CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,430 stories
AdaptationBooksMoviesReviewsThriller
Corpulent lawyer Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke, Dust Devil, Robocop 3) spends his days drinking smoothies in an effort to shed some pounds, fucking that up by eating massive quantities of food, and getting mafioso-types off the hook legally… while not starring at the asses of the more comely members of the group of wandering Romany folk that have rolled into town. Speaking of those folk, Billy manages to run over one of them with his car while getting a blow job from his wife, Heidi (Michael McDowell)… and since he’s buddy-buddy with The Man he gets off scot-F’n-free… but not before the tribe’s elder, Tadzu (Michael Constantine), touches Billy. Before you can say “Slimfast” ol’ Billy-boy begins shedding pounds lickety-split, even though he hasn’t curbed his eating a damn bit… and get this, other folks the Elder touched have been afflicted with horrible maladies six ways to Sunday! Will are hero find a way to remove the curse, or
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Jon Bell combines post-pregnancy horror with social commentary in his Australian feature The Moogai, the 2024 expansion of his 2021 short film. The result is a mixed bag, as Bell addresses the tragic aspect of Australia’s infamous “Stolen Generations” — when thousands of mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal descent between 1910–1970 were forcibly taken from their homes by the white government in an assimilation effort — using a monster as a metaphor. Expectant mother Sarah (Shari Sebbens) has recently come into contact with her Indigenous birth mother Ruth (Tessa Rose). She feels she has nothing in common with Ruth and is short-tempered with her and dismissive of her traditional beliefs. Sarah’s husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) and their young daughter Chloe (Jahdeana Mary), however, are very affectionate toward Ruth. After the birth of the couple’s son Jacob, Ruth attempts to ward off the coming of the child-stealing spirit called The Moogai in her daughter’s home using traditional rituals, which is
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Nurse Faith (Chrissy Metz) lives with her daughter Charm (Annalise Basso, Oculus), who suffers from an unnamed malady that requires her to soak in a tub filled with ice cold water in order to keep her ever-rising body temperature down… when she’s not locked in her room behind a rather imposing door. While that biz is going down, Missionary Liz (Scout Taylor-Compton, Rob Zombie’s Halloween) and her brother Kory (Connor Paolo) just break right on in to Faith’s house seeking shelter from the snowstorm that rages outside. Eventually they end up being invited, begrudgingly, to stay… but not before Faith fucks up Kory’s leg with a spike-studded baseball bat. I guess it’s always good to keep a steady supply of potential victims around, because as the title of the film would suggest… or more accurately flat-out tells you… there’s a creature roaming this feature, and it’s a real demonic doozy and a fuckin’ half, believe you me! Who will survive
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Jess Franco made himself an adaption of Bram Stoker’s classic fang bang terror tome Dracula back in 1970 (refresh your memory on that release, the Christopher Lee starring Count Dracula, right here) and hired Spanish filmmaker Pere Portabella to film a lil’ behind-the-scenes action for what was supposed to be turned into a documentary concerning the film’s creation… but it wasn’t and here we are… Instead, Portabella conjured forth 1971’s Cuadecuc, Vampir; a black and white, hour-and-change, nearly silent (there is ambient (frequently not very) musical accompaniment, and closing remarks from Lee however) experimental film that certainly does present a fly-on-the-wall glimpse (no matter how impressionistic) into the film’s production along with it’s own loosey-goosey narrative. To that end we get a visual tone-poem showcasing cast and crew toiling away… and it is a fascinating, if unconventional viewing experience. Additionally, viewing Franco’s footage in stark, crisp (sometimes purposefully over-exposed) chiaroscuro gives it that classic Universal monster movie vibe! But wait,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
It is January 22, 2024 as I write this review, and I have my first strong candidate for my list of best films of 2024: writer/director Fabio D’Orta’s genre-blending Italian chiller The Complex Forms. With his film, which he himself lensed in luscious black-and-white, D’Orta uses for inspiration classic cinema both Italian and international, investing these inspirations with a modern sensibility and a maverick vision. The budget may have been low, but the look of the film — including fantastical, beautifully rendered creature design — belies that fact. Christian Del Ben (David White) is down on his luck to the point that he has agreed to sell the use of his body to a mysterious entity for a sum of money that will help him get back on his feet. This takes place in a mysterious villa, the location of which none of the men who have made the pact know about. Del Ben is roommates with the affable Luh
