April Films Update 2

10 more films I watched in 2025

**** 

1. The Rise Of Skywalker

After the chaotic ending of The Last Jedi, the Resistance is in hiding, seeking recruits and allies – and information. The First Order is recovering from the embarrassing defeats/horribly expensive victories of the last two films. Into this comes the Emperor Palpatine, returned from the dead (see Return Of The Jedi). Kylo Ren, now leader of the First Order seeks out a Sith wayfinder and travels to Palpatine on a secret Sith planet called Exegol. There Palpatine tells him he was the secret force behind Supreme Leader Snoke (The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi) and that he has a secret fleet he will give Kylo Ren if he finds and kills Rey.

Ren is still fascinated by Rey, and the two are linked through the force. Rey is doing Jedi training under the tutelage of General Leia Organa, who it’s been revealed decided not to become a Jedi the night before Luke finished her training. Presumably there’s one final initiation she’s not done, but at least they have the holy Jedi texts from The Last Jedi to tell them what’s up. Meanwhile Poe Dameron and Finn collect information from a spy who tells them about Palpatine and Exegol. It turns out that finding Exegol was another of Luke Skywalker’s abandoned projects; his notes suggest that they can find a Sith Wayfinder on yet another desert planet, Pasaana. Rey, Finn, Poe, along with Chewbacca and the two droids C3-P0 and BB-8 fly off in the Millennium Falcon for another adventure.

An incoherent adventure, discovering the wayfinder had been hidden by a bounty hunter – who was also the one who took away Rey’s parents. Said bounty hunter had made a knife whose inscriptions lead to the planet the wayfinder was hidden on, and whose design pointed out the exact location of the wayfinder (from one viewpoint). So far so good, a strange planet, an unexpected ally and the First Order on their trail – stormtroopers with jet packs and the rumoured Knights Of Ren. The Knights capture the knife, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon, but the rest escape on the bounty hunter’s ship*.

Unfortunately the inscription is in a forbidden Sith language; C3-P0 can read it but his programming doesn’t let him translate it. So on to another planet, where Poe knows a droid mechanic. Some of his backstory is revealed; he used to be a spice runner**. Using the Force link between him and Rey Kylo Ren follows. Having reset C3-P0 for some rather strained comedy and also getting the data, they board Kylo Ren’s ship to rescue Chewbacca, steal back the knife and get the Millennium Falcon (again). Kylo Ren fights Rey in a non-local duel, him down on the planet, her on his ship; he only realises where she is at the end of it. He reveals the secret: Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter, and Palpatine wants her for her power; the bounty hunter tried to get her parents to reveal where she was, but killed them. At the end of the fight they escape.

They find themselves on Endor with a ruined bit of the Deathstar (see Return Of The Jedi) as the location. There are ex-stormtroopers living there, who Finn has a moment of kinship with. Rey risks the tides to cross as time is running out. On board the wreck she finds the wayfinder but is ambushed by Kylo Ren. They fight again, Ren destroying the wayfinder. Leia uses the Force to stop Ren killing Rey, and dies from it, even as Rey wins the fight. Overcome with grief, still bound to Ren through the Force, and doubting everything she knows about herself she heals Ren (she’s learned Force Healing earlier***) and steals his ship, escaping to the secret Jedi planet (see The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi).

Kylo Ren encounters his dead father Han Solo (see The Force Awakens); Rey encounters the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker. They both decide to change course and confront Palpatine. Rey lifts Luke’s X-Wing from the sea, installs Kylo Ren’s wayfinder and flies to the secret Sith planet. The X-Wing is linked to Luke’s old droid R2-D2, who passes the route on to Finn and Poe. Finding themselves leaders of the Resistance they take all their forces to the secret Sith planet, hoping to destroy the Sith fleet before it can launch. This obviously starts a spectacular battle sequence. Meanwhile Rey and Kylo Ren confront Palpatine, with a few clever bits of action, followed by some sacrifice and torture, all in front of an inexplicable audience.

This film is something of a mess, each clue, choice or confrontation individually either making sense or being cool enough to wave away. But all together it doesn’t really add up. Who holds a lightsaber and who refuses is has been a motif in the sequel trilogy****. Rey refuses a lightsaber in The Force Awakens, and Finn picks it up, fighting stormtroopers and dueling Kylo Ren – until he loses and Rey picks it up. As the last force sensitive standing Rey’s the one who takes it to Luke Skywalker, who refuses it in The Last Jedi. His confrontation with Kylo Ren shows the futility of a lightsaber especially after his failure as mentor to Ren which ended with him standing over him with a lit sword.

