Review: I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER (2016) {0}
Where the Wild Killings Are
Movie Reviews
Nov 2, 2016
Oct 30, 2016
Review: I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE (2016) {0}
I Am the Pretty Long Title of a New Ghost Story on Netflix
Oct 27, 2016
Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN, aka BUSANHAENG (2016) {0}
28 AwayDays Later…
Sep 16, 2016
Review: INTO THE FOREST (2015) {0}
It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)
Apr 12, 2016
Review: GREEN ROOM (2015) {0}
Punks not dead – yet.
Apr 10, 2016
Alternative Take: HUSH (2016) {0}
Our reviewer didn’t care much for Hush, the direct-to-Netflix new horror film from the director of Oculus. But since Hush is a horror film with a deaf protagonist, we wondered: what would a deaf person make of it. Step forward, deaf horror fan Katie Sawyer…
Apr 9, 2016
Review: HUSH (2016) {0}
The silence of the Flans.
Mar 30, 2016
Retro Review: CABIN FEVER (2002) {0}
The Fever that started it all.
Feb 27, 2016
Review: THE HEXECUTIONERS (2016) {0}
The road to death can be easy or hard.
Feb 12, 2016
Review: CABIN FEVER (2016) {0}
Cabin Fever: now you can catch it twice
Feb 9, 2016
Review: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016) {0}
Pride goeth before destruction (Proverbs, 16:18)
Feb 8, 2016
Review: SOUTHBOUND (2016) {0}
Multi-story car lark
Feb 3, 2016
Review: DARLING (2015) {0}
Not to be confused with the Julie Christie one
Feb 1, 2016
Review: TRASH FIRE {0}
Bonfire of the Sanities Fear of family, of intimacy, and of letting your guard down and simply enjoying life once in a while are a few of the themes and issues you’ll find bouncing around in the offbeat, subtly effective Trash Fire, the latest tongue-in-dry-cheek horror/comedy from Richard Bates Jr., whom horror geeks should remember(…)
Jan 26, 2016
Review: MARTYRS (2015) {0}
Warmed over: the toast of French horror
Jan 22, 2016
Review: VISIONS (2015) {0}
It’s déjà vu all over again
Jan 21, 2016
Review: BACKTRACK (2015) {0}
Blood on the tracks
Jan 15, 2016
Review: FRANKENSTEIN (2015) {0}
The post-modern Prometheus Classic literary works like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein will stand up to all kinds of interpretation. James Whale’s 1931 film classic went wildly off-book to define cinema’s long relationship with the text, and the past few years alone have seen adaptations both faithful (Danny Boyle’s stage version, with Benedict Cumberbatch(…)
Jan 14, 2016
Review: JUNE (2015) {0}
Keep Calm and Carrie On “What would have happened if Carrie was an orphan?” asked no one ever –except the DVD sleeve for June (which is not, alas, a sequel to Lucky McKee’s May), just released in the UK.
Oct 24, 2015
Review: TANK 432, aka BELLY OF THE BULLDOG (2015) {0}
Tank trap
Oct 18, 2015
Review: FEAR ITSELF (2015) {0}
Fear itself: not actually, as it turns out, the only thing to fear.
Oct 15, 2015
Review: THE DIABOLICAL (2015) {0}
Sci-fi/horror hybrid The Diabolical certainly keeps you guessing. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on your feelings about narrative ambiguity.
Oct 9, 2015
Review: THE WITCH (2015) {0}
“One of the most captivating and thought-provoking horror films of the past ten years”
Oct 7, 2015
Review: COOTIES (2014) {0}
Catch it if you can
Sep 11, 2015
Review: THE MESSENGER (2015) {0}
The Sixth Sense? Or nonsense?
