My Review of Grotesquerie: "Unplugged"

Written by Ryan Murphy And Jon Robin Baitz And Joe Baken 

Directed by Max Winkler

Lois: "Holy shit, Sister. I think I just cracked the case."

Sister Megan: "Blasphemy!"

Well, this just fucking changed the game, didn't it? A nice little late season twist to throw us into the inevitable madness that should be the final three episodes. I should've seen this coming but only clocked it too late.

All this time certain characters weren't who we thought they were. The episode started with a drunken Lois not being thrilled with Merritt and Eddie becoming a couple, moving into a gated community and the Merritt participating in Half Ton Trauma. In fact, Lois was quite vicious in the way she dealt with that.

Then there was her dealing with Marshall. She went straight to Nurse Redd's boss (John Billingsley) and insisted that the plug was pulled on her cheating husband. There was a moment of civility between Lois and Redd and then Marshall died. Not having Merritt there yo say goodbye to her dad was rather cold of Lois. 

As for the Grotesquerie Murders themselves, it was Father Charlie and he was dead. Sister Megan got full control over the Catholic Guardian and Lois was being strong armed into retirement. It felt complete as an arc. Of course, it wasn't as a dinner scene between Lois and Sister Megan got especially vicious and the latter turned out to be the accomplice. Nope, that didn't feel right either.

Now for the twist itself - I fucking loved it. All this time, it's been Lois in a coma with an increasingly disaffected Marshall wanting to turn off her life support. Merritt and Eddie were actually married and he cheated on Merritt with Lois. The fact that Marshall seemed unsurprised by that spoke volumes. Of course there was more to come.

Nurse Redd was actually a cam girl named Cherry Redd and yes, still Marshall's mistress in this reality, albeit with an American accent. Then there was Doctor Charlie Mayhew (assuming,  he's not Grotesquerie here) and Chief Megan herself. Again, I loved this twist and of course, just when Marshall came close to being rid of Lois, she only went and woke up at the very last second of this episode. Fucking hell.

- In this reality, Merritt was trying to find a cure for cancer while Eddie worked at Cinnabon and wasn't sober.

- Andrea from earlier in the season was a domestic abuse victim that Lois had been hands off with and wanted to sue the police.

- Standout music: Nina Simone's Stars, Al Green's How To Mend A Broken Heart and Harry Nillson's One. 

- Chronology: It's been two days since the events of the last episode.

Now, Unplugged more than delivered. Thinking about it, it's a twist that did make sense and it delivered an almighty smack too. I can't wait to see how the remaining three episodes play out and I can see why they just released one episode this week. Easily the best one yet.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Stories: "The Thing Under The Bed"

 

Written by Manny Coto

Directed by Courtney Hoffman

Mary: "Oh, you dumb bitch. I am not the victim of this power. I'm the master of it."

Jillian: "Mary, you don't have to do this."

Mary: "Of course I don't. I want to."

Well, this episode decided to evoke a childhood fear and set itself up for some probably unfair comparisons to Stranger Things. I've not been overwhelming positive about the second half of this season but I liked this one for the most part.

The episode opened with a young girl named Mary Gentile (Mileiah Vega) telling her father (Frank Pando) about the thing under the bed. Of course he doesn't take her seriously and there would be consequences for that later in the episode. Mary of course wasn't the only focus of this finale.

A lot of the focus would be on a young married woman named Jillian Fletcher (Debby Ryan). A woman who stopped taking her nightmare suppressing medication while also avoiding getting pregnant by her overeager husband, Mark (Matthew Holcomb). For Jillian, she didn't have to avoid the issue for too long because Mark got taken under the bed before he could get her pregnant.

Mark's disappearance did make Jillian into a suspect and generic detective Watts (Matthew Del Negro) was convinced of her guilt. Even her sister Megan (Melanie Field) momentarily turned on Jillian before fan mail led Jillian into coming into contact with a nurse named Niles Taylor (Jeff Hiller). Niles had information that Jillian very much needed to know.

