Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)

 

Unbeknownst to me Hammer Productions made three movies based on the legend of Robin Hood. They are all separate from each other (not connected, not sequels) but this particular movie does have some connections with the TV series 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' which came a few years prior. But it's the cast in this movie that grabbed my attention.

The plot is a bit wishy washy it must be said, tends to roam about somewhat. Essentially, the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham along with the help of the Duke of Newark, wants to steal the land of a nobleman who has recently died in the Crusades. The Archbishop of Canterbury is against this move which results in him becoming the target of assassination by the Sheriff. Oddly enough the Duke of Newark stumbles upon Robin Hood (who he doesn't recognise) and upon being impressed with his archery skills asks Robin to carry out the assassination. Naturally, once Robin realises what's going on he decides to help the Archbishop.

That is the main crux of the plot but there are some drawbacks. Firstly, the nobleman whose land is so precious to the Sheriff and Duke is unknown, we don't get any information on him other than he was the Lord of Bawtry (a small market town in the north of England). I should also point out that the Duke of Newark, as far as I'm aware, is a fictitious character for this movie which is disappointing considering all the real people they could have used. Secondly, it's weird how the Duke doesn't recognise Robin (the notorious outlaw of the time) immediately or at least suspect anything. It has to be pointed out to him by the Sheriff after the Duke hires him. Its also quite amusing how the Duke puts Robin through some trials to test his archery skills, hires him, and then puts him through yet more trials because apparently he wasn't entirely convinced the first time; and he still doesn't realise its Robin Hood!

Oliver Reed plays Lord Melton (fictitious again), a promising evil-looking character with a glorious slimy voice who doesn't really do anything, a wasted character. And lastly, one of Robin's men is murdered by the Sheriff. So Maid Marian desperately wants to get the Archbishop to grant freedom to his family, which kinda feels superfluous really considering men on both sides probably got killed quite often.

It's an odd entry really, no mentions of Prince John, no mentions of Richard the Lionheart except for the Crusades. I'm not sure when this story is supposed to have been set timeline-wise or if it's just meant to be a random adventure. I can't deny it looks great though. Really rich vibrant settings that admittedly don't look anything like Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire or Derbyshire but they are attractive and green. It's the usual thing really, some shots look like they could be in the correct location, others look completely ridiculous. The movie was actually shot in Ireland but honestly I wouldn't have guessed that. Still, I enjoyed the visuals very much, the interiors of castles, places of worship, grand halls etc...all looked really nice and quite authentic. Hammer sets always looked good, especially inside rustic castles.

As I said originally it was the cast that piqued my interest here. As said there is Oliver Reed playing a great but underutilised baddie. Next to him you have Richard Pasco stealing every scene with bold overacting and amusing bowl haircut. Nigel Green once again plays the strongman character in Little John with that trademark hairstyle and beard of his. Richard Greene continues his role as Robin Hood from the TV series (much of the cast also starred in that series). Definitely some curious casting for me because he looked like a clean-cut middle-aged bank manager rather than a medieval outlaw. And of course Peter Cushing can simply do no wrong. I expected a stereotypical moustache-twirling villain but I was genuinely surprised at how good his Sheriff was here. I should also add that the costumes all round were really good and authentic looking. Again I expected cliched costumes in big bold colours but no! Characters have various outfits and they mostly look suitably rough, worn, and handmade.

I'll be honest here, I fully expected this to be a horrendous fake-looking cliched mess with corny-as-hell acting, but I was wrong! Yes the story is kinda weak and I have no idea how it fits into the lore of Robin Hood (or if it even does, probably doesn't). I'm guessing it's just a story someone made up for the movie and not based on any historical events or folklore. That aside, the visuals overall are very pleasing from the costumes to the locations and the wonderful interior sets. This movie looks far better than most other Robin Hood movies and, dare I say, more authentic than the classic Errol Flynn adventure. Don't go expecting top-notch action of course but what you get is perfectly acceptable. Overall this is a thoroughly enjoyable romp of the Middle Ages. Look out for 007's Desmond Llewellyn as the bloke getting shot in the back with an arrow at the start. 

7/10

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

 

An eccentric millionaire rents a house that is believed to be haunted in order to throw a party and see who survives? This millionaire appears to be bored with life. But wait! There is of course a more sinister plot afoot, well kinda. Actually it all surrounds a simple murder attempt and no ghosts or ghoulies a tall unfortunately.

