[MOVIE REVIEW] No Tears in Hell (2025)

 

Title: No Tears in Hell

Genre: Horror / Thriller

Company: Scatena and Rosner Films

Directed by: Michael Caissie

Year: 2025

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: N/A

SCREENER REVIEW

Based off a true story of the Russian serial killer, Alexander Spesivtsev, the film features a young teenage boy named Alex who turns out to be a cannibalistic serial killer who lures his victims to his house and kills them on site.  His mother is also an accomplice to Alex's crimes and the film is spent on Alex killing his victims, while the police are trying to find Alex's victims before it's too late.

So, this film marks the first time that I ever received a movie screener and man, was I so happy about finally getting a movie screener!  I was actually surprised that I was given a horror and thriller film to review, since I tend to watch a lot of films that are thrillers and horror and I was glad to receive such a film to review.  So, the first thing that I liked about this film was the premise.  The fact that this movie was based off of a real life murderer was what made this film really intense to watch and I actually felt frightened for Alex's victims.  Also, I do enjoy watching films that are about serial killers and this film did a great job at making things extremely disturbing whenever Alex kills off his victims.  Another thing that I liked about this film was the gore.  This film has some of the most gruesome and violent moments that I have ever seen in any thriller film and it was horrifying seeing how Alex murdered his victims.  Another thing that I liked about this film were the performances.  Luke Baines did a fantastic job at portraying Alex, the serial killer, as he made Alex into a truly threatening character.

My biggest issue with this movie was that the pacing was incredibly slow.  Even though this movie was about a serial killer, the film took too much time in getting to the more interesting parts and I often got bored throughout this movie because of the pacing.

Overall, even though "No Tears in Hell" has a very interesting premise, a fantastic performance from Luke Baines and lots of gory scenes, the film suffers from very slow pacing.  If you are interested in checking out a film about a serial killer, then this film might interest you.  However, if you are looking for a serial killer film that has good pacing, then this film might not be suitable for you.

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[MOVIE REVIEW] The Pied Piper (Krysar) (1986)

 

OR

Title: The Pied Piper (a.k.a Krysar)

Starring:  Oldrich Kaiser, Jiri Labus, Michal Pavlicek, Vilem Cok

Genre:  Horror / Fantasy / Romance

Company:   Kratky Film Praha

Directed by: Jiri Barta

Year: 1986

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  Amazon

The film starts off with the people of Hamelin doing their daily tasks when suddenly, a large group of rats come and invaded the village, causing mayhem for the townspeople.  The leaders of the town tried to find a way to get rid of the rats when they suddenly meet up with a mysterious man, who stated that he will help get rid of the rats if the town leaders pay him money.  The town leaders agree to this and the Pied Piper ended up getting rid of the rats by using his flute to send the rats to their deaths.  After that, the Pied Piper falls in love with a young woman who is very innocent.  But then, things start to go wrong when the town leaders refused to pay the Pied Piper and so, the Pied Piper decided to take his revenge against the town of Hamelin.

So, for years, I have been watching and reading lots of darker and edgier takes on various fairy tales; but I had never seen a darker and edgier take on "The Pied Piper" before, until I saw this movie.  This movie was such a dark yet entertaining experience for me as I just loved how dark this particular story got as the film goes on.  There were so many dark moments in this film, like how the Pied Piper deals with the rats or how depraved the townspeople really are and those dark moments really made this film stand out to me.  I also loved the bizarre and disturbing designs of the characters and the town of Hamelin itself as everything looks so disjointed and the animation style reminded me so much of "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  Another thing that I loved about this film was that it showed us just how corrupted the townspeople were.  In the original fairy tale, the town leaders did refuse to pay the Pied Piper, but the story seemed to be lighthearted, at least until the end.  Here, the town leaders are corrupted themselves and we get to see just how disturbing and depraved they really are, and it helped upped the bleakness of this film.  I also loved the design of the Pied Piper himself as he is not portrayed as a jolly guy like he usually is in other interpretations of the fairy tale.  Instead, he is portrayed as a creepy and silent man whose only goal is to take down the rats to get his money.  However, I do like the fact that the film tried to give the Pied Piper a softer side as he falls in love with the innocent woman.

