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Darren Lynn Bousman ’s “Death of Me” has such a fun elevator pitch that it almost makes its determination to do nothing with it all the more annoying. The pitch was probably “‘The Hangover' but make it horror.” It’s a great idea. What if not being able to remember anything from the night before didn’t lead to wacky hijinks with a baby and a tiger but down a much darker path in a strange, ominous vacation setting? Again, it’s a start. And that’s all you’ll get in “Death of Me,” a movie that takes a fresh idea and decides that the best way to present it is through tropes and clichés from better films. Imagine having an actual original idea in horror and then going back and saying, “How can I make this feel like better movies than the one I’m making?” There’s a weird belief by some filmmakers that horror fans like familiarity. They like being reminded of movies like “ Rosemary’s Baby ” and “The Wicker Man,” as if it’s some kind of shared language between filmmaker and viewer. However, the difference between influence/homage and pale imitation is vast, and there’s nothing about “Death of Me” that positively compares to the movies that Bousman so bizarrely replicates.

Again, it starts promisingly. Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil ( Luke Hemsworth ) wake up in a dirty, bloody, wrecked AirBnB on a remote Thai island. Before they can even really ask what the hell is going on, they’re in a rushed panic, trying to catch a ferry so they can go home again. It’s revealed that Neil is a travel journalist, and the two came to the island to document its culture and history. The trip to the ferry is weird enough, as is the necklace Christine wears that she’s never seen before, but they don’t make it off the island. Back in the village, they realize that Neil recorded last night on his digital camera, and they watch the footage which includes a weird drink at a bar followed by a violent incident between Neil and Christine that leads to him snapping her neck and burying her body. You thought you had a weird Friday night?

It’s a great start. First, why would Neil kill Christine? Second, how is she sitting there watching her own death? The confused pulse of the movie at this point should be disorienting and disconcerting. What’s scarier? Coming back from the dead or being alongside the person who you just watched kill you? In the first of many bad decisions, writers Ari Margolis , James Morley II, and David Tish sabotage all of this potential and dive headfirst into “scary island locals” horror. Instead of playing with the recording that gives the film its damn title, “Death of Me” becomes so much like other cult island movies that Neil literally asks Christine how “The Wicker Man” ends.

From here, “Death of Me” meanders from one vaguely xenophobic set piece to another, pushing Christine from one hallucinatory vision to the next in such a depressingly flat manner. When it does come to life every now and then, Bousman can’t maintain the momentum at all. There are times when the richness of the setting and the lingering goodwill of that initial concept almost brought me back into the film, but then it just repeats visuals or themes, draining them of their strength each time. It’s a movie that needs to build to a fever pitch of hallucinatory insanity but just trudges along to something that feels inevitable instead of interesting. We feel as stuck as Christine and Neil, baffled by a situation with no internal logic or narrative cohesion. The title may refer to what Christine watches on that recording, but it’s also reflects how much I felt my interest in this project fade with each passing minute until it was absolutely dead. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Death of Me (2020)

Rated R for violence, gore, sexual content and language.

Luke Hemsworth as Neil

Maggie Q as Christine

Kelly B. Jones as Kanda

• Darren Lynn Bousman
• Ari Margolis
• James Morley III
• Brian J. Smith
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Death of me, common sense media reviewers.

Decently creepy vacation-from-hell horror tale.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie offers a good opportunity to talk about

No positive role models here. Many characters are

A man chokes a woman to death; her neck snaps. Bru

Sex scene shows a man thrusting behind a woman; gr

Strong language includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "

During a night of drinking, adult characters drink

Parents need to know that Death of Me is a horror movie about a vacationing couple (Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth) who wake up unable to remember the previous night. A video on the man's camera shows shocking, violent events -- but did they really happen? Scenes include a man strangling a woman (her neck snaps)…

Positive Messages

The movie offers a good opportunity to talk about cultural appropriation. What does that mean? The movie takes elements from Thailand to tell its Western story: Does it do so in an exploitive way, or is it respectful?

Positive Role Models

No positive role models here. Many characters are OK with sacrificing human lives for community gain. Other characters are victims, and others, while still likable, behave selfishly. The Western characters show some hallmarks of the "ugly American" cliche (i.e. being demanding, obnoxious, entitled, etc.).

Violence & Scariness

A man chokes a woman to death; her neck snaps. Bruises on woman's neck. Vomiting dirt and grass. A character slices his own stomach with a knife and pulls out his intestines. Another character stabs herself. Gun is shown, and a character is shot in head. Lots of blood. Creepy, scary stuff. Main character punches a thief. Injecting black stuff into eye. People shown with eyes and mouths sewn shut; a woman's eyes are shown being sewn shut. Car crash; character thrown through windshield.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sex scene shows a man thrusting behind a woman; graphic tone, but no explicit nudity. Kissing. Character wears sexy underwear. A man ogles a woman in bar. A woman's shorts are torn off of her.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes uses of "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "motherf----r," and "bastard."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

During a night of drinking, adult characters drink an unknown beverage that causes them to black out and do things against their will. Characters with hangovers. Social drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Death of Me is a horror movie about a vacationing couple ( Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth ) who wake up unable to remember the previous night. A video on the man's camera shows shocking, violent events -- but did they really happen? Scenes include a man strangling a woman (her neck snaps), a man slicing his stomach and pulling out his intestines, and characters getting stabbed, shot in the head, and thrown through a car windshield -- all accompanied by lots of blood. Creepy, scary images include seeing women with their eyes and mouths sewn shut. There's kissing and a sex scene that feels pretty graphic even though there's no explicit nudity. A woman wears sexy underwear, and a man ogles a woman at a bar. Strong language includes "f--k," "s--t," and more. Characters get very drunk and drink a mysterious beverage that makes them black out and behave strangely. Despite a few hiccups here and there, this is a pretty lean, solid, creepy movie for mature teens and adults. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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• Parents say (1)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

In DEATH OF ME, Christine ( Maggie Q ) and her husband, Neil ( Luke Hemsworth ), wake up in their rented room on an island near Thailand, with no idea of what happened the night before. Their room is trashed, and there's mud everywhere. Neil checks his camera for clues and finds a disturbing video. It shows the couple getting a special local drink in a bar, and then, later, Neil having sex with Christine, strangling her, and burying her. Now, stranded without their passports and with a typhoon approaching, they must trust each other and follow whatever slender leads they can find to find out what happened -- and what might still be happening.

Is It Any Good?

This sturdy, tense thriller may not always be totally smart or original, but it's neatly structured, keeping viewers off-kilter and creeped out, stealing toward a surprisingly effective climax. The characters in Death of Me could be criticized for splitting up when they probably shouldn't have or for not keeping a better eye on their luggage, but, as bizarre as their situation is, the movie seems to capture some genuine emotion and follows a certain logic. Best of all, it avoids a dumb "twist" ending in favor of something more organic.

Director Darren Lynn Bousman relies on very strong local set design and on creepy little touches like a bundle of fish dropped on a doorstep or a table-full of people all looking up and smiling at the same time. Some may find Death of Me guilty of cultural appropriation, but you could also argue that its mix of local culture and characters who are both appealing and quick to demonstrate "ugly American" tendencies (they're sometimes demanding or entitled) makes the issue more complex than that. In truth, as a vacation-from-hell movie, this one is no Midsommar , but its lean storytelling and surefire chills make it a decent guilty pleasure.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Death of Me' s violence . How did it affect you? How much is shown, and how much is suggested through sounds and subtle images? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

How is sex depicted here? What values are imparted?

Are drinking and/or drugs glamorized here? Are there consequences for substance use? Why does that matter?

What does "cultural appropriation" mean? Does this movie do that?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : November 17, 2020
• Cast : Maggie Q , Luke Hemsworth , Kelly B. Jones
• Director : Darren Lynn Bousman
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
• Studio : Saban Films
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 94 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, gore, sexual content and language
• Last updated : June 20, 2023

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Kenneth branagh’s ‘death on the nile’: film review.

The director returns as Hercule Poirot, following 'Murder on the Orient Express' in his second lavish remake of an Agatha Christie mystery, this time co-starring Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and newcomer Emma Mackey.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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One of the most frequent questions asked by critics of Kenneth Branagh ’s 2017 Murder on the Orient Express remake was “Why?” While the Agatha Christie adaptation approximated the grandeur and opulence of Sidney Lumet’s all-star 1974 original with a classicist’s reverence, the excitement and intrigue of watching a stellar cast dressed in dazzling 1930s finery as a killer steadily thins their ranks was muted by synthetic CG-heavy visuals and the intrusive self-infatuation of Branagh as ingenious Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Nevertheless, audiences didn’t seem to mind and the film made a whopping $352 million worldwide.

