Reel Horror with Dahlia

SADAKO VS. KAYAKO brings the characters from RINGU and JU-ON: THE GRUDGE back to the big screen in a wildly fun, tongue-in-cheek thrill ride that finally answers the question: whose curse is stronger? The vengeful spirits of the Ring and Ju-on series face off.

Where to Stream: Shudder | iTunes | Amazon

    First of all, I want to throw in that we all know there are typically no official endings to these types of films. So don’t expect some big reveal of ‘who won’ or anything like that. If you’re unfamiliar with the vs concept, just know that it’s often meant to be more of a cool cross-over rather than any actual evidence of the better character. However, Freddy still absolutely won in Freddy vs Jason but we wont get into that right now because it’s not our subject of discussion and nobody can convince me otherwise anyways. 

    Moving on, while the Ring and Grudge had their hits and misses amongst american audiences with all of their sequels and updates, the series have both held high praise from their home fanbases. While the appearances for both character are kept relatively simplistic, they still both manage to evoke genuine terror just in simple things like their movement or sounds. I think that’s something that can be appreciated in both franchises, regardless of which one you favor. Both fanbases can go into this film happy and both can come out happy as well, which is something I think doesn’t happen often after a vs movie is watched. 

     As the synopsis even states, the film is very tongue-in-cheek. It pokes at itself, and at horror in general, fairly well but keeps it subtle enough that you don’t feel like the whole movie is just ridiculous. They walk that fine line between still being actually unsettling and creepy, and then throwing in the fun of the back and forth between the characters. Not spoiling anything, but it is worth noting that we really don’t get direct conflict between Sadako & Kayako until the latter half of the film. But honestly, we don’t need it. The whole movie didn’t require a big enemy battle spanning across the entire hour and a half of screen time. It took it’s time to  build us up into the atmospheres of both entities, and remember what made us scared of them in the first place. Then it gets a bit on the ridiculous side, and lets us just enjoy a good old fashioned ghost fight. 

      The castings were wonderful, all of the actors don’t treat is as just another goofy mash up movie. All of the actors, younger and older, took their roles seriously and genuinely gave great performances which honestly is more than some movies can say happened when they did a cross-over. Too many cross-overs come off as being fanservice, and the people working on it treat it as such. It’s genuinely nice to find an entertaining movie that gave us a good cross-over with both fun, and fright. 

A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic, Child's Play follows Karen (Aubrey Plaza), a single mother who gifts her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman) a Buddi doll, unaware of its more sinister nature.

Where To Stream: Amazon | YouTube | Google Play | iTunes

    Child’s Play is an iconic member of the slasher series, and over the years we’ve definitely seen Chucky at his best and at his worst. Which films are best and worst definitely depends on what your expectations are when you head into the theatre. Some Child’s Play films we go in being led to believe the film is going to scare us or give us some great kill counts. Others, show us openly that the film is intended to be more lighthearted and kind of poke fun at itself within the film. I know some audience members enjoy that bit of a twist when a comedic horror turns legitimately scary, or when they’re set up for fear and find a lighthearted film. In some instances, these sorts of mood shifts play out very well and in others it comes across as being unsure of where the director intended to go. The problem with horror is that sometimes the line between comedic and bad is fairly thin. This isn’t always the case, but it’s definitely the case when it comes to my feelings on the 2019 version of Child’s Play. 

    There’s far too many moments in this modern retelling where I watched a scene and found it comical, but I really couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be or not. I wanted to feel like I was getting Seed of Chucky vibes where some things were genuinely funny, some things were cringey and just plain bad, but we knew the movie wasn’t supposed to be very serious about itself. Child’s Play in this instance felt like it was possible the writer or director were confused how to actually make a serious horror film. I almost at times wondered if there was a communication issue between the two, where a scene seemed like it was written for a great horror moment but off paper became a poke at itself. 

     I was mostly excited to see this movie because, the main cast was one I was familiar with, and was happy to trust for a great experience. Aubrey Plaza worked great with what she had, but her mother character seemed a bit unlikeable at times. While Aubrey Plaza can be slightly known for playing prickly characters, I didn’t think it was the vibe I should have been getting for Andy’s mother. Also, I think most people would agree that the main attraction to this movie was Chucky being voiced by the ultimate villain voice of Mark Hamill. Mark Hamill will always be a fantastic voice, and he did a great job with Chucky, but even he couldn’t deliver some of those lines any better than they were written. The actors playing Andy and his friends also just felt like, ‘they did their best.’ because it didn’t feel like they did a bad job, but that they had bad tools to work with. 

