Weekend Horror Movie Review #12

The Crucifixion (2017) - Base on a true story (and all the accuracy that statement entails), an American journalist travels to Romania to investigate whether or not a nun died from demonic possession or abuse from within the church. Not exactly an original concept. The acting was fairly wooden, a lot of the events unbelievable (what newspaper is going to cover the travel bill for one of their journalists to travel to another continent to interview people about a local crime rather than setting up phone calls or even video calls?), and frankly, the male lead came off as creepy on numerous occasions ("Hey you passed out after a single glass of wine from the bottle I opened, so I took a picture of you sleeping.") and I expected him to reveal himself to be a secret antagonist, but no. Also, I could swear that I saw conflicting dates on gravestones of important characters, and I may have been mistaken, but given the quality of the rest of this movie, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I wasn't. It's yet another "is it mental illness or demonic possession?" stories, so if you watch it, feel free to just zone out sometimes; you won't miss anything mind-blowing. (Youtube: trailer)

Immaculate (2024) - A nun moves to a prestigious convent in Italy, where, despite being a virgin, she ends up pregnant and thus treated like she's going to be the mother of the 2nd coming of Jesus. Not everyone in the convent is happy about this, however, and strange events keep happening around this nun. Well, other than a virgin pregnancy, While the twist was a bit cheesy, I have to comment this movie on the beautiful visuals and striking religious imagery it used throughout; it was a real visual treat to watch. Frankly, I'd watch it again, for that aspect alone! (Youtube: trailer)

Sewu Dino (2023) - This movie was actually teased at the end of KKN di Desa Penari, which I reviewed last week. Based on a short story, a trio of women are hired to perform a nightly ritual on a possessed girl at the behest of her grandmother, with the intent of calming the demon possessing her until it can be banished at the end of 1000 days of possession. But the ritual keeps going wrong, and one of the women, Sri, has a strange connection to the situation and its origin that she doesn't yet understand. Really, it's not that bad a movie in general, but it really falls apart toward the end, with a dozen unanswered questions and a need to read between the lines to come up with a potential explanation for some of the unexplained events. That problem may be due to weird translation issues or perhaps cultural aspects I'm unaware of, though, so please take that commentary with a grain of salt. (Indonesian, subtitled) (Youtube: trailer)

Daily Update

Pain level - High

No fever today, which I'm very happy about. Still not feeling well, and I still hurt far more than baseline, so I'm going to be taking it easy for a while longer. Plenty of reading, movies, and napping seem in order for the next few days at least. I hate not being able to sit up and do any embroidery, since most of the time I feel like that's the only sort of thing I can do, but if I don't rest now, I'll be in worse shape for even longer. Sacrifices must be made!

At least I can keep a sense of humour during the bad times. That counts for something, I think.