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Joseph Perry

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Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Whale Bones” and “Six Singing Women” (Japan Cuts 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Whale Bones” and “Six Singing Women” (Japan Cuts 2024)

Whale Bones (Japan, 2023) Horror-adjacent Japanese feature Whale Bones delivers social commentary about the fickleness, loneliness, and desperation of life on social media apps, along with a good deal of mystery. Salaryman Mamiya (Motoki Ochiai) is unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée. On the advice of a coworker, he uses a dating app to meet someone for a hook-up, who turns out to be a young lady named Aska (Ano, who also has a singing career). Aska commits apparent suicide in Mamiya’s bed, after which he attempts to bury her body in the woods — only to find it missing from the trunk of his car. Director Takamasa Oe crafts a vibe heavy on the unease as an increasingly paranoid Mamiya then encounters many people who are obsessed with Aska’s online life and are doing their best to learn why she hasn’t added new video posts for some time. The world of Whale Bones exists somewhere between the real, surreal, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 11, 2024
First-look Trailer Revealed for Shocking Fantasia Premiere Black Eyed Susan

First-look Trailer Revealed for Shocking Fantasia Premiere Black Eyed Susan

Think you’ve seen it all, jaded fright-fare fanatics? You may want to rethink that, considering the upcoming premiere of the sci-fi horror shocker Black Eyed Susan, legendary underground filmmaker Scooter McCrae’s return to features after 21 years. The film debuts at Montreal’s superb Fantasia 2024 film festival on August 2, but you can get a sneak peek at what’s in store with today’s trailer reveal. Following is information from the official press release. A Vinegar Syndrome Production in association with Not the Funeral Home and Moose + Squirrel, Black Eyed Susan was filmed on Super 16mm film and features a luscious musical score from legendary Italian composer Fabio Frizzi (THE BEYOND, ZOMBIE). The film’s cast includes Damian Maffei (THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT, 2023’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game), model Yvonne Emilie Thälker, Marc Romeo, and ex-WWE Superstar Scott Fowler. Legendary underground filmmaker Scooter McCrae (SHATTER DEAD, SIXTEEN TONGUES) returns after a 21-year absence from feature filmmaking with the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 11, 2024
Eight Fear-Filled Films to Watch for at Fantasia’s 2024 Edition

Eight Fear-Filled Films to Watch for at Fantasia’s 2024 Edition

Fantasia, Canada’s premiere genre-film festival, has announced all of the selections for its upcoming 28th edition, running from July 18 through August 4, 2024 at Montreal’s Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. Following are recommendations for eight of the more than 125 feature films scheduled. I have seen the first three listed below and can highly recommend them. The other five have me champing at the bit to get a peek at. Below are Fantasia’s official descriptions, each one followed in italics by thoughts from yours truly. HOUSE OF SAYURI MARKS THE RETURN OF J-HORROR MASTER KOJI SHIRAISHI Legendary J-horror director Koji Shiraishi (NOROI: THE CURSE) brings the genre to new levels of fun with HOUSE OF SAYURI. A vengeful ghost disseminates a family until a counterattack from a bold grandma brings a startling new dynamic into the house. Shifting tones in surprising and destabilizing ways, this

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 8, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Listen Carefully” and “Princeton’s in the Mix” (Dances with Films 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Listen Carefully” and “Princeton’s in the Mix” (Dances with Films 2024)

Listen Carefully (U.S., 2024) Writer/director/star Ryan Barton-Grimley’s feature Listen Carefully follows a harrowing night in the life of Assistant Bank Manager Andy (Barton-Grimley), and it’s an entertaining, sometimes head-scratching, ride. As Andy’s wife Allie (Simone Barton-Grimley) skeptically leaves her husband in charge of their baby for a girl’s night out with his promise that he will prioritize the wellbeing of their child ahead of his work from home, Andy’s job anxiety becomes the least of his worries after the baby is kidnapped. A mysterious voice (Ari Schneider, who costarred with with Ryan Barton-Grimley in the latter’s writing/directing feature Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers) on the other end of a baby monitor sends Andy on a wild quest to gather enough money — in an illicit, dangerous manner — for ransom. Listen Carefully sends both Andy and viewers down a path in which reality and dreams intermingle to the point of being unsure which is which. Ryan Barton-Grimley keeps Andy’s anxiety

