The Last House on the Left, 2009 (NETFLIX) Watch until March, 31

The Last House on the Left is a 2009 rape and revenge film directed by Dennis Iliadis and written by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth. A remake of the 1972 film of the same name, it stars Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Garret Dillahunt, Aaron Paul, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Martha MacIsaac, and Sara Paxton. The film follows Mari Collingwood, a teenager who is abducted, raped, and left for dead by a family of violent fugitives. When her parents learn what was done to her, they seek vengeance against the family, who have taken shelter at their summer home during a thunderstorm.

TRAILER

John of Fear the Walking Dead is one of the Rapists

PLOT

Krug, a notorious killer is being transported to a max security prison. When he asks the transporting officers for a restroom break, the two refuse knowing he is a flight risk. While stopped at a railroad crossing, the two officers are viciously broadsided by a pickup truck driven by Krug's brother Francis, and his girlfriend Sadie. 

Francis shoots one officer dead. Krug shows the other officer a picture of his two daughters, telling him he will never see them again. He then wraps a seatbelt around the officers neck which ultimately kills him. Both officers die at the scene, leaving the killers at large.Dr. John Collingwood, his wife, Emma, and their teenaged daughter, competitive swimmer Mari, head out on vacation to their lake house. Shortly thereafter, Mari borrows the family car and drives into town to spend time with her friend Paige. 

While Paige works the cash register at a local store, she and Mari meet Justin, a teenager passing through town who invites them both back to his roadside motel room to smoke marijuana. While the three are hanging out in the motel room, Justin's family members return: his father Krug, his uncle Francis, and Krug's girlfriend Sadie. 

Krug becomes angry at Justin for bringing unknown people to their motel room and shows him a local newspaper that has Krug and Sadie's pictures on the front page, which explains how Sadie and Francis broke Krug out of police custody and killed the two officers who were transporting him. Believing it would be too risky to let Paige and Mari go, the gang kidnaps them and uses their car to leave town. 

While Krug searches for the highway, Mari convinces him to take a road that leads to her parents' lake house; Mari then attempts to jump out of the vehicle, but the ensuing fight among the passengers causes Krug to crash into a tree totalling the vehicle. 

Frustrated by Mari's attempt to escape, Sadie and Francis proceed to beat Mari and Paige as they crawl from the wreckage. Once Sadie begins to attack Mari, Paige grabs a tree branch and hits Sadie in the stomach, knocking her off Mari and giving the girls a chance to escape their assailants. However, before Mari can run away, Krug grabs her and urges Sadie and Francis to get Paige. 

Paige runs through the woods, falls, and injures her leg. Upon doing so, she sees a construction site ahead and calls for help but is not heard over the loud noise of the machines. She is then captured by Sadie and Francis and taken back into the woods. When they arrive back in the woods where the rest of the group is, a now-tied-up Paige is placed on the ground. 

Krug then attempts to teach Justin to "be a man" by forcing him to touch Mari's breasts. Paige begins insulting him to get him to stop; in response, Krug and Francis stab Paige repeatedly, and Mari watches her friend bleed to death. Krug, frustrated at Mari’s rebelliousness, proceeds to pin her face down to the ground and rape her. 

During the sexual assault, Krug pulls off Mari's necklace and throws it away. When he is finished raping her, Mari musters enough strength to escape the group and make it to the lake so she can swim to safety. Krug shoots her in the back as she swims, leaving her body floating in the lake. 

A storm forces Krug, Francis, Sadie, and Justin to seek refuge at a nearby house. Justin is the only one to deduce that the inhabitants, John and Emma, are Mari's parents. John invites them to stay the night in their guest house, and Justin intentionally leaves Mari's necklace on the kitchen counter to alert them about their daughter. 

Meanwhile, Mari, critically wounded, manages to swim ashore and makes her way to her parents’ home, collapsing on the front porch. When John and Emma discover Mari and the necklace on the counter, they realize that Mari's assailants are the people in their guest house. 

As they try to find the key to their boat, so they can take Mari to the hospital, Francis enters the main house and happens upon Mari. Emma attacks Francis, and John sticks his hand in the garbage disposal and kills him with a hammer. John and Emma enter the guest house while Krug and Sadie are sleeping. They find Justin holding Krug's gun, which he hands to John. 

