Abigail, 2024

Abigail is a 2024 American vampire horror comedy film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick. It stars Alisha Weir as the title character alongside Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud, and Giancarlo Esposito. The film follows a group of kidnappers who capture the daughter of a powerful underworld figure and demand $50 million for her release, unaware of something sinister.

TRAILER

Young ballet dancer Abigail is abducted by six criminals and taken to the secluded Wilhelm Manor. Before leaving, their leader Lambert instructs them to guard Abigail for 24 hours, at which point they will receive an equal share of a $50 million ransom paid by her father. The group, using aliases to avoid identifying each other, consists of former Army medic and recovering drug addict Joey, former NYPD detective Frank, thrill-seeking hacker Sammy, former Marine sniper Rickles, dimwitted mob enforcer Peter, and sociopathic driver Dean.

Though reluctant to continue with the plan as she was unaware Abigail was a child, Joey is tasked with managing Abigail. Joey is sympathetic to her, sharing that she has a son and promising to protect Abigail from harm. Abigail admits her father does not care about her and will not pay the ransom, before apologizing for what is going to happen to Joey. Perturbed by Abigail's words, Frank violently confronts her, learning that her father is Kristof Lazaar, a powerful, almost mythical crime lord.

Dean enters the basement, where he is attacked by an unseen assailant. Investigating his screams, Sammy finds Dean's decapitated corpse. The group realize that Lazaar's legendarily violent enforcer, Valdez, is inside the house while the security system prevents them from leaving. Searching for a way out, Rickles is mutilated and killed. The group confronts Abigail for information, but she transforms into a vampire, revealing she is Valdez. Frank shoots Abigail, but her injuries heal almost instantly. Frank, Sammy, and Peter attack Abigail with garlic, crucifixes, and other folkloric weapons said to ward off vampires to no effect. Her strength and speed allow her to easily overwhelm and prevent them from stabbing her through the heart. Abigail bites Sammy before being incapacitated by Joey with a tranquilizer and locked in a cage.

Upon awakening, the centuries-old Abigail reveals that she knows the group's true identities and arranged for them to abduct her, through Lambert, so she can kill them for wronging Lazaar. Joey deduces that Abigail has killed dozens of her father's enemies in a failed effort to earn her his love. Abigail effortlessly escapes her confines and attacks Frank, but Joey exposes Abigail to sunlight, which severely wounds her. With hours before sunset, the group splits up to find an escape route, but Sammy transforms into Abigail's vampire thrall and kills Peter. Abigail has Sammy attack Frank and Joey, forcing Joey to destroy Sammy with reflected sunlight.

Lambert lures Frank and Joey to a hidden security room, where he reveals Abigail turned him into a vampire years earlier for helping Frank avoid Lazaar's wrath. Frank allows Lambert to turn him into a vampire so they can kill Abigail and Lazaar, but following his transformation, Frank kills Lambert for leading him into Abigail's trap. Abigail attacks Frank, but he overpowers her and drains her blood, leaving her weakened. Cornered, Joey leaves a phone message for her son, apologizing for having been absent from his life for many years. Revealing in his power, Frank bites Joey, intending to turn her into his thrall and force her to kill Abigail and eventually her son. However, Joey does not transform because of Frank's inexperience with his new abilities, and she and Abigail team up to kill him.

Abigail encourages Joey to leave and be present in her son's life, but Lazaar arrives and threatens Joey. Abigail defends Joey for being present when she needed her while Lazaar was not. Although Lazaar angrily rebukes her, he relents for Abigail's sake and allows the bloodied and battered Joey to leave.

CAST

Melissa Barrera as Joey, a military medic and recovering addict

Dan Stevens as Frank, a corrupt former police detective

Alisha Weir as Abigail, a centuries-old vampire who has the appearance of a 12-year-old girl.

Will Catlett as Rickles, a Marine sniper who lives by his own moral code

Kathryn Newton as Sammy, a thrill-seeking hacker from a wealthy upbringing

Kevin Durand as Peter, a physically-imposing former "muscle" for the Broussard family of Montreal struggling with his conscience

Giancarlo Esposito as Lambert, a criminal mastermind connected to Abigail's kidnapping

Matthew Goode as Father / Kristof Lazaar, an ancient vampire, infamous crime lord and Abigail's father.

