Double Feature! Hellbound: Hellraiser II and The Walking Dead

First double feature AND first TV show of the month--kind of to make up for falling WAY behind the last couple days, kinda like I knew I would. Anywho, here goes:

This was the one I said a few days ago I had watched half of and I finally finished it today: Hellbound: Hellraiser II. I loved the original Hellraiser for how much of a different horror movie it was and Hellraiser 2, while far from bad, just doesn't match that same spirit. Like most sequels 2 tries to go too "big" and in doing so kind forgets the core of the story. The big twist in the movie is when (spoiler alert) the main character who's name I'm too lazy to look up reminds Pinhead and the other Cenobites that they were once humans. Firstly, this is remarkably easy to do, but moreso it kind of undermines the story. The Cenobites torture and maim because they want to (or at least as I take it), not because some godlike being has forced them to. Having a puppet master largely takes away their motivations, I think.

All that said, the movie still has (largely) great special effects, is categorically fucked up like the first one, and kept entertained, even through a few laughable parts. It keeps enough spirit of the original to still be a good sequel. 

7.5/10

Moving on I watched the season premiere of The Walking Dead, "30 Days Without an Accident." I know, it's not a movie, but tough shit. It's still horror, it's largely "film" quality, and hey--sometimes when you're (supposed to be) watching 31 movies in a month you need to watch something that's 45 minutes not 2 hours. Back off me.

Anyway, the episode. First off let me say that Walking Dead is anything but consistent; when it's good it's fucking great, and when it's bad it can be really, really bad. Take last season. It started off great: the midseason finale was one insane, marvelous hour of television. Then we got the back half: a slow, plodding, nothing happening series of episodes, only to have the explosive finale we had all been waiting for end in a huge plot contrivance that left me not all that excited for a new season. I'm all for slow burners but you better pay it off in the end and season 3 certainly didn't. 

With all that said, the premiere breathes some hope back in for hopefully a consistently solid season. The Walkers are getting a few very intriguing retoolings that should make the season very interesting for the group and the Governor, a great character, is still lurking somewhere. All that with the cliffhanger make me excited for what's coming. I also liked the shows nod to Darryl love amongst fans, with him being a sort of hero amongst the survivors. With that said though the episode was a little flimsy in trying to "catch you up" so to speak. Some of the dialogue between characters feeling pretty unnatural and forced, along with several expendable characters we all knew from the second they were introduced were going to die. This is kind of par for the course for Walking Dead and I should probably just expect but still... if it's there imma point it out, you know what I sayin?

Anyway, it was a good start to a new season (ceiling zombies!) and despite the usual flaws I think the season has great potential. 

8/10