The Stone Creek Killer (2025)

 In a small Minnesota town two teenage girls go missing, a professional 'psychic' shows up to help, and the girls bodies a found ritualisticly displayed, the sheriff and the only two other officers on the force face what appears to be a serial killer. Filmed on location with a largely no name cast, in 10 days for $300,000, 'The Stone Creek Killer' is bland, "filler" "entertainment". It is also what comes from my mother, my sister and me selecting a movie based on what could get consensus as an acceptable choice. * 

I also watched the Irish mini-series 'The Dublin Murders' this trip and that was great. Watch that, skip this. 

Drowning Mona (2000)

 Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), the most hated resident of Verplanack, New York (a real small town, that was largely not happy with its portral in this movie) dies in what at first seems like an accident, but may have been murder. Sheriff Danny DeVito has no shortage of suspects, including Mona's son, her husband, the husband's mistress, and DeVito's perspective son in law, who had a buisness dispute with the woman. Great cast includes William Fitchner, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Afflick, and an SNL era Will Farrell as the town's sex addict funeral director. I found it quirky, likeable, unchallanging, and enjoyably small scale. **1/2

Sugar Cookies (1973)

 An arty, erotic crime thriller produced by a young Oliver Stone. Director George Shannon murders his star actress/ lover Lynn Lowery as part of an errotic game. His casting director, friend and sometimes lover Mary Woronov helps him to cover it up; but she then proceeds to hatch a plan to bring him down with the unwitting aid of a woman she finds who looks just like the lady he killed, also played by Lynn Lowery. Pretty nihilistic stuff, some social commentary, lots of boobs. **1/2

Paranoia (1969)

 Also known as 'Orgasmo', 'Paranoia' is a Gialo film which features actress Carrol Baker (still with us at 94) going nude as an American widow who travels to her late husband's Italin villia to recuperate after his death. While there her life is slowly taken over by step siblings who use their sexual wilds, to slowly turn her into a reclusive drunk, who they then try and manipulate into suicide. Pretty racey and decades ahead of its time in depicting bi-sexuality.  ***

The Lady in Red (1979)

 This is a lose adaptation of the life of Polly Hamilton, a farm girl with musical aspirations, who becomes a prostitute and later the girlfriend of John Dillnger. Pamela Sue Martin, a child star who played Nancy Drew in the early 70's, closes out the decade in a much more adult role. Pulpy explotation fair from Roger Corman's New World Pictures has some surprisingly big names involved, from screen writer John Sayles, composer James Horner, to actors Louise Fletcher and Christopher Lloyd. For what this is, it's unusually good. ***

Sisters (1972)

Brian De Palma's Hitchcock tribute is a horror - thriller - mystery, or more concisely a Gailo film. Reporter Jennifer Salt witnesses Margot Kidder commit a murder, but the police don't believe her. Kidder is a former conjoined twin whose sister died as a result of their separation surgery. Periodically Kidder is possed, more psychologically then supernaturally, by her dead sister who is very vengeful. Movie works surprising well for the most part, but I still can't make sense of the last 15 minutes or so. ***1/2

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012)

 Filmed for 3D, you can notice by virtue of gimmicky camera work. This is the movie that actually has Adelaide Clemons in it, she plays a high school version of the girl from the first movie. Somehow Mom got her out of the Upside Down, she now lives with Dad, again played by Sean Bean, I think the only casting carry over from the first film. They move around alot and change names because they are affriad of the cult? Anyway the cult sends Jon Snow to befriend Adelaide and trick her back to Silent Hill, but they give up on him and just kidnap her dad. Jon Snow switches sides, trys to keep Adelaide from going but she goes and then nothing worth remembering happens because I can hardly remember anything from this movie I watched a week ago. Oh, Sean Bean is rescued and Malcom McDowell plays a crazy blind man. This movie was not worth the effort. *

Silent Hill (2006)

 Adelaide Clemens is in the second Silent Hill movie, I like her so I wanted to watch that, so I decided to watch the first movie so I could understand the second one better. Mistake? Any understanding I garnerd was minimal.

Video game adaptation movies are rarly good, that held for this flick. They went all out on atmosphere, story and acting were afterthoughts. Movie is largley boring/confusing, though I found the climax entertaining as it was pretty nuts. 

What's it about: Nice Ohio couple adopt a little girl named Sharon. Sharon has repeated nightmares where she is in Hell, she sleep walks out of the house and trys to throw herself in a local gorge. Family trys to get their daughter help, but none of it works, so Mom figures out daughter was born in a West Virginia town named 'Silent Hill'. Against husband's wishes wife takes daughter to Silent Hill to try and get answers.

Only Silent Hill is closed down, abandoned, the roads closed off. In the middle 70's a fire started in the coal mines that ran under the town, so town evacuated. Question, if this happend in the Nixon era how was a little girl of the Dubya era born there? Question is never really answered. Though it probably has to do with the religious cult that still exists in Silent Hill and view her as a kind of religious figure to be sacrificed or venerated or both, this is also not made clear.

Also Silent Hill seems to be in a kind of pocket dimension, an anex of Hell. The people that live their seem to think the whole world has decended into the same apocalyptic reality in which they dwell, though their is some devision within the cult and a number of its members have been semi banished. Also there is a cloud of darkness that I think can eat people? When it shows up the cult sounds old warning sirens and people take shelter. This is all just a portion of the overcrowded and often unclear mythology of Silent Hill. 

In the end mother and daughter escape the town, but are still stuck in the pocket dimension which is misty and kind of like The Upside Down in Stranger Things. It's a mess of a movie, with a small scattering of elements that kind of work. * 1/2