In THE DOMESTICS (2018), the U.S. government spread a pathogen to kill its own citizenry, resulting in America’s collapse into warring gangs and a film that promises a cross between MAD MAX and THE PURGE. Amid the insanity, the Domestics are people who go on trying to live their old normal lives as best they can. Two of these people are Mark and Nina, about to divorce when apocalypse struck, and now taking a road trip across the Midwest to get Nina to her parents. Along the way, they encounter one crazy gang after another, resulting in Nina toughening up into a killer and Mark finally finding a way to rekindle their love.

It’s an okay, kind of fun movie that could have been great and really fun. Going into it, I was hoping it would strike me the way ZOMBIELAND DID, serious in the action sequences but light and humorous in the characterization, dialogue, and overall delivery. Nina (Kate Bosworth) is morose for most of the movie and in complete denial about the danger she’s in, making her a bit of a frustrating character. What would have grabbed me far more would have been if she was as tough as he was, and they bickered and fought the entire time they were battling the gangs. The result is pretty flat, with Mark and Nina encountering one gang of homicidal maniacs after another.

Overall, again, it was okay for me, but it was overall kind of flat, and it could have been amazing.

MOM AND DAD (2017) is a delightfully trashy, gonzo, sort-of-a-zombie dark comedy about a mysterious signal that makes parents want to kill their children. It’s cartoonish at times, punctuated with hilarious moments, and far more poignant than it has a right to be. Where MAYHEM ably went with the modern office, MOM AND DAD hurls itself at the modern family.

Brent Ryan (Nicholas Cage at his zaniest) is Dad, struggling in the midst of a raging midlife crisis. Kendall (Selma Blair) is Mom having her own midlife crisis, frustrated with her teenage daughter rejecting her and finding out the job market doesn’t want her after setting aside her career for 15 years to be a stay-at-home mom. Carly, their daughter, is a stereotypical bratty teenager, who has a boyfriend that Brent doesn’t approve of because he is a year older than Carly. Josh, their son, is a playful boy who leaves a mess wherever he goes.

The opening credits kick off the movie with a Grindhouse vibe, promising it’s going to follow through on its dark premise, before we’re introduced to a typical day for the Ryan family. When the disorder strikes, parents line up at the school, eagerly awaiting their children. The authorities are already on to the pandemic and rush police onto the scene, and in the ensuing chaos, Carly escapes and tries to get home to Josh. Meanwhile, Brent and Carly, out for the day, rush home out of worry for their kids, whom they love more than anything and will soon want to kill.

The movie is shrill, clumsy, over the top, and ends with an awkward misstep, but I had way more fun with it than I thought I would. It’s not very deep, but writer/director Brian Taylor has something to say about the relationship parents have with their kids, that “You gave my life meaning, I love you more than myself” conflicting with, “I gave up what was left of my youth to raise you, and I lost my identity in being a parent,” suggesting all parents have a deep resentment buried in all that love.

In his film, Taylor clearly sympathizes with Mom and Dad, who are far better developed and outright funny. They’re zombies in a way, but only when it comes to killing their kids. Otherwise, the parents in this movie act like it’s an average day, which sets up a barrage of hilarious moments both big and small, such as Kendall giving a polite wave to an off-screen neighbor before resuming her hunt for her children. Mom and Dad share some bonding moments while trying to figure out a way to get at their kids, otherwise bickering the whole time like a married couple. The kids, meanwhile, aren’t very well developed as characters, particularly Carly’s boyfriend who’s there to alternately help and get his butt kicked, but this sets up a comedic conflict for the viewer: We sympathize with the kids because we don’t want them killed, but we empathize with the parents, whom we like far more.

In the end, MOM AND DAD has its missteps, but I just went with it and had a ton of fun watching it.

A QUIET PLACE (2018) is in many ways your typical post-apocalyptic horror fare but distinguishes itself as very good because of its primary conceit–making any noise earns you a grisly death in this world. This conceit skyrockets the tension and demands audience participation, where you find yourself holding your breath.

It’s 2020, and most of the world’s population has been wiped out by monsters (likely aliens) that are attracted to and attack anything that makes noise. On a rural farm, the Abbott family continues to survive along with other scattered survivors in the area. There’s Lee, the patient dad with mad survivalist skills; Evelyn, his warrior wife who is pregnant; deaf daughter Regan; and sons Marcus and Beau. When a noise at the house attracts the creatures, the family must fight to survive the night.

I’d thought this was a screen adaptation of Tim Lebbons’ novel THE SILENCE, which I’d read and liked. Lebbons’ novel was adapted, but this isn’t it, despite some on-the-nose similarities. THE SILENCE is coming out in December 2018.

A QUIET PLACE starts off well, immediately establishing the rules of this world (though with a heavily contrived moment that didn’t work for me until I considered it a suicide). All dialogue is sign language. The characters are continually terrified they’re going to make noise. This conceit draws the viewer in and makes for very tense viewing throughout. I would have preferred if the monsters stayed hidden to heighten the mystery and fear about them, but they’re revealed fairly early, and honestly didn’t do that much for me. (See THE RITUAL for a monster done really well.) The film takes itself very seriously on a dramatic level, though there isn’t enough depth in the family relationships to reach it.

In the end, A QUIET PLACE is a horror movie, with smart people doing dumb things and all, but with a fresh conceit powerfully executed. It’s clever in its great attention to detail and all the little mechanisms the family uses to communicate and survive. While the film isn’t as deep as it seems to aim, the characters are all likeable, and we want them to survive under constant harsh rules and with very high stakes, making this top-notch survival horror. Overall, THE QUIET PLACE is a good story with a strong execution, and while it didn’t hit every note for me, I really liked it.

While it appears to aim for the gravitas of ARRIVAL, ANNIHILATION (2018) doesn’t quite make it, but overall, it’s a solid sci-fi film I enjoyed quite a bit.

Based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer but having more in common with HP Lovecraft’s story “The Colour Out of Space,” ANNIHILATION presents us with a terrific mystery. An extraterrestrial object fell from the sky and struck a lighthouse, producing a psychedelic shimmering haze that is expanding across the landscape. Among the expeditions that went in, there were no apparent survivors until the husband of a biologist named Lena (Natalie Portman) surfaces at their home after being missing a year. After he collapses into a coma, Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) recruits her and three other women to journey into the shimmer to try to discover its source. As the shimmer is steadily expanding, a lot is at stake for the world, but for Lena, she wants to know what happened to her husband and make up for a betrayal.

The women’s trek through the corrupted wilderness is great, with plenty of weirdness that is eventually explained with an engaging reason. The creatures and bizarre landscapes they encounter, and the steady degradation of their minds and bodies, are convincing and compelling–most of all the fact the ET appears to be more a mindless phenomenon than an intelligence. Where the film falls flat for me is in the characterization. The women are all broken in some way, mirroring the corruption of the shimmer, but none of them are particularly likeable except possibly for Dr. Ventress, whose monotone coldness oddly makes her the most interesting of the group. Lena’s husband is strangely miscast. He’s a fine actor, but he and Portman offered up zero chemistry. If he’d been jolly and less cold, their relationship would have been far more interesting, and it would have offered up a great contrast against the current coldness among all the characters.

The ending is particularly fun. The mystery of what happened to Lena’s husband, the confrontation with the source, the bizarre landscape, Lena confronting the “alien,” all of it was done in an intelligent way. The final reveal is typical Hollywood, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Overall, it’s a top-notch sci-fi film.