★★ out of ★★★★★
Russian torture horror for torture horror fans, of which yours truly is not one.
Joseph’s Review: Kindred
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
A pregnant woman finds herself at the mercy of her deceased boyfriend’s peculiar family in this taut thriller.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CXI: The Nightstream Recap
We have seen the future of Horror Film Festivals, and it was the big Nightstream festival. While it was disappointing not to be able to go to these events in person, the streaming digital festival delivered a wealth of great movies, shorts, and special events that both horrified and delighted us. Listen in to the Scariest Things team report on our favorite moments.
Dead List: Top 10 Horror Soundtracks of All Time
Can music make a film? Break a film? Raise the hairs on the back of your head? Make you curl up in a ball and weep? You bet your bottom dollar! Open you ears and tune in to the ten most evil soundtracks your little ears ever did hear!
Joseph’s Review: Embryo (Arrow Video FrightFest Digital Edition 2)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
This independent Chilean sci-fi/horror feature serves up gore galore and an intriguing approach that should appeal to fans of The X-Files and similar fare.
Joseph’s Review: They Reach (Popcorn Frights Wicked Weekend)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
|If Goosebumps with gore sounds like a winning combination to you (and it is!), check out this tale of three tweener friends who try to close the doorway for demons that one of them unknowingly opened.
Joseph’s Review: Sunset on the River Styx (Portland Horror Film Festival)
★★★ out of ★★★★★ A trippy third act and solid performances highlight this vampire outing. Directed by Aaron Pagniano Writer/director […]
Joseph’s Review: The Dark and the Wicked
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Probably the bleakest feel-bad horror film of this year, Bryan Bertino’s latest is a triumph of […]
Joseph’s Review: 32 Malasaña Street
A family hoping for a new start in life by moving to Madrid instead finds itself targeted by an angry ghost in 32 Malasaña Street, which makes up for any familiarity with technical quality and fine performances.
Mike’s Review: Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020)
★★★ out of ★★★★★ At the Scariest Things Podcast we pride ourselves for being THE gateway to the trends and tropes of the horror genre. Sure, sometimes we wander in to the deep and dark recesses of the genre. We give Anthropophagous an extra viewing here/there. We cringe when we (re)watch Audition. We think twice about watching A Serbian Film. But, mostly we want to invite everyone in to the never-ending thrill ride that is horror. Sometimes that thrill ride includes PG-13 fare like Vampires vs. the Bronx.
Joseph’s Review: 12 Hour Shift (FilmQuest)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Fright-fare favorite Brea Grant helms a dark comedy with loads of suspense, as a drug-addicted, organ-harvesting nurse tries to keep things under control on an especially wild night.
Dead List: Our Favorite Horror Movie Dogs
“Something’s wrong with Cujo, Mom!”
I guess you can call that an understatement. Dogs have a proud history in horror movies as both monsters and heroes. Here are some of the most notable pooches in the genre. WOOF!
Eric’s Review: Love and Monsters (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Ray Harryhausen would be proud! Love and Monsters defies expectations with more emotional resonance, visual wizardry, and storytelling surprises than you would expect. The monsters are spectacularly rendered, and convincingly animated. Dylan O’Brien is a joy to watch, in the best role of his young career. The most important thing to know is that this movie is worth the premium price for streaming entry.
Eric’s Nightstream Review: Lapsis (2020)
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A grifter with good intentions, but in need of a lucky break, signs up for a job that seems too good to be true. Lapsis is a dystopian parable for the treadmill of old-fashioned hard work and the fear that technology is going to make you obsolete.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CX: Our Halloween Favorites!
Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me movies to repeat! It’s that time of year, to binge scary films. So, it’s time for the Scariest Things to recommend some highly thematic Halloweeny films for you to watch while you eat your (or your kid’s) excess candy.
Liz’s Nightstream Review: Breaking Surface (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Breaking Surface will have you on the edge of your seat and gasping for breath.
