Graveyards of Honor Collects the Original and Remake [Blu-Ray Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Graveyards of Honor Collects the Original and Remake [Blu-Ray Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

“He always wanted to be a Yakuza, ever since he was a little boy” an unidentified interviewee says as a montage of black and white photos of future Yakuza Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari) plays near the beginning of Kinji Fukasaku’s Graveyard of Honor. Filmed in 1975, it predates Goodfellas, which opens with Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill saying, “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” by fifteen years. It seems likely that Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese took inspiration from the original Graveyard of Honor. Both films were inspired by the lives of actual gangsters. In the case of Graveyards of Honor, Fukasaku (who also directed the classic Battle Royale), the inspiration was a novel based on the real life Ishikawa (while Goodfellas is based on a non-fiction book chronicling the life of Hill). The two films diverge in their narrative structures. Scorsese incorporates the elements of a tragedy, focusing on how Hill’s fatal flaw eventually leads to his tragic downfall. Fukasaku and screenwriter Tatsuhiko Kamoi’s film tries to answer a question asked in the aforementioned opening interviews: “What turned this young man into a rabid dog?”  RELATED: The Anger Games: Why Battle Royale is Still Relevant Today In that respect, Graveyard of Honor has much more in common with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer than any American gangster films. Ishikawa, like Henry, is a bad man. He robs, rapes, stabs, shoots, and murders without discrimination, or as he puts it, “raising hell” in post-war Japan. While the other Yakuza members try to hold themselves to a code of honor, Ishikawa gives into his darkest impulses, seemingly as soon as he has them.  The film is chaotic because of his impetuousness, and the cinematography reflects that. One early scene features Ishikawa having a relatively mundane conversation sitting on the floor while topless women are chased in circles by his fellow Yakuza. The men and women streak in front of the camera, blocking our view of Ishikawa. The fights are equally tumultuous, with the camera zoomed in so close it’s hard to tell whose fist is connecting with whose jaw before there’s another quick cut. That kind of cinematography can be annoying, but in Graveyard of Honor it matches the images to Ishikawa’s interior landscape.  It’s certainly not a fun film, and it ends with a strong condemnation of Ishikawa’s violent behavior. Takashi Miike’s 2002 reimagining, the other half of this collection, follows the same structure but updates the story to take place in the late 1990s.  While Miike emulates Fukasaku’s choppy cinematography during fight scenes, he takes things a step further. In the 1975 version of Graveyards of Honor, Fukasaku was happy to cut away from the most violent moments. Anyone familiar with Miike knows that he’s not one to let viewers go so easily. His version of Graveyard of Honor was filmed in between Audition and Ichi the Killer, and it has a prison escape sequence grosser than anything in those two notoriously violent films.  Despite that, Fukasaku’s is the more disturbing of the two films. Even though it turns away the most violent moments, it does less to humanize the lead, who Miike renamed Rikuo Ishimatsu (Goro Kishitani). Screenwriter Shigenori Takechi adds more to Ishimatsu’s life and Kishitani plays the character with more charm, making him feel less dangerous.  RELATED: First Love is Snatch with Sword Fights [Blu-Ray Review] Both versions of the film fail Chieko (played by Yumi Takigawa in 1975 and Narimi Arimori in 2002). In both, the lead character assaults her early on, and then simply doesn’t stop showing up at her apartment until they’re married. This kind of writing is two-dimensional, robbing her of her agency. It’s not her story and it doesn’t need to be, but if she’s to be believed as a character, she needs to make a choice or demonstrate how she feels about not having one.  Having both films in a single pack is excellent. It allows viewers to watch two virtuoso filmmakers tell the same story back to back. The collection is also chock full of special features. There are commentary tracks for both films, and a series of documentaries, detailing the making, reception, and cultural impact these films had. They’re packaged in a beautiful case with original artwork by Ian MacEwan.  Wicked Rating – 8.5/10  The Graveyards of Honor collection is available from Arrow Video now.  Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

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Zoom Murders are Changing Online Crime, Here’s How

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Wicked Horror is the author of Zoom Murders are Changing Online Crime, Here’s How. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Turning on your webcam as you adjust your professional top and hide your slouchy bottoms has become a frequent routine since March 2020, with meetings and classes moving to Zoom as a result of the pandemic. Across different households, people turn on their webcams and dive into the “new normal” landscape of digital gathering and screen sharing. Households across America all look a little different with people figuring out their workspace, high schoolers taking online tests, six-year-old’s struggling to work a computer, and an elderly man saying, “Can you hear me?”. It has become our new normal. A new normal means new experiences and unfortunately this now means a new form of horrific crime. As people look into the screens of their peers and take a peek into the backgrounds of people’s homes, they have become witnesses to a terrifying backdrop of crime and danger. Not long ago, the news was flooded with frightening details about social media sites and the trend of live-streaming crimes including, murders, suicides, and torture. Viewers watched these horrifying videos spread like wildfire to thousands of people. Now Zoom, the standard video conferencing platform for professional and education services, has become a space where crime is broadcasted and it’s unlike any other crime online. A whole new wave of evil has entered into the Zoom space all from just routinely logging into a designated digital room. On Aug 11, 2020, around 8:00 AM, a teacher was left confused as one of her students logged onto a class Zoom session and she could hear an altercation behind the student. The teacher noticed a lot of commotion behind a 10-year-old girl as she shared her screen. The teacher leaned in to listen and heard profanity and screaming, followed by the 10-year-old putting her hands up to her ears. The teacher quickly put the girl on mute so other students wouldn’t hear as the commotion continued. Shortly after, the screen went black on the student’s computer as a bullet went flying and hit the 10-year-old’s computer screen. At that very same moment, the girl’s mom, Maribel Rosado Morales, was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend, Donald Williams. Williams showed up to the house unannounced and with a gun. He was taken into custody not long after he fled the house. It’s hard to imagine that Zoom would turn into a platform where disturbing acts of violence are displayed across screens but as the digital landscape continues to grow, so does the new wave of online crime. When people log onto social media platforms and view live-streams, there’s a level of uncertainty that goes into watching the videos as you aren’t in control of the stream. Most live-streaming videos on social media sites are a one-way communication and people aren’t allowed to interject.  Also See: Internet Horror: True Crimes that Rocked the Web On Zoom, everyone is considered a participant in the gathering. Zoom allows people to video chat with one another and allows dialogue and actions to flow freely. There isn’t one “set” person who is live-streaming and people are able to see and hear everyone’s reactions and responses – including murderers. Since crimes have crept into the site, Zoom’s professionalism seems to be turning into a platform of terror.  On May 21, 2020, 72-year-old, Dwight Powers was at home in Long Island and in the middle of a Zoom call with 20 people when they witnessed Powers fall off-screen. The viewers were left confused. Powers’ son, Thomas Scully-Powers grabbed him during his video chat and stabbed him to death. The viewers watched as Scully-Powers, took bed sheets off of Powers’ bed and put them on the ground to possibly cover his dad’s body. Some of the viewers in the Zoom room called 911 and told police what they had witnessed. Scully-Powers fled out the window as officers tried to apprehend him and was later found about a mile from Powers’ home. These tragic stories aren’t the first to be recognized as part of a larger problem with live-streaming communication and the heinous crimes being committed on them. When Facebook launched their live-streaming service in early 2016, that same year violent crimes, killings, and suicides all erupted onto their site. It didn’t take long before the crimes rolled in and the recorded video of crimes, just continued to pop up on other sites and go viral. Facebook’s original stance on live-streaming was celebrated for raw and authentic broadcasting. But Facebook had no idea that article headlines about their live-streaming service would go from “Live Cupcake Tutorial” to “Man Commits Murder in Hour Long Video.” Also See: Here’s the Problem With the Serial Killer Fandom  An article from The Guardian on criminals committing acts on Facebook Live said, “The allure of attention from online peers, reinforced by immediate feedback in the form of shares, likes and other “engagement” indicators, can be intoxicating. Social media is a new way of bragging and allows those who commit crimes to gain a sense of self-power or self-importance. The audience is larger now and, perhaps, more seductive to those who are committing antisocial acts to fill personal needs of self-aggrandizement.” Zoom isn’t a social media site where there’s an attention seeking and “like” factor but it hasn’t stopped similar criminality from taking place on the platform. So far, the murders happening over Zoom have been unintentional and unplanned without the murderers seeking those intoxicating feedback needs. However, the bigger concern of the new crimes unfolding over Zoom is that they have now breached into our lives when we’re actively choosing to have a private gathering and limiting the social aspects of it. We aren’t scrolling on our phones or looking for content. Crimes have always managed to seep into every space of our society but it’s different when we’re forced to watch events unfolding in a space where we’re meant to feel safe like work or school…which is a far more sinister crime.  Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

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The Horror Crowd is a Rushed Mess [Charlotte Film Fest Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of The Horror Crowd is a Rushed Mess [Charlotte Film Fest Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

