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Spoiler-Free Reviews: MINORE and ABRUPTIO (Fantaspoa 2023)

MINORE In director Konstantinos Koutsoliotas’ Minore (Greece, 2023), sailor William (Davide Tucci) comes to a small Greek coastal town while on shore leave, searching for someone who has been missing from his life. He befriends tavern server Aliki (Daphne Alexander), and soon the pair must join forces with the rest of the townspeople to battle against strange creatures coming from the sea. This is a winning horror comedy with a strong Lovecraftian vibe. It boasts a sizable cast whose members all give fine performances, and the characters — the screenplay is by Koutsoliotas and Elizabeth E. Schuch (The Book of Birdie) — are written so well and in such an endearing manner that viewers will want all of them to survive the invasion. That’s a rarity in horror and horror comedies recently, with so many unlikable characters in many movies of late with no one to really root for. The creatures look pretty cool and get plenty of screen time

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 3, 2023

Panic Fest Shorts Reviews

The Dream Machine Cowriters/codirectors Josef Hermansson Embring and Philip Sterner have crafted a trippy work, Swedish short The Dream Machine. A young man (Alec Toselli) buys the titular device advertised on late-night television in hopes of easing his insomnia, or at least coming to grips with it, but this being a science fiction thriller, naturally using the machine leads to odd consequences. The filmmakers make the most of a small, sparsely decorated apartment, almost bare except for technology circa the short’s early 2000s-setting. The result is a mind-boggling lo-fi mind bender. The Fore-Men Writer/director Adrian Bobb’s The Fore-Men reveals its secrets slowly, and quite satisfyingly so. Sophia Walker and Gabriel Darku give fine performances as they star as what seems to be the lone survivors, at least in their area, of some cataclysmic event that brought the far past and present colliding together. Bobb makes the most of using what viewers don’t see to build mystery and tension and then

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2023

‘Beetlejuice 2’ Listed Among Titles Teased At CinemaCon

Tim Burton fans were thrilled to learn that a sequel to his classic Beetlejuice is in the works. During the Discovery showcase at CinemaCon, Warner Bros shared a sizzle reel of upcoming titles and logos. Among them was Beetlejuice 2. So, we can say that it is officially confirmed. The sequel, which is set to begin production between now and June, will see Burton in the director’s chair with star Michael Keaton, Beetlejuice himself, returning. Last we heard, Jenna Ortega, who also stars in Burton’s series “Wednesday,” is in talks to play the daughter of Lydia, Winona Ryder’s iconic character. “Wednesday’s” second season is on its way from Netflix. Will update you when we know more.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 26, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: HALFWAY HOME (Fantaspoa 2023)

If you are looking for a film that is decidedly different from just about anything you have watched recently, look no further than director Isti Madarász’s Hungarian feature Halfway Home (Átjáróház, 2022). This film, which boasts supernatural elements galore, is perhaps the most charming, whimsical consideration of love and death that you are likely to see this year. Kriztián (Péter Bárnai) and Ági (Vivien Rujder) were both rescued from a hospital fire at birth. Kriztián was raised by a witch, which may help him after he is late for a first date — the pair are unaware of each other’s shared hospital story — with Ági. His tardiness resulted in her accidental death. Luckily for Kriztián, he has just landed a new job as a morgue attendant where the dead who have something left undone before their demise wait for a certain period, ascending into Heaven if their desire is fulfilled or meeting with a sadistic demon if it is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 26, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: THE WRATH OF BECKY (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Becky’s back, and that’s bad news for another bunch of neo-Nazis. In The Wrath of Becky, Lulu Wilson reprises the titular role in this sequel to 2020’s Becky, in which a preteen girl wastes a group of white supremacists who killed her father. This time around, a trio of them hassle her at the restaurant where she waitresses, and after she embarrasses one of them, they invade the home of the woman with whom she is staying and do some nasty business, including stealing her beloved dog Diego. Interestingly, the codirectors and writers of Becky didn’t repeat their roles for this sequel, which was helmed by Matt Angel (who also costars as one of the baddies) and Suzanne Coote, and written by Angel with Coote receiving a story credit. The pair give the sequel a decidedly more humorous tone than its predecessor, and I had a blast watching Becky deliver comeuppance to the villains and get herself out of trouble,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: MELTDOWN: A NUCLEAR FAMILY’S ASCENSION INTO MADNESS (Fantaspoa 2023)

