CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,462 stories
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Family Portraits: A Trilogy Of America is an arcane anthology, so let’s see what each story has to offer our eerie eyeballs before we get a lil’ of that sweet, sweet overview action, shall we boils n’ ghouls? The first story up is Cutting Moments: As is the way of suburbia in Anytown U. S. of fuckin’ A., a wife and mother (Nicca Ray in a solid performance that runs the gamut from doubt to absolutely batshit purpose) plays homemaker while her sicko of a hubby (Gary Betsworth) is playin’ the Chester the Molester bag with their young son. Our heroine gets the idea that she should be the one getting her husband’s attention so she starts to try and bring him around with a lil’ make-up, a sexy dress, some self-mutilation… you know, the usual stuff. Well, this is a pitch-dark way to kick tings off and let me tell ya cats n’ creeps this one does indeed shock
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Our man Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) has got it tough all over; he longs to leave the small trailer park he calls home and stay true to his sweetheart, Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart)… but the one-two punch of the local yokels on his ass 24/7, and being recruited to fight in an intergalactic battle against evil aliens is putting a serious dent in those plans, let me tell ya cats n’ creeps! How did Alex get the honor of becoming a real, live space cadet? Well, he’s really good at playing a video game that just so happens to be a test put in place by an alien conman named Centauri (legendary theater and film thespian Robert Preston) to find suckers that are willing to defend the galaxy from big-domed scenery chewing super villain Xur (a deliciously over-the-top performance from Norman Snow) and his leather-faced alien chums, who just so happen to own a meteor gun that launches those pains-in-the-asteroids
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Belgian/French/Irish coproduction Hunted is a revenge thriller that riffs heavily on both Little Red Riding Hood and The Most Dangerous Game, along with a long legacy of exploitation woman-seeking-revenge films. Though the main plot beats in director Vincent Paronnaud’s feature may be quite familiar, Hunted is wonderfully stylized and bolstered by two rip-roaring lead performances. After an opening sequence with a campfire story played out in animation that sets a mythical, mystical tone, viewers are introduced to Eve (Lucie Debay), who is stressed out from her job and her relationship. She’s on the road for a business trip in an unspecified European country and goes out to alleviate some stress at a bar, where she meets The Handsome Guy (Arieh Worthalter), who viewers are tipped off about that he has some bad things on his mind. When he and The Accomplice (Ciaran O’Brien) stuff Eve in the trunk of their car, it’s obvious that they have horrible plans for her,
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Alex Knapp writes, directs, and stars in his first feature at the helm, Go/Don’t Go. The film is a quiet meditation and character study of possibly the lone survivor in a postapocalyptic world. Go/Don’t Go plays more like a poetic drama about loneliness and the loss of love than typical postapocalyptic horror movies, thrillers, and science fiction films, so viewers expecting zombie hordes, mutants roaming the desert on souped-up vehicles, or agonizing deaths by virus should seek out other fare for that. Knapp’s film is difficult to describe as even a slow-burn because it doesn’t build to a thrilling or terrifying climax, though its ending is quite satisfying given viewer investment in the main character. Knapp portrays Adam, a socially awkward, painfully shy young man who is introduced by a friend at a social gathering to K (Olivia Luccardi in a moving supporting role), a woman who does her best to coax Adam out of his shell. The two fall
Continue reading →
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Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Characters When I read the summary blurb about Crimes and Passion by Jeffrey S. Stephens I expected a Basic Instinct-type femme fatale (which isn’t a bad thing) but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Stephens characters are as unique as they are deep. They are well developed, realistic, and extremely dynamic. Detective Walker is a fantastic character who can be added to the long ancestry of fictional, determined, flawed detectives. Plot In depth, twisted, sexy, and keeps you guessing. There are red herrings all over the place and Stephens is in full control of our suspicions and emotions as we read. This is an exceptionally winding plot that has many stories all tied together by Stevens’ skill as an author. Personally, I don’t know how he not only kept everything straight, but presented it a way that makes sense to the reader, keeps everyone guessing, and increases the intrigue as the plot moves forward. Writing Keeps all the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Two escaped prisoners make their way through the woods, and soon meet up with a gang of over-the-top Yakuza and the woman they have kidnapped. Unbeknownst to them, the forest is home to the 444th portal to hell (the Portal of Resurrection to be precise), but the learn soon enough as a slight misunderstanding leads to some bodies hittin’ the floor… but they sure as shit don’t stay there! Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and The Girl (Chieko Misaka) escape the initial zombie fracas and flee deeper into those wicked woods but soon that verdant landscape is lousy with the walking dead, and escape may be impossible for our heroes and their gangster pursuers (not mention their occult-minded boss and the assassins he employs)! I’m not going to lie to you cats n’ creeps, Versus is a straight up mother fucking masterpiece! Ryûhei Kitamura (along with co-writer Yudai Yamaguchi) created the “all killer, no filler” (a real miracle considering this film
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women is a perfectly mixed recipe of cultural expectations, racial stereotypes, gender roles, and their own versions of terror. The mix of everything in this collection of short stories almost creates a genre all to itself in the best of ways. First of all, the title…this title is not “Loud Women” or “Women Speaking Out.” Using the word “Unquiet” fully emphasizes the breaking from the norm that these authors and their stories show. I struggled with how to review this book, to be honest. It feel like it covers so many things and with so many different authors…whatever you are looking for in this book, you will find it. It is a beautiful collection of Asian women authors who have gathered their stories together to celebrate, critique, honor and share their cultures, trials and successes through mythology, traditions and horror. Editors Lee Murray (interviewed here) and Geneve Flynn have truly struck gold with this collection.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Industrial repairman Eddie Marino (the great Robert Forster) has a real problem on his grease-stained hands. You see, his wife Vickie (Rutanya Alda) got slappy with a gang of denim-clad Warrior wanna-bes called The Headhunters, and they returned the favor by using her as a pin-cushion, and blasting the couple’s son Scott (Dante Joseph) to pieces with a double-barrel shotgun. To make matters worse, The Headhunters are cleared of the murder charge thanks to some legal loopholes, and in a bizarre twist of fate, Eddie actually goes to jail for assaulting the judge. All is not lost however, as Eddie’s steel workin’ pals are a covert group of vigilantes lead by tough-ass mother fucker Nick (the legendary Fred “The Hammer” Williamson), and when he gets back on the streets Eddie and the boys are going to bring serious bodily harm to every mother fucker that’s done him wrong! Coming from director William Lustig, Vigilante was his attempt at creating a
Continue reading →
BooksReviewsTrue Story
10 – We Bleed Red and Green – Jeff C. Carter This diverse, extremely entertaining collection is a New Christmas tradition for me. Sick of all the Hallmark Christmas stories and a bit jaded from all the caroling? Missing Halloween? Check this book out to get the horror back into Christmas. 9 – The Captivating Flame of Madness – Jeff Parsons This is a great collection of short stories that have really deep, powerful plots. If you don’t have enough time to really delve into a novel, check out this collection of novel-deep plots in short story packages. 8 – The Organ Thieves – Chip Jones This investigative novel about the horrors of racism in American holidays and what essentially boils down to medical murder is terrifying. Chip Jones explores the history of this little-known dark history within the medical world and each interview and discovery is more heart-wrenching than the last. 7 – Seeds of the Dead – Andy
Continue reading →
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Kelli’s Top 10 Picks 10: Girl Bella Thorne stars as a young woman seeking out the father that assaulted her mother when she was a kid. She’s learned that he’s threatening her mother and she’s begun a journey to put an end to it. But things may not be as they seem. When she arrives she discovers something disturbing and becomes the target of two brothers who desperately want the cash her father has hidden somewhere on his property. 9: The Wretched A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand-year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door. 8: The Dark And the Wicked On a secluded farm in a nondescript rural town, a man is slowly dying. His family gathers to mourn, and soon darkness grows, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over the family. 7: Ghosts of
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Family Portraits: A Trilogy Of America is an arcane anthology, so let’s see what each story has to offer our eerie eyeballs before we get a lil’ of that sweet, sweet overview action, shall we boils n’ ghouls? The first story up is Cutting Moments: As is the way of suburbia in Anytown U. S. of fuckin’ A., a wife and mother (Nicca Ray in a solid performance that runs the gamut from doubt to absolutely batshit purpose) plays homemaker while her sicko of a hubby (Gary Betsworth) is playin’ the Chester the Molester bag with their young son. Our heroine gets the idea that she should be the one getting her husband’s attention so she starts to try and bring him around with a lil’ make-up, a sexy dress, some self-mutilation… you know, the usual stuff. Well, this is a pitch-dark way to kick tings off and let me tell ya cats n’ creeps this one does indeed shock
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Our man Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) has got it tough all over; he longs to leave the small trailer park he calls home and stay true to his sweetheart, Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart)… but the one-two punch of the local yokels on his ass 24/7, and being recruited to fight in an intergalactic battle against evil aliens is putting a serious dent in those plans, let me tell ya cats n’ creeps! How did Alex get the honor of becoming a real, live space cadet? Well, he’s really good at playing a video game that just so happens to be a test put in place by an alien conman named Centauri (legendary theater and film thespian Robert Preston) to find suckers that are willing to defend the galaxy from big-domed scenery chewing super villain Xur (a deliciously over-the-top performance from Norman Snow) and his leather-faced alien chums, who just so happen to own a meteor gun that launches those pains-in-the-asteroids
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Belgian/French/Irish coproduction Hunted is a revenge thriller that riffs heavily on both Little Red Riding Hood and The Most Dangerous Game, along with a long legacy of exploitation woman-seeking-revenge films. Though the main plot beats in director Vincent Paronnaud’s feature may be quite familiar, Hunted is wonderfully stylized and bolstered by two rip-roaring lead performances. After an opening sequence with a campfire story played out in animation that sets a mythical, mystical tone, viewers are introduced to Eve (Lucie Debay), who is stressed out from her job and her relationship. She’s on the road for a business trip in an unspecified European country and goes out to alleviate some stress at a bar, where she meets The Handsome Guy (Arieh Worthalter), who viewers are tipped off about that he has some bad things on his mind. When he and The Accomplice (Ciaran O’Brien) stuff Eve in the trunk of their car, it’s obvious that they have horrible plans for her,
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Alex Knapp writes, directs, and stars in his first feature at the helm, Go/Don’t Go. The film is a quiet meditation and character study of possibly the lone survivor in a postapocalyptic world. Go/Don’t Go plays more like a poetic drama about loneliness and the loss of love than typical postapocalyptic horror movies, thrillers, and science fiction films, so viewers expecting zombie hordes, mutants roaming the desert on souped-up vehicles, or agonizing deaths by virus should seek out other fare for that. Knapp’s film is difficult to describe as even a slow-burn because it doesn’t build to a thrilling or terrifying climax, though its ending is quite satisfying given viewer investment in the main character. Knapp portrays Adam, a socially awkward, painfully shy young man who is introduced by a friend at a social gathering to K (Olivia Luccardi in a moving supporting role), a woman who does her best to coax Adam out of his shell. The two fall
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Characters When I read the summary blurb about Crimes and Passion by Jeffrey S. Stephens I expected a Basic Instinct-type femme fatale (which isn’t a bad thing) but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. Stephens characters are as unique as they are deep. They are well developed, realistic, and extremely dynamic. Detective Walker is a fantastic character who can be added to the long ancestry of fictional, determined, flawed detectives. Plot In depth, twisted, sexy, and keeps you guessing. There are red herrings all over the place and Stephens is in full control of our suspicions and emotions as we read. This is an exceptionally winding plot that has many stories all tied together by Stevens’ skill as an author. Personally, I don’t know how he not only kept everything straight, but presented it a way that makes sense to the reader, keeps everyone guessing, and increases the intrigue as the plot moves forward. Writing Keeps all the
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Two escaped prisoners make their way through the woods, and soon meet up with a gang of over-the-top Yakuza and the woman they have kidnapped. Unbeknownst to them, the forest is home to the 444th portal to hell (the Portal of Resurrection to be precise), but the learn soon enough as a slight misunderstanding leads to some bodies hittin’ the floor… but they sure as shit don’t stay there! Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and The Girl (Chieko Misaka) escape the initial zombie fracas and flee deeper into those wicked woods but soon that verdant landscape is lousy with the walking dead, and escape may be impossible for our heroes and their gangster pursuers (not mention their occult-minded boss and the assassins he employs)! I’m not going to lie to you cats n’ creeps, Versus is a straight up mother fucking masterpiece! Ryûhei Kitamura (along with co-writer Yudai Yamaguchi) created the “all killer, no filler” (a real miracle considering this film
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women is a perfectly mixed recipe of cultural expectations, racial stereotypes, gender roles, and their own versions of terror. The mix of everything in this collection of short stories almost creates a genre all to itself in the best of ways. First of all, the title…this title is not “Loud Women” or “Women Speaking Out.” Using the word “Unquiet” fully emphasizes the breaking from the norm that these authors and their stories show. I struggled with how to review this book, to be honest. It feel like it covers so many things and with so many different authors…whatever you are looking for in this book, you will find it. It is a beautiful collection of Asian women authors who have gathered their stories together to celebrate, critique, honor and share their cultures, trials and successes through mythology, traditions and horror. Editors Lee Murray (interviewed here) and Geneve Flynn have truly struck gold with this collection.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Industrial repairman Eddie Marino (the great Robert Forster) has a real problem on his grease-stained hands. You see, his wife Vickie (Rutanya Alda) got slappy with a gang of denim-clad Warrior wanna-bes called The Headhunters, and they returned the favor by using her as a pin-cushion, and blasting the couple’s son Scott (Dante Joseph) to pieces with a double-barrel shotgun. To make matters worse, The Headhunters are cleared of the murder charge thanks to some legal loopholes, and in a bizarre twist of fate, Eddie actually goes to jail for assaulting the judge. All is not lost however, as Eddie’s steel workin’ pals are a covert group of vigilantes lead by tough-ass mother fucker Nick (the legendary Fred “The Hammer” Williamson), and when he gets back on the streets Eddie and the boys are going to bring serious bodily harm to every mother fucker that’s done him wrong! Coming from director William Lustig, Vigilante was his attempt at creating a
Continue reading →
BooksReviewsTrue Story
10 – We Bleed Red and Green – Jeff C. Carter This diverse, extremely entertaining collection is a New Christmas tradition for me. Sick of all the Hallmark Christmas stories and a bit jaded from all the caroling? Missing Halloween? Check this book out to get the horror back into Christmas. 9 – The Captivating Flame of Madness – Jeff Parsons This is a great collection of short stories that have really deep, powerful plots. If you don’t have enough time to really delve into a novel, check out this collection of novel-deep plots in short story packages. 8 – The Organ Thieves – Chip Jones This investigative novel about the horrors of racism in American holidays and what essentially boils down to medical murder is terrifying. Chip Jones explores the history of this little-known dark history within the medical world and each interview and discovery is more heart-wrenching than the last. 7 – Seeds of the Dead – Andy
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoHBO MaxHuluIndieMoviesNetflixNewsReviewsShudderStreaming TVThriller
Kelli’s Top 10 Picks 10: Girl Bella Thorne stars as a young woman seeking out the father that assaulted her mother when she was a kid. She’s learned that he’s threatening her mother and she’s begun a journey to put an end to it. But things may not be as they seem. When she arrives she discovers something disturbing and becomes the target of two brothers who desperately want the cash her father has hidden somewhere on his property. 9: The Wretched A defiant teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ imminent divorce, faces off with a thousand-year-old witch, who is living beneath the skin of and posing as the woman next door. 8: The Dark And the Wicked On a secluded farm in a nondescript rural town, a man is slowly dying. His family gathers to mourn, and soon darkness grows, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over the family. 7: Ghosts of
Continue reading →
