Reviews

A young boy hacks his mother to pieces with an axe after she catches him playing with a pornographic puzzle and, years later, continues putting the puzzle together by killing coeds, chopping them up, and stitching their body parts together.

Pieces doesn't have a lick of earth-bound logic to it, but that's alright, because it makes up for it with a certain kind of dreamlike and slapstick unpredictability. Badly dubbed characters wander in and out of the narrative and almost all of them are at least given one memorable line or a gruesome death scene to leave an impression on the audience. The giallo-esque murderer would be frightening and unnerving if the film were more interested in suspense and mystery, but it's the gore here that'll keep the audience coming back for more and it's impressive.

The handyman at a summer camp is burnt to a crisp by vengeful campers and returns years later with a pair of garden shears to settle the score and splatter the camp with blood.

Both The Burning's strongest and weakest link is its simplicity. It was the easy and eerie quality of a campfire story you'd be told as a child, but it also keeps most of the characters rather dull and uninteresting and most of the film is spent awaiting the next gory set piece so one can marvel at the artistry of makeup effects artist, Tom Savini.

Unlike some of the other slashers from this time, it's very well made, has a creepy atmosphere, and the acting is mostly competent which can hold one's interest from one murder set piece to the next.

A small town Black Friday sale turns deadly when several people are injured and killed by a desperate mob searching for deals. One year later, a masked killer begins targeting the people responsible for all the carnage, killing them in a variety of gruesome ways.

Director Eli Roth has classic 80's slashers on the brain here with nods to films such as Happy Birthday To Me, My Bloody Valentine, and The Prowler, but it's shot and styled much more like slashers from the 90's and 2000s. This isn't a bad thing, but it does deprive it of a lot of atmosphere.

What it lacks in scares, suspense, and compelling characters, it makes up for in creative kills and gore. If gore is your main requirement for a horror film, I can't see you leaving unsatisfied.

Sorority girls staying behind over Christmas break get obscene phone calls from a dangerous psychotic who has broken into their attic and is killing them off one by one.

A strong cast, eerie score, and lots of snowy atmosphere keep Black Christmas in the top tier of traditional stalk and slash movies. The ensemble of women are given roles with tremendous weight, humor, and nuance not usually afforded female characters in the genre and it goes a long way in making us feel for these put open damsels trapped in their sorority house with a killer.

Director Bob Clark is able to squeeze the terror out of everything from a telephone to Christmas carolers to a decorative glass unicorn.

A horror film actor recovering from a nervous breakdown after witnessing a murder resumes work on his film series as another string of murders starts up again. Has he finally gone mad and murdering people in his way?

In some ways, this seems like a semi-autobiographical role for Vincent Price. He does a great job with it, keeping the audience on their toes. We can never tell if he's innocent and being framed or if he's the one committing these horrible murders. The murders are pretty creative, too.

Vacation-bound friends break down and have to go to a spooky, secluded wax museum for help. Of course, this ends up putting them in harm's way as they come face-to-face with psychotic brothers.

Tourist Trap feels like one of those dreams you have that starts off pleasant enough, but slowly descends into utter horror after awhile until things stop making sense altogether. If it was the filmmaker's intent to put such a nightmare on screen, they certainly succeeded. After it was over, I had to rub my eyes to make sure I hadn't just dreamnt the whole thing. It has some slow spots, but so do those dreams.

Years after he accidentally shot his mother to death, a college kid and his friends go to this family's beach house for fall break and are stalked by his psychotic father who never got over his son's one big mistake.

If you were to look up "80's slasher film" in a textbook, I wouldn't be surprised if The Mutilator was the first to come up. It meets all the requirements and cliches people think about when they think 80's slasher film. The young victims are reasonably attractive and poorly developed, the film is low budget, there's nudity, tons of gore, and a fairly short run time. If you don't take it too seriously, you could end up enjoying it.

A handful of young people go into the mountains to see a piece of property and are terrorized by demented, bloodthirsty rednecks right out of Deliverance.

Lacking jump scares or buckets of blood, Just Before Dawn takes a subdued and more quiet approach to the "kids terrorized in the woods by a killer" story that was done a trillion times around this period. The young people are a mostly relatable and likable group and the killers are threatening and imposing. The simplistic score and beautiful photography give it much more mood than a lot of these other films possess and there are some really creepy scenes that stick with you.

Angela is back to kill another group of campers - this time, at a retreat for troubled teenagers being taught the importance of sharing and caring.

