There are movies that are basically two hours of plot to set up something that happens in the last ten seconds. “6 Souls” starring Julianne Moore is one of them. It’s not a bad thing…

I’m pleased as a vampire in a blood bank to announce I have a short story coming out in the new Books of Horror Anthology. It’s available for pre-order now and arrives shortly. There are…

There are movies where you need the ending explained to you. Then there are movies where you need the whole damn thing explained to you. Then there are movies where you know there is no…

Director William Castle had a certain recipe for creating 1960s horror films that sold well but didn’t break the budget. It involved mixing… All this is on full display in “The Night Walker.” To point…

I became aware of A.C. Hessenauer upon reading her gothic horror novel “Dread House” several months back.  “Manimal” is one or her more recent works. It swaps out the gothic vibe for something closer to…

“Synchronic” revolves around an interesting question. What if a drug that seems to warp reality actually warps reality? (I presume the idea was prompted by a Joe Rogan episode where the podcaster pontificated on the…

There’s a trend in modern moviemaking that bugs me. This is the approach that a story doesn’t need to make literal sense if it is ultimately an allegory for something else: a theme, a human…

No job defines the modern era more than that of the influencer, the nebulous vocation where individuals post pictures of themselves on social media while hawking products or engaging in other questionable means of monetization.…

Years ago I read about the Rosenhan experiment, in which a professor had his students feign insanity to get placed in an asylum. As time passed, the institutionalized students behaved normally, because they were in…

The concept of the Christmas horror film is an interesting one. At first look, the holiday and the horror genres would seem to have a little in common. But it’s precisely in moments of jubilation…

Film noir movies were known for their snappy patter. Why talk plainly when you can punch things up with innuendo and clever metaphors? 1946’s “The Dark Corner” is the movie to beat for great patter.…

For the first two-thirds of this film I was like, “Meh, this is okay, I guess.” Then it hit the last act and went absolutely effing bonkers, and now I think “Death Spa” is one…

Ever start playing with a dog and think it’s gonna be so much fun and after about five minutes you’re like, “This is kind of boring.” That’s the horror film “Good Boy” in a nutshell.…

Years ago, I used to live in Sacramento, California, but spent part of my week working up in Incline Village, Nevada (near Reno). During the winter, this commute would occasionally involve driving through crazed snowstorms…

This is a FANTASTIC novella. “Final Girl is Tired” is hooked around an obvious conceit, basically laid out in the title. Final girl Maxine Hart survived a Jason Voorhees-like killer decades ago. Now in her…