Tag: film
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A beloved fairytale is twisted beyond recognition in THE UGLY STEPSISTER – Review
Hidden under the hopefulness of a rags-to-riches Cinderella story has always been a poisonous jealousy and greed. So many versions exist and whether you are familiar with Perrault’s introduction of the glass slippers, the wickedness of the Brothers Grimm retelling, or simply a fan of the whimsy of Disney’s film adaptation, the tale typically follows…
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Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse – Review
Children are our future. Although how involved the process should be is often not uniform across various cultural and social lines, every generation is tasked with paving the path for the next generation to carry on society–or so we would hope. Coming-of-age experiences differ whether you were raised to be a latchkey kid or if…
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Cannibal Mukbang – Review | MovieJawn
Cannibalism is hard for many audiences to stomach. Visceral depictions of teeth biting into human flesh can still get under the skins of even some of the most seasoned horror fans. From the thrillers that rose during the “Cannibal Boom” of the 1970s and ‘80s–often featuring cannibalistic tribes and families in a way that enforced…
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Final Girls Berlin Film Festival: Pop Horror/Carnivalesque Shorts Block – Review | MovieJawn
“To be completely honest, before Final Girls Berlin, I would not be able to tell you what was considered “pop horror.” A succinct definition still evades me, but that seems to be the beauty of the tastefully curated Pop Horror/Carnivalesque shorts block–it is a fantastical arrangement of oopy-goopy and sickly sweet treats like the concession…
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Final Girls Berlin Film Festival: Life Cycles Shorts Block – Review | MovieJawn
This year marks the 10th annual Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, a trailblazing festival showcasing the work of women and nonbinary folks in the genre space. Between talks, workshops, features and over 11 different shorts blocks, Final Girls Berlin 2025 is a feast. I was lucky enough to cover a few of the shorts blocks,…
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The Dead Thing – Review | Offscreen Central
As Valentine’s Day approaches, the horrific prospect of diving into digital murky waters to make matches in hopes of not being alone on this revered Hallmark holiday is being tapped into by Elric Kane’s late night crawl through LA in The Dead Thing.
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Interview with Grafted director Sasha Rainbow – Offscreen Central
Sasha Rainbow’s narrative feature debut tells a poignant story of beauty, blood, and a search for belonging. Unafraid of showing the reality of the world we live in, Rainbow’s creative and trailblazing approach to documentary filmmaking lends itself beautifully to the world of horror. Offscreen Central had the opportunity to talk with director Sasha Rainbow…
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Bystanders – Review
Directed by Mary Beth McAndrews, Dread Central’s fearless editor-in-chief, Bystanders certainly brings a fresh perspective to the rape-revenge genre. The premise is par for the course when it comes to what audiences expect from this genre: Abby and her friends are drugged and assaulted by boys at a party, then left in the woods while…
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‘The Calls for Equality are Coming from Inside the House’ – Editorial | FANGORIA Magazine Vol. 2 Issue 26
Who amongst us does not feel the Christmas cheer until we watch along as Jess hears the dreaded words, “The calls are coming from the house!” This latest holiday season marked the 50th anniversary of Black Christmas, a beloved slasher that has endured over the years. In the latest issue of FANGORIA magazine, I take…
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Interview with Your Monster cast members Edmund Donovan and Kayla Foster – Offscreen Central
Offscreen Central had the honors of talking with two of the film’s biggest supporting talents, Kayla Foster (‘Mazie Silverberg’, and one of the film’s producers) and Edmund Donovan (‘Jacob Sullivan’) about getting this quirky film set in the world of theater made, and the motivations that drive their characters.
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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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Halloween Horror Nights 2024 Mazes Ranked
Happy Halloween! I have always been a lover of haunted houses and themed attractions, even as a child walking through homemade mazes in the yards of neighbors’ houses. As I grew older, it was be no surprise that I graduated to regularly attending the seasonal haunts at the amusement parks that scatter southern California. Now,…
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‘Apartment 7A: A Dance Macabre Between Control and Autonomy’- Editorial for Fangoria Vol. 2 Issue #25
It is an honor to have my journey as a writer, film critic, and horror film academic (if you will), come full circle. In the fall issue of Fangoria, I wrote an analysis of the use of dance in Apartment 7A
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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…
Siren Death Cult 