In Memory of Angus Cloud

Cloud was found dead in his family's house in Oakland, California, on July 31, 2023 at the age of 25. The cause of death was an accidental multiple drug overdose, a lethal mix of methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, and benzodiazepines, the Alameda County Coroner's Bureau told NBC News in September 2023. His mother said his last words before his death were “I love you, mama."

Most likely he died in the movie scene by Abigail in 2023.

In the abandoned house in the movie has a LOT of DEAD bodies inside. Everybody died, except one. 

Rating: 10 Stars

Trouble, 2024

The Swedish film Trouble, 2024 from director Jon Holmberg (Swedish Dicks) and co-written by Holmberg and Tapio Leopold (Day by Day), stars Felip Berg, Amy Deasismont, and Eva Melander.

A innocent father who works at a major electronics store runs into trouble with the law when he witnesses a murder during a TV installation. Unfortunately for him, he’s framed for the crime and swiftly locked up. It’s all going downhill fast. 

TRAILER

What happens in Trouble?

Conny (Berg) is down and out — divorced, his ex’s new husband is a well-to-do pilot, and he hates his job. But his luck is about to get so much worse: After a routine TV installation at a customer’s home, he witnesses the murder ofher her husband and Conny’s pinned for the crime . He’s mistaken found guilty at trial, because of a scheme within the police itself, sent away to jail for years, and believes he may never see his daughter again. When he meets big-time bad guys Norinder (Čukić) and Musse (Sällquist) in the clink, he gets tangled up in their escape plan while also trying to clear himself of all wrongdoing. They need a Pilot and they think he is one after seeing his family photo in his room, they scape after and events unfold as he tries to prove his innocence.

Is Trouble based on a book?

No. It’s a remake of the 1988 Swedish film of the same name (Strul in Swedish) directed by Jonas Frick and written by Bengt Palmers and Björn Skifs. 

Rating: 10 Stars (Super Fun)

The King, 2019

 The King is a 2019 epic historical drama film directed by David Michôd, based on several plays from William Shakespeare's Henriad. The screenplay was written by Michôd and Joel Edgerton, who both produced the film with Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Liz Watts. The King includes an ensemble cast led by Timothée Chalamet as the Prince of Wales and later King Henry V of England, alongside Edgerton, Sean Harris, Lily-Rose Depp, Robert Pattinson, and Ben Mendelsohn.

TRAILER

PLOT

King Henry IV of England has several sons, including the eldest, Henry, Prince of Wales ("Hal"), and Thomas. Hal, uninterested in succeeding his father, spends his days drinking, whoring, and jesting with his companion Falstaff in Eastcheap. 

King Henry IV grows tired of Hal's debauchery and announces that Thomas will inherit the throne. King Henry IV sends Thomas to subdue Hotspur's rebellion. However, Hal arrives and upstages Thomas by challenging Hotspur to single combat. Hal kills Hotspur, ending the battle without further conflict. Thomas, feeling cheated of his glory, complains to King Henry IV. 

Shortly thereafter, Thomas dies while campaigning against the rebels in Wales. King Henry IV dies in his bed with Hal present. Hal is anointed as King Henry V and opts for peace and conciliation with his father's many adversaries, despite his actions being seen as weakness. 

At King Henry V's coronation feast, envoys from the Dauphin of France present Hal with a tennis ball as an insulting coronation gift. However, King Henry V chooses to frame this as a positive reflection of his boyhood. His sister Philippa, now the Queen of Denmark, cautions her brother that nobles in any royal court have their own interests in mind and will never fully reveal their true intentions.

 King Henry V interrogates a captured assassin who claims to have been sent to kill him by King Charles VI of France. French agents approach the English nobles Cambridge and Grey. The traitors plot against Hal and unsuccessfully attempt to win over the Chief Justice, Gascoigne. Gascoigne advises Hal that a show of strength is necessary to unite England, so Hal declares war on France and has Cambridge and Grey beheaded. 

He approaches Falstaff and appoints him as his chief military strategist, saying that Falstaff is the only man he truly trusts. The English army sets sail for France. After completing the Siege of Harfleur, they receive taunting messages from the Dauphin. 

