SPOOPYWEEN DAY 6 THEY WAIT IN THE DARK!!!

Day 6

They Wait in the Dark

I know nothing about this movie. Well I know one thing. Like one single thing, and it raised my brow.

This film is at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I have no faith and or investment with the site. Not because of the stories of review bombing. But the fact that, certain films. Which tanked, and received wide spread critical shitting on. Because they were horrible fucking films, and people by and large hated. Somehow end up with passing grades.

It’s bullshit, and studios have messed with things like this. It’s old news I know. But still. It bares repeating.

So why then review a movie they have listed at 100%?

Because why not.

BUT ALSO!!!!

Audience score has it at 52% which means its ‘meh’

It’s brand new. I know nothing about it. I bring up the title to friends and none of them heard of it. But when you have a film that is both rated as being incredible AND meh. Well why not give it a whirl.

Pluss I didn’t want to review the remake of Firestarter because that was a waste of film.

So here we go lets get into it and see what could possibly go wrong when you have….I have no fucking idea. A spooky hand that looks like it was picked in a jar and a girls face so.

Pickled finger terror I guess.

Which is also what I referred to as an ex’s time in quarantine. Don’t think about it.

The film

Nothing screams fond childhood memories like finding a woman in bed with a slit throat. Especially if it just happens to be your mother.

With that our movie begins.

Thankfully the now grown daughter turned single mother on the run doesn’t wake up screaming. Instead she gently wakes her son up and its time for breakfast. On the floor of a quick stop gas station market.

But don’t worry she isn’t poor, or homeless with a child.

No. No, she’s just out of plastic money with no place to sleep and on the run.

Which we get the feeling of given her skittishness when confronted by police officers in need of coffee, and when attempting to get a room for the night at a local motel.

They just needed a nice place to get some actual rest before making their big trip the following day. To the next town over. We have no idea what or who she’s running from but it’s gonna be a fair guess it’s an abusive partner, given she has a stab wound she’s tending to. Which unfortunately is either a sign of a jealous abusive dick, or an overly controlling pimp.

But we haven’t seen a good pimp movie in ages so. We will have to discount that. Sadly. God I actually wonder if I could do a full month of pimp films now….hm.

Anyway.

Thankfully the pair are able to get a good nights sleep on actual beds, and continue their journey. Do they run into the law? Teenage hoodlums looking to cause a ruckus? ALIENS?!

No. They make it across to the town just fine. Stop for a bit of lunch and a favor from an old friend. I like this. It’s only 13 minutes but we don’t have a goddamn jumbo jack in a cheap mask rubbing honey all over himself so. You take the little things.

Really though it’s a nice setup and its slowly giving us morsels of story. She’s returning to her home town, where apparently she grew up with a not so great reputation as people tend to stare at her that remember her. Her best friend is a waitress at the diner and is all in for helping her former bestie out.

So why the town? Apparently her father passed away and she’s going back home to take care of the house, maybe move in there. We’ll find out. The main thing we learn of interest is, she’s either lying and on the run for good reason, or she REALLY got the hell out of a bad situation, which given the stab wound is a good indication no?

She tells her friend that much like Anakin Skywalker, there was no father. Her son wasn’t born however of Lucas bullshittery and force magic, he was adopted. When her friend offers her phone number to Amy our protagonist. She accepts it all to happily, but when asked to give her own number up? Amy informs her bestie that “I’ve got a burner phone sooooo, byeeeeeeee”

When her friend thinks aloud that “That sounds like you don’t really want to be found” well, she’s right. Which is both worrying, and cause for trouble.

I mean you have a woman, who looks like she hasn’t bathed or had a single day without screaming anxiety, traveling on foot with her adopted son and no money of any kind. Hiding out in her old abandoned home, with a burner phone.

That tends to scream one of two things.

Either she’s in trouble and on the run escaping her partner.

Or she kidnapped this kid and is on the run.

