The Long Walk (2025)

I don't particularly love Stephen King. A good friend of mine has him among his favorite writers and I read through the Dark Tower saga in tribute to my friend and that fondness. King is the prince of pantsers, and I am as guilty of that tendency as many, but "On Writing" struck a chord. There is something beautiful in betting on yourself to wrap up a story, a "high" akin to gambling like a high roller. But just because that is King's preferred method of operation, doesn't mean that he might always do that, as his shorter stories have transitioned into film.

The director, Francis Lawrence, has a knack for films where the system is damned and the characters struggle to wrestle against the hand of fate and fatalism. He made Constantine with Keanu Reeves, I Am Legend with Will Smith, and the Hunger Games trilogy and prequel. 

Which is only proper, because as I was emotionally affected by the characters and their motivations. I thought "This is a tragedy of human life that I wished came through clearer in The Hunger Games." The rules of the film are simple: 50 young men, one from every state, chosen by lottery. When the starting gun goes off, the candidates must walk on the pavement at a minimum 3 mph pace, with three warnings given to get back up to speed or be executed. The last one walking will receive a massive cash prize and one "wish" or "special request" granted by The Major. 

America's economy has fallen to shambles, and the Long Walk is broadcast to inspire the productivity of the everyday American. Witnessing such a human march motivates a productivity boost to gross national productivity and THAT IS ENOUGH TO JUSTIFY DOING IT. Except, as the young men are stumbling day and night, they find more in common with each other than with the soldiers and authoritarian regime enforcing this system. 

It is cruel. It is heartless. It is brutal.

But the film is shot and lit beautifully, and the comradeship and camaraderie is truly inspiring. The characters find more in common with helping each other to keep walking and you genuinely start to care for each walker's story as they reveal their hopes for a better life on the other side of this Walk. I didn't expect that this film would stir me and give me hope to carry on, and it is pointedly not because the circumstances are supported reasonable, necessary, and justified, but because the characters know that all of those elements are lacking, and persist for the love of the man walking next to them in defiance of fatigue, sanity, and death.

Let The Right One In (2008)

I have been on a horror kick lately, and trying to be more intentional about using the library streaming app Kanopy. I heard vague but positive things about this movie and checked it out. It starts really quiet with titles, and I soon realized that the film was being dubbed from another language into English, and that out of sync audio threw me, so I switched it back to its original audio in Swedish and allowed subtitles.

The film opens with Oskar, a pale twig of a boy with a platinum bob cut, as he stares out at the night and whispers threats of making someone squeal like a pig. It is his way of processing a bullying incident at school, where three kids are led by their ringleader, Connie, to antagonize and taunt Oskar's days.

What if you are stuck being young and stunted, shunned by your peers without a real friend in the world other than a guardian? How would you discern whether the slightest kindness is heartfelt or you are just that hungry for affection and regard?

That is the central question upon which this film revolves, as one night, Oskar encounters a girl shaped creature named Eli in the common yard of the apartment complex. Both recognize a kindred spirit, as the days are full of misery and pain. And the nights are a refuge in the company of each other. Eli is a child of divorce, with distracted parents and a fascination with gristly news stories of death and violence. And Eli is the cause of many of those news stories, as a vampire trapped at an age of "12, more or less", and a Renfield who is struggling to find involuntary candidates for the harvesting of blood for the needs of his charge.

One night, Oskar offers Eli a Rubik's Cube puzzle as a measure of trust and overture of friendship. He comes out to the commons on the following morning to find it solved in the snow. 

While in school, Oskar learns Morse code and is excited at the idea of sharing this information with his new friend as a means of communication and shared secret, only to be confronted by Connie for what he stayed back in class to write something down. One of Connie's minions is stared down to punish Oskar by whipping him in the legs with a branch, Oskar patiently waits it out with his eyes closed, and a final blow to his cheek draws blood. Connie taunts him to explain that to his mom when he gets home, but the bullies retreat. Oskar makes an excuse about tripping at recess, but opens up to Eli later that night. She encourages him to stand up for himself and hit back instead of being such a passive object offering no resistance to their escalation.

Eli's Renfield requests that his mistress stay away from Oskar, as it is an unnecessary risk of exposure. But Oskar is a trusting, vulnerable, and hurting kid, and Eli relates to his loneliness. Oskar and Eli dance around a relationship, as they talk and confide in one another about the pains of this coming of age and being stuck in a weak and vulnerable frame where a more stable and adult future is tantalizingly out of reach.

The performances are excellent and its innocence reminded me of "Good Manners", a 2017 Portuguese coming of age film about a boy afflicted with lycanthropy. Stories about children monsters with moments of great violence and tenderness are a unique tone, somehow encapsulating the liminal space of the experience of childhood in literal metaphor. 

There is a relatable humanity to the characters' interactions, between a selfish lashing out as vengeance for pain experienced and a strong urge to shield and protect those you love from the worst moments of themselves and others.

Until Dawn (2025)

I watched this movie tonight because I was in the mood for horror and had borrowed it from the library based upon seeing a trailer in theatres for it last year.

It is a movie based on a PlayStation video game which I hadn't played, but also heard good things about. With these vague bona fides and expectations around such an adaptation, the most likely outcome would have placed it in the realm of the Resident Evil cinematic universe, which like that franchises' most famous antagonists? It just doesn't stay dead.

I did not expect that this Until Dawn would actually turn out to be one of the more effective horror films I have seen in a while. The cast is composed mainly of actors I haven't seen previously in anything, except maybe character actor Peter Stormare, who likely disappears as a supporting role in many features. But the performances were solid, the music cues kept tension, and the special effects weren't cheesy. This movie was better and scarier in its framed shots and jump scares were earned rather than just cheap thrills. I actually cared about the survival of the characters as they were defined, even though the back stories were not fully outlined, I didn't need them to be laid out more than they were.

This film is a less goofy "Cabin In The Woods" setting blended with the plot device of "Happy Death Day", even though I found enjoyment in both of those comedy horror films, this particular combination trimmed the comedy and doubled down the stakes of the horror.

The premise of the movie is that a group of friends is supporting Clover Paul, a girl who lost contact with her sister about a year ago. The group of five friends are retracing the stops from her lost sister's video posts as a means of attaining a sense of closure for Clover. As they make it to the stop where the last video from the sister was posted, they get a lead that there is a place nearby where a lot of people seemed to have gone missing. As the group drives off, a rainstorm in a forested road obscures the path, until it mysteriously tapers off to reveal a lodging house in the middle of a clearing. This phenomenon of a wall of rain just stopping like a bubble is slightly eerie, but the sun in the clearing is late afternoon and it is nice to have a break from the downpour. The group investigates the lodging house, but it appears abandoned as if the hosts have gone fishing for a short lunch break. One member wanders in the back officez looking at a bulletin board covered with "lost notices" with faces of the missing. There is an hourglass on the wall with a skull motif under it like a casual pirate decor vibe. Another member opens the guest book and finds it empty, but figures it should be used for it's intended purpose and signs her name.

This triggers a subtle shift in events, as something catches everyone's attention and they congregate to confer over what exactly is going on? The sun has set and suddenly the log book of guests is no longer empty, it is filled with names of repeated guests, with deteriorating handwriting scrawls into gibberish. Only to be replaced with a fresh new guest's signature only for the pattern to be repeated. The group is attacked by a masked freak with a machete and are hunted down one by one. Only for the hourglass in the lobby to mechanically flip back over and reset to the beginning of the dusk, with the party all drawing a startled, hard breath at the memory of their demise. They quickly learn the mechanics of their test - survive the night until dawn, but the night's events are not a firm loop as much as a bizarre escalation of new events to confront and avoid each iteration, so past pattern recognition is of limited utility for what MIGHT happen again.

But the group gets tired and weary, wondering how to keep their sanity and whether there is a limit to the number of chances to solve and resolve the puzzle for how to survive for one full night.