Joseph reviews three **** short films from Vienna’s SLASH Film Festival.
Archive for ‘Reviews’
Liz’s Review: Deep Fear (Fantastic Fest 2022)
★★3/4 out of ★★★★★
Evil is lurking under the streets of Paris in Deep Fear!
Liz’s Review: The Antares Paradox (Fantastic Fest 2022)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Will the search for life on other planets alienate us from each other? That is at the heart of The Antares Paradox.
Mike’s Review: Pearl (2022)
★★ out of ★★★★★
Pearl WILL be one of the more divisive films of the year. It will end up on some “best of” lists, but it could very well end up on some “worst of” lists. Why? Simple really. It’s a very uneven film. It contains some rather shocking bits, but it’s also equally underwhelming.
Liz’s Review: Barbarian
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Barbarian is the most fun you’ll have in the theater this year!
Mike’s Review: Men (2022)
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
This might seem like a stretch, but you’ve never seen a film quite like 2022’s Men. Really. It’s in a pretty singular place in the world of psychedelic horror. Frankly, there’s nothing that really compares to this shocking bit of A24 business. Unless you count David Cronenberg’s 1979 classic the Brood as a contemporary — but that was 43 years ago.
Men, directed by friend of horror, Alex Garland (28 Days Later and Annihilation) is exactly the film that 2022 needed, nay required. By managing to expertly weave through a minefield of trauma, sexual repression, male insecurity, and post-#metoo movement dynamics, Garland turns in one of the best horror films of the year.
Robert’s Review: The Seed (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A beautifully shot slow-burn B-movie with a goofy looking alien, fun dialog, and a visceral closing act. Meteor showers, man. What’s not to love?
Mike’s Review: Moloch (2022)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
As a horror film Moloch really has everything you’d ever want. Well-placed scares. A little blood, but not too much. Ghost-is characters. Possession — sort of. Pre-christian Low Country mythology. And even — gasp — pagan demon cults!
Joseph’s Review: FINAL CUT (Arrow Video FrightFest)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
This remake of the surprise Japanese hit One Cut of the Dead puts a French spin on the proceedings — and it works!
Eric’s Review: Ghosts of the Ozarks (2022)
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
The horror western Ghosts of the Ozarks is a curiosity. It feels like a wholly original concept and yet it telegraphs all its plot movements. It is populated full of interesting characters with some pretty notable actors, but in their fun quirkiness, they end up playing like one-note caricatures. And, in spending most of its time world-building, the film fails to propel the story in any dramatic or scary way.
Joseph’s Reviews: THE ONES YOU DIDN’T BURN and THE GHOSTS OF MONDAY (Arrow Video FrightFest)
The Ones You Didn’t Burn ★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The Ghosts of Monday ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
These two features from Arrow Video FrightFest offer plenty of supernatural eeriness.
Joseph’s Reviews: STALKER and MEAN SPIRITED (Arrow Video FrightFest)
Stalker ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Mean Spirited ★★★ out of ★★★★★
Two premieres from Arrow Video FrightFest are well worth the attention of horror film fans.
Liz’s Review: Glorious
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A cosmic horror odyssey that never leaves the bathroom! Glorious is one hell of a film!
Joseph’s Reviews: OLD MAN and PUSSYCAKE (Popcorn Frights)
Old Man ★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Pussycake ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Two wild features from Popcorn Frights are both worth putting on your cinema radar.
Joseph’s Review: The Loneliest Boy in the World (Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2022)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
A troubled teen boy tries to put together a friend and a family consisting of dead people in this poignant, breezy, fanciful fairy tale.
Eric’s Review: Distress Signals (Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2022)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Distress Signals is a micro-budget survival thriller, done simply, and executed well. This is a lost in the woods scenario, a story that we can all identify with. In its simplicity though, I found myself wishing there was more dramatic tension and more visceral threat. As thrillers go, this is more solitary drama than thrills.
Robert’s Review: Living With Chucky (2022 Popcorn Frights Film Festival)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Covering every entry in the long running Child’s Play franchise, this finely crafted documentary is sure to be a hit with fans of the wise-cracking killer doll, Chucky, and horror lovers in general.
Eric’s Review: Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters (2022 Popcorn Frights)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The unique and stylistically powerful art of Mike Mignola is put into the shadowy spotlight of the documentary of the Hellboy artist. A documentary is only as interesting as the subject material, and Mr. Mignola proved to be a fascinating study of a complex individual and a late blooming artistic genius.
Mike’s Review: Third Saturday in October Part IV (2022 Popcorn Frights Film Festival)
★★ out of ★★★★★
We all know the rule. Sequels are (mostly) awful. Always (most of the the time). The further you Get in to a franchise the sequels will GROW proportionally more awful. Two might be passable, but by the time you get to Part IV you’ve just purchased a non-refundable one way ticket to stink town. Population: suck.
Joseph’s Review: Orphan: First Kill
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Prepare yourself for a lot of lunacy and absurdity, and arm yourself with a heaping helping of willing suspension of disbelief, and you should have an entertaining time with Orphan: First Kill, the prequel to 2009’s Orphan.
Mike’s Review: Third Saturday in October (2022 Popcorn Frights Film Festival)
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Many horror films try, but equally, many films fail to concoct the perfect period piece. Often times concept for period pieces in the world of horror seems to be centered around someone’s uncle who has a really mint 1977 Trans Am. Seems like an easy tasked to build an entire film around some funky vintage clothes and a sweet ride, but more often than not it’s a task where many fail.
Mike’s Review: Malibu Horror Story (2022 Popocorn Frights Film Festival)
★★ out of ★★★★★
The CW made a found footage horror movie! Well, not really, but it sure feels like it. Too perfect kids. Too beautiful actors. Too perfectly clean footage and technology. Replete with a rag tag group of Scooby Doo-esque paranormal researchers!
Joseph’s Review: Tiny Cinema (Popcorn Frights)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Fans of horror comedy should consider the deliciously delirious horror comedy anthology Tiny Cinema required viewing.
Mike’s Review: Allegoria (2022)
★.5 out of ★★★★★
Anthology horror films are so full of creepy goodness! Moral tales. Freaky through lines. Peculiar and off-putting horror hosts and narrators. They give us everything we desire in spooky bite-sized chunks. Until they don’t.
Eric’s Review: Prey (2022)
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Prey is a remarkable refresh of the old Predator franchise. For my money, this is the best action horror movie since The Descent, the best horror western since Ravenous, and could arguably be better than the original Predator. The movie has the best protagonist yet (Including Dutch), and the monster is better than ever. The movie is a transportive adventure, and who would have thought that this previously moribund series could find such fresh legs?
Mike’s Review: This is GWAR
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
GWAR is the little band that no one has ever heard of, but absolutely everyone needs to know. Their horrifying musings are just that — horrifying musings. Don’t be mistaken there’s so much more this gore-filled party. So much more. After nearly 40 years they have perfected the art of soaking their weak and puny audiences with blood, guts, urine, and yes, semen.
Liz’s Review: Confession (Fantasia International Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
A locked room mystery that explores how far one lawyer will go to get a Confession.
Eric’s Review: The Eyes Below (2022 Popcorn Frights Film Festival)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
The Eyes Below is perhaps the closest thing to a real nightmare since David Lynch’s 1977 opus, Eraserhead. If you have ever had dreams of being smothered, suffocated, or strangled, this is your unrelenting torment. Be mindful though, it also includes the occasionally repetitive tedium of a dream you can’t get out of..
Joseph’s Review: Skinamarink (Fantasia)
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Skinamarink is a mesmerizing work set in the dark of a nighttime home that finds two young siblings confronted by a chilling evil, with visual and aural approaches that make the proceedings all the more unsettling.
Liz’s Review: Cult Hero (Fantasia International Film Festival)
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Gather your fellow members, put out a tray of deviled eggs and prepare to be busted by CULT HERO!