The best way to resolve that, is by putting some trust in someone. It may be a hard thing to come by when you don’t know WHO to trust. But when you have an old friend who hasn’t seen you in years. Make you food for your kid, drive you to your house, and tells you she’ll bring groceries and food tomorrow without making it sound like a handout.  Kinda feel that’s someone you might be able to put some trust in.

Or be guarded and don’t give any key details of any  kind and see if they, out of concern, call the authorities. It’s a hard game to play but she’s gonna do it.

Like I said it’s a nice subtle little bit of movie we got going on and I like it. A slow build to what will inevitably be a night or two of absolute horror. It’s also nice to have another hour and 20 minute long film that actually knows what pacing is and you know. Isn’t rushing us through the museum.

But I also like how it ends. While they catchup on this little bit of story. Amy’s son ran out the car to investigate the house. I laughed at this because during their conversation Amy changes subject by mentioning ‘Wow there is a lot of stuff out there in the yard’, and her friend catching the hint, moves on their conversation and informs Amy that, her family house has become a teenage hot spot. For sex parties, drug parties, and weekend satanic rituals.

I couldn’t help laughing not because the lame joke. But just the realization of, YOU DIDN’T TELL ME THIS WHEN I LET MY KID GO RUN WILD?! IS HE GOING TO COME RUNNING OUT WITH 5 NEEDLES IN HIS ARMS AND USED RUBBERS ON HIS FINGERS!!!

You can thank Aqua Teen Hunger Force for that reference. God I love that show.

But also yeah. If you aren’t bullshitting, you aught to maybe tell someone if they have a kid going out to explore to maybe not pick up the balloons on the ground, the colorful glass pipes and especially not play with the syringes until mom removes the needle and cleans it in the dishwasher.

What? I was a kid of the 80’s, we were raised different.

Well thankfully her kid managed to only play in the tree and leave the rest of the house alone so. No worries there. But then again maybe her best friend was just joking with her.

Actually no, she wasn’t. The entire house is full of crushed beer cans, snack bags, we can only assume stains on the floor and corners you don’t need to guess from the smell alone.

But, along with this. We get more of the story. It’s shocking what happens when you watch an actual ‘movie’ movie. I know.

As the pair begin their cleaning montage and fix up the house. We are greeted to some writing on the wall. MURDERER. Which she doesn’t seem all that surprised by, other than the fact she apparently is part of legend now. Do they all think she killed her mom? Did the dad do it and she had to grow up being endlessly judged and called names? Maybe yeah. But that’s just story building who cares about that.

We got guns in the basement!!

We got guns, and satanic ritual circles!!

That bitch wasn’t lying! This place is the party zone of horny evil teens!

Teens who love fucking and shooting!

Honestly what house would have a rifle and shotgun, in their basement. Just hanging out there, and not one single teen would end up claiming for their own?  This dude at my high school waaaay back. Came into guitar class one day and brought in a beautiful Epiphone guitar complete with lined official case. He said it was set out on the curb of a house that was being cleaned out and emptied. We all assumed he stole it or made up the story to explain going to a second hand store, like it was something to be ashamed of. But turns out yeah he actually did find it on the curb of some place getting emptied out. Lucky shit.

SO WHO LEAVES RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS? Well I guess if its party zone house, you leave them for everyone to try out.

Oh yeah also like I said. SATANISM!

Seriously! This house has it all. I genuinely thought from her delivery she was lying but hell no. That lady was as serious as liquid farts.

This house is gonna need some serious cleaning to get that shit out of it. When you got demons in your home you need to break out the Mr Clean Demon pads. But without this we’d have no movie.

But things will be fine I am sure. Just so long as her curious kid stays out of the basement and doesn’t play around with the satan candles or satan circle.

Yeah he fucks around with the satan candles and circle.

I mean. Okay. Story time.

