In emotional scenes, the brilliant Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey) – RIP – would recall his father, who abandoned him as a child.
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Orson Welles
“I didn’t know what you couldn’t do. I didn’t deliberately set out to invent anything. It just seemed to me, “Why not?”… That was the gift I brought to Kane… ignorance.”
Shelby Oaks (2024)
Years after her sister disappeared, a woman finds new evidence that leads her to the occult and a sinister force.
A hit and miss from many perspectives, but with a lot of potential. Shelby Oaks‘ found-footage first act sets the tone, pace and rhythm of the film you think you are about to watch. The second act begins, though, following a formulaic narrative, revealing the credits and unfolding the confrontation set up in the initial act. There are pros and cons in both acts, let’s have a look.
The thriller/drama is real and intense: A woman who lost her little sister and sacrificed her happiness, spending years looking for her. Years later, evidence resurfaces in the most morbid and dramatic way, and the hunt for the truth begins again. That storyline, in and of itself, makes up for a suspenseful film and a very relatable heroine. This is the second-best aspect of the film. It is relatable! Mia (Camille Sullivan), as said, sacrificed everything in the process, and producer/co-writer/director Chris Stuckmann managed to depict that quite well.
On the other hand, while the myth of the horror is appealing, its manifestation is unreal and a tad dull. Its removal would have been an asset to the film. Imagination and the use of offscreen can do things that digital VFX will never be able to. The demon and its various forms disrupt the thriller/drama’s nightmare and remind you that this is a film with VFX.
The best thing that happened to this film and to Stuckmann is Camille Sullivan herself! She is excellent in this role and every other role she’s been in. If it weren’t for her, the film would have scored lower. If you want to see her, though, in a film that will blow your mind in the end, go for Hunter Hunter (2020): https://kaygazpro.com/hunter-hunter-2020-drama-horror-mystery/.
NEON decided to invest in the film, and the one and only Mike Flanagan is also one of the many people who is wearing the producer’s hat. Shelby Oaks is a crowdfunded film, and congratulations to Stuckmann for making it. It’s not easy to make a film. Anything that can go wrong will probably go wrong. But he found the money, he cast Sullivan and the rest of the wonderful actors and actresses, and he made it. To me, there is a lot that doesn’t work, from script to screen, but at least he made it.
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Infection Horror: The Fear of Losing Yourself
From Night of the Living Dead (1968) to The Sadness (2021), infection horror has always tapped into one of our deepest fears— the loss of control. Whether it’s zombies, parasites, or psychological contagion, these films force us to confront the terrifying idea that the real monster is inside us.
Image References: IMDb
David Lynch
“I’m lucky, because I like all the different parts [of directing]. And they are all extremely important, because if one or two fall short, the whole thing falls apart. So you have to be involved in every part of the process, making choices that reinforce the whole idea which started the thing in the beginning. And you have to be very watchful — and open to fantastic new ideas. Once you see something right in front of you, like an actress with a certain dress walk into a certain light and say a certain word, you can almost pass out. You’ve got all the parts together, but now it’s really something different, and it goes to another place. . . . You can’t give priority to one over the other. You have to know the sound, the lighting, the placement of people, everything — and you keep on going until it is right or as right as you can get it. It talks to you, you know. You are always comparing what you see in front of you with the original idea, and you know when it’s right and when it’s not working. And sometimes you also have the happy feeling that it’s better than the original idea, because of other people’s input and having it all in front of you.”
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
During the demolition of the “Cinema Paradiso,” one can spot a motorcycle advertisement with the slogan: “Paradise can wait.”
Roofman (2025)
While on the run from the police, a charismatic robber finds refuge at a play store and becomes romantically involved with an employee.
Funny, romantic, sad, and… Channing Tatum. Very well received both critically and at the box office, Roofman is a light comedy/romance about the true story of Jeffrey Manchester, who won the locals’ hearts, and then the public’s when the film came out. It’s well shot and edited, with the pace and rhythm being just about right in all three acts. The tone is also right, with the funny sequences being actually funny and the romance not over-the-top.
Co-writer/director Derek Cianfrance, the man behind films such as Blue Valentine (2010) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), creates this, as said, light comedy/romance that impresses with its simplicity and, of course, with Jeffrey Manchester’s unique story. While it’s hard to believe it, it’s true. Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst make a great on-screen couple, with Dunst proving she can be a 10/10 in every performance she gives – however demanding. Tatum is also great, but this is not the role that will define him. LaKeith Stanfield and Peter Dinklage add an extra layer of mystery and comedy, enhancing the film’s dark tone.