    Overall, the whole film had me unsure if I was watching a tongue in cheek movie kinda making fun at the franchise, or if I was watching a film that just didn’t have good enough direction to be decent horror. I tried to think if I was in a mood for a comedic horror would I watch this movie again, but it honestly wasn’t even that great in that aspect even if it was it’s intention. Most of the time the movie felt like somewhere there’s a great written version of this that I would probably love. But sadly it just doesn’t come across as something that was properly executed. From the get go the bad AI concept even became a little ridiculous, and honestly I’d almost rather choose Small Soldiers. My final thought while watching the credits roll was that if maybe they just made a bad AI movie, instead of trying to make a ‘Chucky’ film, then it could’ve been a better done movie overall. 

After a man is seemingly strangled in his bed, criminal psychologist Kate Fuller (Olga Kurylenko) interviews the sole witness, the victim’s eight-year-old daughter, Sophie. When asked to identify the killer, Sophie says, “Mara.” As Kate digs into the case, she unearths a community of people who claim to be tormented by a shadowy menace, a centuries-old demon who kills her victims as they sleep.

Where To Stream: Netflix | Amazon | YouTube | Vudu

    Sleep paralysis is a very real phenomenon that affects approximately anywhere from 20 to 60 percent of the adult population. It can be a one off incident, or a recurring one, and science has yet to officially establish a cause for the condition. It’s also become a favorite recurring trope in movies to represent an effect of demonic or ghostly phenomenon. There’s a reason that it often works, and thats because the idea of your most vulnerable state of sleep being a trigger for your death can be terrifying. Since sleep paralysis itself is so common, and largely is experienced at least once by most adults, then there becomes a familiar fear to the concept that makes viewers more susceptible to fear of the film. 

   As someone who has suffered from continuous sleep paralysis issues since I was a teenager, I personally do have favorite horror films that use the sleep paralysis tactic. Sleep related fear in general is a favorite of mine because of my personal issues, and thats what drew me into loving the Nightmare on Elm St series. However, while it’s a valid tactic to take, the sleep paralysis cases just seem like easy targets for horror movies lately. Mara was a movie that brought that feeling to the surface. It had a decent concept but then the execution just made it feel like they were forcing all the stereotypical sleep paralysis stories on us. It honestly got dull. Sleep paralysis can be a horrifying scenario to experience, and so horror movies really should have it easy to use that concept in a story. Mara didn’t really utilize it as well as it could, and while the film gave a few good scares it ultimately just was us watching an hour and a half of a psychiatrist trying to still act like she’s not believing in it. Which is strange considering the second half of the film, there’s suddenly a 180 degree switch and she’s just all in on this concept! 

   I honestly would have rathered the film went deeper into the actual back story of Mara, but ultimately we really never know anything about her. Even after the movies conclusion, at best we know the general idea of why she appears and targets who she targets. But we still know absolutely nothing about the story of Mara herself, and of the demonic presence. Which is a real shame because Mara was the best part of this movie. The titular demon had a fantastic appearance that the effects crew gave her, and the little we learn of her targeting tactics is intriguing. They could have given us so much more back story to this demon, and the film really would have been better off for it. Instead, it kind of felt like a Nightmare On Elm St vibe, if you only watched the scenes of Freddy Krueger’s victims trying not to sleep and trying to convince everyone else why they shouldn’t. We actually get a decent balance of on screen Mara kills, vs the off screen deaths that just leave us bodies to discover, but even those start to just get repetitive. Admittedly, there’s only so many ways to make the exact same kill method interesting, but that’s why I think we needed more focus on the Mara legend itself rather than only following the trail of death. 

   Mara as a movie suffers largely from us not really getting anything back from the story, until the last 20 or 30 minutes. We are simply following a trail of corpses, while our main character gives up on her educated skepticism oddly quickly, and nobody seems to really be attempting to research the phenomenon except one character who doesn’t get brought up until the second half and is removed far too soon. This is one of those movies, I’m actually going to say you could probably pass on. It’s currently free on Netflix, so I mean, watch it since you aren’t losing anything but time. But I’d rather recommend to you Slumber or Dead Awake for fiction, and the Nightmare if you want an actual documentary style film on the real phenomenon of sleep paralysis. 

A freak tsunami traps a group of people inside a supermarket, and soon they find they are not alone. Their company, besides each other, is a pack of hungry killer sharks.

Where to Stream: Amazon | Vudu | Tubi TV | 

Check out my live reaction tweet thread! 

    2012 was a 3D nightmare, with movies left and right feeling a need to be released in 3D in order to be popular. Even Titanic got re-released in 3D in 2012. Now, that’s not shitting on 3D entirely. Plenty of movies did very well in 3D and it worked out for the film even if 3D televisions didn’t become quite as popular as Best Buy hoped they would. Unfortunately for this film though, 3D shark movies did not do anywhere near as well as anybody hoped. 

   Three dimensional cinema is something that can be a little testy for any kind of horror film, and it’s largely because the CGI quality most often tends to become so unbearably bad that you can’t ignore it. Even worse for Bait’s future, just one year before it’s 2012 release we had to be given a different shark movie. Shark Night 3D came out in 2011, and honestly, it basically neutered any chance the three dimensional shark movies had for a while. Shark Night, suffering from bad 3D and a PG13 restriction & numerous other problems, did not set a favorable stage for another promised shark movie to be welcomed into theatres. 

   Bait 3D, as sad as it is, really does suffer from that same biggest issue with 3D films. The CGI is just undeniably bad. Thankfully, director Kimble Rendall, actually did try his best to minimize the CGI that had to be used in the first place! They actually went the Jaws route, and Bait’s production used 3 seperate animatronic sharks in it’s filming. However, they only could do so much of what they needed to with their bitey puppets and CGI was forced to come into play. Especially with a 3D film you knew that CGI would become necessary, and the movie really did suffer because of it. The practical effects, however, were absolutely making the most out of their portion of the films 30mil (AUD) budget. The movie’s scenario is caused by a natural disaster and the wreckage and corpses left behind were beautifully well made. Our shark attack victims also had to have the CGI touch, but once the shark went away the corpses left behind were the best corpses you can see in a shark movie. It’s strange to tell people that the best part of the movies effects were it’s dead, but honestly that’s what happened with this film. If only someone fed the 3D concept to the sharks, then this could’ve been a genuinely well received movie. 

   Bait suffers entirely from it’s attempt at being a three dimensional film. I honestly will happily say that this is the one thing that held this movie back. You have a cast of actors that at first glance some might call unknown, and some actually were at the time of this release. But they’re also joined by known actors, and everyone is very talented regardless of their IMDB credit length. While there are some characters that seem ridiculously terrible, it’s not on the actors but on the actual writing of scenes that you can tell were executed as intended but it just wasn’t well intended. One scene specifically that sticks out to me is a scene in the car park of the supermarket. We all know that movie characters do stupid things, especially in horror, and that’s precisely why we have the cultural cliche of movie viewers shouting “Don’t go in there!” at their screens. But this scene just took it a bit too far for me to ignore it. We have a couple trapped in a car underwater, banging on the glass shouting for help...Underwater. Now, in a panic, I guess this seems like a good idea, sure we can argue that. But then when they hear the sounds of the shark outside, a character holds her phone screen up to the camera as though she’s using the screen brightness as a flashlight to try to see in the water. The smartphone that for 2012, definitely would’ve had a flashlight on it. The smartphone whose screen is shown to clearly have full 4 bars and wifi signal. Now they try to excuse this with a scene about 10 minutes later explaining her battery is dying, but really, you could’ve sent out like one text. Hell, twitter was a thing in 2012. #TrappedInCar could’ve easily been trending with a selfie of her blonde locks and cute pomeranian. 

  Honestly though, other than little scenes like that, this movie really did have a great chance at being better than this. The pacing was good, and the tension was built beautifully. You had character reveals, and little twists, and although I would’ve liked to know more about some characters, I did feel like we got what we needed. The call to action scenes of them starting to take charge, and the build ups to our climax, were well designed and you only could criticize them if you’re overthinking some logistics. Which, really, the movie is about a submerged supermarket with sharks in it. If you’re nitpicky about logistics, you probably should’ve just passed when you read the plot. Spend less money on trying so hard for the 3D effects, which would minimize the need for CGI, and the left over CGI could have more time/money to become better. Even moderately passable CGI can still be bad as the years go on, but it still would’ve been better than the CGI this movie gave us. 

   Overall, the movie is honestly free to watch anywhere. Go ahead and watch it. Yes, poke fun at the CGI and the blatant three dimensional moment spots, but also sit and enjoy the rest of it. It’s actually a good shark movie when you can look past the unfortunate product of it’s release date’s trend. 

After a mysterious high school 'incident', an attorney questions the only witness, a student, in hopes of protecting the school from any lawsuits. But as this student weaves his tale, it's clear that there is much more to this story than meets the eye. H8RZ has the intrigue of a thriller, while cleverly dealing with issues of bullying, school corruption, and the darker side of teen interactions.

Where To Stream: Amazon |  YouTube | Google Play |  Vudu | iTunes

     Director Derrick Borte takes an interesting look at bullying, and teenage life, with this 2015 suspense film. H8RZ is very technology focused in it’s execution, but on the other hand went pretty simple in the films own technology use. Now, you might wonder why you possibly have not heard of this film and honestly I hadn’t really heard much of it either. The premise seemed interesting and so I took a chance with it and added it to my 31 Days list. Despite a decently notable cast, I think the biggest thing this film suffered from was lack of marketing. 

   Story wise, it’s a pretty straightforward blackmail style suspense film circling around a group of teenagers and told in flashback style. The films focus swaps periodically between the flashbacks of the events that unfolded amongst the teenagers, and the current scene of the sole remaining teenager being interviewed by a school board attorney. There’s a precedent set very early on in the film that this school is run by absolute douchebags, who probably shouldn’t be in charge of children. Honestly, the very introduction of the school board attorney’s existence in the film is established immediately as she is there for “damage control” to make sure our main teen focus doesn’t ever tell this story again. Literally, Abigail Spencer’s character says this within her first 10 minutes of screen time. With this concept immediately being spoon fed to us, I don’t really think at any point do we question the actions of the teenagers throughout this film despite how questionable they actually do act. Regardless of how these kids behave, honestly at no point did I fault them for it, just because pretty much every adult character we’re given insight into is an asshole or has done something far more morally bankrupt. 

    Casting wise, both the teenagers and adults are fairly well known or at least recognizable for having been in a few major projects. Jeremy Sisto and Cary Elwes were ones I immediately saw, and actually what tempted me to see the film, and Abigail Spencer & Eliza Bennett were suprising to see and much appreciated as well. Their roles weren’t exceedingly complicated, and they really did give great performances, but honestly other than feelings that were blatantly setup by the direction of the film I didn’t feel for most of the characters. I empathized with the teenagers, as the story wanted me to, but the teenagers and adults are all relatively unlikeable people to be perfectly frank. I think the only person who never comes off as negative is our main survivor, Alex, but that’s mostly because most of the time of the movie seems to set Alex up as nothing more than a narrator. 

   I didn’t dislike the film as a whole because, honestly, it does have an incredible twist that will surprise you and possibly even make you want to go back for a second look to see if you can spot any giveaway moments. Not to mention the film ultimately gives a fantastical nod at the problem of bullying and slut shaming that is rampant in high schools. But unfortunately, the twist is the only part that gives the realization of that nod. The twist, which is the most interesting part of the film, that only consists of about fifteen or twenty remaining minutes of the movie. Up until then we’re presented with a promising start of a film, that slowly grows a bit dull in its execution, and we care less and less about the events just because we don’t really care as much about the characters as we need to in order to remain invested in their tale. I recommend watching the film just to see the story twist, but when you watch it try to get the amazon prime free viewing. 

A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown's fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Where To Stream: Amazon | YouTube | VUDU | Google Play 

    If you follow movie pages, horror writers, or just film fans in general on social media than you’ve probably seen talks about Midsommar. There’s a reason for it, and you should embrace it. Ari Aster, director of the film Hereditary, brings us a folk horror wrapped around a breakup film. Honestly, it’s the best mash up I’ve experienced in a long time. 

   We’ve all had shit relationships. We’ve all had that relationship where we weren’t sure if we really were going to stay, or if they were going to stay with us. Now if you were the one who wanted to leave, you had a bit of an advantage over your partner, but you still felt that guilt & shame over “when is the right time to leave them, if I do”. And if you were the other party...if you were, like our main character Dani, someone who felt isolated and dependent on their partner...then you constantly wonder what is going to push them away, and how can you stop it from happening. 

   I can’t be unbiased on this review. I’m admitting that upfront, because I’m not unbiased on the view of this relationship the film presents. I’ve been Dani. I’ve felt that loneliness while with your partner, and I’ve felt that panic of wondering if you overstepped and if you can take it back and make it right. When you never overstepped...you expected to be treated as a partner should be, and when you weren’t you questioned it, and then were gaslit into thinking you’re the bad guy. I’ve been Dani, and I’ve absolutely dated a Christian. I can’t be unbiased when twenty minutes into this film, I wanted to scream in Christian’s face for all my years spent as a Dani. 

   I won't spoil anything, because this film is far too beautiful to spoil. Florence Pugh is an incredible actress choice for Dani and, even if I do hate him as a character, Jack Reynor really does give us the best Christian we needed for this film. Every casting was great, and the actors took a script that was very well made and they brought it to life the way it definitely was meant to be. While the film has it’s exaggerations for cinema’s sake, it has a deep realness that will absolutely make you focus in on it. The reality it confronts you with might even make you uncomfortable at first, but in the end it also is very therapeutic. 

  I don’t want to go deep into the film because I don’t like to do spoiler reviews, especially because I know that the friends I bring to these reviews are ones that often watch after I recommend. Very few of them see these films without me recommending it, and then repeatedly asking if they’ve seen it yet until they give in and allow me to make them watch it while I stare at them to watch their reactions. So I want my friends, and any readers, to know that I won’t spoil this film for you because you need to go into with very little information and an open mind. And if you identify more as a Christian than a Dani, then I don’t hate you, but I hope you take a look at how you feel and recognize how it might be making your Dani feel. 

   Now, I also do want to give a very special nod to someone who wrote on my twitter feed after my initial start of watching this film. I got twenty minutes into this movie, and hated Christian. Having nobody beside me to listen to me vent my hatred, I took to twitter, and was shared the most perfect article about this movie. I have linked the article below, written by Danielle Ryan , who is a fantastic writer that I recommend checking out beyond even just this movie. Her review does have spoilers, so I recommend it as post-watching reading. 

