My Review of The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

 

Written by Lester K. Cole And Joe May And Curt Siodmak And Cedric Belfrage

Directed by Joe May

Willie: "What kinda ghosts sneeze?"

Geoffrey: "It's cold in the other world, so cold!"

Sequel time. Turns out that being a part of the Universal Monsters World meant getting a sequel and after the success of the first movie, our often unseen antagonist warranted a return.

Of course there was the problem of Jack Griffin being dead and in this movie, he's still dead. His successor for the serum would be the falsely accused Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price). He was working with Griffin's brother, Frank (John Sutton) and his fiancé Helen Manson (Nan Grey) in case he was found guilty of his brother's death.

The first movie made it clear that the serum used to make a man invisible can also drive them to madness. Geoffrey fell victim to this as well. This was in spite of the fact that Geoffrey made it clear to both Frank and Helen to stop him if he succumbed to madness.

Geoffrey's actions for the most part are more sympathetic than Jack's in the first movie. Geoffrey simply wanted to clear his name and avoid Detective Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) from arresting him. He's actually closer to an antihero than villain in this movie.

Of course when Frank and Helen tried to stop Geoffrey from being corrupted by the serum, it inevitably backfired. Geoffrey terrorised the bejesus out of Willie Spears (Alan Napier) and found out that his cousin, Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) was the killer instead.

The differences between how the locals were between Jack and Geoffrey also made for an interesting last act. With Jack, they were only too happy to burn him alive but with Geoffrey, they're actually willing to donate blood to keep him alive, and it worked too.

- Vincent Price and Alan Napier would both appear in the 1960s Batman TV show together.

- There's a rather striking scene where Geoffrey borrows the clothing from a scarecrow before getting his blood transfusion.

- Much to my surprise, this movie was the first time that Vincent Price entered the world of horror. It certainly wouldn't be his last time.

- Chronology: A while since the events of The Invisible Man (1933).

The Invisible Man Returns to me was a far better sequel than I had anticipated. It didn't repeat the same format as the first movie but managed something different enough to stand out. I genuinely enjoyed this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Life Of Chuck (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Mike Flanagan 

Chuck: "I will live my life until my life runs out."

Fresh from his Netflix era and prior to a few major upcoming projects, it was time for another theatrical release from the very talented Mike Flanagan. Low and behold, it's an adaptation of a Stephen King story. 

I snark but to Flanagan's credit, it's a recent story and it's a first time live action take. It's also more fantasy drama rather than horror and a nice examination into one seemingly ordinary man who died young and his story was told out of order.

Split into three acts, the third one was centred on the death of an accountant named Charles "Chuck" Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Chuck had died from a brain tumour with his wife Ginny (Q'orianka Kilcher) and son Brian (Antonio Raul Corbo) by his side. 

Of course there was a bigger issue than Chuck's death. The universe was ending and the third chapter focused on teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his inattentive class. There was also his need to reconnect with ex-wife, Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan) and interactions with other characters, such as mortician Sam Yarborough (Carl Lumbly) and little girl, Iris (Violet McGraw). Then the universe ended.

Getting into the second act, there was an actual focus on the title character himself. Chuck's love of dance reared it's head when he took on the recently dumped Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso) as a dance partner in the street. There was a busker (Taylor Gordon / The Pocket Queen) to provide a nice beat for the dancing duo. It's a nice middle act but had the least screentime.

The first act of course provided the main context. We spent a lot with the child (Cody Flanagan/Benjamin Pajak) and teenage (Jacob Tremblay) versions of Chuck. We saw his love of dance come from his grandmother (Mia Sara) as well as his grandfather (Mark Hamill) being afraid of what a room. We saw two of his teachers - Miss Richards (Kate Siegel) and Miss Rohrbacher (Samantha Sloyan) encourage him and even his crush on Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss) during his formative years.

What I liked about the movie was that Chuck did feel like an ordinary guy who went on to live a pretty ordinary life, even if it was cut short. Did his death cause the universe to actually end or was it just a coincidence? I'm not really sure but the last shot was a powerful way of ending this movie.