Director Colton Van Til takes a trippy deep dive into the dark heart of a 1950s American family in Meltdown: A Nuclear Family’s Ascension into Madness. This impressive fear-fare feature combines disorienting visuals — those with photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitive issues are hereby warned — with a chilling mystery and heated drama. Political candidate for city office Norman (William Elsman) and his wife Ruby (Hannah Beck), who served as a nurse in the armed forces, put on a brave front as Norman ramps up his campaign, with the unexplained disappearance of their youngest son a few years earlier still weighing heavily on them. Their teen daughter Joan (Maleah Goldberg), meanwhile, is secretly dating Galen (Finn Roberts), the son of Norman’s Bible-verse–spouting political rival George (Eric Hanson) and his heavily drinking wife Teresa (Celena Rae), and their preteen son Harry (Joshua Weatherby) is freely going against his parent’s wishes. If that all sounds volatile enough already, add a dinner party

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2023

Spoiler-Free Reviews: BLACK MOLD and BLUE HOUR: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NICK BRANDRETH (Panic Fest 2023)

Black Mold Writer/director John Pata’s Black Mold fairly drips with dread as Brooke (Agnes Albright) and Tanner (Andrew Bailes) — a pair of photographer friends who shoot decrepit, abandoned buildings — find themselves trapped in one such structure by a homeless man (Jeremy Holm) who resembles Brooke’s deceased father. Is it the titular rot that begins to affect the pair’s thinking or supernatural reasons? This is one of the questions posed in the film, and one thing is for certain — there’s psychological horror aplenty on tap. Albright gives a grounded performance as a young woman harboring darkness from her childhood, and Holm gives a solid performance as an enigmatic, paranoid, threatening figure, while Bailes gives a performance that must be seen to be appreciated. It’s an intriguing one that borders at times on scenery chewing without quite crossing the line, and at others as a realistic portrayal of a supportive friend. Tiffany Jasinski’s set design is remarkable — you

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 19, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: KING ON SCREEN (Panic Fest 2023)

French/Belgian coproduction King on Screen is a valentine to the film adaptations of prolific author Stephen King — who truly needs no introduction here — and to the writer himself. Featuring talking-head interviews with filmmakers who adapted King’s works to big and small screens alike, along with behind-the-scenes footage and film clips galore, the film shows the diverse range of genres in which King has worked, and examines why his stories work as well as they do. Director Daphné Baiwir begins her documentary with an Easter-egg–filled seven-minute sequence in which King’s short stories and novels get name checked or alluded to, and it’s a fun way to begin this film. Even the most casual of the author’s fans will get some of the references, while more seasoned aficionados will appreciate the deeper cuts. From there, the interview segments, archival footage that includes King on different sets, and clips from both classic and lesser known King films begin. Filmmakers such as

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 17, 2023

Spoiler-Free Reviews: THE BIGFOOT TRAP and MEDUSA DELUXE (Panic Fest 2023)

The Bigfoot Trap The Bigfoot Trap (U.S., 2023) is not another movie about Sasquatch running rampant on misbehaving city folk — far from it, although we do get a nice variation on that type of person here. Josh MacMahon (Tyler Weisenauer) has set aside his goal of becoming a reporter of depth for some quick cash being a content provider for a clickbait-style website hungry for views. After a video of him making fun of a flat-Earth believer goes viral, Josh gets an assignment of doing another such video about Red Wilson (Zach Lazar Hoffman), the head of the Southern Sasquatch Research Foundation — the membership of which seems to be two people. At first trying to get yucks at Red’s expense, Josh begins to buy into the earnestness with which Red seeks to prove that Bigfoot actually exists. When a possible visual sighting of the legendary cryptid goes tragically awry, The Bigfoot Trap ratchets up its drama and suspense.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 17, 2023

Chattanooga Film Festival Promises Fears, Tears, and Cheers for Its 2023 Edition

Chattanooga Film Festival returns to the cinema this year with a stellar selection of horror and genre-film features announced for its first wave. Those who have been following its online versions in recent years need not worry, as the festival is also offering a hybrid edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) will make its long awaited return this summer from June 23-29. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, after being named one of “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by MovieMaker Magazine, the festival will return to the ground June 23-25, while still offering a virtual experience from June 23 – 29. While the festival will have various locations around the city, the main venue will be Chattanooga’s historic and legendary haunted The Read House Hotel. The hotel’s 1920’s beauty and the tale of Room 311, with resident ghost Annalisa, makes it the perfect backdrop for the festival’s 10th Anniversary. Opening the festival will

