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”…

That it was my third viewing of Martin Scorsese’s remake of the film noir classic that prompted this review tells you everything you need to know. I don’t watch crappy films three times. But even on repeat, Cape Fear is a magnificent work. The plot drives forward, the tension simmers before exploding into a violent…

I was recently drawn to watch “Brain Dead”, a 1990 offering that includes both Bills e.g. Pullman and Paxton. (Together at last!) It was billed as a thriller, but I could tell from the promo material that was like calling “Natural Born Killers” a romcom. I was immediately guarded when the intro credits were rendered…