There are religious horror movies that warn you about the dangers of sin, and then there’s The Last Thing Mary Saw, which mostly warns you about the dangers of living with your family. Set in 1843 in Southold, New York, the film traps you inside a rigid Calvinist household where joy is basically contraband and … Read More “The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) – Piety, patriarchy, and witchy lesbians” »
There are “back to nature” movies, and then there’s In the Earth, which strongly suggests that nature has seen what we’ve done, taken notes, and would like to return the favor through noise, spores, and a light show that feels like being drop-kicked into a screensaver from hell. Ben Wheatley’s pandemic-shot psychedelic folk horror is … Read More “In the Earth (2021) Pandemic folk horror, mushrooms, and a forest that absolutely wants a word” »
There’s a certain kind of horror movie that feels less like a story and more like a grad student’s ethics-board nightmare stretched to feature length. Like Dogs is one of those—and not even the good kind, where the ethics board is horrified because the ideas are bold. No, this is the kind where you imagine … Read More “Like Dogs (2021) Human obedience school goes feral.” »
On paper, Karem the Possession is the sort of movie critics sharpen their knives for: long-delayed, loosely based on a “real case,” released at the tail end of the year, and promptly dragged for its direction, acting, and plot. And yet, if you squint past the rough edges (and maybe accept that subtlety has left … Read More “Karem the Possession (2021) Telekinesis, atheists, demon pen pal. What could possibly go wrong?” »
Halsey did not have to go this hard for what is technically an “album companion piece,” and yet here we are: a sumptuous, vicious, gothic fairy tale about rape, power, pregnancy, and a woman who poisons her king and still somehow isn’t the biggest monster in the room. Directed by Colin Tilley and written by … Read More “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power (2021) Off with his head, keep the crown, burn the patriarchy.” »
There are movies about witches, and then there’s Hellbender, which watches all that “double double toil and trouble” stuff, chugs a shot of blood, cranks the amp to 11, and says, “Cute. Anyway, here’s a song about eating God.” Made on a microbudget by a real-life family (John Adams, Toby Poser, and their daughter Zelda … Read More “Hellbender (2021) – Metal, matriarchy, and mommy issues” »
Some horror movies haunt you. Guimoon: The Lightless Door mostly just hovers around you like an overenthusiastic theme-park employee shouting, “Are you scared yet?” while you politely check your watch and wonder if the exit sign is cursed too. On paper, this should work: Abandoned training center with a bloody past? ✅ Psychic research institute? … Read More “Guimoon: The Lightless Door (2021) Now with 4DX so you can feel absolutely nothing… more intensely” »
If Fear Street Part One: 1994 was the loud, sugar-rushed intro, Part Two: 1978 is where the trilogy takes a deep breath, sharpens the axe, and says, “Okay, let’s actually make a movie now.” And it does. This one’s still messy and pulpy and drenched in blood, but it finally balances slasher fun with real … Read More “Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021) Camp Crystal Shadyside: Now With More Feelings” »
Fear Street Part One: 1994 really wants you to know it loves horror. It loves it so much it raids the attic, puts on every costume at once—Scream, It, Stranger Things, The Craft, teen drama, witch curse, slasher, supernatural mystery—and then trips over all of it in the hallway. The result isn’t so much a … Read More “Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021) – Baby’s First Horror Mixtape” »
Every so often, a movie comes along that reminds you demons might not be the real problem. The real problem is that someone greenlit a script that looks like it was assembled from every exorcism cliché on Earth, then shouted, “But what if the priest feels really, really guilty this time?” The Exorcism of God … Read More “The Exorcism of God (2021) The power of Christ compels you… to roll your eyes” »