Doctor Who - 60th Anniversary News, Series 14 Writers Announced And Series 15 Begins Filming

It really is the bestest time to be a Doctor Who fan, especially as we're less than a month away from the 60th anniversary and the news keeps trickling in.

Anyways where to begin.

First of all, the exact dates for The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle have been confirmed. Fans can see David Tennant's 14th Doctor and Catherine Tate's Donna Noble from November 25th to December 9th with a DVD box set of the specials scheduled for December 11th.

Meanwhile some further shoots were done for this year's Christmas special, which will mark the first proper debut for Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday. Filming for Series 14 has completed.

Also for a while now, I've been wondering when we were going to get confirmation of any other writers for Series 14 and this afternoon that's exactly what happened. Loki director Kate Herron and her writing partner Briony Redman will be co-writing an episode together. The episode will be the sixth one, featuring Jonathan Groff and Indira Varma.

However if that wasn't exciting enough, how about Series 15 not only being confirmed but actually filming? Yup, it started filming yesterday with Ncuti Gatwa confirmed to be returning for his second series. No word on Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday but it's likely she will be back too.

Directors also confirmed for Series 15 are Alex Pillai and Peter Hoar for now. Series 15 will also comprise of a Christmas special for 2024 and eight episodes for 2025 respectively.

Last but not least, if you've been missing Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3, well it's coming but now it'll be known as Doctor Who Unleashed. Hosted by Steffan Powell, each episode will be 30 minutes long and will air after each new episode of Doctor Who.

Keeping with some extra goodies, a recent concert for the series 60th anniversary revealed the theme tunes for the 15th Doctor and Ruby Sunday while David Tennant will be presenting a Doctor Who documentary on BBC4 on November 1st. The same month will include a watchalong of Series 4 on the 4th. Like I said, it's the best time to be a Doctor Who fan. 

The 60th anniversary specials will air from November 25th to December 9th on both BBC1 and Disney+ while novelisations will be released from January 11th 2024.

My Review of Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey (2023)

 

Written And Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield

Christopher: "Pooh, please stop this! Take me instead! Why are you doing this?"

Pooh: "You left."

I swore months ago that I was never going to watch this film and yesterday, out of boredom, I broke said promise and caved in. If there was an award for strangest movie experience in this year, it would go this film.

With Winnie The Pooh now in the public domain, it didn't take long for this horror themed version to surface and to be honest, it does look as cheaply shot as the trailer indicated. It's also something else.

The movie's strength is it's weak willed and cowardly protagonist Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon). As a kid, he befriended the creatures of 100 Acre Woods. Then he grew up, forgot his friends, went to college, trained to be a doctor and got himself a wife named Mary (Paula Coiz).

Returning to his childhood sanctuary, Christopher learned that things had changed for the worst. Notably that his former friends Winnie the Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and Piglet (Chris Cordell) had abandoned their love for humanity and went feral with poor Eeyore being one of their first victims.

The return of Christopher only enraged the feral pair and they wasted no time brutally killing Mary and keeping Christopher as a tied up plaything that Pooh took too much pleasure in torturing. It's the focus on the feral duo and Christopher and that broken friendship were the movie worked the best.

What didn't work were the addition of a group of women who's only sole purpose were to be killed off, one by one and quite harshly too. There's an attempt to flesh some of them out as characters (lesbian couple, woman dealing with a stalker, etc) but if anything, they bog the story down. 

It's the scenes with Pooh and Christopher at the end though that ended the movie on a clear sequel set up. A sequel that's currently filming but as good as the acting was from Nikolai Leon, Christopher might be a cute Final Guy but he's definitely one that needs to be better tackled in the sequel. Still better than the female characters in this movie.

- They used animation decently in some flashbacks I'll admit. Pooh and Piglet however just looked like blokes in masks.

- Christopher literally got whipped with Eeyore's tail in a scene that was as BDSM as you can get in a non Hellraiser movie.

- Tigger was supposed to appear in this movie but will be in the sequel with Owl and several recasts.

- Chronology: I'm assuming 2023 for the majority of the movie.

Okay, I'll admit that I didn't hate Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey as much as I thought. I mean, it's still pretty bad but oddly fascinating and if they just had just scrapped the secondary plot, I think a better movie would've emerged. 

Rating: 5 out of 10

My Review of Fright Night (1985)

 

Written And Directed by Tom Holland

Jerry (to Charley/Peter): "Welcome to ... Fright Night ... for real."

To add some more bite to this October month, I went back and decided to rewatch this movie from 1985. It's one of the best vampire movies of all time and nearly forty years later, it still holds up so well.

Premise wise, it's fairly simple stuff. Teenage boy Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a fan of a horror show named Fright Night hosted by former movie vampire hunter Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall). Then the lines of fiction and reality begin to blur for Charley.

The reality being that Charley and his mother, Judy (Dorothy Fielding) got themselves new neighbours in the enigmatic Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) and his manservant/boyfriend, Billy Cole (Jonathan Stark). It also didn't take long for a few deaths to tip Charley off that Jerry's a vampire.

It's just a pity for a large portion of the movie that no one believes Charley, including his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) and sort of friend, Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffrey's) - the latter who's fairly gay coded. It's also both Amy and Evil Ed who fall victim to Jerry as the latter goes out of his way to destroy Charley for being a nuisance.