Sadie awakens, and John shoots and wounds her in the neck, allowing Krug to escape through the window and into their house. Finding Francis dead, Krug realizes that they are Mari's parents. Sadie attacks John, then runs into the bathroom. John and Justin break in, and Sadie beats them with a shower curtain rod, almost knocking them out until Emma shoots Sadie through her right eye, killing her. 

Krug hides and attacks John and Justin when they search for him. Justin is stabbed by Krug, but with a combined effort from Emma and John, Krug is knocked unconscious. John, Emma, Mari, and Justin then leave in the boat for the hospital. 

Later, John returns to the cabin, where he has paralyzed Krug from the neck down. John places Krug's head in a microwave jury-rigged to operate even with the door open. As John walks away, Krug's head explodes, ultimately killing him.

Rating: 10 Stars

Cazuza: Time doesn't Stop (O Tempo Não Para)

 Cazuza: O Tempo Não Pára (Cazuza: Time Doesn't Stop) is a 2004 Brazilian biographical musical drama film directed by Sandra Werneck and Walter Carvalho, about the life of singer Cazuza. It stars Daniel de Oliveira as Cazuza. The film is based on the 1997 biography Cazuza: Só as Mães São Felizes by Cazuza's mother, Lucinha Araújo. The film won a Best Actor Award from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards. It was one of the most successful films of the year in Brazil.

Synopsis

Focusing on Cazuza's personal life, the film chronicles his early career, his subsequent success, his drug use and his promiscuous lifestyle. It starts out in the early 1980s in Rio de Janeiro, showing his usual day-to-day life until he joins the band which would become Barão Vermelho. It then shows the band's rise to fame and its frequent "mutinies" which led him to pursue a solo career. Later, it depicts his struggle against the SIDA virus and his final days.

Cazuza is the symbol of the SIDA's cause in Brazil. As of 2023, there were 39.9 million people living with HIV globally12. Since the start of the epidemic, 88.4 million people have become infected with HIV3. The World Health Organization estimates that there were 37.7 million people worldwide living with HIV in 2020. You can identify the infected by their eyes and they usually are not fat.

The Movie is one of the Best of it's time.

Rating: 10 Stars

First Daughter, 2004 Romantic Comedy on Netflix

First Daughter is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It stars Katie Holmes as Samantha MacKenzie, daughter of the President of the United States, who enrolls at college and develops a relationship with another student (Marc Blucas). The film follows Samantha as she experiences a new sense of freedom during her time away from the White House, and the advantages and disadvantages of her college life. It co-stars Michael Keaton as the President of the United States and Amerie as Samantha's roommate, Mia Thompson.

TRAILER

PLOT

Samantha MacKenzie is the only child of U.S. President John MacKenzie. Due to her father's political career, she has been in the public eye her entire life and spent most of her high school years in the White House. Having to deal with a lack of privacy and public scrutiny for the most ridiculous things, Sam has had a sheltered existence and her father has trouble giving her more freedom yet is too busy to spend time with her.

Though her mother Melanie is supportive, she still stands by her husband's decisions, leaving Sam feeling restricted from having a normal life. Accompanied by Secret Service agents everywhere she goes, and with her father running for re-election, Sam finally believes she has the chance to break out of her cocoon when she is allowed to attend college in California.

There, Sam ends up sharing a dorm room with boy-crazed Mia Thompson, who is hesitant at first to room with the first daughter, but eventually warms to her. After her Secret Service agents tackle a student brandishing a water gun at a pool party and hastily evacuate her from the premises, she insists that her detail be reduced to just two agents, to which her father begrudgingly agrees. Settling into some semblance of normalcy, she meets and becomes interested in fellow student James Lansome, her resident advisor.

James helps her avoid the paparazzi, escape her security team, and experience life as a normal girl. They discuss their deepest thoughts and wishes, and Sam tells him that although she is never alone, she is often lonely. Her dream has always been to drive an old Volkswagen off to college, with no babysitters or parents.

To thank James and Mia for their tolerance of her complicated world, Sam flies them home to D.C. to attend a ball, with the dresses delivered to her personally by Vera Wang. Outside the ball, a protest causes her security team to evacuate her again, when she discovers that James is actually an agent and has been protecting her all along.

