[EXPRESSO] Ebenezer (2026) | Humbug Begins

Johnny Depp is trying to come back into mainstream cinema (he was in other, less distributed films like Waiting For The Barbarians before the Depp V. Heard trial), and while there’s literaly no space in this format to tackle the issue with any nuance…. it’s just so obvious how this film really exists mostly to that end, he wants to rehabilitate his public image so let’s play it supersafe, by doing A Christmas Carol adaptation, directed by grindhouse horror renowed Ti West.

…. Sure, why not? Why yes, also, but whatever, you got my attention.

While the pitch – as the title implies – is how this is supposed to be an Ebenezer Scrooge focused story…. this always was his story, it actually trsanslate this adaptation being more faithful to the book and reintegrating some parts of the novel, giving Ebenezer a backstory… which is done to differentiate this version and make people symphatize with him, even if in doing so it – almost – reverses the whole point of the story.

It fares better hiring a horror director to push the creepy aspects of the story, West does well in this regard, as well as the PG13 (and the subject matter) allows, and this time it is by design, unlike the accidental uncanniness of the Zemeckis mocap animation seen in the 2009 Jim Carrey version.

Frrankly, its better than i thought this would be, it’s decent, but it’s obvious it exists just to serve as a vehicle for Depp…. and look, this far from Depp’s worse performance, he’s decent enough as Scrooge, but its just oh so telling how he is notably outclassed by Ian McKellen kinda halfassing it as Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s old business partner, an actually important character, but one often omitted in recent adaptations, and has little screen time even here.

[EXPRESSO] Godzilla Minus Zero (2026) | Suffer, Like G Did

Godzilla is back, as we knew given the pretty clear “hint” at the end of Godzilla Minus One… actually we knew Godzilla was gonna be back regardless.

And to a certain extent this struggle of “following up the first”, of the expectations the movie brought upon itself by being an actual direct sequel (a rarity for Japanese Godzilla films), is a factor internalized and seeping into the plot, as 2 years after the events of Minus One, a strange alien monster, Ghidorah, is causing destruction, destroying what little fragile peace and rebuilding had been done in this post WWII Japan, alongside the stability of Koichi, Noriko and Akiko’ family..

The plot is more or less what you’d expect, as it, it keeps the focus on the character drama, the aftermath of both WWII and the Godzilla rampage, with returning characters and some new ones, both fairly well done, and yes, the Noriko subplot actually comes to fruition in a sorta body horror fashion, even if more as a device to give us the classic Godzilla VS King Ghidorah final bout.

Yeah, you really can’t go wrong with that, despite how many times it has been done, but unlike the Monsterverse release, you’ll care about the characters and how it reworks many elements of the original 1954 classic, it feels familiar but in a good way, there are some little surprises about the monsters here which i wont spoil, the CG is better, and i do like the ending.

It’s a pretty good film, about as good as a direct sequel to a reboot Godzilla movie can get, as it manages to keep the tone serious, the focus on the human drama but not at the expense of some great spectactle and kaiju action, consistency with its precedessor being weirdly novel.

[EXPRESSO] Ferine (2026) | A Raora Panthera Ate My Baby!

The other italian horror film to debut in theathers here (the other being The Nameless Ballad), Ferine, which goes in an interesting direction, even if it tackles a common theme for horror, especially modern horror, as in: maternity.

Irene is a rich fine art collector that, after picking up her baby from her surrogate mother, suffers a street accident due to a loose panther (which was being shipped to a rich huntress), losing even the child, and afterwards she start to become more feral, regressing to a mostly mute animal, rejecting any food that isn’t raw meat, while the surrogate mother and the huntress are forced to eventually intervene since Irene was never gonna make the incident or the surrogate baby public…

It’s actually quite interesting, as there is the influence of the old Italian horror classics, but also a bit of Raw, there’s the ambition of the “elevated horror” but also a strong identity of its own, a confidence in its own vision, as it curiously opts to imply more than show the gore and blood, to focus on Irene psychological regression into a feral, like a modern take on Cat People, thanks to Bracken’s very good performance as Irene.

The main issues lay in how the script does ultimately not properly depict Irene as a character proper, and the final act, instead of escalating to its extremes the themes… it just kinda potters about to restate stuff already more than established, almost as if we needed to put it genre clichès leading to a more stock resolution to pad the runtime.

It’s a shame, because it’s a very good debut film for Andrea Corsini, a flawed one that mostly tumbles towards the end due to the script, but regardless i do wanna see what he cooks up next.

[EXPRESSO] Wild Horse Nine (2026) | Party In The RA.PA.NUI.

