horror movie review – Horror Ghouls

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (2025)

Posted on May 27, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

In this demented/twisted/fucked-up serial killer flick that your mum and dad don’t want you to see, we meet, yeah you guessed it – Peter Pan. And he’s a, yeah, you guessed it – a serial killer. And yep, you guessed it again – he murders children, sometimes in broad daylight. And not one by one, but in drones. The few lives he spares gets trapped in his dungeon basement. Oh my… calling the whambulance is no use here. So there’s no big shocker to say that this isn’t the Peter Pan that we know from our classic childhood fairy tales, but rather a homicidal maniac who lives out his sick fetish role-playing fantasies.

Pan is also a hardcore junkie who lives comfy enough in an abandoned manor somewhere in the idyllic British countryside of Ashdown with his one and only Tinker Bell, an unpleasant sight by itself who looks more like the sister of Longlegs. Instead of heroin, we have pixie dust. It’s the same shit though, so don’t get fooled, kids. Stay outta drugs and have some Kava instead.

But at the end of the day, Peter Pan actually means all well. Because he doesn’t kill children just for the hell of it, but in order to send their souls to Neverland to save them from the evil world that we live in. Your typical road to hell that is paved with good intentions, to put it that way. Neverland is, after all, a place where you can be a little boy for the rest of your existence. And since dead people don’t age…well, you get the idea. Sweet dreams.

The film starts with a quick, flashback story of Pan (Martin Portlock) where he works as a mime artist at a circus. After performing in front of a group of kids, he stalks one of the kids home, which by a wild coincidence is named James Hook. After sneaking into his bedroom through a trapdoor, where we also have a quick Pennywise reference (because why not), the kid’s mother spots him and hell breaks loose. After a brutal fight in the kitchen that goes from bruises to chopped-off toes by a meat cleaver, a disfigured face and a scalped head, Pan takes Hook with him before we jump fifteen years later.

Then we meet the upper-class family, the Darlings, just another wild name coincidence, where the older sister Wendy (Megan Placito) is driving her youngest brother Michael (Peter DeSouza, the possessed kid from Pope’s Exorcist) to school. Michael is depressed, and since it’s his birthday and all, Wendy tries her best to make his day a little easier by also intending to pick him up after school. Aaw, how thoughtful. Too bad that she gets distracted on the phone by her boyfriend when Michael leaves the school on a bike, which leads to him being captured by our psycho killer Peter Pan The Grabber. While Michael is trapped in his manor where he’s forced to play games like hide-and-seek, a guilt-stricken Wendy sets out to find her brother.

Terrifier meets The Black Phone says hello to Castle Freak, written and directed by Scott Chambers, a living non-stop Duracell Bunny who made only eleven movies in 2021 alone, according to his IMDb. Geez, I’m having a stroke just thinking about it. Can’t say I’ve seen any of them though, except from Exorcist Vengeance (2022) only because of Robert Bronzi, the famous Charles Bronson clone. While his previous films have an average rating between 2.8 and 3.6, it’s fair to assume that he has had a major skill upgrade at some point. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a more polished and overall professional-made movie than you’d expect, all from the camerawork, production design, sound, pacing, acting, and, of course, the effects, which are all practical, as far as I could see. To be completely honest, this looks more like it could be in the same universe as Damien Leone’s Terrifier than the Poohniverse. And that’s probably the best compliment I can give.

The most remarkable here is Martin Portlock as Peter Pan – a brilliant and charismatic actor who just came as a lightning strike from the blue sky when he went viral in the UK after his appearance as a witch on Britain’s Got Talent. Here, he’s a mix of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Freddy Krueger and Radu the vampire with a dark and a seductive British voice that would even make Hugh Grant blush. He’s as ruthless and mean-spirited as he’s intimidating. I also liked the angle with the Tinker Bell character, played by Kit Green. Her and Peter’s relationship is a pure psychological warzone, if the circumstances weren’t hell already. Her story of how she ended up in this pit of misery would be an interesting spinoff by itself. And if you want the blood and gore, you’ll get it. The third act goes especially full throttle in the splatter & gore department, with a cute final girl and all, which you can guess who.

So yeah, all in all, a gritty, gory, tension-filled and morbidly entertaining ride you’ll never experience at Disneyland, even after dark. Solid stuff. I hope we see Martin Portlock in more horror films, while it’ll be interesting to see what Scott Chambers does next. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is available on streaming on Amazon Prime, or (for us Norwegians) on Viaplay.

