James Wan
The Conjuring: Last Rites is much more confident in tone and execution than its immediate predecessor, staying sharply focused from start to finish.
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The enveloping, engrossing Longlegs and the darkness within it are still fresh in my mind as I write this, my second-ever review of an Osgood Perkins film. However, if Perkins was flexing his ‘80s Satanic Panic muscles with Longlegs, consider his adaptation of Stephen King’s short story The Monkey to be his twisted version of […]
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When the trailer for M3GAN smashed onto the internet in October 2022, it was an immediate hit. A story about a life-size AI doll charged with protecting an orphaned child from anything, including other kids? And it also danced? There was nothing that social media didn’t love about it, turning shot sequences from the trailer […]
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Annabelle Comes Home is a smashing scarefest reliant on a heavy mood established by enthralling performances, brooding cinematography, and Joseph Bishara’s dread-filled score. Looking for dramatic horror à la Ari Aster’s Hereditary or Jordan Peele’s Us? Go somewhere else. Writer/director Gary Dauberman has wrought a simple, yet thoroughly enjoyable bottle episode in The Conjuring universe, akin […]
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Do me a favor before you read this review – click the “Play” button on this video and turn your computer’s sound system up to about 65%. Be warned: it’s kinda frightening. Get ready to be scared. Don’t worry… I’ll wait. Creepy, huh? That’s a taut nailbiter if I ever saw one. Writer/director David F. […]
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When The Conjuring was released in 2013, I marveled at its daring step backwards to a time where scares were paramount, relying on mood, tension, and fear instead of the blood, guts, and crappy acting found in other contemporary horror movies. Director James Wan – who cut his horror teeth on the original Saw (which […]
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For 11 years, actor and writer Leigh Whannell has been scaring moviegoing audiences with his intense screenplays, creating two major powerhouse horror franchises with the Saw and Insidious films. Now, he steps behind the camera to direct for the first time with Insidious: Chapter 3, a prequel that takes place “A few years before the […]
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Make no mistake: Furious Seven is everything you’d expect and want out of a post-Fast Five sequel in the Fast and Furious franchise. Supersonic cars, high danger with lots of white-knuckle suspense, gorgeous men and women (the latter played up in the opening scenes almost as a knowing wink-and-nod to how critics have perceived the treatment […]
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It would seem impossible that 2001’s disposable street racing flick “The Fast and the Furious” would have spawned a box office juggernaut franchise such as this, the most recent installment costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million, and finding its characters now in a dimension where being a gear head somehow qualifies you to […]
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Having only seen Insidious days ago, the memory of it is fresh in my mind as I write this review of its sequel, Insidious: Chapter 2. The things I liked about Insidious were its constant tension, the scares, and the first two-thirds of the movie, where things happen logically and organically, giving the movie a […]
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