Steel (1997, directed by Kenneth Johnson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

John Henry Irons (Shaquille O’Neal) is one of the Army’s top weapons designers but, after a malfunction at a demonstration leads to the death of a senator and the crippling of Irons’s closest friend, Sparky (Annabeth Gish), Irons resigns and goes to work at a steel mill. Irons wants nothing more to do with violence and destruction, but then he discovers that a former colleague, Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson), has set himself up as an arms dealer and is selling Irons’s weapons to the local street gangs. With the help of Sparky and his Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree), Irons descends into the local junkyard and returns with a clanky suit of armor and an electromagnetic hammer.

“Hammer time!” Irons announces.

“I love the shaft!” Uncle Joe says.

Now known as Steel, Irons sets out to save Los Angeles from Judd Nelson.

Steel is a good example of what comic-book movies used to be like. In DC Comics, John Henry Irons was a steelworker who became a hero when it appeared that Superman had been killed by Doomsday. He wore a cape in honor of Superman and fought to keep Superman’s ideals alive. In the movie version, Steel is a former weapons designer who doesn’t wear a cape and looks really silly in his clunky suit of armor. The special effects are noticeably cheap and the villain’s plan is simplistic. Burke wants to sell weapons and, coincidentally, he does it in the same neighborhood his former coworker moved to. Watching the movie, I had to keep reminding myself that this was actually released in theaters. (I saw it in a theater!) The whole thing has a made-for-TV feel.

Of the cast, Richard Roundtree gives the best performance and appears to be having a good time as Uncle Joe. Judd Nelson is hammy as the villain, but that’s the way the role was written, and at least Nelson didn’t try to pretend Steel was something it wasn’t. Shaquille seems to be trying really hard as Irons. Shaq has never been a great actor, but he’s got enough natural likability to carry him through. Unfortunately, he looks ridiculous in the armor. In a comic book, donning a costume is what transforms an average person into a superhero. But Shaq is already 7’1″, so the costume doesn’t even feel necessary. Just give him the hammer and let him call himself Thor.

Released at the same time as Batman & Robin, Steel was a box-office bomb and contributed to the general feeling that, unless a film featured Batman or Superman, the public didn’t care about comic-book movies. Three years after Steel came and went, the first X-Men film would prove the doubters wrong.

Legion (1998, directed by John Hess)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The year is 2036 and the world is at war. Col. Flemming (Troy Donahue) assigns his protégé, Major Agatha Doyle (Terry Farrell), to infiltrate a facility with a group of specially selected soldiers. All of the soldiers were previously on death row and will be given a full pardon if they complete their mission. Siegal (Corey Feldman) is the neurotic hacker who was convicted of desertion. Cutter (Trevor Goddard) is a straight-up psycho. Ryan (Rick Springfield) wishes he had Jessie’s Girl… no wait, he’s a demolitions expert. Sorry, my mistake. Dr. Jones (Audie England) is a doctor who is also a religious fanatic. Koosman (Richmond Arquette) is probably on death row for having an embarrassing name. Captain Aldrich (Parker Stevenson) is the most competent officer on death row and also the only one of the soldiers who isn’t a complete lunatic. Poe (Elston Ridgle) is the soldier who initially gets blamed when members of the team start dying inside the facility. It’s actually not Poe’s fault. There’s something in the facility and it’s not human.

Though the movie starts out as a rip-off of Aliens, with its collection of cocky soldiers coming up against an enemy that’s greater than all of them, it soon settles into being an Alien rip-off, with plenty of scenes of people being stalked while walking down dark, pipe-lined hallways. Not surprisingly, it fails to capture both the kinetic energy of Aliens and the heart-pounding suspense of Alien. The entire film feels very familiar, and the decision not to show the monster until the final few minutes feels cheap.

The cast is probably the most interesting thing about the movie, with Audie England, Rick Springfield, and Trevor Goddard actually committing to their roles. Parker Stevenson looks embarrassed, and Terry Farrell is one of the least convincing military officers that I’ve ever seen. (Her dialogue largely consists of shouting “MOVE!” whenever one of the convicts tries to get out of being sent to their death.) Corey Feldman overacts as Siegal, making him so nervous that you wonder why he was selected for the mission.

