I love asylum horror. Why wouldn’t I? Drooling lunatics, homicidal psychopaths, hyper-sexed nymphomaniacs, power-mad head nurses—it’s all there, baby! As such, I was drawn to try 2004’s “Madhouse”, a horror flick set in an asylum and streaming on Amazon, which curiously tagged the film as “edifying”. Was it? Umm, I dunno about that. But it…

Capturing the stories of HP Lovecraft to film can be a challenge. Director Stuart Gordon probably did it best with his movies “Re-Animator”, “From Beyond” and “Dagon” but others have stumbled with unwieldy adaptations hooked around Lovecraft’s particular brand of cosmic horror. “Color out of Space” does a decent job. I don’t think I ever…

When I saw mention of “Suddenly, Last Summer” on a list of film noir recommendations, my first thought was “Wait? It’s more than just a song by The Motels?*”  *Humblebrag: In my career as a musician, I was in a band that opened for the Motels, though long after their heyday. In fact, it was…

I decided to watch 1984’s “Screamplay” under the assumption that it was a middling horror comedy set in the gritty underbelly of Hollywood. Maybe I’d get some spatters of gore, I thought, or at least a blonde starlet losing her clothes on the casting couch. Umm… no. Upon clicking the play button, I discovered Screamplay…

Here’s the thing: James Spader was the biggest d-bag in the 80s. I mean, not him personally, but his characters. He mocked Molly Ringwald and John Cryer in “Pretty in Pink”. In “The New Kids”, he menaced innocent girls as a psychopathic gang leader. In “Less Than Zero, he did no less than pimp out…

I keep mentioning Hitchcock these days. One of his greatest films was 1948’s “Rope”, a retelling of the famous 1924 Leopold and Loeb murders where two young men killed someone just for the thrill of it. 1959’s “Compulsion” is about the same case. “Compulsion” feels like two films in one. The first half details the…

I’m taking part in a new book promotion that has a number of horror books available at Amazon. Click the link to see the goods! https://books.bookfunnel.com/intotheshadows/onn2n93q1y

Yep, I finally saw it. The horror film of 2024. The gore-laden smash everyone is talking about. Here’s the thing with a movie like “The Substance.” You can’t just review it. While discussing the film, you need to opine about weighty topics like the nihilism of modern society, feminism, objectivity versus subjectivity and more. Every…

There’s a frequent story setup that goes like this: A group of young hoodlums break into the home of affluent or in some way “soft” members of society, only to have the tables turned on them. It was used to great effect in 2016’s “Don’t Breathe”, featuring the under-acclaimed Stephen Lang as the blind antagonist. …

This was a weird one. I watched it, and didn’t really understand it, so I looked it up on one of those “explainer” web sites. That gave me the gist, it didn’t generate enough of a reaction in me to warrant reviewing it. But, I dunno… “Abandoned” kind of stuck with me. Days after I…

I’ve done a lot of these mini-reviews at this point, but I think Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 thriller “Marnie” is the one I’ve had the hardest time judging. To be clear, I’ve been a huge fan of Hitch’s work since I was a kid. He’s probably the reason I write horror stories (though his oeuvre would…

It should be obvious I’m a sucker for shlocko-horror, particularly from the 70s and 80s. As such, when I stumbled across “Killer Workout” (also called “Aerobicide”), a 1987 slasher set in a fitness studio, it looked like an easy win. I hoped for cheeseball synth-wave dance tunes, wooden acting, gratuitous T&A, and a threadbare plot. And…

There’s one thing you gotta understand about me: I’m willing to overlook a lot of plot holes and weak execution in a film if I like its overall premise. Or its use of snark. Or just the plain cut of its jib. As such, I disagree with the critics who panned the recently released to…

A few nights ago, I fired up Brian De Palma’s 1976 thriller “Obsession” on the old Amazon Prime. At the opening shot, I was struck by a thought. “I’ve seen this before.” And I had. Or at least I think so. At various points, an ethereal sense of déjà vu percolated, as did suspicions as…

A fertile concept for dramatic tension is a group of women locked together in some in environment. “Girl, Interrupted” (about a female psyche ward) is perhaps the most famous recent success with this premise, but I also think of director Lucky McKee’s “The Woods” (about a secluded girls school) or even the recent reviewed “The…