THE COLLECTION (2012) has a noticeably larger budget, but also a much worse script. The kills are worse, both from creativity and believability standpoint. The effects look quite bad the score feels like a direct ripoff of the SAW score. But would I watch a third film? Yup!

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING was a pretty solid little film. Well-shot and a fun narrative, it feels like the kind of movies that don’t really get made much anymore. Refreshing!

MERCY stinks! Pratt is not good in this kind of role, and the narrative is frankly very stupid. Some of the future tech is fun, I guess.

Really blown away by SHELTER. Stellar, thrilling action and a surprisingly effective narrative made up for some less-than-stellar dialogue, and I had just a wonderful time with this thing.

RETURN TO SILENT HILL is essentially a 90s SciFi Channel original, complete with the melodramatic performances and rough visual effects. Which mostly makes for a poor experience, but I did find the wild swings bit charming. It's an interesting disaster, but a disaster nonetheless

REDUX REDUX is stunning. An extremely slick scifi story, executed beautifully. I'm blown away, this thing rules so hard.

SCREAM 7 is wholly underwhelming. The kills are mostly uninteresting, the characters are flat, and the narrative is uninspired. The swings it does take feel wild and incoherent, leading to a big "reveal" that falls flat on it's face.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE is a beautiful film. The performances are quite stunning here, full of tenderness and care.

THE FIRST SLAM DUNK floored me! I had heard good things about the basketball sequences, but I was wholly unprepared for the gorgeous and touching emotional core of the film. Add on some jaw-dropping animation and this thing just sings. Tremendous!

Had a really great time with THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS (1974). It's an odd one, but the dark humor worked for me and the strange way everyone behaves really adds to the surreality of it all. Fun stuff!

WHISTLE has some really contrived writing and some painful, clichéd dialogue, but it also has an extremely cool gimmick and a pair of spectacularly fun kills. By the time the post-credits scene (!) finished, I was cackling. A surprisingly entertaining fun little thing!

THE BRIDE! was ambitious and audacious, and I enjoyed most of it. It's messy, but never boring, and often surprising and interesting.

COLD STORAGE is a lot of fun! The budget limitations are on the screen, as the CG effects aren't great at times, but there are some really fun practical effects and a lot of just pretty rad shit.

THE STRANGERS (2008) was solid enough. It falls into some fairly uninteresting slasher tropes at times. I suppose the real draw here is how the antagonists are handled, but I wasn't overly impressed by much here.

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT is a huge improvement on the first! The setting is more interesting, there's some really fun jump scares and gnarly kills, and I found myself way more invested in this group of characters. I had a great time!

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975) is an intriguing mystery featuring beautiful cinematography. I didn’t know anything about this film and found myself quickly immersed and engaged.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER ONE feels much closer to the first film, but with a slightly higher budget. The third act offers a bit more to chew on, but much of the earlier sequences are much weaker.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER TWO meaningfully expands the world a bit, but does so with some frankly embarrassing flashback sequences. Most of the hallmarks of the previous films have been eschewed, and this entry feels far more like a generic slasher.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER THREE is a fitting conclusion to the saga; not the worst, but not a lot to recommend either. It’s a good-enough end to the story that I wasn’t ever all that invested in.

LOUIS THEROUX: INSIDE THE MANOSPHERE is a great look at a frustratingly stupid part of our nightmare world.