A Haunted House, A Kidnapping, and Absolutely No Cohesion Every few years, the Indian horror genre gives us something so gloriously confusing that it defies description — a film that looks the supernatural square in the eye and says, “You think you’re scary? Watch me edit two completely unrelated plots together and still call it … Read More “Karvva (2016): When the Real Haunting Is the Script” »
When “Going Home” Feels Like Punishment Some horror films are terrifying because of the monsters. Others because of the blood, the ghosts, the psychological trauma. Jack Goes Home is terrifying because you have no idea what the hell is going on — and worse, you start to suspect the filmmakers don’t either. Written and directed … Read More “Jack Goes Home (2016): When the Horror Is Just Trying to Understand What’s Happening” »
Breaking and Entering… into Mediocrity There are bad horror movies, and then there’s Intruder (2016) — a film so aggressively dull it makes watching paint dry feel like an extreme sport. Written and directed by Travis Zariwny (Cabin Fever 2016 — yes, that reboot nobody asked for), Intruder is a home invasion movie that forgets … Read More “Intruder (2016): When the Real Horror Is the Script” »
Possessed by Mediocrity Ah, Incarnate — the movie that dared to ask, “What if The Exorcist were directed by someone who thought the real problem with horror movies was too much tension?” Released in 2016 by Blumhouse Tilt (the “discount horror” wing of Blumhouse, apparently), this film manages to take a fascinating concept — psychological … Read More “Incarnate (2016): When Inception Met The Exorcist… And Both Wanted Their Money Back” »
A Charming, Cheerful Tale of Murder and Existential Dread Ah, small-town America—where the streets are empty, the snow never melts, and your elderly neighbor might be a supernatural monster harvesting lungs. Billy O’Brien’s I Am Not a Serial Killer takes that postcard-perfect Midwest imagery and dunks it headfirst into an embalming tank. It’s a film … Read More “I Am Not a Serial Killer (2016): A Coming-of-Age Story… With Disembowelments” »
If you ever wanted a film that combined The Blair Witch Project, Dot and the Kangaroo, and a dash of Aboriginal mythology stirred lovingly into a pot of existential dread — Hunting for Shadows is your ticket to a hauntingly beautiful nervous breakdown in the bush. Directed by Davo Hardy, this 2016 Australian horror gem … Read More “Hunting for Shadows (2016): When the Outback Eats You and You Still Say “Good On Ya”” »
There are movies that terrify you. There are movies that make you think. And then there’s House of Salem, a 2016 “horror-thriller” so soul-crushingly dull it makes you wish a real demonic entity would appear — not to haunt the characters, but to put the audience out of its misery. Written and directed by James … Read More “House of Salem (2016): When Even Satan Checks Out Early” »
There are bad movies, and then there are movies that make you question whether film as an art form was a mistake. Home(2016), directed by Frank Lin, is the cinematic equivalent of tripping over your own feet, falling down the stairs, and realizing the stairs are actually made of poorly written dialogue and discarded Lifetime … Read More “Home (2016): A Haunted House So Bad Even the Ghosts Want to Leave” »
If The Walking Dead is a screaming, blood-slicked nightmare about humanity tearing itself apart, Here Alone is the eerie, hungover morning after. Directed by Rod Blackhurst and written by David Ebeltoft, this 2016 post-apocalyptic slow-burn doesn’t come with flamethrowers, macho speeches, or cities exploding in CGI glory. Instead, it gives us something far more unsettling … Read More “Here Alone (2016): The End of the World Has Never Been So Quietly Beautiful (or Darkly Funny)” »
There are movies so good they haunt your soul, and then there are movies so weird they haunt your common sense. Ghosthunters (2016), directed by Pearry Reginald Teo and proudly released by The Asylum—the cinematic equivalent of a haunted dollar store—is absolutely the latter. A mockbuster riding the spectral coattails of Ghostbusters (2016), it dares … Read More “Ghosthunters (2016): Who You Gonna Call? Probably Not These People—But You’ll Have Fun Watching Anyway” »