Crowhaven Farm (1970)

In this 1970 made-for-tv horror, an unhappily married couple moves into the country estate she has inherited but far from benefitting their marriage as they had hoped, the move results in her having visions of distant-past witch trials and encountering other weirdness in her present day - but by far the most horrible thing in this mild tv distraction is not witches but an irksome subplot involving the couple's ten-year-old foster daughter.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Brahms: The Boy II (2020)

Viewers of the original movie, The Boy, in 2016 were either dismayed by the ending which undid the classic "creepy doll" horror they thought they were watching or like me thought the ending clever - a way to freshen up a stale old "creepy doll" b-horror movie - and now, this sequel, presumably hoping that that dismayed half of viewers might be able to be coaxed back and get behind another creepy doll franchise, creates a backstory that serves to revert to a mere creepy doll horror the events of the original film, with Katie Holmes, as concerned mom watching her son develop far too strong a bond with a doll, valiantly trying to disguise the movie's staggering lack of originality, its utter hohum-ness.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Big Picture (L'Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie) (2010)

This talented Mr Ripley played by an always rivetting Romain Duris isn't a sociopath - he's quite sympathetic - but there are signs, like his getting into a bath in a business suit, that suggest there is something wacky about him and that might help explain his ability to upheave his life and leave his kids behind after he kills his wife's lover, disposes of the body in distinctly The Talented Mr Ripley style, adopts his victim's identity and moves to Kotor to live and work as a photographer - all enthralling stuff but after this great start, nothing much else happens before an abrupt, meaningless ending that abandons matters, including a plot thread involving poor wasted Catherine Deneuve that a better film would have tied up.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS