Movie Reviews
‘AIR FRYER SLAUGHTER’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror
![‘AIR FRYER SLAUGHTER’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror ‘AIR FRYER SLAUGHTER’ (2024) – Movie Review – PopHorror](https://pophorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/airfryerslaughterbanner.jpg)
Air Fryers are one of the most appreciated and streamlined cooking inventions in modern history. Not since the George Foreman grill have we seen so many people swear by a new kitchen trend. But what if the Air Fryer became an instrument of destruction with bad intentions? That’s the question we answer in Air Fryer Slaughter, the newest cult horror comedy by MMH Productions.
That’s about all we’ve got when it comes to plot, but there’s still plenty that will satisfy fans of Troma-style horror. Air Fryer Slaughter has an impressive array of violence on display, that results in a showcase for the SFX department. Eyes are poked out, faces melted, and body parts fly as our bulky antagonist moves impressively from place to place. Air Fryer is framed much like Freddy Krueger, with puns and quips to go with his trail of dead bodies.
But Air Fryer isn’t just a mechanical maniac, he’s also a viewer to a television reel that hosts a lot of cameos from indie horror standouts. Destruction must also be hard work, because Air Fryer goes on a few sexual quests as well, adding some nudity and laughs to our list of classic horror tropes.
![](https://pophorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/rsz_afs_2-2-450x600.jpg)
Air Fryer Slaughter is shot on video and seems to leave the door open for sequels and spinoffs in a shared world of schlocky cult horror. Fans of this sub-genre will certainly find this as a worthy addition. It’s available now on DVD.
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Movie Reviews
The Substance – NZIFF Closing Night 13th Floor Film Review
![The Substance – NZIFF Closing Night 13th Floor Film Review The Substance – NZIFF Closing Night 13th Floor Film Review](https://13thfloor.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Shamin-225x300.png)
The 13th Floor’s Shamin Yazdani has been busy sitting in the dark, catching as many NZIFF as she can including The Substance on Closing Night. Here is her review and a summary of what was good and not so good at the Film Festival.
And just like that, my NZIFF experience (and selection of auteur films) comes to an end with the closing night film, The Substance.
During the film’s introduction, the audience is forewarned that we are in for a wild ride and to expect to be on the edge of our seats. In my version of events however, it’s a ride worth skipping and a seat worth ejecting.
Better on paper than on screen, the concept of The Substance, while strong, is met with weak execution by filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. Some very salient and relevant issues are acknowledged in the movie (namely aging, conflicting ideologies between the new and older generation/s, the way in which we (women?) contort ourselves in the pursuit of unattainable perfection, “the grass is greener” etc) but ultimately Fargeat falls short in examining these concepts in any meaningful way. She instead leans into lazy tropes, endorses and perpetuates the male gaze through the uninspired fetishisation of the female body, and in the final act, takes an unexpected turn into absurdist territory, which doesn’t land. It drones on in a self-indulgent attempt to provoke and shock for little reason other than to be memorable, and that’s not a good enough reason to waste two hours and 20 minutes of anyone’s time. TL;DR what it delivers in aesthetic it lacks in substance. How meta!
The Silver Lining – the closing night film was by no means a reflection of the calibre of this year’s selections (and hopefully not an indication of 2025’s lineup)! My ratings:
We Were DangerousXXXx
Head South XXXX
The Crossing XXXX
Sasquatch Sunset XXXXx
Eno XXX
The Substance XXx
Shamin Yazdani
Shamin is an Iranian New Zealander and multi-hyphenate creative engaged in storytelling across diverse mediums and platforms. She began her professional journey in the UAE and London, steadily advancing to creative producing in broadcast television. Shamin’s contributions in film and creative direction have featured on various platforms and publications including BBC World News, Vogue Arabia, Elle Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, The Gulf Film Festival, MENA Film Festival, and London Shubbak Festival.
