Feb 3, 2015
Feb 2, 2015
Exclusive Review: PRESERVATION (2015) {0}
Here’s a dark horse of a film – or rather, upon closer examination, a Trojan horse. It’s the second film from writer-director Christopher Denham, whom you may recognize from his acting roles in Shutter Island, Argo, TV’s Manhattan and The Sound of My Voice, but who also wrote and directed the underrated found footage horror Home Movie (2008), in which Denham used the contents of a home movie camera to document the breakdown of a normal family, as their twin 10-year-olds become increasingly violent and disconnected. Although Home Movie was perhaps overshadowed by two other ‘bad seed’ films from 2008, Eden Lake and The Children, it had intriguing and relevant things to say about the violence that weaves its insidious way through our childhoods, inherent in everything from fairy tales to children’s toys and Bible stories, and, arguably, about the violence inherent in human nature, and children in particular. They are themes Denham returns to, with resounding success, in Preservation.
Feb 2, 2015
Victorian Photography Goes Digital in DEAD STILL {0}
Content Films have confirmed a digital release of Dead Still, the new horror movie from Christopher Saint Booth and Philip Adrian Booth, the twin brothers behind such films as Death Tunnel, The Exorcist File, DarkPlace, The Possessed, Spooked, The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium and Children of the Grave.
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 sounds like a load of marketing gimmicks, but it’s true: The Mirror is based on an actual case about an allegedly haunted mirror that sold on eBay for $155.
- It’s another one of those found footage movies, which seem to be the current whipping boy in the horror department lately. (Remakes were the previous whipping boy in the horror department. Now it’s found footage movies.) But as someone who loves the potential of “found footage” and frequently enjoys seeing how young filmmakers tinker with the format, I found a good deal to enjoy here.
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 23, 2015
VODcast #9: Scott Weinberg’s Year Ahead in Horror: January to June {0}
In our latest VODcast (collect the whole set on our YouTube channel!), TheHorrorShow.TV blog critic Scott Weinberg looks at the horror movies we can expect in the first half of 2015. Check out the video after the fold.
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 what makes the creepy new horror flick The Atticus Institute so interesting: it actually feels like a “Discovery Channel”-style documentary that just happens to wander into some very supernatural places.
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.