The Horror Crowd is director Ruben Pla’s, himself a prolific actor who’s appeared in the likes of XX, Insidious, and Big Ass Spider, attempt at explaining why the titular group, all friends of his, love horror and why they were drawn to the genre in the first place. The resulting documentary, which is messy and unfocused but well-intentioned at a push, aims to answer the age-old question of why diehard horror fans are attracted to scary, messed up movies to the extent it often becomes their entire job and/or personality. Mostly, though, it’s just a way for Pla to show off how many semi-famous people he knows. The focus here is on modern filmmakers, so anybody expecting to see the likes of Carpenter or Craven will be disappointed (mostly because Craven is dead, so he’d have to take part via some kind of séance). It’s a worthy way to focus such an endeavour, because many of the featured interviewees won’t have had their time to shine in front of the camera before. Unfortunately, Pla can’t resist putting himself in the frame too, often sitting alongside his subjects or even, in certain cases, ensuring the camera cuts back to him as he listens to a response (he directs one shot, and leaves it in, for reasons known only to him). See Also: The Swerve is Emotionally Devastating [Review] It’s a grating choice that highlights the fundamental flaw at the heart of The Horror Crowd; if Pla had his way, he would be the one being interviewed, not the one asking the questions. This is evidenced by how he repeatedly cuts across people mid-answer to either anticipate what they’re going to say or to agree, which might be how he behaves with actors, directors, whoever in a social setting but isn’t appropriate for an interview. Pla seems like an affable chap, and his enthusiasm for the genre is palpable, but there’s no point in gathering all these interesting people together for a documentary if you’re not going to let them talk. The gathered subjects are a mostly impressive bunch, from actress and director Brea Grant (who also wrote a horror-themed combic-book at some stage, though it’s not discussed), to Oren Peli, Shaked Berenson, and Jeffrey Reddick. The Horror Crowd is mostly composed of white men, but the likes of Grant, Lin Shaye, and Chelsea Stardust get a decent look in, along with Reddick and Demon Knight director Ernest R. Dickerson, too. There are a couple additions that aren’t really justified, however, while there’s a general argument to be made that there are very few truly great horror movies among this group. The “women in horror” segment is rushed, like everything else, with unnecessary interstitial titles popping up to signal each chapter change basically every two minutes, making it impossible for any topic to truly be delved into in a meaningful way. Bizarrely, a segment about relationships between people who both like horror goes on for what feels like forever and is incredibly cringe-worthy. Likewise, it’s hilarious to see dudes whose movies feature nun rape and women changing their bras at the side of the road for no apparent reason waxing lyrical about how much the genre desperately needs to change (one even suggests the same movie is being made over and over again, in spite of the fact his most famous offering is 100 percent a throwback to the boobs ‘n’ blood glory days – and a bad one at that). There’s some interesting, nerdy info shared here (“there are two types of people; Rocky Horror people and non-Rocky Horror people” quips one participant early on) but it’s packaged in a really annoying way, while the production values are shocking. At one point, an interview is conducted outside on a swinging chair, which is a baffling choice particularly with so many experienced filmmakers involved in the project. In spite of proclaiming itself to be made by horror fanatics for horror fanatics, plenty of the anecdotes are basic, surface-level stuff any serious fan will already know. On the other hand, Grant is initially introduced as having starred in Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2, which feels like a neg considering all the huge roles she’s had in other horror movies since that particular film. Related: Who the Heck is Hail to the Deadites For? [Fantasia Review] There’s an overall lack of focus, as though The Horror Crowd was strung together on the sly with a looming deadline fast approaching. Pla strains to connect Peli with Highlander director Russell Mulcahy, even though nothing is gleaned from doing so, while he also includes a long-ass, run-on question without the answer at another juncture. Maybe he just hasn’t got a clue, but it stands to reason that if Pla is as close to all these people as he claims to be, maybe he could’ve asked for some pointers on how to properly construct a story that makes sense. The material is there, Pla just has no idea how to assemble it coherently. Everyone involved is a great talker, even if it’s a strange mix of people overall (there’s a gaping hole where Rebekah McKendry should be, for example). The Horror Crowd is actually kind of clique-y in the end, even though that clearly wasn’t the intention, with more emphasis placed on where all the cool kids used to hang out than on how they actually made it in the industry in the first place. It begs the uncomfortable question – is this whole thing a humble-brag? And, if so, who is it supposed to be impressing? Teenage boys who don’t know any better? A wasted opportunity at best, an embarrassingly desperate grasp at relevancy at worst. WICKED RATING: 3/10

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VHS Massacre Too Is A Documentary Too Eager To Fast Forward [Charlotte Film Festival Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of VHS Massacre Too Is A Documentary Too Eager To Fast Forward [Charlotte Film Festival Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Thomas Edward Seymour’s VHS Massacre Too is the second feature length documentary from the creators and friends of the popular podcast network formerly known as New York Cine Radio. The film is a direct follow up to 2016’s VHS Massacre, which was a nostalgia-filled look back at the rise and fall of VHS, and the video store owners, fan culture and outside of the studio system filmmakers who thrived at the height of the boom. VHS Massacre Too is something of an update and continuation of the previous film, focusing on both the history and ultimate fate of exploitation fare in a modern era that is shifting away from physical media into a more streaming-based paradigm. Convenience and access are at greater heights than they have ever been before, but VHS Massacre Too posits that that convenience comes at a variety of hidden costs. With platforms acting as gatekeepers to discovery, modern exploitation and low budget cinema creators see both the integrity of their content and the payscales for that work ripped out of their hands. Also See: Ten VHS Horror Staples You Probably Never Rented… It’s a subject ripe for exploration, given that exploitation cinema has been both a massive moneymaker and a bastard stepchild of the industry since the earliest days of film. Joe Bob Briggs gives an excellent capsule history, from roadshows to the grindhouse golden age, then there’s a short recap of some of the previous film’s history on video stores and the influence of Blockbuster in choking out the thriving ecosystem of the VHS gold rush.A variety of interviewees fill in different facets of the modern exploitation industry, and the difficulty of getting an uncut/unrated film in front of audiences in an era of big budget streaming platforms and “indie” studios with ties to massive conglomerates. A lot of these faces (and their topics of expertise) are very familiar to genre fans, but all of the interviews are engaging enough on their chosen subjects to still be of interest to those not already familiar with exploitation cinema. Joe Bob Briggs provides historical context and contemporary references on how a film can get lost without physical media to carry it into the modern era. Scream queen Debbie Rochon discusses her struggles to get her film Model Hunger any distribution, eventually going into debt to do so. J.R. Bookwalter uses his long history both in filmmaking and distribution to illustrate how hard it is to get a film seen, let alone turn a profit. Lloyd Kaufman does his usual anti monopoly, anti censorship talking points, which is unsurprising considering Troma Studios is involved in the distribution of the film.  Also See: VHS Video Cover Art: the Coffee Table Book You’ve Been Waiting For The visuals are a bit slicker than in the first flick, and there are fewer instances of wildly differing audio levels. The interviewees are well chosen for their practical knowledge of the subjects at play, and very candid in regard to their experiences. Given that this is clearly a passion project from people with a huge amount of love for exploitation and the wilder corners of low budget cinema, the slightly homemade aesthetic aspects of the documentary are actually rather charming in their larger context.However, a late in the film segment with actor/vlogger Shawn C. Phillips is perhaps emblematic of VHS Massacre Too‘s biggest flaw. He’s discussing Cannibal Holocaust, and makes a throwaway, dismissive remark that many people won’t even watch the film, because of the animal cruelty it contains, despite it being of directional importance to genre film. In the context of this documentary’s focus, this would have been a great time to discuss the moral panic legal accusations that Ruggero Deodato murdered his actors, or the difference in reception to Cannibal Holocaust‘s animal cruelty versus what is contained in a more mainstream film such as Apocalypse Now. Instead, we get a shallow, tired statement that treats a viewer’s desire to view animal snuff footage as some sort of litmus test to their views on genre, censorship or cinema. Then the documentary bounces on to its next subject. Also See: Horror History: Cannibalism in Cinema VHS Massacre Too shares this particular problem with its predecessor, in that the film tries to do too much at once, in a way that seems somewhat shallow and scattershot. The talking heads bring up great subjects that could sharpen the film’s focus on its central themes of the quiet censorship and destruction of livelihood currently impacting independent artists. Sadly, these threads are left to dangle and the topic is changed entirely. Often, the switch is to more nostalgic material (e.g. loving closeups of rare VHS tapes or a digression on the return of Joe Bob Briggs to television) that seems out of place in an otherwise more serious cultural history. These meanders are of some interest to established exploitation film fans. However, they have little to nothing to do with the problem of physical media and the truly independent exploitation film industry’s current free fall, or the importance of preserving both.  Also See: Overlooked Exploitation Films You Need to Rediscover There’s a lot of good source material here, from Debbie Rochon’s problems with distributors even noticing the female empowerment themes in her film, to director Jason Carvey’s profits vanishing in a fit of creative accounting when his distributor changed hands, to maybe even a more fully fleshed out discussion of legendarily controversial titles like Snuff or Cannibal Holocaust. It’s just never really utilized to its full potentialThe creators of VHS Massacre Too clearly have a deep love for the films they discuss, and want creators of exploitation to have the same chance to make a living,  push the limits and experiment that previous generations did. One of the documentaries’ best asides is a list of action items fans can do to assist in the goal of keeping both physical media and the fiercely independent exploitation film industry alive. The documentary just lacks the skeleton to match its enormous amount of bloody, B-cinema-loving heart. Instead of some sharper structure to really bring its larger message home, VHS Massacre Too just keeps getting distracted by the need to return some videotapes.  Wicked Rating – 6/10

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The Trailer and Poster for The Craft Legacy Are Finally Here!

