Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

OPUS (2025)

by Leave a Comment

In OPUS, a reclusive ’90s mega-pop star is ready for a comeback with a new album, inviting a very select group of guests to his remote commune to be the first to hear it. The only trick is the star’s opus isn’t the album but something far more nefarious.

The film centers on Ariel (Ayo Edebiri, whose understated wry irritation with almost everything, which works so well in THE BEAR, didn’t quite fit this role for me), a writer at a music magazine trying to get ahead. She has big dreams to write a book everyone will read, only it’s clear she doesn’t have anything to say yet.

In a big surprise, Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich), a mega star in the 90s who disappeared for the past few decades, has announced a comeback and has invited her boss along with several other guests to be the first to hear his opus. The final surprise: Ariel is invited too.

They arrive at Moretti’s remote commune, where he lives with many of his fans who now follow his teachings in what becomes increasingly clear is a cult. Then the horror begins…

What I liked: The movie has a lot of polish, some smart writing, a solid cast. Malkovich steals the show as Moretti, a sort of David Bowie-Elton John mashup. In one scene, he vogues as he sings one of his songs, and the result is hilarious as he performs it to the playful hilt. Two original songs are presented, and they’re both okay, not great in my view, but whatever, I ran with it.

What I didn’t like: The movie doesn’t seem to have much to say itself, upscaling a very familiar horror plot but to no real purpose other than for Ariel to get a big reveal at the end about why she was chosen to come to the commune. The characters and the cult itself are all pretty shallow, and while it’s fun, one can’t help but feel like the film could have been so much more and wanted to be. The horror isn’t particularly horrifying.

The result is reminiscent of BLINK TWICE, but without the edginess, mixed with THE MENU, only without the big theme. Most reviewers didn’t like this one, and many viewers didn’t care for it either, but I honestly, I liked it enough. It doesn’t ask for much, and John Malkovich, though somewhat miscast at his advanced age, is a lot of fun to watch as he chews the role of the pop star.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (2024)

by Leave a Comment

I’ve always enjoyed superhero media more around the fringes, going for the heavier, more thoughtful stuff like LOGAN, THE DARK KNIGHT, and LOKI. Checking out DEADPOOL on a lark, I was surprised by how much I loved it. DEADPOOL 2 was just as good if not better, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. So when DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE hit the theaters, I was ready to watch, finally catching it when it hit streaming on Disney Plus.

I was severely disappointed.

In this movie, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) recruits Deadpool to save his universe from destruction because Wolverine died in his timeline. (This makes zero sense, but just go with it.) To accomplish this, he sets out to find a Wolverine variant willing to help, leading to a team-up adventure against a villain living in the End who wants to destroy all reality.

The setup promises to be fun as the ultimate unlikely buddy movie, Deadpool’s freakiness versus Wolverine’s moody earnestness, and they work in plenty of surprising cameos and crazy set pieces like Deadpool fighting an army of himself, but despite the potential of all these great elements the whole is just a hot mess. Confusing character development, a non-stop stream of F-bombs and meta jokes covering up a bad script, and no real stakes, no reason to care.

The highlight was Hugh Jackman as WOLVERINE, who did have something of a story arc. Even here, you can see why he’s one of Marvel’s most beloved characters.

So, I didn’t hate it, but instead of DEADPOOL standing out from the usual Marvel fare, it joined the club. I know it’s “mindless entertainment, just go with it and have fun,” and that’s fine, but it just wasn’t nearly as fun for me as the first two movies. If there’s another DEADPOOL I’ll watch it, but I’m hoping it gets back to its clever roots.

SINNERS (2025)

by Leave a Comment

In SINNERS (2025), two Black men return to rural Mississippi after serving in the First World War and a stint working for Al Capone in Chicago, hoping to open a juke joint for the local Black community only to run afoul not only with the KKK but an infestation of vampires. The result bursts at the seams, can be pretty messy, but is ultimately a really good time.

Smoke and Stack (twins played by Michael B. Jordan) spend quite a bit of time pulling together the people they need to open their establishment while reuniting with those they left behind. Among them are past loves (Hailee Steinfeld and Wunmi Mosaku), a veteran blues musician (Delroy Lindo, one of my favorite actors), and upcoming blues prodigy Sammie (Miles Caton). Smoke and Stack are haunted men, real sinners, and they hope to see Sammie mature and find his own way in the world while also taking steps to protect his innocence so he doesn’t follow the same dark path as them. The men open their joint and throw an amazing party, but Sammie’s music catches the interest of a passing vampire and all hell breaks loose.