I went over to my aunts home as a kid for them to watch me and my sis for the day. I found her sons Davids door open, which was a rarity. The guy usually always had it shut. I went and behold the wonders of my cousins room and, over by the door, I noticed, with a shirt over it no less. A BB rifle.

I couldn’t resist. I saw it there, I didn’t pick it up. But I did think it was cool and went to investigate., now I knew enough to know from my dad scolding growing up at that point never play with guns, so no don’t worry I didn’t lock and load.. Thankfully my aunt caught me and shut the door, telling me how she was going to beat her sons ass. Because that was in fact a .22 rifle, and I could’ve blown a hole through the roof, or my face. Which wouldn’t have been fun.

This kid however, in our movie. He fucks around and finds out. He roams down into the basement. Spots the rifles but nah, that’s kids stuff. He wants the lighter on the ground, by the cool Satan circle. He wants to light the candles around the Satan circle.

So yeah. Dude lights the candles, summons a demon and screams because oh no I summoned a demon while fucking around.

IF I were a dumbass kid who didn’t know better, I could’ve shot my face.

Which to be honest. Is a little less horrible versus you know. Summoning fucking demons.

But potato podemon.

So now we have unleashed hell in the new family house of past murder. Because of course that will raise the resale value

But more than demons. We have another threat looming. The abusive former partner.

WHICH WE FINALLY GET TO MEET!

This film is rather progressive and it’s a nice little change. Instead of an abusive drinking walking dickbag. We have an abusive female partner. We will call her Stabby. Because she’s a bit of a bitch, and we learn this as she questions bearded manly men about having seen her lady fair and child. On her way out of the gas station someone decides to cat call her. Because this is a real, I guess super deep south part of the world? Well she doesn’t take kindly to it. So she pulls her pocket knife out on the cat caller threatening to cut off his ‘3 inch MAGA loving little dick’, don’t give a fuck about Trump or politics, but goddamn come up with a better put down for dumb rednecks instead of using big city venom. The line from her just felt really unnatural is the point and you can kinda tell. It’s a mild complaint nothing big but I did notice it and eh. Can’t help all script choices.

Honestly I am rooting for this movie not to be meh in the end. It’s really shaping up to be something good. I like the atmosphere, I love the pacing, and honestly for a film at this run time? For them to have spent all of 40 minutes, and given us a gust of wind and spooky slammed door for a spiritual threat? That’s pretty bold. But I like it. It’s playing subtle and gearing up like I said for. Hopefully a demon vs ex lover vs good mother slobber knocker in the house of murder.

Honestly the film better start getting its ass in gear because you are making a real nice setup here, but this house of cards could get blown over with a fart.

I mean we are slowly getting things fed to us but. It’s worrying, and I think I can see where the meh comes from.

We’ve had a brief introduction to the abusive ex lover. She threatened a mans penis, then we see her stabbing a tree with her favorite stabbing knife. That’s why her name is Stabby. Also the fact as we said she stabbed her lover, and pricked the mans weenie with it. She is our threat, and she’s getting short on revenge time.

Meanwhile we are learning that there is a possibility Amy’s mother was abusive, we see her being slapped around by her mom, and then a quick cut to Amy staring at the bed with her moms body bleeding out. Hinting again at the did she didn’t she, or did her father.

OR hell maybe even the house demon could’ve. Who knows.

Her friend comes over and helps us to get Amy drunk and start sharing about her past. About taking their kid from the abusive ex who stabbed her, hiding out and needing help. Which makes me wonder if this good friend is going to actually prove to be AS good a friend as she seems, or if she will turn out to also be evil. Which damn that’d be something. Or she’ll end up dead. Who can say!

What I can say rather safely at this point. Is that Amy’s son is not long for this world.

The kid is told not to go into the Satan basement. He goes there and summons demons.

The kid is told not to answer the door because they’re in hiding, he answers every door knock and call.

His mom has a traumatic PTSD moment staring at the room where she found her mother dead and tells him to maybe not go there till she cleans it. So he goes there and sees an invisible demon.

