CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,462 stories
MoviesNewsReviewsShudderStreaming TVTrailers
Today, I’ll be reviewing writer-director Steven Kostanski’s absolutely insane 2020 movie PG: Psycho Goreman. Matthew Ninaber, Kristen MacCulloch, and Rick Amsbury star in the film whose synopsis goes like this: “After unearthing a gem that controls an evil monster looking to destroy the Universe, a young girl and her brother use it to make him do their bidding.” Right off to bat, and with both stars being kids, it did make me question who the target audience is meant to be. The dialogue comes across like it’s meant for an 8 to 12 years old demographic but is filled with people being brutally killed and turned into monstrous creatures. It’s too violent to be a children’s movie and is a bit immature for the adult crowd, in my opinion, leaving it in a kind of no man’s land. Writer-director Steven Kostanski keeps things interesting from beginning to end with all types of craziness going on. And the plot was something
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Croation shocker F20 may not deliver many surprises to fans of lover-gone-psycho cinema, but its vibrant style and gripping performances make the ride to the inevitable a stirring one. Director Arsen A. Ostojic’s thriller takes viewers on an unsettling ride with nods to slasher fare in its third act. Part-time university student Martina (Romina Tonković) reluctantly helps her widowed father Mate (Mladen Vulić) out at his pizzeria. She develops a crush on Filip (Filip Mayer), a young man her age who orders pizza delivery daily. Asserting herself into his loner lifestyle of playing first-person shooter games while his parents are on vacation at their forest cabin, she and her friend Irena (Lana Ujevic) coax him into going out for drinks and karaoke, and the pair eventually enter into an intimate relationship. Viewers are tipped off very early — some might argue too soon — that something might be amiss with Filip, but I’ll save the how and why to avoid
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A trio of lethal luchadores, El Apache (Tino Zamora), Manny (Manuel Ramirez), and Guero (Art Paul) by name, botch a robbery and find themselves well and truly on the lam. Their numbers soon reduced by one due to misadventure; our deadly duo find themselves in the home of a couple of lovely ladies, Starletta (Sparkle Soojian) and Violet (Nikki Curtis Jones) to be precise, that seem more than accommodating to our protagonists… that is until some supernatural shit hits the fan right quick! Full of grindhouse bravura, bad dudes, strange transformations, and femme fatales; Day of the Pigs does a hell of a lot to satisfy the ol’ terror tooth in it’s brief twelve minute runtime. Writer/Director Michael S. Rodriguez (along with Raul Cantu on story assist) brings quite the fully fleshed out concept to life in this one boils n’ ghouls and presents a world of larcenous masked madmen, southern belle witches, body horror, and most importantly… bacon, and
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Merry Christmas, everyone! I love the ever-growing genre of Holiday Horror and Jeff C. Carter has added a brand new collection of short stories to the holiday horror world. His collection We Bleed Red and Green is not ONLY a short story collection, but a unique, fun, gory, original collection of stories, poetry, parodies, coded messages and more. In his book, Carter does not shy away from horror and gore, but he also finds a way to really have the Christmas spirit present in his world of darkness and fear. This anthology is a perfect way for Carter to show off his writing abilities in a variety of styles. As much as I enjoyed each individual story, I enjoyed how unique each story was from each other and how well each story was written. This collection never gets repetitive or boring, it is a different feeling and a different nightmare on every page. Some stories are clever and funny, some
Continue reading →
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Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
There are not many things I love reading more than short stories. Make it a horror short stories and it makes it better. Make it a horror short story about a wicked cult and it piques my interest even more. Make it a horror short story about a wicked cult and write it in a unique way and you have an instant winner for me. Keith Anthony Baird has done the perfect recipe in his short story A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow. Characters In stories about cults, the most important character is the cult leader. It is hard to create a character charismatic and intelligent enough to have both the characters in the book and the readers understand why the cult is intriguing. It is also difficult to not just follow a cookie cutter pattern of successful cult leader characters, but to create a unique leader. Baird not only creates a