Horror Fuel
☰ Browse the Crypt
Author

Joseph Perry

652 stories
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home

Quite simply, the new haunted house documentary The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home will most appeal to fans of television ghost hunting shows. Viewers who look for something more in their documentaries than strange sounds from another room and investigators having weird feelings will likely be disappointed. A couple bought the real-life home of the basis for the first The Conjuring film and opened it up to paranormal investigators. Enter our group of intrepid researchers — likable people all, and easy enough to spend an hour and 20 minutes with — and they spend several days and nights in the house. Strange things do indeed occur, but as astute readers might guess, nothing is presented that can be taken as definitive proof of the supernatural. There’s not much scary material here, though there are eerie moments. The real shivers and shudders occur with reveals at the end of The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home about what happens to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 17, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Skinwalker

Fans of western horror films and weird western tales should find writer/director Robert Conway’s Skinwalker to be an entertaining ride. There’s plenty of bloodshed at the hands of a supernatural creature and from the members of a rather sizable cast of characters, with enough of an engaging story to keep viewers’ hands wringing throughout. After one in a pair of men steals a death totem from a Native American burial site, the titular entity emerges. Rather than being a shapeshifter as most legends describe it to be, this skinwalker is a demon that goes from host to host. Among those whose paths the diabolical spirit crosses are a lawman (Dan Higgins) and his deputy (Cameron Kotecki), who are bringing an outlaw’s wife (Eva Hamilton) to jail; the gang-leader husband of that woman (who, for some reason, goes uncredited in the film, though his performance is just fine) and his henchmen; a man (Daniel Link) and his three wives; and some

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 12, 2021
Horror Fuel

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 Returns to the Cinema with a Mouth-Watering Batch of Films

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 will see the United Kingdom’s largest horror and fantasy film festival return to the cinema, and it does so in huge way: with 25 films set to show on the main screen! With a schedule of films ranging from supernatural to slashers and monsters to murderous mayhem, there is something for every scare-fare fan. Following is the official press release. Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s biggest horror and fantasy film festival, is back at the Cineworld Leicester Square from Thurs August 26 – Monday 30 August, 2021 for five days of the very best of global genre cinema. The internationally renowned event leads the way in attesting to the versatility of the genre and, despite the interruptions caused by the pandemic, this year is no exception as the twenty-five films to be presented in the main screens are revealed. They include four world premieres and eight International / European premieres. Global events over the past eighteen

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 8, 2021
Horror Fuel

Familial Horror Reigns in “Tales from Black Manor” Series

Filmmakers Nick Trivundza and Lexie Findarle Trivundza, who work under the shared moniker of Nick + Lexie, have followed up their fun, film-festival favorite throwback action feature Danger! Danger! with Tales from Black Manor, a brand-new three-episode series about a family whose life intertwines with Death himself. Nick + Lexie welcome you to Black Manor, a world where one of the 7 Books of Death has gone missing, having been handed down through the generations of a family, each searching for and learning its secrets. You can check out the trailer HERE. Nick + Lexie interviewed each other about Tales from Black Manor, and Horror Fuel is happy to share their thoughts with our readers. Nick: Let’s pretend we don’t know each other for a second. Lexie: Okaaaaaay . . . Nick: What made you want to make this series? Lexie: We had so much momentum going into our next project — but then 2020! So . . . I

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 3, 2021
Horror Fuel

Arrow Video FrightFest Debuts 2021 Poster Design

Arrow Video FrightFest, the United Kingdom’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, will be back in cinemas again this year, and the super poster by artist Graham Humphreys reflects that return. Following is the official press announcement. Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2021, which marks the 13th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “”We have a happy monster this year. Though how happy a monster should be in a horror film festival raised the question, what would make the monster happy? Last year’s event was not ‘live’. This year, with a return to the social interaction that makes the festival such an important event in the annual calendar, it’s as if we have bypassed 2020 in a time machine, full throttle, into 2021. To celebrate – a bottle of champagne! Although the monster would probably prefer a full-blooded vintage…” This year’s annual Bank Holiday event, the UK’s largest celebration of genre

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 1, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Let Us In

