CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,463 stories
HuluMoviesNewsReviewsStreaming TV
The horror genre is abuzz about Hulu’s new Hellraiser, directed by David Bruckner, so, does it live up to the hype? In the beginning, we meet Riley, a young woman who is struggling with addiction while living with her intensely judgemental brother, his partner, and another roommate. After stealing a puzzle box with her boyfriend all hell breaks loose and the cenobites are unleashed, but she’s got a plan. First thing’s first, the movie has a character problem. While the character of Riley is fleshed out, the other’s aren’t. They are cardboard cut out characters and they are simply there to suffer. One of the biggest sources of debate among fans is the new female Pinhead. I have to say, I was rather impressed by Jamie Clayton’s portrayal of “The Preist.” She features a similar look and her voice, only slightly feminine, was a great choice. As for the story, it held classical elements of the franchise, cenobites, chains, suffering,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Mother Superior (2022) Writer/director Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s Austrian horror thriller Mother Superior, set in 1975, finds anesthesiste-in-training Sigrun (Isabella Hӓndler) hired on as a nurse for elderly Baroness Heidenreich (Inge Maux). The baroness has been going through a series of nurses rather quickly, but Sigrun hopes to stay on longer than her predecessors. This has less to do with job security than it does with the fact that she hopes to find some clue about her own past. This being a horror film with mystery elements, the main setting is naturally an isolated rural mansion. Wolfszahn and cinematographer Gabriel Krajanek use this setting to full effect as Sigrun wanders through dark areas, including ones that she has been forbidden to enter. The beautifully sunlit grounds provide a sharp contrast to the dimly lit house. I don’t want to spoil the several shades of mystery at play in Mother Superior, so suffice it to say that the main characters — including
Continue reading →
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 →
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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 →
More from Reviews
HuluMoviesNewsReviewsStreaming TV
The horror genre is abuzz about Hulu’s new Hellraiser, directed by David Bruckner, so, does it live up to the hype? In the beginning, we meet Riley, a young woman who is struggling with addiction while living with her intensely judgemental brother, his partner, and another roommate. After stealing a puzzle box with her boyfriend all hell breaks loose and the cenobites are unleashed, but she’s got a plan. First thing’s first, the movie has a character problem. While the character of Riley is fleshed out, the other’s aren’t. They are cardboard cut out characters and they are simply there to suffer. One of the biggest sources of debate among fans is the new female Pinhead. I have to say, I was rather impressed by Jamie Clayton’s portrayal of “The Preist.” She features a similar look and her voice, only slightly feminine, was a great choice. As for the story, it held classical elements of the franchise, cenobites, chains, suffering,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Mother Superior (2022) Writer/director Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s Austrian horror thriller Mother Superior, set in 1975, finds anesthesiste-in-training Sigrun (Isabella Hӓndler) hired on as a nurse for elderly Baroness Heidenreich (Inge Maux). The baroness has been going through a series of nurses rather quickly, but Sigrun hopes to stay on longer than her predecessors. This has less to do with job security than it does with the fact that she hopes to find some clue about her own past. This being a horror film with mystery elements, the main setting is naturally an isolated rural mansion. Wolfszahn and cinematographer Gabriel Krajanek use this setting to full effect as Sigrun wanders through dark areas, including ones that she has been forbidden to enter. The beautifully sunlit grounds provide a sharp contrast to the dimly lit house. I don’t want to spoil the several shades of mystery at play in Mother Superior, so suffice it to say that the main characters — including
Continue reading →
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 →
