My Review of Soulm8te (2026)

 

Written by James Wan And Ingrid Bisu And Rafael Jordan And Kate Dolan

Directed by Kate Dolan

Aubrey: "I'm not your enemy. We don't need to be pitted against each other."

Sara: "Don't try that girl power shit with me."

Following the failure of M3GAN 2.0, the general consensus seemed to be to just to relegate this movie straight to streaming and forget it ever happened.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that if this went to theatres, it likely would've bombed but it's actually not a bad movie. It's just very predictable from start to finish. You will literally see everything coming a mile off.

Anyways, you've got your grieving widower protagonist David (David Rysdahl). He works for a tech company that are testing the Soulm8te companions. David's boss, Ben (Arty Froushan) got David to sign up to test one named Sara (Lily Sullivan). Everything you would expect to happen did happen of course.

David played around Sara's software in order to make her feel more authentic. David also had sex with Sara while developing feelings for co-worker, Aubrey (Claudia Dormit). Sara didn't exactly take that particularly well.

The more the movie went along, the more independent thought Sara had for herself. This meant Sara getting insanely jealous over David and Aubrey, including the latter being ruined and nearly killed by Sara. Sara also took a neighbours baby in one of the few genuinely unsettling scenes in the film.

The last few minutes did have an interesting final confrontation between David and Sara. The actual final scene did prove that once again, technology can't be shut down permanently as David realise when he saw a familiar face under a new guise.

- Lily Sullivan played the other android, Lydia. Lydia had black hair but David recognised her immediately.

- This movie is set in the same universe as M3GAN though there's no explicit references.

- Standout music: Sara might have gone homicidal but her version of The Cardigans Lovefool was excellent.

- Chronology: Present day American setting. A year had passed during the last scene.

Soulm8te might be one of the most predictable films I've seen this year but it's oddly charming in it's way. Lily Sullivan did elevate the material and she's great as Sara. It's not an innovative look into AI or an erotic thriller but it's watchable at least.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

American Horror Story: 13 - Everything You Need To Know

I've been holding this one off for a while. After months of speculation, American Horror Story: 13 finally has started its big promo blitz and there's a lot to get through. Spoilers aplenty here.

Let's break down the basics first, shall we?

• Charlie Carver and Ned Martel are the executive producers and main writers for the season. Ryan Murphy has co-written the first and ninth episodes and directed the first.
• There are 13 episodes for the new season, but shorter episodes than usual. 
• The season will open with a triple bill from September 24th, the double bills until October 29th. It's airing Thursdays at 9pm on FX/Hulu.
• Frances Conroy, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grosssman, Billie Lourd, Kathy Bates and Mat Fraser will reprise their roles of Myrtle Snow, Queenie, Coco St Pierre Vanderbilt, Winter Anderson/Mallory, Delphine Lalaurie and Paul the Illustrated Seal respectively. Ariana Grande had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
• Season 13 will not be the final season. Season 14 is in development. However this might be the last crossover event style season.
• The season is mostly set in New York but will take in other timelines, locations and feature some controversial female figures from history. The Apollyon building will serve as the main setting.

Now, let's have a look at the main and recurring cast for this upcoming season, shall we?

• Joey Pollari as Ben DeSoto. The main protagonist of the season, driving the narrative for all the big returns. He sees the number 13 in various places. He's a nurse going by the trailer.
• Paul Anthony Kelly/Fedor Steer as Mr Nas. The main antagonist of the season. Likely the Devil, going by Ryan Murphy's interview with Vogue magazine.
• Evan Peters as Kai Anderson. Seemingly his main role this season. He'll also be reprising Tate Langdon/Rubber Man and James Patrick March and other past characters. Tate and Kai will share a scene together.
• John Carroll Lynch as Twisty the Clown. Yup, he's back. Why? No idea, but must be prominent enough role to get a character poster.

• Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon. She's back and living in the Apollyon. Also expect to see Lange reprise Sister Jude, Fiona Goode and Elsa Mars. Oh and she's gonna sing this season.
• Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Goode. Our supreme is back and also Paulson will be reprising about six other past roles this season.
• Angela Bassett as Marie Laveux. The Voodoo Queen is back and in a much bigger role than last time.
• Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery. Yes, back and undoubtedly a certain line will be uttered again. The eleventh episode will be a big one for her.
• Jamie Brewer as Adelaide Langdon. Another surprise return and she could be reprising Nan too.
• Mena Suvari as Elizabeth Short/Black Dahlia. This one is more mystifying to me but I'm sure there's a good reason why she's around this season.

• Madelaine Petsch as tbc. The only actor who's role has not been officially disclosed or even spoiled. I'm impressed.
• Berto Colon as Joe. He's the Doorman at the Apollyon and his scenes are largely with Constance Langdon.
• John Waters as Mr Phibes. He's a phlebotomist. That's it really.
• Avantika as Ophelia. New Coven member.
• Alex Consani as Morwenna. New Coven member.
• Orlando Jones as tbc. No idea who he's playing. 

And that's our principal regular, recurring and guest cast members. There's a few glaring omissions but it could be a case of actor unavailability or perhaps Murphy and company want some surprises to remain hidden until transmission. This feels like a very ambitious season and it could've been a way to end the show altogether. Saying that, I'm glad it's not the end.

AHS13 Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_DGQ0EpPdds

American Horror Story: 13 will air Thursdays at 9pm from September 24th on FX, Hulu and Disney+ respectively.

My Review of Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

 

Written by Jon Watts And Guy Busick And Lori Evans Taylor

Directed by Zach Lipovsky And Adam Stein

William Bludworth: "I intend to enjoy the time I have left, and I suggest you do the same. Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know when... Good luck."

My marathon of this franchise has finally led me to this movie and can I just say, this was really good? It's like the writers looked at what worked with Halloween (2018) and Scream (2022) and implemented it here.

This felt like a legacy sequel with a backstory on one particular character realised quite well. Let's take a trip to 1969 to begin with. That's where this film and now it's making me want a future movie to be a period setting. Anyways, it's there where we met Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger). She's rather significant to things.

She was the one having visions of a sky restaurant she attended with her boyfriend, Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones). It was on the brink of collapse and it was in that very restaurant she saved a boy named J.B. (Jayden Oniah). That boy would grow up to be William Bludworth (Tony Todd). Iris on the other hand would go the Laurie Strode 2018 era route.

Yes, Iris would have children such as Howard (Alex Zahara) and Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) and she'd do a fantastic job in alienating them. Howard and Darlene would find their own partners and go on to have children of their own. In particular, Darlene's estranged daughter, Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) would inherit her grandmother's (Gabrielle Rose) visions and then see her grandmother die in a grisly manner.

Stefani was the protagonist of the piece and it was to her to keep her family alive. This included her brother, Charlie (Teo Briones) as well as cousins Julia (Anna Lore), Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner) and Erik (Richard Harmon). Out of all of them, Erik somewhat stood out the most, given how combative he was with Stefani.

Throwing a nice link to the second movie, the subplot of one of the survivors temporarily dying in order to close up the loop came into play once again. Of course, by the end of the film there was no survivors but at least the Campbell family felt a little more fleshed out compared to past films.

- This was Tony Todd's final appearance in the franchise with the movie dedicated to him.

- Looking at the writers, I just realised one of the writers as also a writer on the recent Scream movies.

- Standout music: Natasha Burnett and Garfield Wilson's version of Shout.

- Chronology: 1969 for the Iris introduction and 2024 for the main events.

Final Destination Bloodlines proved me wrong and also proved that there might be some life left in this franchise. It learned the best lessons from recent requels and delivered an incredibly strong entry. I'm now looking forward to the next one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Final Destination 5 (2011)

Written by Eric Heisserer

Directed by Steven Quale

Sam: "Are you saying we can't stop this?"

Bludworth: "You were supposed to die on that bridge. You're not supposed to be here. You shorted death. So you let death have somebody else in your place, and you take their spot in the realm of the living. All the days and years that they have yet to live. And they take *your* place in death. Then the books are balanced."

