CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
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DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Following an absolutely gorgeous opening sequence set in 1948 where a young boy who dreams of being a pilot is confronted by a gigantic bird of prey he can scarcely believe, we begin our journey into the investigation of preternatural beings who have made their home in the skies over Illinois for decades in Terror in the Skies; the latest cryptid-focused documentary from Small Town Monsters and their resident demonic director (and writer too) Supernatural Seth Breedlove (okay…maybe he isn’t supernatural, but he sure does talk about the creepy side o’ life quite a bit. Don’t believe me? Check out my revoltin’ reviews of some of his past docs here, and here)! First up we learn the history of this monster-laden land; including chit-chat about the Thunderbirds (called the Piasa Bird in this region) that tormented the Native Americans indigenous to ancient Illinois, and supposedly resided in a deep cave littered with human bones (a cave that some dude in
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
One cold and frosty night; two comely lasses, Robin and Monica (Sullivan Hester and Laura Kallison) are making their way to a soiree when they are carjacked by a terrifying trio (well, two of them are scary anyway) of escaped convicts (one of whom is so strong he can keep a vehicle from moving simply by holding on it’s bumper). Now you may say to yourself “Hey, that could make for an okay fright flick…a bit overdone perhaps, but solid nonetheless.” Well, you may say that, but Trapped Alive certainly isn’t listening…I mean it can’t “listen” really; it’s a movie filmed over three decades ago, and…where the fuck was I? Oh yeah; so that vehicle goes of the road and crashes into an abandoned mine shaft…well, not really “abandoned” as it’s home to a cannibalistic mutant, as is the way (and definitely spices up the proceedings). Thankfully for our heroines, the local sheriff (Randy Powell) is on the case…and by
Continue reading →
MoviesProductReviews
Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviews
Hilary Duff stars as Sharon Tate in Daniel Farrands’ The Haunting of Sharon Tate. In the film, pregnant Tate waits at home for her husband Roman Polanski’s return from Europe along with three of her friends. Suddenly she becomes plagued by nightmares and terrifying visions of their deaths. The film builds tension with these visions and nightmares along with Tate’s fear and growing paranoia, right up to the last moments of the film. But the thing is, none of it happened in reality. When making a film that poses a “what if” scenario, a filmmaker takes a huge risk, especially when the real event is so well known. Often they aren’t successful, this is one of those times. I’m not sure what exactly they were trying to accomplish by twisting the reality of Tate’s last few days, especially the way the film ends. It left me scratching my head, wondering what the point of the film was. I mean if
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThrillerTrue CrimeTrue Story
Ol’ Øystein “Euronymous “Aarseth (Rory Culkin) lives a rather bland existence in late ’80’s Norway doing the typical teen biz; drinking, smoking, starting Mayhem…a legendary Satanic Black Metal band…the usual. The days are filled with fun, gifts of crucified mice from fanatical fans, and endless practice sessions. Enter: new vocalist Pelle ‘Dead’ Ohlin (Jack Kilmer)…a real ray of sunshine that brings with him a heavy cloud of darkness and depression…and a real move forward for the band musically and visually. Of course tragedy soon follows and things begin to really go off the rails once the eager-to-please Kristian ‘Varg’ Vikernes (Emory Cohen) makes the scene along with some radical ideas (read: fucked-up) that soon have him and Euronymous at odds and things falling desperately out of control (to put it mildly). First things first; does Lords of Chaos fuck with the facts surrounding Mayhem? Sure it does…but this is a movie version of reality, not a documentary…and what a movie
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Jack and Amanda Harms (Tom Zembrod and April Hartman respectively) are dealin’ with that ultimate fright flick family buzzkill; a dead kid…namely their young daughter. As is often the case in films like this, the couple haul ass to the most secluded spot they can find and move into a seemingly nice abode (which of course is anything but). Of course that tyke won’t stay dead and soon begins appearing to our heroes which increases their marital woes roughly a billionity (it’s a real number) percent! What is this kreepy kid’s endgame, and will our protagonists make it long enough with their sanity intact to find out? Writer/Director Mitch McLeod has worked a bit of magic with Silhouette; while the flick is definitely well-stepped in horror biz tropes tried and true; his film is elevated by a stellar cast and a keen visual sense. Tom Zembrod and April Hartman really knock it out of the putrid park as the troubled
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Ahh…the classic, star-studded disaster movie; they sure don’t make them like that anymore…well, sure they do make star-studded movies that are disasters, just not specifically about disasters. This seems like a long reach for a chuckle from you lot, so let’s just jump into my revoltin’ review of 1974’s Earthquake! Our story begins with Graff (Charlton fuckin’ Heston baby) getting nagged by his wife Remy (Ava Gardner)…because that’s what the kids dig; hen pecked husbands and their pill-poppin’ wives. Following that we get a “high speed” police chase (complete with Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bush…technically a hedge) and that heart-warming ol’ chestnut; a dead child, a mustachioed Marjoe Gortner giving a lady with a sky-high perm (Dallas‘ Victoria Principle) a big slab of his free meat (it involves store credit), Richard Roundtree sportin’ the slickest motorcycle threads/Black Vulcan costume known to mankind and doing his best Evel Knievel bit, Walter Matthau dressed like a pimp sipping booze…pretty much every rando (and