Legion steals the plots of Alien and Aliens but not the quality.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 4.13 “To Tell The Truth”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.  The show can be found on Daily Motion.

Has John Doe finally discovered his real identity?

Episode 4.13 “To Tell The Truth”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on January 15th, 1986)

Last week’s episode ended with an abortion protester hiding a bomb in a custodial cart. The majority of this episode features various characters pushing that cart around the hospital, leaving us to wonder if and when the bomb is going to go off. At one point, even Dr. Craig gives the cart a frustrated shove. When the bomb finally does go off, it’s sitting outside the hospital gift shop. The hospital survives. An orderly is seriously injured. And Morrison gets to yell at the bomber (Rob Garrison).

Fiscus isn’t in the hospital when the bomb goes off. Instead, he’s out doing his Westphall-mandated community service. Fiscus is sent out on house calls, visiting elderly patients in their homes and doing follow-up exams. Fiscus hates it, and it’s easy to see why. For the most part, the old people are stereotypes. This episode is a rare case of St. Elsewhere trying too hard to be sentimental.

(And yes, when Fiscus complains, you can be sure that Westphall is ready with a long monologue about the time he spent in Ethiopia.)

The Valeres (George DelHoyo and Deborah May) are both getting frustrated with their inability to conceive. With Dr. Turner currently visiting her hometown in Mississippi, Ehrlich and Chandler have taken over the case. Ehrlich recommends that the Valeres consider adoption. Chandler, however, tells them that they should continue with IVF.

After a long day in court, Lucy slaps Helen, declares them to be even, and then drops her lawsuit.

Finally, Ramsey Headley (Ellis Rabb) and Lucinda Ferrare-Headley (Carrie Nye) show up at the hospital and claim that John Doe No. 6 is their long-lost brother and the heir to their family’s fortune. John Doe No. 6, who had been experimenting with being Shakespeare, says that he knows them and that he now realizes that he is Thomas Headley of New Orleans. Auschlander is happy that John has found his identity, but he’s still sad to see him go. (Auschlander does not seem to notice that the Headleys all speak like characters in a bad Tennessee Williams play.) After John leaves, the hospital gets a call from a “New Orleans sanitarium,” informing them that two of their patients have escaped and are heading to Boston. Yikes! If John returns next week, this will be a funny little incident. If he doesn’t, I’m never going to forgive Auschlander for letting him leave with two obvious charlatans.

This week’s episode was .… well, it was okay. It had its good moments, like the suspense with the custodial cart and the John Doe storyline. But it also got a bit too sentimental with the old people, and I’m at the point where I’m going to scream if I have to listen to another Westphall lecture about life in Ethiopia.

Let’s just be happy that the show didn’t kill Santa Claus again.

Horror Villain of the Day: Pinhead (Hellraiser)

Posted on by Arleigh

“Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some. Angels to others.” — Pinhead

Doug Bradley’s Pinhead remains one of horror cinema’s most enduring villains because he does not behave like a conventional monster. He is not a snarling animal, a mute slasher, or a madman driven by simple revenge. Instead, Pinhead arrives with the bearing of an officiant: calm, articulate, composed, and utterly certain of his authority. His voice is measured, his movements deliberate, and even his cruelty is administered with the ceremonial gravity of a sacred rite. That contrast is the essence of the character. Pinhead is demonic, certainly, but he is also refined—a figure who makes damnation sound almost like an invitation to an exclusive, terrible experience.

Bradley’s performance gives Pinhead a distinctly British quality of restraint and formality. His diction is elegant, his tone often dry or even faintly courteous, and he approaches his victims with the manners of a gentleman receiving guests. Yet this refinement does not soften him; it makes him more disturbing. Pinhead’s civility is separated from human empathy. When he speaks of pain and pleasure, he does not sound lustful in an ordinary sense, nor does he appear personally enraged. He speaks as someone explaining the rules of a world beyond ordinary morality, where sensation has become the only remaining truth. The politeness becomes a mask not for kindness, but for a cold and absolute spiritual corruption.

