horror

A collection of 538 posts

Film

The App Review (Film, 2019)

The App is an Italian sci-fi/drama/romance/thriller hybrid from writer/director Elisa Fuksas. The title of the film is not a metaphor or some grand symbolic play; it is the substance of the film. Fuksas commits to a story about a new kind of dating app and her vision is quite fascinating.

Film

The Silenced Review (Film, 2015) The Archives

The Silenced is a South Korean horror film inspired by the Japanese control of Korea during World War II. Shizuko (really Joo-ran) is forced into a boarding school for unwell teenage girls in Seoul by her father and stepmother as they leave for Tokyo in 1938. The headmistress promises to help Shizuk

Film

The Collector Review (Film, 2009) Take Two

The Collector is one of the tamer horror entries in this time period. Arkin, a handyman, gets caught up in a murderer’s deadly game when he tries to rob his newest employer’s house. The family is about to go on vacation and someone has set up the house with deadly traps. The Collector leaves a red t

Film

The Silence, A Quiet Place, and the Subtle Art of Coincidence

My focus today is on shared inspiration in creative fields. The biggest story when A Quiet Place came out was its similarities to Tim Lebbon’s novel The Silence. People who read Lebbon’s book (or even the dust-cover summary) could see a lot of unlikely coincidences in the narrative.

Film

The Fury Review (Film, 1978) The Archives

I don’t know why, but I’ve yet to see what I would consider a particularly successful genre film about government forces attempting to weaponize psychic abilities. It seems like a small niche, but quite a few horror and science fiction films have played with this concept for decades. It’s just a har

On Wed. We Write Fiction

Blessed, a Short Story

I’m starting a new feature at Sketching Details this week. On Wednesdays, We Write Fiction. You’ll get a new short story adapted for video each week. I mean, I have all these flash fiction stories that I could never find a market for. I played around with some

Film

Ghost Stories Review (Film, 2018)

Ghost Stories is the rare stage play adapted to film by the original playwrights. Directors/screenwriters Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman adapt their own stage play into a feature length film and it works beautifully. The entire conceit of the play is very cinematic, an 80 minute horror show with jump s

Film

The Torment of Laurie Ann Cullom Review (Film, 2014) The Archives

The Torment of Laurie Ann Cullom likes to play with genre expectations. The opening credit scroll is reminiscent of the recent wave of found footage/this is a true story films that overtook horror for quite a few years. The throwback 80’s period styling and sense of humor feels like the rise of meta

Film

Rattlesnake Review (Film, 2019)

Katrina and her daughter Clara are starting a new life with a cross-country move. Katrina has to stop to fix a flat tire in the desert. Clara wanders away from the car and is bitten by a rattlesnake. Fortunately, there is a trailer right off the road. The woman inside promises to help Clara while Ka

Film

American Mary Review (Film, 2013) The Archives

American Mary is a wild film. It’s a quiet character study of a poor medical student turned extreme body modifier. It’s a modern spin on Frankenstein with multiple Doctor/Monster connections. It’s a revenge/exploitation film from a distinctly feminist perspective with only one clear villain turned i

Film

Deadcon Review (Film, 2019)

In the early days of the Internet, a struggling inventor makes a deal with an independent personality in his computer program to make his work a success. He needs to bring real life friends over so the computer program can make itself a success. Jump to the present and a social media convention is h

Film

The Platform Review (Film, 2020)

In The Platform, Goreng wakes up in a vertical prison. Each floor has two inmates and a giant hole in the floor and the ceiling. Once a day, a platform descends and stops on each floor for the prisoners to eat for two minutes. However, the food is only loaded in at the top of the prison tower. After

Film

Pure Review (Film, 2019)

Shay has recently reconnected with her birth father Steve and agreed to join him and her half-sister Jo on a religious retreat. It is a Father/Daughter celebration of purity led by Pastor Seth. He preaches the responsibility of girls to follow the rules set out by their earthly and heavenly fathers

Film

Little Monsters Review (Film, 2019)

At the end of the second act of Little Monsters, David is having a quiet conversation with Audrey about her work. She is a kindergarten teacher, and she is good at her job. He’s taken aback when she actually speaks like a normal adult for the first time in front of him. The audience has already seen

Film

The Autopsy of Jane Doe Review (Film, 2016)

The Autopsy of Jane Doe is medical/body horror, haunted house, home invasion, and thriller combined in one effective horror story. Austin works for his father Tommy in the family morgue. He’s about to leave for a night out with his girlfriend Emma when Sheriff Burke wheels a body into the facility.

Film

Bird Box Review (Film, 2018)

Bird Box is the kind of horror film that happens when horror is not used as an excuse to ignore good filmmaking techniques. Critically acclaimed filmmaker Susanne Bier steps into the director seat for an apocalyptic horror film with a concept requiring a subtle, sensitive approach to the subject mat

Film

Swallow Review (Film, 2020)

Swallow is a different kind of horror film. It’s driven by feeling and concept more than plot. It’s defined as much by the incredible cast as it is by the use of color and light. Writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis crafts a horror film of obsession and deflection.

Film

The Legacy of The Candyman

I used to be equally terrified and obsessed with horror film trailers as a child. Let’s set the scene. It’s 1989. I’m four years old. 7pm hits and the TV is suddenly filled with trailers for the newest Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th sequel. I live close enough to NYC that our TV feeds we

Film

In the Tall Grass Review (Film, 2019)

In the Tall Grass is playing on a similar idea. If you enter the tall grass, you can’t leave. The world shifts around you, voices echo from the wrong direction, and you will never find your way to the road again. It’s also adapted from a novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill by writer/director Vincen

Film

Ari Aster and The Horror of Grieving

Love him or hate him, Ari Aster has quickly made a name for himself in horror. In two short years, he released two of most talked about films in recent years. He broke the rules of horror to create a conversation about what defines terror in cinema.

Film

The Turning Review (Film, 2020)

Director Floria Sigismondi’s spin on The Turn of the Screw is an ambiguous text in a way that can only happen onscreen. There is no easy answer. There is no right or wrong interpretation. It’s a series of events inspired by the Henry James’ story told in a specific but not necessarily chronological

Film

Velvet Buzzsaw Review (Film, 2019)

Satirizing the art world is hard. People outside of it think they have a lot to say about it because a banana duct taped to a wall can make headlines. Visual art is not my area of expertise as a writer, though I try my best to approach it with an open mind. Velvet Buzzsaw does not have that mindset

Film

Cats Review (Film, 2019)

Imagine an inescapable force haunting society. No one knows for sure how it came to be, but it did. It is real. It is here. It is now and forever. Now and forever. That’s not a threat; that’s a promise.

Film

The Best Movie Musicals of the Decade (2010-2019)

The criteria for the list is rather simple. A great musical has to have a great song score. The singing has to be good. The songs have to service the story and the story needs to hit the emotional heights necessary to justify a song. And, most importantly, the film must have released between 2010 an

Books/Print

It's Complicated; or, Why I Never Formally Reviewed It and Chapter Two

No matter what version of It you look at, It is a narrative driven by irrational fears. For example, I fear ever picking up a Stephen King novel that runs more than 800 pages again. It, the novel, is one of those texts that turned me into a fan of Stephen King’s short stories. Contained to a single