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Joseph Perry

652 stories

Movie Review (Arrow Video FrightFest): Laguna Avenue

Director David Buchanan’s Laguna Avenue is a low-budget, black-and-white sci-fi noir with body horror elements and some dark humor that is strong on building a paranoid vibe. If that sounds like a lot of genres to tackle in one film, it is, but Buchanan and his game cast and crew make an energetic go of it. Russell (Russell Steinberg), a former musician who lost one of his hands in an accident and now wears a prosthetic one, was recently fired for repeatedly sleeping on the job. He lives with his girlfriend Rita (Stephanie Brait), who has a well-paying executive-level job and is tired of supporting Russell. When Rita goes away, ostensibly on a business trip, Russell is attacked in the couple’s apartment and saved by their downstairs neighbor Gary (James Markham Hall Jr.), who begins rattling off — what initially sounds like to Russell — paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories that put people close to Russell at the center of

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Joseph Perry

Aug 31, 2021

Film FestivalsReviews

Movie Review (Fantasia 2021): Brain Freeze

Writer/director Julian Knafo’s Canadian feature Brain Freeze serves up plenty of social satire and humor in its tale of a zombie outbreak on an island inhabited by affluent people who want to golf year-round despite the weather. The film is a fun offering that takes on several targets but never gets overly heavy-handed in its messages. A biotech company comes to the rescue of the rich folks with a DNA-modified solution that taints the local water supply and turns people and animals into zombies that sprout grass from their bodies. After a series of unfortunate incidents, phone-addicted teen André (Iani Bédard), baby sister in tow, crosses paths with security guard and survivalist Dan (Roy Dupuis), whose adult daughter Patricia (Marianne Fortier) has been infected with the zombie virus. André and Dan try to survive and find a way to either track down the cause of the outbreak or escape the island, while an ultra-right wing disc jockey (Simon-Olivier Fecteau) fans

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Joseph Perry

Aug 25, 2021

Film FestivalsReviews

Movie Reviews (Popcorn Frights 2021): “Howling Village,” “Val,” and “The Accursed”

Howling Village Japanese director Takashi Shimizu takes viewers back to the heyday of J-horror — of which he was a big part, including helming Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003), and the American reimagining The Grudge (2004) — with his 2019 effort, Howling Village. Featuring hallmarks of the director such as an ever-present sense of dread and eerie figures lurking all around, this tale sees Kanata Morita (Ayaka Miyoshi in a fine performance), a doctor at a hospital, go down a deadly rabbit hole when her teenage brother Yuma (Ryota Bando) and his girlfriend Anika (Rinko Otani) go searching for the titular location — a place of urban legend — with tragic consequences. Kanata has been seeing strange figures at the hospital where she works — or has she? When the other members of her family act strangely in different manners, and Yuma goes missing when he tries to return to Howling Village, Kanata learns that there

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Joseph Perry

Aug 18, 2021

Film Festivals

Movie Reviews (Popcorn Frights 2021): “Ditched,” “Take Back the Night,” and “Pretty Boy”

Ditched From its opening sequence to its jaw-dropping climax, writer/director Christopher Donaldson’s Canadian feature Ditched is one wild swerve after another. Paramedic Melina (Marika Sila) comes to and finds herself in an overturned ambulance with memory loss from a concussion. A man strapped to a gurney (Kris Loranger as Franson) is also awake. As Melina tries to make sense of what happened before she blacked out, she finds other people both alive and dead around the rural, isolated scene — and then something hairy and dangerous makes its presence known. Giving away more than that would be heading into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that what I have described happens very early on in the film, and plenty more is in store for viewers. Donaldson skillfully peels back layers while planting seeds for further mystery, and keeps the suspense at a hand-wringing pace. The members of the sizable cast give solid performances, especially Sila as a confused, scared,

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Joseph Perry

Aug 17, 2021

Film Festivals

Austin’s Fantastic Fest Roars Back with a “Post-Apocalyptic” Edition

With films that shocked audiences at Cannes to cutting-edge independent fare, from blood-curdling horror to thought-provoking science fiction and just about every type of genre film in between, Austin’s famed Fantastic Fest has lined up a staggering array of cinema for its triumphant return this September 23–30. Horror Fuel is thrilled to share the fest’s official press announcement with our readers. Mechanophilia, possessed nuns, possessed children, hallucinations, ghostly hauntings, time travel, exorcism, cerebral expansion, heavy metal, friendship, yakuza, canine trauma, multiple serial killers, coprophagia, cannibalism, tender embraces, vampires, copious bodily fluids, superheroes, warm laughs, disco-dancing firemen and more, more, more! Yes, this can only mean one thing: Fantastic Fest is back. After 18 months of isolation and uncertainty, this year’s “Post-Apocalyptic” edition of Fantastic Fest is here to remind us of the joy of cinema, community, and weird and wonderful movies. The first wave of films is headlined by the truly extraordinary 2021 Palme D’Or winner TITANE from PARASITE distributor

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Joseph Perry

Aug 10, 2021

Reviews

Couture and Creepiness Make for a Fine Pair in Fulci’s “The Psychic” [1977, Blu-ray Review]

