Weekend Update Movie Review

https://piefed.zip/c/norm_macdonald_snl_jokes/p/1409067/weekend-update-movie-review

April 2026 Media Round-Up

And that was April! I’ve spoken a bit about how it went on a personal level in my newsletter and in my Writing Round-Up, so I won’t repeat that here.

I’ve definitely needed a lot of comfort stuff this month, and ways to manage stress and emotional turbulence. It’s been tough, friends, honestly. April was a month with a significant funeral in it, and there’s more to do around that than say goodbye. So, here’s everything I’ve watched, read, and listened to this month. Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists.

We’ll kick off with my album of the month, but some of my own stuff is included as I sold a story to The Weird Library podcast in March, and that was my first read/listen of April. Check it out below, under “Books/Audiobooks”.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Musical Greetings

Again, my one true love remains rock in all its subgenres, from glam to Anatolian psychedelic, and it would get pretty boring if I listed the same playlist and artists every month. I’m still listening to the exact same playlist I made in January for all my commutes and walks, with a mix of upbeat tunes from rock to indie pop to disco to Eurovision classics (Ma-ia-hii, ma-ia-hoh, Ma-ia-hoo, ma-ia-haha), so nothing new there.

However… tell me why I’m addicted to this Qobuz-curated playlist of SWANA Electro? I reckon this is my Playlist of the Month.

Before this randomly appeared on my Qobuz feed, I had no idea who any of these artists are. I still honestly don’t know who they are, but I do quite like the tracks I’ve heard from KARABA/DJ Karaba, Aziz Konkrite, and the French-Algerian collective, Acid Arab, especially! This was a banging playlist to whack on and close out Easter Sunday.

Books & Audiobooks

All the books I eye-read/ear-read this month. It’s been a bit lean where this is concerned, but it’s also been a tough month, so I’m just going with the flow. There have been some gems though.

The Devouring by A.M. Shilling – ARC read.

Fast-paced thriller with a Lovecraftian twist, and a married couple as the protagonists. He’s an assassin, she does autopsies… I was really intrigued by this one so I reached out to the author and Shilling will be featured in an Author Spotlight in the summer, so you can hear more about this book from the author directly!

Throughout their marriage, Jason and Ayana’s lives always ran parallel but never entwined. It’s the perfect arrangement. He’s free to pursue his dangerous yet lucrative career as an elite assassin, and she can focus on conducting autopsies for the city’s forensic center.

But after Jason spares a witness to his latest murder, he becomes the prime suspect in his own brother’s homicide. While he hunts for the real killer, Ayana discovers an impossible illness in one of her cadavers. The couple quickly identify an unsettling connection between the two events—one steeped in religious fanaticism and occult conspiracy.

Jason and Ayana must learn to work together, using their wits, lies, and criminal connections to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult and exact revenge. But human enemies are the least of their concern. Beyond the boundary of their world exists a cosmic threat of apocalyptic proportions, and it is trying to break through.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

I actually gave this a 3* rating on GR, but it’s deserving of a highlighted place in the media round-up on the grounds that I think it will stay with me for a long time. It’s a classic of transgressive horror for a reason, and the closest I really go to splatterpunk/extreme (which is, not very).

Full review here.

Frank – no ordinary sixteen-year-old – lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank’s mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric’s escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother’s inevitable return – an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.

The Weird Library podcast is one I’ve known about for a while, but they had a long hiatus at one point. However, as I had my story Overexposure included at the start of the month, it was time to revisit it! I HIGHLY recommend the other stories they narrate! Episode art & narration by Bridgette Brenmark.

• Overexposure by C. M. Rosens (37:39)

• The Ever After by L. Marie Wood (38:53)

• Each Thing I Show You Is A Piece of My Death by Gemma Files (01:10:46)

• Black Shuck Tavern by Emma J. Gibbon (24:46)

TV Shows & Mini Series

All the shows and mini-series I caught this month. I’ve got to be honest, Fallout has lost a lot of its appeal. With the Doomsday clock at 85 seconds to midnight on 07th April, and a family funeral on the 20th… I thought I’d watch something light.

The Other Bennet Sister (2026-) dirs. Asim Abbasi, Jennifer Sheridan; writers Janice Hadlow (novel), Sarah Quintrell (9 eps), Maddie Dai (1 ep).

