@RenZelen reviews...Director: Carson D. Mell Writer: Carson D. MellStarring: Steve Zissis, Mark Proksch, Dan Bakkedahl, Jennifer Irwin, Dax FlameReview Carson D. Mell’s movie Another Evil begins darkly enough, with shadowy hallways, flitting figures and a sense of menace. It isn’t long before successful artist Dan (Steve Zissis) his teenage son Jazz (Dax Flame) and his... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: The Similars
Mexican writer-director Isaac Ezban follows up his unnerving debut The Incident with The Similars (Los Parecidos), an homage to the science-fiction films of the 1950s and 60s which dealt with paranoia and the search for individual identity.
Movie Review: Lights Out
@RenZelen reviews...Director: David F. SandbergWriters: Eric Heisserer (screenplay), (based on the short film by) David F. Sandberg Starring: Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Maria Bello, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke, Alicia Vela-BaileyReviewThe James Wan-produced flick Lights Out began as a three-minute short film by David F. Sandberg and the movie version opens with a sequence that replicates... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Visions
@Renzelen reviews...Director: Kevin GreutertWriters: L.D. Goffigan, Lucas Sussman (screenplay)Starring: Isla Fisher, Gillian Jacobs, Joanna Cassidy, Eva Longoria, Jim Parsons, John de LancieReviewKevin Greutert gives us his third film, Visions which is a variation on the ‘pregnant-woman-in-peril’ theme.After being involved in a terrible car accident resulting in the death of another woman’s baby, Eveleigh (Isla Fisher) and... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: High-Rise
On Itunes 28th April and cinemas 13th May (US) - @RenZelen reviews...Director: Ben WheatleyWriters: J.G. Ballard (novel), Amy Jump (screenplay)Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes.ReviewThe setting for High-Rise is a colossal, brutalist concrete skyscraper on the edge of an unnamed city. About halfway up, Dr. Robert... Continue Reading →
5 Must See K-Horror Films
@RenZelen gives us her must see K-Horror Films...@RenZelen continues her look at Korean Horror with this 5 Must See list.Yeogo Goedam/ Whispering Corridors (1998)Directed by Ki-hyung Park‘Whispering Corridors’ should be placed in the genre of films encompassing the horrors of school, along with ‘Suspiria’ and ‘Carrie’ (1976). School corridors are rife with rear and loathing,... Continue Reading →
7 Must See J-Horror Films
@RenZelen lists her must see J Horror...Continuing on from her Dark Cinema: Horror from Japan and Korea article, @RenZelen lists her must sees from Japan...Ringu (1998)Directed by Hideo Nakata‘Ringu’ is based on a novel by Koji Suzuki, who is known as the ‘Japanese Stephen King’ and for any western viewer is the starting point for any... Continue Reading →
Dark Cinema: Horror from Japan and Korea
@RenZelen takes a look...‘No body’ does it betterWhen a new era of Asian horror films entered mainstream Western cinema with Hideo Nakata’s ‘Ringu (The Ring), Asian horror movies were soon perceived to be chasing Hollywood’s more hackneyed horror efforts into the shadows. Nakata’s frightening and heart-breaking ‘Dark Water’ (2002) and Chan-wook Park’s violent, socially resonant... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Crimson Peak
Out Feb 9 on Blu Ray - @RenZelen reviews...Director: Guillermo del Toro Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Matthew Robbins Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie HunnamReviewA hopeful young American writer, Edith Cushing, takes her manuscript to a publisher and waits breathlessly for his opinion as he reads it. He gives a sigh of dismay,... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Lilin’s Brood
@Renzelen reviews... Directors: P.W. Simon, Artii Smith Writers: P.W. Simon, Artii Smith Stars: Martin Sensmeier, Maxine Goynes, Melinda Milton Review Wherever man hungers for flesh, “There too Lilith shall repose.” ~ Isaiah 34:14 Although Lilin’s Brood deals with a familiar Freudian premise, I’m glad to say that, compared with the predictability of so many horror... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Cruel Summer
@RenZelen reviews...Directors: Phillip Escott, Craig Newman Writers: Phillip Escott, Craig Newman (story) Starring: Richard Pawulski, Danny Miller, Natalie Martins, Reece Douglas, Grace Dixon, Gary KnowlesReviewThis is what real horror is – not the fantasy monsters we create for our entertainment – the fictional Vampires, Zombies, Frankenstein creatures or Werewolves - this is the human monster... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Victor Frankenstein
@RenZelen reviews...Director: Paul McGuiganWriter: Max LandisStarring: Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown FindlayReview“You know this story” we are confidently informed at the outset of this movie –‘Well actually, no, no we don’t’, and neither did Mary Shelley who did not include the character of ‘Igor’ in her book. Here Igor is no less than the... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Insidious Chapter 3
@RenZelen checks out the Insidious Chapter 3...Director: Leigh Whannell Writers: Leigh Whannell, Leigh Whannell (characters)Starring: Lin Shaye, Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell , Tate Berney‘If you love someone, set them free’ as the saying goes - if only the protagonists of these horror flicks would take that saying to heart, instead of... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Spring
@Renzelen finds plenty under the surface of Spring... Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead Writer: Justin Benson Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Vanessa Bednar, Francesco Carnelutti Review: The most accomplished horror filmmakers aren't really interested in delivering easy shocks or jump scares. What they try to do is chip away at the layers of defence we... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Poltergeist (2015)
@RenZelen reviews the newest remake Poltergeist...Director: Gil Kenan Writers: David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), Steven Spielberg (story) Starring: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Saxon Sharbino, Jane Adams, Susan Heyward, Nicholas BraunReview:It may seem an odd thing to say about a horror film, but there was something endearing about the original Poltergeist movie – something... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Last Werewolf
@RenZelen finds The Last Werewolf quite a read...While Vampires and Zombies have been jamming the highway to the bookshelves and multiplexes, Werewolves have largely been left to idle by the side of the literary road. With Glen Duncan’s protagonist, Jacob Marlowe, you get more than you bargain for: not just a man but a werewolf,... Continue Reading →
Movie Review: Ouija
@RenZelen let's the spirits spell out what she thinks of Ouija... As presumably everyone since the post-Exorcist 1970s knows - you don’t mess with Ouija boards and expect to have fun times - and using them alone in the dark is a sure-fire way to accidentally summon up some demon or malevolent entity that is... Continue Reading →
Film Review – The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Ren Zelen reviews The Town That Dreaded Sundown, was it an enjoyable experience?....I must admit that I have never seen the original 1976 movie of The Town That Dreaded Sundown directed by low-budget indie pioneer Charles B. Pierce. The original was based on a killing spree which took place on the Texas-Arkansas border in 1946... Continue Reading →
Book Review – The Guardians
@RenZelen takes a look at Andrew Pyper's The Guardians.From boys to men...‘The Guardians’ is being promoted as a “haunted house” novel, and so it is, but through the device of the haunted house, Pyper has actually written a masculine coming-of-age story and a study of male bonding. It seems that here, the ‘bad’ house represents... Continue Reading →
Book Review – Apartment 16
@RenZelen takes a look at Adam Nevill's Apartment 16...It’s been a very long time since a big UK publisher has shown much interest in a UK author of horror, not since the days of Clive Barker and James Herbert in fact. That’s why I was intrigued to find out what may have prompted their interest... Continue Reading →