So spoiler alert then for this (at the time of this review) 64-year-old movie. Yes, for a movie about a haunted house and starring the King of Creeps Vincent Price, there is no supernatural activity going on in this entire movie, alas. Frederick Loren (Price) invites a small party of specific people over to his spooky soirée. They all share one thing in common, they crave money (don't we all). Apart from the obvious lure of money I'm not too sure why these people would accept such a bizarre and possibly suspicious offer. Looking at it from my own perspective, I would be highly suspicious, but anyway.

The house in question is an actual real location in LA (Ennis House) and it looks awful in my humble opinion. A large ugly concrete block monstrosity that looks like it's been built out of Lego with precast Mayan patterns on them. It literally looks like a Lego set and completely goes against the whole classic 'haunted house' theme. Especially when you take into consideration that the movie's poster showcases a more classic haunted house design. The interiors of the house also have the more classic haunted house style and appearance that most will come to expect, but again this goes against the house's ugly blocky exterior. Alas this contrast makes the interiors look and feel much more like the sets they actually (and obviously) are.

We are told there have been murders in this house hence why everyone thinks it's haunted, but that's as far as it goes. Not sure who owns the house or why they rent it but it does come with an eerie duo of house cleaners. One of which does seem to take presumed delight in scaring one of the female guests half to death by acting mightily scary at random times. I still don't understand why this cleaner did that, what was the point? Didn't seem to have any effect on the actual plot. After a few more (but not that many) ghostly encounters we eventually discover that it's all a ruse by one of the guests and Frederick's wife in order to get his wealth, a shocking revelation. But does Frederick have the upper hand?

For the most part the scares in this movie are mostly people disappearing in rooms, the odd plastic head in a box, a ghost floating outside of a window etc...For the time I'm sure it was intimidating stuff but obviously these days it's all very cute. The main money shot, if you can call it that, is the finale sequence where the supposed skeletal remains of Frederick pop up and floats around the room after his wife, eventually shoving her into a large vat of acid. Yes one room has a large vat of acid in it, don't question it. This sequence is legit laughable in all its absolute crudity and yet at the same time I'm actually impressed they had the gall to keep it in the movie! Heck they liked said skeleton so much it even features on the movie poster. The highlight of this sequence has to be a shot of Frederick standing there controlling the skeleton with the most ridiculous pulley contraption strapped to his body, apparently completely out of sight of his wife! (laugh out loud!).

In the end everything works out just dandy. Frederick successfully kills off his dastardly wife and her lover and proclaims he's ready to accept whatever justice is dished out to him. Yet despite the lack of any actual apparitions we are still led to possibly believe that the house is haunted and that Frederick's wife and lover now also haunt the house. Kinda disappointing we didn't actually get any spooks but despite that I can't say I didn't like the movie. I think this falls under the category of 'the poster is better than the actual movie'. Definitely the epitome of a Price horror flick but ultimately I kinda expected more and not quite as much low-budget effects.

6/10

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)

 

'Attack of the Giant Leeches' or if you like...'Giant Leeches Invade Dixieland' or 'Giant Leeches vs. The Good Old Boys'.

So back to the 50's we go with the ever-popular (for the time) monster flick. Or to be more precise, giant bug attack flick. Back in those days it was either aliens, giant bugs, or mysterious monsters. I have mentioned before in previous reviews how during this period virtually every form of bug (and various other species) was used for these types of movies. Giant locusts, spiders, frogs, birds, ants, scorpions, crabs, praying mantis, lizards etc...We've even had killer rocks and trees.

I have also mentioned in previous reviews how these movies tend to be generally exactly the same, and this is no different. Once again giant man-eating creatures are crawling around the outback nowhere near civilisation and terrorising some small all-American town. Usually it's out in the desert somewhere but this time it's deep in the Everglades. Nevertheless the townsfolk are still the same predictable bunch we always see. The good-looking square-jawed White male lead, his attractive White female companion, the elder wiser White male who explains everything (and gives us exposition), and of course the ugly chubby sceptic cops.

The plot? People start disappearing in the Everglades and no one knows why. The main good-looking protagonist and his attractive companion soon think they know but of course no one in town believes them. Eventually they manage to drag everyone (the hick cops) into their way of thinking and save the day, the end.

