Feb 1, 2023

Monthly Media Recap - January 2023

Welcome to the first Media Recap in the far flung future of 2023! January was shockingly packed with a lot of movies for me. As always, movie titles below are Amazon affiliate links. And hey, Valentines Day is coming up so buy your sweetie a new horror flick! Or you can just use the link on the right to buy anything else.


Series

Wednesday (2022, Netflix)
A little late on the train but I mostly loved it. I feel it captured the "Addams vibe" very well and it was fun seeing that the family exists in a world where there are supernatural beings. I saw a lot of complaints that the show was like a CW show but what would you expect from the two guys that basically created the CW DC universe? Can't wait to see what the next season brings! RIP original Wednesday, Lisa Loring. I was hoping she would show up at some point.
 
That 90s Show (2022, Netflix)
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Aside from Kitty and Red, they limit the original character appearances and establish a new group of kids pretty well. Thankfully, they're not bashing you over the head with 90s culture. One thing I'm not a fan of is the 90s-fied version of the theme. If you liked the original, you'll probably like this too.

Movies

 
There was a lot of buzz about this hitting Shudder so naturally I had to check it out. All I can really say about it is wow and WTF? It starts out as an artsy flick about a married couple having problems and then just gets Weird.

Rating: 8/10
 
Thanks to pop culture, I already knew a lot of the songs in this but what I did not know was that the OG Spider-Man, Nicholas Hammond, plays one of the kids! For whatever reason, I was expecting a lot more WWII/being on the run from Nazis. There were probably a couple too many songs (the movie has an intermission!) but I did like the story and the kids were great.

Rating: 7/10



A slightly different WWII movie, this one has a Russian task force trying to bring Hitler's body back to Stalin. Despite the German troops being called Wehrwolves, it's just a name and they are not actual shapeshifters. It has some kind of horrific moments but I wouldn't classify it as a "horror" movie so it was a little disappointing in that respect as I usually go to Shudder when I need a horror fix. 

Rating: 7/10

While watching this, I felt like it had very strong Stephen King vibe and then I found out it was based on a story by his son! There's another movie or book this reminds me of but I can't place it. Anyway, it's a great film that mixes supernatural elements with the real world horror. Excellent performances all around.

Rating: 8/10



I remember seeing the VHS box for this in the video store and thinking it must be a really wild flick. It's definitely something a teenage boy in the 80s would like. The two lead women were obviously hired for their looks and not their acting ability. It was infamously criticized on the Senate floor in 1992 in an attempt to get cable providers to block "indecent" content unless the subscriber specifically asked for it. Can you imagine?

Rating: 4/10

You may think you know what you're getting from a horror movie called The Menu but I can assure you, you do not. It's best to go into it as blind as possible and let it take you for a roller coaster ride. It's a lot of fun discovering along with the characters what is going on and it's got a bit of dark humor to it. I may never watch it again, but I will recommend everyone see it once.

Rank: 8/10


As you might guess, this is a spoof of 50s teen horror movies and it does a really good job of poking at a lot of the tropes of the genre. It may be low budget and occasionally juvenile but it's got a stupid charm to it that makes it fun. 
 
Rating: 5/10
 
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2022, Netflix)
I knew nothing about this and was a little let down to find it was not, in fact, about a hitchhiking serial killer. It actually turned out to be something even crazier. If you want the TL;DR version hit the Wiki page but I will say if you're not familiar with this already, it's worth watching just to see where it goes.
 
 
The title and trailer pretty much sum it all up. If you're into 90s direct to video horror, or horror in general, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, they barely touch on Full Moon which for me was 90s direct to video horror. 
 
This is done in a documentary style as a film crew investigates a teenage girl's death using interviews and other found footage. This was much different than what I was expecting it to be but in a surprising, good way. While it's definitely got some supernatural mystery to it, it's just as much about grief and searching for answers when a loved one dies.
 
Rating: 7/10



I can't believe the same guy that made Descent turned in something that feels like it was made by The Asylum with twice their usual budget. It's sort of passable if you need something on in the background. The action movie one-liners are the kind you laugh at not with. The monsters are painfully obvious guys in suits. The whole thing is just amazingly meh.

Rating: 4/10

Month Total
New: 11   Rewatch: 0

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Cool that Sound of Music was in this list. One of the girls (Angela Cartwright) was also on the Lost in Space television show. Burial piqued my curiousity.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it's one Mrs Dex and I have been talking about for awhile since neither of us had seen it.

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