This film knows it’s important. After the fight on the deathstar, Kylo Ren throws away his lightsaber. Meanwhile with her encounter with Luke, Luke offers her Leia’s lightsaber. Which means that Rey has two, and then when Ren arrives unarmed, she’s got one for him. But that's a cool trick, it isn’t about use of force, about choosing to fight or not. More interestingly, earlier in the film Rey is using the lightsaber as a light source in a tunnel. When she needs to prove herself not a threat by healing a tunnel creature she hands the lightsaber to Finn, who holds it for her. A callback to The Force Awakens and an acknowledgement that you can’t be warrior and healer at the same time. But this isn’t then brought up again. A kitchen sink of some of the most interesting Star Wars ideas and iconography, but with little to say about them.

Watch This: Exciting space opera adventure
Don’t Watch This: Just more Star Wars

* Another failure to create an iconic ship design

** Allowing him to do some of his quick-witted screwball comedy banter:

Finn: You were a spice runner?
Poe Dameron: You were a stormtrooper?
Rey: Were you a spice runner?
Poe Dameron: Were you a scavenger? We could do this all night.

*** Do NOT see Revenge Of The Sith

**** Of course the symbology of the sword has been mixed throughout Star Wars. In A New Hope Luke Skywalker is given his father’s lightsaber – something we know is important, inheriting a weapon. He then never uses it for the rest of the film.

2. The Admirable Crichton (1957)

It’s 1905 and the Earl of Loam has three daughters Lady Mary, Lady Catherine, and Lady Agatha. The household is held together by Crichton (Kenneth Moore), the butler. The Earl tries to be egalitarian, and holds a party where his daughters wait on the staff; it’s awkward and Lady Brocklehurst, whose son is courting Lady Mary, disapproves. Later Lady Catherine is arrested as a suffragette; Crichton suggests a cruise in the South Seas while the scandal dies down. The yacht’s engines break down and they have to abandon ship; Crichton has to go back to rescue Tweeny* (Diane Cilanto). The lifeboats have gone; when they jump into the sea they are picked up by the Earl’s own boat, reserved for his family (the Earl, three daughters, and two of their suitors, the writer and the clergyman, neither of whom are Lord Brocklehurst.)

Landing on a desert island the aristocrats turn out to be helpless, with Crichton providing shelter, fire and food, Tweeny at least capable enough to watch the fire. The wreck of the ship turns up on the reef and Crichton swims out to get supplies, but his employers insist he brings back their luxuries. When this comes to a head, Crichton says he must take charge. The Earl fires him; by the end of the day the aristocrats are in chaos and discover Crichton and Tweeny have fire and a pot of soup and let Crichton take control.

Two years pass and Crichton “The Guv” is in charge, with all the others shaping up. They’ve built houses, they gather fruit and fish, they’re organised. The main topic of conversation is will Crichton marry Mary or Tweeny. Both are in love with him; all three of the other men in love with Tweeny, they’re waiting for his choice. He picks Mary, and the clergyman prepares to marry them; at that very moment they see a ship. Despite Mary saying they should let it go by, they signal it and are rescued, Crichton immediately returning to his subservient butler manner, offering drinks to the sailors.

Back in England it has become impossible for Lady Mary to marry Crichton. The writer suitor publishes a book on their experience which imparts all the leadership qualities onto the Earl. Lady Brocklehurst, suspicious and wondering if Lady Mary has been unfaithful to her fiancé, questions Crichton who honestly but misleadingly answers. The situation too awkward, “impossible” as Lady Mary says, when asked if Crichton might be butler for her new household, Crichton leaves to go into business himself, taking Tweeny and a bag of pearls he gathered on the island.

Society reasserts itself; promotion by merit might be all very well on a desert island, but back in civilisation propriety and breeding have to be considered. Except of course having been in charge Crichton can’t return to his comfortable spot, and leaves enriched by the experience. Perhaps a wry commentary in 1902 when J M Barrie** wrote his play, already somewhat dated when the film was made.

