CategoryEvents
Horror events, screenings and experiences — premieres, festivals and one-night-only shows.
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Film FestivalsParanormalReviewsStreaming TV
If you’re in the mood for a brisk supernatural comedy, you need look no further than the new Canadian six-part episodic short-form series Department of Paranormal Affairs. The series boasts highly likable characters in decidedly irregular situations. In the world of Department of Paranormal Affairs, ghosts, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night are real. This branch of the government deals with them in a different way than usual in series and movies. Rather than hunting them down to dispose of such entities, this agency looks to help them fit in positively with human society. The department’s civil servants consist of Director Greg LeGrow (Donovan Workun), who does as little as possible; Scott Power (David Feehan), the straight-laced rule follower of the bunch; and new hire Jenny Hicks (Nancy Ngo), who initially would rather punch a ghost than read a book about how to properly deal with one. Series creator Feehan, who shares screenwriting credits with Jessy
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DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
Director John MacLaverty’s terrific documentary Loch Ness: They Created a Monster looks at the personalities involved in the search for Nessie, the legendary monster of Scotland’s Loch Ness, during the heyday of that searching, the 1970s and early 1980s. It’s a fascinating look at the men and women who devoted large parts of their lives to try and discover solid proof of the famous cryptid’s existence. The documentary illustrates the difference in attitudes between then and now, when scientific researchers, businesspeople, photographers, and other professionals had a more open-minded view toward high strangeness including the probability of a large, undiscovered beast living in the lake than today. That was a time when imagination felt stronger than cynicism, and skepticism was not quite as prevalent as it is now. Among the personalities featured in Loch Ness: They Created a Monster — through archival footage and interviews, and modern interviews with family members and colleagues, as well as surviving explorers — are
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsSci-FiThriller
A serial killer who murders on the beach is running amok in an otherwise quiet coastal town, but that’s not the strangest thing going on in writer/director Neal Dhand’s science fiction thriller Dark My Light (2023). Detective Mitchell Morse (Albert Jones) seems to be losing his grip on reality, and that could lead to even more mayhem. Morse is assigned to the case with new partner Dreyfus Trier (Tom Lipinski), who has returned to his home town from the big city after a controversial incident on the force there. Morse is also going through a separation with his wife Emily (Keesha Sharp). He has a lot on his mind, which seems to be overloading. To give away more of the plot than the above would be doing a disservice to Dark My Light because it deals in mystery. I found myself wondering exactly what was happening once Dhand laid out some of the first puzzle pieces, then I started trying
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
The Buildout (2024) Aficionados of enigmatic cinema and high strangeness should find plenty to like about writer/director Zeshaan Younus’ The Buildout. After the death of one of their sisters, friends Dylan (Hannah Alline) and Cameron (Jenna Kenall) go on a motorcycle and camping excursion in the desert before Dylan leaves her old life behind and joins a religious group there. Cameron is skeptical of what she believes is actually a cult but tries to support her friend. Viewers see hints of danger involving members of the religious group. Younus leaves much of the proceedings open to interpretation as Dylan and Cameron begin opening wounds about their relationship. Cinematographer Justin Moore captures both the beauty and eeriness of the desert setting wonderfully. Alline and Kenall give top-notch performances, and Younus does a fine job of providing enough information for viewers to become invested but only enough so that we are left with some tantalizing puzzle pieces for our imaginations to fill
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Film FestivalsMoviesNews
London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, the U.K.’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year from August 22-26, moving to the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, and today revealing its fantastic poster for this year. Following is the official press announcement. Pigeon Shrine FrightFest is proud to unveil Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2024 which marks the 25th anniversary of the UK’s most popular genre festival and the festival’s move to the ODEON Luxe Leicester Sq. Graham said today: “Although FrightFest marks its first quarter century, the significant change of venue is this year’s focus. The soaring black Art Deco tower of the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square (completed in 1937) is as iconic to London as the Art Deco Empire State Building in New York (completed six years earlier, in 1931). In the 1933 movie King Kong, the giant primate scaled the Empire State Building. It seems a fitting homage to have our own monster scale the Leicester
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Following is a capsule review roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Bookworm Bookworm (Ratón de biblioteca; Spain, 2023) from director Javier Yañez envelops viewers in a phantasmagorical vibe before suddenly ramping up the visceral shocks. Irene (Aria Bedmar in a wonderful performance) is a young librarian in 1979 Spain who wants to become a writer, much to her mother’s dismay. Irene and her fellow librarian often see the ghost of a young man — though they can’t quite catch a glimpse of his face — browsing books. Determined to try to make contact with this potential soulmate, Irene sets out to find out what his visage looks like. With beautiful set design and cinematography, Bookworm both charms and chills. Hevel In writer/director David Grace’s Hevel, devout Jewish woman Edra (Mor Cohen) begins a Shabbat service. A dybbuk has other plans for her, however, in this demonic possession
