Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

So I was aware of the video game which I have played probably once but found it be fun and scary but that was several years ago so it was a worry that the film took so long to be made. The plot is that the film follows Mike who is given a job as a security guard at an abandoned family restaurant where the animatronics come alive. From what I can remember, the plot to the video game is quite simple so the film has to pad things out to get the film to running time and they do that by introducing a subplot where Mike’s brother was kidnapped when he was a kid and uses music to get into a sleeping state where he goes back to the day it happened to try and see if any clues can help locate his brother. 

I did enjoy this film, I thought that the film didn't really suffer from any pacing issues and the performances were quite good. I thought Josh Hutcherson was good as Mike who was trying to do his best in raising his sister but suffering from the guilt of what happened to his brother. Piper Rubio was very likeable as Abby and the ‘friendship’ she had with the animatronics was lovely to see and gave Mike a reason not go just destroy the animatronics.

There were things that didn't quite work for me such as Vanessa hanging around to the point where it was obviously quite early on that she knows more about what is happening or has happened at Freddy’s. Also the idea that Matthew Lillard’s character was behind everything at the restaurant seemed to be a little bit silly. Also I would have liked it to be a bit bloodier. I’m not the biggest fan of gore but I think that a little bit of blood can go a long way. I also thought the sub-sub plot with the evil aunt wanting the girl just so she could have the benefits seemed only to serve the fact that the film needed to kill some people and there was a limited number of characters.

It’s clear that there are going to be more films as this will have made its money back as Blumhouse is a dab hand at making things cheap and then making a big profit. Normally Blumhouse films aren't the best in terms of quality but I have to admit that I was surprised at how good the film was despite being from the same studio that gave us the most recent Exorcist movie. Not being a die-hard fan of the game, I cant say whether it honours the game but as a horror film it does what it needs to do even if it isnt successful in all areas.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the films I was most looking forward to because…..well it’s a Martin Scorsese film and we haven't had one of those since 2019’s The Irishman. That was a Netflix film and now one of the greatest living directors is still having to rely on streaming services to get films made and this does bug me but that's a discussion for another day.

The story sees Leonardo DiCaprio play Ernest Burkhart as he becomes involved with Mollie (Lily Gladstone) as Robert De Niro’s William Hale is trying to get his hands on the oil that the Osage people live on and the land they own. As the film starts the Osage people are murdered one by one and the film focuses on DiCaprio and Gladstone over the course of 3 and half hours. The running time is the biggest issue that I had with this movie. I went to the cinema to see this and thought that if the film had been 40-45 minutes shorter then it might have been better. The plot and pacing did not warrant the running time because Oppenheimer was roughly the same length and that was the best film of the year. I am prepared to watch the film again because the running time is the only criticism that I have and I think being in comfier surroundings will probably help me appreciate things a bit more. 

The performances are really good. Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone are superb and I hadn't heard of Gladstone before this film but will be looking out for her films in the future. There is a quite determination in her performance which makes her instantly likeable and in the face of what DiCaprio’s Ernest does throughout the film. 

This is another very good film from perhaps one of the greatest living directors around. Whilst I have issues with the running time (which is a similar complaint to The Irishman) but I think that the performances and characters are much stronger than in The Irishman.

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

If this didnt have anything to do with the original exorcist film then I would have enjoyed this film a lot but under the weight and expectations of being in The Exorcist series it faulters quite epically. Its not as bad as Dominion or the Prequel and not as bad (or as fun) as the second one but it lacks any tension or horror that the first and third ones had.

I thought it was quite boring until Ellen Burstyn appeared and then it picked up but that quite a bit into the film. The last shot was quite nice to see but the worst part is that this is the first of a trilogy and I cant see where they can go that could improve the situation.

Not bad as it could have been but not as good as it should have been.