Raw (aka Grave) represents the best elements of the London Film Festival. Not only did this neat, original, out-of-nowhere film about living zombies at a veterinary school play at the festival, it actually won the Sutherland Award, given to the first feature with “the most original and imaginative directorial debut.” Last year, the same award went to Robert Eggers for his outstanding maiden effort, The Witch. That’s two years in a row in which this prize has gone to horror films. London is at the forefront of the major festivals at showcasing and promoting excellence in genre films. It is part of what makes those 12 days in October in the UK capital so special for film fans. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Horror’ Category
Raw (aka Grave) Review
Posted: October 27, 2016 in 2016 London Film Festival, Foreign, Horror, ReviewsTags: Ella Rumpf, French movies, Garance Marillier, Julia Ducournau, Sutherland Award, The Witch
0
The Autopsy of Jane Doe Review
Posted: October 27, 2016 in 2016 London Film Festival, Horror, ReviewsTags: André Øvredal, Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Olwen Catherine Kelly, Opehila Lovibond
It is more than a shame that The Autopsy of Jane Doe is not being released this weekend. It’s bad business not to make this film available for audiences at Halloween. One can easily imagine a huge opening weekend for one of the best horror films of 2016, courtesy of teens and millennials keyed up for a good scare. Instead, the film will hit the cineplex on December 21, when it will try to find an audience on the one or two screens not showing Rogue One on a continuous loop. Talk about leaving money on the table… (more…)
Trash Fire Review
Posted: October 20, 2016 in 2016 Fantasy FilmFest, Comedy, HorrorTags: Adrian Grenier, Angela Trimbur, AnnaLynne McCord, Fionnula Flanagan, Richard Bates Jr., Sally Kirkland, Suburban Gothic
Trash Fire boasts a laugh-out-loud opening scene and a punch-to-the gut closing scene. The problem is what comes in between.
Writer/director Richard Bates Jr. third feature film occupies a strange limbo. Trash Fire is not conventional enough to generate empathy for its characters as they attempt to secure a viable future by coming to terms with past trauma. Nor is the movie outrageous enough to rank as a black comedy despite some genuinely funny moments. And while it can be identified as horror/comedy, each moment is one or the other or something closer to family drama. Genres here play like oil and water with no intermingling. (more…)
Another Evil Review
Posted: September 28, 2016 in 2016 Fantasy FilmFest, Comedy, Horror, ReviewsTags: Carson D. Mell, Dan Bakkedahl, Ghostbusters, Larry David, Mark Proksch, Steve Zissis
It turns out that 2016 actually saw the release of two new Ghostbusters. The better known of the two was, of course, the all-female lead version that was met by controversy and misogyny from the time the first trailer dropper. The movie itself was amusing; the cameos from the original cast were terrific; and no tender fanboy egos were harmed in the making of the film.
The other Ghostbusters has flown under the radar since its premiere at SXSW in March. It could be because the word “Ghostbusters” does not appear in its title or any of its promotional material. The movie has none of the original cast or crew and makes no effort whatsoever to align itself with the 1984 comedy classic. But don’t be fooled by this. The little indie gem Another Evil is a spiritual sequel to the beloved Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd et al romp. (more…)
The Eyes of My Mother Review
Posted: September 19, 2016 in 2016 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Horror, ReviewsTags: Diana Agostini, Kika Magalhaes, Nicolas Pesce, Olivia Bond, Paul Nazak, Will Brill
Every year, we invariably hear of one or more movies that “redefine” or “reinvent” the horror genre. Most times, careful viewings of the films in question reveal a slick repackaging of familiar conventions. Often, the redefining is a twist on a twist; the reinvention is a reversal of expectations. Horror fans take these slight alterations in style in stride, noting the degree of success by the extent of the imitations they spawn. The new becomes the old within a relatively short period of time, and the genre is reset. (more…)
The Greasy Strangler Review
Posted: September 13, 2016 in 2016 Fantasy FilmFest, Comedy, Horror, ReviewsTags: Elizabeth De Razzo, Jim Hosking, John Waters, Michael St. Michaels, Sky Elobar
How you feel about The Greasy Strangler coming out of the theater will be directly related to how you were feeling going into the theater. In other words, the more altered your perception of reality, the more likely you are to spend the 93 minutes giggling and gagging, while enjoying yourself immensely. The designated drivers among you will not be having the same experience. In the spirit of full disclosure, when seen at a 6:30 screening by a stone cold sober critic, The Greasy Strangler still provoked some laughter and absolutely no ill will. (more…)
The Disappointments Room Review
Posted: September 12, 2016 in Horror, ReviewsTags: Gilbert & Sullivan, Kate Beckinsale, Lucas Till
Yes, I suppose we need to get the obligatory pun on the title of this awful movie out of the way.