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Wicked Horror is the author of The Trailer and Poster for The Craft Legacy Are Finally Here!. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

It’s been a while since we got any news about the upcoming reboot of The Craft, intriguingly entitled The Craft Legacy, but our prayers to the Dark Lord have been answered in a big way because now there’s a poster to drool over, a trailer to pick apart piece by piece, and a release date to get excited for. Grab your best girlfriends and various spell-casting accoutrements and get ready for this movie to cast its spell. The Craft Legacy is a joint project from Blumhouse and Columbia. Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, the flick features young stars Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna, and Nicholas Galitzine, along with old reliables Michelle Monaghan and David Duchovny. The premise is intriguing: In Blumhouse’s continuation of the cult hit The Craft, an eclectic foursome of aspiring teenage witches get more than they bargained for as they lean into their newfound powers The flick hits PVOD for a 48-hour period this coming Halloween, available from leading digital retailers, for a 48-hour rental period at $19.99 and for purchase at $24.99. Details of the international release will be revealed in the coming weeks. “I’m thrilled to be able to share The Craft: Legacy with audiences all over the world this Halloween. It’s been a true privilege to take on such an iconic title. I can’t wait for the world to meet the incredible young women who make up our new coven,” gushed Lister-Jones. Producer Jason Blum promised a “bewitching twist” on the beloved teen horror movie.  The trailer, which you can check out below, doesn’t necessarily fulfill that promise, however. It looks like a straight reboot of The Craft, only much more muted and somber. Fairuza Balk’s iconic character from the original movie is directly referenced, which is also confusing, while one of the most iconic lines closes the trailer and is totally cringe-worthy. Related: 10 Life Lessons We Learned From The Craft Still, there’s a huge amount of talent involved in the movie and it’s entirely possible the trailer under-sells how great The Craft Legacy really is. Stay tuned to Wicked Horror for our verdict on The Craft Legacy when it drops on October 28. Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

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We Talk 50 STATES OF FRIGHT with Writer/Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods

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Wicked Horror is the author of We Talk 50 STATES OF FRIGHT with Writer/Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Quibi’s 50 States of Fright is easily one of the most entertaining shows available right now. Taking the app’s micro-dose approach to episodes, the show connects with some of horror’s most promising directors and lets them touch base with their roots, offering tales unique to each filmmaker’s background. Tackling the first three episodes, Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (writers of A QUIET PLACE and co-directors of Nightlight and Haunt) give viewers Iowa, Almost There, a shocker full of wind turbines and ghosts. Starring Taissa Farmiga and Ron Livingston, Almost There takes Iowa ghost myths and injects them into a pressure cooker of a story. Also See: Haunt Set Visit Report We hopped on Zoom (in true 2020 fashion) and chatted Almost There with the duo, making for an entertaining conversation. Be sure to give 50 States of Fright a watch (Almost There is available now) and let us know what you think! Plot Crunch: With the ghost of her dead mother terrorizing her, an engineer must fix a turbine in the middle of Iowa while a storm rages.  Featured image credit: Getty Images Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Strange Settings: Seven Horror Films That Take Us Where We Never Expected to Go

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Wicked Horror is the author of Strange Settings: Seven Horror Films That Take Us Where We Never Expected to Go. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

In the horror genre, there are settings so effectively creepy that they are used again and again. Like a ghost to its favorite haunt, horror films regularly visit the dust-covered gothic mansion that is undoubtedly haunted, the massive forest that is all but impossible not to get lost in, the fog shrouded cemetery, the mental asylum, and the backroad short cut that always ends in carnage. And then, there are the outliers that take us to places we never thought a horror story would lead. Let’s take a walk down that less trodden path, shall we? Let’s lose our bearings, and evict ourselves from the familiarity of deranged hospitals and dark basements: the following seven films have such unusual sites to show us.  The Neon Demon In The Neon Demon, you will find glitter, glamour…and cannibalism. Admittedly, I avoided this movie for years after hearing that it’s about a novice model in the cutthroat culture of Los Angeles. But, then quarantine hit and I ran out of horror movies. I caved and gave The Neon Demon a chance, and ended up being blown away. I can’t remember the last time I watched a film that I couldn’t stop thinking about afterwards—but trying to get The Neon Demon out of my head was like trying to scrub sharpie off my skin. Not that I wanted to stop thinking about it—the film’s ending is brilliantly gruesome, and there’s a meanness to the whole thing that makes for a wickedly enjoyable experience. The cast, led by Elle Fanning and joined by Jena Malone and Keanu Reeves, fabulously portrays the cruelty of the world their characters inhabit. Don’t let the glitz of the setting scare you away from this story, which is so twistedly crafted by director Nicolas Winding Refn. It’s a truly nasty piece of work—and I mean that in the best way possible.  See Also: Nicolas Winding Refn on The Neon Demon [Exclusive] The Shrine  Possibly my favorite independent film ever, The Shrine (directed by Jon Knautz) holds true to some of horror’s most coveted tropes. It serves up a storyline revolving around demonic possession and a ritualistic cult—and it does so beautifully. Those that favor practical effects over CGI will be especially impressed with the possession scenes, which are gloriously heavy-handed. We’re all familiar with tales of demonic possession, but probably can’t think of many that are set in Poland, as The Shrine is. The film follows two American reporters and a photographer who fly to Poland in search of a missing backpacker. Their hunt for a juicy story brings them to an isolated Polish town that feels unnervingly like a remnant of past times. It’s amusing to see the clash of cultures that ensues as the Polish villagers greet the Americans with open hostility. The film is also pretty nerve wracking because the Americans are obviously in over their heads from the moment they arrive. Whether their lack of caution is due to naivety or ego, the Americans hurl themselves head first into their investigation, oblivious to the horrors that await them. While The Shrine is certainly not the first film to tackle a tale of nasty things happening to Americans who venture abroad (Hostel and The Omen come to mind), its take on an obscure village with almost violently unfriendly Polish locals feels distinctly unique.  Black Swan  Darren Aronofsky’s disturbing study of perfectionism takes us into the world of professional ballet. Natalie Portman won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Nina, an ambitious but obsessive dancer who is named the new prima ballerina of her company. Her dream quickly deteriorates into a nightmare as the pressures of her new role begin to unravel her sanity. Admittedly, a ballet company isn’t the expected setting for a psychological horror film portraying a descent into madness—and maybe that’s why it works so brilliantly. The dim rehearsal rooms and barely lit auditoriums that the characters frequent construct a setting that becomes increasingly creepier as the film progresses. Black Swan delivers a nasty jolt to the senses by placing disturbing imagery in a place that traditionally only holds beauty: It lures us into depths far darker than we ever thought a film about ballet could take us.  30 Days of Night  For me, 30 Days of Night injects the horror back into a trope that haD gone stale; the vampire. There is nothing romantic or cheap about director David Slade’s vampire vision: The film is an admirably brutal bloodbath with some genuine scares. The setting doesn’t disappoint, either, as the flick is quite cleverly set in an Alaskan town about to endure an entire month without seeing the sun. This uninterrupted stretch of darkness makes the locale a perfect target for a clan of vicious vampires. The monsters descend to feed on the townspeople, unhindered by the one thing that will certainly kill them—the sun. The cast is led by Melissa George and Josh Hartnett, with Danny Huston playing one of the most unsettling vampires I’ve seen to date.  The Visit  One of the places you wouldn’t expect horror to live in is Grandma and Grandpa’s house. This film takes us there, and is definitely one of M. Night Shyamalan’s creepier efforts. The plot follows two children who go to stay with the grandparents (whom they’ve never met) in rural Pennsylvania. Not much time passes before the young protagonists realize there is something very wrong with their elderly relatives. The plain weirdness of the grandparents escalates from unsettling to horrifying over the span of the movie. The Visit successfully brings fear into a setting where we’d look for safety and comfort—not bizarre nighttime rituals and strange slaughterhouse happenings. Velvet Buzzsaw  Netflix’s horror comedy, Velvet Buzzsaw is heavy on the satire and boasts a cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Toni Collette and John Malkovich. While hardcore horror fans may find this film to be a bit tame, it’s an amusing flick set in the world of fine art. Setting wise, we’re taken to Miami’s Art Basel before being swept over to the elitist art scene of Los Angeles. We fall in with a painfully pretentious and self centered crowd, and it’s all art shows and VIP parties—until an apartment full of cursed paintings is found. Some pretty entertaining scenes follow where characters are literally murdered by artwork. There’s chaos, blood, and even a few disturbing images you might have a hard time dispelling.  See Also: Velvet Buzzsaw is Bloody Bonkers! [Review] Starry Eyes  Starry Eyes is set in another industry that isn’t frequented by horror films. Directed by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, this picture occurs within the Hollywood machine. The flick follows Sarah, an aspiring actress stuck waiting tables. While the film deals with supernatural forces, the most disturbing aspect of it may be Sarah’s psychological relationship with her environment. Because the world she inhabits—one of constant acting classes and grueling auditions—proves to be a devastatingly damaging one. Watching what striving for stardom does to Sarah’s sanity is just as unnerving as the evil force that shows up to prey on her.   Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.  

