Tag Archives: Halloween Movies

Morbius review — Predictably batty, but not the worst

June 13, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Daniel Espinosa | Written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless | 104 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Amazon Prime It still surprises me this movie exists. Due to the weird rules dictating Marvel Comics character licensing, Sony has the rights to a host of villains from the pantheon of Spider-Man comics around which they've… Read More

The Righteous review — Gothic horror counts the wages of sin

June 10, 2022 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Mark O'Brien | 97 min | ▲▲▲△△ | VOD First off, let me say how much I enjoyed the gorgeous black and white cinematography in The Righteous from DP Scott McClellan. His lighting design frequently evokes classic Hollywood noir, a compelling choice of texture for a drama that makes a troubled… Read More

Tin Can review — Homegrown sci-fi horror chills to the core

March 18, 2022 flawintheiris

Tin Can | Directed by Seth A Smith | Written by Smith and Darcy Spidle | 99 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | VOD A version of this review appeared during my coverage of the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in September 2021. Tin Can is a compelling, claustrophobic sci-fi thriller from Smith, whose South Shore-set ghost… Read More

Violation review — An empty effort at art house horror

January 25, 2022 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer | 107 min | Shudder and VOD | ▲△△△△ I had a discussion and disagreement with a fellow film reviewer recently. They admitted to not being a fan of high-brow scares, the arthouse-invading "elevated horror" pictures like The Babadook or Hereditary or Saint Maud. Instead, they… Read More

Scream (2022) review — The good, the bad, and the bloody

January 21, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett | Written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick | 114 min |▲▲▲△△ | VOD There's something to be admired in a franchise that starts as a tight trilogy over four years, goes on hiatus for a decade, returns for a better-than-it-needed-to-be fourth entry, and then takes another decade… Read More

Scream series 1-4 review

January 17, 2022 flawintheiris

I saw the original Scream when it first showed in cinemas 25 years ago and I thought it was... fine. At the time I recognized what master horrormeister Wes Craven and his collaborators were doing — a clever and ironic take on all the horror tropes and cliches Craven indulged in and exploited in earlier films… Read More

Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters (1984), and Ghostbusters II (1989) reviews

November 22, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Jason Reitman | Written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, based on Ghostbusters written by Harold Ramis, Dan Akyroyd, and an uncredited Rick Moranis | 124 min | Netflix Another "legacequel" comes down the pike, and on the surface this seems like the most cynical kind of Hollywood factory product. "Oh, so you whiny Ghostbusters… Read More

Last Night in Soho review — Visions of hell on Wardour Street

October 29, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Edgar Wright | Written by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns | 116 min | Crave Edgar Wright feels like a peer, a media nerd who loves him some movies. The movies he makes are more than informed by his passion and knowledge of all the movies he's watched, they're enraptured by them. He and… Read More

Lamb review — Ewe may be surprised

October 14, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Valdimar Jóhannsson | Written by Jóhannsson and Sjón | 106 min | Crave Lamb is distributed in North America by A24, the American company that's defined itself in the marketplace with stellar indies and horror films, amongst them Midsommar, Hereditary, The Lighthouse, and Ladybird. The trailer for this picture suggested it leans toward… Read More

Malignant review — Veteran horrormeister Wan returns to comfort zone

September 20, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by James Wan | Written by Wan, Ingrid Bisu, and Akela Cooper | 111 min | Netflix James Wan, Hollywood writer-director-producer who launched beloved horror franchises Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious, and one superhero franchise, Aquaman, returns with what's bound to be another popular series. Malignant is fine. I didn't love it. But it… Read More