Blumhouse Productions

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on January 5th, 2023, reviewing “M3GAN” a term pronounced “Megan” but short for Model 3 Generative Android. This robot film is in theaters beginning January 6th.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – There’s no way around it, horror is one of the most difficult film genres to work within. It constantly needs to be evolving in order to keep up with the ever-growing terror that is living in the 21st century. In a time where you can get taken out by a plague, or simply get shot based on the color of your skin, horror draws the short straw in that it has to come up with something much scarier than real life.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on July 1st, 2021, reviewing the latest film in the long-running series, “The Forever Purge,” in theaters on July 2nd.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on November 12th, 2020, reviewing the new horror comedy “Freaky,” featuring Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton and Alan Ruck.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – When I think of “The Invisible Man” the first thing I think of is the special effects… and that’s largely what it’s been about … from Claude Raines initial portrayal of “The I Man” in the 1930s, all the way through more modern takes like Kevin Bacon in the thriller “Hollow Man” (2000).

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – At this point, the “Halloween” franchise is looking as tattered and tired as Michael Myers old William Shatner mask… fraying around the edges and on the verge of falling apart. The 2018 “reboot” sequel brings back former scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, along with original Michael Myers, Nick Castle.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – We all know dramatic films win most of the awards, comedies are hit or miss and horrors often don’t deliver the scares they promise. The problem with the horror genre lately is Hollywood is afraid to go against a “proven” formula (for financial reasons) and really think outside the box.

Rating: 1.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Out of respect for the filmmakers and actors, I don’t walk out on films. I hold true to that even when I know in the first 10 minutes the film’s not for me. Perhaps the second act could surprise me. Maybe the whole film is a flop but it redeems itself with shock and awe in the last 5 minutes.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Films in general are knocked for being knockoffs of something else. Horror films in particular have it especially hard in the “new” department because we’re so quickly annoyed when we’ve “seen it all before.”