Scary Stories (from a Dark Allie)

Okay, this proves you don’t have to be a short movie for me to like you. Just don’t fill the minutes with drawn-out slow sequences, I guess?

I am kind of glad I waited until now to watch this movie, and also glad that I managed to basically avoid spoilers beforehand?

I struggle a bit on rating this one. It has all these fantastic elements of a really good horror movie - a stellar cast, an understated and well-placed score, a unique and interesting premise, and yet…for me it’s just too. long.

I like this one a lot. It has so many familiar faces who are all fantastic. It has the perfect score. It’s well-directed and well-paced.

When this movie started, I was all set to give it four stars just for the understated credits sequence and the foggy Chicago skyline angles. But by the end I couldn’t quite bring myself to rate it so highly.

Well, we’ve made it through an entire month. And now it’s February. In the US (and Canada, I think), February is Black History Month. I want to be clear that I am not qualified to, nor do I intend to, go deep into any racial critiques here - but I did seek out movies made by and starring Black artists.

Otherwise, and as always, everything on here is strictly my personal opinion and about my personal enjoyment.

I can’t believe I hadn’t seen this movie before! It seems right up my alley - Steven Soderbergh directed, shot entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, some familiar faces in the mix.

So yeah, I liked it.

This movie is…a lot. I guess it makes it pretty clear from the first scene that it’s going to be a lot, but somehow it still left me kind of…I don’t even know, it’s just a LOT.

What’s with all these relatively short movies feeling like they’re dragging on so slowly? I kept kind of losing interest in things, but I ultimately found a good amount to like here.

Okay, this is another movie I was all in on for the first hour before it got weird and a bit silly.

Also, it’s French. As in, English subtitles for a French-language film. Which I wasn’t expecting for a movie called Deep Fear.

I went back and forth a bit on how highly to rate this movie, but it eventually won me over. There are a lot of pieces that don’t add up…until they do, and then they really add up.

I don’t think this movie was great, but I do think it took the best parts of the original and tried to make the most of them in a remake. I don’t think it always succeeded, but I can appreciate the attempt.

I was really torn on how to rate this one. The opening and closing were fantastic, but the whole middle seemed to drag on. And it’s not a long movie.

Okay, I’m glad this is the last Scream movie I have to watch this year. And honestly, I was prepared for this to be way worse than it was. You read about things being “critically panned” and it gets in your head and…yeah.

And yet, once again, this movie was fine.