Q: What’s a disappointments room? A: Any theater showing this mess of a would-be horror film.
While we can acknowledge the guts, foolhardiness, or disregard surrounding the decision to title a film The Disappointments Room, nothing else in the endeavor merits recognition, beyond the scope of the disaster and a vague desire for answers to inexplicable questions surrounding this production. Simply put, The Disappointments Room is one of the worst major releases (1554 screens) of 2016. How bad is it? After the first weekend, Rotten Tomatoes had a reading of 0% on its Tomatometer for this movie, meaning that even the hack critics who live to see their name in blurbs did not have the balls to give this a thumbs up. (more…)
Under the Shadow Review
Posted: August 30, 2016 in 2016 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Foreign, Horror, ReviewsTags: Avin Manshadi, Babak Anvari, Bobby Naderi, Iran-Iraq War, Iranian Films, Narges Rashidi
The Iran-Iraq War was an interminable sequence of horrors, largely unseen by the West and then quickly overshadowed by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War. The conflict stretched from 1980-88 and featured some of the most brutal warfare since the First World War including child soldiers, chemical weapons, trench fighting, human wave offensives, and wide-scale civilian bombing. To set a fantastical horror movie within the horribleness of this conflict would seem to risk trivializing the tragedy, but the eloquent, understated film Under the Shadow amplifies the terrors of the war and the all too real consequences for the populace. (more…)
Drive-In Dive In: Thirst
Posted: August 6, 2016 in Drive In, Horror, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Clare Niederpruem, Greg Kiefer, Jes Macallan, John Redlinger, Karl Makinen, Monster Movies
First things first – Thirst is a lousy name for this movie. It’s a pretty bad one for almost any movie at this point, considering how many times it’s been used in the last 40 years as a film title. On almost every occasion, the movie in question has been about vampires. That’s not the case here. This Thirst is about an alien that arrives on earth hungry. Yeah, apparently Hunger as a title might have given too much away.
And that beautifully illustrates the core problem for this movie – it’s lazy, sloppy work. The inspiration likely came from the mind of a nine-year-old boy who spent his school days drawing fantastical creatures in his spiral notebook and his nights watching Alien, Predator, and Terminator movies. The monster in Thirst is a B movie classic – with a lizard body, an alien mandible, predator dental work, a terminator metal skeleton, and an anus in the middle of its chest. Nice work, kid.
Unfortunately, that same nine-year-old apparently wrote the screenplay. How else to explain that the character among the group of eight wandering the Utah backcountry who is given the most backstory is among the first killed? Or that no proper motivation can be given for the group going further away from civilization after a dead body is found? Or that the most annoying among the many annoying characters sticks around until almost the end? (more…)
Drive-In Dive In: The Remains
Posted: August 5, 2016 in Drive In, Horror, ReviewsTags: Hannah Nordberg, Haunted House, Thomas Della Bella, Todd Lowe
Horror is a forgiving genre. Fans do not expect perfection; they generally do not nitpick to excess. They are adept at overlooking minor flaws such as bad acting, lack of logic, and narratives that take a sudden 90-degree turn at the end out of sheer desperation. All they ask is is to keep the pace up, keep the scares coming, and when in doubt, at least keep it weird. The one filmmaking error that cannot be forgiven in horror is when the movie is just flat-out boring. (more…)
Meet Mr. Karma 