I didn't realise that back in 2011 this franchise had a moment that tried to tie events from the first movie into the ending of this one. I mean it kind of worked but how much better would it have been if certain cast members had properly reprised their roles for this one.

Anyways, once again we've got a male protagonist who can see impending death coming a mile off. The guy in question being Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto). Sam's quick thinking saved the lives of his fellow co-workers, Peter Friedkin (Miles Fisher), Candice Hooper (Ellen Wroe), Dennis Lapman (David Koechner), Nathan Sears (Arlen Escarpeta), Olivia Castle (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) and Isaac Palmer (P.J. Byrne). He also saved his ex girlfriend Molly Harper (Emma Bell).

The disaster being a collapsed bridge. The survivors but specifically Sam attracted the attention of both sceptical Agent Jim Block (Courtney B. Vance) and coroner, William Bludworth (Tony Todd). I was happy to see the latter back to being his rather cryptic self. 

Of course death went out of its way to correct the timeline but the one death that stuck out was Olivia's. Now, I have a thing about eyes and watching Olivia being brutally killed after getting LASIK freaked me out big time. One of the most horrible deaths in this franchise and one of the few to make me visibly squirm.

Then there's the final three. Yes, everyone else died with only Sam, Molly and Peter initially surviving the events. Of course, Peter went mad and wanted to kill Molly in order to prolong his own life. Needless to say, it didn't work out that well for him.

Now going back to the first ever movie. I was surprised that Sam and Molly were on that ill fated Flight 180. I just wished they had actually gotten Devon Sawa back for that one scene but I'll admit, it was a great way to end this one.

- Did they intend this to be the last movie in the franchise? The way it linked back to the first movie and the montage to the previous movie kills.

- This was the first movie not to feature female nudity. 

- Standout music: Kansas's Dust In The Wind.

- Chronology: It took place two weeks before the opening scene of the first movie.

Final Destination 5 was the best movie since the first one with some very strong kills and various nods to past movies. If anything, it would've made a good ending to this franchise but horror franchises never truly die.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Final Destination (2009)

 

Written by Eric Bress

Directed by David R. Ellis

Nick: "There's gonna be a huge crash."

Hunt: "Of course there's a crash. There's always a fucking crash."

I'm on the fourth instalment of this franchise and it's the most standalone of the bunch. Also, after two female leads in the previous two films, we've got a new male lead for this one. 

Though not quite as charismatic as Alex Browning, I guess Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) was likable enough. His visionary came into play during a double date at the auto race with girlfriend Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten) and their friends Hunt Wynorski (Nick Zano) and Janet Cunningham (Haley Webb). As usual it played out with Nick seeing impending doom, preventing it and the consequences of cheating death.

Not only did Nick save his girlfriend and friends but he also saved racist driver Carter Daniels (Justin Welborn), mother Samantha Lane (Krista Allen), mechanic Andy Kewzer (Andrew Fiscella) and his girlfriend Nadia Monroy (Stephanie Honoré)  and security guard George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson).

Some of these people were a lot less likable than past survivors. In particular, Carter was one of the least sympathetic survivors in the franchise. His death in particular was somewhat satisfying to watch.

The best scene in the movie was Nick believing that he had cheated the death loop, only for that movie scene with Lori and Janet. Who would've thought that going to the movies would've resulted in death? Aside from Scream 2 of course.

Of course that wasn't the true end. That cinema death obviously got undone. The actual ending itself was more lacklustre by comparison. Probably the most lacklustre ending so far for a protagonist in this franchise.

- Although it's a largely standalone film, there's a very blatant reference to Clear Rivers.

- This is the only film that doesn't feature Tony Todd. His presence was very much missed.

- Standout music: Shinedown's Devour.

- Chronology: It's an unspecified timeline but two weeks later for that last moment.

My least favourite of the franchise so far. The Final Destination isn't terrible but it's a rather bland outing compared to it's predecessor. The movie scene's good though.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of House Of The Dragon: "The Treasons At Tumbleton"

 

Written by Ryan Condal And Ti Mikkel

Directed by Andrij Parekh

Rhaenyra: "I am the Prince That Was Promised."

