Film Festivals Articles

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Short Film Reviews: “Cereal,” “The Curse of the Velvet Vampire,” “We Joined a Cult,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Strange Creatures,” “Howl at the Dead” 

Following is a roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Cereal Canadian short Cereal, from director Shane R. Preston, finds young girl Chelsea (Trinity Kaylani Seiling in...
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Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Review: “Ghost Game” (2024)

Director Jill Gevargizian’s sophomore feature Ghost Game is an effective offering that uses home invasion in a unique way and serves up some intriguing surprises.  Vinny (Zaen Haidar) discovers some disturbing footage on his girlfriend Laura’s (Kia...
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Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “The Ceremony Is About to Begin” and “The Hyperborean”

The Ceremony Is About to Begin (2024) Director Sean Nichols Lynch follows up his vampire comedy Red Snow (2021) with faux documentary horror The Ceremony Is About to Begin, which he cowrote with stars Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Laird. The film...
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Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “Red Rooms” and “Dead Mail” (Overlook Film Festival)

Red Rooms (Les chambres rouges; Canada, 2023) Pascal Plante’s French-language Canadian chiller Red Rooms deftly combines character study, psychological thriller, and courtroom drama. The film follows the obsession of two women with a serial killer...
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