Sep 9, 2015
Review: POD (2015) {0}
The Pod Delusion
Sep 9, 2015
Review: THE VISIT (2015) {0}
M. Night Shyamalan does “found footage”
Sep 7, 2015
Review: BAIT (2014) {0}
Not to be confused with Bait (2012)
Sep 2, 2015
FrightFest Review: GODDESS OF LOVE (2015) {0}
It’s often said that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but that’s not entirely true.
Sep 1, 2015
FrightFest Review: NIGHT FARE (2015) {0}
Uber-horror
Sep 1, 2015
FrightFest Review: CHERRY TREE (2015) {0}
From Wake Wood to Cherry Tree
Aug 31, 2015
Review: TALES OF HALLOWEEN (2015) {0}
Trick? Or treat?
Aug 31, 2015
FrightFest Review: HOWL (2015) {0}
Werewolves on a Train
Aug 31, 2015
FrightFest Review: LANDMINE GOES CLICK (2015) {0}
Critic goes “Ick”
Aug 30, 2015
FrightFest Review: MOST LIKELY TO DIE (2015) {0}
Scream and… Scream again?
Aug 29, 2015
Review: LAST GIRL STANDING (2015) {0}
Not to be confused with FINAL GIRL or THE FINAL GIRL
Aug 29, 2015
FrightFest Review: RABID DOGS, aka ENRAGÉS (2015) {0}
Is Éric Hannezo’s remake of Mario Bava’s 1974 “classic” vapid or valid?
Aug 29, 2015
FrightFest Review: THE HALLOW (2015) {0}
Corin Hardy: the new Robin Hardy?
Aug 28, 2015
FrightFest Review: HELLIONS (2015) {0}
Dora the expectant
Aug 28, 2015
FrightFest Review: TURBO KID (2015) {0}
It’s like a museum of coolness
Aug 27, 2015
FrightFest Review: STUNG (2015) {0}
The ultimate buzz kill
Aug 26, 2015
Review: DEATHGASM (2015) {0}
Is it the best heavy metal horror movie ever? Spoiler alert: YES.
Aug 10, 2015
FrightFest Review: Wind Walkers (2015) {0}
Not to be confused with Windtalkers (2002)
Jul 21, 2015
Review: GIRL HOUSE (2014) {0}
You never know who’s watching.
Jul 10, 2015
Review: THE GALLOWS (2015) {0}
Thereby hangs a tale…
Jul 3, 2015
Review: THE NIGHTMARE (2015) {0}
Rodney Ascher’s 2012 documentary Room 237, an examination of conspiracy theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, was such a brilliantly bizarre concoction, it was difficult to imagine what, if anything, he would come up with next.
Jul 2, 2015
Review: 100 BLOODY ACRES (2013) {0}
My regular readers may remember that I am psychologically predisposed towards liking any horror film that comes from Australia.
Jun 25, 2015
Review: CREEP (2014) {0}
$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated.
Jun 19, 2015
Review: PERNICIOUS (2015) {0}
Astute horror fans will notice a wide array of disparate influences as they dig through Pernicious.
Jun 16, 2015
Review: LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (2014) {0}
“I’m going to tell you the most incredible story you’ve ever heard, and when I’m finished, you’ll either think me a liar, or insane, or both.”
Jun 12, 2015
Review: JURASSIC WORLD (2015) {0}
Despite the fact that they’re all very flashy and expensive and well-made, there’s not really a whole lot “to” the Jurassic Park movies. Even the 1993 original, which still holds up as a charming and entertaining blockbuster, is pretty simple stuff. Island + Dinosaurs + People = big-time, crowd-pleasing mayhem.
Jun 8, 2015
Review: ZOMBIEWORLD (2015) {0}
If you ever settled in for a 90-minute block of short films at a horror festival, you probably know that you’re about to treated to a “mixed bag” – and that’s sort of the fun.
