Saturday Screen Time #40: January horror and reality TV

Happy Saturday, everyone! Welcome back to Saturday Screen Time! This month I watched a few movies and shows, mostly horror and sci-fi/fantasy (who's shocked?). I am currently watching the last season of Schitt's Creek week by week and it's torture to wait! Sometimes I forget how awful it is not to be able to binge something!

THIS MONTH IN MOVIES

Ghostland - Ghostland has popped up on multiple "must watch" lists and Shudder emails in the last few months so I finally decided to give it a shot. I went in not knowing anything about this movie and it was totally not what I expected! The movie begins with a brutal home invasion and quickly jumps ahead to the teenage daughters as adults. They end up back in the house and the nightmare continues. This movie is tough to watch at times and I wasn't expecting how uncomfortable it made me. The twist was pretty good, but I don't think I'd watch this again. (3/5 stars)

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum - I was Gonjiam recommended as one of the best found footage movies of the decade and I immediately hunted it down! The movie is about a group of people who want to livestream from a haunted asylum, which has never been done before. At first all the scares are setups but then things begin to spiral. As far as found footage goes, this one was pretty good! There were some decent scares, one that caught me totally by surprise. If you're a found footage horror fan and enjoy foreign films, give this one a try. (3.55/5 stars)

Joker - I took my sweet time getting around to watching this movie. Obviously there's some controversy around it and I can totally understand why. At the same time, it does have a lot to say about our mental healthcare system and it did make me think. This was a Joker origin story unlike any other and, while it was hard to watch at times, I did love that it really made me think on multiple occasions. I'm still not really sure how I feel about Joker, so I'm giving it a tentative 3.5 stars. Joaquin Phoenix's performance was incredible though, love or hate the movie. (3.5/5 stars)

I Am Mother - Again, this kept popping up. Most recently I saw it on Reddit as someone's favorite horror movie of the year. Well, it really isn't horror, but I guess it was decent. I Am Mother is about a robot programmed to raise humans in a facility after an extinction event. The girl it raises begins to question things after another human shows up outside. This definitely started really slow and took awhile to get interesting. There were some good twists, but overall I was a bit underwhelmed. (2.5/5 stars)

THIS MONTH IN TV

The Circle - I held off for a couple weeks before I gave in and started watching The Circle. I hated the first episode, but then I couldn't stop watching! The houseguests really pulled me in and had me rooting for them. I adored Sammie and Joey and would love to see them on my screen again! The one thing I really disliked about this was the latecomers who I never really had a chance to get to know. I'm so sad that it looks like this won't be getting a second season, but this one was great! (4/5 stars)

Channel Zero: The Dream Door - Finally, I got to watch season four of Channel Zero! This season was about a woman who discovers a door in her basement that holds things from her past that were forgotten. There were some genuinely creepy moments this season! The second episode was particularly wild. In the second half things got less scary and honestly more endearing. I did enjoy this season but I was definitely hoping for a bit more horror. (3.5/5 stars)

Supernatural Season 14 - I'm catching up! I don't know why this season took me so long to watch but it was definitely a lot. I can't believe how much Jack grew on me and Rowena became one of my favorite characters. Nick and Michael were both incredible villains and that LAST villain of the season was totally unexpected! The finale really left me reeling and it definitely felt like it was leading up to the end. I can't wait to see how the show wraps up! (4.5/5 stars)

THIS MONTH'S DNF LIST

Nothing!

WATCHLIST