Roofman is not the kind of film that will be talked about for years to come. It is honest, it offers the escapism we need nowadays, and provides food for thought when it comes to skills, talent, hard work and the way(s) we use them to try to achieve something in life. Sometimes they can lead us to where we were destined to go, and others to prison – unless prison was where we were destined to go. Very much enjoyable!
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Ali Zaoua (2000)
Morocco’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001.
Francis Ford Coppola
“The first thing you do when you take a piece of paper is always put the date on it, the month, the day, and where it is. Because every idea that you put on paper is useful to you. By putting the date on it as a habit, when you look for what you wrote down in your notes, you will be desperate to know that it happened in April in 1972 and it was in Paris and already it begins to be useful. One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes.”
Lost: The Show, The Theories, The Obsession
Lost wasn’t just a TV show — it was a shared obsession. But why did we need answers so badly? This episode dives into the mystery, the fan theories, and what Lost reveals about us. Maybe it was never about the island… maybe it was about the audience.
Image References: IMDb
Sisu: Road to Revenge (2025)
WWII is over, and Aatami returns home, now occupied by the USSR, only to be hunted down by the same man who slaughtered his family.
Bloody and gory, but lacking its predecessor’s panache. And there is a reason for it. Three years ago, writer/director Jalmari Helander made Sisu (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/sisu-2022/, a visceral action with dark comedic elements. This year, he wrote and directed the sequel, turning it into a comedy with parodic elements. The funny impossibilities of the first film now turn into a big laugh for the audience. They are amplified to the extreme, to the point that one cannot help but feel the filmmakers parody Chuck Norris.
I’m afraid the negatives overshadow the excellent photography and editing, as the script goes over the top with every sequence. Confronting Yeagor (Stephen Lang), the man who slaughtered his family, is the best villain for Aatami (Jorma Tommila), but the things you see from beginning to end will only make you laugh rather than get you excited or hyped. Needless to say, the gimmicks are endless, the background characters are always incompetent, and the laws of physics are nonexistent.
But hey, as I like to say, you will forget all your troubles, even if only for an hour and a half.
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Sisu (2022)
A Finnish war veteran, now a gold miner, encounters a group of nazis who make the mistake of going after him to take his gold.
Pure cinematic pleasure! Down to Earth but also epic, esoteric, silent, and intimate at the same time, like a modern western, the first chapter impresses with the introduction of silent Aatami (Jorma Tommila). With the second chapter and the introduction of the nazis, his true self, abilities and raw brutality warn us as to what is about to happen in the coming chapters.
Writer/director Jamari Helander made a visceral, atmospheric, and epic/low-budget (I know, right?) film that appealed to a global audience and was praised by the critics. Most of the things you see could not possibly happen and would never possibly happen, but Helander is not going for realism. Au contraire, he’s going for the extravagant, the near impossible and the comedic. Think of it as the European version of First Blood (1982) – just more bloody, less serious, and utterly entertaining.
Sisu is an extraordinary Finnish cinematic experience that aims to make its audience forget its problems with blood, guts, brains, and plenty of gruesomely killed nazis. Don’t question anything, just accept what you see and enjoy. Tommila nailed his part, Aksel Hennie (Bruno) made an excellent villain, and since Sisu was such a success, he and Helander are coming back for more.
P.S. Fun fact: None of the actors are German, and nobody speaks German.
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One Battle After Another (2025)
A group of ex-revolutionaries get together again after sixteen years when the daughter of a member is arrested.
With a soundtrack that doesn’t stop playing, sequences that constantly combine Hollywood’s understanding of revolution with sex, and a forceful political agenda… the first act raises eyebrows, to say the least. It makes one wonder where the story will take you and what will happen along the way. The moment the second act kicks in, the film changes pace immediately (the music, though, doesn’t stop).
Years pass after Act I; the pace slows, each story becomes separate, but everything comes together again gradually. Look, there is so much one can say about this film. After all, it is Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the greatest writers/directors of his generation, so I’m going to give you the very brief synopsis of what to expect after the peculiar Act I. The slow pace of the beginning of Act II acts as a very, very prolonged build-up, as said, bringing those multiple stories together. There is so much going on screen, and every shot you see carries its own pace and rhythm, meticulously stitched together with the previous and the next through elaborate editing. Every actor and actress puts their heart and soul into their characters, and everything flows like a ticking bomb ready to explode in America’s hands.