I succumbed to this, and really enjoyed it. The hype is deserved. I think I would like the novel, even though poor Mary at Netherfield Hall… I had to fast forward that song, poor love. She was definitely giving me aro-spec/demi & autistic vibes. I liked that rep.

Mary leaves her sisters’ shadows to find herself, embarking on a journey from Meryton to London and the Lake District. Her quest for independence leads to an unexpected love story in Regency-era England.

Danjon meshi/Delicious in Dungeon (2024-) based on the manga by Kui Ryôko, main director Yoshihiro Miyajima.

A comfort re-watch! I’ve seen the whole series over and over, but I put it back on this month (again) for a comfort thing.

Can sisters be reincarnated from dragon meat? Laios and his friends Marcille and Chilchuck delve into an endless dungeon in search of his fallen sister, fighting monsters, starvation, and corruption.

How To Get To Heaven From Belfast (2026-), created by Lisa McGee.

I absolutely love Irish dark comedies. This one is also top notch. Really loved the mystery element, the characters, and the humour. Plus: Bronach Gallagher is, once more, an absolute gem.

Three lifelong friends reunite after the death of an old classmate turns a wake into a dark mystery. They embark on a thrilling adventure across Ireland, piecing together enigmatic truths amid complicated lives.

Varney the Vampire, or, the Feast of Blood (2016), dir. John F. Carroll (John Benjamin Faust) and David McCullars (1 ep). Written by Thomas Preskett Prest and James Malcolm Rymer, and adapted by John Benjamin Fasut (as John F. Carroll).

I really liked this low budget/microbudget adaptation of the Penny Dreadful story. Demented Features on YouTube has a complete run of it (02:15:55) and I really liked it as an amateur production with short episodes of around 5min each. I like that they used the original dialogue, or tried to adapt it so that the dialogue fits the period.

https://www.youtube.com/live/zlOFN-rKNmE?si=nNHvRYBQ1izx_fda

Varney the Vampire follows the exploits of Sir Francis Varney, a vampire that infiltrates the Bannerworth family in attempt to reestablish his own aristocracy.

• 1670 (2023-) written by Jakub Ruzyllo, dirs. Maciej Buchwald and Kordian Kadziela. Polish humour is something I don’t usually vibe with, the same as French drama, but I still watch Polish comedies and French dramas and find things I like. This is a good one, and it’s funny, but it wasn’t my favourite watch of the month. I only watched a few episodes, and I’m not sure I’ll finish the series, but I’m including it here as I kind of enjoyed the episodes I watched.

• Ghosts: Three Miles Up (1995) dir. Lesley Manning. This was an episode of the BBC Ghosts series, a series of ghost story adaptations. I’ve therefore put this under TV Shows rather than films, although each episode is a standalone. I really liked the original short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard (read for 2025 Scare A Day challenge). I really liked the way this was adapted and changed for film. I think making the MMCs brothers with mother issues and arrested development worked with Sarah’s character, although it is much more subtle in the short story version. I also liked the addition of a terrible childhood trauma backstory, and the mystery whistle trope which was very M.R. James. All in all I thought this was a decent Ghosts episode. HOWEVER: some really nasty and unnecessary 90s fatphobia comes out in an argument between the brothers. Very disappointing from a woman writer (Monique Charlesworth) and female director (Lesley Manning) as an addition to Howard’s original story, but unsurprising for the 1990s.

• West Country Tales: The Sabbatical (1982) dir. John King, written by
  Josephine Poole, and based on an anonymous entry to the series. [S01 E01] This is one I think I missed in my original post on West Country Tales, and this makes 10 available episodes rather than 9! It’s been uploaded by a different user, 5PY Heritage, so may be from another recording. I have edited my original post on this series accordingly. This one features Keith Barron as a vicar haunted by fear of the devil, who goes on sabbatical to a quiet English country village, only to be haunted in a more literal sense.

https://youtu.be/DZLC3dMGowM?si=VTV6hMkbkAF0_YcK

Films

All the films I watched this month! Most were for catharsis. Especially cathartic films got rewatched. The ones I liked best are highlighted; the list of all the films I finished watching is below. (I have not included DNFs). An obscene amount of male directors this month, so I’ll need to rectify that in future.

Pretty Lethal (2026) dir. Vicky Jewson.

This was fun. I loved the ballerina solidarity developing across class divides, and the fact that being a dancer is tough and painful, and these girls are athletes. I really loved Uma Thurman’s performance in this as well. The dance/fight scene was funny, fun, vicious, and enjoyable. A good double bill with Abigail or Livide, I think, or any film where the dancers are the dangers.

Blood, sweat and tutus.

A troupe of ballerinas find themselves fighting for survival as they attempt to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition.

The Void (2016) dirs. Jeremy Gillespie, Steven Kostanski.

One of the my favourite Canadian horror films, and one of my favourite cosmic horror films full stop. It’s gory, fucked up, and full of body horror and tension. The hospital setting lends itself to a lot of that drama! I love the concepts and the monsters, and the creepy backwoods cult. Just great. To this day I can’t fully watch Beverley and the scissors.

There Is a Hell. This Is Worse.

In the middle of a routine patrol, officer Daniel Carter happens upon a blood-soaked figure limping down a deserted stretch of road. He rushes the young man to a nearby rural hospital staffed by a skeleton crew, only to discover that patients and personnel are transforming into something inhuman. As the horror intensifies, Carter leads the other survivors on a hellish voyage into the subterranean depths of the hospital in a desperate bid to end the nightmare before it’s too late.

Sauna (2008) dir. Antti-Jussi Annila.

I didn’t know what to expect, but this is a dark historical drama with supernatural and psychological horror elements. It’s an interesting piece of Scandinavian Gothic, I think, very atmospheric and well paced. I have this on Blu Ray and I’m really glad I bought it. Not keen on the English language title, ‘Rising Evil’, though…

Cleanse Your Sins.

It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in an age with no use for such men. They find themselves in the swampy interior, demarcating the new border with a unit of sadistic Russians.

Livide/Livid (2011) dirs. Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury.

French films are pretty hit and miss for me, and so are films by this director duo. I’ve seen 4/8 of Bustillo’s films so far, and 4/10 of Maury’s. This one is a gorgeous Gothic Fantasy take on vampirism and the ‘Mark Gone Bad‘ horror subgenre, where 3 would-be thieves pick the wrong house to rob. Witchy, gory, weird, loved it.

A Twisted Nightmare!

Lucie, Ben and William search an old woman’s home for a hidden treasure and they encounter a series of supernatural events that change them forever.

They Live (1988) dir. John Carpenter.

In the ‘Greed is Good’ era, John Carpenter made this film – and it’s pretty accurate for today, too. A good double-bill with Yuzna’s Society (1989) for the socio-political critique of the USA. I really like Carpenter’s films, and this was one I haven’t seen yet. Part of the Wake up, Sheeple! subgenre.

You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they’re people just like you. You’re wrong. Dead wrong.

A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.

악마를 보았다/I Saw The Devil (2010) dir. Kim Jee-woon.

I tend to really enjoy South Korean cinema, especially their Horror stuff, and I liked A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) by the same director, and I like Choi Min-sik in things I’ve seen him in, so I thought I’d give this one a go as well. It did not disappoint! It has a long runtime (145min) but it also has a lot going on. I wasn’t bored, and I didn’t notice the time!

Abandon all compassion.

Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. Soo-hyeon, a top-secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself.

Dark Star (1974) dir. John Carpenter.

I love the ’70s attitudes here, which is very much like, if we went to space, a lot of really stupid bullshit would happen. It has some real Spike Milligan and M*A*S*H vibes to it, in how bleakly funny it was. I really enjoyed it. I really liked the alien beachball – very cute.

Bombed Out in Space with a Spaced Out Bomb!

A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a “sensitive” and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.

The Prince of Darkness (1987) dir. John Carpenter. Back to my roots with the Apocalypse trilogy – I’ve rewatched In The Mouth of Madness more than this one, I think, and I’ve seen The Thing so many times! I fancied evil sentient green goo and more Donald Pleasance.

Before man walked the earth…It slept for centuries. It is evil. It is real. It is awakening.

A priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknowingly unleash an evil force waiting to destroy all of humanity.

Blue Blood (1973) dir. Andrew Sinclair.

What a ride this was. Oliver Reed and Derek Jacobi are amazing in this, and I’m very glad I watched it. This is basically what my character Wes would be like as a father, and it was fairly horrifying. Really enjoyed Meg Wynn Owen’s performance, along with Fiona Lewis and Anna Gaël… I think this was partly based on the real-life Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, who was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife and wifelets? Pretty sure Anna Gaël was one of his wives?