Feeling heartbroken and betrayed, Sam tries to readjust to college life, but an attempt to make James jealous only results in her drunken photo splashed across tabloid articles. She returns home to help her father on the last stretch of his campaign, while James is disciplined for failure to act in a manner becoming of an agent. Sam asks her father to make sure James's career is not ruined by their romance, to which he agrees.

The President wins re-election and dances with Sam at his inauguration ball, referencing something she told him in his speech and acknowledging she is now a grown woman and worthy of his respect. She is surprised and pleased to see that James is in attendance, having been reassigned to the presidential detail. They dance, and he gives her keys to an old Volkswagen (her dream car) and encourages her to go "break some rules."

The film ends with Sam driving off in her car, heading back to college and the narrator telling us that she will be back in the spring, and reunite with James.

Rating: 10 Stars

I know what you did last Summer, 1997, Netflix

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Jim Gillespie and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr., with supporting roles played by Johnny Galecki, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, and Muse Watson. The first installment in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, it is loosely based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan. The film centers on four teenage friends, who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they supposedly killed a man. It also draws inspiration from the urban legend known as "the Hook", as well as the slasher films Prom Night (1980) and The House on Sorority Row (1982).

TRAILER

PLOT

On July 4, 1996, in Southport, North Carolina, Julie James and her friends Ray Bronson, Helen Shivers, and Barry Cox drive to the beach. On the way back, they accidentally hit a pedestrian. Julie's friend Max passes by them on the road. Barry and Helen try to dump the body in the water, but the pedestrian wakes up and grabs Helen. Barry pushes him into the water and the group swears to never discuss what happened.

One year later, Julie returns home from college for the summer. The friends have gone their separate ways, with none of them pursuing their dreams due to struggling with the incident. Julie receives a letter stating, "I know what you did last summer!" She and Helen take the note to Barry, who suspects Max. Julie meets Ray, who now works as a fisherman. Max is killed by a figure in a raincoat wielding a hook. That night, Barry is ambushed by the assailant stealing and driving his car.

Julie researches newspaper articles, believing that the man they ran over was a local named David Egan. Helen and Julie meet David's sister Missy at her home. Missy explains that a friend of David's named Billy Blue visited her to pay his respects. That night, the killer sneaks into Helen's house and cuts off her hair while she sleeps.

The following morning, Julie finds Max's corpse wearing Barry's stolen jacket and covered in crabs in the trunk of her car. When she brings the others to see it, the body has been removed. Julie, Helen and Barry confront Ray, who claims to also have received a letter. Julie goes back to visit Missy, while Barry and Helen participate in the 4th of July parade. Missy reveals that David allegedly committed suicide out of guilt for the death of his girlfriend, Susie Willis, in a car accident and shows David's suicide note. As the writing matches that of the note she received, Julie realizes it was not a suicide note, but a death threat.

At the Croaker Beauty Pageant, Helen witnesses Barry being murdered on the balcony but finds no sign of the killer or Barry. The police officer escorting her home is murdered by the killer. Helen runs to her family's store, where the killer murders her sister Elsa. She escapes and runs toward the street, but the killer slashes her to death.

Julie finds an article mentioning Susie's father, Ben Willis, and realizes Ben was the man they had run over a year earlier, moments after he killed David to avenge his daughter. She goes to tell Ray, but notices Ray's boat is called Billy Blue. A fisherman knocks Ray unconscious, inviting Julie to hide on his boat. On the boat, she finds photos and articles about her and her friends, and pictures of Susie. The boat leaves the docks, and the fisherman is revealed to be Ben Willis, targeting them in revenge for leaving him for dead.

Ben chases Julie below deck, where she uncovers the bodies of Helen and Barry in the icebox. Ray awakens and goes to rescue Julie. He ultimately uses the rigging to sever Ben's hand and send him overboard. He explains that he posed as David's friend and visited Missy out of guilt. The couple reconciles, relieved not to have actually killed anyone after all.

One year later, Julie is in college in Boston. As she enters the shower, she notices the words "I still know" written in the steam on the shower door. A dark figure then crashes through the door as she screams.

Rating: 10 Stars