Given the Trump administration and ICE, it becomes obvious why One Battle After Another was made in tines like these. Followed by two other films that portrayed a decaying and ripped apart America – Leave the World Behind (2023) and Civil War (2024) – One Battle After Another becomes the third film in three years that paints a horrible picture of the country. This time, with a fascist-ruling regime, full of certified nutjobs, to a comical level, and an underground revolutionary network that can be barely and reluctantly taken seriously.
To what level Anderson intended these people and events to be taken seriously is unknown, and surely, the final cut does not inspire seriousness. Look at Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio). In the first act, he’s psychologically and emotionally castrated. In the second act, he’s but a shadow of what he used to be (castrated), and in the third act, he resolves nothing. Almost anything that happens could have happened without him either way.
So, what was intentional, you think? How were these situations and people meant to be perceived? The car chase will go down as one of the greatest car chases of all time – undoubtedly. Furthermore, some sequences could not have been shot more effectively. Yet, as a whole, the peculiarity of the characters and certain events is not for everyone. And despite elements of the story and character development that I was not particularly fond of, the filmmaking is spectacular.
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Werner Herzog
“The opinion of the public is sacred. The director is a cook who merely offers different dishes to them and has no right to insist that they react in a particular way.”
The Pianist (2002)
During filming, director Roman Polanski met a man who had helped his parents survive the war.
Violent Ends (2025)
Following a horrible crime, an honest man, also a member of a violent family, has no option but to face the family’s long feud.
The beauty of American independent cinema! How many times have in praised XYZ Films and IFC, I’ve lost count. So, right off the bat, you get to know the history of the drug family in Arkansas, and then you experience the real animal skinning (that matters more than you think) in a way that most of us have not experienced before. Immediately after, the tone is set and established in prison. The drama, though… the drama that follows sets in motion all the gears of revenge and rage the Frost family will unleash against one another.
Writer/director John-Michael Powell does an excellent job of eliciting fear from people meant to elicit fear. A fantastic job making revenge taste bitter and disgusting. And an amazing job making you want to know what is going to happen next. The story is fascinating, the script is tight, the music is utterly befitting, the editing creates the perfect pace and rhythm while setting up the intended tone, and the acting is exactly what it should be. Billy Magnussen, Kate Burton, James Badge Dale, Alexandra Shipp, Vassiliki Ellwood Yagazis, Nick Stahl and the rest of the cast perform brilliantly and offer a cinematically realistic representation of the events of 1992.
There is drama and action throughout, along with raw, brutal moments. The climax, though, will blow you out of the park! Highly recommended for all American independent cinema lovers and every cinemagoer out there.
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Event Horizon vs. Sunshine: Faith, Science, and Madness
Event Horizon vs. Sunshine. Science, faith, hubris, and Hell. In space, do we find God — or lose our humanity forever?
Image References: IMDb
Anemome (2025)
In Northern Ireland, two estranged brothers reunite in the wilderness to deal with the dark past that still haunts them.
Slow, intriguing, dark, and esoteric. Two amazing actors, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean, unite in a dark psychological drama that exposes the self through trauma, isolation, and silence, and reveals the difficulties of the strongest, yet also the most fragile, complicated, lovable, and painful bond of them all: the family.
Ronan Day-Lewis, Daniel’s son, co-writes with his father and directs this painful, slow-burning reconciliation drama that, for better or for worse, is not for everyone. While the script is tight, the two stories unfold slowly, and the brothers’ personal predicament will not be relatable to mass audiences.
Father and son do a brilliant job in front of and behind the camera, and, other than Sean Bean, Samantha Morton adds a beautiful darkness to the already dark shots whenever she’s in them. Daniel Day-Lewis came back from retirement for this film, which is nothing like anything he’s ever been in. While his role is less demanding than in previous films, he still proves he’s one of the best actors alive. At this point, it’s worth praising cinematographer Ben Fordesman and editor Nathan Nugent, as this film wouldn’t be what it is without them. Cinematography, especially, is Oscar-worthy – utterly mesmerising.