And just like that, Rhaenyra's on her way to becoming the Mad Queen, losing the good will of the small folk and her crown. This season decided there was some aspects of book Rhaenyra that they wanted to explore after all.

Rhaenyra has been making a lot of questionable choices this season and she really did herself no favours in this finale. Being paranoid about her legacy brought out the worst in her treatment of Helaena. I was pretty shocked with Rhaenyra having Helaena force fed like that. That was brutal.

Speaking of Helaena, that book scene happened but not quite the way it was from the book. I expected her death and it was certainly a way to end the season. Rhaenyra being left with a certain gift from her half sister will increase her madness next season. 

On the plus side, the whole attack on Tumbleton at least gave Rhaenyra one positive. Ormund finally got taken out of the mix with Roderick giving him quite the painful death. A minus would be the loose cannon now known as Ulf. Not only did the latter defect to Team Green but he took a lot of joy in setting Ormund alight with Silverwing. Daemon better take him out quickly.

Keeping with Daemon, he managed to get Rhaenyra back on side, didn't indulge Gwayne's attempts of peace and even wasn't thrilled with Corlys either. Daemon also got a pretty brutal fight scene with Jon before the latter got taken out of the equation.

As for Aegon II and Aemond, I loved their little reunion in this episode. Aemond genuinely couldn't believe that his brother was alive and was eager for forgiveness. Aegon was more determined to reclaim the Iron Throne than kill Aemond, so there was that. I'm still not Team Green but that scene was undeniably funny to watch.

- Baela had every right to call out Rhaenyra the way she did. In fact, she should've went a lot harder like Helaena did. Jeffrey seemed freaked out by his own mother.

- Alicent really is like Teflon because once again, she appeared unscathed after all of the chaos played out.

- Mysaria got the severance package and a relocation to Pentos. She looked pissed off when Rhaenyra declared herself to the small folk.

- Daeron earned the nickname "the daring" but also disappeared with Tessarion. Alys also filled Aemond in on her own backstory.

- Other deaths that occured in the episode included Hugh's wife, Kat and the High Septon that Alyn killed on Rhaenyra's orders.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

The Treasons At Tumbleton isn't the best finale we've had but my God, a lot went down here. So many deaths, Rhaenyra going full blown Mad Queen and she's got so many people coming after her in the final season. Let the chaos unfold.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of My Adventures With Superman: "Vae Victis"

 

Written by Jake Wyatt

Directed by Grace Liu

Jonathan (to everyone): "Like I said. I am Superman."

On to the penultimate episode of the season, we've got two separate plots both fighting for the right amount of screen time. There's the one involving Superman and the one involving everyone else's.

Focusing on the latter one first, Jonathan spent a lot of this episode just getting it wrong. He's openly hostile and unhelpful when Lois tried to mobilise a plan and stop Amanda Waller from having total control of everything. 

I was hoping when a recovered Supergirl got him to come back that Jonathan might have learned to be a better team player. That went out the window when the Eradicator appeared and Jonathan overestimated his abilities. It did lead to a good cliff hanger though.

Then there's Clark and Bizarro. Brainiac had them both and there was something of a Krypton origin story thrown into the mix. Clark was put through a series of tests to prove his worth. This meant attacking the Coluans, which Clark didn't want to do.

It's a good plot that gave more history into Krypton while providing more context into Beainiac's descent into villainy. Saying that, we've got a finale to get to and we need Clark back as Superman pretty sharpish.

- There was nice scenes with Lois and Lara, who the former was able to bond with better than Jonathan.

- Kara and Jimmy had their own nice scenes in this one. 

- Amanda seemed to have a respect for Lois during their scenes and Jimmy even got through to Lex.

- Chronology: From where the last episode left off.

Vae Victis split it's time between two stories that were handled well enough. I do think that I preferred the Clark side of things in this one though.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Final Destination 3 (2006)

 

Written by Glen Morgan And James Wong

Directed by James Wong

Kevin: "Is there something wrong?"

Wendy: "The train..."

Kevin: "Oh Shit! Not again!"

