It’s the latest trio of films I checked out on Tubi, and it includes one with a gay male couple as the leads!
MY LITTLE NIGHTMARE (2024)
When I saw this move was 2 hours and 13 minutes long, I was dreading even starting it and planned immediately to view it as a two night miniseries. But then the first scene started with a cute Spanish gay couple in bed.
They kiss, they cuddle, there’s a little love spank. The portrayal of this couple is so genuine and charming, and they are literally the leading characters, so the movie earns a spot on the homo horror movies page.
That doesn’t negate the fact that this movie should have been at least 40 minutes shorter. There’s no excuse for this runtime. This is a pretty basic plot—it’s I Know What You Did Last Summer with a ghost child instead of a fisherman. Difference is the movie sort of goes in reverse. The cast gets stalked and killed off by this supernatural specter before we eventually get flashbacks showing why they keep saying “sorry” to the ghostly killer when they are about to die.
It’s nothing new, but the death scenes are fun enough, with frequent cheap scares as the ghost flashes across the screen (there even seems to be a nod to the infamous Exorcist III scene).
Honestly, I don’t even know how the film manages to drag out all the time between kills. There are plenty of attempts to give us character development, but it really doesn’t enrich the movie much and just kills the pacing.
Oddest of all is that it isn’t simply a dead child getting revenge. There’s some sort of evil entity involved, and I didn’t quite get why there was a need to complicate a simple plot line. Even so, I would highly recommend this one for the gay representation.
PLAY DEAD (2022)
Jerry O’Connell and familiar faces from TV shows Pretty Little Liars and Love, Victor are the stars of this morbid thriller with a sort of out there plot.
When two dudes try to commit a robbery, one is shot, so the other leaves him behind. He goes to his female friend and tells her everything, including the fact that the phone on his dead friend will lead police right back to him. Sooooo…brace yourself. The girl decides to play dead so she’ll get sent to the morgue and can then get the phone.
Once in place, she finds herself trapped inside the morgue with a crazy coroner, played by Jerry. She finds out he’s up to criminal shit in the morgue, and she needs to get out or she’s dead. For real this time.
It’s suspenseful with some macabre moments, but it’s also just beyond silly, and not only is she soon playing a cat and mouse game with Jerry….she’s playing cat and mouse with a dog. Sigh. I probably would have enjoyed the film a little better if it had been shorter. At 107 minutes, the absurdity of it all started to really get on my nerves.
THE RESURRECTION OF CHARLES MANSON (2023)
This is really such a silly little movie. It simply takes a major real-life horror to create a lifeless fictional continuation based on the infamous mastermind behind the Manson Family.
So this straight couple goes to an Airbnb in the desert to edit a documentary on Manson. Someone is clearly lurking around the house. The boyfriend also encounters an odd fellow while he’s out and about.
Not much happens at all, but eventually we find out there’s a cult that wants to resurrect Manson, and they need a sacrifice.
There’s a twist that doesn’t have the impact it could have if the movie had been a stronger thriller (it’s really flat), and the final ritual scene feels like something from a made-for-TV movie.
