The Forest Hills (2023)

A hairy dude suffering from all sorts of issues (both real and imagined) is convinced he's turning into a wolf and believes another may be hunting him.

The version I saw (the "Festival Cut") featured additional footage of Shelley Duvall, which ended up being her final role after a 20-year absence from film. It's nice to see some familiar faces that have been missing from the screens for years, but also sad to see this assortment of C-listers cobbled together in an incomprehensible plot filmed on a shoestring budget. What saves the film from being a total disgrace is a harrowing performance from Chiko Mendez.

½ an unpleasant diagnosis out of 5

FRANKENWEENIE [1984]

Before it was a stop-motion animated film in 2012, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie was a 30-minute black & white live-action short film that got him fired from Disney Studios for being too damned weird for their taste.
After his dog is killed by a car, Young Victor Frankenstein resurrects the poor mutt from the dead much to the dismay of the quiet suburban neighborhood's snooty residents.
It's a pleasant little "horror" film for the whole family with it's Ed Wood-ian like film-making and monster movie aesthetics tossed into a typical white picket fence suburb.  While still an inspired film-maker Burton makes the best with what little budget he had at the time, including some nifty dog POV shots that reminded me of an adorable Evil Dead salute.
It simply tickles the twisted funny bones and reminds one why they liked Burton's work in the first place.

4 jump-starts out of 5

THE SHINING [1980]

What can be said about Stanley Kubrick's slightly unfaithful adaptation of Stephen King's classic ghost story The Shining, that hasn't been said already?
The beautifully symmetrical extended camera shots slowly crawling over the wide open spaces, the exquisitely precise sound design, the powerful use of classical avant-garde music, the ominous setting and, of course, Jack.
Jack Nicholson is a deliciously evil treat in this film, right from the get-go in a subtly perfect interview scene to the final moments of a haunting image guaranteed to send chills down your spine.
With it's lavishly slow (yet highly effective) pacing, nightmarish imagery, great performances from the entire cast and menacing music, Kubrick's The Shining is indeed the modern horror classic it's been called countless times.

5 Kids named Doc out of 5