The monsters in question? Well they are supposed to be leeches...but they don't look like leeches. They kinda look like large squid/octopus tentacles and pretty much act like it too. The monster outfits in question are, predictably pretty bad even by B-movie standards. They appear to be simply large black bin bags or black raincoats stitched together. Yes I know that's what wiki says but that's pretty accurate. Unfortunately we don't even see them enough to enjoy their cheesy appearance, add to that how dark the picture was and it's a bit of a bust really. When we do see them you are clearly able to see it's just men in costume, especially when they 'carry' their prey away.

To be fair the acting all round is actually pretty solid considering. The budget was obviously non-existent but the cast actually do a good job and fit their roles. Leading man Ken Clark was actually pretty buffed up, can't deny a good-looking man with his Brad Pitt-esque locks. As for everything else less said the better really. The way they deal with the leeches is absolutely hilarious (just dropping dynamite randomly into the lake), and all the sequences within the leech lair are quite quite farcical to say the least. But if you're after hokey 50's schlock then you definitely can't go wrong with this one. Really could of done with more leech action though.

3/10

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Fear not Ranger. Barbarian, Magician, Thief! Cavalier and Acrobat. I am Dungeon Master, your guide in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons.

Admittedly I'm not too sure if I would have liked an actual live-action recreation of the classic 80's cartoon going by Hollywood's track record on these things. I mean take a look at the small cameo we get of the classic team in this new movie. Yes we do actually see Dungeon Master's teen team pop up in this wannabe franchise. I'm sure it will have flown over younger viewers heads but to those in the know it was a fleeting moment of joy. But taking a closer look and you can see how Hollywood always manages to mess things up. Firstly the team are bizarrely older than they are supposed to be. Bobby the barbarian, Diana, and Presto all looked like middle-aged parents in costumes. Hank and Sheila looked okay but Eric they somehow managed to race-swap...sigh! Why Hollywood? The actual costumes looked pretty good though, Hank the Ranger especially.

As for this movie, well it's a pretty bog-standard mission (or level) based mcguffin search scenario. Find a person to ask for information, follow information to specific location for an item or another person. Go to next location for another item or another person etc...Eventually it all leads to end of movie showdown with end of movie big boss. That isn't necessarily a problem with this movie though as it's based on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise and that's what you tend to do. However, it does come across as somewhat overly basic and more like a generic videogame adaptation. 

Visually speaking it was a mixed bag really. Like many movies these days the effects swing from being impressive in one scene to downright terrible in another. Case in point here; whilst there are some really good makeup and prosthetics effects for various fantasy characters along with some really nice-looking sets, there are also some blatantly obvious greenscreen shots and God-awful CGI. I still don't get how this happens in these big-budget movies. An obvious greenscreen shot or sequence always pulls me out of the movie, or moment.

The casting was poor all around in my opinion. Once again there seems to have been an outright obvious push to make the movie as diverse as possible whilst sacrificing quality choices. Most actors here are unknown to me but their acting skills didn't really impress, nor did their appearances in their costumes.  Justin Smith, Rege-Jean Page, and the overly-used tough female character actress Michelle Rodriguez all looked completely out of place. Smith was a Black half-elf apparently, was this to rub in the faces of all the LotR's fans? I'm sorry but Elves aren't Black and neither are Dwarves. And yes I didn't like Pine's casting either, for me his face just didn't fit his character or this world. The only casting that did work for me was Hugh Grant as the slimy smarmy double-crossing Fitzwilliam, a far better villain than the actual main villain.

There were other aspects I found all too silly. I really didn't like the overweight dragon which was obviously CGI. Was this for comedy purposes? Swing and a miss. I also cringed at the all-too-common trope of using bald men with head tattoos as some kind of villainous horde of cult-like er...villains. How many fantasy movies have used that lazy idea? Geez!! Alas we also got the same for the main female baddie, bald with head tattoos...ugh! Because a powerful female sorceress has to be bald with head tattoos? She also turned out to be a really weak villain and got a blatantly nasty looking CGI ending courtesy of the CGI owlbear.

I couldn't really decide whether I liked this movie or not really.  Some aspects I really enjoyed such as the various D&D species/races you see throughout, some of which looked great. I liked the settings or locations throughout, a nice range that showcased the world or realm. The hero roster was a good selection and overall the plot moved along nicely. But apart from the few things I've already mentioned there was a little too much that brought the movie down in the end. Close but overall not quite enough to grab me.

