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Joseph Perry

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Horror Channel Further Unlocks THE VINTAGE VAULT This June: Four More Sunday Night Classic Genre Double-bills

Horror Channel Further Unlocks THE VINTAGE VAULT This June: Four More Sunday Night Classic Genre Double-bills

U.K.-based lovers of classic fear-fare and monster movies, you’re in for a treat this June as Horror Channel once again serves up a heaping helping of horror films from the 1950s! Whether you prefer your deadly-beast favorites created in a mad scientist’s laboratory or by atomic radiation, there’s something on this bill for all aficionados of creature features! Check out the official press announcement that follows. This June, Horror Channel once again journeys into the history of genre cinema with THE VINTAGE VAULT, presenting double-bills of classic sci-fi and horror films every Sunday night. The vault is unlocked on Sunday June 5th with Nathan Juran’s Ray Harryhausen inspired 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH. This is paired with Fred F. Sears’ rampaging alien bird yarn THE GIANT CLAW. Then on Sunday June 12th, we have THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, in which the world is attacked by thirsty giant crystals, followed by the beastly mutant classic THE DEADLY MANTIS. On Sunday June 19th,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 20, 2022
Movie Reviews: “One and Four” and “Coma” (Jeonju International Film Festival)

Movie Reviews: “One and Four” and “Coma” (Jeonju International Film Festival)

One and Four Chinese feature One and Four (2021) is a nailbiter about Sanggye (Jinpa), a ranger who works alone at an isolated post in the Tibetan forest, whose solitude is interrupted when he finds a crashed car with a dead policeman on board. Returning to his cabin, he finds a wounded cop (Wang Zheng), but Sanggye suspects he might actually be a poacher. Kunbo (Kunde), a village acquaintance of Sanggye’s, returns to the cabin after a visit the night before, and eventually another wounded cop (Darggye Tenzin) stumbles onto the scene. As Sanggye becomes increasingly suspicious about each of the men, they do their part in creating further confusion and uncertainties. Naturally, weapons come into play, and as anger and confusion mount, danger threatens with every passing second. Writer/director Jigme Trinley’s debut feature looks terrific, with the snow-covered setting serving both a beautiful and bleak backdrop. He ratchets up the suspense masterfully, even if there’s not a whole lot

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 18, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Subject” and “Bashira” (Fantaspoa)

Movie Reviews: “Subject” and “Bashira” (Fantaspoa)

Subject Subject, cowinner of this year’s Fantaspoa Best Film in the Brazilian Feature Film Competition category, tackles a familiar set-up: writer Max (Gustavo Falcão) has moved into a house in a rural area to work on his next book, but odd things occur inside the house. What director Leo Falcão does with this set-up is quite unlike what viewers might expect, though, as he takes a rather light-hearted, magical realism approach and sends Max on a weird journey involving suddenly-appearing texts, oddball locals, and the mystery of what happened to the writer who lived in the house before him. From characters who say strangely out-of-place words and instantly correct themselves to daily fistfights among friends, these locals are an enigmatic lot, and the actors who portray them do a marvelous job. Max finds himself grappling with existential puzzles, and Gustavo Falcão inhabits the character with a bemused, fish-out-of-water verve. Though not strictly a horror film, Subject definitely has scare-fare elements

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 17, 2022
Movie Review: The Aviary

Movie Review: The Aviary

The Aviary from cowriters/codirectors Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite combines survival suspense with a psychological thriller, with a fair dash of mystery on tap, as well. The performances from its two lead actors is the driving force behind the film. Jillian (Malin Akerman) was a highly placed member of the Skylight cult when she recruited Blair (Lorenzo Izzo), but after hearing about cult leader Seth’s (Chris Messina) latest treatment, she plans to break free with Blair. To escape the titular compound, the women must traverse the New Mexico desert for a few days before reaching civilization. Brainwashing and newfound paranoia brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t easily shaken, though, and each woman deals with her share of it, complicated by the dangers of the desert. The Aviary plays mind games with its viewers, as Seth does so with Jillian and Blair — is he in their heads as a result of their cult indoctrination, or in some more mysterious