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Blind Cop 2 (2024) A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, director Alec Bonk’s Blind Cop 2 follows the tropes of movies depicting good cops kicked off the force for using excessive violence and seeking redemption without having a badge — and then there’s the trusty new sidekick, too. Imagine Marvel’s Daredevil as an alcoholic police officer wearing a bulletproof vest rather than a superhero costume and you’re only partially on your way to getting an inkling about how this irreverent title character (played with verve by George Fearing) goes about his business. You can’t forget Blind Cop’s name, either, as just about every person who addresses him calls him that. Using those aforementioned tropes, Bonk, who cowrote the screenplay with Augustin Huffman and Isaac McKinnon, directs with flare, deftly balancing the humor with plenty of dramatic elements and bloody action. Fearing is fantastic in the title role, and McKinnon makes for a fine sidekick-in-training as Schmidty. The humor
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
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 a fun performance) receiving a disturbing message from her alphabet-shaped cereal: “Kill.” This evil kid short has a nice retro vibe and looks great, with a fine supporting performance from Shelby Handley as Chelsea’s mother. My only quibble is that the fourth wall gets broken twice, which reduces the effect for me. The Curse of the Velvet Vampire Director Christoffer Schurict’s collaboration with band 802 finds two Chinese horror fans watching a strange film in a video rental store. Soon enough, this slice of cinema intersects with real life. Featuring plenty of female undead and the resulting bloodletting, along with some music video, this short film has cult favorite written all over it. We Joined a Cult From Chris McInroy, director
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Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
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 Dorsey) laptop — without her permission — in which she and a man named Adrian (Sam Likowski) botch a home invasion and injure a woman. Laura explains that it is a sort of filmed challenge called Ghost Game, in which the participants live in houses without being detected by homeowners — phrogging, as it is called — and prank them, leading the residents to believe that the supernatural is involved. And it just might be, as Vinny insists that Laura get rid of Adrian and take him with her instead to her next assignment: a long-abandoned, reputedly haunted house in which a family has just moved in. The stage for real ghostly occurrences is soon set, as young daughter Samantha (Vienna Maas), who
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
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 starts with black-and-white interview footage with former members of the Osiris Collective, a commune/cult based on ancient Egyptian culture, including each member taking on a name from that culture. The leader was a man named Father Osiris (Raul Delarosa), who disappeared mysteriously during a mountain hike with a new member who took the name Anubis (Hinds). Documentarian Keith Evans (Laird) has a very personal reason for wanting to interview the members of the Osiris Collective, as his ex-girlfriend Maddy (Michelle Westbrook Hinds) left him for the cult. Anubis, who took over leadership of the group and whose negative behaviors drove members away, invites Evans to the Collective grounds to conduct interviews. With the film having earlier changed to
Continue reading →
More from Events
Film FestivalsParanormalReviewsStreaming TV
If you’re in the mood for a brisk supernatural comedy, you need look no further than the new Canadian six-part episodic short-form series Department of Paranormal Affairs. The series boasts highly likable characters in decidedly irregular situations. In the world of Department of Paranormal Affairs, ghosts, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night are real. This branch of the government deals with them in a different way than usual in series and movies. Rather than hunting them down to dispose of such entities, this agency looks to help them fit in positively with human society. The department’s civil servants consist of Director Greg LeGrow (Donovan Workun), who does as little as possible; Scott Power (David Feehan), the straight-laced rule follower of the bunch; and new hire Jenny Hicks (Nancy Ngo), who initially would rather punch a ghost than read a book about how to properly deal with one. Series creator Feehan, who shares screenwriting credits with Jessy
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
Director John MacLaverty’s terrific documentary Loch Ness: They Created a Monster looks at the personalities involved in the search for Nessie, the legendary monster of Scotland’s Loch Ness, during the heyday of that searching, the 1970s and early 1980s. It’s a fascinating look at the men and women who devoted large parts of their lives to try and discover solid proof of the famous cryptid’s existence. The documentary illustrates the difference in attitudes between then and now, when scientific researchers, businesspeople, photographers, and other professionals had a more open-minded view toward high strangeness including the probability of a large, undiscovered beast living in the lake than today. That was a time when imagination felt stronger than cynicism, and skepticism was not quite as prevalent as it is now. Among the personalities featured in Loch Ness: They Created a Monster — through archival footage and interviews, and modern interviews with family members and colleagues, as well as surviving explorers — are
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsSci-FiThriller
A serial killer who murders on the beach is running amok in an otherwise quiet coastal town, but that’s not the strangest thing going on in writer/director Neal Dhand’s science fiction thriller Dark My Light (2023). Detective Mitchell Morse (Albert Jones) seems to be losing his grip on reality, and that could lead to even more mayhem. Morse is assigned to the case with new partner Dreyfus Trier (Tom Lipinski), who has returned to his home town from the big city after a controversial incident on the force there. Morse is also going through a separation with his wife Emily (Keesha Sharp). He has a lot on his mind, which seems to be overloading. To give away more of the plot than the above would be doing a disservice to Dark My Light because it deals in mystery. I found myself wondering exactly what was happening once Dhand laid out some of the first puzzle pieces, then I started trying
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
