The year is 1922. A gallon of gas costs $0.22. Warren G. Harding is a shitty president. Germany can’t get enough of that Nosferatu and Wilfred James has done a very bad thing. Adapted from Stephen King’s 2010 novella of the same name and written/directed for the screen by Zak Hilditch, 1922 is a Southern Gothic thriller in its purest form. Except it’s the Midwest. Nonetheless, you have murder, transgressive thoughts, desires, impulses, ghosts and corn in a brooding thriller far better than its Netflix Original trappings.

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It’s hard to say what kept me from seeing mother! when it was released 2 years ago. There seemed to be a lot of negative hype surrounding it, though this came mostly from its unprecedented “F” CinemaScore, which is not something I’d ever cared about previously. Perhaps it was also because critics didn’t seem to be in love with it as much as they were in love with discussing its unwieldiness. So it made the film seem like an overtly difficult watch, but also like it might not ultimately be worth consuming its more provocative elements. Well, I can now say I agree with the critical consensus that it’s a hard film to love, but is also so batshit insane that I’m glad I finally got around to seeing it. Continue reading →

Train to Busan begins with a disturbing image that I wish the movie explored more. A farmer drives his truck into a quarantine zone and becomes distracted trying to reach his vibrating phone in the passenger seat. While his eyes are off the road, he runs over a deer. The farmer gets out, inspects his vehicle for damage, then resumes his journey. But the camera lingers in place and the dead animal suddenly lurches back to life. This begs so many questions, like what animals are infected? Do they only want to eat their own kind or will they attack anything they see? Unfortunately, Train to Busan is not the zombanimals movie I’ve been waiting for. It is, however, one of the most fun zombie movies I’ve seen in a while.

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In our era of constant reboots and reimaginings, it’s not uncommon to find genre films that are homages to certain eras and styles. However, it’s rare that a film is an homage to such a specific era and such a specific style in the way that The Love Witch is. In fact, it feels a little weird talking about the film in regards to 2010s horror, considering it feels like such a product of the late ’60s/early ’70s. Yet, it has enough modern themes thrown in to make it a distinct product of 2016 while indulging the sultry, kitschy images of the past. Continue reading →

Green Room represents exactly the things that have created my general resistance(?) to horror movies and why I’ve still seen so many of them. Green Room is a thrilling movie and on paper I like lots of movies that are exciting… but most of those are action movies. Here, the intensity is in service of creating dire situations that you have to hope you’ll never face in real life. You could go as far as to describe them as miserable. And yet, the movie is smartly made with fully-realized characters, beautiful imagery, and all the other film criticism cliches. It adds up to an all-too-familiar picture: a movie I respect a helluva lot more than I like.

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I was supposed to watch a plus two-hour South Korean movie for today’s review. I had an opportunity last night, but instead I watched Joe Flacco get sacked nine times on Thursday Night Football. That game. That was true horror. So coming off the bench for today is Another Evil a little horror comedy that deserves way more love than it’s received.

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