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Killer Book Club

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Vampire Owl: This would be an interesting book club.

Vampire Bat: You mean to say that there are new book clubs in the castle.

Vampire Owl: Who reads that many books these days?

Vampire Bat: Well, I do read many of them.

Vampire Owl: I am sure that you do not count as an external reader.

Vampire Bat: I do take external book club cards.

Vampire Owl: You can read all the best horror books in the castle.

Vampire Bat: I would read these books like a non-vampire would do.

Vampire Owl: So, it is a fine method to be scared of vampires too.

Vampire Bat: I do not see why we should not be scared of ourselves.

[Gets a butterscotch cake and three cups of tea with kulfi].

What is the movie about? :: Angela (Veki Velilla) is a college student who wishes to be a critically acclaimed and popular writer, now trying to write her second work. Her professor Antonio Cruzado (Daniel Grao) who used to help her with writing seems to have an infatuation with her, and makes advances to her. As Angela’s friends come to know about it, they suggest that they get back to him, and for the same, they choose a killer clown prank which would leave him scared enough for the rest of his life. The group which includes Sebas (Alvaro Mel), Nando (Ivan Pellicer), Sara (Ane Rot), Rai (Carlos Alcaide), Virginia (Priscilla Delgado), Eva (Maria Cerezuela) and Koldo (Hamza Zaidi), plans the whole thing perfectly after sending a fake e-mail to Antonio. But the prank goes terribly wrong, as they end up causing him to fall down from the top of the building and get impaled on the spear held by a statue of Don Quixote below, leading to his instant death.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Even though their instant reaction is to blame Angela for what has happened, they decide to keep all of these a secret and make a promise that they would never talk about this to anybody. The very next day, as everyone comes to know about his death, the popular opinion is that he committed suicide as his wife had left him, and the police also goes with the same conclusion, leading them to believe that things will get back to normal. But soon, they find out that a masked killer clown is stalking them, and wishes to take them down one after the other as the person wears the same mask as they were wearing. After murdering each person, the clown would write a chapter about the brutal death and post it online, and the readers also have a chance to vote on who will be murdered next. The readers do not have any idea what this is really about, as the original names are provided. The group decides to stop this madness from continuing, but has no idea about whom to suspect. Is this a silent stalker or someone among them?

The defence of Killer Book Club :: Slasher horror movies are welcome to bring new serial killers into a world of chaos in which humans have never hesitated to kill one another. There have been more classic slashers being produced in almost every language these days, even though Hollywood have come up with less interesting ones in the last few years. This one is based on a book, which means that it has promises to keep for the readers. The visuals are really good, and the setting feels like the right one, including the dark corners inciting horror and the architectural beauty that stays alive. The statue of Don Quixote comes as a fine reminder for the connection between the movie and literature, as the horror itself comes from writings here, and the publication of books and online content remains a priority throughout the film’s run-time. This also remains a short movie, as the run-time works to its advantage. The final twist over the twist remains interesting, and the power of mystery has run through this quite well without giving away the chance at predictability.

The claws of flaw :: Killer Book Club might feel like too similar with many other titles, and following the formula, but not well enough to elevate the same. There are enough murders happening here, but none of them creates a terrifying or divergent impact which could have made the environment better. The scares are not that much present as we would have wanted. A killer in a clown mask can achieve wonders – you know what the clowns do, whether in It and its sequel or in Terrifier; the horror in such cases is of a different level, with blood and gore assured. But this one seems to take the safer route, and the need to take the less travelled path among the diverging roads is not taken into consideration here. You are left with the feeling that there could be more, from the early stages itself. You keep looking for more, but that extra ingredient never really arrives. With the scope for a sequel still there, we can hope that this will arrive later.

The performers of the soul :: Veki Velilla leads the proceedings in the movie, and makes the scream queen who is intended to survive till the end, but has the realization that this has been caused due to her for some other reason, which makes the character more determined. She blends into this situation really well, from the author who has a certain amount of writing block to the girl who wishes to survive in a world of chaos created by an unknown killer. Priscilla Delgado remains a notable presence here too, and contributes to the whole thing even when least expected. Ane Rot and Maria Cerezuela also add to the interesting scream queen list here, and one would love to see them in more of similar flicks. Alvaro Mel and Ivan Pellicer become the main male performers here, and they remain important from the beginning to the end. Daniel Grao, even though present for only a few minutes, also leaves an impact. Carlos Alcaide and Hamza Zaidi also comes in as required. For most of us audience, these new names will be staying.

