There are slashers, and then there is Pieces. I am going to begin with a confession. I once wrote an article on underrated slashers for a mainstream genre magazine solely so I could promote the idea that you haven’t seen ...
Read More »Home Sweet Home: Bethany (2017)
James Cullen Bressack is impossible to ignore. Joyfully divisive, his films often inhabit the darker reaches of genre, and challenge the palate of even the most ardent horror fan. Hate Crime (2012) pushed the home invasion narrative to the breaking ...
Read More »Calm Before the Storm: Jason Voorhees as a Literal Force of Nature
You have sex and you die. You smoke weed, you drink, guess what? You’re going to die. That is, by and large, the general takeaway of the Friday the 13th series. Amazingly, it’s a sentiment widely shared by both hardcore ...
Read More »Deeper into the Forest: Peter Strickland’s Katalin Varga as Pastoral Revenge Thriller
In some sense, director Peter Strickland has become regarded as a cult film director, thanks to films like Berberian Sound Studio (2012)—which follows a British sound engineer isolated in an Italian recording studio as he does sound effects for a ...
Read More »King of the Hill: The Assignment (2016) Marks the Welcome Return of a Maverick
There is a scene in Walter Hill’s latest neo noir outing, The Assignment, where deranged plastic surgeon, Dr. Rachel Kay (played by a delightfully evil Sigourney Weaver), recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s essay The Philosophy of Composition when explaining her motives ...
Read More »Movie Review: The Dark Tapes (2017)
Indie horror anthologies are enjoying a moment of popularity, and with good reason: there’s something for everyone. The segments, like short stories, are bite-sized tales loaded with maximum storytelling. As long as there is a sense of thematic or tonal ...
Read More »Movie Review: The Transfiguration (2017)
Since the dawn of cinema, vampires have existed in cinematic culture. Occasionally, the genre seems dead. The viewer, the creator, everyone involved has done everything they can do with the infamous bloodsuckers. Then a film drops onto the scene to ...
Read More »Interview: Andrew Goth Talks MindGamers and the Power of Collective Thought
These are some of the thoughts and questions that ran through my mind as I sat back in a packed theater going through the scientific and cinematic experience provided by MindGamers at the Empire at Time Square in New York ...
Read More »Pandemic – CAT III Style: Ebola Syndrome (1996)
Directed by Herman Yau, Yi boh lai beng duk (Ebola Syndrome, 1996) is an infamous Hong Kong CAT III entry. Since 1988, Category III has been Hong Kong’s most restrictive certificate – “No persons younger than 18 years of age ...
Read More »Interview: Trent Haaga Talks 68 Kill, Evil Clowns and Killer Rabbits
Trent Haaga might not be the household name he deserves to be yet, but his contributions to genre cinema haven’t gone unnoticed either. For nearly 20 years he’s been a prolific indie actor, writer and producer, and his presence can ...
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