As you might be able to ascertain from my review of Jim Mickle’s We Are What We Are, I really, really dug the film – it’s a serious breath of fresh air in an October that’s bizarrely lacking in horror releases (in fairness, the Carrie remake opens next week, but I have a feeling that’s going to be scary for reasons other than its horror beats). Cannibal fare might be relatively niche even in horror, the most niche genre umbrella of them all, but every element that makes up the film’s whole plays in a way that’s universally pleasing; gorehounds don’t get to claim exclusive dibs on what Mickle has done…
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G-S-T Review…All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Where would Jonathan Levine be today if the Weinsteins had actually released All the Boys Love Mandy Lane in 2007? Few indie, D.I.Y. slashers have a history that’s quite so storied as this one’s; Levine started work on the project in 2003, completed it and sold it to Bob and Harvey in 2006, and then went on to make a name for himself with The Wackness in 2008 while Mandy Lane languished in obscurity. (And that’s just the short version of events.) If you’re wondering why a play on “kids go to isolated wilderness, kids get dead” exploitation wound up sitting on a shelf for nearly seven years, chalk it…
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G-S-T Review…We Are What We Are
Last year, horror fans took part in the genre rumpus of Drew Goddard’s masterful The Cabin in the Woods, a movie that by design reminds us why we love horror in the first place. This year, We Are What We Are teaches a variation on the same lesson: it’s the sort of horror film that rewards the diligence and patience that comes part and parcel with true horror fandom. Dig through the mounds of garbage that comprise an average year’s release slate of cinematic skeletons, spirits, and haunts, and you’ll generally be rewarded with priceless gems for your troubles (though there’s a question as to whether it’s worth suffering through…
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First Look At ‘Horns’: Everybody Hates Daniel Radcliffe
Did anybody on the Internet ever peg Daniel Radcliffe, mostly grown up from his days of playing the boy who lived, as a potential horror icon? Admittedly, he’s done more than just pop up in films like The Woman in Black since 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 premiered, raked in enough money to fill several dozen Olympic-sized swimming pools, and happily liberated Radcliffe from his franchising duties; notably, he has Kill Your Darlings, the Beat Generation biopic, coming up later this year and The F Word set for early 2014, and he’s expanded his theatrical resume with How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The Cripple of Inishmaan, as…
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Sweet Trailer…'Witching & Bitching'
One thing can be said about Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia: he knows how to compose strikingly weird imagery. Truthfully, a lot more can be said about him than that, as he’s one of Spain’s most visually inventive contemporary directors; one only needs to watch The Last Circus or 800 Balas for proof of his gifts as an artist. But even if you’re well-versed in his filmography, the trailer for his latest, Witching & Bitching, may yet leave you scratching your head in puzzlement, wonder what it is that you just subjected yourself to. And that’s kind of a good feeling. Witching & Bitching is a clear cousin to horror films like From Dusk till Dawn and Doghouse, pitting…
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Sweet Trailer…'Willow Creek'
Bobcat Goldthwait’s latest film, Willow Creek, still doesn’t have a theatrical release date yet, but it has received its very first trailer. We’ve seen the official poster, and my review from IFFBoston went up shortly after I caught the film at its world premiere (I really liked it), so suffice to say that it’s exciting to have the opportunity to show off some Willow Creek footage to people after talking it up for so long. Check it out below: Smartly, the trailer tries to show off what makes Willow Creek truly great: the relationship dynamics between Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) and Jim (Bryce Johnson) and the guest appearances by real-life Bigfoot fanatics and experts.…
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Sweet Trailer…'Berberian Sound Studio'
How do you make a movie about sound engineering creepy? Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck have each succeeded in making aural surveillance and the act of listening suspenseful and exciting, and Peter Strickland looks to be following in their footsteps with Berberian Sound Studio, his second feature film. Regrettably, I missed the screening held at IFFBoston this year, but IFC has me- and everyone else- covered, as they’re going to release the Toby Jones horror vehicle next month. In the meantime, they’ve offered a trailer (the second one cut thus far) for our viewing consumption- have a look below. If Berberian Sound Studio spent…
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G-S-T Review…Aftershock
Good news for Americans traveling abroad: you no longer have anything to fear from suspicious, secretly vicious locals. Now you just have to watch out for cataclysmic natural disasters and falling debris, which conveniently bring out the bloodthirsty maniac and paranoid xenophobe in everybody. Basically, if traveling to another country seemed dangerous before, it’s even moreso now, but that’s only because Aftershock has no idea what kind of movie it wants to be, or even how to be it. Is it about Americans being menaced in a foreign land, or is it about how much mankind lives at the whim of shifting tectonic plates? Either way, it’s not particularly good, so it…
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G-S-T Review…Evil Dead
There’s a caveat that needs to be applied to any review of Fede Alvarez’s remake of Evil Dead, Sam Raimi’s unassailable 1981 horror staple: the new version isn’t as good as the old. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be, because nobody should reasonably expect genre remakes to live up to or exceed the masterpieces that spawn them. The better news is that Alvarez actually has a great movie on his hands- perhaps one that’s not capable of creating the same lasting, resonating impact within its categorical boundaries as Raimi’s original movie did, but certainly one that brings the blood-soaked goods with the sort of unhinged, fearless…
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G-S-T Review…John Dies At the End
Soy sauce, TV psychics, magical Jamaicans, sentient organic computers, meat monsters, Paul Giamatti, and the constant threat of apocalypse: that’s John Dies at the End in a nutshell. Or maybe it’s Don Coscarelli in a nutshell. Of course, John Dies at the End isn’t pure Coscarelli– the cult film legend’s latest adapts the novel of the same name by one Jason Pargin, who initially had his book published back in 2007. But there’s a nagging sense of kismet that permeates the experience of watching the movie, as though Pargin wrote his story knowing that someday Coscarelli would end up translating it into cinema using his own brand of rampant comic-horror…
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The Criterion Files: Carnival of Souls
Carnival of Souls: Directed by: Herk Harvey Written by: Herk Harvey, John Clifford Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Herk Harvey, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison Cinematography by: Maurice Prather Music by: Gene Moore Released: September 26th, 1962 Since starting up the Criterion Files series back in February of this year, I’ve only chosen to analyze and contextualize one film that I’m not one hundred percent willing to champion on grounds of quality. The film in question– The Naked City— by chance happens to be the very first Criterion release I wrote about, one which I identified as being less than impressive; it’s not terrible, but it also doesn’t stand up against…
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First Official Teaser for 'Carrie'
MGM’s remake of Brian De Palma’s classic teen horror film, Carrie, is a very, very real thing, and the release of the first official trailer for the project solidifies that fact. We’ve seen posters and production stills featuring star Chloë Grace Moretz in what’s clearly the film’s last act; maybe unsurprisingly, the teaser, seen below, continues holding the party line by displaying Ms. Moretz in full crimson-soaked attire. Is there no other way to sell this picture than to point to its finale? If anything, the footage appears to confirm the murmurings that Kimberly Peirce intends to keep the film closer to Stephen King’s original story; while it’s a short clip, it’s…