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2024
Chattanooga Film Festival Offers a Hybrid Eleventh Edition This Month

Chattanooga Film Festival Offers a Hybrid Eleventh Edition This Month

Chattanooga Film Festival (https://www.chattfilmfest.org/) celebrates its 11th edition with a hybrid edition, so you can catch either in-person screenings from June 21–23 or relax at home with a virtual version from June 21–28, 2024. The lineup is a cornucopia of fright fare and other genre-film offerings. Lots of amazing features are scheduled, from Swedish religious horror In the Name of God to Dutch high-strangeness documentary The UFOs of Soesterberg to the sumptuous French vampire film The Vourdalak, and beyond. I’ve had the good fortune to watch and review four of the fest’s features from previous festivals for Horror Fuel, all of which I can recommend for Chattanooga Film Festival viewing. As always, you needn’t be concerned about spoilers in my reviews. Film descriptions are from the Chattanooga Film Festival website. Blind Cop 2 When an influx of illegal weapons trafficking explodes onto the scene, a grieving blind police officer must purge the city streets or risk mass chaos breaking loose.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 20, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “They’re Here” and “The Hongfu Hotel” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “They’re Here” and “The Hongfu Hotel” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

They’re Here (U.S., 2024) Codirectors Daniel Claridge and Pacho Velez offer an unusual, thoroughly captivating take on the UFO experiencer phenomenon in their documentary They’re Here. The filmmakers focus on a small group of New Yorkers who claim to have had close encounters with extraterrestrial crafts and sometimes their occupants. Interview subjects include Cookie, a woman who claims to have been abducted by aliens multiple times; Twon, a stand-up comedian who bombs telling jokes about extraterrestrials; Dave, who made the local news by allegedly filming a UFO on his cell phone while under the influence of mushrooms; and Steve, a man who feels that he had a UFO experience but has difficulty remembering any details about the encounter, and who agrees to hypnosis to try to recall what happened. Claridge and Velez approach their subjects with both skepticism and affection, allowing them to fully express themselves knowing that many people don’t believe their stories. They’re Here takes an unusual route

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Beacon” and “A Family Guide to Hunting” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Beacon” and “A Family Guide to Hunting” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Beacon (U.S., 2024) Last year, Tribeca gave the world a top-notch tale of two strangers, a man and a woman, stuck in an isolated location with a suspenseful mystery about who might be dangerous to the other with You’ll Never Find Me. This year, the fest serves up another such pressure cooker with director Roxy Shih’s Beacon. Emily (Julia Goldani Telles), a young woman who comes from a family with a love for sailing, sets off to circumnavigate the globe, but fate in the way of a huge storm strands her at a remote lighthouse. Ismael (Demián Bichir), the lone lighthouse keeper, attempts to help the injured Emily, who is naturally suspicious of him. Questions surrounding Ismael’s ability to communicate with the outside world and his obsession with the mythological creature known as the siren complicate matters further. Shih, working from a screenplay by Julio Rojas, paces the drama and suspense wonderfully. The main drawing point of the film for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2024
Inaugural Amazing Fantasy Fest Announces Its First Wave

Inaugural Amazing Fantasy Fest Announces Its First Wave

From superstitions to slashers to psychological horror and beyond, the first wave announcement for Buffalo, New York’s new Amazing Fantasy Fest this September offers tantalizing genre-film fare galore. Following is the official press announcement. Gregory Lamberson (Slime City, Johnny Gruesome) has announced the first wave of feature film selections for Amazing Fantasy Fest, the new genre film festival he founded to replace long running Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which ended last year after a decade. Sponsors for AFF include Uncork’d Entertainment, filmmaker/author Kristen Skeet, and Dean Beltrano. Amazing Fantasy Fest celebrates independent horror, sci-fi, action, animation, and experimental films. AFF runs seven days this September, Friday the 13th – Thursday the 19th at Dipson’s Amherst Theatre in Buffalo. Official Selections will screen the first six days, with “secret cinema” offerings on the last day reserved for seven-day pass holders. Submissions are still being accepted via FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/AmazingFantasyFest The Outlaw Cinema Award will be presented in memory of Ace Genovese,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 17, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Weekend” and “Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries” (Tribeca)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Weekend” and “Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries” (Tribeca)

