Scarpetta, a new eight-part crime thriller, stars Nicole Kidman as Kay Scarpetta, a formidable forensic pathologist drawn into the hunt for a serial killer.
Created by Elizabeth Sarnoff, the series also features Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana DeBose, Simon Baker and Bobby Cannavale.
As is often the case with serial-killer films and series released after 1995, Scarpetta will inevitably be compared (admittedly by me) to Se7en, David Fincher’s delightfully grim benchmark for the serial killer genre.
Unlike the key protagonists in Se7en, Kidman isn’t playing a detective, at least not in the traditional sense of the word, and the story appears to operate in a different lane altogether.
Ideally, I’ll forget about Se7en once the series begins. That shouldn’t be difficult, provided the storytelling is compelling enough to hold my attention. Fingers, toes and everything crossed for a good result.
Are you curious about Scarpetta?
Simon Baker, Deja Dee, Tyler Merritt, Chiketa Madu, Nahzah Blair, Stanley Aughtry, Janet Montgomery, Mount, Alejandro Barrios, Alanna Giuliani, Paul Bishop and Ashley Shelton also star.
I recently watched the first two seasons of The Bear on Disney+. It’s a comedy/drama about a young chef with a fine dining past who returns to Chicago to take over his family’s sandwich shop, the perfect setting for power struggles, unresolved familial issues and much more.
The first episode of The Bear is a great one. It’s the kind that captures what it must be like to work in a professional kitchen so well, that I couldn’t help but wonder about how much work it took to make those first scenes look so good. I’m talking about super-engaging dialogue, well-choreographed movement/camera work and a skilled and charismatic lead actor (Jeremy Allen White) who inspires just the right amount of curiosity about his character.
The Bear (2024), Jeremy Allen White, Disney+
In truth, all the actors in The Bear are great, including Ayo Edebiri, Jamie Lee Curtis, Liza Colón-Zayas, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Lionel Boyce, to name just a few.
You may already know that creator Christopher Storer’s show has been quite the hit, with several award nominations and wins, including Golden Globes and Emmys. It’s no wonder that seasons two and three feature a fun selection of A-lister guest stars.
The Bear is generally well-written, acted and shot with some specific standout scenes that will stay with you for a while.
The Bear (2024), Ayo Edebiri, Disney+
Seasons one and two are good, even though it did become difficult for me to watch and endure the shenanigans of the older ‘cousin.’ However, the recently released season three is where I must admit that I can now see myself being less excited about the next season. For me, I think I’ve spent enough time in the kitchen. I’ve seen enough of what I wasn’t aware I was curious about. I’m done with the super long shots of specific characters that linger long enough to test my patience. There seem to be plenty of those in season three. It’s all starting to feel too pretentious and self-indulgent, unfortunately.
It’s clear that I’m very likely falling out of love with The Bear. Yet, I’d still say give it a chance if you’re curious. Particularly because of all it does well that you may also enjoy.
In the David Gordon Green followup to the 1978 horror movie hit Halloween, the story of Halloween (2018) centres around second time mental hospital escapee and serial Halloween night masked murderer Mike Myers.
Myers returns to the town he once terrorised forty Halloween nights ago, to wreak more havoc. He’s especially set on getting to Laurie Strode, the then teenage girl – now grandmother who once narrowly escaped from Myers. Knowing that they would one day meet again, Strode has spent the past four decades preparing to kill him.
Myers, of course, kills many others while en route to Strode, and we end up seeing a mixture of scary, impressive, not-so-scary or impressive and sometimes quite unconvincing moments in Gordon Green’s film. I watched the 1978 movie when I was just 17, so maybe I’ll find it less impressive now, but I do vaguely recall liking it more compared to my feelings about this new film.
I found some of the Halloween (2018) special effects makeup to be less convincing than expected. A key example being a scene closer to the end when an adult face gets stepped on hard by Myers, and said face seems to fall apart almost like something resembling a large peeled grapefruit. I’m no scientist, so I could be wrong, but surely for someone’s skull to be crushed like that, I’m almost certain that greater force is required than what’s shown in the aforementioned moment. After that particular disappointment, my mind went to… ‘Isn’t it 2018? surely horror film special effects have come quite a way by now? No?’
Overall, Halloween isn’t as thrilling, scary and impressive as it could have been. I found myself needing to know more about Myers. I needed more than the psychiatrists description of him as something like ‘pure evil’. I’m sure the fact that we don’t ever get to see Myers’s face had a negative effect on how much I was able believe the darkness that’s supposed to exist within him. I think I needed to believe in the darkness more in order for me to really be scared. Otherwise all I essentially have is a not particularly horrifying figure who wears a creepy mask and somehow never seems to run.
As a non regular viewer of scary movies, what I enjoyed most about Halloween is the parts where we learn about and see how the trauma of that fateful Halloween night forty years prior affected Strode and her family. I also enjoyed Andi Matichak’s portrayal of Laurie’s granddaughter – especially before I realised that Jamie Lee Curtis as the young Laurie has a far better horror movie scream.
Other thoughts that crossed my mind as the movie played include:
‘He’s so annoying and a total a******. Of course he’s going to die.’
‘I wish that the scene where the granddaughter finally gets separated from her phone didn’t ring quite as false as it does.’
I just couldn’t help thinking that there’s definitely a better way that could have been done. It sucks when lazy plot devices so obviously feel like lazy and contrived plot devices.
Four decades ago in Halloween (1978), Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) escaped a killing spree on Halloween night. Mike Myers, the man responsible is back and so comes the long awaited confrontation Laurie has been praying for.
Directed by David Gordon Green; Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Virginia Gardner and Toby Huss star.
Nostalgia, that’s why I’m drawn to this one. It also helps that slasher horror movies are not the kind that give me nightmares. My favourite moment in this trailer is the scene with the wardrobe door. Fingers, toes and everything are crossed for an overall, very entertaining result.
Miles Robbins, Will Patton and Nick Castle also star.
