Tag: mystery

Toronto 2023 Review: POOLMAN, An Earnest if Misguided Comedy-Neo-Noir

A few years ago, I was taking an Uber back to my airbnb in Los Angeles; the driver, it turns out, was something of a conspiracy theorist. At first he was just telling me about the politics of the city,...

THE NUN II Review: The Dark One Returns

With a cool $2.1 billion (US) take across a series spanning a decade, eight entries, and a rate of investment that would make any studio envious, the so-called Conjuring Universe shows little, if any, sign of slowing down, let alone...

Friday One Sheet: ROTTING IN THE SUN

Sex and death. Eros and Thanatos. A corpse with an erection being consumed on a beach. The latest queer comedy from Sebastián Silva (director of the criminally underrated Magic Magic) gets this lovely hand painted poster (if you zoom in...

SATAN WANTS YOU Interview: Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams Talk Moral Panics

Moral panics have been with us as a species since time immemorial. From the persecution of European pagans at the end of the Roman empire in the Fourth Century, to the Salem witch trials in New England in the 17th...

Fantasia 2023 Review: RAGING GRACE, An Immigrant Housekeeper Faces A Domestic Nightmare With Her Daughter

Debutante director Paris Zarcilla delivers a fiery first feature in Raging Grace, the story of an immigrant woman who takes a much needed service job in the wrong house. Starring Max Eigenmann as Joy and Jaeden Paige Boadilla as her...

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR Review: Come for The Further, Stay for the Generational Trauma

Onetime Asutralian college students and longtime friends, James Wan and Leigh Whannell began their careers as filmmakers with a proof-of-concept short that — once fully financed — turned into Saw, a cleverly-plotted, attention-grabbing, gore-soaked horror film that spawned eight sequels...

Fantasia 2023: Final Wave Sees WE ARE ZOMBIES By RKSS Closing, Nic Cage Honored, Plus TIGER STRIPES, DEVILS, RAGING GRACE, And More

We are two weeks away from the opening of the 27th Fantasia in Montreal and today we get to see the final bunch of films to round out the three week long genre film extravaganza taking place in Montreal from...

Friday One Sheet: THE WICKER MAN @ 50

The Wicker Man (and its double feature-mate Don't Look Now) are 50 years old. Albeit, they played the UK in 1973 and USA in 1975. There is a long story around the complex history of Robin Hardy's film, and it is...

Calgary Underground 2023: MISTER ORGAN Review

David Farrier does not like bullies. He cannot abide liars. And I dare guess that he is not a fan of litigious revenge either. The New Zealand journalist turned filmmaker has a particular knack for sussing out the strange people...

SXSW 2023 Review: MONOLITH, Single Setting Sci-Fi Delivers Creeping Dread

A disgraced journalist tries to claw her way back into the game through a podcast on the metaphysical mysteries of the unexplained in first time feature director Matt Vesely’s Monolith. A single character, single location science fiction thriller, Monolith delivers...

SCREAM VI Review: Meta-Slasher-Whodunit Offers Thrills, Chills, and Kills in Equal Measure

After a decade-long hiatus due to several factors, including lagging audience interest, the collapse of rights-holder The Weinstein Company, and a transfer of those rights to Spyglass Entertainment (among other factors), the Scream series, once a trilogy, now a franchise...

SCREAM VI: It's Pull Quotes And Horror Action in Final Trailer

The next chapter in the rejuvinated slasher series, Scream VI, opens this Friday! The final trailer has just dropped. Check it out down below and look for a review from our own Mel later this week.    In the next...

Preview: Rendez-Vous With French Cinema 2023

Showcasing the best of contemporary French films, this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema features 21 features from old masters to newcomers, including new films by Philippe and Louis Garrel, Arnaud Desplechin, Dominik Moll, Patricia Mazuy and Léa Mysius. Though I...

MARLOWE Review: Over-Familiar Tropes Sinks Chandler Homage

Directed by Neil Jordan, Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and Jessica Lange star in an adaptation of a novel by John Banville.

THE BOOGEYMAN Trailer: It's The Thing That Comes For Your Kids

Host director Rob Savage has cashed in his street cred from his 2020 horror hit and got himself a big studio gig, directing an adaptation of a short story by Stephen King. Not to shabby.   The Boogeyman opens June...

Sundance 2023 Review: INFINITY POOL, Brutal, Bloody, Effective Satire

Watching your own execution can change you, sometimes irrevocably. Being forced to watch said execution after paying for the one-time creation of a body double (clone) to serve as your surrogate can cause a debilitating existential crisis with apparently no...

SCREAM VI Trailer: Another Familiar Face Returns in Sixth Chapter

Jeez Lousie, that's a hell of an opening, isn't it? Here is the new trailer for Scream VI, coming to theaters on March 10th! Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter....

YELLOWJACKETS Season 2 Teaser: A Little More Complicated than Most

Anyone from a northern climate knows the dangers of winter, how you can die simply from being caught outside. That's one of the first things that drew me, and likely many viewers, to a show like Yellowjackets. We know what...

Review: THE PALE BLUE EYE, Flaccid Adaptation Will Disappoint Edgar Allan Poe Fans

Christian Bale stars in a new mystery-thriller by director Scott Cooper.

Review: NEXT EXIT, A Life After Death (After Life) Road Romance

In writer-director Mali Elfman’s feature-length debut, Next Exit, the world as we’ve come to know it doesn’t end with a bang or even a whimper, but on the society-upending revelation that ghosts do, in fact, exist and thus, so does...