fciocca

The visuals of "Uzumaki" are absolutely stunning: the black and white style, the visceral and explicit animations are well done. The director portrayed very well the horrors that the small town of Kurouzu had to endure, the terrors that the inhabitants have to witness are truly distressing, the powerlessness against a phenomenon that no one can really understand and that is practically impossible to fight. The slow but inevitable descent into madness of the village is shocking, as you can see the sudden physical transformation to monstrous entities and psychological changes of people that are marked by the curse, making them extremely dangerous.

I believe that this is a truly interesting horror where the menace cannot be identified on a monster, but on some sort of mysterious phenomenon. The main issue is that the show has a lot of plot elements that are not properly developed. While the first 2 episodes escalate things gradually, the second half is rushed. Once I ended the finale, I had more questions than when I started watching. There was a lot of room to explore the lore and to dig about the reasons behind the spiral's curse and why the cycle is repeated once every few years. Obviously with episodes that have such a short runtime, there is really not much room for plot development. I believe that with a longer format that was lasting 45 minutes to 1 hour, then the creators could effectively develop all the different plot elements. Unfortunately having just a good animation style is not enough to make this show remotely as interesting as it could be. My final rate is 5 out of 10.

"Ballerina" is the spin-off of John Wick that I was waiting for so long. This new chapter expands the lore of the Ruska Roma family, deepening characters such as The Director and introducing a new dangerous cult in the picture. However the movie does not lose too much time in complex storylines, by simply giving to the audience what it wants: blood spilled, fights, shootouts and tons of violence. The director came back at the origin with more curated and synchronized stunt actions. I was pleased to see the neon-lights club shootouts with the energetic music of Le Castle Vania. I mean, this was always one of the core ingredients. Eve does not appear invincible like in the third and fourth chapters, in fact she finds herself many times in dangerous and precarious situations. Naturally there are some sequences that are clearly over-the-top, however there is a nice balance and a lot of variety in the fighting scenes that made the movie very entertaining to watch.

I think that after the terrible mini TV show "The Continental", and the JW chapter four that for me was the lowest point that this franchise ever reached, it was about time to make a movie that the hardcore fans might really appreciate. We will see what the future will hold, but for me this is a good starting point to potentially bring this franchise even further. My rating is a split 7.5 stars out of 10.

A fictional famous popstar after an hiatus of 30 years releases a brand new album and for the occasion invites a small group of people into a manor for an exclusive event to premiere the songs of the LP. The audience can immediately understand that something is off: Alfred Moretti is the leader of a cult, and what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend, quickly becomes a doom where the guests need to survive. The director did not really build any sort of tension, it is very clear within the first 30 minutes how the film is going to end. But I think that the writer was aware of this and in fact he did not lose time to build some overcomplicated plot twists that would ruin the experience. The execution was pretty solid: there are some well made body horror scenes, but the director never pushed too hard, so there is no excessive and over-the-top gore. Despite having actors such as John Malkovich and Ayo Edebiri, for me no one really stands out. However, the performances were good and entertaining. From a technical perspective there are some really nice and competent shots.

The whole cult setting was well built and reminded me a bit of "Midsommar". The final twist is intriguing, leaving a bit of suspense, creating room for the audience to speculate on the story and maybe even hinting for a possible continuation. I liked its simplicity and being straight-to-the point. I think that it is a nice watch for the thriller lovers, with a darker and macabre turn. My rate is 6.5 out of 10.