Welcome to Willits (2016) 1h 24m

Meth, not even twice!

I think I can sum up my entire intro and general thoughts on this film with a single picture.  I'm very much a "do what you want" type of person, so long as you aren't hurting yourself or someone else, but there are many moments during this film where I wanted to just kind of reach over and say "maybe you've had enough."  Either way, that image to the right sums up everything:

Set in Northern California, a group of youths are heading out on a camping trip in the area of Willits.  They acquire a burnt out Rory Culkin from a gas station and find themselves set up not far from a cabin with a grow operation.  Unluckily for them, it also contains two people that have such chemical filled brains that one believes he was abducted by aliens and he assumes almost anyone he sees is one of them returning for him.

Once you realize the true horror here is chemical dependency and abuse this film isn't really that great.  I was on board when the party added Mr. Culkin, and even the over the top cop TV show (starring Dolph Lundgren) they kept showing would break things up in a fun way, but I don't know if Welcome to Willits was trying to be funny or scary or what?

This feels like the kind of movie that someone in middle school would be into, only to reach adulthood and deny that they ever liked it.  This film is to that person as Coal Chamber is to me.  Only I'm in my 30's and you can't prove I ever owned any Coal Chamber merch or CDs as all of that evidence has been disposed of... I mean, if there ever was any evidence, which there never was!

I give Welcome to Willits 1 copy of My Sexy Alien Girlfriend out of 5:

Don't Kill It (2016) 1h 23m

I really like Dolph Lundgren as an actor.  I don't think he's one of the best actors in the world, but he has done a great combination of iconic and really fun roles.  Frank Castle in the original Punisher movie, Ivan Drago in the Rocky Films, the street preacher in Johnny Mnemonic, all favorites of mine.

Don't Kill It is a really good take on demonic possession films.  The demon jumps from host to host when someone kills the possessed.  The killer then becomes the then new vessel for the demon.  It gets explained that this is a specific type of demon and that others move through humans in different ways.  After a deer hunter happens across a container that once held the demon, a small town in Mississippi is plagued with a string of murders.  Jebediah Woodley (Dolph Lundgren) is a demon hunter that catches wind of the killings and sets out to contain the presence.

If I had to describe this film in a single word, then it would be "fun."  It's completely aware of what it is and doesn't try to make any kind of award winning cinema.  Instead it's an entertaining horror movie with strong comedic elements, some decent lore (which does have one thing I wish become expanded upon more), an excellent use of practical effects with some CGI, and probably the best delivery of a "what the fuck?" I have ever heard.  In all honesty, I would be okay of Jebediah would return for a series of demon hunting films, so long as they stay with this quality.

I give Don't Kill It a solid 3 net guns out of 5: