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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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Your Love Is Mine Aficionados of “But is it horror?” films should find plenty to like about the Australian feature Your Love Is Mine, cowritten and codirected by Luke J.S. and Luke Wijayasinha-Gray. Emotionally distant bartender Violet (Senie Priti) and her mechanic boyfriend Sam (Lester Ellis Jr.) are in a troubled relationship, though both dream of escaping the doldrums of their small-town lives and moving to the big city. Violet is the more pragmatic, and pessimistic, of the couple, while Sam is more of the dreamer. When tragedy strikes one of them — no spoilers here — the other person comes up with a decidedly unusual and even bizarre plan, sending the film from romantic drama into more chilling territory. Your Love Is Mine certainly serves up some fear-fare overtones, but treads more in dark drama and even fantasy territory. Priti and Ellis Jr. are splendid in their lead roles, and the film’s supporting players provide added depth with solid
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GamingParanormalProductReviews
It’s no secret that I was a big fan of A Plague Tale: Innocence with its gripping story, intense puzzles, and of course the large hoard of rats. You can imagine my excitement when I found out that this beautifully twisted coming-of-age story had a sequel. I want to give a big thank you to Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment for letting me give A Plague Tale: Requiem a try! A Plague Tale Requiem picks up where the last game’s story left off with the De Rune siblings, Amicia and Hugo, who are now away from their home region escaping the inquisition that wanted to take Hugo to use his mysterious powers in their favor. Hugo’s condition which seemed to have gone away six months prior has come back, and so have the rats, and Amica must now protect Hugo once again in order to find a way to save him. Now onto the game itself! The controls for Requiem
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MoviesReviews
CIMIM Writer/director Cody Mobley’s short shocker CIMIM left me wanting more, more, more in the way of a feature-length version. A group of friends is sitting around talking and drinking during a desert camping trip when one of them (Laura Jenkins) goes to retrieve something from her vehicle and returns to the group to find herself — or something that looks exactly like her — sitting in her place. Mobley uses eerie sound design and classic off-screen terror to heighten the tension in this highly effective, great-looking horror short. Witchy In Witchy, Ken (John Ross Bowie) wants to go trick or treating with his teenage daughter Winter (Morgan Bastin) on the first Halloween after the passing of Ken’s wife and Winter’s mom to keep up a family tradition, as Halloween was the woman’s favorite time of year. Winter isn’t thrilled with the idea because she feels that she is too old to dress up in costume, she wants to go
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The classic fright-fare movie tagline “Not for the squeamish!” deserves to be resurrected for the horror comedy Feed Me (U.K., 2022), cowritten and codirected by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes (Hosts, 2020). This tale of a cannibal and his willing meat supply provides a good deal of gags of both the humorous and queasy varieties. Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) is depressed to the point of ending it all after his wife succumbs to an eating disorder. Lionel Flack (Neal Ward), who knows of Jed’s grief, introduces himself at a bar and tells Jed that he can make all of his troubles disappear. Jed eventually agrees to being eaten by Lionel, and their extremely weird relationship begins. Ward is terrific as the deeply disturbed Lionel, stopping just short of scenery chewing at times, and at others, giving harrowing emotional performances. He goes all in, and he and Mulvin play off each other superbly. Production Designer Amy Lucas (as Amy Lukas), Propmaker
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MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Jordon Peele has made a name for himself in horror following the release of his brilliant films Get Out and Us. His latest piece of cinema is simply titled Nope and after watching it I know why. Both writing and directing, Peele branches out into the sci-fi genre while keeping elements of horror with Nope in which residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to a chilling discovery. Warning Spoilers! The film centers on a brother and sister, played by Oscar® winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Emmy® Award winner Keke Palmer (Hustlers, “Scream Queens”) who run a dying horse ranch. Oscar® nominee Steven Yeun (Minari, “The Walking Dead”), Michael Wincott (Basquiat, What Just Happened), and Brandon Perea (“The OA”) also star. The brother and sister couldn’t be more of opposites. Kaluuya’s OJ is quiet and hard-working while his sister is a free spirit who comes across as loud and often obnoxious.
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GamingProductReviews
We had the toys, we used vacuum cleaners as proton packs, we bought toy slime out of capsule machines to pretend it was ectoplasm and wore swimming goggles pretending they were Nightvision headsets. We did whatever we could to feel like a Ghostbuster. May you be a fan of the films or cartoon series growing up, nothing felt more awesome than pretending to hunt ghosts and duel out supernatural justice… well now Illfonic has brought this childhood nostalgia to life in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed! A big thank you to Illfonic for making this review possible as well as fulfilling the dream of seven-year-old me that’s still deep inside. In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed players take on a role of a new recruit that was just hired by Winston Zeddemore (voiced by Ernie Hudson), who has bought back the old firehouse HQ to bring back the Ghostbusters to help rid NYC of ghostly troubles. Winston is not the only Ghostbuster that came
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MoviesNetflixReviewsStreaming TV
Last night I was trying to find something to watch on Netflix and came across Old People. The trailer looked decent so I figured why not, and I honestly, I was sick of scrolling. The German film, dubbed in English, is from writer-director Andy Fetscher and centers on a family reunited for a wedding. A couple who recently divorced and their two kids and the father’s new girlfriend are the main characters. After the wedding, the town is besieged by old people from a nearby rundown facility. While there’s plenty of family drama to make us feel empathy for the characters, the action is what is up front and center, and it’s non-stop. These old people somehow have renewed strength and drive, which is never really explained. There is an ancient statue briefly shown but it isn’t explained clearly if it has anything to do with the old people’s sudden drive for revenge or not. But after seeing how they
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Plucky newspaperwoman Sandra (Elaine Benoit) works in an office of complete assholes who continuously ride her ass about the weak-as-fuck assignments the News Editor… a.k.a. her husband… doles out to her. Also the office scene is scored with the fartiest of electronic horn music your ass has ever heard… trust me, it’s a highlight… and it inexplicably shows up in the finale as well… One night Sandra gets a lucky break when her hubs assigns her to investigate a report of a local cryptid sighting of the famed goat-sucking Chupacabra which then turns to a homicide investigation across town… probably unrelated. As the attacks continue, Sandra seeks the advice of local Romany mystic The Mago (Lenore Sebastian), who you’d think would be more an expert in werewolves or vampires rather than Puerto Rican/Mexican cryptids, but she’s an infodump waiting to happen… she also recommends finding the local vampire hunter, one Granpa Charles Parker (Loren Taylor) by name, which is definitely
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The Revelation There are several horror films set during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but writer/director Chris W. Mitchell’s Dutch feature The Revelation (De Openbaring, 2022) is the first one to fully capture my attention and hold it throughout. One of the main reasons for that is the terrific performance by star Victor Löw as Jacob, a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with the dangers of COVID-19 in its early stages, as lockdowns begin and people are deciding how to react to the rapidly spreading virus. Jacob falls into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that drive him to paranoia, as he quits his job to move in with his elderly mother (Leny Breederveld) and shield her from the outside world. His sister Magda (Monic Hendrickx) tries to talk sense into him, but is far too late as visions of his recently deceased father (Peter Bolhuis), who was a highly skilled animal skinner, and the ravings of a dubious
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Sylvan shockers are in no shortage at Screamfest this year. Here’s a look at two of those woods-set features. Deer Camp ‘86 Combining supernatural cabin-in-the-woods elements with slasher fare, first-time director L. Van Dyke Siboutszen’s Deer Camp ‘86 (2022) goes for the jugular, along with several other body parts, in its tale of a group of Detroit friends who head out to the forest to open up the 1986 deer hunting season. They make an ill-fated stop at the bar, where nice guy of the group Wes (Noah LaLonde) falls hard for Native American bartender Star (Tina Manera) while the group is confronted by local racists. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Wes, Star is assaulted and murdered behind the bar before the group leaves. That’s doubly unfortunate, as every time a Native American woman in the area is killed, something attacks any hunters in the area, which Sheriff Paulson (Paul Wilson) puts down to bear attacks — though he knows better. Most