The movie is about a lot of things and is trying to be a lot of things, but that’s fine, I was enjoying it for its Southern Gothic feel and great cinematography, but once the vampires show up, the movie takes off. Jack O’Connell steals the show as Remmick, the Irish vampire who sees his kind as full of communal love and beyond racism. He also absorbs the memories of everyone he turns, which is why he wants to invade the juke joint so badly–he falls in love with Sammie’s music and wants his stories. A lot of whether a vampire movie today really works, at least for me, is in how the vampire is handled, and I loved this portrayal of a cheerful but very hungry and lonesome cult.

Did I mention this movie is trying to be a lot of things? One of them is a musical, with several songs, two of which are amazing set pieces that made me wish I’d seen SINNERS in the theater. In one, Sammie’s playing transcends time and space to draw dancers and musicians from across history, and in another, the grinning vampires jam to an Irish folk song while Remmick jigs. These scenes are surprising and elevate the story even while it relies on familiar tropes like stakes and garlic, creating something new.

Overall, all the disparate elements in SINNERS didn’t quite come together perfectly for me, but they came together well enough, and where it worked for me it shined. In short, I loved it and would recommend it.

SAVAGELAND (2017)

by Leave a Comment

In horror mockumentary SAVAGELAND (2017), the 57 residents of a tiny Texas border town are massacred in a single bloody night and the lone survivor is accused of the heinous crime. But the pictures he took tell a different story.

This was a real surprise. What the filmmakers accomplished with a small budget is amazing. SAVAGELAND is presented like a true crime documentary and follows the same structure, presenting the crime, the man who stood accused, and the questions raised about his guilt. Only, in this case, the survivor described a group of strange people who came to the town and tore everyone to shreds.

As the story progresses, we meet the sheriff, who is absolutely convinced Salazar, an illegal immigrant, committed mass murder; various locals caught up in the debate over immigration; a reporter who discovered the mysterious photos depicting a nightmarish horror; a border patrol agent who believes Salazar is innocent; and families and friends of the victims.

When the photos are introduced, they tell the story of Salazar’s mad dash through hell, and they are super creepy. Depicting the last moments of various residents, blurry with motion, they take on a life of their own and give heavy NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT vibes. Coupled with the secondhand nature of the storytelling, it really plays on the imagination and brought me directly into the story.

Overall, I loved SAVAGELAND and recommend it. I didn’t expect anything, and it turned out to be a great surprise.

28 YEARS LATER

by Leave a Comment

28 DAYS LATER marked a salient reinvention of the zombie genre, providing an infection in the blood that turns people into enraged homicidal maniacs. 28 WEEKS LATER was the polished but less punchy and visceral follow-up. With 28 YEARS LATER, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland team up again to revisit this sad universe, returning to its grungy, episodic roots with a new film that explores fresh weird and blood-soaked terrain.

28 DAYS LATER was a big influence for my zombie novels back in the day. From the gritty look and music to the desolation to the terror of the infected to the sheer desperation of the survivors, I loved it. I liked 28 WEEKS LATER–especially the insane opening scene–but didn’t love it. Tonally, it was so different, and when the SHTF, it ended too quickly for me. So, I went into 28 YEARS LATER ready for anything, especially after watching the off-the-hook trailer with the wild song where an actor recites Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Boots.”

Anyway, England has fallen due to a blood-borne virus that causes homicidal rage and shedding blood. The infected immediately either kill you or infect you. The authorities disinfected the island and tried to bring the survivors back to repopulate London, but a fresh outbreak destroyed the settlement. The virus was pushed back from mainland Europe, and the UK is permanently quarantined, leaving the human survivors to fend for themselves.

In a community surviving on a small island off mainland UK, 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams, who pulls his weight as the lead) lives with his father and ailing mother. The community has a strange culture with traditions around conquering death, including masks and boys going ashore to kill an infected. When Spike learns of an isolated and possibly insane doctor tending a perpetual bonfire of the dead, he sets out in the hopes of getting his mother cured, learning to respect instead of fear death in the process. An apocalyptic bildungsroman. Along the way, Spike encounters various survivors and variants on the infected as the Rage virus has mutated.