I'm halfway through this franchise and it's all very familiar as to what to expect. If Alex and Kimberly worked as protagonists who were visionaries, then I guess Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) did too.

She's a high school and a night at the amusement park with her boyfriend, Jason Wise (Jesse Moss) and their friends, Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman), Carrie Dreyer (Gina Holden) got chaotic with the inclusion of Ashley Freund (Chelan Simmons) and Ashlyn Halperin (Crystal Lowe), Frankie Cheeks (Sam Easton), Lewis Romero (Texas Battle), and goth couple Ian McKinley (Kris Lemche) and Erin Ulmer (Alexz Johnson).

Yup, they all went on a certain ride in the amusement park that should've killed all of them on the spot but only Jason and Carrie perished while the rest of them survived. Throw in a sisterly rivalry of sorts between Wendy and Julie (Amanda Crew) and things got a bit heavier here.

While Alex and Kimberly spent their respective movies dealing with cynicism on all sides and trying to save lives, they weren't quite as full on about it as Wendy was. She's the ultimate control freak. I guess that made her failure to keep the survivors still alive even worse.

I mean there's some truly horrible deaths in this one but both Ashley and Ashlyn getting barbecued to death in those sunbeds was one of the worst I've seen. The rest are pretty gnarly but they don't really top that one if I'm being honest.

As for Wendy, did this film really kill her off at the end? It seemed to be the end of her and the remaining survivors and it certainly felt fitting, given the events of the film. 

- Tony Todd had a voice cameo as the voice of the Devil/subway train conductor. Cory Monteith and Dustin Milligan had small roles in the movie.

- John Waters listed this as his favourite from this particular franchise. High praise indeed.

- Standout music: Tommy Lee's version of Love Train.

- Chronology: Six years after the events of the first movie and set in Pennsylvania.

Final Destination 3 isn't as good as the first two movies but it had some gruesome kills, an interesting enough use of the Devil and I guess Wendy Christensen made for a decent protagonist.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

Heated Rivalry - Season 2 Begins/Harris and Troy Cast

Yup, the second season of that one show that people haven't stopped talking about since November 2025 has now begun production and there's casting news ahoy.

First up, in terms of new casting fot Heated Rivalry, we have our Harris Drover. Assuming the role of the sports agent will be Justice Smith (I Saw The TV Glow) and it took less than an hour for the hot takes to come in. In the books, the character was depicted as white and on the stocky side of things with the latter being a major plot point. I'm assuming there's going to be major changes to Harris's story that accomdates Smith's casting and while I can understand why some are disappointed, I actually like the casting choice here.

Taking on the role of Troy Barrett would be Charlie Gillespie (Juliet And The Phantoms). The commentary hasn't been as severe on his casting as he's likely closer to the book depiction of the character. Troy's a character who gets caught up in a scandal while getting romantically involved with Harris. Suffice to say the Troy/Harris romance will generate a fair chunk of the screen time for the second season. I'm betting one episode in particular will have the pair very much front and centre.

Now what of our main couple? Don't worry, the second season very much will have Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov at the heart of everything. In the last eight months, we've seen both Hudson Williams and Connor Stories skyrocket in terms of popularity with both men appearing in a slew of upcoming tv and movie projects. The second season will keep Shane/Ilya as the main focus with Troy/Harris as the secondary couple.

As for Scott Hunter (Francois Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie GK), they will also factor into the second season as well. Their romance was so beautifully handled in the first season, I'm glad we're going to see more of them. Especially if it pisses off certain toxic fans who made it their mission to be as horrible to Francois Arnaud for no good reason. I do think their screen time will less but I'll savour every minute of it.

Heated Rivalry Season 2 starts filming from next week. It'll be released on Crave, HBO Max and Sky/Now TV from Spring 2027.

My Review of Carrie (2002)

 

Written by Bryan Fuller

Directed by David Carson

Carrie: "Jesus will help me. He will help me if I really need him."

Margaret: "Not if he doesn't love you anymore."

Carrie: "Jesus loves everybody, Momma - even me!"

As I prepare for the upcoming Amazon Prime miniseries, I went and watched the first of two remakes of the 1976 classic. This one was quite a lot and not entirely in a good way.

