Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 71

Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii Episode 5 Review

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Well, there’s very little doubt about it now—almost every protagonist and supporting character in Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is either a total psycho or a partial nutcase.

If you remember, episode 4 of the anime series ended with Kirishima taking care of Yoshino after she falls sick. He displays doting affection and care, driving away any doubts in the viewer’s mind about his genuine love for the feisty Yoshino.

Episode 5 of Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii takes a domestic turn, devoid of Yakuza shenanigans and violence. Instead, it opens with the protagonists spending time together and worrying about their upcoming exams. The primary focus, however, is on Yoshino meeting a cousin who is moving from Kyoto to Yokohama, with the lovestruck Kirishima tagging along. For foreign viewers, Yokohama is about 48 minutes away from Tokyo by train.

“She’s totally your type!” Yoshino hilariously tells Kirishima on their way to meet her cousin. Not only that, Yoshino thinks their personalities are quite similar in their dating styles—they’re both players who keep juggling or changing partners. Last episode left some of us thinking Yoshino might be warming up to Kirishima, but she’s still completely wary of him, far from falling in love, and even looks like she’d rather push him toward her cousin than consider dating him herself. The lovestruck Kirishima still has a long way to go in winning her over.

It’s kind of odd that we’re already five episodes into Yakuza Fiancé, and even though it’s Yoshino who moved from Osaka to Tokyo to live with Kirishima’s family, we’ve met two very close confidantes of Yoshino, while Kirishima seems to be close to nobody. He’s got the “lone wolf” vibe but come on—he’s still a high school student! Shouldn’t he have at least one close friend or a bunch of cronies/minions he relies on?

Overall, this edition of Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is mildly comedic, mostly conversation-heavy, introducing yet another character who is highly protective of Yoshino. The second half finally reveals the truth behind Yoshino’s shocking kidney surgery, accompanied by some intriguing revelations. How the new character fits into the ongoing Yakuza romance between the two teens will be interesting to see.

You can watch the series on Crunchyroll.

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Meiyazhagan Review: An Introvert and Extrovert Walk into a Wedding…

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

When you’re born and raised in a place that’s truly feels like home in your heart, a place you imagine spending the rest of your life in, then having to move away due to unexpected change in circumstances can be gut-wrenching. The opening minutes of the 2024 Tamil movie ‘Meiyazhagan’ poignantly captures that pain – a young boy, who’s just finished high-school, wistfully visits his favourite temple, before heading to his ancestral home, to leave it forever. A property dispute and betrayal lead to his family being ousted from their home.

Written and directed by C. Prem Kumar, ‘Meiyazhagan’ stars Arvind Swamy as Arulmozhi, who reluctantly returns to his hometown after over two decades to attend the wedding of a first cousin—a hometown once inseparable from his identity. At the wedding, Arulmozhi encounters an energetic younger man (played by Karthi), who claims the two spent a very happy childhood summer at his house. Arulmozhi cannot remember the man and is too embarrassed to admit it. As the two men spend more time together, Arul rediscovers a forgotten part of his lost, cheery younger self.

The first forty minutes of ‘Meiyazhagan’ are nostalgically engaging, especially for viewers who’ve traded small town lives for bigger cities or those who’ve simply have had to move away from the village/town/city they were raised in. Even though he is headed to a wedding, Arulmozhi cannot help but stop by the house that once belonged to his family. And once he is at the wedding venue, close relatives, who haven’t seen him for years, are overjoyed by his presence. The accompanying musical score by composer Govind Vasantha adds to the evocative charm of the story.

Actor Raj Kiran has a small cameo as Arulmozhi’s maternal uncle, but the way he is emotionally overwhelmed to see his sister’s son after so long, strikes a strong chord. Happy, the uncle plants a few kisses on Arul’s face, like a father does to a small child, an exceptionally touching scene since we rarely get to see such familial display of affection between grown men in Indian cinema. A refreshing departure from the scheming, evil mama (mom’s brother) that’s usually up to no good.

The middle chunk of ‘Meiyazhagan’ is where the film begins to falter, getting woefully slow, and dragged out. A scene where Arul goes on stage to wish the bride and groom, is extended for far too long, only for emotional points. Arul’s cousin is shown to be extremely attached to him, especially due to their shared childhood, yet the two don’t meet in all those years. Sure, Arul is bitter about the past, so he never goes back to his hometown, but what was stopping the cousin and everybody else from visiting him in Chennai? A city that’s only one bus and a train away? The story takes place in 2018, so it’s not like connectivity was an issue. A lot of things in the plot would’ve made better sense if the story took place in the 1990s.

