307 – Horns (2013)

Joe Hill has been making a name for himself as an author for the last several years. He has published some critically acclaimed novels including last year’s NOS4A2 and Locke & Key, a comic book published by IDW. Joe Hill is also the son of unbelievably prolific creep Stephen King. It’s admirable that Hill would take on a pseudonym to distance himself from his father, but the connection is quite obvious as soon as you read any of Hill’s prose. Hill’s career hits a new milestone now with the release Alexandre Aja’s Horns, the first film based on one of his novels. Does his work stand up to cinema any better than his father’s?

253 – Doug Benson Movie Interruption: Maleficent

Believe it or not, back in the day I actually went to a movie theater and saw Maleficent. It was a Friday night – June 6th, to be exact. Presumably I had tried to make plans and failed utterly, because I can imagine no other situation in which I would go to such a screening of my own free will. But there I sat, already having watched a true masterpiece earlier in the evening – Bonnie and Clyde. Guess which film I ended up writing about that night. Maleficent was so middle-of-the-road that I couldn’t even think of a couple sentences to toss off on Letterboxd. Instead I just rated the movie: 2/5 stars, which seems high in retrospect. I must have liked some aspect of the movie, though earlier tonight I could not for the life of me remember what it was. Surely watching the movie again with a bunch of comedians talking over it ought to refresh my memory. Right?