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We Talk 50 STATES OF FRIGHT with Writer/Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods

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Wicked Horror is the author of We Talk 50 STATES OF FRIGHT with Writer/Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Quibi’s 50 States of Fright is easily one of the most entertaining shows available right now. Taking the app’s micro-dose approach to episodes, the show connects with some of horror’s most promising directors and lets them touch base with their roots, offering tales unique to each filmmaker’s background. Tackling the first three episodes, Scott Beck & Bryan Woods (writers of A QUIET PLACE and co-directors of Nightlight and Haunt) give viewers Iowa, Almost There, a shocker full of wind turbines and ghosts. Starring Taissa Farmiga and Ron Livingston, Almost There takes Iowa ghost myths and injects them into a pressure cooker of a story. Also See: Haunt Set Visit Report We hopped on Zoom (in true 2020 fashion) and chatted Almost There with the duo, making for an entertaining conversation. Be sure to give 50 States of Fright a watch (Almost There is available now) and let us know what you think! Plot Crunch: With the ghost of her dead mother terrorizing her, an engineer must fix a turbine in the middle of Iowa while a storm rages.  Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Kurtis David Harder Hopes Spiral Won’t Still Be Topical 10 Years From Now [Interview]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Kurtis David Harder Hopes Spiral Won’t Still Be Topical 10 Years From Now [Interview]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Canadian filmmaker Kurtis David Harder has had a hand in some of the most well-received horror movies of the last few years, producing the likes of Harpoon, What Keeps You Alive, and Z. Harder is also a blossoming director in his own right, having helmed the super-strange Cody Fitz in 2011 followed by heady sci-fi movie InControl in 2017. With his latest directorial effort, however, Harder marks himself out as one of the most fascinating and inventive voices working in horror today. Written by Colin Minihan John Poliquin, Spiral follows a gay couple in the nineties who move to suburbia only to be targeted by what appears to be a neighbourhood cult. While Jeffey Bowyer-Chapman’s Malik immediately spies something is up, his well-meaning husband (played by IT star Ari Cohen) thinks it’s all paranoia following years of horrific homophobic abuse. Wicked Horror caught up with Harder to discuss the film’s queasy relevancy in 2020, the difficulty of sourcing the perfect nineties-style property in snowy Calgary, and plenty more besides. WICKED HORROR: First, let me just say, as a queer horror fan, Spiral is such a major moment for us, I just loved it so much. I saw it for the first time over a year ago and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. How did you originally get involved with this project, how was it brought to you? KURT HARDER: Colin Minihan and I had worked on a bunch of movies together, What Keeps You Alive, Z, he’d written an early draft of the script and we’d kind of talked about me doing a horror project with him, ‘cause I’d never directed a horror movie before. He and John Poliquin wrote this script and we’re kind of like a collective of filmmakers, we produce for each other all the time, so that’s kind of how it fell into place. We’d been doing a bunch of films together and then they had this script, they felt like I’d be a good fit for the project, and it just went from there. WICKED HORROR: This seems like a dumb question, considering how powerful this movie is, but what was it that first attracted you to the script? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: I really like the psychological horror, going into the mind, exploring the descent into madness, and exploring what’s real and what’s not real. Playing with those kind of expectations – is there actually a cult going on or is it all in Malik’s mind? I love that kind of dynamic, it’s kind of like Jacob’s Ladder. Related: Spiral [Frightfest 2019 Review] WICKED HORROR: You don’t really know right up until the end, actually. Even me, I just watched it again and I was questioning whether it was real or not. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Right, what is real, what is actually happening? Because obviously Malik is going through something, he’s dealing with this past trauma, but without spoiling anything, something definitely is happening. But we do play with whether some of that stuff might be in Malik’s head, too. WICKED HORROR: It’s interesting to see a man in the position of being gaslighted. Usually it’s a female character being told “no, you’re crazy, it’s all in your head.” But Malik is literally told at one point that he has to stop acting like everybody is out to get him all the time. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Exactly, and I think that Aaron [Ari Cohen, who plays his husband] comes from a place where he doesn’t really have that shared history, because he’s obviously lived a straight life for a long time. He’s coming at it from the perspective of “we need this to be good for us” but Malik is seeing through the cracks. WICKED HORROR: These three actors at the heart of the movie, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, and Lochlyn Munro, they give three completely different but equally strong performances. How did you guys go about filling those roles? Did you have any of them in mind from the outset? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Jeffrey was a good friend of John Poliquin’s and he was the first one to suggest that Malik should be a Black character actually, because it wasn’t written with an ethnicity in mind, we were casting with a broad scope. He read it, really liked it, and then it just sort of fell into place really quickly. Jeffrey joined the project pretty quickly. Ari was through a mutual friend, we were all fans of his work. And then Lochlyn Munro was through our casting director. WICKED HORROR: Lochlyn Munro is an interesting choice, too, because he’s just had this massive resurgence on Riverdale, playing a serial killer. So as soon as he showed up, it’s like “uh oh, he’s probably the bad guy.” KURTIS DAVID HARDER: It’s funny to think about his history. He’s such a powerful actor, and I was such a massive fan of Dead Man on Campus. This is just the polar opposite role for him, so it was cool to see him play that. WICKED HORROR: I remember him even in Scary Movie, back in the day. Seeing his trajectory from then to now is pretty cool, but I guess younger people will know him from Riverdale and watching him in this is going to be a big shock to them. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Totally, yeah. WICKED HORROR: What about the location? The main house is amazing. Is that actually a small town or has it just been cleverly shot to look that way, because it’s totally convincing. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: That house is outside of Calgary. It was an empty house for sale, we’d been scouting all over the place trying to find – because the movie takes place on a street, and we focus on three different houses for the majority of the film – we really tried to find a street that would work but being that it is 2020 it’s hard to find three houses built together that all still look like they’re in the nineties. So all three of those houses were actually really far apart, we had to do a lot of camera trickery to make it seem like they were across from each other, but the main house was on the market, we found it, we set dressed the whole thing. It was an empty house. We brought everything in, which really worked in our favour because it meant we were really able to deck it out for the nineties. We could choose everything without having to work around a house that’s full of stuff. It was on the outskirts, near this lake, but we definitely manufactured that town, the town was made up of a bunch of different locations around Calgary, all around the outskirts. WICKED HORROR: It’s funny, because I just watched another Canadian horror movie called Anything for Jackson, which had a similar kind of snowy, small-town vibe to it but I wonder if that was similar trickery. We think of Canada as this big expanse so it’s easy to make these locations feel more isolated than they actually are. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: We did shoot in one small town, an actual small town, just outside of Calgary for the street but the main house is in Cochrane, which isn’t actually that small a town. WICKED HORROR: Was that the biggest hurdle with the shoot? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: That was definitely huge, because you’re trying to fit the time period. We definitely spent a good amount of time knocking on doors trying to find the right house to fit the different pieces of the movie, because the script has a lot of very specific sections of the house. It’s kind of a character in itself too. WICKED HORROR: Was the story always set in the nineties? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Yes. I think the nineties really set the scene for the gay movement of the time. That was a big moment. It also fit with the theme of the movie, looking for the victim of the time, and the gay rights movement and the AIDS epidemic. It fit the time period in that sense too. Even though it feels like the movie is more relevant now. WICKED HORROR: Even watching it a year later, it felt like a completely different film, you know? Because we’re in a completely different spot now than we were even last year. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: We shot the movie in 2018. BLM was a movement and the divide between the left and the right was obviously a hot topic but it’s just crazy how much more relevant the movie is in 2020 than it was before. WICKED HORROR: It’s a great time to have a Black lead, definitely. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Totally. The bigotry aspect, even the gay aspect too, it all feels even more relevant now. See Also: Frightfest 2017 Review: Incontrol WICKED HORROR: There’s been such a push for more queer representation in horror, more POC in horror. So it’s great that Spiral tackles both of those head on. It’ll definitely stand the test of time in that way. Though, hopefully, in ten years’ time these won’t still be topics of conversation. KURTIS DAVID HARDER: It feels weird to say it, but yeah, I hope this movie is irrelevant soon! WICKED HORROR: Looking at your filmography in general, the idea of identity is one you seem to be drawn to over and over in your work. Would you say that’s fair? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Yeah. I love exploring what makes us tick and who we are, and why we do the things we do. I think that comes up in all my movies. It’s one of the more fascinating things that I lean towards, what makes you, you and why you are the way that you are. Those outside influences are looking at how we solve problems as a society and how we deal with issues. This one fit into all that, looking into the mind of Malik and his past trauma and how that influences him now, and then pairing that with outside threats. WICKED HORROR: The scarier stuff, for you, is rooted in the everyday stuff, the reality rather than the supernatural? KURTIS DAVID HARDER: Absolutely. I think looking at yourself can be scary sometimes. Someone running at you with an axe is obviously scary but I personally think it’s way more scary to explore the mind. Catch Spiral streaming on Shudder now ** This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Shivers’ Unique Mix Of Sex, Death And Social Commentary Still Has The Power To Shock [Blu Ray Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Shivers’ Unique Mix Of Sex, Death And Social Commentary Still Has The Power To Shock [Blu Ray Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Shivers was the first full-length feature from David Cronenberg, who like many young genre directors of the 70s, broke into the business with a self-penned script and as much stylistic moxie as a limited budget and a tight fifteen-day shooting schedule would allow.Starliner Towers is a self sustaining, ever so sleek apartment complex with all of the amenities the modern, upwardly mobile could ever need. Situated on an island, on site shopping, sports and medical care are all included in the purchase cost. Unfortunately, a medical experiment gone amok is included with the stunning seaside views and Olympic size pool. One of the complex’s medical professionals has used grant funds to create a parasite that is savagely self replicating. Rather than the replacement for organ transplants it was billed as, this organism turns the infected into erotically crazed agents of the id, helpless to control their baser impulses. Now staff doctor Roger St Luc (Paul Hampton) and his nurse/lover Forsythe (genre favorite Lynn Lowry) must try to stop the spread before it infects the entire building.The baseline plot is the purest of exploitation, Night Of The Living Dead with a different sort of one-track mind. The visuals are also somewhat workmanlike through most of the runtime, with both visual elements and cost cutting measures familiar to fans of other lower budget productions of the period. There’s plenty of expositional radio broadcasts and phone calls, occasional bouts of nudity that have a certain shoehorned in irrelevance to the plot, and the well crafted special effects are parceled out carefully to a few key scenes.This is not to say that Shivers is completely without aesthetic merit, particularly considering the fact that the director was basically learning how to direct as he went along. There are hints of the filmmaker Cronenberg was to become, both in the clinical coolness of the film’s gaze and the bodily distortion of the parasite’s victims. Joe Blasco’s effects work gives the parasites a simultaneously phallic and leech-like aspect. While the wirework is visible in the moments when the creatures are on the move (particularly in this newly restored print), the distention of the actors bodies as the parasites lurk and multiply under the skin is a smaller scale version of the sort of disquieting body horror that would later become a Cronenberg signature. Also See: Script to Pieces: David Cronenberg’s Frankenstein What pushes Shivers into much more memorable territory is the conceptual ambition of its premise. There is a wonderfully clever subtext of bourgeois respectability hiding deeply disordered behavior and perversion just beneath its manicured surface. There’s an almost Gothic correlation between eroticism and death, built up slowly as we see the effect of infection on different groups of residents. This thematic throughline culminates in a fantastic statement monolog for Lynn Lowry in the film’s final act.Where the film becomes absolutely brilliant is the legerdemain used in maximizing the disorienting intersection of sex and violence the parasitic infection creates. Shivers is far less explicit in its sexuality or its gore than many of its contemporaries, but is a masterclass in the art of the suggestive. An elevator door closes just as a mother and child are infected, and opens to the child’s glassy-eyed stare as she voraciously eats some mangled food. A man walks two children on leashes. One of the earliest victims earnestly encourages the parasites inside him to move in a specific rhythm as earnestly as an eager to please lover. Throats bulge unnaturally as kisses pass the parasite along. The cuts are quick, the scenes brief, but the insinuation so incredibly effective at creating an air of perversity that a storm of controversy surrounded the movie’s release. Also See:  Body Art: Seven of the Best Body Modification Horror Movies The film had been partially funded via a Canadian government grant, and the public was shocked their tax dollars were used for such a reputedly “pornographic” movie. The controversy didn’t derail Shivers at the box office, but did temporarily dampen David Cronenberg’s ability to secure funding for his future films.The Vestron Video Blu Ray is a squeaky clean high definition presentation. As is often the case with older low budget features, production errors are more visibly apparent than they were previously, due to improved color contrast and brightness, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience of the film. The audio mix of the movie is much improved over previous prints, with the original mono audio as clean and clear as it is likely ever going to get.Where this release really shines is in an impressive package of brand new special features for this collector’s edition. Both Cronenberg himself and producer Don Carmody get full length feature commentaries. Over four decades after the film’s release, both men provide a surprising amount of on set anecdotes regarding Cronenberg’s on-the-job learning process, and a key scene that left him with an unfortunate lifelong souvenir.There are also four featurettes. There’s another in depth interview with David Cronenberg, a charming retrospective interview with Lynn Lowry, and a look back on production company Cinepix and the tax breaks that gave rise to a cottage industry of Canadian genre film. There’s also a delightfully no nonsense discussion of the screen used techniques and props created by effects supervisor Joe Blasco. A full slate of archival materials completes the set, including director interviews, radio and TV ads, original stills, and trailers. Also See: Creature Features – Scary Non-Human Species Shivers is a directional masterpiece of exploitation cinema, still surprisingly capable of a uniquely chilly brand of lurid disquiet after almost five decades. The film does have some minor flaws and limitations caused by its lack of resources, but provides a unique and recognizable glimpse into the early process of one of genre film’s most distinctive directors. With Shivers, David Cronenberg created a shot on the fly first try that exceeds lesser talents best efforts. Vestron Video has surrounded the film with an excellent suite of supplemental materials that makes this particular Blu a smart choice not just for Cronenberg fans, but for any lover of film history, Canuxploitation, or the classics of low budget genre cinema. Wicked Rating – 8.5/10