The good news about Branagh’s return to the Christie whodunit library with Death on the Nile is that although it’s no less fabricated in U.K. studios, this tragical mystery tour is more transporting. Positioning glamorously attired characters against the ancient pyramids of Giza, the colossal Ramses statues of Abu Simbel, or on the sweeping decks and in the swanky art deco salons of a luxury paddleboat steamer — and shooting, like the earlier film, in sumptuous 65mm — at the very least, is easy on the eyes.

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Release date : Friday, Feb. 11 Cast : Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Letitia Wright Director : Kenneth Branagh Screenwriter : Michael Green, based on the novel by Agatha Christie

Returning screenwriter Michael Green once again sacrifices much of the playful wit to spend time digging beneath the inscrutable surface of Poirot, starting with a black-and-white World War I prologue in which the young soldier’s powers of deduction save his regiment from near-certain death in a bridge maneuver. “You’re too smart to be a farmer,” Poirot’s captain tells him, before being blown to bits.

That loss, and the sad outcome of his great love of those years, fuel an undertow of melancholy in a figure more often played as aloof and spiky, though invariably likable. The death here of a character of whom he is quite fond adds further to the portrayal of a man of formidable intellect haunted by the crimes he encounters.

Whether you respond to the exposed emotional core behind the famous mustache — we also get the backstory behind that epically architectural facial hair — will depend on how you like your Poirot: brilliant, brittle and wryly detached or humanized by sorrow and, ugh, vulnerability. For some of us who look back with affection on John Guillermin’s lush 1978 screen version, there’s a nagging feeling throughout that Branagh, while hitting the marks of storytelling and design, has drained some of the fun out of it.

Poirot first encounters the three points of the fateful romantic triangle at the heart of this tale in a swinging London speakeasy in 1937. As the exacting epicure fusses over his dessert selection, he observes Jacqueline de Bellefort ( Emma Mackey ) being tossed around the dancefloor with unbridled passion by her “big, boyish and beautifully simple” fiancé Simon Doyle ( Armie Hammer ). But he also notes a bubble in the chemistry when Jacqui introduces Simon to her school chum Linnet Ridgeway ( Gal Gadot ), a stonking rich heiress who makes a knockout entrance, poured into a silver gown by costumer Paco Delgado that’s like liquid metal.

The featured act at the club is Salome Otterbourne (Sophie Okonedo), a guitar-playing singer of raw, bluesy jazz modeled on influential proto-rocker Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose vocals are used throughout. Originally a romance novelist in the Christie novel and 1978 film (played in florid high-camp mode by Angela Lansbury), the reimagined Salome is one of screenwriter Green’s better innovations. The wonderful Okonedo plays her to the hilt, electrifying every scene in which she appears and injecting a flirtatious frisson into her exchanges with Poirot.

Salome, along with her whip-smart niece Rosalie ( Letitia Wright ), who manages her career, is also on hand six weeks later at Aswan’s ritzy Cataract Hotel, where Simon marries Linnet, having cast aside the significantly less well-heeled Jacqui.

That switch amusingly echoes a recollection of the two women’s schooldays, when Jacqui was downgraded from title role to handmaiden in a production of Antony and Cleopatra after Linnet showed up at rehearsals. The latter’s word-perfect recall of Shakespeare’s lines from the play indicates how accustomed Linnet is to playing the queen in any situation. Her wedding gift to herself of a glittering necklace of outsize rocks — an outrageous bit of Tiffany product placement — would be right at home in any collection of royal jewels.

Mirroring Gadot’s head-turning entrance from earlier, Jacqueline stuns the guests when she crashes the wedding reception in a stunning red and gold gown. Impressive newcomer Mackey (Netflix’s Sex Education ) departs from the 1978 model by making Jacqui more of a dangerous femme fatale than an unhinged hysteric, as Mia Farrow played her. Her uninvited presence, and the ornate 22 caliber pistol in her purse, make it a handy coincidence that Poirot happens to be vacationing there, too.

Where the new film pales next to its predecessor is in the assembled party that accompanies the newly-weds on a cruise down the Nile aboard the fabulously appointed S.S. Karnak. The characters could have used more detail; the same goes for the various motives — revenge, money, jealousy — that make all of them suspects as the corpses start piling up. Race and sexuality are also stirred into the mix, though too flimsily to add much.

Christie’s plots, full of byzantine twists and shock reveals, need to unfold like clockwork, with each of the players given a distinct role in the scenario; Green’s script too often feels rushed or vague in what should be key points. In that aspect, the 1978 film, whose screenwriter Anthony Schaffer had proven his skills with murderous puzzles on Sleuth , is superior. Not that the generations unfamiliar with that version will be bothered by unfavorable comparisons.

Among the characters assembled for the wedding and the troubled voyage that follows are Linnet’s maid Louise (Rose Leslie), whose employer played a role in dismantling her marriage prospects; aristocratic doctor Linus Windlesham (Russell Brand, playing it straight), who was once engaged to Linnet; the bride’s “Cousin” Andrew (Ali Fazal), longtime lawyer to the Ridgeway family; Linnet’s eccentric godmother Marie Van Schuyler (Jennifer Saunders), who spurns her wealth and privilege on political grounds; and her nurse and companion of 10 years, Bowers (Dawn French), whose reduced circumstances haven’t dulled her taste for the finer things.

Returning from Branagh’s Orient Expres s is Tom Bateman as Poirot’s charming right-hand man Bouc, whose marriage plans don’t sit well with his bohemian artist mother Euphemia. That newly created character is played with style and imperious attitude by Annette Bening , though she feels like an extraneous element dropped into the plot rather than an integral part of it.

Green’s script focuses so intently on Poirot and the trio at the center of the mystery that the ensemble lacks cohesion, many of them getting lost amid all the exotic locations — or production designer Jim Clay’s meticulous recreations of them. Only Salome and Rosalie register memorably, with Okonedo and Wright given some of the juiciest scenes. It’s a treat to see French and Saunders reunited, however, and even if no one could measure up to the delicious barbed bantering of Bette Davis and Maggie Smith in the 1978 version, the British comedy duo have a welcome flair with throwaway one-liners.

Of the principals, Branagh tempers his hammier instincts with tender, soulful notes that certainly offer a different point of view on the celebrated detective; Gadot’s Linnet is a soignée goddess who remains sympathetic despite her unchallenged ease and entitlement; Mackey deftly balances ostensibly wounded pride with ruthless resolve; and Hammer’s Simon is suitably dashing though clearly outclassed in intelligence by the two rivals for his love.

The sexual assault allegations against Hammer have caused much nail-biting at Disney, with repeat shifts in the release date; while he was almost invisible in the trailer, there’s no sign of his role being downsized in the final cut.

The film is satisfying enough, though more so as glossy, old-school entertainment than diabolically clever mystery. In gorgeous widescreen compositions, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukas’ camera prowls the elegant interiors and magnificent Egyptian settings with a needling purpose too often absent in plotting that should be tighter, more precision-tooled. Branagh tosses in an unsubtle metaphor for the foul deeds to come by showing a crocodile leaping from the waters to snap its jaws shut on a bird on the banks of the Nile. But this remake, despite its many pleasures, doesn’t operate with quite the same merciless bite.

Full credits

Distributor: Disney Production companies: Kinberg Genre, Mark Gordon Pictures, Scott Free Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Letitia Wright Director: Kenneth Branagh Screenwriter: Michael Green, based on the novel by Agatha Christie Producers: Ridley Scott, Kevin J. Walsh, Kenneth Branagh, Judy Hofflund Executive producers: Mark Gordon, Simon Kinberg, Matthew Jenkins, James Prichard, Matthew Prichard Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukas Production designer: Jim Clay Costume designer: Paco Delgado Music: Patrick Doyle Editor: Úna Ní Dhonghaíle Visual effects supervisor: George Murphy Casting: Lucy Bevan

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• DVD & Streaming

After Death

• Documentary

Content Caution

In Theaters

• October 27, 2023
• John Burke; Dr. Michael Sabom; Dr. Jeffrey Long; Dr. Raymond Moody; Dr. Ajmal Zemmar; Dale Black; Dr. Mary C. Neal; Howard Storm; Don Piper; Eva Piper; Anita Onarecker Wood; Swen Spjut; Dr. Karl Greene; Paul Ojeda; Dean Braxton; Steve Kang; Kristin Boudreau

Home Release Date

• January 23, 2024
• Stephen Gray

Distributor

• Angel Studios

Movie Review

What happens when we die?