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 17, 2022
Movie Review: “The Innocents”

Movie Review: “The Innocents”

Do your best not to learn much at all about writer/director Eskil Vogt’s Norwegian film The Innocents (De uskyldige; 2021) — my review will be free of spoilers — and you will be rewarded with one of the most gripping slices of fear-fare involving children in recent memory. This eerie feature has solidified one of the top spots on my list of favorite horror films of this year. Nine-year-old Ida (Rakel Lenora Flottum) is fed up with the extra attention that her parents (Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Flottum’s real-life mother, and Morten Svartveit) bestow on her older autistic sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), signaled at the beginning of the film with Ida hurting her sister, who doesn’t outwardly express pain. The family moves into an apartment in a tower block at the edge of a wooded area, where Ida meets loners Ben (Sam Ashraf) and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim). Ida is fascinated with what seem to be supernatural powers displayed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 13, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Dashcam” and “Presence” (Panic Fest) 

Movie Reviews: “Dashcam” and “Presence” (Panic Fest) 

Dashcam Director Rob Savage follows up his highly acclaimed 2020 feature Host with Dashcam. It’s a freaky effort that uses an intriguing style that falls somewhere between direct cinema and found footage. There’s much to recommend about the film, though the lead character is so grating — no matter which way your politics lie — that it cancels out some of Dashcam’s goodwill. Musician and anti-vaxxer Annie Hardy plays a revved-up version of herself, hosting a livestreaming show in which she raps in an improv style while driving around in her car. In an effort to escape what she feels is the overbearing strictness toward COVID-19 in the United States to visit an old bandmate Stretch (Amar Chadha-Patel) in the U.K. — obviously, she didn’t do much homework before purchasing her ticket. She wreaks havoc in Stretch’s life before stealing his car and winds up picking up a sick elderly woman (Angela Enahoro), but the woman isn’t merely sick, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 12, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Dark Glasses” and “No Looking Back” (SLASH 1/2 Film Festival)

Movie Reviews: “Dark Glasses” and “No Looking Back” (SLASH 1/2 Film Festival)

Dark Glasses Italian/French coproduction Dark Glasses (AKA Black Glasses; Occhiali Neri, 2022) is the latest from Dario Argento, and while it isn’t quite a return to form for the legendary director, it is arguably one of his better later-career offerings. High-end call girl Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) loses her sight when she is pursued in a car chase by a serial killer who targets sex workers, and her vehicle crashes into another, blidning her and killing the parents of young boy Chin (Andrea Zhang). She visits him at the nunnery for orphans where he stays until placed with a foster family, and he escapes to live with her illegally. Naturally, the murderer is still pursuing Diana, which puts both her and the boy in peril. There are no surprises in Dark Glasses other than an eerie opening sequence involving a solar eclipse. After that, it’s pretty standard giallo/slasher fare, and not as stylish as viewers might hope for Argento’s first film

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 10, 2022
Graphic Novel Series Review: Halloween Girl, Vol. 2

Graphic Novel Series Review: Halloween Girl, Vol. 2

Mad Shelley Comics has just released Halloween Girl, Vol. 2, the second chapter in its supernatural graphic novel series Halloween Girl. This latest installment in a planned 7-issue series based on creator Richard T. Wilson’s The Halloween Girl film and its sister web series, Under the Flowers. Halloween Girl, Vol. 2 continues this young-adult–oriented series in an intriguing manner, widening the world presented in the debut issue while dropping breadcrumbs of mystery for future story progression. Titular character Charlotte William is an 18-year-old ghost who can take on human form. Halloween Girl, Vol. 2 begins as she is trapped in a large house and about to be devoured by huge, spider-like creatures — and it doesn’t help that she suffers from arachnophobia and is stuck in her form that is least helpful for the precarious situation. Wilson’s writing is sharp and engaging, and he unfolds the story at a pace that is neither rushed nor too slow-moving. It might be

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 10, 2022
Movie Review: “Allegoria” (Panic Fest) 

