Reviews

‘Friday the 13th’ 4K Review – How Does the Remake Hold Up 15 Years Later? [Friday the 13th Week]

Alex DiVincenzo Arrow Video, Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Week, Home Video, Reviews

While remakes are a longstanding tradition in the horror genre, 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ushered in a decade-dominating trend of reinventing classic genre properties for the new millennium. Hoping to replicate the success of Texas Chainsaw, production company Platinum Dunes re-teamed with director Marcus Nispel for a contemporary take on Friday the 13th in […]

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‘Speak No Evil’ Review – Mostly Faithful Remake Dials Up Intensity But Loses Its Edge

Meagan Navarro James McAvoy, James Watkins, Reviews, Speak No Evil

Enjoyment, so to speak, of Christian Tafdrup’s bleak 2020 Danish horror movie Speak No Evil, a slow simmering cautionary tale of extreme passivity and politeness, is contingent on how much its “Because you let me” punchline gets under your skin. The grim pessimism and pervading discomfort culminated in a frustrating but fitting passive conclusion, making […]

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‘Hollowbody’ Excels in Its Bleak Mood, Evoking PS2-Era Survival Horror [Review]

Aaron Boehm gog.com, Headware Games, Hollowbody, PC, Reviews, steam, Video Games

Despite the fact that big budget game studios seem to have mostly abandoned classic survival horror, there’s definitely still an audience for it. Hollowbody, the latest game from Chasing Static developer Headware Games, proved that by raising over $35,000 on Kickstarter a few years ago. The game takes inspiration from the PlayStation 2 era of […]

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‘The Shrouds’ Review – David Cronenberg Plays His Greatest Hits [TIFF]

Joe Lipsett David Cronenberg, Diane Kruger, Elizabeth Saunders, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Dale, Movies, Reviews, Sandrine Holt, Steve Switzman, The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel

Audiences hungry for David Cronenberg’s infamous brand of body horror may have hoped that 2022’s Crimes of the Future marked his return to the genre. That film, which formed an unofficial trilogy that began with 1983’s Videodrome and continued in 1999’s eXistenZ, featured several callbacks to the Canadian director’s recurring visual and thematic interests. The […]

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‘DAN DA DAN: First Encounter’ Is 2024’s Must-Watch Anime [Review]

Daniel Kurland Alien, Anime, Dan Da Dan, Dandadan, GKIDS, Occult, Reviews, spirits, TV

Science SARU creates something murderous and magical with its coming of age supernatural rom-com that mixes aliens, ghosts, and supernatural phenomena. “Do only scum live in this world?” There is an endless amount of supernatural horror anime that get under the audience’s skin, but none of them are quite like DAN DA DAN, a delirious […]

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‘Nightbitch’ Review – Dark Comedic Fairy Tale is Too Scared of Its Feral Setup [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Amy Adams, Marielle Heller, Nightbitch, Reviews, TIFF 2024

Writer/Director Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) refuses to color within the genre lines in her feature adaptation of Rachel Yoder‘s novel, Nightbitch. Heller employs everything from poignant family drama to pitch black comedy to horror fairy tale to highlight the complexities of motherhood and identity. It’s so defiant of easy categorization and tone […]

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‘Ick’ TIFF Review – Joseph Kahn Delivers An Entertaining, Uneven Horror Comedy

Joe Lipsett Brandon Routh, Dan Koontz, Harrison Cone, Jeff Fahey, Joseph Kahn, Melina Pauli Weissman, Mena Suvari, Peter Wong, Reviews, Samuel Laskey, TIFF 2024

You know a Joseph Kahn film when you see one. There’s an approach to style, narrative, and editing akin to pure adrenaline; it’s as though the filmmaker drank a bunch of coffee, ate a bunch of candy, and then immediately made a movie. Ick, Kahn’s first feature since 2017’s Bodies, is pure sugar/caffeine rush: when […]

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‘Else’ TIFF Review – Worlds and Bodies Merge in French Virus Film

Joe Lipsett Alice Butaud, Edith Proust, Emma Sandona, Léo Lefèvre, Lika Minamoto, Matthieu Sampeur, Reviews, Thibault Emin, TIFF 2024