In that sense, Pinhead almost feels like an amalgamation of British refinement transformed into an avatar of excess—of emotion, sensation, obsession, and infernal desire. His leather-and-flesh regalia evokes bondage, ritual, military uniform, and religious vestment all at once, while the geometric precision of the pins in his head makes him look less like a chaotic demon than a meticulously designed icon. He represents a kind of order within depravity. The Cenobites are not merely monsters who enjoy hurting people; they are explorers of sensation who have traveled so far beyond human limits that pleasure and agony have become inseparable. Pinhead embodies their philosophy with an eerie dignity: damnation is not random violence, but transcendence through unbearable experience.

That philosophical quality separates Pinhead from many horror antagonists. He is frightening not simply because he can kill, but because he challenges the victim’s understanding of desire and consequence. The puzzle box does not just summon a predator; it opens a door for those willing—or foolish enough—to seek forbidden experience. Pinhead’s most memorable lines carry this sense of judicial finality. He is not usually chasing people through hallways; he is passing sentence on those who have crossed a threshold they cannot fully comprehend. Even when later entries in the series pushed him closer to a more familiar slasher role, Bradley’s portrayal retained the character’s most compelling feature: the feeling that Pinhead is not merely evil, but the representative of an alien moral order.

This is why Pinhead became such an iconic horror villain. Doug Bradley turned a visually extreme creature into a character of intelligence, poise, and dreadful charisma. The design is unforgettable, but the performance is what gives it permanence: the soft, resonant voice; the ritualistic stillness; the sense that every word has been chosen with precision. Pinhead is terrifying because he makes hell seem cultured, disciplined, and seductive. He offers not mindless destruction, but an abyss dressed in ceremony—an infernal gentleman who promises wonders, suffering, and revelation in the same breath.

Villain of the Day

Brad reviews WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980), directed by Tsui Hark! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980) is the story of Agent 999 (Norman Chu), an agent of the Central Surveillance Agency, who comes to a remote island to catch the notorious criminal, Rolex (Melvin Wong). Once he gets there, he discovers that the island is overrun by crazed cannibals and is ruled over with an iron fist by a power mad Chief (Eddy Ko). Chief hoards the human meat of unsuspecting travelers who happen upon the island for himself and his soldiers, leaving the villagers to starve. As Agent 999 continues his investigation and tries to avoid becoming lunch, he finds out that the repentant criminal Rolex has become the Chief’s aid in order to expose the evils of the island to the authorities on the mainland without having to go back to jail himself. When Rolex’s plans don’t work out, Agent 999 must then team up with a goofy thief (Hon Kwok-Choi) to fight off the cannibals, save his newfound love (Michelle Kim), and get the hell off of the island in one piece!

The second film to be directed by Hong Kong icon Tsui Hark, WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU is a wild hybrid film that leans heavily into horror, comedy and martial arts. It’s an odd mix that contains jarring shifts in tone, a staple of Hong Kong Cinema of the 80’s. One minute we’re watching men have their arms cut off and their guts ripped out, only to immediately shift to slapstick rape humor, before shifting to badass martial arts / roller skating kung fu action choreographed by a young Corey Yuen. Completely unpolished in terms of production values, it’s acquired somewhat of a cult classic status due to its raw energy, gory subject matter, directorial pedigree, and anti-communist political themes. I thought Norman Chu was good as Agent 999, even if his charismatic agent isn’t always as observant as we’d hope he’d be. Eddy Ko, who is in one of my favorite Hong Kong films, THE MISSION (1999), can be both menacing and goofy as the Chief who will pretty much do anything to preserve his power and supply of meat. The island village puts off its own scary vibes with its creepy slaughterhouse and masked cannibals, always at the ready to hack off a body part. It adds up to a rather unique viewing experience. 

While WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU is certainly not for everyone due to its subject matter, those who appreciate the frenetic action of Hong Kong cinema will enjoy this film. It will also fit the bill for those who like kung fu action mashups served with sides of gory gore and silly giggles. Just don’t expect it to have the polished look of Hark’s later films such as PEKING OPERA BLUES (1986) and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991). 

