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Joseph Perry

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Movie Review: “Fresh” (Sundance Film Festival)

Director Mimi Cave’s debut feature film Fresh is destined to be one of the absolute best horror films of 2022. It is also the most difficult type of film to write a review about, because it is the type of movie that first-time viewers need to go into as, well, fresh as possible. My review will be spoiler free. Fresh starts out as a dark satire on modern dating, an anti–rom-com that shines a spotlight on the pressures of meeting new people on dating apps and the benefit of having friends who know how to cyberstalk strangers. Then it heads headlong into some of the most nail-biting, uncomfortable fear fare imaginable. Daisy Edgar-Jones gives a superb performance as Noa, a young woman tired of swiping on dating app photos, receiving unwanted pictures of men’s genitalia, and first dates that lead nowhere. When she has a meet cute in the produce section with a plastic surgeon named Steve (Sebastian Stan in

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Joseph Perry

Jan 23, 2022

Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Review: “Speak No Evil” (Sundance Film Festival)

Director Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (Gæsterne; Denmark/Netherlands, 2022) may be the most uncomfortable horror film in recent memory, as it puts social niceties, including acting “correctly” and politely, under a microscope and plays with the ideas of what horror is before delivering an absolutely harrowing third act. Danish family Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), and their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) meet Dutch family Patrick (Fedja van Huêt), Karin (Karina Smulders), and their young son Abel (Marius Damslev) during a trip to Italy. The two families strike up a casual friendship during the trip, and a few months later, Patrick and Karen invite Bjørn, Louise, and Agnes to spend a weekend with them at their home. Things start off a bit uneasily when Patrick insists that vegetarian Louise taste the wild boar he has prepared for their first meal together, and things get increasingly uncomfortable from there. Speak No Evil starts off as pitch-black comedy of manners

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Joseph Perry

Jan 23, 2022

Film FestivalsMoviesReviews

Movie Reviews: “The Changed” and “Alone with You” (Screamfest)

The Changed Director Michael Mongillo takes the basic premises of such classic paranoia-driven horror and science fiction fare as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Monsters are Due on Maple Street (1960) from the original The Twilight Zone series, and gives them a fresh, current spin with his feature The Changed (2021). The result is a finely acted, taut chiller that puts today’s social climates under a gripping cinematic microscope. Mac (Jason Alan Smith) has anger issues that he is trying to work on, but that won’t be easy as he notices that his neighbors and others with whom he comes into contact are acting differently, in a way that he can’t quite figure out. His neighbor Bill (Tony Todd) tries to offer him some subtle reassurance over a morning cup of coffee, but as the day progresses, things get increasingly stranger — and more dangerous. When fellow neighbor and high school student Kim (Clare Foley) comes to

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Joseph Perry

Jan 21, 2022

EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNews

FrightFest Glasgow Delivers a Dozen Superb Chillers and Thrillers

FrightFest has announced its lineup for the FrightFest Glasgow 2022 edition, with 12 incredible slices of fright-fare and dark comedies on tap. Whether you are in the mood for monsters, mayhem, or mirth, this can’t-miss film festival has something to appease all manner of lovers of the strange and the suspenseful, and the weird and the wild. Following is the official press announcement. The UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival is back in person at the Glasgow Film Theatre, which for 17 glorious years has been FrightFest’s second home, as part of the internationally renowned Glasgow Film Festival. From Thursday 10th March to Saturday 12th March, FrightFest opens its terror trove to present twelve tasty treasures; an extravaganza of the dark arts, embracing the latest genre discoveries from around the globe, spanning eight countries in three continents, which includes World, International and UK premieres. Alan Jones, co-director of FrightFest commentated: “It’s with great delight and with every single bloody

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Joseph Perry

Jan 20, 2022

EventsFilm FestivalsMoviesNews

MidWest WeirdFest’s First Wave Annoucement Features Mayhem, Monsters, and Metal

MidWest WeirdFest once again serves up cinema fare from the mythical to the mind-bending with the reveal of its first wave announcement for this year’s edition. Fans of fear fare and the fantastic alike will find plenty to get excited about regarding the first seven feature films announced. Following is the official press announcement. MidWest WeirdFest announces its first programming wave for 2022 today. The cinematic celebration of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird, is now in its 6th year. The festival takes place March 4-6, 2022 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “Get ready for the fest’s weirdest and most wonderful season yet!” says MidWest WeirdFest founder and programming director Dean Bertram. “From a record number of films submitted to the festival this year, we’ve assembled an unmissable program of horror, science fiction, fantasy, documentary, and underground gems. The first wave announcement gives a glimpse at just some of this year’s dark and

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Joseph Perry

Jan 20, 2022

MoviesReviews

Movie Review: “Warhunt” (2022)