The documentary After Death explores that most fundamental existential question. Specifically, it dives into the experiential phenomenon known as near-death experiences—experiences that are said to take place either when a person is clinically dead or nearly so.

Director Stephen Gray weaves together three overlapping narrative elements over the course of nearly two hours: First-person accounts of multiple NDEs, as told by those who experienced them; dramatizations of those brushes with death and what, potentially, comes after; and commentary from doctors and experts who’ve studied and written about NDEs.

The first near-death story chronicled here comes from pilot Dale Black. It was July 18, 1969, in Burbank, California. Dale and two friends were taking off in a small plane when one of the engines failed and the plane crashed into a massive, shrine-like mausoleum. “I suddenly found myself above the crash site,” Black recounts, “but unaware of what I was looking at or why. I was not in any pain; I was not in any fear or discomfort. I was just above the crash site.”

Doctors eventually managed to resuscitate Black, but not before he had a remarkable glimpse, he believes, at what comes after death. “I can’t be dead,” Black recounts, “because I’ve never felt more alive, free.”

Others tell their stories as well. Don Piper (author of the book 90 Minutes in Heaven ) was hit head-on by a semi on a rainy bridge, killing him instantly (he says) and rending his body horrifically. Howard Storm (author of My Descent Into Death ) suffered a ruptured small intestine and found himself falling into a hellish place as he died in a Paris hospital. Dr. Mary Neal (author of To Heaven and Back ) plunged off a waterfall in Peru while kayaking, and she was trapped underwater for nearly 30 minutes.

Intercut between these and other dramatic stories of death and resuscitation, experts in the field describe the commonalities in NDEs: a sense of floating above their bodies and seeing themselves; a sense of experiencing God or transcendent love (or, in some cases, a demonic opposite); a deep desire to stay in that place even as some are told that it’s not their time yet, that they must return to their bodies.

“I think the near-death Experience is where science meets religion,” says cardiologist and author of the 1982 book Recollections of Death , Dr. Michael Sabom. And the research he’s done over the decades has challenged his inherent scientific skepticism regarding the claims made about what comes after:  “There is a big difference between proof and evidence. This is all evidence. But enough evidence at some point makes it so close to proof that most people would say it’s right. It’s real.”

Later, Dr. Sabom adds, “I don’t think we ever will have all the answers in the scientific realm. What is the human soul? Is there a human soul? Does it live after death? I don’t think science is gonna answer those questions. I think all of these near-death experiences suggest that it’s possible.”

Accordingly, After Death explores near-death experiences with an eye toward science, but increasingly moves in a spiritual direction as it moves forward.

Positive Elements

Much, if not most, of this film’s potential positive takeaway for viewers is inextricably woven into the spiritual stories of NDE returnees, which I’ll unpack below. That said, the experts, doctors and writers who’ve explored this topic have obviously tried to make some kind of sense of what these people have described. We see their desire to understand something mysterious and transcendent from a scientific perspective—even if the experiences themselves largely move beyond the bounds of empirical science.

Spiritual Elements

After Death spends the majority of its run time exploring, dramatizing and speculating upon the transcendent nature of many people’s NDE experiences.

John Burke, author of Imagine Heaven , summarizes what many encounter: “Many talk about a God of light and love that they experience. This light is brighter than the sun. … They feel an unconditional love and peace and acceptance from this God like they’ve never experienced before. Ultimately, they either make the choice to return to their earthly body or are sent back involuntarily. … This God almost always says to them, ‘Your time is not up yet. You still have a purpose on Earth.’”

Several of those who describe their NDEs here are Christians who talk specifically about meeting Jesus, as well as deceased loved ones and friends, in a momentary taste of heaven that was so overwhelming that they didn’t want to return to this life. Dr. Mary Neal says, “I had the most overwhelming sense of being home, of being where I really belong, where we really belong.”

Dr. Neal also realizes that her experience changed her, deepening her sense of life’s purpose and the importance of relational connections here and now. “What we each say, and what we each do, and the choices we make matter. They really do.”

Don Piper, another Christian, talks about—quite literally—standing at the fabled “Pearly Gates” of heaven. “It was magnificent. It was like the inside of an oyster. It was pearl and dazzling, almost as if it was living.” He then notes, “One of the most difficult things about talking about heaven is that you have to do it with earthly words. And there are no earthly words that do it justice. … My senses were incredibly vivid. It’s just the most real thing that’s ever happened to me. … I wanted to climb that hill and fall at the feet of the great God of creation and say, ‘Thank You for letting me come.’”

These stories are often accompanied by spectacular sci-fi like visuals that bring to mind movies like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar .

But while a number of people here identify as Christians and talk about their encounters with God and heaven from that point of view, not everyone who had such heavenly encounters seems to be coming from a Christian perspective. Steve Kang, a Korean-American who grew up Buddhist (but who nonetheless uses very Christian language about heaven and hell to describe his own experience) says, “I believe all over the world there are so many unique NDEs … and so many cultures and backgrounds, American or not, all types of religions, because death is as real as life. And I believe God in His mercy, no matter what religious background you are, allows you to go through that so that you can seek Him in the process.”

Kang’s own story involves a particularly violent suicide attempt (more on that below) during which, while high on drugs, a demonic spirit in the form of an “old Asian grandpa” told him to take his life so that he’d have “50,000 less years of hell.” As he literally lay dying in a hospital from his self-inflicted knife wounds, Kang says, “God came to me in, like, a ball of light” and pulled him out of the spiritual darkness he’d been falling into. “I looked up, and it was glittering like gold. And the walls were gold. I don’t know how it works, but it’s definitely a place where you’d go.”

Two other dark NDEs involve going to a place you definitely don’t want to go—something the film reports happens to some 23% of those who report NDEs. Paul Ojeda tried to commit suicide via a cocaine overdose, during which he found himself falling through an endless black tunnel until he cried out to God for help.

Howard Storm’s story is even bleaker. In the hospital where he was dying, he reports a group of people (depicted in hooded robes in the dramatization) met his spirit and led him away into darkness. They ultimately began, he says, to bite, scratch and disembowel him until he, too, cried out for Jesus, remembering the song “Jesus Loves Me” from his youth. “Jesus was a like a superhero. I called out to Jesus in complete desperation, and a star appeared.” He says Jesus came to him then ascended through the darkness like a “rocket ship” hurling into a nebula-like galactic heaven.

Apart from individuals’ stories, the only other reference to Christianity in the narration here is a quotation from the Apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 12:2, where he writes, “I was caught up to the third heaven,” a passage some have speculated could have been the first-century equivalent of a near-death experience.

Several scenes include visuals such as churches and art related to Jesus and heaven. We see the Sistine Chapel in Rome, for instance.

Sexual Content

None, really, save for a classic painting of Adam and Eve unclothed in the background of one interview.

Violent Content

As mentioned above, two of the stories we hear are dark—horror-movie dark. Howard Storm found himself led away into darkness by creepy robed people with glowing eyes (which is dramatized here). These entities eventually pin him to the ground and essentially begin to devour him. We see him writhing on the ground with what looks like blood covering his face and head.

Steve Kang describes cutting his throat and stabbing himself in the stomach, showing the camera long scars on both parts of his body.

Don Piper is shown on a gurney after his accident, has face still covered with blood. We hear how he lost a big piece of his femur in the accident, and we see his crushed car.

Similarly, we see the wreckage of Dale Black’s crashed plane in an old newspaper photo. Other scenes depict multiple people in surgery. There’s also a dramatic, CSI -like depiction of blood gushing inside Howard Storm’s abdominal rupture.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear three uses of “h—” as a profanity, apart from some other references to hell as a place of suffering.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Paul Ojeda talks about intentionally overdosing on cocaine in order to overload his heart and induce a fatal heart attack.

Other Negative Elements

From 1977 to 1982, Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy narrated an investigative TV show called In Search Of … that plumbed the depths of mysteries and paranormal phenomenon. It gave me the absolute creeps. And I never missed it.

Nimoy dealt with subjects as diverse as Amelia Earhart’s disappearance, the Bermuda Triangle, the lost continent of Atlantis and, of course, whether Bigfoot was real. (Definitely maybe?)

Mystery lay at the heart of the show’s appeal. Were these things real? What did they mean? How do we explain the unexplainable? Even though the show often left me more than a little freaked out as a tween, it was mesmerizing. I can still recall the hairs on my arms and neck standing up when the theme song played.

After Death isn’t much like In Search Of … really. Except that it kind of is. We’re drawn to mystery. We want to know what the truth is—especially about the journey from life to death that we must all ultimately take.