The term body horror evokes certain types of visuals and visceral responses. Famously associated with directors like David Cronenberg, body horror is used to generate gross-out visuals as easily as it advances the narrative (see: the way Coralie Fargeat uses bodies for her scathing feminist social commentary, The Substance). Writer/director Thibault Emin uses body horror […]

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‘Heretic’ TIFF Review – Hugh Grant Steals Verbose Theological Thriller

Meagan Navarro Bryan Woods, Heretic, Hugh Grant, Reviews, Scott Beck, Sophie Thatcher, TIFF 2024

It turns out that the effervescent but neurotic wit and charm that made Hugh Grant an enduring romantic lead actor translates quite well to horror. His disarming villain, an impish type who delights in psychological and theological warfare, elevates Heretic, the latest from writer/director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (65, Haunt). The self-contained chamber […]

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‘Dead Talents Society’ TIFF Review – An Instant Horror Comedy Classic

Joe Lipsett Bai Bai, Chen Bolin, Eleven Yao, Gingle Wang, John Hsu, Reviews, Sandrine Pinna, TIFF 2024, Tsai Kun-Lin

In the cold open for Dead Talents Society, the new film by director John Hsu (2019’s Detention), a young woman enters hotel room 414. Bizarre events quickly add up, including a whole wall that is suddenly plastered with glamour pictures of a woman. Then the closet door creeps open and the woman from the picture […]

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‘The Life of Chuck’ TIFF Review – Mike Flanagan’s Uplifting Celebation of Life At the End of the World

Meagan Navarro Mike Flanagan, Reviews, Stephen King, The Life of Chuck, TIFF 2024

It’s not the horror that makes prolific author Stephen King‘s works so compelling, though it certainly helps, but rather his talent for capturing the nuanced multitudes of the human condition. His three-dimensional characters leap off the pages and into Constant Readers’ hearts, ensuring their emotional journeys resonate with or without horror. It’s something writer/director Mike […]

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‘The Substance’ Review – Absurdist Horror Comedy Unleashes Jaw-Dropping Body Horror [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Coralie Fargeat, Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Movies, Reviews, The Substance, TIFF 2024

Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat set the bar high for herself in 2017, with her debut feature Revenge delivering a visceral, feminine twist to the rape-revenge thriller that climaxed in an epic bloodbath. So much that it seemed nearly impossible to top. Yet the filmmaker does just that with sophomore effort The Substance, transforming a familiar concept […]

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‘Seeds’ Review – Indigenous Comedy Thriller Is Fun, But Inconsistent [TIFF]

Joe Lipsett Dallas Goldtooth, Dylan Cook, Indigenous, Kaniehtiio Horn, Meegwun Fairbrother, Reviews, TIFF 2024

Indigenous horror has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in Canada where efforts are being made to seek out, fund, and promote First Nation stories (see also: Slash/Back and the late Jeff Barnaby’s work like Blood Quantum and Rhymes for Young Ghouls). With Seeds, we can add Kaniehtiio Horn’s name to the list. The […]

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Lifetime’s ‘The Past Comes Knocking’ Takes Itself a Bit Too Seriously [Review]

Joe Lipsett Bella Chadwick, Brandon Villano, David Y. Chung, Geoffrey D. Calhoun, Karl E. Landler, Leanne Johnson, lifetime, Marem Hassler, Marlee Carpenter, Movies, Reviews, Stephen Blackwell, Tessa Briney

We’ve discussed several times in these Lifetime reviews that the mystery is often the most superfluous element. The films are very rarely trying to surprise or fool the audience. In fact, the reveal is often right there in the title (see: She’s Obsessed With My Husband). Much like Stepmom from Hell, however, co-writers Geoffrey D. […]

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‘The Perfect Couple’ Is Netflix’s Attempt to Do ‘The White Lotus’ [Review]

Joe Lipsett Billy Howle, Dakota Fanning, Donna Lynne Champlin, Elin Hilderbrand, Eve Hewson, Irina Dubova, Isabelle Adjani, Jack Reynor, Jenna Lamia, Liev Schreiber, Meghann Fahy, Michael Beach, Netflix, Nicole Kidman, Reviews, Sam Nivola, Susanne Bier, TV

The opening credits for The Perfect Couple are fun and cute. As Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals” plays, the cast of Netflix’s new limited series – from the police officers to the housekeeper to Nicole Kidman herself – perform a coordinated wedding dance on the beach. It’s the kind of clichéd bit one expects to see at […]

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