We’re just one week from Halloween, and it looks like some serendipitous timing for this next filmic installment of Lazy Sunday, as the three films this week are either horror films or “horror-adjacent” in nature.  It’s perhaps a bit of an underwhelming example of serendipity, as I now pretty much exclusively watch horror movies on Shudder, but these reviews were from my pre-Shudder days, when I was watching most stuff on Hulu.

Of course, you don’t care about all of that.  You just want to read about movie reviews you probably already skimmed through months ago.  So, on with the retrospective!

• “Monday Morning Movie Review: The Wailing (2016)” – Asian horror is really where all the fresh stuff in horror flicks is coming from these days, or so it seems.  Asians harbor way fewer hang-ups than we do about politically correct stuff, so they’ll make movies that aren’t just agit-prop for Cultural Marxism and Grievance Studies majors.  2016’s The Wailing was a pretty good example of this phenomenon of East Asian horror, but there are far better ones (like 2017’s One Cut of the Dead, a brilliant zombie film that is really a film-within-a-film about making a film).  Also, the movie is excruciatingly long, especially if guttural Korean wailing isn’t your thing.
• “Monday Morning Movie Review: Color Out of Space (2019)” – My blogger buddy photog over at Orion’s Cold Fire and I published our reviews of The Color Out of Space simultaneously.  You can read his screed against this cinematic butchering of the Lovecraft story here.  We both drew the same conclusions:  it was an insufferable movie, which was really unfortunate because of its Lovecraftian source material and the presence of Nicolas Cage.  Those two combined should make for an insane experience.  Instead, this movie felt like a chore to watch, and none of the characters came across as likeable or sympathetic.  What’s funny, too, is that when I subscribed to Shudder, they were making a big deal about having this film on the streaming service.
  Even Nicolas Cage was bad in this film, and that’s hard to write as a Nick Cage fan.  Here was my assessment from the original:
  “It’s like the uncanny valley:  at a certain point, robots, animatronics, etc., are so realistic, they’re unsettling.  The viewer can tell that something is off, despite the enhanced realism.  In Color, Cage gets so crazy it loses its impact; instead of creating the unsettled feeling one gets around a raving derelict at a late-night bus stop, one gets the unsettled feeling of seeing a robot trying to be life-like.  It’s an unsettling portrayal, to be sure, but not in the way the filmmakers intended.”
• “Monday Morning Movie Review: Life Like (2019)” – I watch so many movies, I forget about most of them, even the ones I review.  That was the case with Life Like.  It was a decent film with an intriguing premise, but the wife came off as completely ungrateful for the incredible life she literally had fall into her lap, resulting in a near affair with a not-quite-android.  Yeesh!  I ended my review thusly:  “As Proverbs 21:9 says, it is better to live on the roof of one’s house than with a riotous woman.  We could probably add “hunky robots” to that, too.”

Well, that’s it for this last film retrospective before Halloween.  Here’s to a spooky, fun week!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