Director Craig Moss’s Let Us In is a gateway horror film based on the urban legend of black-eyed children. As an early introduction for preteens to science fiction and horror elements, it offers some amusing sequences, but teens and adults will likely find the proceedings predictable and the humor corny. Twelve-year-old Emily (Makenzie Moss) is still reeling from the accidental death of her older sister and has become the target of verbal bullying from the mean girls at her middle school. She is working on a science fair project to contact extraterrestrial life using common electronics parts with her best friend, 10-year-old Christopher (O’Neill Monahan). This is where childhood imagination or massive suspension of disbelief for viewers older than the early elementary school years becomes necessary, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. Meanwhile, local teens start disappearing when intimidating black-eyed kids come calling, asking “Will you let us in?” These hoodie-wearing nasties won’t easily take no for an answer, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 30, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Too Late

Show business can be a dog-eat-dog world, or as director D.W. Thomas shows in her new horror comedy Too Late, a monster-eat-comedian world. The film is a darkly humorous look at the world of stand-up comedy that boasts solid acting and an engaging story. Violet Fields (Alyssa Limperis) is the assistant to renowned comedian and showcase host Bob Devore (Ron Lynch). She stays with him in hopes that he will finally give her a long-promised break, but in the back of her mind she knows it may never come, even though she loyally performs her main duty — providing Devore, who is a centuries-old monster, with stand-up comedians for him to eat. When Devore takes Violet’s new love interest Jimmy Rhodes (Will Weldon) under his wing, Violet must try her best to keep Jimmy from becoming Devore’s next meal — or worse. Thomas directs from a sharp screenplay written by her husband Tom Becker, and she does a fine job

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 28, 2021
Horror Fuel

Supernatural Chills, Teen Terror, and Malevolent Mayhem Highlight Fantasia’s Second Wave Announcement

As if The Fantasia International Film Festival’s first wave announcement wasn’t tantalizing enough, today’s second-wave announcement is mind blowing. With horror titles such as The Last Thing Mary Saw, All the Moons, and Hellbender (to name but a few) on tap alongside science fiction, dark comedy, thriller, and other horror-adjacent genres, Montreal’s premiere genre-film fest promises to be as can’t-miss as usual. Following is the festival’s official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries. In celebration of Fantasia’s

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Cryptids and Creeps Are Among the Horror Highlights at North Bend Film Festival

Washington’s North Bend Film Festival is back, and it is serving up a hybrid in-person and virtual version this July. Horror fans should look into titles such as We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, The Blazing World (reviewed here), Tailgate, and Cryptozoo. Following is the official press announcement. The North Bend Film Festival returns this summer with a hybrid festival taking place July 15-18, 2021. The in-person portion of the fest returns audience members to the historic art deco North Bend Theatre for a curated offering of feature film and short screenings, while both the virtual and physical programs will be complemented by special events, conversations with filmmakers, and immersive experiences. The majority of titles will be exclusive either to physical or virtual programs, with only a few overlaps making for a unique festival experience however you choose to attend. This year’s festival will open with the in-person screening of Swan Song, Todd Stephen’s ode to being singular in

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Friend of the World

Writer/director Brian Patrick Butler’s Friend of the World is a surreal take on postapocalyptic horror and science fiction. It’s like an extended episode of the original The Twilight Zone television series if Rod Serling or Charles Beaumont or the like accidentally ingested a mind-altering substance, or if pages from the treatments of Dr. Strangelove, Night of the Living Dead, and Apocalypse Now all got dropped on the floor and then hurriedly gathered together and mixed up. Experimental filmmaker Diane (Alexandra Slade) wakes up in a room where she seems to be the only living person, as the floor is littered with dead bodies. After attempts to escape, she wakes up to see the shaving cream-lathered face of General Gore (Nick Young), a crusty, grizzled military member. Though the two are quite opposite in attitudes, they must work together to survive as they traverse through the bunker in which they are currently located. Butler’s mostly black-and-white film often feels like a

