Suspense/Thriller | www.jaredmobarak.com

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Indemnity [2021]

2021/08/102021/08/12 Jared Mobarak

It’s not weak to ask for help. Theo Abrams (Jarrid Geduld) jumps into action with CPR upon waking to find his wife’s (Nicole Fortuin‘s Angela) dead body by his side. He then immediately clams up when a knock at the front door is accompanied by the declaration “Police!” mere minutes later. He doesn’t remember hearing anyone enter their room that night nor recalls a violent struggle. Add the fact that he just lost his job due to an inability to overcome the PTSD he’s been battling since blaming himself for…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: The Last Thing Mary Saw [2022]

2021/08/092022/01/12 Jared Mobarak

God creates enemies in order to perform His good. The line between God and Satan is almost non-existent when you really think about it considering they are two sides of the same coin. The former might be worse in the long run too since He not only created the latter, but also sits by while His followers use the Devil as their excuse to commit heinous crimes. God-fearing men and women have spent millennia declaring Satan’s influence as the reason they must cleanse the world of evil without ever having…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: What Josiah Saw [2022]

2021/08/072022/07/12 Jared Mobarak

Never seen a boy so lost. Josiah Graham (Robert Patrick) doesn’t believe in God. To look at him and witness his actions is enough to know this truth, but his words have never been afraid to ensure those sentiments prove undeniable anyway. So he smirks when his youngest son dares to say grace before their latest meal. He starts telling a fantastical story about a dancing leprechaun that he saw outside his window that morning. Tommy (Scott Haze) laughs—both because it’s a humorous anecdote told in humorous fashion and because…

REVIEW: Stillwater [2021]

2021/08/052021/08/05 Jared Mobarak

Life is brutal. I’ll let Amanda Knox speak on the topic of consent where it comes to using another person’s trauma to sell your art and the refusal to realize how doing so inevitably destroys the hard work that person put in to fight for truth in the face of a ubiquitous media-fueled lie. Just know that my needing to mention it is all director Tom McCarthy‘s fault. He’s the one who brought up that Knox’s imprisonment for a crime she didn’t commit was the springboard for Stillwater. He’s the…

REVIEW: Eye Without a Face [2021]

2021/08/052021/08/11 Jared Mobarak

It’s all in your head. Henry’s (Dakota Shapiro) had a difficult life. The abuse he endured on behalf of his father has made it so he can barely leave the house. Talking to strangers (let alone women) is a non-starter. And he can’t even open the door to his dad’s old room for fear of thinking he might somehow be inside despite promising never to come back. Henry’s existence is therefore confined to the den. He sleeps on the couch, walks the streets late at night to stay isolated, and…

REVIEW: Night Drive [2021]

2021/07/312021/08/03 Jared Mobarak

I didn’t realize ‘good evening’ was an admission of guilt. Russell’s (AJ Bowen) a good guy. We know because his Jount rideshare driver helps a customer by carrying her giant wreath to the door before refusing a tip with a genuine “Merry Christmas.” You kind of have to be if you’re working a thankless job on the biggest holiday of the year so you won’t go insane before igniting a killing spree. “Good” doesn’t equal “saint,” however. He’s not going to pass up a couple hundred dollars when the next…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Yakuza Princess [2021]

2021/07/312021/08/19 Jared Mobarak

There are no harmless old men. We enter twenty years into the past at a birthday party in Japan. This wealthy family spared no expense for the celebration, but no amount of money can stop what’s coming. Swords are drawn, guns are fired, and soon enough everyone is dead save a little girl taken from her mother’s lifeless arms. The assumption is that the victors have stolen her to nurture as their own before the inevitable discovery of her real heritage and her subsequent desire for revenge. Learning the opposite…

FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break [2021]

2021/07/302021/08/07 Jared Mobarak

What did they teach you about revenge? A mother’s love can move mountains. It must in the case of Paul Dood (Tom Meeten) since he doesn’t really have anything else propelling him forward. Did he aspire to be a superstar? No. He merely asked his mum (June Watson‘s Julie) if she thought he had what it took while watching an episode of “Britain’s Got Talent”. She of course said, “Yes.” She said he was “better than anyone else on that show.” Love is blind, though, and unwittingly creates lies since…

REVIEW: John and the Hole [2021]

2021/07/292021/08/02 Jared Mobarak

I was blue in the blue. Adolescent angst. That’s the impetus behind John (Charlie Shotwell) drugging his family (Michael C. Hall‘s Brad, Jennifer Ehle‘s Anna, and Taissa Farmiga‘s Laurie), dragging them through the backyard, and depositing their bodies in an unfinished bunker according to the synopsis of director Pascual Sisto and writer Nicolás Giacobone‘s film John and the Hole. Adolescent angst. I guess you can get away with it too when you declare the result a “fable” as opposed to a nightmare. We aren’t supposed to look so closely at…

REVIEW: Prom Night [1980]

2021/07/252021/08/16 Jared Mobarak

The killers are coming. Built upon a story by a film student (Robert Guza Jr.) that director Paul Lynch knew, Prom Night delivers a grounded slasher focused on revenge. Written by William Gray, the script begins six years in the past as four children play hide and seek in an old, abandoned building without adult supervision. They play rough with chants about killers to try and spook each other into giving up their location—a style that might scare someone unfamiliar with the tone being set like young Robin Hammond. She…

REVIEW: Old [2021]

2021/07/212021/07/22 Jared Mobarak

Stop wishing away this moment. The first mention I heard about M. Night Shyamalan adapting Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters‘ French graphic novel Sandcastle was a tweet that more or less stated how he knew he had to try turning it into a film the moment he put it down. It’s not hard to imagine why since the book is almost tailor-made for the Shyamalan treatment with its mysteriously secluded locale; ensemble cast mired in a tense, supernatural scenario seemingly outside of their control; and a science fiction writer walking…