NETFLIX AND KILL: THE DEVIL’S CANDY (2015) **

An almost unrecognizable Ethan Embry stars as a starving artist who moves his family into an old house.  It doesn’t take long for him to start hearing voices while painting increasingly sacrilegious artwork while in the grips of frenzied creative outbursts.  There’s also the matter of the mentally disturbed guitar-playing man (Pruitt Taylor Vince) who keeps showing up unannounced whose parents (the former tenants) died in the house.   

The Devil’s Candy is better in the early scenes that explore the family dynamic of its characters.  The stuff with the long-haired, heavy-metal-loving Embry trying to balance his artwork with being a parent rings true enough.  It’s just a shame that the horror scenes are mostly a bust and not very effective to boot.   

Part of the problem is that it all seems like it’s building towards something… bigger.  When the finale finally does happen, the feeling is more like, “That’s it?” than anything.  Even at 79 minutes, it’s rather slow-moving and some scenes are almost too dark to see. 

The cast is solid though.  Embry is strong as the family man who paints in an obsessed state who fears he may be putting his art ahead of his daughter’s needs.  Vince makes an impression as the gentle, but deadly guitar player, although you wish he had more to do.  Leland Orser also has a few memorable moments as a local television evangelist.  None of their efforts really make it all worthwhile, but they are certainly better than the one-note premise deserves.

SPEEDY (1928) ***

Harold Lloyd stars as a Yankee fan who can’t seem to hold a job.  His girlfriend’s grandfather, “Pop” (Bert Woodruff) owns the last horse-drawn trolley in New York.  When he refuses to sell his company to a big competitor, they plan to sabotage his trolley.  It’s then up to Lloyd to save the trolley and the family business.   

This was Lloyd’s last silent film, and while some vignettes work better than others, it’s still a fine example of what Lloyd can do.  The scenes of Lloyd taking his best gal to Coney Island are okay, but I liked the scene where they play house inside of a moving truck more.  I also got a few laughs from the scene where Lloyd uses his baseball skills to make an orange soda and creates his own scoreboard using donuts and pretzels.   

The big scene though revolves around Lloyd’s woes as a taxi driver.  The highlight comes when he has to get Babe Ruth (playing himself) to Yankee Stadium in a hurry.  The chase sequence in the finale where he frantically drives his horse-drawn trolley through the jam-packed streets of New York is even more elaborate and is really something to see. 

Part of the charm of Speedy is you get to see how things were back in the old days.  For example, you couldn’t check the baseball scores on your phone at work.  Well, you could, but you had to call Yankee Stadium for updates.

NETFLIX AND KILL: PAY THE GHOST (2015) ***

Nicolas Cage stars as a workaholic professor whose son keeps seeing a shrouded figure at his window at night.  He takes him to a Halloween carnival and the kid asks, “Can we pay the ghost” before vanishing into the crowd.  Cage’s marriage quickly crumbles as he becomes obsessed with finding his son.  One year later, he starts hearing his son’s voice.  Pretty soon, Cage starts seeing glimpses of ghost kids everywhere.  When he sees “PAY THE GHOST” graffitied on the side of an abandoned building, he goes inside to investigate.  Maybe, just maybe, the creepy blind homeless guy inside knows what’s going on. 

Cage plays the kind of professor who uses different voices when he recites poetry and receives a round of applause from his students afterwards.  (Well, he is Nic Cage after all.)  That’s the only time he really goes over the top.  Throughout the film, he is on his A-Game and while at first glance this might seem like straight-to-DVD junk, it’s actually a solid little flick. 

Directed by Uli (Last Exit to Brooklyn) Edel, Pay the Ghost is better than you’d expect at just about every turn.  Although it’s not what you would call scary, it takes itself very seriously.  There are some over-the-top deaths reminiscent of The Omen, but for the most part, it’s about how the loss of a child tears a parent’s world apart.  Initially, I thought this was going to be kind of like a horror version of Stolen.  However, it has a decent mythology surrounding its mysterious specter and Edel delivers an occasional creepy moment. 

