We're back at it, and again, here is another Strange Log. Not a whole lot to cover, but just some stuff coming down the pike that I wanna address and share my thoughts on. Spoilers for "Scream 7". Let's dive in;
I wanna talk about "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" trailer and so far, it looks good, except for a few things, for starters...I've ALWAYS hated Scorpion. I always thought his costume looked dumb, I thought the character was lame, and I'm not too keen on the actor they have for him, as he doesn't look menacing at all. I haven't watched "Better Call Saul", no interest in doing so, so I have no clue how he was as Nacho Varga. I can only judge him based on his performance as Scorpion, and already playing a lame villain is a death nail. I can't imagine he's taking over as the main villain of this film or Tombstone; there's gotta be someone else taking the role as the main villain because neither of them are worth an entire film. Sadie Sink is in the film, and many are speculating she's the new Jean Grey, and considering the X-Men will be introduced to the MCU in "Doomsday" and Famke Jennsen is returning as Jean Grey, I doubt this...unless she is some multiverse, Jean Grey. Will this film post-credit into "Doomsday"? I think as the final MCU film BEFORE "Doomsday", IT F*CKIN' BETTER!
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| My goodness, he looks so stupid |
"Fantastic Four: First Steps" and "Thunderbolts" barely gave us any hint as to Doom's plan, and with just one movie away, a street-level Spider-Man movie, there has got to be SOME connection to Doom. "Avengers: Doomsday" comes in like a wrecking ball, which is again why I think this is gonna be one of the most surreal cinematic experiments I've ever seen. At any rate, I am super excited to see "Spider-Man: Brand New Day", I love Tom Holland, I love the character, and I wanna see what shakes down for our favorite webslinger. Looks like he'll be getting organic webbing (which I always thought made more sense than web cartridges, spiders are known more for their webs than being able to stick to walls...most insects do that, and BEFORE YOU@ ME, YES, I KNOW! SPIDERS AREN'T INSECTS! They're literal demons from Hell, but I digress.) I am wondering what's gonna happen to the leftover piece of the Venom symbiote from the end of "No Way Home"; we didn't forget about that. We already established that Venom, or at least the symbiotes, do exist in the MCU via The Necrosword (if they wanna explore the connection between The Necrosword and Knull, doubtful, but we'll see). Chances are we'll be seeing the Black Spider-Man outfit either in "Secret Wars" or "Doomsday".
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| We didn't forget about you, weird alien jizz |
Since we're talking about superheroes again, let's talk about "Supergirl". Basically, this movie looks like John Wick but with Supergirl at the center, trying to prevent Krypto from dying from some kinda poison...or something...and at this point, I could give a crap less about the dog, and I hope it dies (yeah, I said it). With this being the 2nd part of the 1st chapter of the new DC Universe ("Gods and Monsters") I'm just wondering who exactly is excited about this movie and why? Aside from Jason Mamoa actually being cast as a character he looks like (Lobo), instead of Aquaman (no clue who thought he should be Aquaman, that was genuinely a retarded piece of casting), this movie looks...meh. Not to mention Milly Alcock is opening her mouth about "people owning women's bodies," and...*sigh* we're not doing this again. No one gives a crap about Milly Alcock, no one is complaining about Supergirl being a girl, Supergirl has literally existed before Milly was born, no one cares about Milly, they're talking about the movie, and the movie looks meh! This is where we are in 2026, when artists can't understand the separation between themselves and their work. I get that that's difficult, but actors nowadays act like any form of criticism is a personal attack against them, and it's stupid. No one is coming after Milly Alcock, and no one is talking about the "Supergirl" movie because NO ONE CARES, including me.
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| F*CK THIS DOG! |
The next movie in this weird lineup is "Clayface," and I am still wondering who signed off on this. "Clayface"? Of all the rogues in Batman's gallery to get their own movie, we're giving one to Clayface? Not Harvey Dent, not The Riddler, The Penguin gotta mini-series (I still think Robin Lord Taylor could have been legitimately the BEST Penguin...until "Gotham" decided to take a massive dump on his character) but Clayface...gets an entire movie...and not to mention good ol' Mike Flanagan is writing it (so expect massive amounts of sexual deviancy for no reason). So far, despite "Superman" being a decent start, I am not impressed with James Gunn's DC Universe, and the lineup of Supergirl and Clayface does not inspire confidence.
What does inspire confidence is the "Masters Of The Universe" trailer, and man, this thing looks legit. The characters look good, Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn is all of the Yes, and even Jared Leto as Skeletor doesn't have me turning my nose up in disgust, so this looks pretty dang neat. The ONLY thing missing is, of course, my main man Orko, but we can't have everything we want, can we? I loved the original "Masters Of The Universe" with Dolph Lungren and Frank Langella, and I haven't consumed any He-Man media since then. He-Man has been a series that people have been trying to revive for ages, to little to no avail, but this might bring He-Man back into the conversation. Who knows, if this goes well, we just might get a live-action "Thundercats" movie. One can only hope...
