Film Reviews

Even more risky than a filmmaker’s commitment to making a genre picture is a filmmaker’s commitment to making a subgenre picture. While exploitation cinema presents inevitable limitations, it’s the conventions of niches within niches that comprise subgenres of exploitation that, ...

Details Director: Pascal Laugier Starring: Morjana Alaoui, Mylene Jampanoi, Catherine Begin, Robert Toupin, Patricia Tulasne, Juliette Gosselin Type: Color Year: 2008 Language: French Length: 97 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Video codec: VC-1 Resolution: 1080p Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Dolby ...

Loneliness is a frightening emotion in its own right. The root of much depression, and in more extreme cases self-mutilation and suicidal tendencies, can be found within loneliness. However, the most frightening aspect of loneliness may be the omnipotence of ...

Making movies is a lot like visiting a salad bar. Everyone has his own preference for the most agreeable assemblage. Some like loading the plate high with potato salad and baby corn, and some like strategizing the arrangement to recreate ...

The Socially Conscious Revamp That Never Was Allow me to preface this review but stating that, in the very peculiar case of Texas Chainsaw 3D, I’m not really interested in the film’s visual properties. I offer this disclaimer because a ...

Franck Khalfoun’s (P2, Wrong Turn at Tahoe) third feature, Maniac, is a remake of William Lustig’s schlocky serial-killer flick from 1980.  It makes a few adjustments to the original: employing Elijah Wood’s nerdy neurosis as Frank, the titular maniac, in ...

Director(s): Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska Writer(s): Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska Cast: Katharine Isabelle, Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk, David Lovgren, Paula Lindberg Website: https://www.twistedtwinsproductions.net/americanmary.htm Vancouver filmmaking team Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska exploded onto the genre film scene with ...

Arriving during prime Halloween movie season, Scott Derrickson’s new film Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as a true-crime writer who stumbles onto the scoop of a lifetime in a box labeled “Home Movies.”  Of course that’s not all he stumbles on, ...

For a film with 10 directors, 10 writers, and five unique segments, you’d think V/H/S would be able to do something innovative.  Unfortunately, for all its moving parts it’s just a giant mishmash of genre cliches and jiggly, low-fi camerawork.  ...

Trying to discuss Brandon Cronenberg’s debut feature without raising comparisons to his father’s work is akin to cutting grass with a pair of toenail clippers. It might be possible, but is ultimately an exercise in inefficiency. While the attending director ...