Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism mattersSalt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.
Challengers, Boy Kills World, Humane, Alien 45th anniversary
Alien 45th Anniversary ****
Nearly a half-century into its existence—with detours into all manner of genres, meditations on humanity and battles with Predators—the franchise centered around the “xenomorph” with acid blood and that telltale double-jaw never improved on the story that started it all.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Abigail, The Beast, Hard Miles, Sasquatch Sunset and more
Abigail **
You can’t entirely blame filmmakers for the choices made by a studio marketing department, but at a certain point you have to ask, “Well, how else would they market it?” The Radio Silence team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the recent Scream reboots) bring us the story of a group of kidnappers—including medic Joey (Melissa Barrera) and leader Frank (Dan Stevens)—whose target is 12-year-old Abigail (Alisha Weir). But the team soon realizes that Alisha’s father is a dangerous crime boss, and that they might be in far greater danger than Abigail.
Civil War, Escape from Germany, Coup de Chance, Hundreds of Beavers, La Chimera, Sting
Arcadian **1/2
I suppose there are worse things on which to build a post-apocalyptic horror yarn than an utterly singular creature design; I just wish this one had been build on pretty much anything interesting in addition to that. It’s mostly set 15 years after humanity was decimated by the arrival of nocturnal murderous monsters—the exact origin of which is left intentionally sketchy—with Paul (Nicolas Cage) and his teenage sons Joseph (Jaeden Martell) and Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) living on their remote plot of land as among the few survivors.
Monkey Man, The First Omen, Wicked Little Letters, Girls State, Scoop, Exhuma
Exhuma **1/2
For a movie with not one but two killer ghosts in its narrative, Jang Jae-hyun’s supernatural horror tale winds up feeling kind of skimpy in the thrills department. It involves the collaboration between two experts in paranormal phenomenon—shaman Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and “geomancer” Sang-deok (Choi Min-sik)—when it appears that a curse is afflicting a Korean family, and that the solution is exhuming the corpse of an ancestor.
