For those of us who are fans of dementedly-designed miniatures, old-school animation, and midnight movie oddities, “Mad God” is a one-of-a-kind vision from a one-of-a-kind creator.
WHEN I CONSUME YOU (2021)
Perry Blackshear’s brand of intangibly implied insidiousness is back on track with welcome weirdness capable of worming its way into any susceptible psyche.
DEMONIC (2021)
If you or I brought this script to a studio, we would be laughed out of the room once they got to the part that sounds like an altar boy’s fan fiction.
HELLBENDER (2021)
There isn’t anyone doing deeper, equally intriguing work on a consistent basis in the DIY horror space than this remarkably impressive filmmaking family.
THE LAST MATINEE (2020 - Spanish)
The majority of the movie nails the feeling of a crisper, slicker Italian horror film from the 1980s even though it’s in Spanish.
OFFSEASON (2021)
“Offseason” excels at putting a bottle around insidious insinuations, but their hollowness tastes like a side salad of superficial visual spooks.
KING KNIGHT (2021)
“King Knight” is a dramatic comedy aimed at people who can relate to reckoning with a particular kind of identity crisis during the twilight of their thirties.
OLD (2021)
“Old” offers much to mull over as a slow-burn ‘Twilight Zone’ chiller, but more so as a quietly provocative piece about our relationship with mortality.
MASQUERADE (2021)
On paper, this sounds like a masterful cinematic illusion that would make M. Night Shyamalan drool. If it can be pulled off, which “Masquerade” can’t.
BLOOD RED SKY (2021 - German)
“Blood Red Sky” turns into one of the more “human” vampire movies out there because it’s really about a single mother fighting against forces trying to turn her into a monster.
THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR (2020)
It might be for the best that “The Boy Behind the Door” becomes more fictional than factual, at least as far as rattling viewers with “ripped from the headlines” realism is concerned.
KANDISHA (2020 - French)
It’s standard slumber party stuff chock full of angsty young friends, a Ouija-adjacent summoning, a vengeful spirit, you know the drill.
FEAR STREET PART THREE: 1666 (2021)
I have a more favorable opinion of the entire “Fear Street” trilogy, what it intended, and what it accomplished, now that I know how the three chapters fit together.
MEANDER (2020 - French)
This looked like a lot of redundant crawling. Did I really want to spend 90 minutes stuck inside a tube watching one woman wriggle around?
A CLASSIC HORROR STORY (2021 - Italian)
After factoring in the pros of its professional polish and the cons of disposable character development, “A Classic Horror Story” comes down to how well its ending works.
FEAR STREET PART TWO: 1978 (2021)
If “1978” wasn’t part of the “Fear Street” event, it would barely be remembered as a so-so summer camp slasher dominantly distinguished by “having one of those ‘Stranger Things’ kids in it.”
BEHIND THE SIGHTINGS (2021)
“Behind the Sightings” shows up five years after the forgotten phenomenon it photocopies and two decades after the “found footage” fad hit its peak too.
TILL DEATH (2021)
The recipe for a successfully satisfying viewing requires seeing “Till Death” as an R-rated Lifetime drama that takes a sudden turn into Stephen King-style horror.
FEAR STREET PART ONE: 1994 (2021)
“Fear Street: 1994” sunbathes in scorching nostalgia, yet throws back the thrills with a neon-soaked style that’s still attractive to millennial audiences.
GAIA (2021)
Patience isn’t only a virtue. It’s also a mandatory requirement for making it all the way through “Gaia.”
“Shiver Me Timbers” is another slapdash slasher where the madman murdering nondescript nobodies is supposedly some twisted interpretation of Popeye.