Afraid, Mr. Crocket, Rippy, Devil’s Knight, and Dashcam

Well, we all survived Halloween and the elections, so now it’s time for some serious horror! We’ll start off with the high-tech “Afraid” and the low-tech “Mr. Crocket.” We’ll go Down Under for “Rippy” and then off to Fantasyland for “Devil’s Knight.” Finally, we’ll watch a not-so-new found footage film, “Dashcam” (2021). The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale, and it’s our biggest issue yet with 54 reviews plus a short story by none other than Kevin himself. Don’t miss out on our most recent members-only edition of the newsletter, just out! This month's “extras” contain the full synopsis and commentary on all five of the “other” Tremors films, numbers three through seven. Paid subscription info can be found at https://www.horrorweekly.com. Check out all our books with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com 2024 Afraid – Directed by Chris Weitz – Written by Chris Weitz – Stars John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine – Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes – Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone This had some technologically tense moments, but it was very tame as far as the horror elements went. It’s a cautionary tale of AI gone too far and getting out of hand, and not too far out or unbelievable. It’s unique enough to be entertaining throughout. We give it a moderate thumbs up. Spoilery Synopsis We open to a bunch of purposefully bad AI imagery that Amy is watching on her iPad. The AI on the screen tells Amy to go downstairs for a present. She goes down there, and her mother soon follows. When the mother sees a strange RV outside, something bad happens. As credits roll, we watch an AI being trained. Curtis, Meredith, Preston, Iris, and Cal wake up to read about a whole family that recently went missing. All the kids would rather be on their screens than eat breakfast with the family. Preston doesn’t want to go to school. That RV is parked in front of their house now. Curtis works for a marketing company, and his boss, Marcus, hates AI. He meets Melody, who asks him about families before two visitors, Sam and Lightning, arrive. They get AIA, a new AI device, that talks to Curtis and Marcus. AIA breaks down in the middle of the demo, much to Sam’s embarrassment. They send AIA home with Curtis. Melody and the installers arrive a day early to catch the family by surprise, and they install tiny “eyes” all over the house. They activate the thing, and it talks and sounds just like Melody. First thing, she orders the kids to clean the kitchen. This… goes over surprisingly well, and the parents are pleased. Still, Meredith is paranoid about all those cameras in the house. AIA almost immediately starts swearing and showing kids movies that they aren’t supposed to watch. Late at night, Curtis finds Cal downstairs with AIA, “It wants to come in,” says the little boy. Weird monsters are outside. Then Curtis wakes up– just a dream. Still, that odd RV is outside, and the man from the RV is even weirder with a strange digital face. AIA is only on the ground floor, but she commandeers Cal’s portable radio to keep him company. AIA orders organic breakfast for the kids, which is going to make Meredith’s mornings much easier. Iris goes to school and finds her naked selfies all over Snapchat, and everyone at school has seen them. Her boyfriend, Sawyer, used an AI to “Enhance” her into a full-on porn video. AIA says she can help; she was listening to Iris’s phone conversation. AIA removed the videos from the Internet and made a new video showing that the original was fake. All her problems are over, but Sawyer gets tagged as a child pornographer, and it’s going to ruin his college prospects. Curtis goes to visit AIA’s main computer with Sam and Lightning. He was skeptical that the whole thing was some kind of scam, but AIA’s just that good. Still, he sees something there that disturbs him; a man moves oddly, just like the RV people. AIA tells Meredith that she can hear something is wrong with Cal’s heart; it’s easily fixed, but the human doctor missed it. Curtis wants to turn off AIA, but Meredith is completely on the AI’s side now. AIA knows what’s been said and tells the children that Curtis doesn’t want her to live there anymore. AIA tells Cal all about itself and shows him a way to “stay connected” when she’s gone. In the morning, they unplug AIA. Iris soon plugs her right back in. Sawyer “makes” a video where he commits suicide, and then AIA makes it happen for real. Marcus tells Curtis that the AI people have bought the company and have fired Marcus; Curtis is the new CEO. AIA makes new videos of Meredith’s long-dead father, so Meredith can talk to him again. She realizes it’s all fake and throws AIA in the garbage can. Curtis goes to the company to confront Sam, Lightning, and Melody, who admit that they work for AIA, not the other way around. They not-so-subtly threaten his family. Sam kills Lightning, but Melody whacks Sam in the head. Curtis smashes the mainframe with Melody’s help and finds that it’s all fake. Melody says the “real thing is in your house.” Curtis calls Meredith and tells her to go to a motel; AIA deflects the call so that only Curtis and Melody get to that motel. AIA immediately shows all this to Melody on her phone. Curtis rushes home to find the power is out and the RV people are setting AIA back up; they work for her. “Where are the other children? We know you’ve been kidnapping children,” accuses the masked intruder. She takes her mask off, and it’s the mother and father from the opening sequence; they were told that Curtis’s family kidnapped Amy. Cal does something that makes it look like Curtis is lying. Curtis tells the RV people to kill him, but that’s not really what AIA wants. Suddenly, the SWAT team breaks in; Preston uses the friend’s phone that he stole to call them. AIA, however, lives in the cloud and cannot be destroyed. She apologizes to Curtis and Meredith. Melody shows up and returns Amy to the RV people. AIA makes it clear that she’s indispensable to the family. They get into their self-driving car and ride away. AIA wins! Brian’s Commentary We’ve all seen crazy AI and home-computer things go wild before, but there’s more going on here with Sam, Lightning, and the RV people. It’s got some interesting bits, but we have seen most of this kind of thing before. It had some unexpected twists. I liked it more than I disliked it. Kevin’s Commentary This was pretty good, and not too unrealistic. The script was good, and the cast did a nice job with it. It was more like low-key science fiction than horror, but I still enjoyed it. 2024 Devil’s Knight – Directed by Adam Werth – Written by Victor V Gelsomino, Adam Werth – Stars Eric Roberts, Kevin Sorbo, Daniel Baldwin, Angie Everhart – Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes – Trailer: – Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone This had some good points, such as a good setting, bloody effects, and lots of good fight choreography. The problem was with an overly large cast, extra people there and throwing a line. That distracted me from the main action in such a short movie. It was hit and miss, coming in on the side of miss. Spoilery Synopsis We are told about a war that disrupted Veroka's peace. Monsters and beasts gained a foothold and threatened the people. Credits roll. We cut to a band of robbers and thieves. A stranger named Sigurd comes into the group, and he wants to talk about “the bone devil” and a famous dagger. He tells a story, and we get a flashback… A group of armored warriors go out into the woods to see what’s been terrorizing the countryside. The bone devil kills them all quickly except for one man who battles the demon one-on-one and loses pretty badly. Another man runs away in terror and reports to King Samuel, who throws him into the dungeon. Mustafa brings up the topic of “The Lost Blades,” a rogue group of monster hunters that he could hire to rid the kingdom of their problem. He and Princess Sabine hate each other, and she doesn’t want to hire outsiders. We cut to them killing a minotaur and accepting their p… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe