★★★ out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for murderous revenge, exploding heads, and nasty tricks and traps.

Want to see a teenage girl completely wreck a cell of right wing domestic terrorists? If you do, the Wrath of Becky will satisfy your soul. You just don't go stealing a girl's mastiff. Light on logic but full of bloodshed, The Wrath of Becky has been featured at both SXSW and Overlook.

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for constant pervasive gore, grotesque transformations, and severe violence against children

Evil Dead Rise is everything you would want a film in this franchise to be. It gets to the bloody action right from the start, and does not let up once it gets rolling. This incredibly gory film reconstructs the fundamental Evil Dead script in by making it a family-forward story, but it still walks a familiar path.

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸for raw intensity and domestic abuse, and a rough exorcism. This is a horror movie that examines exorcisms, not from the horror of the demonic possession itself, but that of the zealotry and shoddy practices of non-sanctioned exorcisms as exercised by charismatic charlatans. It recognizes the fragility of those who are mentally ill and the unfortunate abuse that they receive when those who are supposed to love and care for them instead seek help from the questionable practices of religious hucksters.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for horrific gun violence, some torture, and some crunchy re-animated dead.

Ted Geoghegan wrote and directed a nifty mystery box of a film wherein a group of WWII army officers support their friend, Lt. Colonel Hockstetter (Larry Fessenden) in his attempts to to reconnect with his recently deceased wife. A terrific veteran cast delivers the drama in this well constructed (and occasionally bloody) ghostly escape room of a story.

★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for copious amounts of bloodshed, dismemberments, beheadings, exploding bodies, the use of severed limbs as weapons, and eviscerations.

The Dracula tale has never been more fun to watch than in Chris McKay's Renfield. Nicholas Hoult is the remorseful and downtrodden manservant Renfield who struggles with how to escape servitude from his vile master. Nic Cage is perfectly cast as the dapper and ferocious Count Dracula, mixing a looming malevolence with goofy charm. Universal has found its footing again with its legendary roster of monster films. Renfield mixes full-theater belly laughs with spectacular gory action to create a movie destined to get repeat viewings. Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee would be proud.

★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 The Last Shift gets the reboot treatment with and expanded cult universe and more gore.
It's Spring Break Time! The Scariest Things has lined up some things for you to get ready for your Horror-Themed spring break! - Robert advocates for Fright Rags for your Tee Shirt needs, before heading out for Festival Season. - Mike has some great reading material for you from horror novelist Clay McLeod Chapman. - Eric has found your Spring Break Horror Road Trip guide! And a wacky summer time horror camp. Episode 9 Starts NOW!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🚫 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 If you know horror you know Satan. You might even say horror and Satan are best pals. They’ve been hanging around for a long time always pushing boundaries and always trying something cheeky and new.  Sometimes this friendship is on the down-low and sometimes Satan gets a pinch uppity and decides to out the entire relationship. Or at least his (or her) relationship to the general public. When that happens it’s a messy and ugly affair.
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🚫 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 Surreal sci-fi in bite sized pieces, Shatter Belt will shatter your expectations!
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★  🩸🩸🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸for some gnarly gore, eye gouging, and repeated head wounds. Each and every year there’s THAT horror film that shakes things up. Hits the festival circuit and creates tidal wave-sized buzz. Sometimes it’s deserved and sometimes it’s not. In the case of 2023’s festival darling Talk to Me, the buzz is profoundly deserved.
In Episode 8 of Spooky Time: - Mike and Liz Report back from their experiences at SXSW - Mike, got a chance to do some Texas Chainsaw Massacre touring . - Eric comes to the table with his review of the Variety Top 100. - Liz finds another favorite book of hers that is being given the chance at a premium TV series. - Eric reports on Guillermo Del Toro's next Horror Movie. (It's familiar)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★

🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for mild gore and violence. 

A hundred years on we’ve been blessed and not-so-blessed with hundreds, or maybe thousands or Frankenstein-related films. Remakes, reboots, re-imaginations,  reworking of the Mary Shelley source material, and even re-re-working of Shelley’s book. The Frankenstein mythos has comfortable slipped into our collective horror zeitgeist.

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for mild gore. If you’ve even run across Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, or Dinah Shore you’ll know that they all roiled in a very specific talk show space in the 1970s. Talk shows were smarmy, boozy, and informal affairs that gave audiences time each day to let their hair down and forget about the doldrums of the Viet Nam War and the crushing presence of socio-economic injustice in America.  These talk shows were also incredibly competitive. Johnny Carson was king, but there was a lot of room under him to vie for advertisers and Neilson ratings. Late Night with the Devil follows that exact story line, by exploring frustrated talk show host Jack Delroy played pitch perfectly by David Dastmalchian.
★★.5 out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for mild comedic gore. Midway through Only the Good Survive the local sheriff and Dennis Miller impersonator (Frederick Weller) is interrogating young Brea Dunlee (Sidney Flanigan) about her involvement in a string of ritualistic murders and asks “…is this a comedy or a horror?” While the film chugs along like an Edgar Wright-inspired effort, this very sentiment is really the film’s problem. It wants to be both. Unfortunately, juggling these two juxtaposed art forms is a tricky bit of business that is almost never accomplished.
The Scariest Things is heading down to Austin for SXSW and The Overlook Film Festival, two of the most influential festivals in America and we are previewing them for you in Episode 7 of Spooky Time!
Hello? I'd like a room for the night. Famous. Last. Words. If you are tired and driving down a remote desert highway, and are feeling a bit tired, you will know that the last thing you should do is check into a skeevy Motel at the side of the road. The Scariest Things pulls off on the side of the road to scout the dodgy lodging in advance for you in Episode 163: Hotel-Motel-BnB Horror.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for mild gore and a frayed family. Weird babysitter. Weird kid. Weird parents. A deeply weird connection to regular usage of LSD. And to top it off a weird poster. Spoonful of Sugar definitely traffics in the world of weird. Not Skinamarink weird mind you, but still firmly in the weird camp. 
It's time for a zombie March Madness bracket fight! The scary ladies of The Jersey Ghouls, Marissa and Jacki, abducted Eric and Liz and forced us to participate in this fiendish experiment. And we had a BLAST! Check out the Jersey Ghouls Podcast, or click on the streaming feed on this post!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸 This is a grisly (not grizzly... the bear is a black bear) romp through the forest, amped up with narcotics and has some wildly entertaining moments. Elizabeth Banks continues her transformation from in front of the camera star to behind the camera, and she hit the comedic and gory tone just right with Cocaine Bear.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for lots of gore. Nothing’s better when a small indy production punches WAY above its weight class — especially in the visual effects department. Sometimes the effort is a miserable failure and sometimes, yes sometimes, its indy deficiencies don’t even show for a minute. 
It's the age old debate: Book vs. Movie. Which did it better? In the spotlight in Episode 6 of Spooky Time: Paul Tremblay's novel: The Cabin at the End of the World vs. M. Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin.

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