The English advance parties stumble upon a vast French army gathering to face them. Dorset advises Hal to retreat, but Falstaff proposes a false advance to induce the French into rushing forward into the muddy battlefield, where they will be weighed down by their heavy armour and horses. They will then be attacked by the English longbowmen and surrounded by a large, lightly armoured flanking force hidden in the nearby woods. 

Unable to dissuade Falstaff from leading the advance personally, Hal proposes to the Dauphin that they meet in single combat to decide the battle and minimise bloodshed. The Dauphin, seeing this as weakness, refuses. The Battle of Agincourt commences. Falstaff's plan works – the bulk of the French army charges to engage Falstaff's force and is soon mired in the mud. Hal leads the flanking attack, and the outnumbered but far more mobile English army overpowers the immobilised French, though Falstaff is killed. 

The Dauphin, seeing his men being driven back, reinvokes Hal's challenge but repeatedly slips and falls in the mud until Hal permits his soldiers to kill him. Hal orders all French prisoners executed for fear that they might regroup, despite Falstaff having previously warned him that such an action would be unchivalrous and unworthy of a king. 

Hal reaches King Charles VI, who agrees to adopt him as his heir and offers him the hand of his daughter Catherine of Valois. Hal returns to England with his new wife for a celebratory triumph. In private, she challenges his reasons for invading France and denies the supposed French actions against Hal, suggesting the assassin was a plot from within his own court. 

Suspicious, Hal confronts Gascoigne, who confesses that he had staged the insult and acts of aggression, believing that his sole duty is to protect the king even if it means deceiving him. In a cold fury, Hal stabs the Chief Justice to death, and returns to Catherine, asking that she promise to always speak the truth to him, as clearly as possible.

Rating: 10 Stars

The Twilight Saga: Breaking dawn Part II, 2012 (Leaving Soon Netflix)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (or simply Breaking Dawn – Part 2) is a 2012 American romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2008 novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. It is the sequel to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (2011) and the fifth and final installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively; Mackenzie Foy portrays Renesmee Cullen. The ensemble cast includes Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, and Dakota Fanning.

TRAILER

PLOT

The film continues from the events of the previous film, as Bella, who has just given birth, awakens from her human-to-vampire transformation. After her vampire husband Edward Cullen helps her tame her initial thirst for blood, Bella is introduced to their daughter Renesmee. The rest of the Cullens and Bella's werewolf friend Jacob stay nearby, and when Jacob acts possessively towards Renesmee, Bella learns he has "imprinted" on her, a werewolf phenomenon that makes Jacob and Renesmee soul-mates.

Meanwhile, Bella's father, Charlie, has been trying to contact the Cullens for updates on Bella's health. Carlisle, the Cullen patriarch and a medical doctor, announces that they have to leave Forks, Washington, to protect their identities.

Jacob, desperate not to lose Renesmee, visits Charlie and tells him that Bella is alive and vaguely describes that she has transformed, revealing his wolf form to Charlie to persuade him to stop asking further questions. Charlie goes to the Cullen house to see Bella and meet Renesmee. He accepts that Bella is now recovered but somehow different, though he does not know what has changed or where Renesmee came from, instead accepting she is "adopted".

Several months pass with Carlisle monitoring Renesmee's rapid growth. The vampire Irina spots Renesmee in the forest and mistakenly assumes she is an "immortal child": a type of vampire transformed in childhood who, because it cannot be reasoned with or trained, sucks the blood out of humans uncontrollably. The creation of such children is outlawed by the vampire leadership, the Volturi, and anyone caught with one is executed on the spot. Irina reports the crime to the Volturi.

After Edward's sister Alice, who can see glimpses of the future, experiences a vision of the Volturi and Irina coming to kill the Cullens, she instructs the others to gather as many witnesses as they can to testify that Renesmee is not an immortal child.

As the Volturi serve punishments swiftly, the Cullens and their werewolf allies prepare for a possible battle. Bella soon realizes she has a special ability: a powerful mental shield that had protected her from Edward's mind-reading even when she was human, which she is taught to extend to protect others from vampire superpowers.

The army of the Volturi arrives in Forks, led by Aro, who can read people's minds by touching them. Seeing the Cullens alongside their witnesses and allies, the Volturi hesitate. The Cullens are able to prove to Aro that Renesmee is not an immortal child.

