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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MoviesReviews
I’m not the type of viewer who tries to guess what’s going to happen next when watching a film for the first time, but there’s really no way not to have a strong suspicion of how things will play out while watching The Visitor. The film looks great and Justin P. Lange does a fine job of building a brooding atmosphere, but one doppelgӓnger and stranger-in-a-strange-land cliche after another makes for a lackluster seen-it-all-before effort. Robert (Finn Jones) leaves his native London to move with his wife Maia (Jessica McNamee) to her ancestral manor in the United States. Astute viewers will know right off the bat that the locals are being rather creepy in their kindness toward welcoming him, and it doesn’t help matters that Maia is giving him suspicious glances while this happens, and is reassuring him a bit too much that nothing is wrong when he discovers a painting of a man who looks like him in their
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
The Elderly Codirectors Raúl Cerezo and Fernando Gonzáles Gómez wowed festival audiences earlier this year with their shocker The Passenger, and now the duo is back with another fine slice of fright-fare cinema, The Elderly (Spain, 2022). Manuel (Zorion Eguileor) finds his life deteriorating after his wife of 50 years falls to her death from their apartment window. Manuel’s son Mario (Gustavo Salmerón) wants his father to move in with them rather than wind up in a nursing home, much to the consternation of his new and pregnant wife Lena (Irene Anula), for whom Mario’s teenage daughter Naia (Paula Gallego) shows little affection. Add to this family drama the fact that Manuel’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre and even threatening — and the same goes for all of the older people with whom the family members come into contact — and you have the set-up for a film that offers a good share of mystery, shudders, and bizarre imagery. The performances
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Twenty-nine years after the black flame candle was lit, the Sanderson sisters are back in Hocus Pocus 2, and I have some thoughts. Directed by Anne Fletcher, the sequel sees the return of Bette Midler (Winifred), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sarah), and Kathy Njimy (Mary), as well as Doug Jones who plays Billy. They are joined by Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lila Buckingham, Hannah Waddingham, and Anne Fletcher. In the film, a shop owner gives a teen a candle for her 16th birthday, when she lights the candle the Sanderson sisters return. Now, it is up to the three high-school students to stop the wicked witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow’s Eve. The thing is, the movie relies heavily on nostalgia right out of the gate. I’m a realist and went into watching knowing there was no way it would be as special as the original and I was right.
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
As if being a teenage girl isn’t bad enough, the loyalty of a group of friends is put to the test when one of them, Gretchen (Amiah Miller) is possessed. It’s up to her best friend Abby (Elsie Fisher) to save her in My Best Friend’s Possession, based on the novel by Best-Selling author Grady Hendrix. When we are first introduced to the movie’s characters, it’s driven home that the girls are inseparable. And after a night of playing with an Ouija Board (always a bad idea) and visiting the sight of a legendary murder, Abby begins to notice that her BFF is acting strange, leading to a battle for Gretchen’s soul. The cast did a fine job in their roles with Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller standing out. Each character in their friends’ group obviously fits your basic stereotypes, the pretty one, the shy one, the quiet one struggling with the fact she’s a lesbian in love with her
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The Offering Though straight-up American exorcism horror films after the classic The Exorcist have largely been rehashes of the usual tired tropes, scare-fare cinema dealing with demonic possession from different cultures and countries have often risen above the pack. Director Oliver Park’s The Offering is one such case, as it deals in Hasidic mysticism. Art (Nick Blood) returns to his family home — which houses a funeral home — ostensibly to reconcile with his Orthodox father Saul (Allan Corduner). Art’s pregnant wife Claire (Emily Wiseman), who Saul has had unkind words about in the past, is along for the trip, as well. Saul has softened his stance since the couple’s previous visit, but Art’s ulterior motives are bound to bring new conflict to the family. Meanwhile in Saul’s mortuary, the body of a man who practiced black magic in the film’s opening is in storage, and Art — yes, Art again — unwittingly unleashes a demon into the home. Hank
Continue reading →
HistoryNetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TVTrailersTrue Crime
