Alan Wake re-emerges from the darkness looking better than ever, and at the perfect time for reappraisal. It’s been 11 years since Remedy took us to Bright Falls and led us down the kind of deliciously demented path the developer has since become synonymous with. Now, with Control pushing Remedy to new heights (not to […]
Reviews
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘Alone With You’ Is a Mixed Bag of Queer Paranoia
Single-setting horror films almost always make for a fascinating watch. Films like Buried, Cube and Frozen force their directors to make the most of their sparse surroundings, usually with a limited budget. In these films, the locales are practically their own characters. Executed poorly, and these films risk putting the audience to sleep. More and more of these […]
[Review] ‘The Addams Family 2’ Trades the Macabre for Hyper Candy-Coated Comedy for Kids
The mysterious and spooky Addams Family are back, along with directors Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, for another animated adventure. This time, the familiar theme of embracing being different comes in the form of a road trip movie. The Addams Family 2 sees everyone’s favorite kooky bunch pack up for a manic summer vacation that brings hyper, […]
[Review] ‘Diablo II: Resurrected’ Unleashes a Familiar Hell
Diablo II Resurrected offers up almost exactly the same game of 21 years ago to a fault. An unapologetic, brutal action RPG that feels incredibly jarring when compared to its modern successors. It’s intimidating, frustrating, and oddly refreshing at times. Resurrected brings a significant visual overhaul (with the option to switch back to the original […]
[Review] “American Horror Story: Death Valley” Begins With a Probing Look into Alien Archetypes
Part 2 of ‘AHS: Double Feature’ turns to grisly sci-fi staples for a divided premiere that’s pregnant with promise and upcoming horror highs. “Now we have a new question: Why? Why is it here?” Through the never-ending rolodex of horror sub-genres that have been explored in American Horror Story, aliens is one topic that’s been […]
[Review] ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ is a Battle That’s Violent, Sloppy, and Entertaining
The honeymoon phase is over. Now that the meet-cute between disgraced journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and disgraced alien Venom have gotten behind them, cohabitation proves trickier than either one expected. Toss in an illegitimate love child, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage winds up serving as a violent, sloppy, yet entertaining battle through couples counseling for […]
[Review] Netflix’s ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ Delights With Surprising Twist to Haunted House Horror
The marketing behind Netflix’s latest Halloween offering suggests a modern but standard haunted house tale. The sole tease that there’s more to No One Gets Out Alive, other than its intriguing title, is that it’s executive produced by David Bruckner and adapted from an Adam Nevill novel. The last time Bruckner teamed up with Nevill it resulted in The […]
[Review] “Creepshow” Season 3: ‘Skeletons in the Closet’ References Horror Classics and ‘Familiar’ Catches a Demon
While the premiere was especially uneven, with its second story making up the shortfall, the immediate follow-up in Creepshow’s third season is more well-rounded. As usual, the episode divides itself right down the middle in regards to tone; one half is serious while the other is not. The format tends to work for the show […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘Slumber Party Massacre’ Updates a Feminist Classic for the Modern Era
Amy Holden Jones’ 1982 film The Slumber Party Massacre was a bit of a rarity in the ’80s slasher boom: it was written by a feminist writer (Rita Mae Brown) and told from a female perspective (Jones’). While they were beholden to certain non-feminist genre tropes (half-naked pillow fights and fully naked breasts, just to name a […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] Tommy Wirkola’s Zany ‘The Trip’ Puts Its Protagonists Through Intensive Couples Therapy
Tommy Wirkola is no stranger to dark humor. The Norwegian filmmaker has already carved a place in the black hearts of horror fans everywhere with the dementedly wonderful humor in both Dead Snow films and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, the latter of which has seen a steadily growing cult following over the years. His […]
[Review] ‘In Sound Mind’ Takes You On a Surreal Trip Through Tortured Memories
While In Sound Mind trades in some familiar horror beats, it manages to find its own groove. Developer We Create Stuff previously sharpened its horror teeth on the popular Half-Life 2 mod Nightmare House 2, and there’s some obvious heritage from that title bleeding through to In Sound Mind, but here it feels a lot […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘The Exorcism of God’ Muddles Its Possession Subversion
In 2013, director Alejandro Hidalgo gave the haunted house a sci-fi twist in his feature debut, The House at the End of Time. His long-awaited follow-up, The Exorcism of God, attempts to shake up the overly familiar exorcism horror subgenre. Hidalgo pays tribute to the granddaddy of them all, The Exorcist, then works to retool the formula through the past […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] A24’s ‘Lamb’ Takes Earnest Approach to Oddball Folk Tale
The opening scene makes it clear that guessing where Valdimar Jóhannsson’s feature debut will head makes for an exercise in futility. The suggestive depravity of it sets up something far more rooted in horror than what transpires. Instead, Lamb plays like a quiet, often bleak folk tale that’s tonally all over the map but approached with an […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘She Will’ Casts a Beguiling Spell of Retribution
The opening title card’s preceding text reads “Dario Argento presents” fits in a certain sense; She Will operates within the realm of dreams. It’s a story relayed through potent and mesmerizing imagery over a traditional narrative structure, and women drive it. The connections cease there. She Will offers an intoxicating visual feast, casting a beguiling spell of a slow […]
‘The Black Phone’ Review – Dialing into Terror With Ethan Hawke as a Skin-Crawling Villain
Bloody Disgusting’s The Black Phone review is spoiler-free. For many, director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill’s Sinister ranks high among the scariest modern horror movies. The pair return to horror with an adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story The Black Phone from the compilation 20th Century Ghost. Derrickson and Cargill revive the same traits and structure of Sinister to transform […]
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