Movie Review: “Allegoria” (Panic Fest) 

Allegoria, the debut feature from writer/director Spider One, finds tortured artists and torturing artists alike. This anthology film is a dark dive into the psyches of musicians, painters, actors, and others and serves up a variety of horror elements. In the opening installment, acting teacher Robert Anderson Wright (John Ennis) demands that his students show him a monster. Ennis is pitch perfect as a hard-nosed instructor, giving an all-in performance that isn’t short on flying spittle. Next up, angry artist Marcus Muller (Bryce Johnson) gets inspiration for his latest painting from a decidedly dark source. Johnson invests Muller with the proper amount of pretentiousness and cynicism, and what he confronts is disturbingly realized. In the third segment — and probably the most viscerally brutal — screenwriter Eddie (Edward Hong) gets a lesson in crafting a slasher flick from an expert source (Adam Marcinowski). If it’s slasher action you crave, this section delivers. Next, sculptor Ivy (Scout Compton) volunteers to help

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 6, 2022
Overlook Film Festival Announces Its Second Wave of Chillers and Thrillers

Overlook Film Festival Announces Its Second Wave of Chillers and Thrillers

The Overlook Film Festival brings another drool-inducing slate of horror and horror-adjacent features and shorts to New Orleans next month. From monsters to murderers to other mayhem-makers, the fest has something for fear-fare fans of every stripe. Following is the official press announcement. The Overlook Film Festival is proud to announce its opening night film and second wave of the 2022 festival lineup. These titles join previously announced films and events, including closing night film THE BLACK PHONE, for a total of 23 feature films and 25 short films from 16 countries, with 3 World Premieres and 1 North American premiere, along with 10 live events taking place at the Prytania Theatres At Canal Place in New Orleans June 2-5, 2022. The festival will open with the North American premiere of Ana Lily Amirpour’s MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON, which features a stellar cast including Jeon Jong-soo, Kate Hudson and Craig Robinson. Shot in New Orleans, this fantastical boundary

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 4, 2022

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Channel Further Unlocks THE VINTAGE VAULT This June: Four More Sunday Night Classic Genre Double-bills

Horror Channel Further Unlocks THE VINTAGE VAULT This June: Four More Sunday Night Classic Genre Double-bills

U.K.-based lovers of classic fear-fare and monster movies, you’re in for a treat this June as Horror Channel once again serves up a heaping helping of horror films from the 1950s! Whether you prefer your deadly-beast favorites created in a mad scientist’s laboratory or by atomic radiation, there’s something on this bill for all aficionados of creature features! Check out the official press announcement that follows. This June, Horror Channel once again journeys into the history of genre cinema with THE VINTAGE VAULT, presenting double-bills of classic sci-fi and horror films every Sunday night. The vault is unlocked on Sunday June 5th with Nathan Juran’s Ray Harryhausen inspired 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH. This is paired with Fred F. Sears’ rampaging alien bird yarn THE GIANT CLAW. Then on Sunday June 12th, we have THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, in which the world is attacked by thirsty giant crystals, followed by the beastly mutant classic THE DEADLY MANTIS. On Sunday June 19th,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 20, 2022
Movie Reviews: “One and Four” and “Coma” (Jeonju International Film Festival)

Movie Reviews: “One and Four” and “Coma” (Jeonju International Film Festival)

One and Four Chinese feature One and Four (2021) is a nailbiter about Sanggye (Jinpa), a ranger who works alone at an isolated post in the Tibetan forest, whose solitude is interrupted when he finds a crashed car with a dead policeman on board. Returning to his cabin, he finds a wounded cop (Wang Zheng), but Sanggye suspects he might actually be a poacher. Kunbo (Kunde), a village acquaintance of Sanggye’s, returns to the cabin after a visit the night before, and eventually another wounded cop (Darggye Tenzin) stumbles onto the scene. As Sanggye becomes increasingly suspicious about each of the men, they do their part in creating further confusion and uncertainties. Naturally, weapons come into play, and as anger and confusion mount, danger threatens with every passing second. Writer/director Jigme Trinley’s debut feature looks terrific, with the snow-covered setting serving both a beautiful and bleak backdrop. He ratchets up the suspense masterfully, even if there’s not a whole lot

