Reviews

No-budget cinema is where you can find some of the most gonzo ideas ever committed to video. It’s this creative freedom that can either generate an underground masterpiece or an over-ripe turd. Not quite a masterpiece, but certainly gonzo, Wild Eye Releasing’s new Visual Vengeance Blu-ray of Rob Roy’s (Damaged …

With sequels dropping left and right, it’s high time, after reviewing the second one, that I took a look at Cruel Summer, the first feature in writer/director Scott Tepperman’s (Hell’s Bells) slasher film saga. Cruel Summer Synopsis A group of college students plan one final pre-graduation party at a secluded …

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, John Carpenter’s They Live keeps kicking reality’s ass and making you question the whole circus of life. This 1988 cult classic is a subversive masterclass, mixing sci-fi, social commentary, and sardonic humor like a cocktail that’ll leave you pondering well into the next century. -Soapbox moment. …

Toby Wilkins’ creature feature body horror film, Splinter, was released 15 years ago on October 31, 2008. Let’s take a look back at this little known genre gem. Synopsis: Trapped in an isolated gas station by a voracious Splinter parasite that transforms its still-living victims into deadly hosts, a young …

An essential film in the drama/horror realm of Spanish cinema, Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s The Dead Mother gets the “special issue” treatment from Radiance Films. The Dead Mother Synopsis A criminal, shoots and kills a painting restorer during a bungled burglary, and shoots her daughter as well. Twenty years later, the …

Twenty-five years ago, writer Don Mancini, producer David Kirschner and director Ronny Yu gave the Child’s Play franchise an unprecedentedly campy overhaul with the release of 1998’s Bride of Chucky. After spending three films hunting down Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent, House Guest Massacre 2013 [read our interview with Alex]; Justin Whalin, Dungeons & …

Remember when they released Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead films on DVD in that groovy coffin-shaped box? Not to be outdone, Synapse Films is bringing those crusty-ass Templar zombies back, in stunning high definition, starting with the original, Tombs of the Blind Dead, AKA La noche del terror ciego, on …

Prepare yourself for a dark cinematic experience that is When Evil Lurks. It unfolds into a film that refreshingly doesn’t play by the rules and delves into the depths of violent suspense and terror, right from the opening title card scene that could rival the aftermath of Leatherface’s infamous chainsaw. …

Set to a moody and awesome song by Tuesday Knight, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master begins with the words: “When deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me. And trembling which made all my bones to shake -Job IV, 13-14.” That’s really about as deep as …

There is a sense of dread and inevitability from the first frame of The Collingswood Story. This little-known Screenlife thriller from 2002 is perhaps the first of the sub-genre. Primarily taking place on a pre-Skype video chat platform based on a landline, the instability and unreliability of the platform perfectly …