The bloated three-hour runtime (2 hr 57 minutes to be exact) will begin to test the viewer’s patience. Actor Karthi as the un-named enthusiastic relative who tails Arul like a loyal pet, flits between likable and annoying in ‘Meiyazhagan’. Although, his character is supposed to be the annoyingly intrusive extrovert to Arvind Swamy’s asocial, quiet, introverted Arul. The story relies on the classic trope of pitting an introvert against an impossibly vibrant extrovert who brings them out of their shell. It’s only in the last hour, that the story becomes heart-warming again, when Karthi’s character finally reveals why he is so thrilled to see Arul after to so many years. To avoid spoilers, let’s not mention the reason, however, it’s a touching connection between the men, an unwitting act of kindness on Arul’s part, that seals his status as a benevolent relative in his younger acquaintance’s heart.

From a distant, uninterested relative who reluctantly heads to his hometown to attend a wedding only out of obligation, Arvind Swamy’s Arul joyfully transforms into a man happy to be back to his roots, singing and dancing his heart out with a near-stranger. Bonding over beers and childhood memories, the two men’s camaraderie shines in ‘Meiyazhagan’ towards its climactic moments. Arvind Swamy is the heart of this film, which should’ve been at least 20 minutes shorter, if not more. In the end, the film celebrates the spirit of small towns, friendships, positivity and the relationships we forge through little acts of kindness.  

You can watch ‘Meiyazhagan’ on Netflix.

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Dan Da Dan Episodes 4 & 5 Review: Turbo Granny Battles + High School Feels

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“Okarun, you first.”

“I believe it’s ladies first, actually.”

Protagonist Momo Ayase and Ken ‘Okarun’ Takakura are prepared to fight the ghost of Turbo Granny, but not ready enough to take the first step inside her shady, scary lair!

Titled “Kicking Turbo Granny’s Ass,” episode 4 of the Japanese anime Dan Da Dan is all about the two teens taking on the formidable spirit. And once again, you’ll see some Jujutsu Kaisen-like elements in this episode—not that I’m going to reveal any spoilers. Remember, it’s very important that Momo and Okarun defeat the granny, because she is in possession of Okarun’s wiener. L-O-L.

A perfect continuation of the first three episodes, which were covered in the movie Dan Da Dan: First Encounter, chapter 4 is fast-paced, crazy, and features a very cringey, sexually charged attack in one scene that made me jump out of my chair. But it’s these unhinged, wacky scenes that make Dan Da Dan entertaining AF.

Momo and Okarun work hard to outwit the ghostly granny and an unexpected horde of new demons, and the episode ends on a comical note—Okarun faces embarrassing scrutiny from Momo’s granny, Seiko Ayase.

Episode 5 takes Dan Da Dan back to high school, where things get weird between Okarun and Momo, who aren’t sure how to navigate their newfound friendship. Hilariously titled “Like, Where Are Your Balls?” over half of the fifth episode of Dan Da Dan is very shoujo-manga-like, focusing on the confused feelings of the two teen protagonists. While Okarun worries if Momo really considers him a friend, Momo agonizes over her potential romantic feelings for the nerd next door. But what’s foremost in their minds is wanting to talk about aliens and ghosts with each other. Too cute.

The pace feels slower in this episode due to its focus on the everyday emotions of high school students and how the protagonists react around their peers. No creepy entities abducting or stealing anybody’s body parts. But of course, as the title indicates, Okarun reveals in the second half of the episode that his balls are missing! Momo takes him home so Granny Seiko can figure out why his body hasn’t been fully restored, and a funny new twist emerges in the tale.

The dialogue with which this Dan Da Dan episode ends had me in splits, and I really want to type it out, but damn, that would be a huge, unfair spoiler. So go watch the anime and find out for yourself. This show continues to surprise me as someone who hasn’t read the manga.

You can stream ‘Dan Da Dan’ on Netflix and CrunchyRoll.

