Category: Horror Movies
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Fantastic 2026: ‘Death of a Yellow Bird’ soars into the sun
Out of Fantastic Fest, Cody Calahan’s Death of a Yellow Bird strikes the perfect balance between horror and emotion. The film nimbly zeroes in on the end-of-life experienceโthe regrets that flicker through one’s mind as death draws closer and the tingling warmth of a life generally well-lived. Calahan adeptly captures the beauty and pain of…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘Flapjax’ is flatter than Kansas
Out of Fantastic Fest, Rocko Zevenbergen’s Flapjax delivers all the goopy goodness you could possibly want (think: Society meets The Fly), but the humor goes absolutely nowhere. In fact, the jokes make for such a bumpy ride that the viewer can only muster a thunderous groan. Zevenbergen, who co-wrote the script with Estevan Muรฑoz, comments…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘Death Has No Master’ or direction
Out of Fantastic Fest, Jorge Thielen Armand’s Death Has No Master turns the vintage ’70s style and filmmaking up to 100. But the stunningly grainy and intoxicating visual veneer does little to save the floundering story that wastes its talent with a listless pace. Armand bottles up every bit of action for the last 20…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘What Happened to Doris?’ gives pure terror a face
Out of Fantastic Fest, Nick Simon’s What Happened to Doris? shatters the real-life paranormal case of Doris Bither, who claimed an unseen entity raped her. In style and visual aesthetic, the indie stands in stark contrast to the glossier 1982 horror/thriller The Entity, starring Barbara Hershey and based on Frank De Felitta’s 1978 book about…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘I Have Proof’ proves to (mostly) be a slog
Out of Fantastic Fest, James Cullen Bressack’s found footage film I Have Proof sluggishly meanders for most of its lean 77-minute runtime. The writer/director uses magnetizing guerrilla filmmaking to create a grungy, glitchy journey into the mind of a madman. It’s visually affecting, hitting emotional nails with the propulsion of an air rifle. But the…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘The Ones Who Grieve,’ a needlessly cruel exercise
Out of Fantastic Fest, Quarxx’s The Ones Who Grieve makes Eden Lake look like child’s play. It’s a relentlessly dismal unraveling of extremist religion and inevitable violence against women. While the period piece oozes aesthetic charm and style, the story leaves the viewer feeling hopeless and miserable. The film, co-written with Frederic Soulier, drags the…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘Sick’ captures twisted human connection
Out of Fantastic Fest, Agata Trzebuchowska’s Sick breaks thorns into the skin with its coming-of-age tale about shame and blossoming sexuality. The writer/director unwittingly pulls stylistic threads from Ingmar Bergman’s poetically brutal The Virgin Spring, as well as the weirdness of Todd Haynes’ Poison, and weaves them together into a dangerously alluring and thought provoking…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘รrei’ makes for an upsetting watch
Out of Fantastic Fest, Yerkezhan Baizhan’s รrei makes for one of the festival’s most depressing viewing experiences. It is deeply upsetting in tone and performance, mining themes of memory, regret, and powerlessness. The writer/director expands her six-minute short film into a pulverizing 80-minute tragedy. The Kazakhstan-set film rings with the shrill moan of death much…
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Fantastic 2026: ‘Godmother,’ a concoction of humor and mayhem
Out of Fantastic Fest, John Veron’s Godmother haunts the hallways of The House of the Devil before taking a room at Motel Hell. It’s wonderfully absurd, delightfully unhinged, and a perfect genre elixir to drug the viewer into a catatonic state. Veron, who co-wrote the script with Alanah Pearce, keeps the cards so close to…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘Grind’ blasts hustle culture in the balls
Late-stage capitalism is killing us. Look at the world, especially in the United States, where billionaires get richer and the poor get poorer. Out of FrightFest, co-directors Ed Dougherty and Brea Grant’s anthology film, Grind, takes gasoline and a lighted match to hustle culture. Greedy companies such as Amazon, DoorDash, and Facebook propel humanity hurtling…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘Dead Reset’ makes for a solid video game adaptation
Out of FrightFest, Stewart Sparke’s Dead Reset rises as a solid video game adaptation. Based on the 2025 game of the same name, the film brings the tone, style, and aesthetic to a time-loop journey in a similar vein to Tubi’s Kill Me Again (2025). Sparke, who co-wrote the script with Paul Butler, brings far…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘Bad Karaoke’ makes for a good time
Haunted Objects might be the most undervalued horror subgenre. Rubber, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Killdozer, Killer Sofa, and Death Bed: The Bed That Eats are pure cinema. Out of FrightFest, Chris Lightbody and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr. throw their proverbial hats into the ring with their new feature, Bad Karaoke, about a killer karaoke…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘Dracula: The Night Around Us’ delivers fresh spin on the Bram Stoker classic
Out of FrightFest, Chris Schwab’s Dracula: The Night Around Us offers a thrilling new interpretation of Bram Stoker’s groundbreaking 1897 novel. It’s a career-making piece with classic vintage camera shots (e.g., the light falling perfectly over a character’s eyes) and moody, skin-shredding images that delight and perfectly horrify. In a crowded marketplace of mediocre vampire…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘The Flesh Itself’ is a Robert Eggers-worthy chamber piece
Out of FrightFest, Ian SBF’s The Flesh Itself emerges as the festival’s best offering this year. The film, co-written with Deive Pazos and Alexandre Ottoni, examines the ravages of wartime, harbored biases, and the bigger picture at play in our everyday lives. Human beings have been and continue to be the most savage beasts we…
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FrightFest 2026: ‘Ghost in the Cell’ balances gore and art
Out of FrightFest, Joko Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell explores the discovery of profound peace in faith, art, or oneself. In the face of a society riddled by anger, the journey to enlightenment can be difficult, impossible even. But uncovered harmony works as the perfect anecdote. With his latest film, the writer/director achieves a thoughtful…
Recent Posts
- Fantastic 2026: ‘Death of a Yellow Bird’ soars into the sun
- Fantastic 2026: ‘Flapjax’ is flatter than Kansas
- Fantastic 2026: ‘Death Has No Master’ or direction
- Fantastic 2026: ‘What Happened to Doris?’ gives pure terror a face
- The Singles Bar: HAFFWAY – Wind Up
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[…] However, his songs here are as relevant and crushing as ever, as queer non-binary music critic Bee Delores recently…
[…] parental instinct at its core, which Ehrlich argued lands even through the film’s excesses. B-Sides & Badlands described the…