johannes2000-1

With a title like "The voyeurs" and the label "erotic thriller" my expectations weren't sky-high. The erotic part was definitely there, so if you're into that, they delivered. But as to the thriller part, for three-quarter of the movie nothing much happened. We saw how a young couple, that just moved into their new apartment, started spying on their exhibitionist neighbors in the opposite building, with especially the girl getting more and more obsessed with what they saw. Only towards the end suddenly several plot-shifts tumbled over each other, in fact a bit too much and farfetched to make things more or less believable. The very ending topped everything else, so at least it went out with a loud laugh of disbelief.

The actors that did the spying couple weren't that convincing, especially the guy (Justice Smith) acted almost soporific. The opposite couple fared better: Natasha Liu Bordizzo did a fine enough job and is beautiful to boot, and Ben Hardy is of course a treat to watch, with and without clothes.

This is a worthy spin-off from "The Boys", equally extreme in violence, equally incorrect and provocative, and equally refreshing in putting the familiar image of "super hero" totally upside down. The story is solid and exciting: a college for young super-heroes-in-the-bud, which is in fact a cover-up for Vought to create uber-super heroes and nihilate the lesser ones. The pace is high, the VFX are awesome, and the violence and gore are as stunning and next level as in The Boys, so it's definitely not a show for the tender hearted. And luckily there's also a fair amount of humor to enjoy.

Maybe season 2 was a bit more talkative than season 1, and I had a little trouble adjusting to some of the shifts in character: Marie (Jaz Sinclair) seemed to evolve into a rather self righteous and judgemental cranky person, and Emma (Lizze Broadway) got extremely b*tchy. But the story got more multilayered, with some nice surprises and plot shifts, and Hamish Linklater was a great addition as the arrogant and dangerous super-puppetmaster.

We had to wait two whole years for season 2, so hopefully they can come up with season 3 a little bit faster. I'm game!

I was pleasantly surprised with this intelligently written horror. The setting in a seventies late night show was very original, the retro look was flawlessly done, and the whole set up had this classic unity of place and time. David Dastmalchian is perfect as the once popular, but by now tired host Jack Delroy, hoping to lift up the ratings by inviting a presumably possessed girl and her therapist, together with a skeptical critic, and ultimately getting a whole lot more than he bargained for. The special effects are great, with a climactic scene towards the end where indeed all hell breaks loose.

My only reservation concerns the ultimate scenes, after that apocalyptic peak: there's some sort of dreamlike epilogue in which Jack experiences all kinds of weird flashes of distorted memories and surreal images. I don't know what the purpose or meaning was: is he maybe in hell? Or are we supposed to conclude that hell is in the relentless hunt for high ratings? It didn't work for me, and the sudden insight into Jack's mind didn't concur with the rest of this movie's frame, that consequently showed us objectively what the audience in the studio and the viewers at home could see. But for the rest: absolutely great!