- The Acts themselves are Thanks, Chuck (3), Buskers Forever (2) and I Contain Multitudes (1).

- Other Flanagan alumni that appeared in this movie were Rahul Kohli, David Dastmalchian, Matthew Lilliard, Molly C. Quinn, Michael Trucco, Carla Gugino, Hamish Linklater, Elan Gale, Sauriyan Sapkota, Matt Biedel and Heather Langenkamp. Mike even appears himself during a funeral scene.

- Nick Offerman provided the narration for the movie and Lauren LaVera had a voice role.

- The movie had a dedication to Scott Wampler, who passed after the film finished filming. 

- Standout music: Steve Winwood's Gimme Some Lovin.

- Chronology: Chuck Krantz died at the age of thirty nine and the universe died along with him.

I genuinely think if this movie had gotten a spring or autumn release, The Life Of Chuck wouldn't have gone under the radar. Releasing it during the summer was madness. It's a lovely movie, great performances and played easily into Mike Flanagan's strengths and known tropes. I very much enjoyed it.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of After The Hunt (2025)

 

Written by Nora Garrett

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Maggie: "I don't feel comfortable having this conversation with you anymore."

Alma: "Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable, Maggie. Not everything is supposed to be a lukewarm bath for you to sink into until you fall asleep and drown."

Taking a mild breather from horror stuff, I thought I'd venture into at least one potential award contender this week. Except this might already be out of the running. Luca Guadagnino, what is happening with you?

With Queer (2024) getting frozen out, there was potential for After The Hunt to be an award vehicle for Julia Roberts but in spite of her best efforts, this film sadly might be a lost cause. There's a good idea but it's so horribly muddled with the results on offer here.

You've got five characters. First there's Julia Roberts as philosophy professor, Alma Imhoff. She's in a crappy marriage to Frederik (Michael Stulbarg) and she's caught in a "he said, she said" dilemma between colleague Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) and promising student, Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri).

Maggie claimed that Hank sexually assaulted her and Hank claimed that she plagiarized an assignment and was accusing him of rape in revenge. While Hank turned out to be right about the latter, it's somewhat muddled as to whether or not he actually raped Maggie.

Alma's the one caught in the middle of the two as her dynamics with both Maggie and Hank are on display. At one point, Alma absolutely tore into Maggie's character and got slapped by her. A lot of what Alma said about Maggie did seem to be true even if it bordered on cruelty with the way she said it.

Then there was her marriage to Frederik. The latter was mostly a dick to her but did step during the times in which Alma's health took a turn for the worst. Alma's dynamic with Hank had all the toxic unresolved sexual tension that culminated in a moment that definitely made me think Hank might have been guilty of attacking Maggie after all.

There's a supporting role for Chloe Sevigny as university liaison, Dr Kim Sayers. Her character's very unprofessional and outright unhelpful and to be honest, I think Alma had every right to snap at her. Kim's not even the worst behaved character in this movie but she's also someone you wouldn't want to go to for advice.

- Maggie was established to be a lesbian and was dating Alex (Lio Mehiel). By the end of the movie, Maggie was dating an older woman when her and Alma cleared the air with each other.

- Luca Guadagnino and Andrew Garfield are currently working on Artificial and hopefully it'll be a better fit with the pair.

- I'm pretty sure this movie implied that despite Hank's obsession with Alma, he was also sleeping with Frederik and both female and male students. Hank got a job working for a Democrat.

- Chronology: Present day American setting, though it was filmed in London and Cambridge.

After The Hunt needed to be a good thirty minutes shorter and a lot more concise in its messaging. It does drag as a movie and despite it's leading cast, none of them are enough to raise this movie out of the mess it fell into.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

 

Written by Curt Siodmak 

Directed by Roy William Neill

Maleva (re the Wolf Man): "He is not insane. He simply wants to die."

For one of these characters, it's their first sequel and for the other, it's a fourth in this particular continuity. Yup, these two characters just to meet with one another.

