Plot Premise: This film is best experienced if you go in cold (that's not just a weather pun, but an earnest suggestion to not look up anything in-depth about the film because there are certain key plot developments that are best experienced without knowing about them beforehand). Richard Armitage plays Richard Hall, a man who brings his two children and girlfriend on a winter holiday to the family lodge in remote Massachusetts.

The Good: The performances are all strong, particularly Riley Keough, but the style of filmmaking and design of scares is the real star of the show. There's a slow burn and gradual escalation of atmospheric dread. Often times viewers of horror films sit with tension for an explosion via jump-scare but The Lodge instead opts to keep that unsettled feeling throughout the entire film. It's relentless without being overbearing.

The Bad: Once you have time to digest the writing and material, one can make the argument that the film doesn't handle the subject matter of mental illness and trauma as well as the subject matter probably deserves. It's important to take the film for what it is (a compelling work of artistic horror), and not an informational guide to understanding the more severe behaviors associated with and causes of mental illness.

Who This Film Is For: Horror fans! If you're passionate about cinema and the art of filmmaking, it's also worth watching for how technically impressive the film is.

READ MORE

Will is visiting Hannibal to try to get information that will help him find the Tooth Fairy serial killer. Hannibal can sniff out deductions about Will's new life, including the dogs he has and the child he now lives with (the child of the woman Will is now seeing). Hannibal notes that he once gave Will a child, of course referring to Abigail, who is shown in a flashback to be in cahoots with Hannibal to collect enough of her blood to fake her death.

Will goes to visit Alana after seeing Hannibal to vent some of the feelings he has about being around Hannibal once more. Alana is still with Margaux, with whom Alana has had the Verger heir with.

With Hannibal's help, Will has his theory confirmed about the Tooth Fairy being disfigured. Freddie is shown to be spying on Will's investigation, while Alana pays a visit to Hannibal and threatens to take everything from him should he do anything to harm Will. In a continuation of the flashbacks between Hannibal and Abigail, we see him get her to understand that she still loves her father despite all he did and that he loved her the best way he knew how.

Francis Dolarhyde is shown to be re-watching footage from one of his kill scenes and suffering in the throes of his psychosis. The team determines that Dolarhyde stakes out the families he kills and injures/kills their pets before coming back to kill the family themselves.

Freddie confront Will about working with Hannibal again and she pushes him to use her and her resources, under threat that she will leak information she has learned from her spying anyway.

Dolarhyde has read the story about Will and Hannibal in the news, and goes on to meet Reba McClane, a blind woman who works in photography. He asks her for some film so he can shoot in the dark. He later gives her a ride home. Though she had initially declined the offer, she accepts once he states that he is offering not out of concern for her ability to take the bus but for his own pleasure. She then invites him in and gives him some pie. She shares about her experience working with the newly blind and when she mentions that she hopes to work in speech therapy for hearing and speech-impaired children, Dolarhyde becomes even less talkative than normal. She then tells him that she can understand him perfectly well because he speaks well and because she pays attention, something that most people don't do. She appreciates the fact that he has never shown her sympathy, which she hates. She asks if she can touch his face to know whether or not he is smiling, so she'll know whether or not she should stop talking. He stops her from touching his face but assures her that he is indeed smiling.

Will calls his girlfriend Molly and tells her that he has claimed a new dog after his owners were killed. She tells him he is a sweet man that is doing the right thing, despite the costs it has on him internally. Will then has a nightmare about being the Tooth Fairy.

Jack pays a visit to Hannibal and the two seem to be inclined to put the blame on another for the damage Will will now be suffering due to getting back into the criminal line of work.

Francis Dolarhyde calls Hannibal in prison, though not sharing who he is. Hannibal knows it is the Tooth Fairy. Dolarhyde is delighted that Hannibal has taken an interest in his work, a fact he learned from Freddie's piece about Hannibal and Will teaming up together once more. Dolarhyde shares that Hannibal will understand what he is becoming, a Great Red Dragon.

Hannibal airs on Saturdays on NBC at 10PM.