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
This may be the first published game review of 2024 from us but this is actually the second with the official first review on its way on February 6th, so keep an eye out for that one! Let’s get to some exorcising with QU Byte Interactive and Mr. Skull Game Studio’s Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil. Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil is about Father August Heylel, a Vatican-recognized Exorcist who is penning a letter describing his most haunting exorcist case that began in 1984 where he failed to save the family but was able to banish the evil within the house. Over the years he’s been watching over the house and the families that moved in who all have lived in peace till in 2020, the evil returned. The controls for the game are limited and easy to remember. One of the things I wish you had in this game are meters letting you know how much health
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
THE LOOMING So often in horror films the elderly are portrayed as scary or creepy subjects, something to fear, run from, or even kill. Occasionally, they are treated with more reverence and respect than usual in fright-fare cinema, such as in director Natalie Erika James’s Relic (2020). Writer/director Masha Ko’s new short The Looming is another such film that examines the plight of the aged and lonely, delivering heartbreak along with horror. Seventy-year-old Chester (Joseph Lopez in an absolutely amazing performance) begins to hear terrifying noises in his home, where he lives alone, and his fears are dismissed both at his job and by his adult daughter, who refuses to come to his home to discuss the matter. Something is indeed, as the title says, looming around Chester, though. Ko has crafted a superb-looking, emotionally charged work that draws attention to the importance of the fears of the elderly, and to how they deserve our attention. I give The Looming
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
Legend of El Cucuy Folklore horror meets problems of modern parenting in writer/director Cynthia Garcia Williams’ short film Legend of El Cucuy. Laura (Diana Sanchez) and Carlos (Effie Cacarnakis) are attempting to raise their young daughter Isabel (Obriella Genesis Witron) with as much freedom from rules at home and school as possible, but when the girl starts really acting up, Carlos attempts to straighten her out some by telling her the tale of El Cucuy, a ghostlike monster that kidnaps disobedient children, with origins in folk tales from Spain and Portugal. The short boasts great cinematography and a fine score, impressive performances, engaging direction, and impressive CGI and practical effects makeup work. It is certainly worthy of being expanded into a feature-length film. PU EKAW TNOD In writer/director Rebecca Culverhouse’s U.K. horror short PU EKAW TNOD, a young couple (Dorothea Jones and Harold Addo) watch a horror film together when they discover that they are suddenly in a dreamworld —
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Corey Haim, Gary Busey, werewolves and The King of Horror himself? Horror fans will immediately guess 1985’s fright flick Silver Bullet. And non-horror fans… well I have no idea what they would think… and what the hell are they doing on this website anyway? Anyway, Scream Factory have unleashed a 4k/Blu-ray combo release of Silver Bullet, and yours cruelly is going to slap his putrid peepers upon it! In the quaint small town of Tarker’s Mills nothing exciting seems to happen… until the murders begin that is! Enter: Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim, The Lost Boys), a wheelchair (a motorized number which just so happens to be named Silver Bullet) bound lad who lives with his family… including his beloved (by Marty only) freeloading drunk of an uncle, Red (Gary Busey) smack dab in the middle of The ‘Mills. Being an ‘80s movie (based on an ‘80s book… novella, whatever… it’s Stephen King’s 1983-released
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Being the forgetful fiend that I am, yours cruelly oft forgets that our pals South of the Border can deliver the gory goods among the best of them… and Unearthed Film’s new Blu-ray release of arcane anthology México Bárbaro II (the follow up to 2014’s México Bárbaro) reminded me with a nice, big, bloody open-handed slap right across my putrid puss! Let’s put our eerie eyeballs on the sinister segments that comprise this fright flick one by one and see just what makes this picture tick! La Leyenda De Juan Soldado: Coming from writer/director Abraham Sánchez; our first yarn concerns a soldier by the name of Juan (Uri Meza), who is accused of rape and left to die in the desert by his commanding officer. The thing is, our hero is innocent… so naturally the denizens of hell give him a chance to settle the score with those that wronged him! Entertaining, fast-paced, and full of a pseudo-EC Comics vibe