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 18, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Subject” and “Bashira” (Fantaspoa)

Movie Reviews: “Subject” and “Bashira” (Fantaspoa)

Subject Subject, cowinner of this year’s Fantaspoa Best Film in the Brazilian Feature Film Competition category, tackles a familiar set-up: writer Max (Gustavo Falcão) has moved into a house in a rural area to work on his next book, but odd things occur inside the house. What director Leo Falcão does with this set-up is quite unlike what viewers might expect, though, as he takes a rather light-hearted, magical realism approach and sends Max on a weird journey involving suddenly-appearing texts, oddball locals, and the mystery of what happened to the writer who lived in the house before him. From characters who say strangely out-of-place words and instantly correct themselves to daily fistfights among friends, these locals are an enigmatic lot, and the actors who portray them do a marvelous job. Max finds himself grappling with existential puzzles, and Gustavo Falcão inhabits the character with a bemused, fish-out-of-water verve. Though not strictly a horror film, Subject definitely has scare-fare elements

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 17, 2022
Movie Review: The Aviary

Movie Review: The Aviary

The Aviary from cowriters/codirectors Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite combines survival suspense with a psychological thriller, with a fair dash of mystery on tap, as well. The performances from its two lead actors is the driving force behind the film. Jillian (Malin Akerman) was a highly placed member of the Skylight cult when she recruited Blair (Lorenzo Izzo), but after hearing about cult leader Seth’s (Chris Messina) latest treatment, she plans to break free with Blair. To escape the titular compound, the women must traverse the New Mexico desert for a few days before reaching civilization. Brainwashing and newfound paranoia brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t easily shaken, though, and each woman deals with her share of it, complicated by the dangers of the desert. The Aviary plays mind games with its viewers, as Seth does so with Jillian and Blair — is he in their heads as a result of their cult indoctrination, or in some more mysterious

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 17, 2022
Movie Review: “The Innocents”

Movie Review: “The Innocents”

Do your best not to learn much at all about writer/director Eskil Vogt’s Norwegian film The Innocents (De uskyldige; 2021) — my review will be free of spoilers — and you will be rewarded with one of the most gripping slices of fear-fare involving children in recent memory. This eerie feature has solidified one of the top spots on my list of favorite horror films of this year. Nine-year-old Ida (Rakel Lenora Flottum) is fed up with the extra attention that her parents (Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Flottum’s real-life mother, and Morten Svartveit) bestow on her older autistic sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), signaled at the beginning of the film with Ida hurting her sister, who doesn’t outwardly express pain. The family moves into an apartment in a tower block at the edge of a wooded area, where Ida meets loners Ben (Sam Ashraf) and Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim). Ida is fascinated with what seem to be supernatural powers displayed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 13, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Dashcam” and “Presence” (Panic Fest) 

Movie Reviews: “Dashcam” and “Presence” (Panic Fest) 

Dashcam Director Rob Savage follows up his highly acclaimed 2020 feature Host with Dashcam. It’s a freaky effort that uses an intriguing style that falls somewhere between direct cinema and found footage. There’s much to recommend about the film, though the lead character is so grating — no matter which way your politics lie — that it cancels out some of Dashcam’s goodwill. Musician and anti-vaxxer Annie Hardy plays a revved-up version of herself, hosting a livestreaming show in which she raps in an improv style while driving around in her car. In an effort to escape what she feels is the overbearing strictness toward COVID-19 in the United States to visit an old bandmate Stretch (Amar Chadha-Patel) in the U.K. — obviously, she didn’t do much homework before purchasing her ticket. She wreaks havoc in Stretch’s life before stealing his car and winds up picking up a sick elderly woman (Angela Enahoro), but the woman isn’t merely sick, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 12, 2022
Movie Reviews: “Dark Glasses” and “No Looking Back” (SLASH 1/2 Film Festival)

