Thriller

The Secret Fury

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Nice Little Puzzler

**Spoilers**

I’m not going to regurgitate the plot, but here is the summary provided by IMDb:

A woman preparing to marry her fiancé is accused of bigamy by a stranger but she fights back by trying to prove she’s the victim of a conspiracy designed to discredit her.

I agree with the other reviewers who were a little disappointed in the ending. I sure did not guess who was gas lighting her or why. I also found it a little unbelievable that the sweet old justice of the peace and his wife and housekeeper would be in on the plot. They should have made another appearance where their motivations and lies were exposed. How did the Vivian Vance character get Claudette’s pin? How was Lucian Randall shot if Claudette didn’t do it? I admit I may have missed some of the exposition.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

August 28, 2020

The Secret of Crickley Hall

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Listen to Your Youngest Daughter!

**Major Spoilers**

Excellent ghost story. Not scary, but the family drama and suspense are the focus here, not jump scares. Many involving mysteries, slowly revealed, and a good side story involving Maisie Williams as the oldest daughter. Great job in developing the youngest daughter, who is the shining light of truth and insight in a suffering and confused family. I really liked that though there were some conflicts between the husband and wife, it did not split them apart. Although it is revealed that the son is in fact dead (and how could it be otherwise?) the family remains in tact and the ghosts are set free, so it was ultimately a hopeful happy ending for a horror story. Especially as we learn the fate of the main orphan, Stephan. I wish we had had more details about him. Also we know that Cam was kidnapped from the beginning, so there was a loose end there, as the family never learns how he came to drown, and neither does the audience.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

September 4, 2019

Two Creature Features

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The Night of the Lepus

Funnie Bunnies

I would have liked to be a fly on the wall when Janet Leigh got this script. The only the other comment I would like to make is that the blood is the most amazing shade of red I’ve ever seen in a movie. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

January 19, 2019

The Killer Shrews

“I Want a Drink!”

Tight little creature flick with some genuine scares. There’s some great fights, unintentionally (I think) funny dialogue (“stop sniveling and think!”), and good acting. James Best and Ken Curtis were the stand-outs. Follows a predictable pattern as far as deaths go (the black guy and the Hispanic guy being the most expendable) but there were some refreshingly original moments as well. I would definitely watch this one again with pleasure. And that’s more than I can say about some Oscar contenders I have seen.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

January 20, 2019

House at the End of the Street

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Hitchcockian

**Spoilers**

This is not a horror movie, but a thriller/suspense/mystery much like Disturbia. As such, it was very good. It really is not scary at all. The clues are all there to solve your way through. The last part of the puzzle (a.k.a. “the twist”) might surprise some, but alert viewers will at least suspect what is coming. I like movies like this that don’t kill all the good guys and evil triumphs. I also like movies that don’t end ambiguously usually with the tease that the evil will be back and it’s really not over. I hate that cliché. The movie does have lots of clichés duly noted by many other reviewers, but that’s pretty much what you sign up for with one of these things. I prefer to think of these clichés as “homages” when I like a movie. **7 stars out of 10**

January 26, 2013

Along Came a Nanny

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It’s the Script, Stupid!

**3 out of 10 stars**I watched this all the way through so that earns it at least 2 stars. but man oh man was this Manny,(Cameron Mathison) though cute, the dumbest detective ever? His whole methodology consisted of A) writing all the of the names of the people in the neighborhood and drawing arrows from one to another and then studying his drawing in bed night after night like it was Holy Writ. B) congregating on the sidewalk with the other Nannies and asking if they’ve seen anything unusual. And C) flirting with the pretty Nanny(Sarah Lancaster) on walks while they are pretending to be sleuths. The perp was entirely obvious, though the motive for the robberies was so dumb, I kept saying to myself “No, It couldn’t be…too lame.” Plot holes a mile wide. The big clue is a pen with the burglars fingerprints on it, yet they just had to match the prints found at the crime scene with the suspects prints on file as he had a previous record. If you are watching this for the romance, forget that too. Not a bit of charm or chemistry. Lazy and lame, the scriptwriter should have been ashamed to take a paycheck for this drivel.

October 13, 2014