Between Leo Fulci’s earlier giallo offerings such as Don’t Torture a Duckling (Non si sevizia un paperino; Italy, 1972) and his later outre horror fare like The Beyond (. . . E tu vivrai nel terrore! L’aldilà; Italy, 1981), the director served up an intriguing play on Hitchcockian mystery with one of his more reserved efforts, The Psychic (Sette note in nero; Italy, 1977, AKA Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes). Though the film has its creaky moments, overall it is a fine, fun example of 1970s horror elements — ESP and other psychic abilities were hot that decade — and its cast members and set decoration all look fabulous. Former CoverGirl cosmetics model turned actress Jennifer O’Neill stars as Virginia Ducci, a stunning, well-dressed woman who, as an elementary school student in Italy, envisioned her mother leaping to her death in Dover as it happened. Virginia has married wealthy Italian businessman Francesco Ducci (Gianni Garko). After

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Joseph Perry

Aug 9, 2021

Film Festivals

Vampires, Time Travelers, and Cryptids Highlight SLASH Film Festival’s First Wave Announcement

SLASH Film Festival, Vienna’s premiere event for horror and genre-film goodness, has announced its first wave of films and presented its key visual and trailer for this year’s event, set for September 23–October 3, 2021. Horror Fuel has all of this for you below, from the official press announcement. Vienna’s SLASH Film Festival is opening its doors for the twelfth time from September 23 through October 3, 2021. Counting more than 15,000 visitors each year, SLASH is the second-best-attended Viennese film festival after Viennale and the biggest community event for Fantastic Cinema in Austria. In 2021, SLASH is conjuring a brimming, hissing, bloody, ornery, mystical, preposterous brew of fantastic film highlights, a fabulous concoction of all things fantastique served piping hot and ice-cold in domestic theaters. From horror to science fiction, from award-winning productions to outlandish splatter orgies, from highly anticipated genre gems to celebrated classics, from hopelessly bleak to deliciously humorous—we have something for every taste, whether you’re a

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Joseph Perry

Aug 8, 2021

News

Fantasia 2021: Five Fright Films We Can’t Wait to See

Montreal’s vaunted Fantasia International Film Festival continues its reputation of being North America’s largest fest highlighting genre-film fabulousness with this year’s 25th edition, which runs online August 5–25. Science fiction, thriller, dark comedy, action, animation, and other exciting genres are all on tap, and as always, horror is a huge part of Fantasia. Here are five of Fantasia’s exciting fright-fare features for this year’s edition, with descriptions from official press materials and the fest’s website, along with comments in italics from yours truly. STEADY YOUR GAZE FOR THE LAST THING MARY SAW Brace yourself for THE LAST THING MARY SAW, a breathtaking period occult drama set in an isolated farmhouse in the winter of 1843, where a young woman is under investigation following the mysterious death of her family’s matriarch. It soon becomes apparent that ageless forces are at play, from within and without. An eerie and hypnotic nightmare vision from debuting writer/director Edoardo Vitaletti, starring Stefanie Scott (INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER

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Joseph Perry

Aug 6, 2021

Film Festivals

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021’s Second Wave of Films Features Amazing Fright Fare from Around the Globe

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 — the U.K.’s premiere event for fear-fare films and the fanatics and cinephiles who love them — has taken things to a new level with its second-wave announcement of features slated for its August 26–30 theatrical run. Following is the official press announcement. It’s Full Scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 announces its second wave of hugely anticipated Discovery Screen and First Blood titles — a summer collection of provocative, edgy and transgressive entertainment to die for. There are fourteen World and ten European/ International premieres amongst the thirty-four films on offer. Eleven countries are represented, with titles ranging from Canadian entries BLOODTHIRSTY, Amelia Moses’ simmering LGBQT+ werewolf movie and sinister isolation thriller MOTHERLY to Francesco Erba’s AS IN HEAVEN, SO ON EARTH, a stunning Italian blend of live action and Gothic puppet animation. Then there’s Péter Bergendy’s sumptuous POST MORTEM, an epic Hungarian ghost story, Frida Kempff’s Swedish entry KNOCKING, a breakout Sundance sensation,

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Joseph Perry

Jul 22, 2021

Film Festivals

Florida’s Popcorn Frights Hybrid Film Festival Announces Second Wave, Including Virtual Festival

This year’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival, the seventh annual installment of this outstanding Florida horror film fest tradition, will be a hybrid experience offering both in-theater and virtual film offerings from August 12-19, 2021. After previously announcing the first wave of its incredible in-theater line-up, the fest now releases the equally amazing offerings for both more of its in-theater selections and its nationwide virtual version. You read that correctly — you can bring this highly acclaimed horror film festival right into your own home! The virtual program highlights include eight feature film World Premieres, Popcorn Frights’ first-ever Virtual Reality experience, a Sneak Preview of Alex Proyas’ new short film set in the DARK CITY universe, and a record-setting 68 film premieres! Following is the official press announcement. www.PopcornFrights.com July 15, 2021 // – The Ex North American Premiere Russia | 2021 | 87 Min. | Dir. Evgeniy Puzyrevskiy The screws are tightened in this wickedly entertaining, juicy supernatural-thriller about the

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Joseph Perry

Jul 22, 2021

Joseph Perry

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