Horror Movies Reviews
![]() | Kairo (Pulse)2001It’s safe to say that we’ve created our share of iconic horror characters here in America. Horror icons like Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Michael Myers (Halloween), or Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th) are so highly recognizable, that they’re pretty much synonymous with the mere concept of a horror movie. Even so, no country handles horror quite like Japan does. Japanese horror films have a much-deserved reputation for being exceptionally horrifying and thought-provoking at the same time. You won’t find as many homicidal maniacs gracing genre screens in... Read More |
![]() | The Black Room2016When it comes to classic horror tropes – like haunted houses and the dark secrets they hide – there’s definitely more than one way to approach material that is very familiar to the average genre fan by now. More and more modern filmmakers are adopting a cerebral approach and turning their haunted house movies into social commentaries with something larger to say. Others are focused on simply telling a good scary story with plenty of jump scares and special effects. Still more go for an exploitive approach that is almost intentionally trashy. The Black Room could probably... Read More |
![]() | The Shrine2010The Shrine is the type of film that comes complete with lots of familiar horror tropes an avid genre lover will recognize. You’ve got the mysterious disappearance of a traveler under mysterious circumstances, as well as a team of people seeking answers as to the details of those circumstances. You’ve got a remote village in a foreign land populated by strange people who raise an eyebrow or two thanks to their mysterious beliefs and practices. Scares, jumps, and mysteries abound as the protagonists attempt to make sense of it all. Given those facts, the plotline of The... Read More |
![]() | Vampires1998Jack Crow is much more than a vampire hunter. He is a war machine that considers vampires as the embodiment of Evil and teammates as soldiers to be strictly trained so that they never fail. The Vatican monitors him from afar, assists him through specially trained priests, and supports him economically. This unlikely but functional partnership between this sort of crepuscular cow boy and one of the most important religious institutions in the world undergoes a stop when the ancient and powerful Valek breaks into the room where a vampire hunting party is celebrating, making... Read More |
![]() | The Curse of La Llorona2019If you’re a fan of the ever-expanding universe of The Conjuring, then it makes sense that The Curse of La Llorona would definitely be on your radar. It is the sixth addition to the franchise, joining other recent hits like The Nun and Annabelle in fleshing out the world first introduced by the original Conjuring back in 2013. It’s also the directorial debut of Michael Chaves (who will also be directing the upcoming Conjuring 3) and is, of course, produced by James Wan. Linda Cardellini (Strangeland), Raymond Cruz (From Dusk Till Dawn 2), Sean Patrick Thomas (Kemper, The... Read More |
![]() | Pet Sematary2019Whether you’re the type of person who loves remakes or simply the type who loves to hate them, it’s highly likely that 2019’s Pet Sematary is on your radar for one reason or another if you’re into horror. It’s directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer (who also directed Starry Eyes) and is, of course, a reboot of the classic Stephen King film Pet Sematary from 1983. Pet Sematary stars Jason Clarke (Winchester, Trust), Amy Seimatz (The Sacrament, You’re Next, Bitter Feast), and the always legendary John Lithgow (Raising Cane, Twilight Zone: The Movie). Those who aren’t... Read More |
![]() | Candyman1992In this unfairly forgotten film, Bernard Rose proposes a terrible genius loci: in fact a popular area (Cabrini-Green) seems to be manned by Candyman, a bloodthirsty spirit that guts with a hook anyone who summons him in front of the mirror. Helen finds him out by chance, collecting interviews for her thesis on contemporary folklore. After discovering that some years earlier, precisely in the Cabrini-Green, some violent homicides remained unpunished, Helen hypothesizes to have mistakenly collected only narratives, concerning real events that have been modified, year by... Read More |
![]() | Hereditary - Evil runs in the family2018“Hereditary” is a literally "homemade" horror. The physical home, as a place of family life and as creative microcosm of Annie, and the metaphysical home, as a dreamlike symbol of the stability or instability of the Ego, are inextricably intertwined in a game of Chinese boxes : a husband , a son, a daughter, and a miniaturist job she loves. But also a bulky mother: Ellen. Annie has always been trying to fix her "home": and soon we realize that something, in addition to the ambivalent relationship between her and the now defunct Ellen, does not work. Starting from... Read More |
![]() | Carnage Park2016Like his peer Quentin Tarantino, writer/director Michael Keating is famous for making films that are all about borrowing from the greats to create something truly unique. Carnage Park is definitely a good example of his fast-paced filmmaking style in action, but how does it stack up to his other work, and is it actually worth a spot on your running list of must-see films? Carnage Park can probably best be described as a horror film crossed with a crime thriller. In addition to being written and directed by Michael Keating (who also directed Psychopaths, Ritual and the... Read More |
![]() | A Quiet Place2018There are movies that take their time building a mood and movies that pull you right into their carefully crafted worlds pretty much right away. John Krakinski’s A Quiet Place is definitely the latter. The first thing the viewer sees is a barefoot family scavenging for supplies in the middle of an abandoned supermarket. However, they’re doing so completely silently – not exactly average for a family that includes three children. We’re promptly informed via a title card that we’re on “Day 89” of whatever’s going on and with that, our journey into this very quiet world... Read More |