‘Movie Corner’ Archives
Movie Corner: Barbarian
20th Century Studios By HOWARD MCQUITTER II 20th Century Studios 2022Horror Barbarian is a very well-rounded horror film that, with its unpredictability and contradictions, is genuinely scary. For what seems like a normal house with normal trappings, below it is a house of horrors. Prepare to squirm in your seat when you see Barbarian. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit (1980s) for a major convention. Finding hotel space full to capacity, discovers her Airbnb service has been double-booked at a “nice” house in a rundown neighborhood. It is night and pouring rain. Such a perfect setting for scares, a perfect place to be in the wrong places. She rings the doorbell to find another occupant is there. His name is is Keith (Bill Skarsgård, who played the murderous Pennywise the Clown) and he is as puzzled as she. He invites her to get out of the rain as everything seems to be “normal” inside the house. Understandably, Tess is wary of Keith; and Keith [...]
Movie Corner: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Warner Bros. By HOWARD MCQUITTER II Warner Bros. 1962Black &White Drama/Horror Thriller The drama/ thriller feels so much like Alfred Hitchcock, but it is directed by Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen , Emperor of the North ). To this day, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has aged quite well. The story of two sisters starts as children in vaudeville in the early 1900s before becoming movie stars in Hollywood’s pre-Golden and Golden Ages. As for Jane (Bette Davis), her movies are often riddled with being difficult to work with besides her heavy drinking which will carry into her years long after acting. Blanche (Joan Crawford) on the other hand, is much easier to get along with in general and is a better actress than her cranky sister. The camera moves fast forward several decades later where the two two sisters who never married live in Rudolph Valentino’s old mansion which looks more inviting from its façade than it does inside. By this time, Blanche is [...]
Movie Corner: Beast
★1/2 (one and a half stars) Universal Pictures 2022 Adventure/ Drama/Horror By HOWARD MCQUITTER II A pedestrian thriller about a demon lion, (CGI - computer-generated imagery), turned bad by the poachers. The lion becomes a danger to everyone who encounters it. All this takes place in South Africa where the lion strikes terror among the villagers. After his ex-wife dies, Doctor Nate Daniels (Idris Alba), an American, takes his two daughters, thirteen-year-old Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) and eighteen-year-old Meredith (Iyana Halley), on a hunting expedition to the village where his ex-wife was raised. It is Nate's chance to see his old friend, wildlife biologist Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley). The next day, Nate and his two daughters go on a safari with Martin. They are shocked to see a village destroyed, along with bodies and injured villagers lying around. The daughters, who believe their dad had abandoned their sick mother, become upset because they feared he [...]
