Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer
I saw this movie in Best Buy a couple weeks ago, and I thought it looked interesting, so I grabbed it from Netflix.
It was a decent movie, but not great by any stretch of the imagination.
In this movie, we follow Maria (played by Danielle Harris), who works for a show called Last Steps, in which she goes to places of notable murders and interviews people. She goes to a small town for a story on Cyrus, “The County Line Cannibal”. She finds a man named Emmett (played by Lance Henriksen) who knows a lot about the life of Cyrus. After we get his backstory, we see some of the murders.
The more Emmett talks, the more we realize that he knows a lot more details than he probably should.
Like I said, it was a decent movie, but it never really pulled me in. It seems like they were going for a specific mood, but I don’t think they were quite able to capture it. Danielle Harris and Lance Henriksen were great, but the guy who played Cyrus (Brian Krause) wasn’t great, and that kind of hurt the movie.
When I watched this movie, all I could think of was how much better Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was.
One final note: it says that this movie was based on a true story, but I haven’t been able to find out what story that is. I’m pretty sure it’s “Based on a true story” in the same way that The Strangers was based on a true story. Which, in this case, would mean that there once was a serial killer who lived in a rural area.
Rating: 2.5/5
Rubber
I had actually started watching this movie about a month ago, but I just wasn’t in the right mood for it. I’m not sure I was in the right mood for it this time, either, but I watched the whole thing. So that’s something.
Rubber follows a tire named Robert (I know it’s his name based on the synopsis…I don’t think they ever actually say it in the movie) who can explode objects (bottles, animals, human heads, etc.) through telekinesis. It rolls through a town, exploding everything it comes across.
There’s a whole “movie-within-a-movie” thing going on here, which is pretty funny. I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue, and the acting was fantastic. I only recognized a couple actors (David Bowe and Charley Koontz), although there were a couple more that I’m sure would be recognizable to others (Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida and Stephen Spinella).
Overall, it was a really bizarre movie, but with enough funny moments to keep me interested in it. I doubt I’ll ever watch it again, but I’m glad I actually sat down and watched it this once.
Rating: 2.5/5
I had seen these next two movies before, but I rewatched them this past week, so I thought I’d throw them up here.
Trick R Treat
An anthology of horror stories, all taking place in a small town on Halloween.
I think I liked it better the second time around. It’s a terrific movie, and it’s extremely well done. Great stories. Great actors. And it’s legitimately creepy at times. There aren’t many likable characters in the movie, but it still works. If you haven’t seen this yet, you definitely need to watch it.
Notable actors: Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, Tahmoh Penikett, Leslie Bibb
Rating: 5/5
Severance
A British horror/comedy, which follows a group co-workers who head to a lodge in Hungary for a team-building weekend. They start hearing things and seeing glimpses of people outside of the lodge. And, eventually, people start dying.
It’s fantastic. It’s really funny, but there’s also a fair amount of gore and tense moments. They mix comedy with the slasher genre (as well as some scenes that would actually fit really well in the torture-porn genre) extremely well. The characters are funny, but also very human.
It’s never an easy task to mix genres, but they do it to perfection here.
Notable actors: Danny Dyer, Toby Stephens
