Pity the poor apocalyptic horror film Carriers. Here we have a well-shot, psychologically demanding, and impressively unflinching tale of global decay, but since the screenplay caught the eye of a now-defunct “boutique” label (namely, Paramount Vantage), the film is beholden to all sorts of lofty expectations. A “studio product” must A) yield a jazzy trailer, B) earn a big bunch of cash in its first three days, and C) connect instantly with an audience to one degree or another.  More

Wikipedia tells me that the great Richard Matheson was none too pleased with the 1986 Twilight Zone episode that was based on his 1970 short story Button, Button. And having just witnessed the certifiably bizarre Richard Kelly adaptation, I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Matheson would have absolutely loathed this version. Let’s just say the TV version was a truncated version of the original story, whereas this brand-new two-hour cinematic version is the exact opposite: It wanders off in a variety of directions that pretty much boggle the mind.

Which is probably why I liked The Box as much as I did. With a few reservations, sure, but call it fascinating or call it absurd … it’s still pretty damn watchable. More

Apparently all it takes to make an effective horror flick are the following components: a guy, a girl, a camera, and a whole bunch of seriously creepy atmosphere. Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is one of the best haunted house flicks I’ve seen in quite some time — and what makes it even cooler is that the movie was clearly made with a lot more creativity than money. Although it boasts only two characters, one all-encompassing plot thread, and a visual approach clearly inspired by The Blair Witch Project, this seriously creepy little flick is proof positive that you don’t need a lot of flashy effects or expensive gadgets to make for an effective horror tale. More

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, in about 0.6 seconds: The horror / comedy mixture is a mean and difficult beast to tame. I do not envy the screenwriter, director, and actors who must, for at least 100 minutes, waver back and forth between A) shocks, scares, and splatter, and B) jokes, chuckles, and giggles. Oh sure, you’ll always find a few random nuggets of quality on one side of the fence or the other, but the films that can balance atop the fence are fairly few and far-between. Aside from the widely-adored Shaun of the Dead, we look to flicks like Gremlins, Tremors, Evil Dead 2, An American Werewolf in London, Slither, The Howling, Return of the Living Dead, and a small handful of others. More

A college girl who desperately needs some income agrees to babysit in a giant creepy house, only to discover that she’s been enticed there for nefarious means.

Your reaction is this: Yawn. Seen it.

My response? That’s what’s so cool about Ti West’s The House of the Devil. It knows that YOU know all the “haunted house” clichés, trademarks, and stereotypes by now, so not only is your vast horror knowledge an aide here. It’s sort of a necessity. More

One of the main (and corniest) reasons I love film festivals is this: We’re (pretty much) all there to acknowledge / admire / adore the art of cinema, and the love for the medium oozes out of every crack in the sidewalk found at Sundance, Toronto, SXSW, etc. But here’s the thing: 99.5% of the time, we’re there to celebrate GOOD cinema: Great performances, challenging stories, well-crafted narratives, powerful music, nifty effects, insightful themes, you name it, we’ll laud it. But then comes a fantastic little documentary called BEST WORST MOVIE, and we’re reminded that not ALL shared and communal film experiences are centered around QUALITY cinema. More

If you have a baby who loves to, say, take off his diaper and smear the walls with his own feces, it’s not really the kid’s fault. It’s the fault of the parents who allow a small child with a poop fetish to run around unchecked, free to do whatever he likes with his diaper and his doody. And by this point, it’s virtually impossible to blame Rob Zombie for the irredeemable refuse he calls his movies, because let’s face it: Someone gave this filth-obsessed infant another $25 million with which to create another crap-caked masterpiece. And to those who looked at the final version of Zombie’s Halloween II, and deemed it worthy of horror fan consumption … well, those guys are either monumentally clueless about what makes a good horror flick, or (much more likely) they knew they were looking at a shit portrait, and they just didn’t care. More

It’s a phrase that a lot of film critics (and fans) love to throw around, but truth be told, even while digging through the lamest of the lame … I usually DO see some semblance of effort. Such is clearly not the case where the stupidly-titled The Final Destination is concerned. Considering I’ve seen unfinished work prints that look a lot more releasable than this flick, let’s just drop the pretense, shall we? It’s Final Destination 4, for cryin’ out loud, the third unasked-for sequel to a film that dared to bring a small dash of creativity to the “mad slasher” concept … and then begat three progressively stupider sequels. Again, this is what we get for making a movie a hit. More