CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,465 stories
Reviews
“Wrongly accused of a crime she didn’t commit, a frontier woman-turned-fugitive is hunted by a vengeful preacher in the menacing inferno of the old American West.” That’s the official synopsis for the thriller Brimstone from writer/director Martin Koolhoven. While it is a correct description of the plot, it does not do the film justice. I watch A LOT of movies, it comes along with the job. But I have to admit, very few films burn into my mind like Brimstone did. After watching it I sat back, feeling as if I had personally been wounded. During the film’s duration, I stepped into Liz’s (Dakota Fanning) world, a world filled with depravity, incest, torture, fear, and strife and it was heart breaking. So few female characters are given the strength and determination that Koolhoven gifted to Liz, and for that I say “thank you”. Fanning was absolutely fantastic. In my opinion, there is no question, it is her best performance to
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MoviesReviews
It’s not always true that you can never go home again. In fact, Mary, her husband and their two children are all relocating to the suburbs of Mary’s hometown. Mary arrives at their new home first, while her husband and kids wrap up things back in Seattle before coming out to join her. Left on her own to face the suburban monotony, Mary makes an earnest attempt to play nice with local suburbanites. Existing in the suburbs is not what it used to be and is definitely not for the faint of heart, and for Mary it’s the equivalent of fitting a square peg in a round hole. But complacency can be a dangerous thing in the ‘burbs, especially when some dangers are hidden behind a seemingly innocent facade. Megan Freels Johnston was at the helm for this film, which she also wrote the screenplay for. The vilification of those summertime purveyors of frozen treats and novelties is nothing new.
Continue reading →
ReviewsStreaming TV
Tonight, Preacher come thundering back with its second season premiere. Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga), and their friend Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), a 119-year-old, alcoholic, Irish vampire, have hit the road to hunt down God. In the beginning of the episode the trio runs into the law and after a car chase Tulip’s car runs out of gas. Fortunately, Jesse still has control of Genesis, an entity that gives him the power to make people to do what ever he commands. Jesse puts his power to good use, by making the officers carry out activities like holding hands. While the three are entertaining themselves the Saint of Killers opens fire on them all. Of course Jesse and the gang make off in the nick of time. Remember the car breaking down? The used intestines to siphon gas from a cop car. Crazy, right? Once they are free of the hail of bullets they continue on their way to the home
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
In this world, many people feel the need to conceal their true feelings behind the veneer of a brave face or a saccharin smile to hide what they truly feel deep down. Such is the case for Geoffrey Oswald Dodd, a mild mannered high school teacher. At first glance he seems like a fairly amiable gent, but deep inside he is filled with venom and vitriol for his students and colleagues. He goes about his day, observing the same old humdrum routine. But little do those around him know of the malice, anger, frustration and resentment that are festering beneath the surface. Everyone has varying levels of tolerance in regard to reaching ones breaking point…has Mr. Dodd finally reached and breached his? Worm was directed by Richard Powell, from a script he also penned. It’s a disturbing look behind the curtain of one man’s warped psyche. What I really liked about this story is that it’s primarily driven by the
Continue reading →
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Reviews
Yes. Yes it is. ………But I think its worth watching anyway, as a lesson in how not to make a horror movie, if nothing else. Studio horror rightfully gets a lot of shit, and The Mummy might just be the perfect example of a production studio that doesn’t have a fucking clue what horror fans want. But what this disaster-piece really does is show how little faith studios have in horror at all. Despite films like The Conjuring grossing over $300 Million dollars, film producers still don’t believe horror has the drawing power that more traditional Blockbuster and action films do. So rather than anything close to a horror movie, The Mummy is instead a big budget Tom Cruise action film, the start of a cinematic universe no less (on a related note, has anyone outside of Marvel even come close to a halfway watchable cinematic universe?) Never mind the fact that the mummy is a monster with literally thousands
Continue reading →
Reviews
One of my favorite parts about this job is the fact that here and there I get to watch movies that I would have otherwise been oblivious to. I love the fact that I get exposed to new directors, new actors, new plots and new movies before the lay audience. I admit, sometimes those movies I watch should have remained in oblivion, but that is not the case with Iqbal Ahmed’s thriller ‘The Answer’. The first item to address complaint about this film is the “Saw meets The Fugitive” tagline in the press release. I can get on board with it being akin to ‘The Fugitive’ but I didn’t really see any parallels or even allusions to ‘Saw’. That, however, is not a bad thing, but misleading. I found the film to be and they even squeezed in a little romance (but I’ll talk more about that last one later). I have actually found it somewhat difficult to do a