However, the Volturi are eager to subdue the Cullens to forcibly enlist their talented members, so they summarily execute Irina for her mistake to provoke the Cullens into battle. But before an all-out fight breaks out, Alice appears in time to give Aro her vision of the future if fighting ensues.

In Alice's violent vision, Carlisle, Aro, and several others on both sides are killed, including other Volturi, Cullens, and werewolves. Aro, despite being afraid of the vision, still wants to execute Renesmee as she might be a threat to the vampires' secrecy.

Alice reveals their final witness, a Mapuche man from South America, who is a half-human half-vampire, just like Renesmee. He proves that he is not a threat, supporting the notion that Renesmee is not one either. The Volturi unhappily leave, Aro concluding that there will be no battle today.

Back at the Cullen home, Alice glimpses the future, seeing Edward and Bella greeting Jacob and a fully matured Renesmee, also a couple, on a sun-dappled beach. Edward reads Alice's mind and feels relieved that Renesmee has Jacob to protect her.

Alone in their favorite meadow, Bella pushes her mental shield away and finally allows Edward to see into her mind, showing him every moment they have shared together in a montage. They kiss after Bella tells him, "nobody has ever loved anybody as much as I love you", and he romantically responds "with one exception".

Rating: 10 Stars

The Twilight Saga: Breaking dawn, Part I, 2011

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (or simply Breaking Dawn – Part 1) is a 2011 American romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2008 novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. It is the sequel to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and the fourth installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.

TRAILER

PLOT

Several months after the events of the previous film, human Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen are getting married. During the reception, werewolf Jacob Black, who had left town upon receiving an invitation to the wedding, returns, much to Bella's delight. They share a dance in the woods, where Bella says that she and Edward plan to consummate their marriage on their honeymoon while she is still human. Jacob becomes furious, fearing that such an act could kill her.

After the wedding, Bella and Edward travel to an island off the coast of Rio de Janeiro for their honeymoon, and they make love for the first time. Two weeks later, Bella vomits after waking and notices that her period is late. She informs Carlisle Cullen, a medical doctor and Edward's adoptive father, that she believes she is pregnant.

Edward is distraught, as it is highly unlikely a human will survive giving birth to a vampire's baby. He encourages Bella to receive an abortion from Carlisle. She refuses and convinces Edward's sister Rosalie to be her bodyguard. They fly back home to Forks, Washington, where Jacob rushes to the Cullens' house to find a pale, underweight, and visibly pregnant Bella. He implores her to terminate the pregnancy immediately, but she refuses.

Jacob storms out of the Cullens' residence and meets in the woods with his packmates, including their leader Sam, who soon feels they should kill Bella to ensure her half-vampire child does not harm anyone. Jacob refuses, and he and several other werewolves separate from the pack.

As Bella's pregnancy progresses, her health declines rapidly. She soon realizes the fetus is craving blood, so begins drinking human blood obtained by Carlisle from the hospital, improving her health. As a half-vampire, the fetus's development is far more accelerated than that of a human fetus, and thus Bella's pregnancy progresses at an alarming rate.

Edward's resentment for the baby dissolves when he discovers he can read its thoughts. When Bella suddenly goes into labor, Edward, Jacob, and Rosalie begin performing an emergency C-section while Carlisle is out obtaining blood. The procedure is excruciatingly painful, and Bella falls unconscious, though she wakes to find she has delivered a healthy daughter, whom she names Renesmee (a combination of her mother's name and Edward's mother's name).

Bella's heart suddenly stops, and Jacob desperately attempts CPR. Edward injects Bella's heart with his venom in an attempt to transform her into a vampire, but his action appears to be futile as Bella remains lifeless. A distraught Jacob decides to kill Renesmee for apparently causing Bella's death; however, when he looks into the baby's eyes, he "imprints" on her: a werewolf phenomenon in which one realizes one's soul-mate. This prevents his pack from killing her as their most absolute law is not to harm anyone who has been imprinted on.

Over the course of two days, though still unconscious, Bella's injuries heal and her figure returns to normal. Finally, her eyes open and are blood-red, signifying that she has become a vampire.

