{"id":15048,"date":"2026-10-11T11:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=15048"},"modified":"2026-10-11T11:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:44:02","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-184","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=15048","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063097\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1.jpg\" alt=\"House of Evil\" width=\"1707\" height=\"2235\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1.jpg 1707w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1-229x300.jpg 229w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1-782x1024.jpg 782w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1-768x1006.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1-1173x1536.jpg 1173w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1-1-1564x2048.jpg 1564w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1707px) 100vw, 1707px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091209\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The Hitcher\" width=\"1728\" height=\"2560\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15049\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-scaled.jpg 1728w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-1382x2048.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1728px) 100vw, 1728px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0082235\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1.jpg\" alt=\"Dark Night of the Scarecrow\" width=\"1728\" height=\"1600\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15050\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>To call <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063097\/\">House of Evil<\/a> (or the handful of other names by which it&#8217;s called) a Boris Karloff movie is being far too generous. Actually, calling it a movie at all may be as well. Confusingly chopped together, ponderously slow, dubiously dubbed, and never convincingly interesting or scary, this is one of four Mexican horror movies Karloff leant a few weeks of his acting talents to in the year before his death. While his performance is easily the best part of the movie, it&#8217;s not his finest work, lasts for only a brief handful of half-formed scenes, and doesn&#8217;t feel much connected to the rest\u2014which is a weak riff on killer toys.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Roger Ebert called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0091209\/\">The Hitcher<\/a> &#8220;diseased and corrupt,&#8221; which I think is a bit much. But even if I didn&#8217;t find the movie as morally reprehensible as he seemed to, it is a nasty piece of work\u2014sometimes beautifully shot against the open natural landscape, but often more cruel than clever or tense, taking a plot that worked much more effectively with a faceless menace in something like <em>Duel<\/em> and muddling it.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0082235\/\">Dark Night of the Scarecrow<\/a> is surprisingly good, and it&#8217;s amazing for a 1981 network television movie. There are a few moments when it stumbles a little, where it might have benefitted from a feature-film budget, but it does a lot with very little, building tension just through the story and performances, particularly from Charles Durning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32247943\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1.jpg\" alt=\"Miroirs No. 3\" width=\"1693\" height=\"2500\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15051\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1.jpg 1693w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1-693x1024.jpg 693w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1-768x1134.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1-1040x1536.jpg 1040w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4-1-1387x2048.jpg 1387w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1693px) 100vw, 1693px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28277817\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Bird\" width=\"1728\" height=\"2560\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15052\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-scaled.jpg 1728w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/5-1-1382x2048.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1728px) 100vw, 1728px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt31170389\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Evil Dead Burn\" width=\"1728\" height=\"2560\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15053\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-scaled.jpg 1728w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6-1-1382x2048.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1728px) 100vw, 1728px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32247943\/\">Miroirs No. 3<\/a> is odd, often unsettling or unclear, but I feel like that&#8217;s sort of the point. It&#8217;s a contemplative chamber piece of a movie\u2014literally in its last scenes\u2014and while it doesn&#8217;t resolve anything, it does give you a glimpse into the interiority of these characters.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m not sure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28277817\/\">Bird<\/a> always works, in its weird blend of fantasy and reality, but there&#8217;s a strong central performance from newcomer Nykiya Adams, and the movie treats characters usually left at the margins with real understanding and empathy.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I didn&#8217;t have high hopes for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt31170389\/Evil Dead Burn<\/a> going in, having not loved either of the previous two remakes, but I wasn&#8217;t prepared for how much I was going to hate it. It&#8217;s a real ugly, nasty piece of work\u2014which, incredibly, seems to be what its fans keep praising about it. For me, it wasn&#8217;t that it was brutal or gory, even in ways that the Sam Raimi\/Bruce Campbell originals never were. It&#8217;s it brought nothing interesting or scary or shocking beyond the immediate moment to the table. &#8220;Long gone is the tongue-in-bloody-cheek sense of humor of Ash and the Sam Raimi trilogy,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/evil-dead-burn-horror-film-review-2026\">wrote Brian Tallerico<\/a>, &#8220;replaced by relentless bodily devastation that occasionally winks at the audience in a can-you-believe-there-are-sickos-that-thought-of-this manner. It gets exhausting early.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also rewatched 6 movies, all of them horror movies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0080749\/\">The Fog<\/a>\u2014What it maybe lacks in story, it makes up for and the some in an atmosphere of dread and well-drawn characters.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0093177\/\">Hellraiser<\/a>\u2014I&#8217;m not the biggest fan of the series as it progressed, and I think this initial outing isn&#8217;t always successful, but there is something to the bloody and transgressive viciousness of it that suggests Barker was best equipped to bring his visions to the screen.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0077651\/\">Halloween<\/a>\u2014I love the simple and quiet simplicity of this movie, and there&#8217;s a reason it&#8217;s still one of my favorite horror movies of all time.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0816556\/\">Lake Mungo<\/a>\u2014I&#8217;m not sure everything here works, and in the end some of it feels like it was just there for misdirection&#8217;s own sake, but it&#8217;s an expertly crafted scary movie, and, weirdly, one that doesn\u2019t <em>leave<\/em> you feeling scared.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0435625\/\">The Descent<\/a>\u2014It&#8217;s tense and terrifyingly claustrophobic, but I feel it becomes significantly less interesting once the monsters show up.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0111161\/\">Carnival of Souls<\/a>\u2014I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s the movie&#8217;s fault that you can see the twist coming several miles away; it just subtly influenced a lot of filmmakers going forward. It&#8217;s still a beautifully shot movie, full of ethereal and haunting images and score.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week: To call House of Evil (or the handful of other names by which it&#8217;s called) a Boris Karloff movie is being far too generous. Actually, calling it a movie at all may be as well. Confusingly chopped together, ponderously slow, dubiously dubbed, and never convincingly interesting or scary, this &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=15048\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15048"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15055,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048\/revisions\/15055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}