Horror Movie Weekly Ep. 026: Countdown (2019)

Not much of a surprise with the consensus of this episode. I also really enjoyed this movie. All of the elements were done well. This movie actually gives you likable characters, so I appreciated the writing efforts here. You have decent scares, good visual effects, good sound design, solid acting performances and a good premise, where the film makers do a good job of realizing the potential of the story. The movie is also paced nicely and well set-up for sequels, should the IP become a franchise. Like I said before, I walked out of the theater impressed with Countdown. Did you notice that all the phones were iPhones? I guess the app isn’t available on Android. Oh well, it’s a solid 7.5/10 and a buy! yes, I believe that all good PG13 horror movies are must buys. They are difficult to do well and you need examples like a Countdown to continue to prove that good PG13 horror movies do exist. BillChete, I love Midsommar. I also love Countdown, so it’s possible to love both thank you very much!

Brahms: The Boy 2 was just okay. If you saw and liked the first one, then this sequel is worth checking out at least once. They did a good job of story continuity, so if you wondered how a sequel would work in this case, they did take the story to a logical widening of the lore in which, the first movie only tells you part of the story. This is still a creepy movie, but I don’t think it’s a very scary movie. Performances were okay, but the main child character was just okay and his performance needed to be great in order for this movie to be better. Child actors have much to live up to, especially today, where you have a lot of quality child actor performers. This role needed a really strong child actor to be effective and this kid tried, but was only partially successful. Otherwise, this is a fairly average horror movie. It’s a 6/10 and a low priority rental. If you did not see the first movie, I think most could skip it altogether. Just to clarify, 5/10 is still an avoid score for me.

I saw The Lodge and can recommend it, if you liked movies like Hereditary and Midsommar. It’s a Hammer production, but is much more of an arthouse horror movie. It’s main themes are the dysfunctional family, deep loss and emotional trauma, adultery and it’s consequences. It’s slow burn, but enough happens in the story to keep your attention. It is a pure horror movie in my opinion, but others would complain of too much drama. It’s definitely influenced by Ari Aster for sure. It’s psychological horror with children in peril and siege horror storylines at play. If any of these things interest you, I think you will enjoy this one. For me, it’s the first good horror movie of 2020 and a solid 7.5/10. I say see it in the theater and buy the blu ray. I think this would be a good time to go to the theater and see The Invisible Man. It should be the first good horror movie of 2020 for most people.
Thanks and have a great week everyone!

Thanks for the comments all!

Sean, I don’t remember the statement you are referring to but I didn’t mean if you like Midsommar you wouldn’t like Countdown. It’s more like if you don’t like a true fun horror movie like Countdown because it’s simple and scary, go watch Midsommar, an artsy fartsy movie with totally unreal characters, and you will like that, lol.