Saltwater Reviews

TBA

Note: I'll update this as more seasons go by, this has been updated as of the end of season 1.

Media type: Netflix Series

Based on: Sweet Home; by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan

Year: 2020

Rating: Not sure, Mature seems like it as it has blood, gore, torture and violence. Wouldn't really recommend anyone younger than 17 to watch it.

My rating: 9/10

I watched the entire first season of this show in about 3 days while I was bored and waiting for my moving day, I couldn't help but to binge this motherfucker. And... Honestly, what's not to love about an apocalypse kdrama?

Everyone looks super fuckin cool here, I love these three to pieces.

First off, there are a bit of plot holes (though I'm not sure if they even get covered in the future, we'll see) and tons of characters they show right off the bat as well, so that sort of makes it hard to get to know and remember everyone. Regardless of that, with the small amount of episodes and time they do have, they make an effort to create a sense of mystery throughout the entire series (where it needs to be) as well as to lovingly form each characters' personality and growth. The characters benefit and evolve from every new plot point and I'm never left bored.

You'll often see these characters going through flashbacks to show a bit of their past which, honestly can be a cheap and lazy way of explaining more about them. But, there is still a great deal of character development through them, so they're at least not pointless and can be considered a good development tool.

Even though the show is supernatural and has crazy monsters, the reactions of the characters are very realistic, as well as their problems. Mental health is dealt with a lot through the entire show and it's done in a way that doesn't feel shallow and fake. You can see that the characters are still going through past traumas as well as dealing with this current apocalypse trauma, and none of it is left ignored and gives the characters several dimensions. Character deaths add to the plot and storytelling of the show, even if they are painful and sad (and sometimes I'm really fucking happy they happen-).

Talk about your problems guys!! That's it!!!!!!

Lastly, character design. Even the normal people are memorable through things such as equipment, personality and clothing. They aren't left to look like pretty supermodels during the damn apocalypse which I appreciate a ton, it's gritty and messy as it should be. Monsters are also really nasty and designed with a lot of effort it seems like. As someone who appreciates monster movie makeup, this shit is my JAM. And - it's not obvious how they'll attack or kill someone, which is even better. Not to mention, some of the monsters are even good and sweet, they can be helpful which is also a really nice twist and adds to the moral confusion of "should I be killing these monsters?" Bonus points for that, fellas.

Look at this nasty guy, gross mf... stanky's the way I like it

Definitely Shark Approved! B)

Media type: Movie

Director: André Øvredal

Year: 2019

PG-13

My rating: 8/10

I saw this movie January of 2020, had some pretty big expectations because of what people said of it AND because Guillermo Del Toro was working on it and honestly... It mostly exceeded them!

Usually I don't go into a PG-13 horror movie expecting any good scares or care/consideration taken for the story (especially after watching "Mama", what a load of cheap tricks that was), but this was surprisingly super pleasant for me, even if it was for a slightly younger audience. It didn't feel like it didn't take the crowd seriously and didn't really pull many punches for something 13 year olds are allowed to watch honestly, and the monsters didn't leave anything to be desired.

Like, c'mon, this was a pretty cool part with a legitimately uncomfortable monster, I loved it to pieces.

There were some things I had qualms about, specifically the romance part of the story... Not to be That Guy but in my honest opinion the romance in this movie was unneccessary and added almost no flavor to the plot or the characters themselves. It's also easy to tell who the romance will spark for - it's plainly obvious so I'm not going to really make much of an effort to block that (unless asked).But I guess it could be useful just for that nice "awww" ending to make things seem sort of okay. At least it didn't happen instantly, but over the span of... a few days/weeks? A few months? I forgot-

Okay, maybe they are kinda precious together

And also the whole suddenly obediently going to war piece of the movie wasn't really my flavor either, like why would Ramon suddenly want to go to war after that whole ordeal? What was that whole mess about? Was that supposed to be character growth...?

All in all, the movie was pretty good! Kept its promise of being a horror thriller while still remaining age appropriate. The jokes in the movie were refreshing, though the characters that weren't monsters are hardly memorable.

Definitely Shark Approved! B)