Bug and The Hunted - Crazy Michael Shannons Everywhere

William Friedkin’s later work has fascinated me for years, and I’ve already written about these two films in my article about his Inadvertent PTSD Trilogy (I included Rules of Engagement as the first film in the trilogy). But when Kino Lorder released 4K versions of Bug and The Hunted, I had to write a little more about both films.

First off, the new discs contain only the existing special features. The main draw is the new transfer, and both films look great. It’s simple, if you enjoy these movies, as I do, then these are the versions you should own. 

Now, for the film’s themselves, I just wanted to enjoy them on their own. With The Hunted, I loved how streamlined it was. This is a relatively simple film with no fat on it, featuring some great knife fights and great performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro. 

The bookended Johnny Cash readings and the inclusion of “The Man Comes Around” always bring back memories for me. This is what spurred me to become a Cash fan. I even remember immediately going to the store after watching this to buy a copy of American IV, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since.

I won’t claim “they don’t make movies like this anymore,” but I will say that they don’t make movies like this with such skill and brevity any more. Either there’s a film similar to this but it’s a half hour too long, or there’s a film like this but it gets bogged down in mediocre action. The Hunted is a relic in that way, and it’s one I revisit regularly because of that.

Bug is a very different movie, and it’s the first of Friedkin’s two Tracy Letts adaptations (the crazy Killer Joe is the second). It’s easy to focus on the PTSD of Michael Shannon’s character, what with his claims of the drugs he was given while enlisted and the helicopter hallucinations and whatnot. 

Putting that on the back burner for this rewatch, I was instead captivated by what Shannon’s psychosis means in today’s world. It’s hard to look away from Shannon’s crazed eyes in this, but Ashley Judd is the main character for a reason: she’s the dangerous part of society. There will always be crazy Michael Shannons out there spewing their nanobug nonsense and pulling their own teeth. It’s the Ashley Judds that buy into that shit that are truly scary. 

In the film, it’s a chance encounter that leads to their deathly downfall. Locked in a hotel room with him, Judd succumbs to his psychosis because she’s a broken person subconsciously crying out for some conspiracy to buy into. What makes Bug more frightening today is the fact that this is all happening on the internet now. 

It’s pretty rare to come across a friend of a friend who ends up crashing on your couch and makes you end up believing that you are the “super mother bug.” That’s a freak occurrence. But now every other asshole online is a crazy Michael Shannon, and other, weaker-minded dildos are falling for this shit scrolling through TikTok. Our phones have become the seedy motel rife with enough conspiracy theories to break your brain.

Bug reminded me of what actually terrifies me about the internet. It’s not that it’s become so pervasive in our lives that we are essentially enslaved to it (though that sucks, too). It’s that stupid fuckheads have become so emboldened by it that people are much more likely to buy into the crazy shit that used to get them laughed out of the room but are now so common that they’re considered “normal.” It’s enough to make you do a Michael Shannon thousand yard stare and pull out your teeth. 

Blair Witch - Lost in the Franchise Woods

Note: I wasn’t planning on watching the three Blair Witch movies until my five-year-old son marked on his face with a pen, and I noticed that it looked like one of the stick figures from the series. When I saw that all three of them were easily available to me, it was on.

Over the past few years, I’ve made a point to get more into horror franchises. Until relatively recently, I had not seen most of the films of all the major series: Friday the 13th, Nightmare, Halloween, etc. Now that I've covered most of the popular franchises, I’m branching (pun intended) out. After revisiting the first Blair Witch Project, I finally watched the two sequels.

There’s no point getting into the phenomenon of The Blair Witch Project. Anyone who’s seen the movie is probably aware of the original marketing campaign and all that. Instead, I wanted to get into how such an insanely successful film didn’t spawn a once-a-year horror franchise a la Saw and Paranormal Activity. 

