Saint Clare

 

Religion and horror go together like bread and butter. Add in a devout protagonist who believes all the murders she commits is an act of god and you’re looking at a somewhat enticing premise. Though Bella Thorne made her name from playing mean girls and evil ditzy types, here, she is Clare. She believes in god, attends church, sings in the choir but also struggles with her compulsives need to kills people. Having done the festival circuit in 2024, Saint Clare is finally making her way to our small screens. Unfortunately, this is not quite the film that was herald.

College student Clare appears normal on the surface but tries hard to hide sociopathic tendencies. When girls start disappearing from her small town, with little concern from the police, Clare takes the investigation into her own hands when one of her friends goes missing.

Full review on Filmhounds. 

Oh, Hi!

 

Imagine you met someone, you hit it off and by date three, you feel you’ve found your person. Months deep into a relationship, you take a romantic trip together, only for this to go completely off the rails and result you committing a crime and dragging your friends into it as well. But the worst part, who you thought was your person doesn’t actually feel the same way. This is the premise of Oh, Hi! We’ve seen films where dating is difficult, degrading and miserable but something positive happens in the end or at least hopeful.

We’ve seen films with dramatic break-ups, tragic breakdowns and all that’s in-between. We have even seen films where you think you’ve found love only for it to sour almost too quickly and suddenly, which is sort of where Oh, Hi almost sits in the realm comedies with romance mixed in. But what Oh, Hi! has is one small thing to set it slightly apart, handcuffs. Co-written as well as starring Molly Gordon as love struck Iris who goes on a weekend getaway with her boyfriend Isaac, played by Logan Lerman. But after a day and night of fun, food and sex, Isaac lets out that he doesn’t see their relationship as serious, let alone as boyfriend and girlfriend. This devastates Iris who ends up having a bit of a meltdown and tries to convince Isaac why they should be a couple. This would all be ok if it wasn’t for the fact that Isaac is handcuffed (after kinky sex play) to a bed and Iris refuses to let him free. At least, not until he’s heard her out.

While the scenario of being kept prisoner by the woman you thought you were casually dating would be anyone’s worst nightmare, the film does very well to not fall into the horror category. Iris merely believes they are meant for each other and just wants Isaac to give her a chance. This is wear the comedy is and thankfully stays throughout, especially when Iris realises what she’s doing and how bad the situation is. Roping her best friend and her boyfriend into the mix just adds to the comical and yet dire situation, particularly for Isaac. As well as the comedy, the film does take a couple of bizarre turns; when Iris seriously considers murdering Isaac to avoid any embarrassment and when the third act includes a car chase.

There are more quiet moments that avoid the film slipping into ‘crazed woman’ territory. Iris is genuinely heartbroken, as she states many times, that she was made to believe by Isaac that their relationship was more than just casual. She points our his behaviour and planning a romantic getaway definitely sends the wrong message. They recount tender moments they’ve shared, showing that Iris’ behaviour is quite so unwarranted. What makes this relationship so believable and at times easy to hope for is that Lerman and Gordon have fantastic chemistry, even when things become chaotic. Of course we know what Iris is wrong, we also don’t want her to end up in prison for kidnapping.  

Although there are some far-fetched moments, you become invested in all the characters and really hope for an ending that satisfies all.

Jurassic World: Rebirth

 

(MAJOR SPOILERS) Jurassic Park and World both have their triumphs and flaws, the latter trilogy receiving the most criticism for bringing the dinosaurs into civilisation and as others have pointed out, forced this entire franchise into a corner with little room to develop. From the outset, Rebirth is exactly that. Negating all that has come before and summing up the current situation in a few short paragraphs to set the scene. The scene is set, dinosaurs are dying, those alive are thriving in one specific area, again and have been left there, again, to their own devices. There was hope that maybe the franchise will turn an intriguing corner.

The Jurassic franchise does seem to back peddle at every turn. When in doubt, claim there was yet another island where nefarious things were happening. Need a bad guy? Who does society as a whole despise? Pharmaceutical companies, perfect. What’s the bizarre reason for travelling into the danger zone? Some dinosaurs could be key to curing a life-threatening disease (but not cancer), great, so we just need some samples. This entire set up is near perfect, if formulaic, but would have provided enough entertainment as well as the usual peril that comes with dinosaurs. We may have even got more information on what exactly was happening on the island and more than just that one off speech about how humans are terrible and we’re killing the planet. But unfortunately, for some ridiculous reason, the studio (I’m sure) decided we HAVE to have kids appear in the film. Enter the biggest problem, aside from the design of the D-Rex, the family on the boat.

There were two films going on here, one was the film we all wanted and expected, the other was a pointless family survival story where you didn’t care about the characters or what happened to them. The Delgado family were a distraction and rather ruined the flow of the entire film. The raft scene in the river was excited BUT this easily could have been with the other characters of the film. The team trying get the samples could have been bigger and not just consisted of characters you expected to be killed off one by one so that the three named actors would live. But we only needed one team – as we have with previous films – except Dominion of course, as that cast was huge.

Its such a shame that Rebirth couldn’t deliver a on such an open premise. There was so much opportunity to avoid doing what was done before but unfortunately the need to homage absolutely everything was too much, not to mention the whole other movie shoehorned into the film. Story problems aside, although we got to have a few classic dinosaur moments, the second the D-Rex comes into view looking like the spawn of the Cloverfield monster and the Rancor from Star Wars, the disappointment levels hit the roof. It didn’t look like a dinosaur. Was it meant to? Was the entire purpose that they weren’t creating dinosaurs but just, monsters instead? Who knows!

For love of dinosaurs, Rebirth might just be ok, but if you’re hoping the story will hold, it doesn’t. The characters are also nothing to hold on to, with very one note back stories and in all honestly, Scarlett Johansson, barely making an impression on screen. The heavy character lifting is left to Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey who just about manage to keep the film going. I won’t mention the family as they did not make an impression, they should have been in a different film altogether.

As someone who loves Jurassic Park (and sequels) and Jurassic World, and will even defend Fallen Kingdom and Dominion if I have to, I was sorely disappointed. With a supposedly great cast, great director, great set up, the film falls flat.