🧟♂️ Sunday Shuffle #29
TV/Movies/Books recommendations reviews, and more...
Greetings from Northumberland.
🎬 28 Weeks Later - Prime: I haven’t watched this since its release back in the noughties. I didn’t care for it much back then, possibly because I’d enjoyed the original so much. After recently rewatching the original, and with 28 Years Later in my sights, I wanted to refresh on the first sequel. I enjoyed it so much more this time, although it has plenty of hokey moments that don’t quite add up. And the setup of the movie grates on me a bit. Since Britain basically fell, all the infected died of starvation within 28 weeks of the original outbreak, somehow we’re meant to think that the new outbreak brought about in this movie, is still going on 28 years later, and the infected didn’t die of starvation that time. That said, self-contained, the movie is a lot of fun. The pacing is off at times. There are plotholes a mile wide. But still, for what it is, it’s decent.
🎬 28 Years Later - NowTV: So, with the issues I pointed out above in the 2nd movie, this third movie compounds them even further. 28 Weeks Later ended with a hint at what was happening on mainland Europe - the Rage virus had not been contained in the UK after all. However, by the time we get to this movie, it’s all neatly been swept up again, and only the UK has the rage virus. This movie has learned from things like The Walking Dead, showing us different types of infected, including bloated, crawling monstrosities, and the terrifying, towering Alphas. There are excellent performances in this movie - especially given the main actors are basically doing my accent, and they do it pretty well (although Jodie Comer seems to be playing more of a Mackem than a Geordie or Northumbrian, but I think that’s intentional or at least a forgivable slip)! I’ve seen the Northeast accents done so badly so many times. Additionally, characters have a home base of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Situated about a thirty minute drive from my home, Lindisfarne is indeed only accessible by causeway, and this tide-based access becomes a key factor in the movie’s most thrilling scene. Beyond the island itself, I didn’t really recognise much more from my local region - maybe a couple of places. But they did the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves thing of fitting in Sycamore Gap simply because it looks pretty, rather than because it’s reasonably reached on the route the characters were taking. That said, since the wonderful old sycamore was chopped down by vandals in recent years, it was good to see it on screen again in all its glory. Ralph Fiennes is particularly excellent when he appears, showing what extremes of loss might do to our understanding of grief, mourning, and respect for the dead. Overall, I liked the film, but to my mind it was overhyped. And what good there is about it is almost ruined by a very strange choice in the final moments, where we find ourselves in something reminiscent of the 1990s music video for Peaches by Presidents of The United States. So all it did was made me opt out of seeing The Bone Temple at the cinema - I will wait for that one to hit streaming, I’m afraid.
Here’s where I’ll give a shameless plug - if you liked the vibe of zombies on the North East coast of England, try my quick read Dead Shore.
🎬 Sinners - NowTV. I really enjoyed this movie. I won’t say too much about it, but the Southern Gothic atmosphere always does it for me. Wonderful in its scope and scale, we see twin brothers both played by Michael B Jordan set up a backwater drinking hole. And then things go nuts. If you haven’t seen it, go in blind, and I’m going to assume by the fact you’re reading this on my Substack/have subscribed to my newsletter, that it will be up your street.
🎬 The Ritual - NowTV. Another rewatch for me, of a movie I enjoy, based on an Adam Nevill book I love. Hikers in the forests of Sweden find themselves stalked by something ancient. Its final moments are a bit of a headscratcher, but how we get there is excellent.
🎬 Phantasm - Prime. Although I’m familiar with the image of Angus Scrimm’s tall man, and the chrome orb weapon (it was included as a weapon in a video game I loved in the late 90s), I’d never watched any of the Phantasm movies. There’s a naivety to this that I enjoyed. It does a weird reversal on itself right at the end, which feels more like a brain-fart than something clever. I won’t rewatch it in a hurry, but I appreciate it for what it is, and wish I’d watched it on VHS back in the day.
📺 Recommended: Archive 81 - Netflix. I rewatched this with wor lass. Found footage, analogue horror, with a good measure of cosmic horror. Why Netflix didn’t give this a second season is beyond me.
📖 Recommended: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix. My first Grady Hendrix book, and certainly won’t be my last. Pacy, fun and really easy to just dive into and read. This was an absolute horror confection of a book, and I recommend it when you want something dark, but not incredibly heavy. Get it on Amazon: US|UK.
📖 Currently reading: Make Something Up, by Chuck Palahniuk. Some WILD stories in here!
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📺 Recommended: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - NowTV. I found this a really enjoyable venture into the world of Game of Thrones. With an overall lighter tone than previous GoT offerings, there are still those dark moments we would expect from the franchise, but with a central hero we can really get behind and root for.
📺 Currently watching: Small Prophets - BBC iPlayer. This was a real surprise for me. I saw a funny clip from it on Facebook and decided to give it a try. I’m three episodes in, of six, and it has turned out to be so much more than I expected. Packed with great humour, real heart, emotional intelligence, and a measure of darkness. Don’t read anything about it - just hit play.
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Best wishes and bad dreams,
Jack
All platforms mentioned above are the UK version, unless indicated otherwise.
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