Say Your Prayers comes to Digital on the 28th September

Written and directed by British filmmaker and comedian Harry Michell (Chubby Funny, Guinea Pig), produced by Helen Simmons (Chubby Funny, F*CK) and co-written by Jamie Fraser (Living The Dream, Pillow Talk), it stars a slew of homegrown talent including Harry Melling (Harry Potter franchise, The Lost City of Z, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Tom Brooke (Game of Thrones, The Death of Stalin, Bodyguard), Anna Maxwell Martin (Philomena, Motherland, Code 404), Roger Allam (The Thick of It, The Lady in the Van, Endeavour), Derek Jacobi (Gladiator, Good Omens), Vinette Robinson (Sherlock, The A Word) and Flora Spencer Longhurst (Unforgiven, The Maltese Connection).

Sep 2 2020

Occurrence at Mills Creek (2020) Movie Review

Director: Don Swanson

Writer: Don Swanson (Screenplay)

Starring: Ava Psoras, Alexa Mechling, Betsy Lynn George, MaLynda Parker, Carley Ward, Joe Fishel

Plot: Haunted by the death of her sister, a young woman’s reality erodes as she is plagued by a darkness hidden in her family’s past.

Tagline – A family secret is about to surface.

Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Occurrence at Mills Creek starts as a family reunites after the death of their mother, Clara (Psoras) looks to take responsibility for her younger sister Cassandra (Mechling), only for an accident to take her away from her, leaving Clara guilt ridden by what happened.

When death continues to follow Clara, she turns to the loved ones around her for support, but deep down, she is still seeing things that can’t be explained the way that makes sense.

Thoughts on Occurrence at Mills Creek

Characters – Clara has seen her mother die suddenly, her young sister die in an accident, followed by her father, her distant family member come to comfort her as she needs to fight the guilt she is experiencing everyday to learn the truth about what has been around her. Cassandra is the young sister that passes away in an accident, she still visits Clara, helping drive into Clara not acting like herself. We do meet loved ones who will help and try to guide her in the right directions.

Performances – Ava Psoras in the leading role is the strongest part of the film, with her showing us everything her character is going through, with the rest of the cast being strong throughout the film.

Story – The story here follows a young woman that finds her life turned upside down by a string of deaths in her life, with the events continuing to haunt her. This is an full feature of a short of the same name, where it builds on the original story of the grief Clara is going through, it looks into the bigger mystery, with the bigger problems, while still keep the core ideas of the story together.

Horror – The horror in the film comes from seeing how Clara is being haunted with different stages of seeing people from her life.

Settings – The settings do takes away from the Creek, which is where the major part of the story took place in the short, it does show us where the normal life for Clara goes after the events, but how she is drawn to it.

Scene of the Movie – The truth night.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The Instagram undertaker.

Final Thoughts – This is a horror film that does build upon the short story, with a bigger mystery behind the deaths coming through.

Sep 2 2020

ABC Film Challenge – 80s – B – Bachelor Party (1984)

Director: Neal Israel

Writer: Neal Israel, Pat Proft (Screenplay) Bob Israel (Story)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tawny Kitaen, Adrian Zmed, George Grizzard, Barbara Stuart, Robert Prescott, William Tepper

Plot: A soon-to-be-married man’s friends throw him the ultimate bachelor party.

Tagline – Shocking, Shameless, Sinful, Wicked. And the party hasn’t even started.

Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Wild Party

Story: Bachelor Party starts when Rick (Hanks) announces to his friends, Jay (Zmed), Rudy (Diamond), Gary (Grossman), Ryko (Dudikoff) that he is going to marry his girlfriend Debbie (Kitaen), which means one thing for the guys, a bachelor party. Rick is trusted by Debbie, but her father Ed (Grizzard) doesn’t like him and wants his selection Cole (Prescott) to marry his daughter.

With the bachelor party underway, the boys think they are going to have a couple of strippers, few drinks and a good time, only for Cole to bring problems to the party in his attempts to break up the couple, meanwhile Debbie is having her own quieter party with her friends, which is also in Cole’s plans.

Thoughts on Bachelor Party

Characters – Rick is considered a bit of a slacker, he drives a school bus and hasn’t ever put his life into any order, he does however decide to marry his girlfriend against her father’s wishes, he is used to getting abused by people who look down on him, though he is the friend that will always be there for a friend in need. Debbie is the future bride, she comes from a rich family which she is tired of the lifestyle that looks down on people and sees the pure nature in Rick. Jay is the best friend that is always trying to get Rick in trouble, he loves to party too. Ed is the father of Debbie, he always looks down on Rick never seeing him as good enough for his daughter and wants to end the relationship before it gets started.

Performances – Tom Hanks is the clear standout in this film, you get to see how he has a different level of acting abilities than most people in the film being able to do the sleazy moments, while bring a human friendship figure to life. The rest of the cast do work for their roles, the party animals work well, the upper-class characters and the one trying to steal the girl work too.

Story – The story here follows a slacker that is going to marry the love of his life, but before he must have a bachelor party which soon gets out of control. This film doesn’t have the deepest story, it dives into the idea parents don’t always approve of the potential loved ones, your friends will want you have one last mad night before you get married and needing to avoid the person trying to take apart you life. This is everything that we know from the wild party film, it plays out like a checklist without being anything new, but easy to enjoy.

Comedy – The comedy in this film enters us into the wild party, we get to see how things go wrong, they will get us laughing at times even if certain jokes might not have aged well.

Settings – The film is set in a hotel room for the party, we get to see how the guests get themselves into trouble through the night, looking for extra people to join the party.

Scene of the Movie – 3D experience.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The donkey.

Final Thoughts – This is a fun 80s party movie, which bought us an early role from Tom Hanks, it is everything you expect and can be a good time for all.

Overall: Simple, fun and entertaining.

Rating