Continue reading →
ReviewsTrailers
Syfy has really stepped up their original content over the past couple of years. Their upcoming series Blood Drive is great example of that. In fact it is one of my favorite new shows. In the series, a young cop named Arthur Bailey (Alan Ritchson) may be the last remaining decent cop left after the U.S. has gone to hell thanks to the “Scar”, a huge, deep crack in the country, and a severe drought that has left food scarce, and water hard to get. In fact, people are secretly selling their blood for water. Crazy, right? You might be wondering why anyone would need so much blood, with gas prices insanely high a group of underground racers have modified their rides to run off of blood, human blood. When Officer Bailey and his partner Chris (Thomas Dominique) get a tip from a snitch (Nathan Lynn), who trades info for water, they stumble across a warehouse filled with freaks and
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
High school…it can be absolute hell, and Lisa Pomson is a young woman who can vouch for the veracity of that statement. She’s a smart, sweet and pretty, but also quite timid. Aside from that, Lisa is just your average bulimic, sexually conflicted cutter, whose parents don’t understand her teenage plight. And while the daily verbal barbs and jabs her classmates inflict upon her have become commonplace, in this digital world we live in, social media platforms have become tools by which cyber bullies can wage incredibly malicious and cruel attacks on their victims. So when an embarrassing video of her makes its way into the hands of her tormentors, it takes little time for it to make the rounds at her school. The incessant teasing that results is enough to push her to the brink of suicide, that is until a mysterious stranger reaches out to Lisa online pull her back from the edge. Lisa’s “savior” is a blonde
Continue reading →
Reviews
While Get Out still has my vote for best horror film of the year so far, It Comes At Night get’s a more dubious accolade; most misleading marketing. Most of the movie is set during the day, the titular It is refers to a few nightmares experienced by one of the characters, and the doors slamming shut on their own and monsters seemingly hiding in the shadows aren’t in the film at all. As opposed to the similar titled It Follows S. T. D monster (is the D for demon?) there is no tangible threat referring to the films title. Sure, there are some extended nightmare scenes but to me thats kind of stretching it. No, instead this is one of those horror movies where the monster is actually us all along, men driven to madness through desperation and fear. Great, that’s fine, that’s dandy, but then please don’t fucking try and sell it to me as a monster flick.
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
When you give a loved one a gift it can come in all shapes and sizes, and in all manner of containers – like a box. Granted, when said box changes hands, almost everyone on the giving end hopes it won’t be re-gifted…except when it comes to this particular box. It’s a dilemma that Jimmy faces when he finds himself re-gifting this particular box to his mother, Mary. But this situation becomes somewhat more grave when he learns that his mother has guests: her granddaughter Julie Thatcher, her granddaughter’s husband Adam, and their two children, Anna and Charlie. Jimmy passes the box along to his mother with one simple caveat: she MUST give the box to someone she truly love sand the recipient must do the same, and so on down the line. Unfortunately for Mary, she doesn’t begin what should have been a long line of successive hand offs, thus causing her own demise at the “hands” of the
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
Reviews
“Wrongly accused of a crime she didn’t commit, a frontier woman-turned-fugitive is hunted by a vengeful preacher in the menacing inferno of the old American West.” That’s the official synopsis for the thriller Brimstone from writer/director Martin Koolhoven. While it is a correct description of the plot, it does not do the film justice. I watch A LOT of movies, it comes along with the job. But I have to admit, very few films burn into my mind like Brimstone did. After watching it I sat back, feeling as if I had personally been wounded. During the film’s duration, I stepped into Liz’s (Dakota Fanning) world, a world filled with depravity, incest, torture, fear, and strife and it was heart breaking. So few female characters are given the strength and determination that Koolhoven gifted to Liz, and for that I say “thank you”. Fanning was absolutely fantastic. In my opinion, there is no question, it is her best performance to
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
It’s not always true that you can never go home again. In fact, Mary, her husband and their two children are all relocating to the suburbs of Mary’s hometown. Mary arrives at their new home first, while her husband and kids wrap up things back in Seattle before coming out to join her. Left on her own to face the suburban monotony, Mary makes an earnest attempt to play nice with local suburbanites. Existing in the suburbs is not what it used to be and is definitely not for the faint of heart, and for Mary it’s the equivalent of fitting a square peg in a round hole. But complacency can be a dangerous thing in the ‘burbs, especially when some dangers are hidden behind a seemingly innocent facade. Megan Freels Johnston was at the helm for this film, which she also wrote the screenplay for. The vilification of those summertime purveyors of frozen treats and novelties is nothing new.