Jun 5, 2015
Review: CHARLIE’S FARM (2015) {0}
Legend has it that, far beyond the town of Mitchell, some 600km inland from Queensland’s coastline, an abandoned homestead – once the scene of unspeakable depravities – is now supposedly haunted. Which makes Charlie’s Farm, as the place is known, a magnet for horror-happy backpackers willing to go way off the beaten track in pursuit(…)
Jun 4, 2015
Review: INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 (2015) {0}
This may be the first instalment in the Insidious franchise that is a formal prequel, but in fact the whole Insidious series has been fixated on the past.
Jun 1, 2015
Review: CHILDREN OF SORROW (2012) {0}
Not long ago we got two very cool genre films that had very similar stories. They were the British sci-fi film Dredd and the Indonesian action flick The Raid. Some fans think it’s obvious that one group of filmmakers stole the “lone hero battling his way up a building that’s absolutely packed with vicious henchmen”(…)
May 28, 2015
Review: GOLDBERG & EISENBERG (2013) {0}
Anyone who covers (or at least obsesses over) the current landscape of international horror cinema should be pleased to notice when a specific country speaks up and bangs out a fresh handful of genre films. Over the years we’ve seen eruptions like these from Spain, France, Ireland, Japan, and a dozen other nations that don’t(…)
May 27, 2015
Review: HATE CRIME (2013) {0}
Banned and panned? “Today’s a special day isn’t it?… Is it Hannukah?…Could it be Passover?”
May 27, 2015
Review: III (2015) {0}
From Russia with gore Horror and fantasy films have been a constant anathema when it comes to Russian cinema and the sheer suggestion that something involving impending peril could be considered as entertainment continues to be frowned upon there. Consequently, domestically produced genre movies remain condemned to the margins of the mainstream. Whilst savvy to(…)
May 22, 2015
Review: POLTERGEIST (2015) {0}
“They’re here.” Again. Much like a house built on top of the unrestful dead, Gil Kenan’s Poltergeist is haunted by the ghost of Tobe Hooper’s original. Few complained that the 1982 film itself drew much of its plotting from a 1962 Twilight Zone episode called “Little Girl Lost” (about a child who has slipped into(…)
May 22, 2015
Review: THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE III (FINAL SEQUENCE) {0}
There was enough of a deviously clever idea in the first Human Centipede film to warrant a positive review from yours truly a few years back, and while I got a lot of confused looks after recommending the film, I still stand by that review. What started out like a typical “young idiots get lost(…)
May 19, 2015
Review: THE HOUSE ON PINE STREET (2015) {0}
There’s fertile ground in the horror subgenre in which the question is posed (and not always resolved) as to whether a haunting, possession (etc.) is the result of paranormal phenomena or psychological problems.
May 14, 2015
Review: BURYING THE EX (2014) {0}
Say it ain’t so, Joe! A new film by Joe Dante, the director of such cult movies as Piranha, Gremlins, The Howling and The ‘Burbs, should always be cause for celebration, especially as his recent credits – with the notable exception of the superb The Hole – have been forgettable TV like CSI: NY and(…)
May 8, 2015
Review: MAGGIE (2015) {0}
“I’ll be back… from the dead!”