Writer and director: Scott Chambers
Country & year: UK/USA, 2025
Actors: Megan Placito, Martin Portlock, Kit Green, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Teresa Banham, Olumide Olorunfemi, Campbell Wallace, Nicholas Woodeson, Hardy Yusuf, Harry Whitfield
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21955520/

Caveat (2020)

Posted on May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Isaac is a drifter who is suffering from amnesia. He is suddenly hired by a man named Moe Barrett who claims to be an acquaintance (whom Isaac doesn’t remember, of course, due to his amnesia). Moe wants Isaac to look after his niece Olga, who will occasionally go into a catatonic state, and he offers Isaac a good sum of money for this. Isaac says yes, and when they get close to the property it’s revealed that Olga lives on a remote island. First, Isaac wants to refuse the job, but after a little guilt-tripping he reluctantly says yes. That’s not the worst, though. Once inside the house, Moe shows Isaac a harness that he needs to put on which will restrict him from entering certain portions of the house, and he needs to put this on because that will make Olga feel safe. Oh, and on top of that he is also told that Olga’s mother went missing and that her father recently died in the basement after being locked inside there, as he suffered from extreme claustrophobia and killed himself when he couldn’t get out. There appears to be no limits to how stupid a character in a horror movie can be, because even after learning all this, Isaac still says yes to stay and puts on the harness after just a little more guilt-tripping. Yikes forever! In reality, even the most dim-witted person would have bailed ass long ago. As can be imagined, weird shit starts happening inside the house when Isaac and Olga is alone. When she is in her catatonic state he can’t even talk to her, but once lucid, she behaves oddly antagonistic towards him and carries either a crossbow around, or a creepy toy rabbit with a drum. Meanwhile, Isaac tries to piece together what really happened in that house.

Caveat is an Irish horror film from 2020, written and directed by Damian Mc Carthy in his feature directorial debut. It was filmed in West Cork, and the Bantry House that was used was owned by a friend’s family. The movie had a budget of around £250,000. The toy rabbit featured in the movie is one Mc Carthy bought on eBay, which was stripped of its original fur and sent to costume and prop builder Lisa Zagone to make its creepy design.

We have also already reviewed Mc Carthy’s second film, Oddity, which was released last year, and now we finally got around to watch his debut movie. And while it’s definitely very slow-burn and somewhat illogical, it really picks up the scares later on. The setting and atmosphere are solid, although some of it does get a bit ruined by the main character’s total lack of being able to spot the one red flag after the other. There are horror movies where a character is willing to do the most idiotic things due to obvious desperation, which can make the most insane setting more believable, but Isaac’s backstory is (intentionally) left obscured from the start. Most of the movie is set around him walking around the house, having weird interactions with Olga, and gradually finding out more about what really happened. Once things progresses a bit more, however, that is when Mc Carthy proves that he’s really got a knack for scary supernatural scenes!

Caveat is a movie that certainly takes its time to get things going, and you’re likely to feel a little annoyed if dumb characters is one of your pet peeves. But it sure does deliver some scares towards the latter part of the film, some which are reminiscent of the scares and atmosphere that could be found in the first Conjuring movies. There’s no doubt that Mc Carthy knows how to build up atmosphere that leads to proper scares, which is by no means any easy feat. His second film, Oddity, didn’t have quite the same amount of scare factor as Caveat, but that one had more of a solid ominous atmosphere throughout. There is already another movie in development called Hokum, and it will be interesting to see what Mc Carthy’s next movie will bring in terms on chills and (hopefully) scares. Because he’s certainly got talent in that department.

Writer and director: Damian Mc Carthy
Country & year: Ireland, 2020
Actors: Ben Caplan, Johnny French, Leila Sykes, Inma Pavon, Conor Dwane, Siobhan Burton, Sam White
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7917178/

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Posted on May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1968, where Iris Campbell is going to attend the opening ceremony of a high-rise restaurant tower called Skyview. The one to bring her there is her fiancé Paul, who wants this event to be as perfect as possible. Oh, if he only knew. Well, since this is a Final Destination movie, we know the drill: Iris has her premonition, and oh boy, is this one a total disaster! The grand opening of the Skyview ends just as well as Titanic’s first voyage. The entire tower collapses, causing a huge death toll. After Iris watches her final moments before dying, however, this is where the movie takes a turn from the previous films: instead of seeing Iris “waking up“, we see college student Stefani Reyes waking up in bed with a scream. Apparently, she’s been having recurring nightmares about this event for months, driving her equally sleep-deprived roommate to the brink of murder. Stefani travels back to her family for some answers, and finds that her nightmares are linked to her maternal grandmother, Iris.

The grandmother is no longer in contact with anyone in the family, and she lives waaaay out in bumfuck nowhere. Stefani decides to pay her grandmother a visit to get some answers, and ends up at Iris’s fortified cabin. There, Iris tells Stefani all about how she was able to disrupt Death’s plans when she prevented the tower’s collapse, literally saving the lives of everyone there. She gives Iris a book where she has documented Death’s omens and giving instructions on how to spot them. Stefani, of course, thinks her grandmother’s just totally kooky and regrets going there in the first place…until Death makes his move. Soon, Stefani realizes that Iris was right, and Death is now trying to kill off the survivors in the order they would have died at the Skyview…and of course, all their descendants who were never meant to exist if they had died as intended. This, of course, includes Stefani and her younger brother, plus several of their other family members.