Watch This: Enjoyable comedy about class, status and desert islands
Don’t Watch This: Old-fashioned prejudice abounds

* Her name’s Eliza, “Tweeny” refers to her position as a “between maid”; this is perhaps oddly the position of servant to the servants. Her task is to wait on the other servants for their meals and otherwise assist the Housekeeper, the Butler and The Cook – responsibilities being “between” all of them. This is one of the most junior positions, one in which they would rarely encounter the family.

** Better known for Peter Pan etc

3. Pumpkinhead

As a child Ed Harley (Lance Henrikson as an adult) saw his father turn away a desperate man, and from the window saw the man killed by a strange creature. Now grown up and a single father he runs a small store with his young son Billy and a small dog. A group of vacationers in their early 20s from the city come by, this is the last shop before their cabin. Also coming by is a farmer from up in the hills and his ragged children. Ed has left the farmer’s feed at his house so leaves Billy to get it. The vacationers get on their dirt bikes and start doing tricks. The dog gets loose, Billy chases after it and is hit by a dirt bike and killed. Steven, who hit him, drives off; others go to try and find a phone and help.

At their cabin Steven tears out the phone. It turns out he injured a kid in a similar incident and is on probation; he will undoubtedly go to jail for a second accident like this. The others argue, and he knocks one unconscious and locks him and the most vocal woman in a closet. Meanwhile Ed Harley finds his son’s body, and takes it to ask the farmer for, you know, her. The farmer refuses to tell but one of his sons, Bunt, takes Ed up the mountain. There Ed meets a witch named Haggis. She warns him she can’t raise the dead, but he wants revenge. Agreeing she sends him to a graveyard; he digs up a body and uses the blood of him and his son to create the Pumpkinhead creature.

The creature goes after the people in the cabin; Ed can see the deaths. After the first couple of kills he says that’s enough, but Haggis tells him the creature cannot be stopped, and Ed will die if he tries to stop it. He sets out, though more killings occur. Bunt tries to help, despite then relating the legend; Pumpkinhead will kill whoever he’s sent after and anyone who helps them, hence them being turned away everywhere (and the prologue). More violent, gory and occasionally imaginative setpiece killings continue.

This is a monster horror film, taking advantage of fears of the American countryside and conversely the arrogance of the American city dwellers (probably suburbanites). Lance Henrikson does a fairly good job, the coming accident is obvious and inevitable and the creature quite scary. As it should be – this was the directorial debut of Stan Winston of the legendary Stan Winston special effects studio. It’s based on a poem, that gets read out in the credits.

Watch This: Gruesome monster horror film
Don’t Watch This: Fake folklore drawing on stereotypes

4. The Karate Kid Part III

Coming back from Okinawa (see The Karate Kid Part II) Daniel and Mr Miyagi discover the apartment block Daniel lives in and Mr Miyagi is maintenance man for has been knocked down. Daniel’s mum is back in New Jersey with a sick relative, so Daniel moves in with Mr Miyagi, which is fine, but then decides to spend his college money on setting up a bonsai shop for Mr Miyagi.

Meanwhile John Kreese, humiliated villain from The Karate Kid, visits an old student and fellow Green Beret veteran Terry Silver. Silver is an industrialist who seems to spend all his time dumping toxic waste. Hearing about Kreese’s problems he vows revenge for his mentor. The next All Valley Under-18s Karate Tournament is coming up; when Daniel defends his title he’ll see him humiliated. He hires Mike Barnes, the bad boy of Under-18 Karate to fight and destroy Daniel.

Mr Miyagi isn’t really interested in training Daniel for the tournament, that’s not what karate is for (it’s for inner strength, you only fight when you have to). Silver introduces himself, claims to have been sent from the Korean karate sensei who taught him and Kreese to apologise for Kreese’s actions. He claims Kreese has died and says he’s bought the Cobra Kai dojo and intends to return it to proper karate virtues. Meanwhile Daniel makes friends with Jessica, a potter across the road from the bonsai store looking after the shop while her aunt is away. It turns out she has a boyfriend in Ohio which slightly dampens Daniel’s enthusiasm but they get on anyway.

