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By day, Eric is a mild-mannered Architect, bringing great buildings to the good boys and girls of his hometown of Portland, Oregon. By night, he is a disreputable podcaster looking to promote the best and worst of horror movies!

Eric’s Portland Horror Film Festival Review: Miimaland (2020)

★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ A group of paranormal investigators gains access to an abandoned amusement park in Malaysia called Miimaland, as part of a challenge by a shady hustler. What starts out as an amusing lark becomes a deadly curse trap that proves to be a haunted destiny for the crew.
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Popcorn Frights Announces Second Wave of Programming for Virtual Festival!

You can also catch Popcorn Frights from the comfort of your own home! From August 12-19, you can catch the big second wave of films that can arrive straight to your living room. Twenty-one feature films and a plethora of live and animated horror shorts for your entertainment. And, if you fest at home, the popcorn will be so much cheaper!
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The 2021 Portland Horror Film Festival Movie Announces its Film Slate! (And for a short time you can still get a Patron of Horror Pass)

Our beloved local Portland Horror Film Festival has announced its feature film roster for 2021. And for ONE MORE DAY, you can get the Patron of Horror Pass that gets you all of the fantastic swag that PHFF is famous for! The festival is doing a hybrid streaming and theatrical event this year, and you can pick and choose how you want to see the movies.
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Eric’s North Bend Film Fest Review: Tailgate (2021)

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ The ultimate road rage movie that collides with a nail-biting home invasion film. This Dutch film absolutely pours the intensity on in a way unseen in many a year. A rude and headstrong man picks the wrong enemy in a highway tailgating incident, subjecting his entire family to the revenge of a nuanced killer who uses rat poison as his weapon of choice.
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Eric’s Review: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ Once more into the maze! It's still full of tricks, traps, misdirection, and impossible challenges. As it was the last time, the killer escape rooms are hugely imaginative, even if the overriding plot isn't. It's an entertaining low-calorie thrill ride that is as entertaining and exciting as a roller coaster, but it has about as much nuance and character development as an carnie ride as well.
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The Scariest Things Review: The Forever Purge (2021)

★★★1/2 and ★★★★ out of ★★★★★ The Purge series has a way of reflecting the anxieties of the moment, and the latest installment, The Forever Purge, pours gasoline on the subject of immigration and the ugly political divide within the United States. It is a ferocious dystopian view that if you squint, is frightening as to how close we are to this dark reality. Your feelings about this film may get framed largely from your political point of view.
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The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXXVI: Giallo!

Buona sera! If you like your horror with a large slice of salacious, then look to the Italians and their bloody thriller tradition of Giallo. Where to start? Let the Scariest Things point you the way to a bloody good time.
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Trailer Alert: Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania (2021)

There are few better on-ramps into the horror landscape for little kids than Hotel Transylvania, and the cast is (mostly) back for more monster wackiness. This time out, the Hotel residents find themselves switched into normal human guise by way of a mad science ray experiment. Madcap hinjinx ensue. This one is for Liz!
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Dead List: The 25 Best Giallo Titles

Giallo is known for many things. The flash of a killer's knife blade. Black gloves. Gordian knot mysteries and plot twists. Sexy women in lurid, compromising, and let's be fair- misogynistic situations. Salacious eye catching posters. Blood. So much blood. And, crazily evocative bordering on non-sensical titles. The Scariest Things dove deep into the Giallo well to find the best titles in the genre.
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Trailer Alert: Don’t Breathe 2

When the closing scene concluded in Don't Breathe, it was clear that they intended to do a sequel. And now, Stephen Lang is back, and Sony Pictures has produced a trailer for the upcoming Don't Breathe 2. It appears that this time, the blind man is going to be something of an antihero.
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The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXXV: Horror Documentaries

The best way for you to learn about Horror Films is to read and listen to The Scariest Things. The next best thing to do is to watch a Horror Documentary. You will find a documentary that aligns with your favorite horror tropes. Giallo? Check! Grindhouse? Check! Classic Universal Monsters? That too. In Episode 125, the Scariest Things team reveals nine movies that will increase your knowledge and love of the genre.
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The Scariest Things Review: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

★★★1/2 and ★★★★ out of ★★★★★ The highly anticipated return of the demonologist duo, The Warrens, has arrived on the big screen. It starts off with a ferocious roar of an opening scene, and largely holds its dramatic tension to the finish of this exorcism mystery meets courtroom drama.
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Horror Shorts: Finley (2019)

Dolls are creepy. Ventriloquist dummies add on the extra creep factor. Finley takes advantage of all the established history of the evil dummy tropes that came before it and flips all expectations in the most amusing and satisfying way.
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Eric’s Review: A Quiet Place Part II

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ A worthy sequel to the science-fiction horror modern classic. A Quiet Place Part II is very much an extension of the first movie. It feels like one continuous story. Intense, expertly crafted, and wonderfully acted, this movie doesn't break a lot of new ground but it builds upon what the original did so well. It's a first-rate thrill ride!
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Trailer Alert: Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright channels his inner Argento with a dreamy giallo-noir trailer for his upcoming film Last Night in Soho starring Anya Taylor Joy, Tomasin McKenzie, and Matt Smith.
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Horror Shorts: We Got a Monkey’s Paw (2018)

"What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" The most accursed of curse tropes is brought to hilarious proportions in one of our favorite horror shorts from the Portland Horror Film Festival in 2019, now released on Alter... and now The Scariest Things!
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Eric’s Review: Spiral: From the Book of Saw (2021)

★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ Spiral: From the Book of Saw attempts a fresh start to a somewhat tired franchise, and packs in A-list celebrities into a pedestrian plot, that ties itself up with too much exposition and not enough of the tricks and traps that made Saw such a draw.
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Portland Horror Film Festival: A Call for BIPOC Horror Directors

Are you an aspiring horror movie director, and happen to be from an underrepresented ethnic minority in filmmaking? Well now is a golden opportunity chance for your work to be seen! The Portland Horror Film Festival is offering FREE film submissions for BIPOC film creators. Deadline is May 4.
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The Scariest Things Podcast: Episode CXXI: Horror Westerns

Howdy partner! The western expanse is big and full of terrors. I'd be careful out there if I were you. A man can go missing out there right quick if you're not careful. The Scariest Things heads west along the trail of much bloodletting as we examine Horror Westerns in Episode 121.
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Podcast Extra: A Conversation with Murder Bury Win Director Michael Lovan

Sometimes when you find a film, you connect with it. And sometimes when you write about this film connection, the director of the film wants to share his love of creating the film with you. Such was the case with Michael Lovan, and his film, Murder Bury Win, and he sat down to discuss all things about this firecracker of a movie with The Scariest Things.
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