How it finishes :: Killer Book Club seems to be derived from other slasher horror movies that we have known for a long time, with Scream and The Cabin in the Woods being a few of them. The non-English movies were not far away from such inspiration either, as Poland’s Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight and A Classic Horror Story in Italian along with the Indonesian Ivanna are some of the examples. Here, in Spanish, we have a similar work of slasher horror. The group of friends from a college being murdered one after the other, especially after doing something they were not supposed to do, comes as nothing new. But this one also maintains the entertaining and thrilling side well enough with the final twists to keep things interesting. You are always looking for more addition to slasher horror, as they have not been that easy to create effectively during this time period. Based on the Spanish novel El Club de Los Lectores Criminales by Carlos García Miranda, the films becomes another interesting adaptation which brings us back to watching Spanish movies again on Netflix.

Release date: 25th August 2023 (Netflix)
Running time: 90 minutes
Directed by: Carlos Alonso
Starring: Veki Velilla, Alvaro Mel, Ivan Pellicer, Hamza Zaidi, Ane Rot, Priscilla Delgado, María Cerezuela, Carlos Alcaide

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Terrifier 2

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Vampire Owl: We are the most terrifying ones.

Vampire Bat: I don’t think that we are that terrifying as we used to be.

Vampire Owl: It is due to Twilight and Vampire Diaries. They don’t count.

Vampire Bat: They do count for the humans.

Vampire Owl: Well, sometimes I feel that only they count for them.

Vampire Bat: Humans are not that aware about true vampires.

Vampire Owl: There are no true and false vampires. There are only us.

Vampire Bat: We have been children of the night for too long.

Vampire Owl: There are no vampires of the day.

Vampire Bat: Well, the vampires that sparkle have other opinions.

[Gets a chicken biryani and three cups of cardamom tea].

What is the movie about? :: Miles County Massacre was one of the most traumatizing events for the people of the town. Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) who was responsible for the brutal murders does return though. He was considered dead, even though the body was not found – he is once again here though. The police had only provided the statement that the body had just disappeared, and some people do spend the legend that the clown is not dead and might return at some point. The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain) is another mysterious entity which wears similar clown costume, and seems to join forces with Art. Meanwhile, a teenager named Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) is finishing the Halloween costume which was designed for her by her father who recently died due to brain tumour. Sienna’s younger brother Jonathan Shaw (Elliott Fullam) is obsessed with Art the Clown though, and wishes to dress like him for the Halloween, after finding details about him from his father’s sketches. Sienna ends up having a nightmare about the clown, and wakes up to find the room on fire, yet has a sword from her father as the same as it used to be. She had also seen people being murdered by the clown in her nightmare.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: On Halloween, Jonathan sees Art and The Little Pale Girl at school playing with a dead animal, and he is held responsible for bringing the creature to school as they disappear without a trace. As the school calls the parent, he is grounded at home. Sienna goes to the Halloween costume shop to buy a replacement pair of wings to fit with her costume as the earlier one was lost in fire, and there she encounters Art who stalks her without mercy, and later brutally murders the shop vendor who is left alone in the store. He also manages to make the later customers believe that it is all part of a Halloween show. Sienna is the only one who believes her brother and that the clown might be real as she had seen him in the shop. Sienna’s friend, Allie (Casey Hartnett) finds herself in trouble too, as Art gets to her home pretending to be trick or treating. Allie who is rude to him for asking for candy at an old age is brutally attcked by the clown and left in pieces. Allie’s mother is also killed in the same way, and her head is kept for putting sweets for Halloween.

And what more is to follow with this brutal adventure featuring a clown? :: Art is well-supported by the clown girl in his actions, even though the brutality is committed all by himself. He also resorts to cannibalism at times, even though the act of brutal murder seems to be the one thing that satisfies him more than anything else. He also seems to display a supernatural side to him after returning to the seemingly unstoppable killing spree which goes mostly undetected as the victims are not found. Jonathan shows the paintings of his father to his mother Barbara Shaw (Sarah Voigt), but unhappy with his obsession with the clown and not believing in his stories, she tears them off. She feels that his son requires some serious counselling. At the same time, Sienna goes to a Halloween party dressed in the costume designed by her father, but it seems that Art has other ideas about this particular celebration, and it would involve her family. She becomes drunk at the party and begins to see the clown girl, while the clown attacks their home. Jonathan runs away from home only to find the clown girl in the way. Art seems immortal evil, but how far will he go?