Eric’s Nightstream Review: The Doorman (2020)
★★ out of ★★★★★
The Doorman is a throwback action movie, starring Ruby Rose as an ex-special forces soldier turned doorman battling Jean Reno and his squad of art thieves. The film gets bogged down in stale clichés and surprisingly bland action pieces. Not everything on Nightstream was awesome, or even horror.
Robert’s Review: Sweet Taste of Souls (2020)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Delicious cherry pie. Would you like some eternal imprisonment with that or just coffee?
Eric’s Nightstream Review: Lucky (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
May (Brea Grant) is an author who finds herself under repeated attack by a mysterious would-be killer. She mounts successful defense after successful defense, but each time she wins, the assassin disappears. It’s an exercise of frustration and futility for May as nobody believes her and her proof proves to be elusive.
Eric’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Review: The Hill and the Hole (2020)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Sweeping cosmic weirdness has been achieved in The Hill and the Hole, an adaptation of a 1942 Fritz Leiber short story. Buoyed by stellar cinematography but burdened by an inscrutable plot, this film might be best understood under heavy hallucinogens.
Eric’s Nightstream Review: Mandibles (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Two French dullards discover a giant housefly in the trunk of a car that they stole, and they realize that this monstrous insect could be their ticket to fame and fortune. Toro! From Quentin Dupieux, the director and twisted imagination behind Rubber (2010), the bonkers Mandibles was the festival closing feature for Nightstream.
Robert’s Review: Motivational Growth (2013)
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Jeffrey Combs lends his voice to a smooth-talking lump of bathroom mold in this slow moving psychotronic film. Did I mention Jeffrey Combs? Jeffrey Combs!
Joseph’s Review: Dark Stories (Arrow Video FrightFest)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ This French offering is one of the better horror anthologies you are likely to see this […]
Eric’s Nightstream Review: May the Devil take You Too (2020)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The sequel to the Indonesian horror hit May the Devil Take You is a more than worthy successor to the storyline. Alfie, the survivor of the first film is drafted by a group of orphans to assist with the exorcism of their demon spirit of their wicked caretaker. Strong Sam Raimi and Wes Craven influences are in abundance in this bloody and fun showcase of what Indonesian Horror has in store.
Joseph’s Review: Exit (Twisted Dreams Film Festival)
★★★ out of ★★★★★ Exit is an experimental U.K. film with surreal, sometimes trippy elements that combines social and political […]
Mike’s Nightstream Review: The Hunted (2020)
★★ out of ★★★★★ What in the world happens when filmmakers run out of ideas? Well, it’s rather simple. A) In most cases they go back to the well, B) there’s always a sequel, or prequel, or a reboot, C) the idea is reimagined through the lens of an out of copyright idea, story, or myth, or D) they just run out of ideas. Sadly, for 2020’s The Hunted, the answer is D.
Eric’s Nightstream Review: The Night (2020)
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
An exhausted Iranian couple that is struggling with fitting in their arrival in America crash in a hotel after a night of bickering. The hotel presents them with some hard, hard truths and becomes a haunted prison rather than the refuge they sought. Tightly scripted and wonderfully acted, the film finds its power through suggestion and implied concepts.
The Night: Spoiler Theory
Read the review of The Night, and then click here for some SPOILER Interpretations of the structure of the movie.
Mike’s Nightstream Review: The Queen of Black Magic (2020)
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★ In the latest installment of “If you’re not watching Indonesian horror movies, you’re blowing it,” brings us 2020’s The Queen of Black Magic. It’s true. Indonesia is the new incubator for the creepiest crawlies that the horror genre has to offer. Every country has had their day in the sun. The UK plastered us with Hammer and Amicus throughout the 1960s. The US reimagined the genre with slashers and super killers throughout the 1970s and 80s. And Japan brought a whole new slate of water and hair-borne frights in the late 1990s and in to the early 2000s. Now it’s Indonesia time to shine.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode CIX: The Son Of Horror Movie or Not!
Back from the grave, we are going back to one of our earliest and favorite podcasts, where we declare whether the horror adjacent films we know (and sometimes) love are horror movies or not! This is often a criticism of the criticism of films. “THAT’S NOT HORROR!” So, this is a hot take episode where we (mostly) take a definitive stance.