If you’re into Southern Gothic literature, you’ll go nuts over Mark O’Brien’s feature directorial debut, The Righteous, which screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival earlier this month. Granted, it was filmed in Canada and not the American South, but… Read More ›
There’s a demented fascination with nuns in modern society that I feel is worth examining. It’s an alien world of pious faith that most cannot even begin to understand, but we have taken many steps in trying to. From Black… Read More ›
From Rosemary’s Baby to False Positive, Psycho to Mommie Dearest, motherhood and the horror genre are a match made in heaven. The labyrinth of psycho-socio-political issues surrounding motherhood, pregnancy, and the mother-child relationship has truly found its home in horror… Read More ›
Japan is gonna Japan whether or not you want Japan to Japan, and when it Japans, it Japans hard. That in and of itself could be the singular tagline for Masashi Yamamoto’s Wonderful Paradise (脳天パラダイス), celebrating its North American premiere… Read More ›
Every now and then this gig, writing about movies, is an absolute godsend. It’s not that you get to travel the world from the safety of your couch, learning histories, seeing unimagined sights, but that there’s incredible opportunity to be… Read More ›
There are many ways to view identity. Some define themselves by their faith, by their location, by their profession, or by their hobbies, their fandoms. Some define themselves by their sex, their gender, or their sexual preference. One thing that… Read More ›
You don’t necessarily need complex characters or ingenious plot twists to write an engaging story. With strong imagery and a clear, palpable tone that physically affects your audience, you can transform the most overdone plot into a memorable tale. Writer/director… Read More ›
For most people, the teen years come with a myriad of confusing emotions, drastic life changes, and embarrassing incidents. For Akira and Maki, the young protagonists of Yoichi Narita’s Follow The Light, those formative years also bring a number of… Read More ›
Which would you rather do: the hard right thing or the easy wrong thing? A decision like this is simple when the stakes are low, like what’s for dinner: cooking it yourself when you have all the ingredients but are… Read More ›
From a certain point of view, individualism is the same as conformity. They might clash in their mission, but are otherwise simply a uniform someone wears in order to identify themselves. Got green hair made into spikes? Listen to antiestablishment… Read More ›
EoM contributor Thomas Manning recently had the opportunity to interview Angela Sarafyan about her role in the official Fantasia Film Festival selection, King Knight. They discuss her performance as the character Willow, her interactions with co-star Matthew Gray Gubler, and… Read More ›
You don’t need a degree in film studies to make an educated guess about when a movie was made, or to at least place it within the right decade. It’s easy to recognize specific cinematic styles and themes from each… Read More ›
What defines “personhood”? This is a complex question that gets debated quite a bit, specifically in regard to pre-birth healthcare. Is it from the moment of cell division, the presence of a heartbeat, or the moment a life reaches prime… Read More ›
In this life there are few things worse than being misunderstood, to possess the feeling that those around you can’t see about you what you see in yourself. This schism between social reflection and personal identity has been the source… Read More ›
In this audio interview, Thomas Manning of The Run-Down On Movies speaks with Jules Willcox and Marc Menchaca, the stars of the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival selection, Alone, directed by John Hyams. Alone tells the story of a recently… Read More ›
In a corporate world made of glass, steel, and concrete, Jeon Gye-soo’s atmospheric Korean language film Vertigo captures the agony of one woman’s emotional and physical isolation and the slow-budding connection she makes with a high rise window washer contracted… Read More ›
In this interview, Thomas Manning speaks with Bao Tran, the writer and director of the new kung fu comedy and Fantasia Film Festival selection, The Paper Tigers. Three Kung Fu prodigies have grown into washed-up, middle-aged men, now one kick… Read More ›
In this interview, Thomas Manning sits down with directors David Darg and Price James, the filmmakers behind the Fantasia Film Festival selection documentary, You Cannot Kill David Arquette. Branded as the most hated man in wrestling after winning a highly… Read More ›
When it comes to modern Korean horror (Parasite doesn’t count), there’s really a “before The Wailing” and “after The Wailing” period going on currently. Sure, there are still some fast-moving, breakneck horror being made in South Korea, but there has… Read More ›
Sanzaru is a film that might look like a film along the lines of The Dark & The Wicked in its rural set-up for a horrific force haunting a house, but off the bat, there’s something much stranger at hand…. Read More ›