Reviews

When dealing with a contained story, you have to get creative. There needs to be some kind of countdown or plot device that creates tension and keeps the audience in suspense. You can't go anywhere new or exciting, and you can't introduce many outside characters. This was exactly the challenge director Ian Tuason had in front of him. Undertone follows a woman named Evy who lives with her ailing mother. During the day she takes care of her mother, and at night she cohosts a po

Michael and Danny Philippou proved they were the real deal with Talk to Me, but following up a smash hit like that would be a daunting task for anyone. Did they match it, or did they fall short? Bring Her Back follows siblings Andy and Piper who encounter a sinister ritual at the secluded house of their new foster mother, Laura. The story takes place in modern day Australia. Sally Hawkins (Made in Dagenham, Paddington, Wonka) leads a cast of young actors. Sora Wong who plays

It takes a deep-rooted visionary to pierce through the heart and soul of society the way Ryan Coogler just did with Sinners. In his fifth film working with Michael B. Jordan, he again delivers. A film steeped heavily in a singular culture; one might expect the reach be limited to a minority. They'd be wrong. This film is breaking records, and breaking barriers. Sinners is a period piece set in the South during the Jim Crow Era. The story centers on mysterious twin brothers,

Rule of thumb when writing a script: don't toy with your audience. Apparently, writer Sam Stefanak did not get this memo, and the result was dissatisfied viewers. Film is subjective though, and you can still find some good in the bad. Sometimes a closer look is warranted. The Woman in the Yard follows Ramona and her two children, Taylor and Annie, as they encounter a mysterious figure cloaked in black on their family farm. The visitor says very little and does not reveal her

Writer/director Oz Perkins is on a roll with his second horror film in two years. Last year we got Longlegs, and this year we got The Monkey. There's been some divisiveness surrounding The Monkey since its release and I can understand why. Was this supposed to be an adventure comedy, a coming-of-age movie, a possessed doll film, or even a slapstick comedy? Perkins himself probably doesn't even know. But I digress... The Monkey is an adaptation of one of many Stephen King nove

Let me start this review off by saying, yes, Presence is a horror movie. Its story is tragic, and tragedy can be a horrifying thing to experience. It can be horrifying for the person going through it, and those watching from afar (me in a theater seat). This genre is not built upon scares and gore alone but rather upon death and the idea of it. All horror ties back to death in one way or another, and Presence focuses heavily on it. As a director Steven Soderbergh has little

Well, the results are finally in! The third installment in the Quiet Place Franchise performed... just OK. After the success of the first two films, it was reasonable to be enthusiastic. With star power in Lupita Nyong'o as the lead, and John Krasinski and Michael Sarnoski writing and producing, you'd expect great things. The end product was a movie that rushes to tell its story. Whether due to budget constraints or not, it's frustrating to see play out. I was fully anticipat

I'm a simp for M. Night Shyamalan. There, I said it. So, when I heard his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, would be making her directorial debut with The Watchers, I was excited. The trailer was intriguing, and I like Dakota Fanning's stuff, but the biggest concern was the plot. How were they going to make a fully fleshed story with a single location in the woods of Ireland? Well, many of Shyamalan's films have been structured similarly with a single location, so we know it

Holy cow. That was a fun time. In a Violent Nature gave us one of the more memorable horror films of the past decade. Now, I'm not saying this movie is perfect... don't attack me, please! I agree there were plenty of areas that could have and should have been better. Still though, this new release ultimately works. In a past article I noted a fear of too much meandering between kills that could make or break the film. Luckily, Chris Nash made sure to implement beautiful cine

What was once excitement for this new trilogy has quickly become indifference. An issue with trilogies is expectations get set higher; when you don't start out with a bang, people begin to worry. Instead of providing a fresh perspective on the masked killers, we are given a complete and utter rehash of The Strangers. Beat for beat we follow the original story with similar characters and a similar setting. Overacting was on display from the entire cast, especially the townsfol