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…

Sigh… What do we do with M. Night Shyamalan? How should we assess his legacy? I was blown away by “The Sixth Sense” when it came out in 1999. The eerie mood and shocking twist seemed to indicate a filmmaker who would deliver decades of fantastic cinema. As a result, I tried to enjoy what…

I was excited at the opportunity to see Gaslight, the gothic melodrama from which the term “gaslighting” is derived. Just so we’re all on the same page, let’s ask ChatGPT what the term means. (Surely AI would never lie!) “Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation where one person or group deliberately makes someone question…

There are certain movies I watch expecting to hate. I click the play button with part of my psyche screaming, “why are you doing this? You know it’s going to be a hot mess of bad acting and insipid plot devices. Stop. STOP!” Yet I never stop. “Tarot” was one of these movies. But here’s…

Maybe there’s something seriously wrong with me, but I really enjoyed this movie. It’s another one of those early eighties high school/college horror schlockfests, similar to “Prom Night” or “The Prowler.” The girls of a sorority house do something bad and are subsequently stalked and slaughtered by a cane wielding maniac. I like horror with…

So I have a love/hate thing with Wes Craven. I think “Nightmare on Elm Street” is the greatest horror film ever made and maybe one of the greatest conceits in horror. I also liked Craven’s “Last House on the Left.” But he’s been involved with some real stinkers: “Red Eye”, “They”, and as I have…

A lot of horror builds off the question of “what if the thing that can fulfill your dreams demands too high a price?” The classic short story “The Monkey’s Paw” did it. So did Stephen King’s Pet “Semetery.” And so does “Night Swim”, a little unpolished gem that popped up on my Amazon feed. In…

I tend to review horror films. 1964’s “The Visit” is more of a drama, but sometimes dramas, which hew closer to reality, are the most horrifying stories of all, right? HAWHAWHAWHAW! (Evil laughter fades to silence.) The plot is an extended Twilight Zone episode. Ingrid Bergman’s Karla inherits  vast wealth when her husband dies (it’s…

Wes Craven’s name has lured me to watch bad films before. “They” was intriguing and suspenseful until it ended right at (what felt like) the start of the third act. And he had a few other clunkers like “Red Eye” and “Dracula 2000”. (That said, I love “Nightmare on Elm Street”, and both versions of…

Here’s the thing: it’s tough to mix horror and comedy. The two modes are so opposed that you really have to lean into one over the other. When I think of films in this hybrid genre that succeeded, I think of “House” and “Homebound” (mostly humor), or “Return of the Living Dead” and “The Reanimator”…