★★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.
IIn a truly awful year, we just didn’t get a whole lot of movies released, reducing the pool of the bad movies as well as the good movies. If you were going to describe the years less than stellar movies, I think you’d say they were disappointing rather than infuriating. But there’s still plenty for us to throw shade at in this episode. The Scariest Things gets our adrenaline up, discussing our worst films of 2020.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Monsters! The rest of the movie is a mess, but man those monsters are cool!
Vienna, Austria’s SLASH Filmfestival spotlights horror, science fiction, fantasy, and other genre films from around the world — both features and shorts — and the fest is now open for submissions for two outstanding events this year. Following is the official press announcement.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The Vigil puts a unique cultural spin on evil entity horror and boasts an incredible lead performance.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Barbara Crampton steals the show in this Norwegian folk-horror affair replete with vivid nightmares, tentacles, and the sea.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The latest offering from the collaborative team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead once again delivers a philosophical, slow burn of a movie. This film about two paramedics in New Orleans uncovering the truth of a new synthetic drug that has time travel properties is grim and heady material. Brooding and moody can be a good thing if anchored properly, and Anthony Mackie holds this film down with a fine acting performance.
★★ out of ★★★★★ It’s everything you’ve ever wanted! It contains film footage likely derived from 10 different film shoots over the course of nearly 40 years. It’s got Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (Louise Fletcher). It’s got Indiana Jones pal Salah (John Rhys-Davies). It’s got the super crooked hillbilly cop from Rambo, Galt (Jack Starrett). It’s sort of got a couple scenes with a grizzly bear. But just don’t be fooled, there’s not a whole heck of a lot of Charlie Sheen, Laura Dern, and George Clooney.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ It should come as no surprise that record collectors are an awfully weird and obsessive bunch. They perseverate over every possible pressing, color, variation, and vinyl release of individual artists. Their search is endless and somewhat pointless. They fixate on whether to open a sealed copy of a rare record. Most importantly, record collectors won’t stop until their search is complete. Dead or alive.
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Osgood Perkin’s horror take on the children’s fairy tale is a brooding and moody spin on the most familiar of stories. It has some gorgeous art direction, and a winning performance by Alice Krige, but the plodding script tries to mask the intent of the story. It tries very hard to provide new wrinkles to the old fable, but ends up feeling over-long even at a fairly short run time of 82 minutes.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A worthy reboot of a much-beloved gateway horror fan favorite. Anne Hathaway chews up the scenery in the Robert Zemekis helmed adaptation of the Roald Dahl dark fantasy classic.
Oh sure, who doesn’t love to revel in the lunacy that is Evil Elvis AKA Glenn Danzig AKA the linchpin to the greatest horror punk band of all time, the Misfits. His comics, his music, and his enigmatic approach to life are so fascinating, and easily parodied and barbed, but it’s his film outings that are quite simply …indescribable.
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Prepare to have your horror prayers answered by Saint Maud!
Do you like your horror with a side order of bullets? Do you find that horror and kung fu are completely compatible? Do you wish there were more superhero horror tales? This week we’re talking action-horror in episode 117! Lights! Camera! Start the squibs!
★★.5 out of ★★★★★ A stunningly beautiful film that follows a not so beautiful period of time in Guatemala’s tumultuous and unfortunate history. This horror film, that’s awfully light on the horror, shows audiences that sometimes the scares don’t come from ghouls, but they come from right-wing juntas.
If you listen to our podcast or read our posts, you are already somebody looking to know more about horror. If you really have an appetite for horror knowledge, check out these documentaries, all of them hugely entertaining. Welcome to the world where all the movies have a colon in the title: Horror Documentaries.
Home invasion thriller meets zombie horror in The Curse of Hobbes House, which hits DVD and Digital download in the U.K. beginning March 8, 2021, and The Scariest Things has the trailer for you!
Print Maker Pop Chart has taken the interactive nature of scratch-off lottery tickets and applied it to horror movies! Now you can track the progress of seeing the essential horror canon by scratching off the movies you’ve seen.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Sometimes cheesy, occasionally nonsensical, but kept solidly on the rails by an interesting story and some splattery goodness. Werewolves get all scientifical!
Kerry Prior, who directed the 2009 horror outing The Revenant, made a found-footage film in 1999 that was considered lost since that time. Recently found, The Blare Rabbit Project will have its world premiere in March at Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest.
The full official trailer for The Heiress, Chris Bell’s supernatural chiller, has been released today. The shocker is available to download and […]
In a literal and figurative sense, one of the biggest genre films to arrive in 2021 is Godzilla vs. Kong, and we just got the first trailer. The fourth installment in the Monsterverse, like its predecessors, looks visually splashy as all hell. The fate of studios, or at least their decision making, is at stake with this blockbuster. Legendary, Warner Brothers, and HBO Max are all hoping for big things out of this effort.
We’re back for more horror movie trailer talk! The discussion about The Scariest Things continues, with the help of trailer writer/producer John Foley.
There’s obviously no reason to re-hash 2020 and the fact that we haven’t physically been to a movie theater — FOR NEARLY A YEAR! But, sadly, we haven’t. We haven’t had chance to stare lovingly at the marquee, the pamphlet with the coming features, and most importantly, the poster.
When criminals on the run collide with true evil, what could possibly go wrong? Check out the trailer for the upcoming heist/witchcraft film from Director Kris Roselli, coming out later this year.
Coming soon, to a theater near YOU! Are you the type of person to check out a trailer as soon as it hits the internet? Well, this episode is tailor made for you. The Scariest Things is joined by John Foley, a veteran trailer producer and horror fan, to discuss our favorite horror trailers.
Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest reliably features some of the most unusual, exciting, and entertaining narrative features and documentaries from around the world, and the fest’s first wave announcement for this year shows that the tradition continues. From Lovecraft and Poe to Mokele-Mbembe and far, far beyond, the first seven features announced are something to look forward to as the fest’s March 5–7 dates quickly approach. Following is MidWest WeirdFest’s official press announcement.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
This super-fun, highly absurd horror comedy twists a family adventure movie with a gory tokusatsu vibe and delivers the mind-blowing goods.
Directed by Steven Kostanski
Here’s the trailer for upcoming horror thriller Dreamcatcher, in which, according to the press release, “Dylan, known to his fans […]
★★★ out of ★★★★★
This Chilean haunted house shocker may follow some familiar beats, but its unique filming shoot, solid lead performance, and dark psychological elements help it stand out from the pack.