The Weekend (Nigeria, 2024) Good foreign fright-fare gives viewers culturally different spins on subgenres. Daniel Oriahi’s The Weekend certainly delivers the local-flavor goods and the chills with its Nigerian take on in-laws-from-hell eeriness. Engaged couple Nikya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), orphaned as a young girl and dreaming of having a close knit family, and Luc (Bucci Franklin), who has fallen out with his parents but still talks with his sister, travel — Luc reluctantly so — from their home in the city to his rural hometown with a local holiday approaching. Local criminals who threaten the couple turn out to be the least fearful of dangers that await. Aniunoh and Franklin head up an excellent cast, and Oriahi delivers the shudder-inducing goods as the mystery behind Luc’s family and the reasons for their high ranking in their village are revealed — and the aforementioned holiday serves up its nightmarish tension, too. Sumptuously shot by cinematographer Idhebor Kagho, The Weekend delivers a gruesome

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 12, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Devil’s Bath” and “Hunters on a White Field” (Tribeca)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Devil’s Bath” and “Hunters on a White Field” (Tribeca)

The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad; Austria/Germany, 2024) Cowriters/codirectors Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala are well known for crafting two of the grimmest horror features of the past 10 years, Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh, 2014) and The Lodge (2019). With their new outing The Devil’s Bath, they show within the first few minutes that they don’t plan on softening up their approach, as viewers witness an event from which many fear-fare filmmakers might shy away. In a dread-filled portrayal of mental illness in a small, rural religious community in 18th century Austria, the duo blends folk horror, religious horror, and psychological horror elements. Agnes (Anja Plaschg) and Wolf (David Scheid) have a festive wedding day, but Wolf has no interest in consummating their marriage, while Agnes seems quite interested in having a baby. Wolf’s mother Gänglin (Maria Hofstätter) doesn’t make life easier on Agnes, either. Depression sets in with Agnes, sending her on a journey toward the unthinkable.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 11, 2024

More from Joseph Perry

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Whale Bones” and “Six Singing Women” (Japan Cuts 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Whale Bones” and “Six Singing Women” (Japan Cuts 2024)

Whale Bones (Japan, 2023) Horror-adjacent Japanese feature Whale Bones delivers social commentary about the fickleness, loneliness, and desperation of life on social media apps, along with a good deal of mystery. Salaryman Mamiya (Motoki Ochiai) is unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée. On the advice of a coworker, he uses a dating app to meet someone for a hook-up, who turns out to be a young lady named Aska (Ano, who also has a singing career). Aska commits apparent suicide in Mamiya’s bed, after which he attempts to bury her body in the woods — only to find it missing from the trunk of his car. Director Takamasa Oe crafts a vibe heavy on the unease as an increasingly paranoid Mamiya then encounters many people who are obsessed with Aska’s online life and are doing their best to learn why she hasn’t added new video posts for some time. The world of Whale Bones exists somewhere between the real, surreal, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 11, 2024
First-look Trailer Revealed for Shocking Fantasia Premiere Black Eyed Susan

First-look Trailer Revealed for Shocking Fantasia Premiere Black Eyed Susan

Think you’ve seen it all, jaded fright-fare fanatics? You may want to rethink that, considering the upcoming premiere of the sci-fi horror shocker Black Eyed Susan, legendary underground filmmaker Scooter McCrae’s return to features after 21 years. The film debuts at Montreal’s superb Fantasia 2024 film festival on August 2, but you can get a sneak peek at what’s in store with today’s trailer reveal. Following is information from the official press release. A Vinegar Syndrome Production in association with Not the Funeral Home and Moose + Squirrel, Black Eyed Susan was filmed on Super 16mm film and features a luscious musical score from legendary Italian composer Fabio Frizzi (THE BEYOND, ZOMBIE). The film’s cast includes Damian Maffei (THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT, 2023’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game), model Yvonne Emilie Thälker, Marc Romeo, and ex-WWE Superstar Scott Fowler. Legendary underground filmmaker Scooter McCrae (SHATTER DEAD, SIXTEEN TONGUES) returns after a 21-year absence from feature filmmaking with the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 11, 2024
Eight Fear-Filled Films to Watch for at Fantasia’s 2024 Edition