It's also up to Charley to enlist the cynical Peter Vincent to work together in order to defeat Jerry and his acolytes, one by one. It's a tense enough battle with a subplot about Amy resembling a former lover of Jerry's being somewhat underdeveloped. Saying that, Amanda Bearse is more fun as a vampire than a human, even if it's reversed by the end.

Less fortunate are Evil Ed and Billy who provide the only meaningful casualties of the movie. In the end, Peter Vincent has his faith renewed while Charley defeats Jerry and gets back with Amy. However there's a new neighbour and who knows what they're going to provide for Charley.

- Peter Vincent is a not so subtle but fantastic nonetheless homage to horror icons Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

- There's a sequel, remake and unrelated remake sequel I will get around to reviewing.

- Standout music: Nice use of Frank Sinatra's Strangers In The Night.

- Chronology: Set in Iowa during 1985. 

Fright Night remains one of the best vampire movies ever. It's silly, it's scary, it's a little bit sexy and it's endlessly fun from start to finish. What more could you want from a vampire movie?

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Haunted Mansion (2023)

 

Written by Katie Dippold

Directed by Justin Simien

Father Kent: "This mansion is unhinged. She needs all the help she can get. You wanna be a hero?"

Ben: "Pass."

For some strange reason, Disney thought it would be an excellent idea to release this movie during the summer. Needless to say that strategy didn't exactly work for them, though sending it to Disney+ for Halloween month was a smart move.

This is a film you want to watch this month and not during the summer. It's also a film marred with some very mixed reviews and while it's not the slam dunk for Disney that Hocus Pocus 2 managed to be, it's actually fairly enjoyable.

It helps that there's a few protagonists to take an active interest in as well. You've got astrophysicist Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) turned cynical tour guide following the death of his wife, Alyssa (Charity Jordan). He's not a believer in the supernatural whatsoever, so it's up to several other characters to get him on board with that.

The other characters/protagonists being a mother and son named Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and Travis (Chase W. Dillon) who bought into the haunted mansion of the piece - the Gracey Manor and are plagued by ghosts. There's also hints of a potential romance between Ben and Gabbie but mostly he's a help towards her son moving past his own grief.

Along with the mother and son duo, Tiffany Haddish,Danny DeVito and Owen Wilson provide a lot of the comedy with their respect roles. A genuine psychic in Harriet, an amusing college professor in Bruce Davies and a conman who does step up as a hero in Father Kent. The three of them are actually a delight to watch while Jamie Lee Curtis has her moments in her limited screen time as Madame Leota.

On the minus side, Jared Leto's performance as the villain of the piece - The Hatbox Ghost aka Alistair Crump was more of a mixed bag. Compared to other infamous villain he's played in recent times, it was better but overall, it's one of the weaker performances in this movie.

- Nice cameo appearances from Winona Ryder, Hasan Minhaj and Daniel Levy in very small roles.

- We got the Disney 100 logo at the start of the movie. 

- The product placement in this movie is certainly over the top but oddly amusing in some scenes.

- Chronology: I'm assuming it's 2023 for the majority of this movie.

Haunted Mansion wasn't the success story that Disney and the poor release date really did screw over an entertaining enough spooky-ish tale. It's not the best adaptation but it's not the worst either. A diverting enough way to spend two hours.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x09: "Immortimas Patrol"

 

Written by Aliza Berger And Talia Berger

Directed by Omar Madha

Immortus (to the Doom Patrol): "Now, my question was - what are you all grateful for?"

You know, Halloween night be less than a fortnight away but this show decided as it headed towards its final episodes that a Christmas episode was the order of the day. My mistake, I mean an Immortimas Day episode. That also happens to be a musical as well.

The show has given us a few musical numbers, with two of the most memorable ones coming from the first season but could a whole episode sustain the madness of a musical? Of course it can and in such style too.

We open with the sex ghosts providing back up vocals for a very happy Dorothy, followed by Jane and Casey, whose friendship has certainly taken a turn this episode. It's also not long before Larry, Cliff, Victor, Rita and Laura are all in on the singing antics of the most joyful day ever.

However we all know that Immortimas Day's a crock and keeping with last episode, it's Laura who quickly realised that everything was a lie. Then she has a task persuading everyone else with Rita being the last one to realise that the greatest day's a big lie.

With everyone aware of the big lie, there's that divide between wanting to escape the lie or remain in it. Cliff was mostly in the latter category. Having Isabel at dinner to celebrate herself might have gone well had everyone decided they were done playing pretend.

Now the musical numbers in this episode are fantastic but have you ever seen or heard something as salty as Isabel telling the Doom Patrol that they're doomed anyways? It's salty as fuck and it's also the reason why she refused to kill them. I guess they're doomed then.

- Not only do we have Larry/Rama officially as a couple to everyone but this episode heavily pushed Jane/Casey as a romantic pairing too. Things went slightly backwards with Rita/Laura though.

- Dorothy included a ginger bread Niles for her house, which was rather sweet.