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Your Love Is Mine Aficionados of “But is it horror?” films should find plenty to like about the Australian feature Your Love Is Mine, cowritten and codirected by Luke J.S. and Luke Wijayasinha-Gray. Emotionally distant bartender Violet (Senie Priti) and her mechanic boyfriend Sam (Lester Ellis Jr.) are in a troubled relationship, though both dream of escaping the doldrums of their small-town lives and moving to the big city. Violet is the more pragmatic, and pessimistic, of the couple, while Sam is more of the dreamer. When tragedy strikes one of them — no spoilers here — the other person comes up with a decidedly unusual and even bizarre plan, sending the film from romantic drama into more chilling territory. Your Love Is Mine certainly serves up some fear-fare overtones, but treads more in dark drama and even fantasy territory. Priti and Ellis Jr. are splendid in their lead roles, and the film’s supporting players provide added depth with solid
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
It’s no secret that I was a big fan of A Plague Tale: Innocence with its gripping story, intense puzzles, and of course the large hoard of rats. You can imagine my excitement when I found out that this beautifully twisted coming-of-age story had a sequel. I want to give a big thank you to Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment for letting me give A Plague Tale: Requiem a try! A Plague Tale Requiem picks up where the last game’s story left off with the De Rune siblings, Amicia and Hugo, who are now away from their home region escaping the inquisition that wanted to take Hugo to use his mysterious powers in their favor. Hugo’s condition which seemed to have gone away six months prior has come back, and so have the rats, and Amica must now protect Hugo once again in order to find a way to save him. Now onto the game itself! The controls for Requiem
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
CIMIM Writer/director Cody Mobley’s short shocker CIMIM left me wanting more, more, more in the way of a feature-length version. A group of friends is sitting around talking and drinking during a desert camping trip when one of them (Laura Jenkins) goes to retrieve something from her vehicle and returns to the group to find herself — or something that looks exactly like her — sitting in her place. Mobley uses eerie sound design and classic off-screen terror to heighten the tension in this highly effective, great-looking horror short. Witchy In Witchy, Ken (John Ross Bowie) wants to go trick or treating with his teenage daughter Winter (Morgan Bastin) on the first Halloween after the passing of Ken’s wife and Winter’s mom to keep up a family tradition, as Halloween was the woman’s favorite time of year. Winter isn’t thrilled with the idea because she feels that she is too old to dress up in costume, she wants to go
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The classic fright-fare movie tagline “Not for the squeamish!” deserves to be resurrected for the horror comedy Feed Me (U.K., 2022), cowritten and codirected by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes (Hosts, 2020). This tale of a cannibal and his willing meat supply provides a good deal of gags of both the humorous and queasy varieties. Jed Freeman (Christopher Mulvin) is depressed to the point of ending it all after his wife succumbs to an eating disorder. Lionel Flack (Neal Ward), who knows of Jed’s grief, introduces himself at a bar and tells Jed that he can make all of his troubles disappear. Jed eventually agrees to being eaten by Lionel, and their extremely weird relationship begins. Ward is terrific as the deeply disturbed Lionel, stopping just short of scenery chewing at times, and at others, giving harrowing emotional performances. He goes all in, and he and Mulvin play off each other superbly. Production Designer Amy Lucas (as Amy Lukas), Propmaker
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Jordon Peele has made a name for himself in horror following the release of his brilliant films Get Out and Us. His latest piece of cinema is simply titled Nope and after watching it I know why. Both writing and directing, Peele branches out into the sci-fi genre while keeping elements of horror with Nope in which residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to a chilling discovery. Warning Spoilers! The film centers on a brother and sister, played by Oscar® winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Emmy® Award winner Keke Palmer (Hustlers, “Scream Queens”) who run a dying horse ranch. Oscar® nominee Steven Yeun (Minari, “The Walking Dead”), Michael Wincott (Basquiat, What Just Happened), and Brandon Perea (“The OA”) also star. The brother and sister couldn’t be more of opposites. Kaluuya’s OJ is quiet and hard-working while his sister is a free spirit who comes across as loud and often obnoxious.