Movie Reviews
Here’s What People Are Posting On Letterboxd After Watching “It Ends With Us”
![Here’s What People Are Posting On Letterboxd After Watching “It Ends With Us” Here’s What People Are Posting On Letterboxd After Watching “It Ends With Us”](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2024-08/19/20/enhanced/19eb4a8df6c2/original-608-1724099770-2.jpg?crop=1245:651;3,89%26downsize=1250:*)
Since It Ends With Us was recently released in theaters, the book adaptation has garnered a lot of attention for the way it was marketed to audiences, as well as the alleged drama that unfolded between the cast and the film’s director. But while a lot of people have opinions about these above topics, what about the movie itself? Well, let’s just say people have a lot of thoughts. Below, we rounded up some of the most opinionated Letterboxd reviews of It Ends With Us:
Note: We provided copies of the reviews underneath the images just in case the text is hard to read.
Movie Reviews
Movie Review: ‘Alien: Romulus’ | Recent News
“Alien: Romulus” started out at a disadvantage with me because I haven’t liked any of the “Alien” films that came before it. I’m not just talking about the heavily-maligned third and fourth installments from the 90’s, the “Predator” crossovers from the 2000’s, or the uneven Michael Fassbender arc of the 2010’s. I mean that even the “classic” original from 1979 and beloved first sequel from 1986 have never done it for me. I find them to be little more than glorified haunted house movies with one cool creature design and some extra squishy special effects. That isn’t to say that I think they’re terrible, exactly, just not worthy of their pedestals in popular culture. Now “Alien: Romulus” is a movie that I do think is terrible, exactly.
The movie follows new heroine Rain (Cailee Spaeny) and her glitchy android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) as they try to escape a miserable mining planet owned by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. They get an invite from her friend Tyler (Archie Renaux) to join him on an unsanctioned mission to a floating research station that contains stasis chambers and is set to arrive at a desirable planet in nine years. Also along are Tyler’s pregnant sister Kara (Isabela Merced), his cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), and Bjorn’s girlfriend Navarro (Aileen Wu).
Of course, things don’t quite go to plan. There isn’t enough fuel to run the stasis chambers, so the team has to look all over the ship for more. Another little snag, as you can probably imagine, is that the ship took an alien known as a Xenomorph onboard and now the ship is infested with everything from big, cumbersome, deadly aliens to smaller, more nimble, but still very deadly aliens. Also, the aliens have acidic bodily fluids that are capable of tearing through the ship itself, not to mention any unfortunate humans. Also, the station is owned by Weyland-Yutani, a company that never misses a chance to endanger humans for its own bottom line – and it wants that precious alien DNA. All of this is explained by the ship’s android science officer, and let’s just say that one of Weyland-Yutani’s cost-cutting measures is recycling android designs.
Since the characters aren’t interesting and the action isn’t exciting, I whiled away the time waiting for cast members to get killed off. There’s a big billboard in Times Square depicting Navarro getting attacked by a face-hugging Xenomorph, she’s a goner for sure. Bjorn is rude to everybody, he’s no doubt toast. Tyler is bland even for this movie, he has “killed off somewhere in the middle” written all over him. Kara exists solely so her pregnancy can be exploited for body horror. This franchise’s affinity for heroines takes away a lot of the suspense from Rain, though Cailee Spaeny is no Sigourney Weaver. The only character whose life or death I couldn’t predict with 99% certainty was Andy, and he arguably doesn’t even have a “life” in the first place.
Walt Disney World used to have an attraction called “Alien Encounter,” unrelated to the “Alien” franchise, but certainly reminiscent of it. Guests would sit strapped in a seat and be “terrorized” by an alien animatronic in the form of wind, water, and sound effects in a darkened room. Disney got complaints that the attraction wasn’t child-friendly, so they made the lighting dim instead of dark, scaled down the intensity, and generally made the whole thing less appealing to thrill-seekers. “Alien: Romulus” reminds me of a later version of that ride. While not devoid of violence by any means, the film can’t properly pull off a thrilling or scary atmosphere to save its life. Nor does it have the dramatic or comedic chops to be an interesting movie on any other level. That was what saved the first two “Alien” movies from being terrible, the human characters were likeable, even if I didn’t like their chances of survival. I think I liked this film’s five human characters less than Paul Reiser’s intentionally-detestable corporate sellout in “Aliens.”
Grade: D
“Alien: Romulus” is rated R for bloody violent content and language. Its running time is 119 minutes.
Robert R. Garver is a graduate of the Cinema Studies program at New York University. His weekly movie reviews have been published since 2006.
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