In Justin Benson and Aaron Morehead’s first film, Resolution, two friends retreat from society to an isolated rental property so one of them can get sober. Things don’t go as planned. Now, a decade later, make the duo sisters and you have the synopsis for Jack Dignan’s Puzzle Box, an Australian found-footage horror pic. Kait … Continue reading Puzzle Box (2023)
Tastes of Horror is the Korean equivalent to Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, in that the anthology film is a feature version of an existing series. The difference here is that Tastes’ half-dozen stories aren’t new, but adapted from the animated show. Absent of a wraparound, the segments bump against one another with merely a … Continue reading Tastes of Horror (2023)
Considered a “lost classic” of sorts, Anthony Waller’s 1995 horror-thriller, Mute Witness, is now enjoying a renaissance. A slick, Hitchcockian genre-bender, the narrative follows Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina), a mute makeup artist working on a low-budget slasher in Moscow alongside her sister, Karen (Fay Ripley), and Karen’s director boyfriend, Andy (Evan Richards). The movie’s opening … Continue reading Mute Witness (1995)
Danger, romance and seduction: the holy trinity of a now-extinct film subgenre that kept beautiful, busty women named Shannon employed for the better part of the 1990s. Besides the obvious visual attributes, what made those flicks tick? Where did they come from? More importantly, why did they disappear? Filmmaker Anthony Penta answers all in his … Continue reading We Kill for Love: The Lost World of the Erotic Thriller (2023)
Beau Is Afraid isn’t somber, subtle or suspenseful. Nor should it be. Described by director Ari Aster (Hereditary) as a “nightmare comedy,” Beau is a bizarre odyssey through a twisted, unempathetic world. It’s also Aster’s most intimate and possibly important film to date. Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) stars as Beau, a neurotic man living in an … Continue reading Beau Is Afraid (2023)