Posted on by slickdungeon

TV Review – Archive 81 (Episode 1)

Archive 81

Hey movie fanatics, it’s me, Slick Dungeon, here to give a quick guide to the first episode of the hottest horror series on Netflix right now, Archive 81. There will be some mild spoilers below so be forewarned. I’ll be posting through the first season’s episodes but I have not seen past this first episode so let’s keep it spoiler light in the comments too okay?

Archive 81 is about an archivist named Dan who restores films, VHS tapes, basically any visual arts that use a film reel. He works for a film museum and one day he’s asked to restore an old VHS tape that has been damaged from a fire. We don’t know a lot about Dan other than he somehow lost his family and he at one point was, “feeling low” and has a friend who is concerned for his welfare. Soon into the episode the donor who asked for the video tape to be restored requests Dan come work for him in the Catskills where they have a collection of these VHS tapes. He’ll be secluded and on his own if he agrees though. The company hiring Dan seems a bit odd and the man who hires him seems to know way more than he should about Dan.

Of course, Dan agrees to go, and since this is a horror show, needless to say some strange things start happening. I don’t want to give too much of that away other than to say Dan is restoring tapes that focus on a building called the Visser. The tapes show him a woman named Melody who we can presume will be the focal point of the tapes and might provide clues as to what happened at the Visser.

It’s hard to judge a show from a first episode. Especially one that is meant to be totally bingeable and wants you to sit through eight hours of episodes. I still think it’s worth taking a look at each one on its own merits.

For a first episode, this one sets the tone quite nicely. There’s just enough odd going on that as a viewer you want to know what happens next. At the same time, it’s not giving so much away you see all the twists coming.

It’s clearly going to be weird but to my mind this whole series will end up making it or not based on the ending. I’m just going to say now if this has anything to do with aliens, I’m out. But so far, it has a lot of potential and I’d say it’s probably worth a watch.

Mysteriously yours,

Slick Dungeon

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Posted on by slickdungeon

TV Review – Ash vs Evil Dead (Episode 3)

Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1 Episode 3

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great Halloween. It’s me Slick Dungeon and I just watched the next episode in the Ash vs Evil Dead series. There are some spoilers for the episode below so fair warning.

The third episodes starts out with a mysterious woman driving a cool car who is willing to kill some deadites to find out where Ash is. That’s about all we know about her but obviously it looks like she’ll be an essential part of the show.

As soon as that is over we see Kelly, Pablo and Ash trying to get the book of the dead interpreted to put the army of the dead back where they belong. While trying to do this Ash decides the best idea would be to summon a demon who could tell them how to fix everything. He figures since the book already made things bad it can’t make things any worse. Or in his words, “It’s like spilling paint on a painting. It’s okay because there is already paint on it.” It’s lines like that which keep me watching this show.

You can bet things don’t go smoothly here but Ash, Kelly and Pablo do end up meeting up with Amanda, the cop who seems to know whaat is going on because she had to shoot her partner in the first episode. That doesn’t go so well either.

The show continues to be full of fun and entertaining comedy but I will say the special effects in this episode are not as good as the ones from the first two episodes. The demon that is summoned just doesn’t look as real as the people around it. I’m not expecting perfection here or anything and that is just a minor flaw in the otherwise solid episode but it does distract a bit.

Still, the plot and the comedy is certainly enough to keep me watching the series. So, until next time stay safe out there and don’t spill paint on any paintings.

Horrifically yours,

Slick Dungeon

Posted on by slickdungeon

TV Review – Ash vs Evil Dead (Episode 1)

Bruce Campbell in Ash vs Evil Dead

Hey internet it’s me Slick Dungeon. I wasn’t sure if I was going to review this series because I didn’t know much about it but I got through all of the Evil Dead films so thought I would give this one a chance. There are spoilers below for the first episode so fair warning. Groovy? Groovy.

The show begins with Bruce Campbell tightening a man-girdle while the song Space Truckin’ plays in the background and… I. Am. On. Board. For. This! I can’t think of a better way to start an Evil Dead series. This gets right into the comedy by showing Ash picking up a woman at a bar and telling an obvious lie about his severed hand. He has a moment while he is uhh… having an intimate moment in the restroom… where he sees the face of a Deadite. He hasn’t seen this in the last thirty years and can’t figure out why it happened.

He goes back to his trailer and realizes he read the passage from the Necronomicon while he was high and, you know, unleashed Hell on earth yet again.

We see a pair of police officers investigate a house where there is a demon and one of the officers ends up shooting her partner. She’s not sure if she is crazy or really saw what she thought she saw. This part of the show gives us the best chance for horror since it’s pretty unlikely Ash will die and we are not yet attached to these characters. There’s a decent amount of gore and scares here but it still seems to have a sense of fun.

We switch back to Ash who is still working in a big box store but now has lackeys who basically cover up his poor work ethic for him.

To keep from giving too much away, I will just say Ash has gotten himself and some of his coworkers into trouble and he’s going to need to get them all out of it.

So far, the show has kept the same mix of fear and fun you find overall in the Evil Dead film series and I feel like this is a much more natural follow up than the remake of the original film was. I’m excited to see how the rest of the series plays out.

Horrifically yours,

Slick Dungeon