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2023

More from Events

Spoiler-Free Reviews: MINORE and ABRUPTIO (Fantaspoa 2023)

MINORE In director Konstantinos Koutsoliotas’ Minore (Greece, 2023), sailor William (Davide Tucci) comes to a small Greek coastal town while on shore leave, searching for someone who has been missing from his life. He befriends tavern server Aliki (Daphne Alexander), and soon the pair must join forces with the rest of the townspeople to battle against strange creatures coming from the sea. This is a winning horror comedy with a strong Lovecraftian vibe. It boasts a sizable cast whose members all give fine performances, and the characters — the screenplay is by Koutsoliotas and Elizabeth E. Schuch (The Book of Birdie) — are written so well and in such an endearing manner that viewers will want all of them to survive the invasion. That’s a rarity in horror and horror comedies recently, with so many unlikable characters in many movies of late with no one to really root for. The creatures look pretty cool and get plenty of screen time

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 3, 2023

Panic Fest Shorts Reviews

The Dream Machine Cowriters/codirectors Josef Hermansson Embring and Philip Sterner have crafted a trippy work, Swedish short The Dream Machine. A young man (Alec Toselli) buys the titular device advertised on late-night television in hopes of easing his insomnia, or at least coming to grips with it, but this being a science fiction thriller, naturally using the machine leads to odd consequences. The filmmakers make the most of a small, sparsely decorated apartment, almost bare except for technology circa the short’s early 2000s-setting. The result is a mind-boggling lo-fi mind bender. The Fore-Men Writer/director Adrian Bobb’s The Fore-Men reveals its secrets slowly, and quite satisfyingly so. Sophia Walker and Gabriel Darku give fine performances as they star as what seems to be the lone survivors, at least in their area, of some cataclysmic event that brought the far past and present colliding together. Bobb makes the most of using what viewers don’t see to build mystery and tension and then

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2023

‘Beetlejuice 2’ Listed Among Titles Teased At CinemaCon

Tim Burton fans were thrilled to learn that a sequel to his classic Beetlejuice is in the works. During the Discovery showcase at CinemaCon, Warner Bros shared a sizzle reel of upcoming titles and logos. Among them was Beetlejuice 2. So, we can say that it is officially confirmed. The sequel, which is set to begin production between now and June, will see Burton in the director’s chair with star Michael Keaton, Beetlejuice himself, returning. Last we heard, Jenna Ortega, who also stars in Burton’s series “Wednesday,” is in talks to play the daughter of Lydia, Winona Ryder’s iconic character. “Wednesday’s” second season is on its way from Netflix. Will update you when we know more.

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 26, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: HALFWAY HOME (Fantaspoa 2023)

If you are looking for a film that is decidedly different from just about anything you have watched recently, look no further than director Isti Madarász’s Hungarian feature Halfway Home (Átjáróház, 2022). This film, which boasts supernatural elements galore, is perhaps the most charming, whimsical consideration of love and death that you are likely to see this year. Kriztián (Péter Bárnai) and Ági (Vivien Rujder) were both rescued from a hospital fire at birth. Kriztián was raised by a witch, which may help him after he is late for a first date — the pair are unaware of each other’s shared hospital story — with Ági. His tardiness resulted in her accidental death. Luckily for Kriztián, he has just landed a new job as a morgue attendant where the dead who have something left undone before their demise wait for a certain period, ascending into Heaven if their desire is fulfilled or meeting with a sadistic demon if it is

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 26, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: THE WRATH OF BECKY (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Becky’s back, and that’s bad news for another bunch of neo-Nazis. In The Wrath of Becky, Lulu Wilson reprises the titular role in this sequel to 2020’s Becky, in which a preteen girl wastes a group of white supremacists who killed her father. This time around, a trio of them hassle her at the restaurant where she waitresses, and after she embarrasses one of them, they invade the home of the woman with whom she is staying and do some nasty business, including stealing her beloved dog Diego. Interestingly, the codirectors and writers of Becky didn’t repeat their roles for this sequel, which was helmed by Matt Angel (who also costars as one of the baddies) and Suzanne Coote, and written by Angel with Coote receiving a story credit. The pair give the sequel a decidedly more humorous tone than its predecessor, and I had a blast watching Becky deliver comeuppance to the villains and get herself out of trouble,

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: MELTDOWN: A NUCLEAR FAMILY’S ASCENSION INTO MADNESS (Fantaspoa 2023)

Director Colton Van Til takes a trippy deep dive into the dark heart of a 1950s American family in Meltdown: A Nuclear Family’s Ascension into Madness. This impressive fear-fare feature combines disorienting visuals — those with photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitive issues are hereby warned — with a chilling mystery and heated drama. Political candidate for city office Norman (William Elsman) and his wife Ruby (Hannah Beck), who served as a nurse in the armed forces, put on a brave front as Norman ramps up his campaign, with the unexplained disappearance of their youngest son a few years earlier still weighing heavily on them. Their teen daughter Joan (Maleah Goldberg), meanwhile, is secretly dating Galen (Finn Roberts), the son of Norman’s Bible-verse–spouting political rival George (Eric Hanson) and his heavily drinking wife Teresa (Celena Rae), and their preteen son Harry (Joshua Weatherby) is freely going against his parent’s wishes. If that all sounds volatile enough already, add a dinner party

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2023

Spoiler-Free Reviews: BLACK MOLD and BLUE HOUR: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NICK BRANDRETH (Panic Fest 2023)

Black Mold Writer/director John Pata’s Black Mold fairly drips with dread as Brooke (Agnes Albright) and Tanner (Andrew Bailes) — a pair of photographer friends who shoot decrepit, abandoned buildings — find themselves trapped in one such structure by a homeless man (Jeremy Holm) who resembles Brooke’s deceased father. Is it the titular rot that begins to affect the pair’s thinking or supernatural reasons? This is one of the questions posed in the film, and one thing is for certain — there’s psychological horror aplenty on tap. Albright gives a grounded performance as a young woman harboring darkness from her childhood, and Holm gives a solid performance as an enigmatic, paranoid, threatening figure, while Bailes gives a performance that must be seen to be appreciated. It’s an intriguing one that borders at times on scenery chewing without quite crossing the line, and at others as a realistic portrayal of a supportive friend. Tiffany Jasinski’s set design is remarkable — you

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 19, 2023

Spoiler-Free Review: KING ON SCREEN (Panic Fest 2023)

French/Belgian coproduction King on Screen is a valentine to the film adaptations of prolific author Stephen King — who truly needs no introduction here — and to the writer himself. Featuring talking-head interviews with filmmakers who adapted King’s works to big and small screens alike, along with behind-the-scenes footage and film clips galore, the film shows the diverse range of genres in which King has worked, and examines why his stories work as well as they do. Director Daphné Baiwir begins her documentary with an Easter-egg–filled seven-minute sequence in which King’s short stories and novels get name checked or alluded to, and it’s a fun way to begin this film. Even the most casual of the author’s fans will get some of the references, while more seasoned aficionados will appreciate the deeper cuts. From there, the interview segments, archival footage that includes King on different sets, and clips from both classic and lesser known King films begin. Filmmakers such as

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 17, 2023

Spoiler-Free Reviews: THE BIGFOOT TRAP and MEDUSA DELUXE (Panic Fest 2023)

The Bigfoot Trap The Bigfoot Trap (U.S., 2023) is not another movie about Sasquatch running rampant on misbehaving city folk — far from it, although we do get a nice variation on that type of person here. Josh MacMahon (Tyler Weisenauer) has set aside his goal of becoming a reporter of depth for some quick cash being a content provider for a clickbait-style website hungry for views. After a video of him making fun of a flat-Earth believer goes viral, Josh gets an assignment of doing another such video about Red Wilson (Zach Lazar Hoffman), the head of the Southern Sasquatch Research Foundation — the membership of which seems to be two people. At first trying to get yucks at Red’s expense, Josh begins to buy into the earnestness with which Red seeks to prove that Bigfoot actually exists. When a possible visual sighting of the legendary cryptid goes tragically awry, The Bigfoot Trap ratchets up its drama and suspense.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 17, 2023

Chattanooga Film Festival Promises Fears, Tears, and Cheers for Its 2023 Edition

Chattanooga Film Festival returns to the cinema this year with a stellar selection of horror and genre-film features announced for its first wave. Those who have been following its online versions in recent years need not worry, as the festival is also offering a hybrid edition. Following is the official press announcement. The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) will make its long awaited return this summer from June 23-29. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, after being named one of “The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by MovieMaker Magazine, the festival will return to the ground June 23-25, while still offering a virtual experience from June 23 – 29. While the festival will have various locations around the city, the main venue will be Chattanooga’s historic and legendary haunted The Read House Hotel. The hotel’s 1920’s beauty and the tale of Room 311, with resident ghost Annalisa, makes it the perfect backdrop for the festival’s 10th Anniversary. Opening the festival will

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2023
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