Martin McDonagh (Seven Psychopaths, Three Manifests Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshee Of Inesherin) is back with a black comedy spy thriller, Wild Horse Nine, which takes back to the not-so-funky ’70s, just before the 1973 Chilean coup-de-etat, with the CIA bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi) dispatching two officers, Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell), to Rapa Nui, as in, Easter Island.

The trip from Santiago there already proves hardous, as Chris seemingly suffers from some sort of alzeihmer, while also being overly candid about their motives and intentions, but among the peaceful tourist life and the gazing at the moai, many conspiracies are actually being acted on, putting Chris and Lee longtime friendship and loyalties to the test, especially as Chris befriending a local rebellious girl might sent the whole “operation” (whatever that is) to go belly up…

While the plot actually thickens and progressively reveals the real stakes at play here (or more correctly the machinations), the main crux of the film is how this affects the relationship between Chris and Lee, not only as colleagues but as genuine friends, as both events from the past and future treathen this too, especially due to dangerous cocktail of Chris’s deteriorating memory, its involvement in many secret operations and its questioning of those in his old age…

It’s honestly an amazing film, starts off a bit slow but the pay off is immense, as it manages to be incredibly funny, the comedy fairly brutal, not pulling any punch on the sensitive themes (and political period of yore) it tackles, but also able to deliver devasting emotional blows as well as many quotable lines, and everyone is on top of their game (even if Tom Waits is being progressively “Nick Nolte’d” the more he continues to appear in movies).

Highly recommended.

The Real Deal November Schedeal

So, for the rest of November the schedule is back to more or less 1 full review every 7 days, more ore less weekly, do not expect extra stuff, even EXPRESSO reviews might be late and scattered from the next week forward.

On that subject, do not expect a review for Klara and The Sun by Taika Waititi, i saw some listings but there were like, a handful of screening theathers nationwide, couldn’t catch a single one (wouldn’t be surprised if they just outright removed the film after the first week, or even earlier), then i got wind how its awful box office turnout in the US is most likely gonna see it not released in some countries at all, not in theathers anyway.

Dicember is more or less 90% ready, some late schedule changes have been made out of necessity and unexpected issues, but nothing of substance has really changed for that month since previous posts made this summer or earlier fall.

Maybe i’ll manage to squeeze in some updates to the pages, we’ll see.

[EXPRESSO] Hope (2026) | In The Sleepy Little Town Of

Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea, The Chaser, The Wailing) is back with Hope, a massive action monster film that it’s actually best enjoyed by going to see it while knowing as little as possible about it, but it easy enough to keep spoiler free and the premise is actually fairly simple.

In the small village of Hope Harbour (situated nearby the Korean Demilitarized Zone), the police chief and his rookie deputy find themselves having to fend off a mysterious creature that has brutalized the livestock, is actively destroying the village and its people, while a hunting party in the woods find themselves stalked….

It doesn’t sound like much, yet there is more to it, as this is basically both a tribute and a mockery of the american action film, taking inspiration from Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host but also being somewhere tribute and parody of the 50s b-movie creature feature (there even the bumbling sheriff protagonist equivalent), with the characters being both cartoonish yet relatable in their incompetence, the director able to switch the tone on the fly and make the comedic bit not feel dissonant, to make intense action scenes Hollywood style then kinda “spoof” them at the same time.

It’s incredibly captivating and its turns more towards sci-fi, but as impressive as it is how it can handle multiple tones, how it builds to reveal not only the real scope and the stakes, but also how it actually manages to make its 2 hours and 40 minutes runtime a relative breeze, there’s always something happening, the action is incredible, and you always want more of everything.

My only gripe is that the CG for creatures can be underwhelming at times, but even with this, i highly recommend what is now one of the best films i’ve seen all years.

[EXPRESSO] It Ends (2025) | Roadtrip Kierkegaard

Curiously not related to Mitchell’s It Follows, even thought this one (directed and written by Alexander Ullom) is also a “coming of age” story. Sorta.

Four friends fresh off graduation meet together and travel via car to help move furniture out, but their trip, starting off as them basically lambasting each other, develops into an unexplicable nightmare as the next turn never comes, the road stretching in a seemingly infinite straightaway, all even more confusing since there seem to be little to no rules or logic to this world of a single straight road stretching into an infinite sea of trees, always railroading into moving “forwards”…

It Ends is basically bloodless, there’s no real “monsters”, jumpscares or barely anything in the way of physical violence, heck, its not even really trying to go rth “A24 way”, yet it is horror, existentialist horror, as the friends try to survive not so much the barely present physical traumas, but the endless, psychological violence brought upon by unexplicable nature of this “liminal roadtrip”, as they keep trying to rationalize it in vain, making it even more grueling of a struggle for sanity or some sense.

