Picked Clean: Reviews from The Realm of The Carrion Crow

REVIEW: Strange Darling (2024) By Stephen Pytak Many moons ago - I think it was 1986 - film historian John McCarty wrote the book "Psychos: Eighty Years of Mad Movies, Maniacs, and Murderous Deeds." Published by St. Martin's Press, New York, it was an in depth look at screen psychos in more than 400 films including Night Must Fall , Peeping Tom , Helter Skelter , The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Star 80 . If you're a fan of the horror genre and haven't read it, I strongly recommend it.  Anyway, w hile watching Strange Darling (2024) in a theater on a hot August night, I thought about the collection of maniacs McCarty wrote about in his book.  They're not all the same. Some wear masks. Some don't. Some try to act normal. Some come off completely normal. Some are so far out that they look and act like they're from another dimension. And every once in a while, you come across a psychopath in a thriller who is so unique, that he, she or...it...stands ou...

REVIEW: Skincare (2024) By Stephen Pytak Skincare is an okey-dokey psychological thriller with a really good central performance by Elizabeth Banks. The plot isn’t bad. It’s about an aesthetician with a boutique in Beverly Hills. A bombshell blonde who's middle aged but fighting to preserve her looks, her name is Hope  Goldman. And she's looking to take her brand to the next level.  But fate doesn't make it all that easy for her. First, a rival beautician opens a clinic right across the street. Then an Internet hacker with perverse tastes attempts to shatter her reputation infiltrating her email account and sending out pornographic messages to her clientele. Then someone slashes the tires on her cute little sports car. All of this starts to take a toll on poor Hope. And when the tears start to roll, so does her mascara. Elizabeth Banks in Skincare (2024). Copyright IFC Films 2024. I was fascinated watching this play out. But I soon realized the only star on the screen was a...