The first film is still polarizing, with many dismissing it as an unscary, boring gimmick. But it worked on me back in 1999, and it still works today. Found footage in the woods will always creep me out, and the low-fi filming coupled with the mythology of both the titular witch and the film itself made for an unnerving experience. And that ending is among one of my favorite horror endings of all time. I’m not alone, and the movie is still one of the most successful films of all time. So of course there would be a sequel.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 had the opposite buzz of the original. Its reputation was bad enough that I just skipped it and only watched it for the first time a couple days ago. I knew they at least didn’t do found footage again, but the general consensus was that it was awful and should not have been made. Watching now without the burden of expectations, I still didn’t care for it.

Book of Shadows starts off promising enough, setting up a meta scenario in which the town from the first film is now being inundated with annoying fans of the original film. And while the first film is what brings the main characters to the woods, the initial interesting premise is ditched for some amnesia/possession mindfuck lameness that primarily takes place in an abandoned factory converted into an apartment. It very much felt like a standalone movie that was shoehorned into the attempted Blair Witch franchise, and based on a little Wikipedia search, that was the case. 

I don’t like just generally shitting on a movie, though, and the first few minutes did have me hopeful. I suppose I would rather have had a movie that was more about the townspeople, and a new group of tourists could be attacked in a similar fashion to the first film, but it’s revealed to be locals trying to scare them away. Then things get out of hand, and there are some murders, etc. This probably wouldn’t have had much success, either, but I feel like that would be more in keeping with the series

The tepid response to Book of Shadows seemed to kill any hopes of a franchise until 2016 with the release of Blair Witch. I skipped out on this one to the point that I forgot it existed. Blair Witch was an attempt to get back to the original film, to a fault. 

Blair Witch is about Heather’s little brother, grown up now, searching for her in the woods after seeing a YouTube video that appears to show her. It’s all found footage, again under the guise of making a documentary, and pretty much all the same stuff happens, but this time the cameras are better, and they have a drone. There’s also more witch stuff, and by that I mean they show the witch (a spindly monster reminiscent of the thing in REC). It’s all fine, I guess, but pretty pointless. 

Based on a few Letterboxd reviews I’ve seen, however, it straight up pissed people off with more than a few reviews reduced to simply, “Fuck off.” I get that response, as this is essentially a remake that brings nothing new to the table. And the updated technology is gimmicky (the drone is fucking worthless and features more than one annoying scene of a slow drone takeoff with the characters standing there watching). My biggest issue with the updated cameras is this need for modern horror movies to distort the video whenever something creepy happens. What’s the point of having high definition if you’re just going to distort anything worth seeing? Anyway, it was more of a forgettable than enraging experience for me, but it did make it clear that this property is not meant to be a franchise.

Blair Witch was an attempt to fix the assumed mistake of Book of Shadows by going back to found footage, but it’s clear that fans didn’t want this anymore than they wanted Book of Shadows. The only use of the two sequels to the original has been to prove there is no formula to follow for a Blair Witch movie. That first film was a combination of once in a lifetime marketing opportunity thanks to the early days of the internet, and popularizing the found footage gimmick. Unlike a series like Paranormal Activity, you couldn’t just keep throwing victims to the witch. With that found footage series, you could always change up the family or the ghost or whatever. But Blair Witch is too tied to the mythology, and there’s really nowhere to go with it. We don’t want to just see a new group of people get killed by the witch over and over again. And we don’t want to see more of the witch, either. 

It may seem obvious to say Blair Witch should have ended with the first film, especially since there are a few horror franchises that would’ve been fine being one and done (Halloween and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre come to mind). But there’s fun to be had with even the silliest horror franchise (give me Leprechaun and Jason in space, and I’ll have some dumb fun; hell, find a way to send Chucky, Leatherface, and Michael Myers up there, too). There’s no fun to be had with Blair Witch. It was a unique experience for its time, and it should have stayed that way. But the cat’s out of the bag already, so I guess we’ll see if they come up with something interesting when the inevitable reboot/reimagining/legacy sequel comes out in the next few years.

Alien - Ranked

For the fifteen of you who regularly visit this site, you know the drill: I can’t just watch one entry in a franchise anymore without watching everything, and if I’m going to devote that much time to a series, then I’m going to rank it in an attempt to get tens of clicks. 

