Sean Patrick
Bio
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
Stories (289/1969)
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Movie Review: 'A Quiet Place: Part 2' is EXHAUSTING
I didn’t enjoy A Quiet Place Part 2, I endured it. John Krasinski’s budding horror franchise is utterly exhausting. I understand that tension is the bread and butter of this premise but at a certain point my excitement during A Quiet Place Part 2 morphed into the kind of feeling one has during a rigorous workout with a tyrannical trainer, I appreciate the necessity but I just want this to be over as soon as possible. Some will call it effective, I don’t entirely disagree with that notion. But I don’t think a feeling of weary relief that I can now go home is what the movie is intending.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Saw 5' Still Scary and Violent After All These Years
In my review of Saw 2 I said that Jigsaw wasn't immortal. I was wrong. No, he doesn’t rise from the dead but through his unending game, his work, his philosophy, and teaching, he is far from gone. As we wend our way toward Saw 6, the final in my series of Saw reviews, Saw 5 sets the table for the Jigsaw philosophy to live forever. Saw 5 is not as carefully thought out as Saw movies that came before it. It is however as suspenseful and surprising as any of the Saw movies and that goes a long way.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Saw 4' Showed How a Great Series Maintains Momentum
Saw celebrates humanity while exploring its degradation and destruction. The point of the series has always been about the character of Jigsaw, played by Tobin Bell, teaching the lecherous and lethargic to appreciate the gift of life. It's a bizarre and ingenious idea for a horror film and, in its fourth installment, Saw brought both closure and new beginnings to its stories of human misery, sadness and redemption.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Spiral' Doesn't Quite Live Up to the Legacy of Saw'
It’s rather appropriate that Chris Rock would use the Saw horror franchise as a means to send a message regarding Police Reform. The Saw franchise is one of the most thoughtful and conscientious franchises in the history of American horror. The film's messages regarding valuing your life and paying dearly for your sins make it one of the strangest and most fascinating franchises Hollywood has ever produced.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Amityville Poltergeist'
In the competition for worst movie of 2021, it’s thus far no contest. The bizarre cannibal rape movie, Scavenger remains untouched as the worst thing I’ve seen this year. Amityville Poltergeist is the one movie thus far that can come close to challenging the title. Amityville Poltergeist however, is not nearly as hateful in it’s terribleness as Scavenger is. Amityville Poltergeist is more incompetent than Scavenger, somehow, but the fact that it doesn’t feature an unending sexual assault and appears to have a three act structure, keeps Scavenger ahead in pure awfulness.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Saw 3'
Spiral: From the Book of Saw is now in theaters, as of May 14th, 2021. The film attempts to carry on the tremendous legacy of the franchise begun by director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell in 2004. Spiral isn’t bad, but it is on the lower end of any ranking of the Saw franchise from best to worst. I happen to be a Saw apologist, to the point where I have never ranked the Saw movies from best to worst, worst to best, simply because, aside from 2017’s Jigsaw, blech, all the Saw movies are really good.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Saw 2'
Spiral: From the Book of Saw opens May 14th, 2021. As part of a series looking at the franchise, I am watching and reviewing the Saw movies. I've already published reviews of Jigsaw (2017), Saw 3D (2010) and the original Saw (2004). With this review, I am picking up the franchise again and looking them, one movie at a time while placing them in the context of when they were released.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Djinn' is a Fun Experiment in Horror Storytelling
The writing and directing duo behind the new IFC Midnight horror movie, The Djinn, gave themselves quite a task. The main character in The Djinn is a 12 year old boy who is mute, he is unable to speak. Played by Ezra Dewey, the main character, Dylan, spends most of the film alone in the apartment he shares with his father, Michael, played by Rob Brownstein. Dad works the late night shift on a radio station which forces him to leave Dylan home alone. On this night, Dylan has discovered a book of magic in their new apartment and he hopes to use it to give himself a voice for the first time in his life.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Scavenger' is One of the Worst Movies Ever Made THAT'S NOT A REASON TO SEE IT
Scavenger is among the most ugly, nasty and genuinely unpleasant movies I’ve ever endured. I hate saying that, I know I should not open the review with that. I know that people who release a movie as ugly and vile as Scavenger love for critics to say how awful they are, they consider a negative review such as this as good publicity. I hate that fact but I can’t put this lightly or simply dismiss the revulsion I felt while watching Scavenger.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
TCM Film Festival Review: 'Doctor X' and the Horror Films of Michael Curtiz
In his insanely prolific career with more than 170 film credits in just over 40 years in Hollywood and Germany, Director Michael Curtiz made only three horror movies. As is typical of Michael Curtiz, these aren’t merely horror films, they are incredibly detailed, exceptionally well made horror films. Curtiz did nothing halfway in his remarkable career and while Doctor X may not be well remembered today, it’s an exceptional 1930’s horror movie filled with suspense, drama and a touch of comedy to make the scares more fun.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Things Heard & Seen'
I have a reputation, via the Everyone’s A Critic Movie Review Podcast, for being hard on haunted house movies. Indeed, I’ve trashed most of them. Whether it’s The Conjuring franchise and its associated films or just the random September/October studio detritus, made to capitalize on the ravenous horror fandom, I’ve not been impressed with Hollywood’s ghost stories. It’s not a particular bias ghosts ghosts. Rather, it’s an issue with overused tropes, vague motivations, and screenwriting shortcuts that have put me off of Hollywood’s over-familiar ghost formula.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'In the Earth'
To say I didn’t care for director Ben Wheatley’s take on Alfred Hitchcock’s incredible masterpiece, Rebecca, would be an understatement. Not only did I write a lengthy negative review, I then wrote a second scathing take on the movie in the form of a numbered list of everything wrong with the movie. So yeah, me and Ben Wheatley are not on the same page. I felt the same wearying feeling about his breakthrough feature Free Fire starring Brie Larson, though I wasn’t inspired to chronicle my disdain as I did with Rebecca.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Horror
