One of the hardest things to do well is a chamber play. It is the choice to tell a big story with a very small cast, few props, one set, and little to no costume changes. The idea is to elevate human drama as the focus of theater of film. Far too often, the...
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Every time I watch a Stuart Gordon film, I forget that I’ve watched other Stuart Gordon films. There are certain recurring elements in most of his feature. He usually works in a dark comedy/horror hybrid with lots of bloody gags. The performances are exaggerated to make even the traditional hero seem uncanny and ghastly....
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Trollhunter is a curiosity. Even in the context of the post-Blair Witch Project found footage/documentary horror genre, Trollhunter is something very different indeed. A group of film students decide to investigate a strange series of bear deaths. What they discover is an elaborate conspiracy instigated by the Norwegian government to hide the existence of...
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To steal a portmanteau from The Fairly Odd Parents, Safety Not Guaranteed is the most threatmantic sci-fi picture you’ll see this year. For every cute and silly scene played up for big laughs, there’s a dark and serious moment to balance it out. You never know when or why the turn will happen. It...
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Tilda Swinton is an incredible actor. She is capable of making truly deplorable characters compelling onscreen. From the drugged up kidnapper of Julia to the unambitious adulteress of I Am Love, Swinton can make you want to watch a bad person make terrible decisions for two hours, no problem. The difference between those films...
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Plague Inc. is a real time strategy game for your mobile devices with a dark twist. Your goal is to eradicate all of humankind with a plague of your own creation. You micromanage symptoms, transmission methods, and abilities (heat resistance, genetic coding, etc.). Starting with one infected person in a country of your choosing,...
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The year is 1936. The location is a remote ski lodge in the Italian Alps, formerly the Austrian Alps. An entrepreneur is struggling to keep his hotel in business. Just when his manager tries to tell everyone to clock out early, a group of varied international tourists all show up at once. There’s a...
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I don’t know if we’ll ever get a true hypertext novel. I’m not talking an online, pick and choose what you want to read thing. I’m talking a totally immersive text ala the holodeks in Star Trek. If we never reach that point, we can at least absorb what a new wave of science...
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There’s a school of ghost/haunting films that I just don’t understand. You set up a creepy premise, then do nothing but repetitive jump scares for the next hour until everything is resolved in a big effects scene. Forget about character development. If the actors can’t sell you on having any personality beyond a perma-scream...
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There is going to be a lot of horror content this month. I’m participating in the Summer Screams Challenge from Cinefessions. Hellevator: The Bottled Fools is a Japanese cyberpunk film. In the distant future, everyone lives in a departmentalized infrastructure with elevators as the only means of transportation. A female student, addicted to banned...
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