Horror Book Review: The Funhouse by Dean Koontz, writing as Owen West

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1980, Dean Koontz was hired to write a novelization of The Funhouse. At the time, he was not yet a household name. He still regularly worked as an author-for-hire under a string of pseudonyms; for this book, he originally published as Owen West. While Tobe Hooper was in pre-production, Koontz was assigned to turn Larry Block’s screenplay into a fast, accessible novel. He was not particularly impressed by Block’s story, but he liked the idea of writing about a carnival. Production delays meant the novelization reached stores in late 1980, months before the film. It sold well at first. When the movie finally opened in 1981 and did disappointing business, the book’s sales collapsed. Years later, after Koontz had become a bestselling author in his own right, The Funhouse was reissued under his real name.

The first thing that stands out is how little the novel has in common with Hooper’s film. The movie, of which I am a fan, is a fairly straightforward, atmosphere-heavy slasher. Teenager Amy and her three friends hide in the funhouse after the carnival closes, witness a murder, and find themselves hunted by a carny and his son. Those elements are all present in Koontz’s book, but he adds a large amount of backstory, most of it centered on Amy’s alcoholic mother, Ellen.

In the novel, Ellen is the ex-wife of Conrad the carny. A runaway, she married him without realizing he was a Satanist who hoped she would give birth to the Antichrist. When their demonic infant attacked her, Ellen crushed the baby. Conrad swore revenge: he would let her go so he could hunt her down later and destroy whatever family she built. What plays as random bad luck in the film becomes something very different here. Over the years, Conrad and his second son, the deformed Gunther, take their carnival from town to town in search of Ellen and her new family. The other carnival workers are drawn as sympathetic figures, people on the margins who have formed a family of their own and have no idea how depraved Conrad and Gunther really are.

Family is the novel’s real subject. Ellen has remarried and has two children, Amy and Joey. In the film, Amy is a typically naïve final girl, and Joey is an annoying brat who sneaks out to the carnival. Ellen appears only briefly and makes little impression, though she is seen drinking as Amy leaves the house. In the book, Ellen hits Amy when her daughter says she is pregnant, then pays for the abortion because she fears Amy might give birth to the Antichrist. Joey is terrified of Ellen and runs away to the carnival because, like Ellen before him, he wants an escape from a dysfunctional home. The contrast between the carnies’ supportive found family and Amy and Joey’s abusive “respectable” household is easy to spot, but it still works.

Koontz’s eye for detail and his gift for vivid characterization lift The Funhouse above the usual horror novelization. The plot is occasionally stretched thin. Conrad’s revenge scheme never quite makes sense.  What if Ellen had stayed unmarried and never had another child? Even so, Koontz keeps the action moving and is smart enough to lean into the melodrama without apology. He even lands a surprisingly moving final scene.

This is a case of a novelization that diverges sharply from its source. I like both Hooper’s film and Koontz’s novel. They are both wonderfully macabre. The film is true to Hooper’s aesthetic. The novel is pure Koontz.

 

October True Crime: Devil On Campus (dir by Elisabeth Rohm)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember The Vow?

A two-season docuseries that aired on HBO, The Vow featured former members of the NXIVM cult telling their stories and trying to downplay their own involvement in all of the cult’s crimes. In one of the show’s key scenes, former filmmaker and NXIVM follower Mark Vicente angrily exclaimed that anyone could get brainwashed. Anyone could become a member of a cult.

I have never really believed that.

I’ve sat through several documentaries and docudramas about cults. I have listened to countless interviews with disillusioned former members. One thing that has always really stood out to me is that people who get brainwashed and join cults are usually some of the stupidest, flakiest people in the world. Inevitably, they always say they felt they were missing something in their lives and that they needed a greater purpose. And to that, I say, “Big deal.” If something’s missing from your life, volunteer at a soup kitchen. Don’t give up your identity for a commune. Cults seem to appeal to weak-willed people who want to be told that they’re victims first and individuals last.

I found myself thinking about all of this as I watched 2024’s Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story. Based on a true story, Devil on Campus opens in 2010 with Larry Ray (Billy Zane) showing up at his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College. Larry has just been released from prison, though he claims that he was set up by Rudy Giuliani and former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik. Larry is charismatic and energetic. He has a gift for telling stories that sound like they could potentially be credible as long as you don’t give them too much thought. Larry also has a lot of money and, at the start, he seems to have a generous nature.