For many of those who tell their stories here, that journey has been one of paradox. On the brink of death, it was a path of terror—until they experienced the embrace of (the film says) a God of light and love and forgiveness and acceptance. And even the ones who seemed destined for something like hell called out to a God or Jesus, who delivered them from that fate.

In all of that, the film frames near-death experiences in a broadly Christian way. We hear about heaven and hell, reunions with loved ones and depictions of an experience so utterly transcendent that words fail. “Nothing compares to heaven,” Don Piper says. “It’s just—that’s the most real thing. That’s my reality. This is not.”

In a message during the credits, director Stephen Gray tells viewers, “I hope [ After Death ] causes people to stop and think. [I hope] it’ll actually cause people to pause and consider eternity.”

I think this intriguing, well-made and at times unnerving documentary has the potential to do just that. But it still comes with some important caveats.

First, despite the film’s general alignment, broadly speaking, with a Christian understanding, it doesn’t suggest that “going to heaven” is absolutely linked to having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Several people here do have that relationship. But the film doesn’t specifically talk about how Jesus saves us from sin or the need to have a relationship with him as a prerequisite to eternal salvation. Instead, the movie seems to strike a much more universalistic stance, with several people saying that people across different cultures and religions have all had similar experiences of God’s heavenly love and light.

Second, when it comes to evaluating the phenomenon of near-death experiences from a biblical point of view, Scripture offers little explicit guidance. Apart from Paul’s mysterious reference to being caught up to “the third heaven” in 1 Corinthains 12:2, there’s no clear passage of Scripture to help us discern the authenticity or veracity of such experiences. The stories here potentially have the capacity to encourage us with regard to what lies beyond, but these experiences remain almost a textbook example of something experiential and extrabiblical that’s outside the guidance and framework for spiritual truth that the Bible provides.

Finally, After Death does offer two glimpses at a hellish afterlife experience that feel very much like something out of a grim horror movie, even if only momentarily. Despite the movie’s potentially redemptive themes, it’s not one I’d recommend for families with young or sensitive viewers.

All in all, After Death delivers a provocative and potentially encouraging look at the subject of near-death experiences. But the theological caveats and content concerns noted in this review mean it may not be an experience to be shared by every family.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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What if that death is a person, what if death as a person has a perspective, what if death explains or narrates his point of view. Death explains the stories of four people he met. Dear Deat... Read all What if that death is a person, what if death as a person has a perspective, what if death explains or narrates his point of view. Death explains the stories of four people he met. Dear Death - A hyperlink movie. What if that death is a person, what if death as a person has a perspective, what if death explains or narrates his point of view. Death explains the stories of four people he met. Dear Death - A hyperlink movie.

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• December 30, 2022 (India)
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A Matter of Life and Death review – timely rerelease of sublime celestial romance

Powell and Pressburger’s wartime drama, starring David Niven as an erroneously alive bomber pilot, is visually extraordinary and politically topical

A Matter of Life and Death is the utterly unique, enduringly rich and strange romantic fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger . You could put it in a double bill with It’s a Wonderful Life or The Wizard of Oz, though its pure English differentness would shine through. It was released in 1946, the same year that Winston Churchill coined the term “special relationship” – an idea that the film finds itself debating. With that concept now under pressure, 2017 is a good time for this classic to be rereleased in UK cinemas.

The film begins with a sensational flourish: a nuclear explosion that destroys a solar system. We start by drifting through outer space, accompanied by a droll narrative voice, commenting on its vastness and noticing a sudden supernova way in the distance: “Someone must have been messing about with the uranium atom.” The eerie casualness of that revelation sets the otherworldly tone for the rest of what follows. The starlit expanse, the intertitles, the distant detonation, the huge quasi-senatorial valhalla, all hint at where George Lucas got ideas for the Star Wars movies.

Then we find ourselves on Earth in 1945, where RAF pilot Peter Carter, played by David Niven, is flying back to Britain after a bombing raid, losing height, badly hit. He has presumably been attacking German cities, and it has to be noticed that Germans are not represented here, either in this world, or the next. Carter’s parachute has been damaged; he knows he is going to die, and with impossibly dashing flair, he radios his final position to an astonished American radio operator called June, played by Kim Hunter, asks her to contact his family and flirts with her. June and Peter fall in love at that moment.

The miracle is that Peter seems to survive, staggering out of the sea. He finds June, and with the help of a local doctor, Frank Reeves, played by the incomparable Powell/Pressburger stalwart Roger Livesey, he is gradually nursed back to health. Yet an emissary from heaven, in the form of a dandified pre-revolutionary French aristocrat played by Marius Goring, informs Peter that his survival is a mere clerical error and he is expected back in the afterlife right away. Peter complains that now he has fallen in love he is entitled to remain below. A huge trial is in prospect, and a prosecuting counsel is chosen: American revolutionary veteran Abraham Farlan (Raymond Massey), who intends to argue that this decadent Brit has no business with a good American girl. Frank believes that these heavenly visions are delusions caused by his brain injury and everything – or almost everything – is consistent with that rational explanation. But how did Peter survive the fall?

A Matter of Life and Death is a visually extraordinary film: a gorgeous artificiality is created by Alfred Junge’s production design and Jack Cardiff’s vivid Technicolor photography . Counterintuitively, the heaven scenes are in black and white and Earth is in colour. The modernist architecture of heaven is something to rival Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and the “stairway to heaven” sequence (which gave this film its US title) is narcotically weird. Even down on Earth, and without the angelic visits, things have a distinct surreality. Frank likes nothing more than to keep the village under benign surveillance with his camera obscura device, evidently kept on a high rotating turret, which gives him live pictures of everything that’s happening in the village. He is like the voice and eye of an all-seeing God. And perhaps the most extraordinary moment comes when Peter encounters a naked young goatherd on the beach: it is this figure – like someone from a late Shakespeare play, such as The Tempest – who tells Peter that he is back on Earth. (The boy’s nakedness meant that this sequence was cut for TV transmission by prim US networks; Martin Scorsese has spoken entertainingly of his periodic exasperation at sitting down to watch and finding it is the bowdlerised version.)

So what does this film have to say about the special relationship? The speechifying on the subject of history and politics might disconcert some viewers who would rather hear and see more about Peter and June’s romantic adventure. But Powell and Pressburger are telling America and the world that just as Squadron Leader Peter Carter does not want go to heaven, so Britain itself is not dead; it does not deserve to be consigned to history along with those effete and irrelevant periwigged Frenchmen. Britain lives – in partnership with America.

I have watched this film many times, but it was only on sitting down to it again that I finally realised what Frank Reeves’s death reminded me of. Riding his motorbike fast in the rain, Dr Reeves had selflessly swerved in order to save the lives of the ambulancemen and their patient, conveying Peter to hospital. His sacrifice means that he can go to heaven to be Peter’s defending counsel. How should we feel about this terrible event? I had a flashback to a long-suppressed memory of reading CS Lewis’s The Last Battle, the final Narnia episode, in which Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Diggory and Polly are revealed to be killed in a train crash, along with the Pevensie parents, and so they can be admitted to eternal life. It was a profoundly strange happy-sad collision. So is this.

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10 reasons to watch madame web now that it's streaming despite its disappointing reviews.

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Madame Web Ending Explained (In Detail)

The evil spider-man in madame web explained - who is ezekiel sims, madame web just made uncle ben's death even darker than every spider-man movie.

• Madame Web is a stand-alone movie, no prior knowledge needed to understand the unique Spider-Heroes and their story.
• The movie indirectly showcases how cool a Sinister Six movie could be, with a focus on the terrifying side of Spider-Man.
• Madame Web's lack of traditional superheroes offers a fresh take with small-scale action and a focus on future heroes.

It's no secret that Madame Web failed to meet critical or financial expectations when it hit theaters in early 2024, but there are several reasons why Sony's divisive Marvel movie is worth checking out now that it's streaming. Sony's Spider-Man Univers e, containing two Venom movies, Morbius , and Madame Web (with Venom: The Last Dance and Kraven the Hunter coming out later this year), has received a mixed reception as the franchise attempts to build a Spider-Man universe without Spider-Man. However, Madame Web attempts to bridge that gap by introducing four different Spider-Heroes with presumed plans to integrate them into the wider franchise.

However, while Madame Web succeeds in providing backstory for its titular hero and three one-day Spider-Women, it was ultimately bogged down by apparent last-minute rewrites and an underbaked villain. While these flaws and others are undeniable, though, it doesn't mean that Madame Web isn't worth a watch. Now, with the movie available on Netflix, the bar to viewership has never been lower. Here are 10 reasons why Sony's Madame Web is worth some of your time.

