“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 genre 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…

Little-known fact about me: my favorite band is Devo. I’ve loved those mutant New Wave rockers ever since I first heard them when I stumbled into a record store in Honolulu (where I grew up)…

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie where I genuinely thought parts were missing. Like scenes are referred to, and I’m rolling back the video to see if I accidentally jumped ahead. But…

The more I think about it, the more I realize that 2005 “Stay” is a very interesting film. I think we’re also familiar with the notion that part of what the human mind does is…

I’m a little perplexed with this one. It’s called “The Shadow Man“ and has a spooky looking shadow man on the cover, so I figured I was getting something pretty close to horror. But this…

“Night Screams” starts with a film-within-a-film motif. A young woman is disrobing in a locker room and possibly being stalked by an intruder. But then—quelle surprise!—we find out that what’s actually happening is a married…