How does a previously mediocre-at-best thriller hold up under the forgiving light of nostalgia 18 years later? Surprisingly not too poorly.
ST. AGATHA (2018)
“St. Agatha” turns in a strong showing of gross-outs, gruesomeness, and other assorted scenes of savagery.
VELVET BUZZSAW (2019)
It took me over half of the runtime before I finally accepted that the movie might be telling a joke rather than being the butt of one.
HORROR NOIRE: A HISTORY OF BLACK HORROR (2019)
Finally, a film to expand and inspire my knowledge, exposure, and appreciation of an often overlooked slice of cinema.
HAUNTED HOSPITAL: HEILSTATTEN (2018 - German)
Filmmakers who really ought to know better are still plopping out redundant first-person flicks like cinema sadists taking their whips to Secretariat’s corpse.
ANIMAS (2018 - Spanish)
CHAR MAN (2019)
Why did I watch “Char Man?” I want to work out what would possess me to make such a terrible choice for an evening’s entertainment.
PIERCING (2018)
The film refrains from hitting a high heat, bubbling on an acceptable simmer that can singe fingertips without peaking into a full fire.
DRY BLOOD (2017)
“Dry Blood” includes an almost equal number of plusses to its minuses, basically becoming a decidedly average microbudget horror movie.
ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)
You’d have to be a complete Grinch to be immune to the movie’s ability to melt icy hearts with its punchy spirit and cheeky splatter.
THE PREDATOR (2018)
THE HIVE (2015)
Bursting with black lights, strobe lights, skipped frames, and Stargate wormhole whips, “The Hive” exhibits the ADD energy of a music video on methamphetamines.
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (2018)
Whenever I reflect on the unusual appeal of its mesmeric allure, the more I appreciate “Under the Silver Lake” as a unique travelogue through a weird waking dreamscape.
HELL FEST (2018)
I can’t think of a plausible scenario to explain how six writers became creatively involved in something so formulaically flavorless.
BIRD BOX (2018)
Looking at “Bird Box” solely through a lens comparing it to “A Quiet Place” kneecaps the movie’s merits as sharply produced, well-acted drama.
ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017 - Japanese)
I wish there was something more than stage-setting to the first 60 minutes so that “One Cut of the Dead” didn’t take so long to win me over.
THE NUN (2018)
You could fill an ocean with the classic Universal and Hammer monster movie atmosphere pouring from “The Nun” like a waterfall.
HURT (2018)
If “Hurt” has a specific style in mind, message it wishes to impart, or artistic objective it aims to achieve, I can’t tell what any of those might be.
THE HAUNTED (2018)
If you want to watch a nondescript woman unhurriedly explore an unremarkable house for the better part of an hour, “The Haunted” has you covered.
YOU DIE (2018 - Italian)
I can’t imagine how Apple ever allowed You Die onto iTunes, much less what kind of paranormal programming would be required to produce such an app in the first place.
Without any interesting arcs, side plots, or even a main plot to go along with the gore, “Ice Cream Man” devolves into a lot of meaningless mayhem.