Going back to the start of the episode, there was an older version of Mary (Melonie Diaz) now in a coma and Jillian going to Mary's home meant also going into a different dream like world. That's where the comparisons to a certain Netflix show could be made. In fact, those scenes felt less of a homage and more of a direct rip off.

With that being said, the last few minutes did work in the episode's favour. You had the older Mary awaking from her coma and the confrontation between Mary and Jillian ended on a horrible note for the latter. With this episode, I think the nihilistic ending might have worked the best but alas, poor Jillian.

- Jeff Hiller appeared in the opening episode Bestie but was at his most chilling as Mr Whitely in American Horror Story: NYC.

- The last episode from Manny Coto prior to his death in 2023.

- The show has yet to be renewed for a fourth season. This second half hit the top spot on Hulu but will that be enough to give it another season?

- Chronology: Every episode this season has been a modern day setting and this wasn't any exception.

Overall, I think that The Thing Under The Bed worked well as a finale. It's one of the better episodes in arguably the weakest season of this spin off so far. It made good use of its shorter run time and those last few minutes packed a suitable punch.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Stories: "Leprechaun"

 

Written by Joe Baken

Directed by Alexis Martin Woodall 

Hailey (to Colin): "People stopped believing we were real. That our gold was real. Which is why we had to resort to trickery."

I was anticipating and dreading this episode in equal measure. Would it evoke some horrible Irish stereotypes or be as bad as the majority of the Warwick Davies Leprechaun sequels? A little bit of both maybe.

I mean the whole plot for this episode could easily have belonged to that particular horror franchise. In the past, a man encountered a leprechaun (Anthony Rodriguez). In the present day, four idiots decided to steal from where they shouldn't have done.

The idiots in question being new dad Colin (Henry Eikenberry), security guard Declan (Daniel Zolghadri), slacker Finn (Angel Bismark) and the shit stirring Liam (Hudson Oz). Together they made up the Eastie Boys and their great plan was to steal from a bank where Colin's partner Hailey (Jessica Barden) worked at.

Jokes about heist movie tropes to one side, you had four guys who weren't half as smart as they thought they were. Needless to say as they broke into the bank to steal the gold, they found themselves going up against the leprechaun in question. Visually, it looked decent but not like the typical version you'd normally expect.

In fact this version seemed to lean more into the vampiric side of things. As the third act hurtled towards its conclusion, Declan, Finn and Liam all found themselves being slaughtered by the leprechaun. Liam of course tried to reason with it but only maddened the leprechaun by comparing it to a munchkin. That was a serious error in judgement.

However the interesting part of the episode of course was the reveal of Hailey actually being part leprechaun herself and yes, there were deadly consequences for Colin with that reveal. There's also a rather nice cameo for June Squibb as Grams, who soon found out that her granddaughter would do anything to keep her alive.

- Jessica Barden appeared earlier in the season as the titular Bestie. That was easily her better role but she's good here as Hailey.

- Fans of Only Murders In The Building also had Michael Cyril Creighton as security guard/drag artist Martin in this episode too.

- Leprechauns in this world need human blood to survive but hybrids like Hailey don't need it as much.

- Chronology: 1851 and 2024 Massachussetts. 

Again, I feel that Leprechaun had a lot of potential as an episode. The third act was the best part as well as the opening sequence but everything in between was just sluggish at best. It's mostly a wasted opportunity.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Stories: "X"

 

Written by Brad Falchuk And Manny Coto And Austin Elliott

Directed by Matt Spicer

Dr Nostrum (to Claire): "I couldn't agree with you any more. What we're doing here is awful but the end result? Oh my goodness, we're gonna save thousands of lives."

An episode entirely in black and white for no reason whatsoever and titled after the unnecessary rebeanding of a certain app? I'm not saying those things are connected because they're not. The title of course was related to a mystery ward of course.

Our protagonist of the piece was a young nurse named Claire Michaels (Mia Isaac). A nurse who nearly let a mother of a cancer stricken boy leave the hospital due to the latter being unable to afford a life saving opportunity for her son. Then there was kindly Dr Nostrum (Henry Winkler) who wanted to help for free.