Continue reading →
ReviewsStreaming TV
Tonight, Preacher come thundering back with its second season premiere. Jesse (Dominic Cooper), Tulip (Ruth Negga), and their friend Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), a 119-year-old, alcoholic, Irish vampire, have hit the road to hunt down God. In the beginning of the episode the trio runs into the law and after a car chase Tulip’s car runs out of gas. Fortunately, Jesse still has control of Genesis, an entity that gives him the power to make people to do what ever he commands. Jesse puts his power to good use, by making the officers carry out activities like holding hands. While the three are entertaining themselves the Saint of Killers opens fire on them all. Of course Jesse and the gang make off in the nick of time. Remember the car breaking down? The used intestines to siphon gas from a cop car. Crazy, right? Once they are free of the hail of bullets they continue on their way to the home
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
In this world, many people feel the need to conceal their true feelings behind the veneer of a brave face or a saccharin smile to hide what they truly feel deep down. Such is the case for Geoffrey Oswald Dodd, a mild mannered high school teacher. At first glance he seems like a fairly amiable gent, but deep inside he is filled with venom and vitriol for his students and colleagues. He goes about his day, observing the same old humdrum routine. But little do those around him know of the malice, anger, frustration and resentment that are festering beneath the surface. Everyone has varying levels of tolerance in regard to reaching ones breaking point…has Mr. Dodd finally reached and breached his? Worm was directed by Richard Powell, from a script he also penned. It’s a disturbing look behind the curtain of one man’s warped psyche. What I really liked about this story is that it’s primarily driven by the
Continue reading →
Reviews
Yes. Yes it is. ………But I think its worth watching anyway, as a lesson in how not to make a horror movie, if nothing else. Studio horror rightfully gets a lot of shit, and The Mummy might just be the perfect example of a production studio that doesn’t have a fucking clue what horror fans want. But what this disaster-piece really does is show how little faith studios have in horror at all. Despite films like The Conjuring grossing over $300 Million dollars, film producers still don’t believe horror has the drawing power that more traditional Blockbuster and action films do. So rather than anything close to a horror movie, The Mummy is instead a big budget Tom Cruise action film, the start of a cinematic universe no less (on a related note, has anyone outside of Marvel even come close to a halfway watchable cinematic universe?) Never mind the fact that the mummy is a monster with literally thousands
Continue reading →
Reviews
One of my favorite parts about this job is the fact that here and there I get to watch movies that I would have otherwise been oblivious to. I love the fact that I get exposed to new directors, new actors, new plots and new movies before the lay audience. I admit, sometimes those movies I watch should have remained in oblivion, but that is not the case with Iqbal Ahmed’s thriller ‘The Answer’. The first item to address complaint about this film is the “Saw meets The Fugitive” tagline in the press release. I can get on board with it being akin to ‘The Fugitive’ but I didn’t really see any parallels or even allusions to ‘Saw’. That, however, is not a bad thing, but misleading. I found the film to be and they even squeezed in a little romance (but I’ll talk more about that last one later). I have actually found it somewhat difficult to do a
Continue reading →
ReviewsTrailers
Syfy has really stepped up their original content over the past couple of years. Their upcoming series Blood Drive is great example of that. In fact it is one of my favorite new shows. In the series, a young cop named Arthur Bailey (Alan Ritchson) may be the last remaining decent cop left after the U.S. has gone to hell thanks to the “Scar”, a huge, deep crack in the country, and a severe drought that has left food scarce, and water hard to get. In fact, people are secretly selling their blood for water. Crazy, right? You might be wondering why anyone would need so much blood, with gas prices insanely high a group of underground racers have modified their rides to run off of blood, human blood. When Officer Bailey and his partner Chris (Thomas Dominique) get a tip from a snitch (Nathan Lynn), who trades info for water, they stumble across a warehouse filled with freaks and
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
High school…it can be absolute hell, and Lisa Pomson is a young woman who can vouch for the veracity of that statement. She’s a smart, sweet and pretty, but also quite timid. Aside from that, Lisa is just your average bulimic, sexually conflicted cutter, whose parents don’t understand her teenage plight. And while the daily verbal barbs and jabs her classmates inflict upon her have become commonplace, in this digital world we live in, social media platforms have become tools by which cyber bullies can wage incredibly malicious and cruel attacks on their victims. So when an embarrassing video of her makes its way into the hands of her tormentors, it takes little time for it to make the rounds at her school. The incessant teasing that results is enough to push her to the brink of suicide, that is until a mysterious stranger reaches out to Lisa online pull her back from the edge. Lisa’s “savior” is a blonde
Continue reading →
Reviews
While Get Out still has my vote for best horror film of the year so far, It Comes At Night get’s a more dubious accolade; most misleading marketing. Most of the movie is set during the day, the titular It is refers to a few nightmares experienced by one of the characters, and the doors slamming shut on their own and monsters seemingly hiding in the shadows aren’t in the film at all. As opposed to the similar titled It Follows S. T. D monster (is the D for demon?) there is no tangible threat referring to the films title. Sure, there are some extended nightmare scenes but to me thats kind of stretching it. No, instead this is one of those horror movies where the monster is actually us all along, men driven to madness through desperation and fear. Great, that’s fine, that’s dandy, but then please don’t fucking try and sell it to me as a monster flick.
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
When you give a loved one a gift it can come in all shapes and sizes, and in all manner of containers – like a box. Granted, when said box changes hands, almost everyone on the giving end hopes it won’t be re-gifted…except when it comes to this particular box. It’s a dilemma that Jimmy faces when he finds himself re-gifting this particular box to his mother, Mary. But this situation becomes somewhat more grave when he learns that his mother has guests: her granddaughter Julie Thatcher, her granddaughter’s husband Adam, and their two children, Anna and Charlie. Jimmy passes the box along to his mother with one simple caveat: she MUST give the box to someone she truly love sand the recipient must do the same, and so on down the line. Unfortunately for Mary, she doesn’t begin what should have been a long line of successive hand offs, thus causing her own demise at the “hands” of the
Continue reading →