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have either heard of or have already binge-watched Netflix’s new 10-episode true crime series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” starring Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal.” Even Peters, most well known for his roles in the “American Horror Story” franchise, plays his best role to date, giving an eerie performance that is so realistic that it’s scary. A better actor could not have been cast. It was a perfect fit. The series does not feature a lot of puff to make it more disturbing, like many docuseries or documentaries. It’s disturbing all on its own. In fact, it leaves some of the more brutal details unseen, because let’s face it, the crimes of Dahmer were beyond cruel. When it comes to accuracy, the series is dead on. Only one notable scene (that we know of) was changed, the scene where he drinks the blood out
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Everyone Will Burn Spanish shocker Everyone Will Burn (Y todos arderán; 2021) is a stylish, gripping effort from director David Hebrero, who cowrote the screenplay with Javier Kiran. Macarena Gómez gives a stunning lead performance as María José, a woman whose son was driven to suicide by other boys because the townspeople are a superstitious and hateful lot, generally speaking. As she is about to take her own life, she is interrupted by a young girl named Lucia (Sofía García in a terrific debut performance) who emerges from somewhere nearby in nature, covered in mud. As the pair drive toward town so that María José can drop off the girl with the authorities, they are stopped by two policemen who soon learn — as does María José — that the girl is empowered with supernatural abilities. As the townsfolk turn further against María José and also set their sights on also persecuting Lucia, dark secrets from the past arise, making
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Spell On You (La Verrue) Salomé (Inès Angelina Mnafek-Amandio) is a young girl facing problems at home, including having warts growing on her nose and adjusting to the polyamorous relationship that her father Gabriel (Sébastien Houbani) and mother Joséphine (Valentine Carrette) are striking up with Colette (Judith Zins). When Dr. Shalimar (Sarah Stern) privately suggests to Salomé that she cast a spell on the warts, the child takes things increasingly further as she tests occult practices. With Spell On You (La Verrue; France, 2022), writer/director Sarah Lasry has crafted a chilling mystical tale with family drama at the forefront, aided by a fine cast including a superb performance from Mnafek-Amandio as a troubled youngster who becomes immersed in her newfound power. Chicks There have been plenty of horror shorts and features about slumber parties gone wrong, but writer/director Geena Marie Hernandez’s Chicks (U.S., 2022) is one of the finest in recent memory. Polly (Nikole Marquez-Davis) is invited to a sleepover
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
I first saw famed Canadian auteur Guy Maddin’s debut feature Tales from the Gimli Hospital at the San Francisco International Film Festival when the film was on the festival circuit in 1988, and I was instantly captivated by its old-fashioned style, gripping visuals, and decidedly offbeat sense of humor. I have been an admirer of Maddin’s work ever since, and this new Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux 4K version supported by Telefilm’s restoration program, with some additional material incorporated, took me back to that initial viewing experience, doing so with marvelous visual and audio clarity. It is impossible to place Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux neatly into one or two genres, as the film incorporates several, but suffice it to say that elements of horror, thriller, dark comedy, absurdist comedy, and other genres abound. Looking for all the world like a lost black-and-white early talking film unearthed, Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux, shot on 16mm, uses light
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Lincoln Maazel, an actor cum philosopher, speaks to us about the hell of old age and elder abuse while telling us our cast is made up of some of the most depressing folks one could muster, and we too will suffer the same fate! And were off to the fright film races boils n’ ghouls… Next, a bloody and exhausted Maazel sits in a white room and speaks to a cheerful version of himself whom he warns not to leave the confines of the room. Mirthful Maazel ignores that edict post-fucking-haste and exits to a bustling amusement park where the elderly are preoccupied with pawning their belongings to enter the park. Things get worse inside the gate as the young mill about and peck away at everything the elderly patrons own in ghoulish fashion leaving their victims with nothing… including their very existence! Coming between his seminal walking dead masterpieces 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and 1978’s Dawn of
