The Nun (2018)

From what I've seen of the "Conjuring Universe" (the first "Conjuring", about half of the second before I quit paying attention in favor of a drunken chit-chat, unrelated to the movie, and the two "Annabelle" movies...), "The Nun" is actually the least shitty.

Set in 1952 Romania where a nun commits suicide while being pursued by something demonic. So the Vatican assigns a priest and a young, soon-to-be nun to investigate the incident - sending them to a cursed abbey out in the woods. A series of 'spooky' things go down before the inevitable face-off with the evil nun transpires...

If you consider that a spoiler you should definitely familiarize yourself with modern mainstream horror a bit because that's about what you can expect from the majority of these types of films. Nothing too crazy or unexpected here. Lots of jump-scares and general noise, but honestly, I didn't totally end up hating this one. The atmosphere is decent and I thought the devil-nun looked kinda neat. Also, Patrick Wilson is barely in it, which is a total PLUS. That guy is a complete fucking bore. As much as a hated "The Conjuring" movies and those boring doll spin-offs, "The Nun" is a small step up as far as these standard, repetitive James Wan flicks go.

Molly (2017)

The heroes of post-apocalyptic films typically tend to be of a certain standard, whether it be Mad Max, Tank Girl or Will Smith - they're most often never a small teen girl with big nerdy glasses. Well, the mold has been broken with "Molly", a low-budget, yet highly ambitious "Road Warrior"-esque film that, despite a few 'lows', definitely ended up being surprisingly impressive, overall.

Lone scavenger, Molly - along with her pet falcon - roams a barren, dystopian landscape while seeming to have to fight off the occasional goon. Said goons are dispatched by a guy who runs a gambling ring on an oil rig, hosting pit-fights with "supplicants" - people that are injected with a drug that turns them into super strong, zombie-like lunatics that move like gorillas. He wants Molly as his new supplicant when he gets word that she's actually a bad ass AND has a super power which allows her to launch explosions from her body when she's pissed off. When a little girl whose parents were turned into supplicants is kidnapped by the villainous tycoon, Molly takes action in the way of a harrowing rescue.

On a technical basis, "Molly" is very well shot. The camera work is fantastic in many scenes and the cinematography is on point in making for a fairly believable end-of-the-world setting, considering the budgetary constraints. My main problem with the film is I didn't find the character of Molly to be all that interesting or fleshed out; as her back story isn't explored at all nor is the origin of her powers explained. The villain is as unlikely a character mode as the hero - being a generally unimposing bad guy with a somewhat androgynous cadence. These two - particularly Molly - are a bit wooden as it's evident that their character makeup was under written in lieu of the appealing technical flair and ardent story concepts they were working with and seemed to be primarily focused on. It's strengths, I found, managed to hold the movie together more than enough to make me dig it.

 Where it really kicks into high gear is in final 30-minutes, which consists of one seemingly unbroken shot as Molly hacks and fist fights her way through the immoral ringleader's lair to save her new pal and avenge her murdered bird. This non-stop violent sequence is obviously where this flick pulls out all the stops and makes for a fun as shit apex that hardly seems to match the first hour of the movie. To conclude, I'd definitely recommend "Molly" if you're into checking out an enthusiastic indie effort.

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Misogynist (2013)

Don't get too excited, kids - this one's not as good as the title suggests. Frankly, it's more of just a boring, low-budget drama than anything all that fun or provocative.

Some misogynist douche holds an underground seminar, teaching disgruntled men how they can better use, abuse and control any woman in their lives His sexist brainwashing, however, has a severely negative affect on his young protege's wedding night with his virgin bride who doesn't necessarily appreciate his 'kinky', selfish take on marital copulation.

I couldn't help but think there was a promising concept here - involving a guys secret coarse on molding male minds into sexist scumbags,  though, through clearly incompetent film-making, it was horribly realized, with a flimsy script and just flat out ridiculous, go-nowhere scenes. A huge portion of the movie was devoted to a trio of V-necked frat boys arguing the efficacy of the woman-hating speaker's bitch-taming prowess as well as his treatment of his girlfriend/female subject. At one point we get a flashback sequence showing him killing a pissed off ex in self-defense and presumably arranging for the disposal of her body. This could've been an interesting 'twist' for the character as far as exploring an even more callous and murderous 'edge' that could have taken the movie down some more engaging avenues. However, this is shown as a mere unimportant fluke and the movie, in turn, plummets back into severe monotony, right on through the underwhelming 'climax' and the who-gives-a-fuck end reveal of a greed-fueled motive. When all is said and done, "Misogynist" feels like you just watched a random episode of a soap opera.