Eight Fear-Filled Films to Watch for at Fantasia’s 2024 Edition

Fantasia, Canada’s premiere genre-film festival, has announced all of the selections for its upcoming 28th edition, running from July 18 through August 4, 2024 at Montreal’s Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. Following are recommendations for eight of the more than 125 feature films scheduled. I have seen the first three listed below and can highly recommend them. The other five have me champing at the bit to get a peek at. Below are Fantasia’s official descriptions, each one followed in italics by thoughts from yours truly. HOUSE OF SAYURI MARKS THE RETURN OF J-HORROR MASTER KOJI SHIRAISHI Legendary J-horror director Koji Shiraishi (NOROI: THE CURSE) brings the genre to new levels of fun with HOUSE OF SAYURI. A vengeful ghost disseminates a family until a counterattack from a bold grandma brings a startling new dynamic into the house. Shifting tones in surprising and destabilizing ways, this

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 8, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Listen Carefully” and “Princeton’s in the Mix” (Dances with Films 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Listen Carefully” and “Princeton’s in the Mix” (Dances with Films 2024)

Listen Carefully (U.S., 2024) Writer/director/star Ryan Barton-Grimley’s feature Listen Carefully follows a harrowing night in the life of Assistant Bank Manager Andy (Barton-Grimley), and it’s an entertaining, sometimes head-scratching, ride. As Andy’s wife Allie (Simone Barton-Grimley) skeptically leaves her husband in charge of their baby for a girl’s night out with his promise that he will prioritize the wellbeing of their child ahead of his work from home, Andy’s job anxiety becomes the least of his worries after the baby is kidnapped. A mysterious voice (Ari Schneider, who costarred with with Ryan Barton-Grimley in the latter’s writing/directing feature Hawk and Rev: Vampire Slayers) on the other end of a baby monitor sends Andy on a wild quest to gather enough money — in an illicit, dangerous manner — for ransom. Listen Carefully sends both Andy and viewers down a path in which reality and dreams intermingle to the point of being unsure which is which. Ryan Barton-Grimley keeps Andy’s anxiety

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2024
Chattanooga Film Festival Offers a Hybrid Eleventh Edition This Month

Chattanooga Film Festival Offers a Hybrid Eleventh Edition This Month

Chattanooga Film Festival (https://www.chattfilmfest.org/) celebrates its 11th edition with a hybrid edition, so you can catch either in-person screenings from June 21–23 or relax at home with a virtual version from June 21–28, 2024. The lineup is a cornucopia of fright fare and other genre-film offerings. Lots of amazing features are scheduled, from Swedish religious horror In the Name of God to Dutch high-strangeness documentary The UFOs of Soesterberg to the sumptuous French vampire film The Vourdalak, and beyond. I’ve had the good fortune to watch and review four of the fest’s features from previous festivals for Horror Fuel, all of which I can recommend for Chattanooga Film Festival viewing. As always, you needn’t be concerned about spoilers in my reviews. Film descriptions are from the Chattanooga Film Festival website. Blind Cop 2 When an influx of illegal weapons trafficking explodes onto the scene, a grieving blind police officer must purge the city streets or risk mass chaos breaking loose.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 20, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “They’re Here” and “The Hongfu Hotel” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “They’re Here” and “The Hongfu Hotel” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

They’re Here (U.S., 2024) Codirectors Daniel Claridge and Pacho Velez offer an unusual, thoroughly captivating take on the UFO experiencer phenomenon in their documentary They’re Here. The filmmakers focus on a small group of New Yorkers who claim to have had close encounters with extraterrestrial crafts and sometimes their occupants. Interview subjects include Cookie, a woman who claims to have been abducted by aliens multiple times; Twon, a stand-up comedian who bombs telling jokes about extraterrestrials; Dave, who made the local news by allegedly filming a UFO on his cell phone while under the influence of mushrooms; and Steve, a man who feels that he had a UFO experience but has difficulty remembering any details about the encounter, and who agrees to hypnosis to try to recall what happened. Claridge and Velez approach their subjects with both skepticism and affection, allowing them to fully express themselves knowing that many people don’t believe their stories. They’re Here takes an unusual route

