Archives: Movie Reviews
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The Devil’s Business (2011)
Early in Sean Hogan’s 2011 horror-noir film, The Devil’s Business, newbie hitman Cully urges his hardened mentor, Mr. Pinner, to tell him about the craziest thing he’s ever encountered on the job. Cully’s vibrating with nerves and trying to kill time: the two men are sitting in the home of their target Mr. Kist, waiting…
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825 Forest Road (2025)
Stephen Cognetti’s 825 Forest Road (2025) is a character-driven horror drama that’s pretending to be something else. Focusing heavily on a hideous mannequin and a twitchy ghost clad in mourning (think Sadako meets The Woman in Black), the trailer seems to promise a jump scare bonanza. But the film itself is actually much more subdued.…
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Torture Garden (1967)
When I think about the evolution of horror films in the mid-to-late 20th century, I imagine a yawning gulf between the increasingly quaint gothics of Hammer in Britain and the new wave of transgressive terror surging across the Atlantic. But, of course, shifts in artistic trends are rarely abrupt, and this seeming chasm between points…
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The Asphyx (1972)
I’m going to begin this review by stating the obvious: Peter Newbrook’s horror masterpiece The Asphyx (1972) (pronounced “ass-fix”) has the best title ever. Call me juvenile, but when the serious British protagonist solemnly delivers lines like “I want you to summon up my own asphyx,” or “it is within my grasp to trap a…
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Glorious (2022)
When it comes to horror movies, I used to think that there was nothing new under the sun. But then I saw Rebekah McKendry’s Glorious (2022). Shocking and impressing me at every turn, the film’s plot is–at least to my knowledge–truly original, making comps with other genre content challenging. It’s a story of cosmic proportions…
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Daddy’s Head (2024)
When I saw the trailer for Benjamin Barfoot’s Daddy’s Head (2024), I scoffed at the menacing shots of a minimalist glass house. In recent years, too many filmmakers have leaned on the easy horror of see-through structures, exploiting the vulnerability of their occupants instead of doing the difficult work of developing a better story. If…
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Children of the Stones (1977)
If you are looking for a horror series to binge watch, you could easily find new or recent content on Netflix. But why not try something different?–something with less gloss but more period interest and loads of heart. Take a trip back to 1977, when the pants were tight and the collars wide; and get…
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Dracula’s Widow (1988)
The Coppola family seems to have cornered the market on vampire films. Between Francis Ford’s blockbuster, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and Nicolas Cage’s darkly manic performance in the now cult classic Vampire’s Kiss (1988), it’s easy to forget Christopher Coppola’s low-budget horror comedy, Dracula’s Widow (1988). But I like an underdog, and this uneven effort…
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Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
If you’re interested in the history of queer representation in film, then I recommend Dracula’s Daughter (1936). Like so many movies from this archive, it’s a frustrating watch because same-sex desire must be expressed circuitously, rendered monstrous, and ultimately punished. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that the lesbian vampire dies in the…