Movie Reviews: “Dark Glasses” and “No Looking Back” (SLASH 1/2 Film Festival)

Dark Glasses Italian/French coproduction Dark Glasses (AKA Black Glasses; Occhiali Neri, 2022) is the latest from Dario Argento, and while it isn’t quite a return to form for the legendary director, it is arguably one of his better later-career offerings. High-end call girl Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) loses her sight when she is pursued in a car chase by a serial killer who targets sex workers, and her vehicle crashes into another, blidning her and killing the parents of young boy Chin (Andrea Zhang). She visits him at the nunnery for orphans where he stays until placed with a foster family, and he escapes to live with her illegally. Naturally, the murderer is still pursuing Diana, which puts both her and the boy in peril. There are no surprises in Dark Glasses other than an eerie opening sequence involving a solar eclipse. After that, it’s pretty standard giallo/slasher fare, and not as stylish as viewers might hope for Argento’s first film

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 10, 2022
Graphic Novel Series Review: Halloween Girl, Vol. 2

Graphic Novel Series Review: Halloween Girl, Vol. 2

Mad Shelley Comics has just released Halloween Girl, Vol. 2, the second chapter in its supernatural graphic novel series Halloween Girl. This latest installment in a planned 7-issue series based on creator Richard T. Wilson’s The Halloween Girl film and its sister web series, Under the Flowers. Halloween Girl, Vol. 2 continues this young-adult–oriented series in an intriguing manner, widening the world presented in the debut issue while dropping breadcrumbs of mystery for future story progression. Titular character Charlotte William is an 18-year-old ghost who can take on human form. Halloween Girl, Vol. 2 begins as she is trapped in a large house and about to be devoured by huge, spider-like creatures — and it doesn’t help that she suffers from arachnophobia and is stuck in her form that is least helpful for the precarious situation. Wilson’s writing is sharp and engaging, and he unfolds the story at a pace that is neither rushed nor too slow-moving. It might be

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 10, 2022
Movie Review: “Allegoria” (Panic Fest) 

Movie Review: “Allegoria” (Panic Fest) 

Allegoria, the debut feature from writer/director Spider One, finds tortured artists and torturing artists alike. This anthology film is a dark dive into the psyches of musicians, painters, actors, and others and serves up a variety of horror elements. In the opening installment, acting teacher Robert Anderson Wright (John Ennis) demands that his students show him a monster. Ennis is pitch perfect as a hard-nosed instructor, giving an all-in performance that isn’t short on flying spittle. Next up, angry artist Marcus Muller (Bryce Johnson) gets inspiration for his latest painting from a decidedly dark source. Johnson invests Muller with the proper amount of pretentiousness and cynicism, and what he confronts is disturbingly realized. In the third segment — and probably the most viscerally brutal — screenwriter Eddie (Edward Hong) gets a lesson in crafting a slasher flick from an expert source (Adam Marcinowski). If it’s slasher action you crave, this section delivers. Next, sculptor Ivy (Scout Compton) volunteers to help

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 6, 2022
Overlook Film Festival Announces Its Second Wave of Chillers and Thrillers

Overlook Film Festival Announces Its Second Wave of Chillers and Thrillers

The Overlook Film Festival brings another drool-inducing slate of horror and horror-adjacent features and shorts to New Orleans next month. From monsters to murderers to other mayhem-makers, the fest has something for fear-fare fans of every stripe. Following is the official press announcement. The Overlook Film Festival is proud to announce its opening night film and second wave of the 2022 festival lineup. These titles join previously announced films and events, including closing night film THE BLACK PHONE, for a total of 23 feature films and 25 short films from 16 countries, with 3 World Premieres and 1 North American premiere, along with 10 live events taking place at the Prytania Theatres At Canal Place in New Orleans June 2-5, 2022. The festival will open with the North American premiere of Ana Lily Amirpour’s MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON, which features a stellar cast including Jeon Jong-soo, Kate Hudson and Craig Robinson. Shot in New Orleans, this fantastical boundary

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 4, 2022
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