In 2024, do I even need to explain what The Lord of the Rings (henceforth LotR) is? J.R.R. Tolkien‘s deeply iconic and highly influential masterpiece is widely considered among the all-time greatest works of fantasy. And even if you haven’t read the books, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve seen Peter Jackson‘s beloved film adaptations from 2001–2003, or at the very least seen any number of the almost cartoonishly long list of memes it’s spawned. Indeed, the world of these books has been retold and added to with varying levels of success time and time again in the seventy years since The Fellowship of the Ring was first published. And the latest such addition to this club is the franchise‘s first anime (but not first animated) movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (henceforth WotR).

Admittedly, there’s not a lot tying WotR to the rest of LotR. One could go into this movie with little or no LotR knowledge at all and be just fine—you’d miss a few winks and nods to LotR, but nothing so huge that you couldn’t understand and appreciate what was going on. They both take place in the same universe, and LotR fans will hear a few familiar names throughout the movie (and get a special cameo at the end), but WotR takes place roughly ~200 years before Frodo ever set his bare feet outside The Shire. Furthermore, WotR is centered on humans first and foremost—in fact, there are barely any non-human characters in the movie at all. Its primary connection and contribution to the world Tolkien built is a specific history on why Helm’s Deep is called, well, Helm’s Deep; a question that, admittedly, I don’t think many (if any at all) LotR fans were actively curious to learn more about, but at the same time, thorough worldbuilding has always been a hallmark of Tolkien, so I don’t necessarily mind that.

If there is anything I mind in this movie, it would probably (and surprisingly) be the animation, which is so gorgeous at times. But then, at others, the mouth flap movements are just off enough that they become noticeable, and when you notice it even once, you can’t really unnotice it. At other moments, too, it’s really apparent that the backgrounds and the people or horses aren’t exactly on the same plane, if that makes sense—the people and horses look very obviously overlaid on the backgrounds, which, stylistically and visually, don’t quite match. Finally, the animation gets a bit rough when something particularly dynamic or high-movement is going on (which, to be clear, is often—there’s a lot of fighting, horse riding, and so on). Director Kenji Kamiyama is no stranger to anime or fast-paced action, so I was shocked that this animation often fell as short of the mark as it does.

Meanwhile, this movie’s greatest strength is one of its main characters: none other than the force of nature that is Helm Hammerhand, who’s brought to life by the legendary Brian Cox—whom ANN recently got to interview, alongside Gaia Wise. He’s exactly the kind of bombastic powerhouse that you love to run into in anime, and Cox—still relatively fresh off the heels of playing screamy-old-man Logan Roy in Succession—can (predictably) match that energy perfectly. As for everyone else, it’s hard to shine your brightest when you have to share a stage with a character who exudes as much hot-bloodedness and charisma as Helm Hammerhand. Not even the other central protagonist of the film, Héra (voiced by Gaia Wise), can quite measure up. Still, both she and Wulf are compelling enough characters—neither commanding the spotlight in the same way that Helm so often does, but also never fully allowing themselves to be swallowed up by Helm’s gravitational pull.

And falling somewhere in the middle is this movie’s story, which feels like a pretty standard-issue revenge affair. Fundamentally, it’s nothing you haven’t already seen played out a million times before—you just haven’t seen it with Helm Hammerhand. But even so, WotR doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel. It’s a story that opts to do what it’s doing well rather than to do it in a unique way, which is fine; it just makes it err on the side of forgettability.

WotR probably won’t become a must-watch addition to your LotR marathon any time soon, but it’s still an enjoyable—if a bit underwhelming—adventure movie. Comparing it to other pieces of LotR media feels somewhat like a pitfall, because few franchises simultaneously have as monumental highs and astronomical lows as LotR does. Falling somewhere in the middle of this feels almost inevitable, but “somewhere in the middle” could mean anything when the distance between LotR‘s peaks and valleys is so vast. But at the same time, the fact remains that it is a piece of LotR media—one that pales in comparison to the best entries but is still far from the worst we’ve seen from Tolkien’s world. And even as a standalone piece, it’s a solid adventure movie, but lacks a certain wow-factor—a wow-factor, one can’t help but feel reminded, that’s often present in LotR‘s better entries.

Fear is the latest Telugu movie directed by Haritha Gogineni. It stars Vedhika in the lead role and hits the screens today. Read on to find out how it fares.

Story:

Sindhu (Vedhika) is a cheerful and composed young woman in love with her boyfriend, Sampath (Arvind Krishna). When he relocates for work, Sindhu encounters strange and eerie incidents. She feels like someone stalks her but struggles to identify who or what it might be. Is Sindhu indeed being followed, or is it all in her mind? What’s really happening to her? Does she experience any childhood trauma? These questions form the crux of the story.

Highlights:

Director Haritha Gogineni delves into a nice and underexplored subject in Telugu cinema, making a commendable effort to shed light on it.

Vedhika delivers an okay performance in key moments, particularly in the film’s pre-climax and climax. Her choice to take on such a challenging role is praiseworthy.

Shortcomings:

While the film attempts to tell an important story, the confusing screenplay makes it challenging to follow. The narrative begins on a promising note but loses its grip as it progresses, with repetitive sequences overshadowing the storyline.

Including three timelines adds intrigue, but their abrupt transitions make the narrative hard to follow. Casting, especially for the child actors, could have been more effective.

The film’s psychological thriller elements could have been more compelling with tighter editing and a quicker pace. However, the intensity in certain scenes falls short, leaving less impact than intended.

Technical Aspects:

Haritha Gogineni’s script shows potential but struggles to translate effectively on screen. The first half’s slow pacing and lack of clarity diminish the film’s engagement. A more refined screenplay could have significantly improved the film.