I love the Alien franchise, even if I am a little late to the game. Growing up, I don’t think I watched any of them. In fact, when Alien vs. Predator came out, I think it may have technically been only the second Alien movie I had ever seen. Thankfully, I was able to remove my head from my ass and embrace the series. There’s only one movie on this list that I actually dislike, and I still own that one, too, so I enjoyed revisiting all of these. I even watched both the theatrical and unrated/director’s/Special Edition/Assembly Cut versions of all of these this time around, so, where applicable, I’ll also mention which version I prefer. (And if you don’t own the quadrilogy and physical releases of the AVP movies, just keep an eye out for when the series is on Max, which has the alternate cuts under the Extras tab.)

1. Alien

The eternal sci-fi dork question: “Which do you like more, Alien or Aliens?” For me, it’s always been Alien. The mood and tension created by Scott in that film is masterful. I could watch hours of tracking shots through the Nostromo. Add to that the grimy future in which a bunch of space truckers have to fight an alien, and you have one of my favorite films of all time. 

Theatrical or “Director’s Cut”: Ridley Scott introduces the director’s cut by basically saying it’s not a director’s cut, and that the studio just wanted him to make a new cut so they could call it that. He considers the theatrical cut the best version, and so do I. I do like the extended argument about Ripley not opening the airlock, and seeing Dallas and Brett cocooned is cool (though it doesn’t make much sense as there’s no way for them to be impregnated, maybe the xenomorph was saving them on the off chance it found some eggs). But the director’s cut shortens those tracking shots I love, so from here on out, I’m sticking with theatrical.

2. Aliens

Truly one of the best sequels of all time largely because it has no interest in recreating the original. Cameron wanted to make an action movie instead of a horror movie to awesome effect. Assembling a great group of characters and even better actors made the seemingly impossible possible: Cameron made a fun Alien movie.

Theatrical or Special Edition: I’ve seen people shit on the Special Edition for the early scene at the settlement, claiming it ruins the suspense when the Marines show up later. Maybe that’s true the first time you watch this, but come on, who seriously watches this and thinks that everything at the settlement is probably going great? Aside from that, the most important addition was Ripley’s daughter, who lived an entire life and died while Ripley was in cryosleep. Maybe this makes her surrogate motherhood of Newt too obvious, but it works better on me (maybe I’m just a dumbass, though), so I’m a Special Edition guy. And of course Cameron is too; dude never made a movie he didn’t think needed thirty more minutes.

3. Prometheus

And now I’ve lost some of you. I don’t care. I love this movie. At this point in the series, they had milked the Ripley character and the xenomorphs all that they possibly could. So instead of returning to that well, Scott instead decided to connect the series to the origin of humanity. I can see why people found it unnecessary or silly or stupid, but I was on board from the very beginning with this one. And Michael Fassbender as David is the perfect element that puts this above everything but the first two films for me. 

Shockingly, there’s no other cut of this one.

4. Alien³

And I’ve lost the rest of you. Sure, the behind the scenes drama is arguably more interesting than the movie itself, but I’ve always dug Fincher’s vision. To go from the guns blazing adrenaline shot of Aliens to this dour, gun-less nihilistic take is a bold choice, and I’m all for it. 

Theatrical or Assembly Cut: There are those that find the theatrical cut unwatchable and claim the Assembly Cut saves the film. I certainly prefer the Assembly Cut, but I don’t hate the theatrical cut like many do. I find it a little confusing at times, but the overall mood and aesthetic of the film is intact. But yeah, the Assembly Cut is far and away the better version.

5. Alien: Covenant

I’m still disappointed that this is only half a sequel to Prometheus, and the most interesting parts happened between movies or in a brief flashback. But overall, this is a good combination of what the series was and what Scott turned it into. And Fassbender in a dual role is simply a delight. 

There is only the theatrical cut of this film.

6. Alien: Romulus

I wrote more in depth about the film here. But basically, a couple fan service moments really took me out of it, but the overall look of the movie and the simple focus on survival made it enjoyable for me, though nothing special.

There is only the theatrical cut of this one, for now.