One of the issues that I had with this film was that the first half of the film was pretty slow.  Even though the first half of the film was introducing us to the townspeople, it wouldn't be until the halfway point of the film where the Pied Piper shows up and it was a bit of a slog to go through the first half of the film.  I also found the characters of the innocent woman and the fisherman to be a bit bland in comparison to the rest of the townspeople as they don't really have much in personalities other than being more innocent than the townspeople.  I actually wished that they had developed the fisherman and the innocent woman a bit more in this film.

Overall, "The Pied Piper (Krysar)" is one of the best and darkest adaptations of the "Pied Piper" story!  Even though the beginning was very slow and the characters of the fisherman and the innocent woman weren't that well developed, the dark atmosphere and the unique animation really made this film a treat to watch and I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a darker and edgier take on the Pied Piper story.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Corpse Bride
• MirrorMask

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[HORROR MOVIE CORNER] The Babysitter (2017)

 

Hello horror movie fans! Welcome to the all-new "Horror Movie Corner," where I talk about the horror movies that I have seen over the years!  So, this week's horror movie that I will be reviewing is the crazy Netflix film, "The Babysitter!"

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Title: The Babysitter

Starring:  Samara Weaving, Robbie Amell, Judah Lewis, Bella Thorne

Genre:  Comedy / Horror / Action

Company:   New Line Cinema

Directed by: McG

Year: 2017

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV-MA

Buy on:   Blu-Ray.com

This movie has graphic violence and strong language and some sexual content.  

The movie starts off with a 12-year-old boy named Cole Johnson who was constantly bullied at school and was always afraid of everything.  But despite all this, Cole is good friends with his babysitter Bee and they would do all sorts of things together.  One day, Cole's parents went on a getaway trip and they left Cole with Bee.  At first, things were going well between Cole and Bee as they enjoyed playing various games with each other.  But as soon as Cole goes to bed, he starts hearing Bee playing some games with her friends downstairs.  Cole then goes downstairs to see what Bee and her friends were doing and it turned out that Bee and her friends were performing a human sacrifice!  It was then that Cole realized that Bee and her friends are in a cult and that they planned on performing human sacrifices in order to have their wishes come true and Cole is the next victim on their list!  Now Cole has to do everything in his power to escape from Bee and her friends!

Wow! I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did!  At first, I thought that I wasn't going to like this movie because the premise sounded ridiculous.  But once I watched this movie, I was quite impressed by how funny and scary this film was!  I really loved the performances of all the actors and actresses in this film as they really got into their roles and they made the movie so entertaining to watch!  I especially loved the performances from Samara Weaving as Bee and Robbie Amell as Max as they were the most entertaining characters in the movie!  I loved the way that Robbie Amell made Max into such a comical character, despite the fact that he's an ax-crazy killer.  I also enjoyed Samara Weaving's performance as Bee as she made Bee so friendly yet deadly at the same time.  I also liked the fact that the movie had a nice balance between comedy and horror as there were many scenes that were quite intense.  But at the same time, I was laughing out loud at how over the top the actors' performances were.

The main issue that I had with this film was that I felt that the characters weren't that well developed as I don't know anything about their backstories.  The characters that I was the most curious about were Bee and her friends as their motivations to perform human sacrifices seem a little flat to me because I don't know much about their backgrounds and how they even know about performing sacrifices to have their wishes come true.

Overall, "The Babysitter" may seem like a silly horror comedy film, but it is definitely entertaining to watch because of how over the top the characters' antics are.  And I loved the way that this film turned many horror tropes on its head and made a pretty entertaining movie out of it!