Final Score: 5 out of 5

A single mother moves into a new house with her daughter. Soon after the young girl's first baby tooth falls out, she begins to have nocturnal visits from a tooth fairy. It seems the house has a sinister history.

Where to Stream: Amazon | YouTube | Google Play | iTunes 

    Children are creepy. In horror movies, we’ve pretty much well established that one of the most terrifying things you can have in a film is a child. Several children pretty much establishes the movie as one you will dread every second of. Children with a single parent are often particularly choice selections for the ghost story type of horror movies. Haunting of Helena made it’s choices with directors Christian Bisceglia, and Ascanio Malgarini, with a very clear understanding of creepy children horror rules. 

   The kid starts out as being a very sweet kid, and typically very aware of her situation as a child with a single parent. Very empathetic towards her mother, and the actress playing Helena did a fantastic job with creeping the absolute wits out of me. Our main characters in general, Harriet MacMasters-Green as Sophia and Sabrina Jolie Perez as Helena, both did a great job of really showcasing the mother-child relationship and how the events are affecting it. 

   The build up starts off very promising, and the scare moments have a decent build up with a proper atmosphere. The tooth fairy angle starts to get a bit overplayed when a scene of raining bloody teeth hits us, and that’s kind of where the films quality starts to decline as well. To be honest, partway through this film it really stopped seeming to be about Helena at all but more a haunting of the mother, Sophia. The children in the film stay creepy, but our main “tooth fairy” ghost very quickly gets played out. 

   I’ve said before, and I’ll reiterate, that I am doing my best to not give out any spoilers within this review blog. However, I really don’t think I could spoil this ending for you because you’re going to wind up spoiling it for yourself. Literally, the very minute things start to look a little brighter for our characters I had reached a point of stating out loud where I thought things were going to go. I was right. On every single point. It was quite disappointing, because as I said earlier, this film showed a lot of promise with it’s introduction. The opening sequence, and the first half of the film held my attention quite well. But once we got to that second half it was predictability and feelings of  déjà vu at scares we’ve already been fed before. The ending then comes at you very fast, and I don’t quite know if they were intending it to be a “scary” ending per se but it was one that’ll hit you in a way. Whether it was the intended way would depend on knowing what the filmmakers wanted from it. 

   Overall, the film can be an interesting watch, but I would admit that I am happy that I watched it for free with Amazon Prime instead of it having been a theatre trip type of movie. 

When a nun commits suicide, a priest and novitiate investigate. Together they uncover the order’s unholy secret, the same demonic nun that first appeared in “The Conjuring 2".

Where To Stream: Amazon | YouTube | Google Play | iTunes | HBO Go

   I want to preface this review with the acknowledgement, that I am very far behind on The Conjuring series. I only just a few weeks ago finally watched the original Conjuring film, and I still haven’t yet ventured into the worlds of any other film in the series. This is only my second foray into that cinematic universe, and those who are familiar with the films might say that has impacted my experience but ultimately this was it. Not to compare horror to superhero, but nobody would ask me to have seen Iron Man: 2 in order to enjoy Avengers. I think if a film is a good film, then I shouldn’t have required research beforehand to enjoy it. 

   In the end, the film had some good merits to it. I did enjoy some of the cinematography and the makeup effects that were done on the supernatural characters were very on point. I definitely have to give a nod of credit to the film for a fantastic visual experience in that respect. Sadly, that’s where my enjoyment was kind of kept at. Story wise I found myself just a bit, uncaring, and honestly it felt like they were grasping as spooky lore without having memorable substance to it. 

   Now for some, a horror film can be like a scare factor version of a porno, and a bad story can be made up for with some good scares and a blood splatter ending. The scare factor for this movie, however, is mediocre in my opinion. If you’re paying proper attention the film, the jump scares can be seen coming the moment the setup begins. I’m speaking as someone who doesn’t inherently think that jump scares are a bad thing, but poorly executed jump scares are a major let down in a film. A jump scare setup should be used minimally, in my opinion, and then when it’s built up right then it’ll really hit you. The Nun just sort of felt like there were the long scenes of back story, and then a sequence of attempting jump scares just coming at you left and right. 

  Towards the end of the film, there’s definitely a much strong supernatural presence and they show it nicely. But it’s a bit ‘too little, too late’ in my opinion and you’re just sorta watching through the climax ending. I didn’t feel like I was really enjoying the end as much as I should, but rather just casually watching it play out. If you’re a fan of the Conjuring universe, perhaps you have more to gain from the film than a casual watcher, but I don’t think this is a “must see” by any means. 

