Tag Archives: vengeful spirits

Aug 23 2026

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Exhuma

Exhuma (2024)
Kim Go-eun, Choi Min-sik, Lee Do-hyun, Yoo Hai Jin, Kim Jae-cheol, Kim Sun-young, Lee Jong-goo, Lee Yeong-ran
Directed by: Jang Jae-hyun

This one’s been in my to-watch list since it came out 2 years ago, and I finally got around to it. And while I’m left slightly confused, I did enjoy my time with it.

After tracing a strange ailment to a remote grave site, a team of supernatural experts soon discovers what happens when you mess with the wrong grave.

So, this one was special. I can confidently say I’ve never seen anything quite like it. But honestly, that’s because this film leans heavily on Korean and Japanese folklore, so I had no idea what was going on half the time. The run time was also a little daunting, clocking in at 2 hours and 14 minutes. I’d say it was a little excessive, but really, it didn’t feel that long. It’s definitely a slow burn, but everything that’s in there kinda needs to be. I’d have been even more confused if anything had been left out.

On a technical level, this film is gorgeous. The colours, the camera work, everything worked in its favour. The acting was all around terrific, especially from our leading lady. I almost didn’t watch it cause when I put it on, on Prime, it was dubbed and I was like nope, I’m out. But then I thought to check the audio settings, and I changed it to original, and put English subtitles on and voila! No more awful dubbing. And from the little I heard, the dubbing was truly awful. And, because I’m contractually obligated to say so, the most beautiful Asian man I’ve ever seen is in this film (Lee Do-hyun as Yoon Bong-gil). I mean, holy hell…

So, do I recommend it? If you don’t mind experiencing other cultures, and slow burns don’t bother you, then yes, absolutely. I give it a pretty great 8/10. Now to go hunt down Lee Do-hyun’s other work…

M.

This film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, AMC+, and Shudder.

Aug 19 2026

Mel’s 5 Second Review: La Llorona

La Llorona (2019)
Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kenéfic, Julio Diaz, Ayla-Elea Hurtado, María Mercedes Coroy, María Telón, Juan Pablo Olyslager
Directed by: Jayro Bustamante

Shudder has a tendency to dub movies that aren’t in English and I absolutely hate it. I’ll actually stop it, no matter how much I want to see it. I’ll pick the actor’s real voice every time, even if I don’t speak the language. Anyways, I was happy to see that this film wasn’t dubbed. And, oh boy, was it one of the very few things I actually liked about it.

Retired general Enrique and his family must face the truth of his actions and the sense that a supernatural force is targeting them for his crimes during the Mayan genocide.

This movie does have some good going for it. The story is actually excellent, although I seem to remember the La Llorona story being something quite different. Hold, let me go look it up… Ok, yes, it is different. Here’s what Google had to say about it: “La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, is a famous ghost in Hispanic and Mexican folklore. The legend says a heartbroken or angry woman named Maria drowns her children in a river after her husband leaves her. She then kills herself. Cursed to wander the earth, her ghost cries out for her lost children near water.” (If a version of this sounds familiar, it’s because Supernatural’s pilot episode was about this, except they called her a Woman in White.) Water still features prominently in the story, just not quite in this way.

This, in my opinion, would have made a fantastic short film, maybe half an hour long. But there are just so many long shots of little to nothing happening that I was begging for something to happen. I spoke out loud to my tv, “something, anything, please, just stub your toe, even, come on”. I do enjoy a good slow burn, but this was glacial. The acting was mostly pretty good, and it did have some good looking shots.

I actually knew nothing of the real-world events that inspired this film. I thought that this was going to be a period piece, set during conquest. I was actually quite upset that it wasn’t! Looking it up after the fact and boy, do humans ever suck. Wouldn’t it really be nice for vengeful ghosts to come around and take care of these people?

So, do I recommend it? No, not really. It’s slow and mostly boring. It’s got a good final 10 minutes, but it’s not enough to save it. I give it a (generous) 4/10.

M.

This film is currently streaming on Shudder and AMC+.

May 4 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: Solstice

Solstice
(2008) Elisabeth Harnois, Shawn Ashmore, Amanda Seyfried, Hilarie Burton, Matt O’Leary, Tyler Hoechlin, R Lee Ermey, Jenna Hildebrand

solstice

SPOILERS AHEAD

Sigh… so it was the boyfriend. Just as I figured it would be from the beginning. They really need to move away from this cliché. It’s worn out its welcome. Years ago, it would have been the creepy old guy, but that’s changed too. Now the creepy old guy is invariably a nice guy who just had something awful happen to him to explain his weird behaviour. Case in point, this weird guy had a grand daughter go missing. Besides the warily predictable plot, the film isn’t bad. The acting is generally pretty good, the cast is pretty, and the location is beautiful. Although if I have to see Amanda Seyfried silently over-enunciate a word again I might have to punch her. Seriously, she did it no less than 6 times, “ohhkaayy”, “thaaank youu”, “reaaally?”. If I had a friend who constantly did that, we’d be having a few words :-p On the whole it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It gets a decent 6.5/10 from me.

This film is currently streaming on Netflix UK.

M.

Jan 27 2015

Mel’s 5 Second Review: The Taking of Deborah Logan

The Taking of Deborah Logan
(2014) Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang, Ryan Cutrona, Anne Bedian, Brett Gentile, Jeremy DeCarlos, Tonya Bludsworth, and Julianne Taylor

the-taking-of-deborah-logan

SPOILERS AHEAD

Let me start by stating that I had absolutely no intention of watching this film when I found out it was a found-footage style film. I can count on one hand the number of these films I’ve enjoyed, I just don’t see the appeal. They’re supposed to be more frightening since it’s “more real”, I guess, but really all it is is annoying. The shaky camera, especially when the characters are running (and they always do at some point), is nothing except nausea inducing. You can’t even see what’s happening. It’s a genre that has long over-stayed it’s welcome, and I for one will be happy to see it go away. Alright, so, this film. After reading a few reviews, here and on movie sites, saying how good it was, I decided to go ahead and give it a watch, fully expecting to turn it off halfway. And I have to admit, it was pretty good. Jill Larson turned in a marvelous and rather creepy performance as Deborah, which is good since the rest of the cast is pretty mediocre. It was a little slow in some parts, but it built good suspense, so that was ok. That was the good. Now the bad. The ending left much to be desired. It had everything I mentioned I hated about found footage films, and then some. Running, incoherent yelling, the camera light flicking on and off, the image snowing in and out, tons of static, and it lasted for a good 20 minutes. So that knocked a point off its score. The main film student, Mia, was painfully stupid sometimes, so that knocked off another point. And then there was the whole snake thing, culminating in that moronic head-eating scene, and that squeezed another point off. For a film that had been good and scary, that ending was very much a disappointment. But everything before that was quite impressive, enough that it still manages a score of 7/10.

This film is currently streaming on Netflix and, despite its problems, I still reccomend it. Enjoy!

M.