Of course this was an offer that seemed far too good to be true and when a patient named Alice (Amy Ruggiero) ended up killing the unfortunate Justin (Trenton Hudson), things started to get a lot stranger in the hospital. Strange enough for Claire to start asking questions. Not necessarily ones that she would be prepared to grasp the answers for.

Yes, her fellow co-worker, Lilly (Jennifer Ferrin) killed herself while giving Claire a cryptic warning. However, it was Nostrum himself who revealed that the mystery Ward X was a place of horrifying experiments to try and cure cancer. He failed to get Claire on board with his grand scheme and she succeeded in getting the mother and son from earlier in the episode away from him.

The depths of Ward X though felt like they were pulling from the Asylum season of the main show itself. We got to see patients experimented on as well as a poor security guard named Malcolm (Dyllon Burnside). Even when Claire managed to get one over on Nostrum, this episode still had a rather unpleasant twist.

I really was hoping that Claire would actually succeed in her mission to stop the Springheel project but it definitely wasn't meant to be. Of course it went beyond Nostrum and her fate at the very last moment definitely felt a bit too much. It would've been nice for her to have had a win but apparently not.

- Claire's mother died of cancer when she was young. Nostrum tried and failed to use that fact to get her on side.

- The black and white format reminded me of the parent show experimenting with the idea for the Death Valley segment of Double Feature.

- After years of his son directing for this franchise, Henry Winkler appeared in an episode not directed by Max. I hope the main show can get him too.

- Chronology: As with every episode this season, this was another contemporary one.

For the most part, I found X to be rather decent. Saying that, the downbeat endings this season have almost felt a bit too much and this one might have benefitted from Claire getting some kind of win. Good performances from Mia Isaac and Henry Winkler. 

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Stories: "Clone"

 

Written by Ned Martel And Charlie Carver

Directed by Max Winkler 

David (to John): "I want you to be happy, Johnny darling and I promise, one day I'll see you soon."

Aww, this episode really almost had the trappings of a sort of sweet inter generational love story. You had older billionaire David Woodrow Randolph (Victor Garber) and high school teacher, John Hunter (Guy Burnet). Almost being the operative word.

The episode saw the two of them living in a sort of bliss as David and John celebrated another birthday. Of course David had difficulty cutting the cake and John got treated yo a nice car. Then John went to his actual job and David ended up being put into a medically induced coma.

It looked like this episode was going to kill David off relatively early but with his doctor Anka Kieslowski (Dagmara Dominczyk) on board, it seemed like David had his own ideas about prolonging his life. They were ideas that John hadn't been allowed to voice an opinion on, nor did he seem particularly keen on.

While David was undergoing a recovery process of his own, John had to make do with an android version of David and basically train it. I kept waiting for this idea to go as wrong as it would normally do in other shows and movies. It almost kind of did but this episode took some surprising turns with the idea.

First of all, there was the mistrust to love story between John and the android David that actually was touching to see unfold. It even felt organic, in spite of the subplot where android David killed John's co-worker, Jordan (Casey Thomas Brown). Considering what Jordan tried to do to John, I didn't feel too bad about him being killed off. 

Sadly because this show seems to over commit to the idea of grim ending, someone had to die. John made the foolish error of thinking that the real David wanted an equal relationship. All David wanted was to literally fuck himself. By the end of this one, he got exactly what he wanted. Much as I hated John being sacrificed, there was something darkly comic about David looking inward for his soul mate.

- Charlie Carver previously appeared in American Horror Story: NYC and co-wrote four episodes of that season. Nice he came back to write for this show.

- I genuinely thought David was going to have an android version of John before the ending of that episode.

- Where was the David android storing/getting rid of the food and drink he consumed during this episode?

- Chronology: Present Day once again with AI being prominent to the plot as was Daphne in the first half of the season.

So far, I think Clone might be the best episode of the bunch and even this one had various plot holes. Saying that, I liked the lead performances from both Victor Garber and Guy Burnet and I'd like to see both of them appear in the main show next season.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of American Horror Stories: "Backrooms"

 

Written by John Robin Baitz And Joe Baken 

Directed by David Gelb

Daniel: "Why am I here?"