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Beacon” and “A Family Guide to Hunting” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “Beacon” and “A Family Guide to Hunting” (Tribeca Festival 2024)

Beacon (U.S., 2024) Last year, Tribeca gave the world a top-notch tale of two strangers, a man and a woman, stuck in an isolated location with a suspenseful mystery about who might be dangerous to the other with You’ll Never Find Me. This year, the fest serves up another such pressure cooker with director Roxy Shih’s Beacon. Emily (Julia Goldani Telles), a young woman who comes from a family with a love for sailing, sets off to circumnavigate the globe, but fate in the way of a huge storm strands her at a remote lighthouse. Ismael (Demián Bichir), the lone lighthouse keeper, attempts to help the injured Emily, who is naturally suspicious of him. Questions surrounding Ismael’s ability to communicate with the outside world and his obsession with the mythological creature known as the siren complicate matters further. Shih, working from a screenplay by Julio Rojas, paces the drama and suspense wonderfully. The main drawing point of the film for

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 18, 2024
Inaugural Amazing Fantasy Fest Announces Its First Wave

Inaugural Amazing Fantasy Fest Announces Its First Wave

From superstitions to slashers to psychological horror and beyond, the first wave announcement for Buffalo, New York’s new Amazing Fantasy Fest this September offers tantalizing genre-film fare galore. Following is the official press announcement. Gregory Lamberson (Slime City, Johnny Gruesome) has announced the first wave of feature film selections for Amazing Fantasy Fest, the new genre film festival he founded to replace long running Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, which ended last year after a decade. Sponsors for AFF include Uncork’d Entertainment, filmmaker/author Kristen Skeet, and Dean Beltrano. Amazing Fantasy Fest celebrates independent horror, sci-fi, action, animation, and experimental films. AFF runs seven days this September, Friday the 13th – Thursday the 19th at Dipson’s Amherst Theatre in Buffalo. Official Selections will screen the first six days, with “secret cinema” offerings on the last day reserved for seven-day pass holders. Submissions are still being accepted via FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/AmazingFantasyFest The Outlaw Cinema Award will be presented in memory of Ace Genovese,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 17, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Weekend” and “Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries” (Tribeca)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Weekend” and “Untitled Tim Burton Docuseries” (Tribeca)

The Weekend (Nigeria, 2024) Good foreign fright-fare gives viewers culturally different spins on subgenres. Daniel Oriahi’s The Weekend certainly delivers the local-flavor goods and the chills with its Nigerian take on in-laws-from-hell eeriness. Engaged couple Nikya (Uzoamaka Aniunoh), orphaned as a young girl and dreaming of having a close knit family, and Luc (Bucci Franklin), who has fallen out with his parents but still talks with his sister, travel — Luc reluctantly so — from their home in the city to his rural hometown with a local holiday approaching. Local criminals who threaten the couple turn out to be the least fearful of dangers that await. Aniunoh and Franklin head up an excellent cast, and Oriahi delivers the shudder-inducing goods as the mystery behind Luc’s family and the reasons for their high ranking in their village are revealed — and the aforementioned holiday serves up its nightmarish tension, too. Sumptuously shot by cinematographer Idhebor Kagho, The Weekend delivers a gruesome

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 12, 2024
Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Devil’s Bath” and “Hunters on a White Field” (Tribeca)

Spoiler-Free Reviews: “The Devil’s Bath” and “Hunters on a White Field” (Tribeca)

The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad; Austria/Germany, 2024) Cowriters/codirectors Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala are well known for crafting two of the grimmest horror features of the past 10 years, Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh, 2014) and The Lodge (2019). With their new outing The Devil’s Bath, they show within the first few minutes that they don’t plan on softening up their approach, as viewers witness an event from which many fear-fare filmmakers might shy away. In a dread-filled portrayal of mental illness in a small, rural religious community in 18th century Austria, the duo blends folk horror, religious horror, and psychological horror elements. Agnes (Anja Plaschg) and Wolf (David Scheid) have a festive wedding day, but Wolf has no interest in consummating their marriage, while Agnes seems quite interested in having a baby. Wolf’s mother Gänglin (Maria Hofstätter) doesn’t make life easier on Agnes, either. Depression sets in with Agnes, sending her on a journey toward the unthinkable.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 11, 2024
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