- Standout music: I'm gonna say in ranking of performances - Larry/Rama, Isabel, Jane/Casey, Victor, Cliff, Rita/Laura and Dorothy/opening song.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Immortimas Patrol has officially become my favourite episode of the series and one of the best musical episodes from any series at all. It's just fantastic from start to finish with every single actor bringing their A game to proceedings. 

Rating: 10 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Story: Delicate - Preech

Written by Halley Feiffer

Directed by John J. Gray

Ms Preecher (to Virginia): "Your son is in grave danger and so is his wife."

Given that we're going to be waiting a while until the remaining four episodes of this season actually film, let alone air, this was an episode that needed to provide a few answers to the main plots. Sadly it didn't really do that.

Except for Ms Io Preecher. This episode made it crystal clear that she's actually on Anna's side, but her failure to communicate this to Anna is on her. Still at least she tried to get Virginia on side by warning her about Dex pissing off them. I assume it's Dex and that Adeline was a former member of that organisation, which she abandoned for Dex.

Speaking of Adeline, it was nice that Anna openly confronted Sonia over the resemblance she has to Adeline. Sonia denied knowing Adeline and likewise, Nicolette denied knowing either Sonia or Adeline. Nicolette's clearly lying but why? What connection does she really have with Sonia/Adeline?

Keeping with the lies, Anna and Dex had it out with each other and he admitted to not believing anything she's been saying. He had a similarly dismissive stance with his mother tol as she went about her trial and pissed off "them" too.

Then there was Siobhan and Hamish. Their arrangement is fascinating to watch. Hamish clearly repulses Siobhan but she's willing to tolerate a dinner as part of their deal. However while Hamish started asking the right questions about Siobhan's motives, this episode frustratingly failed to deliver any answers on the matter.

Instead we got Babette Eno back to win a Golden Globe and then get decapitated in a car crash. Oh, that happened right Anna told Siobhan that she wanted an Oscar as much as a baby. I'm guessing that Anna's just made a deal she won't be able to back out of when the season does resume.

- Anna accused Cora of sexual assault and Dex didn't believe her. Harvey Weinstein was also name dropped in the episode. Taylor Schilling also had a cameo as a Golden Globe host.

- Preecher gave her own baby away for the patent on the Preech bags. 

- Kamal's wife is a fan of Anna's Vogue cover, Dr Hill has a son that didn't get into a college and Sonia's mother was violent towards her. Nicolette also only does what Talia instructs her in regards to how she addresses people.

- Sonia claimed not to be wearing the green heels, so who was wearing them?

- Anna puked up some nasty stuff before she was grabbed, drugged and then found out about Babette's death.

- Chronology: 1987 Manhattan for the Preecher flashbacks and 2023 Hamptons for everything else. 

Preech made for an okay mid season finale but while we got one or two little answers, it feels like more questions were asked along the way. It's going to be a hell of a while before we get back to this, so I do hope it's worth it.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Witches Of Eastwick (1987)

 

Written by Michael Cristofer

Directed by George Miller

Alexandra: "Who are you?"

Daryl: "Just your average horny little devil."

Keeping up with the appropriate themed movies for this month, I thought I'd delve a little further back with this movie from 1987. Based on John Updike's book of the same name, it's an adaptation that takes things in a few different directors.

First of all our ladies themselves are physically different from their book description and one character's darker side was a bit toned down. However, that to one side, the performances from the four leads are sublime.

The Witches in question are three ordinary women living in the picturesque town of Eastwick, Rhode Island. We've got music teacher Jane Spofford (Susan Sarandon), sculptor Alexandra Medford (Cher) and journalist Sukie Ridgemont (Michelle Pfeiffer). All three of them have had their problems with men and all three are desperate to meet the right one, regardless of certain anatomy size.

The three also seemed to be mostly unaware of being witches, brushing off earlier incidents as coincidences but the arrival of the mysterious Daryl Van Horne (Jack Nicholson) soon has the three women coming into their power as they get deeply involved with Daryl. 

Of course with their growing power and confidence, there's als outside forces that pick up on their corruption. Notably nosy neighbour Felicia Alden (Veronica Cartwright), the wife of Sukie's boss Clyde (Richard Jenkins). However she's quickly and quote grossly dealt with due to puking up cherries she didn't even consume.

It's Felicia's death, Sukie nearly dying and all three women ending up pregnant by Darryl that see things take a turn. Darryl might have overestimated the women a bit too much and it's him that winds up a cropper when they bind their powers together in order to cast him out. Then they raise his babies in his luxury house, free with a manservant while Daryl remained trapped in the TV. 

- The book had the women with different hair colours and the movie nixed the subplot with Jenny and her brother, Christopher. We lost out on bisexual Darryl.

- There's a sequel book called The Widows Of Eastwick and I'm surprised that hasn't been developed into a movie or show.

- Standout music: Pavarotti's version of Nessun Dorma. 

- Chronology: It's an 1980s setting, unlike the 1970s set source material.

The Witches Of Eastwick might deviate a fair bit from the source material but it's a fun adaptation with Susan Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jack Nicholson all having the time of their lives with the script and just delivering sublime performances throughout. The ending's a tad rushed but everything else worked brilliantly.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Unwelcome (2023)

 

Written by Mark Stay And Jon Wright

Directed by Jon Wright

Jamie (to Maya): "It's always felt like the two of us against the world."