Final Destination: Bloodlines (aka Final Destination 6) is the latest film in the Final Destination franchise. It was directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor. It’s based on a story that was developed by them and Jon Watts. After the commercial success of Final Destination 5, the next film was described as some kind of “re-imagining“ of the franchise. That’s…not really the case, though. They’ve changed the basic setup a little bit, but it’s still a classic Final Destination film, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It premiered on May 16, and has so far received generally favorable reviews. It has currently grossed $105 million worldwide. The highest grossing film in the franchise, The Final Destination (the 4th film) made $187 million worldwide. It’s still early, so it remains to be seen if their sixth installment breaks that record.

So, how does this movie hold up to the rest of the franchise? Well, we watched it at the big screen and had a total blast with it! Six films in and it’s still feeling as playful and fun as ever, perfectly balancing humour with grisly deaths. Already from the opening scene with the Skyview you know it’s going to be good, keeping you eagerly anticipating how all hell will break loose. And it sure does! During this premonition scene there is a 71 year old stuntwoman, Yvette Ferguson, who came out of retirement in order to play a fire stunt. Now, how cool is that! Aside from the bonkers opening scene, there are many other kills that turns both bloody and gory, so the fun lasts throughout.

Final Destination: Bloodlines proves that the franchise is still going strong, and still feeling surprisingly fresh. That being said, it’s been approximately 14 years since the previous film, so it’s not like we’ve gotten these movies thrown at us every single year or so. We’ve had some time to build up an appetite for a new one, and it certainly was a great time! Now, we all know that a 7th film will be inevitable. Just how long that will take, however, remains to be seen. They still have so many ideas to take from, bad things can happen to a lot of people everywhere: on a cruise ship, in a tunnel, at a concert, on tourist attractions around the world (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, etc.), at Las Vegas, at a circus, etc. etc. The possibilities are endless! Will be fun to see what idea they go for next.

Also, R.I.P. Tony Todd (Bludworth). It was nice to see his story arc ending here, with a reveal of his character and backstory.

Directors: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Writers: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2025
Actors: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance, Tony Todd
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9619824/

Prequels:
– Final Destination (2000)
– Final Destination 2 (2003)
– Final Destination 3 (2006)
– The Final Destination (2009)
– Final Destination 5 (2011)

Final Destination 5 (2011)

Posted on May 16, 2025May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Sam Lawton is an office worker who is going together with his colleagues to a company retreat. On the bus, he has a premonition where the North Bay Bridge starts collapsing due to high winds, and he witnesses a lot of people getting killed. This also includes himself, after getting his ex-girlfriend Molly Harper in safety. When the premonition is over, and he starts realizing that this is really going to happen as all the small details prior to the incident becomes familiar, he panics and urges everyone to get out of the bus. Several people follow him outside, and they manage to leave before the bridge collapses. Naturally, Sam is questioned by the FBI afterwards, but everything was ruled to have happened due to natural causes. Shit happens, sometimes. After the survivors attend a memorial for all their deceased colleagues, they start dying one by one. A woman named Candice dies in a freak accident at the gym, and a man named Isaac has a not-so-pleasant experience at a Thai massage. No happy ending there. Bludworth, the coroner who has appeared in some of the movies since the start and has always seemed to know about Death’s mischievous plans, tells the remaining survivors that they are now dying in the order they were supposed to die in if they had not survived the bridge collapse. So now Sam and the remaining survivors must try to figure out a way to beat Death.

Final Destination 5 is the fifth movie in the franchise. It was released in 2011, and is directed by Steven Quale and written by Eric Heisserer. Just like the previous film, called The Final Destination (which was actually yet another movie that was supposed to be “the final film“ but which changed due to the financial success) it was shot in 3D. And just like the previous film.. the 3D effects haven’t really aged that well. Still, that doesn’t ruin the experience at all, it just adds an additional goofy flavour to it. It grossed $157 million worldwide, making it the second-highest grossing film in the franchise. The sixth film has its premiere (at least in most places) today on May 16th, so let’s see if the new one breaks any of the old records!

This film follows the same formula as previously: the protagonist has a premonition, saves some people, and then Death is coming for them. Many franchises have lost all their steam long before coming to their fifth installment, but the Final Destination movies keeps it going surprisingly strong. This might have a bit to do with how these movies are always being very simple popcorn-horror entertainment that were never meant to be groundbreaking masterpieces. Plus, the concept behind the movies opens up for so many possibilities, it’s nearly impossible to not keep it at least entertaining with its main forte: the death scenes! Or most importantly: how everything leads up to the death scenes. As always, there’s several scenes here that gives that “ick“ feeling, and the kills are just as fun as ever.

