Authenticity. Ithaqua oozes authenticity. In an era where low-budget films can't afford the real thing, and big studio projects use digital effects or even (shudder... AI...) to make the movie magic happen, director Casey Walker delivered a movie that feels tangibly real. It's cold because it truly is Hoth-level cold outside. Walker's labor of love, which took 14 years from concept to cinema, delivers one of the best horror films in a growingly stacked year for genre films. Casey was generous to share his thoughts on his movie with The Scariest Things.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
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Cosmic Horror meets found footage in the parasomnia-infused Dream Eater. Documentarian Mallory and her boyfriend Alex retreat to a snowy cabin, celebrating Alex's 30th birthday. There, they hope to relax and get relief from Alex's violent sleepwalking episodes. Unfortunately, fate would have it that something ancient and evil is behind his psychological traumas, and Mallory struggles to make sense of it before it destroys them both.
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
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Sasha is a young vampire who cannot develop her fangs because she has empathy for her potential victims and refuses to kill. Her family is concerned that this jeopardizes the family lineage and legacy and urges her to make her first kill. She meets Paul, a boy with suicidal wishes, and considers him as her first kill and a humane one. This movie does all the little things right and, consequentially, nails the big things.
It's Horror, eh? Get ready to experience a dose of Great White North horror in The Scariest Things Epsisode 172: Canadian Horror: AKA The David Cronenberg Invitational. Actually, Canadian Horror is much deeper than that auteur king of body horror, but you know we have to start there. The Scariest Things have picked out some deep cut choices from our Canuck neighbors!
Bon Jour! If you like your horror with a bit of an esprit de viscéral, then this will be the episode for you! The French language horror films bring a bit of the nasty, the savage, and also at times, the absurd. There is a tradition of breaking conventions with much of French art, and that includes their cinema tastes. And, this extends naturally to their willingness for their horror movies going to extremes. So join us in extracting out what makes French Language Horror so potent in Episode 151!
★★★ out of ★★★★★
After finding themselves upside-down in an ambulance, a group of paramedics, cops, and prisoner patients realize that they are the victims of an ambush, with the mysterious forces closing in around them. This siege thriller goes heavy with gore and extended exposition before settling in on a brutal and memorable final moment.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Much of the history of native peoples in horror film, or in this case Canada’s First Nation people, has been beset by misunderstandings, skepticism about tribal rituals, and outright racism. These troubling portrayals throughout horror’s uneven relationship with non-Euro traditions has manifested itself in a series of clumsy attempts to capture the native condition. This, in turn, has played out with mysterious and prescient shamans, strange and incomplete tribal rites, and silly depictions of day-to-day tribal life. That was the case until 2020, with the release of the superb Blood Quantum.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Intensity 🩸1/2 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Night of the Zoopocalypse is a zany, goopy gateway horror film inspired by a Clive Barker graphic novel. A meteorite crashes into the Culpepper Zoo and infects the animals trapped inside, turning them into gelatinous mutant monsters. A wily wolf and a cantankerous mountain lion team up to try to save their zoo, with the help of a wacky assortment of untainted zoo-mates. This is a simple story, but it is a fine introduction to light horror for kids who want something a little gross and a little spooky.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
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In the techno thriller Red Rooms, a model obssesses over a sensational murder trial, and searches for clues about the killer on the dark web. This French Canadian film explores society's voracious and voyeuristic desire for the darkest of true crime details, and the lengths some will go to find out the juicy, nasty details.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Positively leaping into the #1 spot of my "How Did I Miss This?" ranking, Maurice Devereaux's Montreal-based End Of The Line is a wicked little surprise. A gory mix of religious fanatics, old skool pagers, subway demons, and possibly tainted muffins!
⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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What happens when you get a bunch of Canadian SFX folks together and let them loose in the snowy back-country of rural Canada? You get a giant mutant leech sucking onto people's heads, that's what!
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
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Prey is a remarkable refresh of the old Predator franchise. For my money, this is the best action horror movie since The Descent, the best horror western since Ravenous, and could arguably be better than the original Predator. The movie has the best protagonist yet (Including Dutch), and the monster is better than ever. The movie is a transportive adventure, and who would have thought that this previously moribund series could find such fresh legs?
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Killer pants. Designer jeans to die for. Corporate greed meets its match in a pair of pants thirsting for vengeance.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
You know what’s cool about 1980s horror films?