This kid is on a fast track for the ‘fuck around and find out’ achievement. He’s just going all in with life being a game. It’s kind of annoying.

What’s more worrying, is his mom though. His mom and her food choices.

She makes a dinner for her and her son. The dinner is, dinner rolls, fried chicken, chicken nuggets and a slab of butter.

I am not joking, and I would ask you all to watch this film, and tell me I am wrong, and identify what it is that she put on their plates. Because its yellow like butter, looks like 3 tablespoons of butter, and there’s no food I know of that looks like butter. Except butter.

But high cholesterol is the least of their issues. Dinner time is an odd time. I mean okay. Mom is struggling to keep it together. But she is REALLY beginning to lose her shit. Which I mean, you sorta understand? But at the same time. Not really, no.

See, before dinner she was shooting the Henry rifle at a tree. Practicing her shooting. Her son came over wanting to give it a try. So she showed him how, and he got to shoot one round.

After shooting and missing, he no longer wished to fire the rifle. He looked freaked out about it actually. His mom kindly ask him to try again, comforting him but. He kindly says no and goes to walk away.

Mom freaks out grabs his arm and screams at him about being a little fucker and how he needs to learn to shoot so he can murder the abusive mom they’re running away from. Which rightfully upsets the boy. So mom calms her tits and tries again. This time her son is all geared up and on board for shooting a tree.

This continues at dinner as well. As he is eyeing his plate of fried chicken a dinner roll, chicken nuggets and 3 tablespoons of butter. He tells her he isn’t very hungry.

So she flips her shit and starts cussing him out like there’s no tomorrow. He storms off from the table and toward the demon haunted room where her mother was killed. Mom realizes she was mean to her kid, throws her dinner plate at the wall in frustration, and takes off for her kid.

She finds him in the room, and decides why not cuss him out a bit more and yank on his arm. Because that’s good parenting? She does this, and immediately gets her ass beaten by an unseen entity. Which her son tries commanding to stop. Which it does, once mom gets the hint and passes out.

I mean.

I don’t advocate beating women, or anyone really. But this lady. I mean if your kid summons a demon that’s going to serve them, and you choose to switch from loving and caring to screaming calling them a fucker and pulling them around. You aren’t going to get put in time out. That demon is going to take time out of its night to fuck you up.

The movie, is now beginning to worry me.

Not because of what’s happening. No. More because of how she’s now reacting.

Like, okay.

Usually, in these films. In movies with a traumatic past, a evil ghost or demon. The adult tends to be the one who goes through ‘changes’. Like say, in this film. It’d make sense if the mom started becoming like HER mother while they are here in the house, because the spirit in the house is bringing it out of her, influencing her etc.

Then that leads you to a road in the film where she has to confront the demons of her past, and stop the cycle, scream at her mom “I’M NOT LIKE YOU!” and goodness wins.

That’s usually what tends to happen.

I don’t believe this movie is doing that. Because this demon ghost…demond wind. Whatever. Is not really influencing her, so much as it is proving itself to be something tied to her son.

But the funny moment we get that worried me. Is the day after.

Her son let his mom sleep on the floor of the bedroom where she got knocked the fuck out. Like she got her ASS. BEAT.

She wakes up, she has two dislocated purple fingers, a broken nose, bruised eyes and a generally fucked up body.

Now. Either this lady is tougher than most grunts, has been broken and beaten so many times this is just a Tuesday for her. Or, she is possibly a much more fucked up person than we’re lead to believe. But having woken up, hearing her son offer her a glass of water. She snaps back two fingers into place, and without skipping a beat. Uses the same hand to pick up the glass and take a few chugs.

She also has a broken nose as I mentioned, and she neverminds this. Like I said, just another Tuesday.

She moves to the kitchen, which is. Wow. Amazing. Her son, or the house demon. Cleaned up the chicken dinner from the walls, the broken plate, cleared the table and put the center piece back into place. This kid, or the house demon. Is really something else.

