A somewhat forgotten folk horror film from Australia, Alison’s Birthday begins with the titular character (Joanne Samuel) playing with a makeshift Ouija board with her friends at age 16. One of the girls, Chrissie (Margie McCrae), becomes possessed by a spirt claiming to be Alison’s father, who warns his daughter not to go home on … Continue reading Alison’s Birthday (1981)
Thanks to the recent resurgence of “folk horror,” one of Nigel Kneale’s more underappreciated works of British television, the single-season anthology series Beasts, finally has earned the attention and reputation it didn’t quite get in 1976. Case in point: Andrew Screen’s first book, The Book of Beasts: Folklore, Popular Culture and Nigel Kneale’s ATV Horror … Continue reading The Book of Beasts: Folklore, Popular Culture and Nigel Kneale’s ATV Horror Series
In a village in the mountains of Slovakia, superstition long resides. It seems to live everywhere. This, Šarlota knows, having been on the receiving end for much of her life. The scorn started when, as a child, Šarlota accidentally knocked her little sister off a cliff and, ashamed, fled for the city. Two decades later, … Continue reading Nightsiren (2022)
If you dig Bigfoot movies, but wish they contained more marital strife, good news: Jon Garcia, the director of an actual movie called Sex Weather, gives you Summoning the Spirit. Seeking a new start post-miscarriage, spouses Dean (Ernesto Reyes, TV’s American Gods) and Carla (Krystal Millie Valdes) buy a cozy house amid 5 acres of … Continue reading Summoning the Spirit (2023)
First-time actor Thomas Parigi plays the title role in The Strange Case of Jacky Calliou, a young man orphaned by a car wreck. He lives with his grandmother (fellow neophyte Edwige Blondiau) in the French Alps, where she makes a most meager living as a “magnetic healer.” From achy body parts to depressed farm animals, … Continue reading The Strange Case of Jacky Caillou (2022)