zackauz

zackauz

Occasionally published journalist, Sam Fuller head, film reviews to come

Favorite films

  • Martin
  • Kin-dza-dza!
  • Aftersun
  • Police, Adjective

Recent activity

All
  • Light Sleeper

    ★★★

  • The Black Phone

    ★★

  • Two Thousand Maniacs!

    ★★★½

  • Night of the Creeps

    ★★★½

Recent reviews

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  • Light Sleeper

    Light Sleeper

    ★★★

    I'm intrigued by the temporal relationship between this film and the MTV era. The glossiness of the film's portrayal of New York City: the crystalline rain and the digressions into the film's soundtrack that are dialogueless and music video-esque. Is it harkening back to stories like Less than Zero and Bright Lights Big City or still deploying these signifiers with a pretense of modernity?

    This line of questioning is complicated by the film being released in 1992 (a liminal period…

  • The Black Phone

    The Black Phone

    ★★

    This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

    Genuinely appreciate of Derrickson's affinity for hauntological textures (brought into fruition by cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz as well). As played out as that obsession may be if you have internet brain, it is the type of visual ethos that scarcely informs these mercinarily directed Blumhouse films.

    However, the period details are so lazily conceived, in line with the annoying decision to adapt Joe King's source material by adding signifers of his daddy Stephen. And more dammingly, the supernatural component of the…

Popular reviews

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  • Meg 2: The Trench

    Meg 2: The Trench

    ★★½

    Has the antiseptic direction of a mobile game ad, bereft of tension and consequence to the extent that the film resembles flop-era Fast and Furious more than it does Jaws, careens artlessly from frantic action scene to frantic action scene, with a whiplash-inducing pivot halfway through the film from aspiring Paul Greengrass procedural to nonstop shark gags.

    A good time at the movies, even has a successor to LL Cool J's song for Deep Blue Sea

  • Planet of the Vampires

    Planet of the Vampires

    ★★★½

    Movies as a whole, space horror or not, would benefit from cheaper sets and abundant colorful fog

    The set design in this is truly staggering (even for Bava's standard) and the refusal to speed through its plot is cozy in a Star Trek: The Original Series way