Author Archives
UNC Charlotte '18 graduate | Film Intern at CLTure | North Carolina Film Critics Association member | Lover of bad teen horror movies and 90s pop music
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Even with Christophe Gans back in the director’s chair, “Return to Silent Hill” struggles to meet its own potential.
Asking me to describe my relationship with the Silent Hill franchise is opening a Pandora’s Box of epic proportions. The series, centered around a cursed ghost town in rural Maine, has haunted, compelled, comforted, entertained, frightened, and shaped me in… Read More ›
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“Final Destination: Bloodlines” breathes new Death into the franchise in a 4K Blu-ray home release.
I could spend hours ruminating on all of the ways the Final Destination franchise shaped me as a lover of film from childhood, but eventually I would bore you with my stories of being afraid of the Final Destination 3… Read More ›
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After the beep, girl, Nancy’s bringing “A Nightmare on Elm Street” home on 4K Blu-ray.
Rapid fire. When I say the word “horror icon,” what’s the first thing that springs to mind? Jason Voorhees? Leatherface? Chucky? The Xenomorph? Maybe a new school pick like Art the Clown? Or as it is for so many other… Read More ›
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“Smile 2” strengthens its themes with the framing of pop stardom.
Ready for a trauma dump? Because unfortunately, it’s necessary for me to properly explain why I did not like Parker Finn’s Smile very much. One week before Smile dropped into theaters in September of 2022, my best friend killed themself… Read More ›
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Seek out “Caddo Lake” and the secrets within.
In looking to distract the masses from the fact that their leader, David Zaslav, is a monster, Warner Bros. Pictures (along with its genre subsidiary, New Line Cinema) has been striking lucrative deals with industry titans to strengthen the brand… Read More ›
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“Longlegs” reaches your home viewing space in Blu-ray and 4K UHD via DECAL Releasing.
For a film as cold and icy as Longlegs is, the world really ran a fever for it in the heat of a climate-change ridden summer. The crime horror film from Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter), financed independently at C2… Read More ›
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Reactions to “Megalopolis” are as divided as the successes and failures within the film.
While every person on Earth has their own crop of favorite filmmakers, there are those who stand as an almost objective list of the most influential to ever live: Alfred Hitchcock (Rope), Akira Kurosawa (Hidden Fortress), Federico Fellini (8 ½),… Read More ›
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“Apartment 7A” has all the elements of a great horror movie befallen by forcing the connection to Rosemary. [Fantastic Fest]
Over my recent vacation to Mexico (my first one in over half a decade), I spent most of my days with my Kindle reading in the pool as I baked in the Gulf sun. The first work I devoured in… Read More ›
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“Speak No Evil” and the curse of the spineless American yuppies.
“It’s hard to say no, isn’t it?” – Paddy, played by James McAvoy in Speak No Evil (2024) Back in the early days of 2022, I sat down for my first (and only to-date) viewing of some Sundance Film Festival… Read More ›
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“The Strangers” remastered in 4K via Shout! Studios delivers visuals worthy of a repeat purchase.
It’s been quite a year for the franchise of horror films known as The Strangers as not only do we get this new home media release, we are also being treated to three new films in the franchise courtesy of… Read More ›
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Book-to-film adaptation “The Watchers” stumbles on pacing and dialog in Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut.
Back in April, at the beginning of a particularly sleepy 12-hour shift manning the box office of the downtown Durham theatre in which I work, I opened A.M. Shine’s The Watchers on my Kindle, having impulsively downloaded it via the… Read More ›
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Criterion releases “Farewell My Concubine (霸王別姬)” in its original unedited form in high definition.
Longing for something you can never have is perhaps one of the cruelest forms of emotional torture a person can put themselves through, and it’s an experience all too familiar within queer communities. Every queer person has had the one… Read More ›
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“The Strangers – Chapter 1” cuts … and pastes too much from the previous films to be its own entry.
When I was just a wee lad, 11 years old to be precise, I had two fears: frogs (still do to this day) and home invasion. For some reason, I figured that I was a special enough little boy to… Read More ›
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A well-cultivated pairing of performances makes “Starve Acre” a worthy addition to the British folk horror genre.
MaXXXine (2024) is a tribute to giallo horror of the ‘80s, The First Omen (2024) pays homage to the psychological horror of the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, In A Violent Nature (2024) adds a twist to the great American slasher film,… Read More ›
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“Deadpool and Wolverine” brought the buddy cop mantra but left everything else in the cab.
There will be no spoilers in this review as there are plenty of surprises that will be used to great effect for those who care. Basic plot points will be covered, but nothing that wasn’t in the trailers. When the… Read More ›
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The whole of “Tarot” is as entertaining as its depiction of the practice is accurate.
I have a friend who is witchy in that they love to imbibe tarot readings and other spiritual practices of the same ilk, and when I sent them the trailer for the new home media release from Sony Pictures, Tarot… Read More ›
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“Challengers,” one of the most culturally relevant films of the year, gets a sleeper of a home release by Amazon MGM.
Life is a lot like tennis; it’s a constant back and forth with the powers that be looking to beat you down. But, also, tennis is like a relationship, and tennis is like sex. Tennis is a lot of damn… Read More ›
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The skills of Oz Perkins are on full display in the audience-dividing “Longlegs.”
When you think of the scariest films you’ve ever seen, what is it about them that truly scares you? Is it the immediate fear of being gutted by a silent, masked killer? Is it the ethereal impermanence of a ghostly… Read More ›
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After multiple paused release dates, Hüller and Wolff make “Sisi & I (Sisi & Ich)” worth the wait.
Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I (Sisi & Ich) sat completed on the shelf for nearly two years after its initial shooting dates, and was even further delayed for release in America by almost an entire other year following its premiere… Read More ›
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“Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)” releases a beautiful Criterion Blu-ray with special features.
Awards season has come and gone once again, like another overblown, overwrought, overlong thief in the night, spanning an impressive seven months from the beginning of the Venice Film Festival to that of the Academy Awards. Though, unlike other years,… Read More ›