When reviewing something like Netflix’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I think some bonafides are helpful to the reader. I’m a huge fan of Tobe Hooper’s original film from 1974. The rest of the franchise entries I could take or leave, although I don’t mind revisiting the first two sequels every now and again.
Read MoreThe Long Night (2022)
You had me at creepy cult with weird masks. Rich Ragsdale’s The Long Night is a no-frills tale about a young couple facing off against a sinister sect of demon worshipers in an isolated setting. It’s got some familiar plot points, but there are a few slight curveballs and the photography is legitimately strong.
Read MoreThe Runner (2022
I discovered darkwave duo Boy Harsher a few years ago and instantly fell in love with Augustus Muller’s smoky atmospheric synths and Jae Matthews’ sultry vocals. Their four albums have essentially been the soundtrack to my pandemic. So, when the former film students recently announced that they’d written, produced, edited, and directed a short movie called The Runner that would also include an album’s worth of new songs, it immediately shot to the top of my must-see flicks for 2022.
Read MoreThe Matrix Resurrections (2021)
I was pretty surprised when it was announced that another sequel to The Matrix was being produced, even though many fans felt like there was room to follow up on the trilogy capper The Matrix: Revolutions. Now, eighteen years after that seemingly final entry, Lana Wachowski has returned as director and co-writer with the surprisingly meta The Matrix: Resurrections. Let me take care of some business first.
Read MoreAutumn Road (2021)
There’s a scene early on in Autumn Road, a moment of innocence and tenderness between a young boy, Charlie, and his crush Winnie, with a haunted attraction on Halloween serving as the backdrop. It’s a genuinely sweet and touching moment that turns terrifying on a dime as Winnie, played wonderfully by Maddie Lea Hendrix, suffers an allergy attack. For the audience, it should be heartbreaking as we realize this boy’s terror and helplessness, but instead, it’s undercut by poor acting on the part of the actor playing Charlie, who gives such a stilted performance that the scene is robbed of any emotion.
Read MoreMassacre Academy (2021)
As the world spins, what was old inevitably becomes new again, and there has never been a greater example of this in genre filmmaking than with the slasher film. Rising to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s, slashers became a staple of the horror genre, churning out countless films where masked killers stalked clueless teenagers before killing them in some violent, and usually creative way. After a brief lull, the slasher film had a resurgence in the 90s after the success of Wes Craven’s Scream, and today we seem to be in the early stages of a mini slasher revival, with a revitalized Halloween franchise in theaters, a new Scream on the way, and the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix, just to name a few.
Read MoreLair (2021)
Lair may not be the best horror movie I've seen this year, but I'm still thinking about it, and that says something. There is a current resurgence of possession genre horror, and I feel comfortable placing Lair in the company of well-reviewed films like The Old Ways and Malignant. A messy but entertaining film, Lair has the pace and tension of a thriller as it slowly evolves into a genuine horror movie.
Read MoreV/H/S/94 (2021)
The anthology is something that goes hand in hand with the horror genre, with titles like Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and the classic Tales From the Crypt offering bite-sized tales of terror to viewers across multiple generations. One of the most unique anthologies of the past few years is the V/H/S series, which offered a unique take on the format, with each film usually revolving around VHS tapes containing lurid and violent stories of monsters and the macabre. By using a found footage approach to the classic horror anthology, the V/H/S franchise is able to tell fun, fast-paced, and creative horror stories that stand apart from the typical anthology fare.
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