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horror reviews

March 5, 2023

Mike’s Review: Craving (2023)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for lots of gore. Nothing’s better when a small indy production punches WAY above its weight class — especially in the visual effects department. Sometimes the effort is a miserable failure and sometimes, yes sometimes, its indy deficiencies don’t even show for a minute.

November 15, 2020

Mike’s Review: As Above So Below (2014)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ Found footage films can be a tricky business. You really have to sell the conceit that someone, or in this case multiple people, are going to be carrying around camera and recording every single move they make -- and they might even inadvertently catch a freaky apparition in the background. A tall task made even more grand by the sheer number of found footage films that have made their way to the bottom of the bargin bin at Best Buy.

May 17, 2020

Mike’s Review: Z (2019)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ With an increasing number of horror films eschewing the well-trodden path of gore, gags, and scream queens, there's always the risk of re-calibrating too far to the other end of the scare spectrum. Over the last 20 years there's been a trend towards melancholy and family trauma -- Shudder calls it parental terror, we're calling it melancholy horror. Sometimes the quiet and somber affairs work and sometimes they're just weighty, boring, and devoid of scares. The Shudder original Z certainly ran that risk, but effectively shook itself off the melancholy mantle.

June 27, 2019

Mike’s Review: Friday the 13th Part VIII (1989)

★★.5 out of ★★★★★ Is this really too good to be true? Too bad to be believed? So ridiculous we all laugh with it? Or so horrible we curl up in a cringe-worthy ball of shame? Answer: All of ‘em.

April 13, 2019

Mike’s Review: Winchester (2018)

👻👻 out of 👻👻👻👻👻 A spook show with too many spooks?

January 19, 2019

Mike’s Review: You Might be the Killer (2018)

★★★ out of ★★★★★ If something is around long enough it’s going to be parodied. There will be barbs, jabs, satire and plenty of loving imitation. Even the tropes and trends that surround a specific genre will get reworked, turned inside out, and devotedly re-re-re-imagined.

November 6, 2018

Mike’s Review: The God Inside My Ear (2017)

★★.5 out of ★★★★★ This film is ambitious. The God Inside My Ear lets you know that it’s ambitious from the...

March 17, 2021

Mike’s Review: Woodlands Dark Days Bewitched A History of Folk Horror (2021) (SXSW Festival)

★★★★ out of ★★★★★ Make no mistake, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is not a generalist survey course and this is not a casual hike in the woods. This is a full on PHD thrill ride in to one of the most mercurial of all horror genres, folk horror.

October 12, 2020

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.

July 1, 2019

Mike’s Review: Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

★★ out of ★★★★★ Now with 30 percent less jump scares!

April 24, 2019

Mike’s Review: Demons 2 (1986)

👿👿👿 out of 👿👿👿👿👿 This film doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad film. Au contraire.

February 10, 2019

Mike’s Review: Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

The art world is a tough nut to crack. The politics, the sexuality, the fortunes, the fame, the critics, the notoriety, the legacy -- oh, yeah, and we almost forgot, the art. Art is often a vessel for missing elements in society, wanting, longing, and a respite from the day to day hum/drum attributes of life. Art can subjugate the mundane and keep our darker and more horrifying desires at bay. That is, when art is obeyed and respected. When it’s not...watch out.