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
AdaptationBooksMoviesReviewsThriller
Corpulent lawyer Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke, Dust Devil, Robocop 3) spends his days drinking smoothies in an effort to shed some pounds, fucking that up by eating massive quantities of food, and getting mafioso-types off the hook legally… while not starring at the asses of the more comely members of the group of wandering Romany folk that have rolled into town. Speaking of those folk, Billy manages to run over one of them with his car while getting a blow job from his wife, Heidi (Michael McDowell)… and since he’s buddy-buddy with The Man he gets off scot-F’n-free… but not before the tribe’s elder, Tadzu (Michael Constantine), touches Billy. Before you can say “Slimfast” ol’ Billy-boy begins shedding pounds lickety-split, even though he hasn’t curbed his eating a damn bit… and get this, other folks the Elder touched have been afflicted with horrible maladies six ways to Sunday! Will are hero find a way to remove the curse, or
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Writer/director Jon Bell combines post-pregnancy horror with social commentary in his Australian feature The Moogai, the 2024 expansion of his 2021 short film. The result is a mixed bag, as Bell addresses the tragic aspect of Australia’s infamous “Stolen Generations” — when thousands of mixed-race children of Australian Aboriginal descent between 1910–1970 were forcibly taken from their homes by the white government in an assimilation effort — using a monster as a metaphor. Expectant mother Sarah (Shari Sebbens) has recently come into contact with her Indigenous birth mother Ruth (Tessa Rose). She feels she has nothing in common with Ruth and is short-tempered with her and dismissive of her traditional beliefs. Sarah’s husband Fergus (Meyne Wyatt) and their young daughter Chloe (Jahdeana Mary), however, are very affectionate toward Ruth. After the birth of the couple’s son Jacob, Ruth attempts to ward off the coming of the child-stealing spirit called The Moogai in her daughter’s home using traditional rituals, which is
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Nurse Faith (Chrissy Metz) lives with her daughter Charm (Annalise Basso, Oculus), who suffers from an unnamed malady that requires her to soak in a tub filled with ice cold water in order to keep her ever-rising body temperature down… when she’s not locked in her room behind a rather imposing door. While that biz is going down, Missionary Liz (Scout Taylor-Compton, Rob Zombie’s Halloween) and her brother Kory (Connor Paolo) just break right on in to Faith’s house seeking shelter from the snowstorm that rages outside. Eventually they end up being invited, begrudgingly, to stay… but not before Faith fucks up Kory’s leg with a spike-studded baseball bat. I guess it’s always good to keep a steady supply of potential victims around, because as the title of the film would suggest… or more accurately flat-out tells you… there’s a creature roaming this feature, and it’s a real demonic doozy and a fuckin’ half, believe you me! Who will survive
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Jess Franco made himself an adaption of Bram Stoker’s classic fang bang terror tome Dracula back in 1970 (refresh your memory on that release, the Christopher Lee starring Count Dracula, right here) and hired Spanish filmmaker Pere Portabella to film a lil’ behind-the-scenes action for what was supposed to be turned into a documentary concerning the film’s creation… but it wasn’t and here we are… Instead, Portabella conjured forth 1971’s Cuadecuc, Vampir; a black and white, hour-and-change, nearly silent (there is ambient (frequently not very) musical accompaniment, and closing remarks from Lee however) experimental film that certainly does present a fly-on-the-wall glimpse (no matter how impressionistic) into the film’s production along with it’s own loosey-goosey narrative. To that end we get a visual tone-poem showcasing cast and crew toiling away… and it is a fascinating, if unconventional viewing experience. Additionally, viewing Franco’s footage in stark, crisp (sometimes purposefully over-exposed) chiaroscuro gives it that classic Universal monster movie vibe! But wait,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
It is January 22, 2024 as I write this review, and I have my first strong candidate for my list of best films of 2024: writer/director Fabio D’Orta’s genre-blending Italian chiller The Complex Forms. With his film, which he himself lensed in luscious black-and-white, D’Orta uses for inspiration classic cinema both Italian and international, investing these inspirations with a modern sensibility and a maverick vision. The budget may have been low, but the look of the film — including fantastical, beautifully rendered creature design — belies that fact. Christian Del Ben (David White) is down on his luck to the point that he has agreed to sell the use of his body to a mysterious entity for a sum of money that will help him get back on his feet. This takes place in a mysterious villa, the location of which none of the men who have made the pact know about. Del Ben is roommates with the affable Luh
