Writer/director Mia Kate Russell explores the potential terrors of inaction in her Australian short film Maggie May, which offers up some of the most disturbing horrific images in recent memory, both onscreen and offscreen. Something is dreadfully wrong with Maggie (Lulu McClatchy of the 2012 features Crawlspace and 6 Plots), and though her relatives and […]
There are a lot of words used to describe horror movies: Scary, thrilling, terrifying, gruesome and gory just to name a few. But when was the last time you described a horror movie as “joyous?” Watching One Cut of the Dead is a joyous experience, one that will make you hit play as soon as […]
I know many of you are reading that headline and saying to yourself – “that damn fanboy Dreher – Stephen King could shit in a bag and throw it at him and he would find a way to praise it” – and you wouldn’t be wrong – I love Stephen King, his literary voice, his […]
Director Andy Muschietti’s follow up to his 2017 hit, It, debuted this weekend with a bigger and “badder” clown, an older and bolder Losers’ Club, and an even more ambitious story. It: Chapter Two takes place 27-years after the “defeat” of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) by our heroes. After a few killer clown-like deaths, Mike (Isaiah […]
There is always a temptation to prepare for a movie sequel, or in the case of It Chapter Two a continuation, to watch the last film in the franchise and refresh your memory of what happened before. Well, don’t. Part of the thrill of watching It Chapter Two is experiencing the way director Andy Muschietti […]
Canadian director Kyle Martellacci is a prolific director of terrific horror shorts that tackle myriad subgenres and nail each one. He turns in what I feel is some of his finest work in his latest effort from Red Razor Pictures, supernatural shocker She Must Vanish. Martellaci wrote, directed, edited, shot, and produced She Must Vanish, […]
A rich and ruthless business tycoon, Cyrus DeKalb (Ray Wise), informed that he only has so long to live, gathers together his estranged children for a final family meeting, but instead of making amends he tries to murder each of them using complicated deathtraps worthy of a Saw movie. Sounds interesting, right? Now, what if […]
If you are in the mood for a tongue-in-cheek horror comedy in the fangs-in-neck vein, chock full of corn and camp but also with a respectful approach to classic vampire films and lore, look no further than director Stephen Wolfe’s short film Dracula’s Coffin. From the lighting and special effects to David E. Mitchell’s score […]
As Wikipedia explains, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was an American hour-long, packaged television variety program featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four funny animal characters: Fleegle (guitar, vocals), Bingo (drums, vocals), Drooper (bass, vocals) and Snorky (keyboards, effects). If you remember watching it back in the early 70s, the show’s […]
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world for university student Quincy (Bailey Ingersoll), whose day starts off with a dissection lesson from an overenthusiastic professor (David A. McElroy) in her anatomy class, finds her lost in thought about her recently deceased father (Jim Dougherty), and concludes with a surreal trip to the dentist (Chad Newman) […]
An evil presence possesses an inanimate object –or several hundred inanimate objects — and forces them to terrorize, torture and tear apart the residents of a small town. It’s a story that’s been told so many times before, in franchises ranging from the Chucky films to the Puppet Master movies, that it could almost be […]
And the Oscar goes to… Ok, the chances of Samara Weaving winning an Academy Award statue as Best Actress for her stellar work in Ready or Not are immeasurably slim, but that doesn’t mean her performance isn’t brilliant…because it is. Not only is she compelling and believable, something too many actors have a hard time […]
Fears and anxieties about isolation and loneliness haunt twentysomething Lucy (Maika Monroe of It Follows and Villains, in another fine performance) during a long night in writer/director Kate Trefry’s psychological horror short How to Be Alone. What scares us most is often what we concoct in our minds, and Trefry combines that idea with absolutely […]
Two years ago genre fans watched a couple of girls climb into a shark cage and unexpectedly descend 47 Meters Down when the cable broke and the cage dropped to the ocean floor. As their air supply dwindled the girls had to face their fears, and the sharks they had been watching, to try and […]
If you are in the mood for a brain-bending dose of existential angst and nihilist musing — and if you are not, what’s holding you back? — you need look no further than prolific filmmaker Izzy Lee’s The Obliteration of the Chickens. It is unlike any of Lee’s other works, tackling the senselessness of it […]