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Reviews
The Nightmare Gallery (2019)
A meandering waste of time
A low budget doesn't have to mean a bad film but this was a bit of a slog. That said, I found the overall production values perfectly fine, to be honest; the problem lay predominantly in the writing / script.
I had my interest piqued as a Buffy The Vampire Slayer vampire by the presence of Amber Benson, unfortunately all this film helped do was highlight her shortcomings as an actress. The acting throughout the film was generally a bit on the amateurish side, the only exception probably being Meiko Hillman who played the wife of Benson's character.
I could be wrong but the film seemed like it was largely populated by queer characters / actors, which is nice to see for a change but it doesn't mitigate the poor end product.
Also, I don't mean to be a cynic but I do wonder how many of these 8, 9, and 10 reviews are from the people who backed the film on Kickstarter (having spotted this detail in the film credits while waiting for the post-credits scene, which was mentioned at the start), as I can't for the life of me see how anyone could rate this film THAT highly.
Sister Boniface Mysteries (2022)
A messy Father Brown spinoff
First off, before I write my review, two things: to all the reviewers moaning about "diversity", why don't you come out and say what you really mean, that you think there are too many non-white faces being given screen time. As for the idiots claiming it's a rip-off of Father Brown when it's literally a spin-off within the same fictional universe...
Anyway, to the review.
I enjoy Father Brown a lot; a gentle murder mystery series that is held together by great cast chemistry and some funny moments. As such, I was looking forward to this series when I heard about it, especially as I had really enjoyed Sister Boniface's appearance in her episode of Father Brown. However, whoever developed this series feels like they market-researched the popular aspects of Father Brown and found that humour topped the charts so have tried to heavily lean into it for the Sister Boniface Mysteries. Unfortunately, this has ended up with a very silly and cartoonish series.
The humour sprinkled through Father Brown was incidental and complementary to the show as a whole, with a cast of characters (generally) being fairly 'normal' everyday people. As someone else said, it often feels like the characters on SBM are vying for some kind of comedy performance trophy. The nun characters are a particularly ridiculous set, the worst offender being "Reg" who would feel more at home on Eastenders yelling at patrons to "GET OUT MA PUB!".
I've watched 4 episodes so far and it is a bit of a struggle. There are certainly good bits to the show and talented actors in the cast, but I feel it really needs a pretty big overhaul for series two to make it watchable. Generally speaking, it needs toning down and Sister Boniface needs to stop pushing her glasses up her nose in every other damn scene - it's a grating affectation.