Who was possessed by the Devil at Longleat?

A debauched young aristocrat entrusts the running of his country house to Tom, the butler, on whom he depends absolutely. Before long the servant begins to dominate his master, to the alarm of the newly hired German nanny who senses sinister, demonic intent in Tom’s control of the house.

Infini (2015) dir. Shane Abbess.

I don’t care what anyone says about this film, this one really got me. It’s an Australian Sci-Fi body horror, like Event Horizon meets Annihilation, but with an ending I really enjoyed. I actually got emotional.

Search. Rescue. Destroy.

A search and rescue team are transported through deep space to a distant mining colony to save the sole survivor of a biological outbreak. During their mission, they find a lethal weapon which is set to arrive on Earth within the hour.

• ఈశా/Eesha (2025) dir. Srinivas Manne. Supernatural horror. A disappointing start to the month, but not so bad I DNF’d. An Indian film in Telegu, which I don’t hear often, but it really didn’t work for me. I did like the friendship dance, the Swami, and the premise, and the last 20mins of the climax, but the effects let it down a bit.

• The Bluff (2026) dir. Frank E. Flowers. Historical pirate action/drama. Nothing amazing here, but if you like pirate films such as Cutthroat Island (1995) and want more female captains like Geena Davis, you might get on with this. It’s got a more diverse cast, and the action’s alright.

• Dark Parasite (2023) dirs. Luca Boni, Marco Ristori. A low budget Italian Sci-Fi Horror, and I think the acting may have been a bit better if the actors hadn’t all had to speak in English; their own language(s) may have sounded more natural? Some casual racism too (from the American character). But overall, for a low budget film, it’s not the worst I’ve seen, and it’s a good concept. Added it to my When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad horror list.

• Kill List (2011) dir. Ben Wheatley. Weird Horror. This was a miss for me, but a narrow miss. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Jay and Gal, and I don’t mind the ad libbing style of naturalistic dialogue, but there was something a bit flat about it. I also liked the escalation of the three acts, and the final scene was horrifying (and abrupt!). I’d say definitely give this a watch; it didn’t quite do it for me, but it might hit the spot for you.

• The Howling (1981) dir. Joe Dante. A classic werewolf film! This is a rewatch, and it’s never been a 4*+ film for me, but it also is one I like to revisit now and again. My favourite werewolf films are Dog Soldiers and Howl, so while I do like how these guys transform, and the werewolf sex in the woods, it’s just a bit too slow-paced for me personally. I never feel 100% gripped by it, and the nice News Lady looks like a Bichon Frise, but it’s one I’ll put on now and then.

• Escape From New York (1981) dir. John Carpenter. Didn’t quite do it for me as an action film or as a dystopian film, not sure why as I really loved The Duke’s aesthetic and the chandeliers on the cars, and I liked Snake but he was just a bit… bland? Donald Pleasance did a good job as the President, but I wasn’t feeling it with the stakes. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood, or I was just too tired. I think I’ll rewatch this later and see if my opinion changes.

• Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) dir. John Carpenter. Like Escape From New York, this one didn’t quite work for me. I can see how shocking the ice cream van scene was to a lot of people, but I didn’t get enough of the gang later to really push that home. I loved that Stoker and Leigh survived. I think because the first Action/Suspense seige type film I saw was Sin City, and then I got into action/gangster films like Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and also I really liked Dog Day Afternoon, I don’t know… I think I just wanted a bit more from the gang itself and some more developed ideas and dynamics within the precinct group. I might just need to watch it again and try to see what its fans see in it.

• Big Trouble in Little China (1986) dir. John Carpenter. I don’t have the nostalgia around 1980s Fantasy that others do, but the expositional dialogue was funny, there were some good one-liners, and the fantasy stuff was fine, but to be honest, I think I prefer Chinese and Hong Kong fantasy and US/UK Sword and Sorcery. I’m feeling like Carpenter’s stuff is very hit and miss for me depending on the genre.

• The Beast in the Cellar (1971) dir. James Kelley. I really enjoyed this, not quite enough for it be a highlight, but I liked the interplay between the two sisters, and the isolation of the old house. I did guess what was going on, and I wish we had more of the “Beast” POV, and maybe more of the backstory earlier? But it’s a pretty good film of this type.

