Poché Pictures

There are family camping trips where you toast marshmallows, reconnect with nature, and maybe argue about the tent. Then there’s Koko-di Koko-da, where your grief manifests as a murderous music-box cabaret and a dapper nightmare clown stabs your relationship to death over and over again in the woods. Honestly? As metaphors for marriage counseling go, … Read More “Koko-di Koko-da” »

There’s a moment not very far into the 2019 Jacob’s Ladder when you realize the real horror isn’t PTSD, government conspiracies, or hellish visions—it’s the dawning knowledge that you still have over an hour of movie left. Remaking the 1990 Jacob’s Ladder is already a questionable life choice, like deciding to do a “modern, gritty … Read More “2019 Jacob’s Ladder” »

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think “giant spider in an old house” is a horror movie, and those who think it’s a biography of their worst nightmare. Itsy Bitsy cheerfully aims at both groups and says, “What if the spider is actually the least dysfunctional thing in the building?” … Read More “Itsy Bitsy” »

There are movies called Dark because they’re moody and profound, and then there’s Iruttu, which is called Dark because you will spend most of the runtime trying to find the plot with a flashlight and a forensic team. On paper, this is a supernatural horror thriller about an upright cop, an evil jinn, and a … Read More “Iruttu” »

There are love stories, there are monster movies, and then there’s Inhuman Kiss—a film that looks at both and calmly asks, “What if the person you’re pining for is literally just a head with dangling viscera after dark?” Somehow, against all logic and anatomy, it ends up being one of the sweetest, saddest, most beautifully … Read More “Inhuman Kiss” »

Life Support, Plot Flatline There’s something uniquely depressing about watching a horror movie where the scariest thing on screen is the runtime. The Influence (La influencia) is that movie. It’s based on a Ramsey Campbell novel, features a comatose witch-matriarch hooked up to machines in a crumbling family mansion, and somehow still manages to be … Read More “The Influence (La influencia)” »

Sleeping With the Enemy (In Your Brain) Every few years a movie comes along that dares to ask the big questions: What is reality? Where do dreams end? And how much moral flexibility does a psychology professor get if his hair is good enough? Impossible Monsters—Nathan Catucci’s moody, stylish 2019 debut—dives headfirst into nightmares, sleep … Read More “Impossible Monsters” »

Home for the Holidays (and Also the Devil) There are Christmas movies where a family gathers to heal old wounds, drink cocoa, and learn the true meaning of togetherness. Then there’s I Trapped the Devil, where the true meaning of togetherness is “we might have locked Satan in the basement and everyone is emotionally unstable.” … Read More “I Trapped the Devil” »

I See You: Now You See a Haunted House, Now You Don’t There are movies that ease you into their weirdness, and then there’s I See You, which politely introduces itself as a somber missing-kid drama and then halfway through rips off its own face to reveal… an entirely different movie hiding underneath. Directed by … Read More “I See You” »

Love, Actually… Might Kill You A Match Made in Sci-Fi HellThe Honeymoon Phase is what happens when a Black Mirror episode shacks up with a low-budget relationship drama, gets uncomfortably honest about love, and then locks the doors. Phillip G. Carroll Jr.’s feature debut takes the most cheerful phrase in romance—“honeymoon phase”—and gleefully asks, “Okay, … Read More “The Honeymoon Phase” »