If there was ever a day of the year that deserved the horror movie treatment, Black Friday is the one. We’ve all seen the news footage of angry, zombie-like shoppers storming retail stores, desperate to get their hands on the latest deals with absolutely no regard for the overworked staffers. While this has been less […]
Reviews
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘Bingo Hell’ Champions Unlikely Heroes in Splatstick Horror-Comedy With Heart
Lupita (Adriana Barraza) isn’t your average horror heroine. She’s a firecracker, for sure, but she’s also someone whose hot-tempered reputation precedes her. Lupita’s pissed off about encroaching gentrification, but beneath this abuelita’s abrasive exterior lies a passionate woman desperate to hold onto her dying community. Lupita is the precise type of heroine you want in […]
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘There’s Someone Inside Your House’ Offers a Bland Intro to Teen Slashers
Scream shook the slasher foundation so hard upon release that it ushered in a new wave of teen slashers eager to follow suit. The ’90s are back in full swing lately, including another wave of ’90s inspired slashers. Enter There’s Someone Inside Your House. It’s a teen slasher, adapted from Stephanie Perkins’ YA novel, that leans too […]
[Review] “American Horror Story: Double Feature” Concludes “Red Tide” With An Anemic, Pale Finale
American Horror Story’s “Red Tide” goes for a safe finish that is full of blood and bodies, but lacks the impact that’s been present all season. “It’s just the price of living in such a special place.” The first part of American Horror Story: Double Feature has been a mixed bag, but by far the […]
[Review] “Creepshow” Season 3 Opens With Mixed Results
While the small screen experienced a resurgence in traditional anthologies not too long ago, that moment was short-lived. The latest Twilight Zone revival, Room 104, and 50 States of Fright have all since ended. Fans of the standalone story have their limited choices nowadays, but they can count on Creepshow to keep things going. Five […]
[TIFF Review] ‘Silent Night’ Hides Grim Tragedy Within Awkward Christmas Comedy
For the most part, writer/director Camille Griffin’s feature debut, Silent Night, plays like many comedies set around holiday gatherings. It features typical awkwardness that comes from a large makeshift family coming together during one of the most stressful times of the year, attempting to cast aside grudges, secrets, or bad manners for the sake of […]
[Review] ‘Midnight Mass’ Cuts Deep and Instills Profound Faith for Mike Flanagan’s Horror Storytelling
Few storytellers kill their darlings as well as Mike Flanagan. Or more to the point, few storytellers make you care so much about the story’s characters. It causes their trauma, pain, heartbreak, and often worse, to hurt that much more when the horror hits. Flanagan’s only sharpened that skill to a sharp, pointy edge with […]
[TIFF Review] ‘Titane’ Goes Full Throttle on Transgressive Body Horror and Dark Humor
Filmmaker Julia Ducournau broke out with a provocative debut feature that blended horror, comedy, and tenderness in a coming-of-age cannibal tale. It set the bar high for her anticipated sophomore effort, which Cannes reactions only bolstered. The reality is that Ducournau’s follow-up, Titane, continues what she started with Raw. Sexual and gender identity gets explored through provocative body […]
[Review] Survive a Serial Killer at the Laundromat in Atmospheric Horror Game ‘Bloodwash’
The latest game to be released under Puppet Combo’s Torture Star Video label is Black Eyed Priest and Henry Hoare’s scuzztastic ‘serial killer at the laundromat’ horror Bloodwash, and it’s no washout. This first-person horror sees a Giallo-infused tale of a weary mother-to-be named Sara, who comes home from a long day to find her […]
[TIFF Review] ‘Saloum’ Blends Crime Thriller with Supernatural Mysticism in Unpredictable Genre-Bender
Underseen on Netflix is the Senegalese series Sakho & Mangane, a stylish crime procedural with a supernatural twist. Its creator, Jean Luc Herbulot, again displays a talent for effortlessly shifting through genres with Saloum, a contemporary genre-bender infused with ancestral folklore. The setting and its history add to Herbulot’s stylish story, which helps when the dense and sometimes […]
[Review] ‘SPOOKWARE’ Takes You On a Delirious Microgame-Filled Road Trip Through the Afterlife
Perhaps my favorite thing about BEESWAX’ GAMES’ SPOOKWARE is how it takes the crumb of an idea (Wario Ware but spooky) and runs with it to the point that it becomes something else entirely. SPOOKWARE started life as a brief microgame collection on itch.io, grew into a whole segment in one of DreadXP’s Dread X Collections, […]
[TIFF Review] In ‘Zalava’, a Demonic Possession Leads to Mass Hysteria and Paranoia
Superstition and paranoia abound in Iranian writer-director Arsalan Amiri’s film, Zalava. Set in the titular village in the northwestern mountains of Iran in 1978, the film chronicles one long day and night as the village descends into panic, fear and mass hysteria that a demon is attacking their home. What’s fascinating about the film, which […]
[Review] Netflix’s Gateway Horror Fantasy ‘Nightbooks’ Celebrates the Monster Kid
Fairy tales and scary stories make for a perfect gateway into the genre for many children. Who among us isn’t familiar with the nightmarish imagery and stories of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark? Or the grim, bloody origins of Grimm’s Fairy Tales? Nightbooks, based on J.A. White‘s children’s fantasy-horror novel, takes the concept and runs with […]
[TIFF Review] Irish Folklore Film ‘You Are Not My Mother’ Finds The Horror At Home
The term folk horror inspires certain kinds of imagery: pastoral fields, shrouded woods, period pieces, and witchcraft. In North American horror, legends tend to take the form of tall tales (Urban Legend, Candyman, I Know What You Did Last Summer) or whispered myths (Wendigos, Indigenous burial grounds, etc). In Irish writer/director’s Kate Dolan’s directorial feature […]
[Review] ‘Deathloop’ is a Glorious, Time-Bending Murder Puzzle
Arkane pushes the boat out big time with Deathloop. Its latest carries itself with all the swagger of a developer that has perfected the modern immersive sim with the excellent Dishonored series, and the greatly underappreciated Prey. Somehow, Deathloop has more personality, style, and ambition than its precursors, and sharpens the familiar Arkane trappings to […]