May 1, 2015
Review: THE CANAL (2014) {0}
At this point Ireland is becoming my favorite source for independent horror films. Over the last ten years or so the Emerald Isle has graced us with impressive exports like Isolation, Stitches, Dark Touch, Outcast, Citadel, Wake Wood, Grabbers, Let Us Prey, and Dead Meat – so while it’s true that you’ll find great horror films from(…)
Apr 27, 2015
Review: UNFRIENDED (2014) {0}
While a large majority of the hardcore horror fans are content to bemoan the prevalence of the “found footage” format, a few people are out there trying to change your mind by bringing some new perspectives to the experience. And while it’s certainly true that you’ll find a lot of dry, dreary, and redundant found(…)
Apr 25, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE SCOPIA EFFECT (2014) {0}
Shouldn’t death be a once in a lifetime experience? Does anyone (here in the West, at least) seriously believe in reincarnation any more? To put it glibly, the once-popular concept of past lives is not what it used to be. The New Age therapeutic process of past life regression (PLR) is now filed away with healing(…)
Apr 20, 2015
Review: IN RESIDENCE (2014) {0}
There’s a good reason that so many independent horror films take place in an isolated location that’s populated by only a handful of characters: because the fewer “moving parts” a low-budget producer has to worry about, the lower the odds of something going irrevocably wrong. If you have A) a creepy location, B) a decent(…)
Apr 20, 2015
Review: HOLY GHOST PEOPLE (2013) {0}
It was only a matter of time before the filmmaking team known as “The Butcher Brothers” would drop the slightly silly moniker and start crediting themselves as normal guys, and it only seems fitting that Mitch Altieri and Phil Flores would choose to do it with a film like Holy Ghost People. The duo has(…)
Apr 19, 2015
Review: TO JENNIFER {0}
The idea of a micro-budget found footage horror film shot entirely with an iPhone might be a quick turn-off for a lot of viewers – the iPhone is hardly a professional-level cinematographer’s tool, after all – but for those with an open mind, a little bit of patience, or a pointed interest in “DIY” filmmaking(…)
Apr 13, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP (2014) {0}
Kudos to any independent filmmaker who dares to brave an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation (especially the ones who try to remain relatively faithful to the author’s work), as opposed to yet another woods-bound slasher flick. As cool as Lovecraft can be on the page, he’s a remarkably difficult author when it comes to cinematic adaptations, and(…)
Apr 5, 2015
Exclusive Review: HOOKED UP {0}
A found footage horror film which opens with one of its young, white, laddish protagonists throwing up into a toilet while his idiot friend films it all, incessantly jabbering about all of the girls he intends to lay during their lads’ holiday in Barcelona: if first impressions are anything to go by, Hooked Up is(…)
Mar 20, 2015
Review: NIGHTMARE, aka DARK CIRCLES (2013) {0}
There are two very broad, distinct, and (fine) obvious types of horror stories being told in this 2013 indie thriller from After Dark Films (Originals). In one corner we have the “happy family in a creepy house they just bought to get away from the city” stuff and in the other is the “evil female spectre who(…)
Mar 16, 2015
SXSW Review: THE CORPSE OF ANNA FRITZ {0}
There’s really no way to review or discuss the new Spanish suspense thriller The Corpse of Anna Fritz without cutting right to the chase: it’s about a man who defiles the corpse of a recently deceased actress. And by “defiles” I mean precisely what you think: the movies deals with necrophilia in a very frank(…)
Mar 16, 2015
Review: NINA FOREVER (2015) {0}
Do we ever truly “get over” the untimely demise of a loved one? How does one begin the healing process if they were directly responsible for that loved one’s untimely demise? Does guilt have a statute of limitations?
Mar 16, 2015
FrightFest Review: WE ARE STILL HERE (2015) {0}
The cool thing about the old-school horror stories is how versatile they are. For every traditional vampire movie (or novel, or TV series), there’s another one that changes the rules, that subverts our expectations, or that combines a few sub-genres in clever or exciting ways.
Mar 15, 2015
Review: HANGMAN (2015) {0}
Every time I say something positive about a “found footage” horror movie, I feel like I’m giving a speech about the awesomeness of communism: some folks might listen, but most people will just hate you. (Note: I am not a communist.)
