Forgot to post this yesterday…

Vivarium (2019)

A young couple looking for the perfect home find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of identical houses.

My thoughts: There’s a point in this movie when, while digging up their mysterious clay-laced front yard, one of the characters opines: ““This is just pointless. It’s just weird muck.”  And that about sums it up.

3/5

Moloch (2022)

Betriek lives on the edge of a bog in the Netherlands. When she and her family are attacked by a stranger one night, Betriek sets out to find an explanation. She discovers that something is chasing her.

My thoughts: Mostly standard scares in a movie that shows promise in its exploration of Dutch folklore but never really delivers anything new to the horror conversation.

3/5

Coherence (2013)

Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.

My thoughts: Essentially a one act movie with a great sci-fi set-up, but lacking a satisfactory pay-off.  On the whole, intriguing yett the improvised performances feel shallow, the characters never quite real.

3.5/5

Sissy (2022)

Teen best friends Cecilia and Emma, after a decade run into each other. Cecilia is invited on Emma’s bachelorette weekend where she gets stuck in a remote cabin with her high school bully with a taste for revenge.

My thoughts: Annoyingly vapid characters stumble into absurdly contrived lethal scenarios to a ridiculously overwrought musical score. It’s too bad because it has the bones of a potentially great movie.

3/5

The Mortuary Collection (2019)

An eccentric mortician recounts several macabre and phantasmagorical tales that he’s encountered in his distinguished career.

My thoughts: As with most anthologies, your mileage will vary tale to tale. I thought they saved the best for last but, overall, for me the horror strays too far far into goofy territory.

3/5

Overall, overwhelmingly average.