Anyway she sits down, picks at the flakes of broken nose blood on the bridge and ask her son what happened and who did this. He tells her he doesn’t no. She calls him a fucking sack of shit liar and demands the truth. He tells her he couldn’t make out who was in the house. But they had been there before. She doesn’t buy any of this and begins snapping at him and yanking his arm again.

Apparently this bitch wants a rematch with the demon!

But once more, she stops herself, calms down, counts to 5 and tells her son she loves him and lets him go. He is…doing his best with things, and ask her tearfully if they can leave. “Let’s go, I don’t like it here.” Which, is a legit thing. I mean he did have to help his mom clean the house of astroglide, poppers, condoms and Satanic ritual items. That’s fair.

His mom responds in turn by cussing him out and answering back politely with a “WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE GONNA LIVE!”

Now.

Again.

I will grant, that she is under a lot of stress. That she is dealing with a lot right now. And having your kid, being a kid. Well sure. It will stress you out. But I am not going to chalk this up to demon fucketry. No. I actually do wonder if this is a case of what we were lead to believe, isn’t really the case.

So, what if Amy was the abuser? Well that would make sense. But at the same time, she really does have this terrified look and she acts like a skittish animal that will either run or cut you. Her ex comes off as a very nasty take no shit lady who isn’t above beating someone if she thinks they need it.

But we will see. I mean we damn well BETTER see. We only have 24 minutes left!!

Time flies when you tell a story. I just really want to see them nail the landing on this, but I am…having doubts.

So, Amy and son are trying to cope with their life together and a ghost demon thing kicking her ass. But protecting the kid who woke them. Does it go well? Or do they end up calling each other fuck waffle and crazy shit bird.

Surprisingly things go really well. They actually have a nice little dinner, some nice bonding moments, and all in all, it’s a relatively nice dinner. They even joke with each other over how shitty the food is. It’s nice,

But we gotta goooooooo!

So Amy looks terrified, as her sons eyes widen and she can tell from his expression, and the feeling against her neck. There is something behind her. FINALLY we get the pickled fingers of terror we were promised on the poster!

Amy is being choked out by pickled hands and her baby boy is crying out for her to protect her. So the ghost demon chills out and lets them go. That is until the two try running out of the house, or trying breaking a window, AND the demon ghost thing decides to burn Amy’s hand in the fire. Because yolo I guess.

This is proving a not so fun night.

Which is the same it seems for everyone, including Amy’s bestie.

Who somehow has been found as a woman of interest by Amy’s ex Judith. How? Well Judith decided to stop in at the diner she works for some road coffee. However when she see’s Jenny(Amy’s bestie) she begins, really not so subtly hitting on her in the most borderline puts to shame cat calling she was ready to cut the dick off of a trucker for. Which appropriately weirds Jenny out. To give you an example, when she ask for coffee, bacon and toast. Jenny ask how she’d like her coffee, cream? Sugar? Judith grins and tells her sweetly “I like it black…sugar” Jenny picked up the line and, was not really appreciative of it so much as surprised as it had been a very long time since she’d heard something so cringy as to cause her vagina to dry out like the Mojave desert.

Well as Jenny walks off to get that order put in. Judith happens to catch sight of a phot Jenny hung on the waitress station, which showed her and Amy as best friends at…I wanna say 8? Maybe 10?

Apparently Judith carried internal facial recognition and aging software in her skull implants, because she’s able to look at this and recognize the woman she is hunting down. So now her flirty phase is over, and its back to psycho stalker mode.

Only THIS time, we get some backstory AND confirmation!

Jenny is followed in her car, chased off the road and knocked out then shoved into Judith’s car. Where she is interrogated as to where Amy is hiding with ‘their son’, but Jenny is a ride or die for her best friend. Those friendship bracelets they made and wore until they fell off? That wasn’t a fad. Those were a fucking blood bond.