It opened with the police interviewing survivors of that particular incident at the prom. It's here where we're introduced to characters such as student Sue Snell (Kandyse McClure) and gym teacher Rita Desjarden (Rena Softer). Yup, two of a certain someone's biggest supporters.

The certain someone being Carrie White (Angela Bettis/Jodelle Ferland). Carrie's story for the most part wasn't too different from what we've seen before. Social outcast, latent powers and of course, having to live with an abusive mother with Margaret White (Patricia Clarkson).

Carrie and Margaret's relationship was explored and this version of the latter was even more unsympathetic than the 1976 version. Her comeuppance at the end was absolutely warranted. I hated this version of the character a lot more than I thought I would.

I also hated the likes of Chris Hargensen (Emilie de Ravin) and her bitchy friends. They certainly upped the nastiness of the character this time around but it also made her a lot less interesting as they did with the rest of her horrible friends.

The movie did succeed with Carrie and Sue's friendship, even if the latter's boyfriend, Tommy Ross (Tobias Mehler) still ended up a casualty. There's a change here to the ending that I'm not sure I particularly like. It's not what I would've done.

- Bryan Fuller, who wrote the script for this would go on to make cult favourites with such shows like Pushing Daisies and Hannibal.

- This is the only version that featured the interviews and the scene with rain rocks in the neighborhood.

- Standout music: Hypnogaja's Outside, Looking In.

- Chronology: Clearly meant to be set in the 2000s. Sue took Carrie to Florida.

I didn't love this version of Carrie (2002) but it had it's moments. Angela Bettis did a good job with the character but this choice of ending was a mixed bag for me.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Final Destination 2 (2003)

 

Written by J. Mackye Gruber And Eric Bress And Jeffrey Reddick

Directed by David R. Ellis 

Kimberly: "I know what I have to do to save us. I have to die."

Following the success of the first movie, a sequel was inevitable and for a second outing, it's here that one of the most talked about moments in this franchise came from this movie. Yup, that scene appeared here.

While there's a sole survivor from the first movie that had a prominent role, this movie was more interested in developing it's new protagonist. It's a college student named Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) and like her predecessor, she had the gift of premonition.

Kimberly didn't waste time in using her gift to prevent multiple deaths from happening. This included characters such as her friends Shaina (Sarah Carter), Dano (Alex Rae) and Frankie (Shaun Sipos). It also included mother and son Nora (Lynda Boyd) and Tim Carpenter (James Kirk) as well as state trooper Thomas Burke (Michael Landes), high school teacher Eugene Dix (T.C. Carson), stoner Rory Peters (Jonathan Cherry), businesswoman Kat Jennings (Keegan Connor Tracy), lottery winner Evan Lewis (David Paetkau) and pregnant delivery driver Isabella Hudson (Justina Machado). 

It's a lot of characters to have actually survived and it's not long before Death was correcting Kimberly by killing off as many people as possible to address the balance. It's also because of this that Kimberly interacted with two people from the first movie. Just not the person I was hoping she would see.

For some annoying reason, this movie had Alex Browning killed off screen but Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) was alive and trying to help Kimberly. Clear also suffered the same fate that most Final Girls do upon entering a sequel. Fortunately, there was also the return of mortician William Bludworth (Tony Todd) who had a handy hint for solving this particular conundrum.

This time around the arrival of Isabella's baby was the key to stopping death. There was also the use of a loop involving Kimberly temporarily dying and then another loop involving the unfortunate Brian (Noel Fisher) somewhat resolved this blood bath.

- Did Alex really get killed by a brick? What an anticlimactic way to write his character.

- Clear was in the same institution that Laurie Strode was in Halloween Resurrection. We could've had a crossover here.

- Standout music: The Sounds Dance With Me.

- Chronology: This movie took place a year after the events of the first movie. Kimberly was heading to Daytona. 

Final Destination 2 made for a surprisingly good sequel with some nice kills and a decent protagonist in Kimberly. On reflection, I enjoyed this more than I remembered.

Rating: 7 out of 10