Final Destination 5 is yet another fun entry into the franchise and proves that it’s still going strong. This movie is also providing some twists and turns and even ties everything back to the first movie.

Director: Steven Quale
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance, Tony Todd
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1622979/

Prequels:
– Final Destination (2000)
– Final Destination 2 (2003)
– Final Destination 3 (2006)
– The Final Destination (2009)

Sequel:
– Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

The Final Destination (2009)

Posted on May 13, 2025May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Nick O’Bannon and his girlfriend is watching an auto race, together with some of their friends. Then (of course) Nick is having a premonition: a terrible accident that happens on the racetrack. After the premonition is over, and he starts noticing certain details that proves to him that this will actually happen, he starts to panic and brings along several other people with him outside of the stadium: his girlfriend Lori plus their friends Hunt and Janet, and also a racist truck driver named Carter, a woman named Samantha, a security guard named George, and mechanic Andy and his girlfriend Nadia. Once they’re outside, the accident happens and while you could’ve thought they were all safely out of reach, a stray wheel comes out of the stadium which decapitates Nadia. Carter also wants to run back inside the stadium because his wife is still there, but George manages to stop him from running into his certain death. Later, Carter has decided to give George a proper thanks for saving his life by driving to his house at night with plans of burning a cross on his lawn. In his distorted, racist mind it was George’s fault that his wife died (or the jackass probably just needed someone to blame, even if it was the man who saved his life). Death has other plans, though. The wind knocks off a horse hoof that was hanging from a rope on to the radio of Carter’s tow truck, where the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends“ starts playing (obviously, Death’s got a sense of humour). The truck starts driving by itself, letting loose a towing chain onto the road. It all ends with Carter getting wound up on the chain, dragging him down the street while sparks cause the chain to catch fire. That’s one of the survivors down. It doesn’t stop there, of course, as more of the survivors keeps dying in strange ways. Nick eventually becomes convinced that Death is coming for them all.

The Final Destination (aka Final Destination 4) is the 4th movie in the Final Destination franchise. It was released in 2009, as one of those 3D movies. The previous film, Final Destination 3, was originally supposed to be the final film, making the series a trilogy. But as already mentioned in that review, there would be no premonition needed in order to foresee that there would be a 4th film sooner or later. James Wong was originally on board to direct this one, but he had to drop it due to scheduling conflicts. Then, David R. Ellis returned (director of Final Destination 2). This movie ended up being the highest grossing of all the Final Destination films so far with $28 million on its first weekend (thus beating Rob Zombie’s Halloween II the same year) and with $187 million worldwide. There’s a sixth movie coming soon, so let’s see if that record gets broken then.

As mentioned, this movie was made with 3D effects. And, uhm… like in most 3D films… the effects haven’t really aged that well. They are not outright horrible per se, but they’re more likely to bring out a few chuckles here and there. As always, though, it’s the lead-up to the kills that brings the entertainment value. There’s some pretty decent gore, and Death is as playful as ever, having as much fun as possible while killing the characters off in all kinds of ways.

The Final Destination brings more of what you’ve already seen in the previous movies. It’s like that ordinary yet fulfilling meal you decide to eat on a lazy day: it’s nothing great, but keeps you content and does what it’s supposed to do. With a Final Destination movie you know pretty much what to expect.

Director: David R. Ellis
Writers: Eric Bress, Jeffrey Reddick
Country & year: USA, 2009
Actors: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella, Justin Welborn, Stephanie Honoré, Lara Grice, Jackson Walker, Phil Austin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1144884/

Prequels:
– Final Destination (2000)
– Final Destination 2 (2003)
– Final Destination 3 (2006)

Sequels:
– Final Destination 5 (2009)
– Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Final Destination 3 (2006)

Posted on May 9, 2025May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Wendy Christensen is a high school student who goes together with her boyfriends and some friends to have a good time at an amusement park in Pennsylvania. They’re going to board the Devil’s Flight roller coaster (nothing bad can happen on a ride with such a name, right?), but of course Wendy has a premonition that promises total mayhem as lots of people die during the ride due to a dropped camcorder that lands on the roller coaster’s eroded tracks. Following the same formula as the previous films, Wendy sees everyone (including herself) die horrible deaths, and afterwards she freaks out and tries to warn everyone. A total of nine passengers decide to get off due to her hysteria, but several others still remain on the ride, including her boyfriend Jason. And those people all die of course. So, what happens next? Well, you guessed it: the survivors are dying one by one under mysterious circumstances. Kevin, one of the survivors, tells Wendy about the Flight 180 incident (from the first film), and they realize they are in the same situation.