The finale where Cage crosses over to “the other side” to find his son is a bit like the end of Poltergeist mixed with the bridge scene from Temple of Doom.  If that doesn’t make you want to see it, nothing will.  Sure, some of the CGI effects are cheesy, but the scene where Cage encounters a cabin full of thousands of zombified children is rather effective. 

Note:  This is the second movie in my Netflix and Kill binge that featured a father and son dangling perilously above a bottomless pit to Hell.

NETFLIX AND KILL: HUSH (2016) ***

After being thoroughly impressed by Gerald’s Game, I decided to check out another Mike Flanagan joint.  As it turns out, they had a lot more in common than I thought.  For instance, the book Carla Gugino throws at the dog in Gerald’s Game was written by the heroine of this movie!  Not only that, but she also has a Stephen King book prominently displayed on her bookshelf!  It’s a veritable King/Flanagan shared cinematic universe! 

Kate Siegel (who also co-wrote) stars as a deaf-mute author who lives alone in the woods.  While she’s busy in the kitchen, a crossbow-wielding killer in a white mask murders her neighbor just outside her door.  He then sneaks into her house and takes advantage of her disability to toy with her.  The killer cuts the power and waits patiently in the darkness to strike.  In the meantime, Kate builds up enough courage to fight back and beat the killer at his own game. 

This is essentially Wait Until Dark, but with a deaf woman, but Flanagan finds lots of ways to make it stand on its own and be unique.  As with Gerald’s Game, he shows he can milk a maximum amount of suspense from a slim premise, a single location, and a minimum amount of characters.  Like Gerald’s Game, there’s even a scene where the female character steps outside of herself to give herself a rallying pep talk.  Another similarity:  There’s a scene where the heroine has to rebound back from a horrifying hand trauma.   

There are definite similarities in both films, but they are still different as night and day, which makes it a fun double feature.  I will say that even at a scant 81 minutes, there are a few places where the movie drags.  The highs easily outweigh the valleys though, and it’s amazing how much suspense Flanagan was able to wring out of such a slight scenario.

NETFLIX AND KILL: GERALD’S GAME (2017) ***

Director Mike (Oculus) Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel plays like a cross between 50 Shades of Grey and Cujo.  Instead of a woman being trapped in a car surrounded by a hungry dog, it’s a woman handcuffed to her bed surrounded by a hungry dog.  References to King’s other works abound (most notable being Dolores Claiborne as something bad happens during a solar eclipse), which should make any King fan happy.  

Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) are a married couple who are stuck in a rut.  In an attempt to spice things up, they go to a secluded cabin in the woods for some kinky sex.  Gerald cuffs her to the bed and almost immediately, things get a little rough.  Too rough for Jessie in fact, and she demands to be let out of the handcuffs.  Before Gerald can do that though, he has a heart attack and dies.  If you thought being left alone in the middle of nowhere while handcuffed to a bed was bad; it gets worse.  Pretty soon, a famished stray dog starts sniffing around the bedroom and begins feasting on what’s left of old Gerald, and it’s only a matter of time before Jessie is next on the menu. 

Flanagan does a good job at getting into Jessie’s psyche.  The scenes of her dead hubby walking around the room and admonishing her for being “stupid” are a nice way to show his psychological hold on her, even in death.  She even appears to herself as a stronger and more resilient Jessie who tries to coach her into thinking of a way out of her predicament.  Some of this is overly theatrical, but Greenwood and Gugino are so on-point that it hardly matters.   

Flanagan is adept at maintaining a crackling level of suspense throughout the majority of the picture and gives us a handful of intense moments along the way.  There was even a scene that made this old gorehound holler out in disgust.  With that scene, Flanagan shows that he is one of the best horror directors working in the field today.     

The film only has one drawback, and it’s a bit of a big one, especially when it comes down the homestretch.  The subplot about a serial killer/necrophiliac called “The Moonlight Man” just feels like padding.  While I understand the necessity of the character, it just causes the ending to drag on and on.  Had Flanagan ended the whole thing about eight minutes sooner, it would’ve been a wham-bam kick-to-the-gut experience.

