Horror director Leigh Whannell took an ambitious swing with 2020’s The Invisible Man. The movie was a great thriller and an impressive modern reimagining of a classic movie villain. But, it was also a respectable way to give cathartic justice for victims of domestic abuse. Wolf Man, Whannel’s latest attempt to reinvent a traditional horror icon, is less coordinated but just as ambitious. Pairing parental separation and familial flaws with werewolf transformations gets a little, well,…
By: Jolie Featherstone John Michael McDonagh’s grim social drama, The Forgiven, explores the intersections of class, race, and culture. Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by author Lawrence Osborne, the film constructs a world beyond time. Indeed, the story feels as if it could be set today or many decades ago and it would still be just as relevant.
The World to Come, the second feature from Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold (The Sleepwalker), is a plodding meditation on love and grief that is salvaged from mediocrity by the palpable chemistry between its lead actors. Still, the film doesn’t offer much that is fresh of exciting and rehashes some tired lesbian period piece tropes.
By: Jessica Goddard Our own Addison Wylie mentioned I probably shouldn’t watch the trailer for Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear, since it would be better to go in cold.…and boy was he right. When I tracked down the trailer after seeing the film, I was shocked by how much it gives away. So in that spirit, I’ll warn that this review contains what are, effectively, spoilers (though that’s not the perfect word).
Possessor Uncut is a surprisingly undercooked psychological horror from Brandon Cronenberg. It’s filled with provocative qualities, but they’ve been assembled in a way that doesn’t come together and, instead, work as standalone strengths.
Sweet Virginia is an ant hill of a movie – if you look underneath its still surface, you’ll find many working parts. There are many strengths, but director Jamie Dagg, screenwriters Benjamin and Paul China, and the phenomenal cast do a very good job at subtlety concealing them; allowing the film to wash over the audience from start to finish.
There is a tradition in American horror cinema of making a short film with a lot of effects and minimal plot to be eventually used as a calling card. It seems like this practice has found its way into the feature length semi-mainstream. At least, that’s the only explanation for the existence of Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes at Night, a film which shows the director’s abilities as a horror filmmaker – including his great gift for…
By: Addison Wylie After accumulating directorial experience with shorts films and serving as a producer on critically acclaimed indies such as Simon Killer and Martha Marcy May Marlene, Josh Mond has taken the leap to feature films with James White. A film that will convince you that Mond has been in this business longer than his back catalogue suggests.