So, what’s the verdict? Go for it. In a time when most films cut to the chase and the messages are as deep as a teaspoon, Anemone explores the outcomes of The Troubles, the personal shame, the shameless church, the abandonment, the childhood trauma, and the unexpressed pains that shape us. So, give it a chance. It is painful and requires patience, but it is a profound cinematic experience nonetheless.
P.S. Brad Pitt is one of the executive producers.
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Tony Gilroy
“It’s just attention to detail. It’s stitch after stitch after stitch. There’s no shortcut.”
Casino (1995)
When actor James Woods learned that director Martin Scorsese was interested in working with him, he called his office and said, “Anytime, anywhere, anything, for however long.”
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (2025)
The retired Horsemen reunite and join forces with three young illusionists against a powerful family.
What a waste of a superb cast! Like with Now You See Me (2013): https://kaygazpro.com/now-you-see-me-2013/ and Now You See Me 2 (2016): https://kaygazpro.com/now-you-see-me-2-2016/, I’m going to make this really quick – quicker than the previous two.
To start with, like with the second instalment, I will not blame director Ruben Fleischer for it, as it is visually pleasing. Here’s what to expect in a nutshell: The main plot is formulaic and unoriginal, the initial characters are undermined only to make the new one look good, the new characters just keep coming up with all sorts of abilities as the narrative unfolds and serve as gimmicks, the humour is cheap, the drama superficial, and the resolution just another expanation word-for-word and shot-for-shot – almost a copy/paste of the second one, just more ridiculous.
While the second one undermined human intelligence too, this one exceeds everyone’s expectations. A complete analysis of how bad it is can be made, but I’m going to stop here. Everything that can’t happen, happens, and this side of Hollywood just keeps reaching lower and lower. It is not even mediocre; it is just another money grab.
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Now You See Me 2 (2016)
The Four Horsemen are exposed by a tech genius who hires them to pull off yet another impossible heist.
Even more impossible and less fun. As promised for Now You See Me (2013): https://kaygazpro.com/now-you-see-me-2013/, I’ll make it quick – even more so.
Director Jon M. Chu puts on the director’s hat for this one, and it’s not his fault, really. His best films began with Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and, in 2024 and 2025, found even more success with Wicked and Wicked: for Good, respectively. Back to Now You See Me 2, it is less fun than the first one because it undermines people’s intelligence. To the point that makes one ask, ‘Why would you do that?’. When the audience doesn’t stand a chance of figuring it out on their own, the film becomes a pure gimmick. Like with the first one, they have to explain everything, word-for-word, shot-for-shot, and even why they do that, every step, raises numerous unanswered questions.
The cast remains the only reason to watch it. But it is not enough. Everyone should have known better. But, hey, it somewhat made some profit, so moving on to the third one!
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Now You See Me (2013)
The FBI and Interpol are hunting a team of illusionists, The Four Horsemen, for the heist they pulled, during which they gave the money to the people they belonged to.
Well-intended mindless entertainment. I’ll be quick with all three films, so I don’t waste anyone’s time. Behind the camera, the amazing director Louis Leterrier and, amongst others, producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman create a film that makes almost zero sense, but, due to how well it is made, it gets away with it. Action-packed, fast-paced, well-shot, and full of twists, it offers the kind of entertainment that makes you forget your problems for a couple of hours. A significant contribution is the A-list cast, comprising Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine.
Now You See Me is funny and is not meant to be taken too seriously. The magic tricks and illusions are not believable and resemble nothing of David Copperfield. They are just visual effects, which degrade their appeal. They are so unbelievable that flashbacks and voice-over are required to explain to the audience what happened in the end and how it was performed, shot-for-shot, word-for-word. So, not only do they have no panache, but they are also explained, and the way they were made makes them even more impossible.
Lastly, The Eye and its gimmicks are Hollywood’s attempt to refer to financial inequality by introducing a shadowy organisation that is for the people. Which is even more unlikely…
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Kathryn Bigelow
“Character and emotionality don’t always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs.”
Kafka on Screen: When Cinema Becomes a Nightmare
Kafka’s stories were once called surreal. Today, they feel like real life. Bureaucracy, dread, meaninglessness — it’s all here. This episode explores how cinema has captured Kafka’s vision of a trapped humanity, and how his nightmare might be our reality.
Image References: IMDb
The Dragonphoenix Chronicles: Indomitable (2013)
The film cost only €10,000, covering expenses for sets, makeup, etc. The actors and crew worked voluntarily, resulting in an impressive outcome.