7. Alien: Resurrection

I hated this the first time I saw it, but I come around on it a bit more each time I watch it. I appreciate the hardcore sci-fi turn they took setting it two hundred years farther into the future. It’s a bit goofier and nastier than all the other movies, but you can’t claim it didn’t go for something new. But it’s low on my list because it’ll always be the movie in which Ripley fucking dunked a basketball.

Theatrical or Special Edition: Much like with the first film, Jeunet says the theatrical is his preferred cut and this was just made for the Quadrilogy release. The main differences I clocked were a silly CG bug opening, a couple references to Newt, and an extended ending showing a destroyed Paris. None of it added much for me. I’m okay with watching the theatrical cut if that’s all that’s available to me, but I guess if the Special Edition is an option, I’ll take it.

8. Alien vs. Predator 

Don’t be fooled by this low ranking; I actually like this stupid shit. It helps that I don’t take it seriously, and I don’t consider it to be truly part of the franchise. It definitely takes itself a little too seriously and takes too long setting up characters we all know are destined to be chestbursted or…um…Predatorized, but there’s still fun to be had with this one, even if it is more of a Predator than an Alien movie. 

Theatrical or Unrated: This one caught some extra shit for being PG-13 when the two series it was mashing up were exclusively R, and I agree with the criticism. They attempted to mend this with an unrated DVD that includes a promise of “more violence” on the back. The unrated cut fixes this a little bit with some CG blood and few slightly more gruesome elements, but this is still far too tame for this showdown. But yeah, if I’m watching this, I’m going unrated every time.

9. Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

The only movie on this list I don’t like and don’t want to ever see again. I like the premise of the fight taking place in a small town, and there’s plenty of gruesome shit in this, but it’s all so dark it might as well be PG-13-level violence. Also, this should be more fun, but it’s just a slog, and when I can’t even tell what’s going on in the slog, then it’s something I’d rather not watch again.

Theatrical or Unrated: I really don’t care. The back of this DVD promised “more gore,” but the only thing that would have interested me was “more light.” The unrated cut does show a young boy die from a chestburster if that’s something you want to see.

Alien: Romulus - This One's for the Holmies

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Alien: Romulus is meant to be a return to form for the franchise after Ridley Scott’s more ambitious prequel films about the origin of humanity and an android’s obsession with creating life failed to resonate (though I was a big fan of both). Instead of following David on his next misadventure, Romulus is a safe play, directly following the original film and drawing inspiration from all of them. In other words, it was meant to appeal to fans. In that regard, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. 

At first, I was in love with this movie. The dreary dystopian mine planet and all the recreated technology from the original film completely hooked me. Because of that, I’ll gladly revisit this film for years to come. It’s not trying to expound on any big ideas; it’s just a solid survival movie that looks great…until the ghost of Ian Holm showed up.

The de-aging stuff that Hollywood (but especially Disney) insists on forcing on us doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bother others. Don’t get me wrong, I think most of it looks strange, and it almost always takes me out of the movie; but it doesn’t ruin it for me. Holm in this one almost did, though. 

It’s not the quality of the de-aging, even though it’s not great as Holm’s eyes look odd and his mouth somehow looks 2D while the rest of his face is 3D. It’s how unnecessary it is that gets to me. He’s not playing Ash, so it didn’t have to be Holm. And in the original film, everyone was shocked that Ash was a robot, but if his likeness was a standard model, wouldn’t at least one person be aware of it? Ignoring that possible plot hole, who was this for? Is there anyone in the audience thinking, “Fuck yeah, they brought Holm back from the dead!”? 

Sure, there’s a precedent for androids looking identical with David and Walter in Covenant, but that was done for dramatic effect (whether that was effective or not is beside the point). And it wasn’t like they digitally recreated Fassbender for it. 

I’ve read articles about how Holm’s family gave it the okay, and it was meant as a tribute from the filmmakers, but it was simply a distraction for me, which is why the bulk of this article is about the use of Holm instead of the aesthetics or action or new creatures. Once I accept it, though, it’s easy to enjoy the rest of the film.

