Everyone knows that director Tobe Hooper was responsible for one of the all-time great horror films “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.“ What is less discussed about the director is that he sort of lost his way over the course of his career, and ended up directing low to middle budget Horror films that didn’t get much…

Watching a Mel Gibson film these days feels deliciously outré, like you’re doing something naughty.  Unfortunately, I also find that most of his post scandal works are of middling to low quality. “On The Line” continues that tradition. Gibson plays a talkshow host named Elvis Cooney who is an unlikable jerk. Obviously the choice of…

Years ago, I developed an interest in film noir movies and viewed many classics of the genre like “Double Indemnity”, “Touch of Evil”, “Notorious” and even neo-noirs like “Chinatown” and Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” (fun and kooky with gorgeous Margo Kidder!) More recently, I’ve been seeking some lesser known noirs and so my wife and…

I saw the terrific original Danish version of the horror film “Speak No Evil” a few years ago and, as such, wasn’t particularly interested in the American remake. But it caught my wife’s eye, probably because it features dreamy James McAvoy (dude got swole for the part) so we checked it out last night. My…

Terrified is an Argentinian horror film from 2017. It came recommended as having some incredible scares, and it does, at times. The open sequence is great. After his wife complains about hearing voices in the plumbing of their cottage, a man goes over to their next-door neighbor to complain about other noises. When he comes…

People were really into telepathy back in the 80s. Well, telepathy and related super-abilities of the mind, like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, clairvoyance and precognition. Think about 80s classics like The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Scanners, and Creepers. Or, it turns out, 1982’s The Sender, which I watched a few nights ago. The film starts with a young…

I feel I fell prey to false advertising on this one. It was touted as horror-comedy, but really was a dark comedy. There’s little here I would call horror. It’s built on a familiar setup. A pair of small of small-time crooks, who are also lovers, break into a home to steal a car. They…

Boy, I really wanted to like this one. There’s so much in its favor: a dark, nihilistic social landscape reminiscent of what you’d find in the books of Jim Thompson. Skilled actors, especially the young protagonist played by Jack Dylan Grazer, and the possible antagonist played by Rainn Wilson. A plot centered around an excruciating…

When I was eighteen, a friend of mine showed me a copy of the 1978 rape revenge thriller “I Spit on Your Grave.” It was a movie with a stained aura, famous for its scenes of brutal violence and sex. This was before Internet video, so pertaining access to such taboo products came with a…

From the title, this sounds like an episode in a British mystery show, or maybe an old Hardy Boys adventure. In fact, it’s a rather weird thriller set on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. At the film’s beginning, Abby, a thirty-something woman, returns to her hometown to protest the sale of her recently deceased…

If you read my review of the film “Trapped”, you know my thoughts about M. Night Shyamalan. I thought “The Sixth Sense” was a terrific debut, but he, unfortunately, hasn’t made a strong film since. Hold that thought in your head while I discuss “Watchers,” a 2024 horror/fantasy work starring Dakota Fanning. I went into…

Ever wonder what the Nancy Drew stories would be like if she investigated the murders of a serial killer who, among other things, made his victims drink bleach? I have. At one point, I have the idea of writing a novel that took characters in the mold of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and…

Yeah, y’all can go ahead and skip this one. It came recommended to me on Facebook as being really scary. And it had a shot, but ultimately fell apart on landing. The plot is intriguing. A rookie police woman capably played by Juliana Harkavy is tasked with taking the last shift—manning the phone, dealing with…

Occasionally movies pop up that I want to like. They may not be the greatest, but they seem like the passion projects of young filmmakers trying to get a foothold in the business. I imagine they maxed out their credit cards and took loans from rich uncles to get the project funded. As such, I’m…

When I was in my twenties, I discovered the British film “Peeping Tom” about a serial killer who uses a movie camera to film his murders of young women. I suspect that film, made in 1960, as well as Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, released the same year, were big influences on 1965’s “The Collector.” All three movies…