Which thankfully is never compromised just to give audiences a sop, since the whole film is an allegory for how difficult it can be to handle friendship in that akward post-teenage phase of lide where you haven’t quite entered adulthood yet.

So it makes sense for the main “meat” to be indeed the drama, the characters interacting and arguing with each other, and the director did manage to make this and the “single location” format work pretty well, though i do think it was smart to keep the runtime very short, just 90 minutes, since the pacing can be slow in the second act.

Quite good debut film.

[EXPRESSO] Puella Magi Madoka Magica Walpurgisnacht Rising (2026) | ♫ ..in the back of my Dragula ♫

It has literally been 13 years, but after it finally released in Japanese theathers this late August, the fourth Puella Magi Madoka Magica film, Walpurghisnacth Rising, it’s here.

And by “here” i mean i managed to see its special preview screening at this year’s Lucca Comics & Games (one of the biggest Italian anime-nerd-geek conventions), this one somehow i managed to, unlike the one for Godzilla Minus Zero.

I’m gonna try to keep things as spoiler free as possible, despite this being the 4^th film in the series.

After the twist ending of Rebellion, the new status quo created by Homura, now “recruiting” random girls into becoming magical girls via the Lizard Phone, is menaced by some unknown new enemy related to the entity of Walpurgisnacht, forcing the magical girls to even build fragile alliances with Homura, as she confronts specters of a past that shouldn’t exist.

Despite this never being touted as the final film in the Madoka Magica series, i can see why one might think so… but it’s so fuckin not, let’s just put it that way.

And frankly i do not mind one bit because it’s good, very damn good, the animation is astounding as ever, the new characters are fun, the narrative engrossing, keeping you intrigued with an increasingly twisted world, lots of action, incredible visuals, revelations and twists, yet you don’t really notice how this is the biggest Madoka Magica movie in runtime too… mostly.

I still say it’s pretty dang good, loved it, the ending and resolution feels quite satisfying in itself, but its also a case of answering many questions only to raise many new ones since there are new concepts, new characters, the lore builds and expands, also to tease a new film, hopefully one we get to see before 2050.

The Spooktacular Eight #39: La Croce Dalle 7 Pietre/Cross Of The Seven Jewels (1987)

I wanted to do something special for the werewolf entry of this year’s Spooktacular Eight… and then realized i had the perfect movie hidden under my nose, in a way, because in anno domini 1987, in Italy released La Croce Dalle Sette Pietre (lit “The Cross Of The Seven Jewels/Stones”)….. and by that i do mean it got a theatrical release.

In just 2 theathers in the entire frigging country, but if you were lucky/unlucky enough and you lived in Sicily back in 1987 you could actually go to the cinemas and witness what would become hailed as one of the worst Italian movie ever made, ever.

Then again, an Italian horror movie with werewolves, satanic orgies, and the camorra (a Southern Italian specific mafia-style criminal group originating from Neaples) was always gonna be a cult trash film, especially if made on the cheap and treated as an embarassing relic to disregard.

And with good reason, this is some primo trash that feels made for retrospective reviewers to unearth and poke fun at…. which the movie does deserve, because it’s so unbelievably bad it’s downright magical, it’s that kind of “so bad it’s good” you can never forget.

Continua a leggere

[EXPRESSO] Wildwood (2026) | The Cracked Brass Bells Will Ring

I was more than ready to see Laika newest film, i wanted to since the trailer was out, i was gonna support them anyway as they’re one of the very few good things to come out of nepo babies using decadent amounts of money for the actual arts, keeping stop motion animation alive still, even if we already know these movies are never making back the budget.

But frankly i was honestly surprised by Wildwood, like, damn, even putting aside how this one has been in development for 15 years and it shows, it’s absolutely stunning to look at.

Set in Portland, the plot sees a 13yo girl, Prue, left to attend his baby brother Mac at home, but she doesn’t listen, brings him alongside in a cart, meets her nerdy classmate Curtis, and has her brother snatched by a pack of crows, so the two chase to the mist shrouded Forbidden Forest where she got told to never ever go, found a mysterious way in, entering a world full of magic, talking animals and factions that were on the verge of war, getting caught up in this against her will.

It’s remarkable not only how this looks even better and is pure delight for eye of the stop motion aficionados (even by Laika’s own high standards), but how the apparently generic “fantasy forest fable” theming is used to develop an interesting world, with the everything from infantry wolves, talking owls, barbarians and the main antagonist, the forest witch, which is an excellent tragic villain, matched by some really likeable and well rounded protagonists and secondary characters alike.

There’s no dead air, all the way through its + 2 hours runtime, it’s also surprisingly funny, witty and willing to be “brutal”, avoiding easy kids films’ cop-outs.

PLEASE, just go see it.