Some good movies in theatre right now.

Thoroughbreds (2017)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5649108/



Amanda (Olivia Cooke of Ready Player One)) is a social outcast. Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy of Morgan) is an upper class teenager. They are childhood friends who have just been reunited after being some time apart. Together they plan the murder of the Lily's oppressive stepfather.

I've watched many a teenage girls vengeance/black comedies/thrillers in my lifetime.

Some great ones like Heathers, The Craft, Heavenly Creatures, Carrie, Happy Birthday to Me, Jawbreaker and some not so great ones like The Loved Ones, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Crush and All Cheerleaders Die.

This one sort of falls in between the great and the not so great.

There is a long slow set up punctuated by very well written intelligent dialogue between the two very talented young actresses.

But once the act of murder arrives after all the build up and anticipation:

I felt like a diner who has just left a fine dining restaurant after eating a 5 course meal of gourmet soup, appetizer, salad and dessert but the main course was very lacking and disappointing.

3/5

TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPcV_3D3V2A

p.s. This is Anton Yelchin's (Chekov in the new Star Trek movies) final film appearance. He passed away in a tragic accident 14 days after principal photography was completed.

Incident In A Ghostland (2018) (On Screen Title) aka Ghostland

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6195094/



A mother and her two daughters, ages approximate 12-15, are traveling on the road on their way to their new home in the country.

Along the way, a truck passes them by and one of the girls flips her finger at its occupants.

That night while they were still moving into their new home, the occupants of the truck shows up at their home and attack them.

Both girls and their mother survive the brutal and violent attack.

Years pass and one of the daughter, the youngest one, has moved to Chicago where she has become a national best selling author of horror books.

Her mother and oldest sister are still living in their country home.

She returns home to reunite with them and strange happenings begin as soon as she arrives.

Are these occurrences supernatural or is there something else at play here?

The first part of the movie, the brutal attack scene had me on the edge of my seat and I jumped a few times.

The second part of the movie when the youngest sister returns home to find strange things are happening in the house around her, there was an eerie sense of terror and tension which had my attention.

Then the screenwriters and director decide to ruin the mood by revealing the whole cause of the story just a few minutes after the sister has returned home, with the movie not even halfway played through.

Once the truth was revealed, the movie turned into a standard mechanical horror movie.

Loud noises, things jumping out at you, lots of screaming and sobbing from the two sisters, lots of running in the house trying to escape unseen attackers, up the stairs, down the stairs, in one room, out of another room, doors to rooms slamming, locked doors not opening and the sisters banging on the doors while screaming help help please, open the door, etc etc.

If the screenwriters and director had let the movie played through all the way to the end and waited until then for the big twist reveal, this horror film would had been great and it would had worked better.

But nope! Too eager to let the cat out of the bag thus ruining what was an otherwise promising good start.

By the way, this is the same movie where actress Taylor Hickson, one of the young actress who played one of the sisters at age 15, was hurt in an on set accident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostland#Accident

I don't know the outcome of the lawsuit but I hope she wins. It looks like they used real glass and not sugar glass. Really what were they thinking? The director and the stunt coordinator and the set builders were all at fault!

Finally, this is one of half a dozen films I've seen in recent years where characters in them flipped their fingers at someone and the result is bringing violence and mayhem to themselves.

This is not confined to fictional movies. This has also happened in real life.

Don't go flipping your fingers at people even if they do something to piss you off!! You may think it's cool and funny and it gives you a sense of superiority and satisfaction when you do it but you don't know who it is you are being rude to.

There are a lot of crazy people out there and it doesn't take much to set them off and turn them into violent murderous animals.

3/5