The defence of Terrifier 2 :: For a slasher, the character development of this movie is at an all time high, especially with Lauren LaVera playing Sienna Shaw. She leads the movie here, and as a battle angel, becomes the last hope for a family and the town in general, a role into which she evolves really well. This is one character who rises above the horror tropes with ease, and promises to continue the peformance into a sequel too, if such a thing happens. Lauren in the Halloween costume fighting the clown is a joy to watch. Elliott Fullam who plays her brother also does a fine job. The movie, with blood and gore as well as the representation of the evil on screen lives up to the name, as a work of terrifying nature. The ambience is very well used too, and the Halloween world as well as the carnival attraction works like a fine nightmare here. As you get transported into the world of a seemingly immortal evil clown, the feeling is forever, and here, the grand clown rises above Stephen King’s It as a movie and its second part as the demonic clown of the century.

Positives and negatives :: Terrifier 2 blends into its genre really well. It has some of the very gory scenes which might not be that good for everyone. The signs of such brutality can be seen in the beginning itself. The border lines for gore has been crossed here and most of the natural horror film fans who prefer only those works like Ouija, The Conjuring, The Nun, Annabelle, Curse of La Llorna, Insidious, Sinister and other would not go further with this after the first scene. A murder on the bed might feel to be too brutal even for the best of fans of the genre. The final moments have a little bit of of too much of the supernatural side added to it, which could have been kept to the minimum, especially as both the protagonist and antagonist deserves more in the form of two people going at each other. The movie does remind of those older slasher films with moments which takes us back to the past memories of slasher horror, a genre which has kept us close to the darker side of humanity, the horror which has been inherent in human beings since the beginning of time. While doing the same, the scares work so well.

How it finishes :: Terrifier 2 is the nice slasher horror which we rarely see around these days. After all, it is easy to lose the way whenever a slasher gets a chance to make it big. The movie delivers most of what it promises, and in the end, leaves an open door for a possible sequel, as death does not come easy for antagonists like this, as proven by many slashers including Halloween which has overused the idea. Most of us around here did not hear about the first movie, and a lot of people still need to hear about this movie. It is the kind of movie that has raised the level of slashers in a decade when it hasn’t scored much. With a third movie, things can get even better, as characters are better developed here. Well, we need to celebrate the horror in raw forms when we see them, as this is one example of the same. One can be sure that Terrifier 2 will have its fans, and can develop into a cult classic horror as most of the old slasher horror films have stopped bringing reboots and remakes of relevance to keep the legacy moving on.

Release date: 6th October 2022
Running time: 138 minutes
Directed by: Damien Leone
Starring: Lauren LaVera, Sarah Voigt, Elliott Fullam, Kailey Hyman, Casey Hartnett, David Howard Thornton

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

It: Chapter Two

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Vampire Owl: Have you met the vampire clown?

Vampire Bat: We have a vampire clown now?

Vampire Owl: Yes, even the zombies have their own clowns in a zombie-infested theme park, and it was necessary for us to arrange one.

Vampire Bat: Now we have to pay him too. Being a clown is not even a real job in the vampire world with base in horror.

Vampire Owl: It is okay, because he will be playing the It clown only.

Vampire Bat: It clown is a creature that vampires shall not accept as their own.

Vampire Owl: But he has become a trend, and we have to accept him as our own too. This is not child’s play.

Vampire Bat: Well, I am sure that he was not the kind of clown the vampire elders had approved.

Vampire Owl: But he is trending on Vampire Twitter, and it has been so for the last one year.

Vampire Bat: What? Even the vampires are letting a clown trend when we have pure non-vegetarian vampires!

[Gets some tapioca chips and three cups of iced tea].

What is the movie about? :: In 1988-1989 time period, in the streets of a small and lesser known town Derry, a his six-year-old child was taken into the sewers and eaten by Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard), and a team of children had forgotten their fears to destroy the creature, and send it into hibernation for twenty seven years, hoping that it would starve and die during the time period with no option available. The team of children known as the Losers swears a blood oath that they shall be returning to to the town of Derry as adults if It returns to haunt the place ever again. Twenty seven years later, a young man is murdered by a clown which is said to have eaten his heart. A young girl who was watching a match in a stadium is also lured by It, and murdered under the seats of the gallery. Derry town now has more than what it can handle.

