Eye of the Storm Movie Podcast

This week we review and discuss Black Phone 2, a horror movie directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Mason Thames, Ethan Hawke and Madeleine McGraw, about Finney and Gwen who investigate the history of the masked serial killer the Grabber, which leads them to discover a sinister past involving more victims of the masked killer.

We talk about why this movie movie is a perfect example of an unnecessary sequel that lacks direction, why Gwen as the main character can't carry this movie and is set up to fail at this task by the script, why none of the expansions of the Grabber's lore managed to get us interested despite the movie itself not being actually bad and several moments being well done by themselves and why that wasn't enough for some of us, and much more.

Check out our other horror movie reviews here:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn

0:00 Intro
0:18 Movie Recommendations (Gen V, The Morning Show, The Legend of Suriyothai)
08:28 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
14:48 Spoiler Discussion
49:40 Conclusion & Ratings

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit 30 Days of Night, a 2007 horror movie directed by David Slade and starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George and Danny Huston, about a small town in Alaska that is invaded by a pack of vampires during their annual month without sunshine.

We talk about how this movie went against the grain at the time by depicting its vampires as brutal monsters that act like pack predators, how the setting of a remote Alaskan town informs and enables the survival horror, whether the ending worked for us and when heroic sacrifices work in fiction, what defines vampires in the first place and why their powers and weaknesses are so varied compared to other horror monsters and how that impacts storytelling, and much more.

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
2000's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4OKfR0jJ3YbyEwv4SorfOo
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss Tron: Ares, a science fiction action movie directed by Joachim Ronning and starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges, about ENCOM and Dillinger Systems trying to find a piece of code that will allow their AI creations exist in the physical world, and an AI agent who goes rogue against his creator in search of this code.

We talk about why this movie didn't work for us on a character and story level, why the unconvincing protagonists are a particular weakness of the movie, why we were bored by the spectacle that should have been the main attraction, why Tron: Ares is not a movie about AI and what a proper treatment of that topic might look like, and much more.

Check out our other science fiction movie reviews here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5EeVLUSNMTrp1spnkKtiQj

0:00 Intro
0:20 Movie Recommendations (Mister Jones, Next Friday)
04:48 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
10:18 Spoiler Discussion
53:55 Conclusion & Ratings

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit Ring (リング, Ringu), a 1988 supernatural horror movie directed by Jideo Nakata and starring Nanako Matsushima and Hiroyuki Sanada, a journalist who investigates a series of deaths linked to a mysterious VHS tape.

We talk about how this movie straddles the line of horror and mystery and why it wasn't like other horror or ghost movies we're used to, the numerous things this movie has in common with The Exorcist, whether the investigation that fills the bulk of the movie is as compelling as it could be or whether it relies a bit too much on convenience and coincidence, how the movie's use of technology and normalcy has aged and what a modern movie that does the same thing would look like, and much more. 

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
90's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4bJzTdH4xq7jwuTgStjAMZ
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss The Smashing Machine, a biopic sports drama directed by Bernny Safdie and starring Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Oleksandr Usyk, about the life of UFC fighter Mark Kerr and his struggles with loss, addiction and eventual redemption in the mixed martial arts scene of the late 90s.

We talk about our experiences with the movie despite not caring much about the UFC or about biopics, how the movie is stretched thin between multiple topics it doesn't do a great job reconciling, the documentary that this movie seems to be a shot for shot remake of, whether Mark Kerr's fall into addiction and redemption story worked for us, and much more.

Other drama and movie reviews:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZMvBTTdz3apWAwvvcU6x5

0:00 Intro
0:18 Movie Recommendations (Authors Anonymous, Peacemaker)
09:14 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
14:38 Spoiler Discussion
54:43 Conclusion & Ratings

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit The Fly, a 1986 body horror movie created by David Cronenberg and starring Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum, about a scientist who has a disturbing accident while testing a prototype teleporter.

