Ava’s Possessions
This is a sly, well-made little horror/comedy that puts a unique spin on the demonic possession genre while providing just enough chills and laughs along the way.
Film-Forward
The Wave
There is room for big, loud, dumb expensive movies in the world, but Michael Bay, you just got schooled on how to make a disaster flick by the Norwegian upstarts behind The Wave, which is a hell of a fun ride.
Nina Forever
Before I settled down in my seat to watch the new horror/comedy Nina Forever, my friend and I were discussing a particular film that I liked and he didn’t. He did admire its audacity, though. He said it was a film you had to go “all in for.”
Fortuitously, Nina Forever is an absolutely “all in” […]
Southbound
Southbound comes from the makers of the popular “V/H/S” series, and they are doing their darndest to bring back the horror compilation, a long dormant venture that most recently peaked in the 1980s with Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt. Southbound ditches the campy humor of those examples and tries for a more gritty, grungy […]
JeruZalem
The found-footage horror film is the ugly stepchild in a family of ugly stepchildren. If slasher films do not get respect, found-footage movies, save for one or two, tend to elicit groans and rolling eyes. They are super cheap to make, the cinematography and sound are generally awful, and the acting worse because, for the […]
Body
Body is reminiscent of an episode of an old Alfred Hitchcock TV show. (I’m not aging myself here. It aired long before I was born). It has a quick, concise high-concept idea that can play out in an hour. It also barely rates as a feature, coming in at 75 minutes, and for the most […]
The World of Kanako
The World of Kanako is not a film that produces a lukewarm reaction. It’s pretty much a love or hate kind of situation. Of course, you can do both. Connections to films can be like relationships, and this is one you can absolutely despise loving. In fact, it’s a response the movie practically demands.
There is […]
I Am Thor
The behind-the-scenes documentary I Am Thor is about a heavy metal singer who dresses up as, yes, the Nordic god Thor, bends steel bars, vanquishes foes onstage, and smashes bricks with sledgehammers. So, essentially, he’s the band GWAR before GWAR. He almost made it in the halcyon 1980s when He-Man (who he uncannily resembles) and […]
Entertainment
Entertainment is one odd film. Possibly the weirdest I’ve seen in quite a while. If you can imagine the Coen Brothers’ deadpan stare, Sam Shepard’s white trash western goth aesthetic, and David Lynch’s dream-fuck phantasmagoria skillfully mulled together, you have an idea. Still, you will be shaking your head in disbelief at what you have […]