So, what happens with the events here? :: This ancient cosmic evil which preys upon children and possessing a large variety of powers including the ability to shapeshift, manipulate and create illusions has gone unnoticed by the police and the people in charge there, but the same cannot be said about Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) who discovers clues to the presence of the creature. As the only person left in the town out of the children’s team serving as the town librarian, he decides to call the other members of the gang. Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) who has been going through sexual and physical abuse in the hands of her husband is only happy to come to the town, while the successful novelist Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) is quick to respond. A frightened Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) commits suicide and a lonely Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) is only happy about a get together. Others, Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) and Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) also reach there, but are they good enough to face this advanced It?

The defence of It: Chapter Two :: Even in the absence of the quality of the first movie, the second one manages to stay floating against all the ice it had created in the water as hurdles including the dumb humour, silly bonding among friends and the not so scary frightening scenes. There are moments of horror which works in the movie, and in the final fifty to fifty five minutes of action, almost everything works as far as the scares are concerned. The adult replacements are good, but not that much as the children, and not all of them works accordingly. The clown remains a fantastic figure of horror, and it is only when the creature comes out there with all its glory that we realize that there is something special in this movie – whenever It is there, the movie raises its level, and the so called adults don’t really live up to the quality of the clown. Among the scary scenes, the most notable one might be the creepy old woman thing, and then the murder of the two kids.

The claws of flaw :: It can be seen that It: Chapter Two fails to meet the standards of the first movie which had that first scene of the child taken into sewers being among the best scenes ever in a horror movie. It also had a projector scene to stay in our memory along with others. Yes, the old woman scene is creepy, and there is some continuous dose of horror in the last few minutes, but they are more or less for the quick scares rather than being there to stay for long. There is no scene as in the first movie to remember in this second film in comparison, and it also drags a lot. There is a lot of slow movement inside the movie during the first half, and it is during the last one hour or so that the movie picks up its pace. It should have had that kind of horror which keeps us awake at night in the darkness like Lights Out could do when lights were turned off, but this second movie focuses too much on other things, as the bonding is too much and the humour is dumb.

Performers of the soul :: With its flashback, this movie is more or less drama than horror, as the children keep coming back to this film too, with its flashbacks. The young generation of the cast continues to score over the older ones, especially Sophia Lillis who becomes Jessica Chastain as an adult, and stay pretty well throughout the movie. James McAvoy is also very good, and is the next notable character in the flick. Jay Ryan is the one who seems to be completely different from his childhood avatar, and manages to be just okay. James Ransone provides the fun here, even though the humour itself is not that much working. Bill Hader with the comic side is also only somewhat working. Isaiah Mustafa does a good job as the one who brings them all together, the confident one among the Losers. Andy Bean is wasted while Bill Skarsgard as the clown continues to entertain – maybe some more kids would have added more here.

How it finishes :: It: Chapter Two is too long a movie, and has most of its best moments directed to the final one hour. A lot of the movie was rather not needed, including the first scene and the hallucinations when the protagonists come together. The collection of artifacts could have also been shortened to make this a one hundred and twenty minutes movie, which would mean an accurate movie filled with horror at all spaces. Still, with whatever we have, rooted in the Stephen King novel of the same name, the film takes the scary elements to the screen well enough. The predictable moments, silly jokes, and the overdone friendship can be avoided though, and we can quickly move towards the last few minutes to enjoy this movie at its best. After all, an evil clown like this is not to be left behind – for terror is real, whether there is Corona virus or not.

Release date: 6th September 2019
Running time: 169 minutes
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, Bill Skarsgard, Andy Bean

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

It

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Vampire Owl: It has been a dangerous thing throughout the ages.

Vampire Bat: What are you talking about?

Vampire Owl: The one thing which is mentioned by the name “It”.

Vampire Bat: Are you referring to a certain clown like in this movie?

Vampire Owl: Only the humans are afraid of clowns. We have no clowns here; nobody has ever heard about a Vampire Clown.

Vampire Bat: Well, with this movie based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, the horror has shifted to the clowns.

Vampire Owl: You mean no more vampires, zombies, ghosts, demons and others?

Vampire Bat: I am afraid that humans keep moving from one supernatural creature to the other.

Vampire Owl: We need our own clowns then, and we can refer them by the name “It”.

Vampire Bat: Can you adjust with some fan boys and girls instead?

