In this week’s Short Film Showcase, instead of another wide-ranging selection from multiple filmmakers, we’re going to be taking a look at one content creator in particular. Kris Straub is a writer, a producer, and a podcaster. He also, incidentally, is a master at making bizarre, short-form horror videos designed to give you a severe case of the heebie-jeebies. His YouTube channel, LOCAL58TV, is styled … Continue reading Short Film Showcase Sunday: Local 58
So, in full transparency, today’s post was supposed to be about Deadstream, a new found footage horror-comedy that premiered this on Shudder this week. It’s a fun, if somewhat cliché takedown of Youtuber/Twitch-streamer culture, filtered through the lends of a first-person Evil Dead film, featuring some fantastic practical effects and some clever uses of streaming technology like chat feeds and facecams. But coincidentally, on a … Continue reading ‘Smile:’ A Heart Attack With a Friendly Face
While I have love for every subgenre of horror, I have to admit that there’s one in particular that holds a special place in my heart: The monster movie. Or, if you prefer, the creature-feature. Sure, we all know and love the big names, like Godzilla and King Kong. Those of you with particularly refined taste may also be fans of loving derivatives like Cloverfield. … Continue reading Monsters and Mayhem: Horror Creature-Features
Sometimes, I come across a movie that’s so unique and so weird that I find myself at sort of a loss for words. Not because the film is indescribably amazing or anything like that, but because the very act of trying to give a synopsis spoils it. These are the kinds of movies that are best gone into completely blind, and having it reveal itself … Continue reading ‘One Cut of the Dead’ and the Magic of Genuine Surprise
Aliens, werewolves, ghosts, and demons. All of these monstrous staples of the horror genre have been endless sources of terror onscreen for generations of movie-goers. Everyone has their weaknesses, that one thing that scares them more than anything else. Maybe it’s bugs, with movies like The Fly and Arachnophobia making you positively squirm in your seat. Maybe you’re deeply Catholic, and anything involving a possession … Continue reading ‘Wolf Creek:’ Sadism in the Outback
Sometimes, less is more. This is why, often, we find ourselves laughing way harder at a dumb Vine or Tiktok than we ever do with a feature-length comedy film, no matter how good it may be. Without all the narrative, three-act trappings and structural padding of an hour-long story, a talented filmmaker can distill whatever emotions they want to convey down to their purest, most … Continue reading Short Film Showcase Sunday: Bite-Sized Terror
Horror films can often come from the most unexpected of people. And perhaps surprisingly, a lot of these people end up being comedians. Bobcat Goldthwait gave us the excellent Bigfoot found-footage film Willow Creek. Danny McBride was responsible in part for bringing Halloween back from the dead in 2018. And who would have thought the man behind this gem would go on to make such … Continue reading ‘Barbarian’: You’ll Never Use Airbnb Again
I’ve been on a bit of a found footage kick lately. I know some of you out there really can’t stand the genre, due either to its conventionally low production values or its tendency to induce motion sickness faster than not-quite-up-to-code teacup ride at a sketchy carnival, but I’m a huge sucker for any film made with a handheld camera and roughly six dollars. They … Continue reading Savageland: Found Footage Horror Gets Sickeningly Political
I feel like I’ve gone on the record more than enough times on this site in defense of Nicholas Cage. The movies of his that I’ve explicitly covered, Mandy, The Color Out of Space, and Pig, are all amazing films because they exist in what I like to call the “Post-Cage” era. That is, the age of cinema where we’ve all sort of collectively identified … Continue reading Nic Cage Soars as Nic Cage in Stellar Love Letter to Nic Cage ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’
Coming off of last month’s X, I didn’t think it was possible for me to love A24 any more than I already did. Boy, was I wrong about that. If you have even a casual interest in film, odds are you’ve been hearing quite a bit of buzz about Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s (or simply Daniels, as the duo call themselves) new film Everything, … Continue reading ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’ is Wonderful, Beautiful Madness
The Blogger Under the Stairs 