A father and his twin teenage sons fight to survive in a remote farmhouse at the end of the world. (IMDB)

I am 50 years-old and I’ve seen a lot of monsters, from Alien to Strangers Things and everything in between. Yet, Arcadian manages to be so creative with the monsters, that it managed to surprise me. Kudos to the special effects for showing me that I, actually, haven’t seen it all yet.

The dialogues are well written and the characters are believable. As for the story, at no point will you be guided by the hand through Arcadian, it’s one of those movies that makes you connect the dots yourself.

Nicholas Cage is believable as a fierce father and the rest of the cast is great too. The movie is bleak and it manages to create enough tension to keep you interested.

We had a great time watching Arcadian and, most of all, its gritty ambiance lingered for a few days… That’s not something every movie manages to accomplish. Let’s hope for a sequel!

A young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, but encounters a darkness that causes her to question her faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate. (IMDB)

This is Arkasha Stevenson’s debut movie… And she directed a masterpiece!

There isn’t anything that isn’t absolutely top notch in this movie. The story is great and the acting is perfect. Nell Tiger Free’s part is increasingly demanding as the movie goes and she’s able to provide a stellar performance in every scene.

What also makes The First Omen absolutely stunning is the cinematography. From the fantastic settings to the costumes, Stevenson creates an eerie 70s atmosphere that lasts until the last minute of the movie.

When it comes to horror prequels, this is probably the best I’ve ever seen. Not only does it it give context to the original movie, but it does it with an incredible style.

A series of murders happen in a small town. We’ve watched the movie, yet I couldn’t say more than that. If there was a story, I’ve completely missed it and I don’t care.

I’ve rarely seen movies this bad. I’m not even sure why we’ve watched it until the end. Maybe because it was clear that the movie was going to suck from the first five minutes, which instantly lowed down any expectations I might have had.

The acting is non existent. The dialogue is so terrible, it could have been written by an AI. There was no “story” at all. The killer is killing for an unknown reason and that’s it.

Even if you turn off your brain completely, you’ll still think that the movie is dumb.

I usually find something nice to say about any movie. Not this one. This movie fails to entertain, it fails to scare and it’s not even gory. It just fails.

DO NOT WATCH.

After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. (IMDB)

Abigail is a funny and gory movie packed with a some brilliant actors like Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Giancarlo Esposito and Kathryn Newton.

However, I did not expect the movie to turn so comedic at times. Some characters like Peter (Kevin Durand) and Dean (Angus Cloud) are also very bad, they even become annoying. While managing to remain entertaining, Abigail could have been much more than what it ended up being, if only it would have been darker.

Not a bad movie, we still enjoyed the amazing performance of Alisha Weir, the setting and the liters of blood that were spilled.

After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple is forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorised by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive. (IMDB)

I’m glad that they turned it into a trilogy. If they would make 10 of them, I’d watch and probably enjoy all of them. Sure, this movie doesn’t reinvent the slasher genre, but does it have to?

Young city folks get stuck in a backward town and get hunted by masked killers. It’s simple and efficient. So why is it a good slasher? Well, the casting to begin with… Madelaine Petsch is fantastic in her role and it was nice seeing her outside of Riverdale. The rhythm of the movie is uninterrupted by unnecessary drama, which is another great point and there is a great vibe too.

If, like us, you could watch a thousand slashers with the same recipe and new faces, The Strangers: Chapter 1 won’t disappoint you.

An author returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his next book, only to discover that the townspeople are being attacked by a bloodthirsty vampire. (IMDB)

Writer Gary Dauberman intended to make vampires frightening again. He wanted to get away from the sexier, more romanticized undead that have infested pop culture for much of the past quarter century. Even if we enjoy Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, it felt good to see the return of ugly and purely evil vampires.

Salem’s Lot is a two hours long fantastic movie, stuffed with terrific actors who create memorable characters. The dialogues are great, some of it made us genuinely laugh. The effects are top notch and there was a real tension in some scenes.

This is not the first adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. Previously, it was adapted for television: the 1979 mini series Salem’s Lot (1979). A follow up in 1987 called A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987) was created for the big screen, and a TV mini series Salem’s Lot (2004) in 2004.

We haven’t seen the other versions and we didn’t read the book. However, we enjoyed this adaptation very much and I would recommend the movie to any vampire fan.

