Valentine Horror
You know, with Valentine’s Day coming up on February 14, you would think the movie studios would be releasing romantic comedy films… but this year: it’s a hard no. Instead you’re seeing an action film called Love Hurts, Flight Risk, and Den of Thieves 2… and plenty of horror movies: Heart Eyes (a film about a serial killer on Valentine’s Day), The Monkey (a Stephen King horror story about a cursed monkey toy), Companion, Nosferatu, and Wolf Man… I think it’s cool, as a horror movie fans (after all I love the fact that for the months of October to December, we’re seeing a constant holiday horrors).
In order to enjoy this film, Companion, you have to go into it not knowing what’s it about. If you watch the trailer, it gives away too much.
I’ll just describe the first part of the film. The film starts with Irish and Josh meeting for the first time in a grocery store and it was love at first sight. Then the couple is driving to a remote cabin to meet some friends. The Russian who owns the cabin is a multi-millionaire and sexually assaulted Iris, which resulted in her killing him. That’s when the movie shifts and you find out what is really going on.
Even though I’m dancing around the ‘twist’, most viewers will likely already know or have figured out what is going on. It does work best if you have no idea what the movie is about. Just go in cold. Think of this film as a couple going on a retreat in a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It’s a romantic getaway, that is spoiled by a little murder.
The movie works because of their two stars. Sophie Thatcher, as Iris, is perfectly cast. She’s a little quirky and plays a very likeable girl. Jack Quaid, I’m only familiar with him in The Boys, plays a nerdy dork. No one believes he could have a great girlfriend as Iris. Later in the film, we find out that the nerdy kid is really a horrible villain. Quaid is great, and I had no idea Dennis Quaid is his dad!
As for the Companion story, I do love all the twists and turns. I do love how smart the film is… despite how illogical some things are. I won’t go into the details, but if you sit and think about it, some things just doesn’t make sense. Don’t let it bother you, just go with it, and you’ll have a good time with the movie. Think of this film as something like M3GAN or Scream.
Highly recommended.
Wolf Man (2025)wolfmanmovie.com
Not sure who was asking for a brand new Wolf Man remake/reboot, but it’s 2025, and we have a new film from Blumhouse Productions. I guess this film was originally meant to be part of the Universal Monsters franchise, but since The Mummy failed, the Wolf Man film went into ‘development hell’.
The new film stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner (you might remember her from Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), about a couple, and their daughter, going back to husband’s old home in the remote mountains. They’re attacked by a werewolf and ultimately, the film is about Abbott slowly turning into a werewolf, but also trying to protect his family. The story is very straightforward, no plot twists, no reveals. If there was a mystery, I figured it all out just by deductive reasonings. One scene leads to another. Garner is trying to get away from the werewolf with her daughter, and that’s pretty much the film.
I don’t hate the film, but I found it just a little boring.
How you can make a good werewolf movie is that ‘A Werewolf in our Midst’ or ‘Wolf in Sheep Clothing’ mindset… where you don’t know who the wolf is. Wes Craven tried to do this with his Cursed film… where our protagonist, who is cursed with the werewolf blood, has to find out who the master Wolf is, so she can be cured. The mystery and horror, that’s the cool part. With Wolf Man, it is just about a man who is turning into a werewolf, and that’s pretty much all there is to it.
Even the bad Werewolves movie released last year had a better story and concept. In that film, everybody is infected with the Werewolf virus and every full moon (or Super Moon) night, the world turns into a PURGE-style world. Anything goes, it’s lawless, and you have got to survive until the morning. That’s more entertaining than Wolf Man!