Overall, it was fun and weird and different, throwing out the fast-food menu of the franchise for a far grungier vision that hearkens back to the original. At the end, Spike meets up with someone in a setup for a continuation of the story, which I would definitely watch.

As far as criticisms, some of the editing is heavy-handed, and Boyle’s trick of occasionally freeze-framing during action scenes doesn’t work for me. The first act has cutaways to British documentary war footage and old movies of medieval warfare, which was odd and unnecessary. The overall story’s episodic nature is similar to Garland’s CIVIL WAR. Story wise, I think it would have been better to convey more tangibly what Spike is rejecting about his home and why beyond the philosophical theme, and make him a little older. If it’s a simple story set in an apocalyptic world, they should have leaned on it. Also, I’m surprised Spike finds a home in the wild world when it’s obvious he very likely won’t survive–it’s not really clear he understands and accepts this. I don’t want to overthink a zombie movie, but this one does seem to reach for something bigger.

Anyway, no matter. Overall, I thought 28 YEARS LATER was a worthy addition to the Rage universe. It didn’t trigger a hungry sense of wonder like the first movie did and it wasn’t quite as visceral, but it was weird, punchy, exciting, and a fun ride.

ANDOR, Season 2

by Leave a Comment

I gave up on STAR WARS years ago, but ANDOR accomplished something remarkable–it elevated the franchise and gave it a much-needed boost of gravitas. The second season tied off the story beautifully.

I was 12 when the first STAR WARS came out. My mind exploded. I went to see it nine times. When the franchise returned with the second trilogy, I slogged through them until eventually I gave up, just as I did with every other beloved franchise from ALIEN to INDIANA JONES to James Bond as they just got, well, dumber.

So, I had little interest when ANDOR appeared. I did catch ROGUE ONE, which everyone seemed to like, and I personally found it overbaked with an unlikable protagonist, so hearing Cassian Andor’s backstory carried little appeal. But everyone kept talking up how different and deep ANDOR was, so I checked it out and, benefited by low expectations, quite enjoyed it for its intelligent writing and fairly realistic depiction of how dissent becomes active resistance against tyranny. STAR WAS as gritty political thriller–I liked it.

The show is really about empire and rebellion, fascism and the the desire to resist it, and how resistance requires sacrifice and often resorting to tactics that mirror the evils of the oppressive regime. (Strangely, there are some people who watched the show and rooted for the fascists, go figure.) In the first season, we primarily follow Cassian Andor (Diega Luna), an orphan looking for a shortcut to a comfortable life who through circumstance winds up pushed to radicalism, one man’s journey to become a revolutionary. While he simply wants to be left alone, the police state will not allow it, pushing him and others until they put their lives on the line to resist. For them, there’s little inspirational talk about democracy and way more base resistance to being dominated, used, and destroyed. Simple justice, often taking the form of an eye for an eye.

In Season 2, Andor is now an agent working for Luthen Rael (the excellent Stellan Skarsgård). From what I understand, ANDOR was originally conceived as five seasons but cut off at two, and instead of phoning it in like the last season of GAME OF THRONES and THE EXPANSE, the writers went all out to condense the story into something powerful. Each episode takes place a year apart, providing a countdown to the commissioning and use of the planet-killing Death Star. This results in an episodic evolution of the Rebellion itself from an underground terrorist organization to an openly operating military force that rejects the ignoble tactics of its origin. We see a senator forced to accept a lethal decision to protect the Rebellion during a wedding scene (with a banger techno song) and then make a brave, high-risk stand against the Emperor, the provocation of a planet to rebel so it can be crushed, the portrayal of those who serve the Empire for personal gain as competent bureaucrats instead of cartoon villains, and more.

It all culminates in Andor accepting one more assignment, which results in him joining the adventure of ROGUE ONE, which I rewatched and liked so much more as a series finale of sorts.

My only criticism of this season and the show as a whole is despite a huge effort to make the worlds look lived in, they never really do. Sometimes, it’s like a weird space Middle Ages where a single city represents a whole planet, and again despite some good efforts, often a lot of willing suspension of disbelief is needed to go with the locations being real places. Contrast it with GAME OF THRONES, for example, which shows how to do world-building right (at least until characters started teleporting). This was largely a function of budget, of course.

Overall, ANDOR is a real standout show, so different from the rest of the STAR WARS franchise, challenging in its ideas of what real rebellion looks like, and the true cost of freedom.