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
NetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
A few days ago, Netflix unleashed the first half of season 4 of its hit supernatural series “Stranger Things.” So let’s dive right in. The season begins with Eleven living in a new town under the name Jane. Things aren’t going well for her. She is being bullied terribly by the popular kids. Things come to a head when Mike comes to visit, and she loses it and hits the lead girl in the face, triggering a fight between different government factions to find her. After a man from her past convinces her to go with him, she finds herself back in the clutches of Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), aka Papa, the man who made her what she is. The rest of the kids aren’t doing any better. Half are on a mission to find Eleven, while the rest are in Hawkins facing a new menace from the Upside Down while trying to save their new friend who is being
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IndieMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
From director Sean King O’Grady (Dinner In America) comes the horror film We Need To Do Something, headed to Blu-ray this June. In the film, a dysfunctional family retreats to a bathroom during a storm, not knowing the hell that awaits them when they find themselves trapped with the walls closing in. Sierra McCormick stars as Melissa, a teen with a history of mental illness and a girlfriend who is a witch. John James Cronin plays the role of Melissa’s sheltered, babied little brother. Vinessa Shaw plays the role of a loving mother who puts up with too much shit from their severely alcoholic, verbally abusive father, played by Pat Healy. Being locked in a room with him is enough to drive anyone crazy. As the film unfolds, we see real-life horrors, supernatural ones, and a monster, voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. There are many witchy themes and unseen horrors, but the real story, the real horrors, is what unfolds in
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
If you’re like me you’ve been eagerly awaiting brilliant writer-director Robert Egger’s latest film, The Northman. Well, there’s good news, it’s now available on VOD. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, and Anya Taylor-Joy, the film follows young prince Amleth, whose father, the king (Hawke) is killed by his uncle and his throne stolen along with his mother. Amleth swears to avenge his father and save his mother. Hidden amongst a berserker tribe, he grows into a strong, fighter who kills like it’s an everyday mundane activity. After a raid, a vision sends him on a quest for revenge and he brings death to anyone who stands in his way. Entwined with the story are the old legends of the north, worship of gods Odin and Freyja, ceremonies, and sacrifice. Mystics trigger otherworldly visions as men crawl on all fours like dogs and Valcaries carry the fortunate off to Valhalla. From beginning to end, The Northman is simply stunning.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Dawning Young Min Kim makes his feature film directorial debut — he also wrote the screenplay — with Dawning, a psychological horror outing heavy on family drama. Haejin Park (Kim Ellis) may have physically left her home after her father’s suicide (shown in the film’s opening scenes) for a new life in New York, but the trauma of that memory still weighs heavily on her. She goes back to the California farm where she grew up to console her younger sister Soojin (Veronica Kim), who has just split up with her abusive boyfriend. There, dark secrets are uncovered and supernatural overtones are introduced. Writer/director Kim shows a deft hand at the helm, serving up some twists and turns that raise the suspense while addressing the scars that PTSD and trauma can cause. Although the dialogue is a bit stiff at times, Dawning looks great, boasts fine performances from its two leads, and leaves viewers with much to think about. Kageboshi
Continue reading →
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MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Sex and horror films have always walked hand in hand, but writer-director Ti West takes that to a whole new level with his horror film, about a porn movie shoot gone wrong, simply titled X. On a remote farm, a group of x-rated filmmakers rents a carriage house on a farm to make their porn flick, not knowing that when night falls they will face horror and death. Let me get this out of the way, this movie is only for the grown folks, so make sure your kids aren’t home when you watch it. X, set in 1979, really captures the time with its dialogue, wardrobe, props, and soundtrack (which you can own now) of the time that is recognized for its progressive attitude towards doing the nasty. X is labeled a horror film, and while there are a few scares, a ton of gore, and some tension, the sex overshadows the horror that the film aimed to deliver,
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