leader who is charismatic, intriguing, and believable,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Director Tim Hunter’s true story inspired horror Smiley Face Killers has just been released, and I’ve always found the true crimes interesting, so I decided to check it out. What I found wasn’t good. The synopsis reads as followed: “a handsome young soccer player Jake Graham who believes he is going insane, unable to shake the feeling of being stalked by something, by someone.” The film takes its inspiration from a series of mysterious deaths linked by the smiley face graffiti found near the crime scenes. The victims are all killed by mysteriously being drowned and have been deemed nonaccidental. Unfortunately, the movie treats the killings as a secondary theme with Jake’s depression and body exploitation at the forefront. The majority of the movie is just watching Ronen Rubinstein go from scene to scene shedding his clothes and acting moody as hell. Sure, Ronen Rubinstein is a handsome guy but I was there to watch a horror movie, not a
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Writer-director Adam Egypt Mortimer (Daniel Isn’t Real, Some Kind of Hate) has now unleashed his superhero film Archenemy starring Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike franchise, “True Blood”) as Max Fist, an alcoholic homeless man who claims to be a superhero from another dimension, who has none of his powers on earth. Max meets a young man named Hamster who may be the only person on earth who believes his story. When Hamster (Skylan Brooks, The Darkest Minds, Southpaw) is in trouble Max puts his life on the line to protect the kid. Max’s story plays out in a combination of the gritty real world and in gorgeous animated flashbacks filled with psychedelic pinks and blues. The styles are a nice combination that reveals his superhero past in such a way that you don’t know if it is real or simply a delusion in Max’s mind. The casting was a great choice. Manganiello and Brooks are perfect for their roles. You can
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
After 37 years in the making Grizzly II: Revenge is finally about to be released on January 8, 2021. Grizzly II, directed by André Szöts, is the sequel to William Girdler‘s 1976 movie Grizzly. The movie follows a bear out for revenge after a hunter kills its cub. During its rampage a huge concert is taking place, I’m sure you know the rest. George Clooney, Laura Dern, Charlie Sheen are featured in the original footage with Louise Fletcher, John Rhys-Davies, and Steve Inwood also starring, but the three main stars advertised are only in the film for around five minutes. I am trying to put this politely, but this movie is a mess. The scenes a patched together in what may very well be the roughest and sloppiest way I’ve ever seen. It’s a perfect example of what happens when editing goes wrong. It looks like it was just thrown together. There’s no transition from scene to scene, the music
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
When I sat down and hit the play button to watch writer-director Shawn Linden’s Hunter Hunter I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a great, truly dark film about family and desperation. The film centers on a couple, Joseph (Devon Sawa) and Anne (Camille Sullivan), and their daughter Reneè (Summer H. Howell) living off the grid in the remote wilderness. They make their money by trapping so when a wolf begins to steal the animals in their traps they set out to hunt it down. When they stumble across the wolf eating an arm they realize there is another killer (Nick Stahl) lurking in their own backyard. First off, let me give a warning to animal lovers, Hunter Hunter is going to be a bit hard for you to watch. Just cover your eyes when you have to though because the movie is worth it. Hunter Hunter is a dark, tension-filled, gripping tale and at some points
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
If you are looking for a new exploitation movie version of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, look no further than The Deep Ones. It’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth mashed up with Rosemary’s Baby, Humanoids from the Deep (complete with rape scenes, as in that film; be warned), The Stepford Wives, and tentacle porn, for starters. Lovecraft literary purists will probably shudder at that description, but B-movie aficionados should find plenty to enjoy here. Starting off with naked bodies galore, the film sees Alex (Gina La Piana) and her husband Petri (Johann Urb) renting a seaside vacation home to try and get their minds off of Alex’s miscarraige and reconnect more. Hosts Russell (Robert Miana) and Ingrid (Silvia Spross) Marsh welcome them in an uncomfortably friendly manner, soon taking Petri out on a boat ride where they hypnotize him while the local doctor (TimothyMuskatell in drag) ingratiates herself with Alex. Naturally, there is a reason for everyone’s fake friendliness, and if you guessed
