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Need a recommendation? We consume as many movies, TV shows, and books as we possibly can and let you know what we thought of them!

Life of Mariko in Kabukicho (2022) (BiFan Film Festival)

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 With a complex multi-story plot featuring an alien in a basket, a serial killer, sister assassins, a failed Yakuza strongman, and a discount ninja instructor, the BiFan showcased feature Life of Mariko in Kabukicho is a delightful slice of life in sleazy Tokyo that Quentin Tarantino could admire. The story complexity is grounded by the clever and stalwart young detective Mariko (Sairi Itô) who investigates all sorts of strange goings on in her neighborhood. This is only horror adjacent, and is more of a storytelling collage featuring several genre types. It is intoxicating, Go see it when you get a chance.
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The Horror of Dolores Roach (2023) Review

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Amazon brings the hit podcast The Horror of Dolores Roach to the small screen and it is the perfect way to beat the summer heat.
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Chabak – Night of Murder and Romance (2023) Review: The Portland Horror Film Festival

★★★1/2 out of ★★★★

Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

A Korean couple fail to heed the warnings of a serial killer on the loose when embarking on a romantic chabak (car camping) excursion. A standout performance by Kim Minchae and a strong story foundation probably pushes one too many melodramatic twists at the end. Still an entertaining slasher film worth watching.

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Joseph’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival Reviews: 2035, THE NEW TALE OF RAT WIFE, and HOME

2035 (2023) ★★★ out of ★★★★★ Zero out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 The New Tale of Rat Wife (2023) ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Home (2023) ★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Among South Korea’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival’s premiere and classic offerings from around the globe are new voices in Korean cinema. Following are reviews of three works from up-and-coming Korean directors.
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Bldg. N (2022) BIFAN 2023 Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Intensity:🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

In keeping with the latest trend in J-Horror, Bldg. N (a.k.a., N-Goto) is based on true events that happened at an apartment complex in Gifu Prefecture back in 2000. Ghosts! Cultists! Corpses! Hooray!

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Auxilio (2023) BIFAN 2023 Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

Argentina's genre darling Tamae Garateguy returns with her latest period piece/nunsploitation/occult/LGBTQ/feminist manifesto! With its World Premiere at this year's Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), Garateguy's given us a lot to unpack.

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Best Regards To All (BIFAN 2023) Review

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Intensity:🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

From producer and Japanese horror stalwart, Takashi Shimizu, comes a meandering social-horror tale of a young woman returning to visit her small hometown only to discover that life there was never as rosy as it seemed.

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Joseph’s Review: The Dogman Triangle: Werewolves in the Lone Star State

★★★ out of ★★★★★ 0 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 A fairly recent phenomenon in cryptozoology is the dogman, a variation on the classic werewolf. The Dogman Triangle: Werewolves in the Lone Star State, the latest documentary from the Small Town Monsters filmmaking crew, considers eyewitness testimonials and possible explanations about these hirsute horrors. 
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Mike’s Review: Black Friday (2021)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 As uber-auteur Stanley Kubrick once famously opined “Everything has already been done. Every story has been told. Every scene has been shot. It’s our job to do it one better.” Christmas horror has been done. Space alien zombies have been done. Christmas and zombies have been done. Have they been done together under the banner of the worst holiday there is? May be not. 
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Black Mold (2023) Review: Portland Horror Film Festival

★★★1/2 out of ★★★★

🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

Hold your breath! Black Mold is gonna get you! When two photographers try and capture the beauty of decaying structures, they get more than they bargained for in an abandoned industrial facility. Strong character studies and lovely cinematography bolster this film, which could have been more decisive about its third act structure.

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Mike’s Review: T Blockers (2023 Portland Horror Film Festival)

★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 This is a film that is definitely on the right side of history. It also contains a sharp and laser-focused social commentary around LGBTQ+ justice. T Blockers also puts forth a poignant and editorialized storyline that sadly is undone by a wild lack of focus. Even at an hour and 14 minute run time, and with a varied series of storylines, the film still felt long. 
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Bliss of Evil (2022) Review

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 (for possible triggers)

A solid entry in the Indie Slasher genre that starts off strong with a claustrophobic, trust-no-one vibe.

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Love Will Tear Us Apart (2023) Review (Portland Horror Film Festival)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

The horror-romance-comedy of Love Will Tear Us Apart builds like a wave and crashes down with a gonzo fun final act. Endearing performances from child actors, and strong character arcs anchor this best of the fest film from the Portland Horror Film Festival.

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Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (2023) : Portland Horror Film Festival

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★

🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸

Prepare to be entertained! Onyx the Fortuitous, the fan-favorite award winner at the Portland Horror Film Festival, pulls out all the stops to catch your attention, get you laughing, and keeps piling on. It is wall-to-wall zany, filled with scene-chewing characters, fantastic puppet practical effects, an easy hook of a premise, and the frantic energy of actor/director Andrew Bowser who plays Onyx the Fortuitous, your gonzo lead character in the movie.

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Mike’s Review: Influencer (2022)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ Influencer is the newest, hottest, and most hyped term of the last several years. Meaning many things to many people, including those that self-identify as influencers.  For the rest of us it’s met with derision, disgust, and discounted as a cynical millennial side-hustle. All these things, and more, are modern truisms that we've all unwittingly had to learn about. 
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Mike’s Review: The Boogeyman (2023)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Hard to believe that a 25-page story could be turned into a feature length film, but it has! The Boogeyman, originally released in 1978, was a taut and rather dark affair that explored the most corrupt fears in parenting. Fast forward 45 years and the Boogeyman is back as a full-on fright-fest. 
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Mike’s Review: The Devil and Father Amorth

★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Part hucksterism. Part faux science. Part Unsolved Mysteries. All exploitation. This film is a sad commentary on many levels, but it’s also a fascinating peek into horror history that’s impossible to turn away from. 
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Mike’s Review: Enys Men (2023)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🚫 out of  🩸 🩸 🩸 🩸 🩸 Make no mistake, 2023’s Enys Men will fall into the annals of polemic filmmaking. Much like its recent brethren, Skinamarink, this film will have people talking, shouting, and even throwing a couple haymakers. Truly a "love it or hate it" outing at the movies.
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Joseph’s Fantaspoa Review: THE COFFEE TABLE

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 A couple whose marriage is decidedly not in a good place — and add a newborn baby to that mix — find their lives fraught with horror thanks to the titular piece of furniture in the Spanish feature The Coffee Table.
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Dead List: All the Boston Strangler Films Ranked!

Do you know everything there is to know about the Boston Strangler? Really?!?! The Boston Strangler is an incredibly complicated tapestry of lies, mistruths, deception, greed, murder, and avarice. Using beautiful early 1960s Boston as its backdrop, this story is the pure embodiment of truth always being weirder than fiction.  To celebrate this year’s most recent take on the Boston Strangler, aptly titled the Boston Strangler, the Scariest Things went back and looked at each and every film adaptation of the Boston Strangler story and ranked ‘em all!
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Joseph’s Panic Fest Review: TRADER (2022)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Tense chiller TRADER boasts energetic direction and editing along with a jaw-dropping performance by Kimberly-Sue Murray as the only character seen on screen, a sociopath bent on making money from day trading, no matter the cost to others.
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Joseph’s Panic Fest Review: BURY THE BRIDE

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for otherworldly blood-spilling of various sorts A bachelorette party goes to hell when the groom-to-be springs a supernatural surprise on his fiancée and her friends in this blood-soaked shocker.
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