However, there was the issue that the last time both characters appeared, they died. However in the Universal Monsters World, death doesn't really mean anything. Also despite the name order in the movie title, one had more screentime than the other.

The Wolf Man aka, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr) turned out not to be dead. He also didn't waste time in killing a local police officer or finding out that a lot of time has passed since being killed off in his own movie.

In a lot of ways, this movie felt more like a Wolf Man sequel with a side order of Frankenstein (Bela Lugosi). Larry wanted to die and found himself reunited with Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), who still couldn't give him the release he wanted.

Not that it matter because Larry managed to uncover Frankenstein's body and teamed up with Baroness Elsa Frankenstein (Ilona Massey) and  Dr. Frank Mannering (Patric Knowles). However they were more interested in resurrecting Frankenstein than helping the Wolf Man himself.

Where this film somewhat doesn't stick the landing was the actual meeting of the two monsters themselves. It happened way too late into the movie and it ended on a frustrating cliffhanger where both of their respective fates were left unknown.

- Bela Lugosi really went from Dracula to Frankenstein monster in the manner of twelve years.

- Larry's father died of grief in between movies. There wee also plans to have Lon Chaney Jr play both roles before Bela Lugosi was cast as Frankenstein's monster.

- These two would clash again in House Of Frankenstein (1944) and House Of Dracula (1945) along with other monsters.

- Chronology: Four years since the events since The Wolf Man (1941) and The Ghost Of Frankenstein (1942). Set in Cardiff and the village of Vasaria.

I admire the fact that Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man got the ball rolling for these crossover events but it's a disappointing start with not enough interaction between both monsters. I'll catch up with the other ones soon.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Wolf Man (1941)

Written by Curt Siodmak

Directed by George Wagner

Larry Talbot: "It isn't a wolf... it's a werewolf!"

Earlier this year I reviewed and didn't much care for Wolf Man (2025). Of course I had to go and find the original version to watch. I'm also on an Universal Monsters binge.

Our titular character happened to be Larry Talbot (Lou Chaney Jr). He's of a generation of Talbot men who returned home to be with his father, Sir John (Claude Rains). However, Larry's attention was drawn to his telescope.

Larry's attention was also drawn to Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) and he went about wooing her in the weirdest way possible. He also bought a cane with a silver wolf on top and both him, Gwen and the latter's friend, Jenny Williams (Fay Helm) took a visit to get their fortune told by gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi). For all their sake, they should've stayed at home that night

It turned out that Bela was a werewolf and he attacked and killed Jenny. Larry's attempts to save Jenny resulted in Bela's death and a grim warning from gypsy elder Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya). One werewolf died and another was activated in his place.

The other werewolf was of course, Larry. Larry of course was in denial about what happened to him until he had to face up to his reality. There's a love triangle of sorts between Larry, Gwen and the latter's fiancé, Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles) but it's not as fleshed out as it could've been.

A lot of time was spent in the last act with the likes of Captain Paul Montford (Ralph Bellamy), Dr Lloyd (Warren William) and the villagers trying to catch the Wolf Man. By the end of the movie, things ended rather badly for poor Larry Talbot.

- Mythos that were discussed included wolfsbane and the pentagram symbol. There's a gorgeous trippy moment where Larry transformed into the Wolf Man.

- Bela Lugosi (Bela) previously played Dracula (1931) and Claude Rains was The Invisible Man (1933).

- There's a few sequels and remakes/reboots that I will get to watching and reviewing.

- Chronology: Set in Llanwelly, Wales. Larry returned home because his brother died.

The Wolf Man (1941) definitely hit the right spot for a horror classic. The practical effects for the titular character look great, the night scenes are beautifully shot. There's a tragic love triangle, even if it's not fully explored and that tragic ending.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Good Boy (2025)

 

Written by Alex Cannon And Ben Leonberg

Directed by Ben Leonberg

Todd (to Indy): "You're a good boy but you can't save me."

One of the most creative horror films of the year just came out and of course, I needed to see it. An entire movie based on the perspective of a dog. Did it work? Well, yeah actually.