Barnes and two of Silver’s henchmen confront Daniel, demanding he join the tournament, Barnes claiming that unless he defeats the current champion it’s no good. They break up the shop. Daniel and Jessica go to collect Mr Miyagi’s prize bonsai* from the cliffside where it grows (?) hoping selling it will cover the repairs, but they ambush him there and make him sign an entry form. The tree is damaged and Mr Miyagi is disappointed. Silver offers to train Daniel, but exhausts him physically, and fails to give him anything useful (karate comes from inner strength).

Realisng something is wrong Daniel tries to withdraw only for Silver to reveal his plan and that Kreese is still alive. Mr Miyagi confronts them, defeats them at karate, but agrees that Daniel must appear at the tournament. In the final Daniel meets Mike Barnes, with Barnes having been given specific instructions, to score a point off Daniel, then to foul and lose a point so the score remains, each hit and foul to be as painful as possible.

Inevitably this doesn’t work; Daniel wins in the final, sudden death part of the fight, scuppering Silvers plans to re-open Cobra Kai as a chain of dojos. Here we see The Karate Kid again, slightly more sophisticated. The villain pretends to be a friend for while, and trains him wrong. Mr Miyagi is proved to be correct; true karate comes from inner strength.

Watch This: Martial arts teen drama
Don’t Watch This: A lot of violent nonsense

* It’s the same shape as the tree on the back of Daniel’s gi when he fights in a tournament

5. Portraits Of Terror: Final Curtain

A man walks through an empty theatre. Strange visions and odd sounds concern him, which he explains in detail in an overwrought voiceover. In the end he comes to see a woman and the meaning of the strangeness is revealed.

This short film was made by infamous low budget horror director Ed Wood Jr, and uses the theatre and the visions well. It was shot as a pilot to make a TV show of odd, atmospheric horror. The TV bosses didn’t buy it, probably because it feels undercooked, the voice over too much (to cover the lack of on set sound). Thought lost for many years, it’s something of a curiosity, but also very short and with some good ideas.

Watch This: Interesting, atmospheric short
Don’t Watch This: Guy wanders around for a while, finds something scary

6. Nights Of Cabiria

Cabiria is having fun with her boyfriend Giorgio, then he grabs her handbag and pushes her in the river, running away with her money. Locals spot her, drag her out and resuscitate her, following which she rudely tells them to leave her alone, goes home and complains to her friend, climbing into her house through the window as her key was in the bag. Then she gets ready to go out and spend the night as a sex worker on a street on the outskirts of Rome. It’s a comedy!

Cabiria (not her baptismal name) then passes through a number of adventures. One is being picked up by a movie star who has split up with his girlfriend, only to spend the night hiding in the luxurious bathroom when the couple reconcile. In another she and her friends attend mass at a celebration with a parade of statues, where she prays for a better life, only for it to come to nothing. In another she goes to a show with a magician who hypnotises her and reveals her dreams of happiness and marriage.

After the performance she meets Oscar, who actually seems kind and honest, and maybe even sensible. Someone Cabiria can settle down with. But the truth of the matter is this: Cabiria is a clown and the universe throws absurdities at her, events that would be tragedies to most.

And that this is a comedy is mostly in the performance of Giuletta Massina (the wife of director Frederico Fellini). She does fabulous physical comedy, offers real emotion, which she often covers up with a confrontational attitude to anyone she thinks is disrespecting her (or occasionally, her friends). And not entirely cover up, the character’s resilience, ability to get knocked down by the strange events of her life, and then get back up is genuine too.

Watch This: Extraordinary film of comedy, tragedy and life’s absurdities
Don’t Watch This: Woman gets into odd scrapes, learns nothing

7. Brides Of Blood Island

Three American arrive on a remote tropical island, known as “Blood Island” because it’s been cursed. The captain warns them there’s no way off until he comes back in several months. The Americans are Jim Farrell, from the Peace Corps, there to set up a clinic and irrigation system; Dr Paul Henderson, studying the results of nuclear testing; and his glamorous wife Carla Henderson, who is having an affair with Jim due to Paul being too distracted by science to have sex. The island was evacuated during the nuclear tests but now the locals have returned, and it’s supposed to be beyond the range of effect, so everything will be normal.

