[EXPRESSO] Heretic (2024) | Now Without James Earl Jones

Hugh Grant playing a cerebral psychopath with a vaguely Saw-esque bend wasn’t on my bingo card, but A24 did score another interesting looking film just by having Grant play against type in Heretic, and indeed it pays off, but first the plot.

A couple of young Mormon missionaries are visiting people that showed interest in their religion, but as they go about trying to sell their faith, they reach the house of a certain man, Reed, whom welcomes in his house, and slowly turns out to just as unnerving and ruthless as he’s charming, trapping the two women in a web of lies, philosophical debates and tests of faith, among other misdeeds that i ain’t gonna spoil.

It’s indeed a movie that’s more than the sum of its parts, because we’ve seen this before, with the charismatic psycho that traps people in its home, also uses his wits to mentally assault its subjects/victims alongside planning and thinking about every detail of his plans, the religious women whose faith is tested, but the choice of a more niche Christian subset and the more cerebral nature of the film makes is stand out, though fear not, you also get a decent amount of satisfying gore, it can be pretty stylish (love the usage of dioramas, i will say that much) and some good laughs too.

Also, while you do get an idea of where it might be going soon enough, it’s not quite that predictable and it’s the “how” that makes it intriguing, thanks in no small part to Grant’s amazing performance, as you know this guy is bad news, but yet you’re somewhat inclined to believe his words and acts maybe aren’t malicious or ominous as they seem, that – somehow – there is some sort of egregious misunderstanding going on.

Quite good.

[EXPRESSO] Companion (2025) | “You got metal fever, boy!”

I was lucky enough to secure a couple of tickets for a preview screening of the new movie from the director of Barbarian, Companion, which will launch in most theathers next week, so here we go.

A modern tale of why you shouldn’t stick your dick in the toaster, even if you upgrade to “sex gynoid with the bahonkadonkas”, and especially you shouldn’t jailbreak the sexbot or hit it with the ol’ “not a real boy” spiel.

Iris and his boyfriend go to meet some friends at an isolated villa by the lake for a nice weekend, but little does she know they have a plan to rob the rich host and owner of the villa… because she known very little to begin with, as Iris is just an elaborate robot dutch wife, but after she’s framed by her “boyfriend/master” as the one to take the fall for the crimes that occur, with him pityingly telling her the truth about herself, she tries to escape and break free…

AKA the american remake of Iku: I, Robosex via Ex Machina we didn’t ask, nor we actually got, but it’s not a completely incorrect way of putting it, since it feels like someone watched Alex Garland movie and figured there was a way to make a black comedy horror romance film about misoginy, emancipation, agency and all the expected sci-fi themes coming with the gynoid/doll archetype, balancing the comedy and the horror to an impressive result.

I haven’t tried to hide the “reveal” since the marketing eventually gave away the twist (plus the movie itself doesn’t hide it much), but i’d say the movie it’s still quite strong, witty and engrossing even if you know it, since it has great performances, strong characters and great execution to “back that up”.

Pretty good.

[EXPRESSO] The Boogeyman (2023) | Mid-Boogie

Apparently another Stephen King’s short story adaptation, which makes me kinda wish i did watch last year’s Firestarter remake, but then again, does it really matter?

I mean, we get a movie like this like every few months or so, and the title is apt even if it’s the most stock combo of laughable and generic.

It’s definitely “to the point”, because the plot concerns a therapist and his family, processing their grief after the death of the wife, only to be haunted-stalked by a supernatural entity that feeds on vulnerable people and feeds on their suffering, after a troubled man shows up at the therapist’s house out of the blue and is found hanged in a closed room.

Did i tell you the crux of the movie is about the sisters (a child and the older teenage daughter) bonding and managing to get over their mother’s death while they learn more about the entity and try to face it when it’s clear nobody else actually believes the thing to be more than a byproduct of their imagination? Well, you could have guessed that too.

What’s surprising is despite the movie being as stock, formulaic, derivative and uninspired as it seems… the execution saves it, almost shocking you that, despite the premise, there being no big twist to mix the formula, and – well -everything, ultimately the movie isn’t half bad.

Which it’s kind of a stupid way of putting it, it’s average so, yeah, it’s “half bad”, technically, but the characters aren’t detestable or too stupid, at all, the creature is shown fairly clearly, has an ok design and looks quite decent in terms of effects, plus the finale it’s satisfying enough.

For something called The Boogeyman, it’s a surprising enjoyable horror film, if generic, very average and throwaway.