Final Destination 3 is the third film in the Final Destination franchise, and it was directed by James Wong and released in 2006. While Final Destination 2 was very much a direct sequel to the first film, this one was envisioned as a stand-alone film. And just like with the earlier films, few critics gave very favorable reviews but it still became yet another financial success, with a box office of nearly $118 million which made it the highest grossing of the three current films at the time. It was originally intended to be the final part of the series, with the original title actually being Cheating Death: Final Destination 3, where they intended to make it a trilogy. Hah! As if. O f course you don’t just drop something that keeps making bank with every movie that’s being made.

The idea for this film actually came from an incident in Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth (obviously not always, though). Wong said he was inspired by a 2003 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad incident, where a derailment occurred where one man died and 10 others were hurt. So while the first film stirred the fear of traveling by plane, and the second film reminded us how dangerous the highways can be, this third film evokes the fear of roller coasters and how utterly helpless you are if something bad happens. The cast members couldn’t have had much fear of rides like this, though, as they had to ride the roller coaster a total of 26 times on the same night (!) in order to shoot all the scenes for Wendy’s premonition. Must’ve been a blast!

By watching this third film, you can’t blame anyone except yourself if you expected something very different from the first two. Once again the main focus is centered around the deaths and all the details that leads up to them, where you keep wondering how everything will unfold. Sometimes it feels like watching Death playing a point ‘n click game where all kinds of small things eventually lead up to the death of the current victim. As always, the deaths are often over-the-top and cheesy, but that’s just part of the entertainment value in these movies.

Final Destination 3 is more of the same, but still just as much fun.

Director: James Wong
Writers: Glen Morgan, James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2006
Actors: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Alexz Johnson, Sam Easton, Jesse Moss, Gina Holden, Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Amanda Crew
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414982/

Prequels:
– Final Destination (2000)
– Final Destination 2 (2003)

Sequels:
– The Final Destination (2006)
– Final Destination 5 (2009)
– Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Posted on May 6, 2025May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

It’s been one year since the fatal Flight 180 explosion, and shit’s about to happen all over again. Just on the ground this time, not in the air. College student Kimberly Corman is going on a spring break with her friends, and they’re heading for Daytona Beach, Florida. Just like in the previous film, our protagonist has a premonition: on the highway, a deadly pile-up is caused by a logging truck. Realizing that this is actually going to happen, she panics and stalls her car on the entrance ramp, which prevents a lot of other people from entering the deadly highway. Everyone’s pissed off, and when a state trooper begins questioning her, the pile-up occurs right in front of their faces. Despite Kimberly’s attempt to save her friends, however, fate (or Death himself) instantly made other plans: instead of her friends being killed off in the way she saw in her premonition, they are all killed when getting hit by a car carrier while the state trooper manages to push her aside at the last second. Still, there’s a lot of other survivors that would otherwise have died in the pile-up since Kimberly blocked the road prior to the accident. How will Death pick them off one by one this time?

Final Destination 2 is a supernatural horror film from 2003, and it is the sequel of Final Destination from 2000. It’s directed by David R. Ellis, with screenplay written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress. The first movie became a financial success despite rather low ratings from the critics, so of course a sequel had to be made. This movie received mixed reviews, and grossed $90 million internationally. So, yup, another commercial success without a doubt. At this point you didn’t need to get any premonitions in order to foresee that this would be a horror franchise with many sequels to follow.

So, how does the second film differ from the first? Just as much as two Tom & Jerry cartoons differ from one another, more or less. It’s the same premise over again: person gets a premonition of impending death, manages to save themselves and some other people’s asses, and then Death kills them off one by one in the most “random“ ways possible. This one is a bit more bloodier and gorier than the first, and the kills are always a load of fun. Granted, the CGI effects aren’t really that much to write home about, but it’s all about the build-up before the actual killings happen.

Final Destination 2 is, just like the first, a fun popcorn-entertainment horror movie that follows the same formula as the first, but still manages to be entertaining and a lot of fun.

Director: David R. Ellis
Writers: J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress, Jeffrey Reddick
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2003
Actors: Ali Larter, A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, David Paetkau, James Kirk, Lynda Boyd, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry, Terrence ‘T.C.’ Carson, Justina Machado, Tony Todd
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309593/

Prequel:
– Final Destination (2000)

Sequels:
– Final Destination 3 (2003)
– The Final Destination (2006)
– Final Destination 5 (2009)
– Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Final Destination (2000)

Posted on May 2, 2025May 20, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Alex Browning is a high school student who is going on a trip to Paris with his other classmates. He boards Volée Airlines Flight 180, but before the takeoff he has a premonition where he sees how the plane explodes in the air, killing everyone on board. He starts panicking, screaming that there will be an accident, and he is removed from the plane. Several of his friends and some other classmates follow him, including one of the teachers. They don’t believe him, of course,with the exception of one: Clear Rivers, who found his reaction so believable that she also decided to leave the plane before takeoff. Afterwards, they can see that the plane explodes shortly after takeoff. Huh! So Alex wasn’t just a crazy loon after all. Naturally, him predicting this beforehand makes him suspicious, and he is interrogated by the FBI. Suspicious or not, it’s pretty clear he doesn’t have anything to do with the accident, and he is just one of the lucky people to be alive. Or…that is, until the survivors keep getting killed in freak accidents. It seems Alex has disrupted Death’s plan, and the lives are now being claimed in the order they would have died if they hadn’t left the plane.