5/10

Prey (2022)

So what have we here? Well it's a Predator movie so there isn't really that much to explain. One difference with this latest entry is the fact there aren't two different tribes of Predators runnin' around. This time we're going back to the original in terms of plot and tone (although they said that about 'Predators'). This time it's Predator versus primal man...woman...girl. This time it's back to booby traps, mud, and hunting. This time it's a Predator versus a Native American girl, yup, welcome to 2023.

Now don't get me wrong, I have no issues with strong female characters, we've had many of them in many classic movies, but it's actually getting a bit old now. To add to that this female character is supposed to be really young, not sure how old exactly but she looks like a damn teenager to me. Kinda like taking Newt, adding some years, and then pitting her against a Predator. Actually that could work! Anyway the main crux (or carrot) for this entry is the fact it's a Predator vs. Native Americans. To be honest this sounds like the perfect idea for a Dark Horse graphic novel series for sure, but a full-blown movie? I just find it cheesy because you can swap out the Indians and use ANY period warriors and it would be exactly the same. Predator vs. Vikings. Predator vs. Knights. Predator vs. Samurai. Predator vs. Spartans. Predator vs. Mongols etc...The list goes and every idea would literally be the same albeit the locations obviously.

And here lies the problem, this movie isn't actually very original at all and once again pales in comparison to both the 1987 original AND the 1991 sequel (I said what I said). The plot is completely predictable naturally. The young female (with an awkward American accent) wants to be a warrior but the rest of the tribe poo poo this idea (present-day social commentary!), so she has to prove herself. At first she fails but after much perseverance and the arrival of a Predator she manages to do just that. Along the way we get various callbacks to the original including dialog, shots, and scenes. The main difference is this is a prequel so the Predator is using dated tech and for some reason looks completely different...again.

But yeah I wasn't really impressed here. The movie is surprisingly dark so you actually don't see that much gore. I get that they tried to make it look natural with natural light in the wilderness and adding to the suspense factor, but it didn't work for me. The movie wasn't suspenseful and I couldn't see a great deal because a lot happens at night. There is gore but it's almost entirely CGI which is just pathetic I'm sorry. This is why older flicks are so much better, real blood effects, practical effects, squibs etc...This is why Paul Verhoeven movies are so God damn epic. You don't ever really see the Predator's face that well again because much is set at night, and I didn't really like the new design. His mouth is HUGE! Takes up half his face and his eyes are almost on either side of his face! Didn't like the bone-esque looking mask either. Couldn't really see how it stayed on his face to be honest.

I also didn't like seeing all these wild animals getting killed frankly, kinda depressing. I get the gist of the Predator obviously but I really don't see why he would be killing wolves or snakes (I get the bear). The Predator is an intelligent species, it can tell the difference between another creature being a threat and another creature merely hunting for its own survival, right? So why would it kill these animals unless they actually attacked him, especially creatures that are so small. I mean, does the Predator have to kill every flippin' predator species it comes across in order to prove itself or conquer that particular planet??

Around the halfway mark a load of French voyageurs turn up because of course they do. Naturally these guys all turn out to be a really nasty bunch of White guys (of course) and cannon fodder for the Predator. At first it seems like there's only a handful of them but as the Predator starts wiping them out their number seems to grow rapidly (cannon fodder required for action sequences as there aren't many Natives and the Natives are of course goodies). Once again the visuals are disappointing because you don't actually see any of the kills and all the blood is CLEARLY CGI. It's also around this point where our female protagonist turns out to be a martial artist of sorts and is able to take out multiple grown men at the same time...ugh!!

Spoilers but the Predator kills himself in, what seems to me, like a really dumb way. His mask houses his laser targeting system and his wrist gauntlet fires these darts things now. So wherever the triangular red dots point that's where the darts go (homing). Well it seems the Predator forgets this and tries to shoot the female Native point-blank range without his mask on (which has been cunningly placed facing the back of his head by the female Native) so naturally the darts just home in on the back of his head and boom. Then there's the ending where our female protagonist arrives back at her camp and throws the Predator's head on the ground in front of her tribe, all of whom seem totally unfazed by the alien head at their feet. The fact she almost kills herself by trying to kill a bear when she totally didn't need to because it was just minding its own business. I get she's trying to be a hunter but come on! Weigh up the situation girl!

So yeah...overall this was a mixed bag for me. In general the visuals are nice with some lovely atmospheric location shots. The Natives all look and sound authentic as do the French men whilst the Predator certainly sounds good and comes with those nice infrared optics. Alas the movie is packed with terrible CGI, bad acting, dim visuals at key moments, and the Predator doesn't look as good as it should. They keep changing the look but the original simply cannot be beaten so why try? The real issue here is the movie is simply another retread of the same old formula but merely with Native Americans. They have to move this franchise forward, maybe into space? Maybe onto the Predator home world? They cannot keep doing the same thing over and over geez!

