After being a bit overwhelmed during October (real life can be a bitch sometimes), there were a few things I missed finishing up during the month, so here's my final wrap-up for October's horror on Netflix! I'm reviewing 4 things tonight, Daredevil (which snuck in a third season in October), The Haunting of Hill House (which I finally finished), Sabrina and Castlevania!
Daredevil (season 3) is something I watch for the fighting, I'll be perfectly honest with you. Matt Murdock is basically just a punch-drunk boxer looking for a brawl at every turn, and slips into the mask just so people don't cut him any slack because he's blind. All the rest is just fluff! Yep, I said it. Daredevil is just an excuse for an angry Matt Murdock to punch someone because he's blind.
Season 3 brings back Kingpin as a foil for Daredevil's own return to life after the events of The Defenders' first season. I read an article recently about how Kingpin is the best villain in the Marvel universe, and I'm just not seeing it. Granted, Vincent D'Onofrio did an awesome job, but it just didn't seem to ring true. I don't know, maybe it was the fakeness of the relationship or the way Kingpin seemed to just know absolutely everything at all times, but this season just didn't seem to do it for me. I mean, last season of Daredevil, there was that awesome biker-battle down the stairwell of a hotel, and fuck that was awesome, I don't think I'll ever forget it. But this season? I think I've already forgotten it. No really cool fights. Sure plenty of fights, but no REALLY COOL ones. Bullseye (minor spoiler) was basically just a Daredevil clone, as he even seemed to have almost the same powers. I get that they can't send Daredevil up against the Hulk or something, but seriously, wouldn't THAT be an awesome battle? Oh, well. Season 3 just wasn't as good as season 2. Still, it's on netflix if you want to catch up. It didn't suck horribly, so maybe season 4 will be better.
I finished watching Castlevania (season 2) next, so I'm reviewing it next. Castlevania only started with 4 episodes, and there were like, 8 or ten the second season. Interestingly enough, they introduced Dracula as a foil, and seem to have (cough, spoiler alert) done away with him already. I'm... not sure what's going to happen in season 3, as I've never played Castlevania. Still, if there is a season 3 (season 2 was an adequate series finale), I'm interested in the further adventures of Belmont, the Speaker spellcaster lady (can't recall her name now, but she's cute and sassy, which is always a good combo), and Alucard (Dracula's son, as though that needed explaining). Anyways, seasons 1 and 2 were good watching for a cartoon, so watch them on netflix if you like that sort of thing.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (season 1) started out with SO much promise. There's a countdown of days to Sabrina's Dark Baptism, on Halloween of all things, her 16th birthday, AND a blood moon! The first two or three episodes ROCKED. Sixteen-year-old Sabrina (played by Kiernan Shipka, who actually turns 19 on Nov 10) is half-naked part of the time, she's having disturbing visions, there's a lot of drama and fear and suspense, then betrayal and then Satan just shows up to keep things spicy! And then it all goes downhill from there. Yep. Total tumble into oblivious obscurity. The countdown vanishes, it's all bouncing here and there in the plot, the villain vanishes from sight, and the ending fucking sucked. Totally goes against character, and if it was going to go that way in the first place, why fucking tease it out over ten episodes? Stupid. Everyone else in the story says true to character except Sabrina, and that's just ridiculous. Bah! I doubt I'd watch a season 2 now, considering that Sabrina basically became everything she hated. Why bother watching that?
And finally the Haunting of Hill House (season 1). There were SO many flashbacks, I can't even begin to explain just how many there were. Bouncing back and forth and back and forth was incredibly annoying. I wish they had just shown the past, then finished the present part, because I'm not sure I'd be up for a future season. Honestly, I'm not even sure how there could be, at this point. Spoiler alert, half the cast died, and Carla Gugino was just awesome, so what could they possibly follow up with?
Maybe Castlevania and Sabrina and Hill House are all just one-offs, not really seasons that will be continued so much, as ten-hour movies. If so, Hill House could have used a LOT of trimming. They basically told the same story from like 8 different viewpoints, over the course of ten episodes. So really, there was like two hours of story dragged out to ten hours of viewing time. Sure, there were some jump-scares and creepy dead things and the normal crap you get from these things these days, but nothing exceptionally new or different. The middle portions of the story seemed to drag something fierce, and the ending got downright into unsurprising and expected territory. Still, as I said, Carla Gugino was pretty awesome, and did such a great job as the mom, it was worth sticking it out to find out everything that happened.
In other news, I managed to catch the Frighteners the other night (I DVR'd it, haven't watched it yet), so I won't be missing that this season, and I can always catch the Fog somewhere, I am sure. Just a few of the many movies I missed watching this past october, and if I get the urge, I am sure I can track down the few others I didn't see. I just love watching those old horror movies! So much fun!
And that's all for tonight! I might come up with a movie to review before Turkey Day, but if not, have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :-)