You know there are times when you see a film has overwhelmingly negative reviews, so you assume it's bad? Then you end up watching it and you wonder what movie said critics watched because your own take away differed.

Unwelcome was one of those movies for me. I'm not gonna declare this to be an unsung classic but this movie pleasantly surprised me more than I expected it to. I really cared about the two leads, which always helps when watching anything. 

The leads in question being a young married couple named Jamie (Douglas Booth) and Maya (Hannah John-Kamen). The movie opened with the pair living in a tiny flat in a London estate and their joy about being expectant parents being somewhat marred by a home invasion.

Then some time passed and Jamie inherited a nice house in an unspecified part of Ireland that both him and Maya jump at the chance to move into. They got the house due to Jamie's aunt dying and neighbour/local pub landlady Niamh (Niamh Cusack) quickly informed the pair that the local Redcaps needed to be given an offering every night.

I have to admit to not being as familiar with Redcaps but the movie wasted little time in bringing both Jamie and Maya up to speed on the mischievous/bloodthirsty creatures. Mostly it's Maya who believed in them. It literally took Jamie almost to the end of the movie to realise that they existed.

Along with the Redcaps, the couple also had to deal with Daddy Whelan (Colm Meaney) and his aggressive kids Eoin (Kristian Nairn), Aisling (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) and Killian (Chris Walley). As characters, they do feel like stereotypes at times but they're decent antagonists for Jamie and Maya until they fall afoul of the Redcaps.

As for the remainder of the movie, Maya gave birth and the Redcaps nearly claimed her daughter while the revelation of what happened to the child of Jamie's aunt became apparent. The ending of this movie was rather bloody as Maya took on quite the character development.

- This is the second Irish based horror film that Jon Wright has done, following Grabbers from 2012.

- Despite being predominantly set in Ireland, this was all filmed in London.

- The Redcaps were played by actors Paul Warren, Rick Warden and various stunt people. Redcaps were also referred to as the Far Darrig.

- Chronology: Set in current day Ireland. 

Unwelcome for me turned out to be a far more rewarding viewing experience than I guess for others. It's not deep, elevated horror but it has certain weighty themes that are executed well enough, sympathetic leads, cool looking antagonists and a very interesting ending. I really enjoyed this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

 

Written by Scott Teems And Danny McBride And David Gordon Green

Directed by David Gordon Green

The Demon: "One girl lives, one girl dies."

With a film as iconic as The Exorcist, it's follow ups really haven't hit the spot. Only the TV series has had some acclaim and even that only managed two seasons. Surely, Blumhouse, fresh off the success of their recent Halloween trilogy can breathe some vigor into this franchise. 

Well, kind of. Critics haven't been especially as kind to this movie as they were with Blumhouse's efforts with Michael Myers but I digress. This movie's the start of an intended trilogy for this franchise and even I'll admit it's off to a rocky start.

Our protagonists of the piece are actually several characters, notably single father, Victor Felding (Leslie Odom Jr.) and religious parents Miranda (Jennifer Nettles) and Tony (Nortbert Leo Butz). Yup, it's their daughters Angela (Lidya Jewett) and Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) that find themselves possessed by a demon when an idea of theirs goes horribly wrong.

With both girls possessed and both parents largely out of their depth on the matter, it's former nun turned nurse Ann (Ann Dowd) who suggested the return of Chris MacNeill (Ellen Burstyn) to try and help the girls. Unfortunately the inclusion of Chris was where things were at their weakest in the movie.

Not only was the character poorly utilised but she was absolutely out of her depth when confronted with the possessed Angela. She was easily distracted by her failures with Regan (Linda Blair) and got her eyes gouged out. In a lot of ways this movie would've been better off not featuring the character at all as she's more of an hindrance than anything else.

The movie does however pick up in its third act where both girls survival is taken to the utmost extreme. Only one family get their child back while the other doesn't and it's this outcome that ended the movie on a rather bittersweet note, along with a much welcomed cameo towards the end of the movie.

- The sequel, which is called The Exorcist: Deceiver will be released April 18th 2025.

- Regan showed up for one brief scene to reunite with Chris at the end. She was mad about Chris writing a book on her possession.

- Ann is probably the only character who should be in this trilogy going forward, though I did like Father Maddox (EJ Bonilla).

- Chronology: I'm assuming 2023, given the current timeline.

The Exorcist: Believer isn't quite as bad as some critics have been falling over themselves to make out but it certainly could've been better. The general story felt like a watered down remix of the original and Chris as a character was badly written. Saying that, it's certainly better than other entries we've had in this franchise.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th (2009)

 

Written by Damien Shannon And Mark Swift

Directed by Marcus Nispel

Whitney: "Jason, say hi to Mommy ... in hell."

After eleven movies and an unrelated TV series co-opting the franchise name, where else could this franchise go? Of course, it was time for a remake.

Like both Halloween and A Nightmare On Elm Street, while this would be a financially smart thing to do, quality wise, this ain't good. It ain't good at all. In fact, it's a fucking stinker of a remake.

I mean it tried it's danmdest to do something interesting by not being a cut and paste job of the original movie and it still dropped the ball. The movie opened with a younger Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guess) witnessing the beheading of his mother, Pamela (Nana Visitor). Then we jump to thirty years later.