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
MoviesReviews
I’m not the type of viewer who tries to guess what’s going to happen next when watching a film for the first time, but there’s really no way not to have a strong suspicion of how things will play out while watching The Visitor. The film looks great and Justin P. Lange does a fine job of building a brooding atmosphere, but one doppelgӓnger and stranger-in-a-strange-land cliche after another makes for a lackluster seen-it-all-before effort. Robert (Finn Jones) leaves his native London to move with his wife Maia (Jessica McNamee) to her ancestral manor in the United States. Astute viewers will know right off the bat that the locals are being rather creepy in their kindness toward welcoming him, and it doesn’t help matters that Maia is giving him suspicious glances while this happens, and is reassuring him a bit too much that nothing is wrong when he discovers a painting of a man who looks like him in their
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesParanormalReviews
The Elderly Codirectors Raúl Cerezo and Fernando Gonzáles Gómez wowed festival audiences earlier this year with their shocker The Passenger, and now the duo is back with another fine slice of fright-fare cinema, The Elderly (Spain, 2022). Manuel (Zorion Eguileor) finds his life deteriorating after his wife of 50 years falls to her death from their apartment window. Manuel’s son Mario (Gustavo Salmerón) wants his father to move in with them rather than wind up in a nursing home, much to the consternation of his new and pregnant wife Lena (Irene Anula), for whom Mario’s teenage daughter Naia (Paula Gallego) shows little affection. Add to this family drama the fact that Manuel’s behavior becomes increasingly bizarre and even threatening — and the same goes for all of the older people with whom the family members come into contact — and you have the set-up for a film that offers a good share of mystery, shudders, and bizarre imagery. The performances
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Twenty-nine years after the black flame candle was lit, the Sanderson sisters are back in Hocus Pocus 2, and I have some thoughts. Directed by Anne Fletcher, the sequel sees the return of Bette Midler (Winifred), Sarah Jessica Parker (Sarah), and Kathy Njimy (Mary), as well as Doug Jones who plays Billy. They are joined by Sam Richardson, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lila Buckingham, Hannah Waddingham, and Anne Fletcher. In the film, a shop owner gives a teen a candle for her 16th birthday, when she lights the candle the Sanderson sisters return. Now, it is up to the three high-school students to stop the wicked witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before dawn on All Hallow’s Eve. The thing is, the movie relies heavily on nostalgia right out of the gate. I’m a realist and went into watching knowing there was no way it would be as special as the original and I was right.
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
As if being a teenage girl isn’t bad enough, the loyalty of a group of friends is put to the test when one of them, Gretchen (Amiah Miller) is possessed. It’s up to her best friend Abby (Elsie Fisher) to save her in My Best Friend’s Possession, based on the novel by Best-Selling author Grady Hendrix. When we are first introduced to the movie’s characters, it’s driven home that the girls are inseparable. And after a night of playing with an Ouija Board (always a bad idea) and visiting the sight of a legendary murder, Abby begins to notice that her BFF is acting strange, leading to a battle for Gretchen’s soul. The cast did a fine job in their roles with Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller standing out. Each character in their friends’ group obviously fits your basic stereotypes, the pretty one, the shy one, the quiet one struggling with the fact she’s a lesbian in love with her
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
The Offering Though straight-up American exorcism horror films after the classic The Exorcist have largely been rehashes of the usual tired tropes, scare-fare cinema dealing with demonic possession from different cultures and countries have often risen above the pack. Director Oliver Park’s The Offering is one such case, as it deals in Hasidic mysticism. Art (Nick Blood) returns to his family home — which houses a funeral home — ostensibly to reconcile with his Orthodox father Saul (Allan Corduner). Art’s pregnant wife Claire (Emily Wiseman), who Saul has had unkind words about in the past, is along for the trip, as well. Saul has softened his stance since the couple’s previous visit, but Art’s ulterior motives are bound to bring new conflict to the family. Meanwhile in Saul’s mortuary, the body of a man who practiced black magic in the film’s opening is in storage, and Art — yes, Art again — unwittingly unleashes a demon into the home. Hank
Continue reading →
HistoryNetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TVTrailersTrue Crime
