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Review: Netflix Offers Nicely Cogged “The Windmill”

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Every so often Netflix surprises its subscribers with a film you’ve never heard of before, but manages to shine up your horror queue with a mildly abrasive polish made of blood (See Train to Busan).

European import “The Windmill,” is one such example and you can stream that now if you so desire.

The story begins much like a Hollywood disaster film: we meet characters who don’t know each other, each with their own set of problems, but their lives eventually intersect in a fight for survival.

In “The Windmill” the strangers are thrown together on an Amsterdam tour bus which makes its way through the countryside, visiting some of the region’s most iconic windmills.

Suffering a mechanical difficulty, the bus stalls and the group is stranded in a desolate part of the landscape, just within walking distance of a windmill that looms high above the hillside canopy. And when the vehicle topples over into the lake their fate seems questionable.

The main character, Aussie tourist Jennifer (Charlotte Beaumont) is the most mysterious of the bunch. She see visions, takes medication to calm them and the group begins to question her sanity after an unexpected outburst.

However, after taking refuge in an old cabin, the tourists begin to have hallucinations of their own. In particular re-visiting times in their lives where they have grievously sinned.

These revelations provide the grotesquely disfigured local spook Miller Hendrik the opportunity to steal their souls by revisiting their darkest, most painful secrets through terrifying visions.

As the tale goes, Hendrik, through a deal with the Devil, uses a large scythe to drain his victims of blood in order to get his windmill spinning again.

There is a twist at the end, but as the body count rises it may be too late to escape Holland’s legendary vigilantly of sin.

Director Nick Jongerius knows how to tell a story, and along with the strength of the actors and the brevity of the film (85 mins), “The Windmill” churns out a satisfying story with plenty of blood and guts to appease genre fans in this tidy well-baked treat.

Jongerius also manages to introduce a startling new movie monster into the mix. Hendrik is an ugly chap with burn-scarred face, complete with drooping eyes and candle wax ghoulishness. And he always gets his sinner.

Like the product of its namesake, “The Windmill” isn’t going to produce anything you haven’t tasted, but it successfully rises above some of the other offerings baking in your Netflix horror section.

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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