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Hell of a Summer
Early on in my viewing of “Hell of a Summer” I took a note that read: This is as if Woody Allen made a slasher. As the film went on, I realized that summation wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t totally off. The film is definitely in the comedy/horror space, and the comedy is mostly…
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Truth or Dare (2017)
Many years back, with films like “Hostel” and the “Saw” series, we had the advent of what was called torture porn. This basically involved scenes of people being strapped down and gruesomely mutilated. With 2017’s “Truth or Dare“, we have what I would call “self torture porn.“ The plot is basic enough. Several college students…
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The Mouse Trap
If you’ve been following the world of horror entertainment, you’re aware there’s been a rise of films that take intellectual property recently deposited into the public domain as their source material. There was, for instance, a “Winnie the Pooh as a monster” film recently, and also something involving Popeye. I was not aware that Mickey…
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Book Review: “Strung” by Per Jacobsen
This one was discussed a while back and the premise intrigued me. A man returns from a vacation in isolation to discover his home town is now filled with hanging bodies. I don’t want to reveal much beyond that, but suffice to say, our character Randall starts to get a sense of what is going…
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Review: The Rule of Jenny Penn
This was an interesting one. I’ve seen comments from people online who were deeply unsettled by it, calling it “nightmare inducing.” My reaction was more like, “huh…” Is that because these people are sensitive crybabies whereas I am an emotional mute whose empathy has been destroyed by watching years of horror films? Possibly. The story…
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Review: Under the Shadow
Here’s an interesting biographical detail about me: as a kid, I lived in Iran for around six months. This was in the seventies, right before the Shah fell in the cultural revolution there. As such, I have a bit more familiarity with the country’s history than some. And I’m well aware of the country’s war…
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Book review: Dread House by A.C. Hessenauer
This is a great, gothic creepy read. I would call it horror-lite, more in line with a Daphne du Maurier or Riley Sager story. Our protagonist, Cassie, arrives at an estate where her friend Emily is getting married. Cassie starts observing subtle signs of things that are off and then it’s a slow burn to…
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Review: Mad Love
This is a strange little horror film from 1935. I was first drawn to it because of a famous still in which Peter Lorre looks like some kind of techno-mutant out of a Mad Max film (albeit stylishly dressed in a snappy overcoat.) When I finally saw “Mad Love,” I was a little underwhelmed and…
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Book Review: Killer Crush by Brooke Montoya
Trashy and fun This book reminded me of the erotica-thriller straight to video movies that appeared in the 80s and 90s. Lots of sex, plot twists, and morally compromised characters. Our protagonist, Miranda, is stuck in a dead end marriage. She begins writing letters to handsome Luke, a convicted prisoner many states away. And… let’s…
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Review: Copycat
It’s probably no surprise why I would give “Copycat,” a serial killer movie from 1995, a review. Netflix has been putting it on blast and it’s in their top ten. I saw the movie when it came out, and recall enjoying it. So how does it hold up thirty years hence? Not bad. The plot…
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Great review of “The Mirror Man” from Bibliophilia Templum.
Here’s the link https://bibliophiliatemplum.wordpress.com/2025/06/30/the-mirror-man/