Tag: Netflix

The OA: Champion – Learning (Review)

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The OA “Champion” gives more backstory to Prairie’s time in captivity.  We learn that Dr. Hunter, despite his degree, is not the sharpest tool in the shed. There is also some question as to whether or not he actually catches Prairie after her short abortive bid for freedom.

In fact the entire episode seems to indicate that Prairie’s fellow captives are not the sharpest tools in the collective shed either. Homer, who is paranoid that his “son” will believe he has deserted him is far too fixated on his unborn child to make any real sense.

The chap with the beard “Why the hell did you ruin it with mustard,” is obnoxious and also not a real clever clogs. At least the other female is not as aggressive or as single minded as the other two members of Hap’s “zoo.”

It is interesting to note that Dr. Hunter becomes conditioned quite easily by the blind Prairie, aka The OA. Like a case of Stockholm syndrome in reverse. He clearly believes that she poses no threat and allows her to act as “chief cook and bottle washer” while the other three captives stay in their humid little glass cells.

He gets so carried away with having her upstairs that he forgets to mention that he is allergic to tomatoes. When she attempts to poison him, with a load of crushed up sleeping pills, the effort goes awry when he has a reaction to the “stew” she made him.

Hap sends her to retrieve his backup epipen. She discovers the dead body of her predecessor laying in a bathtub filled with pinkish/lavender fluid. The not-so-good doctor explains that her death is not his fault after injecting himself with the epipen.

Later, Prairie shoves Hap backwards down the stairs to his holding cells. She then uses the cast iron skillet to break the kitchen window and climb outside the house.

As she stands on a precipice overlooking an odd landscape, she is knocked unconscious.  This may well be what “cures” her blindness. The hands holding the rifle must not belong to Hap as he could not have recovered from falling down those stairs that quickly.

In terms of “learning” Steve, still the most unpleasant of Prairie’s witnesses, finds that the kid he could beat up when they were younger is now tough enough to choke the meanness right out of him.

We also learn that the teacher has recommended the school bully and drug dealer for an alternative method of schooling.

In this episode much is revealed about the day-to-day existence in those glass cubicles. However, the almost reverential memories that Prairie has of Homer seem terribly misplaced.  So too are her earlier recollections where all the captives seem to be banded together.

As the story of The OA continues to unfold, it is becoming clear that some things here do not add up. Have the “supernatural” elements that interceded in Prairie’s earlier life in Russia stepped in once more? Or has Prairie “self-edited” her recent experiences?

The OA is streaming on Netflix and can be downloaded for viewing offline. All eight episodes are available for viewing.

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Crazyhead: Beaver With a Chainsaw – Balls Out Together (Review)

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Crazyhead “Beaver With a Chainsaw” (“What does that even mean,” asks Amy.) is the very short season’s finale.  Raquel does indeed open the gates of Hell releasing a legion of demons.  Amy saves the day, along with a little help from Mercy, and Jake is possessed. By the time the end credits roll, however, the two demon hunters are back together; extendible batons at the ready.

In the last episode, Raquel learns that Harry is actually a demon and that Dr. Weaver is the big leader of all the escapees from Hell.  Amy tries to warn her friend and even threatens to get Tyler; Raquel’s brother,  involved to keep the “key to Hell” from going to see Harry.

Raquel drugs everyone and as they play Jinga on Halloween, Tyler, Jake and Amy collapse and pass out. (Tyler loses the Jinga game by knocking over the wooden tower with his head as he passes out.) Amy wakes up and gets Jake to drive after Raquel.

Both of her potential saviors are colossally messed up from the combination of vodka and prescription medication. Jake insists he can drive and takes off at a snail’s pace to catch up with Raquel. After a short, but very funny, journey, they arrive in time to see Raquel being taken away.

After getting Halloween costumes, in order to blend in at the big party and Hell gate opening, they chase after Raquel again.

At the mansion, Callum is gloating about releasing a legion of demons. Raquel asks for, and gets, a cigarette. Immediately after lighting it, she shoves the lit end into Dr. Weaver’s ear. “Can we get that painkilling spray,” he asks Harry later.

Mercy is not pleased that her son is set up to be possessed by demons and while Callum and Harry get things ready, she spends a lot of time with her boy. Amy and Jake arrive and Mercy gives her a demon kiss rendering the young woman unconscious.

Raquel learns that Harry was a demon all along and her fury at being lied to creates a little meltdown action. The gates of Hell open and demons come flooding into the mansion and the innocent party goers.

Amy, who had a vision showing her dying at the Halloween party, stops Raquel’s rage fueled grief by telling her friend  she loves her. Kissing her pal causes Raquel to calm down and this closes the gates of Hell.

Callum is furious. He and Amy struggle and they plunge off the edge of the balcony. Amy, seen falling in slow motion, lands on a zombie decoration. Raquel screams her friend’s name and Amy’s eyes open. She has been saved by an inflatable zombie decoration.

The three friends leave the mansion. Jake turns out to be possessed. After a quick chase through the woods, which ends with the young man being zapped by Raquel’s taser mobile phone, Amy performs an exorcism.

