Genre-film fans with an interest in the paranormal, UFOs, cryptids, and offbeat cinema fare absolutely need to know about Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest. Each year, the festival features superb narrative and documentary features and shorts from around the globe, and this year, the fest has launched an Indiegogo campaign to help continue its tradition of bringing the fine fare for which it is known and to support its home base, Eau Claire’s Micon Downtown Cinema.
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★ One medium with possibly more sub-genres than horror is futbol, AKA, football, AKA soccer. There’s so many villains, tales, rivalries, and subtext to the beautiful game. Much like horror its a bottomless barrel of impossible possibilities. The other medium with more sub-genres than futbol and horror? Zombies.
★★★ out of ★★★★★ Bright Hill Road traverses some familiar territory but is worth the trip at least once. Directed […]
Provocateur, carnival barker, secret intellectual, comedian, and instigator: the great Lloyd Kaufman is joining The Scariest Things to talk about his latest and greatest offering, #Shakespeare’s Shitstorm! Never boring, often crass, but always gracious, it was fantastic for the Scariest Things to spend some with the Mayor of Tromaville.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ When true film auteurs wander outside of their staid and classical lines and in to the horror genre there’s always the potential for some serious magic. Kubrick with the Shining, Freidkin with the Exorcist, Spielberg with Jaws, and even Danny Boyle with 28 Days Later. All these major film think-o-logists had a crack at horror and walked away proud at what they had accomplished, or so ashamed at the terror they had brought to the cineplex, they never came back to the genre. One of the greatest film auteurs of all time, Robert Altman, wandered in to horror with aplomb, but sadly his seminal effort has been forgotten in the sands of time.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The Cthulhu Mythos gets a spin from current horror writers, in the way that Lovecraftian tales should be told, in an anthology. There’s a lot of variety packed into this compilation and features some notable writers, including Neil Gaiman, John Langan, and Joe R. Lansdale.
An Iranian family spends the night in a hotel and supernatural events occur, with our own Eric proclaiming the film to be his favorite of 2020, and that’s all I need to know going in to The Night besides the eerie atmosphere shown in the trailer below. In case you need more enticing beyond that, following is the official press information regarding the IFC Midnight film. I’m looking forward to this one!
We wouldn’t have survived the ridiculousness of 2020 without our favorite genre. Here are my Top 10 favorite movies of last year.
Supernatural horror and familial drama meet in the U.K. feature The Heiress, set for March 15 release in the U.K. and across the world on March 15, with a U.S. and Canada release one day later.
When the great 2020 pandemic got its hooks into the world in April, and the Cinemas across the country were shuttering their doors, I was guessing that we were going to have really slim pickings for great horror films this past year. I’m so happy to be wrong! There were some absolutely fantastic horror films released, but you had to get to most of them via streaming festivals.
★★ out of ★★★★★ Witches are a tricky lot. Literally. Filled with deceit and deception. They conjur up horrible thoughts in your tiny little brain. They’re always on the hunt for a new (or renewed) sacrifice. Most importantly they travel in unrelenting satanic packs of malice. The Pale Door has more fiends than you can shake a stick at, but, unfortunately, doesn’t do a whole heck of a lot with this spooky pile of occult weirdos.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Prepare for a big dose of fun, and a very cool-looking monster, in this creature feature/action movie mash-up about a young female officer on a danger-filled mission.
Well, that was a year, wasn’t it? True life horror didn’t need much help, but independent horror came to the rescue. Many of the most anticipated studio productions like A Quiet Place 2, Spiral, Halloween Kills, and Antlers never made it to the big screen this year, but thanks to streaming Festivals, there were some great offerings to be had this year if you knew where to look.
2020 sucked but these films did not! Check out Liz’s Top 10 Horror Films of 2020 year end list! Good riddance 2020! Hey 2021, I am ready to get off the couch and back into the theaters!
![Eric’s Review: The Last Thanksgiving (2020) [Another Hole in the Head FF]](https://scariesthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Last-Thanksgiving-Cleaver.jpg)
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
The Last Thanksgiving is a gory ’80s style slasher film that works on the decidedly soft premise that the Pilgrims succumbed to cannibalism to make it through the first Thanksgiving, and their descendants continue that tradition 400 years later. It delivers well on the hyper-violence, but it falls rather flat with character and plot. This is an empty calorie Thanksgiving feast.
★1/2 out ★★★★★ If you have a conventional sense of social norms.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ if you are a Troma fan and appreciate trashy and depraved satire.
Lloyd Kaufman and team Troma return to their Shakespearean roots and turn this loose-bowel take on The Tempest into a skewering of the social norms of today’s culture. This is the strongest, funniest, and most consistent Troma film I have seen since the ’80s Troma glory days but it also pushes the censorship limbo bar so low that there may not be room to go more lowbrow than this.
So many great intentions. This here podcaster was going to smash, crash, and rush to the theater to see all the latest spooky offerings Hollyweird had to offer. I “intended” to give a careful and thoughtful look at Halloween Kills (delayed to 2021), Antebellum (not willing to throw down for its initial asking price), St. Maude (weirdly delayed a bunch of times, but available for streaming overseas), and I’m Thinking of Ending Things (I saw this! But it was pretty so/so). 2020 was far from perfect, but despite all its real-world horrors, it brought a respite in the form of gaggle of scares, shrieks, and ghouls.
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ A super stylish and exceptionally well-scored film that’s partially in Danish and partially in English and…wait for it…features a character who’s half Danish and half American.
Chloë Grace Moretz versus a gremlin? Say no more . . . I’m on board! That’s just what you’ll see in […]
It’s getting late! Do you have your present for your horror fan family member or friend? If you’re looking for some unique and well crafted horror themed items, here are some suggestions.
Oh, you’d better watch out, you’d better not cry! You’d better not pout I’m telling you why! Santa Claus has a wood axe, for you! It is mind-boggling how many Santa themed horror movies there are. Do we all have deep-seated childhood fears of Saint Nick? Yes, yes we do. Listen to the Scariest Things for some Christmas-themed horror films for you to watch when you’re on holiday.
If yer’ anything like yer pals at the Scariest Things Podcast you’ve got a broad cinema palette and an ever broader tolerance for the profane, the vile, and the fart joke. Good news! There’s now a streaming service that seamlessly blends all that gory goodness together in a horrifying smoothie called TROMA NOW!
If you know anything about the Scariest Things Podcast it’s that we love MONSTERS. Monsters of all kinds. Creatures beneath the sea, behemoths that lurk in the dark, and even the occasional URSUS HORRIBLUS! The grizzly bear.
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A grieving widower performs a dark ritual with consequences that lead to An Unquiet Grave
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Just when you thought the zombie genre had plumb run out of ideas along comes a pretty interesting and pretty inventive take on on a concept that’s…uh…dying.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
More fun then you can stuff in a duffle bag!
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Sharks, rotting corpses/ghosts, and a survivor guilt haunt a young woman in this psychological horror.
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
After failing to crowd-fund their board game “Murder Bury Win”, three young game designers get the opportunity of a lifetime to present their ideas to a scion of the game industry and finally get the big break they have been looking for. After initial fun and games, their dream pitch turns into a nightmare with tragic (and comic) consequences. Great characters + unique concept + greed motives = cinema gold!
★★★★ 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.
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.