NETFLIX AND KILL: LITTLE EVIL (2017) ***

Horror-comedies are a tricky thing.  If you can’t find the right tone, the comedy can overpower the horror.  Luckily, the writer and director of Little Evil, Eli Craig does a fine job juggling genres.  Having already directed the cult classic Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, he’s quickly become a pro at marrying the two genres and having fun with the usual horror clichés. 

Adam Scott just got married to the beautiful Evangeline Lilly and they seem like they’re going to have a perfect life together.  However, her son just so happens to be the Antichrist, which puts a damper on things.  She shrugs off his odd behavior (like using a goat puppet to talk), but it’s hard to ignore the fact that people have a habit of dying around him.  Teachers throw themselves out of windows and birthday clowns set themselves on fire.  Adam finds it increasingly difficult to get along with the kid, especially when he buries him alive in the backyard.    

The movie takes an unexpected turn about halfway through when Scott finds himself caring about the spawn of Satan, despite the death and destruction he causes.  I mean, he didn’t CHOOSE to be the Antichrist.  Maybe with a little love and guidance he’ll turn out okay. 

Adam Scott can do this sort of meek character in his sleep.  The film plays upon fears of stepfathers who are afraid of not measuring up to their stepchild's biological father.  I mean how can you measure up to Satan himself?  Scott is the perfect type of nice-guy underachiever that the role requires.   

Lilly is also a lot of fun as the mom who turns a blind eye to her son’s behavior.  We’ve all seen mothers who are in denial of their child’s actions.  Because of that, it’s funny seeing her have that same kind of detachment when she learns her son just buried his stepdad alive.  Lilly’s nonchalant revelation about the morbid circumstances around her son’s conception is one of the funniest bits in the movie.  (“I told you not to judge me!”)  Clancy Brown and Sally Field also do a fine job in their supporting roles. 

Craig takes a lot of visual cues from other movies.  There is a lot of stuff taken from The Omen, with a little Poltergeist thrown in there for good measure.  The general premise is slight and a bit predictable, but thanks to the clever writing and fun performances, it manages to very funny and completely charming.

NETFLIX AND KILL: CULT OF CHUCKY (2017) **

Cult of Chucky picks up a few years after the events of Curse of Chucky.  Now, the wheelchair-bound Nica (Fiona Dourif), who was blamed for Chucky’s last rampage, is being moved into a sterile psych ward in the middle of nowhere.  Predictably, her shrink brings in a Chucky doll as part of some half-assed therapy session and it doesn’t take long before Chucky is roaming the halls and killing patients. 

The seventh Child’s Play film isn’t so lucky for Chucky.  Even though director Don Mancini did a fine job on the past two entries, this one just feels uneven and slapdash.  While he introduces some OK concepts into the Chucky mythos, they don’t really make a whole lot of sense.  Like when Chucky puts his spirit into multiple Chucky dolls and they all start running around killing people and making wisecracks.  Sadly, more Chuckys doesn’t equal more fun.

Another problem is that it all seems to be leading up to something that never happens.  Just when the movie starts to kind of come together, it ends abruptly, leaving things wide open for yet another sequel.  I guess it’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe effect.  Why deliver the goods in this one when you can promise even more stuff in the next installment?

When in doubt, Mancini piles on the gore.  There are set pieces revolving around severed heads, ripped-out tongues, and a power drill, among others.  They’re juicy and all, but without a strong narrative to go along with it, they lack the punch of the series’ best kills.

Alex Vincent makes a welcome return as Chucky’s original owner, Andy.  In fact, the subplot about him keeping Chucky’s head in a box and taking out his frustrations on it is a lot more interesting than the stuff in the nuthouse.  Jennifer Tilly is also back as Chucky’s love Tiffany, but they never really figure out what to do with her or her character. 

Naturally, Brad Dourif gets all the best lines as Chucky.  The funniest one references one of his earliest roles.  I won’t spoil it for you because it’s one of the best lines in the movie. 

So, if you’re just in it for the wisecracks and gore, Cult of Chucky may be up your alley.  Sadly, it left this die-hard Child’s Play fan cold.  It’s easily the weakest installment of the series.  That probably won’t stop me from watching the next one though.