Masters John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper team for three short tales of terror in this anthology hosted by Carpenter himsellf. Alex Datcher stars as a woman working the late shift at “The Gas Station” while a killer is on the loose. Then, Stacy Keach (ROAD GAMES) can’t stand the thought of losing his “Hair”... and he’ll do anything to keep it. And finally, Mark Hamill (STAR WARS) portrays a baseball player that submits to an “Eye” transplant after he loses an eye in a car accident.

Where to Stream: Shudder | YouTube | Google Play | iTunes

  The VHS series, Creepshow, Trick r’ Treat...the common thread to all of this films is the threads they create inside themselves. Horror anthology films are a classic and fun way to enjoy multiple stories, completely unaware of where the twists and turns will be. Having segments of stories, whether their threads tie together or not, can be thrilling because there’s so few information you have when you go into the film. Some of these combines tales will have a common thread linking them, and the classic anthology from Carpenter and Hooper is no different. All threads lead to a body bag in the morgue. 

  One of the first things you’ll notice as you watch this classic movie is the stellar casting that has been brought together to create this masterpiece! You have Carpenter and Hooper making their own appearances, met with horror fan favorites such as Sam Raimi, Wes Craven and Roger Corman. You also have the incredible talents of Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine and many others! You’ll feel some serious nostalgia for the faces you see, especially for those who grew up with movies in the 80s/90s. 

  Much like the formaldehyde he drinks, the narrator is a refreshing palate cleanser to the individual tales of terror that the film presents. Filled with dark jokes, and puns, and special fx galore of props and pieces, the mid-segment moments become a moment to prepare yourself. Each tale has it’s own twists and surprises, and some have their own lighthearted moments as well. It’s hard to pick a favorite of the segments as well! While I personally loved “Gas Station” for it’s simplicity in its tale, I also have to give a special nod to how much I loved Mark Hamill’s character in “Eye”. All the while, the segment “Hair” had so much unique promise to it’s story, and I honestly could not tell you any one favorite. All of this is what makes this film work so well. 

  Some anthologies can fall to a bad luck of viewers enjoying only specific segments, and otherwise not really enjoying the film as a whole. Body Bags does not suffer such bad luck at all, and the entire movie suits all horror palettes in my opinion. This is especially a fun film to throw on when you are relaxing on a rainy night, or just looking for something to cuddle and enjoy together with someone. Personally, my cat was nice to watch with but she also snores so I recommend a movie friend with someone quieter. 

While shooting a low-budget zombie film in an abandoned warehouse, the crew find themselves caught between actual zombies and a mad director who won’t stop rolling. If you think you know what happens next, think again. Filmmaker Shinichiro Ueda turns the film on its head more than once for one of the wildest, funniest, and most surprising zombie movies of all time

Where to Stream: Shudder Exclusive

    First, I have to preface that this will be a very short review compared to my others, and it’s for the best reason. This movie has many turns to it, and has such great little unique touches that even with how badly I try to keep my reviews spoiler free...talking too much about this movie at all will absolutely spoil it. It might not spoil anything in the sense of actually giving away specific content, but could spoil some of those unique touches and turns that make this movie the precious gem that it is.

  My number one tip to anyone watching this film: stay. stick around. I don’t care how you feel about the first 20 minutes of the movie, just sit and watch. Because you’re not “powering through” or “making it” past those first 20 minutes, but those first 20-30 minutes seem to have put off many viewers simply because they came in with specific expectations that the segment of beginning didn’t live up to. And they are the unfortunate ones who are losing out on this awesome film. Go in blind, as best as you can in this age of social media, and just sit and enjoy the movie like we all used to do when we were younger and didn’t have preconceived crap thrown at us by the internet mobs. Honestly, this movie should reminds us of why it’s okay to just ignore marketing & social commentary, and sit and actually watch a movie and just enjoy it! 

    Did you think I was kidding? I’m not going to tell you anything about this film, except tell you to go and watch it. Not the most professional of takes, I know, but it’s the take that’s going to let you go into this movie as unassuming as I was. Honestly, I know for a fact that my lack of knowledge of this film (other than Shudder & fans tweeting that it exists and is good) is what helped me appreciate the movie for what it is, not dislike it immediately for not being what I wanted it to be.  Also, because apparently this is a deal breaker for some people (cue eyeroll), I’ll at least let you know a little reminder: this is a Japanese film. the movie is in Japanese. Yes, there’s subtitles. I really don’t think that should deter anyone from a movie, or qualify the movie for bad ratings, but apparently others disagree so i’m throwing this tiny note about it so you recognize that you are making the choice to watch a movie that you know is going to require subtitles. Judge the movie for it’s content, not because you “hate reading”. I promise you, that One Cut Of The Dead does not let you down once you let it take you for the ride instead of trying to control the car. 

