INTRODUCTION: MEAT IS BACK ON THE MENU, AMIGOS In 2010, Mexico served up one of its strangest exports — We Are What We Are (Somos lo que hay) — a movie that asks the important philosophical question: What if your family dinner was also a religious ritual, a social critique, and a crime scene? Directed … Read More “WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (2010): A CANNIBAL FEAST FOR THE SOUL — AND MAYBE THE LIVER” »
INTRODUCTION: WHEN THE MASTER OF HORROR CLOCKS OUT EARLY Imagine you’re John Carpenter — the man who gave us Halloween, The Thing, and Escape from New York. Now imagine you decide, after nearly a decade of cinematic silence, to come back with… The Ward. That’s like Babe Ruth coming out of retirement to play tee-ball. … Read More “THE WARD (2010): THE HORROR OF WATCHING JOHN CARPENTER RETIRE IN REAL TIME” »
INTRODUCTION: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE OF COHERENCE Every so often, a horror film comes along that makes you reflect deeply — not about morality, mortality, or the fragility of human existence, but about how to get back the 90 minutes you just lost. The Violent Kind (2010), directed by The Butcher Brothers — which is … Read More “THE VIOLENT KIND (2010): WHEN YOUR MOVIE TITLE DESCRIBES THE EXPERIENCE OF WATCHING IT” »
Welcome to “Lost” — but With Less Plot and No Budget If you’ve ever wanted to watch two people slowly lose their minds while absolutely nothing happens, Uninhabited (2010) is the vacation movie for you. Directed by Bill Bennett — a man whose résumé swings wildly between serious dramas and whatever this was — Uninhabited … Read More “UNINHABITED (2010) — A GHOST STORY THAT SHOULD HAVE STAYED ABANDONED” »
The Title Says It All If you’re looking for a movie that perfectly captures the sensation of being stuck in an airport lounge during a power outage — sweaty, claustrophobic, and filled with regret — may I introduce you to The Tortured. Directed by Robert Lieberman, produced by the Saw people (which should’ve been our … Read More “THE TORTURED (2010) — SAW WISHES IT COULD UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS” »
A WRITER, HER MUSE, AND HER MURDEROUS ALTER EGO WALK INTO A COUNTRY HOUSE… If you’ve ever had a bad case of writer’s block, spare a thought for poor Paula Martin in Stalker (a.k.a. Exposé), a 2010 British psychological horror film that takes the phrase “the creative process is killing me” and makes it disturbingly … Read More “STALKER (2010) — WHEN WRITER’S BLOCK TURNS INTO BLOODSTAINED BEDDING AND SUCCESSFUL SELF-SABOTAGE” »
Welcome to the House That Boredom Built Every now and then, a horror movie comes along that makes you reconsider the very concept of fear. Not because it terrifies you — but because it forces you to ask, “What if nothing scary ever happens again?” That, dear reader, is Spiderhole, a British 2010 horror film … Read More “SPIDERHOLE (2010) — A HORROR FILM ABOUT HOMELESSNESS, HOPELESSNESS, AND HOPELESS FILMMAKING” »
One Continuous Shot of Sheer Madness Let’s start with the obvious: The Silent House is a horror film that makes you afraid of your own house, your own father, and quite possibly your own sanity. Directed by Gustavo Hernández on a shoestring budget and shot in a single continuous take (or at least edited to … Read More “THE SILENT HOUSE (2010) — SCREAMING INTO THE DARKNESS, ONE LONG TAKE AT A TIME” »
When Julianne Moore Met The Devil, And The Script Lost Its Soul If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a theological term paper got possessed by a Lifetime movie and then vomited itself into existence, allow me to present Shelter — or as it was renamed for U.S. audiences, 6 Souls, possibly … Read More “SHELTER (2010) — A HORROR MOVIE IN DESPERATE NEED OF AN EXORCISM” »
When PTSD Meets ET There are war movies, there are horror movies, and then there’s Sella Turcica — a film that decides to throw both in a blender, hit “liquefy,” and pour the result into your eyeballs like a military-grade smoothie. Fred Vogel, the master of the underground horror scene (and the guy you call … Read More “SELLA TURCICA (2010) — THE HORROR OF COMING HOME, WITH EXTRA SLIME” »