film review

A collection of 371 posts

Event

#31DaysofHorror: Come Out and Play Review (Film, 2012)

Come Out and Play is the second cinematic adaptation of Juan José Plans novel El juego de los niños (The Children's Game). Though it may seem like this film is a shot-for-shot remake of Who Can Kill a Child?, it really is another accurate adaptation of Plans'

Film

Horror Thursday: Blood Feast

I'm unintentionally on a Hershell Gordon Lewis Kick. Last week, I raved about Two Thousand Maniacs! right here. This week, I share the love by raving about Blood Feast over at Man, I Love Films. When did Hershell Gordon Lewis turn into one of my favorite horror directors?

Film

Black Mass Review (Film, 2015)

Black Mass is the story of James "Whitey" Bulger's rise to prominence as the preeminent gangster in Boston in the 1980s. Essentially, he agrees to cooperate with an FBI agent, his childhood friend, to take down the Italian mob in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Bulger

Film

The Blair Witch Project Review (Film, 1999)

You gotta hand it to indie horror directors committing to a concept. It's not enough to just make the film on your own. You need to sell it: to the audience, to distributors, to critics--anyone who can advocate for the film and get it seen by more people.

Film

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Review (Film, 2013)

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is a Russian-language documentary about the trial of feminist punk rock performance artists Pussy Riot. They performed inside of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior for 30 seconds. They took over the altar and condemned the Orthodox Church's role in President

Film

Horror Thursday: Donkey Punch

You know what? I didn't ever think to give Donkey Punch a try because of that title and the marketing when it came out. I was pleasantly surprised to find a sharp, psychological horror film about a crime in open waters. Read the full review at Man, I

Film

Two Thousand Maniacs! Review (Film, 1964)

For a director best known for gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis could pull off a very subtle psychological horror story. I'm not trying to claim Two Thousand Maniacs! is some misunderstood intellectual masterpiece. I am saying there's a lot more going on than face value, which is

Film

Excision Review (Film, 2012)

Excision is a teenage body horror film. Mix Heathers with May and you get the tone of this one. AnnaLynne McCord plays Pauline, a delusional teenager obsessed with surgery and mortality. She's a social outcast doing everything in her power to convince her parents that she needs psychiatric

Film

Horror Thursday: Two Evil Eyes + A Video

I love a good anthology horror film. The big risk with the rare two in one (that's two stories total) anthology is balance. If one film is just terrible, the other one doesn't hold up as well. Man, I wish Two Evil Eyes was just a

Film

Horror Thursday: Pulse

Over at Man, I Love Films, I covered Pulse today. Why Pulse? Why Now? Simple: Wes Craven was heavily involved in the creation of the English language remake, and his passing on Sunday night reminded me that I never actually wrote anything about Pulse. Pulse is a techno-horror crossed with

Film

Horror Thursday: Unfriended

I can't tell you how long I wanted to see Unfriended. I was hooked on the concept alone the first time I saw a trailer. Then I got so bogged down with work that it was in and out of theater before I got a chance to see

Film

Ant-Man Review (Film, 2015)

Hank Pym, 26 years after literally smacking someone upside the face for trying to turn his molecular distance shrinking technology into a commercial weapon enterprise, is forced to train a replacement on how to be Ant-Man because of his former protege's greedy ambitions. He forces his daughter to

Film

Slipstream Reviews #1: It Follows

I've wanted to do a film review comic for a long time. No time like the present. Enjoy this graphic look at the solid new horror film It Follows. See it in theaters if you can. It Follows definitely benefits from the intimacy and hypnotic power of the

Film

Horror Thursday: The ABCs of Death 2

I cannot say enough great things about The ABCs of Death 2. I was lukewarm on the first anthology because it felt like a half-boiled joke. This time around? The directors went for it. If something fails, it's a spectacular failure driven by genre preferences rather than, shall

Film

Horror Thursday: Suspended Animation

Horror Thursday is back at Man, I Love Films with a review of a strange little horror that's been on my Netflix Queue longer than I can remember. Suspended Animation is like Misery, only with a high ranking but unknown animation director kidnapped by elderly cannibal women during

Film

Horror Thursday: A Short Vision

How could an animated short with art this beautiful be a horror film? What if I told you it was made a few years after the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and showed what happens when flesh meets nuclear weapons? Full review over at Man, I Love Films.

Film

See No Evil 2 Review (Film, 2014)

Let's go back in time to 2006. I was one of the people who saw the original See No Evil in theaters. It was a nondescript slasher film. Not bad, per se, but predictable and derivative. That's the problem with hundreds of slasher films. If you

Film

All Cheerleaders Die Review (Film, 2014)

Maddy just wanted to make a little video for her good friend Alexis, the captain of the cheerleading squad. But as Alexis demonstrates, cheerleaders have more catastrophic injuries per athlete than any other sport. Three months later, Maddy joins the squad to get revenge on the too-cocky captain of the

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

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

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

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

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