OCTOBER PROMO

To paraphrase something Stephen King once said, there is no other fan of one particular genre who is willing to wade through as much garbage as a horror fan. Fans of horror films will watch everything and anything, just hoping to come across an unknown gem, even though there is a large amount of crap out there. 

But sometimes, we just like crap. 

This may sound weird, but I often enjoy watching a bad horror movie as much as a good horror movie. This October, Clayton's Creepy Cinema is going to look at 31 horror movies that maybe aren't considered high-quality entertainment. It's a month of schlock, so of course, I had to call it...

Week one is a short week, so we'll look at five ocean-going horror films, then week two is all about slashers and experiments (both scientific and social), followed by a week of aliens and apocalyptic flicks, then a week of prehistoric horror films (not just dinosaurs), and finally we conclude with another short week that I'm not going to spoil just yet. 

Not every movie reviewed will be terrible. In fact, I'm throwing in some pretty great ones, and a number of lesser-known flicks that have plenty of merit, as well. It begins October 1st and runs through the month up to Halloween. Tune in to the sixth year of Clayton's Creepy Cinema, and learn the true meaning of schlock!

IT: Chapter 2 Review

 

IT: Chapter 2 Mini-Review/Reaction 

I’m going to keep this review short, because I don’t want to spoil too much, and I know anyone who saw Chapter 1 and enjoyed it is likely going to see Chapter 2 anyway. I almost wasn’t going to review it, but since I’ve reviewed the first one (and basically every other Stephen King movie ever made) I should give my two cents. 

While I enjoyed IT: Chapter 2 for the most part, I was rather disappointed. This thing clocks in at just under three hours, so it’s not too surprising that it has some pacing issues. One of my biggest complaints was the reliance on flashbacks using the kid actors from Chapter 1. While it was enjoyable to see them return, it felt distracting from the present-day story with the adult characters. I know it flashes back and forth in the books, but most of the kid scenes here were like padding, included merely because of the success of the first movie, and didn’t generate much forward momentum for the story, or any significant scares. 

A big change from before is a greater focus on comedy. In the case of the character Richie, I didn’t mind that he was always cracking jokes and making light of their situation, it’s the nature of his character. What I didn’t like was that basically every character has at least one “funny” moment, if not multiple ones, and even the editing at times is purposefully comedic. This broader comedy might work for some viewers, but I found it mostly annoying, especially when it clashed with the horror. 

My favourite part without a doubt was a surprise cameo that I won’t spoil, but other things I liked include the adult cast, some of the visuals, the music once again, and the craziness toward the end. Every actor chosen to play the grownup kids was perfect, and they mostly all give good performances. Pennywise is great again (though lacking in scenes), and there are some interesting creepy moments. Unfortunately, in comparison to Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is lacking in quality scares. There’s too much cgi, too many silly-looking monster designs, and one particular reference/homage to The Thing that is way too blatant. 

IT: Chapter 2 was an overall decent ending, but certainly not as good as it could have been. My expectations were a bit higher than with the first one, which may have had some effect. It just felt like they tried to do too much, when they should have honed in on the good stuff and tried to make a scarier movie than the first, which it certainly is not.