Shallow Grave - Danny Boyle - 1994

★★★ - Another dar comedy crime flick. This one British. Directed by Danny Boyle, of Trainspotting fame, in his debut. Stars a young Ewan McGregor, a guy I don't recognize named Christopher Eccleston, and a mom type, probably in her late 20s, named Kerry Fox. 

Gist is a group of three roomies (flatmates) in Edinburgh look for a fourth, eventually finding some guy cool enough for them who's got cash. On his first night in the house, the mysterious new tenant dies. The group finds a suitcase full of money and decide not to call the police, opting to dismember and bury him in the woods instead. This sets off this whole chain of events that leads to a lot of death and suffering. 

I liked it alright even though I thought the characters were pretty obnoxious. While they are interviewing potential roommates, they laugh in one guy's face and ask him if he really thought they would hang out with a boring loser like him. When he shows up later, waiting on them at a black-tie function, they recognize him and treat like shit. It's bad enough that he and the other waiters end up beating Ewan McGregor's character. When they get what's coming to them, you really don't mind, is what I'm trying to say. 

Film is really a contemporary morality tale. It reminds me of “The Pardoner's Tale” from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, easily my favorite tale. If you're interested, the Pardoner sets the tale up by talking about how he sells indulgences for the Catholic Church and how it's all bullshit. He then tries to sell them pardons, which pisses everyone off, then proceeds to tell the most overtly moral tale of them all. 

Spoilers for this 600 year old plus tale. The tale involves three dudes who want to kill Death. They find an old guy under a tree who says he saw Death over by a tree. At the tree they find a treasure. They are going to carry out in the middle of the night, so no one sees them. But they don't want to go hungry or be sober, so they send one to bring back provisions. While that dude is gone, they decide to kill him as soon as he gets back. After they do the deed, they now only have to split it two ways and, hell, with all this food and wine, might as celebrate. That shit is poisoned. So, in the end, they all find Death. While this movie isn't all that bleak, it is pretty fucking bleak. Also, the theme, not exactly a new one, is “Radix malorum est cupiditas,” Latin for “The love of money is the root of all evil”—from the Book of Timothy.

Doctor Sleep - Mike Flanagan - 2019

★★★★★ - God, I love this movie. Liked the book a lot. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the movie. What an experience though. Jesus. Making this a sequel to both the book and the movie is just genius. Takes the best from The shining both in movie and book form. Flanagan makes peace with both groups, fans of the novel and fans of the movie, and completely knocks it out of the park. Grand fucking slam.

There were of course some things I liked in the book better, but overall, man, this movie. The last half hour when they are in the Overlook is just incredible. More on that later. I think it is as good as The Shining and Carrie. At worst, the very best Stephen King adaptation sense the early 80s. 

I love Wendy. Reminds me so much of my own mom especially in this movie. When I was growing up my mother was the spitting image of Shelley Duvall, much to her chagrin, but I always loved Shelley Duvall because of that. As an INFP, I relate to a lot of King’s protagonists. See a lot of myself in Danny Torrance for sure. At least when life was hard. 

The True Knot is insanely terrifying. Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) is an incredible villain. Type of chick I’ve always done well with and found super attractive. A hippie/gypsy type of gal. She’s trouble though. An evil Rachel (my female companion). A top King big bad. The actress that plays her gives a performance that is not to be forgotten. Hard to outshine Ewan McGregor. This whole cast is crazy good but she is on another level.

Good old fashion high octane Stephen King horror. The shit with the little kid Brad is fucked. It is hard to watch that as anything on Dahmer. I feel most kids are terrible actors but that one was really moving. And as he is dying and Danny’s chalkboard cracks and he says “REDRUM” in the mirror. Incredible filmmaking. The main girl is GREAT too. 

Random note: When I go, I want a sweet, beautiful cat to comfort me and lead me to the other side. 

Minimizing Crow Daddy was a good call. Just seeing his name made me grown in the book. 

The scene where she tries to ambush Abra is incredible. Especially when Rose gets trapped and then is thrown back into her body.

The last half hour of the movie is unreal. It’s what separates the book from the movie and what makes the movie just an incredible watch. Going back to the overlook is more than I could’ve ever hoped for from a movie pretty much. All builds to this reunion. Once they hit that gas station that Dick Halloran was at it is fucking on. You see it, recognize it, then the music kicks on, and we get the drone footage except at night. Incredible. It does not disappoint. Some hottest take territory stuff, but I might like it more than The Shining.