Larry is soon living in the dorm room and controlling the lives of both his daughter and her roommates. He can be tough. He can be erratic. But he repeatedly tells all of them that he’s just trying to help them. Larry encourages them to express their emotions and to cry and to have sex with each other. Eventually, he encourages them to live in an off-campus apartment with him, to work (without pay) on his family farm, and finally to work as sex workers. Eventually, some break away from him and some do not. It’s good that some realized the truth, but it’s hard not to be disappointed that it took them so long to do so.

Though a few names have been changed, Devil on Campus sticks close to the facts of the case. The movie works largely due to Billy Zane’s bigger-than-life screen presence. The minute that Zane appears in the film, he dominates every frame. He plays Larry as someone smart enough to know that the way to keep people from questioning you is to just keep talking. Larry instinctively recognizes when someone is too weak-willed or slow-witted to resist being manipulated. Zane’s performance dominates the film. His victims, on the other hand, come across as ciphers, but perhaps that’s a reflection of reality. Regardless of what Mark Vicente claimed in The Vow, not everyone is dumb enough to get brainwashed.

As for the real-life Larry Ray, he’s currently in federal prison. He’s scheduled to be released in 2071, when he will be 111 years old.

“They Have Awakened”, AI Short, Review by Case Wright

Posted on by casewright

Last year, I reviewed A LOT of AI horror films and yes…most were terrible. It is sad that these films exist and someone spend time making them. However, there are some that are not the worst.

“They Have Awakened” by Ethan is a super short film on Antarctic explorers who find a cave that is just chock full of Cthulhu…Cthulhus(?)…Cthulhossiers(?). Cthulhossiers are like other Cthulhus, but they’re mostly into college hoops.

The explorer team finding Cthulhus is essentially a sub-genre; the stories are always the same, BUT some times the rendering is slightly better. I am actually tired of explorers continuing to unleash Cthulhus- can’t they be like the other Antarctic scientists that I’ve met and just turn to alcoholism and amphetamines?

The film is aggressively mediocre, but it’s only 4 minutes and change; so, have an oat-forward pancake and spend four minutes watching.

Horror Film Review: Tony Manero (dir by Pablo Larrain)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Pablo Larraín’s 2008 film Tony Manero tells the story of an odd man named Raúl (Alfredo Castro). At the height of the Pinochet dictatorship, Raúl lives in a dilapidated boarding house with his girlfriend’s family. The boarding house has a small stage for putting on shows, and Raúl uses it to choreograph dances that pay tribute to his favorite movie, Saturday Night Fever, and his favorite character, Tony Manero. Raúl is a quiet man who comes to life whenever he imitates John Travolta’s dance moves. He goes to see Saturday Night Fever on a daily basis and can recite all of the dialogue by heart. A Chilean TV show is hosting a Tony Manero look-alike contest, and Raúl is determined to win. He even gets a white suit and looks forward to becoming a star instead of just a poor nobody.

That may sound like the setup for a heartwarming, crowd-pleasing movie, but it is not. Raúl is a bitter and paranoid man in his 50s. He’s on the short side. Despite owning a white suit and being able to do all the moves, he really doesn’t look much like Tony Manero. Throughout the film, he goes out of his way to find the secret to becoming Tony Manero. (He becomes obsessed with making the boarding house stage light up just like the disco dance floor in the movie.) But the truth of the matter is that he is not Tony Manero. He is not a charismatic young man trying to find himself in Brooklyn. He is a rather creepy and obnoxious middle-aged man living under a dictatorship. The film turns into a full horror film as it becomes obvious how far Raúl will go to accomplish his dream. When the kindly theater owners swap out Saturday Night Fever for Grease, Raúl is not pleased.

There is a humorous scene early in the film in which Raúl shows up at the television studio in his Tony Manero costume, only to discover that he has gotten the date wrong and has shown up a week early. Everyone in the studio is dressed up to look like Chuck Norris. At the same time, the subtext is very serious. Director Pablo Larraín is showing the influence of American culture on Chile and commenting on American involvement in helping Pinochet take power in 1973. While Raúl tries to turn himself into Tony Manero, people are informing on their neighbors and dissidents are being executed in the streets. Raúl is indifferent to the violence around him. (When he witnesses an execution, his response is to loot the body.) While his girlfriend’s son gets involved with the anti-Pinochet underground, Raúl focuses on trying to transform himself into Tony Manero. In Saturday Night Fever, Tony Manero can escape his oppressive home life by riding the train to a different borough. Raúl doesn’t have that option.

