Over on Soda & Telepaths I wrote another thing about a Fantastic Fest film festival entry called So Unreal, a strange little documentary/video essay that might be worth reading about if you’re into that sort of thing
The Boogeyman (2023) – In The Dark
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 2nd June
Seen: 18th October
In 1973, Stephen King wrote a short story called The Boogeyman. The short story was published in a magazine called Cavalier and eventually was part of the first collection of King’s short stories known as Night Shift, which is also how we got such stories/films as The Mangler, The Lawnmower Man and Children of the Corn. The great thing about this process is that King tends to have some great terrifying ideas that work well in film and a lot of these short stories have fascinating ideas that would work great in a horror film… the downside is that they’re short for a reason and in order to make something feature length any filmmaker has to take what King did and build upon it and that’s usually where things start to falter.
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Fantastic Fest 2023’s Bark
Over on Soda & Telepaths I reviewed another Fantastic Fest film called Bark, a 2 person thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat and hugging your pampered pooch as tightly as possible
Disquiet (2023) – Hospitalized
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 14th October
Seen: 18th October
Some settings are just inherently creepy which makes them an ideal spot to put a horror film. Dark woods with no one around, the middle of the ocean and, of course, hospitals. Why hospitals are so creepy is hard to explain, most likely because it’s the kind of place where there’s a high probability that it’ll end up being the last place you see alive. It also helps that hospitals have such a familiar look (we’ve all been in one at some point) that we all instantly notice when there’s something wrong about one which is handy if you want to scare an audience. Of course, if you want to scare an audience the main thing you have to do is try and be scary, which is one of many things that Disquiet doesn’t even think about doing at any point.
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Fantastic Fest 2023’s There’s Something In The Barn
Another review for another film from the Fantastic Fest and oh boy this is a fun one, a future alternative-christmas classic called There’s Something In The Barn!
Insidious: The Red Door (2023) – Don’t Knock
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 6th July
Seen: 18th October
For 13 years now, Insidious has been one of the biggest franchises in all of horror. What started as a way for James Wan and Leigh Whannell to prove that they could scare an audience without the gore that their Saw franchise became known for turned into a bona fide iconic franchise of its own that has spread out over multiple sequels, some telling the story of the Lambert family who end up entangled with spirits from another world while others focus on Elise Rainier, the medium who helped the Lambert family and who dealt with hauntings of her own. Like almost all horror series, the longer this franchise has gone on the more it has started slowly circling the drain so the question is how far down that drain is Insidious: The Red Door… about where it was last time, and last time I begged for them to stop this franchise so you can guess what this one made me feel.
Actually you don’t have to guess, read on.
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V/H/S/85 (2023) – Blockbuster Video
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 6th October
Seen: 12th October
The V/H/S franchise is quite possibly one of the most fascinating series to be a part of the horror genre. Each film follows a very simple but effective structure, five short films all tied together by the gimmick of being found footage from a VHS recorder that has a larger overarching film showing between them. This has turned the franchise into a breeding ground for future major directors in the horror/sci-fi genre, some alumni of the franchise include Ti West (X, Pearl), Radio Silence (Scream, Scream 6), David Bruckner (Hellraiser) and Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs Kong) among a slew of others who have all made their mark on the genre. All of them connected through this strange little horror series using an old technology as the linking force. Now on its sixth film, V/H/S turns to a decade that was almost defined by the rise of the VHS tape and sees what horror it can find there.
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The Exorcist: Believer (2023) – Demonic
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Released: 5th October
Seen: 12th October
It’s pretty much impossible to deny the impact of The Exorcist. The classic 1973 shocker is a touchstone of the horror genre, the stories of people fainting and running out of the cinema are the stuff of legends and it is an absolute constant on any ‘Scariest Movies of All Time’ list, to the point that not having it on your list makes the list invalid. With its incredible visuals, revolutionary scares, and Oscar-nominated performances, The Exorcist is one of those all-time classics that everyone can agree earns a special place not only in the Horror genre but in the history of cinema itself. It also should probably have never been turned into a franchise.
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Fantastic Fest 2023’s Mushrooms
So over on Soda & Telepaths I wrote another review about a festival film that was… well, it was really good until the last minute reveal, but read my full thoughts about Muchrooms over here
The Puppetman (2023) – Puppet Out
Over on the new Soda and Telepaths I went and wrote a little review about a new Shudder release called The Puppetman, which felt a lot like a Nightmare on Elm Street with Freddy forcibly removed which is certainly an interesting creative choice if nothing else
Movie Meister Reviews 