Roman: "You know why. They're coming for you, father."

I'll admit, while I've heard of the term "backrooms" in passing, it's not something I've massively looked into. Going by the reactions for this episode, the show might not have nailed the concept altogether.

Personally, that doesn't surprise me.  Too often the show has these great ideas but often due to the shortened length, they don't always pull them off so good. My bigger concern was this episode slightly wasting the talented Michael Imperioli a tad. I mean he's fine but he could've been given more to do here.

The crux of this episode had Imperioli's Hollywood writer, Daniel Hauseman-Burger, grieving the disappearance of his son, Roman (Matthew Eby). It's a grief that caused him to separate from his wife, Riva (Natalie Gold) and also alienate himself from his agent, Aaron (David Pittu).

In fact as the episode unfolded and we saw through flashbacks that Daniel was more fixated on his writing career than his family, there was the aforementioned backrooms themselves. Daniel found himself venturing through to the point of them driving him mad but not providing him with the answers he needed in regards to his son.

Fortunately there was prisoner Eli (Matthew Maher) to fill in the gaps. It turned out that in order to get the most of the backrooms experience, you needed to tell the truth. For Daniel, that meant confronting a part of himself that he really didn't want to face up to. However for Daniel, he no longer had the option of denial.

The twist of Daniel being the one who murdered his own son was a bit shocking, I won't lie. It's a good twist, tying into real time as his awful deed was uncovered and then there was his reunion with Roman in the backrooms. Did Daniel end up in a form of purgatory while awaiting Hell? This episode of course very much decided to leave that one up to interpretation.

- Joe Baken and Jon Robin Baitz have been co-writing episodes of Grotesquerie and Doctor Odyssey, only this time there was no Ryan Murphy present.

- The Red Lady looked unsettling enough as did the others that terrorised Daniel in the backrooms. 

- It seems that Daniel was talented enough to have won an Emmy by his nightmare sequence.

- Chronology: It does seem to be a 2024 setting, though the general creepypasta is a couple of years old now.

Overall, I thought Backrooms was generally okay. A bit of a weak opener to the second half of the third season. It was a concept that could've been better explored and as I said earlier, it did waste Michael Imperioli a tad. Generally meh.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Superman And Lois 4x03: "Always My Hero"

 

Written by Brent Fletcher And Todd Hellbing 

Directed by David Giuntoli

Sam (to Lois): "I guess this is goodbye for now. I love you pumpkin, more than you could ever know."

Oh, Sam Lane. You've had quite a trajectory. From being a skeptic of Superman to the Man of Steel's very saviour. I knew this season would have to tie up loose ends for a lot of the supporting cast but this was unexpected.

In flashbacks, we had Sam learning of Clark and Superman being the same person and yeah, it wasn't something that Sam reacted to the best. In fact he saw him pressuring Superman into joining the DOD and even telling Clark to leave Lois because he feared that she would be hurt by him at some point.

Now we know that Clark didn't listen to Sam and instead married Lous and we even got flashbacks to the say itself where Sam drew comparisons between himself and Clark. He wasn't subtle in his comparisons but he wasn't wrong either. In fact by the end of this episode, he was too spot on with the comparisons.

Continuing Lex's nasty streak, the unfortunate Jones was forced into getting Sam to admit where Elizabeth's whereabouts were and Sam literally faced up to Doomsday instead of giving Lex what he wanted. While it did sadly result in Sam's death, it turned out that Sam intended to die all along.

I can't believe that Sam was so determined to get a heart donor for Superman that he made sure his own heart would suffice. It was a plan he only let John Henry Irons in on and one that might work if Lara's calculations were anything to go by. With Sam dead, it also seems like both John and Natalie will be sticking around the DOD.

As for the rest of the episode, Jonathan got powers and a rivalry between him and Jordan intensified as a result. Lex didn't waste time in telling Jordan about the choice he forced on Lois from the previous episode. Jordan's reaction was predicable but with bigger stakes at play, at least we didn't have to focus on it for too long. Now let's get to bringing Superman back from the dead.

