Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Given how much I loved the first Doctor Strange outing, it would take an extraordinary misfire for his next eponymous feature not to be worth my while. This one is only moderately popular, probably below average for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (that term seems inadequate now), but hey, that didn't stop me from liking X-Men: Apocalypse.

Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been having a glum but quiet time in New York when he and Wong (Benedict Wong) suddenly have to fight a giant demon targeting teen America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who can open portals between alternate universes but manages to do so only when terrified. Noting signs that a witch summoned the demon, Strange seeks support from his old comrade-in-arms, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), now finally going by "the Scarlet Witch." Alas, she's the summoner. She wants to absorb Chavez's power through a method that would kill Chavez, just to try to be happy in a more promising universe with the option of moving again as needed. Strange can't abide that, but Maximoff is too powerful for him to take on alone. The answer may lie in another universe....

Don't Breathe (2016)

I think I had put this on my queue on a whim. I didn't know much about it, only that it was a moderately popular recent thriller/horror and thus a possibility for padding out my October viewings. Perhaps I was also mildly intrigued at the plot description, however simple. It certainly wasn't that the film had the same director and big-name producer as Evil Dead (2013), albeit seeking to scale back the violence.

Three young adults have been burglarizing houses, hoping to make enough money to move out of Detroit. They think one more wee-hours job will do the trick: a one-man house in an otherwise abandoned neighborhood. The homeowner is a Gulf War veteran (Stephen Lang) who gained $300K following a car accident that killed his daughter. As they case they joint, they discover that he's also blind. Sounds easy to them, but you already know the warning signs: Somebody picked the wrong house.

Army of Darkness (1992)

It's unusual for me to watch a threequel (well, third entry, anyway) before either of its predecessors. Perhaps I was tempted by the title, which suggests a big departure from the unappealingly named The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. I've mentioned my concerns that director Sam Raimi tends toward more grotesque violence than I like, but I heard that this outing was relatively comedic.

What I had missed was the setting. Apparently, tampering with the mysterious forces associated with the Necronomicon tome not only arouses the wrath of the undead; it can open a time portal. Protagonist Ash (Bruce Campbell) gives us a brief synopsis of his past troubles to explain how he came to be chained up in the Middle Ages. Fortunately, his modern technology, knowledge, and general badassery get him out of immediate trouble and into good graces. Unfortunately, he's not quite sharp enough to reuse the tome properly. Soon he brings danger to the castle of one Lord Arthur (not necessarily the king; Ash estimates the year 1300) and must decide whether he cares enough, particularly for one Lady Sheila (Embeth Davidtz), to help rather than flee.

A Simple Plan (1998)

My previous experience with Sam Raimi was limited to the first two Spider-Man entries, which didn't do much for me. Apart from those, he seems to be known primarily for horror, which, for all my indulgence in October, really isn't one of my preferred genres. But an esteemed Raimi crime drama/thriller, with no sci-fi or fantasy premises? That might be worth my time.

In keeping with the title, it has a simple setup: Three lower-class guys find a crashed private plane, hidden in thick snow in the Minnesota woods, with a dead pilot...and $4.4 million. Hank (Bill Paxton) wants to turn it over to the police, but his brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton in an Academy Award-nominated role) and Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), who are neither sober at the moment nor smart at the best of times, outvote him. He persuades them to let him sit on the money until authorities find the plane, probably after the spring thaw, so they can determine whether anyone's looking for the money. But as a much smarter man once said, three may keep a secret if two of them are dead....