mom and dad aren’t getting along, a demon always comes calling for that child.  This is the setup for Other Mommy, where the demon appears in the form of the child’s mother–who is alive and well.  Playing the role of both mommies is Jessica Chastain, and her performance in the dual role elevates the movie above its modest jump-scare aspirations.

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Buddy works best as a satire on Barney and other children’s shows.  Its overall construction is a jumble, but when the movie hits, its black comedy gold.  Cristin Milioti gifts her fans with another engaging performance in her increasingly eclectic career.  Recommended. Continue reading Buddy

Being a dental hygienist is a thankless job.  They diligently scrape off the gunk build-up on our teeth, fully aware that they’re going to do the same thing in six months.  Which is why I would advise that anyone interested in this career avoid Insidious: Out of the Further.  Not only is the kindly hygienist in this movie forced to clean the worst set of teeth I’ve ever seen, he has a second pair like a geriatric Zenomorph!  Maybe that Starbucks barista job would be a better option after all.

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Since 1993, almost every movie released that featured dinosaurs had “Jurassic” in the title.  This is strange, given how often Hollywood studios copy off of each other’s homework.  The End of Oak Street is the first serious attempt at a dinosaur movie outside of that franchise, and it made me wonder why it took so long.  There’s plenty of action involving humans either running away from or being eaten by elaborate CGI dinosaurs, which is precisely what we want from a movie like this.  If anything, it should inspire those behind the Jurassic films to make better sequels.

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At one point in Passenger, the heroine uses her van’s camera system to find the ghost that’s been following her.  I’ve seen dash cams and backup cams before, but this was cooler.  It gave her a 360 degree view outside of the van, which eventually revealed the ghost.  While the scene played out exactly as I expected, it was a clever way of using modern technology so that for once, the poor girl can finally look around without her head on a swivel.  This and other little details showed that the filmmakers wanted to make an interesting “stalking ghost” movie, and I was entertained by the results.

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Getting your wish is the worst thing imaginable in Obsession, a twisted take on love and romance that horrifies before going full-on horror.  I appreciated the movie’s darkly comedic take on desire and relationships more than its gruesome endgame, but it’s a wild ride either way.  Recommended. Continue reading Obsession (2026)

In Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, the myth roars back to life in this mostly successful adaptation.  Jacob Elordi’s performance is a standout, while Oscar Isaac is miscast.  Filled with beautiful and grotesque imagery, the film struggles for greatness and occasionally reaches it.  Recommended. Continue reading Frankenstein (2025, Netflix)

When The Black Phone did well at the box office in 2021, it was a foregone conclusion that a sequel would be coming.  This posed a challenge to writer-director Scott Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cartill: how to continue the story with a dead villain?  For Black Phone 2, the solution was to delve into the origins of the Grabber (Ethan Hawke).  While there’s no evidence of an unhappy childhood, we do see how he honed his skills before taking up residence in a Colorado suburb.  Practice makes perfect, right?

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