- Elizabeth Tulloch's really life husband, David Giuntoli directed this episode. I wonder if he'll appear in a later episode.

- John and Natalie were officially given the names Steel and Starlight by the DOD while Amanda was annoyed by Lex being more fond of Doomsday than tending to LexCorp in Metropolis.

- We got a return of Martha and a brief flashback to the pilot when Jordan first discovered his powers.

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

Always My Hero was quite the episode. A touching final episode for Sam with great character driven flashbacks and a solution to the dead Superman problem. Dylan Walsh did a wonderful job and along with Lex's continued nastiness, John and Natalie's returns and Jonathan's powers coming to the forefront, this was fantastic.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Salem's Lot (2024)

 

Written And Directed by Gary Dauberman

Ben (to Susan): "I've always written stories about things that are so terrible, you'll run away til your brain won't remember."

I did watch and review the previous versions of this adaptation, so of course I was going to watch and review this one. We've had two miniseries and now it was time for the movie version. Albeit not one for theatres during the scariest month of the year.

Rethreading this again, you've got writer Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returning to his home town of Jerusalem's Lot and noticing that the Marsten House as well as a local antiques store has been bought by the mysterious Kurt Barlow (Alexander Ward) and his right hand man, Richard Straker (Pilou Asbaek). Of course it's not the only thing he noticed.

There was local girl Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh) that he struck up a romance with as well as the bizarre behaviour of the locals. Then there was the spate of mystery deaths and yes, it turned out that vampires had taken over the town. Fortunately for Ben and Susan, they had allies in their corner.

The allies included teacher Matthew Burke (Bill Camp), Dr Cody (Alfre Woodard), faithless Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) and of course, escape artist wannabe Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter). Most of the same beats are explored here yet again.

We saw Matthew's attempts of helping local lad Mike (Spencer Treat Clark), resulting in the latter being beyond help as well as Callahan's lack of faith coming back to haunt him, Mark losing his parents and the tragic relationship between Ben and Susan played out yet and being the dullest version of said relationship in live action thus far.

As for Kurt Barlow. He looks good and Alexander Ward does give a decent performance. I mean he does really go for it and the design certainly doesn't jar. I just didn't find it particularly terrifying or as compelling as it could've been.

- Originally this was meant to be a theatrical release before it got sent to Max. UK and Ireland did get a theatrical release.

- The movies shown at the drive through were The Drowning Pool and Night Moves.

- Standout music: Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown.

- Chronology: Despite being a 2024 release, the film is set in the 1970s like the book itself.

Look, it's not a bad version of Salem's Lot but at the same time, it's not a shock this went to Max instead of a wider theatre release. Diverting but not a must see. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Penguin: "Cent'Anni"

 

Written by John McCutcheon

Directed by Helen Shaver

Sofia (to Julian): "What did it feel like to get to watch a person unravel?"

I swear if this episode doesn't at the very bare minimum solidify an Emmy nomination for Cristin Milioti, then there's no justice, lol. Expectations were high for this episode. Did it deliver? Oh it certainly did.

At the end of last week's episode, Sofia's alliance with Oswald came to something of an end with Nadia Maroni gatecrashing their Bliss operation. Oh and before Oswald abandoned Sofia to her fate, Nadia made sure to inform Sofia that Oswald was the one to have killed Oswald.

Anyways as Sofia called Julian Rush to come to her aid, the show jumped back a decade to the days of the Hangman. Well, more Sofia getting roped into that saga because it turned out she wasn't lying when she told Oz that she wasn't the Hangman. Nope, instead it was Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) who got that story.

I had mixed feelings about this change up but given that Sofia's noticed were different in Dark Victory, it kind of fit having Carmine being the Hangman in this continuity. After all, we're talking about a man who had no problem trying to murder his other daughter on the night of his death.

