Blog Archives
Flash Movie Review: The Exorcist: Believer
ONE OF THE HARDEST THINGS FOR me to witness is a sick animal or sick baby/child. I still remember watching a relative of mine carrying their sick dog down three flights of stairs so that it could relieve itself on the grass outside. The poor dog tried to remain standing but fell over every time he tried to raise his leg. It was so sad to see, and I was only seeing it this one time; my poor relative was experiencing it multiple times a day. I gave my relative credit for managing the situation, but I did wonder about the quality of the dog’s life. The dog reminded me of this other dog I met at a small hotel I was staying at on vacation. The owner of the hotel had this small black dog that looked like Toto from The Wizard of Oz. Except, the poor thing lost its sight and hearing. I was sitting in the lobby, waiting for my ride, watching this little dog rely on its sense of smell to navigate around the open space. However, that sense did not help with some objects in the way like leg chairs and walls. I watched as the dog bumped into a table leg, a wall and a floor lamp. Luckily, it was not running; instead, it was carefully and tentatively moving its way forward. THE OTHER THING THAT IS HARD for me to see is an ill child or worse, a sick baby. I knew these parents who had their baby in the hospital’s ICU for four to five months. The poor baby was hooked up to a variety of machines via tubes and wires. I kid you not; it looked like a scene out of a horror film. To make matters worse, the only way one could see the baby was through a glass window. I wondered if this would influence the baby as it grows up, the lack of human touch besides the kind that was sticking it with needles and probes. It was such an awful situation; the parents looked like walking zombies because they took turns spending the entire night with the baby, just so the baby could hear a soothing voice without experiencing something painful happening to it. I honestly do not know how those two parents did it, but they did. I have said this before; children come into this world with a pure clean slate. They have no prejudices, no hatred, no negativity. Many of them learn these traits from their parents. To see a child unable to take care of itself, having to suffer for something out of their control is just as sad to me as a child being taught how to hate. This is why I had a tough time watching what happened to the kids in this reboot of the horror franchise. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED AFTER TWO neighborhood girls went missing. Gone for three days, the two girls returned with no memory of what happened to them. It would be soon after when the parents realize something indeed had happened to their young daughters. With Leslie Odom Jr (Hamilton, One Night in Miami) as Victor Fielding, Tracey Graves (Sebastian, Super Turnt) as Sorenne Fielding, Lidya Jewett (Hidden Figures, Good Girls-TV) as Angela Fielding, Danny McCarthy (Stronger, Prison Break-TV) as Stuart and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale-TV, Hereditary) as Ann; this horror film had a good start for the story. It was suspenseful as it mixed the past and present together, encompassed in excellent filmed scenes. However, as the story neared its halfway point, everything started to break down. I lost interest because the suspense was gone, and the horror scenes were not frightening. I felt the script was just rehashing previous scenes from the franchise, including using similar music from the original film. By the end of this movie, I felt bad for the cast getting stuck in such a non-scary mess.
1 ¾ stars
Flash Movie Review: The Pope’s Exorcist
WHEN I ENCOUNTERED A BULLY DURING my school years, I would always wonder how their parents could allow such behavior in their child. I did not understand those individuals who abused others until I got older and discovered many abusers were abused themselves. Maybe I was naïve; but any act of meanness I saw on display, I attributed it to poor parenting. Or to be more exact, having mean parents. In some cases, I was correct; however, there were some instances where the level of meanness was so intense that I could not comprehend parents being at such a level. There was a student in one of my classes in elementary school who took pleasure in torturing animals. I still remember when he set fire to a cat’s tail and watched the cat scamper around before it was consumed completely by the flames. It was after school hours, and I only came upon him when I was cutting through the alley to get to a food market. Having seen how much pleasure he took in watching the cat suffer, I never went near him throughout the rest of the school year. Because I was so young, I could not comprehend how two adults could create such an evil child. It was because of that act that I started believing some people were just born evil. IT WAS NOT UNTIL HIGH SCHOOL, when I came to the belief that everyone was born with good and evil in them; they had the free will to decide which they wanted to become. Some students maintained an optimistic attitude about certain individuals, giving them the benefit of the doubt. High school killed that process for me; the things I saw were nothing more than pure meanness. There were a couple of boys who had gym class with me, and they were just awful. They took such pleasure in picking on a mentally challenged classmate, it was horrific to see. One of the things they liked to do was throw a basketball at the boy to try and knock him down or at least into a wall. The students who witnessed this would always laugh along with these two boys. I always wondered if they found such a horrible act funny or were afraid not to laugh because it could have set them up to be the next target. There were many days I dreaded having to go to gym class. From my past experiences and the knowledge, I have acquired, I am open to other suggestions on the origin of a person’s evilness. This horror thriller film does present a possible reason. UNDER THE DIRECT AUTHORITY OF THE pope, Father Gabriel Amorth’s, played by Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind, Boy Erased), position is to investigate incidents of demonic possession. His latest case would unearth a deep dark secret that he might never come back from. With Daniel Zovatta (Don’t Breathe, Station Eleven-TV) as Father Esquibel, Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep, The Edge of Sleep-TV) as Julia, Franco Nero (Django Unchained, John Wick: Chapter 2) as The Pope and newcomer Peter DeSouza-Feighoney as Henry; this story inspired by the files of Father Amorth earned a passing grade because of Russell Crowe. He was excellent in the role, trying to keep the story from falling into a generic typical exorcist plot. The pacing was a bit uneven; I felt there could have been a tighter focus on creating a more terrifying scene. At one point, it felt like the writers and director went on automatic because scenes seemed to be like previous ones. If it was not for Russell’s performance, I would have gotten bored, despite me enjoying the wonderful sets and props. Having no knowledge about Father Amorth and having now seen this film, I am curious to hear about some of his other cases.
2 1/2 stars
moviejoltz 