Final Destination is a supernatural horror film from 2000, directed by James Wong. The screenplay was written by Wong, Glenn Morgan, and Jeffrey Reddick, and it was based on a story by Reddick that was originally written as a spec script for an episode for The X-Files. The movie became a financial success despite receiving mostly negative reviews from the critics, making $10 million on its opening weekend. There has since been 5 other films made, with the 6th is heading to the theaters later this month.

What makes Final Destination, and all its sequels for that matter, so entertaining is it’s rather simple premise that still opens up for so many ideas. How many ways are there to die? More than we could possibly fathom. Everyday situations, household items, everything can literally turn into a death trap if the circumstances are right. And while the film series could have become too repetitive, it still manages to serve up so many inventive ways of how people could die in the most unexpected ways possible. In this first movie, the first death provides the classic formula for many of the deaths: several things happen which makes you constantly wonder how the person will get killed off, often with a few red herrings thrown at us as well. Many of the deaths are shown in a slightly cartoony way, sometimes with a bit of gore (although no excessive amounts). Storywise, the suspense mainly lies in how our protagonist, Alex, tries to figure out a way to beat Death while getting help from Clear, the only one who truly believed him right from the start.

Final Destination is a fun popcorn horror movie, where the many ways to die in otherwise normal, everyday situations is the fun part. And while this movie probably didn’t have the same effect as Jaws had on its beach-lovers, I can guess it at least gave a few people the jitters if they were traveling by plane shortly afterwards..

Director: James Wong
Writers: Glen Morgan, James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2000
Actors: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, Daniel Roebuck, Roger Guenveur Smith, Chad Donella, Seann William Scott, Tony Todd, Amanda Detmer, Brendan Fehr
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195714/

Sequels:
– Final Destination 2 (2000)
– Final Destination 3 (2003)
– The Final Destination (2006)
– Final Destination 5 (2009)
– Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

Sinners (2025)

Posted on April 29, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in 1932, where the twins Smoke and Stack have returned to the Mississippi Delta after having spent years in Chicago working for the mafia. They’re back with a lot of money stolen from the gangsters, and they have decided to purchase an old sawmill in order to build a juke joint for the local black community. Along the way, the bring with them other people, including their young cousin Sammie who is an aspiring guitarist. His father is pastor Jedediah, who warns him that blues music may one day invite the devil into his life. “If you keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home“, are his words of warning. Well, whatever…young Sammie still brings along the guitar and plays on the juke joint’s opening night. The music does indeed draw the attention of someone, who also appreciate music that comes straight from the soul…

Sinners is a horror period drama with musical elements. It was written, co-produced and directed by Ryan Coogler. The movie originally began development through Coogler’s production company Proximity Media in January 2024, but already the next month Warner Bros. Pictures acquired the distribution rights during a bidding war, and afterwards casting for additional roles took place in April. Ludwig Göransson, who has been a longtime Coogler collaborator, composed the film’s score and also served as an executive producer. The movie was filmed primarily in New Orleans and the surrounding areas of Louisiana. Coogler revealed that one of his major inspirations for the film was the novel Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, and a Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone episode called The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank. Another source of inspiration was his late uncle, a man named James who lived in Mississippi and loved blues music and Taylor Whiskey.

The movie has received an unanimous amount of praise, and is already deemed the best (or one of the best) horror movies of the year. Prior to seeing this film I had not only taken notice of all the praise, but also seen headlines that were comparing it to From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), which set the bar pretty high. Sure, the movie’s got a bar and vampires, but Club Juke certainly ain’t no Titty Twister. And while I enjoyed the movie for the most part, I’m glad I toned down the expectations a lot prior to going into the big screen.

