THE RITE forges boldly into some interesting theological territories without ever quite making the trip as interesting as the ideas behind it. What begins as an intriguing consideration of how evil can insinuate itself upon even the most innocent of souls becomes, in a breathtakingly short period of time, a wordy symposium. Concepts and theories… Read More »
GHOST SHIP
We don’t, on the whole, ask a great deal of the usual Halloween releases. A few good scares, maybe a scream or two and, just for effect, a scene that makes us think twice about having linguine with red clam sauce after the flick. If we also get a plot that doesn’t insult our intelligence, so… Read More »
DREAM HOUSE
There are fine moments in DREAM HOUSE, but not enough so that the easily parsed story and oddly soporific direction fail to become insurmountable hurdles. Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz give performances that are visceral without being obvious, performances that amplify the sense of foreboding and suspense that should be coming from the… Read More »
TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL
TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL is a mordant comedy of errors that juggles the clichés of its genre with a buoyant impudence. And blood. A whole lot of blood. The genre is slasher flick, the sub-category is dumb college students in the woods, and in a refreshing turn of events, it is their very dumbness… Read More »
SILENT HOUSE
SILENT HOUSE is more than the one-trick-pony its gimmick might suggest. The gimmick is that its 88 minutes of running time are one continuous take. The more is that the filmmakers make it an integral part of the story of a family trip to the eponymous building that turns deadly. Sherlock Holmes once opined that… Read More »
CHERNOBYL DIARIES
CHERNOBYL DIARIES returns to many of the tropes that have made co-writer/co-producer Oren Peli famous for an exceptionally effective kind of low-budget, high-terror flicks. Unfortunately, this one isnt quite the creep fest that his PARANORMAL ACTIVITY suite was and is. While those films, particularly the first, retain a freshness that keeps the creepiness going at… Read More »
AWAKENING, THE
THE AWAKENING is a superbly crafted film, and for films of this ilk, execution is everything. The ilk is a horror story, the premise is an investigator (Rebecca Hall) determined to debunk fake mediums and ersatz hauntings. Its 1921 and London, like so many other places that have survived both World War I and the… Read More »
SINISTER
SINISTER has the all too rare virtue of being a horror film with a fine gloss of originality and genuine surprise to it. Rather than going for the usual assortment of jump-and-scare tactics, it broods atmospherically on the evil that humankind is capable of, and not necessarily the gruesome acts of violence on which the… Read More »
TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 2, THE
The most persistent question about THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN 2 is why it is that the human character, the one adrift amid all the assorted vampires and werewolves, is the one who is the most engaging. That would be Charlie (Billy Burke), the father of the now undead Bella. In roughly 10 minutes of… Read More »
MAMA
MAMA is an imperfect horror film, but one that is highly effective in the moment. Stressing suspense over gore, it is blessed with an original story, elegant direction, a gifted cast, and a suitably unsettling subtext about the pleasures and perils of childhood. Specifically, the vulnerability of children negotiating an adult world that has fallen… Read More »
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