★★★ out of ★★★★★
Familiar family themes resonate in the Indian immigration tale of generational trust issues and the classic trope of the lover with a deep dark secret. The movie vacillates between being poignant to predictable, but it is always buoyed when veteran character actress Sarita Choudhury (Mississippi Masala) is on screen. It works much better as a family drama than a horror film, but it does have a thriller payoff at the end.
Detective, you are a loose cannon! Turn in your piece, your shield, and make sure to turn that ancient evil tome into evidence. Now get out of my office! The cop cliches are layered on top of a genre with plenty of our favorite tried and true horror tropes. This is the world of the thriller and the hunt of serial killers. It is time for Episode 142 and we’re talking police procedural horror.
★★ out of ★★★★★
In 1974 we were treated to a gory nightmare that served as a haunting metaphor for the Viet Nam War. Now, 48 years later we’re being served a vile and equally nightmarish metaphor for class war and the cultural disposability of the elderly. There’s even a nice treatise on the perversion of the current real estate market in the United States.
Director David Blue Garcia even throws in a discussion of gun violence in America, the growing tension between red and blue states, and some light rumination the country’s history of racial injustice. Sound like too much? Well, it is.
Joseph reviews two fine new chillers screening at Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest.
Wisconsin’s MidWest WeirdFest has announced the full lineup for its March 4-6 run this year, and it’s a doozy! Along […]
Yep. I’m in it for Jordan Peele’s latest offering: Nope. Check out the trailer here!
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Can a film without a plot to speak of still be compelling? In the case of Meander, a claustrophobic tricks and traps film, the answer is a qualified yes. A woman grieving the loss of her daughter is abducted and stuffed into a ductwork maze sprinkled with an escalating parade of devilish traps. That is pretty much the entirety of what you need to know, but if you take a simple idea and execute it well. it is worth watching.
Fingers crossed — firmly. We here at the Scariest Things Podcast wish nothing but goodwill towards one of, and possibly, the greatest horror directors of all time. But, sadly, Dario Argento Dario has slipped in recent years. Mother of Tears, Dracula 3D , Giallo, and, well, you get the idea. Contrasted with his earlier work you get the maddening sense that father time has finally caught up with this giallo genius.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
There’s nothing more devastating and frightening than a family at their wit’s end who are also simultaneously at each other’s throats. One part drama, one part horror, one part nuclear family armageddon. You don’t want to watch the collapse, but you absolutely can’t peel your peepers from the impending chaos.
★★.5 out of ★★★★★
To be clear, there’s not a lot of running in 2022’s The Runner. There’s some trundling through the woods and there’s some “running shoes”, but it’s not entirely clear if you you could actually run in the shoes featured in this Shudder film. Think clunky hipster orthopedic running shoes. Probably not optimal for running.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Family secrets and an uninvited guest combine to complicate and terrorize a young couple’s wedding.
South By Southwest is one of the biggest festivals in the country. It encompasses film, music, comedy, education and technology […]
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ A strong display of impressive visuals sets this death-cult chiller apart from lesser offerings in the […]
Call it a hunch. Or perhaps morbid curiosity. We think these upcoming films could be pretty cool. As we transition from what was to what could be, The Scariest Things team casts its gaze forward to what horrors might entertain us the most! Listen in to Episode 140 and find out what you can look forward to with us in 2022!
The sequel/re-quel that no one really asked for is right around the corner. This winter we’ll get to see more septuagenarians and/or octogenarians battle it out in a grudge match that began nearly 50 years ago! Why? Who knows. But it sure helped give the Halloween franchise a kick in the pants!
Visitors ★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ Directed by Kenichi Ugana Japanese filmmaker Kenichi Ugana makes some seriously messed up films, and […]
★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Archive 81 is the best piece of horror that’s ever dropped on Netflix and rest assured we’ll be talking about this as one of the best things that 2022 will offer us. Yes, you heard that right.
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Speak No Evil is going to be the film everyone is talking about!
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Stephen Lang’s Blind Man is back. Though this time he’s managed to flip the script and is now the nominal protagonist in the sequel to the 2016 break-out surprise hit. Once the fearsome monster from the first movie, he is still a force to be reckoned with, but now he has a young charge to care for. It is tense and exciting, but there are still some major questions that require answers though.
This is the annual ritual of summarizing the year that was. We first celebrate the best of the year, and then we have to get real. Not everything was worth your time when it comes to scary movies last year. We don’t enjoy doing this, but we have to name names. Welcome to Episode 139 where we dish out what wasn’t good in 2021.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A witch is not the only thing that haunts a college campus in Mariama Diallo’s debut feature, Master.
The movie that brought meta front and center to horror, and gave an adrenaline boost to a tired slasher genre is back with its fifth installment. The movie remains meta, and brings a fresh new group of victims… I mean characters… to the screen, along with a few old familiar friends. Is it any good? For a feature this significant it takes all three of the Scariest Things Podcasters to weigh in.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Don’t say it…hissss it! The tagline from the trailer for the most unusual horror film ever made really hits the nail on the head.
MidWest WeirdFest has a stellar reputation for presenting edgy, provocative cinema fare, and the first wave announcement for this year’s edition of the Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based fest shows that the tradition continues. From paranormal strangeness to creepy creature features, MidWest WeirdFest has it all!
Nocturna: Side A — The Great Old Man’s Night ★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★ Director Gonzalo Calzada takes two decidedly different […]
What’s the scariest setting in a horror movie? A graveyard? A dungeon? A basement? Nah. Try gas station. The gas station is a favorite point of conflict in a horror movie. If it shows up in your favorite horror film, you know something really bad is going to happen. Check out our dead list of how awful gas stations really are in horror movies.
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Come for the insane 1970s Italian gore! Stay for the superb Goblin soundtrack! It’s all here! Frankly, is there anything more you could ever ask from a horror film? Well, maybe.
A24 is dying to show you a good time with Ti West’s “X”
Here’s a truly promising trailer for Scout Taylor-Compton’s (Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II) latest fear-fare feature, The Long Night, which […]
We have decided to do something a little different, this time: A single film analysis. We look back at one of our favorite independent horror films of the last 20 years: The House of the Devil (2009), by Director Ti West. It’s a near-perfect exercise in horror story development and execution, and you can hear our rationale in this bonus podcast episode!