The Buildout (2024) Aficionados of enigmatic cinema and high strangeness should find plenty to like about writer/director Zeshaan Younus’ The Buildout. After the death of one of their sisters, friends Dylan (Hannah Alline) and Cameron (Jenna Kenall) go on a motorcycle and camping excursion in the desert before Dylan leaves her old life behind and joins a religious group there. Cameron is skeptical of what she believes is actually a cult but tries to support her friend. Viewers see hints of danger involving members of the religious group. Younus leaves much of the proceedings open to interpretation as Dylan and Cameron begin opening wounds about their relationship. Cinematographer Justin Moore captures both the beauty and eeriness of the desert setting wonderfully. Alline and Kenall give top-notch performances, and Younus does a fine job of providing enough information for viewers to become invested but only enough so that we are left with some tantalizing puzzle pieces for our imaginations to fill
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesNews
London’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, the U.K.’s premiere horror and genre-film festival, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year from August 22-26, moving to the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, and today revealing its fantastic poster for this year. Following is the official press announcement. Pigeon Shrine FrightFest is proud to unveil Graham Humphreys’ stand-out poster design for 2024 which marks the 25th anniversary of the UK’s most popular genre festival and the festival’s move to the ODEON Luxe Leicester Sq. Graham said today: “Although FrightFest marks its first quarter century, the significant change of venue is this year’s focus. The soaring black Art Deco tower of the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square (completed in 1937) is as iconic to London as the Art Deco Empire State Building in New York (completed six years earlier, in 1931). In the 1933 movie King Kong, the giant primate scaled the Empire State Building. It seems a fitting homage to have our own monster scale the Leicester
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Following is a capsule review roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Bookworm Bookworm (Ratón de biblioteca; Spain, 2023) from director Javier Yañez envelops viewers in a phantasmagorical vibe before suddenly ramping up the visceral shocks. Irene (Aria Bedmar in a wonderful performance) is a young librarian in 1979 Spain who wants to become a writer, much to her mother’s dismay. Irene and her fellow librarian often see the ghost of a young man — though they can’t quite catch a glimpse of his face — browsing books. Determined to try to make contact with this potential soulmate, Irene sets out to find out what his visage looks like. With beautiful set design and cinematography, Bookworm both charms and chills. Hevel In writer/director David Grace’s Hevel, devout Jewish woman Edra (Mor Cohen) begins a Shabbat service. A dybbuk has other plans for her, however, in this demonic possession
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Blind Cop 2 (2024) A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, director Alec Bonk’s Blind Cop 2 follows the tropes of movies depicting good cops kicked off the force for using excessive violence and seeking redemption without having a badge — and then there’s the trusty new sidekick, too. Imagine Marvel’s Daredevil as an alcoholic police officer wearing a bulletproof vest rather than a superhero costume and you’re only partially on your way to getting an inkling about how this irreverent title character (played with verve by George Fearing) goes about his business. You can’t forget Blind Cop’s name, either, as just about every person who addresses him calls him that. Using those aforementioned tropes, Bonk, who cowrote the screenplay with Augustin Huffman and Isaac McKinnon, directs with flare, deftly balancing the humor with plenty of dramatic elements and bloody action. Fearing is fantastic in the title role, and McKinnon makes for a fine sidekick-in-training as Schmidty. The humor
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
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 a fun performance) receiving a disturbing message from her alphabet-shaped cereal: “Kill.” This evil kid short has a nice retro vibe and looks great, with a fine supporting performance from Shelby Handley as Chelsea’s mother. My only quibble is that the fourth wall gets broken twice, which reduces the effect for me. The Curse of the Velvet Vampire Director Christoffer Schurict’s collaboration with band 802 finds two Chinese horror fans watching a strange film in a video rental store. Soon enough, this slice of cinema intersects with real life. Featuring plenty of female undead and the resulting bloodletting, along with some music video, this short film has cult favorite written all over it. We Joined a Cult From Chris McInroy, director
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
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 Dorsey) laptop — without her permission — in which she and a man named Adrian (Sam Likowski) botch a home invasion and injure a woman. Laura explains that it is a sort of filmed challenge called Ghost Game, in which the participants live in houses without being detected by homeowners — phrogging, as it is called — and prank them, leading the residents to believe that the supernatural is involved. And it just might be, as Vinny insists that Laura get rid of Adrian and take him with her instead to her next assignment: a long-abandoned, reputedly haunted house in which a family has just moved in. The stage for real ghostly occurrences is soon set, as young daughter Samantha (Vienna Maas), who
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
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 starts with black-and-white interview footage with former members of the Osiris Collective, a commune/cult based on ancient Egyptian culture, including each member taking on a name from that culture. The leader was a man named Father Osiris (Raul Delarosa), who disappeared mysteriously during a mountain hike with a new member who took the name Anubis (Hinds). Documentarian Keith Evans (Laird) has a very personal reason for wanting to interview the members of the Osiris Collective, as his ex-girlfriend Maddy (Michelle Westbrook Hinds) left him for the cult. Anubis, who took over leadership of the group and whose negative behaviors drove members away, invites Evans to the Collective grounds to conduct interviews. With the film having earlier changed to
Continue reading →