Mar 14, 2015
Review: THE FINAL GIRLS {0}
What would happen if you combined a mid-1980s slasher flick with the “history repeating itself” hook of Groundhog Day and the highly underrated 1992 television satire Stay Tuned? Well, you might get a movie that looks a little like Todd Strauss-Schulson’s clever, strange, and consistently funny The Final Girls, but it probably wouldn’t be quite(…)
Mar 6, 2015
Review: FAULTS (2014) {0}
The phenomenon of cults and their followers are richly fertile ground for drama, given their inherent conflicts, insidious methods, charismatic leaders and obeisant followers, and lately they seem to be all the rage: The Sacrament, The Sound of My Voice, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Master, and TV’s The Leftovers and The Following have all(…)
Mar 2, 2015
Exclusive Review: BEDLAM (2015) {0}
The ’60s was a time of turmoil for mental health care facilities, with many decrying the treatment of mental illness as being far more damaging than helpful. So extreme were some of these methods that many former patients banded with anti-psychiatric movements and even referred to themselves as ‘survivors.’ Whilst distorting mental patient “care” to inconceivable levels, writer/director(…)
Feb 24, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE GHASTLY LOVE OF JOHNNY X (2012) {0}
If you’re a fan of the pulpy, silly, and sometimes gruesome pop-culture throwback movies like Larry Blamire’s The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001), Andy Fickman’s 2005 rendition of Reefer Madness, last year’s comedy/horror/musical Stage Fright, or anything that could be accurately described as campy, affectionately old-fashioned, or downright “John Waters-y,” you’ll probably find a lot(…)
Feb 22, 2015
Review: AVENGED, aka SAVAGED (2015) {0}
If you went only from the first 25 minutes of the colorfully harsh new indie horror movie Avenged (known in the UK as Savaged), you’d probably be tempted to dismiss it as yet another effectively ugly, bleak, and unpleasant “rape / revenge” movie – but that’d be a pretty stupid thing to do. Who the hell judges a(…)
Feb 21, 2015
Exclusive Review: RED TRAIL 90 (2014) {0}
There’s low budget, there’s micro-budget, and there’s “drive into the woods on an ATV with nothing but a chainsaw and a few interesting ideas” budget, and it’s on that third chain of the ladder that you’ll find a weird little movie called Red Trail 90.
Feb 21, 2015
Exclusive Review: CLOWN (2015) {0}
Horror fans sure do seem to love to hate clowns, don’t we? Even those who can appreciate the “traditional” sort of clown that we see at the circus, at kids’ birthday parties, or in old-fashioned TV shows have to admit that when the lights go down, there’s something irrefutably unsettling about a clown. Especially in(…)
Feb 20, 2015
Exclusive Review: 88 (2015) {0}
Katharine Isabelle was so good in Ginger Snaps (2000), and again in the Soska sisters’ American Mary (2012), it’s always worth keeping an eye on what she’s up to, whether it’s on the small screen (Being Human, Hannibal) or the, uh, other small screen (the Soska sisters’ disappointing See No Evil 2). Now, Isabelle gets(…)
Feb 20, 2015
Retro Review: CHOP (2011) {0}
One of the more pleasant surprise of the 2011 horror landscape was the emergence of the “Bloody Disgusting Selects” line of theatrical and video releases. A joint effort between a company known as The Collective and (of course) our friends at Bloody Disgusting, “BD Selects” hit screens of various sizes with solid acquisitions like Yellowbrickroad, Rammbock,(…)
Feb 19, 2015
Now Showing: BANSHEE CHAPTER (2013) {0}
Found footage warning! The indie sci-fi/horror film known as Banshee Chapter has been classified as “found footage” and is deemed worthy of this warning because apparently some viewers dislike “found footage” even if it’s used in service of a nifty and novel genre conceit like the one found in Banshee Chapter. In other words, if(…)
Feb 19, 2015
Exclusive Review: FEAR CLINIC (2015) {0}
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Franklin D. Roosevelt once said. Chronic phobics like Sara (Fiona Dourif) couldn’t agree more. But how do you go about effecting a cure for a crippling phobia?