We did shit different growing up. Friendship bracelets were the equivalent of joining La Onda, vato. Blood in, blood out.

So Judith decides she needs to tell her side of the story here, and enlighten us about Amy the battered house wife.

But before we get into that. Amy is huddled in the bathroom with her boy Adrian. The two are comforting one another and dealing with the fact they were attacked by a demon force ghost thing which is really selectively pissed off. Like it can’t decide how mad it is? Or if it really wants Amy dead, so much as just corrected.

To be fair maybe the spirit didn’t want to be awoken so, it makes sense if they are a bit miffed.

Well the two decide to exit the bathroom and try to see if the rest of the house is okay, or if they are rightly and deeply fucked. Seems okay. They’re able to exit, and without hesitation. Because this worked so well in the past. Amy begins badgering her kid asking him if the ghost demon thing he saw looked like a photo of her abusive mother. Which. That’d make sense.

The ghost demon IS kind of singling her out here. But he tells her no. He doesn’t know who she is.

Well. Amy can’t buy that. It HAS to be her abusive mother. Well the demon ghost entity former tenant of the premises decides to pull Amy aside for a spiritual “Listen bitch” chat.

Which gives us our first good look at the evil, And….

It’s not Amy’s mother. It’s Adrians.

Judith is in the car telling Jenny what Amy told her really happened the day her mom was killed. That it wasn’t her father Amy saw doing it. It was Amy. Amy had taken enough abuse from her mother, and she slit her throat. Judith paints Amy as not just a murderer at a kids age. But a manipulative one. She tells Jenny how much she loved Amy and would do anything for her. Apparently, Amy talked her into…killing their neighbor and taking her baby. Because Amy wanted one of her own, but neither were capable apparently of conceiving, or Amy just wasn’t that patient and chose to P2W option of the MMO called life.

So the two broke into the ladies house, Amy slashed at her first, and commanded Judith to kill her. While Amy took baby Adrian from his crib and the two escaped.

Apparently things got bad between the two and Amy ended up scuffling with Judith. Getting stabbed in the process and taking off with their stolen kid.

The ghost in the house, summoned by the evil Satan candles was the vengeful mother of Adrian that these two bitches killed to claim him as their own. Which, Amy confirms as the ghost of his mother chokes her out and demands she “TELL HIM”, she agrees to do so, the ghost lets her go, and…Amy tells her son how she and his other mommy killed his real mom and stole him.

Which he seems to be taking pretty chill to be honest.

So does this mean Judith is a good woman made to do bad? Hell no.

Judith has gone over the edge for her lover, she flat out tells Jenny that now that she knows the truth she should realize this means she knows she will kill a bitch and her coworkers if she needs to. So Jenny agrees to take Judith to the abandoned house of horrors.

You know. I’m glad I was ALMOST right. I dig it. I did NOT see the two of them killing some lady for her kid. But I could see Amy being the aggressor. But finding they both went a little too crazy. Did not see that. It’s a good twist. It’s not spelt out for you, it’s not put out there and it was cleverly handled. I like it. Good job movie.

NOW BUTTER THAT BREAD!

So Jenny drives crazy pants to the house of Amy the baby taker and tells her to get Amy to let her in and she’ll do the rest. Jenny gives her a thumbs up and approaches the house. She tells Amy crazy pants is outside and Judith realizes this plan sucked. So she comes out blasting.

It’s the funniest shit but I can dig it.Amy ends up getting shot in the gut. But she is one tough ass bad bitch. She had her nose broke and fingers dislocated, you think a bullet is gonna slow her down? Fuck no! Jam a tampon in there and plug it up, grab some wild turkey and pop some advil. SHE IS GOOD TO GO SON!!

So we are now here, at the final show down. An actual possible fun slobber knocker of a fight. We got Judith Crazy Pants Stabby versus Amy steal ya Son mama killer WITH special guest referee Ghost demon Mama!