In that time, more unruly young adults rock up at Crystal Lake, having sex with each other and trying to score weed. Jason (Derek Meats) dispatched of all, except one girl named Whitney (Amanda Righetti) and all because she bore a passing resemblance to Jason's mother.

However it's not Whitney who's our main protagonist but her brother, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki)  who ventured into Crystal Lake to find his sister. He's mostly helped by the rather competent Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) while incurring the wrath of Jenna's conceited boyfriend, Trent (Travis Van Winkle).

The rest of the film follows the usual pattern. Brother and sister are reunited, second group of campers are cannon fodder, Jason gets creative with his kids and the ending has a throwback to the original movie. It just goes through the motions. 

- A sequel was originally planned for 2010 but got cancelled. Now we're getting a streaming show based on Crystal Lake as a prequel.

- This movie does seem to cherry pick elements from the sequels as well, just not very well.

- Even test audiences thought this movie went overboard with the sex scenes. 

- Chronology: I'm assuming 2009 for the majority of the movie to line up with it's release date.

Friday The 13th is a truly horrible excuse for a remake and not even Jared Padalecki as a likeable protagonist can salvage it. As a whole, this franchise really did fall apart from 1989 onwards. I hope one day it can get the revival it deserves.

Rating: 4 out of 10

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x08: "Fame Patrol"

 

Written by Eric Dietel

Directed by Bosede Williams

Isabel/Immortus (to TV presenter): "Where have I been? I guess you could say I was lost in the fabric of reality."

That's one way to put. Also who knew that Immortus would be something of a sour puss over the Doom Patrol? This episode took saltiness to a new level with not wanting to share the spotlight.

The Doom Patrol in question were splintered themselves this week over dealing with Isabel/Immortus. Larry was all for leaving them alone while Rita had more bloodthirsty designs. However it was Laura who kept noticing that something was amiss with things.

Such as every time that Isabel/Immortus would have an outburst and then rewind the scene again. However with the mayor more interested in celebrating the Doom Patrol than the lost Isabel, it didn't stop Immortus from letting out one hell of a scream during the parade.

As for the rest of the episode, it was fun seeing characters paired off with each other. Fans of Larry and Rama got the pair helping each other out and some lovely romantic overtones with the duo. Let them have a happy ending, damn it.

Then there was Dorothy doing her best to help both Casey and Cliff. She somewhat succeeded on both counts while Casey and Jane even got some great scenes together. Still though, Cliff's Parkinson's is worsening, Jane can't find her way in the Underground and Larry's still dying.

Last but not least, Victor also got some choice moments with Derek and Rita. Both of whom reminded Victor that he wanted more than Cyborg and he had more to give. Overall, the character moments in this episode were sublime.

- Cliff let the group know while they were on the parade float that the zombie butt was on the loose. Jane reacted accordingly.

- Dorothy tried to get Cliff to use Niles's chair, only for the latter to tell her he ignored her father's ghost. She also tried to give Casey her father's ship.

- Casey can enter Jane's head, which the latter didn't like one bit. She also arranged the puzzle pieces in colour order.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Fame Patrol had fun with the idea of our misfits getting a small but loyal following to the outrage of the main antagonist. It also delivered several fantastic character moments throughout the episode itself.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Jason X (2001)

 

Written by Todd Farmer

Directed by Jim Isaac

Brodski: "What's going on?"

Rowan: "Jason fucking Voorhees. That's what's going on."

In the last two movies, both New York and Hell were the main setting or should've been as neither were utilised for a plethora of reasons. Can this venture into space buck the missed opportunity trend? Kind of, but there's still enough to disappoint along the way.

We open with a slight jump into the future considering this movie's release where the only smart person in the room, Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig) has to remind every other idiot in there not to fuck around with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder). They don't listen, Rowan gets stabbed and both her and Jason wind up frozen.

Then we cut to over 400 years later and the Earth is inhabitable. However there's an Earth II and we're on a crew ship where you guessed it, both Rowan and Jason wake up. Rowan also learned that 400+ years into the future and there scientists daft enough to still think they can mess around with Jason without consequences. Some lessons clearly don't get passed.

Not only does Rowan and this mostly incompetent crew (minus an android named KM14, played by Lisa Ryder) have to deal with Jason but they have to also deal with a cyborg version of the character. Yup, two Jasons for the price of one movie here. Sort of. 

Anyways it's mostly a fight to deal between the crew and Cyborg Jason with a hologram harkening back to the latter's days at Crystal Lake provided enough of a means to defeat him this time. Saying that, Jason's never truly gone as the ending for this one indicated yet again.

- This franchise seems to have some of the dullest romance subplots with KM14 and Tsunaron (Chuck Campbell) being painfully yawn inducing.

- Both Peter Mensah (Brodski) and David Cronenberg (Dr Wimmer) are very much wasted here.

- While this movie actually flopped theatrically, it did make money through physical releases.

- Chronology: We start in 2008 while the majority of the movie takes place in 2455.

