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I'm old enough to remember the original Hellraiser (1987). That was a true horror film. There were horrible people, doing horrible things. It left you feeling really quite disturbed about the worst aspects of human nature.
The follow-up Hellraiser 2 (1988) managed to recapture a small part of that. But after that it was downhill fast. The sequels were nothing but parodies.
Well, for some reason, Hulu decided to remake it.
Shamefully, the film fails on nearly every level. It's not well written (terrible dialogue) and poorly acted. There's little horror and you simply do not care about anyone or anything happening in it. It doesn't give you a reason to care either. The Cenobites are not scary, or grotesque looking... they just look like cheap make-up and some bad CGI.
Like the later Hellraiser films It has more in common with trashy slasher flicks than anything else. Poorly done ones at that.
As is common today they gender-switched the main role. Did it add anything? Nope. In fact, I keep hearing about what a good performance Jamie Clayton was as The Priest. I don't know what they were watching. There isn't a performance, it's literally all make up and some lines read out flat. Look at the originals: Pinhead's character is all about small, slow movements and looming dread. He's literally an overwhelming threat and you are the prey. Not in this one though.
Or look at the secondary villain. In the original it's Uncle Frank, who is an awful person who fully deserves his fate. Even in the end as he's pulled apart by the Cenobites... he's drawn to it, and much as he tried to run he still wants what the Cenobites offer. In this new version... there's none of that same grimy, disturbing look into subcultures. It's all clean, boring and badly acted.
Watch Hellraiser (1987) and Hellraiser 2 (1988) and stop there. They did it better on much smaller budgets.
MK Ultra was a top secret government program to test mind control techniques on people.
The words secret and test are the key there.
Lots of the MK Ultra program was voluntary, but this film focuses on something that always happens when you make things secret and throw money at it. You get abuses by those attracted to the idea of acting out their worst fantasies and doing so under the guise of fighting the enemy.
Without giving away spoilers, Dr Strauss (Anson Mount) is genuine in his desire to research whether LSD can help those with mental illness, addictions etc. He struggles to get funding. A benefactor shows up and Strauss slowly begins to realise his mistake.
Thankfully the film relies on showing not telling. It lets you try to work out what's happening. The result is an intense, grubby and depressing look at the darker parts of the MK Ultra story.
One criticism: the beginning has a scene linking the program to race. The rest of the film is obvious that it wasn't about race. No-one was spared - MK Ultra even preyed on their own CIA agents. It's a cheap addition and the film is better than that. Also, the film kind of skips over the role Doctors played in it.
The doctor here tries to correct his mistake. However like many of the worst excesses in human history, doctors (who should know better) were complicit and involved themselves in the MK Ultra abuses in full knowledge of what was being done.
Should you watch it? Yes. While you're at it... look up the facts of MK Ultra. It's not a conspiracy theory. When let loose and given secrecy large organisations like the state are extremely dangerous.
This movie had some potential. It's clearly low budget but with Colin Farrell it has a touch of class to it... but only while he is in it.
The story is a group of specially raised children who are intended to make a long voyage on a generation ship. Meaning they will live out their lives on a fairly smallish vessel, having children who will then have children, who will eventually colonise a new world.
Farrell's character volunteers to go along with the children as an older guide
About a quarter of the way in the children, now late teens, discover they have been drugged to quell their natural impulses. They come off the drug. The result: two of them decide to kill Farrell's character and things spin out of control.
Up until they bump him off, there is an interesting story about how the children will react as they slowly discover that Richard (Farrell) is lying... and in turn being lied to by mission control. Then... all gone and replaced with a dumb Lord of the Flies nonsense. With the teens finally realising at the end that what they really needed was a girlboss.
Starts with some promise and dies a horrible death. Avoid.
The film deserves more credit.
The original novel was well ahead of its time. The use of gifted children, train them, prepare them, shape them into exceptionally skilled players in what they believe is a video game.
You're seeing this happen all around you. Weapons are becoming remotely controlled... and even AI controlled. You need a very different set of skills from previous conflicts
This movie adaptation tries to cram a lot in to its running time and the result is not much breathing time.
Also, don't confuse Ender's Game (movie or book) this with YA fiction. This about young adults, but it's not just for young adults. It's far better than that. The novel originates from well before the tedious YA trend.
*** WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD ***
At the end you see the desperation of the formics... madly throwing themselves at the approaching ship that will end their planet if it makes it through. Sacrificing everything. They are doing the same thing Earth did at the beginning of the story as it was being "invaded" by the formics. The difference from then and now... Ender. Those who realised what was needed... found him, trained and prepared him and his friends. They lied to them... made them think it was all game preparing for the real thing. So he would sacrifice not-real people without a second thought to win the game. Those all made the difference. Were they wrong to do this? That's a question to answer for yourself. Should they have negotiated first, or taken a more measured approach rather than the "them or us" approach. Was it worth co-opting Ender and his team with lies to commit a genocide. An extended running time would have allowed it more time to breath and include the impact on the other children too.
As it stands, it is a good film and one that deserves more credit than it got.