After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family’s survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster. (IMDB)

Even though the movie is set in an old apartment complex in Brooklyn, Sting is actually an Australian movie. You can sometimes spot some discrepancies, the doorknobs are about 3 ft from the ground in the U.S., here the knobs are halfway up the doors. When showing a street view, the cars are parked on the “wrong side” of the streets compared to the U.S.

The movie lets itself watch. However, even if I’m not exactly a fan of spiders (it’s getting better with the age), Sting didn’t really manage to make me feel uncomfortable, not the way the 90s cult movie Arachnophobia did in its time. It’s probably due to the fact that the movie doesn’t capitalise on the spider being a small and hairy creeper but, instead, a monster.

Even if it isn’t as terrifying as I anticipated, Sting isn’t a bad movie, it’s fast paced enough to keep you entertained and it has a few good moments.

As if turning 50 wouldn’t be hard enough, this year’s birthday was also the first time that I would celebrate my birthday without a beer or any alcoholic beverage. I have a problem with alcohol, but not what you would think…

On top of our allergies and intolerances, Inge and I are both very sensitive to histamine. Diamine oxydase (DAO) is the enzyme that helps the body get rid of histamine. Alcohol is very armful to DAO. Which means that when we drink alcohol, histamine isn’t properly eliminated and we get all sorts of reactions from rashes and flare ups to anxiety.

Throughout the years, we’ve tried to ignore it, we still drank beers on Fridays and celebrations. Even with a reduced quantity (2 or 3 beers), the consequences on our health worsen. We noticed how better we would feel without alcohol. For many years, we’ve tried to quit it entirely but there was always a good reason to make an exception.

But, that’s not all… While we were reducing our alcohol intake, we noticed that we were actually having a better time when we were keeping 100% alcohol free. We were more enthusiastic, more motivated and, generally, happier. The other day, Soforah asked me: “If your memory was a hard drive and you’d be reaching maximum capacity, which remembrances would you keep?”. Surprisingly, none of them would be a time when alcohol was present in my life.

I don’t say that it should be the case for everyone. I’m a big fan of letting the people choose whatever makes them happy and this isn’t an attempt at converting anyone. But, in my case, on top of my Histamine problem, I think that alcohol always took too much space. I’ve been drinking enough in my life to know exactly what my world looks like when I let that door open, and I don’t like it.

So, here I was, a few weeks before my 50th birthday, trying to come up with a plan for the celebration. I can tell you, it has been hell and I’m not sure I would have made it without the help of my sweet wife. Thanks to her amazing support, planning and cooking skills, we both had an amazing time. We visited the Christmas village, we went to a restaurant and we ended up eating the dessert at home while watching the movie Abigail. Everything happened fantastically and entirely without alcohol. The rest of December should be a breeze because Christmas and New Year are not really linked to alcohol for us, so no pressure… I hope to make another post like this in December ’25, celebrating a complete year without a drop.

Meanwhile, we both wish everyone an amazing holiday season!

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. (IMDB)

I must start this post with a warning: If you haven’t seen the movie X, go watch it first because MaXXXine is the follow up. While the movie is easy to understand without its prequel, you may get confused with a few scenes. Actually, following the success of X, Ti West almost immediately directed a second movie that serves as origin, Pearl. So, the correct watch order should be: Pearl, X, Maxxxine.

While X manages to produce a great 70s vibe, Maxxxine succeeds perfectly at creating an 80s ambiance. From the dark night clubs of Los Angeles to the Hollywood studios, the visuals are stunning. I particularly enjoyed the chase around the house of Psycho. The casting is also fantastic with returning Mia Goth joined by Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon.

The way people act and talk contributes to the movie feeling special and, when the end credits were rolling on the song “Betty Davies Eyes by Kim Carnes”, our first reaction was to say “well, that was different”. And when I say different, I mean good different, excellent even.

In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in a rural Texas farm, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the crew find themselves fighting for their lives. (IMDB)

It’s definitely an horror movie set around the shooting of a porn, not the other way around. While there are a few nude scenes, X is a slasher with a few well made gore scenes.

However, the gore isn’t what makes X special, the old folks getting horny was far more disturbing and, sometimes, grotesque.

If you’re into slashers but you’re in need of a twist, give this movie a try… The casting is great and the pace of the movie is not too often slowed down. It was nice to see something different without turning into a psychological drama. X remains a slasher, and a good one.