Jason X isn't quite as horrible as I expected it to be and that's largely down to Lexa Doig giving a good performance as Rowan and the movie making decent use of it's environment. Still though, it's a bit of messy with a largely poor supporting cast. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x07: "Orqwith Patrol"

 

Written by Tamara Becher-Wilkinson And Bob Barth 

Directed by Bosede Williams

Rita: "There could be anything on the other side of this."

Laura: "Our friends are on the other side."

It's been far too long since the first half of this final season had aired and with scant promotion, there's a feeling of (HBO) Max just getting it out of the way. A shame, because I am going to miss this show.

Since we last left off, the majority of our main players (and Derek) were stranded on Orqwith. Every main player minus Cliff had lost their longevity and Wally Sage was a problem connected to Immortus. Caught up now? 

Now we got an episode with three connecting plots. First of all there's Rita and Laura who managed to escape the Ant Farm. For a brief moment, it appeared as though Rita and Laura were going to take a step backwards in their improving relationship. Then they banded together, got drunk and made their way to Orqwith to save the day. Mixed results there.

Then there was Jane and Cliff. The latter being tempted by Wally to surrender his longevity and caving in with the former doing her best to stop him. At least ast Jane did try her best.

As for Victor and Derek, both got some badass moments while the former also gave a real account about his time as Cyborg. Larry on the other hand seemed determined to remain in Orqwith in order to be a better parent to Keeg.

Of course it's the arrival of Dorothy and Casey where Wally's big prophecy came into effect and Immortus arrived in the shape of Isobel Feathers. Rita wasn't the only one surprised by that outcome.

- Laura wasn't wrong about Rita being a serial killer. Let's say this episode certainly gave shippers more to enjoy with the pair.

- The farting donkey from the first season was called Peanut Butter.

- Rama was a no show here. Hope he's back soon.

- Chronology: Not long from where the last episode left off.

Orqwith Patrol was a little bit shorter than expected but made for a solid mid season opener. The Rita and Laura scenes were the biggest highlight though. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Halloween - Miramax Acquire Rights For Movie And TV Franchise

I mentioned this last month but now we have concrete factors. The Halloween franchise just got a little more expansive. Or it will.

Yesterday it was confirmed that Miramax in a deal with Trancas have not only bagged the movie rights (again) but also the TV rights to this franchise. On top of that, they're planning a cinematic universe. 

Oh look, Halloween Ends really wasn't the end for Michael Myers after all.

You really can't keep the Boogeyman down for long.

Now this personally excites me more than it should. I know one are fatigued by this franchise but I'm happy to see more. I said in a previous blog that any potential TV series should go down the anthology route and I'm going to repeat that again. It's the best place for that idea to successfully land while also retaining some connective tissue to Michael Myers and Haddonfield in general.

As for the next movie, again, keep it simple and have Michael Myers at the forefront terrorising mostly new characters. If there has to be a past link, then it makes sense for it to be Dr Loomis. Surely there's a relative of his that can be a new foil for Michael. 

Other than that, let's see how this cinematic universe fares over the next few years.

My Review of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

 

Written by Jay Huguely And Adam Marcus And Dean Lorey

Directed by Adam Marcus

Coroner (re Jason): "My professional opinion: this guy's deader than shit. Ha ha ha ha ha. Um, strike that last comment from the record."

With the last movie somewhat being a missed opportunity in the Big Apple, this movie's title made a promise that it straight up didn't really keep either. Yup, another disappointment incoming.

The movie opened with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) back at Crystal Lake chasing down a young woman (Julie Michaels). Only this time around, it's Jason who's about to be the victim in this scenario as the woman's revealed to be an FBI agent and Jason's flanked down and killed by more agents.

Yup, he's dead. Surely the movie then took an actual trip to Hell to see how Jason would fare. Nope, instead he somehow managed to manipulate a coroner into eating his heart and possessing him instead. Yeah, that's the plot here.

Also after previous movies making references to other family members, Jason suddenly has a half sister named Diana Kimble (Erin Kimble) but she doesn't survive long enough to care about her. However Jason does need to possess a blood relative in order to regain his strength and live again.

That's where Diana's daughter, Jessica (Kari Keegan) factored into things. However for most of this movie, it's largely Jessica's baby daddy Steven (John D. LeMay) and bounty hunter Creighton Duke (Steven Williams) that have a bigger emphasis as characters than Jessica. It doesn't help that both are arguably more interesting than her.

Granted, Jessica does improve towards the third but between a shitty TV reporter boyfriend, Robert (Steven Culp) and being overly hostile towards Steven at first, I found the character somewhat grating. However she's the key to Jason's demise here and does take him out in a relatively cool way.

- The movie set up a crossover with Freddy Krueger that literally wouldn't happen until after we got both Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Jason X.

- Creighton might have had a little too much fun in testing Steven's desperation for information on Jason.

- This was the first film in the series that New Line had the rights to, also explaining the switch up in titles as well.

- Chronology: I'm guessing the 1990s as this was the only film from this franchise released in that decade.

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday has its moments but it's a continuing downward trend of poor movies. The family angle feels a tad too late and compared to other franchises that played with the angle in later movies, it's just poorly handled. Also we should've actually seen Jason in hell.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

 

Written And Directed by Rob Hedden

Rennie (re Jason): "Look, you don't understand. There is a maniac trying to kill us."

Waitress: "Welcome to New York."

