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Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

August 10, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie There’s nothing new in Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story that you haven’t already seen in other found footage horrors.  See if you can keep score at home: a small news crew ([REC]) are stringing together interviews and B-roll for a project (The Blair Witch Project), when suddenly a box of abandoned videocassette tapes containing disturbingly transfixing footage is discovered (name that Paranormal Activity sequel). A looming creature – evoking infamous Internet legends…

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Reviews

The Gift

August 9, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery The Gift isn’t an exception to the notion that suspense-thrillers lose substantial value on subsequent viewings, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be one hell of a ride the first time through. Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) seek a fresh start in California, not far from where Simon grew up.  An old high school acquaintance, Gordon (still going by his high school nickname, Gordo) (Joel Edgerton) approaches Simon and Robin…

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Festival Coverage

Fantasia Fest 2015: ‘HEIR’

August 4, 2015Addison Wylie4 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Horror masterminds Richard Powell and Zach Green will always pull the best performances out of character actor Robert Nolan.  This has been the case with their vividly gruesome short films Worm and Familiar, and while their third collaboration HEIR may be their weakest entry, Nolan unstoppably beams as Gordon – a man suppressing a secret. Powell is back in the director’s chair with HEIR, as well as holding the pen that writes the…

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Reviews

Fantasia Fest 2015: ‘Antisocial 2’

July 30, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie My experience with Cody Calahan’s Antisocial 2 started with a surprise.  Antisocial offered some squeamishly great effects but was by no means “one for the books”.  While ultimately forgettable, it did leave on enough of a cliff-hanger to provoke thoughts of a sequel.  However, it was a small production and the chances of seeing another Antisocial were slim. For Calahan to push himself to continue the story of Sam – the Social…

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Festival Coverage

Fantasia Fest 2015: ‘BITE’

July 29, 2015Trevor Jeffery2 Comments

By: Trevor Jeffery Horror works best in extremes: if you can’t make a film that is legitimately bone-chilling, then you better make it so over-the-top that the value comes from its absurdity rather than its potential to fear.  Unfortunately, non-camp horror is a hard beast to tame: you need a plot and a cast that can effectively scare people.  Bite is a campy horror film at heart that tried to go full-out scare mode, and…

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Reviews

It Follows

July 6, 2015Addison Wylie2 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Ambiguity can be a beautiful thing – especially for the horror genre.  Filmmakers can inject an idea, and then trust the viewers to fill in the blanks.  It does, however, take a certain skill and direction to utilize ambiguity to its fullest degree.  A skill that David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is missing although the film is confident it has. It Follows goes heavy on creepy nuances, which benefits the experience.  Nothing…

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Reviews

Debug

May 28, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie Movies like Debug make me wish I had a notebook handy during screenings.  I feel overwhelmed trying to remember all of the sci-fi mumbo-jumbo that fills David Hewlett’s futuristic space horror. Let’s just say Hewlett’s self-penned script has expiatory dialoguing of the laziest kind.  Science fiction often hosts the worst scenarios since some filmmakers just want to hurl a bunch of technical nonsense towards the audience and expect movie goers will be…

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Reviews

What We Do in the Shadows

May 25, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Vampires and the mockumentary genre have both been exhausted thanks to current fads, and spoofing these horrific bloodsuckers has also been done before. Yet, What We Do in the Shadow is one of the funniest films of the year. How so? Filmmaker Taika Waititi and comedic actor Jemaine Clement use inventive intelligence to ingeniously breathe life into these seemingly overplayed areas. There are various forms of comedy, but it’s always helpful when…

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Reviews

Maggie

May 7, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Henry Hobson has been given a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase Arnold Schwarzenegger’s never-before-seen tender side with Maggie.  I welcome my readers to send in examples of other low-key films the Terminator star has acted in, but I expect to receive no tips. The post-apocalyptic film also hands the filmmaker a chance to re-imagine zombie movies that star “the infected”.  Screenwriter John Scott 3 has crafted a story concerning the rights of the…

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Reviews

Unfriended

April 29, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie It’s often said that art reflects life.  Unfriended turns the mirror towards a modern age of teenagers who sometimes veer on being brain dead, yet can problem solve with the drop of a hat when they need to use technology.  Twenty years ago, a movie would only call on one token techie.  Now, a movie can afford to fill its roster with this type of character. While Unfriended deals with terrors that…

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