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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Once the idea gets in your head, it’s inevitable that “She Dies Tomorrow.”
Contagions are a powerful force of nature, illustrated beautifully by the fact that I haven’t worn anything but basketball shorts and cheap t-shirts for the last four months because of a deadly, incurable one that has swept the world and… Read More ›
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Horror thriller “1BR” offers pure, clever entertainment.
Apartment hunting is a living nightmare. There’s simply no way around the fact that every facet of moving to a new space is meant to test our mental and physical fortitude as humans, looking to see just how much stress… Read More ›
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Romola Garai’s directing debut “Amulet” delivers on every twisted promise.
Actors turned directors are not rare occurrences in the film industry with many seasoned actors at least taking one crack behind the camera during the course of their career, from George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Tom Hanks, Warren Beatty, to Denzel… Read More ›
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The Breathtaking Melancholy of “Relic” (or How I Learned to Stop Panicking and Trust the Aging Process).
Both of my grandfathers died before my grandmothers (one of whom, my mother’s mother, is still with us), and what remained following their deaths was a peculiar phenomenon that I had never considered before. As women of the 1940s, they… Read More ›
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Leaning more into comedy than horror, “Zombie for Sale” provides a welcome escape.
For a population currently living through a viral pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the world, zombie films feel almost a little too on the nose at this point. Take into account how it’s now clear that a good portion… Read More ›
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New streaming horror film “Yummy” is anything but.
What’s so wonderful about horror is that there’s truly something for everyone. Do you find yourself compelled most by fear of the unknown? Try some supernatural horror. Scared of a violent apocalypse? There are tons of zombie films at your… Read More ›
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Closing out the “Time Warp” documentary series, “Volume 3” looks at the area of comedy and camp.
Personally speaking, I don’t really think the concept of a “cult film” resounds in the same way today as it did pre-social media. Everyone’s tastes and needs are attended to so astutely by viral start-up studios and filmmakers shooting entire… Read More ›
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Etheria Film Festival 2020 Shorts Program streaming on Shudder for a limited time.
In the art of filmmaking, short films aren’t the films you make for widespread acclaim and global distribution, but rather for the cinephiles and short-form entertainment enthusiasts that might just have the pull to get your foot in the door… Read More ›
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Sadly, it may be best to heed the title on “Warning: Do Not Play.”
Since its commodification, Asia has capitalized on the horror genre perhaps more fiercely than any other continent. From early Japanese tales of feudal terrors like Ugetsu (雨月物語), Kwaidan (怪談), and Kuroneko (藪の中の黒猫), to more modern tales of turmoil like Ringu… Read More ›
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Documentary “You Don’t Nomi” perfectly captures the self-aware, but unionic love audiences possess for “Showgirls.”
Love to hate it, hate to love it, or just plain hate it, Showgirls is a movie that to those who have seen it, will never fade from memory. The tale of Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 NC-17 fame epic has gone… Read More ›
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Animated horror flick “To Your Last Death” only feels like murder.
Within the horror genre, there are countless sub-genres that exist to define the genre as a whole: slasher, ghost stories, torture porn, revenge thrillers, psychological horror, etc. However, one area that doesn’t really seem to have any sort of traction… Read More ›
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“Swallow” physically manifests the psychological act of piled-on abuse. [Final Girls Berlin Film Festival]
Horror being used as a social allegory is a tale as old as time, even if less informed audiences might try to convince you that it is an entirely new phenomenon. From the earliest days of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to… Read More ›
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Final Girls Berlin Film Festival Brings attention and exposure to many horror niches. [Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2020]
We can pretend like Greta Gerwig not receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Little Women is the end-all, be-all of discrimination against women in the film industry, but the misogynistic practices of this massive industry stretch much further… Read More ›
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“VFW” balances excellence on one end and absolute batshit crazy on another.
When it comes to the new world of film production, the world has been seeing a lot of big name companies saying “screw it” and making their own films rather than sitting around while putting out other companies’ films on… Read More ›
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“The Lodge” is opening its icy doors. Do you dare go in?
Horror as a means of directly confronting human trauma is not a new concept that suddenly sprang out of nowhere with Hereditary. If anything, it’s arguably the basis for all horror dating back to the very beginning. What’s better for… Read More ›
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Upending conventions by combining trends with personal style, Richard Stanley creates the next best midnight horror movie in “Color Out of Space”.
I have a small connection with Richard Stanley which makes viewing Color Out of Space feel like a strangely touching moment. Stanley’s new film, based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, is his first feature film to be produced… Read More ›
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Just keep telling yourself “Daniel Isn’t Real.”
For as big as the waves that SpectreVision is making in the indie horror scene with cult hits like The Greasy Strangler and Mandy, it’s a real wonder why a major distributor hasn’t taken a bigger chance putting their films… Read More ›
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Despite a subversion of genre tropes and bevy of homages, Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and Skin” isn’t as sharp as it aims to be.
The textbook definition of “teen movie” has taken a sharp left turn in the past decade. Gone are the days of lighthearted slapstick comedies à la American Pie and Superbad, or the mushy romance films like She’s All That and… Read More ›
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Crime thriller “The Irishman” is Martin Scorsese at his most self-assured.
In his recent years, and more specifically in recent months, Martin Scorsese has really stepped away from the spotlight…oh my god, could you imagine if I was serious with that? The argument has been made that Scorsese made the controversial… Read More ›
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Peter Strickland’s Giallo-inspired “In Fabric” crafts an inspired modern tale out of vintage filmmaking. [Film Fest 919]
It’s no secret that Suspiria is one of my favorite films of all time, with the 2018 remake just ever so slightly edging out the 1977 original thanks to its expansion on the film’s themes and plot to make something… Read More ›