We talk about the movie's body horror and the special effects used in Brundle's transformation, why focusing on it in such detail is what makes the movie work and how Brundle's journey through it holds the movie together and why its ending holds up so well, why the story is improved by the lack of a villain, the movie's restraint in blaming science and focusing on Brundle's personal flaws instead, and much more.

Related playlists:

Horror movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5nEzAuLhmPeQVt6eJGStPn
80's movie reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0CS9ed77Yswo40gLvmU5qb
Halloween season reviews: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/58HVIHc2oHh93OrGsDRuuY

This week we review and discuss The Strangers - Chapter 2, a slasher horror movie directed by Renny Harlin and starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath, about Maya, the survivor of Chapter 1, being stalked by the Strangers to finish the job.

We talk about why this movie didn't work for us as a slasher movie, how it is a series of cliches strung together to full its runtime without any creativity or intention and how easy it would have been to build on the premise of the Strangers to do something more interesting, the nature of suspense in movies and how how the Final Girl trope works in a cast with a single character, why the Strangers remakes are indistinguishable from a practical joke, and much more.


Check out our other reviews of the Strangers franchise:
The Strangers (2008)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6euIp0uzbixlgdGLtfUZKW
The Strangers - Chapter 1
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QhEvLQDJTRvqJSRoaqnxP
The Strangers - Chapter 3
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wmxvo2ErgNZj3v3WoJfuQ


0:00 Intro
0:18 Movie Recommendations (Gen V Season 2, To Kill A Monkey, The Fall Guy)
04:04 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
12:51 Spoiler Discussion
54:36 Conclusion & Ratings

This week we review and discuss Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle (劇場版「鬼滅の刃」無限城編), a fantasy action movie directed by Haruo Sotozaki and starring Natsuki Hanae, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Akari Kitō, about a group of demon slayers who raid Muzan's Infinity Castle where they face an army of demons as well as their personal ones.

We talk about how we experienced the movie as someone who is new to the Demon Slayer franchise and unfamiliar with anime in the first place and how the movie compared to our expectations, whether the storytelling conventions in Demon Slayer worked for us, whether we agree with the criticism of pacing and overreliance on flashbacks and exposition, when you should conclude that a genre or medium is just not for you and how that compares to other movies like that we've tried previously, and much more.

Other fantasy movie reviews:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O7bUTf5FmPBrVRUFKRgJo

0:00 Intro
0:17 Movie Recommendations (King of the Hill, Demon Slayer Season 1)
08:12 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
16:02 Spoiler Discussion
56:22 Conclusion & Ratings

In our series "Have You Seen?" we discuss a movie that some of us know well and others have just now seen for the first time. Our conversation focuses on the experience of someone watching the movie for the first time today and their reaction.

This week we revisit the pilot episode of Supernatural, a 2005 supernatural drama created by Eric Kripke and starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles that ran for 15 seasons, about the Winchester brothers who hunt supernatural beings while searching for their missing father.

We talk why this is one of our favourite series of all time, what defines an episode of Supernatural and why it works so well to the point of having ruined most horror for us, how this is one of the rare series that actually talks about male relationships when few stories do, how the show walks a fine line between subversion and twists to its influences drawing from folklore, occultism, theology and urban legends when constructing its stories and why getting that balance right helped it stay fresh for so long, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

This week we review and discuss The Long Walk, a dystopian survival movie directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Mark Hamill, about a group of young men who volunteer for a march to the death whose winner will be rewarded with immense wealth in an alternate United States impoverished by a civil war.

We talk about how the movie made us care about its characters and feel for their suffering, how the movie is a bleak allegory for life itself and how that is reflected in its characters, the rules of the Long Walk itself and the worldbuilding that underpins the story, where the worldbuilding falls short and why it compares unfavourably to the Hunger Games in that area, the movie's depiction of the ugliness of violence, and much more.

Check out our other reviews and clips on all major platforms here:
https://linktr.ee/EyeOfTheStormMoviePodcast

0:00 Intro
0:18 Movie Recommendations (Beauty in Black, Downton Abbey)
06:28 Synopsis & Overall Impressions
12:48 Spoiler Discussion
56:09 Conclusion & Ratings