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I love being surprised by a movie. Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare did that for me, and I wrote a little about it as today’s Movie of the Day. Check it out and keep reading for daily news and trivia!
Movie of the Day
Now that Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is streaming on Peacock, I finally got around to watching it. And you know what? It’s good. I’m not even going to add any qualifiers to that like “it’s good for a public domain cash-in” or “good for a Poohniverse movie.” Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a good horror movie that I’d watch and enjoy even if I didn’t feel obligated to check it so that I could write about it.
The movie is, of course, a twisted interpretation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Or more accurately, it takes a few of the most basic ideas from the beloved tale and creates a movie that is inspired by the original story, but in an extremely loose manner. In the film, Peter Pan is a kidnapper and child-killer (he kills people of any age, but he focuses on kids) who professes to believe that he is sending children to Neverland when he ends their lives. Peter kidnaps Michael Darling on his birthday, and Michael’s older sister Wendy searches for him. Wendy’s search for Michael is the main focus of the film.
In contrast to the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movies, Neverland Nightmare feels much more grounded. The violence gets to be absurdly excessive (in a good way) at times, but the general feel of the movie is more realistic than the Pooh films. The fantasy element of those movies works fine for those stories, but having Peter be a possibly delusional killer is a very smart way to give the Twisted Childhood Universe something a little different, something more intense, and something reasonably unsettling. The Poohniverse is shaping up to be more interesting than most of us probably expected.
The story of Wendy’s search for Michael is well paced, and her story is satisfying to watch through every plot point. Wendy’s mother seems almost cartoonishly antagonistic, but that’s really the only quibble I had with the characters. Peter, Tinkerbell, and Hook could have all been silly characters, but they’re all played right for their roles in the story. Peter is creepy, Tink is sympathetic, and Hook is a bit of both. Plus, Neverland Nightmare is pretty schlocky, so the villain and those around him can be more eccentric and still feel realistic for the world that’s being created. What I’m saying is, all the characters work well except for the one exception of the mother feeling too much like a stock character.
I was also impressed with the violence and gore. The movie gets quite bloody, but there are also times when the filmmakers show surprising restraint with the on-screen gore. That exemplifies how they were really thinking about when to use violence and blood at the right times for the biggest impact, and when to just imply the violence to make it feel more unnerving. I was impressed throughout. Plus, there’s an extended fight scene towards the end of the film which is awesome.
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I’ve been very positive towards the movie so far, and it’s all warranted. I will say that the actual story lacks some context when it comes to logic and motivations. It works fine as a way to get from kill scene to kill scene, but there’s not a ton of substance there. Thankfully all the smart decisions I mentioned above make up for what might be lacking in the story, making Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare a very fun time. You can stream it now on Peacock.
In the News
- Michael Cain plans to come out of retirement to appear in a sequel to The Last Witch Hunter. The deal isn’t final yet, but Caine is expected to reprise his role of a priest who helps Vin Diesel’s character Kaulder in the sequel (Diesel is also expected to return). Michael Caine confirmed his retirement from acting in October 2023, though he’s apparently willing to make exceptions. (Variety)
- The Conjuring: Last Rites had the biggest opening weekend ever for a horror movie. The film took in $194 million worldwide through Sunday, passing the previous opening weekend record of $190 million in 2017 for It. (Variety)
Birthdays
Jeffrey Combs was born on September 9th, 1954. His starring roles in Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986) forever associated Jeffrey with horror and science-fiction. The majority of his film and television roles since then have been in one or both of those genres. He’s been in a horror movie nearly every year throughout his acting career, which includes movies such as Cellar Dweller (1987), Guyver (1991), Castle Freak (1995), The Frighteners (1996), House on Haunted Hill (1999), The Wizard of Gore (2007), Would You Rather (2012), Stream (2024), and many more.
Also celebrating a birthday today is Bonnie Aarons. Born September 9th, 1960, Bonnie is most famous among horror fans for playing the demon nun in The Conjuring Universe. Her first appearance as the Nun was in a brief scene in The Conjuring 2 (2016), and she was of course in The Nun and The Nun II (her character can also be briefly seen in Annabelle: Creation). She’d been in a few horror movies prior to joining the Conjuring Universe, including smaller parts in I Know Who Killed Me (2007) and Drag Me To Hell (2009).
More birthdays on September 9th:
- Henry Thomas (1971) – Elliott in E.T. (1982), Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2017), The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
- Michelle Williams (1980) – young Sil in Species (1995), Halloween H20 (1998)
Events on This Day
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was released in North American theaters on September 9th, 2005. This unique take on an exorcism movie is essentially a courtroom drama blended together with a possession film. The movie begins with the death of a young woman named Emily Rose, and the rest of the movie follows the trial of the priest charged with negligent homicide resulting from her exorcism. Emily’s story is seen from two different points of view which are based on conflicting courtroom testimony. Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone) directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Zach Cregger’s Barbarian was released in the US on September 9th, 2022. This was one of the most fun theatrical experiences of 2022, especially if you saw it knowing nothing about the plot. The complete shift partway through is bewildering and amazing at the same time, and it sets the viewer up to expect absolutely anything in the second half of the movie.
More movies released on September 9th:
- City of the Dead (UK, 1960)
- Nightmares (1983)
- Sasquatch Mountain (Sci Fi Channel, 2006)
- Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (DVD, 2008)