Madame Web Review: Sony's New Spider-Man Universe Movie Is A Horrible, Cheap Imitation

With an awful script and not a single ounce of charm among the star-studded cast, Madame Web feels like little more than a Spider-Man movie knockoff.

10 Madame Web Is A Stand-Alone Movie

No prior knowledge needed.

One largely justifiable complaint about modern big-budget superhero movies is that it can be hard to just in for audiences not already caught up with the respective franchises. With the Sony Spider-Man Universe being six years old and Spider-Man's big-screen history going back much further, it's a valid concern for potential viewers that Madame Web may require significant prior viewing. However, that's not the case at all.

Though Madame Web includes characters from the wider Spider-Man mythos, the story told here is not a continuation of any previous movie or TV show . Everything audiences need to know to understand Cassandra Webb and her story is right here in a tight, sub-two-hour runtime. That isn't to say some of Madame Web 's plot threats couldn't have used a bit more development - particularly the villainous Ezekiel Sims - but no backstory or context is missing going into Madame Web cold.

9 Madame Web Indirectly Shows How Cool A Sinister Six Movie Could Be

Spider-man can be scary.

Sony has long been trying to make a Sinister Six movie happen, and Madame Web accidentally proves how interesting the concept could be. Though details are largely nonexistent for Sony's Sinister Six plans, the movie would presumably focus on six Spider-Man villains uniting to take out the web-head. If it follows suit from Sony's current run of movies, it seems likely they may even be stationed as narrative protagonists - regardless of moral standing. Spider-Man as a narrative antagonist is an interesting concept that hasn't been done, but Madame Web puts a twist on the concept.

While Ezekiel Sims is underdeveloped, he has powers and a suit incredibly similar to Spider-Man (minus the web-shooters). In the film's most effective scene, Sim - in full Spider-Man-style garb - methodically takes out a batch of police officers in pursuit of Cassier and her companions. The scene shows just how terrifying Spider-Man can be when his acrobatic fighting techniques are viewed from the outside, and seeing the concept expanded in a Sinister Six project could be exciting.

8 Madame Web's Lack Of Traditional Superheros

The movie is more concerned with future heroes than present ones.

For those feeling burnt out on traditional superheroes, Madam Web 's unique take on the concept could be a welcome breath of fresh air. While Madame Web 's marketing incorrectly focused on Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O'Connor, and Isabela Merced in sharp-looking spider suits, the reality is that they spend the entire movie without powers. Even Cassie, the closest person to a traditional superhero in the movie, doesn't really become one until the project's final scene.

While that's understandably disappointing for those expecting what the trailers promised, it's not bad in and of itself. The movie's structure as an extended origin story does seem dated, but true, old-school origin projects hearken back to a different age of superhero movies. Madame Web is more Final Destination than Spider-Man , and that alone may be an intriguing concept to some.

The Madame Web movie ending is key for Sony's Spider-Man Universe, setting up the titular Marvel hero and three versions of Spider-Woman.

7 Madame Web Could Be Important To The Future Of The SSU

Sony's current plans are unclear.

As of now, it's unclear what the endgame is for Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The franchise seems centered on Venom, given the titular hero's movies have been successful and he remains a generally popular character. However, the third Venom movie's subtitle, The Last Dance, seems to imply an end to his tenure in the franchise.

Madame Web lead Dakota Johnson has been clear that she isn't particularly interested in doing another superhero movie anytime soon. However, the movie also set up three different Spider-Women for future appearances. It's unclear if Sweeney, Merced, and O'Conner would reprise their roles in the "present" given the time gap between Madame Web and the rest of the SSU, but their characters could re-appear as full-fledged superheroes in any upcoming project.

6 Madame Web Doesn't Devolve Into World-Ending Stakes

The conflict remains personal.

It's a common and largely justified criticism of modern superhero movies that they too often fall back to massive, world-ending stakes and massive battles. While these types of conflicts can be exciting, they're also over-done and not required for every story. In this regard, Madame Web is refreshing. The villainous Ezekiel Sims doesn't express a desire to conquer the world or threaten the multiverse. Instead, he's out to kill three girls who will otherwise eventually kill him.

That isn't to say there aren't massive issues with how Sims is written - or, really, the lack of writing. He lacks a tangible backstory or future goals, but the smaller stakes conflict in the movie is a welcome change of pace. Though there's some spotty CGI, the action is also overall well done and easy to follow.

The first Madame Web trailer introduces Ezekiel Sims, a surprising villain looking to be an Evil Spider-Man with very different origins in the comics.

5 Madame Web Is Iconic (For Better Or Worse)

The movie has people talking.

Much like Morbius before it, some of Madame Web 's worst lines and scenes instantly became viral internet memes. For those with no interest in seeing the movie for its own merits, it may be worth checking it out just to stay abreast of the best Madame Web jokes and memes. While that's foolish to recommend while the movie is in theaters, some may find it enticing if they already have a Netflix subscription.

From image macros about the movie's poor line re-recording to jokes about some of Cassie Webb's more bizarre comments and in-universe predictions, Madame Web memes will likely spike again as the movie becomes widely available. The goal of a movie is never to become ironically infamous, but there's undeniable fun to be had joining in on some of the internet's biggest jokes.

4 Madame Web Is The First Movie To Flesh Out Uncle Ben

A character usually popular for his death.

Despite eight previous live-action Spider-Man movies and a handful of animated projects, Madame Web explores an under-seen corner of Peter Parker's story. Uncle Ben is, perhaps, the most important person in Peter's life. After gaining his abilities, Ben's words of wisdom about power and responsibility, followed by his untimely death, are what inspire Peter to become the hero that he does.

Yet, Ben, as a person before his final weeks, is largely left out of Peter's journey . Madame Web fixes that, introducing Adam Scott's Ben Parker as a NYC paramedic in the time just before Peter's birth and right as he meets someone presumed to be the future Aunt May. Ben's status as Peter's uncle isn't particularly important to the movie overall, but it's interesting to get some more insight into the man known predominantly for dying.

Madame Web revealed a close connection between Ben Parker and Cassandra Webb, making Ben's eventual death much darker in hindsight.

3 Madame Web Is The Live-Action Debut Of Several Spider-Heroes

Several spider-women debut.

While some were disappointed that none of the heroes besides Cassie Webs actually got their powers in Madame Web (an expectation unfairly set up by the trailers), the movie is the live-action debut of several notable spider heroes . Sydney Sweeney plays Julia Cornwall, which is clearly a take on Marvel Comics' Julia Carpenter, AKA Spider-Woman. Isabela Merced, meanwhile, plays Anya Corazón, known as either Spider-Girl or Araña in the comics. The trio is rounded out by Celeste O'Connor's Mattie Franklin, also better known as Spider-Woman.

Despite Spider-Man's many live-action movies, none of them have really delved into the extended Spider-Family. This has changed a bit with a wider focus in the animated Spider-Verse series, but Madame Web remains the only project to cast such a wide net in its use of spider-people in live-action. Perhaps this will change in the future of the MCU or if these characters return in the SSU.

2 Madame Web's Action Is Easy To Follow

The fights are relatively small scale.

Massive superhero battles can be thrilling, but they can also lean a bit too much into CGI. When this happens, fights can lose their weight, both visually and emotionally. While it would have been great to get a bit more backstory on Ezekiel Sims, he isn't concerned with world domination. This keeps the movie's action set pieces small and easy to follow.

Ezekiel, being similar in powers to Spider-Man, poses a significant physical threat to Cassie and the future Spider-Women. However, given Cassie's powers are limited, she relies on evasiveness and the occasional motor vehicle to keep her safe. The movie's climactic confrontation involves a few more superpowers, but it still avoids unintelligible CGI blasts.

1 Cassie's Power Are Cool Once She Hones Them

The future is now.

Classic superhero origin story movies aren't as common as they used to be, so it's entertaining to see one in line with what was more common throughout the 2000s. The downside is that it does take Cassie quite a while to gain and understand her superpowers. However, once she does, they're used for some satisfyingly creative sequences.

Though Cassie's powers extend further, at their most basic level, they allow her to see the future. Somewhat similar to Final Destination , these visions often include deaths. Seeing Cassie deftly dodge threats and change potential futures is exciting in Madame Web 's third act and should be even more impressive if the character manages to return.

The Death Of Gollum In The Lord Of The Rings, Explained

M ost people remember the fiery image of Gollum plummeting to his death in Peter Jackson's iconic film "The Return of the King." While the means of his death is famous, though, a recent development in the cinematic landscape has raised new questions about the events leading up to Gollum's final moments -- and how they could factor into a movie set to come out in 2026.

