now is time for Blog

it's always a struggle for me to sit down and watch anything, even youtube vids, but jimmy's been bullying me into going to the theater more (literally the only time i'll sit there and watch something) so i have actually managed to see a few films recently. also caught (most of) another one he had on at home. figured i'd do little mini-reviews of those bc after all, why not, etc.

Southern Comfort, dir. Walter Hill (1981):

this is the one i've only seen most of. it's an exploitation film (in the vein of Deliverance) set in Louisiana during the Vietnam War and follows a squad of National Guard soldiers as they immediately fail at a simple "walk to the other side of the swamp" mission. it's pretty blatantly critical of the National Guard (immediate reference to Kent State and state-sanctioned brutality against black americans) and like every single character is a piece of shit, from Fred Ward's hyper-violent rambo-wannabe Reece to Powers Boothe's pragmatic-to-a-fault cynic Hardin. spent a good deal of the movie rooting for most of the characters to die (most of them do, don't worry).

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would rec this one overall though. it's very violent, all the main characters are unpleasant, there's also some casual racism (mostly at the beginning; used in the film's critique of the National Guard), and i also have to unfortunately warn for on-screen actual animal death (they do actually kill a pair of pigs while filming; this was during the part that i missed so i can't speak to how graphic it is), so like heads up if you do watch it.

my one major gripe is that there are no alligators. missed opportunity tbh.


Abigail, dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (2024):

so this one was a lot of fun. i almost don't want to say a damn thing about it bc i imagine it would be such an experience to go into this one blind with no knowledge of what it's about. so, that being said, the rest of this mini-review going behind the cut in case anyone would like to try just that.

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nah, it's such a fun film tho, genuinely. it's not very deep, but it is an enjoyable action/horror flick with a cast of characters that are all interesting with an ending that i personally liked a heck of a lot. would absolutely rec this one!


Immaculate, dir. Michael Mohan (2024):

saw someone refer to this as a nunsploitation film and...yeah lmao. i decided to watch this one solely because i saw it'd pissed off conservatives and was like "well, why not." it's pretty clear from the trailer that it very much posits "pregnancy is the real horror" which is actually why i didn't care to see it bc...i agree lmao.

but: the film follows Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) as she joins a new Italian convent. she's american and can't speak Italian but she's earnest and devoted! the film opens with an ominous escape attempt from that exact same convent so the audience goes in knowing Shit's Not Right, and sure enough: Shit's Not Right.

( more here )

anyway this is another rec from me! following what turned out to be a trend in all three of these, it's also incredibly gory and violent, but there's this very satisfying cathartic stretch of violence at the end that literally had me pumping my fist in the theater lmao. it's a great little horror movie tho.

Abigail is a more enjoyable watch, i think, but of these three i think Immaculate is the one i'd most strongly recommend!

also, bonus movie: i went to see The Mummy in theaters this week for its 25th anniversary and like, sincerely: perfect movie, no notes. had a blast watching it in theaters tho! and the nice guy at concessions saved us some of the anniversary movie posters, which was INCREDIBLY rad of him.

gonna try to catch Mars Express next week bc it looks like it might be relevant to my dissertation (i mean it also just looks interesting in its own right, but that's the reason i'm using to justify going to the theaters again lol).