A Masterclass in Falling Apart (Beautifully) There are films about madness, and then there’s The Swerve—a slow-motion car crash of mental unraveling that somehow manages to be both devastating and darkly funny in its bleak honesty. Written and directed by Dean Kapsalis, this 2018 horror-drama doesn’t rely on monsters, ghosts, or gore. Instead, it offers … Read More “The Swerve (2018): A Nervous Breakdown Served with Style, Sadness, and a Side of Existential Dread” »
Nostalgia Is a Hell of a Drug There’s a difference between paying homage to the ‘80s and holding it hostage. Summer of ’84, the teen horror nostalgia trip directed by the trio behind Turbo Kid—François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell—spends 105 minutes reminding you that the past was better, the kids were braver, and … Read More “Summer of ’84 (2018): Stranger Things Without the Charm, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate the Suburbs” »
When the End of the World Sounds Like a Lo-Fi Playlist Every once in a while, a film comes along that feels less like a movie and more like a beautifully awkward therapy session wrapped in cosmic dread. Starfish (2018), written and directed by A.T. White, is exactly that—a slow, strange, hypnotic little gem of … Read More “Starfish (2018): Grief, Mixtapes, and the Apocalypse—A Cosmic Hug from the End of the World” »
30 Minutes or Less? I Wish. Every so often, a movie comes along that makes you question not only filmmaking but also your life choices leading up to pressing “play.” Slice (2018), directed by Austin Vesely and produced by A24—yes, that A24—is one of those films. It’s a horror-comedy about pizza delivery drivers being murdered … Read More “Slice (2018): When Your Pizza Comes With Extra Cheese and Zero Horror” »
The Horror of Corporate Creepypasta There are bad horror movies, and then there’s Slender Man—a film so devoid of tension, logic, or originality that even the titular monster seems bored. Directed by Sylvain White, this 2018 supernatural snoozefest takes one of the Internet’s most chilling urban legends and turns it into a beige, PG-13 nightmare … Read More “Slender Man (2018): A Creepypasta So Bland It Could Use More Pasta” »
The First All-Female Cast—And That’s the Only Achievement There’s something historic about Seya, the 2018 Sri Lankan horror film that proudly bills itself as the country’s first movie with an all-female cast. It’s a bold concept: 36 actresses, one ghost, and apparently zero people to tell the director “maybe we shouldn’t.” Written and directed by … Read More “Seya (2018): The Horror of Too Many Women, Too Little Sense” »
When the Scariest Thing Is the Script You know a horror movie is in trouble when the ghost isn’t the most terrifying thing about it. The Secret: Suster Ngesot Urban Legend (2018, released 2019) is proof that sometimes the real horror comes from lazy writing, overacting, and a plot that feels like it was stitched … Read More “The Secret: Suster Ngesot Urban Legend (2018): The Horror Is That It Got Made” »
The Doll That Cried “Copyright Infringement” Let’s get one thing straight: Sabrina is not just a bad horror movie—it’s a cinematic séance where the ghost of Annabelleis summoned, stripped of its dignity, and forced to speak Indonesian. Directed by Rocky Soraya, who apparently believes jump scares are a valid substitute for storytelling, Sabrina is a … Read More “Sabrina (2018): When Annabelle Goes to Jakarta and Immediately Regrets It” »
Mission: Implausible There’s a special kind of beauty in a movie that tries to combine 28 Days Later, Black Hawk Down, and Resident Evil, but forgets to include logic, pacing, or coherent editing. Redcon-1 is that movie. Directed by Chee Keong Cheung (who apparently woke up one day and decided, “Yes, what the zombie genre … Read More “Redcon-1 (2018): When the Apocalypse Meets a Gym Membership and a Bad Script” »
A Royal Pain in the Neck (Literally) Ah, Rampant—the 2018 Korean blockbuster that dared to ask the question: what if Train to Busan and Kingdom had a love child, but that baby grew up to be an overfunded, underwritten mess with better cheekbones than plot cohesion? Directed by Kim Sung-hoon, Rampant promised “period action horror.” … Read More “Rampant (2018): When Joseon Met Zombies—and Everyone Lost” »