No one questions the bonafide of Kevin Williamson when it comes to pop culture horror. He created the Scream franchise, after all, beloved by millions and now discovered by a new generation of horror fans with this year’s sequel. But outside of the Scream franchise, can Williamson still hold his own in the genre? If …
Fantastic Fest
The Hellraiser franchise has always been a bit of a dichotomy – the profane and the beautiful, the elegant and the crass, the sexuality and the agony all go hand in bloody hand. Some entries are better than others, but this has always been a series where the point is the extreme nature of it. …
Bones and All, the new film by director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), wastes no time in establishing itself. Young Maren (Taylor Russell), at a sleepover, suddenly attacks her host, nearly biting off her finger and escaping in the night. Maren feels a compulsion to consume human flesh. Whether this is a physical …
One of my favorite aspects of Marvel Studios’ output so far is that it feels like it’s starting to compartmentalize a bit. Want cosmic adventure? Here’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Want street-level action? Try some Daredevil. Espionage and intrigue? The Winter Soldier or Black Widow awaits you. Much like the comic books, there are tracks …
While Smile is a horror film that plays for a crowd and gives us jumps and intense moments, it’s also a story about trauma and how our past can torment and haunt us just as much as any movie monster. At Fantastic Fest, I was fortunate to speak with director Parker Finn and star Sosie …
Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges is a distinct kind of hitman movie, one with a lot on its mind, moral clarity in a world of nefarious criminals, and terrific performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. All three return for The Banshees of Inisherin, but while many of the components are the same, Banshees has a …
It should come as no surprise to learn, once audiences see the movie, that The Menu was produced by Adam McKay and directed by Mark Mylod. The Menu could easily take place in some back corner of the Succession universe – I imagine that Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) would probably move heaven and earth to …
There’s a trend going on in horror cinema that’s been happening for several years now – the exploration of past traumas and how they inform the present, often done metaphorically. That movie monster or thing that creeps in the shadows of the room isn’t just a monster – it’s something horrific from the past that …
Conflict is the basis of drama, and there are few dramatic conflicts as powerful as the exploration of class. Everyone alive feels that conflict – the societal obligations for those who are not well off to rise above their status, while those who are already well off strive to keep their positions while, consciously or …
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is an engine of perfect entertainment. From the opening moments, we are swept into the story and characters, and it feels completely confident and effortless. It’s old-fashioned in all the best ways but it also has modern sensibilities and themes that give the film weight and substance. The murder mystery, as a …
Robert Eggers’ The Witch (or The VVitch if you prefer) is a polarizing film. Now that we have a little distance from it, and now that we’ve seen something of the trends happening in the horror genre since then, that film is a moment in independent film – that there are stories to be told in …
Eddie Murphy is back. The best Eddie Murphy movies are those where it feels like he has something to prove. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a completely engaged Eddie. His strongest films have always been those when Eddie has a little glint in his eye right before he lays his cards on …
These days, science fiction films aren’t necessarily about the ideas but the spectacle. Many have several hundred-million-dollar budgets, gigantic CGI moments, and actors who work against green screens all day playing pretend on a wide scale. And while those films done right are perfectly enjoyable, it feels like something has been lost. Great character work, …
I have been obsessed with Alien since I was nine years old, and my parents refused to take me to a movie theater to see it. For Christmas that year, they bought me a book full of shots from the film, and I closely examined every single frame I could, from the face hugger sequence to …
H. P. Lovecraft is a notoriously difficult author to adapt to film. There have been a thousand riffs off his work over the years, with varying degrees of success, but to directly bring his work to the screen can be problematic at best. Back when authors were paid for every word, during the era of …
Young Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a good little Nazi. He worships Adolf Hitler – so much so that he imagines Adolf (Taika Waititi) giving him advice during times of difficulty. In Germany, during the waning days of World War II, Jojo and his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), try to manage an existence together, …