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
We had the toys, we used vacuum cleaners as proton packs, we bought toy slime out of capsule machines to pretend it was ectoplasm and wore swimming goggles pretending they were Nightvision headsets. We did whatever we could to feel like a Ghostbuster. May you be a fan of the films or cartoon series growing up, nothing felt more awesome than pretending to hunt ghosts and duel out supernatural justice… well now Illfonic has brought this childhood nostalgia to life in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed! A big thank you to Illfonic for making this review possible as well as fulfilling the dream of seven-year-old me that’s still deep inside. In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed players take on a role of a new recruit that was just hired by Winston Zeddemore (voiced by Ernie Hudson), who has bought back the old firehouse HQ to bring back the Ghostbusters to help rid NYC of ghostly troubles. Winston is not the only Ghostbuster that came
Continue reading →
MoviesNetflixReviewsStreaming TV
Last night I was trying to find something to watch on Netflix and came across Old People. The trailer looked decent so I figured why not, and I honestly, I was sick of scrolling. The German film, dubbed in English, is from writer-director Andy Fetscher and centers on a family reunited for a wedding. A couple who recently divorced and their two kids and the father’s new girlfriend are the main characters. After the wedding, the town is besieged by old people from a nearby rundown facility. While there’s plenty of family drama to make us feel empathy for the characters, the action is what is up front and center, and it’s non-stop. These old people somehow have renewed strength and drive, which is never really explained. There is an ancient statue briefly shown but it isn’t explained clearly if it has anything to do with the old people’s sudden drive for revenge or not. But after seeing how they
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Plucky newspaperwoman Sandra (Elaine Benoit) works in an office of complete assholes who continuously ride her ass about the weak-as-fuck assignments the News Editor… a.k.a. her husband… doles out to her. Also the office scene is scored with the fartiest of electronic horn music your ass has ever heard… trust me, it’s a highlight… and it inexplicably shows up in the finale as well… One night Sandra gets a lucky break when her hubs assigns her to investigate a report of a local cryptid sighting of the famed goat-sucking Chupacabra which then turns to a homicide investigation across town… probably unrelated. As the attacks continue, Sandra seeks the advice of local Romany mystic The Mago (Lenore Sebastian), who you’d think would be more an expert in werewolves or vampires rather than Puerto Rican/Mexican cryptids, but she’s an infodump waiting to happen… she also recommends finding the local vampire hunter, one Granpa Charles Parker (Loren Taylor) by name, which is definitely
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The Revelation There are several horror films set during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but writer/director Chris W. Mitchell’s Dutch feature The Revelation (De Openbaring, 2022) is the first one to fully capture my attention and hold it throughout. One of the main reasons for that is the terrific performance by star Victor Löw as Jacob, a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with the dangers of COVID-19 in its early stages, as lockdowns begin and people are deciding how to react to the rapidly spreading virus. Jacob falls into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that drive him to paranoia, as he quits his job to move in with his elderly mother (Leny Breederveld) and shield her from the outside world. His sister Magda (Monic Hendrickx) tries to talk sense into him, but is far too late as visions of his recently deceased father (Peter Bolhuis), who was a highly skilled animal skinner, and the ravings of a dubious
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Sylvan shockers are in no shortage at Screamfest this year. Here’s a look at two of those woods-set features. Deer Camp ‘86 Combining supernatural cabin-in-the-woods elements with slasher fare, first-time director L. Van Dyke Siboutszen’s Deer Camp ‘86 (2022) goes for the jugular, along with several other body parts, in its tale of a group of Detroit friends who head out to the forest to open up the 1986 deer hunting season. They make an ill-fated stop at the bar, where nice guy of the group Wes (Noah LaLonde) falls hard for Native American bartender Star (Tina Manera) while the group is confronted by local racists. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Wes, Star is assaulted and murdered behind the bar before the group leaves. That’s doubly unfortunate, as every time a Native American woman in the area is killed, something attacks any hunters in the area, which Sheriff Paulson (Paul Wilson) puts down to bear attacks — though he knows better. Most
Continue reading →
