The Legend of Ochi is a very unoriginal story with flat characters packaged in genuinely breathtaking visuals. It's painfully slow-paced, and the audio mixing wasn't always great. Still, the film is definitely best watched in the cinema to fully appreciate the landscapes, animatronics, and puppetry. Also, Helena Zengel gave a compelling performance that tugs on the heartstrings despite the poor character writing.

As both a Disney fan and a horror lover, Screamboat is fantastic. The movie is chockful of gore, blood, and Disney easter eggs/references. It felt like a love letter to The Mouse. Screamboat also has many similarities to the Twisted Childhood Universe, which is a group of indie films that I love. However, it isn't without its weaknesses. The story lags at points, and some of the characters are so one-dimensional that I just don't care whether they live or die. That being said, I'd definitely watch Screamboat again!

I really wanted to like Disney's Snow White more than I did. Unfortunately, the film had so many issues, from cohesion to a consistent theme to strange costume choices to terrifying CGI dwarfs. The performance by Gal Gadot also didn't live up to expectations. That being said, Rachel Zegler perfectly embodied Snow White, and the dynamic of the relationship between Jonathan and Snow entertained me. I also loved the new songs (minus "All Is Fair"). I might not watch the movie again, but I will definitely have the soundtrack on repeat.

I love XO, Kitty season 1. If I were rating just based on the first season, I'd give the show 7 stars out of 10. Unfortunately, I hated almost everything about season 2, outside of the family storyline.

**SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 ARE AHEAD!**

What was the point of having Sapphic characters if they were going to paint them as liars and cheaters? That perpetuates stereotypes, especially when one of the characters engaging in cheating is bi. They destroyed three Sapphic romantic pairings and an LGBTQ+ friendship. The story destroys Yuri's personality. Then, they rubbed salt in the wound by using a Chappell Roan song (Chappell Roan, who is an out and proud lesbian) on Min Ho and Kitty instead of any of the potential WLW pairings.

I love the visuals. I love the characters and their relationships with one another. I even love the small-town ambiance. However, the storylines in this show are subpar, and there are so many timeline issues that it's maddening.

Every single week, my rating score for Before drops because the story is painfully dull, messy, and frustrating. Every episode adds more questions but provides almost no answers. At this point, I'm only continuing to watch it for two big reasons:

1. It's my job to write about this show.

2. I want to see if they can come up with a satisfying explanation that could redeem the show.

I will give the show credit for one thing that's continually impressed me, though. The sound editing is fantastic! There are some great moments of audio horror that made my skin crawl.

Edit 12/14/2024: Yep, you guessed it. The rating dropped another star.

Dear Santa is so painfully bad that it's hilarious. The premise feels like a family-friendly rip-off of Letters to Satan Claus. The movie also doesn't know its target audience, and the ending undermines the core message. The only thing that saves the film from being a 1/10 is Jack Black pretending to be a demon, pretending to be Satan, pretending to be Santa.

I wanted so badly to like this show because it has really great moments of horror and suspense. However, most of Teacup season 1 is slow, boring, and hard to get through.