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Hold Your Breath Review: Sarah Paulson Holds Dreary Horror Together

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

It took me a week to finally finish watching this 90-minute psychological horror movie, so I don’t want to spend too much time writing a compelling review for it. At first, the slow pace made me wonder if it should’ve been a miniseries, because despite the sluggish pace, the story keeps you intrigued about what’s going to happen next. By the time there are still 30 minutes left in Hold Your Breath, you already realize what’s likely to happen in the end, so the mystery is broken too. In fact, I wanted to stop watching it completely but continued anyway. “Entertaining” would be the last adjective one would use for the film, but Sarah Paulson delivers a fantastic performance, and there was definitely a lot of potential that was wasted.

Directed by Karrie Crouse and William Joines, Hold Your Breath is set in 1930s Oklahoma, where severe dust storms wreak havoc. With her husband away working in a different city, Margaret Bellum (Sarah Paulson) struggles to care for her two daughters, convinced that a sinister presence is threatening them. A recent case involving a drifter suspected of murdering an entire family in the area only intensifies her fears. Is it a drifter, a supernatural spirit, or someone/something else completely that’s looking to hurt the Bellum family? The relentless dust storms, failing crops, and lack of money seem to be smaller problems.

Amiah Miller, last seen in the horror-comedy My Best Friend’s Exorcism, plays Margaret’s elder daughter, Rose, while Alona Jane Robbins portrays the younger daughter, Ollie, who is deaf and mute due to scarlet fever. Margaret loses a third daughter to an unsaid illness, so she often suffers from nightmares and is all the more anxious about the well-being of her surviving daughters. Sarah Paulson is eerily unsettling as the over-protective mom, still grappling with the trauma of having a lost a child; while the dust-storms in their town emerge as one of the bigger villains in the tale. Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays Wallace Grady, a preacher, whose character in introduced in the second-half of Hold Your Breath and raises much suspicion.

The cinematography paints a vividly gloomy picture of dust-storm- and disease-ridden Oklahoma; however, the constant dusty tone of the film becomes monotonous. Adding to the visual boredom are the uninspiring conversations between the characters, all of whom fail to establish themselves as characters one should care for. Except for a few disturbing scenes, the scares are far too sparse in this snail-paced story. A good example of slow yet engaging psychological horror is Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass or the more recent 2024 movie Longlegs, both of which feature religious elements.

At the end of Hold Your Breath, Margaret’s character becomes increasingly desperate to protect her family, resorting to drastic measures to stay together, and a tragic climax finally puts an end to the Bellum family’s trials. Tighter writing and a more engaging screenplay would’ve made this movie so much better, watch the film only if you’re a patient viewer or a big Sarah Paulson fan.

Rating: 2 on 5 stars. Hold Your Breath is available on Disney Hotstar.

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High End Dying Review – The Horrors of Fine Dining

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

That was unexpected! The film begins with a disclaimer about self-harm, so be warned.

The short horror film High End Dying, directed by Helen Liu and written by Jordan Symes, follows Chef Eloise, whose new restaurant is harshly criticized by an established food critic named Alistair Brown. Devastated but determined to prove her worth, Eloise invites Alistair back to try her revamped menu—with an unexpected new ingredient.

At just eleven minutes long, High End Dying is a satirical, horror-themed jab at snooty critics and the absurd expectations placed on chefs in fine dining to create something uniquely transcendent. Something that might send the critic spiraling back to his childhood days, recalling that one favorite home-cooked meal by Mom—the only real solace of his life. I flinched at a few scenes—not exactly the kind of bloody horror I can easily stomach (pun intended)—but those who enjoy a bit of gore in their horror films will love it. Ultimately, it’s all about whether Alistair finally finds Eloise’s food to his taste.

The film brings to mind Delicacy, a French graphic novel by James Albon, about two brothers running a restaurant where certain dishes gain popularity due to an unusual ingredient. High End Dying is a fast-paced, horrifying twist on a similar concept. The entire story unfolds within Eloise’s restaurant, where she expects her employees to give 100% to her dishes—quite literally. The script takes dark, violent digs at the food industry, notorious for its grueling hours and low pay. It leaves us with an intriguingly morbid message: you could give someone everything, and it still might not be enough.

Yon can watch High End Dying on YouTube.

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Groupies Comic Book Series #Issue 1 Review

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Ah, another tricky first issue of a new comic book series that doesn’t quite give its readers a solid sense of what it’s really about. Issue #1 of Groupies by Helen Mullane and Tula Lotay starts off with a one-year-old flashback scene, where a bunch of partygoers are either lying wasted or dead. It then flips to a blood-soaked panel featuring what seems like a demonic entity. But soon, we’re taken to the present timeline, where some gorgeous girls are getting ready to hit the club and flirt with the hottest new boy band in town.