They arrive and there’s a funeral, the two people being buried having been torn limb from limb. Afterwards the islanders choose two maidens for a ritual. They are greeted by Arcadio the elder and his granddaughter Alma who is to act as Jim’s translator. They’re then invited up to the big house where Esteban Powers lives with his brutal overseer Goro and a strange group of dwarfish servants who creep about oddly. Esteban invites them to stay, which Paul and Carla agree to, but Jim needs to be down in the village. Esteban appears young but reveals he’s actually 50 years old. He claims the island was unaffected by the nuclear tests, following which Goro leads them back to the village through the weird forest with a gauntlet of tentacle trees.

Paul doesn’t seem to think this is indicative of any nuclear problems – they’re not detecting radioactivity. But he is interested in some large insects. The Americans get on with their tasks, Jim setting things up for the villagers, Paul investigating science, and Carla being surprised and disgusted by things on the island, and trying to have sex, first with Paul, then with Esteban, though in that case he turns out to be writhing on his bed.

The ritual the maidens are being prepared for has them tied to X crosses, stripped naked and then left for a monster – who rapes them in the course of which he tears them apart. Alma is picked for the next ritual and Jim intervenes leading to a confused final sequence as the monster attacks people and the villagers try to appease it while Jim tries to figure out how to stop it.

The film promises to be both sexy and horrific, and occasionally manages to reach out to some horror. The brief nudity is associated with the monster – Alma stripped from her bikini top and skirt on the cross; after Jim rescues her he immediately offers her his shirt which she buttons around herself very strangely. The tentacle plants have some real menace. The mystery of the monster is hardly so for a modern horror audience, and as is often the case is more effective unseen and half-seen than when it makes a full appearance.

Watch This: Gruesome and effective monster horror film
Don’t Watch This: Very gruesome, fails to titillate, rather predictable

8. Opus (2025)

In the 90s Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich) was the biggest pop star in the world then he retired to a mysterious compound in Utah. Rumours of a new album are dismissed by Stan Sullivan, editor of a music magazine; Moretti’s releases have always been announced by sending a VHS tape to his agent. Then the agent posts a video that’s been sent to him. Moretti sends out six invitations to his compound for exclusive preview of his new album; Ariel (Ayo Edebiri) a journalist who works for Stan is one, as is online influencer Emily Katz. The others are old acquaintances of Moretti; Stan himself (slightly perturbed by Ariel getting an invite, firmly putting her in her place); TV presenter Clara Armstrong; Radio DJ Bill Lotto; and photographer Bianca Tyson.

The compound is remote, their phones are taken from them, each of them is given a concierge to fulfil their requirements. Ariel’s is Belle (Amber Midthunder) who seems slightly menacing, as much guard as assistant. Moretti gives them a book of the group’s beliefs*. They are Levelists. He claims to just be one of the group but everyone admires him, they were recruited for their artistic abilities.

Bill disappears, and only Ariel seems concerned. The group get a tour of the compound. Ariel asks Moretti what it is the Levelists do – what they do as opposed to what they believe**. He takes her to a hut where a man is opening oysters; they open oysters looking for pearls to make a necklace. Later they go to a performance of one of Moretti’s songs, where Emily has a coughing fit and is taken away. Afterwards Ariel takes her concerns to Stan who dismisses them, and then he is shot in the arm with an arrow, apparently be accident of one of the children.

Events getting out of hand Ariel sneaks away and discovers that their phones have been disabled***. She decides to leave, but the bus is gone, so she accepts Moretti’s invitation to see the children’s puppet show while she waits. It’s a bit disturbing**** but not so much as what happens next.

She escapes through a variety of odd scenes including a recreation of Moretti’s childhood home, and finding champagne and cyanide. When she returns with the police they find Moretti playing the piano, surrounded by the bodies of the other five guests. The other cult members are mysteriously missing. In an epilogue we learn that he has been imprisoned, and Ariel has written a book about it. Moretti reveals to her that the other cult members were never supposed to die, they have scattered to continue the work of the Levelists, and her book will spread the word.

This is, occasionally, extremely funny. It’s also very disturbing, though fortunately the creepiest bits become either farcical or action scenes. The music by Nile Rodgers and The-Dream is pretty good, I can believe that it broke out of dance music circles in the 90s and that Moretti’s return would be a big event (including a handful of die-hard fans parked outside the compound).

Watch This: Creepy thriller about cults
Don’t Watch This: Hints at the relationship between art and obsession but prefers to think about gruesome murders

* They are obviously cult-y, cult-ish from the start. There are children as well as adults, they dress in denim uniforms.

