THE DARKEST HOUR (2011)

Reasonably entertaining low-budget sci-fi flick about a group of douchers hanging out at a douche club in Moscow when suddenly the electricity goes out.  When they step outside to investigate they see the entire city is dark and the sky is full of falling lights (almost John Wyndham-style).  One of the glowing balls lands in the street and when a pig approaches the car-size globe, it turns invisible and disintegrates him into a swirl of dust.  Everybody justifiably freaks the fuck out.  Our heroes have a few close calls and end up hiding in the kitchen.  When they emerge a few days later, they discover the entire planet has been taken over by these killer invisible ball things.  Stuff happens.

I'll never watch it ever again, but for a one time watch it was an alright time burner.  Low budget, okay CG effects, okay pace, zero nudity, bloodless violence, no ups, no downs, no surprises.  Just average all the way across the board.  If you need me I'll be in my room reading "The Day of the Triffids".

Somebody should tells those people calmly walking around on their balcony that an apocalypse is going on.

WRONG TURN 5: BLOODLINES (2012)

Welcome to the Mountain Man Festival.  It's suppose to be a huge festival thing like Burning Man or something.  Who knows.  Five douchers are driving down a country road on there way to the festival, when they suddenly see a hillbilly standing in the road.  They swerve to avoid the slack-jawed yokel and hit a tree instead.  Then the fuzz shows up and arrests everybody.  That's bad news bears for the five douchers, because the hillbilly just happens to be the father of the three psychos from Part 4.  And now they're on their way to bust him out of jail RIO BRAVO-style.  What an amazing story.

Nice change of setting (even though the city was clearly a sound stage), quick pace, violence, badly lit nudity, snow plow kills, leg torture, dismemberment, burned alive in a barrel, Pinhead without his makeup on, stupid decisions, forced to eat your own intestines, electrocution, eyeball removal, suicide.  If you're a horror fan, it's worth a one time viewing, but really that's it.

My biggest complaint, besides the weak script, is: no Jennifer Pudavick.  As awesome as Part 4 was in the violence and story departments, the film overall was even more awesome because of her presence.  She carried the film and if the filmmakers were wise, they would just bring her back in each film.  I know she died in Part 4, but she could have easily played the sheriff in this film and it would have benefited greatly.

Part 1 - Wrong Turn (2003)
Part 2 - Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007)
Part 3 - Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009)
Part 4 - Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011)
Part 6 - Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort
Reboot - Wrong Turn (2021)

HOT SPELL (1958)

Wow!  What a powder keg this movie was!  I came by it completely by mistake and within the first two minutes I was hooked and I didn't turn away for the rest of the movie. Set during a sweltering New Orleans summer, housewife Shirley Booth is living in a delusional dream world.  Her husband, Anthony Quinn, still loves her as a person and a mother to their three children, but he's tired of her and goes off all the time boozing and sleeping with younger women.  Her children are another matter.  Both of the boys are old enough to move out on their own, but she still smothers them.  And her daughter, Shirley MacLaine, is in love with a shallow guy, but mother only worsens things by giving her well-intentioned advise that doesn't turn out too well.

If you're used to Shirley Booth as the spunky maid from "Hazel" you're gonna be shocked when you see her here cause she turns in a heartbreaking performance.  Her whole life since she was just a teenager she's dedicated to her husband and children, but now that they've outgrown her, she's lost.  She never developed a personality of her own.  Her family was her personality.

Lots and lots of screaming and arguing, blistering fast pace, excellent script with some brutal as fuck lines, award level acting by the entire cast, thought provoking story and an ending that actually caught me off guard.  Highly recommended.