Leofwine_draca

I'm a big fan of THE OMEN series, so the thought of this prequel did excite me to a certain degree. I think the original is a bona fide classic and the two sequels pretty good for what they are; although part four is unsurprisingly weak, the 2006 remake wasn't bad either. Sadly, THE FIRST OMEN is a huge disappointment of a film that exemplifies everything that's wrong with modern horror. This goes down the same-old female possession route as the Sydney Sweeney flick IMMACULATE and is a near identical film, just worse. It's slow, dark and dreary, badly acted by Nell Tiger Free, and only Ralph Ineson adds any finesse to the proceedings. Sadly, his screen time isn't enough to make a difference, leaving this a lightweight pastiche of everything that made the original films classics.

I suppose you could call HONEYMOON OF HORROR an attempt at one of those psycho-thrillers which did the rounds in the 1960s and '70s, but truth be told, it's a pitiful stab at the genre and has very little to recommend it to fans of either horror or suspense. The focus of the story is on a bride who marries a sculptor and soon finds he has an eccentric friend group. Before long, people begin being killed by persons unknown, so a sort of weak murder mystery plot develops, although this is resolved in the most resolute way at the climax. The Floridian settings and addition of an exotic manservant are promising, but the plodding script and histrionic acting put paid to any entertainment value this might have had.

CARAVAN OF COURAGE: AN EWOK ADVENTURE is the first of two STAR WARS spin-off adventures produced by George Lucas and starring the lovable Ewoks from RETURN OF THE JEDI. I loved these guys as a kid but I never did see these movies although I certainly remember their popularity in the form of toys and the like. This one sees a returning Warwick Davis playing Wicket, one of an Ewok family who have to rescue a couple of shipwrecked kids and find a way to reunite them with their parents. It's pretty predictable fare for the kids, twee throughout with costumes which let's just say haven't aged too well in the intervening decades. The intervention of a giant creature at the climax adds to the fun a bit, but bear in mind this was made strictly for younger viewers.