Author Archives
Founder: Elements of Madness | Past Bylines at CLTure, Pretty Vacant One, FilmFed, & Mountain Xpress | NC Film Critics Association, Southeastern Film Critics Association, & Critics Choice Association member | Rotten Tomatoes approved individual critic
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Disquieting and poignant amid beautifully grotesque scenes, Alberto Vázquez’s fantastical farce “Decorado” ponders the risk of questioning one’s reality and the reward of truth.
What matters more: that something *is* real or that it *feels* real? If we’re talking about art or a prosthetic, then the recreation may provide the satisfaction desired. Possessing mere artifice may be all that’s needed in order to achieve… Read More ›
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Bryan Fuller’s fantastical gateway adventure “Dust Bunny” comes home, empowering a new generation of possible fans to start their horror journey.
The horrors that keep us up at night are, for better or worse, the ones we make ourselves. The regrets, the failures, the hopes, the dreams, all the good, all the bad, swirl together in the dark to coagulate into… Read More ›
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Film Masters offers a newly-restored edition of Victor Halperin’s notorious horror tale “White Zombie.”
What was once a little niche, a little subversive, as a narrative tool, zombies are now so totally mainstream that they’ve become incorporated in everything including comic books (Marvel Zombies), video games (Call of Duty Zombies; Dying Light), and countless… Read More ›
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Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” encourages you to watch with more than two hours of supplemental materials on the home release.
When Stephen King published his novel The Running Man under the name Richard Bachman in 1982, the book must’ve been seen like a piece of cynical dystopian fiction. Instead, like Jules Verne with the submarine and space shuttles, it turned… Read More ›
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Dramedy “The Travel Companion” highlights the importance of collaboration over competition.
Life is a marathon. You don’t train for it, you probably don’t stretch enough, but it is a marathon. The mistake that most make is perceiving those around them as competition instead of rivals. Competitors are there to defeat you… Read More ›
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Sci-fi satirical dark comedy “The Saviors” posits an inevitable destiny for all via humanity’s rush to cast heroes and villains. [SXSW]
Trigger Warning: The opening sequence features flashing lights and quick-cut imagery that may be triggering for photosensitive individuals. “DESTINY! DESTINY! NO ESCAPING THAT FOR ME!” – Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) in Young Frankenstein. In storytelling, there are two pretty… Read More ›
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Gore Verbinski’s “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” arrives on physical formats which means it’s game on at home.
Photosensitivity Warning: The climax of the film includes an extended sequence of flashing that may prove triggering for photosensitive individuals. Take precautions. Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead … only try to realize the… Read More ›
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Larry Fessenden’s “Habit” participates in a celebration of the director’s latest creature feature. [The Overlook Film Festival]
Writer/actor/director Larry Fessenden has been a steady presence in filmmaking for several decades now. Whether appearing in other people’s projects (Bringing Out the Dead; Good Boy), writing them (Until Dawn), or making them himself (Wendigo; The ABCs of Death 2),… Read More ›
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“The Running Man” 4K UHD Digital Code Giveaway
Back in November 2025, filmmaker Edgar Wright (Last Night in Soho) unveiled his kinetic adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Running Man, starring Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, Jayme Lawson, Daniel Erza, and many more. Paramount… Read More ›
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Oliver Hermanus’s “The History of Sound” comes available on physical formats via MUBI.
Music is a significant part of the oral tradition. Even if we lack words for our feelings or experiences, we can always chant, using the power of our lungs to vibrate our breath into song and story. This is why… Read More ›
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“Odyssey” Digital Code Giveaway
During SXSW 2025, filmmaker Gerard Johnson premiered his dramatic thriller Odyssey, centering a real estate agent whose life and ambitions are tested across five intense days. Via Cineverse, general audiences can now experience Johnson’s Odyssey as it releases on VOD and digital… Read More ›
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Screenlife real-time techno thriller throws everything at you except what it needs: “Mercy.”
The insertion of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in storytelling used to be entirely science fiction in the same way that submersible technology (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) or watch phones (Dick Tracy) were. Now, however, A.I. is being worked into… Read More ›
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Johnnie To’s mixed-genre “Romancing in Thin Air” gets a first-time US and UK Blu-ray via Radiance Films.
When a storyteller — whether writer, director, actor, etc. — becomes known for something, they very often get pigeon-holed and face difficulty escaping that perception. People known for westerns do westerns, for action do action, for horror do horror, and… Read More ›
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Meet Me at the Movies: Time for a Samara Weaving Double Feature!
On a recent episode of Meet Me at the Movies, I joined Noel T. Manning to discuss a few of my favorite SXSW 2026 titles. Since you can only cover so many well in one episode, I returned to talk… Read More ›
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The Home for Anime Podcast: Talking “Cosmic Princess Kaguya!”
As a writer, my comfort zone is putting my thoughts on paper and hitting publish, but there’s truly nothing like having a conversation with a fellow film nerd. In this case, joining fellow NCFCA member Cameron Allison on his The… Read More ›
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Yûta Shimotsu’s sophomore film, cosmic horror “New Group,” challenges the meaning of “one of us.” [The Overlook Film Festival]
Muno (Yo, right), he’s tall and friendly Foofa (Oh, hehehehehe), she’s pink and happy Brobee (Woah), the little green one Toodee (Yeah, woo), she likes to have fun Plex (Woah), a magic robot Let’s all come and play with DJ… Read More ›
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For those who came in late, “The Phantom” is bestowed a first-time 4K UHD with brand-new features via Kino Lorber.
Before comic films were cinematic, extended, or otherwise franchise driven, they were more often singular. It’s hard to believe given the proliferation of them today, however, before the 1990s, major studio cinematic comic adaptations were limited to Superman (1978) and… Read More ›
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Just a “Normal” nefariously good time. [The Overlook Film Festival]
“Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep, even so I will endure… For already have I suffered full much, and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war. Let this be added to… Read More ›
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Hot Contents: dark-tinged crime comedy “Chili Finger” may scald parents young and old. [The Overlook Film Festival]
There are many weird things regarding the rules of storytelling and one of them is tied to the concept of reality. Unless one is dealing with space wizards and laser swords, orcs and elves, a certain adherence to what is… Read More ›
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Meet Me at the Movies: SXSW 2026 Breakouts & Hidden Gems
SXSW 2026 ran from March 12th – 18th, 2026 and I had the pleasure of covering the festival once more. Accompanied by EoM Contributors Justin Waldman and AJ Friar, we screened 24 films and provided reviews for each. Out of… Read More ›