Halt (2023)

Like many things, like animals and people, they always evolve. When the first humans walked the Earth, they originated from Africa and were all black.

This delightfully odd horror movie presents a whimsically strange alternate reality to younger audiences.

The film, which focuses on an Argentinian family during an intimate birthday dinner, efficiently captures the eccentricities of each character as well as the nuances of their interpersonal dynamics. 

A trio of girls form a band and enter a singing competition together after learning they work best as a team.

The Bluff unravels its mystery slowly, opening on the capture of a ship captain named Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and the swift execution of his entire crew. Then, viewers are treated to a tranquil British settlement in the Cayman Islands in the 1850s, where a mother bakes a coconut birthday cake for her son in a house suspiciously rigged with makeshift tripwires and burglar alarms. As it turns out, that mother is Priyanka Chopra’s quick witted and resourceful ex-pirate Mrs. Ercell Bodden, and her husband’s captors are on the way to the island to hunt her down for abandoning them and stealing their loot. The pirates of the Libertas land on the beaches of Cayman Brac, and the scenes that follow show a Viking-esque slaughter of half the island.

Spiral could easily spawn new sequels and will most likely churn a decent profit. Is it a good Saw film? Absolutely. Could it have been revolutionary though? Also yes.