In a post-credits scene, the Volturi, the keepers of vampire law, receive a letter from Carlisle which summarizes Bella and Edward's wedding and her transformation into a vampire. The Volturi bicker about how Carlisle is growing his coven and that the Volturis' dispute with the Cullens is over. However, the Volturi leader mentions that the Cullens still have something he wants.

Rating: 10 Stars

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 2010 (Leaving Soon Netflix)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (or simply Eclipse) is a 2010 American romantic fantasy film directed by David Slade. It was written by Melissa Rosenberg and was adapted from Stephenie Meyer's 2007 novel Eclipse. The sequel to The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), it is the third installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively. Bryce Dallas Howard joins the cast as returning character Victoria, who was previously portrayed by Rachelle Lefevre in the first two films.

PLOT

In Seattle, Washington, the vampire Victoria attacks a human, Riley, and turns him into a vampire as she begins creating an army of newborn vampires to help her get revenge on Edward Cullen, who killed her lover James.

In Forks, Edward and his human girlfriend Bella Swan discuss her desire to be turned into a vampire, but Edward wants her to stay human. He asks her to marry him, but Bella is reluctant, even after Edward promises to turn her into a vampire if she agrees. Bella talks with her father, Charlie, who decides to lift Bella’s house arrest if she promises to spend more time with her other friends and Jacob Black, her childhood friend and a werewolf with a strong dislike for vampires and Edward.

Edward's clairvoyant sister, Alice Cullen, foresees the newborn vampire army, led by Riley, attacking Forks. Edward's family chase Victoria through the forest, but she escapes into werewolf territory, causing an incident between the vampires and the werewolves that flares up tensions between them. Edward decides to keep all this a secret from Bella.

At school, Edward and Jacob have a tense meeting, where Jacob reveals the incident to Bella. Bella, annoyed with Edward keeping things from her, decides to leave with Jacob, and starts spending more time with him and his tribe. Eventually Jacob confesses his love to her. She tells him she's in love with Edward, but he refuses to believe it, and forcefully kisses her against her will. She punches him, but hurts her own hand due to his werewolf nature. Later, Jacob apologizes for his behavior, and Bella forgives him.

The Cullens forge an uneasy alliance with the werewolf tribe to defend against Victoria's oncoming attack, and train together. During the training, Alice's partner, Jasper, tells Bella that he was once part of a newborn army and hated himself, but eventually experienced happiness once he fell in love with Alice.

Bella and Edward spend the night alone in his family home, and, afraid how her feelings will change after being turned into a vampire, she agrees to marry him if he agrees to have sex with her. The two make out, but Edward finds it too dangerous, and explains that he wants to wait until marriage, after which he shows Bella his mother's ring and asks her to marry him, and she says yes.

They use Bella's blood to bait the newborn vampire army, and Edward and Bella camp in the mountains away from the fight to keep her safe. They discuss their engagement, which Jacob overhears, after which he storms off. Bella chases Jacob and desperately asks him to kiss her, which they do. Bella explains to Edward that although she loves Jacob, her love for Edward is stronger.

They get interrupted when Victoria and her army attack. The Cullen family together with the werewolves manage to fend off the attack, with Edward killing Victoria, but Jacob gets badly injured during the fight. After the werewolves carry Jacob to safety, the Volturi guard, who carry out vampire laws, arrive and find the Cullens guarding a teenage newborn who surrendered. The Volturi torture and interrogate the newborn, despite the Cullens' protests. When the Volturi note that Bella is still human, against their agreement, she explains the date for her transformation has been set. The leader of the Volturi guard sends one of her subordinates to kill the newborn, with the Cullens too afraid to intervene. Afterwards, Bella visits the injured Jacob to tell him she has chosen to be with Edward, and he reluctantly accepts her decision.

Bella and Edward talk about their upcoming wedding in their meadow. Edward questions why she's doing this, and Bella explains that she feels more herself in Edward's world and wants to be connected to him, and they decide to reveal their engagement to Bella's father.

Rating: 10 Stars

The Twilight Saga, 2008 (Leaving Soon Netflix)

Twilight is a 2008 American romantic fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. It is the first installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, a teenage girl, and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, a vampire. It focuses on the development of Bella and Edward's relationship and the subsequent efforts of Edward and his family to keep Bella safe from another coven of vampires.