Later she tells her friend that Jake is back and that he was extremely excited that she urinated on him. At the end, Suzanne – drinking what looks suspiciously like blood from a  five liter plastic bottle – watches as the two demon hunters go after their latest prey.

This was a brilliant end to the six episode season. Everything about this series worked well. From Kiwi songstress Gin Wigmore’s  Kill of the Night theme song to the raunchy, aka earthy, slang for all things sexual from Raquel, this was funny and entertaining.

The scene where everyone apart from Raquel are stoned while playing Jinga is hysterically funny. So too is the low speed chase with a loaded Jake and Amy going after Raquel. Rather interestingly, Mercy’s last moment change of heart was touching.

Misfits creator Howard Overman has given us an irreverent and amusing look at two English demon hunters who have little in common. There appears to be a good chance that the show will come back for a second season as it seems that E4 put the series on with an eye on Netflix acquiring the show.

With an ongoing mission to find all the demons that Raquel released into that mansion, the two heroines are going to be very busy for at least another six episode season.

Crazyhead is available on Netflix to stream or download for offline viewing.

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Travelers: Aleksander – Challenges (Review)

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Travelers “Aleksander” continues to be unlike most time travel shows. Not only do the future “saviors” have to adjust to their host’s lives, but they have to change to fit the times. Some of the adjustments are amusing, such as Trevor’s hesitant taste of sweetcorn and his subsequent delight at this new treat.

Others, like Philip’s host’s addiction to heroin threatens his sanity, his conscience and, later, the group’s mission. By violating protocol 3, which equates to neither taking nor saving a life, he endangers not only himself but the purpose of their visit.

Each traveler is affected by the lives that their hosts led before taking over their bodies. Maclaren turns out to be a crack shot with a handgun, something that amazes his partner at the FBI. Amusingly, he also cannot tie a necktie, so he wears the same one for three days.

It is also pointed out, almost in passing, that he was not changing his underwear either. When his wife jokingly poses the question, he says, in a throw-away murmur, “underwear.” In the future, apparently, people do not wear undergarments or, at the very least, do not have to change them.

Trevor, whose host was a bit of a bad lad, changes dramatically. He is now nice, except to his “girlfriend” who is a bully. So too was Trevor before he was taken over.

Marcy is now staying with her social worker and all premises of being mentally challenged, as a result of her terminal illness, has been dispensed with. David is still having issues with the whole thing but he does lie to the cop who comes to question him about his ward.

Philip is not just suffering because of the heroin. He attends the funeral of the friend of his host who died on the same day. His mate’s mother goes off on Philip who then feels guilty. Using his knowledge of the past, he has bets placed on certain things and has the money sent to the parents.

The heroin addict also lies to his fellow travelers telling them that they have a new mission. A Romanian boy has been kidnapped; his name is Aleksander, and his body will be found in a basement if they do not rescue the lad.

The team get together and collect firearms. The lad is located. There are dead bodies in the basement showing that Aleksander is not the first boy that the crazy couple have taken. They call the lad Patrick and Maclaren asks the boy in Romanian if that is really his name. The youngster says no.

A brief shootout ensues. The man and woman are shot dead and Philip is wounded. Marcy fixes him up and as Grant gets angry at the  lies and intrusiveness of Philip’s actions. She explains that he is addicted to heroin and that she can, in time, get him off the stuff.

Travelers is not the normal cliched story about time travel. Each character is looked at from two standpoints. The traveler who is there to save the world and the host they must inhabit and emulate. Each episode gives the viewer more insight into how difficult this balancing act is.

However not all characters are being delved into equally. Carly, the single mum, has not had a lot of screen time. She has not been focused upon too much as a result.  That may well change as the series goes on but for now Ms.Shannon is a bit of a mystery.

Travelers creator Brad Wright has stepped right outside the box for this time travel tale with a difference. His decision to leave what have become tropes in this particular category of science fiction has delivered a show that entertains while making the audience think and talk about the events as they transpire.

The series is streaming on Netflix and can be downloaded for offline viewing. Head on over and check this one out. See what challenges this group of time travelers still face.

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Guest starring David Raynolds as Aleksander/Patrick.

At the Devil’s Door (2014): A Twist on the Robert Johnson Myth (Review)

At the Devil’s Door takes the Robert Johnson myth, the musician reportedly sold his soul to the devil to enhance his guitar playing skills, and takes it in a completely different direction.  From the moment the precocious teen passes the test and completes the $500 transaction; heading down to the crossroad to speak her name, the atmosphere becomes darker, unsettling and full of foreboding.

The location is not Mississippi and the time is the present.   The young lady is co-erced by her lover to sell her soul. As the film progresses we learn more about the girl; Hannah (played by Ashley Rickards) who vanishes until real estate agent Leigh (Catalina Sandino Moreno) stumbles across her at a house she is selling.

