★★★★ Netflix has fleetingly tackled nearly every holiday in one way or another (both excellent Christmas Chronicles movies from legendary director Christopher Columbus spring to mind instantly), and now with Nightbooks, the streamer sets its sights on Halloween! From Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, Nightbooks is a twisted family film with horror sensibilities. Love for … Continue reading Film Review: Nightbooks
TIFF 2021: Dashcam
★★★★ Director Rob Savage, responsible for Shudder’s 2020 breakout horror hit Host, is back with a vengeance in his found footage followup, Dashcam. This time around, Savage channels the manic energy of Evil Dead and the REC series for a bloody and bizarre feast for the senses. The introduction takes its time plunging us into … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Dashcam
TIFF 2021: You Are Not My Mother
★★★★ Weird behavior is one thing, but what course of action would you take if your mother quite literally was someone else? Perhaps the most appropriately-named movie of the year, You Are Not My Mother is an eerie Irish horror film from debut feature writer/director Kate Dolan. The flavor of horror is difficult to pinpoint—occasionally … Continue reading TIFF 2021: You Are Not My Mother
TIFF 2021: A Banquet
★★★ A Banquet, Ruth Paxton’s bizarre new TIFF horror film, will certainly make you think twice before you eat. Strange, gory visuals, food close-ups, potential exorcisms, and… anorexia? Paxton takes several pages from the horror handbook for her feature directorial debut. While the plot may be practically threadbare, I was pulled in by the striking … Continue reading TIFF 2021: A Banquet
TIFF 2021: Kicking Blood
★★★ Kicking Blood, my first film viewed for 2021’s Toronto International Film Festival, acts as a surprisingly great start to round off the festivities. Vampires have never been one of my favorite subgenres of horror (I tend to think they work better on the page or in television format to properly expand the mythology), but … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Kicking Blood
Film Review: The Scary of Sixty-First
★★ After hearing comparisons to Eyes Wide Shut shortly after the debut of The Scary of Sixty-First at the Berlinale Film Festival, my excitement level for this psychosexual horror thriller shot up immensely. That it did not live up to my lofty dreams speaks less about the quality than the actual style, which feels jammed … Continue reading Film Review: The Scary of Sixty-First
Film Review: Chompy and the Girls
★★★ Chompy and the Girls is as wildly bizarre and fun to watch as the title would suggest, at times going full cosmic horror. Where else can you find the voice of film legend Udo Kier as an omniscient stalker on a mission? The debut film from writer/director Skye Braband expertly blends horror and comedy, … Continue reading Film Review: Chompy and the Girls
Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 Wrap-Up
The pandemic of 2020 has provided access to numerous film festivals we would not have had the chance to discover otherwise—case in point, Arrow Video’s FrightFest from London. Filled with a variety of intriguing genre highs and lows, FrightFest emerges as one of the signature horror festivals. After the jump, check out my full coverage … Continue reading Arrow Video FrightFest 2021 Wrap-Up
FrightFest 2021: Slapface
★★★ Slapface, a feature-length adaptation of writer/director Jeremiah Kipp’s same-titled short film, provides ample metaphorical subtext about grieving, loss, and bullying. It is part horror monster movie, part grief drama; think Amblin charm meets the monster emotionality of 2016’s A Monster Calls. August Maturo, who I had previously seen as the lead in this year’s … Continue reading FrightFest 2021: Slapface
FrightFest 2021: The Advent Calendar
★★★★ As the holiday season begins its approach, an early contender for this year’s best holiday horror film makes waves. I have always wanted one of those cute holiday advent calendars, but new horror The Advent Calendar has put me off of them, permanently. Despite having very few elements of typical Christmas horror features, Patrick … Continue reading FrightFest 2021: The Advent Calendar