The dog in question being the adorable Indy (also the dog's name in real life). Indy had an owner named Todd (Shane Jensen). Todd suffered from a chronic lung disease and throughout the movie was particularly tetchy towards his concerned sister, Vera (Arielle Friedman) who just wanted to help him.

It's revealed in the movie early enough that Todd and Vera's grandfather (Larry Fessenden) died and Todd inherited the grandfather's house. It's also largely hinted that the house was cursed. That was something Todd chose to ignore along with his ailing condition.

As the movie progressed, Indy could see a sinister presence stalking Todd but his attempts to warn his owner were constantly ignored. It even got to the point where Todd was outright mean to everyone he encountered, including Indy. It really should go without saying that Todd should've listened to Indy.

Having Indy as the protagonist made it impossible to dislike or be critical of Indy. Indy did everything he could do to try and help Todd but the latter realised far too late that there was a dark figure in the house. 

Seeing as it's a horror film, someone had to die and while it wasn't Indy, it was still really sad seeing the poor dog lose his owner to the dark figure. Add in Vera's grief over finding her brother and this movie ended on a genuinely sad note.

- Not only was Indy named after himself but he's the director's real life dog.

- The movie took over 400 days to film. I loved some of the old footage they used for Indy, including him as a puppy.

- There's another film with the same title but a far different premise that is also being released soon, so that'll make looking for it online fun.

- Chronology: Present day. Todd relocated from New York to the woods where everything happened.

At 72 minutes long, Good Boy was a movie that didn't overstay it's welcome or feel too gimmicky. A great performance from Indy and some genuinely unsettling and poignant moments certainly made this a delightful watch.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Peacemaker: "Full Nelson"

 

Written And Directed by James Gunn 

Peacemaker (to Flag Sr): "What the fuck is this?"

I woke up this morning and found a lot of people were massively disappointed in this finale. For those hoping for cameo fest galore, this will disappoint. Supporting that you likely didn't care about from Superman (2025) like Happersen and Otis just ain't it.

Now, does the lack of fan pleasing faces make for a bad finale? Not really but James Gunn absolutely did himself no favours by making it sound like there were going to be big cameos in the weeks leading up to it. That was a bad move on his part.

Anyways, back to the episode itself, Flag wasted no time in using the Quantum Unfolding Chamber to scope out new worlds. It was a fun of seeing different places and killing off a few ARGUS members but of course, Flag's motives were rooted in something else.

All season long, Flag's wanted to get back at Christopher Smith and finally he got it. The discovery of Planet Salvation meant that that the government had a prison for metahumans away from Earth. It's also where Chris ended up at the very last moment because Flag Sr really was that vengeful. How will Chris ever get out of this one?

Going back a bit, this episode felt more full circle moment for the 11th Street Kids. They also went through getting some personal moments of closure with certain issues. By the near end of the episode, Checkmate had been formed and with it, probably one of the next DCU shows to boot.

I did like that the episode explored things like that boat incident between Chris and Emilia (they kissed at a Nelson concert), Leota ending her marriage to Keeya along with Adrian and John having some nice moments. Still though, this wasn't the way I expected Checkmate to be formed in the DCU.

- James Gunn did confirm that the Planet Salvation storyline will be continued in the DCU. The show won't be getting a third season.

- Kline got his whole face eaten by whatever those tiny creatures were. He also puked on a stripper, which no one needed to know about.

- Sasha, Fluery and Judomaster all signed up with Checkmate. Fluery was the only I feel they didn't build towards changing teams.

- For a moment, I did think the show was setting Sasha Bordeaux to go and work for Bruce Wayne. I mean they could still happen.

- Standout music: We got to see both Nelson and Foxy Shazam perform To Get Back To You and Oh Lord live on a boat.

- Chronology: The boat incident happened on May 22nd. I liked the way they spaced out the reveal over the course of the episode.

Full Nelson wasn't as horrible as many made it out to be. Yes, it failed on the big cameos but it did have some nice character moments and good shift in direction. Despite a third season not happening, it won't be too long before we catch up with this lot.

Rating: 7 out of 10