Sergio Leone
“I am the son of filmmakers. I was born with this bow tie made of celluloid on my collar.”
Frankenstein (2025)
Being obsessed with cheating death, Dr Victor Frankenstein experiments and brings to life a creature that condemns both their fates.
Like rewatching Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein (1994), the opening sequence captivates and gets your undivided attention. Following a similar structure, the master of storytelling, Guillermo del Toro, uses a narrative that goes back and forth in time, explicating in words, images, and sounds a story we already know. But is that truly a concern? Most definitely not.
Victor Frankenstein will always be the symbol of brilliance, arrogance, hubris… and the true monster behind his creation. An inevitable hint that we are not monsters, but the God who made us… in His image. A creator who does not know what to do with his creation upon completion and does not understand the consequences… until it is too late. Mary Shelley’s masterpiece will always remain diachronically relevant for that reason: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” – Jurassic Park (1994).
From a filmmaking point of view, directing, photography, editing, visual effects, and sound effects work together like a Swiss watch. The creature itself, though, could have been more appalling in appearance. Robert DeNiro’s natural prosthetics were phenomenal, making it, arguably, the most suitable creation to date. Having said that, Jacob Elordi does a fantastic job as the creature whose story is nothing short of inspirational, heartbreaking, and forever imprinted in our hearts and minds. Despite the comparison above, the make-up department did an excellent job.
Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Christopher Waltz are amazing, and Frankenstein will be another great addition to del Toro’s filmography – but Branagh’s will always remain the classic for me, as I was a kid when I first saw it. Huge congratulations to all cast and crew for making such a great film.
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Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
The most expensive production of its time, for which the largest studio in the history of French cinema was built.
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
The first film from the People’s Republic of China to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Tron: Ares (2025)
A highly sophisticated program temporarily manifests in the real world to find a code that will allow it to stay there permanently.
Entertaining and visually impressive, but not memorable. Standard Hollywood recipe for the whole family: Model-looking actors, high-octane action, city-levelling calamity where no one dies (on screen), superficial life philosophy, and a great soundtrack synthesise a sci-fi popcorn flick, making you forget your problems for two hours and then the film itself. Despite its effort to present itself as profound, the script is simple and the narrative straightforward.
Director Joachim Rønning does the best he can with what he has, and Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges give decent performances. While Leto manages to attract the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, that is no reason not to watch the film. It’s a decent action/sci-fi you will enjoy watching, but you will not talk about it after the end credits start scrolling. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Disney has had a knack for milking the cow and creating flops, and Tron: Ares is no exception.
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Dream Logic: How Cinema Decodes the Mind
What are dreams? Why do we have them? And how has cinema captured this most mysterious of human experiences? From Wild Strawberries to Inception to It Feeds, this episode explores how films depict dreams — not as they are, but as we fear they are. With thoughts from Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, Descartes, and Plato, we ask: is cinema just a dream that speaks our hidden truths back to us?
Image References: IMDb
Nora Ephron
“Structure is the key to narrative. These are the crucial questions any storyteller must answer: Where does it begin? Where does the beginning start to end and the middle begin? Where does the middle start to end and the end begin? […] All the regular questions that face writers also face us. Where does the story begin, where is the middle, and where is the end? Each of those things is entirely up to the writer. They are the hardest decisions for any writer to make about any story, whether fiction or nonfiction. If you make the right decision about structure, many other things become absolutely clear. On some level, the rest is easy.”
Woman of the Hour (2023)
In the 1970s, a young aspiring actress is invited to a blind date TV show, but one of the bachelors is a man who has been stalking and killing women for years.
Feature debut for director and lead actress Anna Kendrick, who managed to impress the audiences and critics in front of and behind the camera. The film’s inciting incident is terrifying; the build-up throughout is effective; the acting is exactly what it needs to be; and both the visual and audio match-cuts connect the non-linear narrative from the beginning to the end. It is so effective that, while you know what is going to happen, it still sends chills down your spine and makes you want him to get caught ASAP. Daniel Zovatto is brilliant, making sure his character, Rodney, is portrayed as the monster he was. Nicolette Robinson and Autumn Best complete the cast with their fantastic performances.
There is one major issue with the film that you will only realise in the end. It is a minor spoiler, but Woman of the Hour is based on real events, so I cannot not say it. The protagonist is not Kendrick’s character, Sheryl; it is Best’s character, Amy. Therefore, it becomes utterly confusing why you predominantly watch Sheryl’s life when you should be watching Amy’s. That, in the end, makes no sense.
