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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MoviesReviewsTrailers
I’ve followed the Insidious franchise since it first premiered back in 2010. I love supernatural horror. This weekend I popped a bag of popcorn and settled in to watch Insidious: The Red Door, and I have a few thoughts. Warning, mild spoilers. Set nine years after the original film, the sequel sees Dalton, played by Ty Simpkins, who reprises his role from the first film, is heading off to college, driven to school by his father, Josh (Patrick Wilson), in what is an incredibly awkward ride. Dalton and his father have a strained relationship, with Josh not being around much as the kid has grown up after Josh and his wife divorced, and Josh’s head has been in a fog, thanks to the fact that both father and son were hypnotized to forget the events in the first film. The action kicks off after Dalton’s art professor makes the class count down from ten. Suddenly, Dalton and Josh begin to
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Convenience Story (2022) is a surreal odyssey with film noir elements. If that sounds like a reference to David Lynch’s work or to the many Lynchian knock-offs, sure, there are shared concepts here, but writer/director Satoshi Miki’s Japanese feature leans more to the whimsical and weird than the dark. The 24/7 convenience store (konbini) is a major part of Japanese culture, and Miki places his deadpan, struggling screenwriter protagonist Kato (Ryo Narita) in a decidedly bizarre remote one after he abandons his actress girlfriend Zigzag’s (Yuki Katayama) dog nearby. With the rented truck that he drove there suddenly not running, he takes up the somewhat eager offer of married-couple convenience store owners Keiko (Atsuko Maeda) and Nagumo (Seiji Rokkaku) to stay the night. While Nagumo spends time in the forest air-conducting classical music, Keiko and Kato find themselves in an offbeat relationship reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Giving away any more of the plot would be a disservice
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesNetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TV
Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game is now out on Netflix and I have some thoughts. In the film, Jessie and Gerald Burlingame are going to their secluded lake house on a weekend trip. Their marriage is strained, and their love life has turned stagnant, but Gerald has something in mind to reignite that old flame, as it were. They arrive at their home, and everything is ready: landscaping done, house cleaned and prepared, pantry and fridge are stocked. Now it’s time for a little “afternoon delight,” so Jessie puts on a new sexy slip that she bought especially for the occasion and waits for Gerald in the bedroom. He pops a little blue pill and cuffs her to the bed, and then the “game” begins. However, Jessie is not fond of the rough turn Gerald’s game takes and rebuffs his attempt to fulfill what is little more than a rape fantasy. She begs him to uncuff her,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
The intense, emotional thriller The Passenger is set to be released this week, and I had the opportunity to check it out. Don’t worry. I’m not going to spoil anything for you. This is a spoiler-free review. The film centers on a shy, passive young man who is forced to face his fears and confront his troubled past and must find a way to survive when his co-worker snaps and goes on a violent killing spree, dragging him along for the ride. Directed by Carter Smith from the script by Jack Stanley, the film stars Kyle Gallner (Smile) and Johnny Berchtold (“Tiny Beautiful Things”), as well as Liza Weil, Billy Slaughter, and Morgan Shaw. After watching the trailer, my curiosity peaked, and I’m so glad it did. As I watched the film’s events, I was sucked in, something that doesn’t often happen these days, and for its entire run time, I was completely invested. Director Carter Smith did an incredible
Continue reading →
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Japanese feature Best Wishes to All (2023) tackles that country’s problem with its aging population in a fright-fare context that combines folk horror and supernatural elements. The result is an intriguing work that starts off in slow-burn style but delivers a jaw-dropping revelation that kicks off a dizzying whirl of suspense and paranoia. Kotone Furukawa gives an excellent performance as a young nursing student from Tokyo (all characters in the film are nameless) who visits her grandparents in the small rural town in which she grew up. As a little girl, she was greatly bothered by a locked door in their house so much that it haunted her dreams even as an adult. After her grandparents display decidedly odd behavior — which she at first considers might be dementia — she soon learns that he fears about what might be behind that door were nowhere near what she could imagine. Director Yūta Shimotsu, working from a screenplay cowritten with Rumi
