Colin Wessman

I love those oldies and hoagies, give me some beefcakes and cheesesteaks

Woman In The Mirror

Angel Olsen – All Mirrors

I wouldn’t say that seeing Angel Olsen in concert on Halloween caused me to truly appreciate her latest, All Mirrors, but it also didn’t hurt. If anything, it made it clear that the album is on some level an attempt to break with the relative crossover success of 2016’s My Woman, considering the only track she played from it was her now-signature song “Shut Up Kiss Me”. She even made a remark after playing it that she’ll be performing the song forever, since she’ll always be known as the “Shut Up Kiss Me” girl. All Mirrors doesn’t really have any stand-out bangers on the scale of the aforementioned track, but in its overall grandiosity and emotional power, it transcends the need to. Continue reading →

The Pick: Parasite

After a month of writing about people trapped in spooky houses with Shocktober, on this latest episode of The Pick we talk about the spookiest house of all.  A house that’s a byproduct of capitalism! Parasite has been regarded by many as a film that is best enjoyed if you know as little going into it as possible. So in this episode, we don’t even try to make it a non-spoiler review. This is an episode for those that have already seen Parasite, and hopefully one that helps any viewer appreciate its many twists and turns and little details. Continue reading →

The Pick: Goosebumps & Goosebumps 2

Instead of writing another Shocktober post, today I’m putting up our latest episode of The Pick. Keeping with this year’s Shocktober theme, we’re talking about one of the truly immortal horror franchises of the 2010s – Goosebumps! Ok, so maybe it’s less of a horror movie than a wacky comedy that aims to introduce kids to the beats of a horror movie. But either way, we get a lot of Jack Black talk in, both in regards to his weirdly entertaining performance in Goosebumps and the lack of him in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. Also, we manage to fit our ice-cold Joker takes into this jam-packed episode. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 24: Creep 2

Creep 2

Three Shocktobers ago, I reviewed the micro-budget horror Creep for reasons that are hazy to me now. I’m sure I had no idea what to expect (other than a lot of Mark Duplass), and I was pleasantly surprised. That said, I would have never expected that a remake would’ve come to fruition, since it’s like, who knows about this movie? As far as I know it was released only on Netflix, and it wasn’t even one of those hit Netflix movies that teens love. But like a lot of horror movies, I’m sure a sequel was made for the simple fact that it’d be cheap to make. Once again, I didn’t have many expectations, but was pleasantly surprised to find that Creep 2 is just about as good as its predecessor. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 22: mother!

mother! (2017)

It’s hard to say what kept me from seeing mother! when it was released 2 years ago. There seemed to be a lot of negative hype surrounding it, though this came mostly from its unprecedented “F” CinemaScore, which is not something I’d ever cared about previously. Perhaps it was also because critics didn’t seem to be in love with it as much as they were in love with discussing its unwieldiness. So it made the film seem like an overtly difficult watch, but also like it might not ultimately be worth consuming its more provocative elements. Well, I can now say I agree with the critical consensus that it’s a hard film to love, but is also so batshit insane that I’m glad I finally got around to seeing it. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 20: The Love Witch

The Love Witch (2016)

In our era of constant reboots and reimaginings, it’s not uncommon to find genre films that are homages to certain eras and styles. However, it’s rare that a film is an homage to such a specific era and such a specific style in the way that The Love Witch is. In fact, it feels a little weird talking about the film in regards to 2010s horror, considering it feels like such a product of the late ’60s/early ’70s. Yet, it has enough modern themes thrown in to make it a distinct product of 2016 while indulging the sultry, kitschy images of the past. Continue reading →

Shocktober Day 13: The Conjuring

The Conjuring (2013)

It just became apparent that I incorrectly implied that The Conjuring was a Blumhouse production in my The Purge review. Which makes sense, as The Conjuring feels like a movie with a bit more backing from its major studio, since it’s production value is a considerable step up from director James Wan’s previous film, Insidious. Also, despite sharing a lot of similarities with Insidious (such as the presence of ghosts, Patrick Wilson, and another Fargo actor), I’d say it’s also a step up in terms of its effectiveness as well.

Continue reading →