After seven movies of Crystal Lake being the hotbed of terror from Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), his mommy and a copycat killer for that one movie, this movie traded a cursed campsite for the Big Apple. Let's just say the results are not that great.

First of all, I don't mind a departure from Crystal Lake but you can definitely tell that the budget wasn't really large enough for them to get the best movie based in one of the most iconic cities in the way. Still though, it tries to have a good time.

Sadly though, it's largely very flat. Anyways electricity in the water frees/revives Jason and he's soon stowed away on a boat called the SS Lazarus with a bunch of teenagers and their chaperones. You can see where this is going.

The teenagers are either having sex with each other or being mean to the new protagonist of the movie. This one being a young girl named Rennie (Jensen Daggett) who has a well meaning but not very helpful guardian in Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman). The same guardian who in one bizarre gets honey trapped by a bitchy student before Jason killed her off.

For the most part, it's really the SS Lazarus that's the central hub of the film, which does help to add a certain amount of claustrophobic tension on board as Jason dispatched of most of the very bland support cast here.

Rennie does have an ally in her boyfriend Sean (Scott Reeves) and yet again, there's a belief of Jason being done for good. Except it's very short-lived given that the movie ended with him being very much alive in New York - a city we don't really see enough of here.

- Despite it's title, it was largely filmed in Vancouver with some stuff filmed in New York and Los Angeles.

- Ken Kirzinger actually appeared in this one. He'd later play Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason. 

- The New York Tourism Committee weren't impressed with some of the marketing for this one.

- Chronology: Unspecified time since the previous one.

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan on paper sounded like a great idea. It's just a shame the script is mostly bad and the budget constraints limited it's overall potential. Such a missed opportunity.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Story: Delicate - Vanishing Twin

 

Written by Halley Feiffer

Directed by John J. Gray

Virginia (to Dex): "Jesus has nothing to do with it. Satan does."

Ooh, with a few choice scenes and some new introductions, this feels like we're moving somewhere exciting now. Of course this season was going to link its way to both Coven and Apocalypse. They've been telegraphing it for a bit now.

Opening with a true departure for the show, we got to 1555 England where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to a baby and handed it over to two creepy bird headdress ladies, played by stalwarts Billie Lourd and Leslie Grossman. Oh and they made Queen Elizabeth I barren too.

Cut to the present day and Anna's been hauled into Siobhan's office where the Ashleys aka Ashley (Billie Lourd) and Ashleigh (Leslie Grossman) have the best idea to revive Anna's award chances. Yup, it's a feminist themed reel, which despite being written as a straight up parody actually seems to work.

It's not the only good fortune for Anna as it turns out that she's still pregnant. Saying that, it doesn't help that she's still not being taken seriously by Dex and yeah, there was that gross final cene where Anna ate a rotting raccoon. I had to look away during that scene.

As for Dex, he's still a crappy husband who seems to barely tolerate Anna but he try to defend her a few times against his mother, Virginia (Debra Monk). Virginia however was more memorable for talking about Satanic abuse by her ex-husband. Yes, we're getting Satan stuff.

In general it seems that babies are being used to make deals for success. In this episode alone we saw that with the opening flashback and also in a tense conversation between Siobhan and Hamish. I should've seen their arrangement a mile off, give the way she was with him at the Gotham awards.

- Ivy showed up to creep Anna out in the parking or but there was a lack of Ms Preecher this week.

- Nicolette does seem to have some boundary issues and it's interesting she's only interacted with Anna so far.

- Dr Hill was a little too shocked that Anna might have been carrying twins. He did explain the episode's title though to Anna and Dex.

- I wonder if the Ashleys are aware that there's two witches currently alive that look just like them.

- Did they edit this episode to reference "repost" instead of "retweet" lol?

- Chronology: 1555 England as well as the present day. 

Vanishing Twin delivered one of the best opening scenes that the show has ever done and ended with one of the most disgusting scenes as well. That's the beauty of the show and there was a lot to enjoy here.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

 

Written by Manuel Fidello And Daryl Haney

Directed by John Carl Buechler

Nick: "Jason? Where's Jason?"

Tina (re her father): "He took care of it."

After three movies with an ever changing Tommy Jarvis, it was time for the franchise to go back to a female protagonist. One I should point seemed maybe a bit too influenced by Carrie but at least it meant that Jason would have a challenge.

Following the events of the previous movie with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) at the bottom of Crystal Lake, we all knew that he wouldn't remain there. Very quickly into this movie a telepathic girl named Tina Shepard (Jennifer Banko) would cause the death of her abusive father by inadvertently summoning Jason from his watery resting place.

Then we cut to Tina, now played by Lar Park Lincoln who's a young woman being largely manipulated by her mother's new boyfriend, Dr Crews (Terry Wiser) who takes too much of an interest in triggering Tina to a ridiculous degree. Fortunately her mother, Amanda (Susan Blu) does wise up to Crews exploitative nature and does try to protect Tina from him.

Unfortunately for Amanda, she's also one of the many kills by Jason in this movie but on the plus side, so the horrible boyfriend and the mean spirited girl who antagonised Tina in the movie. On a plus side for Tina, she also has Nick (Kevin Blair) as a love interest and co-protagonist in the movie.

