Review Archives - Unwinnable

A screenshot from the trailer for Maxxxine with the title of the movie front and center in a commanding sans-serif typeface

Maybe They Should Save Themselves: Maxxxine (2024) as Middle Finger

By Orrin Grey • November 6th, 2024

I think that Maxxxine really believes that it has something to say in all those theme-heavy monologues

A screenshot from the Trailer of Oddity featuring the title of the movie in dark shades of green

Personal Items Work Best: Oddity (2024)

By Orrin Grey • October 31st, 2024

Oddity is an extremely slow burn, though it keeps elements of eeriness and dread close at hand.

A screenshot from The Substance with Demi Moore staring into a mirror with bold red lipstick and a red dress, gold earrings, and an intense look on her face

You Can’t Escape from Yourself: The Substance (2024)

By Orrin Grey • October 3rd, 2024

One of my pet peeves in modern horror films is when the central premise works only as metaphor, not as actual text.

Crop of the cover of the two-pack set of Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans, with a sword weilding Kratos, a cyclops, and a pegasus riding Persues

No Gods, No Masters: When Titans Ruled Blu-ray

By Orrin Grey • September 20th, 2024

Clash of the Titans came out during the baffling moment when Sam Worthington was being cast as the lead in everything.

A screenshot from the trailer of Abigail where a masked woman and a young girl in a ballerina outfit are sitting in a dimly lit bedroom, about to make a pinky swear

“Abigail, Don’t You Think I Know What You’ve Done?”

By Orrin Grey • September 9th, 2024

Even without its marketing campaign sweeping any legs it might ever have possessed out from under it, however, Abigail was never destined to be any great shakes.

A crop of the box for the double feature The Unseen and the Uninvited, with an art deco painting mostly in shades of green with a man in a suit holding an unconscious woman while in the background a face with wide eyes stares and a shadow lurks

Uninvited and Unseen: Two Chilly Classics of the 1940s on Blu-ray Together

By Orrin Grey • July 26th, 2024

The success of The Uninvited hangs in the air around Lewis Allen’s 1945 follow-up, The Unseen.

A screenshot from the trailer for It's a Wonderful Knife featuring Justin Long and his halloween spirit teeth

This Town Needs Me: It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)

By Orrin Grey • December 20th, 2023

This is a film where the plot and performances are more stylized than the shooting and, as a result, is a disjointed, tonal mess.

A screenshot from Godzilla Minus One with close up of the big chomper's teeth and maybe even the dangling thing at the back of the throat as he roars

A Scene That Defies Belief: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

By Orrin Grey • December 5th, 2023

As with Shin Godzilla, this is an attempt to return to Godzilla’s roots as a purely destructive force. There is no way in which this Godzilla is a “good guy,” even as roundaboutly as the one from the MonsterVerse films.

Close up crop of the lil guy on the cover of the blu ray for Ghoulies, with his tiny bald head, sharp gummy teeth, little shirt and suspenders, as he clutches the rim of the toilet he's standing in

Little Demons: Ghoulies II (1987) from MVD Rewind

By Orrin Grey • October 4th, 2023

The yuppie gets his comeuppance by having his balls eaten by a monster.

Screenshot from the trailer for Night has A Thousand Eyes, featuring the main character in a suit walking back from an attic window looking over a city at night

The Stars Can’t Hurt You: Fighting the Future in Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)

By Orrin Grey • August 24th, 2023

Even if you’re pretty sure you know going in – it is difficult, after all, to not have been spoiled at least a little bit on a movie that is three-quarters of a century old – the unspooling of the film does a good job of keeping you on your toes,