The Devoured XVI
What I Watched & A Whole Lotta 2024
I love the ambient lighting of a Christmas tree!! As a hater of the big ceiling light (hisssss), that means knowing my kelvins and investing in lotsa little lamps. Along with my main lamp, my lava lamp, my lamp full of tiny hands, my purple tasseled lamp, and my year-round purple Xmas lights, the Christmas tree is adding so much delicious ambiance, I know I’m going to have to something else for that corner after December.
If we’re not doing theater mode (lights off, no talking) for a movie, I crave the hug of the soft glow of many warm lights at low levels.
I love lamp.
News:
Thanks to the success of A24’s film merchandise, more studios are upping their game; you can now purchase a premium replica of Nosferatu’s coffin for just $20,000.00. I will not be doing that.
Housekeeping:
Christmas and New Year’s Eve fall on Wednesdays this month, so there might be a skipped newsletter before we get back at it in January.
Watched:
Smile 2 (2024) 3.5/5
Paramount+
My heart was pounding the whole time, but I’d also downed too much coffee beforehand.
In this sequel, the suicide-transmitted smile demon makes its way to a pop star (Naomi Scott), emerging back into the spotlight one year after a drug-induced car crash that killed her shitty boyfriend (Ray Nicholson) and ended her relationship with her best friend (Dylan Gelula). Seeking drugs for back injury pain (!!), her dealer passes the smile demon to her.
These movies work for me, and I definitely think the demon inhabiting a lonely pop star is a much more fun way to explore mental health issues than a mental health professional. Still, I’m not so crazy about the whole emphasis on mental health in the first place. Also, these are mean-spirited in that [spoiler] no one’s broken the cycle yet without dying or going to prison.
I think this is going to be a serviceable franchise that is only going to get better. Great scene of the dancers in her apartment.
For you if you love: jump scares, pop star gossip, Smile
Cuckoo (2024) 4/5
Prime
When Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves to the Bavarian Alps with her dad and stepfamily after the death of her mother, there’s something off about this town with a curfew. And that something makes this a creature feature, baby!!
Besides some strange pacing, this was a super cool one. Dan Stevens is getting more cartoonishly devilish with each horror role.
I also love when characters’ injuries are treated with respect! If someone get shot in the leg, they better be limping in pain the rest of the film, not running as if nothing happened. Once Gretchen boards the struggle bus, she does not get off.
For you if you love: girlhood angst, monstrous women
Trap (2024) 2.5/5
Max
When the police are tipped off that notorious serial killer The Butcher (Josh Hartnett) will be at a Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan) concert, they plant a trap (title drop), but he’s just toooo genius. Lady Raven goes back to his house and tries to free his victim from TikTok Live, it all becomes very silly.
Much respect to M. Night for how he funds his own movies and spotlights his daughter, but I had a blegh time. This wasn’t campy or well-executed and there was no big fat twist.
For you if you love: M. Night Shyamalan, Josh Hartnett, pop stars
Strange Darling (2024) 4/5
Prime
There’s a breakfast in this movie that is so decadent I thought its creation, in a Rothschild for the last meal in The Invitation way, was foreshadowing the suicide of the characters. It was not, they just eat that much butter every Sunday breakfast. Incredible.
This nonlinear narrative follows the end of a serial killer’s reign in Oregon. The internet can’t decide if this is feminist or not, and to that I always say; what a dopey way to frame a movie. I found this to be a delightful game of cat-and-mouse.
For you if you love: serial killers, Kyle Gallner (also in Smile 2!), mysteries
Okay byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
xo,
the hum of the hospital florescents when you wake up at 3am to find your nurse, name tag ‘allie lembo,’ standing over you covered in blood