On May 9, Warner Bros. announced that two new Middle-earth movies are in production at the studio. Peter Jackson is returning to help with the creative process, while his co-writers, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, are also helping out with the new projects. The first of these will also be directed by Gollum actor Andy Serkis , and it has the working title "The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum." Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, immediately exploded at the news, as fans in the know chimed in on the idea with varying degrees of support and criticism.

For those who aren't on the inside track of J.R.R. Tolkien's world, though, the announcement may have been a bit of a head-scratcher. A hunt for Gollum? Doesn't he do the hunting? He catches fish, tracks Frodo and Sam, and is always stalking the One Ring. Who hunts Gollum? The surprising answer is none other than Aragorn, son of Arathorn. The Ranger is instrumental in tracking and capturing Gollum, a critical activity in the sequence of events that lead up to "The Lord of the Rings" story.

Read more: Deleted Scenes That Probably Would've Made These Movies R-Rated

How And Why Does Gollum Die In Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King?

Before we explain the larger reasons behind Gollum's leap into Mount Doom (and how it could connect to the new movie) let's go over a quick refresher of the events immediately surrounding Gollum's death. Toward the end of "The Fellowship of the Ring," It's revealed that Gollum is tracking Frodo. In "The Two Towers," Frodo turns the tables, capturing the Slinker, taming him, and making Gollum show him the way to Mordor. After Gollum betrays Frodo to Shelob, he disappears. Then, at the end of "The Return of the King," he suddenly pops up again, attacking Sam on the slopes of Mount Doom and biting Frodo's finger off, Ring and all, at the Cracks of Doom.

In the movie version, Frodo fights with Gollum, inadvertently shoving him off the cliff. In the books, Gollum trips while gloating over the Ring he's recovered. He slips and tumbles to his doom. Either way, he falls into the fiery depths below, perishing along with his Precious.

Is Gollum Still Alive?

Solely based on "The Lord of the Rings" story, the question of Gollum's survival is pretty obvious. No, the poor corrupted fella is not alive at the end of the story. He pays the ultimate price for his obsession with the One Ring by cooking alive as he falls into the hottest spot in all of Middle-earth.

That said, the announcement of a new movie does beg the question: is this a sequel or a prequel? Will we see some crazy expedition to retrieve Gollum's ashes from Mount Doom? Again, the answer here is an emphatic no . The tale of Gollum comes to an abrupt end at the Cracks of Doom.

This leaves just one direction to go with another movie about the character: backward. The good news here is that, due to the life-extending superpowers of the One Ring, Gollum's tragic backstory is a long and at times, a dramatic affair — especially after he loses his Precious in a riddle competition. Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, and company are going to be backing up to tell an earlier part of the miserable wretch's story as he sets out in search of revenge and the One Ring.

What Does Gollum's Death Mean For The 2026 Lord Of The Rings Movie?

The new Gollum movie will likely focus on one part of the pre-Lord of the Rings narrative. After the events of "The Hobbit," Gollum eventually leaves his lair in the Misty Mountains. He tracks his Hobbit nemesis across northern Middle-earth before he's sidetracked and caught near Mordor. He's tortured by Sauron — an event briefly depicted in Peter Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring"—and then we don't see him again in that story until he tracks its titular group.

However, that doesn't mean Gollum lies low waiting for Frodo to pass by. He actually has his own adventure that runs parallel to the earlier stages of "The Lord of the Rings." After escaping from Mordor (or being released — it's complicated), Sméagol is picked up by Aragorn, who is hunting him for Gandalf. The two kick things off on the wrong note, and Aragorn ends up forcing Gollum to accompany him all the way back to Mirkwood, where Gandalf does one of the most terrible things he's ever done by threatening to burn Gollum to extract information from him. After that, Gollum is busted out of prison by Orcs and starts to track the One Ring again, ultimately leading him to Frodo and Sam.

The story of the Hunt for Gollum is a pretty fun one, and it all takes place before he dies. In fact, a lot of it leads directly into that deadly journey. It's a fascinating prelude to Sméagol's role in "The Lord of the Rings." How it will hold up as a stand-alone feature, though, remains to be seen. Hopefully, it does better than the Gollum game (which was one of the worst video games of 2023 ).

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‘A Prince’ Review: Let New Passions Bloom

Sex, death and domination fuel this beautifully enigmatic pastoral drama from France, which presents the gay coming-of-age of an apprentice gardener.

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By Beatrice Loayza

It’s not immediately apparent how courtly intrigue figures in “A Prince,” Pierre Creton’s spellbinding French pastoral drama, though sex, death and domination hang palpably in the film’s crisp, Normandy air.

Creton, a veteran director working at the margins of France’s film industry, looks to the divine powers and chivalric codes that fuel swords-and-shields epics like “Game of Thrones,” but whittles these elements down to a mysterious essence. A subtly medieval score — distinguished by the thrum of a lute and composed by Jozef van Wissem — draws out a surreal dimension. Eventually, the film shifts into explicitly sexual and mythological terrain with a B.D.S.M. edge, and the score keeps pace, taking on a folk metal vibe.

The story is slippery by design, loosely tracking the gay coming-of-age of an apprentice gardener, Pierre-Joseph, played for the most part by Antoine Pirotte. Creton, who also works as a gardener in real life, plays the older version of Pierre-Joseph, so “A Prince” also reads as an autofictional memory piece.

Throughout the film, a series of wordless and seductively austere tableaux, Pierre- Joseph forms bonds with various individuals in his rural community. Multiple narrators, including Françoise Lebrun (“ The Mother and the Whore ”), speak in retrospect, as if looking back from the afterlife at the characters onscreen. These connections are tangled: for instance, Lebrun voices Françoise Brown (played by Manon Schaap), the head of a horticulture school. Yet Lebrun also plays the onscreen version of Pierre-Joseph’s mother.

The effect may seem frustrating at first, but it ultimately feeds into the kind of alternative, communal lifestyle that the film showcases so beautifully.

Pierre-Joseph eventually comes to form a throuple with Alberto (Vincent Barré) and Adrien (Pierre Barray), his mentors. The naked bodies of these much older gentleman appear suggestively weathered next to their younger lover’s sprightly form. Yet there is no mention of taboo. That passion could bloom in such spontaneous and unexpected forms is part of this enigmatic film’s potency.

A Prince Not rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review misidentified an instrument used in the score. It was a lute, not a mandolin.

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Roger Corman, low-budget filmmaker who launched many careers, dies at 98

While making films on the cheap, Mr. Corman became a “cinematic godfather” to Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola and others whose careers he boosted.

Roger Corman, a low-budget but resourceful Hollywood filmmaker who churned out dozens of laughably ridiculous and ridiculously profitable movies about crab monsters, a human-eating plant and buxom women in prison, and who helped launch the careers of Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola and other promising actors and directors, died May 9 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 98.

His daughter Catherine Corman announced the death but did not provide a cause.

There have been mavericks working outside the major studio system since the earliest days of film, but few have been so stingy and so financially successful for so long as Mr. Corman. He entered the business in the 1950s, just as a U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling loosened the tight grip that a few big studio bosses had long exerted over the production and distribution of movies.

Mr. Corman became one of the most commercially successful filmmakers of all time, but his films rarely warranted consideration by mainstream critics. He worked in a remarkable array of genres — horror, gangster, western, science fiction, the drug movie — and he was applauded by a core of devoted followers and even some reviewers for flashes of craftsmanship and a playful sense of the absurd.

Even if Mr. Corman’s name would never be mentioned in the same breath as Orson Welles or Alfred Hitchcock, he was a serious and disciplined producer and director who followed a consistent formula: quick and cheap. He scouted acting schools to find budding talent who would work for low wages just to get their names and faces in front of the public. That is how in 1958 he found Nicholson, who had moved from New Jersey and worked as an office boy at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.

Nicholson made his screen debut in Mr. Corman’s “Cry Baby Killer” (1958) as a distraught teenager who takes hostages at gunpoint. In a collaboration that lasted more than a decade, Mr. Corman gave Nicholson greater responsibility, letting him produce and write a variety of films.

Mr. Corman met Coppola when he called the UCLA film school to send over its brightest student to re-edit a bunch of Russian science-fiction films Mr. Corman had bought on the cheap and hoped to release theatrically. In particular, Mr. Corman wanted someone who could edit out the anti-American propaganda.

