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Review: ’47 Meters Down: Uncaged’ Is a Tense, Ghastly, Shark Sequel

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Good sequels are hard to come by. It’s always hard to come up with a good follow up, having a new angle to keep the concept fresh. But I can say that 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a great sequel to the original and even surpasses it.

Image via IMDB

The story follows step-sisters Mia (Sophie Nélisse) and Sasha (Corinne Foxx) who have recently moved to Mexico and attend an international school together. Mia is bullied and Sasha has trouble bonding with her new sibling. Mia’s father is an archaeologist diver who has recently discovered sunken Meso-American ruins and is digging his way through with a team. The girls along with their friends Alexa (Brianne Tju) and Nicole (Sistine Stallone) decide to check out a portion of the city that was excavated and commandeer some diving equipment. The sunken city is beautiful and holds ancient relics… as well as some very hungry albino sharks! Now, the quartet must try and survive and find away to escape the underwater kingdom or end up permanent residents.

Director/writer of the original 47 Meters Down Johannes Roberts returns and it seems he’s learned some lessons form his original claustrophobic shark thriller as well as adding an interesting new environment/angle. The ancient underwater city setting is a unique place for the horror and adds an interesting edge to the aquatic terror. Aged and faded statues line the backgrounds of almost every scene and are quite haunting mixed with the sunken architecture. The girls having to evade the sharks amidst the falling walls makes it a claustrophobic experience.

Image via IMDB

The sharks themselves are frightening with their unique style: they’re albino cave sharks! Pale white with dead, blind eyes. They sense by sound in the dark and just look way freakier than the average great white. Like shark versions of Gollum. All adding to the signature jump scares that the previous film established. I jumped out of my seat during a particularly intense shark surprise! I can’t help but make some connections to Jaws 2 which itself felt like a slasher movie where the shark was in an almost Jason Voorhees’ like role, and this is similar in that regard. the way the sharks stalk their victims follows the kind of beats of a slasher movie which adds to the horror.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged is mostly an improved sequel and would serve as a great companion piece to the similarly themed Crawl in terms of claustrophobic creature features, but it does have its flaws. The dialogue is majorly cheesy with lots of characters saying how they feel rather than letting the terror role. Aside from Mia and Sasha’s sisterly relationship, the rest of the characters are kind of 1-dimensional or serve as victims or supporting characters.

Overall, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged is a successful follow up to the original with an interesting premise and a distinct setting to set it apart from the deluge of shark horror movies. Well worth taking a dive and seeing the ghostly sharks in this haunted city!

Image via IMDB

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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