★★★★ out of ★★★★★ How’d you like a little Chekhov with your Texas Chainsaw? A little Edward Albee with your Conjuring? Or even a dash of Ibsen with your Insidious? Sound too good to be true? Well it’s not.
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From supernatural horror to the immediacy of pandemic terror, Female Voices Rock Film Festival’s After Midnight block offers a unique selection of remarkable fright-fare shorts.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A troubled neuroscientist unwisely experiments on himself and creates a deadly dilemma when 10 different fragments of his personality vie for dominance in this intriguing science fiction outing.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Boys from County Hell is a slice of blue-collar Irish horror-comedy, where a road construction crew is tasked with the removal of a stone cairn marking the grave of a vampire that gave inspiration to Bram Stoker. Why is it that characters in Irish comedies always want to leave the isle? It might be the vampires.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
What separates a truly iconic horror film and raises it above its peers? Master documentarian Alexandre Phillipe makes a compelling argument that adhering to classical and even ancient themes can make the difference, and he casts Alien into a whole different light. Phillipe once again delivers a beautifully crafted breakdown and makes for a really compelling watch for fans of Alien.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
This moody, brooding gothic ghost tale makes up in atmosphere what it lacks in likable characters.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ Found footage films can be a tricky business. You really have to sell the conceit that someone, or in this case multiple people, are going to be carrying around camera and recording every single move they make -- and they might even inadvertently catch a freaky apparition in the background. A tall task made even more grand by the sheer number of found footage films that have made their way to the bottom of the bargin bin at Best Buy.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Is it a ghost story? A time travel story? The Return is a bit of both. Director BJ Verot's first feature film is a tightly scripted sci-fi and haunted horror production, and it was one of the highlights of 2020's H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.
★★ out of ★★★★★
Russian torture horror for torture horror fans, of which yours truly is not one.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
A pregnant woman finds herself at the mercy of her deceased boyfriend’s peculiar family in this taut thriller.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
This independent Chilean sci-fi/horror feature serves up gore galore and an intriguing approach that should appeal to fans of The X-Files and similar fare.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
|If Goosebumps with gore sounds like a winning combination to you (and it is!), check out this tale of three tweener friends who try to close the doorway for demons that one of them unknowingly opened.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ A trippy third act and solid performances highlight this vampire outing. Directed by Aaron Pagniano Writer/director...
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Probably the bleakest feel-bad horror film of this year, Bryan Bertino’s latest is a triumph of...
A family hoping for a new start in life by moving to Madrid instead finds itself targeted by an angry ghost in 32 Malasaña Street, which makes up for any familiarity with technical quality and fine performances.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ At the Scariest Things Podcast we pride ourselves for being THE gateway to the trends and tropes of the horror genre. Sure, sometimes we wander in to the deep and dark recesses of the genre. We give Anthropophagous an extra viewing here/there. We cringe when we (re)watch Audition. We think twice about watching A Serbian Film. But, mostly we want to invite everyone in to the never-ending thrill ride that is horror. Sometimes that thrill ride includes PG-13 fare like Vampires vs. the Bronx.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Fright-fare favorite Brea Grant helms a dark comedy with loads of suspense, as a drug-addicted, organ-harvesting nurse tries to keep things under control on an especially wild night.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Ray Harryhausen would be proud! Love and Monsters defies expectations with more emotional resonance, visual wizardry, and storytelling surprises than you would expect. The monsters are spectacularly rendered, and convincingly animated. Dylan O'Brien is a joy to watch, in the best role of his young career. The most important thing to know is that this movie is worth the premium price for streaming entry.
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A grifter with good intentions, but in need of a lucky break, signs up for a job that seems too good to be true. Lapsis is a dystopian parable for the treadmill of old-fashioned hard work and the fear that technology is going to make you obsolete.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Breaking Surface will have you on the edge of your seat and gasping for breath.
★★ out of ★★★★★
The Doorman is a throwback action movie, starring Ruby Rose as an ex-special forces soldier turned doorman battling Jean Reno and his squad of art thieves. The film gets bogged down in stale clichés and surprisingly bland action pieces. Not everything on Nightstream was awesome, or even horror.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Delicious cherry pie. Would you like some eternal imprisonment with that or just coffee?
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
May (Brea Grant) is an author who finds herself under repeated attack by a mysterious would-be killer. She mounts successful defense after successful defense, but each time she wins, the assassin disappears. It's an exercise of frustration and futility for May as nobody believes her and her proof proves to be elusive.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Sweeping cosmic weirdness has been achieved in The Hill and the Hole, an adaptation of a 1942 Fritz Leiber short story. Buoyed by stellar cinematography but burdened by an inscrutable plot, this film might be best understood under heavy hallucinogens.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Two French dullards discover a giant housefly in the trunk of a car that they stole, and they realize that this monstrous insect could be their ticket to fame and fortune. Toro! From Quentin Dupieux, the director and twisted imagination behind Rubber (2010), the bonkers Mandibles was the festival closing feature for Nightstream.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Jeffrey Combs lends his voice to a smooth-talking lump of bathroom mold in this slow moving psychotronic film. Did I mention Jeffrey Combs? Jeffrey Combs!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ This French offering is one of the better horror anthologies you are likely to see this...
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The sequel to the Indonesian horror hit May the Devil Take You is a more than worthy successor to the storyline. Alfie, the survivor of the first film is drafted by a group of orphans to assist with the exorcism of their demon spirit of their wicked caretaker. Strong Sam Raimi and Wes Craven influences are in abundance in this bloody and fun showcase of what Indonesian Horror has in store.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ Exit is an experimental U.K. film with surreal, sometimes trippy elements that combines social and political...
★★ out of ★★★★★ What in the world happens when filmmakers run out of ideas? Well, it's rather simple. A) In most cases they go back to the well, B) there's always a sequel, or prequel, or a reboot, C) the idea is reimagined through the lens of an out of copyright idea, story, or myth, or D) they just run out of ideas. Sadly, for 2020's The Hunted, the answer is D.