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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“Megalomaniac” tells an over-played story in the most violent way possible.
Content warning: I’m not even going to list the triggers that Megalomaniac touches upon so extremely. Basically, if you have a content trigger of any kind, Megalomaniac probably exploits it for you. I can’t say I actually have any, but… Read More ›
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Takahide Hori’s unique film experience “Junk Head” is now available for home viewing via Synergetic Distribution.
Remember in school during group projects when you would be randomly assigned with the worst possible people possible, and then, unsurprisingly, you end up doing all of the work? And the ensuing urge to tell the teacher as many times… Read More ›
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Shrouded in a daft disguise, “Haunted Mansion” pretends to terrorize.
I’d like to think that I’m a large proponent of “horror films for kids,” even if they don’t always particularly excite me as an adult viewer. Films like Goosebumps (2015), Monster House (2006), Beetlejuice (1988), and Hocus Pocus (1993), while… Read More ›
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Fission accomplished! “Oppenheimer” more than delivers on the anticipation and hype.
With the exception of one film of his in recent years, and regardless of your opinion on him as a filmmaker, a new Christopher Nolan film releasing in theaters always feels like an event the scale of which we simply… Read More ›
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If the option comes to accept “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” do it without hesitation.
When Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol dropped in 2011, I hadn’t seen any of the other films in the series, but the trailer’s promises of acrophobic suspense shot in full 70mm IMAX pulled me in. I was so enthralled by… Read More ›
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Adele Lim’s R-rated comedy is an absolute “Joy Ride.”
The R-rated studio sex comedy. Once a staple of the American film industry, this genre has since faded into semi-obscurity following a mixture of oversaturation (did we really need three Hangover (2009-2013) films?) and Gen Z finding their own comedic… Read More ›
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Summoning a Kandarian demon gets you a great horror experience despite absent special features in “Evil Dead Rise.”
A controversial take to start off the review: I prefer the newer Evil Dead films to the older ones. This isn’t because I think they’re significantly better in quality, Sam Raimi’s trilogy is a masterclass in camp filmmaking that has… Read More ›
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Enjoy the surprisingly charming and enjoyable “The Pope’s Exorcist” at home now.
It’s sometimes tough as a horror fan to not occasionally roll my eyes at certain sub-genres under the umbrella due to being burned one too many times by vapid copycats. Strangely, the exorcism sub-genre of horror, while defined by William… Read More ›
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Before you explore “The Red Door,” go back to the first “Insidious” tale with Sony’s limited-edition 4K Blu-ray.
PG-13 horror gets a bad rap. Sure, there have been some films that were so clearly supposed to be full-fledged R-rated scare-fests toned down to a more commercially viable PG-13 rating in their early years (for me, I think of… Read More ›
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“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” does more world building than character building.
I was almost 11 years old when Michael Bay’s first Transformers film came out in the summer of 2007, and while I was never a fan of the toys (I was severely gay, and therefore loved my sister’s Barbies), I… Read More ›
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“Beau is Afraid” and I am perplexed.
Perhaps my favorite movie-going story is how right after graduating college I went on a long-awaited trip to Europe with my mother and, at the same time, Ari Aster’s debut film, Hereditary (2018) was released into theaters. My Twitter timeline… Read More ›
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“Renfield:” DOA and Hating It.
Few villains in any medium of storytelling are quite as iconic as Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, also known as The Prince of Darkness, also known as Vlad the Impaler, also known as The Dark One, etc. (he has an Erykah… Read More ›
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2021’s “Cube” lands on the pile of unnecessary remakes.
There was a viral tweet going around recently of a meme account getting roasted for implying that high school in 2002 was “so chill,” leading millennials of that age to share their horror stories of attending high school in a… Read More ›
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“Air” takes it to the hole with great performances and a well-balanced script.
Growing up as the designated Family Homosexual™, I wasn’t particularly privy to watching sports, and especially not playing them (I was a chorus/theatre kid, big shock). The little about sports I did know as a child of a family from… Read More ›
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Shake hands with Anna Zlokovic’s feature debut “Appendage.” [SXSW]
As I get older, I am finding more things about my body that make me feel genuinely decrepit and gross. Whether it’s my newfound back pain, a new mole somewhere unexpected, or simply coming to the conclusion that my acne… Read More ›
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Synapse Films offers up Dario Argento’s “Phenomena” in a special edition 2-Disc 4K UHD edition.
When it comes to Dario Argento, the highs are high and the lows are cavernous pits leading straight to hell. The Italian filmmaker, known for helping further define the later era of the giallo film, has made some of the… Read More ›
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“Brooklyn 45” is a wonderful hybrid-genre film that brings war and trauma full circle. [SXSW]
The shadow of war, from the prehistoric days to the ultra-modern, technologically-advanced warfare of the present, has loomed large over the entirety of humanity. One could argue that war is the one thing seen consistently throughout history, seemingly touching every… Read More ›
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Radio Silence’s “Scream VI” moves the thrills and bodybags away from Woodsboro and onto an exciting new path.
Caution: I will obviously not be discussing spoilers to this film, because I’m not cruel and the whole point of these films is the fun “whodunnit” of it all, but I am somewhat forced to discuss some spoilers from Scream… Read More ›
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Director Elizabeth Banks’s “Cocaine Bear” is high on its own supply in this animal attack horror entry.
If I were a basic gay, I would start this review with “A Cocaine Bear? You just mean West Hollywood at 3 a.m.?” and move on with my day…but I’m not, and I won’t…but you get the picture. Despite my… Read More ›
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Restoration of extreme film “Calvaire” offers little more than access to the film.
Fabrice du Welz’s Calvaire (titled The Ordeal in some English-speaking regions, but not here), premiering at Cannes in 2004, is a strange, but valid entry into the canon of “New French Extremity” that gripped French-language horror/thrillers from the mid-‘90s to… Read More ›