Seen from today’s perspective, Tony Manero’s portrayal of Pinochet’s Chile brings to mind what a lot of people wanted America to become during the COVID era, complete with secret police, neighborhood informants, and the rich getting to flout the rules while the poor were expected to be happy with whatever crumbs were left over. If Raúl survived the Pinochet years, it is easy to imagine him in his 90s, reporting his neighbors for not wearing a face mask and then settling in to watch Saturday Night Fever for the thousandth time.

Lifetime For October: Nightmare PTA Moms (dir by Dave Thomas)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

At the start of 2022’s Nightmare PTA Moms, Gayle (Brianna Cohen) and Rick (Jonathan Stoddard) have just relocated to Florida.  Rick is the new regional manager for everyone’s favorite chic retail outfit, Jackie Z.  Gayle is looking forward to reopening her bakery, Gayle’s Goodies.  (If there’s anything that I’ve learned from watching Lifetime movies, it’s that there’s apparently nothing easier than opening up a bakery in a new town.)  Gayle and Rick’s teenage daughter, Chloe (Madison Paige), will soon be starting at her new high school.  When Gayle meets PTA president Vanessa VanDeBerg (Alison Filoramo), she’s invited to join.  Gayle accepts.

Gayle has no idea what she’s getting into.

Under the velvet glove of Vanessa, the PTA has become a cult.  No husbands are allowed at the after-meeting parties.  They would ruin the mood as Vanessa hands out tequila shots and invites a male stripper into the house.  Don’t tell, Vanessa orders, largely so she can seek revenge against anyone who does tell.  Vanessa enjoys being PTA president and she’s not going to let anyone take that joy away from her.  Of course, the only reason that Vanessa is president is because the woman who actually won the election, Lexie Wilson, supposedly committed suicide a month after his victory.  And then Vanessa’s husband mysteriously fell to his death.  “Vanessa doesn’t like to talk about that,” another member of the PTA warns Gayle.

Meanwhile, Chloe has befriended Vanessa’s daughter, Serena (Gracie Silva).  Yay!  Whenever you’re starting a new chapter in your life — whether it’s a new school or a new job — you should always befriend the most popular people around.  However, Serena is soon taking advantage of Chloe’s friendship.  Serena insists that Chloe use her Jackie Z discount card to pay for Serena’s purchases.  Serena also steals a pair of sunglasses.  I don’t really blame Serena.  Those sunglasses were pretty cute.

Soon, Gayle is asking questions about all of the deaths surrounding the PTA and Vanessa is vamping it up whenever she stops by Jackie Z.  Gayle worries that Rick is going to cheat.  Rick worries that Gayle is going to get hurt if she doesn’t stop poking around the PTA.  Chloe worries that she’s going to be friendless.  The only person who doesn’t seem to be all that worried is Vanessa.  That’s what makes her a great character.  As played by Alison Filoramo, Vanessa is an unapologetic manipulator.  She’s the epitome of the mean girl grown up, delivering every passive aggressive line with just the right amount of snarky menace.  It’s not just that Vanessa’s bad.  It’s that she has so much fun being bad.  Gayle may be the hero but Vanessa is the character that most viewers are going to enjoy watching.

Nightmare PTA Moms is a delight, an unapologetically over-the-top film that is fully willing to embrace the melodrama.  That said, there’s definitely an element of truth to the film’s portrayal of self-important, self-absorbed, affluent people who have joined the PTA not because they care about their children’s education but instead because they just love to wield even the smallest amout of power.  As campy as the film may have been, it worked because there was just enough reality to make the film relatable.  After living through the COVID lockdowns, it’s not longer a shock to see a movie about an entitled sociopath who thinks that she has the right to tell other people what to do, what to think and what to say.

In the end, the nightmare becomes reality.