It is interesting to note that the girl appears only after Leigh uncovers the mirror in the bedroom. (Another bit of mythology here with the superstition that mirrors should be covered after a death to keep the spirits from coming back through…)

At the Devil’s Door is a slow burning horror film that seems to borrow from a number of other movies and or books.  The “birth” of the devil (which the film sets up as the arrival of the new Anti-Christ) mirrors, rather closely, Rosemary’s Baby and peripherally Ju-on: The Grudge 2, where Kayako comes back via a pregnancy.

Also, it bears mentioning that Hannah wears a red hoodie in the film. This, combined with her diminutive height of 5’3,” is a clear nod to Don’t Look Now. Another film that has less in the way of classic jump scares and  much more in the area of atmosphere.)

(What the film does not rely upon, or allude to, is the 1976, or the 1996 remake, of The Omen. A film that deals primarily with the coming of the Anti-Christ.)

Written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact, Holidays – Easter segment) At the Devil’s Door is a dark, moody horror film that manages to sneak in a couple of “jump scares” and leaves the viewer slightly off balance and unsettled by the end.

The film, inspired, McCarthy says, by a Chilean cab driver’s story in New York, is a mix of selling your soul and then involving sisters a’la Psycho.  It is an interesting notion. The story, as told to McCarthy, was that after selling his soul, the cab driver then had to tell the witchdoctor his name; so the devil would know who to call.

Another variation on the superstitious belief that giving one’s true name to a demon, or evil entity, is to give them power over the speaker. With all these superstitions and nods to other stories about the devil, the “big bad” is never mentioned by name.

This is an excellent second project that features much of the same jarring aspects of McCarthy’s 2012 horror film The Pact. At the Devil’s Door can be seen as a cautionary tale at its core except for the fact that (Somewhat like The Grudge.) the entity jumps from woman to woman until it gets what it needs.

The film is not rated, but there is very little graphic violence and literally no sex at all.  The language is not offensive and there is no drug use whatsoever.  Apart from the scary nature of the film, with its atmospheric tenseness and sense of foreboding, it could be rated G.

At the Devil’s Door is a solid 4 star film. It is offbeat and, in places, quite intense. McCarthy has managed, with a minimum of muss and fuss, to give us a film that is creepy, slightly scary and, at times, very unsettling. It is streaming on Netflix at the moment and can be downloaded for watching offline as well.

‘Crazyhead’ Episode 5: Downward Facing Dog – Namaste B*tches (Review)

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Crazyhead episode 5: “Downward Facing Dog” sees Raquel getting closer to Harry and Amy struggles to convince her friend that her new guy pal is going to attack her.  Apart from her prophetic dream showing that Harry is not what he claims to be, Amy also seems to see her own death.

Amy attempts to warn Raquel about Harry but the half-demon has shut her mobile phone off.  The date goes well right up until one of Weaver’s henchmen follows Raquel into the bar’s  restroom . Harry intervenes and shoves the demon’s head into a faeces filled toilet bowl.

He then reveals that Sawyer, Raquel’s dad, sent him to protect her. Harry is a demon hunter who was friends with her father, he says. Raquel is upset at first but then forgives Harry for lying to her. They kiss in the public lavatory and he walks her home, forgetting that his car is back at the bar.

Amy and Raquel have their first real falling out over Harry after revealing that he is a demon hunter. She tells Amy everything that Harry told her but Amy insists that he is going to hurt her.

Amy insists that they should double-date. Raquel reveals that she snogged Harry’s face off in the toilets and that he attacked a demon for her.  Mercy and Weaver talk about “the plan.”

The two couples go bowling. Jake meets Tyler and is not impressed, he is also very aggressive toward Raquel’s brother.  Amy gets Harry some bowling shoes and quizzes the demon hunter.

Harry tells Raquel that Amy does not like him and she confronts Amy about her attitude.

Raquel is completely swept away by Harry and later, when Callum’s henchmen try to kill Amy, she and Harry save Jake and Amy. Harry even leaps in front of Raquel and takes a bullet for her.

The wounded demon hunter goes into hospital to recover. After Raquel goes to visit him, Callum drops by and we learn that Harry has been possessed by a demon.

Mercy seems to have second thoughts about having her child possessed by a freshly released demon from Hell.

Raquel, whose nature allows her to react rather spectacularly when use, is the key and in the rescue scene, she once again moves things about telekinetically.

The best bit of the whole episode had to be the kidnapping of Amy and Jake. Flung into the boot of a car, the two have their hands and mouth’s taped up by Callum’s henchmen.

Amy’s friend discovers a sharp piece of metal and begins struggling to cut the tape on his wrists. As he rhythmically rubs the tape against the object, it looks, and sounds, as though Jake is having sex with Amy.

Funny and awkward, it is the highlight of the episode and may just qualify as the comedic high point of the series. Show creator Howard Overman is letting his Misfits roots shine through here and it results in making this supernatural comedy horror a cut above the rest.

Crazyhead is streaming on Netflix and can be downloaded as well.  Head on over and catch this one. This series  is irreverent, funny, rude and worth every minute that one spends watching this brilliant offering from E4.

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