When Sofia actually listened to reporter Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf) about her father being a serial killer, she didn't want to believe it. Unfortunately for Sofia, despite being Carmine's favourite, he had no problem framing her for hiscrime and getting her sentenced to Arkham State Hospital. 

Sofia's decade long spell in Arkham definitely did a number on her between jolts of electricity, savage beatings, the lack of a trial and a family (minus Alberto) that hung her out to dry. As for Julian, he's not exactly discreet with his attraction to Sofia but he was the only in her corner during this episode in the present day.

As for the rest of the episode, Sofia finally decided to take back control and live up to a monicker that had been forced upon her. I find it interesting that she spared Johnny Viti but not surprised that she didn't extend her murderous revenge to Gia (though she's likely made her an orphan). Long live Sofia Falcone. Oswald, you better watch your back.

- Mark Strong replaced John Turturro as Carmine while Peter McDonald reprised his role as William Kenzie from The Batman.

- Summer Gleeson originated in Batman: The Animated Series. This was the first live action version of the character to my knowledge.

- Alberto might have been the least favourite but I liked how he tried his best to actually help Sofia throughout the episode.

- Sofia's "best friend" at Arkham was Margaret (Marie Botha), also known as Magpie. This is the third live action version of the character, following both Gotham and Batwoman.

- Standout music: The Stranglers Strange Little Girl.

- Chronology: The flashbacks took place a decade before the events of The Batman.

The show absolutely hit a high with Cent'Anni and it definitely cemented a powerhouse performance from Cristin Milioti. This was her episode from start to finish with Sofia being such a captivating character to watch. I actually didn't mind the reduced screen time for Oswald because the Sofia stuff was just so fantastic to watch.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of The Voyeurs (2021)

 

Written And Directed by Michael Mohan

Thomas (re Seb/Julia): "I wanna become their friends."

Pippa: "You want to become BFFs with the neighbours we now seem to be stalking?"

Anyone call for a voyeuristic version of Rear Window? That's exactly what this movie will offer you, while posing the question about whether or not it's a good idea to spy on your neighbours. Spoiler alert, it's not as two couples found that out the hard way.

The first couple in question being optometrist Pippa (Sydney Sweeney) and her tech savvy boyfriend, Thomas (Justice Smith). They've moved into a nice apartment where the latter liked to feed the birds and oh, yes, spy on the couple across from them.

Couple number two included photographer Seb (Ben Hardy) and his former model wife, Julia (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Pippa and Thomas took far too much interest in their neighbours antics (including Seb's sleazy bed hopping) to the point where they gatecrashed the couple's Halloween party to put spy equipment so they could hear their conversations.

Making matters even more complicated was Julia befriending Pippa by going to the latter's place of work for new glasses while Thomas realised that they were doing the wrong thing. Of course it was a case of too little too late when Pippa thought she might have caused Julia's death and Thomas ended up dumping her. 

Now where I think the movie got a lot more interesting wasn't just with Thomas's death but more the fact that Seb and Julia had been playing something of a long con on Pippa and Thomas. Seb not only seduced and photographed Pippa but both him and Julia made Pippa and Thomas into their latest exhibition. Oh and one of them clearly killed Thomas for dramatic effect.

The ending I think really helped this movie just about land. There was something satisfying in seeing Pippa play both Seb and Julia at their own game. Also satisfying was how she used their own voyeuristic tendencies against and took away the very thing they had taken for granted. As a twist, I found it worked well.

- Before learning their names, Pippa and Thomas kept referring to Seb and Julia as Brent and Margot.

- Sydney Sweeney and writer/director Michael Mohan worked together on short lived Netflix series Everything Sucks and after this movie on the horror feature, Immaculate.

- Standout music: Angel Olsen's Eyes Without A Face and Kamasi Washington's Desire.

- Chronology: Present day Montréal, Canada where the movie was also made.

For an Amazon origin, this wasn't too shabby. The Voyeurs posed the consequences of spying on your neighbours and also had an erotic thriller aspect to, which mostly worked. Not a classic take on the genre but certainly a good viewing nonetheless.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Deliverance (2024)

 

Written by David Coggeshall And Elijah Bynum

Directed by Lee Daniels

Alberta (possessed to Ebony): "I should have flushed your ass down the toilet when you were just a blood clot!"