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| Screw Jared Leto, but the Make Up and VFX Artists deserve all the "Yes!" for this Skeletor, this sh*t is business! |
Speaking of hope, let's talk about the "Backrooms." I have much interest in the "Backrooms" as liminal horror has been a new enjoyment for me. Liminal horror has always existed, but The Backrooms has brought liminal horror to the conversation in full, and despite "American Horror Stories" attempting to utilize The Backrooms, this film looks like it has the heart and soul of "The Backrooms," as it has the original creator (Kane Parsons) as its screenwriter and director. I am only somewhat familiar with the Backrooms, as I have only watched some of the YouTube videos, but now that there is a movie coming out and it looks legitimately interesting, I may dive into the YouTube videos. We'll see.
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| Yes! |
Switching gears, "Oshi No Ko" is currently my favorite anime. I adore this so far. So many reincarnated stories happen and don't touch on the characters' previous lives, but "Oshi No Ko," despite how normal it is, doesn't let you forget that, at the core of this story, there is still a strong supernatural thread that binds this story together. "Oshi No Ko" is so normal, but time and time again, you're reminded that Aqua and Ruby are the product of supernatural meddling, and the reason behind their reincarnation is still unexplored, but the characters themselves do not forget, and the finale of Season 2 really brought the message home that this story at its core is a supernatural series through and through. I am so happy I found this series.
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| Once again, yes! |
NOW FOR SPOILERS OF "SCREAM 7"
Now let's talk about "Scream 7". "Scream 7" is the WORST of the franchise, and dare I say it, I might legitimately be done with the series. Not only was the reveal of the killer absolutely lame, but the kills were downright goofy. But ultimately, this movie has gone into decline since 5. "Scream 5" and onwards have failed at killers and motives. In the original series (1 to 4), the killers had a clear motive and a way to escape being caught. They revealed themselves because at that point, they believed they had won. Billy and Stu were going to frame Sidney's father, Mickey and Mrs. Loomis were going to frame Sidney, Roman Bridger was going to frame John Milton, and Jill was going to frame her ex-boyfriend and Charlie. But what was Richie and Amber's motive? Restore the Stab Franchise to its original setting and then frame Sam? Richie's family only wanted revenge, and their father was a police officer, so...framing wasn't an issue, but this one...damn...this one was awful, and I legit think I might be done with this series altogether now.
"Scream" used to be the one horror movie series that you could guarantee would call out tropes. In the day and age where being "meta" was the in-thing, "Scream," the original series was going to call attention to horror tropes. Reviving the slasher genre in the 90s, "Scream" was a breath of fresh air as it called attention to the slasher tropes while remaining a murder mystery at the heart, "Scream 2" was a commentary on The O.J. Simpson Trial and the violence in movie battles raging in the culture, Mickey's desire to blame movies as a legal defense was dismissed as Mrs. Loomis's main motive was revenge, the film's ultimate commentary being that outside influences aren't the cause of violence, it's always personal motives, "Scream 3" is easily one of my favorite film retcons and was a commentary on horror trilogies. "Scream 4" was a commentary on internet fame and the extremes people will go to achieve, and that was definitely needed because at that time, Instagram and YouTube were still not as popular as they are now, and things like OnlyFans were non-existent. Nowadays, you have certain YouTubers and Streamers going to extremes to gain fans and followers. But what was "Scream 5" about? Toxic fans? "Scream 6" was just a revenge story, and "Scream 7" was...dumb...also dated itself by mentioning AI. There is a difference between being a product of its time and dating itself. AI is a highly discussed topic RIGHT NOW, but 20, 30 years from now, it won't be as discussed as it is now. And because AI is still the big bad boogeyman Hollywood wants it to be, "Scream 7" says, "Yeah, let's mention AI," and that just tanks the movie hard.
END OF SPOILERS FOR "SCREAM 7"
Now that that's over, we're moving right along to something that has been bugging me for a while, and that is, the lack of good horror. Listen, I like horror movies kinda...most are silly, and the others are just gorefests, there's a sweet spot where the movie feels more like a mystery with some horror elements, and that's what I really love. While that's hard to find in a movie, it's twice as hard to find a book. I've mentioned I don't do a whole lot of reading, so I go to audiobooks as my primary way of consuming written media. I've read (listened to) a lot of Stephen King, and thus far he's the only one who seems to have really good audiobooks...I've listened to Michael Connelly, Alex Finlay, and Andy Marino, and so far their books SUCK! Did King get a monopoly on having the best narrators? I'm really struggling here to find some GOOD books, either in the horror or thriller genre, but most of the time I find myself not giving a damn about the characters, and that's a death knell for me. If I don't care whether or not the characters live or die, I'm pretty much done with the whole thing OR something interesting enough has to be happening for me to stay tuned...like in the case of "It Rides A Pale Horse"...which was an absolute SLOG to get through...(man, that book was awful). Any recommendations are welcome, but Dean Koontz is not an option. I tried Koontz, but...I can't get into it.
Last but not least, I'll be continuing with "Project Canceled," and I have acquired 3 shows that I consider my Golden Calves. I've mentioned them before, and they are "Awake", "Journeyman", and "Cult". I'll be reviewing those three shows in the near future after my current "Project Canceled."...er...project. Really looking forward to that. I wanted to review the canceled FOX show "Vanished" but like its namesake...well...I cannot find any app that streams it, nor any place to download it. "Awake", "Journeyman", and "Cult", and 3 shows that (at the time of watching them) I thought were incredible, but it has been YEARS since I watched them, and being this far removed from them, I wonder if I'll feel the same way? Very excited. Here's a GIF of me when I was watching my shows back in the day, until next time;
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