Horror
WARNING: This movie contains strobe light effects. I will never fault an independent film – and I’m not talking about the kinds of “independent” films that have big names and access to big money – for trying to make something fresh and fun. Apparently garnering a limited release in 2009, the do-it-yourself Scare Zone is […]
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Let me get this out of the way: I have no attachments to the previous incarnations of Firestarter – neither Stephen King’s 1980 novel nor the 1984 filmed adaptation – in particular. The book was one of the first of his that I ever read, but I barely remember anything from it; I didn’t see […]
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For the first two-thirds of The Cursed, we are abjectly throttled and abused, subjected to witnessing acts of horror and befoulment to the point of numbness. This film does not hesitate in getting straight to the point with shocking gore and dismemberments; one such grisly incident paves the way for the rest of the story […]
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The best of art makes us uncomfortable, revealing our blind spots and forcing us to look at things differently, as both individuals and as a society. American history is rife with racial injustice, and there is no shortage of evidence that plainly demonstrates that we haven’t risen far above our unsavory past. In 1992, Bernard […]
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In Caveat’s tightly-wound, excruciatingly tense 88 minutes, you’ll never have a moment where you think, “I’ve got a moment to breathe.” No. Everything – from the introductions to our three characters to the maddening ending leaving some facets unexplained – is wrong (in a wonderful way) and totally off (and off-kilter) about this movie. With his […]
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One of the pandemic movies I was fortunate to review last year was this little gem of a no-budget independent film called Driven, starring Casey Dillard and Richard Speight, Jr. When you know the filmmakers and actors are working with a limited budget and crew with no access to locations or props they already own […]
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Let me explain a bit about my experiences with the Saw franchise. My wife and I saw the first film in theaters shortly after we were married in 2004. It frayed our nerves so much, she couldn’t speak to me as we walked out after the film’s closing credits. On the way to the car, […]
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Please note: This essay was written after seeing an English-dubbed version. I abhor dubbing, but it did not blunt the effect the film had on me. At first glance, the Russian horror film Sleepless Beauty seems like a knockoff mashup of Saw and Untraceable, where a single participant is bound in a room and forced […]
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I’m not quite sure what I was expecting from Relic, but I definitely didn’t expect to see an exceptionally powerful, humanity-driven horror story… and yet, here we are, lured in by the promise of a good, spooky possession story. But director/co-writer Natalie Erika James takes our expectations and the normal trappings of a haunted house/evil […]
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Fresh (2022) – Movie Review
Some might define horror films by the amount of blood and guts shown. Or it might be how many times jump scares make viewers cover their faces in fear. Or watching “some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who’s always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front […]
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