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Apr. 14th, 2026 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowhiveSo today was a cinema trip so this is a post about that.
When I got to town I only went in a few places. I went in Poundland to get lightbulbs (the one at the top of the stairs has gone) then Aldi to get pasta (I picked up a leaflet and the new pasta sounded nice.) Then popped in Asda. I had some luck again! They had the new Mandalorian visual guide, which I didn’t even know was out, and it was half off! So naturally I grabbed it. And they also had copies of Project Hail Mary so I got that too.
I read some of the Mandalorian visual guide between films and I’m so looking forward to going through it properly.its hefty covering all three seasons of the show (plus some of Book Of Boba Fett) and it starts with a new map. Damn I love it when a book starts with a galaxy map, I love looking through it, spotting familiar plants and also seeing things and wanting to know what they are,
The trailers before Exit 8 were a bit puzzling, in that only one was a horror.
Micheal: A new one, again it looks like it’s well done but not something I’d go watch
Power Ballad: A few with Paul Rudd and one of the Jonas brothers. It seems the latter stole a song the former wrote and made it a hit
Two women: A French film, about two women that seem to be unhappy with their lives. Probably won’t see feels it could be funny
Backrooms: I’d seen this trailer online but ahh seeing it on a big screen (twice!) was so good especially since it’s confirmation we’re getting it! I’m so sold on the concept of a strange space, plus it’s part found footage which I love, plus it meant I got to see the Backrooms twink on the big screen
The trailers for Undertone were pretty much the ones I’ve seen for recent horror things (with Undertone switched out for Backrooms): Scary Movie, Passenger, Obsession, The Mummy, Hokum.
Thoughts on both under the cut.
First Exit 8. It’s wild this is the first Japanese horror thing I’ve seen in the cinema. I really hope that this leads to more especially because, to my surprise, BFI and National Lottery logos were shown at the start. So it seems we had a hand in it somehow?
Exit 8 is based on the game of the same name so the premise is the same. A guy ends up stuck in a subway tunnel, to get to the end he has to get to exit 8 while avoiding the anomalies.
A game like this feels like it’s tricky to adapt into a film. After all the ‘hook’ of the game is that you keep wanting to do loops in the hopes of getting to the end. But with a film you can’t really do that.
First off they nailed the location. It looks pretty much like the game, albeit with some posters changed and lockers added at the end. But it looks great it really nails the vibe the game has.
The anomalies are really creepy, some are really obvious ones (and one the guy even misses somehow by not looking up). There’s a few too that are ‘what was the anomaly there?’ which will be interesting to find out on the home release. Plus they did something that I thought was really great. In the game the anomalies are ‘general’, because the player character isn’t really a character. However film means that characters aren’t faceless so while some anomalies are ‘generic’ like the game some are also tailored to the person which I thought was a really smart decision.
I’m not gonna say too much more on it (though I could!) but I will say it’s really well done and I really loved it. I feel fans of the game will love it too. (I went on it again over the weekend and almost got to exit 8 then failed 😭)
Next is Undertone.
Undertone is a harder one to recommend. I’m gonna say it, cause I know it’s a squick for some people but child death is a part of the story. It’s not seen but it is mentioned.
The premise is that two characters Evie and Justin (Evie is the only one seen) do a podcast into spooky stuff. Justin has had an email with 10 audio tracks so they decide to, over the course of a few nights, listen to them. (It’s not a spoiler to say this is a bad idea)
This really got to me, mostly because of the side plot. The whole thing is told in one location Evie’s house, or rather Evie’s mother’s house. Evie is her carer and she is… well she’s bedbound, immobile, doesn’t speak. So yeah that’s fun to see! (Not) Thankfully the two sections aren’t equally weighted but it’s enough that I likely won’t see it again
The film is at its most effective when it’s Evie and Justin recording the podcast. They have a nice vibe and bantering and some of the audio stuff really is so creepy. And honestly? I was sold on that as a central concept. When it works, it really works.
There aren’t really much in the way of scares. It’s mostly just a creepy tone (ironically). There are things in the background that made me think ‘was that a thing?’ Or ‘is there meant to be something there but I missed it?’
It really did feel like it was building to something, with the reveal of the demon (supposedly behind miscarriages and child murder), especially since they were described but….
Huge spoiler here so…
The last sequence was really creepy, with people phoning in as they listened to the last recordings and unsettling things being said, they things start going wrong in the house (lights popping, a tv on without being plugged in) and then it just… cuts to black after Evie finds her mum not in her bed but in a closet. So you’re left with a sense of WTF just happened? I dunno why they did that instead of just… committing to something.
*end spoiler*
As a whole it could’ve been better which is a game cause I did love the central concept
Next cinema trip should be Saturday for record store day but I’m not sure what. I was hoping to see the new Mummy film, but the earliest showing is 3 and the films before that are kinda… lacking. I could see Mario Galaxy again, or Project Hail Mary, or I could see the magic faraway tree but I’m not sure. We’ll see.
After that it’s Hokum, then The Sheep Detectives.
Now I’m gonna bundle up a bit.i had considered watching something but I don’t feel I have the energy.