I’ll start with the positives: first and foremost, the movie looks great, the visuals are really gorgeous. I also enjoyed the somewhat slow build-up when introducing the characters, where our protagonists are set to put together their little joint. Almost felt like the set-up in a video game where you need to talk to all the npc’s who each can provide something for your “build the juke joint“ quest. I also enjoyed the musical parts quite a lot. There’s a scene where Sammie starts playing his guitar and sings, and everything transcends into a slightly surreal montage where musicians from both the past and the future are present: we see characters among the juke joint’s patrons who are obviously from modern day, as well as tribe people from a long gone past, all joining in the music and providing an excellent visualization of how music connects us throughout the ages. Despite this musical number’s greatness, however…just like in the old classic Disney movies and many other musicals, the villain gets the best song. The lead “vampire“, outside the joint stack, leads his vampire minions in a ring while starting to sing an Irish Jig, which increasingly builds up its crescendo and provides music that sounds both jolly, slightly evil and slightly primal at the same time, providing a perfect counterpoint to the previous musical number and once again showing the connection effect of music from both new and old times. To be honest, these were the parts I enjoyed the most since the musical numbers here were used in a way to enhance the story and character’s motivations (rather than just being a song played in the background).

The things I didn’t particularly care about, was the amount of excessive dialogue where some if it became simply too repetitive, which caused some pacing issues. Another major disappointment is the invasion scene where the vampires finally enter the building at last (isn’t really much of a spoiler, it’s a part that you knew would inevitably happen). It felt too disjointed and underwhelming, and I simply could not help having the From Dusk Till Dawn invasion in mind, and thinking how so much of that epicness was missing here. There were some mentions of the KKK earlier on in the film, and I was actually hoping for some crazy, epic fight where the Klan would come to the place and get killed off by the vampires (preferably in the most gruesome ways possible) while the survivors inside the joint would have to fight and conquer both threats. No such luck, though. There were also a tribe of Native Americans introduced in the middle of the film, which were vampire hunters (or something..?) and we never get to see them anymore.

Overall, I think Sinners is a pretty good period drama movie with some great musical elements and horror mixed in, and while I wasn’t as “blown away“ as the majority who watched the movie seems to have been, I could easily appreciate the movie’s higher notes and qualities.

Writer and director: Ryan Coogler
Country & year: USA/Australia/Canada, 2025
Actors: Miles Caton, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Jack O’Connell, Tenaj L. Jackson, Michael B. Jordan, David Maldonado, Aadyn Encalarde, Helena Hu, Yao, Sam Malone
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31193180/

Crawlspace (1986)

Posted on April 25, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

– You’re just inches away from a fate worse than death. And that is directing Klaus Kinski!

It should be a big red flag when you have an old weirdo named Karl Gunther who owns an apartment complex which he only rents out to young women. And especially when he looks like Klaus Kinski. But there’s nothing shady about him, how could there be with those blue, warm and kind eyes? He only likes to kill some time by crawling around the air vents like a rat and spying on the tenants while they do their daily things, like having girls parties with tequila mixed with milk (yuck), and dates with cringe sex acts. Because when you couldn’t stalk people through social media and webcams, like today, you had to be more creative and use your imagination, like this Gunther guy.

And in his secret little attic apartment he has his small collection of bodyparts in jars, building death traps, and where he writes his secret journal while he has a cute, little white kitty to keep him company. And don’t worry, nothing bad happens to the cat… ha-ha. He also has an another pet, and that is a woman trapped in a cage who has gotten her tongue cut off. Between the killings, Gunther plays Russian Roulette as a form of self-punishment. If the bullet goes off, well, it’s game over. If not, so be it, and over to the next victim. As Gunther does his normal business by stalking and murdering his female tenants one by one, he, one day, gets an unexpected visit by a young man who’s about to expose his dark and shady past, which explains one thing or ten about Gunther’s murder tendencies. You can be happy to confront him, by all means, but not sit too comfy in his chairs…

And if the building looks somewhat familiar, it’s because it’s the same set-design used in Troll the same year. But the real troll in this place, is none other than the goblin, the myth, the monster himself: Klaus Kinski.

Crawlspace is written and directed by David Schmoeller and produced by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures. And of course, talking about this particular film is impossible without diving into the behind-the-scenes madness, which is more entertaining than the film itself. Because David Schmoeller was highly excited to work with Klaus Kinski, after watching him in the great Werner Herzog films. To do some quick background checks on Kinski, David Schmoeller contacted the previous director he worked with (Ulli Lommel, I’d guess). He said that Kinski was wonderful to work with and nothing but a good experience. Had he spoken with Herzog instead, God knows how that conversation would have turned. In other words: He was completely oblivious to what kind of a deranged madman he really was and the radioactive shitstorm that would follow him. It wasn’t after he read an interview with him in the Playboy Magazine that he knew that he was in big trouble. “Oh…“. Yeah, you can say. Enjoy the Klaus Kinski Crazy Train!

On day three of shooting, Kinski went on full war with the crew that escalated into six fist fights. And that’s just him warming up. He refused to follow basic orders, such as start acting when hearing “action“. He would instead scream and yell: Action! Action! Action! I’ve made over 200 movies and directors always saying action! So, instead of “action“, Schmoeller said: Light, camera, roll … Klaus. That form of ego boost worked for a day and a half until Kinski suddenly started screaming again. Klaus, Klaus, Klaus..! All my life, directors have called Klaus! … facepalm.