Regardless, kudos to Kendrick for making this film, but not only that. As per IMDb, she sent all her money from the film to two non-profit organisations that support survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Hats off to her!
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The Invitation (2015)
A man is invited by his ex-wife to a reunion that forces him to confront a tragic past, and it only takes a turn for the worse.
Independent, unique, and intense! Writers/producers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and director Karyn Kusama, intrigue in the opening sequence and bring intentional awkwardness to the very first moment Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and Kira (Emayatzi Corinealdi) enter the house, as introductions begin and pleasantries get out of the way. And even then, it keeps on going… and going… and going… until it gets worse! Worse than both the audience and guests could ever think of.
The character and story develop slowly, getting to know everyone and their pasts, while not being able to shake the feeling that this reunion is a bomb waiting to explode at any moment, and that Will is going to lose the plot over what he sees and hears. The cast is also brilliant: Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michiel Huisman, Tammy Blanchard, Michelle Krusiec, Mike Doyle, Jordi Vilasuso, Jay Larson, Marieh Delfino, and John Carroll Lynch play their parts the way they should do, without Hollywood mannerisms or hyperbole.
If you have not watched it, the best way is to go in cold — don’t read anything about it and don’t ask anyone’s opinion. The Invitation is one of the best psychological thrillers of the last decade. It’s been ten years, and no matter how many times I watch it, I can’t stop thinking that it is ageing like a fine wine. The drama, the thriller, the suspense, that endless awkwardness that keeps you short of breath… it all comes together so beautifully and tragically.
When the end credits start scrolling, think about the video played to the guests, how it relates to the last scene, and… the chances of this scenario actually happening in the real world.
Happy Halloween!!!
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Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)
Eight tales of psychological, surreal, and paranormal horror captured through the lens of eight directors.
Lots with unimaginable dark secrets, rats and underground entities that long to take revenge for been seen as pestilent, dead bodies waiting to disclose horrible otherworldly truths, superficial products that promise profound personal transformation and social acceptance, terrifying art that evokes the most disturbing feelings, bottomless hopes of cheating death, collectables that were never meant to be kept, and houses that express gief and pain… What more could you ask for on Halloween?
Cabinet of Curiosities could be characterised as dark, claustrophobic, morbid, twisted, investigating, pessimistic, unscientific, and unholy. Great actors, such as Tim Blake Nelson, David Hewlett, F. Murray Abraham, Kate Micucci, Dan Stevens, Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Rupert Grint, Peter Weller, Sofia Boutella, Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln, and the rest of the cast, become their characters and project the darkest side of the human psyche.
Under the watchful eye of Guillermo Del Toro, Ana Lily Amirpour, Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwick, Jennifer Kent, Vincenzo Natali, Guillermo Navarro, David Prior, and Keith Thomas use their lens to capture this darkness inside us and manifest our fears through an audiovisual experience that will captivate you – especially in a time like Halloween. Every director has a unique perspective, every film has a unique story to tell, and every tale uniquely and profoundly explores fear, greed, guilt, profit, loneliness, memory, the cost of value, and the mystical and unholy world hidden behind ours.
No need to review them separately; unbiased, feel free to explore them yourselves and go in blind. Speaking of bias — and without saying I didn’t absolutely LOVE all of them — as an avid enthusiast of H.P. Lovecraft, I’ll have to admit that my favourite was Pickman’s Model. Very few have managed to capture the horrors Lovecraft envisioned, and I’ve been waiting a long time to see another director depict those evil atrocities.
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Creepshow 2 (1987)
A wooden Native American outside a store, a deadly blob in a lake and a hitchhiker who refuses to die are three creepy tales that come to life from a kid’s comic book.
Creepshow 2 might not be today what it used to be back then, but hear me out. Following the success of Creepshow (1982): https://kaygazpro.com/creepshow-1982/, throughout this anthology, writers George A. Romero, Stephen King, and Lucille Fletcher, and director Michael Gornick (DOP on Creepshow) question certain taboos way ahead of their time. Class, race, revenge, respect, guilt, and punishment are only a few of the issues the anthology addresses. Here’s an example: In the vengeful Old Warrior, the old towns are dying, and the story starts with the mutual respect between two old timers who know what respect means, and the younger generation, which has never heard of the concept.