TRAILER

PLOT

Seventeen-year-old Bella Swan leaves Phoenix, Arizona and moves to Forks, a small town located on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula, to live with her father, Charlie, the town's police chief. Her mother, Renée, is remarried to Phil, a minor league baseball player.

Bella becomes re-acquainted with Jacob Black, a Native American teen who lives with his father, Billy, on the Quileute Indian Reservation near Forks. At school, she finds the mysterious and aloof Cullen siblings particularly intriguing. She is seated next to Edward Cullen in biology class, but he seems repulsed by her.

When Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot, Edward instantaneously covers a distance of over thirty feet to put himself between her and the van, stopping it with only his hand. He refuses to explain his actions to her, warning her against befriending him. Jacob tells Bella about a long-standing animosity between the Cullens and the Quileutes; the Cullens are not allowed on the reservation.

When Edward saves Bella again, this time from a gang, after research she concludes that he is a vampire. He eventually confirms this, explaining that he found her scent irresistible back in biology class and that the Cullens only consume animal blood.

The pair fall in love and he introduces her to his vampire family. Carlisle Cullen, the patriarch, is a doctor at the Forks Hospital. Esme is his wife, and Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie are their informally-adopted children. The family's reaction to Bella is mixed, as some of the Cullens are concerned that the family's secret could be exposed.

Edward and Bella's relationship is jeopardized when three nomadic vampires—James, Victoria, and Laurent—arrive, responsible for a series of deaths being investigated as animal attacks. James, a tracker vampire, is excited by Bella's scent and becomes obsessed with hunting her for sport. The Cullens protect Bella, but James tracks her to Phoenix, where she is hiding with Jasper and Alice, and lures her into a trap at her old ballet studio.

James attacks Bella and infects her with vampire venom. The Cullens arrive and kill James, decapitating and burning him, as Edward removes the venom from Bella's wrist, preventing her from becoming a vampire.

In the aftermath, Edward accompanies an injured Bella to prom, where he refuses her request to transform her into a vampire. They are unaware that James' mate, Victoria, is watching them, plotting revenge for her lover's death.

Rating: 10 Stars

The Twilight Saga: New Moon, 2009 (Leaving Soon Netflix)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (or simply New Moon) is a 2009 American romantic fantasy film directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the 2006 novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. The sequel to Twilight (2008), it is the second installment in The Twilight Saga film series. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.

TRAILER

PLOT 

In Forks, Washington, on Bella Swan's eighteenth birthday, she awakens from a dream in which she is an old woman and Edward Cullen, her immortal vampire boyfriend, is forever young. Edward's family hosts a birthday reception for Bella at their home. 

After she receives a paper cut and is almost attacked by a bloodthirsty Jasper Cullen, Edward realizes he has put her life in danger by putting her amidst vampires. He ends their relationship and the Cullens leave town. 

Bella is left severely depressed and isolates herself for months. She accepts a ride from a biker and the dangerous encounter reminds her of a near-assault where Edward rescued her. She realizes that dangerous activities cause her to hallucinate his image. 

Her Quileute friend Jacob Black supports her during her slump. While attending a movie with Bella, Jacob abruptly shows signs of pain and leaves. He cuts his long hair and now exhibits the same Quileute tattoo as leader Sam and the other tribe members. 

He inexplicably tells Bella to stay away. When Bella hikes to the meadow that she and Edward often visit, she is confronted by Laurent seeking to avenge the Cullens' past killing of James. A wolf pack saves her and Bella discovers that Jacob and the other tribe members are werewolves, with Jacob only recently gaining this shapeshifting ability. 

Their age-old enemies are vampires, though a treaty exists between the Cullens and the tribe. Edward believes that Bella has killed herself after his clairvoyant adoptive sister Alice has a vision of her jumping off a seaside cliff. Distraught, Edward travels to Italy to ask the vampire council, the Volturi, to end his life. 

When they refuse, he plans to force their hand by exposing himself as a vampire to humans during a large festival. Alice and Bella arrive in time to prevent him from doing so. 

