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There are dysfunctional families… and then there are the Conways. After a family tragedy, 15-year-old Billy Conway has become the de facto glue between his bitter mom, distant brother, and stoic dad. But when Billy starts to act out, everything changes for him and his family.

Accidents Happen is a semi-quirky film revolving around the Conway family in the early 80’s. It tackles some serious subject matter along with a lot of dysfunctionality amongst the family, but does have some comedic moments sprinkled in. The narration and almost fantasy style introduction to the film sets the tone and does a pretty good job at intriguing the viewer. The film does feel slow at times as it progresses, but then something happens to reel the viewer back in. Some of the strangeness throughout the film also leads you to believe anything could happen.

The acting was fairly good, however the actor playing Billy obviously had an accent he was trying to mask, but it’d slip out randomly. It wasn’t a huge issue, but did take a little away from the movie. Geena Davis did a great job as the mother and showed partially why the Conway’s are how they are. Overall Accidents Happen was a good film with a few minor flaws, but I’d recommend checking it out if given the chance.

Accidents Happen Trailer

My Rating: 6/10

Successful writer and scholar Jonathan Merrick falls under the spell of the irresistible, bewitchingly beautiful Ligeia. She’s fighting a fatal illness and she will stop at nothing to defeat death, her one true enemy. She steals other people’s souls and on her quest to immortality she tricks Jonathan into supporting her work, breaking him apart from his fiancé Rowena and pulling him into her dark, mysterious world.

Ligeia is very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe’s short story and in reality the film doesn’t have too much to do with the short story, but they try to sell it to you that way. Regardless, a good film is a good film whether it follows the story closely or not, however Ligeia is not really a good film. It’s advertised as a horror/thriller, but was more of a made for TV drama. The way the plot was presented made the film very predictable, so it lacked any tension or shocking moments. On a positive note the production value wasn’t too bad and it had decent effects for not being a big budget Hollywood movie.

The acting wasn’t horrible, but it was very TV-Drama like, so some may like it depending on your preferences. Sofya Skya looked the part well of Ligeia, but some of her acting was hit or miss. Parts of Ligeia dragged and even though the film was under an hour and a half it felt much longer. Ligeia might be suitable as a TV movie of the week, but not much more besides that.
Ligeia Trailer

My Rating: 4/10