Continue reading →
ForeignGamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
This may be the first published game review of 2024 from us but this is actually the second with the official first review on its way on February 6th, so keep an eye out for that one! Let’s get to some exorcising with QU Byte Interactive and Mr. Skull Game Studio’s Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil. Devil Inside Us: Roots of Evil is about Father August Heylel, a Vatican-recognized Exorcist who is penning a letter describing his most haunting exorcist case that began in 1984 where he failed to save the family but was able to banish the evil within the house. Over the years he’s been watching over the house and the families that moved in who all have lived in peace till in 2020, the evil returned. The controls for the game are limited and easy to remember. One of the things I wish you had in this game are meters letting you know how much health
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
THE LOOMING So often in horror films the elderly are portrayed as scary or creepy subjects, something to fear, run from, or even kill. Occasionally, they are treated with more reverence and respect than usual in fright-fare cinema, such as in director Natalie Erika James’s Relic (2020). Writer/director Masha Ko’s new short The Looming is another such film that examines the plight of the aged and lonely, delivering heartbreak along with horror. Seventy-year-old Chester (Joseph Lopez in an absolutely amazing performance) begins to hear terrifying noises in his home, where he lives alone, and his fears are dismissed both at his job and by his adult daughter, who refuses to come to his home to discuss the matter. Something is indeed, as the title says, looming around Chester, though. Ko has crafted a superb-looking, emotionally charged work that draws attention to the importance of the fears of the elderly, and to how they deserve our attention. I give The Looming
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
Legend of El Cucuy Folklore horror meets problems of modern parenting in writer/director Cynthia Garcia Williams’ short film Legend of El Cucuy. Laura (Diana Sanchez) and Carlos (Effie Cacarnakis) are attempting to raise their young daughter Isabel (Obriella Genesis Witron) with as much freedom from rules at home and school as possible, but when the girl starts really acting up, Carlos attempts to straighten her out some by telling her the tale of El Cucuy, a ghostlike monster that kidnaps disobedient children, with origins in folk tales from Spain and Portugal. The short boasts great cinematography and a fine score, impressive performances, engaging direction, and impressive CGI and practical effects makeup work. It is certainly worthy of being expanded into a feature-length film. PU EKAW TNOD In writer/director Rebecca Culverhouse’s U.K. horror short PU EKAW TNOD, a young couple (Dorothea Jones and Harold Addo) watch a horror film together when they discover that they are suddenly in a dreamworld —
Continue reading →
AdaptationBooksMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Corey Haim, Gary Busey, werewolves and The King of Horror himself? Horror fans will immediately guess 1985’s fright flick Silver Bullet. And non-horror fans… well I have no idea what they would think… and what the hell are they doing on this website anyway? Anyway, Scream Factory have unleashed a 4k/Blu-ray combo release of Silver Bullet, and yours cruelly is going to slap his putrid peepers upon it! In the quaint small town of Tarker’s Mills nothing exciting seems to happen… until the murders begin that is! Enter: Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim, The Lost Boys), a wheelchair (a motorized number which just so happens to be named Silver Bullet) bound lad who lives with his family… including his beloved (by Marty only) freeloading drunk of an uncle, Red (Gary Busey) smack dab in the middle of The ‘Mills. Being an ‘80s movie (based on an ‘80s book… novella, whatever… it’s Stephen King’s 1983-released
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Being the forgetful fiend that I am, yours cruelly oft forgets that our pals South of the Border can deliver the gory goods among the best of them… and Unearthed Film’s new Blu-ray release of arcane anthology México Bárbaro II (the follow up to 2014’s México Bárbaro) reminded me with a nice, big, bloody open-handed slap right across my putrid puss! Let’s put our eerie eyeballs on the sinister segments that comprise this fright flick one by one and see just what makes this picture tick! La Leyenda De Juan Soldado: Coming from writer/director Abraham Sánchez; our first yarn concerns a soldier by the name of Juan (Uri Meza), who is accused of rape and left to die in the desert by his commanding officer. The thing is, our hero is innocent… so naturally the denizens of hell give him a chance to settle the score with those that wronged him! Entertaining, fast-paced, and full of a pseudo-EC Comics vibe
Continue reading →