Overjoyed that Bella is alive, he confesses that he left Forks to protect her but promises never to leave her again. Edward defends Bella from the Volturi, who do not allow humans to know about their vampire society. As the Volturi are about to kill Edward, Bella asks that they kill her instead. 

Impressed by a human's willingness to sacrifice her life for a vampire, they allow her the choice to be transformed into a vampire instead of dying, convinced when Alice shares a future vision of Bella as a vampire. After returning to Forks, Bella asks the Cullens to vote on her becoming a vampire. 

Despite Edward's protestations, almost everyone votes yes. Charlie is upset with Bella but allows Edward to be with her and he punishes her for leaving with no explanation. Bella tells Edward she wants him to be the one to turn her into a vampire. Jacob confronts the pair, reminding Edward that the years-old treaty with Quileute will be broken if any Cullen bites a human, but Bella tells him it is her choice, not the Cullens'. Edward agrees to let Bella transform into a vampire only if she will marry him, leading to the next movie. 

Rating: 10 Stars

The Substance, 2024

The Substance is a 2024 body horror film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. It follows a fading celebrity, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) who, after being fired by her producer (Dennis Quaid) due to her age, uses a black market drug that creates a much younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley) with unexpected side effects.

TRAILER

PLOT

On her fiftieth birthday, Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-celebrated but now-faded Hollywood film star, is abruptly dismissed from her long-running aerobics TV show by the producer, Harvey, due to her age. A distraught Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down. At the hospital, a young nurse covertly gives her a flash drive advertising "The Substance", a black market serum that promises a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of oneself.

Elisabeth, intrigued and desperate, orders The Substance and injects the single-use activator serum. She convulses as her body generates a younger version of herself emerges from a slit in her back. The two bodies must switch consciousness every seven days without exception, with the inactive body remaining unconscious and fed intravenously with a weekly food supply. Daily injections of stabilizer fluid, extracted from the original body, are required to prevent the new body from deteriorating.

The new body, naming herself Sue, becomes an overnight sensation after auditioning to be Elisabeth's replacement and is eventually offered the chance by Harvey to host the network's prestigious New Year's Eve show. While Sue lives a confident and hedonistic life, Elisabeth becomes a self-hating recluse. Nearing the end of one allotted weekly cycle, Sue parties and brings a man home for casual sex, delaying the switch by extracting additional stabilizer fluid, causing Elisabeth's right index finger to rapidly age. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who warns her that disobeying the switching program leads to irreversible, rapid aging of the original body. Despite their shared consciousness, Elisabeth and Sue begin to view themselves as separate individuals and grow to despise each other; Elisabeth resents Sue for her frequent disregard of the switching schedule, which further exacerbates her aging, while Sue is appalled by Elisabeth's self-loathing and binge-eating. Following a particularly destructive episode as Elisabeth, Sue stockpiles on stabilizer fluid and refuses to switch back.

Three months later, the day before the New Year's Eve telecast, Sue runs out of stabilizer fluid and contacts the supplier, who informs her that she must switch back to replenish the fluid. When they switch, Elisabeth finds herself transformed into an elderly hunchback. Desperate to stop Sue from aging her further, Elisabeth orders a serum designed to terminate her. However, Elisabeth, still craving the admiration that Sue's celebrity status provides, stops before fully injecting the serum and resuscitates Sue, leaving both of them conscious. Realizing Elisabeth's initial intent to terminate her, Sue attacks and kills her before leaving to host the New Year's special.

Without Elisabeth, Sue's body begins to rapidly deteriorate. In a panic, she attempts to create a new version of herself using the leftover activator serum, despite the single-use warning. This results in the creation of a grotesque mutated body, "Monstro Elisasue", with both Sue and Elisabeth's faces. Wearing a mask cut from a poster of Elisabeth, Elisasue returns to the studio and attempts to host the show, but the audience erupts into chaos. An audience member decapitates her, only for an even more mutated head to grow back, and one of her arms to break and drench both the audience and studio in torrents of blood. Elisasue flees the studio, but collapses and explodes into viscera. Elisabeth's original face detaches from the gore, crawling onto her neglected star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She smiles as she hallucinates being admired before melting into a puddle of blood, which is cleaned up by a floor scrubber the next day.

Rating: 10 Stars (Super Interesting)

Font: Lora