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Director Sophie Kargman’s mystery thriller Susie Searches is a fun ride that offers an engaging main character and several surprises as it examines how far some people will go to become famous. Susie (Kiersey Clemons) is a university student with a part-time job at a burger joint, an internship at the local police station, and a true-crime podcast devoid of listeners. Susie takes her lifelong talent of guessing whodunit correctly when her mother — who currently suffers from MS — begins to read her mystery novels to try and solve the disappearance of popular fellow student and meditation influencer Jesse (Alex Wolff), who has been missing for about a week. Susie cracks the case, rescues Jesse and even names a suspect — and then things start going south. Kargman, who cowrote the smart screenplay with William Day Frank, paces the suspense nicely while serving up humor that ranges from the delightful to the dark. Clemons is terrific as the fame-hungry
Continue reading →
AdaptationComic Books/Graphic NovelsMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Deep in the humid green hell of the Louisiana bayou, Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise, Twin Peaks) toils with his sister Linda (played by Nannette Brown… and changed from his wife in the DC Comics source material upon which this film is based) in a government-funded high tech lab hidden in an abandoned church. Because of that whole “government-funded” biz, Washington wants to keep the duo’s experiments involving rapid plant without soil under close scrutiny so they send Agent Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau, Escape From New York, The Fog, Creepshow… and gender swapped from the comic’s Matthew Cable, an ally/foe of Alec’s) to give it all the ol’ look-see. Unfortunately the Holland’s work has also fallen under the ghoulish gaze of suave villain Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) who plans on using the resulting chemical to make himself immortal, and he just up and steals the formula for that shit with the help of his private army lead by the sadistic
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsShort Films
In the middle of nowhere, a man, Holden by name (Joshua Shea), waits for seemingly an eternity for his bus to arrive as he tries to cope with the problems life has thrown his way. Suddenly he is joined by a mysterious woman (Poppie Boyes) who seems to have materialized out of the aether… a woman who fluctuates between playful and threateningly serious with shocking ease. To make matters worse, our hero sees a pale man in a gold suit (Mike Kelson) hovering in the darkness, as well as a pointing woman (Olivia Post) just beyond the bus stop, though his companion seems not to notice. What is the true meaning behind the mysterious goings-on at the shadow-surrounded bus stop, and how will these mysteries effect Holden? Written & Directed by Zora Cielle Anri (based on an idea from producer Ivan Veselov), Bus Stop is presented not unlike a one act play; we have one, nearly expressionistic locale (the fluorescent
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Some Sherpas actually manage to kill a giant yeti, and the corpse is promptly shipped overseas to be studied by renowned anthropologist Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills) who discovers something strange… this yeti was purposefully mutated into existence, but by who… or what… is unknown. Enter: Matthew Connor (Richard Joseph Paul); Claire’s former student and shit-hot anthropologist as well. Matt is flat-out amazed by all things yeti-corpse, as one would imagine, and before you know it, he’s recruited into the ranks of Claire’s Himalayan excursion… along with hard-ass, big game huntin’ mother fucker Rondo Montana (Leon Russom), Sherpa guide Siku (Tai Thai), and yet another anthro-thusiast, Kathleen (Walker Brandt). So off these cats trek, all fired up to retrieve a living specimen… which they find, along with an entrance to a hollow earth paradise/living hell chock-full of ape-like cavemen, lizard people, U.F.O.’s, and aliens. Sounds like my kinda party cats n’ creeps! Will our intrepid heroes survive their ordeal and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Paris Zarcilla’s U.K. feature Raging Grace (2023) combines social commentary about class divisions with classic elements of both British horror and British farce. Joy (Max Eigenmann) is a Filipina working illegally as a house cleaner in London, sleeping in different houses with her young daughter Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) when she knows the owners are away. Joy is trying to raise money for a man to supposedly get her U.K. citizenship, and he is getting impatient with her inability to come up with the amount he demands. Meanwhile, while checking in on an elderly man named Mr. Garrett (David Hayman) as a favor to her pastor, she is offered a live-in job by Garrett’s niece Katherine (Leanne Best) that pays a high rate, with the expectation that Joy will keep mum about the goings-on in the abode. Joy sneaks Grace — who has a decidedly naughty and curious streak about her — into the house in a suitcase, and