Throughout this and the rest of the stories, there are relatable thrills, horrors, and dramas wrapped in humour and the paranormal, intended to entertain, frighten, and convey subliminal messages. No harm there. That’s what art does: it expresses the way we act, react, feel, and so on. Like its predecessor, it is a concoction of so many rights and wrongs that… there aren’t any rights or wrongs. It is what you watch and enjoy with your friends or alone.
That creepy humour might not be much nowadays, as I said earlier, but for people like me and all of us who grew up with these stories, we still remember putting on the VHS and getting frightened. That applies to both Creepshow and Creepshow 2. So, watching it now, it only brings back memories of how we used to feel as kids. Little did we know that the true horrors would come later on in life…
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Creepshow (1982)
Five gruesome stories that come out of a kid’s graphic novel, bringing to life dark secrets and horrors.
Can’t get more classic than that! Written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romeo, nothing can go wrong – especially in the early 80s. There are no wrongs here: everything is justifiable, allowed, permitted, and accepted.
I’ll keep it short, so here’s what we have: High-class society, resurrection, revenge, and death on Father’s Day. A meteor is infecting a farmer and his farm. A vengeful husband who gets his revenge on his wife and her boyfriend. A man-eating thing locked up in a box for years and now released. Persistent cockroaches that keep coming back, multiply, and… “creep up on you”!
Creepshow is gruesome, bloody, flawed, funny, bad, entertaining, fantastic, creepy, cringe, and precisely what you need to watch and/or rewatch this Halloween. There are some big names of the 70s and 80s attached, such as Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King himself and more. And always keep an eye out for the subliminal messages behind each story.
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Sofia Coppola
“I try to just make what I want to make or what I would want to see. I try not to think about the audience too much.”
Superman: The Everlasting Cinematic God
Superman is more than your usual superhero. He’s a question: What if someone with nearly unlimited power still chose kindness? Still chose us? But he’s also a warning — about faith, about fear, and about the loss of belief in something greater. In an age of gods and monsters, Superman remains the one figure we still need to believe in. Because if he falls, we fall with him.
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Most young actors knew nothing about what happened at Iwo Jima, as this part of history was not taught in Japanese schools.
Dead of Winter (2025)
During a snowstorm, a woman travels alone in search of a lake, only to come across a kidnapping of a young girl.
I’ll start with the main 3 reasons why you should watch it: Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, and Marc Menchaca. Menchaca has a long history of playing evil villains; he’s damn amazing doing so, and Dead of Winter is no exception (or, is it?) He’s astonishing, nonetheless. The pleasant exception is Judy Greer, who, here, is even more villainous. It’s unbelievable how this is the same actress as the suffering mother in The Long Walk (2025): https://kaygazpro.com/the-long-walk-2025/ (Give this woman the Oscar already). As for Emma Thompson, she plays the lonely, resourceful old woman like no one else, without Hollywood mannerisms or hyperbole. She’s phenomenal! Lastly, keep an eye out for Laurel Marsden, who performs really well. Now, as for the film itself…
Writers Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, and director Brian Kirk, create an action/thriller that expresses the beauty of American cinema — even though it’s also a Canada-Germany co-production — that avoids Hollywood gimmicks, builds an emotional subplot as its foundation, and develops a thrilling plot. There are expected twists and turns, but the unexpected, breathtaking, and heartbreaking one lies in the subplot, which drives Barb (Thompson) to do what she does and connects to the plot so beautifully. It is what makes life bittersweet, worth fighting for, living for, and dying for. Respectively, whatever everyone does has a reason, and that reason is justifiable, blurring the line between “good” and “bad” person, and villain and antihero.
Give it a go and you won’t regret it. This is a survival story, and Barb says the way it is, or the way it should be, anyway: “[…] We don’t know what’s comin’. We never really do, but it don’t matter. We don’t quit.”
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Please, don’t forget to share. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
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Good Boy (2025)
A dog will do anything to protect its sick owner from supernatural forces when they move into a rural, haunted house.
Unique perspective, great camera work and editing, and an amazing lead actor. So, one at a time… In 2017, David Lowery wrote and directed A Ghost Story (2017): https://kaygazpro.com/a-ghost-story-2017-drama-fantasy-romance/, where a ghost exists through time and space, observing humans live their drama. Last year, Steven Sonderberg offered us Presence (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/presence-2024/, which showcases the ghost’s point of view and its efforts to intervene and alter the course of events. Original and effective in its own way, but not necessarily scary.
