[EXPRESSO] The Social Reckoning (2026) | Nothing Ever Changes

It feels like aeons ago when i saw The Social Network, which gets more impressive in retrospective as it tackled issues that would explode just some years later, while this sort of follow-up (also written by Aaron Sorkin) has the issue of being dated on arrival, being set between 2019 and 2021, tackling the changes made by Facebook that shaped it as an echo chamber designed to promote hate speech and harassment, leading to January 6th insurrection at the Capitol and a former Facebook employee helping move a federal case by a series of exposè via the Wall Street Journal.

So you already know that Facebook simply tanked the issue and nothing really changed (for the better), that there was no actual “reckoning”, and it’s convenient how the timeframe is very safe to make the point about the necessity to speak out, to fight for justice regardless, plus it’s utterly spineless that despite the January 6th insurrection being a pivotal event that the movie comes back to a lot, Donald Trump isn’t named once.

That aside, the other main issue is that the drama is just drab, not unwatchable, but it’s hard to care about the Facebook data analyst girl that acts as whistleblower and helps this “tech illiterate” political journalist unveil Zuckenberg’s plans, or anyone else, the very good cast really can’t work miracles with these flat characters, and both factions frankly do very little considered what is at stake.

even when the company learns of the leaks and the girl fears retaliation, it amounts to a lot of empyt posturing, so there’s so sense of menace or urgency to any of the drama.

You can tell Fincher didn’t direct this one, i’ll say that much.

Maybe Guadagnino’s Artificial (if it ever comes out in theathers) will be better?

Early October Midweek Check

This week will be relatively dry of EXPRESSO reviews, as the one for Other Mommy has been delayed, but you can look forward to the ones for The Social Reckoning and Strippoli’s L’Estranea (sold internationally as The Spiral).

I would love to catch a preview screening for Godzilla Minus Zero at one of Italy’s biggest comic conventions, Lucca Comics & Games, but at the moment i’m not even sure i will be able to go at all (and even if i can go, i might decide not to because every year tickets are more expensives, unbelievably so), it’s still all up in the air, so i can’t promise anything on this specific matter… yet.

See ya tomorrow for the next Spooktacular Eight review!

[EXPRESSO] Onslaught (2026) | Die Dudermensch

On paper, this should be an easy win, even if it’s a bit weird A24 is distributing what is really a genre offering reminescent of 80s exploitation grindhouse action flicks like The Exterminator.

Onslaught is about Celeste, an US army sniper, whom has defacto retired into a parking lot in the New Mexico desert to deal with her PTSD, complicating her troubled family life.

That is, until a trio of genetically engineered super soldiers, created by a former Nazi scientist, escape from the secret experiment bases they were held in, killing everyone in their path, and eventually moving their systematic massacre to Celeste’s parking lot..

Apparently this is a continuation from Adam Wingard’s 2014 movie Guest, which i didnt’ see, and on its own, Onslaught, despit some stylistical apt choices and some good old school practical gore effects, doesn’t really live up to its own title, in every aspect it lacks the substance, it never displays or conveys the raw fury it promises, nor manages to properly develop some of its ideas.

Maybe it would be easier to accept the movie for what it is instead of what could have been…. if it didn’t deliberately AND aggressively built up the final “onslaught” to be some this thing you need to brace for, and frankly you really don’t, it’s not even that excessive.

Even the literal super soldaten are kinda of a letdown, i liked the idea of these being de facto militarized slasher villains… but that is really as far as it goes.

It’s entertaining, the action is fun, the characters mostly stock but okay, and it’s barely above 90 minutes, so it’s not boring and knows to keep things as long as they need to, but you’d wish the movie didn’t set itself up for disappointment as it did.

The Spooktacular Eight #34: Violent Shit (1989)

Ah yes, the other German horror director from the age of video nasties, of when video recording technology becoming affordable alongside a cheap and affordable format for home usage led to some people just shooting the shit on the digital camcorder in their hometown on very low budgets.

I will come forward and admit i haven’t seen any of Andrea Schnass films, i’m quite familiar with Jorg Buttgeireit works on the flipside, but i felt it made sense to start tackling his fellow German DIY horror director, starting from his most well known film, the original Violent Shit, which spawned few sequels, and make clear once more than censorship of this kind will be at best circumnvented, at worst will just force fans of the genre to do what many German horror fans did back in the “video nasty” age, just straight started making these themselves in their backyards.

Figures we eventually feature Schnaas, and i don’t think i did fill the “80s German ultra splatter low budget slasher” slot in my bingo card before on this rubric.

So what is the plot of Violent Shit?

A boy, Karl, comes home a bit late, he gets beat up by his mother, then in revenge murders her with a cleaver.

20 years later, Karl is being moved from his prison to somewhere else by the police, but kills the officers, manages to escape, and with a cleaver (which i guess is a thing growing wild in the Gothic II forests) he goes on a killing spree on the West German countryside, indulging himself in some cannibalism while he’s at it.

Continua a leggere “The Spooktacular Eight #34: Violent Shit (1989)”

[EXPRESSO] Digger (2026) | Rock And (Petrol) Stone

I haven’t seen Bardo, to be honest i wasn’t even aware of it before… now, but whatever, i was gonna see Inarritu’s Digger anyway, especially with the premise of Cruise acting against type.

Here he plays Digger Rockwell, a petrol mogul from Texas that lives in its opulent mansion, tending to his absurdly old and withered cat while ignoring the disaster brewing on some of its rigs… until he can’t anymore, as the situation on an Artic rig of his has exploded, resulting in a gigantic glacier breaking away and headed to Europe, where it would cause constant tsunamis.