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
MoviesReviewsTrailers
I’ve followed the Insidious franchise since it first premiered back in 2010. I love supernatural horror. This weekend I popped a bag of popcorn and settled in to watch Insidious: The Red Door, and I have a few thoughts. Warning, mild spoilers. Set nine years after the original film, the sequel sees Dalton, played by Ty Simpkins, who reprises his role from the first film, is heading off to college, driven to school by his father, Josh (Patrick Wilson), in what is an incredibly awkward ride. Dalton and his father have a strained relationship, with Josh not being around much as the kid has grown up after Josh and his wife divorced, and Josh’s head has been in a fog, thanks to the fact that both father and son were hypnotized to forget the events in the first film. The action kicks off after Dalton’s art professor makes the class count down from ten. Suddenly, Dalton and Josh begin to
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Convenience Story (2022) is a surreal odyssey with film noir elements. If that sounds like a reference to David Lynch’s work or to the many Lynchian knock-offs, sure, there are shared concepts here, but writer/director Satoshi Miki’s Japanese feature leans more to the whimsical and weird than the dark. The 24/7 convenience store (konbini) is a major part of Japanese culture, and Miki places his deadpan, struggling screenwriter protagonist Kato (Ryo Narita) in a decidedly bizarre remote one after he abandons his actress girlfriend Zigzag’s (Yuki Katayama) dog nearby. With the rented truck that he drove there suddenly not running, he takes up the somewhat eager offer of married-couple convenience store owners Keiko (Atsuko Maeda) and Nagumo (Seiji Rokkaku) to stay the night. While Nagumo spends time in the forest air-conducting classical music, Keiko and Kato find themselves in an offbeat relationship reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Giving away any more of the plot would be a disservice
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesNetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TV
Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game is now out on Netflix and I have some thoughts. In the film, Jessie and Gerald Burlingame are going to their secluded lake house on a weekend trip. Their marriage is strained, and their love life has turned stagnant, but Gerald has something in mind to reignite that old flame, as it were. They arrive at their home, and everything is ready: landscaping done, house cleaned and prepared, pantry and fridge are stocked. Now it’s time for a little “afternoon delight,” so Jessie puts on a new sexy slip that she bought especially for the occasion and waits for Gerald in the bedroom. He pops a little blue pill and cuffs her to the bed, and then the “game” begins. However, Jessie is not fond of the rough turn Gerald’s game takes and rebuffs his attempt to fulfill what is little more than a rape fantasy. She begs him to uncuff her,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
The intense, emotional thriller The Passenger is set to be released this week, and I had the opportunity to check it out. Don’t worry. I’m not going to spoil anything for you. This is a spoiler-free review. The film centers on a shy, passive young man who is forced to face his fears and confront his troubled past and must find a way to survive when his co-worker snaps and goes on a violent killing spree, dragging him along for the ride. Directed by Carter Smith from the script by Jack Stanley, the film stars Kyle Gallner (Smile) and Johnny Berchtold (“Tiny Beautiful Things”), as well as Liza Weil, Billy Slaughter, and Morgan Shaw. After watching the trailer, my curiosity peaked, and I’m so glad it did. As I watched the film’s events, I was sucked in, something that doesn’t often happen these days, and for its entire run time, I was completely invested. Director Carter Smith did an incredible
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Japanese feature Best Wishes to All (2023) tackles that country’s problem with its aging population in a fright-fare context that combines folk horror and supernatural elements. The result is an intriguing work that starts off in slow-burn style but delivers a jaw-dropping revelation that kicks off a dizzying whirl of suspense and paranoia. Kotone Furukawa gives an excellent performance as a young nursing student from Tokyo (all characters in the film are nameless) who visits her grandparents in the small rural town in which she grew up. As a little girl, she was greatly bothered by a locked door in their house so much that it haunted her dreams even as an adult. After her grandparents display decidedly odd behavior — which she at first considers might be dementia — she soon learns that he fears about what might be behind that door were nowhere near what she could imagine. Director Yūta Shimotsu, working from a screenplay cowritten with Rumi