I've been keen to catch up on this one. For a movie that temporarily inspired a Twitter meme and was based on a true story, I was hoping this would have a bit more to it. I hate to say it, but I was a tad underwhelmed here.

Anyways, we've got struggling single mother Ebony Jackson (Andra Day). She's got three kids - Nathan (Caleb McLaughlin), Shanti (Demi Singleton) and Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) and she's just moved into a new home. It's a home that she didn't tell her social worker, Cynthia (Mo'Nique) about and that last bit might be the least of Ebony's problems.

The movie established that Ebony had a drinking problem and could be violent at times. We get an example of that when she dealt with a kid who bullied Andre but then there's her contentious relationship with her now religious mother, Alberta (Glenn Close). 

Personally, I'd say the dynamic between Ebony and Alberta would be the highlight of the movie. With the latter dying of cancer, Ebony goes from trying to pay Alberta's medical expenses to constantly reminding her of her shortcomings and the crappy childhood she had. Basically the way Ebony treats her own children wasn't dissimilar to how she was treated as a child herself.

Getting to the horror aspect of this movie, Ebony had to move into a haunted house and it's not long before everyone in that house became infected by it's demonic presence. The kids ended up with bruises and had to be hospitalised, while Ebony had blackouts and terrified her children without remembering what was going on.

Of course, this did lead into a rather sluggish third act where that meme moment from Alberta was given its context. On top of that, Ebony teamed up with Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) to save her children as well as making a believer out of Cynthia. The ending does come across as very rushed if I'm being honest.

- The movie is based on the real life Ammons haunting case from 2011 in Indiana. They mention the case at the end of the movie.

- Omar Epps pops up briefly as Melvin in the movie. 

- Standout music: Andra Day's I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.

- Chronology: The movie is based in Indiana but ended with Ebony taking her children back to Philadelphia to reunite with their father.

As a horror movie, The Deliverance had one or two decent moments but it's a bit too schlocky even for my tastes. The pacing was all over the place and the actual scares and demon stuff were sluggish to watch. There's some good performances but not enough to make this a movie I'd want to watch again.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

The League Of Gentlemen - Series 4 Review (2017)

Written by Jeremy Dyson And Mark Gatiss And Steve Pemberton And Reece Shearsmith 

Directed by Steve Bendelack 

Benjamin: "You know, Aunty Val. Sometimes you can't go back."

Val: "I know. I know."

Benjamin: "But you can visit."

Val: "Yes, you can visit."

It's a bit odd that these series of specials came out when they did. They were two years too early to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary but at the same, it was also 15 years after the series had ended. Excluding the movie, which these specials don't acknowledge. 

At the time both Shearsmith and Pemberton had put out three full series of Inside No. 9 and Gatiss had completed work on both Sherlock and Doctor Who. To revisit this series with these specials was a way of giving audiences one last hurrah for many of the characters that stoked opinions.

First of all there was Reverend Bernice Wooddall, who had now become Mayor of Royston Vasey after brokering a deal with Papa Lazarou for her freedom (and other characters). Of course that freedom came at a cost with a spate of new disappearances getting more and more noticed.

Oh and then there was possible disappearance of Royston Vasey itself. There were plans to merge the village into a bigger and local xenophobes Edward and Tubbs had no problem holding a journalist (Lyndsey Marshal) and council worker (Gatiss) hostage in order to prevent such a thing. Let's just say the ending for the hostage wasn't particular pleasant for the negotiator (David Morrissey).

As for other stories in this three part event, poor Pauline was suffering from dementia with both Mickey and Ross trying to help her. Then there was the hapless Geoff killing Pauline by mistaking her for Mike's wife, Cheryl. Not a great way for Pauline to go.

Other than that, the creepy Pops returned to antagonise both of his sons, played by Gatiss and Shearsmith as well as his daughter in law (Sian Gibson) but he got a deserved comeuppance of his own. As for the Dentons, Harvey died and Val and the twins used Benjamin as a vessel for Harvey until they realised they preferred Harvey being dead. 