The cinematography, editing, background score, and production values are average, lacking the finesse needed to elevate the film.

Verdict:

On the whole, Fear attempts to tackle a meaningful subject but falls short due to inconsistent storytelling and technical flaws. Though Vedhika and Haritha Gogineni put in effort, the film lacks the necessary depth and coherence, which weakens its overall impact. A tighter script and better pacing could have made it a more effective psychological thriller.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.25/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team 

Click Here For Telugu Review

Heretic (now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video) shows us a side of Hugh Grant we’ve never seen before: The horror-movie antagonist. Now, he’s played a villain before, but Paddington 2 isn’t quite the prelude to his turn in A24‘s Heretic, where he plays a psycho-manipulator who draws a pair of young and naive Mormon women into his web. The film is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote A Quiet Place and directed Adam Driver dinosaur movie 65 – and now take a step forward with a nice, juicy horror-thriller.

HERETIC: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Sister Paxton (Chloe East) vehemently denies watching porn. But that one time she got a glimpse of one of those videos, she saw in the woman’s eyes “divine confirmation.” Interesting! This tells us what we need to know about this Mormon missionary who, along with Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), pedals a bicycle around town in her maxi skirt, hoping to convert whoever will listen to their spiel. It’s a rough go. They’re subject to bullies’ taunts about “magic underwear,” and “That South Park musical kinda makes fun of us,” Sister Paxton sighs. She’s more naive than Sister Barnes, but out in the cynical-slash-realist secular world, with their wide eyes and tryhard pasted-on cheery smiles and very youthful looks (they’re 20ish, maybe 23, 24), they’re both like lambs among the wolves.

Yet there’s always hope, even if you have to peer into a wolf’s den in hopes of finding it. Of course, at first they don’t realize they’re knocking on the door of a wolf’s den, but soon enough they get That Sinking Sensation. Let’s not get ahead of things, though. There’s a “Mr. Reed” on their list of interested candidates for Mormonism, so they find his house, lock their bikes to the gate and ring the doorbell. Above them, a storm gets increasingly drenchy. He finally answers and lets them in and promises them pie and the pending arrival of his wife who he says is baking the pie, and can’t you smell the blueberries? Mmm mmm good! He’s so very cheerful, this Mr. Reed. But his wife needs to be present in the room lest the Mormon rules be broken, our Sisters insist, and he promises she’s coming, she’s coming. 

So continue without her, they must. Mr. Reed is so very receptive and welcoming and we know he’s baiting these women – this is the benefit of being the movie watcher instead of the movie character – but do they? Not sure. Perhaps it’s not That Sinking Sensation but rather the awkwardness of complete strangers discussing religion so earnestly, and our Sisters just have to push through it. Well, this Mr. Reed, with the upbeat demeanor and bright, wide smile, he starts a rather deep discussion about the nature of belief, then whips out his Book of Mormon, which is tabbed and post-it-noted like someone who’s studied the living dook out of it. And then he starts carving up Mormonism like it’s a roast turkey. “How do you feel about polygamy?” he asks pointedly, but with a giant grin. And then, “What’s your favorite fast food?” Methinks Mr. Reed is f—ing with them. F—ing with them real hard.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Heretic is part-conversation movie, part-horror movie, so it’s very roughly a mix of Barbarian or Don’t Breathe-type what’s-in-the-house-what’s-in-the-houuuuuuuussssssse movies and, I dunno, My Dinner With Andre? Hey, I said “roughly.”

Performance Worth Watching: Watching Grant go from the stammering charmer of all the best rom-coms (except Did You Hear About the Morgans? of course) to living deliciously as an evil manipulative creep with a rotten core? Delightful.

Memorable Dialogue: My two fave lines:

Mr. Reed: “My wife is shy – but the pie? The pie is nigh!”

Sister Barnes: “If I say ‘magic underwear,’ that means STAB.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Things do not go well for Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, and I’ll say no more. That’s no surprise, mind you – one doesn’t sit down to watch a film called Heretic with its sinister one-sheet and expect it to be nothing but spirited debates about divinity and religion. But that’s essentially what it is for roughly the first half, with Mr. Reed pulling out a Monopoly board and playing Radiohead (!) to illustrate his cogent points. Of course, he does all this in a manner calculated to escalate tension, and grow the feeling of unease within his wary subjects. 

The second half becomes more like a typical psycho-horror movie, with bursts of violence, an exploration of the grimiest nooks in Mr. Reed’s house and the implementation of the crackity-bones (crackity crackity bones bones bones!) sound effect. I worry that Beck and Woods shift into ludicrous speed out of obligation, to reward the gorehounds and specterfiends out there who just sat through 45 minutes of slow-burn talky debates about religion and really need some liquid to spill lest they log on and trash the film in the forums. 

But the ideas – all deeply unsettling, about why we believe what we believe, and the things we’re told and that we tell ourselves in order to make sense of the world – remain present even as the filmmakers put their characters in ominous basements with pointy letter openers in their pockets, and unknown who-knows-what lurking behind creaky old doors. And the performances are consistently scary, funny and thoughtful, with Thatcher and East showing more guile and spunk than you might expect, especially across from Grant’s savagely entertaining scenery-chewing. Take from Heretic what you will, be it the shocks and twists or its ruminations on the slippery-slope dangers of belief, or the lack thereof. I took it as a reminder that no matter the intensity of your passionate views, convincing someone that your way is the way is a fool’s errand. You might as well be teaching algebra to your cat.

Our Call: Heretic is fresh, amusing and freaky all at once. And Mr. Reed has the stuff of a minor-classic horror character. Believe it and STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.