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Is The Babysitter: Killer Queen a Cult Classic or a Killer Miss?

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Wicked Horror is the author of Is The Babysitter: Killer Queen a Cult Classic or a Killer Miss?. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

The prime time for Horror fans is finally upon us, and Netflix is here to deliver. With older favorites like Evil Dead (1981), Killer Clowns from Outer-Space (1988), The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), and upcoming Netflix Originals (Hubie Halloween, The Binding) in October, we’re sure to get some of our spooky season fix while watching safely at home from our couches. Released on September 10th, The Babysitter: Killer Queen arrived just in time to bring us some goofy and camp-adjacent horror.  Following its original (The Babysitter, 2017), The Babysitter: Killer Queen returns with triple the amount of ambition and one-third the amount of effort. The film is written, produced, and directed by McG, whose film background is equally as chaotic as this sequel.  We return to find Cole (Judah Lewis), clearly and rightfully traumatized from barely surviving a group of satanic teens two years prior. No one—not even Cole’s parents—believe Cole’s retelling of events, because all of the cult members’ bodies have seemingly disappeared. I’m assuming this also stands for the two police officers that were murdered as well… Upon finding out that his parents intend to commit him to a psychiatric facility, Cole skips town with his best friend Melanie (a character from the previous installment), her boyfriend and two other friends for the “lake” for the weekend. I use quotations around “lake” because the giant spring break-ish desert party doesn’t look like any lake that I’ve seen.  Related: Five Bad Sequels That Were Almost Good Inevitably, we find Cole back in the grasp of a blood-thirsty cult. Apparently he is the only innocent virgin in town. Regardless, the original villains appear to be back with a lot of the same charm from the prequel. This time around, we have a sidekick for Cole in Phoebe (Jenna Ortega), a new and seemingly unhinged student. She coincidentally arrives at the same lake as Cole and the gang to tie up some apparent loose ends.  There are a few things that are poorly addressed in the film. We aren’t sure why Bee or the many dead bodies have vanished. We also aren’t sure why no one—including the police—attempt to investigate. Cole is presumed to be mentally unstable regardless of physical evidence (a car through a home and missing persons). Did the murdered officers and cult members not have any loved ones? Isn’t Cole’s home the last known location of the officers? Even the flashbacks that are used for character depth seem rushed and pointless. I know the devil works in mysterious ways, but this is excessive. In earnest, the only reasoning in this movie is that using enough horror tropes can make anything happen, and can allow anyone to come back from the dead for a sequel.  If you don’t mind plot holes and a cheap storyline to continue the franchise, this film has the potential to be enjoyable. It certainly isn’t for anyone requiring realistic plot devices. Although the movie does continue to use the same inside jokes and raunchy humor as its predecessor, you don’t necessarily need to watch the first film to enjoy the sequel. I do highly recommend watching the first, simply because it’s much better. Where the prequel landed its camp and nostalgia hits, Killer Queen misses its full potential. There’s virtually no fear factor. Each kill is flooded with video game/slideshow pop-art and cheesy one-liners. All of this might have been decent if spaced out appropriately, but smashed together and used until it’s dry, we often forget to laugh or scream. It sort of seems like the director tried to force Stranger Things and Summer of ’84 to have intercourse while he watched in the corner, and it gave birth to this raunchy, purple-tinted teen film. Evidently, the movie has many similarities to these films when it comes to art direction and charismatic, likable characters. What’s lacking is the heart, and the thoughtful writing. The movie rwaps up in such a lazy way and, to quote Bee and Cole, “shortcuts are a cop out”.  The Babysitter Has Camp and Blood in Spades [Review] Let’s face it, it is always a struggle to top a good original movie, but after Phoebe discusses famous sequels that supersede the original, we can’t help but compare. You can only reference the Terminator franchise so many times before enough is enough. The film is incredibly ambitious, there’s a decent-enough twist, a lot of laughs, and a ton of action and gore. But the deaths are silly and cliche. I think that’s the gimmick McG is trying to convey. The Babysitter: Killer Queen has everything you’d need for mindless horror entertainment. The focus definitely is not on the scares, but more on one-liners and references to ’80s horror hits (which seems slightly outdated for a cast of present day teenagers).  Filled with ambition and a high kill count, this movie might be great for those with tempered expectations. If you’re watching this flick and expecting it to be able to stand on its own with the likes of Cabin in the Woods, Friday the 13th, or Evil Dead, you will be incredibly disappointed. Bottom line: this movie is fun. Is it good? No. But is it bad good? Yes. I suspect that this picture will be criticized for a bit eventually become a cult classic, due to its humor and unrealistic gore.  WICKED RATING: 4.5/10 Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

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New on Netflix: September 25th, 2020

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Wicked Horror is the author of New on Netflix: September 25th, 2020. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

It’s Friday and you know what that means: It’s time to figure out what you’ll be watching this week. Welcome back to New on Netflix! The streaming giant’s horror department has always been a mixed bag. However, I’d say they’ve really stepped up their game in the last couple of years with the release of amazing, essential watches. We’ve been treated to must see original programming like The Haunting of Hill House, Velvet Buzzsaw, Hush, and some of the classics we all know and love. This week we have another short list featuring a new season of a spooky show and a true crime documentary! Van Helsing: Season 4 On September 27th sink your teeth into the fourth season of the Van Helsing reimagining that focuses on Vanessa Helsing, the daughter of infamous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, who wakes up after a five-year coma to discover a vampire-controlled world. American Murder: The Family Next Door And on September 30th reexamine the tragic Watts family murders in the upcoming documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door, which explores the disappearance of Shanann Watts and her children, and the terrible, unimaginable events that followed quickly after. Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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Shortcut Pits a Busload of Kids Against a Gnarly Creature For Maximum Thrills [Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Shortcut Pits a Busload of Kids Against a Gnarly Creature For Maximum Thrills [Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Shortcut opens with a shot of a young boy running through the woods in a yellow raincoat. He bears more than a passing resemblance to Georgie, the doomed little brother who acts as a catalyst for the events of Stephen King’s celebrated childhood horror story IT. Not many tales, or indeed films, come close to capturing what makes the maestro’s work so effective. He understands kids, and the way in which we all carry our childhoods with us into adulthood, in a way nobody else does. When placing youngsters in peril, he has no fear of going for the jugular. Shortcut, an English-Italian coproduction with an Italian writer and director but all-English cast of bright-eyed newcomers, has a body count that only really applies to the adults in the room (King would not be impressed). No matter, because when the tykes are this cute, we tend to root for their survival anyway. The central group is travelling through some scenic woodland while a radio report drones on about the upcoming lunar eclipse. They’re a ragtag bunch, not exactly friends but thrown together through circumstance and sagely led by the weathered driver, Joseph, whom they lovingly refer to as “Joe” and “Josie.” As played by a twinkly-eyed Terence Anderson, you just know he’s not long for this world. Related: Hunted is an Impressively Nasty Piece of Work [Fantasia Review] Indeed, after taking a, yes, shortcut the gang runs afoul of a gun-toting madman who commandeers their bus and insists on being driven to his destination all while doing a bad impression of Mackenzie Crook (mixed with a splash of Denis O’Hare for good measure). Before they can get there, however, another threat presents itself in the form of some kind of tunnel-dwelling demon, which looks a bit like a werewolf lady mixed with early era Marilyn Manson. It’s spoiling nothing to say the children are almost immediately left to fend for themselves, while also trying to figure out a maze-like system of tunnels in the disused army base in which they’ve found themselves stranded and, naturally, where the creature also likes to hunt. It’s a cool location that does most of the work of establishing tension here, considering we can’t see where the creature is lurking for the most part. The woods, meanwhile, loom ominously outside, a veil of mist hanging over them as if to suggest some kind of untold mystery lurking just beneath the trees. Flashbacks are sparingly employed to flesh out the story, but thankfully they don’t sap any of the intrigue from the central predicament. When the kids are trapped on the bus, Shortcut veers dangerously close to Jeepers Creepers 2 territory (though, it has to be noted, this film wasn’t directed by a pedophile, which makes that setup slightly less queasy). Once they head underground, however, things really start to heat up as the situation escalates rapidly. The flick is just 80 minutes long, so there’s no time to waste and, although we don’t spend too long getting to know each kid individually, their personalities are finely-etched and the performances, all impressively naturalistic rather than slick with that annoying drama school sheen, fill in the blanks nicely. The young actors all do a terrific job, with just one, bad boy Reg, played by Zak Sutcliffe, overdoing it ever so slightly by posing like he’s in Black Veil Brides every time he has to stand still (Sutcliffe settles into the role as the story evolves, however, so if you’re his mother reading this, I do apologize), and they’re all likeable, which is hugely important in a film of this nature. Director Alessio Liguori asks quite a lot of this fresh-faced gang, and they rise to the occasion with aplomb. One kid even ends up in the monster’s clutches, while another gamely gets covered in fake blood and resists the urge to wipe it off. Shortcut’s mysterious creature looks unbelievably good, and is clearly someone in a physical suit, lending the necessary tactility to make it an actual threat. There are plenty of brilliant money shots of the thing gurning and baying for blood. Practical FX will always sell a threat better than cheap CGI, so the painstaking creation of this monster was clearly money and time well spent. Every second it’s onscreen, the camera lovingly takes in all the gooey, spiky goodness, which chimes well with a movie that’s shot beautifully overall, Luca Santagostino’s rich cinematography capturing the surrounding area just as richly as the creature’s labyrinthine lair. Although much of the action takes place in darkness, the layout is clear, escape seemingly always just a few steps away. The film Shortcut most resembles is arguably Paul Hyett’s underrated werewolf movie Howl, whose action took place predominantly on a stranded train with forests on either side. There are plenty of references to Alien, too, of course, given the claustrophobia and barbed creature, while notes of The Descent emerge also, particularly towards the end. Daniele Cosci’s efficient script never lets the kids down by leaving them to sit and discuss personality traits or buried trauma, nor does it require them to behave irrationally or like superheroes once things turn bad. One boy gets a big payoff to a clearly embellished story he’s told earlier, but it’s a moment that feels authentic to limitless childhood courage, rather than one designed to appeal to the Marvel set. This isn’t a kids movie where the characters behave like adults, nor is it a cynical story of adolescence told by someone who can’t remember what it was like to run through the woods with friends; it’s a smart rendering of regular kids thrown into an irregular scenario who find they have more strength within themselves than they realized. See Also: Howl [FrightFest Review] Shortcut does lose its way towards the end, wrapping up with a strange, Breakfast Club-esque manifesto, as though the filmmakers weren’t sure quite how to end it, but it’s a rare misstep in an otherwise solid adventure horror movie with a terrific cast of new faces, a great location for the mayhem to go down in, and a gnarly, expertly-crafted creature at its dark heart. Catch Shortcut from September 25, 2020 in theaters and drive-ins across the U.S. WICKED RATING: 8/10 Director(s): Alessio Liguori Writer(s): Daniele Cosci Stars: Jack Kane, Zak Sutcliffe, Andrei Claude, Sophie Jane Oliver, Terence Anderson Release date: September 25, 2020 Studio/Production Company:  Mad Rocket Entertainment Language: English Run Time: 80 minutes Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube

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Four Totally Surreal Scenes in Horror

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Wicked Horror is the author of Four Totally Surreal Scenes in Horror. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Horror is a genre that can be anything from strange and surreal to raw and visceral. It can show you a fever dream unlike anything you’ve seen before, or it can prey on the well-founded fears of the world around you. Sometimes, you’re enjoying a film that seems to balance impeccably between the two, before it takes an unexpected dip into full-on craziness. If you’re brave in the face of spoilers, read on for four of the most bizarre, outlandish, and surreal scenes in horror! Starting with… The Ghost Children from Sinister  I was watching horror long before I was able to see it at the cinema. When I did finally get to watch a new terror flick on the big screen, it was in the form of Sinister, which I was expecting to be part found-footage and part murder mystery. The screech of the kid coming out of the box rattled my eardrums and made me cringe. And the appearance of Bagul was terrifying. But the one thing I couldn’t look beyond was a scene that had me trying not to laugh in the theatre. The 3:23 AM ghost children sequence.  By the point that this particular scene happens, you’re well aware that the sadistic murders found on-tape in Ellison Oswalt’s attic go far beyond the trophies of a serial killer. When he wakes up at 3:23 AM, you’re already on the edge of your seat, wondering what eerie horrors await him as he goes to investigate. But it wasn’t all that eerie. Instead, it was, well, bizarre. Queue a load of ghost children with Halloween- face paint dancing on the furniture and following our protagonist around the house. I get where they were going with the kids being playful, sneaking up on him and vanishing. But something about it just feels out of place. The rest of the movie is gritty but this sequence is all sorts of strange, leaving as quickly as it came with the green-faced ghost of a former target of Bagul further proving that the demon has set his sights on Oswalt’s children. Terrifying in theory, a weird ghost train of playful trick-r-treaters in actuality.  The Drawn-Out Dance Sequence in Strangeland  Freddy Krueger is, without doubt, Robert Englund’s most iconic role. Still, the first thing I think of when I hear his name is not the scrapes of claws in the boiler room. I could fill an entire list of bizarre and outlandish scenes with Robert Englund (“Now I’m playing with power!”) but this oddly lengthy sequence from Strangeland is something my family and I reference on an almost daily basis.  For those of you who haven’t seen this iconic film, penned by and starring Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider, Strangeland follows possibly the most extreme sadist ever to grace our screens, played by Snider himself and going by the name “Captain Howdy” When he is caught in the middle of torturing and defiling a detective’s teenage daughter, he is remanded to an institution, though it is only three years until he is released, much to the shock and horror of his old neighborhood when he moves back in. Post-treatment, his tattoos are covered with makeup and his personality now shy and withdrawn. There are few less happy than Robert Englund’s character, Jackson Roth, who leads a lynch mob to hang him from a tree, inadvertently destroying his medication in the process and bringing “Captain Howdy” back to life, his first target being the leader of the group, or more specifically, his wife. See Also: Five Movies that Show Mad Love for the Genre that Aren’t Scream Roth sits enjoying a beer, ready for a night of passion with his bride, when she begins to dance out of the shadows. Somehow, the puppet-like dancing and her dead eyes do little to perturb Jackson Roth, who soon joins her with a dance of his own. The name hardly disguises the fact that the movie is strange but watching Robert Englund excitedly pumping his fists rhythmically in the air to one of the weirdest pieces of music I’ve ever heard in a horror film has its own particular level of strange.  After about a minute and a half, which seems a lot longer in context, Captain Howdy drops her body and reveals himself. It has a good pay-off and knowing that she is being used as a puppet by an infuriated sadist does feel creepy – but that doesn’t make the fist pump dance and the strange music any less peculiar. If anyone is wondering how this scene became a family joke, it is referenced when something is very exciting. One person will do the fist pumps while humming the tune, the other will imitate Roth’s wife. All that’s missing is an illustrated sadist. The Retcon in Brahms: The Boy II  The other three movies on this list are films that, for the most part, I would rate positively. Brahms: The Boy II is not one of those movies – but as a fan of the undoubtedly flawed The Boy, I couldn’t fail to include the one thing that makes a mediocre “child obsessed with a dodgy toy” film an absolute travesty. The bizarre retcon ending that tries to ruin even the effective twist of the first movie. If you haven’t seen The Boy yet, I’d suggest you scroll on down to the next entry in this list, because despite its cliché ideas and faltering execution, I would say it is a must-watch. If you have, or you just don’t give a damn, read on. The whole premise of The Boy is that the grieving parents of a dead child have now taken to looking after a porcelain version of him, one with its own set of rules and needs. The nanny who arrives to take on the unusual assignment begins to believe that the doll is truly alive or haunted, her paranoia leading to vivid dreams and hallucinations that leave the audience wondering if that is the case. The ending reveals that Brahms was never dead. He was in-fact living in the walls of the old manor, covering his face with a porcelain mask. The rules were set up for him to use the doll as a way of sustaining himself, his grip around the household was absolute, and (almost) everything falls into place. I remember an article from around the time of the first film where they author said they hoped Brahms would be the next big thing. The next Michael Myers, the next iconic horror villain. I presume they meant the mute psychopath living in the walls. But it turns out that the screenwriter Stacey Menear had other ideas. The entirety of Brahms: The Boy II is for lack of a better word, ridiculous. But the ending that reveals the doll to be a demonic entity, squirming behind a wall of porcelain is laughable, as well as coming out of the blue. I think they heard how people praised the twist in the first film and decided that they really would shock people by reversing the twist in a twist of its own. It doesn’t work. It’s strange, it’s eye-roll inducing and weirdly, it puts the cherry on the cake of mediocrity.   Anyway, despite the doll-sized demon being cast into the furnace, the movie does end with Jude still under the influence of the porcelain terror. I’m sure another few million dollars will join Brahms in the fire when Jude: The Boy III is inevitably announced. I can’t wait… Truly... The Bat in The House by the Cemetery  Number one on my list is the most bizarre scene I have ever seen. Lucio Fulci’s fantastic movie The House by the Cemetery is essential viewing for all horror fans. The eerie atmosphere, the grisly gore, and the spooky backstory all come together for a truly classic piece of genre cinema. Despite all this, it is also (much like Fulci’s other films) extremely bizarre. In a film with off-sync dubbing, a child named Bob with an ill-fitting voice (see image below) and some very unnatural acting, one thing stands out as particularly crazy. It was one that I could hardly blink while watching, my mouth open in half-amusement and half-confusion. When the world’s most hostile bat emerges from the cellar, fishing wire visible at every angle, spurting blood like a sprinkler as the family tries desperately to kill it. It takes multiple scissor stabs, hammering against the worktops, and more. The bat loses more blood than could fit in its body, and still, it only dies when they decide to dig at its exposed innards with the aforementioned pair of scissors.  I couldn’t make a list of surreal and outlandish Scenes in Horror without including Lucio Fulci, and I can think of nothing better than House by the Cemetery, and it is the one entry on this list that I can’t end without linking you to. Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube      