** Christians go to church on Sunday etc

*** We the audience have seen odd things, sometimes through CCTV cameras; we know someone attacked Bill, that clear varnish was painted on the phones, and indeed Bill’s body is in the taxidermy room (?) with the phones, but Ariel doesn’t see it

**** Billy Holiday is hassled by rat newspaper reporters

9. California Suite

Four intertwined stories of guests at the Beverley Hills Hotel. Hanna Warren (Jane Fonda) comes from New York to talk to her ex-husband Bill (Alan Alda). Their teenage daughter has run away from her to stay with her father. The two find themselves circling their disagreements and falling back on their old snappy, witty bickering.

Diane Barrie (Maggie Smith) is an actress whose fading career has had an unexpected boost when she was nominated for an academy award for her performance in an independent (and from what is said and shown of it, quite ridiculous) film. Her fears and doubts are bound up in her relationship with her bookseller husband (Michael Caine) who has previously had numerous discreet gay affairs and now seems to be much less discreet. Again there’s much barbed and snappy dialogue.

Middle-aged Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau) is in LA for his nephew’s bar mitzvah, his wife Millie (Elaine May) coming the next day. He goes out drinking with his brother Harry and returns to discover Harry has engaged sex worker Bunny (Denise Galick) for him. She drinks tequila and the next morning cannot be woken, when Millie arrives wanting to come up. Marvin’s attempts to conceal the situation become farcical.

Finally Dr Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor) and his wife Lola (Gloria Gifford), and Dr Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) and his wife Bettina (Sheila Frazier) arrive on holiday after several accidents. Due to it being Oscar weekend and a mistake in the bookings the Panamas get the nice suite, but the Gumps find themselves in a cramped, noisy room without working water. Chauncey, unhappy with how things have gone, decides to get his revenge on the tennis court, ending up in a lot of injuries and slapstick.

This is based on a play, where the conceit was that the four stories all took place in the same suite (the set) sequentially. In general expanding the story so it takes place outside the room has limited returns. The Warrens essentially have one long conversation that is interrupted by scenes of other guests arriving and them going to other locations. The interesting part of the Michaels story is the increasingly ludicrous attempts by Marvin to hide or excuse his failing in the room. The Gumps and Panamas section doesn’t have the snap and zing of the others' dialogue and the physical bits don’t add much. The Barries are the only ones that seem to take advantage of it, and even then the heart of their story is the scenes in the room before they go to the awards, and again afterwards.

Perhaps appropriately Maggie Smith won an Oscar for best supporting actress for this role.

Watch This: Witty comedy about visitors to Los Angeles
Don’t Watch This: Moves awkwardly between real emotion, fast-paced banter and silly buffoonery, fails to take advantage of the stories happening simultaneously

10. Until Dawn

A group are driving through rural America, looking for Melanie. They are Clover, Melanie’s sister; Max, Clover’s ex-boyfriend; Nina and Megan; Clover’s friends and Abe, Nina’s boyfriend. At a gas station Melanie sent a message from they question the attendant who says that people have gone missing at an old mining town up the road, so they go there. Heavy rain strikes and they take shelter in a visitor’s centre. It’s creepy, there’s a wall of missing people posters, which includes Melanie, and a visitor’s book where people have signed their names many times. Exploring the strange lower levels they’re attacked by a masked man who hunts them all down in true invincible slasher film style, killing them.

They wake up, slowly realising that this is something to do with the hourglass on the wall that turns over when events begin. They are all killed again. They look at the guest book and see the signatures slowly degenerate. They’re on the wall of missing person photos.

They try various attempts as they go through the cycles to escape, to win, to survive, to understand what is going on. Hill, the gas station attendant who sent them here, warns them they can’t wait out the night; one of them discovers a recording of Hill watching a man in a room. After 13 nights he’s transformed into what they call a wendigo. They think they’ve still got plenty of time but when they look in the guest book they’ve signed more times than they thought.

There’s creepy clues and some explanation, and the odd bold, video-game (this is based on/inspired by/within the world of the video game Until Dawn) style borders. Mostly though it’s about good looking horror protagonists meeting gruesome ends. Give people what they want from this type of film I guess.

Watch This: Lot of people get murdered a lot, a ticking clock, plenty of weird clues to a mystery
Don’t Watch This: Inexplicable time loop to show gruesome killings