Category: horror
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47 Meters Down: Uncaged [2019] ★★
This mediocre follow-up to 2017’s “47 Meters Down” finds more group of friends trapped underwater with deadly Great White Sharks surrounding them. The first film wasn’t innovative in any way, but it was suspenseful enough and had some solid scares to validate its existence. The new one, while genuinely terrifying at times, plays its cards…
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Crawl [2019] ★★½
Let’s be honest here: you don’t walk in to see a movie featuring deadly alligators expecting quotable dialogue or an unforgettable story. Personally, I want it to entertain me and “Crawl” does exactly that. It sure as hell isn’t swimming in the same waters as “Jaws”, but it gets the job done in just 80…
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Midsommar [2019] ★★★½
If there’s one movie that you need to experience this summer, “Midsommar” would be it. This stunning, almost dream-like movie from visionary filmmaker Ari Aster is the year’s most disturbing film. If you’ve seen Aster’s work in last year’s “Hereditary”, you know he’s a director who means business. In “Midsommar”, a film that prides itself…
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Annabelle Comes Home [2019] ★★½
It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or move the franchise in totally unexpected ways, but there’s something truly terrifying about “Annabelle Comes Home”. Is it the fact that we’re stuck all night in the Warrens’ house while Annabelle unleashes every demon you could think of? That’s probably it. And for a while, this third installment in…
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Brightburn [2019] ★★
Do you ever watch a movie that turns out to be instantly forgettable? Case in point: “Brightburn”, a completely watchable but equally forgettable superhero/horror film from producer James Gunn that never truly reaches its full potential. Damn shame if you ask me, because judging from the trailer, the film had potential. The plot? An alien…
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The Curse Of La Llorona [2019] ★★½
Writer/Director/Producer James Wan has provided the raw material for many successful horror movies over the past few years (“Saw”, “Insidious”, “The Conjuring”), and needless to say, he has done a great job at revamping a genre that was slowly suffocating. Even when he wasn’t calling the shots (see “Lights Out”), you could still feel his…
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Pet Sematary [2019] ★★★
To say that this version of Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary” surpasses the 1989 original would be an understatement. The old one was a product of its time and never truly rose above the routine. The new one doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s well-made, perfectly cast, and it left me shattered. For that, credit director…
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Us [2019] ★★½
Writer-director Jordan Peele follows up 2017’s surprise hit “Get Out” (which landed him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) with yet another ambitious horror movie. I say that with full confidence because “Us” has all the ingredients that made “Get Out” so successful. So why did it not fully satisfy me? It can’t be the…
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Escape Room [2019] ★★½
If you’re a sucker for escape rooms, then this movie was especially designed for you. It’s formulaic for sure, and it borrows a lot from such movies as “Cube” and “Saw”, but it kept me on the edge of my seat. You can practically picture the filmmakers plotting their next move as soon as the…
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Happy Death Day 2U [2019] ★★½
“Happy Death Day” caught me off guard with its intriguing premise and constant twists and turns. If you remember clearly, Jessica Rothe played a college student who keeps reliving the day of her murder over and over again. The “Groundhog Day”/Horror crossover worked well enough, and I found myself recommending it to a lot of…
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The Possession Of Hannah Grace [2018] ★½
I was compiling my list of the year’s worst movies when I noticed that this film was playing at the local multiplex this week. So naturally, I had to see it. And I wasn’t disappointed at all: this is one of my favorite “bad” movies of the year; Generic, far from scary, and downright silly.…
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Overlord [2018] ★★★
I’m not a big fan of “zombie” movies, but “Overlord” might be the best I’ve seen in quite a while (along with the Korean film “Train To Busan”). Part of its charm is its B-movie feel. We’re in WWII, and a group of American soldiers are about to enter dangerous territory. Nazis? Try fucked up…
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Halloween [2018] ★★★
First some background: the original 1978 “Halloween” movie is highly regarded as a classic in the horror genre. So much in fact that it was followed by 7 sequels and a reboot in 2007 (which in turn had a sequel as well). Most of these films were mediocre at best, which brings me to “Halloween…
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Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween [2018] ★★½
It was never going to top the 2015 original, and if we’re being completely honest, this sequel isn’t as memorable. But it gets the job done, especially if you’re watching it around Halloween season with your family. Jack Black stole the show in the first movie as writer R.L Stine, who wrote so many best-selling…
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Hereditary [2018] ★★★½
I’ve heard the buzz, but nothing could have prepared me for “Hereditary”, a brilliant horror movie that ranks as one of the best films of the year. It’s incredible to think that there’s still room for originality in an already exhausted genre. But first time writer-director Ari Aster had other ideas. His movie gets in your…
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Slender Man [2018] ★
It’s 2018 and movies like “Slender Man” still exist on the big screen. This truly horrible horror movie shouldn’t even exist on DVD. But here we are, on a hot summer day, watching this preposterous film…on the big screen. Why? Why waste a perfectly decent budget on a movie that: 1) isn’t scary at all.…
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A Quiet Place [2018] ★★★
This is the horror movie we’ve all been waiting for. Director John Krasinski (who would have thought) delivers the creepy goods, leaving us unnerved, terrified, and exhilarated. This is “A Quiet Place” in a nutshell, a tense and extremely well-crafted tale of survival. Krasinski himself plays a family man who must protect his family from…
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Veronica [2017] ★★
I’m calling bullshit on this film’s flashy marketing strategy. By telling people that “this Spanish original film is so terrifying that people can’t watch to the end”, Netflix got my attention. But now that I’ve finally seen the film, I can tell you that none of this is true. Sure, it’s an intriguing story about…
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Insidious: The Last Key [2018] ★
It’s Still January, but “Insidious: The Last Key” could well be the worst movie of the year. There are no scares in this fourth installment, only leftovers from its much superior predecessors. As a direct sequel to the third film (which in turn was a prequel to the first two), “The Last Key” focuses once…
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Better Watch Out [2017] ★★★
On the surface, “Better Watch Out” sounds like a “Home Alone” rip-off. It isn’t. And the sooner you realize that, the more fun you’ll have watching this superbly twisted holiday thriller from director Chris Peckover, who does a great job of raising hell. With screenwriter Zack Kahn, “Better Watch Out” provides young Levi Miller the…
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