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
MoviesNewsReviewsShudderStreaming TVTrailers
Today, I’ll be reviewing writer-director Steven Kostanski’s absolutely insane 2020 movie PG: Psycho Goreman. Matthew Ninaber, Kristen MacCulloch, and Rick Amsbury star in the film whose synopsis goes like this: “After unearthing a gem that controls an evil monster looking to destroy the Universe, a young girl and her brother use it to make him do their bidding.” Right off to bat, and with both stars being kids, it did make me question who the target audience is meant to be. The dialogue comes across like it’s meant for an 8 to 12 years old demographic but is filled with people being brutally killed and turned into monstrous creatures. It’s too violent to be a children’s movie and is a bit immature for the adult crowd, in my opinion, leaving it in a kind of no man’s land. Writer-director Steven Kostanski keeps things interesting from beginning to end with all types of craziness going on. And the plot was something
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Croation shocker F20 may not deliver many surprises to fans of lover-gone-psycho cinema, but its vibrant style and gripping performances make the ride to the inevitable a stirring one. Director Arsen A. Ostojic’s thriller takes viewers on an unsettling ride with nods to slasher fare in its third act. Part-time university student Martina (Romina Tonković) reluctantly helps her widowed father Mate (Mladen Vulić) out at his pizzeria. She develops a crush on Filip (Filip Mayer), a young man her age who orders pizza delivery daily. Asserting herself into his loner lifestyle of playing first-person shooter games while his parents are on vacation at their forest cabin, she and her friend Irena (Lana Ujevic) coax him into going out for drinks and karaoke, and the pair eventually enter into an intimate relationship. Viewers are tipped off very early — some might argue too soon — that something might be amiss with Filip, but I’ll save the how and why to avoid
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A trio of lethal luchadores, El Apache (Tino Zamora), Manny (Manuel Ramirez), and Guero (Art Paul) by name, botch a robbery and find themselves well and truly on the lam. Their numbers soon reduced by one due to misadventure; our deadly duo find themselves in the home of a couple of lovely ladies, Starletta (Sparkle Soojian) and Violet (Nikki Curtis Jones) to be precise, that seem more than accommodating to our protagonists… that is until some supernatural shit hits the fan right quick! Full of grindhouse bravura, bad dudes, strange transformations, and femme fatales; Day of the Pigs does a hell of a lot to satisfy the ol’ terror tooth in it’s brief twelve minute runtime. Writer/Director Michael S. Rodriguez (along with Raul Cantu on story assist) brings quite the fully fleshed out concept to life in this one boils n’ ghouls and presents a world of larcenous masked madmen, southern belle witches, body horror, and most importantly… bacon, and
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
Merry Christmas, everyone! I love the ever-growing genre of Holiday Horror and Jeff C. Carter has added a brand new collection of short stories to the holiday horror world. His collection We Bleed Red and Green is not ONLY a short story collection, but a unique, fun, gory, original collection of stories, poetry, parodies, coded messages and more. In his book, Carter does not shy away from horror and gore, but he also finds a way to really have the Christmas spirit present in his world of darkness and fear. This anthology is a perfect way for Carter to show off his writing abilities in a variety of styles. As much as I enjoyed each individual story, I enjoyed how unique each story was from each other and how well each story was written. This collection never gets repetitive or boring, it is a different feeling and a different nightmare on every page. Some stories are clever and funny, some
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoBooksReviews
There are not many things I love reading more than short stories. Make it a horror short stories and it makes it better. Make it a horror short story about a wicked cult and it piques my interest even more. Make it a horror short story about a wicked cult and write it in a unique way and you have an instant winner for me. Keith Anthony Baird has done the perfect recipe in his short story A Seed in a Soil of Sorrow. Characters In stories about cults, the most important character is the cult leader. It is hard to create a character charismatic and intelligent enough to have both the characters in the book and the readers understand why the cult is intriguing. It is also difficult to not just follow a cookie cutter pattern of successful cult leader characters, but to create a unique leader. Baird not only creates a leader who is charismatic, intriguing, and