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2021

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home

Quite simply, the new haunted house documentary The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home will most appeal to fans of television ghost hunting shows. Viewers who look for something more in their documentaries than strange sounds from another room and investigators having weird feelings will likely be disappointed. A couple bought the real-life home of the basis for the first The Conjuring film and opened it up to paranormal investigators. Enter our group of intrepid researchers — likable people all, and easy enough to spend an hour and 20 minutes with — and they spend several days and nights in the house. Strange things do indeed occur, but as astute readers might guess, nothing is presented that can be taken as definitive proof of the supernatural. There’s not much scary material here, though there are eerie moments. The real shivers and shudders occur with reveals at the end of The Sleepless Unrest: The Real Conjuring Home about what happens to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 17, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Skinwalker

Fans of western horror films and weird western tales should find writer/director Robert Conway’s Skinwalker to be an entertaining ride. There’s plenty of bloodshed at the hands of a supernatural creature and from the members of a rather sizable cast of characters, with enough of an engaging story to keep viewers’ hands wringing throughout. After one in a pair of men steals a death totem from a Native American burial site, the titular entity emerges. Rather than being a shapeshifter as most legends describe it to be, this skinwalker is a demon that goes from host to host. Among those whose paths the diabolical spirit crosses are a lawman (Dan Higgins) and his deputy (Cameron Kotecki), who are bringing an outlaw’s wife (Eva Hamilton) to jail; the gang-leader husband of that woman (who, for some reason, goes uncredited in the film, though his performance is just fine) and his henchmen; a man (Daniel Link) and his three wives; and some

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 12, 2021
Horror Fuel

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 Returns to the Cinema with a Mouth-Watering Batch of Films

Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 will see the United Kingdom’s largest horror and fantasy film festival return to the cinema, and it does so in huge way: with 25 films set to show on the main screen! With a schedule of films ranging from supernatural to slashers and monsters to murderous mayhem, there is something for every scare-fare fan. Following is the official press release. Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s biggest horror and fantasy film festival, is back at the Cineworld Leicester Square from Thurs August 26 – Monday 30 August, 2021 for five days of the very best of global genre cinema. The internationally renowned event leads the way in attesting to the versatility of the genre and, despite the interruptions caused by the pandemic, this year is no exception as the twenty-five films to be presented in the main screens are revealed. They include four world premieres and eight International / European premieres. Global events over the past eighteen

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 8, 2021
Horror Fuel

Familial Horror Reigns in “Tales from Black Manor” Series

Filmmakers Nick Trivundza and Lexie Findarle Trivundza, who work under the shared moniker of Nick + Lexie, have followed up their fun, film-festival favorite throwback action feature Danger! Danger! with Tales from Black Manor, a brand-new three-episode series about a family whose life intertwines with Death himself. Nick + Lexie welcome you to Black Manor, a world where one of the 7 Books of Death has gone missing, having been handed down through the generations of a family, each searching for and learning its secrets. You can check out the trailer HERE. Nick + Lexie interviewed each other about Tales from Black Manor, and Horror Fuel is happy to share their thoughts with our readers. Nick: Let’s pretend we don’t know each other for a second. Lexie: Okaaaaaay . . . Nick: What made you want to make this series? Lexie: We had so much momentum going into our next project — but then 2020! So . . . I

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 3, 2021
Horror Fuel

Arrow Video FrightFest Debuts 2021 Poster Design

Arrow Video FrightFest, the United Kingdom’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, will be back in cinemas again this year, and the super poster by artist Graham Humphreys reflects that return. Following is the official press announcement. Arrow Video FrightFest is proud to present Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2021, which marks the 13th appearance for his iconic Monster. Graham revealed today: “”We have a happy monster this year. Though how happy a monster should be in a horror film festival raised the question, what would make the monster happy? Last year’s event was not ‘live’. This year, with a return to the social interaction that makes the festival such an important event in the annual calendar, it’s as if we have bypassed 2020 in a time machine, full throttle, into 2021. To celebrate – a bottle of champagne! Although the monster would probably prefer a full-blooded vintage…” This year’s annual Bank Holiday event, the UK’s largest celebration of genre

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 1, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Let Us In

