★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Appetizers, party games…and Aliens. All part of an epic evening with An Ideal host!
Zombie Comedy “Brain Freeze” Kicks Off Fantasia’s 25th Edition This August
Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival follows up its massively successful virtual version in 2020 with another online fest this year as it celebrates its 25th edition from August 5 through August 25, 2021. Opening Fantasia this year will be Québécois zombie comedy Brain Freeze from director Julien Knafo. Fanstasia has also revealed the super cool poster for its 2021 edition.
Mike’s Review: Offseason (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Pulling the perfect Lovecraftian film is a feat like no other. It’s been tried again and again. You might even say film makers repeated attempts to crawl inside Mr. Lovecraft’s tortured brain is rife with peril, failure, and madness. Or more to the point, it’s a cursed mission. Many have attempted to bring Lovecraft to the silver screen and most have failed. In the case, of 2021’s Offseason, it’s not so much a failure, but a dull attempt.
Joseph’s Reviews: SXSW Online 2021 Horror Shorts
Along with SXSW Online 2021’s incredible horror feature-film lineup, the festival offered plenty of fear fare in short form, too. Here are capsule reviews of four of these short-length shudder makers.
Scariest Interview: Michael Lovan, writer/director of Murder Bury Win
Writer/director Michael Lovan sits down with us to talk about his debut feature, Murder Bury Win (2020), and its impending release!
Joseph’s Review: The Power
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The Power is a riveting U.K. supernatural horror film set in a hospital during that country’s 1970s rolling blackouts, following a nurse on her first night on the job. Real-world horrors are exposed by an otherworldly force in this first-rate chiller.
Directed by Corrina Faith
The Scariest Things Podcast Extra: SXSW Recap
South by Southwest (SXSW), the biggest arts and culture festival in the US had a fully virtual presentation in March. Mike and Eric take a moment to discuss the Midnighter Films presented at the big Austin streaming showcase.
Happy Easter Horror Hounds!
This Easter 🐰🐰🐰 you haven’t a hop in hell! Because…here comes Peter Cottonhell! If those aren’t two of the most hackneyed and shoe-horned taglines we don’t know what are. Because Beaster Day is real, it’s coming for you, and we’ve digested more crappy films that anyone should!
Liz’s Review: Violation (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Slow, steady and brutal, Violation is a beautiful gut-punch of a horror film.
Mike’s Book Report: Video Palace: In Search of the Eyeless Man: Collected Stories (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ The rise of the podcast generation paired with a nation’s emerging fascination with rampant conspiracy theories is the perfect backdrop for a horrifying and mercurial folk tale. In both the case of podcasts and conspiracies people don’t stop until they’ve reached the ever-loving bottom of the barrel. The problem is these barrels have no bottoms.
Joseph’s Review: Sound of Violence (SXSW Online 2021)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
A young woman who saw her family murdered tries to recreate through music the feeling that occurred at that time in this horror outing that is heavy on human suffering but light on logic.
Directed by Alex Noyer
Eric’s Review: The Spine of Night (2021) (SXSW Film Festival)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
The Spine of Night channels its inner Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi in this bloody rotoscoped production. This is dark high fantasy, with a touch of horror, and though it mines very familiar fantasy tropes for its plot, it does find an original voice. The whole presentation feels more like a curiosity than a revelation.
Panic Fest 2021 Preview
Keep Calm and Panic Fest on!
Scary Radio Plays: A Garden of Terrible Blooms
Award-Winning playwright Sharon Yablon taps into her noir sensibilities for a new podcast of genre radio dramas, A Garden of Terrible Blooms. Prepare for the surreal one-act dramas that touch on elements of mystery, horror, and true-crime centered around L.A.’s famed Sunset Boulevard.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXIX: Horror Movies We are Looking Forward to in 2021
For those of you who pay attention to Roman Numerals, you might have figured out that we got a little out of sequence. Yep, we skipped Episode 119 in our excitement to record HEAVY METAL HORROR. But that does not diminish our anticipation for the offerings for 2021. We’ve got our prognostications we’re never (read: surprisingly often) wrong!
Joseph’s Review: Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break (SXSW Online 2021)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
All Paul Dood wants to do is be the next big star on a weekly talent show, but the ill will of people who Paul holds responsible for failing his audition will be their downfall as Paul plots gruesome revenge in this U.K. dark comedy.
Directed by Nick Gillespie
Eric’s Review: Alien on Stage (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Alien on Stage is a documentary about a troupe of bus drivers turned community theater actors who got the opportunity of a lifetime to perform their production on stage in a theater in the famed West End of London. Though you sweat out whether these charming neophytes can pull it off, there is enough of an inkling that they’ve got something special that this endeavor is so crazy that it just… might… work!
Mike’s Review: The Feast (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Don’t. Turn. This. Movie. Off. Seriously, it’s a slow burn in grand tradition of slow burn horror films, but the payoff off is so deliciously evil and filling. If you stop after the aspic and the salad course you’ll miss a rather grisly desert.
Joseph’s Review: Witch Hunt (SXSW Online 2021)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Teen horror and social commentary make for a fine union in this feature about a deadly U.S. government clampdown on witchcraft and the women who practice it.
Directed by Elle Callahan
Eric’s Review: Jakob’s Wife (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Jakob’s Wife is an essay on a mid-life menopausal crisis, by way of vampirism. Jakob’s Wife delivers great character arcs and engaging acting. Barbara Crampton has been given a meaty role, and she delivers perhaps her best screen performance in memory. Larry Fessenden also is stellar as the well intentioned minister Jakob.
Mike’s Review: Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Right around the corner from Horror Street, just next to Parallax View Way, and right near Marathon Man Drive, is a fascinating analog look at the lengths obsessives will go to in feeding their obsessions.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982)
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
To describe this film, one must invoke the voice of Bill Hader’s Saturday Night Live character, Stefon. The audience cheers as Stefon slides in from stage right. Hands rise to face. Breathe deep. And release.
Mike’s Review: Woodlands Dark Days Bewitched A History of Folk Horror (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Make no mistake, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is not a generalist survey course and this is not a casual hike in the woods. This is a full on PHD thrill ride in to one of the most mercurial of all horror genres, folk horror.
Eric’s Review: Gaia (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Mother Earth just may have it in for us, according to the South African Eco-Horror showcase Gaia, which had its World Premiere at the SXSW film festival. It’s beautiful, quiet, creepy, and full of spores. (Cough! Cough!)
Mike’s Review: Sasquatch (2021) (SXSW Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ “If you go in to the woods go with an open mind.” Famed Bigfoot videographer, Bob Gimlin.
Movie Posters We Love: Amityville Horror (1979)
If you’re a regular listener to our little ol’ podcast you’ve probably heard us wax poetically about the (sadly) uneven implementation of one of the greatest horror plot lines of all time — the Amityville Horror. If you’re of a certain age Amityville and the Lutz family was all the talk. On the newsstands, in the classroom, at the water cooler. People were…um…obsessed…with this sad family and their demonic plight.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXX: Heavy Metal Horror!
Put on your best spandex, studded leather straps, and break out the hairspray. It’s time for Heavy Metal Horror! Your professors for this episode are Mike and Liz, true metalheads both, as Eric plays the role of the general population of metal familiar, but not metal saturated fandom.
Robert’s Review: Darkfield Radio’s Immersive Audio Experiences
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
These unsettling vignettes involving clever audio effects may be just the “something different” you’ve been looking for.
Mike’s Review: Shook (2021)
★★ out of ★★★★★ The tried and true tattered family dynamic. Kids love their Mom. Dad’s nowhere to be found. Sisters vigorously fight for their Mom’s love. Resentments emerge. The sister’s commitments to the family quickly fall to the insidious and ever-present need to feed the social media beast. We’ve all heard this tale before. Or have we?
Eric’s Review: Freaky (2020)
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Freaky takes the body swap idea from Freaky Friday, and gives it a slasher film twist. It’s a fun concept, and is off and on entertaining, but the film’s sloppy and predictable plot keep it from reaching the standard for similar Blumhouse fare like Happy Death Day.