Continue reading →
HuluMoviesReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
June’s episode of “Into the Dark”, titled “They Come Knocking”, is about a father and his two daughters on a road trip to spread the ashes of their mother. Once they have arrived at the remote spot where the father purposed, the episode takes a frightening turn when the struggling family is stalked by black eyed children. The episode is the most emotionally driven episode to date. As we watch flashbacks and see the family’s tension, the story of the mother’s illness and death comes to light. I’ll be honest, this part of the episode got under my skin. The mother’s passing and the emotional wreckage hit so close to home for me. You see, my father went through something so similar as cancer took him. I could relate a little too well to the family. I may have even shed a tear or two. The blacked eyed children, characters we do not see often enough in film, are creepy
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
How far would you go for a better life? Would you go through torture for a shot at $1,000,000? That’s the premise of writer-director Bob Giordano’s The Odds. In the film, nineteen players in nineteen locations must survive multiple rounds, each more painful than the last. Helped through the game by their “Game Master”, players face the loss of appendages and their lives, all for a game bet on by mysterious gamblers. This intense film is set in one room and features two main stars, played by Abbi Butler (the player) and James J. Fuertes (Game Master). Bob Giordano took a huge risk by making a film set in one room with just two actors. It’s a concept that’s so hard to pull off. Luckily, he pulled it off flawlessly. The film pulls you in, you have to know what the next challenge is and you have to know if the player will go through with it. Butler made “the
Continue reading →
GamingMoviesProductReviews
Fans of Layers of Fear better get ready to raise anchor and sail off into a living nightmare! Gun Media and Bloober Team allowed me the chance to try out their latest trip into terror, Layers of Fear 2. Does it hold up to its predecessor? Join me as we take a look. Layers of Fear 2 follows the same story arc of the first where instead of a world-renowned painter being tormented by supernatural mental baggage, it’s a popular actor. The actor is not just an actor but a method actor who’s known for really getting into character. The unnamed actor is on a cruise ship where the latest film he’ll be working on is being filmed. The film’s director (Voiced by Tony Todd) is mysterious and is known to make his actors go through “tests” to get them into peak performance almost adapting an extreme version of Stanislavski’s Method. These trials consist of traversing a nightmarish reality where
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
DocumentariesIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Following an absolutely gorgeous opening sequence set in 1948 where a young boy who dreams of being a pilot is confronted by a gigantic bird of prey he can scarcely believe, we begin our journey into the investigation of preternatural beings who have made their home in the skies over Illinois for decades in Terror in the Skies; the latest cryptid-focused documentary from Small Town Monsters and their resident demonic director (and writer too) Supernatural Seth Breedlove (okay…maybe he isn’t supernatural, but he sure does talk about the creepy side o’ life quite a bit. Don’t believe me? Check out my revoltin’ reviews of some of his past docs here, and here)! First up we learn the history of this monster-laden land; including chit-chat about the Thunderbirds (called the Piasa Bird in this region) that tormented the Native Americans indigenous to ancient Illinois, and supposedly resided in a deep cave littered with human bones (a cave that some dude in
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
One cold and frosty night; two comely lasses, Robin and Monica (Sullivan Hester and Laura Kallison) are making their way to a soiree when they are carjacked by a terrifying trio (well, two of them are scary anyway) of escaped convicts (one of whom is so strong he can keep a vehicle from moving simply by holding on it’s bumper). Now you may say to yourself “Hey, that could make for an okay fright flick…a bit overdone perhaps, but solid nonetheless.” Well, you may say that, but Trapped Alive certainly isn’t listening…I mean it can’t “listen” really; it’s a movie filmed over three decades ago, and…where the fuck was I? Oh yeah; so that vehicle goes of the road and crashes into an abandoned mine shaft…well, not really “abandoned” as it’s home to a cannibalistic mutant, as is the way (and definitely spices up the proceedings). Thankfully for our heroines, the local sheriff (Randy Powell) is on the case…and by
Continue reading →
MoviesProductReviews
Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviews
Hilary Duff stars as Sharon Tate in Daniel Farrands’ The Haunting of Sharon Tate. In the film, pregnant Tate waits at home for her husband Roman Polanski’s return from Europe along with three of her friends. Suddenly she becomes plagued by nightmares and terrifying visions of their deaths. The film builds tension with these visions and nightmares along with Tate’s fear and growing paranoia, right up to the last moments of the film. But the thing is, none of it happened in reality. When making a film that poses a “what if” scenario, a filmmaker takes a huge risk, especially when the real event is so well known. Often they aren’t successful, this is one of those times. I’m not sure what exactly they were trying to accomplish by twisting the reality of Tate’s last few days, especially the way the film ends. It left me scratching my head, wondering what the point of the film was. I mean if