If you’re in the mood for a testosterone-fueled fright-fare outing in which World War II soldiers battle a coven of shape-shifting witches, complete with not one, but two scenery-chewing officers including one such portrayal by Mickey Rourke, you’re in luck. Warhunt delivers in those departments, and though it has its setbacks, it’s entertaining throughout. Rourke plays Major Johnson (that name has to be intentional humor), an eyepatched U.S. officer who has a group of soldiers go into enemy territory to retrieve the secret contents of a downed aircraft in 1945 Germany. The sergeant (Robert Knepper) in command of the troops is leery of Johnson’s handpicked proxy to accompany the group, surveyor Walsh (Jackson Rathbone). He is also skeptical when rumors of witchcraft start sifting through his troops. Meanwhile, Johnson is on safer ground, working with codebreakers on cracking an archaic Germanic code. If it is seduction by witches and plenty of bloodletting and nightmarish illusions you want, it is plenty

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Joseph Perry

Jan 18, 2022

EventsFilm FestivalsNews

Final Girls Berlin Film Festival Offers a Fine Lineup of Chills and Thrills This February

The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival hosts a bevy of superb fright fare for its 7th edition, which runs February 3-6, 2022 on the big screen and in person, with a worldwide online presentation of most of its scheduled short films. In addition to its slate of 7 fine feature films, the fest also has 8 blocks of shorts — Social Ills, Wrath, Medical Horror, Envy, Queer Horror, Midnight, Gluttony, and Menacing Presences — on tap, along with a variety of talks and workshops. Following is the official press information. The Final Girls Berlin Film Festival (FGBFF) is thrilled to convene once again in the flesh in Berlin for their 7th edition, running February 3 – 6th, 2022. The festival is Berlin’s premier showcase of horror films made by women* and non-binary filmmakers and will return to City Kino Wedding for their full program of feature films, short blocks, talks by international horror specialists, and a retro screening. In addition

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Joseph Perry

Jan 12, 2022

ForeignMoviesNewsTrailers

Trailers Arrive for Emotional Horror Films “Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night” and “Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die”

Argentinian horror outing Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night is an incredible, emotional slice of fear-fare cinema that made my list of Top 10 Film Festival Horror Movies of 2021 and now the film is coming to DVD and Digital on January 18, along with its companion piece, Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die. Check out the trailers below, along with information from the official press release. Breaking Glass Pictures is set to release Argentine writer-director Gonzalo Calzada’s (Resurrection, Lucifernia) double bill Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night and Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die on DVD and Digital on January 18. “Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night” follows a nearly 100-year-old man who, on his final night on earth, fights for redemption from his life’s misdeeds. In “Nocturna: Side B – Where Elephants Go to Die,” Calzada embarks on an aesthetically opposite

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Joseph Perry

Jan 8, 2022

Reviews

Movie Review: “The Legend of La Llorona” (2022)

At least the third in a recent group of fear-fare films dealing with the “weeping woman” ghost from Mexican folklore, The Legend of La Llorona is well made but fails to deliver any original shudders. Carly Candlewood (Autumn Reeser) reluctantly goes on a trip to Mexico with her husband Andrew (Antonio Cupo) and their young son Danny (Nicolas Madrazo), which Andrew has planned so that he and his wife might reconnect both emotionally and physically after the death of their baby girl. As cinematic fate would have it, their lodging is a mere short walk away from the stomping grounds of the titular spirit, who seeks out children to replace the one she lost in life. Jose Prendes’ screenplay has some issues, including the relationship and dialogue between Carly and Andrew. Both characters come off initially as highly unlikable — she as an over-the-top characterization of a grieving mother and he as a selfish, hard-headed jerk — and by the

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Joseph Perry

Jan 4, 2022

ForeignMoviesReviews

Movie Review: “Stagefright” (1987) 4K Restoration

Michele Soavi’s directorial debut Stagefright (AKA Aquarius; Italy, 1987) is already well known as one of the craziest entries in the slasher genre, and now it looks super thanks to Shameless Films’ terrific 4K restoration. The film combines giallo elements with the slasher approach and — a stage musical! Alicia (Barbara Cupisti of Soavi’s later directorial features The Church and Cemetery Man) is an actress in a destined-to-bomb musical called The Night Owl, which is about a murdered prostitute who comes back to life to rape the man who killed her. Things only get more lurid from here, so hang on as the musical’s director Peter (David Brandon) goes off on a megalomaniacal trip after Alicia sneaks off to a nearby hospital to have her sore ankle checked with wardrobe mistress Betty (Ulrike Schwerk) — it’s a psychiatric hospital, and the young ladies unknowingly bring back to the theater Irving Wallace (Clain Parker), a psychotic former actor who has killed

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Joseph Perry

Dec 25, 2021

Joseph Perry

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