Being a woman in this world is hard. From a young age, we’re taught to be polite, stand up straight with our shoulders back, and most of all, be pretty. Put on makeup, style your hair. Women are continuously held… Read More ›
horror
Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill and Won’t Give Up the Ghost: Modern gothic drama “Went Up the Hill” explores grief and codependency.
The gothic ghost story subgenre explores new avenues in Went Up the Hill, a meditative and moody drama from director Samuel Van Grinsven. Set in New Zealand’s South Island, Went Up the Hill takes after its gothic predecessors by setting… Read More ›
Glenn McQuaid’s “The Restoration at Grayson Manor” is an alchemical mixture of melodrama and body horror which asserts some rehabs are best treated with napalm. [Fantastic Fest]
Names mean something. They hold power. Names withheld can create mystery and names known can open doors. They are the things that can be passed down from generation to generation — be it a surname, a given name, a middle… Read More ›
Surviving horror comedy “Coyotes” is simple: stay with your pack. [Fantastic Fest]
“Il meglio è l’inimico del bene. (Perfect is the enemy of good.)” – Attributed to Voltaire in 1770. If we spend our time pursuing perfect, we’ll miss out on a great deal. What ideal we set up for ourselves —… Read More ›
“The Man in My Basement” walks a delicate moral and ethical line. [TIFF]
Co-writer/director Nadia Latif takes on double duty in their first feature while adapting Walter Mosley’s novel The Man in My Basement. While Mosley’s material has yielded something interesting in an adaptation before (Devil in a Blue Dress) and this adaptation… Read More ›
Filmmaker Ken’ichi Ugana’s onryō tale “The Curse (咒死你)” blends cultural customs with modern conveniences in order to craft maximum carnage. [Fantastic Fest]
It’s not an uncommon practice for a filmmaker to release two films in a year. John Huston released The Treasure of the Sierra Madre the same year as Key Largo (1948), Akira Kurosawa released Scandal in the same year as… Read More ›
Documentary “Chain Reactions” shares the voices of five pop culture pillars discussing the on-going impact a 1970s film has had on their lives and careers. [BUFF]
If you’re a fan of the cultural zeitgeist documentaries, then the name Alexandre O. Philippe should mean something to you. Philippe has directed such projects as The People vs. George Lucas (2010), Doc of the Dead (2014), Lynch/Oz (2022), William… Read More ›
Danny and Michael Philippou’s “Bring Her Back,” a brutal essay on grief-induced madness, is now available on Special edition 4K and Blu-ray from A24.
Content Warning: The following home release review will include descriptions of child abuse and death, which may be difficult for sensitive individuals. Death is inevitable. At some point in our lives, we will all be touched by grief due to… Read More ›
Morality comedy “Death of a Unicorn” charges onward to home video.
How much do you need? Not want, but need. The basics of living include food, water, and shelter. In the times we live in, it may be fair to extend that further to include medical care and internet access (can’t… Read More ›
“Exit 8” utilizes the video game adaptation genre to dive deep into humanity and individual choices. [TIFF]
To go into a movie without knowing anything about it is a rare experience, but sometimes something drops into your inbox and you decide to jump head first into it knowing nothing other than that it is a festival screening…. Read More ›
The robust performances within escape room horror thriller “Locked” can’t enhance its shallow philosophy.
What would you do to right a wrong? What wrong would you do to make something right? Where is the line by which a good person becomes bad and what rationale do they provide to defend themselves? In truth, from… Read More ›
The mop of justice returns with filmmaker Macon Blair’s “The Toxic Avenger” adaptation.
The tagline for Macon Blair’s 2023 adaptation of Lloyd Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger is “The Hero We Need Now,” and this rings even more true upon its wider theatrical release in 2025. Environmental protections are down in favor of corporate… Read More ›
2006’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” gets its gore a worthy upgrade to 4K UHD from Arrow Video.
I think there was a time where I saw, or at least saw parts of, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). My recollection of it is null, so when I visited (or maybe revisited) the 4K by Arrow after… Read More ›
2003’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” comes to 4K UHD hunting for new fans via Arrow Video.
In the world of horror movies, there is always going to be debate as to which one is the greatest of all time; it’s going to vary from fan to fan, from opinion to opinion. But one seems to universally… Read More ›
Horror thriller “Burning” utilizes multiple perspectives to showcase how little we know about the people around us. [Fantasia]
In storytelling, the most obvious thing is that the narrative is based on perception, but it’s also the thing that we most take for granted as an audience. We presume that what we see, what we hear, is what happens;… Read More ›
“Mother of Flies” is a poetic and unsettling horror tale from one of indie cinema’s most distinctive filmmaking families. [Fantasia]
Mother of Flies is another remarkable entry from this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, and a testament to the uniquely haunting and heartfelt filmmaking voice of The Adams Family — the indie horror power trio made up of Zelda Adams,… Read More ›
Sci-fi psychological thriller “Descendent” explores masculine insecurities via an extra-terrestrial encounter.
The best alien movies are rarely just about aliens. While Ridley Scott’s genre-defining classic explores themes like corporate corruption, class, and gender, other alien movies like E.T. (1982) and Arrival (2016) utilize extra-terrestrial characters and elements to explore deep and… Read More ›
Julie Pacino’s psychological thriller “I Live Here Now” draws you in and never lets you escape. [Fantasia]
Thinking you cannot get have a child conventionally due to something out of your control leads to making different choices, but when you’re proven wrong, everything turns your world upside down. However, in Julie Pacino’s feature debut, I Live Here… Read More ›
Bubblegum horror “Foreigner” is a pitch-perfect genre mashup where every emotional note sticks the landing. [Fantasia]
Foreigner is one of the standout films from this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, offering a stylish and subversive take on teenage horror through the lens of the immigrant experience. Set during the early 2000s, a time of low-rise jeans,… Read More ›
Horror comedy “Hell of a Summer” receives a decent home release edition for a subpar cinematic experience.
If there’s anything that cinema has taught us, don’t be a camp counselor. Either they have to build morale for a rag-tag group of kids coming from disparate backgrounds in order to help defeat an opposing camp, have to play… Read More ›