With the release of this horror trilogy (directed by Leigh Janiak) and with the release of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, Halloween Kills and Scream 5 on the horizon, it’s pretty fair to say slasher horror films are making a comeback. Back in the late 70s and 80s in the wake of the success films like Halloween […]
There are a couple of films I watched last year at festivals, and loved, but never put up a review. Well, I am so glad to announce that THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR has been released and premiered last Thursday July 29 on Shudder. A true to life horror story, the film chronicles two friends […]
MMT Quick Review of THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR
It doesn’t look like much. The Harrisville, Rhode Island home might not get a lot of second or third looks on Zillow. “Needs paint” translates as “rustic” and “historic.” “Low ceilings” just means its out of date. But “historic” is right on the mark. This 300 year-old wood frame/clapboard house is where the events depicted […]
Documentary Review: The “Conjuring” house goes AirBnB — “The Sleepless Unrest”
The year is 1981 and Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, of course!) have just screwed up another exorcism. Only Ed hears as Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor) begs the demon that has possessed 8 year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) to enter him instead. Unfortunately, Ed also has a heart attack and passes […]
Film Review: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (dir by Michael Chaves)
It’s hard to think of a movie, short or feature-length, a TV show or a play that, setting out to ridicule the critic profession, hasn’t landed a few sucker punches and body blows. Jon Lovitz, paunchy and animated for TV, always reviewing movies in T-shirts studios give out to advertise their movies, Bob Balaban’s owlish, […]
Movie Review: Horror fan stuck among serial killers, all in “Vicious Fun”
The new trailer for “Till Death” may leave you a little uneasy about taking a romantic getaway with your significant other. The new thriller from first-time director S.K. Dale and screenwriter Jason Carvey sees Megan Fox leading a small cast working in a snowy single location. The trailer sets up the premise nicely and if […]
“There’s something sinister in the woods.” It’s not a direct line of dialogue from NEON’s upcoming eco-horror film “Gaia” but it could have been. This eerie new chiller from director Jaco Bouwer utilizes the tried-and-true creepy forest setting to great effect, sucking us into another bizarre and unsettling deep-woods scenario that melds mystery with the […]
This recently restored film is an interesting look at George Romero and a controversial subject. The Amusement Park (1973) was a discarded film, originally created by Romero as a commission work for the Lutheran Service Society in Pittsburg, but not widely used and thought lost. The original 16mm reels were sitting in Romero’s basement aka […]
One Day YOU will be old – The Amusement Park review #georgeromero
A Quiet Place was perhaps the pinnacle of the sensory deprivation horror of the late 2010s – the last of a plethora of films that tried to reinvest the multiplex with a new sensory immediacy by focusing on characters who had one or many senses disabled. That movement didn’t necessarily feel exhausted by A Quiet […]
Krasinski: A Quiet Place Part II (2021)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 8 out of 10. It’s been interesting that while writing all of these reviews, I’ve been surprised how many have been adapted from books: the likes of Misery, Marathon Man, M*A*S*H and Manhunter. Maybe it’s just because they begin with M, but in order to try and break the funk, I’ve gone for […]
The Shining: The Perfect Lockdown Viewing?
Catherine Clare… trades life in 1980s Manhattan for a remote home in the tiny hamlet of Chosen, New York … She soon comes to sense a sinister darkness lurking both in the walls of the ramshackle property—and in her marriage (Letterboxd) In its dialogue, editing, and overall presentation it’s a bit clunky and contrived; the […]
Peter Weir’s 1979 film, The Plumber, is essentially a battle of wills between two very different characters. Jill Cowper (Judy Morris) is a masters student in anthropology. She’s educated, articulate, liberal-minded, and upper middle class. She’s married to Dr. Brian Cowper (Robert Coleby), a highly respected academic who is on the verge of being offered […]
Film Review: The Plumber (dir by Peter Weir)
MY CALL: I love this flick! There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s still a solid movie. We have an awesome cast giving good performances in a well-directed, deliciously gory killer plant movie. What more did you want? MORE MOVIES LIKE The Ruins: Well, for more killer plant movies I’d aim for Splinter (2008), Invasion of […]
Several months ago we got an incredible cool teaser for “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, the follow-up to 2018’s critically panned but big box office success “Venom”. The film is part of the strange symbiotic (see what I did there) relationship between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios. The Venom movies are not part of the […]
First Glance: “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”
Time: 92 minutes Age Rating: Torture & Sadistic Violence Cast: Tobin Bell as John Kramer Costas Mandylor as Detective Mark Hoffman Scott Patterson as Agent Peter Strahm Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck Julie Benz as Brit Meagan Good as Luba Gibbs Mark Rolston as Agent Dan Erickson Carlo Rota as Charles Director: David Hackl Although Jigsaw […]
Throughout my many years of covering and reviewing movies I’ve been pretty vocal about my belief that Guy Pearce is (and for a long time has been) one of the most underrated and undervalued actors in the business today. He’s charismatic, incredibly diverse, and easily one of the industry’s busiest workers (he has FOUR films […]
REVIEW: “The Seventh Day” (2021)
“The Nun” marks the fifth film in the Conjuring ‘universe’ and the third backstory spin-off. “The Conjuring” and its direct sequel remain two of my favorite horror films of the last several years. The first spin-off was the dull mess-of-a-movie “Annabelle”. The prequel to “Annabelle” was a good step in the right direction. That brings […]
Sure, I’m as done with vampire movies as anybody. But a Bram Stoker riff in thick Irish brogues? Let’s have it, then. “Boys from County Hell” is about an outbreak of the undead in the homeland of “Dracula” author Stoker. It’s slangy and profane, bloody and bloody funny, as well. “Most people don’t even know […]
Movie Review: Irish Bloodsuckers face the “Boys from County Hell”
Available on DVD and digital download from 19th April, Into the Labyrinth, starring Dustin Hoffman, is a twisted psychological thriller in Italian and American English with a great international cast about a girl’s abduction and the hunt for her kidnapper. The film starts with the strange disappearance of a young girl Samantha Andretti (Valentina Bellè) […]
When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, trying to outrun the sinister fate they have inherited. This is a film that had always been on the edge of my awareness especially as reviews came up when the film […]