After the gleeful joy of Sleepaway Camp II, Sleepaway Camp III ends up being nothing more than a pale imitation of that film. Once again, Angela is carving up a bunch of awful people who you root for her to dispatch as quickly as possible, but everyone involved seems tired and it doesn't have the same effortless clip the last film had.

Angela, fresh out of the nuthouse, returns to camp to take care of another batch of rude and bratty counselors and campers.

Sleepaway Camp II embraces an even campier and more comedic tone than the previous film which ends up being a wise choice. It comes with a fast-paced and light hearted air that's like catnip to any 80's horror fan. Pamela Springsteen spits out Angela's one-liners beautifully with just the right twinkle in her eye and you find yourself rooting for this deranged slasher.

A young girl taken in by her unstable aunt and cousin goes off to a summer camp and gets tormented by a variety of nasty bullies until someone begins killing them off.

Sleepaway Camp has become a cult favorite due to its insane ending twist, but the entire film is filled with equally strange and quirky characters and dialogue very unlike the other slashers of the time. Anyone expected a normal, run of the mill Friday the 13th clone will possibly be pleasantly surprised at some of what Sleepaway Camp brings to the table. The murder scenes are fittingly nasty, but it's the story, characters, and odd tone that really stay with you and make this a memorable horror film.

A young boy and his father are attacked by a werewolf and, in the process of saving their lives, his father is bitten by the werewolf. Now, he has to warn everyone that his father becomes a werewolf at night and no one believes him.

The tone of The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is all over the place. It's too silly to be taken seriously as a horror film with any sort of tension, but it's not funny enough to be spoof which leaves in a weird in-between place where nothing really works. It also features some of the most annoying Christian hippies you'll ever meet. Every time they show up, it almost seems like the film is going for comedy or trying to satirize something, but it doesn't amount to much.

A bunch of fashion models are being killed one by one by a masked madman in a variety of creative ways. Is it another jealous model? Someone motivated by greed?

Mario Bava's sick and twisted giallo broke a lot of molds back in the day and is still one of the most striking and beautifully shot horror films ever made. Filming scenes of violence and brutality in such a stylish and hypnotic way clearly influenced other filmmakers like Dario Argento. The script can be a little flat at times and the police procedural stuff feels like filler, but the big set pieces still thrill and chill.

A woman discovers her New York apartment complex is the home of one of three evil witches hellbent on world domination. She entrusts the help of her brother to help her find out what's really going on here.

Inferno doesn't lack style or violent murders, but the story meanders a bit too much and you're never really sure who you're supposed to be interested in here. Italian horror isn't known for it's stunning character work, but both male and female leads in this do next to nothing and seem to be sleepwalking through the film. Maybe that was part of Argento's vision or concept, but it makes for an oddly cold viewing experience.

On the anniversary of Ludlow's founding, a mysterious piano is unveiled which causes strange things to happen every time it's played, sending the entire town into chaos.

Imagine a very low budget community theatre adaptation of John Carpenter's The Fog and you'll understand what kind of tone The Demons of Ludlow strikes. Some of the acting is decent, some is awful. Some of the effects convince, others will make you laugh. Some scenes move the plot forward, most feel like needless filler. It's never very entertaining or scary or even enjoyable on a "so bad, it's good" level.

An orphaned boy goes to live with his grandmother in Alabama and learns everything there is to know about how to stay away from witches. This comes in handy when they take a vacation and discover their hotel is crawling with hundreds of them.

Based on the popular book, The Witches has already been brought to the screen once before and that adaptation is beloved by many, especially those who were young when they first saw it. This new version takes away a lot of the raw, grounded horror of that version and embraces the whimsical, almost turning the film into a wacky comedy. Sometimes, it works and sometimes it doesn't, but Hathaway is fun as the Grand High Witch and so is Octavia Spencer as the little boy's grandmother.

Recently widowed, Joyce decides to rent out a room in her house and becomes enamored with her new male guest. This obsession goes from being cringey to downright creepy pretty quickly, especially when it becomes obvious that her new tenant doesn't share the same feelings for her that she has for him.

Room For Rent is Lin Shaye's movie. She's the sole reason to see this movie. She takes an oddly written character and tries her best to make her come to life. She hits just the right notes of cringey, pathetic, funny, and terrifying. She holds up everything as the script goes from one predictable Lifetime TV movie set piece to another.

An uptight religious nurse becomes the caregiver of a cancer-striken dancer and tries to save her soul in the most disturbing of ways.

