What a great year for horror films! I hope some of your current and future favorites are on my list!
Mike’s Review: The Brilliant Terror (2021) (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
To be clear, horror is the human condition. Sure there’s ghosts, robots, cannibals, witches, and Jason Voorhees, but all these finely finessed sub-genres are really just an extension of the human condition. Much ink has been poured over this subject, but rarely does a horror documentary get at this hyper-simple truism.
Eric’s Review: Human Resources (2021): Another Hole in the Head Film Festival
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A remarkably nuanced slice of horror at work, from a 19-year-old writer/director that poses the question as to how far would you be willing to go to unearth and expose the dirty secrets at your place of employment. The movie is probably twenty minutes too long, but the plot has a solid mystery backbone to tell a good story, and it is graced with great characters and snappy dialogue.
Mike’s Review: My Cherry Pie (2021) (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
★★.5 out of ★★★★★
There’s no telling if 2021’s My Cherry Pie qualifies as Oz-spoitation, but it sure looks, sounds, and feels like something straight off of 42nd street. It’s not the pastoral Picnic at Hanging Rock, nor is it the ever-haunting Lake Mungo. Think Wolf Creek with little-to-no-budget, an extra bit of nastiness, and a pinch of grindhouse.
Joseph’s Reviews: “The Last Frankenstein” and “Night, Knight Teddy” (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
Joseph reviews two films from Another Hole in the Head Film Festival: “The Last Frankenstein” and “Night, Knight Teddy.”
Eric’s Review: Crabs! (2021): (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Do you miss goofy ’80s era R-rated monster movies? Crabs! is one of those cheesy nature-gone-wrong films that doesn’t take itself too seriously and manages to deliver some good gory entertainment. It’s inconsistent, but there’s enough here to have a good night with a bag of popcorn and a B-movie creature feature.
Eric’s Review: Apps (2021) : (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
If V/H/S was done in Spanish, that would be Apps, an Argentinian horror anthology that is filled with plenty of shocks and bloody mayhem. Each chapter is really well executed and continues to prove that Argentina is a major player in the horror movie market.
Mike’s Review: The Whooper Returns (2021) (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival)
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
It’s always fascinating to see how something of little-to-no-value can bring out the worst in people as soon as they realize that someone else is interested in the same valueless item. This dynamic is made all the worse when it’s families fighting over the same scrap of trash. Worse yet? When that scrap of trash is the site of a 1979 horror film, the Whooper.
The Scariest Things Episode CXXXVI: UFO Horror
Hey! Watch where you’re sticking that thing! Do you believe in UFO’s? Do you think of aliens from outer space with fascination… or dread? Sometimes the aliens look like Alf. Sometimes they look like little green men (and later… little grey men). Some come for peace, and some come to carry us off the earth for experiments of the most awful kind. We will be talking about the latter! Enjoy Episode 136: UFO Horror!
Liz’s Review: The Advent Calendar (2021)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Stylish, creepy and strange. Begin the countdown to Christmas with The Advent Calendar.
Trailer Alert: Studio 666
When we caught wind of this (assuredly) horror comedy last month we weren’t entirely clear if we were looking at an elaborate album hype, a hoax, or an actual film.
Mike’s Review: Slumber Party Massacre (2021)
★.5 out of ★★★★★
Alright. Move along. Move along. There’s nothing to see here. Really, there’s nothing to see. A sad commentary on what should have been one of the most celebrated films this side of Halloween Kills. But, it’s true. The reimagining of the Slumber Party Massacre is a dull and uneven homage to its predecessor.
Joseph’s Monster Fest Reviews: “Button Man” and “Scam”
Joseph reviews two fine films from Australia’s Monster Fest film festival: sylvan horror short “Button Man” and Ozploitation feature “Scam.”
Joseph’s Reviews: Posted No Hunting, The Clump, A Darker Place, and Don’t Touch (Another Hole in the Head Fantastic Film Festival Horror Shorts)
San Francisco’s Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which runs online and in the theater from December 1st–15th, 2021, […]
Eric’s Review: Super Hot (2021)
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Super Hot is a film that has been popping up on my recommended list on Amazon Prime, so I gave the little nerds vs. vampires movie a shot. Kandace Kale is solid as the goofy deadpan lovelorn lead, and at its best, the movie has its fun and silly moments. On the whole, though, it’s a pretty pedestrian production. (Shrugs)
Joseph’s Review: Shepherd
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Shepherd eschews jump scares and gore in favor of an unrelenting creepiness as its main character finds that the isolation he seeks may be a terrible choice.
Dead List: A Nearly Comprehensive Ranking of Horror Movie Musicals
Care to do the Time Warp (again)? We have researched and ranked the rarest of the sub-genre, the oddball unicorn film that is the Horror Musical. Stylized, emotionally amplified, and often bafflingly strange, we have rounded (almost) all of the available horror musical titles we could find and ranked them! Sing for me! Sing my Angel of music!
Liz’s Review: Demonic (2021)
★1/2 out of ★★★★★ Directed by Neill Blomkamp Way back in 2009, Neill Blomkamp burst onto the genre scene with […]
Mike’s Review: Ghostbusters Afterlife (2021)
👻👻👻 out of 👻👻👻👻👻
Now 37 years in to the franchise you probably have a good idea of what to expect from the latest installment of the Ghostbusters, AKA Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Every thing that you think you’re going to see is guaranteed to be seen. There are some sly and not so sly references to the original 1984 Ghostbusters film. But, at the end of the day, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is largely an exact duplicate of its 1984 grandfather.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXV: The Horror Potluck Director’s Cut
The Horror Potluck is back! What is the potluck? It’s when each of the podcasters brings a movie to the recording session and we all discuss a movie that the others selected. This time, each of us picked just one movie that we thought had a compelling reason to spend additional time dissecting. The movies we picked are: Baskin, Halloween Kills, and Tourist Trap, each of them worthy of a longer look for uniquely different reasons.
Austria’s SLASH Filmfestival 2022 Is Now Accepting Submissions
Austria’s prestigious SLASH Filmfestival is currently accepting submissions for its 13th edition next year.
Joseph’s Reviews: Lund International Fantastic Film Festival Horror Shorts, Part 2
Along with Sweden’s Lund International Fantastic Film Festival’s fine selection of genre feature films, the fest boasted a fine selection of fright fare in short form. Here are more capsule reviews of some of those short-length shudder inducers.
Joseph’s Review: Woodland Grey (Blood in the Snow Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ With a wooded setting as bleak as the situations in which Woodland Grey’s two main characters […]
Mike’s Review: Martyrs Lane (2021)
👻👻👻 out of 👻👻👻👻👻
The go-to move for horror filmmakers in the modern era is the tortured family dynamic. It’s creepy, hidden, sinister, and above all tragic. When you mix in a heaping dose of the death of a child, tragic can take a very dark complexion and make it, well, darker.
Joseph’s FilmQuest Review: When the Screaming Starts
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
U.K. horror comedy When the Screaming Starts skewers the lengths to which some people will go to try to achieve fame. Whether you are in the mood to see such people receive their comeuppance or if you just want to have some belly laughs while you get creeped out, put this blood-soaked mockumentary on your need-to-see list.
Liz’s Review: Lamb (2021)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Gorgeous to look at, stark and full of a steadily increasing feeling of dread, Lamb is a dark fable that will have you booking a ticket to Iceland.
Joseph’s Lund International Fantastic Film Festival Reviews: “Medusa” and “Cross the Line”
Joseph reviews the excellent Spanish thriller “Cross the Line” and the offbeat Brazilian feature “Medusa” from Lund International Fantastic Film Festival.
Movie News: Studio 666 Coming Soon!
As ideas slowly become more and more (re) used and reworked filmmaking has progressively embraced the meta. In fact, things have become so meta sometimes it’s difficult to tell when one concept ends and the next begins.
Enter the recently announced horror offering featuring…the Foo Fighters?
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXXXIV: Cryptid Horror
Mysterious sightings and local folklore have pushed curious crypto hunters into the woods and onto deep lakes to reveal the truth. Maybe, just maybe, that local legend will show itself to you. In horror movies, they are true, and they will WRECK you. The Scariest Things talks about some of our favorite cryptid creepies in Episode 134.
Joseph’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween Edition Review: Miracle Valley
★★★ out of ★★★★★ The Room co-star Greg Sestero makes his directorial debut with this 1970s-styled killer cult movie. Butter […]