[Gets three cups of iced tea with Arrowroot biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: In the 1980s, we see a little boy being gifted with a paper boat, which he tries to sail through the water on the road, on a day of heavy rain and possibility of storm arriving. As the boats speeds up and goes down a sewer, the boy, George Denbrough a.k.a. Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) looks down only to find a clown that introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard) from the circus which closed down due to the storm. As the boy gets closer, the clown wastes no time in biting his arms and dragging him right down inside. Later, William Denbrough a.k.a. Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), his elder brother can’t just stop looking for Georgie. He along with his friends, Richard Tozier a.k.a. Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Edward Kaspbrak a.k.a. Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stanley Uris a.k.a. Stan (Wyatt Oleff) keeps getting bullied by Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) and his gang.

So, what happens next in the movie? :: They are joined by two other outsiders, Beverly Marsh a.k.a. Bev (Sophia Lillis) who is considered immoral by the students, and Benjamin Hanscom a.k.a. Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) who is the new kid around spending most of his time in the library with the less interesting books. As the town has had a history of disappearing children for a long time, the team decides to find the secret behind the same. They figure out that something strange has occured in every twenty seven years, and this is the year that the same is to happen again. They remember that they have all been frightened by one thing or the other, and a clown was the common thing in their visions – a headless person, a fountain of blood, a zombie-like man, a painting coming to life, and the ghost of Georgie are just more of their worst fear coming true.

And what is to follow next in this adventure? :: They come across another outsider, Michael Hanlon a.k.a. Mike (Chosen Jacobs) who also had visions of a clown and burnt people. They figure out that the creature is using sewer lines to move around, as they check where all the children went missing – all these sewers seem to lead to a well currently under the creepy, partially ruined, abandoned house at 29 Neibolt Street. Now, with the elders not ready to believe in the supernatural, the kids decide that it is their turn to do something about this menace of the clown. But the creature will only be happy to have the children visit his lair, and even they don’t, he is ready to come for them. So, what fate awaits the children as the clown has decided to open the circus again, to feed on enough children before he is ready to go back to sleep for twenty seven years?

The defence of It :: We were waiting for this for long, as the 2014 movie, Clown brought some idea about what we can expect with a movie which has a clown from circus and a kids in there. The scares are abundant with the clown around, and the first appearance of the creature might be the best of them all, as it is not just terrifying, but also disturbing with the attack on the little kid from beneath the sewers. Then there are many moments which contribute to the scares, one after the other, making a series of moments of terror, most of which are to be appreciated for being different from what was shown before. The child actors are too good too, especially Sophia Lillis who is a level above everyone else. Jaeden Lieberher is surely the right choice to play the lead character too, while the support never fails to do what they were to do. Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns can be a nice thing to have with this particular flick.

The claws of flaw :: It could have surely been scarier with the depth of its clown character though, as there could have far more terrifying illusions and hallucinations to go with him, and we could have also had something to take home as scares for the every day life – some interesting horror movies do come up with the same or a rather huge divergent idea. This one won’t claim that, as Lights Out would with each and every moment of darkness. This won’t be that big as Don’t Breathe and The Autopsy of Jane Doe became, redefining horror last year. The bullying also takes a little bit of too much time away from this movie which is already too long with its not that scary moments, going further than two hours. Well, they call it Chapter One, and so there could be more. Let the clown be more next time, with tricks that we can never imagine, raising the sequel to another level.

How it finishes :: We have always loved to watch a Stephen King novel on the screen, and it has been something which gives us assurance about horror, as well as the quality. The movies The Shining, The Mist, The Running Man and 1408 keep coming to my mind more often than the rest. This one here is no exception, and it will be there to satisfy our need for a wonderful movie experience, as long as the expectations are not at the top of the peak. You are not going to regret your choice to go for this particular horror movie, as the clown is no usual ghost or demon that you come up against in most of those movies. You will also feel that a sequel will do so much more that, a better equipped, returning clown is all that a horror fan can dream about, or rather have some wonderful nightmares about. So, watch It, and get ready for more in a sequel.

Release date: 8th September 2017
Running time: 135 minutes
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Bill Skarsgard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Wyatt Oleff, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Chosen Jacobs, Jackson Robert Scott, Stephen Bogaert, Molly Atkinson, Geoffrey Pounsett, Pip Dwyer, Stuart Hughes, Steven Williams, Ari Cohen, Joe Bostick, Megan Charpentier

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.