This year, it is Indy the dog that takes the torch with Good Boy. According to IMDb, the co-writer, editor, producer, and director Ben Leonberg took three years to finish the film because “well, it’s a dog actor.” Oh, it’s his dog, by the way. The film’s uniqueness does not stop there, though. Leonberg does something that raises eyebrows and warrants examination: he cuts, hides, or obscures human faces. Why do you think that is? Don’t let it go unnoticed.
There are some beautiful/haunting/eerie shots in the film that cut from the action to Indy’s reactions. And while actions and reactions are shot separately and have nothing to do with one another, the editing defies that temporal and spatial difference, creating this amazing yet also terrifying illusion: That Indy reacts the way he does to the lurking supernatural forces. Also, Leonberg’s editing creates some dreamy/trippy sequences that will pin you down. They unite the past and the future, projecting to Indy — and, consequently, to the audience — what happened in this house and how that affects the present.
There are some sub-plot and story-depth issues, but they won’t affect your perception of the film. Huge congratulations to Leonberg for making Good Boy, and enormous respect and love to Indy — and every Indy out there — for being in our lives.
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Please, don’t forget to share. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
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Quentin Tarantino
“When I’m writing, it’s about the page. It’s not about the movie. It’s not about cinema. It’s about the literature of me putting my pen to paper and writing a good page and making it work completely as a document unto itself. That’s my first artistic contribution. If I do my job right, by the end of the script, I should be having the thought, ‘You know, if I were to just publish this now and not make it . . . I’m done.”
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear) got the role for three reasons:
1. He was the best,
2. He was the only boy at the audition wearing a tie,
3. When director M. Night Shyamalan asked if he had read his role, the dialogue went as follows:
– Osment: I read it three times last night.
– Shyamalan: Wow, you read your part three times?
– Osment: No, I read the entire script three times.
Vicious (2025)
A young woman receives a box from a strange visitor, and her night turns into a living hell.
Flawed, incoherent, and forgettable. A broken heroine, a mysterious stranger, and an hourglass that marks the countdown… What is it? Who’s “we”? How do they do it? More importantly, why do they do it? And, ultimately, what will eventually happen?
The premise is solid. The paranormal blends with personal insanity/paranoia, and if Polly (Dakota Fanning) felt broken and alone before, the Earth will seem an entirely empty place after that. The things we hate, love, and need, and the “boxes” we put them in, can serve as a metaphor for the way we structure our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and, to a large extent, the way we lie to ourselves about them. But deep down we know… our unconscious truly knows. A place that knows about us more than we possibly could. Well, what better way to deal with something we can’t comprehend or are scared to face than to see it through the lens of the paranormal?
Vicious is that case, but as it is Hollywood’s child, it cannot — and does not — avoid extreme hyperbole to the point that it just becomes nonsensical. Unfortunately, while that was obvious from the trailer, the film corroborated it. Dakota Fanning is great for the role, and she has been amazing ever since she was a child. She never fails to impress, as she is a beautiful person, a woman, and an actress.
The same cannot be said for the film, though. Writer/director Bryan Bertino, the man behind one of my favourite horrors – The Strangers (2008) – made an incoherent and disjointed film with some suspenseful moments that are severely overshadowed. I want to stop here because there is almost nothing positive to say except for the honest intentions behind it. It is the side of Hollywood that takes no risks and relies on the formulaic. Shame.
Takeaway? We cannot unload our problems on others, hoping that they will go away. We just can’t.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
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Cinematic Medieval Dreams: Romanticising a Brutal Past
We binge medieval violence from the safety of our sofas — but why? It’s not just the swords and castles. It’s what they represent. Honour. Clarity. Meaning. Perhaps we’re not obsessed with history… Perhaps we’re obsessed with the idea of mattering.
Stanley Kubrick
“The director’s job is to know what emotional statement he wants a character to convey in his scene or his line, and to exercise taste and judgment in helping the actor give his best possible performance. By knowing the actor’s personality and gauging his strengths and weaknesses a director can help him to overcome specific problems and realize his potential. But I think this aspect of directing is generally overemphasized. The director’s taste and imagination play a much more crucial role in the making of a film. Is it meaningful? Is it believable? Is it interesting? Those are the questions that have to be answered several hundred times a day.”