• Lazy Sunday – APR Pieces
• Lazy Sunday II – Lincoln Posts
• Lazy Sunday III – Historical Moments
• Lazy Sunday IV – Christianity
• Lazy Sunday V – Progressivism, Part I
• Lazy Sunday VI – Progressivism, Part II
• Lazy Sunday VII – Deep State
• Lazy Sunday VIII – Conservatism
• Lazy Sunday IX – Economics, Part I
• Lazy Sunday X – Economics, Part II
• Lazy Sunday XI – Walls
• Lazy Sunday XII – Space
• Lazy Sunday XIII – Immigration
• Lazy Sunday XIV – Gay Stuff
• Lazy Sunday XV – Work
• Lazy Sunday XVI – #MAGAWeek2018
• Lazy Sunday XVII – #MAGAWeek2019
• Lazy Sunday XVIII – SubscribeStar Posts
• Lazy Sunday XIX – Music
• Lazy Sunday XX – The Laziest Sunday
• Lazy Sunday XXI – Travel
• Lazy Sunday XXII – Reading
• Lazy Sunday XXIII – Richard Weaver
• Lazy Sunday XXIV – Education
• Lazy Sunday XXV – Techno-Weirdos
• Lazy Sunday XXVI – Small Town Living
• Lazy Sunday XXVII – Bric-a-Brac
• Lazy Sunday XXVIII – World History
• Lazy Sunday XXIX – The New Criterion
• Lazy Sunday XXX – Trump, Part I
• Lazy Sunday XXXI – Trump, Part II
• Lazy Sunday XXXII – Festivals
• Lazy Sunday XXXIII – Virtue Signalling
• Lazy Sunday XXXIV – The Desperate Search for Meaning Series
• Lazy Sunday XXXV – Corporate Grind
• Lazy Sunday XXXVI – Best of the Reblogs, Part I
• Lazy Sunday XXXVII – Best of the Reblogs, Part II
• Lazy Sunday XXXVIII – Best of the Reblogs, Part III
• Lazy Sunday XXXIX – A Very Dokken Christmas Series
• Lazy Sunday XL – Christmas Carols
• Lazy Sunday XLI – Food
• Lazy Sunday XLII – 2019’s Top Five Posts
• Lazy Sunday XLIII – Music, Part II: More Music
• Lazy Sunday XLIV – SubscribeStar Saturday Posts, Part II: The Search for More Money
• Lazy Sunday XLV – Techno-Weirdos II
• Lazy Sunday XLVI – Man Time
• Lazy Sunday XLVII – Winning
• Lazy Sunday XLVIII – Culture
• Lazy Sunday XLIX – Family
• Lazy Sunday L – The Best of Lazy Sunday
• Lazy Sunday LI – Just for Fun
• Lazy Sunday LII – Democratic Candidates, Part I
• Lazy Sunday LIII – Democratic Candidates, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LIV – Coronavirus
• Lazy Sunday LV – Animals
• Lazy Sunday LVI – Movies
• Lazy Sunday LVII – Christianity, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LVIII – Spring Break Short Story Recommendations Recap
• Lazy Sunday LIX – The God Pill Series
• Lazy Sunday LX – Music, Part II: Gigging
• Lazy Sunday LXI – The Tuck
• Lazy Sunday LXII – The South
• Lazy Sunday LXIII – Holidays
• Lazy Sunday LXIV – Grab Bag
• Lazy Sunday LXV – Rioting
• Lazy Sunday LXVI – Video Games
• Lazy Sunday LXVII – Phone it in Fridays, Part I
• Lazy Sunday LXVIII – Phone it in Fridays, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LXIX – Phone it in Fridays, Part III
• Lazy Sunday LXX – Phone it in Friday, Part IV
• Lazy Sunday LXXI – Road Trips
• Lazy Sunday LXXII – Forgotten Posts, Volume I
• Lazy Sunday LXXIII – Forgotten Posts, Volume II
• Lazy Sunday LXXIV – Forgotten Posts, Volume III
• Lazy Sunday LXXV – Forgotten Posts, Volume IV
• Lazy Sunday LXXVI – Forgotten Posts, Volume V
• Lazy Sunday LXXVII – Rural America
• Lazy Sunday LXXVIII – Space, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LXXXIX – SCOTUS
• Lazy Sunday LXXX – Big Ideas
• Lazy Sunday LXXXI – Education, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LXXXII – Universal Studios
• Lazy Sunday LXXXIII – The Mountains
• Lazy Sunday LXXXIV – Halloween Hijinks
• Lazy Sunday LXXXV – Elections
• Lazy Sunday LXXXVI – Questions, Part I
• Lazy Sunday LXXXVII – Questions, Part II
• Lazy Sunday LXXXVIII – Questions, Part III
• Lazy Sunday LXXXIX – 100 Week Review
• Lazy Sunday XC – Questions, Part IV
• Lazy Sunday XCI – Questions, Part V
• Lazy Sunday XCII – Christmas
• Lazy Sunday XCIII – 2020’s Top Five Posts
• Lazy Sunday XCIV – My Favorite Things
• Lazy Sunday XCV – The Best of Lazy Sunday
• Lazy Sunday XCVI – More Movies: Movie Reviews, Part I
• Lazy Sunday XCVII – More Movies II: Movie Reviews, Part II
• Lazy Sunday XCVIII – More Movies III: Movie Reviews, Part III
• Lazy Sunday XCIX – Romantic Music
• Lazy Sunday C – Valentine’s Day
• Lazy Sunday CI – Obituaries, Part I
• Lazy Sunday CII – Obituaries, Part II
• Lazy Sunday CIII – Begging
• Lazy Sunday CIV – Time
• Lazy Sunday CV – Grab Bag II
• Lazy Sunday CVI – Adventures
• Lazy Sunday CVII – Easter
• Lazy Sunday CVIII – Spring Break Short Story Recommendations 2021 Recap
• Lazy Sunday CIX – Pillow Talk
• Lazy Sunday CX – Inspector Gerard Reviews
• Lazy Sunday CXI – Bric-a-Brac II
• Lazy Sunday CXII – Responsibility
• Lazy Sunday CXIII – Short Stories
• Lazy Sunday CXIV – More Movies IV: Movie Reviews, Part IV
• Lazy Sunday CXV – Memorable Mondays
• Lazy Sunday CXVI – Delays
• Lazy Sunday CXVII – More Movies V – Movie Reviews, Part V
• Lazy Sunday CXVIII – More Movies VI – Movie Reviews, Part VI
• Lazy Sunday CXIX – Summer Camps
• Lazy Sunday CXX – Animals, Part II
• Lazy Sunday CXXI – MAGAWeek2021 Posts
• Lazy Sunday CXXII – MAGAWeek2020 Posts
• Lazy Sunday CXXIII – Murphy
• Lazy Sunday CXXIV – Bible Posts
• Lazy Sunday CXXV – More Movies VII – Movie Reviews, Part VII
• Lazy Sunday CXXVI – Joy, Part I
• Lazy Sunday CXXVII – Joy, Part II – Music
• Lazy Sunday CXXVIII – Civilization
• Lazy Sunday CXXIX – Friends, Part I
• Lazy Sunday CXXX – Friends, Part II
• Lazy Sunday CXXXI – Friends, Part III
• Lazy Sunday CXXXII – Milestones
• Lazy Sunday CXXXIII – Inspector Gerard
• Lazy Sunday CXXXIV – Friends, Part IV
• Lazy Sunday CXXXV – More Movies VIII: Movie Reviews, Part VIII