If you take Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, The Lost Boys, and Dungeons and Dragons and put them in a blender with a couple of drops of hot sauce, you will get the tabletop/pen and paper RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. The game and its story take place in a “Goth-Punk” world and was released in 1991 and became the best-selling tabletop RPG second to D&D. Over time the game has spawned multiple sequels over the years before becoming a video game. The focus today is the latest in the series of games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. A big thank you to Big Bad Wolf and Nacon for the reviewing opportunity. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong takes place in Boston where all the vampires living in the city receive a “Code Red” alert, meaning that their existence was discovered and they’re under attack. While the city’s vampires are taking shelter, three vampires, Galeb Bazory, one of the oldest vampires in Boston,
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
One and Four Chinese feature One and Four (2021) is a nailbiter about Sanggye (Jinpa), a ranger who works alone at an isolated post in the Tibetan forest, whose solitude is interrupted when he finds a crashed car with a dead policeman on board. Returning to his cabin, he finds a wounded cop (Wang Zheng), but Sanggye suspects he might actually be a poacher. Kunbo (Kunde), a village acquaintance of Sanggye’s, returns to the cabin after a visit the night before, and eventually another wounded cop (Darggye Tenzin) stumbles onto the scene. As Sanggye becomes increasingly suspicious about each of the men, they do their part in creating further confusion and uncertainties. Naturally, weapons come into play, and as anger and confusion mount, danger threatens with every passing second. Writer/director Jigme Trinley’s debut feature looks terrific, with the snow-covered setting serving both a beautiful and bleak backdrop. He ratchets up the suspense masterfully, even if there’s not a whole lot
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Horror fans are always begging for something new, something we haven’t seen before, and that is exactly what you get with director Hanna Bergholm’s gruesome film Hatching. The film opens with scenes of a happy and loving family, of course, it doesn’t take long to discover that not all as is it seems. When a bird crashes through the window the mother snaps its neck, but later that night Tinja (Siiri Solalinna hears it crying and discovers its egg, but this is not a normal egg. It grows to a huge size then a creature hatches out, viewing the girl as its mother. With every day that goes by it kills and begins to look more human. Siiri Solalinna does a fantastic job in her role as a young girl struggling with pleasing her overbearing mother and playing a mother herself to the blood-thirsty creature. Her character has so many intense moments and for a young girl to nail every
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Subject Subject, cowinner of this year’s Fantaspoa Best Film in the Brazilian Feature Film Competition category, tackles a familiar set-up: writer Max (Gustavo Falcão) has moved into a house in a rural area to work on his next book, but odd things occur inside the house. What director Leo Falcão does with this set-up is quite unlike what viewers might expect, though, as he takes a rather light-hearted, magical realism approach and sends Max on a weird journey involving suddenly-appearing texts, oddball locals, and the mystery of what happened to the writer who lived in the house before him. From characters who say strangely out-of-place words and instantly correct themselves to daily fistfights among friends, these locals are an enigmatic lot, and the actors who portray them do a marvelous job. Max finds himself grappling with existential puzzles, and Gustavo Falcão inhabits the character with a bemused, fish-out-of-water verve. Though not strictly a horror film, Subject definitely has scare-fare elements
Continue reading →
Reviews
The Aviary from cowriters/codirectors Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite combines survival suspense with a psychological thriller, with a fair dash of mystery on tap, as well. The performances from its two lead actors is the driving force behind the film. Jillian (Malin Akerman) was a highly placed member of the Skylight cult when she recruited Blair (Lorenzo Izzo), but after hearing about cult leader Seth’s (Chris Messina) latest treatment, she plans to break free with Blair. To escape the titular compound, the women must traverse the New Mexico desert for a few days before reaching civilization. Brainwashing and newfound paranoia brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t easily shaken, though, and each woman deals with her share of it, complicated by the dangers of the desert. The Aviary plays mind games with its viewers, as Seth does so with Jillian and Blair — is he in their heads as a result of their cult indoctrination, or in some more mysterious
