Jan 07
In “The Devil Inside,” William Brent Bell’s mock-documentary, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) travels to Rome with filmmaker Michael (Ionut Grama) to investigate an attempted exorcism twenty years prior that left Isabella’s mother (Suzan Crowley) committed in a mental hospital outside Vatican City. After an unsettling reunion leaves her unsure that her mother’s affliction is psychological, she appeals to devout David (Evan Helmuth) and cynical Ben (Simon Quarterman)—both of whom are ordained priests as well as exorcists—for help. When Isabella and Michael accompany the two priests to an exorcism to learn about possession and determine the truth about her mother, they fall into a world of the possessed Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 29
Gremlins
By Garin Pirnia
What better way to ignore the six-week long brouhaha called The Holidays than with slasher horror films that take place during the holidays? Instead of sitting through the usual TBS twenty-four-hour “A Christmas Story” marathon or humoring your parents by watching the oldie-but-goodie “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” check out one of these great offerings available on Netflix and YouTube. It’s going to be okay. It really is.
“Gremlins” (1984)
“Gremlins” is usually filed under “family films,” but with gremlins being microwaved, blenderized and that horrific scene (“that’s when I noticed the smell”) where Phoebe Cates regales Gizmo and Billy with how her father broke his neck coming down a chimney trying to surprise them as Santa Claus, it’s pretty obvious that this is a horror film lurking in Mogwai clothes. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 18
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
RECOMMENDED
Antiseptic yet endearingly lurid, shiny as a polished stone, Bill Condon’s first of two “Twilight: Breaking Dawn” movies is a couple degrees cooler than camp but at least warmer than the grave. The Oscar-winning writer-director (for the script of “Gods and Monsters”) approaches the material with more tongue-in-cheek, largely in line readings, than earlier directors confronting the sparkly vampires and doggie werewolf boys who surround its hard-crushing teen-girl protagonist Bella. It’s efficient filmmaking shot straight to the heart of its expectant target audience. Kristen Stewart’s nasal murmur, smaller and smaller beside Robert Pattinson, makes for a toothy tiny bride in brown-eyed contacts, blushing, barefoot. Eat, prey, turn? Marry, fuck, thrill? “You have to accept what is,” a character says, meaningfully meaningless. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 05
RECOMMENDED
Horror-comedy’s hard, but Eli Craig’s daffy, near-delirious “Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil,” which debuted at Sundance and SXSW in 2010, makes the spurting, spirited redneck slasher movie look easy. The good guys live in the hills; it’s those terrible college students, an unaware “car full of morons” out on a lark who are going to step into all the wrong things. These guys aren’t bad: Call these surprisingly smart locals “Straw Puppies.” Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 05
In “Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence),” Tom Six reprises his 2009 horror film by adding “2″ to the title while multiplying the victims by a factor of four. Instead of sequencing three naked people on their knees with pieholes stitched to assholes, this time there are twelve people stapled together. Why? To model a “human centipede” with a pass-through tract: ingestion- digestion-excretion-ingestion… repeat ad nauseam. Read the rest of this entry »
Aug 24
One scary night in Rhode Island back in the horse-and-carriage day, a wildlife painter on par with John James Audubon takes hammer-and-chisel to the teeth of his maid. If he supplicates the diabolical fairies dwelling in the ash pit under the basement, they may unhand his eight-year-old son. (He already made a sacrifice of his own teeth to no avail. )The manic, furry, screechy little supernatural monsters drag the painter into their abyss beneath Blackwood Manor. This prelude to “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” sports a mastery of horror tropes. The opening credits are great, too. But the rest, set in the present and shot in Melbourne, is not up to par with earlier work by co-writer, co-producer and creature-voicer Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”). Read the rest of this entry »
One thing leads to another for horror director-writer-editor Ti West. When making “The House of the Devil” (2009), he and his crew stayed at the Yankee Pedlar Inn in Torrington, Connecticut. Now he takes over the place that opened in 1891 and locates a haunted-hotel tale there. The inn in “The Innkeepers” is about to close. The owner took off for Barbados; only two employees remain. On their off-hours, they try to record evidence of ghosts with camcorder and microphone for a “Real Hauntings” website. Read the rest of this entry »