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Director Sophie Kargman’s mystery thriller Susie Searches is a fun ride that offers an engaging main character and several surprises as it examines how far some people will go to become famous. Susie (Kiersey Clemons) is a university student with a part-time job at a burger joint, an internship at the local police station, and a true-crime podcast devoid of listeners. Susie takes her lifelong talent of guessing whodunit correctly when her mother — who currently suffers from MS — begins to read her mystery novels to try and solve the disappearance of popular fellow student and meditation influencer Jesse (Alex Wolff), who has been missing for about a week. Susie cracks the case, rescues Jesse and even names a suspect — and then things start going south. Kargman, who cowrote the smart screenplay with William Day Frank, paces the suspense nicely while serving up humor that ranges from the delightful to the dark. Clemons is terrific as the fame-hungry
Continue reading →
AdaptationComic Books/Graphic NovelsMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Deep in the humid green hell of the Louisiana bayou, Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise, Twin Peaks) toils with his sister Linda (played by Nannette Brown… and changed from his wife in the DC Comics source material upon which this film is based) in a government-funded high tech lab hidden in an abandoned church. Because of that whole “government-funded” biz, Washington wants to keep the duo’s experiments involving rapid plant without soil under close scrutiny so they send Agent Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau, Escape From New York, The Fog, Creepshow… and gender swapped from the comic’s Matthew Cable, an ally/foe of Alec’s) to give it all the ol’ look-see. Unfortunately the Holland’s work has also fallen under the ghoulish gaze of suave villain Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) who plans on using the resulting chemical to make himself immortal, and he just up and steals the formula for that shit with the help of his private army lead by the sadistic
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsShort Films
In the middle of nowhere, a man, Holden by name (Joshua Shea), waits for seemingly an eternity for his bus to arrive as he tries to cope with the problems life has thrown his way. Suddenly he is joined by a mysterious woman (Poppie Boyes) who seems to have materialized out of the aether… a woman who fluctuates between playful and threateningly serious with shocking ease. To make matters worse, our hero sees a pale man in a gold suit (Mike Kelson) hovering in the darkness, as well as a pointing woman (Olivia Post) just beyond the bus stop, though his companion seems not to notice. What is the true meaning behind the mysterious goings-on at the shadow-surrounded bus stop, and how will these mysteries effect Holden? Written & Directed by Zora Cielle Anri (based on an idea from producer Ivan Veselov), Bus Stop is presented not unlike a one act play; we have one, nearly expressionistic locale (the fluorescent
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Some Sherpas actually manage to kill a giant yeti, and the corpse is promptly shipped overseas to be studied by renowned anthropologist Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills) who discovers something strange… this yeti was purposefully mutated into existence, but by who… or what… is unknown. Enter: Matthew Connor (Richard Joseph Paul); Claire’s former student and shit-hot anthropologist as well. Matt is flat-out amazed by all things yeti-corpse, as one would imagine, and before you know it, he’s recruited into the ranks of Claire’s Himalayan excursion… along with hard-ass, big game huntin’ mother fucker Rondo Montana (Leon Russom), Sherpa guide Siku (Tai Thai), and yet another anthro-thusiast, Kathleen (Walker Brandt). So off these cats trek, all fired up to retrieve a living specimen… which they find, along with an entrance to a hollow earth paradise/living hell chock-full of ape-like cavemen, lizard people, U.F.O.’s, and aliens. Sounds like my kinda party cats n’ creeps! Will our intrepid heroes survive their ordeal and
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Paris Zarcilla’s U.K. feature Raging Grace (2023) combines social commentary about class divisions with classic elements of both British horror and British farce. Joy (Max Eigenmann) is a Filipina working illegally as a house cleaner in London, sleeping in different houses with her young daughter Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) when she knows the owners are away. Joy is trying to raise money for a man to supposedly get her U.K. citizenship, and he is getting impatient with her inability to come up with the amount he demands. Meanwhile, while checking in on an elderly man named Mr. Garrett (David Hayman) as a favor to her pastor, she is offered a live-in job by Garrett’s niece Katherine (Leanne Best) that pays a high rate, with the expectation that Joy will keep mum about the goings-on in the abode. Joy sneaks Grace — who has a decidedly naughty and curious streak about her — into the house in a suitcase, and
Continue reading →