5.5/10

Black Adam (2022)

So if this movie confirmed anything it was one thing, Dwayne Johnson isn't a real movie star, he simply cannot carry a top-tier movie. Johnson merely seems to be the ultimate ensemble actor who can boost a franchise, but on his own, he simply ain't got the chops. The new Arnie he certainly is not, confirmed.

This character was supposed to be in the original 'Shazam!' movie but due to Johnson's ego he managed to get his own project focusing purely on his muscles...I mean the character. Further to that, this version of the movie was originally gonna have the character Shazam (from the original movie) as the protagonist/antagonist for Black Adam to fight, but again Johnson's ego got the better of him as he wanted the story to focus on him and Black Adam. And thus a problem was born. Add to the fact that DC movies generally don't do well anyway and voila!

Plot wise the whole thing is so basic and generic with little imagination in my opinion. Black Adam is accidentally resurrected from his tomb by a strong female character trying to uncover an ancient mcguffin. Black Adam is seen as a bad guy thusly the Justice Leag...sorry Justice Society (a precursor to the League) is called into action to bring him down. After much terrible CGI fighting Black Adam is found to not actually be evil but somewhat misunderstood (shocking) and they now need his help to take down the generic big evil end-of-level boss (at the end of the movie). So essentially it's just the same old guff with different characters (imagine that).

The main issue I found with this movie was the simple fact that most of the runtime is made up of the Justice Society fighting Black Adam, and that's it! The entire movie is set within this fictional ancient city which merely looks like somewhere in Egypt or the Middle East and nothing much else really happens. We just get lots of the usual superhero battle sequences involving lots of super punching and super throwing either into things or through things. No one ever seems to realise that these attacks aren't working but they just keep doing it because there's nothing else they can do, ugh! (wash rinse and repeat). The CGI effects are overall pretty terrible to boot which doesn't help matters. Everything is SO obviously CGI with that nasty plastic rubbery-looking gloss stuck alongside obvious-looking bluescreen shots and obvious sets. It sounds cliche but everything just looks like a videogame sequence. It just doesn't look convincing at all and in this day and age I simply expect more because I know it can be so much better.

Black Adam himself suffers the same problem any Dwayne Johnson movie suffers, Dwayne Johnson. In that I mean Johnson simply cannot act beyond his persona and he ALWAYS comes across as Dwayne Johnson in a costume, whatever that might be. You want a fun comedy romp in a jungle, or a ridiculous action flick with glimmering muscles then he's perfect, but that's it. Johnson trying to play it dark and murdering people just doesn't work because it just doesn't suit him. For the time being, he simply doesn't have the range.

As for other characters, let's quickly talk about the Justice Society. Boy oh boy do these guys suck ass. I mean seriously, talk about the poor man's Avengers. The bottom-of-the-barrel superheroes. We couldn't afford any decent characters or there weren't any good ones left so we had to use these guys, geez!! Hawkman looks ridiculous with his bird-shaped helmet adorned with feathers, he's also been race-swapped. I guess his super power is mainly flight? I guess that's useful for...flying. As her name suggests Cyclone controls the wind (Ugh!). Seems kinda useless and funnily enough she doesn't really do much in the movie because how's that effective against a Superman-type character like Black Adam? She's also race-swapped. Atom Smasher has the ability to grow to an enormous size like a giant, again pretty useless in the movie. And last but not least the poor man's Dr. Strange...Doctor Fate who funnily enough has virtually the same set of powers, I think, I'm not a comic expert. And yes I realise some of these characters appeared before their Marvel counterparts but I always found it funny and stupid how both Marvel and DC have essentially characters that mirror each other. They even have their X-Men-type ship to fly around in that is stored in their own X-Men-type mansion.

I guess the biggest disappointment here is after all the cookie-cutter crap I had to sit through to get to the cookie-cutter finale, the big bad guy turned out to be this laughable looking Devil/Satan-esque character that looked like he was getting ready to fight Sub-Zero. Talk about videogame looking nonsense Jesus! Literally everything in this movie was the most generic of generic superhero poop I've seen so far. You could have literally had ANY superhero character in here and it wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever. The human characters were completely inconsequential, much like the plot really. And naturally you had Marvel-esque quips (which totally underscored the tone) because DC is always playing catchup despite that Marvel aspect now losing favour.