When I got to town I only went in a few places. I went in Poundland to get lightbulbs (the one at the top of the stairs has gone) then Aldi to get pasta (I picked up a leaflet and the new pasta sounded nice.) Then popped in Asda. I had some luck again! They had the new Mandalorian visual guide, which I didn’t even know was out, and it was half off! So naturally I grabbed it. And they also had copies of Project Hail Mary so I got that too.
I read some of the Mandalorian visual guide between films and I’m so looking forward to going through it properly.its hefty covering all three seasons of the show (plus some of Book Of Boba Fett) and it starts with a new map. Damn I love it when a book starts with a galaxy map, I love looking through it, spotting familiar plants and also seeing things and wanting to know what they are,
The trailers before Exit 8 were a bit puzzling, in that only one was a horror.
Micheal: A new one, again it looks like it’s well done but not something I’d go watch
Power Ballad: A few with Paul Rudd and one of the Jonas brothers. It seems the latter stole a song the former wrote and made it a hit
Two women: A French film, about two women that seem to be unhappy with their lives. Probably won’t see feels it could be funny
Backrooms: I’d seen this trailer online but ahh seeing it on a big screen (twice!) was so good especially since it’s confirmation we’re getting it! I’m so sold on the concept of a strange space, plus it’s part found footage which I love, plus it meant I got to see the Backrooms twink on the big screen
The trailers for Undertone were pretty much the ones I’ve seen for recent horror things (with Undertone switched out for Backrooms): Scary Movie, Passenger, Obsession, The Mummy, Hokum.
Thoughts on both under the cut.
First Exit 8. It’s wild this is the first Japanese horror thing I’ve seen in the cinema. I really hope that this leads to more especially because, to my surprise, BFI and National Lottery logos were shown at the start. So it seems we had a hand in it somehow?
Exit 8 is based on the game of the same name so the premise is the same. A guy ends up stuck in a subway tunnel, to get to the end he has to get to exit 8 while avoiding the anomalies.
A game like this feels like it’s tricky to adapt into a film. After all the ‘hook’ of the game is that you keep wanting to do loops in the hopes of getting to the end. But with a film you can’t really do that.
First off they nailed the location. It looks pretty much like the game, albeit with some posters changed and lockers added at the end. But it looks great it really nails the vibe the game has.
The anomalies are really creepy, some are really obvious ones (and one the guy even misses somehow by not looking up). There’s a few too that are ‘what was the anomaly there?’ which will be interesting to find out on the home release. Plus they did something that I thought was really great. In the game the anomalies are ‘general’, because the player character isn’t really a character. However film means that characters aren’t faceless so while some anomalies are ‘generic’ like the game some are also tailored to the person which I thought was a really smart decision.
I’m not gonna say too much more on it (though I could!) but I will say it’s really well done and I really loved it. I feel fans of the game will love it too. (I went on it again over the weekend and almost got to exit 8 then failed 😭)
Next is Undertone.
Undertone is a harder one to recommend. I’m gonna say it, cause I know it’s a squick for some people but child death is a part of the story. It’s not seen but it is mentioned.
The premise is that two characters Evie and Justin (Evie is the only one seen) do a podcast into spooky stuff. Justin has had an email with 10 audio tracks so they decide to, over the course of a few nights, listen to them. (It’s not a spoiler to say this is a bad idea)
This really got to me, mostly because of the side plot. The whole thing is told in one location Evie’s house, or rather Evie’s mother’s house. Evie is her carer and she is… well she’s bedbound, immobile, doesn’t speak. So yeah that’s fun to see! (Not) Thankfully the two sections aren’t equally weighted but it’s enough that I likely won’t see it again
The film is at its most effective when it’s Evie and Justin recording the podcast. They have a nice vibe and bantering and some of the audio stuff really is so creepy. And honestly? I was sold on that as a central concept. When it works, it really works.
There aren’t really much in the way of scares. It’s mostly just a creepy tone (ironically). There are things in the background that made me think ‘was that a thing?’ Or ‘is there meant to be something there but I missed it?’
It really did feel like it was building to something, with the reveal of the demon (supposedly behind miscarriages and child murder), especially since they were described but….
Huge spoiler here so…
The last sequence was really creepy, with people phoning in as they listened to the last recordings and unsettling things being said, they things start going wrong in the house (lights popping, a tv on without being plugged in) and then it just… cuts to black after Evie finds her mum not in her bed but in a closet. So you’re left with a sense of WTF just happened? I dunno why they did that instead of just… committing to something.
*end spoiler*
As a whole it could’ve been better which is a game cause I did love the central concept
Next cinema trip should be Saturday for record store day but I’m not sure what. I was hoping to see the new Mummy film, but the earliest showing is 3 and the films before that are kinda… lacking. I could see Mario Galaxy again, or Project Hail Mary, or I could see the magic faraway tree but I’m not sure. We’ll see.
After that it’s Hokum, then The Sheep Detectives.
Now I’m gonna bundle up a bit.i had considered watching something but I don’t feel I have the energy.
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Date: 2026-04-14 07:31 am (UTC)