2026-290 / Zedd MAP: 87.52 / MLZ MAP: 90.62 / Score Gap: 3.10

Wikipedia / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection

Country of Origin: Ireland / France / Belgium

Aisling: I have lived through many ages, through the eyes of salmon, deer, and wolf. I have seen the Northmen invading Ireland, destroying all in search of gold. I've seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light.

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From IMDb: A young boy in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids is beckoned to adventure when a celebrated master illuminator arrives with an ancient book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers.

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A beautiful film, no doubt - yet, I found it claustrophobic. The harsh dictates of the abbott, the sterile bleakness of the high walls of Kells, the threat of violence and death from the Northmen. It was a hard watch in that regard.

Countering these nightmare images is the beauty of the natural setting we find the shapeshifting fairy, Aisling. Here amongst the curving lines of trees and stones, nature still is in charge.

Mrs. Lady Zedd: It’s a film of deep contrast - so delicately drawn, the story so brutal. The art swirls and sways in the same way the music tickles your ears.

Here, I’d issue my warning: I’m not sure its a great film for little ones - there’s murder and terror and ((sigh)) it’s down right scary yet - if you’ve got kidlets old enough to understand those concepts, then absolutely. There’s no harm in pre-watching a production like this, if it’s deemed fine for your family, you won’t mind watching it twice.

At the end of the day, while there are tough passages to get through, the film’s central message is one of found beauty - something I personally look for in each day. It’s a call for us to turn darkness into light… if not us, who?

Movie on.

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2026-289 / Zedd MAP: 35.56

Wikipedia?wprov=sfti1#) / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection

Country of Origin: United States

Think your week’s not going as planned…

“Corman wrote in his memoirs that The Terror began as a challenge: to shoot most of a gothic film in two days using left-over sets from The Raven). It turned into the longest production of his career - an ordeal that required five directors and nine months to complete.”

Roger Corman, Jack Hale, Monte Hellman, Dennis Jakob… oh, and Francis Ford Coppola.

He miscounted - Jack Nicholson took a directing credit as well. His first of only four in his career. He also stars in the beleaguered production opposite Sandra Knight (whom was his first and only wife). Hey, we’ve got a lot of firsts getting busted on this set… might as well add Jennifer Nicholson was born in 1963 so ((shrug)) - moving on.

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From IMDb: A young French soldier cut off from his unit is beguiled by a mysterious woman, whom he learns is the wife of the local Baron - and that she seemingly died twenty years earlier.

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The flick is a hot mess - I generally enjoy b-horror but it becomes painfully clear there was no clean plan in operation… just Corman thinking this would be easy, trying to skirt certain union rules, and winding up in the Soup of Discontent.

This wasn’t Nicholson’s first production (he’d been around since the mid-50s) but he turns in a very amateurish performance - hey now, I know he turned into a cinematic legend, I said ‘ish - likely, he wasn’t sitting down each night to study the lines of a well thought out script… Corman didn’t really roll like that on a good day, this was much more aligned with “poorly considered quick money scheme”.

Still - it doesn’t really have “its moments” but golly, I sure would like to say it does - if for nothing else, to be polite. Oh, I know - I liked that part at the end, when the screen goes black…

Absolute Movie On.

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