While others have bemoaned the fact that Romulus doesn’t attempt to take the franchise in a bold new direction as Aliens (turning to action), Alien³ (turning to nihilism), Alien: Resurrection (turning French?), AVP and AVP: Requiem (turning it all into a joke) and Prometheus and Covenant had before it, I didn’t mind. Not every movie needs to take a big swing if it can deliver a solid bunt that advances a runner. And Romulus is a serviceable bunt. I know that makes it sound like it sucks shit, but I truly mean it as a compliment. 

Romulus is a fun enough ride to make me forget the lesser elements like Holm and the sometimes incomprehensible accents from some of the actors (apparently on loan from the Red Riding trilogy). All of the space stuff looks great, the acting is fine, with David Jonsson the standout as android Andy, and there’s plenty of facehugger and alien nastiness to keep things moving. And that Engineer-looking monstrosity at the end was truly disturbing. 

It certainly felt like none of Romulus matters much to the franchise as whole, and that’s fine with me. If the studio isn’t going to let Ridley Scott make more Fassbender-as-Old-Testament-android-God-creating-new-life movies, then I’ll take one of these from Fede Alvarez (or whomever) every few years.

Random Thought

I don’t have a lot of randomness to comment on, not until I watch it again at least, but I did want to write a bit about the “Get away from her, you bitch” line. Initially, I fucking hated the inclusion of the line. It made no sense for a character to quote another character from a movie that hasn’t happened yet in the timeline. But then I read a defense of the line that points out one of the Red Riding dickheads calls Andy a bitch earlier in the movie, so that’s why he said it. Fine, I guess that works as an explanation. But come on, it was just there in the hopes that dildos like me would say, “Ha ha, just like in Aliens!” So even with the explanation, I still fucking hate it.

X-Men & Deadpool - Ranked

I’ve had Marvel fatigue for years now, but I’ve kept up with the theatrical releases and most of the shows. But I no longer feel obligated to watch every single show, and I rarely do a deep dive re-watch to prepare any longer (which is probably why I had no clue what the fuck was going on in The Marvels). But the preview for Deadpool & Wolverine amped me up, and since I like the X-Men and Deadpool universe quite a bit anyway, I decided to rewatch it all. And thanks (I think) to Evan Dossey at the Midwest Film Journal, I even revisited Daredevil and Elektra since I saw that he watched Elektra knowing she was showing up in the movie. (And now I need to rewatch the Fantastic Four movies from the early aughts and the Blade trilogy, I guess.) But I’m not ranking those movies; I’m only bringing them up as evidence of the stupid shit I will watch when I get on a movie kick.

This series of films exemplifies my relationship with comic book movies in general. The first X-Men movie came out when I was fifteen and ignited a fandom that lasts to this day. But those films went through some wild peaks and valleys, and that’s how I am at this moment with the genre. Some movies, like Deadpool & Wolverine, will have me feeling like a dorky teenager again, while others, like The New Mutants, will leave me thinking, “Why did they even bother with this one?” 

Anyway, whenever I end up watching an entire series of films I have to create some content about it. So here are my completely subjective rankings of all the X-Men and Deadpool movies now that they seem to be truly done as Deadpool (and probably Wolverine) get sucked into the MCU for bit parts for the foreseeable future.

1. Logan

The R-rating aspect of this gets too much attention (from me as much as anyone) as an example of finally being able to see Wolverine brutally kill enemies. While that is awesome, and I immediately turn into an insufferable fanboy when I see those claws enter a goon’s face, the R-rating is mainly there because this is a dark, adult story. I’m all for a fun comic book movie, but when someone can turn one into cinematic art, it’s something truly special. Logan is number one with a bullet on this list, and it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.

2. X2

This one takes me back to that fun early era of superhero films when a sequel was cause for excitement instead of trepidation. Much like with Spider-Man, the first film was the lower stakes proving ground that allowed for a bigger, and better sequel. This is the most rewatchable movie in the series for me. And Brian Cox ruined Stryker for all other actors. No one has come close to him since.

3. X-Men

The first film was a big deal for me. I was used to goofier comic book movies at this point (I was, and still am, a fan of Batman Forever), so when this more serious and moody film came out and showed that these things could be elevated, it made me a lifelong fan. And what a relief when Hugh Jackman immediately proved to be the perfect choice for Wolverine.