Mr. Corman said he was especially impressed when the student editor, Coppola, not only made the required changes, but also added new footage to one film that included monsters made to look like parts of the human reproductive anatomy. It did not take long for Mr. Corman to give Coppola the freedom to write and direct scripts — years before Coppola won international acclaim with “The Godfather” (1972) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979).

Film critic Leonard Maltin said Mr. Corman had a profound influence on filmmaking by hiring “an astonishing array of talented young people who were just waiting for their big break. That roll call is amazing. They all look upon him as a kind of cinematic godfather.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cited Mr. Corman’s success as a mentor of talent in awarding him an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2009.

Mr. Corman played decisive roles in the early careers of actors Robert De Niro ( “Bloody Mama,” 1970), Sylvester Stallone ( “Death Race 2000,” 1975) and Pam Grier ( “Women in Cages,” 1971); and directors such as Martin Scorsese ( “Boxcar Bertha,” 1972) and Peter Bogdanovich ( “Targets,” 1968). James Cameron, who later directed “Titanic,” got his start as a model maker for Mr. Corman on the set of “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980).

Mr. Corman gave Ron Howard, best known for his acting roles on “Happy Days” and “The Andy Griffith Show,” his first opportunity to direct a feature-length picture with the comedy “Grand Theft Auto” (1977). Years later, the well-established Howard fittingly cast Mr. Corman as a tightwad congressman in “Apollo 13” (1995).

Stories about Mr. Corman’s tight-fistedness came a penny a dozen. To cut corners, he recycled the same sets for multiple movies and accepted bets that he could complete shooting in days, when others took weeks or months.

To a director who asked for a helicopter to film an action sequence, Mr. Corman was said to have suggested an alternative: “I’ll get you a ladder.”

When Nicholson auditioned for the role of a dentist’s comically masochistic patient in “The Little Shop of Horrors” (1960), the film about the bloodthirsty plant, the actor said he was forced to hop over a studio fence because Mr. Corman was too cheap to have a guard open the gate.

Moviemaking ‘was all so easy’

Roger William Corman was born in Detroit on April 5, 1926. His father, an engineer, later moved the family to Beverly Hills, Calif., for the better climate. Growing up in the Depression was said to have influenced some of Mr. Corman’s devotion to frugality, and the future director was said to never have wasted paper scraps or pencil stubs, if more could be made of them.

Mr. Corman served in the Navy during World War II and graduated from Stanford University in 1947 with an industrial engineering degree. His major interest as a young man was making a fortune by the time he was 30, a path he said could be found only through real estate or filmmaking.

Through family connections, he took a messenger job at Twentieth Century Fox studios and was a literary agent in Los Angeles. During this period, he cobbled together a script about an outlaw who flees to the desert while on the run from the police. Mr. Corman’s boss at the literary agency sold the story to a small studio called Allied Artists for $4,000, and it was produced under the name “Highway Dragnet” (1954).

“It was all so easy I could hardly believe it,” Mr. Corman later said. He also negotiated a co-producer credit on “Highway Dragnet” and used the proceeds to partially finance and produce a science-fiction movie that he filmed in six days and called “It Stalked the Ocean Floor.”

“I shot it on location at Malibu and I brought it in right on budget — $12,000,” he told the New York Times. “I had a narrator saying, ‘Deep in the uncharted reaches of Yucatán …’ while my camera panned around a beach at Malibu, trying desperately to keep the auto traffic on Highway 1 out of the shot. I sold the finished picture to a distributor named Lippert, who told me my title was too arty and changed it to ‘The Monster from the Ocean Floor.’ ”

Mr. Corman followed that success with profitable westerns, monster movies and teen exploitation films. He also made two crucial breakthroughs, based on his clout as a moneymaking producer. First was persuading distributors to give him money in advance for three pictures in a row, thereby guaranteeing financing that many other independent filmmakers lacked.

Another turning point, he said, was to persuade the low-budget American International Pictures to give him a slightly bigger budget, a three-week shooting schedule (instead of 10 days) and the use of color film stock to make a slightly more artistic production. The result was “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1960), which became one of the highest-grossing independent films of the year.

It was also the first of a cycle of Edgar Allan Poe stories Mr. Corman filmed over the next three years. Each starred Vincent Price, whose hammy acting defined the macabre plotlines as much as the lush color photography and comparably lavish costuming.

Flop and a return to form

Mr. Corman, who described himself as a liberal, made one foray into what he considered serious and timely political moviemaking. “The Intruder” (1962) starred William Shatner as a Northern rabble-rouser who whips up old racial hatreds in a Southern town that is about to integrate its schools. Mr. Corman directed the film on location in a small town where the Ku Klux Klan exerted great power. Shatner led a parade of real hooded Klansmen through the Black part of town. They burned a cross.

“We shot late at night,” Mr. Corman told the London Daily Telegraph. “I said, ‘Cut, print!’ and everybody went, ‘Yeah, we’re out of here!’ Guys raced to their cars, the grips threw the last couple of things in the trucks and we just drove straight north.”

To keep it realistic, Mr. Corman insisted the characters use racial epithets throughout. He said the language prevented the film from receiving a Motion Picture Production Code seal of approval, without which hundreds of theaters refused to show it.

“The Intruder” was Mr. Corman’s only commercial failure, and he soon returned to the formula he knew best: science-fiction and counterculture dramas as well as lucrative movies about sexually exploited nurses, teachers, stewardesses, hookers and inmates. Topless girls and intense cat fight scenes helped “The Big Doll House” (1971), which cost about $125,000 to make, gross $10 million.

In 1970, Mr. Corman married Julie Halloran, who had producing credits on many of his films. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Corman once said he did not object to enormous budgets, if the money was spent for a good reason.

“When I see Jim Cameron spending $150 million on ‘Titanic,’ you look at the film and say, ‘Yes, it’s on the screen.’ So I understand what he did and I have no objection,” he told a British Columbia newspaper. “What I do object to is when you have a picture with two people talking in a room and they say it costs $80 million. At that point I say, ‘OK, tell me: Where did the money go?’”

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Movie Review: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ finds a new hero and will blow your mind

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Noa, played by Owen Teague, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Proximus Caesar, played by Kevin Durand, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Raka, played by Peter Macon, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Soona, played by Lydia Peckham, left and Noa, played by Owen Teague, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Noa, played by Owen Teague, from left, Freya Allan as Nova, and Raka, played by Peter Macon, in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Freya Allan in a scene from “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” (20th Century Studios via AP)

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Fans of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise may still be mourning the 2017 death of Caesar, the first smart chimp and the charismatic ape leader. Not to worry: He haunts the next episode, the thrilling, visually stunning “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.”

We actually start with Caesar’s funeral, his body decorated with flowers and then set alight like a Viking, before fast-forwarding “many generations later.” All apes talk now and most humans don’t, reduced to caveman loin cloths and running wide-eyed and scared, evolution in reverse.

Our new hero is the young ape Noa (Owen Teague ) who is like all young adult chimps — seeking his father’s approval (even chimp dads just don’t understand) and testing his bravery. He is part of a clan that raises pet eagles, smokes fish and lives peacefully.

That all changes when his village is attacked not by humans but by fellow apes — masked soldiers from a nasty kingdom led by the crown-wearing Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand, playing it to the hilt). He has taken Caesar’s name but twisted his words to become a tyrannical strongman — sorry, strongape.

Unlike the last movie which dealt with man’s inhumanity to animals — concentration camps included — ape-on-ape violence is in the cards for this one, including capturing an entire clan as prisoners. Proximus Caesar’s goons use makeshift cattle prods on fellow apes and force them to work while declaring “For Caesar!”

Screenwriter Josh Friedman has cleverly created a movie that examines how ancient stories can be hijacked and manipulated, like how Caesar’s non-violent message gets twisted by bad actors. There’s also a lot of “Avatar” primitive naivete, and that makes sense since the reboot was shaped by several of that blue alien movie’s makers.

The movie poses some uncomfortable questions about collaborationists. William H. Macy plays a human who has become a sort of teacher-prisoner to Proximus Caesar — reading Kurt Vonnegut to him — and won’t fight back. “It is already their world,” he rationalizes.

Along for the heroic ride is a human young woman (Freya Allan, a budding star) who is hiding an agenda but offers Noa help along the way. Peter Macon plays a kindly, book-loving orangutan who adds a jolt of gleeful electricity to the movie and is missed when he goes.

The effects are just jaw-dropping, from the ability to see individual hairs on the back of a monkey to the way leaves fall and the crack of tree limbs echoing in the forest. The sight of apes on horseback, which seemed glitchy just seven years ago, are now seamless. There are also inside jokes, like the use of the name Nova again this time.