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThrillerTrue CrimeTrue Story
Ol’ Øystein “Euronymous “Aarseth (Rory Culkin) lives a rather bland existence in late ’80’s Norway doing the typical teen biz; drinking, smoking, starting Mayhem…a legendary Satanic Black Metal band…the usual. The days are filled with fun, gifts of crucified mice from fanatical fans, and endless practice sessions. Enter: new vocalist Pelle ‘Dead’ Ohlin (Jack Kilmer)…a real ray of sunshine that brings with him a heavy cloud of darkness and depression…and a real move forward for the band musically and visually. Of course tragedy soon follows and things begin to really go off the rails once the eager-to-please Kristian ‘Varg’ Vikernes (Emory Cohen) makes the scene along with some radical ideas (read: fucked-up) that soon have him and Euronymous at odds and things falling desperately out of control (to put it mildly). First things first; does Lords of Chaos fuck with the facts surrounding Mayhem? Sure it does…but this is a movie version of reality, not a documentary…and what a movie
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Jack and Amanda Harms (Tom Zembrod and April Hartman respectively) are dealin’ with that ultimate fright flick family buzzkill; a dead kid…namely their young daughter. As is often the case in films like this, the couple haul ass to the most secluded spot they can find and move into a seemingly nice abode (which of course is anything but). Of course that tyke won’t stay dead and soon begins appearing to our heroes which increases their marital woes roughly a billionity (it’s a real number) percent! What is this kreepy kid’s endgame, and will our protagonists make it long enough with their sanity intact to find out? Writer/Director Mitch McLeod has worked a bit of magic with Silhouette; while the flick is definitely well-stepped in horror biz tropes tried and true; his film is elevated by a stellar cast and a keen visual sense. Tom Zembrod and April Hartman really knock it out of the putrid park as the troubled
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Ahh…the classic, star-studded disaster movie; they sure don’t make them like that anymore…well, sure they do make star-studded movies that are disasters, just not specifically about disasters. This seems like a long reach for a chuckle from you lot, so let’s just jump into my revoltin’ review of 1974’s Earthquake! Our story begins with Graff (Charlton fuckin’ Heston baby) getting nagged by his wife Remy (Ava Gardner)…because that’s what the kids dig; hen pecked husbands and their pill-poppin’ wives. Following that we get a “high speed” police chase (complete with Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bush…technically a hedge) and that heart-warming ol’ chestnut; a dead child, a mustachioed Marjoe Gortner giving a lady with a sky-high perm (Dallas‘ Victoria Principle) a big slab of his free meat (it involves store credit), Richard Roundtree sportin’ the slickest motorcycle threads/Black Vulcan costume known to mankind and doing his best Evel Knievel bit, Walter Matthau dressed like a pimp sipping booze…pretty much every rando (and
Continue reading →
HuluMoviesReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
June’s episode of “Into the Dark”, titled “They Come Knocking”, is about a father and his two daughters on a road trip to spread the ashes of their mother. Once they have arrived at the remote spot where the father purposed, the episode takes a frightening turn when the struggling family is stalked by black eyed children. The episode is the most emotionally driven episode to date. As we watch flashbacks and see the family’s tension, the story of the mother’s illness and death comes to light. I’ll be honest, this part of the episode got under my skin. The mother’s passing and the emotional wreckage hit so close to home for me. You see, my father went through something so similar as cancer took him. I could relate a little too well to the family. I may have even shed a tear or two. The blacked eyed children, characters we do not see often enough in film, are creepy
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
How far would you go for a better life? Would you go through torture for a shot at $1,000,000? That’s the premise of writer-director Bob Giordano’s The Odds. In the film, nineteen players in nineteen locations must survive multiple rounds, each more painful than the last. Helped through the game by their “Game Master”, players face the loss of appendages and their lives, all for a game bet on by mysterious gamblers. This intense film is set in one room and features two main stars, played by Abbi Butler (the player) and James J. Fuertes (Game Master). Bob Giordano took a huge risk by making a film set in one room with just two actors. It’s a concept that’s so hard to pull off. Luckily, he pulled it off flawlessly. The film pulls you in, you have to know what the next challenge is and you have to know if the player will go through with it. Butler made “the
Continue reading →
GamingMoviesProductReviews
Fans of Layers of Fear better get ready to raise anchor and sail off into a living nightmare! Gun Media and Bloober Team allowed me the chance to try out their latest trip into terror, Layers of Fear 2. Does it hold up to its predecessor? Join me as we take a look. Layers of Fear 2 follows the same story arc of the first where instead of a world-renowned painter being tormented by supernatural mental baggage, it’s a popular actor. The actor is not just an actor but a method actor who’s known for really getting into character. The unnamed actor is on a cruise ship where the latest film he’ll be working on is being filmed. The film’s director (Voiced by Tony Todd) is mysterious and is known to make his actors go through “tests” to get them into peak performance almost adapting an extreme version of Stanislavski’s Method. These trials consist of traversing a nightmarish reality where
Continue reading →
