When Falling Down the Stairs Becomes a Metaphor for Life Every now and then, a film crawls out of the indie abyss, drenched in color, heartache, and existential glitter, and politely slaps mainstream horror across the face. Moon Garden—Ryan Stevens Harris’s surreal 2022 dark fantasy horror—does exactly that. It’s the kind of movie that feels … Read More “Moon Garden (2022): A Nightmare You’ll Actually Want to Live In” »
Welcome to the House That Mediocrity Built Every now and then, a film comes along that reminds you not every house needs to be revisited—and not every screenplay deserves to be resurrected. Mid-Century, directed by Sonja O’Hara and written by Mike Stern, is one such film: a 105-minute séance where boredom is the ghost that … Read More “Mid-Century (2022): A Haunted House Movie That Should Have Stayed Condemned” »
Home Is Where the Haunting Is “The Knocking” (Koputus) begins like every Finnish family reunion: bleak, cold, and full of unspoken trauma. It’s a film where silence has a pulse and grief smells like pine needles. Directed by Max Seeck and Joonas Pajunen, this 2022 supernatural horror drama doesn’t just flirt with dread—it invites it … Read More “The Knocking (2022): When Family Reunions Come With Ghosts and Guilt” »
The Forest Hills is the cinematic equivalent of a concussion: disorienting, unpleasant, weirdly loud in moments, and afterward you’re not sure what happened, only that you probably shouldn’t have pushed through it. On paper, this movie sounds like it could be something: A crowdfunded indie horror-thriller A troubled lead slowly losing his grip on reality … Read More “The Forest Hills” »
Five Nights at Freddy’s is the rare movie that somehow manages to be too much and not nearly enough at the same time. It’s like ordering a fully loaded horror pizza and getting a lukewarm slice of cheese with “lore” scribbled on the box in crayon. On paper, this should have been unstoppable: Beloved horror … Read More “Five Nights at Freddy’s” »
Fear (2023) is the kind of horror movie that sits you down, looks you dead in the eye, and says, “Your greatest fear… is wasting your time,” then proceeds to prove its own thesis in real time over 100 minutes. On paper, it sounds like a solid setup: a group of friends, a creepy remote … Read More “Fear (2023)” »
Elevator Game is proof that not every creepypasta needs a movie, and certainly not one that feels like it was generated by an algorithm trained on “Netflix horror thumbnails” and the words based on an online phenomenon. On paper, this should work: cursed ritual, spooky elevator, vengeful ghost woman, YouTube clout-chasers getting shredded. In execution, … Read More “Elevator Game” »
Dark Harvest is the movie you’d get if someone watched The Purge, Children of the Corn, and a vintage Chevy commercial in one sitting and said, “Okay, but what if Halloween was legally sanctioned child abuse with a prize car?” Set in 1962 and soaked in grainy Americana, David Slade’s Dark Harvest is a mean … Read More “Dark Harvest” »
Consecration is the kind of movie that proves you can have: a moody Scottish island, a creepy convent, Jena Malone, Danny Huston, and a bucket of religious trauma… …and still somehow end up with a film that feels like a very expensive church pamphlet written by someone who skimmed The Exorcist plot on Wikipedia. On … Read More “Consecration” »
Cobweb is the kind of movie that gently asks, “What if your parents were lying, your walls were full of secrets, and the voice in your bedroom wasn’t your imagination but a resentful spider-goblin sister with abandonment issues?” Then it answers: “Well, therapy is no longer going to cut it.” Samuel Bodin’s directorial debut is … Read More “Cobweb” »