Category Archives: Horror

We Have A Ghost review — Haunted house comedy dead on arrival

March 17, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Christopher Landon | Written by Landon, based on the short story Earnest by Geoff Manaugh | 126 min | ▲▲△△△ | Netflix I came of age as a movie lover in the 1980s, an era when the horror comedy really took hold. But for every Beetlejuice, Lost Boys, or Ghostbusters there was a Mr…Read More

Knock At The Cabin review — Disappointed at the end of the world

February 11, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by M Night Shyamalan | Written by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman, based on the book The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay | 100 min | ▲▲△△△ I've always admired M Night Shyamalan's willingness to set his films in entirely recognizable realities but still push his plots to…Read More

Infinity Pool review — Gleeful bad-trip movie goes off the deep end

January 30, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg | 117 min | ▲▲▲△△ I'm not the first critic to recognize the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with the younger Cronenberg, son of David. Consider his first two features — Antiviral and the remarkable Possessor. The son's thematic concerns are similar to the father, the…Read More

M3GAN review — Batteries charged for killer doll movie

January 16, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Gerard Johnstone | Written by Akela Cooper and James Wan | 102 min | ▲▲▲△△ Writer-Producer-Director James Wan has some experience with murderous doll movies, but this isn't any Annabelle picture, this is something quite different. M3GAN, and, yeah, that's a title the producers are bound to regret when they try to market…Read More

The Menu review — A tasty meal, not terribly filling

November 23, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Mark Mylod | Written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy | 107 min | ▲▲▲△△ Having gone to a food analogy for the headline, I'll try to exercise a little restraint for the rest of this review. The Menu is a new comedy thriller about a group of diners who pay for an…Read More

Barbarian review — Basement horror less than impressive

October 15, 2022 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Zach Cregger | 102 min | ▲▲△△△ | On Disney + and Crave Barbarian suffers from a couple of issues that scupper otherwise clever horror movies way too often. The first and most egregious is the Horror Character Decision-Making, which I encountered most recently in another high-concept picture, Fall. This is…Read More

Causeway, The Eternal Daughter, and Decision To Leave reviews #TIFF22

September 17, 2022 flawintheiris

Causeway | Directed by Lila Neugebauer | Written by Luke Goebel, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Elizabeth Sanders | 92 min This lean, even austere New Orleans-set drama is from a first-timer, and sees the return of Jennifer Lawrence — who's taken a little time away from her acting career recently — giving a surprisingly embodied performance, all angular…Read More

Men review — Twisted folk horror is a lot to take

August 24, 2022 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Alex Garland | 100 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Amazon Prime Novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-director Alex Garland has become a spectacularly singular voice in fantasy and science fiction in recent years. Consider his scripts for 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, and Dredd, and his work as a writer-director on Ex Machina, Annihilation,…Read More

Bodies Bodies Bodies review — Wildly fun horror satire a must see

August 19, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Halina Reijn | Written by Sarah DeLappe and Kristen Roupenian | 94 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime We open on the sounds of kissing — Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and Bee (Maria Bakalova) making out. Sophie declares her love for Bee. Bee keeps schtum. Coming out of the film, I kept thinking about…Read More

Fall review — The high anxiety of careless climbers

August 13, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Scott Mann | Written by Mann and Jonathan Frank | 107 min | ▲▲▲△△ You gotta give credit to these filmmakers for the wonderfully simple conceit — stick your two characters on the top of a 2000 ft tower in the Mojave where the rail ladder has given way, and let them spend…Read More