Category: Reviews
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The Creep Tapes – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
First premiering ten years ago, Creep (2014) has become a cult classic, especially for fans of found footage. Known by various names like Josef and Wolfy, Mark Duplass’s character has become everyone’s favorite fictional serial killer. His charm lures you in and it is not until it is too late that you notice the strangeness…
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Drive Back – Screamfest Review | MovieJawn
One little sub-genre, or you could even say micro-genre, that I enjoy is “vacations gone wrong.” Sometimes this means films of the “torture porn” variety like Hostel, or killer plants like The Ruins, and everyone’s favorite backwoods murderous cannibal families like in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, House of 1000 Corpses, or Wrong Turn. With…
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Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
It is no surprise that one of my favorite films of Fantastic Fest 2024 is by Stuart Ortiz, better known as half of the directing team The Vicious Brothers. Both as a fan of found footage and a life-long resident of the Inland Empire, I was primed to be the target audience for Strange Harvest,…
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Your Monster – Review | Offscreen Central
My new comfort film just dropped! We are in a renaissance of quirky little romantic comedies about girls and their monsters (see also: Lisa Frankenstein). This heart-warming film starring Melissa Barrera is about living life as your authentic self and not letting others take your voice. “Surrounded by people who are so willing to throw…
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DRAINED – Screamfest Review | MovieJawn
Stylish and humorous, yet dark and twisted, Drained will take a bite out of the hearts of those who have had their share of unhealthy coping mechanisms–but it will have you coming back for more.
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What Happened to Dorothy Bell? – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
Found footage and the paranormal goes together like peanut butter and jelly, and Danny Villanueva Jr.’s second feature was perfectly put together with love like the sandwiches your grandma prepared for you
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Daddy’s Head – Fantastic Fest Review
Benjamin Barfoot’s sophomore feature turns grief into a creature that will reach into the back of your skull, forcing you to relive childhood nightmares you thought you had forgotten.
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Azrael – Review
“Many years after the rapture Among the survivors Some are driven to renounce Their sin of speech” This is all we know about the world of E.L. Katz’s latest feature. Writer Simon Barrett takes on a chilling challenge, testing his craft as a storyteller when a lean script takes away any chance to rely on…
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Little Bites – Fantastic Fest Review | MovieJawn
Musician-turned-director Spider One’s personal film about the fears of parenthood, Little Bites, just had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest! The film opens on Mindy as a bell beckons her downstairs to a small dark room. Behind this wooden door is a creature who feeds on her one little bite at a time. Despite her…
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Clawfoot – Review | MovieJawn
As a huge fan of M.F.A. (2017), so much so that I included it in my examination of female-directed rape-revenge films for my Master’s thesis, I was excited at the opportunity to check out the newest thriller to star Francesca Eastwood: Clawfoot. Coming from the mind of April Wolfe, who previously wrote Black Christmas (2019),…
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Night of the Harvest – Review | MovieJawn
Happy Halloween, sirens! I’m sure everyone is starting their ’31 Days of Halloween’ watchlists but if you are still searching for more festive horrors to feast your eyes on, check out Night of the Harvest. “The film opens on the night before Halloween with a masked killer lurking in the shadows. With kills that pay…
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Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
The allure of Girl Internet Show is not just the belly-aching guttural laughter but the underlying ideas that Kati Kelli expresses through her strange creations. Due to its unconventional nature, it is unsure what the future is for Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape
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Dead Talents Society – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
An electrifying take on the rules of the afterlife, celebrity culture, and our fear of being forgotten, John Hsu’s Dead Talents Society is a horror comedy warming the hearts of audiences at this year’s Fantastic Fest.
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Apartment 7A – Fantastic Fest Review | Offscreen Central
56 years after the release of Rosemary’s Baby, audiences at Fantastic Fest 2024 were whisked back to the Bramford
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Booger – Review | Offscreen Central
“Booger is a sickly sweet tale of loneliness. Mary Dauterman’s first feature will have you texting your besties that you love them and kissing the fuzzy foreheads of your four-legged friends…” Read the rest of my review of Mary Dauterman’s silly and gross and endearing little film, Booger…
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Red Rooms – Review | Offscreen Central
Like members of a jury, the audiences of Red Rooms are asked to make a judgment. This contemplative new feature from Pascal Plante interrogates what it means to not only be a spectator of violence but to make one’s pastime the consumption of the crimes of others.
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Hell Hole – Review | Offscreen Central
“The family behind recent films like Hellbender (2021) and Where the Devil Roams (2023), is stretching their legs and testing their limits as filmmakers. Having previously made films with personal and isolated stories with a cast list consisting largely of the family members themselves–John Adams, Toby Poser, Lulu and Zelda Adams–this is their biggest production yet, materially and thematically…”
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The Crow (2024) – Review
Although any attempt to resurrect The Crow will be haunted by the memory of Brandon Lee, Rupert Sanders’ reimagining of this coveted gothic tale has a beating heart worthy of our gaze.
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Skincare – Review | Offscreen Central
Read my latest review of Austin Peters’ Skincare (2024), starring Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, and Luis Gerardo Méndez, in my debut as a staff writer for Offscreen Central!
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Cuckoo – Review
Cuckoo is strange, to say the least. Its absurdity is homage to 70s and 80s Euro-horror but the film is quick to point at its own silliness and hopes that we will stay seated for the ride. As it unwinds, it only becomes more disorienting but Hunter Schafer’s Gretchen is the glue that holds Cuckoo…
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