If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if someone tried to remake The Conjuring, The Wardrobe from Narnia, and a Shopee furniture haul video at the same time, look no further than The Gatekeeper (2024) — a film so confused, it feels like it was directed by an actual demon with short-term memory loss. Billed … Read More “The Gatekeeper (2024) Open the Cabinet, Close the Script” »
Every year, at least one horror movie comes along that is so bafflingly mediocre, so spiritually confused, so aggressively beige, it causes you to momentarily believe in demons—not because the film is scary, but because clearly someone cursed the production. The Exorcism (2024) is exactly that movie. Russell Crowe, who just last year gleefully scooted … Read More “The Exorcism (2024) When the Demon Isn’t the Problem — The Script Is” »
There are two kinds of Philippine horror films: The genuinely terrifying ones that traumatize generations. The ones that feel like extended commercials for candles, rosaries, and old mansions with plumbing issues. Espantaho lands squarely in the second category, with the cinematic velocity of a funeral procession and the emotional intensity of a lukewarm cup of … Read More “Espantaho (2024) A Horror Movie So Slow Even the Scarecrow Falls Asleep” »
There are many ways to make a possession film.You can go for terrifying.You can go for psychologically rich.You can even go for gleefully trashy. The Demon Disorder bravely attempts all three — and lands somewhere between “mildly irritated ghost” and “family argument that should’ve stayed in a group chat.” This is a supernatural horror film … Read More “The Demon Disorder (2024) A Possession Movie So Mild It Should Come With a Warning: “May Induce Shrugging.”” »
Some movies arrive with the swagger of prestige cinema.Some sneak in quietly through the indie circuit.And some, like Phil Volken’s delightfully deranged Dead Sea, burst onto the scene like a jet ski powered by Red Bull, panic, and questionable life choices. This is a film that asks bold questions: What if your spring-break getaway ended … Read More “Dead Sea (2024) A Salt-Slick, Organ-Pickling Thriller That Proves Jet Skis Were Always a Bad Idea” »
Every so often, a horror movie arrives that reminds you why Britain remains undefeated in the category of “things that make you uncomfortable in the woods.” Benjamin Barfoot’s Daddy’s Head is one of those films — a quietly unsettling, emotionally charged slice of British folk-horror that somehow manages to balance tender grief, domestic dread, and … Read More “Daddy’s Head (2024) A Surprisingly Effective British Creepfest About Grief, Family, and the Worst “FaceTime” Request in History” »
Some films are psychological thrillers.Some films are social commentaries.And then there is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, a movie so aggressively depressing that by the end I wasn’t sure if I’d watched a film or been emotionally mugged by an accountant. If you ever wanted to see a man become the final evolutionary stage of a toxic … Read More “Cloud (2024) A Bleak Capitalism Horror That Proves Japanese Cinema Can Also Make You Hate the Internet, Yourself, and Anyone Who’s Ever Sold Something on Mercari” »
Some films are made by teams of wildly talented people working together toward a shared vision. And then there’s C.202, which appears to have been written, directed, edited, scored, and possibly catered by Munna Kasi, a man who looked at filmmaking as a group sport and said, “Nah, I’ll solo this raid.” The result?A horror … Read More “C.202 (2024) A Supernatural Horror Film That Proves the Scariest Thing of All Is Letting the Director Do Literally Everything” »
Some horror-thrillers are tense.Some are gritty.Some are so bleak they’re basically cinematic self-harm. And then you have Blood Star, a film so committed to punishing its audience that by the halfway point I began to suspect the screening was part of an elaborate moral lesson I didn’t sign up for. You could screen this movie … Read More “Blood Star (2024) A Movie So Obsessed With Misery It Might Actually Be Sponsored by the Desert Sunburn Association” »
Every year, British cinema gifts us one horror film that feels like it was developed after someone found a crumpled napkin scribbled with, “What if The Babadook had less subtlety and more mud?” In 2024, that honor belongs to The Beast Within, a brooding, moody, sometimes-beastly, mostly-baffling film that tries to be a psychological thriller, … Read More “The Beast Within (2024) A Movie So Confused About Werewolves It Might Actually Be About Divorce” »