Yes, it's really up to the pair of them as Jason does his usual mass murders around Crystal Lake. I'll admit that Tina's powers are rather cool and it's interesting that for the second movie in a row Jason's just trapped underwater rather than outright killed. Tina's a fairly decent main character to follow Tommy.

- Had things been different this movie wouldve been a crossover with Freddy Krueger. We'd get that fifteen years later though.

- Tina was initially meant to recur but like other Final Girls in this franchise, this was a one time movie for her.

- This was the first time we had movies with three horror icons in the same year, albeit with mixed results.

- Chronology: Three months, then seven years from the events of the previous movie.

Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood isn't quite the disaster it's reputation led me to believe but it's a bit of a comedown after the Tommy Jarvis trilogy though. I'm being generous so let's say it's fairly middling stuff.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

 

Written And Directed by Tom McLoughlin

Lizabeth (re Jason): "I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."

Ah, the last part of the Tommy Jarvis trilogy and the first noteworthy thing would be that he's regenerated again. This time it's Thom Mathews in the role and Tommy's not the only one getting a regeneration here.

After sitting out the events of the last movie, it was wisely decided that Jason Voorhees (C.J. Graham) was too pivotal to keep dead permanently so he too got a new lease of life. It's funny how a strike of lightening can affect the old disposition.

Anyways to Tommy's horror, Jason got reborn while new friend, Allan Hawes (Ron Palillo) got quickly killed off and let's just that being dead only amplified Jason's bloodlust. Being alive again made him up his body count and then some.

As for Tommy, he managed to make an enemy out of the new Sheriff (David Kagan) while also making a more positive impression on the latter's daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke). There's something of a romantic subplot between Tommy and Megan but it's very undercooked.

Still, Megan's a likeable female co-protagonist and ultimately it's a team effort with both her and Tommy in giving Jason his final rest. Then again, this being Jason, we all know he won't be resting for too long. Give it about two years, considering the next one.

Something different with this movie compared to the others that for once, there was an actual focus on the kids attending Forest Green (formerly Crystal Lake). One girl called Nancy had the good sense to be afraid of Jason and even the counselors actually seemed to care about keeping the kids safe from him too. That did make a nice change of pace.

- I had to laugh at the horror movie savvy Lizabeth (Nancy McLoughlin) and her less bright boyfriend, Darren (Tony Goldwyn) who were quickly off by Jason.

- Unlike the last two movies, this one somewhat toned down the sex but definitely not the violence.

- The original script referenced Jason's father, which I wish they had kept in it. 

- Chronology: Not long from where the last movie left off. 

Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives had to end Tommy Jarvis as a character by having him face off with Jason one last time. It's a strong face off and possibly in the best movie since the first one in my opinion.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

 

Written by Martin Kitrosser And David Cohen And Danny Steinmann

Directed by Danny Steinmann

Mayor Cobb (to Sheriff Tucker): "Jason Voorhees? You outta your fucking mind? You been out in the sun for too long. Jason Voorhees is dead."

Given that the fourth movie went from being an intended closer for the franchise but instead managed to breathe further life, you can't blame the writers for having a spring in their step. With Final Girls such as Alice, Ginny and Chris not staying the course, they had something else up their sleeves.

Yes, the something being a Final Boy and yes, I'm talking about Tommy Jarvis. Briefly appearing in a nightmare sequence, we got to see Corey Feldman one last time as Tommy. Then Tomy woke up in a car, years had passed and he was now played by John Shepherd.

The fact that years had passed was an indication that this franchise knew it needed to shake up it's format. Of course given the reputation of this movie, it's not the only thing that got shaken up. Let's just say what this movie does with its big threat will be replicated in another horror franchise nearly forty years later.

Tommy finds himself at a halfway house run by Dr Matt Letter (Richard Young) but it's his assistant Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross) who form a trio of protagonists with Tommy against "Jason". As for everyone else, you know the drill: cannon fodder.

Again, it's a mix of oversexed young adults and teens, a hillbilly mother and her dimwitted son as one by one, they're killed rather brutally by Jason. Well, that's the thing though. For once, it's not actually Jason doing the killing. Second time really.

Instead it's a paramedic named Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) whose motives for the mass killings are straight from Pamela Voorhees playbook. Unfortunately he's not developed enough as a character to make this plot really come alive. However he's afforded a death scene as gruesome as the ones he subjected to various characters throughout the film.

As for Tommy Jarvis, I do think John Shepherd does a good job portraying a darker and more tortured version of the character. There are multiple times in the movie where it felt like even Tommy would be a danger to the group on a bigger scale before his escape at the end.

- Tommy's penchant for monster masks came up with both Reggie and another guy playing around with them. Reggie's brother being called Demon was funny though.

- One of the actors in this movie was Deborah Sue Voorhees who played Tina. Also this movie had more sex and violence than the last one.

- Not only was this the first movie since the original not to have Jason as the killer but even the numbering isn't here.

- Chronology: A few years since the events of the previous movie.

Friday The 13th: A New Beginning might be a tiny step down from the previous movie but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The kills are great, it doesn't overstay it's welcome and while the Roy Burns reveal is clumsily handled, it didn't ruin the movie either. 

Rating: 7 out of 10