If you’ve ever wondered what Dexter would look like if it were directed by an Instagram influencer with a ring light fetish and no sense of pacing, look no further than Final Girl. Directed by Tyler Shields — yes, the fashion photographer known more for shooting famous people holding fake severed heads than for directing … Read More ““Final Girl” (2015): A Revenge Fantasy That Forgot to Be Fun” »
If the apocalypse had an aesthetic director, Extinction would be their masterpiece. Directed by Miguel Ángel Vivas, this 2015 post-apocalyptic horror drama takes the zombie genre — usually sweaty, chaotic, and loud — and douses it in freezing silence and emotional frostbite. It’s the kind of movie where the undead are terrifying, yes, but not … Read More ““Extinction” (2015): When the World Ends, All That’s Left Is Snow, Zombies, and Matthew Fox’s Beard” »
If The Exorcist went to a rave, did a handful of ecstasy, and woke up inside a haunted asylum full of hormonal idiots — you’d get Exeter. Directed by Marcus Nispel (the same madman who brought us the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and Pathfinder), this film is not so much a horror movie as it … Read More ““Exeter” (2015): Where Teenagers, Demons, and Bad Life Choices Collide in a Beautifully Trashy Exorcism” »
Ah, the college final project — humanity’s greatest incubator for bad decisions. In Eduardo Schuldt’s The Entity (La Entidad), a plucky group of Peruvian media students discover that when your thesis involves cursed videos from the dark web, it’s less about getting an A and more about not dying before graduation. This 2015 Peruvian horror … Read More ““The Entity” (2015): When the Deep Web Decides to Major in Film Studies” »
Every so often, a horror movie comes along that dares to ask the big questions — like “What if ghosts were actually time travelers?” or “What if Ali Larter was trapped in a film so confused it thinks The X-Files is a rom-com?” The Diabolical(2015) is one of those brave, baffling attempts. It aims for … Read More ““The Diabolical” (2015): When Sci-Fi and Horror Collide… and Both Die Horribly” »
If My Big Fat Polish Wedding and The Exorcist had a deeply existential baby — one raised on vodka, folklore, and postwar guilt — it would be Marcin Wrona’s Demon. This 2015 supernatural psychological horror manages the rare trick of being both deeply unsettling and wickedly funny in the bleak, vodka-soaked way only Eastern European … Read More ““Demon” (2015): When the Wedding Toast Comes With a Side of Exorcism” »
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if Ghostbusters went on a diet of decaf coffee and mild disappointment, then congratulations — The Dead Room is your answer. Directed by Jason Stutter and allegedly “inspired” by a 1970s New Zealand haunting (which, judging by this film, must’ve been mostly paperwork and awkward silences), … Read More ““The Dead Room” (2015): The Ghost That Forgot to Haunt” »
There’s a certain kind of horror movie that doesn’t scream, it whispers. Mickey Keating’s Darling is one of those — a sleek, black-and-white fever dream that doesn’t need ghosts, demons, or CGI blood geysers. It just needs one woman, one house, and one very fragile grip on reality. And somehow, it turns that into something … Read More ““Darling” (2015): A Beautiful Descent into Madness — and the World’s Most Stylish Nervous Breakdown” »
Lights, Camera, Nope Every horror movie starts with a bad decision. In The Cutting Room (2015), that bad decision is threefold: the students choosing to make their documentary, the filmmakers choosing to make this movie, and you choosing to watch it. Written and directed by Warren Dudley, The Cutting Room is yet another entry in … Read More “The Cutting Room (2015): A Found Footage Film That Should Have Stayed Lost” »
“It’s Not a Ghost Story—It’s a Story With Ghosts” (and an Obscene Amount of Wallpaper) Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak is like if Jane Eyre took a bath in blood and said, “You know what this needs? Tom Hiddleston’s tortured abs and a haunted house that bleeds.” It’s part Gothic romance, part ghost story, and … Read More “Crimson Peak (2015): Love, Murder, and the World’s Most Beautiful Plumbing Problem” »