Feb 19, 2015
Now Showing: THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS (2012) {0}
Back in 2005 I was lucky to catch a 47-minute Lovecraft adaptation called The Call of Cthulhu, thanks to the Slamdance programmers who liked it enough to book it … even though it’s only 47 minutes long. Easily one of the most faithful Lovecraft adaptations ever produced (the best of the adaptations often take great(…)
Feb 13, 2015
Review: WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (2014) {0}
When it comes to over-the-top and unapologetically insane independent genre films, few nations on this fine planet come close to touching Australia. I knew it the second I saw Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior back in 1983, and nothing I’ve seen in the intervening years has proved my theory wrong: Australians know how to(…)
Feb 11, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE VOICES (2015) {0}
Mental illness is no laughing matter, especially where schizophrenia, paranoid delusions and psychosis are concerned. But that hasn’t stopped screenwriter Michael R. Perry – a veteran of genre TV shows like Eerie, Indiana, American Gothic, Millennium, Stephen King’s Dead Zone and The River, and co-writer of Paranormal Activity 2 – from concocting a supremely weird(…)
Feb 9, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE HOUSE OF HIM (2014) {0}
Now here’s a weird one! Not in a bad way, but “weird” as in “interesting, odd, sometimes even a little frustrating, but also rather fascinating and oddly satisfying once all is said and done.” (It’s a rarely used definition of “weird,” true.)
Feb 6, 2015
Exclusive Review: SEVENTH SON (2015) {0}
Imagine you’re at a party with Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges, and for some reason he leans over to you and says, “Want to hear my impersonation of Sean Connery playing Gandalf the wizard?” Obviously you respond with, “Yes! Of course!” and then he virtually explodes with a deep, booming Welsh/British/Dagobah and delivers a drunken soliloquy about evil(…)
Feb 5, 2015
Exclusive Review: DIGGING UP THE MARROW (2015) {0}
(Full disclosure: the director of this movie is a friend of mine. I have not liked all of his films. Just most of them. Including this one. End of disclosure.)
Feb 3, 2015
Exclusive Review: DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) {0}
“Why don’t we re-tell the Dracula myth as sort of a superhero origin story?”
Feb 1, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE MIRROR (2014) {0}
To the cynical or jaded horror viewer, the indie indie called The Mirror may throw up a few red flags right off the bat: It’s about a haunted mirror, obviously, which will immediately draw comparisons to last year’s Oculus, although the films don’t have all that much in common. It’s “based on actual events,” which generally(…)
Jan 31, 2015
Review: SUBURBAN GOTHIC (2015) {0}
To strike a “perfect” balance between comedy and horror is an outrageously difficult task, and one that very few filmmakers pull off.
Jan 16, 2015
Exclusive Review: THE ATTICUS INSTITUTE (2015) {0}
Possess the… Possession? Wait, what? The key to a “faux documentary” is sincerity. From brilliantly funny comedies like This is Spinal Tap and Bob Roberts to clever thrillers like Man Bites Dog and The Blair Witch Project, one lesson is clear: your movie only works if everyone keeps a straight face. And that’s part of(…)
Jan 15, 2015
BENEATH Emerges in the UK {0}
Reliably exciting UK distributor Arrow has set a DVD/VOD release date for Beneath, one of several as yet unreleased films screened at FrightFest 2013 back in August. Patrick Doody and Chris Valenziano’s trapped-miners tale of terror will be released in the UK on February 23. Read Scott Weinberg’s exclusive review after the jump.
Jan 6, 2015
Review: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW (2014) {0}
Whatever else As Above, So Below has to recommend it, and it has several things that eminently do so, it has breathed a little fresh air into the found-footage genre of horror film. This is a tidy little flick, heavy on mood, light on gore, and bursting with a refreshing originality of story line. Fans of(…)
Jan 3, 2015
Review: THE WOMAN IN BLACK: ANGEL OF DEATH (2015) {0}
No matter what happens to be in fashion within the horror genre in any given year, it seems that there will always be room for haunted house stories. Zombie tales, slasher flicks, and biological mayhem seem to wax and wane in their popularity but not haunted house movies: from The Old Dark House (1932) to(…)