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
NetflixNewsReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
A few days ago, Netflix unleashed the first half of season 4 of its hit supernatural series “Stranger Things.” So let’s dive right in. The season begins with Eleven living in a new town under the name Jane. Things aren’t going well for her. She is being bullied terribly by the popular kids. Things come to a head when Mike comes to visit, and she loses it and hits the lead girl in the face, triggering a fight between different government factions to find her. After a man from her past convinces her to go with him, she finds herself back in the clutches of Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), aka Papa, the man who made her what she is. The rest of the kids aren’t doing any better. Half are on a mission to find Eleven, while the rest are in Hawkins facing a new menace from the Upside Down while trying to save their new friend who is being
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
From director Sean King O’Grady (Dinner In America) comes the horror film We Need To Do Something, headed to Blu-ray this June. In the film, a dysfunctional family retreats to a bathroom during a storm, not knowing the hell that awaits them when they find themselves trapped with the walls closing in. Sierra McCormick stars as Melissa, a teen with a history of mental illness and a girlfriend who is a witch. John James Cronin plays the role of Melissa’s sheltered, babied little brother. Vinessa Shaw plays the role of a loving mother who puts up with too much shit from their severely alcoholic, verbally abusive father, played by Pat Healy. Being locked in a room with him is enough to drive anyone crazy. As the film unfolds, we see real-life horrors, supernatural ones, and a monster, voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. There are many witchy themes and unseen horrors, but the real story, the real horrors, is what unfolds in
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
If you’re like me you’ve been eagerly awaiting brilliant writer-director Robert Egger’s latest film, The Northman. Well, there’s good news, it’s now available on VOD. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, and Anya Taylor-Joy, the film follows young prince Amleth, whose father, the king (Hawke) is killed by his uncle and his throne stolen along with his mother. Amleth swears to avenge his father and save his mother. Hidden amongst a berserker tribe, he grows into a strong, fighter who kills like it’s an everyday mundane activity. After a raid, a vision sends him on a quest for revenge and he brings death to anyone who stands in his way. Entwined with the story are the old legends of the north, worship of gods Odin and Freyja, ceremonies, and sacrifice. Mystics trigger otherworldly visions as men crawl on all fours like dogs and Valcaries carry the fortunate off to Valhalla. From beginning to end, The Northman is simply stunning.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Dawning Young Min Kim makes his feature film directorial debut — he also wrote the screenplay — with Dawning, a psychological horror outing heavy on family drama. Haejin Park (Kim Ellis) may have physically left her home after her father’s suicide (shown in the film’s opening scenes) for a new life in New York, but the trauma of that memory still weighs heavily on her. She goes back to the California farm where she grew up to console her younger sister Soojin (Veronica Kim), who has just split up with her abusive boyfriend. There, dark secrets are uncovered and supernatural overtones are introduced. Writer/director Kim shows a deft hand at the helm, serving up some twists and turns that raise the suspense while addressing the scars that PTSD and trauma can cause. Although the dialogue is a bit stiff at times, Dawning looks great, boasts fine performances from its two leads, and leaves viewers with much to think about. Kageboshi
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Sex and horror films have always walked hand in hand, but writer-director Ti West takes that to a whole new level with his horror film, about a porn movie shoot gone wrong, simply titled X. On a remote farm, a group of x-rated filmmakers rents a carriage house on a farm to make their porn flick, not knowing that when night falls they will face horror and death. Let me get this out of the way, this movie is only for the grown folks, so make sure your kids aren’t home when you watch it. X, set in 1979, really captures the time with its dialogue, wardrobe, props, and soundtrack (which you can own now) of the time that is recognized for its progressive attitude towards doing the nasty. X is labeled a horror film, and while there are a few scares, a ton of gore, and some tension, the sex overshadows the horror that the film aimed to deliver,
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
