Category Archives: Horror

Midsommar review — Cult horror chills, but misses a bigger picture

July 7, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ari Aster | 147 min | On Demand Ari Aster made a splash in 2018 with his debut feature, the summer creepfest Hereditary, anchored by Toni Collette's full-on performance. In his follow-up he's chosen another terrific actor to be the film's splashy heart, Florence Pugh, and delivered another deeply weird and…Read More

The Dead Don’t Die review — Zombie picture raises dead, laughs

June 20, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch | 104 min | On Demand Even the forever cool and laid-back Jim Jarmusch—whose previous work includes Down By Law, Night On Earth, Dead Man, Only Lovers Left Alive, and Paterson—gets angry. You can feel him seething, and maybe even just a bit of his bitterness in the aftertaste…Read More

Brightburn review — Evil superboy terrorizes Kansas, less so audiences

May 27, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by David Yarovesky | Written by Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn | 91 min | Netflix Superhero comics envisioned an evil Son of Krypton, or something like it, years ago—check out Miracleman by Alan Moore. Someone with extraordinary power who's unencumbered by human feeling, free of excuses. Yarovesky's vision of the story isn't original—and…Read More

Us review — Get Out director returns with a high-concept creepfest

March 24, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jordan Peele | 116 min | On Demand The unexpected commercial and critical success of Jordan Peele's first feature—Get Out, which earned him an Academy Award for screenwriting—means his follow-up is garnering a lot of attention. What he's delivered is another ambitious genre film, though a much more straight-ahead horror than…Read More

Now on Canadian Netflix — February 2019

February 6, 2019 flawintheiris

Velvet Buzzsaw A deliciously trashy art world satire/horror from Dan Gilroy, the filmmaker behind Nightcrawler and Roman J. Israel. , a picture with a lot more of the edge and unease of the former rather than the prestige aspirations of the latter. It tells the story of a shallow, ambitious, group of nasties; the delightfully named Morf Vandewalt (another…Read More

Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2017) reviews — Filmmaker connects his films across two decades

January 17, 2019 flawintheiris

With the sequel Glass opening on Friday, January 18, I thought it worthwhile to rewatch its predecessors. My review of Split is a light rewriting of the original from February, 2017. Unbreakable | Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan | 106 min | (2000) Shyamalan is one of the few directors working who has a brand,…Read More

#FIN2018 reviews — Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, Hopeless Romantic, Halloween Party

September 15, 2018 flawintheiris

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch It's been something, watching Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky meld their visual storytelling from Manufactured Landscapes (2006) to Watermark (2013) to this, completing the trilogy with cinematographer Nicholas de Pencier, an observation of the sublime beauty and horror of human industry. This final film is simply about the nightmare of there being…Read More

Trench 11 review — Great War horror delivers subterranean creeps

August 30, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by Leo Scherman | Written by Scherman and Matt Booi | 90 min A World War I horror—which isn't unprecedented—though maybe a Canadian one is. The film has a remarkably effective production design despite being done on what must've been a shoestring—what Canadian film is made with much more these days—and it's effective in…Read More

Podcast ALERT: New LENS ME YOUR EARS and FITI: THE FILM PODCAST episodes

July 4, 2018 flawintheiris

Because I'm always talking about the movies, I have two regular podcasts to tell you about wherein I talk about the movies with other people. One is the podcast that accompanies this very blog, FLAW IN THE IRIS: THE FILM PODCAST. On the current two episodes I chat with Halifax screenwriter Josh MacDonald (The Corridor)…Read More

Hereditary review — As creepy as f**k, as advertised

June 10, 2018 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ari Aster | 127 min | On Demand A family living in a lovely, wood-panelled home in Utah is grieving the death of the grandmother. At the funeral Annie (Toni Collette), talks about her mother’s secretive nature. She was estranged from her mother for years, we learn. Back at home, Annie…Read More