• Urban Ghost Story (1998) dir. Geneviève Jolliffe. I liked this one – it’s a gritty story of Glasgow council flats, social services, and poltergeists. Again, not quite a highlight for me, as I think there were a few things that didn’t quite gel, but I really did like it.

• Galaxy of Terror (1981) dir. Bruce D. Clark. I DNF’d a number of options from the 1950s before I hit on this one, an 80s Sci-Fi reminiscent of Alien meets Event Horizon, but with a sort of… Krull twist. It wasn’t great, and I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it (I’m pretty ill this week), but it wasn’t a DNF, so it goes on the list.

• Apex (2026) dir. Baltasar Kormákur. I really enjoyed Kormákur’s Beast (2022) with Idris Elba, so I thought I’d give this Australian wilderness survival cat-and-mouse a go. I wasn’t as gripped by this one as I was by Beast, but it wasn’t bad. I liked the premise and I liked Taron Egerton’s character a lot (no surprise there). I also enjoy Charlize Theron in things.

• Pandorum (2009) dir. Christian Alvart. This one was pretty good, another survival in space Sci-Fi Horror with some good tropes I enjoy. Not a highlighted watch for me, but I liked it.

• Sunshine (2007) dir. Danny Boyle. Star-studded cast and some great performances that really lifted this, although the science of it got very woolly and hand-wavy beyond suspension of disbelief. A bit too daft for a highlighted watch, and it took itself too seriously to lean into that. I liked it though! There were some great moments!

• Sphere (1998) dir. Barry Levinson. Another star-studded cast, with a terrible end for Queen Latifah. What a way to go. This one is also pretty daft, and unintentionally funny (are eggs spheres?? Don’t worry, these ultra venemous snakes attacking you are nocturnal, so they’re only dangerous at night). I liked it, but not as much as I enjoyed Infini. Not quite a highlight. Sorry Samuel L. Jackson.

Previous Media Round-Ups

April 2026 Media Round-Up

Everything I’ve watched, read, and listened to in April! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists.

March 2026 Media Round-Up

Everything I’ve read/watched/listened to in the month of March!

February 2026 Media Round-Up

What I read, listened to, and watched in the month of February! Skim the highlights, or expand the details to see the full lists and my thoughts.

January 2026 Media Round-Up

My monthly media round-up for January 2026 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I’ve been enjoying this month!

December 2025 Media Round-Up

My monthly media round-up for December 2025 – all the books, podcasts, tv shows, and films I read/listened to/watched this month.

November 2025 Media Round-Up

I’m starting a new monthly series where I post a round-up of all the media I’ve watched/read/listened to for the previous month. Here is November’s media round-up!

https://foritismansnumber.blogspot.com/2026/05/mubi-monday-sound-of-falling-2025.html

Brilliant stuff today.

#blog #blogger #review #MovieReview #mubi #streaming #SoundOfFalling #film #filmastodon

The Devil Wears Prada 2

Directed by David Frankel; starring Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci; written by Aline Brosh McKenna (1h59m)

As Runway struggles, Andy returns to save the fashion magazine.

Spectacular performances but the film, only made for commercial reasons, lazily resets its protagonists to zero so the movie can revisit the bits audiences loved the first time around, hence a movie with little stakes or heart.

Rating: C-

#TheDevilWearsPrada2 #MovieReview #Movies

Film Review: OVER YOUR DEAD BODY (2026): A Horror/Comedy That is Absurdly Entertaining

Link: https://film-book.com/film-review-over-your-dead-body-2026-a-horror-comedy-that-is-absurdly-entertaining/?fsp_sid=195154

#AndreEriksen #AndyCohen #BillJones #DanusiaSamal #IFC #IinaKuustonen #IlkkaVilli #JakeCurran #JasonSegel #JohnNiven #JormaTaccone #JulietteLewis #KaylaRadomski #KeithJardine #MovieReview #NickBall #NikolaiKinski #OverYourDeadBody #PaulGuilfoyle #RobertGoodman #SamaraWeaving #Timo...

984: Prisoner of the Future (1982) - This is a spoiler filled discussion on the Canadian made-for-TV sci-fi drama. The film is available on our YouTube channel, follow the LinkTree in the show notes if you'd like to watch it first. #MovieReview #Podcast #Scifi #Canadian #Drama #Bleak

https://timeshifterspodcast.com/984-prisoner-of-the-future-1982/