4. Deadpool & Wolverine

Definitely some recency bias going on here. Click here for my full thoughts on this one. It’s this high on the list because it did the impossible and made me excited about the MCU again. But in all likelihood, if I revisit this list in a year or two it will likely drop at least one spot.

5. X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Last Stand and the Wolverine spin-offs were disappointing, and First Class gave me a little hope. But this was the movie that brought me back on board. I’m a sucker for future dystopias, so I just enjoyed the premise. And as a fan of both the old and new casts, it was such a relief that they found a way to bring them together in such a satisfying way.

6. X-Men: First Class

This could have gone wrong in so many ways, so it’s a minor miracle that’s not a trainwreck, much less one of the best films in the series. As with the original film, casting played a big part. Fassbender will always be the standout for me, but nearly everyone made their character their own. There’s a little 1960s goofiness here and there, but overall it’s an emotionally resonant film (mainly because of Erik’s storyline) with the added bonus of taking place during a period of history I have a particular interest in.

7. Deadpool

It feels a little weird to include the Deadpool films in any list because the fourth-wall breaking stuff makes them feel like their own thing. But the X-Men play a large part in each film, even if they never devote the whole team to a film. I really enjoy all three, and this one is actually the best movie of the three (even if I enjoy the third film a lot more), but a good proper X-Men movie will always be above these movies…unless Wolverine is a main character.

8. Deadpool 2

I like this one more than most, I think, but I do think they rushed it. I got so excited for Deadpool & Wolverine partly because it’s been six years since the last movie. I think if this had come out even just one year later than it did it might be remembered a bit more fondly. Rewatching them this time close together, it honestly gets a little difficult to differentiate them, which is why they are back to back on this list.

9. X-Men: The Last Stand

Ninth is probably higher than this would be on most lists, but I still enjoy this as the end of a trilogy. It’s certainly the lesser of the three, and there’s nothing here even remotely as memorable as anything in the first two films. But I had grown to love these characters so much at this point that I still liked it. But yeah, upon a rewatch, this is the point that I started to check out a bit while watching.

10. The Wolverine

I watched both the theatrical and extended cut of this, and I think it suffered because of it. This more serious take on a solo Wolverine story is definitely better than the first attempt, but it’s still a bit of a slog. It’s just not a lot of fun to see Logan moping around, wanting to die and without his powers. But this was Mangold crawling before he could run with Logan, so at least there’s that.

11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine

If you accept how fucking stupid this movie is, it’s possible to have a little fun with it, but I can just never forgive those CG claws in the bathroom scene. I’ll never understand how they managed to make them that awful for his FOURTH portrayal of the character. Just keep doing what they had been doing! Perhaps more than any film on this list, this thing collapses under the tiniest bit of scrutiny. But it’s never boring; it’s just really fucking stupid.

12. X-Men: Apocalypse

Origins might be trash, but I’ll still revisit it from time to time. Apocalypse (and the next two movies), on the other hand, just bores me. I wish it was worse, actually, because then I might remember it. The villain just isn’t compelling to me, either. The good thing about most of these movies is that the bad guy has a good reason, at least in their opinion, for what they are doing: Trask thinks he’s protecting humanity, Magneto thinks he’s protecting mutants, etc. Apocalypse is one of those bland villains that just exists to destroy the world because they look evil and that’s what you do when you have a face like that.

13. Dark Phoenix

This was supposed to be some kind of redemption for The Last Stand storyline, and it somehow made fans even angrier. As someone who has never read the comic version of the Dark Phoenix storyline, I wasn't all that upset with how it was handled in The Last Stand, so I didn't need to see it re-done. And apparently no one else dod, either.

14. The New Mutants

This isn't really a bad movie, I was just completely tired of this series by the time I got to this. I just kept wondering who it was made for, because it just seemed miserable inside and out. The abuse of children has been a topic for this series from the get-go, what with Charles's school being used to basically recruit soldiers, and the government's much harsher treatment of mutant children. But it's always been one aspect of the story, not the focus. I just don't want to be this bummed out while watching an X-Men movie. So maybe it's unfair, but I'm putting it at the bottom because I had no fun watching it and never want to see it again.