Play Dead (2023)

When Chloe’s brother TJ shows up injured and scared, she finds out he was the get away driver in a robbery with her ex Ross, who is now dead.  Chloe is furious but also wants to protect TJ since their parents are dead and they have no other relatives.  

While no one saw his face, TJ is an idiot because he and Ross planned this via text. So the police will be going through Ross’s phone since they know there was a driver waiting outside.

In a plan to get Ross’s phone, Chloe injects herself with propofol, which will make her vital signs so low they’ll think she’s dead. Chloe is a med student and thinks she can pull this off.  I’m questioning if her school is accredited since dangerous drugs should be inventoried.

Surprisingly all goes as planned and she wakes up in the morgue under a sheet. It’s at this point things go off the rails. She’s locked in the cooler, but once she gets out, she finds all the other rooms are locked too. The only person with a key is the coroner, and he turns out to be kind of shady. She’s not as concerned as you’d think seeing as she’s stuck in there with him. Good grief, what a terrible plan.

Monster Grizzly (2023)

After some townsfolk are found dead outside their homes, investigators lean towards an animal on the loose.  Sheriff Tom calls in a bear expert and is surprised when a woman shows up. The surprise ramps up when Deputy Stony walks in and is also thrown by a woman knowing anything about bears, let alone enough to be their specialist. 

Bear expert Giuliana says it’s odd to see a bear out and about at this time of year because it should be hibernating.  The evidence shows it’s larger than your average bear. It takes most of the movie for them to put together fracking may have awoken this giant killing machine. 

This is a low budget movie with many scenes that go nowhere. Take this scene, for example:

Open on Sheriff Tom, Deputy Stony and Bear expert Giuliana sitting in a bar.  Deputy Flower enters.

Flower: Did you get a release on Auntie Winona’s body today? 

Tom: Yeah, they’re going to release the body tomorrow morning.

Flower: Tom….we need to kill this fucking bear.

Tom: Yeah

Bear expert looks awkwardly at her coffe cup

Aaaand scene.

The police station looks like they put a folding table and coffee maker in someone’s den.  The snow is mostly digital so is many storms there is no snow on their hair, hats or clothing.  And if you’re thinking the bear will surely make up for any of that, nope. The bear is only seen once in a brief blurry shot of its face moving past the camera. Mostly it’s people going outside, screaming and cut to someone finding them dead.  

Ridiculous dialogue

Only a white would be out in a blizzard like this

Giuliana: You make me feel safe.

Tom: How so?

Giuliana: You are my apex predator, grrrrr.

The paper sign for the oil company

It was harder than you’d think to find the body

The police station. There’s a couch to the left
of the folding table