Derek Cho (Steven Yeun, “The Walking Dead”) is having a really bad day. After being unjustly fired from his job, he discovers that the law firm’s building is under quarantine for a mysterious and dangerous virus. Chaos erupts throughout the office as the victims of the disease begin acting out their wildest impulses. Joining forces with a former client (Samara Weaving, “Ash vs Evil Dead”) who has a grudge of her own, Derek savagely fights tooth and nail to get to the executives on the top floor and settle the score once and for all

Where to Stream: Shudder Exclusive

    The age old story of the underappreciated, underpaid, and overworked employee who wants so badly to kick their bosses overpaid and over privileged ass is one we all know. Mayhem takes this story, and turns it into one we can all enjoy over and over again. Take a little dash of “fuck with your boss” phone apps, throw in some Belko Experiment vibes, and a fantastic cast and you have a perfect cocktail of awesome. 

   First, we need to talk about what an awesome job they did casting these characters. Visually speaking, all of the upper management even looked like the kind of bosses you’d absolutely hate. Then they continued to pull it off with a stellar performance backed up by a properly charged script. Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving are definitely the badass main characters we needed, and both are actors I truly hope to see show up far more often in horror films! In one scene, pthey both play up this amazing switch from a chill break in the violence to a heartbreaking moment to a passionate impulsively sexual energy. We get this genuine view into the drastic effect that the films virus has on its infected hosts. This scene more than most gives us an even broader acknowledgement that this isn’t just a rage virus or some cranked up psychopathy side effect, but impresses upon the audience that this is simply an actual lack of control against emotions that are turned up to high volume. 

    Second, I especially love the comedic elements that got thrown into this movie. In addition to the more emotional scenes, that keep this from just being a crank version of an office bloodbath, the comedy really ties it all together nicely. You have the snarky one liners from some of the characters, and those oh so satisfying throwbacks from the evil office hierarchy characters being shoved back into their throats. There’s a genuinely fun blend of different elements at play in this movie that help to keep it at a good balance. There’s a heart pumping out all this bloodshed, and we get to see that heart and have some lovely “aww” moments with it. Director Joe Lynch also helps this by letting us into the Derek’s headspace with the elements of storytelling that he allows the character to have. We’re getting this movie as a semi-flashback narrative, and in addition to that narration we also get lovely paintings of scenes from Derek as well. I’m especially wanting to send my love for the painting depictions of the office hierarchy characters in their portraits as Derek sees them. 

    In the end, Mayhem is a well put together and fun film that I encourage anyone to watch! I also heavily encourage it to appreciate the work of Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving, because those are two actors that really need to be seen in far more films & I hope movies like this help to let the world see that even more. 

(DeadTectives IMDB)

DeadTectives follows a team of hapless paranormal investigators on a reality TV series who go on a quest to Mexico's most haunted house in the pursuit of better ratings. However, when the true dark secrets of the mansion begin to reveal themselves, the hapless presenters quickly discover that this house is no hoax. With zero ghost-hunting skills (or really any other applicable skills) the team has to figure out how to bust the ghosts and escape the house with their lives.

Where to Stream: Shudder (Exclusive)

  Wow...Where to begin with this one. I feel like I should be calling out into the void for some spook to dare disagree with my review! To any and all of us that indulge in the guilty pleasure of (often cheesy & usually terrible) ghost hunting shows, this is the movie you want to watch this Halloween. Following a group of “television para-investigators” that you no doubt have absolutely seen on actual tv shows before, we see what happens when television rating bullshit meets actual paranormal activity. 

  Director & writer Tony West brings us a brilliant, and genuinely entertaining, story with some goretastic effects, lovingly tied together with classic ghost mayhem. The movie is not all laughs, all the time. There are certainly moments you find yourself laughing nervously, because it seems the comedy has died and something darker is coming. Both parts of this film are balanced very well, between the comedy and the horror we’re handed. You definitely get a Frighteners vibe from some pieces, and you’ll certainly recognize some other nods towards classic horror and horror comedy films. 

  When first introduced the characters seem shallow and one dimensional, but they really do develop into more than that. The initial “I might hate this guy” feelings you get about the lead especially, to me, are noticeably intentional due to the playful jabs at paranormal investigation show actors. I certainly could think of one or two, or five, that remind me of our “show must go on” Sam that we see at the start. Chris Geere, and the rest of the cast actually took their roles and visibly had fun with them. I would be very curious to know how many hours of ghost hunting shows were watched to prep for this. 

  The scares are just as beautiful as the comedy, and the on/off switch between the two works really well. Just as he balanced these scales, I also have to commend West on balancing his effects as well. Personally, I would have loved to peek into the makeup trailer on this film for sure! Things were kept simply, but did their job and did them well. The gore that was intentionally over the top, looking at you douche television executive character, was so over the top that you had to love it. The stuff that is the fake fx within the film feels like the kind of things you’d expect on that sort of set, but then when we’re introduced to the real ghosts then we see the finesse and detail of the actual movie crew. 