[HORROR MOVIE CORNER] Hocus Pocus (1993)

Hello horror movie fans! Welcome to the all-new "Horror Movie Corner," where I talk about the horror movies that I have seen over the years!  So, this week's horror movie that I will be reviewing is Disney's cult Halloween classic "Hocus Pocus!"

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Title: Hocus Pocus

Starring:  Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Thora Birch, Omri Katz

Genre:  Comedy / Horror / Adventure

Company:   Disney

Directed by: Kenny Ortega

Year: 1993

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated PG - For Some Scary Sequences, and for Language.

Buy on:   Blu-Ray.com  //  Amazon  //  Best Buy

This movie has some scary sequences that involves children being put into danger and some light language.  

The movie starts off with a young boy named Thackery Binx who finds out that his little sister Emily is missing and he goes out to search for her.  It was then that he finds out that the Sanderson Sisters, three sisters who are witches, had kidnapped her and Thackery tries to save Emily.  But unfortunately, the Sanderson Sisters ended up sucking out Emily's soul in order to make themselves younger and Thackery is too late to save her.  The Sanderson Sisters than put a curse on Thackery that turns him into a black cat for all eternity.  But then, the villagers caught up with the Sanderson Sisters and ended up hanging them.  But not before Winifred, the head witch, places a curse that they will be resurrected once a "virgin" lights the candle on Halloween.  The movie then fast forwards to the year 1993 and we are introduced to Max and his little sister Dani.  Max is having a horrible time in his new home in Salem, while Dani is adjusting to Salem just fine.  Then on Halloween night, Max decided to light the candle that would resurrect the Sanderson Sisters, despite both Dani and Allison telling him not to.  The Sanderson Sisters are then resurrected and they decided to continue their plan of sucking out the souls out of the children of Salem to make themselves younger.  Now, Dani, Max, Allison and now Binx, who is a black cat at this point, have to try to stop the Sandereson Sisters before it's too late!

Wow!  I'm actually surprised that I enjoyed this movie as much as I did!  When I first heard about this movie, I was a bit intrigued about what this movie was all about.  So, when I finally watched this movie, I was completely hooked!  I liked the fact that the movie tackled the subject of sibling relationships and how important it is to care about your siblings, no matter how annoying they can be.  This was best shown between the Sanderson Sisters, Thackery and his little sister Emily and Max and his little sister Dani.  The Sanderson Sisters are like the negative side of the sibling relationship as Winifred abuses her younger sisters Mary and Sarah and wouldn't think of protecting them.  Thackery and Emily are on the more positive side of the sibling relationship as Thackery truly cares about his sister Emily, although he failed to save her.  And then we have Max and Dani who are in the middle as they argue with each other a lot, but they would do anything to protect each other.  I also loved the way that the movie had a nice balance between horror and comedy as I laughed out loud during the Sanderson Sisters' crazy antics and yet, I was a bit scared for the children being threatened with death throughout this film.  Especially during the scene where Emily, a little girl , ends up dying at the beginning of the movie.  I especially loved the actors' performances in this film, with the Sanderson Sisters being the best part of the film.  Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy did a fantastic job at portraying the Sanderson Sisters as they were so hilarious and entertaining to watch! I also enjoyed Thora Birch's performance as Dani as she made Dani quite snarky yet energetic at the same time.

The only issues that I had with this film was that I felt that the protagonists were a bit too flat and I wished that they had explained the backstories of some of the characters.  Even though Max and Allison were interesting characters, they weren't as entertaining as the Sanderson Sisters and the only protagonists that were pretty entertaining were Dani and Binx the Cat.  Also, I would like to know how the Sanderson Sisters became witches in the first place (although it was implied that the Devil gave them their powers).

Overall, "Hocus Pocus" is a fantastic film that both children and adults will enjoy!  It balances horror and humor very well and it has some of the best performances from Sarah Jessica Parker, Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy!