★★★★ 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 […]
Joseph’s Arrow Video FrightFest Halloween Edition Review: Barbarians
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
It’s a dark night of several souls as a dinner party with four supposed friends goes sour and then turns deadly in this take-no-prisoners examination of ego clashes and deceit.
Mike’s Review: Basket Case (1982)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Everybody had to start somewhere. Alien ripped off The Green Slime. Child’s Play ripped off Magic. Piranha ripped off Jaws. And everyone ripped off Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It should come as no surprise that this year’s weirdo “it” film Malignant is a ripoff, but we’re here to tell you it is.
Joseph’s Reviews: Lund International Fantastic Film Festival Horror Shorts
Along with Sweden’s Lund International Fantastic Film Festival’s fine selection of genre feature films, the fest boasts a fine selection […]
Joseph’s Lund International Fantastic Film Festival Reviews: See for Me and Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It
Joseph reviews the taut thriller “See for Me” and the horror comedy “Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It,” both part of Lund International Fantastic Film Festival.
Eric’s Review: Antlers (2021)
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
It was worth the wait. Antlers is a somber and intense showcase of Northwest folklore horror, with layers of well-told subtexts of domestic abuse survivors, the plight of small-town opioid abuse, and the graphic power of the Native American cryptid legend of the Wendigo. Mix in great acting and some great creature and body-horror effects and you get an all-around winner this fall.
Joseph’s Review: It Hatched (Austin Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
This Icelandic horror comedy is guaranteed to be one of the most off-the wall films you’ll see this year. I found it an absolute blast!
Joseph’s Review: Cram (Austin Film Festival)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
You think you had it rough in college? Chances are that you never had an experience like the one the protagonist in Cram has. Talk about a hell of a night in the library!
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXXXII: A Summer Festival Recap
For the second year in a row, our favorite film festivals were presented to us in a streaming format (though some festivals had theatrical releases). This has allowed the Scariest Things to watch lots of horror from the comfort of our own homes, with some (mostly) pretty awesome content. We recap the best and the worst of the Summer Festivals from 2021.
Liz’s Review: Night Teeth
★★ out of ★★★★★
Buckle up for a very bumpy ride with Night Teeth.