Director Craig Moss’s Let Us In is a gateway horror film based on the urban legend of black-eyed children. As an early introduction for preteens to science fiction and horror elements, it offers some amusing sequences, but teens and adults will likely find the proceedings predictable and the humor corny. Twelve-year-old Emily (Makenzie Moss) is still reeling from the accidental death of her older sister and has become the target of verbal bullying from the mean girls at her middle school. She is working on a science fair project to contact extraterrestrial life using common electronics parts with her best friend, 10-year-old Christopher (O’Neill Monahan). This is where childhood imagination or massive suspension of disbelief for viewers older than the early elementary school years becomes necessary, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. Meanwhile, local teens start disappearing when intimidating black-eyed kids come calling, asking “Will you let us in?” These hoodie-wearing nasties won’t easily take no for an answer, and

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 30, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Too Late

Show business can be a dog-eat-dog world, or as director D.W. Thomas shows in her new horror comedy Too Late, a monster-eat-comedian world. The film is a darkly humorous look at the world of stand-up comedy that boasts solid acting and an engaging story. Violet Fields (Alyssa Limperis) is the assistant to renowned comedian and showcase host Bob Devore (Ron Lynch). She stays with him in hopes that he will finally give her a long-promised break, but in the back of her mind she knows it may never come, even though she loyally performs her main duty — providing Devore, who is a centuries-old monster, with stand-up comedians for him to eat. When Devore takes Violet’s new love interest Jimmy Rhodes (Will Weldon) under his wing, Violet must try her best to keep Jimmy from becoming Devore’s next meal — or worse. Thomas directs from a sharp screenplay written by her husband Tom Becker, and she does a fine job

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 28, 2021
Horror Fuel

Supernatural Chills, Teen Terror, and Malevolent Mayhem Highlight Fantasia’s Second Wave Announcement

As if The Fantasia International Film Festival’s first wave announcement wasn’t tantalizing enough, today’s second-wave announcement is mind blowing. With horror titles such as The Last Thing Mary Saw, All the Moons, and Hellbender (to name but a few) on tap alongside science fiction, dark comedy, thriller, and other horror-adjacent genres, Montreal’s premiere genre-film fest promises to be as can’t-miss as usual. Following is the festival’s official press announcement. The Fantasia International Film Festival will launch its 25th edition this summer as an exciting virtual event composed of scheduled screenings, on-demand library, panels, and workshops, taking place from August 5th to August 25th. The festival will be accessible across Canada, geo-locked to the country, and will maintain unique film admittance quantities in line with the cinema experience. Fantasia is thrilled to reveal a second wave of programming and will return in late July with a third and final line-up announcement, including features, virtual events, and juries. In celebration of Fantasia’s

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 25, 2021
Horror Fuel

Cryptids and Creeps Are Among the Horror Highlights at North Bend Film Festival

Washington’s North Bend Film Festival is back, and it is serving up a hybrid in-person and virtual version this July. Horror fans should look into titles such as We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, The Blazing World (reviewed here), Tailgate, and Cryptozoo. Following is the official press announcement. The North Bend Film Festival returns this summer with a hybrid festival taking place July 15-18, 2021. The in-person portion of the fest returns audience members to the historic art deco North Bend Theatre for a curated offering of feature film and short screenings, while both the virtual and physical programs will be complemented by special events, conversations with filmmakers, and immersive experiences. The majority of titles will be exclusive either to physical or virtual programs, with only a few overlaps making for a unique festival experience however you choose to attend. This year’s festival will open with the in-person screening of Swan Song, Todd Stephen’s ode to being singular in

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Friend of the World

Writer/director Brian Patrick Butler’s Friend of the World is a surreal take on postapocalyptic horror and science fiction. It’s like an extended episode of the original The Twilight Zone television series if Rod Serling or Charles Beaumont or the like accidentally ingested a mind-altering substance, or if pages from the treatments of Dr. Strangelove, Night of the Living Dead, and Apocalypse Now all got dropped on the floor and then hurriedly gathered together and mixed up. Experimental filmmaker Diane (Alexandra Slade) wakes up in a room where she seems to be the only living person, as the floor is littered with dead bodies. After attempts to escape, she wakes up to see the shaving cream-lathered face of General Gore (Nick Young), a crusty, grizzled military member. Though the two are quite opposite in attitudes, they must work together to survive as they traverse through the bunker in which they are currently located. Butler’s mostly black-and-white film often feels like a

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 16, 2021
Next →