Favorite films

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Recent reviews

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  X 2022

  ★★★½ Watched by Aaron D🔪 18 May 2022

  In anticipation of a screening for a certain sequel/prequel about to come out, I rushed to watching X just in case I did need the full, bloody experience.

  “A taste of the avant-garde to hide the low budget.”

  Ironic that, despite all the mentions, X doesn’t quite have an X-factor. It’s well-executed, well-performed, and an overall satisfying watch…but there’s a layer missing. There’s nothing here to kick the movie up from good to great. The cool intercut editing and patient…

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  Blind Woman's Curse 1970

  ★★★½ Watched by Aaron D🔪 09 May 2022

  Yakuza politics and in-fighting set to the thin back-drop of a supernatural curse of vengeance. A blender of fantastically gory blood FX, slapstick comedy, and Western zombie/cannibal visuals. Wildly tame and barely exploitative for its genre, especially in comparison to director Ishii's catalogue.

  There's so many scenery-chewing performances here, but choreographer Tatsumi Hijikata steals the show for me with his animated face & body movements in the role of "evil hunchback sidekick." Something about him is so magnetic, it's no wonder Ishii decided to collaborate with him again.

  There's a really comforting, dreamy quality to Blind Woman's Curse.

Popular reviews

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  The Witches of Eastwick 1987

  ★★★★★ Rewatched by Aaron D🔪 12 Jan 2017

  "Incest! Dildos! Anal Intercourse!"

  Um, so apparently everyone is giving this middling reviews as if it isn't a late 80s powerhouse with an amazing cast and full of witchy New England atmosphere. I guess I have to break it down for everyone.

  The witch trope, as an inherently female character, is bent in either two ways in our collective mythos: as a condemnation of women being shrewish hags terrorizing men OR as the embodiment of womanhood free of patriarchy. Eastwick…

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  The Thing 1982

  ★★★★★ Rewatched by Aaron D🔪 13 Oct 2017

  Turns out I've never reviewed this which is unfortunate. However, I'm not surprised as behemoths of horror cinema like this become harder and harder to review as they crystallize into something larger than the film canon they originated from.

  The Thing is one of those horrors where any review grows to involve its impact in cinema. Its 5-stars incapsulate the movies its influenced, the nostalgia its bred, the pop culture language its created, and the personal connections/memories its formed...the ratings…