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Horror Fuel

Review: Wrong Turn (2021) Is A Bloody Good Movie

Every time I hear the words remake or reboot I cringe. In fact, I usually avoid them altogether, but after watching the new Wrong Turn movie that may be changing. It’s proof that they can be better than the original. The trailer piqued my interest so I decided what the hell, I’ll give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did. In the film, while hiking the Appalachian Trail, a group of friends begins stumbling into traps. Believing that someone is out to kill them, one of the group kills a hunter, setting off a disturbing chain of events. The Wrong Turn franchise is known for its brutal kills from both the inbred hillbilly family and their nasty traps. In Mike P. Nelson’s new version we get the traps that we’ve come to expect and the kills are still brutal, but it’s a very different movie than the original. While the 2003 original has its own unique charm,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Feb 10, 2021
Charlotte Kirk Set to Star in Neil Marshall's Cat-and-Mouse Horror-Thriller 'The Spiral Down'

Movie Review: Neil Marshall’s ‘The Reckoning’ Will Cast A Spell On You

Neil Marshall is a name you should be very familiar with. He’s the director behind movies such as The Descent, Dog Soldiers, and Tales of Halloween. He’s back with a new film, The Reckoning. Set in England in the late 17th century, the Great Plague is raging as the witch trials cause hysteria, people begin to fear their friends, neighbors, and family, may be witches. During this time in history in real life, over 1,000 innocent people were imprisoned, tortured, and killed with ninety percent of the victims being women. All it took was a whisper for these people to be condemned. This is a key element in The Reckoning. In the opening scene, we see Grace (Charlotte Kirk), an exhausted mother kiss her baby before retrieving a sword from a chest. Struggling, she drags the Scottish Claymore through the mud as she stumbles across her yard. That’s when we see him, her dear husband hanging from a tree. Clawing

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Feb 1, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Smiley Face Killers: Moodiness And Man Butt Win Out Over Horror

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Archenemy

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Grizzly II: Revenge

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Hunter Hunter Is A Dark Horror Thriller Done Right

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Anything For Jackson

How far would you go to bring back a lost loved one? That’s the subject of the supernatural horror film Anything for Jackson. Starring Sheila McCarthy, Konstantina Mantelos, and “Supernatural” actor Julian Richings, the film follows a pair of grandparents desperate to bring their grandson Jackson back from the dead, which includes kidnapping a pregnant woman and making a deal with a demon. The first thing I noticed about the film is its cinematography that was both dark and rich. Even when it featured a gritty look, it still somehow retained its beauty. As for the cast, bravo. It felt like they really put their whole hearts into it. McCarthy left me impressed. The way she emotes her character, Audrey’s, every feeling is top-notch. She really gave her character an air of authenticity. Richings appeared to be in a near-constant state of panic as his character Henry struggled to keep their plan on track. Mantelos did great as well, portraying

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 30, 2020
Horror Fuel

Netflix Review: Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight Is Basic At Best

I had heard good things about writer-director Bartosz M. Kowalski’s new horror film Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight so I decided to give it a try. The movie centers on a group of teens who have been sent to a remote camp in the woods because of their addiction to technology, phones, computers, gaming, YouTube, etc… Of course, when you take a bunch of teens into the woods on a camping trip things are bound to go wrong. When a cannibal killer discovers the group he begins picking them off one by one. If imitation is the biggest form of flattery, then this movie is a love letter to slashers. What I saw was a mishmash of bits of and ideas from horror classics, including Friday the 13th, Wrong Turn, Scream, Hatchet, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and more. And It’s filled to the brim with basic horror troupes. Every character is right out of the horror handbook, a

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Flay (2019)

Patricia (Peggy Schott) is one of those long sufferin’ artist types, but her problems are going to expand 666-fold as she acquires a cursed chain (which has been around since those days of covered wagons and rampant dysentery) which ends up resulting in a serious case of the deaths for anyone unlucky enough to come in possession of those loathsome links! Can Pat get her shit together and end the curse? Special effects wizard turned director Eric Pham and screenwriter Matthew Daley, aren’t exactly re-inventing the wicked wheel with Flay; this is your typical ancient curse causes mayhem in the modern day yarn at it’s heart… but goddamn do they manage to keep things fresh! To wit: the way the curse spreads here is rather inventive, as the links of the chain (which were given that ol’ wild whammy by an imprisoned Native American shaman) give anyone that touches them a permanent bad day, and since our heroine has utilized

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Werewolf’ Is Dark, Gripping, And Simply Brilliant

I watch and report on a lot of movies, horrors, and thrillers, but it’s not often that I come across one that truly affects me. That’s exactly what the Polish film Werewolf did. Let’s start with the trailer and the film’s synopsis which gave away some detail but was able to keep much of the film’s events secret and I really appreciate that. I get so sick of seeing movie trailers that basically give the whole film away. Don’t you? There are many things that I find much more terrifying than some fictitious monsters lurking about in movies, for example, films that center on real events such as wars and their atrocities. Those always seem to get under my skin. That is the case with this WWII set horror-thriller. We are introduced to a group of children and teens liberated from a concentration camp by Soviet soldiers. The group is left in a crumbling country manner where their will to

