SPOILER FREE REVIEW ( the blurred paragraph contains a content warning and some things about the first movie.)
Disclaimer : my review contains no spoilers for this sequel, but there is heavy language and adult themes in this review, because.... i am writing a review about a movie called "Don't Fuck In The Woods 2" so..... yeah. [one content WARNING trigger warning i will give is that there is depictions of SA in the first ten minutes. so... if you have decided to watch a horror / slasher movie called "don't fuck in the woods 2" then.... please be aware that this movie contains a nonconsensual encounter between a woman and a creature within the first 4 minutes....
REVIEW
in terms of ultra low-budget horror / slasher / thriller / borderline pornographic whatever you want to call it, Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 carries VERY strongly as a direct sequel to Don't Fuck In The Woods.
The opening credits is an awesome heavy metal rendition and summary / recap of the first movie in old-school hollywood style of actually HAVING opening credits.
this is a gritty, low budget sex slasher and it far exceeded my expectations. Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is coherent from start to finish in ways that would shame many AAA blockbuster titles. The setup, character introduction and development are all solid, and the progression of the storyline as well as inter-scene progression and dialogue and camera work is outstanding throughout.
the MUSIC and pacing, along with respect for the first movie is commendable. Again, i am striving to reveal as little as possible because it's a spoiler-free review and i believe that every movie should be judged based on its own merits and experience, unaltered by exterior factors: i will risk saying this: Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is a refreshing addition to the low budget slasher scene which pays tribute to Don't Fuck In The Woods while remaining its own movie. Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 elevates itself far beyond the perceived gimmicks of its genre, and it creates in itself a wonderful world of terror while paying subtle homage to a few body-horror and thriller classics [unnamed, due to the spoiler-free nature of this review]
Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is a shining example of what sequels should be.
i very strongly believe small budget films like this should be celebrated wildly.
i love this movie. 9/10.
Cats absolutely does not deserve the hatred that it got!
I though it was an outstanding movie about belonging, redemption, friendship, loss, forgiveness, hope, and acceptance.
I must admit, the first few minutes of Cats were a bit jarring: the human-cats look unsettling on all fours for an extended period of time, which is almost exclusively how they were for much of the introduction (The vast majority of the movie they're on two feet so that aspect improves quickly). Robbie Fairchild and Francesca Hayward are phenomenal actors, and the facial motion capture brilliantly preserves the the emotion they bring to the film.
Watching Cats a full year after it was released was an interesting experience. I'd say it's an experience similar to what Victoria the main character experiences in the movie herself. The main plot is about regular cat who is actually tossed into a bizarre and unknown world with weird characters and a bunch of nonsense, spectacle, bizarre other cats, traditions, and situations completely foreign to her. Watching the first 20 minutes of Cats I felt like Victoria: "How did I get here?" "What the heck is going on?" "What am I supposed to do with myself?"
I began warming up to Cats at the same time the Jellicle cats were warming up to Victoria. The Jellicle cats welcomed Victoria to their cat group, and they wanted to teach Victoria the ways of their society. The cats are whimsical, but they have one super special ritual that Victoria is introduced to: a ritual that the evil wizard cat wants to steal. With that, we have the basic plot of Cats.
It continues on: Victoria learning more about the Jellicle society, about the bad guy, and the movie progresses naturally from there. It's a rated PG movie released during Christmas time 2019, it's not going to have any insane plot twists like Se7en (1995) or Upgrade (2018) and I thought this movie was wonderful overall. You get accustomed to the GGI quickly, and the good pacing and storyline strongly overshadows the small complaints there are about the visuals.
While watching the intro I would have rated Cats a 4/10. Middle of the movie, 5.5/10, but the ending of the movie, and thinking back on it while listening to the music and the credits, Cats a solid 6.5/10 in my book, rounded up to 7 in the Trakt system. I would recommend you watch this movie. I re-watched this again two days after seeing it for the first time and am boosting it to a 9/10 rating. I absolutely love this movie. Wait, no. The ending is.. strange. 8/10
The rest of my thoughts here might contain soft spoilers about popular and well-known big moments in the film, but any hard spoilers have been marked.
When Victoria met Grizabella, I thought that was remarkable: a newcomer not understanding why someone had been cast-out and shunned by her society goes to show that a fresh perspective, and listening free of judgement can go a long way to help someone out who is hurting.
Things I liked:
The facial motion capture. The overall theme. The pacing. Jason Derulo. The performances of Francesca Hayward and Robbie Fairchild. I liked when the magician cat tried a couple times to bring back the grandma cat, then everyone started cheering for him and singing their support of him, that was a heartwarming event in the movie Ian McKellen's number. It was emotional and portrayed a lived-in world that didn't need any over-explaining about his history, and his past as an actor.
Things I did not like: (i have a lot of things nit-picky to say, these are all minor things even though there a lot of them)
Yeah, the mice and the cockroaches are irredeemably terrible, in all aspects. The inconsistent size of the cats in respect to their environment? At the end of the movie (this is not a spoiler) there is a statue that the cats are sitting on and standing around. That statue looks just AWFUL in the CGI. If you pay close attention to where the characters hands and feet meet the 'stage' or background, you can tell that it doesn't 100% match up flawlessly. Rebel Wilson has a zipper-down cat fur costume that she wears OVER her performance outfit. I don't understand the logistics of that. Also, many characters wear wither fur coats, or actual tennis shoes and / or flats or heels. Who is making these shoes for these cats? Tap-Dancing.
Things that surprised me: I didn't know that Taylor Swift was a henchman for the bad guy! This movie made me cry a couple times! This movie was overall an enjoyable experience. I'm a HUGE Taylor Swift fan, but I was pleasantly surprised that Jason Derulo just brightened up and improved every single scene he was in. He played a big role in most of the movie, not just a one-off scene as Swift had. Ian McKellen, I was worried it would be a sad, confusing, frustrating affair, but his number was wonderful. I honestly decided to watch Cats as a half joke, half morbid curiosity but I was very pleasantly surprised.
An outsider is introduced, an insider had been cast out, a pre-established group set in their own ways and tradition but is willing to listen to the newcomer, the same group seeing the fresh perspective of the newcomer and finding forgiveness and understanding toward the one they had previously cast out, and finally, acceptance of the newcomer and introducing her as one of their own.
Babysitter from Netflix is 10/10: one of my favorite movies of all time. I had been putting off watching this movie for several days because I didn't want to be disappointed.
Killer Queen absolutely did NOT let me down! The over-the-top buckets of gore moments are perfect for a movie like this, and the movie really did a great job bringing most of the main cast back, without ever feeling overdone. I haven't laughed that hard in a while, when I was watching the intro, the first 15 minutes or so. Really good narrative setup, and the time effects while Mel and Cole are talking were cool to see.
One of the best things about The Babysitter was the tight pacing at just under 90 minutes. I was concerned that the extra 20 minutes of runtime in Killer Queen would mean that it might have moments that dragged on, but again, I was pleasantly surprised it did not. Chris Wilde's character was an absolute delight. He and Ken Marino really clicked as a funny duo.
MEGA SPOILERS for the rest of the comment, please don't read unless you've seen both of the movies.
Please let there be a third!
The ending was great! I tend to over analyze and get too much in-my-head when watching movies, and there are a lot of twists that I can see coming from a mile away. The fact that the twist about Phoebe's babysitter being Bee, AND that it was Bee who sacrificed herself to save Phoebe absolutely floored me. I never expected to cry so damn much watching this movie, but it really got me.