If I had to sum up the essence of Groupies based on the first issue alone—blood, gore, and demons collide with the world of ‘love, sex, rock n’ roll.’ Lisa Storm is probably the primary protagonist of the series: a young, beautiful woman in love with a hot musician named Si, who looks like a cross between a young Sebastian Bach (Skid Row) and Kurt Cobain, but with long black hair. Lisa Storm’s face immediately reminded me of Bollywood diva Parveen Babi; the resemblance is uncanny. I’ve attached an edited picture of comic-book Lisa and Parveen Babi side-by-side for you to see.

Left: Lisa Storm from the Comic | Right: Parveen Babi

Plot-wise, Groupies issue #1 is quite cryptic, Lisa finds herself on the receiving end of her jealous friend Vera’s ire, meanwhile, a close friend meets a brutal end. It’s Tula Lotay’s stunning, dreamy, glossy artwork that will keep readers turning the pages. I loved Tula’s art style in the Comixology series Barnstormers, and it’s safe to say that as long as her artwork accompanies a comic book, it immediately elevates the storytelling. In Groupies, the girls are all about glitz, glamour, evoking a strong sense of 1970s/80s nostalgia, with their style screaming disco glam.

I’m still not sure where Groupies is heading; it’s largely told from Lisa Storm’s perspective—a love-struck groupie, completely smitten by Si. Music and sex are two of the biggest themes in the issue, so there are a few graphic scenes throughout the comic. The issue ends with a cryptic cliffhanger, hinting that a crucial character may be something far more sinister than they appear. On the brighter side, Lisa and her posse of hot girlfriends get themselves invited to tour with the band, so there’s probably going to be some on-tour madness in the next chapter.

You can read Groupies on Kindle Unlimited.

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First Note of Love Review – The Notes Needed More Effort

Rating: 2 out of 5.

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This seemed really interesting at the start, almost as if it was Taiwan’s answer to the hit Japanese manga/anime series “Given”, which explores love and loss through the lens of music. But while “Given” was about two high-school students falling in love, while one of them is still coping with the loss of a deceased boyfriend, “First Note of Love” features older protagonists, both musicians, one of them in college, the other a famous professional idol who is grieving his brother’s death.

Directed by Shiue Bin Jian, “First Note of Love” stars Charles Tu and Michael Chang as lead protagonists Neil and Hsiao Hai AKA ‘Sea’, respectively. Sea is a young budding artist, who is offered to work with famous musician Neil, who Sea is a big fan of. However, the two get off on the wrong foot, so, Sea isn’t interested in working with Neil, despite being an admirer. Besides, Neil hasn’t been able to get on stage ever since he lost his brother. How the two end up making music together, and in the process learn to heal their own wounds, forms the crux of the tale.

Wow, that does sound like a pretty good music-themed romance right? Except that the most crucial ingredient of “First Note of Love” is the most forgettable one – the songs are outstandingly mediocre. The music in the series should’ve been at the heart of it. We mean, even Thai horror series “Dead Friend Forever” had a great music score, even though it didn’t need to, and nobody in its big cast of characters was a professional musician. Why compare a Thai series to a Taiwanese one? Because “First Note of Love” has a major character who is a Thai singer and the character seemed to be there only to pander to Thai BL fans (IYKYK – If you know, you know).

As far as the story and romantic progression is concerned, the first few episodes are interesting, but the show gets increasingly formulaic and lack-luster from there on. Charles Tu and Michael Chang are cute as an onscreen couple, but there’s little ‘first love’ magic between the two. The secondary sub-plot involving Neil’s manager Reese (Liu Min Ting) and Thai artist Orca (Jame Kasama Kranjanawattana) felt completely forced into the show. Instead of dragging the story for 12 long episodes, everything could’ve and should’ve been wrapped up in eight.

Overall, ‘First Note of Love’ is a basic, low-budget gay romance, which may or may not hit a chord with the viewers.

You can stream the series on Viki or LineTV.

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Time Cut Movie Review: Sisters vs. Slasher!