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Alex Pardee Talks Upcoming Loot Crate Krampus Collab and His Brightmares Aesthetic [Exclusive]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Alex Pardee Talks Upcoming Loot Crate Krampus Collab and His Brightmares Aesthetic [Exclusive]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Known for his terrifyingly dark, yet incredibly bright and colorful creations, artist Alex Pardee has made quite the name for himself, with his “Brightmares.” Grotesque, yet gorgeous, Pardee’s work can be seen in films like Adam Green’s Digging Up the Marrow and Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, as well as art galleries and clothing. Teaming up with Loot Crate for the relaunch of their Loot Fright subscription boxes, Pardee has now designed his take on various holiday icons, with Mr. Kramp, being his first demented creation. We were lucky enough to chat with Pardee about how the pandemic has affected the convention experience, his collaboration with Loot Crate and the juxtaposition between dark imagery with bright colors. Read on! WICKED HORROR: How has not only the pandemic, but the world literally being on fire right now affected your art and the whole convention circuit for you? ALEX PARDEE:  It mostly affects me mentally. I’m a recluse by nature. Working from home has been my job for as long as I can remember, with the exception of outside studios and stuff. It has affected me a little bit mentally, but as far as like the convention thing and I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to make it negative into a positive, because there’s definitely nothing positive about this, but it’s a little bit of light as far as having switched over to doing virtual conventions. A lot of people are doing that, creating our own virtual events in this time is kind of like a weird Wild West, where we can kind of do whatever we want and figure it out along with everybody else. It’s actually been really refreshing. People are at home, looking for something to kind of distract them as well, so they’re way more willing to participate in something like this, from a distance. Instead of San Diego Comic-Con, which I’ve gone to for 20 years, I put on my own event with a friend of mine and we called it No-Con, because there was literally no convention and we did it, a 10-day event. We did it through on Twitch and had different events and different streaming art demos, and guest stars everyday. It was amazing to have people from around the world being able to participate in something when they could never go to Comic-Con. WICKED HORROR: Can you speak on the experience of doing that really awesome mural for Pow! Wow Hawaii? How it came about and how the experience was. It seems like it was something really awesome for you. ALEX PARDEE: Oh yeah, it was great. I have a graffiti background from years and years ago, but when I was doing it, in the nineties and early 2000’s, nothing was really on the scale of what it is now. I was asked to participate in Pow!Wow! Hawaii, which is a thing they have in multiple cities, but started in Hawaii and it’s a mural festival that focuses on smaller, lower end communities. Kind of brightening them up and working with the local businesses, working with the local community on securing spaces to paint big murals. When I was invited to do that, an opportunity to paint a 40 foot by 30 foot wall, I was extremely excited, but also very overwhelmed. It’s one of those things where I just have to be like, “Yes, I can do that,” and then seriously  type on Google “How do I do this?!” It was definitely a learning experience, but I went down there with my girlfriend and another friend of mine, which just helped and kind of morally supported me through it. It was awesome. WICKED HORROR: In horror, there’s this odd belief that everything has to be dark and gloomy. Heavy on the black, devoid of any color. What I’ve always appreciated about your work is how f*cking bright it is! The colors are just beautiful. Was your background in graffiti, maybe an inspiration for that aesthetic that you’re so well known for, these “Brightmares,” as you call them? ALEX PARDEE: I’m not sure. Ironically, my graffiti was really dark. Dark backgrounds, dark colors and I did a lot of bones. It really was a little bit more horrific actually. I think that my aesthetic that I’m known for now comes from the reaction I got when I started playing around with color. I’ve always been as equally in love with terribly frightening, dark, disgusting horror movies as I am with 1930s happy, weird colors, so I’m kind of mixing those two elements. When I first doing that, the reaction that I got was just confusing. People didm’t know how to feel  and would say, “There are  bright colors, but it’s gross, I don’t get it.” I liked that reaction. So I kept doing it because I liked it, it made me happy. So that just kind of like, you know, became what I did. I like bright dark subject matters, and bright colors. WICKED HORROR: I think “Brightmares” is the perfect way to describe that aesthetic. ALEX PARDEE: It was really hard for me to encapsulate, when people would say, “What do you do? What kind of art do you do?” I never really had a word for it before, until I came up with brightmares, it’s a bright nightmare. WICKED HORROR: Most definitely. You know, Krampus is such a great, folkloric figure. It lends itself to such interesting interpretations. You recently designed a new figure for Loot Crate. How did that collaboration come about? ALEX PARDEE: Working with Loot Crate was great. I always admire Loot Crate for the fact that they basically created this brand new business model years ago that nobody had done before. It was like, Whoa, you can just make a subscription, it was a really cool, new thing. Since then, it’s been replicated a million times and it’s great, but I had this admiration of them for a long time. I realized that I had some mutual friends that worked there, with mutual respect for each other, so when they reached out to me recently  and was like, “Hey, we’re relaunching our loot fright boxes and we wanted to get you involved somehow, do you have any ideas of how you could be involved, if you want to look at the properties or anything?”I’m always kind of pushing my own lore, half of my work is pop culture-based art, but the other half is my own on stuff, my own stories, and my own characters. So I looked at this as an opportunity to pitch them an idea that I’ve been working on called Monster Season, where basically I’m creating new lore out of existing holiday icons. They went for it. The first one that we’re working on is Mr. Kramp, which is actually not Krampus. It’s got a little bit of a twist to it. It’s basically my take on if I could design a Krampus. I’m very excited about that. WICKED HORROR: One of my favorite pieces that you’ve done recently, really speaks on just how awful 2020 has been and that’s your “Best Year Ever” piece. The first time I saw that, I couldn’t help but to laugh. It encapsulates everything and how insane all of this has been. ALEX PARDEE: I was scribbling that, and I thought that this is the first time in my life and the first time in a lot of peoples’ lifetime, where it’s such a global event. No matter where you are in the world, you’re dealing with this on some level, what’s going on right now. So it just kind of made sense, that we’re all being unified by tragedy now. It’s depressing. WICKED HORROR: I just wanted to ask one more question. Your art and designs were my favorite part of Adam Green’s Digging Up the Marrow. Are there any other plans for you to inject your creations into other films and mediums? ALEX PARDEE: I always want to take my art into new directions and new media and do stuff. So I am always on the lookout for how I can expand.  How can I keep building my world in other forms of media? Working on Digging up the Marrow was amazing and since then, I’ve actually have been pitching cartoons and pitching some work that I’m developing into some live action stuff with some other companies and stuff. So yeah. There are things in the works. We’ll see! Follow us on social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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The Swerve is Emotionally Devastating [Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of The Swerve is Emotionally Devastating [Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Women tend to handle the lion’s share of the emotional labor in even the most progressive households. The Swerve, writer-director Dean Kapsalis’ stunning debut feature, posits the idea that being consistently ignored and unappreciated for the work she does for her family could drive an otherwise stable wife and mother round the bend. The very first image onscreen is of Azura Skye’s Holly, speeding through the night, classical music blaring in her ears, and bloodied knuckles gripping the steering wheel. The titular swerve, meanwhile, could be taken as emotional, physical, vehicular, or all of the above. At home, Holly is surrounded by selfish, uncaring men. Her husband and two teenage sons expect her to do everything for them and Holly is, understandably, struggling to juggle all of her commitments as a result. She drops the boys off at school with them barely even offering a goodbye, never mind a thank you. She supports her husband as he frets over a promotion and he almost seems to take offense in response. She’s a schoolteacher, a good one it seems like, in charge of twenty odd students, one of whom has taken an inappropriate shine to her. Holly is trying desperately to keep everything under control but nobody is helping her and, although she routinely takes medication (presumably antidepressants, though it’s never made explicitly clear), the dark clouds continue to roll in. See Also: Anything for Jackson is Pure Nightmare Fuel [Fantasia Review] Even before anything too drastic happens to her, Holly’s plight will speak to a lot of women on a very deep, emotional level. Her sad, lonely supermarket stroll is painfully evocative and the best visual representation of depression this side of You Were Never Really Here. However, while Lynn Ramsay’s film trafficked in bloody retribution and eventually offered its tortured protagonist something resembling a happy ending, Kapsalis’ is more insidious, I would argue because the focus is on a female character and typically women aren’t afforded the same level of understanding – even in movies. The whole theme of this one could reasonably be summed up as “being a mom is a thankless job.”  Ultimately, in fact, it’s Holly’s attentive, loving treatment of her family, often at her own expense, that will be her undoing. The Swerve gets dark, darker than most viewers will be expecting given the reliance on everyday annoyances. A plaintive, string-heavy score emphasizes Holly’s listlessness, how she feels like a ghost in her own life, as though she’s floating by without anybody fully acknowledging her presence. When a mouse invades her home, the metaphor could be interpreted as Holly seeing herself in this creature, which she obsesses over killing, or that it represents one tiny thing in her life that she can actually control. There’s even some suggestion that only she can see the mouse, which plays into the film’s constant see-saw between whether Holly is actually losing her mind or simply being gaslighted by those around her into believing she’s the issue when really they are. Even her parents seem completely unaware of their daughter’s personal crisis. As Holly, Skye is painfully committed. She was recently seen playing a scumbag criminal in Riverdale, so the softness of her performance here is achingly captivating. With 12 Hour Shift set to drop in early October, this is the second horror/thriller in as many weeks to feature a woman of a certain age in the leading role. And, although Holly has nothing much in common with the ruthless organ thief at the center of Brea Grant’s stellar movie, she has a similar underlying darkness that only comes out when others push her over the edge. In Holly’s case, most of the pushing is done by her wayward sister Claudia (played by The Last Exorcism breakout Ashley Bell), who picks at her for having underlying issues with food and even, it’s strongly hinted, a touch of OCD. Their testy interactions are charged with bad blood that’s been built up over decades and both actresses play their side of the argument to perfection. See Also: Sheep Without a Shepherd Takes a Hammer to Social Injustice [Fantasia Review] The Swerve doesn’t offer any easy answers, much to Kapsalis’ credit. It’s a compelling, richly detailed study of one, ordinary woman’s quiet descent into (maybe) insanity that remains completely in her corner even when everything begins to fall apart and she begins acting out. Beautifully photographed and carefully assembled, it’s an emotionally resonant experience with a heart-breaking payoff that’s fully sold by Skye’s vanity-free performance. A must-watch that will stick with you long after the credits roll. WICKED RATING: 8/10 Director(s): Dean Kapsalis Writer(s): Dean Kapsalis Stars: Azura Skye, Ashley Bell, Bryce Pinkham, Zach Rand Release date: September 22, 2020 (VOD and Digital) Studio/Production Company: Spark Chamber Language: English Run Time: 95 minutes Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube 

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