Actually it’s unfortunately not like that. It’s handled a lot more smoothly and with less flair.

One day someone will do a WWF style ghost versus killers triple threat fight.

What we get is Amy sneaking up with a rifle on Jenny. She forces her to kneel down and tries offering her crazy former lover up as a sacrifice. Figuring the Mama ghost would want to beat the shit out of Judith for finishing her off.

Well the thing about Special Referees in wrestling matches is they gotta be fair for the first 8 minutes of the match. So she’s sitting this one out. Instead Stabby pants McCrazy Judith stabs Amy in the leg. Amy bashes Stabby in the head with a fire poker. Takes a breather, only to end up gut shot by Judith.

It looks like the end for Amy. Her final moments are approaching. Before you feel sympathetic toward Judith for having overcome the crazy that is Amy the murderer. Judith tells Amy sincerely and sweetly, “I am going to find MY son, and kill your cute girlfriend and let you bleed out”

Which is fair. That’s fair. Except for killing Jenny. She didn’t ask for any of this shit.

She’s busy anyway, tucked away in a closet with Adrian.

Does Amy flip her off and die a badass? No. She delivers the second best fuck you “I’m sorry…for what she’s about to do to you.”

And with that, our special referee turns and interferes with the match. Snatching up Stabby by the throat. Ready for a tombstone piledriver. But she needs the audience to cheer her on, so she uses the force to open the closet and let Jenny and Adrian out. Giving her son, apparently the option to….pick up the knife, or rifle, and shoot Judith or…Amy?

It’s not entirely clear. But Adrian has a choice to make, and he chooses not to pick up a fucking weapon and kill any of these bitches. He’s out. Seriously dude should’ve just clapped his hands together and said “I’m out, peace”

Instead he pulls an elegant Skywalker and proclaims “I won’t do it, I’m not like them”.

His mother approves and gives him an Aquaman “My man!”

Before snapping Jenny’s neck ending the match, and our film.

Yep. The resolution here is Jenny is now the new mother for Adrian. The two crazy murder bitches are dead, And ghost mom is at peace now that her son is safe, her death avenged, and she forced a woman into becoming a single parent who now needs to provide for a child.

Now if you wait through the credits you’ll be greeted with a sequel bait scene. Where ghost mom finds a ghost bowl of pudding and hears a familiar voice announce himself as Bill Cosby enters the room, reprising his role as Ghost Dad.

I made the choice to run with that. I am proud of it.

The End

So this was a good movie. I was genuinely surprised by it. It’s not the best thing ever, but it is a breath of fresh air.

That was a well told story and even better paced film. The music was subtle and creepy. I did worry at one point that we may actually not get a spooky demon ghost, but instead just just of wind and body contortion.

But instead they showed reserve. They…

Did exactly the things I’ve talked about recently that make a good film. They made good use of their time. They set up and answered everything in the story they put on screen. Everything had its setup and pay off.

The acting was, for the most part pretty good. I’m still going to laugh remembering Amy popping her fingers back in their joints and neverminding it. But I can now also appreciate it a bit.

Given we discover her character actually IS a fucked up killer and abusive. That she ended up taking someones love for her and turning them into a murderer. The ignoring pain makes sense. It’s a sort of odd trait in serial killers and violent people. Biting back your suffering and embracing it.

Sort of like how my dad hated how me and my mom would perform ‘surgeries’ on ourselves.

I don’t mean open heart surgery or my mom and I cutting and stitching each other up. I mean, okay. I used to have problems with sweating and getting these really nasty boils and like, pimples on my chest from ingrown hairs or dirty pores that would clog up. These things were super unholy painful and would leak puss and blood when they popped.

