Red One (2024)

This current year, as well as the past several, has seen a slowly building increase in something the horror genre has required for quite a while in this critic's opinion...originality. I've stated before that I am very hard to please when it comes to this vein of the film industry's offerings, always leaning more towards that which sends chills through my very being in lieu of buckets of blood and gore.

As a frequent “the book was better” extoller, this movie was well worth the watch. 

When long-time couple Jenny and Nate break up so Jenny can pursue her journalism career, Jenny leans on her two best friends for one last epic night in the city. 

The most impressive aspect of this film is the honest and natural performances given by the on-screen duo.

Based on the legendary creature, the Chupacabra, this live-action movie brings an adventure to all.

These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.