staunton-gary

Totem, from 2017, was a movie that I hadn't seen and I am at a loss to say why. However, IMDB's own synopsis for this movie was "A teen must resort to extreme measures to protect her family from a supernatural entity.", not exactly enticing, especially when you watch a lot of movies. I don't always review them though.

I must admit that I have been disappointed with horror movie releases, is it me getting older or just used to the rehash of the same story. The Nun (The Nun (2018)) kind of got me back into believing that some writers haven't given up.

Totem came across my watch list, I wasn't expecting much and was thinking of pushing this down my list. Glad I didn't.

It's not perfect, or academy award winning performances, however, the whole production from directing (Marcel Sarmiento), and also credited with writing with Evan Dickson to (the award winning) acting by Kerris Dorsey, proved to be a successful combination.

I have seen a lot of plots and story's, Totem was a great surprise and I didn't see the end coming. Having said that, the end did feel like it was added to entice a sequel. I would recommend this.

Writer, director and editor, Stanley Pomianowski, actually managed to pull it off. No innuendo intended there. This isn't a silly B grade movie, it is a B grade movie, but most of it actually worked. Some additional pace direction could have bumped this movie out of the B grade group.

Jim Serrano (Dr Williams) playing the crazed "doc" was well done albeit with a couple of misses. Chuck Fusca (Harry Bates) had a few laughs and his client, Allie Glades (Rachel Comeau), provided the buddy laughs with him. Andy Gion (Police Chief Rex) played his part, hands-down.

After some of the other B-Grade movies that I've recently seen, this one is one of the better ones. I was entertained and look forward to the sequel. I would recommend this.

I felt that the producers didn't want to step on anybody's toes, why? I have no idea. Eddie Murphy (Chris Carver) seemed like he was restrained, it looked like he was struggling to do a PG rated movie. There are glimpses of him through the movie though, and it does make the movie better.

At 1 hour 57 minutes, Candy Cane Lane, didn't seem that long. Having said that, it also felt that some scenes could have been left out and spent too much time on them. I wonder how much, better, footage was left on the cutting room floor. There was enough in this movie to keep me watching it, just.

It's a shame, this was my first 2023 Christmas movie to start off the season, it managed to rate just above average. I would recommend it though.