I didn't really expect much here, at this point it merely feels like they are churning out superhero movies of any and all characters simply to keep the wagon rolling. This movie is literally the epitome of cookie-cutter, paint by numbers, off the factory line etc...There is nothing here that is original and nothing here that needed to be shown. This movie simply didn't need to be made. A Dwayne Johnson vanity project that admittedly could have been something as we've all been wondering how The Rock would fair in a cape, but somehow he screwed it up and all we have left is a plain boring superhero clone of a movie. That Superman credit scene will also go down in cinematic history as one of the biggest 'what if' dead ends ever (bit like Skeletor in 'Master of the Universe'). An open ending to something that will probably now never happen.

4/10

The Purge (2013)

 

For the longest time I mistakenly thought this franchise was some kind of horror or torture porn series like the 'Saw' or 'Hostel' franchises. For me this franchise just kinda blurred into all the other horror flicks that were being churned out around the same time. They all seemed the same with bland movie posters etc...Because of this I didn't bother with it because those things aren't really my cup of tea. Boy was I wrong!

So the plot is pretty simple. After economic collapse in the US a new political party comes into power and introduces 'purge night' or 'the purge'. An annual event where all crime is allowed for one night only with all emergency services suspended during the night. Somehow this has allowed the US to become almost crime free with almost no unemployment, dunno why. On this night a wealthy family, against all well-known recommendations and advice, allow a stranger (who is being hunted) into their home. Thusly the entire family come under siege and must survive the night from a group of 'purgers' who want the stranger (so they can 'purge'/execute him).

So overall I do actually like this movie, which surprised me. I fully went into this expecting some silly violent nonsense but I actually found myself getting sucked in and enjoying the thrills. The story is actually quite intriguing with its (admittedly) obvious social allegories but does get you thinking. Could this actually happen in reality? Yeah it could, you could actually see something like this coming about in the distant future. It's not out of the realms of possibility for sure, and that's what's so intriguing about it. It's very much like the game shows and tech we see in the Arnie action vehicle 'The Running Man' which, apart from the violence of course, have actually come to fruition. Granted it's not a big stretch or anything but the violent aspect of it could easily (and worryingly) turn up in decades to come.

The purge is seen as a way for the masses to vent their pent-up anger and for the rich to purge the undesirable (poor people). I don't really understand how that would reduce crime across the nation though. And I don't really get how erasing poor people would help because you need all levels of people for a society to function, it can't be solely rich folk. And as for the notion that everyone just stops killing each other at the sound of a loud siren is kinda daft because we all know it wouldn't stop, people would keep on going. You know you'd have to forcefully stop people. Plus I would imagine the overall damage and destruction to infrastructure would be immense. To the point that by the time you'd fixed it all back up it would be time for the next purge and it would get all wrecked again.

It is all a bit on the nose to be honest though. The affluent family are all White and pretty generic, nothing to speak of really. The only surprise to me was the young boy who suffers from a guilt trip and allows the homeless man on the run into the house. I would have expected the young girl or mother to do that seeing as women tend to be a bit more forgiving and liberally minded. As for the poor homeless man being hunted, he's Black, so yeah...on the nose with the social commentary and allegories. The purgers are also all White and from wealthy backgrounds themselves. A bunch of young adults, probably in their early twenties, their leader a blonde guy (cos blonde haired blue-eyed males are always evil apparently). So overall you have all White folk. The innocent family is White. The demented purgers are White and could easily be seen as Klan-esque in nature. And the lone character being hunted is Black (in this area at least), you getting the message?

Violence wise it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Standard stuff really, as you would expect, but effective. The movie doesn't need to be ultra-violent but it does need to show hints of the raw brutality that would occur under such circumstances. The finale is also quite good. I enjoyed the twist with the neighbours, the small somewhat obvious twist with the boyfriend was okay too. The fact that the homeless man turns out to be the hero in the end isn't much of a surprise though (come on people twas obvious!).

So yes like I said I did actually get on with this movie okay. Whilst it's not the most original story ever it does lure you in and keep you interested, despite being mostly predictable. The key is obviously the hot-button social allegories which back in 2013 were pretty spicy, but now in 2023 even more so! So essentially our present day is the perfect time to first-time watch or revisit this movie/franchise as (unfortunately) the plot is highly relevant.

7/10