Director Wes Ball nicely handles all the thrilling sequences — though the two-and-a-half hour runtime is somewhat taxing — and some really cool ones, like the sight of apes on horseback on a beach, a nod to the original 1968 movie. And like when the apes look through some old illustrated kids’ books and see themselves depicted in zoo cages. That makes for some awkward human-ape interaction. “What is next for apes? Should we go back to silence?” our hero asks.

The movie races to a complex face-off between good and bad apes and good and bad humans outside a hulking silo that holds promise to each group. Can apes and humans live in peace, as Caesar hoped? “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” doesn’t answer that but it does open up plenty more to ponder. Starting with the potentially crippling proposition of a key death, this franchise has somehow found new vibrancy.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” a 20th Century Studios release that is exclusively in theaters May 10, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action.” Running time: 145 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Online: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

'Incredibly depraved.' $1 million bond set for Massillon theater shooting suspect Corvon Thomas

• A $1 million bond has been set for a 20-year-old Jackson Township man accused of fatally shooting a 27-year-old Canton man inside the Regal Massillon movie theater on Friday night.
• Chief Assistant City Prosecutor Andrea Bartos calls crime "incredibly depraved."

MASSILLON ‒ A $1 million bond has been set for a 20-year-old Jackson Township man accused of fatally shooting a 27-year-old Canton man inside the Regal Massillon movie theater on Friday night.

Massillon Municipal Court Magistrate Andrea M. Scassa set bond Monday at the first hearing for Corvon C. Thomas. He is charged with murder and felonious assault, accused of killing Daron Davis and shooting a woman. The female bystander went to a hospital by a private vehicle, not an ambulance, and her injuries are not life-threatening, said police Lt. Nicholas Antonides. (Information was corrected on May 13 to fix an error. See correction below.)

Asked whether police had identified a motive for the shootings, he said, "It was a targeted act of violence on a specific person."

Antonides said Davis was shot as he was walking from a theater to the lobby, where he was pronounced dead at 11:48 p.m.

Massillon movie theater shooting: Canton man shot to death inside theater; suspect in custody

Chief Assistant City Prosecutor Andrea Bartos said the crime was "incredibly depraved."

"Although we have two listed victims, it very much victimized our entire community to have this occur in such a public space," Bartos said.

Thomas will have his next court appearance on May 20. If he waives his right to a hearing, the judge or magistrate is likely to send the case to Stark County Common Pleas Court for grand jury consideration. Because the murder and felonious assault charges are felonies, they would be adjudicated in Common Pleas Court, not Municipal Court.

Attorney Keith Warstler represented Thomas in court on Monday in place of defense counsel Aaron Kovalchik, who has been retained by the suspect.

Thomas has been in the Stark County Jail since early Saturday. He appeared in court by video link.

In addition to setting the bond that may be met with 10% cash or a surety, Scassa ordered the defendant to have no contact with the family of the deceased victim, the surviving victim and her family, and the theater. She said the order also applied to Thomas having others contact the protected parties on his behalf.

Bartos said the defendant does not have a criminal history, as far as the prosecutor's office could determine.

In a press release on Monday, Massillon police said they arrived at the theater less than two minutes after being dispatched at 10:47 p.m. Friday. The fire department also responded, checked Davis, and told officers he had no signs of life.

Police had escorted all patrons and employees from the theater by approximately 11:30 p.m.

They said the suspect fled immediately after the shooting but was seen in the Massillon Police Department lot at 11:40 p.m.

Police said the investigation continued on Monday. The theater was the only location where shooting occurred.

"Ensuring the safety and security of our citizens remains the utmost priority of the Massillon Police Department," their statement said. "Our resolve to protect and serve remains steadfast, we remain vigilant in our duty to uphold law and order."

Operations resumed at the Regal Massillon theater on Sunday.

Regal released this statement regarding the incident: “We received confirmation of an incident at our Massillon theatre on Friday, May 10, and we are currently working with local authorities regarding the investigation. Our primary concern is for the safety and security of our guests and staff.”

Correction: Magistrate Andrea Scassa set bond on Monday. The story originally contained a typographical error in her first name.

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or [email protected]. On X, formerly known as Twitter: @nmolnarTR.

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Book Reviews

Two new novels investigate what makes magic, what is real and imagined.

Marcela Davison Avilés

In an enchanted world, where does mystery begin? Two authors pose this question in new novels out this spring.

In Pages of Mourning by the Mexican magical realism interrogator-author Diego Gerard Morrison, the protagonist is a Mexican writer named Aureliano Más II who is at war with his memory of familial sorrow and — you guessed it — magical realism. And the protagonist Alma Cruz in Julia Alvarez's latest novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, is also a writer. Alma seeks to bury her unpublished stories in a graveyard of her own making, in order to find peace in their repose — and meaning from the vulnerability that comes from unheard stories.

Both of these novels, one from an emerging writer and one from a long celebrated author, walk an open road of remembering love, grief, and fate. Both find a destiny not in death, but in the reality of abandonment and in dreams that come from a hope for reunion. At this intersection of memory and meaning, their storytelling diverges.

Pages of Mourning

Pages of Mourning, out this month, is set in 2017, three years after 43 students disappear from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College after being abducted in Iguala , Guerrero, Mexico. The main character, Aureliano, is attempting to write the Great Mexican Novel that reflects this crisis and his mother's own unexplained disappearance when he was a boy. He's also struggling with the idea of magical realism as literary genre — he holds resentment over being named after the protagonist in 100 Years of Solitude, which fits squarely within it. He sets out on a journey with his maternal aunt to find his father, ask questions about his mother, and deal with his drinking problem and various earthquakes.

Morrison's voice reflects his work as a writer, editor and translator based in Mexico City, who seeks to interrogate "the concept of dissonance" through blended art forms such as poetry and fiction, translation and criticism. His story could be seen as an archetype, criticism, or a reflection through linguistic cadence on Pan American literature. His novel name drops and alludes to American, Mexican and Latin American writers including Walt Whitman, Juan Rulfo, Gabriel Garcia Márquez — and even himself. There's an earnest use of adjectives to accompany the lived dissonance of his characters.

There's nothing magical, in the genre sense, in Morrison's story. There are no magical rivers, enchanted messages, babies born with tails. Morrison's dissonance is real — people get disappeared, they suffer addictions, writer's block, crazy parents, crazier shamans, blank pages, corruption, the loss of loved ones. In this depiction of real Pan-American life — because all of this we are also explicitly suffering up North — Morrison finds his magic. His Aureliano is our Aureliano. He's someone we know. Probably someone we loved — someone trying so hard to live.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories

From the author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents , The Cemetery of Untold Stories is Julia Alvarez's seventh novel. It's a story that's both languorous and urgent in conjuring a world from magical happenings. The source of these happenings, in a graveyard in the Dominican Republic, is the confrontation between memories and lived agendas. Alvarez is an acclaimed storyteller and teacher, a writer of poetry, non-fiction and children's books, honored in 2013 with the National Medal of Arts . She continues her luminous virtuosity with the story of Alma Cruz.

Author Interviews

Julia alvarez: literature tells us 'we can make it through'.

Alma, the writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories , has a goal - not to go crazy from the delayed promise of cartons of unpublished stories she has stored away. When she inherits land in her origin country — the Dominican Republic — she decides to retire there, and design a graveyard to bury her manuscript drafts, along with the characters whose fictional lives demand their own unrequited recompense. Her sisters think she's nuts, and wasting their inheritance. Filomena, a local woman Alma hires to watch over the cemetery, finds solace in a steady paycheck and her unusual workplace.

Alma wants peace for herself and her characters. But they have their own agendas and, once buried, begin to make them known: They speak to each other and Filomena, rewriting and revising Alma's creativity in order to reclaim themselves.

Code Switch

How julia alvarez wrote her many selves into existence.

In this new story, Alvarez creates a world where everyone is on a quest to achieve a dream — retirement, literary fame, a steady job, peace of mind, authenticity. Things get complicated during the rewrites, when ambitions and memories bump into the reality of no money, getting arrested, no imagination, jealousy, and the grace of humble competence. Alma's sisters, Filomena, the townspeople — all make a claim over Alma's aspiration to find a final resting place for her memories. Alvarez sprinkles their journey with dialogue and phrases in Spanish and one — " no hay mal que por bien no venga " (there is goodness in every woe) — emerges as the oral talisman of her story. There is always something magical to discover in a story, and that is especially true in Alvarez's landing place.

Marcela Davison Avilés is a writer and independent producer living in Northern California.

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