READ MORE

Despite being cancelled during the airing of season 3, Hannibal brought joy to a tremendous number of Fannibals by making a promotional appearance at San Diego Comic Con to promote the remaining half of what may very well be its final season. Show-runner Bryan Fuller, executive producer Martha De Laurentiis, and stars Hugh Dancy and Richard Armitage sat down with us in the show's press room to answer questions regarding what's to come. While Hugh Dancy has been a lead on the show since its beginning, as Will Graham, Richard Armitage had yet to make his on-screen debut at the time of the show's visit to San Diego Comic Con. Armitage will be playing Francis Dolarhyde and teased of all the "body" to come as well as shared some insight as to how he prepared for playing out the pathology of the character. Bryan Fuller explained to reporters about what obstacles they face in getting the show picked up for another season, noted that he doesn't rule out continuing the story through a feature film, and assured everyone that regardless of what other projects he has on his horizon, he would make it work and find time to be able to carry on with Hannibal. For even more extensive coverage, check out our footage of the press conference in full below, and enjoy the joke Hugh Dancy made to kick things off.

Hannibal airs on Saturdays on NBC at 10PM.

READ MORE

So it's the episode many a fan has been waiting for; finally, we see the introduction of Richard Armitage to the show as Francis Dolarhyde and right off the bat we're treated to some cut sexy-back action as Francis works out as he stews in his psychosis. He gets a new pair of removal teeth and a dragon tattoo to span his back.

Three years pass, as Hannibal is still in captivity. He also has a trimmed haircut. Alana doesn't appear to have been reprimanded for working with the Vergers so perhaps she was able to keep the full extent of what she did under wraps.

As for Francis, his killings have earned him the name "The Tooth Fairy" to the press and law enforcement. Jack visits Will to ask for his expertise in hunting down the Tooth Fairy but Will is enjoying living a quiet life with a new girlfriend, who tells him that he may resent their happy life together if he doesn't go and help and then reads about another family getting killed. Will warns her that if he goes, he'll be different when he comes back but she says that she won't be.

Will visits a crime scene of the Tooth Fairy's and finds an entire family massacred. He works his magic and gets into the mindset of Francis and his criminal methodology. The lab notes that Francis has an affinity for biting and they create a mould of his teeth left by the marks on some cheese in the family's home. After careful consideration, Will determines that the only way to find The Tooth Fairy is to pay a visit to the incarcerated Hannibal.

Hannibal airs on Saturdays on NBC at 10PM.

READ MORE

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug hit theaters last, and if you didn’t run out for a midnight showing, you’re missing out. It’s wildly entertaining, and visually spectacular. Though hardcore Tolkien aficionados may be upset with the changes and additions, the rest of us mere mortals are in for quite a ride.

The movie starts before the quest, with a meeting between Gandalf and Thorin. Thorin is a hunted man with a price on his head, but the grey wizard is prepared to help him reclaim his home. From there we jump right back to where we left off in the first one, with one wizard, a hobbit and thirteen dwarfs on a quest to reclaim a kingdom from a dragon.

This latest addition finds a more focused plot point, straying very little, with excellently paced action sequences that aren’t too fast to see. The high point of the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the battle in the Goblin city, but the action was so fast and crazy, with much of the rest of the movie slow moving, that all the awesomeness couldn’t be taken in fast enough. That isn’t the case here.

The movie is much more balanced, giving our heroes a slew of foes to battle throughout, and there’s also a familiar face. The additions of Tauriel and Legolas to the story add an element of familiarity, and that strong female element. Tauriel is fierce, and not one to be reckoned with, but she’s also sentimental and caring. She’s fantastic stray from the source material, but so is Legolas. I’m all for seeing Orlando Bloom don his bow and wig, but the seamless integration of the beloved Lord of the Rings character into the story took me by surprise.  I shouldn’t have been, Peter Jackson is a genius, but the scenes with Legolas are really spectacular.

 The special effects guys really should get kudos for this entire movie, but more so for Smaug. All future movies featuring a dragon should look for no better role model than Smaug. The dragon really put things over the top. His sequences really put things over the top, which was in no small part from the efforts of Martin Freeman (Bilbo), and his voicer Benedict Cumberbatch. I’m not sure why Cumberbatch’s performances still surprise me, but they do, and so did Freeman’s.

This second installment to The Hobbit is certainly no The Lord of the Rings, but whereas the last of that trilogy is my least favorite, the last Hobbit is set up to be the best, as it should be. It’s fun, and exciting, but not overly dark or gory. Kids and adults alike will enjoy it. It’s 2 hours and 41 mins, but they really do fly by, and it opens for a wide release today.

READ MORE