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have either heard of or have already binge-watched Netflix’s new 10-episode true crime series “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” starring Evan Peters as the infamous serial killer also known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal.” Even Peters, most well known for his roles in the “American Horror Story” franchise, plays his best role to date, giving an eerie performance that is so realistic that it’s scary. A better actor could not have been cast. It was a perfect fit. The series does not feature a lot of puff to make it more disturbing, like many docuseries or documentaries. It’s disturbing all on its own. In fact, it leaves some of the more brutal details unseen, because let’s face it, the crimes of Dahmer were beyond cruel. When it comes to accuracy, the series is dead on. Only one notable scene (that we know of) was changed, the scene where he drinks the blood out
Continue reading →
DocumentariesFilm FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Everyone Will Burn Spanish shocker Everyone Will Burn (Y todos arderán; 2021) is a stylish, gripping effort from director David Hebrero, who cowrote the screenplay with Javier Kiran. Macarena Gómez gives a stunning lead performance as María José, a woman whose son was driven to suicide by other boys because the townspeople are a superstitious and hateful lot, generally speaking. As she is about to take her own life, she is interrupted by a young girl named Lucia (Sofía García in a terrific debut performance) who emerges from somewhere nearby in nature, covered in mud. As the pair drive toward town so that María José can drop off the girl with the authorities, they are stopped by two policemen who soon learn — as does María José — that the girl is empowered with supernatural abilities. As the townsfolk turn further against María José and also set their sights on also persecuting Lucia, dark secrets from the past arise, making
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Spell On You (La Verrue) Salomé (Inès Angelina Mnafek-Amandio) is a young girl facing problems at home, including having warts growing on her nose and adjusting to the polyamorous relationship that her father Gabriel (Sébastien Houbani) and mother Joséphine (Valentine Carrette) are striking up with Colette (Judith Zins). When Dr. Shalimar (Sarah Stern) privately suggests to Salomé that she cast a spell on the warts, the child takes things increasingly further as she tests occult practices. With Spell On You (La Verrue; France, 2022), writer/director Sarah Lasry has crafted a chilling mystical tale with family drama at the forefront, aided by a fine cast including a superb performance from Mnafek-Amandio as a troubled youngster who becomes immersed in her newfound power. Chicks There have been plenty of horror shorts and features about slumber parties gone wrong, but writer/director Geena Marie Hernandez’s Chicks (U.S., 2022) is one of the finest in recent memory. Polly (Nikole Marquez-Davis) is invited to a sleepover
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
I first saw famed Canadian auteur Guy Maddin’s debut feature Tales from the Gimli Hospital at the San Francisco International Film Festival when the film was on the festival circuit in 1988, and I was instantly captivated by its old-fashioned style, gripping visuals, and decidedly offbeat sense of humor. I have been an admirer of Maddin’s work ever since, and this new Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux 4K version supported by Telefilm’s restoration program, with some additional material incorporated, took me back to that initial viewing experience, doing so with marvelous visual and audio clarity. It is impossible to place Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux neatly into one or two genres, as the film incorporates several, but suffice it to say that elements of horror, thriller, dark comedy, absurdist comedy, and other genres abound. Looking for all the world like a lost black-and-white early talking film unearthed, Tales from the Gimli Hospital Redux, shot on 16mm, uses light
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Lincoln Maazel, an actor cum philosopher, speaks to us about the hell of old age and elder abuse while telling us our cast is made up of some of the most depressing folks one could muster, and we too will suffer the same fate! And were off to the fright film races boils n’ ghouls… Next, a bloody and exhausted Maazel sits in a white room and speaks to a cheerful version of himself whom he warns not to leave the confines of the room. Mirthful Maazel ignores that edict post-fucking-haste and exits to a bustling amusement park where the elderly are preoccupied with pawning their belongings to enter the park. Things get worse inside the gate as the young mill about and peck away at everything the elderly patrons own in ghoulish fashion leaving their victims with nothing… including their very existence! Coming between his seminal walking dead masterpieces 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and 1978’s Dawn of
Continue reading →
