The Ample Warning Just Got Ampler

How'd you like another prequel? Actually, 2024's The First Omen is a perfectly decent horror movie. Furthermore, those who have allergies and might be concerned about the tiger content of this movie will be pleased to know its star is named Nell Tiger Free. And, true to her name, there's not one tiger in this film.

She plays Margaret, an American woman who goes to join a convent in Rome in 1971. Meanwhile, Ralph Ineson takes over the role of Father Brennan from Patrick Troughton (they have kind of the same nose but sound design dropped the bass to the basement on Ineson's voice) and he has a disturbing encounter with Charles Dance. So his quest begins.

A cardinal played by Bill Nighy escorts Margaret to the convent and reassures her after she's frightened by protesters in the streets. Social disruption following the '60s has everyone in the church frightened and leads to a slightly unsatisfying reconceptionalising of the motives behind the secret Satan worship. I suspect director Arkasha Stevenson and her screenwriters were taking aim at modern conservatives who long for the stabilising influence of Christianity while secretly being atheists (i.e. Jordan Peterson). Her logic is a bit tortured, if that's the case, but the daemoniac atmosphere and jump scares are no less satisfying for it and Tiger Free delivers a terrific performance even without feline assistance.

The movie's available on Disney+ in Japan but the most talked about scene in the film, the one involving a vagina and a demonic hand, is censored because Japan still has this weird standard. Even adults aren't allowed an unobstructed view of genitals in media. It was an ironic reminder after the homophobic students at the most recent schools I worked at tried to tease me with drawings of penises. The American is funny because he doesn't have penis parades in his country but even 70 year olds in Japan aren't deemed old enough to watch Eyes Wide Shut uncensored. Incidentally, Netflix seems to be ignoring this rule, judging from the copy of Basic Instinct currently streaming on that site. Or maybe it's showing me the American version because I use an American PayPal. I was able to see The First Omen uncensored on American Amazon.

Background Star Wars

I almost forgot about watching Skeleton Crew on New Years Day. It was a thirty minute episode that didn't seem to cover much ground. It was the second written by newcomer Myung Joh Wesner but it was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. People seem to think she's a good director for these shows but I continue to find her work unremarkable.

I think the heart of the episode is meant to be KB whose LaForge visor suffers a malfunction, allowing us a rare glimpse of her eyes. She walks Wim through fixing it and despite Wim having established himself as a butterfingers she doesn't seem very worried. Maybe that's why there wasn't a lot of tension in the episode overall.

There was also a big crab monster in the episode that looked like the one from Moana. Somehow he wasn't very threatening. I never got a sense of the crab and the children existing in the same reality.

Skeleton Crew is available on Disney+.

The Blind Leading the Dead

A good movie is 10% premise and 90% delivery. 2024's Oddity has a very simple premise; a blind psychic tries to investigate her sister's murder. The delivery, though, is for the most part exceptional. This movie has some of the best suspense sequences and jump scares I've seen in years.

The two sisters, twins called Dani and Darcy, are both played by Carolyn Bracken. The film begins with one of its strongest scenes; on a dark night, Dani is alone in the new country house she lives in with her husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee). She goes to get something from her car and when she gets back inside the house, she hears someone outside the door. It's a nervous man with a glass eye (Tadhg Murphy) who tells her someone is in the house with her. Now Dani has to decide; does she let the scary man in to help her, or is he the one who wants to kill her? Director Damian McCarthy milks the scene for all the tension he can and then builds on it throughout the movie.

A year later, Darcy investigates her sister's death. She shows up abruptly at the house where Ted now lives with his new wife, Yana (Caroline Menton). The movie could almost be a stage play, it's set almost entirely at that house. There is one nice scene in Darcy's curiosity shop. Her ability allows her to hold objects and see things about their former owners. There are a lot of nice conversation scenes that reminded me of old British suspense and horror films like The Uninvited (the one with Ray Milland) and Hitchcock's Suspicion, but with the addition of great jump scares that might give some of the most calloused viewers a heart attack. The ending of the movie is a little weak but not abrasive. The first two acts are tough to follow so I forgive it.

Oddity was filmed entirely in County Cork, Ireland, the home of its director and many of its stars. It's a Shudder original movie so I assume it's on Shudder.