  I honestly think my only complaints about this movie stay confined to one scene where one of our main Scooby squad is possessed & the others come to her rescue. Now, this is a pretty solid development as the story has gone so far, but my issues were with the joke attempts that fill the scene. The obvious Exorcist puke nod is a very nice touch, and I really want to ask if Tony had them use pea soup for that as well. But there is moments of a newly dead character humping the possessed from behind, with definitely cringe jokes of “pushing inside her” being made. The scene is very obviously meant to just be a typical sexual gag circling around his ineptitude at being a ghost since he’s so newly dead, but it lasts just a bit too long to be enjoyable and rapidly becomes something you feel like a “bro” intern threw out as an idea & was taken seriously for some reason. Literally, everything else Tony West did in this film was wonderful to me, but that particular scene just very rapidly had me wishing they’d move on to the next part of the sequence. 

Ultimately, the movie is worth a watch no matter what. One bad scene moment, in an otherwise entertaining movie, is a pretty fantastic record to have for a horror comedy. 

(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3662308/)

After losing his family in an extremely tragic way, Detective Ritter must investigate a massacre at a school perpetrated by a student. What seemed like a pretty clear case becomes much more dense when a priest of the Vatican appears with another point of view.

Where To Stream: Shudder 

  This movie is one that I had been seeing mentions of from other Shudder subscribers, and I knew it had to be on my list for this months 31 Days. I’ve never been happier with a choice. This movie has a strong, but familiar, possession & demonology concept that takes the “end of the world” concept we are familiar with and adds some twists and turns. 

  Now, I will say, that any person struggles watching some levels of violence. Violence against children is particularly hard to watch, and certainly as a parent that made this film extra difficult for me. I caught myself more than once frozen with my hand over my mouth, staring at the screen and unable to look away. Not because the film relied on gory and graphic images of this violence, but actually the opposite was true. While we see some acts take place, we also have cutaways or minute flashbacks, and other film secrets. To me, this is actually a strength for the film, because it’s one of those pieces that reminds us that we don’t need to necessarily see things to feel horrified by them. 

 Belzebuth utilizes it’s sound equally as well as the visuals to create the proper atmosphere of horror. Both the minimal score we hear, and the moments of intense silence are all ones that are well planned & effective in their usage. We have scenes where there is zero ambiance, no music and no natural sounds for the environment either. We have scenes in tunnels where you feel that claustrophobia from the uncomfortable silence that is only filled with nervous breathing, and the sounds of footsteps on rock/rubble. So then when dialogue occurs it pierces through that silence and you really focus in on it, and that dialogue gives away clues that build into the climactic moments of the film beautifully. 

  I will say, the movie is not perfect, but very few movies are so that’s not really that heavy of a mark to bear. The casting has it’s gems, such as Tobin Bell & Tate Ellington as the priests and there are hidden gems in the supporting character roles to look out for as well. The main character has moments where you pull back from him as a viewer, not necessarily where you might be intended to do so, but ultimately he does his job well enough that you don’t really lose focus of the films unfolding. The film has an incredible opener, and the build up is strong, although to me it felt like the ending took a rather expected turn. You could criticize the film for having an ending that, if you’ve seen enough demonic horror is easily called out, but the film still delivers that ending just as well as it delivered the rest of the film. Ultimately, it was a compelling watch, and one that I would happily revisit. 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4823434/

A dark fairy tale about a gang of five children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug war

Where to Stream:  Shudder

  Tigers Are Not Afraid is an incredibly unique story, and one that very much has it’s feet dipped in reality. The film is a touching, heart pounding story that pulls you in quickly & keeps it’s grasp throughout the film. I can’t recall a moment where I felt like the story was “dragging” or like anything I witnessed was less than important. The main characters are a group of children, in one way or another, orphaned by the cruel world that surrounds them. Director/Writer, Issa López, took a unique chance at her film through the casting and the filming style. She took child actors who were not yet professionals and then filmed in a way that brought out genuine reactions from her cast. The chance she took paid off in a large way, because as you watch the film you are feeling the same things the kids felt & it’s noticeable. It creates a realism that immerses you into the film, and you can’t look away. 

  While the film has supernatural elements to it, the core reality of Tigers Are Not Afraid is the world of those living with the dangers & violence of the drug war. The things the children fear are real things that we know real children are facing every day. So as these fears are closing in on these kids, we truly feel our hearts racing and a wonder of what will happen to them. The supernatural elements feel like a child’s dark and twisted daydream of accepting help from anything that would help them. The childish fantasy edges of the ghosts and scares is definitely intentional, and creates a vibe of both whimsical and frightening. 

  The film is definitely one you want to pay attention to, and even calls for repeated viewings to see what you may have missed. The monkey paw concept of wishes is not a radically new one, but it’s definitely being given to us in a beautiful package with this movie. The realism to the world around the kids & the trials they face together are ones that help this film reach out beyond just horror audiences.  Tigers Are Not Afraid is an absolute must watch, for all movie fans.