The US President is called in, alongside many experts and politicians to find out any sort of solution in how to deal with the glacier, so it’s up to Digger to save the world he almost destroyed…. or is it?

There’s no way to discuss properly the film even further because that would give away the movie entirely and spoil the “twist”… actually the entire premise.

But that isn’t even the issues, as the “twist” happens early on, you can actually kinda assume it if you’re familiar mwith Inarritu’s body of work, and there’s actually more to it.

The problem is that, the attempt at satirizing modern satires about the climate crisis in how…. kinda feels hollow because ultimately it adds nothing to the conversation either, and it becomes enamored with its own deliberate farce (and playing around with its incredible cast) to the point it becomes the very thing it supposedly satirizes, so much that ultimately any potential of the “twist” serving as a way to actually say something becomes nill.

Disappointing.

And yet, there’s still some fun to be had with/in Digger, in spite and because of its empty excesses, of how it sadly crumples under its own ambition.

[EXPRESSO] Her Private Hell (2026) | Kojima-ing In The Darkness

I don’t think Her Private Hell is a bad film, and i usually like his stuff, i loved The Neon Demon, but it’s a special kind of disappointing, as this feels Refn trying to imitate itself more than anything.

And not doing it that well either, to be brutally honest.

It’s definitely his vision, no mistake, but one that feels like he’s trying to recapture the old spark…and again, coming off as a self-imitation more than anything else.

The premise sees Elle, the daughter of wealthy man, trying to reunite with her stepmother (by shooting a movie in a luxury motel), but warned about a supernatural legendary serial killer, Leatherman, whom appears when the fog permeating this Blade Runner-esque city grows even thicker, its diamond fists shining in the darkness,

She ends up crossing paths with an american GI agent that has lost his daughter to this entity, and is desperately searching for a way to get her back…

Even more than before, it’s all about the vibes, the feel, as the hyperstilization here belies little for the audiences to care about or hold onto, the cinema pastiche of sci-fi, comic book, samurai and giallo cinema, one that does look good in screenshots, but lacks the strenght it had before, so you end up just kinda tolerating more than looking forward to see where it’s all gonna go.

wondering why should even care about anything, since the plot is more of a vague outline than something worth discussing, i’d complain about the characters… if there were any (aside the stepmother), these are ideas of characters, and the movie overall is just lacking much substance – or impact – to back up its pretense and stylization, so you end not even intrigued or curious to know more about this sci-fi world.

Sadly disappointing.

The Spooktacular Eight #33: Spawn (1997)

2004’s live action Devilman, consider yourself spared, as this year (due to recent events contributing to schedule changes) we’re doing instead 1997’s Spawn.

I did got the Blu Ray release by Arrow Video, and it was still in its factory wrap, so time to…. actually visit for the first time, i never saw this in theathers or TV, i was too young back then, my first time seeing Spawn at all was when Soul Calibur II console ports released and the X-Box version got him as the console exclusive guest character.

But it was hard not to hear about in the 2000s as one of the worst comic book films ever, an infamous reputation so widespread and radicated, a stink to it that even The Venture Bros couldn’t resist throwing a jab at it in late 2009-2010, a foul reputation that never really went away.

And just putting this out, i wasn’t aware until i decided to swap this into the 2004 Devilman‘s slot that they’ve been trying to reboot the brand with a new film for decades, and apparently this time around it most likely will happen, we got recent news of the reboot coming along… or maybe it won’t, as the superhero genre is well past his peak in terms of popularity.

I will not claim any responsability over that either way.

Continua a leggere “The Spooktacular Eight #33: Spawn (1997)”

PO’ED: Definitive Edition PS4 [REVIEW] | Mein Soufflè!

I have played a few FPS in my days, not too many, but sure as hell i never played PO’ED, never even heard of the frigging thing until the AVGN episode about the 3DO, to be honest, as i never knew anyone growing up that had that thing (which i assume is the case for almost everyone else), and i never even stumbled upon the PS1 port.

So i was curious, realized that Nightdive did actually do a remaster in their KEX engine for this oscure mid 90s FPS, and i got during a PSN sale.

It just called to me, as the forgotten weird ass FPS where you play as a chef and use frying pan to kill alien ass monsters, i knew i had to play it.

The story is all explained in a letter text dump where the protagonist, a chef named Ox, writes to his mum how that sweet paying gig on a spaceship …didn’t go as planned, as aliens infiltrated the ship, killed all the mercs, so he’ll have to take on some fresh meat.

And he’s indeed – title drop – Pissed Off, as he writes in the few text scrolls/letters.

Continua a leggere “PO’ED: Definitive Edition PS4 [REVIEW] | Mein Soufflè!”

Slotherhouse (2023) [REVIEW] | Slay Queen

While i’m sure i can find more old 80s school themed/adjacent slasher, this September we’re doing something a bit more recent for a change, from a chronological standpoint, by unearthing from my Blu-Ray collection 2023’s Slotherhouse.

And yes, indeed, this is a 10/10 title for you killer animal slasher film.

It really is indeed about a killer sloth, and the house is not any common house, it’s a sorority house, where Emily Young, a college student brings a three-toed sloth from the jungle, thinking it can work as a “house mascot” and hence help her be elected as the sorority’s president.

But of course things go awry as a series of sorority girls is being killed, and all the evidence strongly implicates it’s actually the cute sloth the one doing all the murders…

I’ll be honest, the promo material made it look like it was chomping off the modern “retro 80s trend”, specifically aping Happy Death Day…. but i was mistaken, this isn’t the case, as Slotherhouse – aside taking place in modern times – is oddly not even that much interested in aping other slasher films. Not too specifically, anyway.

Continua a leggere “Slotherhouse (2023) [REVIEW] | Slay Queen”