- Episode titles for this series were Return To Royston Vasey, Save Royston Vasey and Royston Vasey Mon Amour.

- Victims of the Wife Mine included Iris and Tubbs. Papa Lazarou was wisely relegated to a very brief cameo.

- Chinnery still inadvertently kills animals, Barbara was militant in their activism, Les McQueen ran a floor polishing business and Legs Akimbo were no more with Ollie relegated to being a teacher for Year 9.

- Charlie was shown to be in a relationship with a man named Gordon (Gatiss) while Stella had an abusive toy boy lover named Scott.

- Mickey was aware of Pauline and Ross having sex and even joked about it. Pauline nearly broke Ross's jaw when her memories were being triggered.

- Chronology: Several years since the events of the third series. Bernice in particular had aged a bit.

As a group of specials, this was a good bunch of episodes. I don't think we needed them as such but it was a nice revisit of a show that while still funny in large parts, has not aged well in others. Now I just have to go and revisit another show from this particular team.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Doctor Odyssey: "Plastic Surgery Week"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Jon Robin Baitz And Joe Baken 

Directed by Bradley Buecker

Tristan (re plastic surgery clients): "I see we have a lot of new faces this year."

It was twenty one years ago on the cable channel FX where Ryan Murphy's first big TV hit funnily enough was a show about plastic surgeons. Yes, that show was called Nip/Tuck and even to this day, it's influence has resonated in many of Murphy's shows.

Cut to 2024, now we have this show celebrating Plastic Surgery Week by featuring an antagonist for Avery, a surprise inspiration for Max and Tristan's mum. Yeah, it's a real diverse crowd here but each of these plot hit better than expected.

Let's start off with Max, shall we? If you were worried the show had forgotten his COVID backstory, the arrival of Human Ken Doll (Justin Jedlica) was a good reminder of said plot. It turned out that Max was something of a fan of Ken and even spent some time with the guy before the latter quickly died of sepsis.

Yes, the first death on The Odyssey and it hit Max pretty hard. It turned out that Ken's reality show had been something of a lifeline to Max when he was in recovery and the last scene where he talked to Ken's friend about the impact they had on him was rather sweet. Max being a fan of trashy reality TV was the kind of character but I needed.

Then there's Max and Avery. Yes, they hooked up and yes, Tristan caught them but the end result was far different to the opening episode and all the better for it. I was hoping this show would nix this triangle sooner than later and perhaps I got my wish. The way it's nixed even felt organic enough.

Having Tristan's mother, Caroline (Constance Marie) on the ship and seeing the number she's done on him (albeit, not maliciously) certainly gave context to the way Tristan has viewed women and in particular, a certain crush of his. I liked that he realised that he wasn't in love with Avery and also that he wasn't going to pose an obstacle for Max and Avery either. As for the Huntington's plot with his mother, I don't doubt we'll get more on that later in the season.

As for Avery, she had spent most of the episode incurring the wrath of the ship's owner's wife, Lenore (Gina Gershon). The latter was also hosting this week's theme and came close to firing Avery. Then Avery managed to save Lenore's assistant and suddenly Lenore liked Avery. Lenore had a campy potential as well as an insatiable desire for Robert. The character didn't wow me but there's hope for her yet as a recurring presence.

- The cases outside of Tristan's mother and Ken included Lenore's assistant botched boob job and a British woman's botched rhinoplasty. A guy literally pulled stuff out of his own nose in front of Max.

- Tristan's clearly from a money background and seems to be an only child. The episode gave no details on his father.

- Max seemed annoyed with the fact that the flower shop was used as a place to hide deceased passengers until they got to shore.

- Chronology: It's definitely 2024 given that one exchange between Tristan and Max near the end of the episode.

I think this show in the space of three episodes has definitely gotten closer to finding it's feet. Plastic Surgery Week gave Max, Tristan and Avery all good material to work with and I'm happy that triangle has been quickly resolved.

Rating: 7 out of 10