So, if the director couldn’t say “Klaus“ to start the scene, what should he say then? Kinski replies: Say nothing. I start when I’m ready. Alright then. But the madness is far from over. Because after Schmoeller says “cut“, Kinski screams again and yells: Cut! Cut! Cut! I’ve made over 200 movies and the directors are always saying cut! He points at the director and says: Don’t say cut. I stop when I’m finished.

Kinski would never do a take two, because why should he. He was the best, after all, he just always happened to be surrounded by a bunch of mongoloid amateurs ( the viewpoint by none other than Kinski, der meister himself ). According to the commentary track by writer/director David Schmoeller on the Blu-ray, Kinski would cut lines and refuse to say certain important plot-related dialogues which Schmoeller assumed he just forgot. He would reply with I didn’t forget, I just didn’t need to say it. The only way Kinski would say these lines was after Schmoeller had to go to him and say You know what, Klaus, I don’t think you need to say this next line. Kinski would then disagree and say Yes, I do. It’s an important line. Bro, talking about pure tiresome childish mindgame fuckery mixed with a handful of deep-rooted borderline narcissism. But a big thanks to the goldmine of funny trivia.

Due to all the Kinskiness, the twenty days-shooting schedule had to be extended by ten days. They also had to have some of the crew members on his tail when he was out for lunch, like a wild dog on a leash, so they could bring him back to set to finish the movie. Because hiring Klaus Kinski was far from cheap where his name alone was a big selling point, and there was no budget to replace him. And speaking of hiring Klaus Kinski and the risk that he would sabotage the whole film, listen to this: The Italian producer, Roberto Bessi, actually wanted to kill off Klaus Kinski so that they could have his insurance money. Yes, really. David Schmoeller made a short documentary in 1999 titled Please, kill Mr. Kinski where he goes more in detail. This was not the first time someone behind the scenes wanted to delete him though. During the making of Fitzcarraldo (1982) one of the natives offered director Werner Herzog to kill Kinski. Herzog wisely decline, because, well, he needed the bastard to finish the film. And the same said David Schmoeller as he also was hellbent to survive the Kinski Crazy Train, because that in itself is always worth a golden medal.

I really hope that some day a biopic of him gets made, because the sheer absurdity that was the demented world of Klaus Kinski is something that no one could make up, not even Chris Chan. Just watch the five films he made with Werner Herzog, the documentary My Best Fiend Klaus Kinski, his insane directorial acid-trip delirium Kinski Paganini, which also became his last film before he died of a heart attack in 1991 at age of 65. Then we have a series of his bizarre public outbursts, and the cultural trainwreck fiasco that was his short-lived tour as Jesus Christ Savior that was canceled after one show because he couldn’t keep himself together. And that’s just the surface. Because when you dig deeper into the Klaus Kinski iceberg, we also have the sexual abuse/rape/incest allegations, which is a whole horror story by itself for a Netflix miniseries. Bill Skarsgard would be a great choice to play Klaus Kinski.

Uhm, what the hell was I originally talking about… yeah, Kudos to David Schmoeller for being able to end up with a polished-looking film, considering the circumstances. It has some stylish qualities with some slick camerawork and cinematography, especially during the last act where Kinski chases the final girl through the crawlspaces on a trolley. Despite the behind-the-scenes insanity, Kinski does a great, and sometimes an eerie/mesmerizing performance here, and his far more soft-spoken to almost whispering approach adds to the creepy/weird factor, a stark contrast from his megaphone-loudmouth that we’re mostly used to. Much of the horror relies on the psychological aspects where our man, Gunther, only leaves the victims as morbid corpses after killing them off-screen, except for two, if I remember correctly. It’s also obvious that David Schmoeller used all his writing juice on Karl Gunther, where the moldy leftover dialogue went to the rest of the cast, who have as much personality as rubber sex dolls. And the final girl isn’t much to root for, to be honest. The only woman here who actually does a convincing job is the mute one in the cage who emotes with her scared and traumatic eyes.

At the end of the day, Crawlspace works maybe more as a curiosity for the die-hard Klaus Kinski fans, and he’s the sole reason to give the film a watch, like most of the Kinski films. Or just to quote the director himself: Crawlspace is not a particularly good movie, except for the fact that it has Klaus Kinski in it.

Writer and director: David Schmoeller
Country & year: USA/Italia, 1986
Actors: Klaus Kinski, Talia Balsam, Barbara Whinnery, Carole Francis, Tane McClure, Sally Brown, Jack Heller, Abbott Alexander, Kenneth Robert Shippy
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090881/