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 18, 2020

More from Movie Review

Horror Fuel

Review: Wrong Turn (2021) Is A Bloody Good Movie

Every time I hear the words remake or reboot I cringe. In fact, I usually avoid them altogether, but after watching the new Wrong Turn movie that may be changing. It’s proof that they can be better than the original. The trailer piqued my interest so I decided what the hell, I’ll give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did. In the film, while hiking the Appalachian Trail, a group of friends begins stumbling into traps. Believing that someone is out to kill them, one of the group kills a hunter, setting off a disturbing chain of events. The Wrong Turn franchise is known for its brutal kills from both the inbred hillbilly family and their nasty traps. In Mike P. Nelson’s new version we get the traps that we’ve come to expect and the kills are still brutal, but it’s a very different movie than the original. While the 2003 original has its own unique charm,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Feb 10, 2021
Charlotte Kirk Set to Star in Neil Marshall's Cat-and-Mouse Horror-Thriller 'The Spiral Down'

Movie Review: Neil Marshall’s ‘The Reckoning’ Will Cast A Spell On You

Neil Marshall is a name you should be very familiar with. He’s the director behind movies such as The Descent, Dog Soldiers, and Tales of Halloween. He’s back with a new film, The Reckoning. Set in England in the late 17th century, the Great Plague is raging as the witch trials cause hysteria, people begin to fear their friends, neighbors, and family, may be witches. During this time in history in real life, over 1,000 innocent people were imprisoned, tortured, and killed with ninety percent of the victims being women. All it took was a whisper for these people to be condemned. This is a key element in The Reckoning. In the opening scene, we see Grace (Charlotte Kirk), an exhausted mother kiss her baby before retrieving a sword from a chest. Struggling, she drags the Scottish Claymore through the mud as she stumbles across her yard. That’s when we see him, her dear husband hanging from a tree. Clawing

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Feb 1, 2021
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Smiley Face Killers: Moodiness And Man Butt Win Out Over Horror

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Archenemy

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Grizzly II: Revenge

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Hunter Hunter Is A Dark Horror Thriller Done Right

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 →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Anything For Jackson

How far would you go to bring back a lost loved one? That’s the subject of the supernatural horror film Anything for Jackson. Starring Sheila McCarthy, Konstantina Mantelos, and “Supernatural” actor Julian Richings, the film follows a pair of grandparents desperate to bring their grandson Jackson back from the dead, which includes kidnapping a pregnant woman and making a deal with a demon. The first thing I noticed about the film is its cinematography that was both dark and rich. Even when it featured a gritty look, it still somehow retained its beauty. As for the cast, bravo. It felt like they really put their whole hearts into it. McCarthy left me impressed. The way she emotes her character, Audrey’s, every feeling is top-notch. She really gave her character an air of authenticity. Richings appeared to be in a near-constant state of panic as his character Henry struggled to keep their plan on track. Mantelos did great as well, portraying

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 30, 2020
Horror Fuel

Netflix Review: Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight Is Basic At Best

I had heard good things about writer-director Bartosz M. Kowalski’s new horror film Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight so I decided to give it a try. The movie centers on a group of teens who have been sent to a remote camp in the woods because of their addiction to technology, phones, computers, gaming, YouTube, etc… Of course, when you take a bunch of teens into the woods on a camping trip things are bound to go wrong. When a cannibal killer discovers the group he begins picking them off one by one. If imitation is the biggest form of flattery, then this movie is a love letter to slashers. What I saw was a mishmash of bits of and ideas from horror classics, including Friday the 13th, Wrong Turn, Scream, Hatchet, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, and more. And It’s filled to the brim with basic horror troupes. Every character is right out of the horror handbook, a

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 25, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Flay (2019)

Patricia (Peggy Schott) is one of those long sufferin’ artist types, but her problems are going to expand 666-fold as she acquires a cursed chain (which has been around since those days of covered wagons and rampant dysentery) which ends up resulting in a serious case of the deaths for anyone unlucky enough to come in possession of those loathsome links! Can Pat get her shit together and end the curse? Special effects wizard turned director Eric Pham and screenwriter Matthew Daley, aren’t exactly re-inventing the wicked wheel with Flay; this is your typical ancient curse causes mayhem in the modern day yarn at it’s heart… but goddamn do they manage to keep things fresh! To wit: the way the curse spreads here is rather inventive, as the links of the chain (which were given that ol’ wild whammy by an imprisoned Native American shaman) give anyone that touches them a permanent bad day, and since our heroine has utilized

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Nov 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Werewolf’ Is Dark, Gripping, And Simply Brilliant

I watch and report on a lot of movies, horrors, and thrillers, but it’s not often that I come across one that truly affects me. That’s exactly what the Polish film Werewolf did. Let’s start with the trailer and the film’s synopsis which gave away some detail but was able to keep much of the film’s events secret and I really appreciate that. I get so sick of seeing movie trailers that basically give the whole film away. Don’t you? There are many things that I find much more terrifying than some fictitious monsters lurking about in movies, for example, films that center on real events such as wars and their atrocities. Those always seem to get under my skin. That is the case with this WWII set horror-thriller. We are introduced to a group of children and teens liberated from a concentration camp by Soviet soldiers. The group is left in a crumbling country manner where their will to

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Nov 18, 2020
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