If you take Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, The Lost Boys, and Dungeons and Dragons and put them in a blender with a couple of drops of hot sauce, you will get the tabletop/pen and paper RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. The game and its story take place in a “Goth-Punk” world and was released in 1991 and became the best-selling tabletop RPG second to D&D. Over time the game has spawned multiple sequels over the years before becoming a video game. The focus today is the latest in the series of games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. A big thank you to Big Bad Wolf and Nacon for the reviewing opportunity. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong takes place in Boston where all the vampires living in the city receive a “Code Red” alert, meaning that their existence was discovered and they’re under attack. While the city’s vampires are taking shelter, three vampires, Galeb Bazory, one of the oldest vampires in Boston,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
One and Four Chinese feature One and Four (2021) is a nailbiter about Sanggye (Jinpa), a ranger who works alone at an isolated post in the Tibetan forest, whose solitude is interrupted when he finds a crashed car with a dead policeman on board. Returning to his cabin, he finds a wounded cop (Wang Zheng), but Sanggye suspects he might actually be a poacher. Kunbo (Kunde), a village acquaintance of Sanggye’s, returns to the cabin after a visit the night before, and eventually another wounded cop (Darggye Tenzin) stumbles onto the scene. As Sanggye becomes increasingly suspicious about each of the men, they do their part in creating further confusion and uncertainties. Naturally, weapons come into play, and as anger and confusion mount, danger threatens with every passing second. Writer/director Jigme Trinley’s debut feature looks terrific, with the snow-covered setting serving both a beautiful and bleak backdrop. He ratchets up the suspense masterfully, even if there’s not a whole lot
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Horror fans are always begging for something new, something we haven’t seen before, and that is exactly what you get with director Hanna Bergholm’s gruesome film Hatching. The film opens with scenes of a happy and loving family, of course, it doesn’t take long to discover that not all as is it seems. When a bird crashes through the window the mother snaps its neck, but later that night Tinja (Siiri Solalinna hears it crying and discovers its egg, but this is not a normal egg. It grows to a huge size then a creature hatches out, viewing the girl as its mother. With every day that goes by it kills and begins to look more human. Siiri Solalinna does a fantastic job in her role as a young girl struggling with pleasing her overbearing mother and playing a mother herself to the blood-thirsty creature. Her character has so many intense moments and for a young girl to nail every
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Subject Subject, cowinner of this year’s Fantaspoa Best Film in the Brazilian Feature Film Competition category, tackles a familiar set-up: writer Max (Gustavo Falcão) has moved into a house in a rural area to work on his next book, but odd things occur inside the house. What director Leo Falcão does with this set-up is quite unlike what viewers might expect, though, as he takes a rather light-hearted, magical realism approach and sends Max on a weird journey involving suddenly-appearing texts, oddball locals, and the mystery of what happened to the writer who lived in the house before him. From characters who say strangely out-of-place words and instantly correct themselves to daily fistfights among friends, these locals are an enigmatic lot, and the actors who portray them do a marvelous job. Max finds himself grappling with existential puzzles, and Gustavo Falcão inhabits the character with a bemused, fish-out-of-water verve. Though not strictly a horror film, Subject definitely has scare-fare elements
Continue reading →
Reviews
The Aviary from cowriters/codirectors Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite combines survival suspense with a psychological thriller, with a fair dash of mystery on tap, as well. The performances from its two lead actors is the driving force behind the film. Jillian (Malin Akerman) was a highly placed member of the Skylight cult when she recruited Blair (Lorenzo Izzo), but after hearing about cult leader Seth’s (Chris Messina) latest treatment, she plans to break free with Blair. To escape the titular compound, the women must traverse the New Mexico desert for a few days before reaching civilization. Brainwashing and newfound paranoia brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t easily shaken, though, and each woman deals with her share of it, complicated by the dangers of the desert. The Aviary plays mind games with its viewers, as Seth does so with Jillian and Blair — is he in their heads as a result of their cult indoctrination, or in some more mysterious
Continue reading →