believable,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Director Tim Hunter’s true story inspired horror Smiley Face Killers has just been released, and I’ve always found the true crimes interesting, so I decided to check it out. What I found wasn’t good. The synopsis reads as followed: “a handsome young soccer player Jake Graham who believes he is going insane, unable to shake the feeling of being stalked by something, by someone.” The film takes its inspiration from a series of mysterious deaths linked by the smiley face graffiti found near the crime scenes. The victims are all killed by mysteriously being drowned and have been deemed nonaccidental. Unfortunately, the movie treats the killings as a secondary theme with Jake’s depression and body exploitation at the forefront. The majority of the movie is just watching Ronen Rubinstein go from scene to scene shedding his clothes and acting moody as hell. Sure, Ronen Rubinstein is a handsome guy but I was there to watch a horror movie, not a
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Writer-director Adam Egypt Mortimer (Daniel Isn’t Real, Some Kind of Hate) has now unleashed his superhero film Archenemy starring Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike franchise, “True Blood”) as Max Fist, an alcoholic homeless man who claims to be a superhero from another dimension, who has none of his powers on earth. Max meets a young man named Hamster who may be the only person on earth who believes his story. When Hamster (Skylan Brooks, The Darkest Minds, Southpaw) is in trouble Max puts his life on the line to protect the kid. Max’s story plays out in a combination of the gritty real world and in gorgeous animated flashbacks filled with psychedelic pinks and blues. The styles are a nice combination that reveals his superhero past in such a way that you don’t know if it is real or simply a delusion in Max’s mind. The casting was a great choice. Manganiello and Brooks are perfect for their roles. You can
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
After 37 years in the making Grizzly II: Revenge is finally about to be released on January 8, 2021. Grizzly II, directed by André Szöts, is the sequel to William Girdler‘s 1976 movie Grizzly. The movie follows a bear out for revenge after a hunter kills its cub. During its rampage a huge concert is taking place, I’m sure you know the rest. George Clooney, Laura Dern, Charlie Sheen are featured in the original footage with Louise Fletcher, John Rhys-Davies, and Steve Inwood also starring, but the three main stars advertised are only in the film for around five minutes. I am trying to put this politely, but this movie is a mess. The scenes a patched together in what may very well be the roughest and sloppiest way I’ve ever seen. It’s a perfect example of what happens when editing goes wrong. It looks like it was just thrown together. There’s no transition from scene to scene, the music
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
When I sat down and hit the play button to watch writer-director Shawn Linden’s Hunter Hunter I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a great, truly dark film about family and desperation. The film centers on a couple, Joseph (Devon Sawa) and Anne (Camille Sullivan), and their daughter Reneè (Summer H. Howell) living off the grid in the remote wilderness. They make their money by trapping so when a wolf begins to steal the animals in their traps they set out to hunt it down. When they stumble across the wolf eating an arm they realize there is another killer (Nick Stahl) lurking in their own backyard. First off, let me give a warning to animal lovers, Hunter Hunter is going to be a bit hard for you to watch. Just cover your eyes when you have to though because the movie is worth it. Hunter Hunter is a dark, tension-filled, gripping tale and at some points
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
If you are looking for a new exploitation movie version of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, look no further than The Deep Ones. It’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth mashed up with Rosemary’s Baby, Humanoids from the Deep (complete with rape scenes, as in that film; be warned), The Stepford Wives, and tentacle porn, for starters. Lovecraft literary purists will probably shudder at that description, but B-movie aficionados should find plenty to enjoy here. Starting off with naked bodies galore, the film sees Alex (Gina La Piana) and her husband Petri (Johann Urb) renting a seaside vacation home to try and get their minds off of Alex’s miscarraige and reconnect more. Hosts Russell (Robert Miana) and Ingrid (Silvia Spross) Marsh welcome them in an uncomfortably friendly manner, soon taking Petri out on a boat ride where they hypnotize him while the local doctor (TimothyMuskatell in drag) ingratiates herself with Alex. Naturally, there is a reason for everyone’s fake friendliness, and if you guessed
Continue reading →