Saint Maud is what happens when you take all the hallmarks of an A24 movie and shove them into a blender. The result is somewhat interesting, but will leave a bitter taste in your mouth. It's definitely not a film to watch if you're already feeling under the weather or depressed, because it might very well send you over the edge. The ending seems almost telegraphed from the start. You know nothing is going to end well for any of these sad people.

How much you enjoy Saint Maud will depend on how high your tolerance for somber and depressing psychodramas is. It's certainly well shot and has a great central performance by Morfydd Clark to recommend it.

A bunch of teenage girls go on vacation at the spot where another bunch of teenage girls were killed by driller killer, Russ Thorne, in the 90's and discover that he's still out there, looking for fresh blood to spill.

Though billed as a reboot, Slumber Party Massacre could just as easily be another sequel in the original franchise. Director Danishka Esterhazy paces the film well with a good amount of comedy and horror. The script has a few twists and surprises up its sleeve and turns the tables where they needed to be.

A bullied high school girl discovers that she has the ability to move objects with her mind and uses her newfound skill to get back at her classmates and repressed religious mother.

Sissy Spacek is excellent in the title role and can go from breaking your heart to making you recoil in terror in the blink of an eye. Piper Laurie as her evil mother makes an equally strong impression and takes what could have been a silly role into something dark and sinister. The supporting cast of teens and teachers is ever bit as excellent as Spacek and Laurie and they all create a believable environment for Carrie's ticking time bomb.

Director Brian De Palma is at his very best here. He uses color, split screens (and diopters), and slow motion to create brilliant sequences of suspense.

A blind actress staying in an isolated Hollywood Hills house is stalked by a psycho wearing a mask who kills anyone that gets close to her.

That sounds like a fun premise, doesn't it? Unfortunately, Blind might have what it takes in the technical department (the lighting, editing, sound, etc. Are all top notch), but it lacks a lot in the script department.

Even at under 90 minutes, Blind drags after the initial setup is out of the way and we're treated to scene after scene of our heroine walking around the house by herself as her stalker watches her from outside, eventually getting inside, and then doing the same thing. After 3 or 4 instances of this happening, it gets stale and we stop caring if her life is on the line or not.

A cursed pair of form fitting blue jeans winds up on the shelf of a cheesy corporate clothing emporium and terrorizes any of the employees who dare to try them on as they set up for a major sale.

There's a lot of fun stuff about Slaxx and it works for about the first 50/60 minutes, but the last act runs out of steam right as it should be swinging from the rafters and it lost me.

There's a tinge of interesting social commentary, but starts trying to get a little too serious after an hour of absurdist humor and gore and the tones don't match. It's still worth a watch for fans of cheesy, funny horror movies.

A wheelchair-bound teenager's dreams of leaving home and going to college are crushed when she discovers her mother might not have her best interests at heart and wants her to stay at home forever.

Sarah Paulson finally gets a leading role on film that's worthy of her talents and she makes the best of it. Her Diane is equal parts warm, loving, and terrifying. Her random outbursts of hatred and violence are so abrupt that they do take you off guard.

Run is a tight, concise thriller that never outstays its welcome even if the PG-13 rating keeps it from ever going as Grand Guinol as it could have.

A college student is attacked by a handful of men on campus and, with the help of her friend, she calls upon a necromancer to help her get revenge on them.

Necromancer can seem almost painfully low budget at times. There's just enough of a budget to almost deliver the gory goods, but it always seems to cut away just before it's going to get good, leaving it feeling more like an edited for TV version of a much gorier film. There's plenty of nudity however (including a lot of surprise male nudity).

Acting is about what you'd expect from a film of this sort. It's never brilliant, but it's not terrible either. Russ Tamblyn seems to be having fun as a perverted theatre professor. Necromancer still offers the viewer a lot of fun along the way and it moves at a decent clip.

Marc, an English musician working in Rome, witnesses a brutal murder while walking home one evening and teams up with Gianna, an enthusiastic reporter, to solve the crime.

Though mostly known for supernatural tinged horror like Suspiria, Dario Argento keeps the narrative fairly straightforward and down to earth with Deep Red and it functions as a regular murder mystery with a few detours into the land of the bizarre and uncanny.

David Hemmings and Daria Nicolodi make for a charming team as they bicker back and forth like an old married couple and the murder set pieces sparkle with ingenuity and tension. Goblin's rock based score is an interesting fit for a film like this, but it suits Argento's wild vision perfectly.