So, I would pop these quarter sized things, that hurt like hell, and sometimes end up splattering the bathroom mirror with blood and puss. That was until I got ahold of an exacto knife and, well that’s all I feel like sharing. But I wasn’t ALWAYS DOING THIS! I went to fucking doctors! I’m just saying, if the pain was too much, and I couldn’t get to a doctor, and I knew popping would immediately ease the pain. I’d bite back and do it. My mom apparently was the same with having had accidents she had to tend to herself before getting to a doctor, and having a strong stomach to do things my dad would not be able to handle doing himself.

See this?

This is why I share dating advice and stories of bedroom romps with exes. Because sharing stories about popping chest boils is just fucking gross, and I don’t want you bastards thinking I’m saying this makes me qualified for murder, or thinking I have a scarred up chest. It’s a manly chest. Full of hair, and. Lets move on back to the film.

The director for this, Patrick Rea. This isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve directed a few good horror films. I was kind of surprised to find out they were the director of a film I really enjoyed way back called Nailbiter. They’ve had their hands in a few television and film projects and I would be curious to check out more of them. They were the writer of this film as well and well…

I really do not have many complaints for this film. Just mild little things.

Like the trucker cat calling Judith. Like I said it was a fine scene, it established her character, and it did give us the false idea she was the aggressor that you’d picture an abuser being. It’s just the line she gave, and how it didn’t come off as natural. And now knowing the truth of her character? It just feels a bit more odd now, but again it doesn’t ruin anything. It’s just a gripe, otherwise the actress for Judith Laurie Catherine Winkel. She did really well. She was believable AND funnily familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it while watching the movie. Because she was sparingly used. But she had a face that just felt familiar. Not movie specific but in the way how, character actors are familiar? If that makes sense. So sure enough when I looked her up, it made sense. She’d appeared in an episode of Homicide Hunter AND a shark movie I’d seen. A few times, and each one not by choice!

Which I will explain again come Christmas. If I can remember it.

But really the movie was good. The acting was good all around, Amy especially, Sarah McGuire. She really sold her character and seeing the real Amy start to creep up more and more as the film went on. That was really well done. I don’t know how it could have been done any better really.

Do I think the Meh rating for this film is fair? I mean, I get it.

Rather I can see it. After it finished I looked it up online and read the synopsis. Which confirmed for me the less you know about the movie going in, the better. Had I read the full thing before hand? I feel it really would’ve surprised me more and I would’ve been a bit let down. The story they sell there is…true, from a certain point of view. But it could set you up for something different than what we got. And with the films progression. I can see it being labeled a slog to get through at times.

Honestly for a film that has a run time of an hour and 24 minutes, it felt longer. But in one of those ways you don’t mind it. Because the story is engaging.

So I could see this being a movie that might be too slow for others. Or didn’t have enough scares in it. I mean it wasn’t exactly that scary a thing, it’s a very tame horror film. I’d even go as far as to just call it a supernatural thriller. But we do have a lot of blood the few times we get it.

Like I said, it’s not the greatest thing, but it is refreshing. It’s good. It’s entertaining. And I really enjoyed it a lot.

A well written, good paced and well acted film that didn’t feel like a waste of your time or money. I’ll take that. You know a movie did good when you can’t even see it benefiting from being longer. They got everything out there that needed to be put out there. Talented people worked on this and it paid off in the end. Good on all of you.

Absolutely go check this one out. Even if you read a spoiler filled watch through review. Rent it, watch it with friends. Don’t tell them anything about it. Bait them. Tell them “I dunno, its got something to do with ghost or demons” or throw me under the bus as your patsy, “Some bald fat bastard online said it was good so, I don’t know. If it sucks its his fault.”

Either way, I enjoyed it, it was a needed bit of hope in an otherwise…I still am not over Winnie The Pooh Blood and Honey yet. This movie was needed. It cleansed my soul and I am ready for the next film.

So until tomorrow. If you move into an abandoned home known around town as the murder house, filled with drugs, booze, used rubbers and weapons. Just hire some neighborhood kids to clean it for you for five bucks, give them some hand sanitizer and enjoy being a winner at life. GOODBYE!