Film

A collection of 523 posts

Film

Only Lovers Left Alive Review (Film, 2014)

Meditative horror is a tricky thing to pull off. It is, by design, slow moving, repetitive, and driven by concept. Action is minimal. Dialogue is minimal. Everything is about the image, the mood, and the theme. Writer/director Jim Jarmusch manages all that while crafting one of the more ingenious

Film

Watch: Tuck Me In

This is what you call psychological horror. You twist something that is perfectly benign and commonplace in everyday life into something that can make you scream. Director Ignacio F. Rodo does not overplay the turn and intentionally refrains from any loud scares. It works. "Tuck Me In" is

Art

Watch: I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzK0mQER28A?rel=0&w=640&h=480] Adapted from the poem by Emily Dickinson Animated by Lynn Tomlinson

Film

Horror Thursday: Detention

What can I saw about this film? I liked the first and last 20 minutes of the film. I scored it merely by percentages. It's cute, it's funny, and it's definitely something different. Horror Thursday: Detention

Film

Dracula: Untold Review (Film, 2014)

The biggest problem with Dracula: Untold is the name. If the film had any other name, there would not be the expectation that this is in any way supposed to be a story about the iconic Dracula character. In fact, it's an interesting attempt to combine the history

Film

Watch: I Put a Spell on You

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WokCYRlqtVc?rel=0&w=640&h=360] From the feature film Hocus Pocus. Performed by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker

Film

Watch: Witch Hazel's Vanity

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYtgsLnEl38?rel=0&w=640&h=480] An animated short from Warner Brothers.

Film

Saw VII/3D Review (Film, 2010)

Everyone involved in the final Saw entry took big risks. One, it's sometimes called Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, trying to turn the latest sequel in a long-running horror series into event viewing. Two, they spent the money to make it a 3D film. Three, they helped pay

Film

Watch: Bedfellows by Drew Daywalt

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6flB0XvmTo?rel=0&w=640&h=360] "Bedfellows" is a short film by Drew Daywalt.

Film

Saw VI Review (Film, 2009)

Saw VI might be my favorite film in the entire series. It takes everything Saw V did right and adds on a politically and narratively relevant series of traps. The head of the insurance company that denied John Kramer's, aka Jigsaw's, petition to try an experimental

Film

Saw V Review (Film, 2008)

Hear me out, good people. Imagine an alternate universe where the Saw series ran like this. The first and second film remain the same. The third expands the universe by being a one room thriller with no outside influence; just Jigsaw, Amanda, and the good doctor fighting against time for

Film

Watch: The Boiler Room

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4uRnxBoYP0?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

Film

Saw IV Review (Film, 2007)

I've had a debate with myself for a few years now over which entry is the worst in the Saw series: IV or VII/3D. After rewatching all the films in a three day period, I can safely say the fourth film is the absolute worst. Jigsaw is

Film

Saw III Review (Film, 2006)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a time of great acting and a time of face-pulling (not literally, mercifully). It was a time of wonderful tension and literal pig slop in faces. Saw III is everything right and wrong with the rest

Books/Print

Watch: The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WH8BOutzVk?rel=0&w=640&h=360] Story by Algernon Blackwood Film by Adam Howe Music by Kevin MacLeod Read "The Empty House" by Algernon Blackwood

Film

Saw II Review (Film, 2005)

The Jigsaw Killer, finally known as Jigsaw, is now big news. A huge police task force is trying to track him down and succeeds in locating his latest hideout. He runs two games at once. In one game, the son of a corrupt detective is placed in a house with

Books/Print

Watch: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ewLvOAibDk?rel=0&w=640&h=480] Story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Animation by Jess Sealey Music by Agnes Obel Read "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Film

Horror Thursday: The Final

Such high hopes for this one. The Final starts out really strong. Too bad it can't stay that way. Full Review

Film

Saw Review (Film, 2004)

Saw is the film I revisit more than any other in the long and wildly successful series. Compared to the later entries, it is a masterclass in subtlety and minimalistic horror. Two strangers wake up in an abandoned bathroom, each chained by the ankle to opposite sides of the room.

Books/Print

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwLkxmCWJRs?rel=0&w=640&h=480] Animation by Stephen Bail Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow — You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream;

Film

Dread Review (Film, 2009)

There was such potential in Clive Barker's attempts to have his short story collection Books of Blood adapted to film every year. His production company, Midnight Picture Show, had plans to adapt two stories every year to film. Dread is the third and last Books of Blood story

Film

Lifeboat Review (Film, 1944)

Lifeboat is a film at constant odds with itself. It's a highly theatrical concept that could never effectively be staged live. The action is played to the back row even though the boat is hardly 10 feet across. The actual plot is secondary to the political and thematic

Event

Get Ready for October

Good people, in five days, the best month of the year begins. October is when people suddenly decide the celebration of horror and the supernatural is acceptable. The good will fades as dawn breaks on 1 November, so get your fill in while you can. Here are a few things

Film

Horror Thursday: The Sacrament

I have to give credit to filmmakers like Eli Roth. They agree to the use of their name to help independent films get better distribution. The Sacrament is an "Eli Roth Presents" horror film about a cult that leaves the US to form their own Eden in an

Film

No Words: Ursula Narrates The Haunted Mansion

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwoTHwJmyCg?rel=0&w=640&h=360]