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Imagine landing your dream internship at NASA as a teen, but instead of instantly celebrating it, your parents ask you to find something else in your dead town and then drag you to your sister’s memorial to mark her 21st death anniversary. You might want to run away, but Lucy runs into a time machine that makes her jump back to the past – to 2003 to be exact. And even though her life sucks in 2024, Lucy’s sole goal is to get back to her timeline without tampering with the past. But, well, plans change!

Directed by Hannah Macpherson, who co-wrote the script with Michael Kennedy, the 2024 time-travel slasher movie ‘Time Cut’ stars Madison Bailey as protagonist Lucy Field, who finds herself back in April 2003 (MySpace was still a few months away from its debut, as was social media). She meets a science genius named Quinn (Griffin Gluck), who agrees to help her get back home, but complications arise when Lucy comes into close contact with her dead sister, Summer Field (Antonia Gentry). You see, Summer is about to die in two days, brutally murdered by a serial killer will kill some of her best friends first. Will Lucy try to stop the serial killings, or simply mind her own business?

“If you knew something bad was going to happen, would you try to stop it?”

Lucy asks this question repeatedly in Time Cut. And while it might sound obvious to anyone with a sense of humanity, it’s not as ridiculous if posed by a time traveler. Should they be allowed to tamper with the past? The age-old conundrum remains!

Even before its release, much has already been said about how Time Cut and the horror-comedy Totally Killer look alike (I thought the same while watching the trailer, but Time Cut was announced much earlier) – which also follows a teen time-traveling to the past, where she attempts to unmask a serial-killer. Aside from the basic time-travel and serial killer twist, believe me, these two films are very different and entertaining in their own way. In the first few minutes, Time Cut does feel a little gloomier in tone than necessary—but remember, this isn’t a horror-comedy flick.

Time Cut is  a lot more sentimental tone without being too mawkish, although, c’mon, a few more jokes would’ve been welcome. Lucy, the time traveler, has a personal connection to the serial-killing victims, even though she wasn’t yet born when her sister Summer died. However, Summer’s death looms over Lucy’s life, with her parents being over-protective and suffocating in the way they treat her. What’s worse than having a sibling who always outshines you? A dead sibling you can’t even compete with. But when Lucy meets Summer in the past, she sees her family in a completely new light—they’re a family she’d want to be a part of, unlike the overbearing, broken versions of them in the future. Familial grief and the way it spills over, is one of the subtlest themes of Time Cut – with a 90 minute runtime, the script has no time to do justice to it.

Madison Bailey and Antonia Gentry (Ginny and Georgia/Prom Dates) have great onscreen chemistry as siblings/friends Lucy and Summer. Their smooth portrayal of two different teens grappling with their own set of problems adds emotional depth to the movie. The writers give them typical clashing personalities but without overdoing teen-movie clichés. So, even though Summer is a popular kid at school, she’s by no means a mean girl and is quite likable. And while Lucy is the asocial one, she isn’t a timid coward—she knows how to stand up for herself and doesn’t shy away from stepping up for total strangers either. Griffin Gluck (Tall Girl/Locke & Key) is nerdy-sweet as science-whiz Quinn, and his fast-growing friendship with Lucy is the kinds of friendships you’d root for. Oh and you definitely will want the sisters to win the “siblings versus slasher” fight too.

One of the most entertaining scenes in Time Cut is a sequence where Summer questions Lucy’s dressing style, and the two spend a lot of time trying on different outfits for fun. But since this is a slasher-horror movie, there’s plenty of killing, though the gore is on the tamer side. Not much blood or guts to watch out for, so hardcore horror fans might be a bit disappointed. Nostalgia enthusiasts would love all the music from early 2000s though – which ranges from Avril Lavigne to the band Wheatus. Although in a few scenes – the music choices didn’t match the tone of the scenes.

As for the suspense over the killer’s identity, Time Cut maintains solid suspense around the murderer, though honestly, there are only a handful of suspects since there are very few prominent characters in the film. It becomes fairly easy to guess who the killer might be, even though you might not be entirely sure of the motive. In fact, that’s where the biggest disappointment lies—the motive is quite flimsy.

Regardless, Time Cut wraps up with an unconventional ending for a time-travel movie, which is somewhat satisfying, though it leaves you with more questions than answers. But if you’re looking for a horror-slasher that sits somewhere between the Scream movies and time-travel flicks, you should try watching Time Cut.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10. Stream Time Cut on Netflix.

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Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions Episode 17 Review

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Where there’s a body, there’s Ron Kamonohashi, lying next to it as if whispering secrets into the corpse’s ear and receiving back clues the others fail to notice. We mean, listen—if there’s a scene in Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions with a body in it, and Ron isn’t allowed to lie down next to it, that’s blasphemous!

Episode 16 ended with a bonus scene showing Ron deep in thought, thinking back to Winter Moriarty’s last words before someone shot the villain. So, episode 17 of Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions opens with Ron revealing to Toto that he is on a lot of medication to help suppress his uncontrollable supernatural ability to order murderers to kill themselves. It’s already been established that Moriarty did something to blunt Ron’s abilities, and he is intent on finding the crime family and putting an end to all their nefarious activities.

Titled “The Case of the Midsummer Beach Hut Drowning Pt. 1,” episode 17 of the series also brings back the clumsy neurosurgeon Mofu Usaki, the purple-haired doctor who was first seen in episode 6 of season one, where she is challenged by a psychic who claims he can read minds. So, we see Mofu, Ron, and Toto go to the beach after Toto insists that Ron needs a break from all the brutal murders they’ve been surrounded by.

“You should take a break; that’s why I am here,” Toto says when he visits Ron at his flat.

“What? Are you here with a relaxing murder case?!”

Ron’s eyes hilariously light up with excitement, although Toto screams back at him, telling him there’s no such thing as a ‘relaxing murder case.’ Lol.

The animation in this episode stood out particularly because the production team has put in more effort than usual into designing the supporting characters and some of the background elements. For instance, when the episode started, it looked like a completely different anime for a few seconds, featuring a darker-than-usual palette and a man struggling for his life.

Of course, like always, Ron and Toto’s outing to the beach brings them a new murder case, and this is a fun beach-themed mystery, where a young man dies during a trip with his friends. While everybody thinks it’s an accident, our genius detective immediately sees otherwise. The truth is held back for part two of this new case!

You can stream the series (Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri) on Netflix or CrunchyRoll

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Skelly Review: Homemade Haunts & A Warm Halloween

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“You know, it’s funny, I spent all this time making this for him… and now I just… kind of wish I would’ve spent all that time with him.”

When Jonah’s beloved grandfather passes away, his dad learns the importance of spending quality time with family. Written and directed by Matt Greene-DeLanghe, the 2024 movie Skelly is a straightforward, warm, Halloween-themed tale about new author Jonah (Jacob Saxton) telling his children the story of how his dad, Dave (John Palladino), along with a group of friends, helped continue the family tradition of building an epic haunted house for Halloween.

Most of Skelly unfolds in flashbacks, with Jonah recalling how his father Dave grappled with the grief of losing his father (Brian Cox), unknowingly distancing himself from Jonah for a bit. Meanwhile, a young Jonah (Judah Abner Paul) struggles with his friends to build a haunted house without his dad’s usual help. Not having his grandfather around makes it even worse. But thankfully, Dave has a change of heart and joins in, helping the kids by crafting some very cool props to scare trick-or-treaters.

The title Skelly refers to a game that Dave’s father grew up playing on the streets of the Bronx, a game he loved sharing with future generations. In fact, the film opens with Jonah’s kids attempting to play the game outside their home. Throughout the film, there’s a strong emphasis on how games and constructive team activities help build stronger bonds. One of the most refreshing scenes in Skelly is when little Jonah makes a pizza at home with his best friend, Kelvin (Devin Trey Campbell), an upbeat and energetic boy.

At just under 90 minutes, Skelly is a wholesome drama that captures the spirit of both autumn and the spooky season with lighthearted charm. From the blazing orange hues of maple and oak trees to seasonal staples like pumpkins, corn husks, and skeletons, Skelly brings a rich visual appeal. However, the pace is on the slower side, and some scenes of Dave working on Halloween projects in the shed run longer than necessary. More scenes between Dave and his father would have brought greater emotional depth to the story. After all, at its core, this is meant to be a tale of fathers and sons, though by the end, it feels more focused on building a successful haunted house to get kids screaming their guts out (which, admittedly, was fun to watch).

The climax of Skelly is celebratory in tone, with the ‘Haunted House’ envisioned by Jonah and his friends finally coming to life. If you’re looking for a film to watch with the entire family, especially with younger kids, Skelly is a worthy pick.

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