Category Archives: Horror

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Lights Out (2016) Movie Review

March 20, 2017 Alex Brannan

At CineFiles, we like to stay current. We try our very best to see the big new releases right as they come out, so that we can get reviews out to you lovely readers in a timely manner. This task is not always easy, especially given that our choice of pronoun can be deceiving in terms of number agreement.

So, yeah, we didn’t see Lights Out last Summer. What’s it to you?

All joking aside, Lights Out is the number one genre movie that I regret not seeing last year. As such, I’m back almost a year later to pick up the slack. I watched Lights Out (thanks, Cinemax), so let’s talk about it.

Lights Out is the feature length film from David F. Sandberg adapted from the short film by David F. Sandberg. The short film is an intriguing game of Continue reading Lights Out (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it

The Belko Experiment (2017) Movie Review

March 16, 2017 Alex Brannan

In Bogota, Colombia, a white collar NPO that helps Americans get hired in South America is up to the normal day. Save for the heightened, armed gate security.

Midway through the morning, the office is interrupted by an intercom voice informing them that every employee needs to kill two of their coworkers to prevent further ramifications. The building is subsequently locked down with a seemingly impenetrable metal wall. When no one responds to the request of the mysterious voice of god: people’s heads start exploding.

And…begin a psychological mind games thriller a la Circle, 13 Sins, Cube, Cube 2: Hypercube, Cube Zero, Exam, Buried, Brake, Compliance, 9 Dead, Saw 1, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw VII, Cheap Thrills, The Perfect Host, The Invitation, Shutter Island, The Cure for Wellness, etc. etc.

James Gunn’s script is the ethical dilemma of the man on the trolley tracks—do you Continue reading The Belko Experiment (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Aliens (1986) Movie Review

March 12, 2017 Alex Brannan

In anticipation of the release of Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, CineFiles is looking back on the Alien franchise as a whole. Today, we look at James Cameron’s sequel film Aliens, a film that takes the formula of the 1979 original film and spins it in a new direction.

57 years after the events of Ridley Scott’s Alien, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wakes up from stasis. The only survivor of the Nostromo incident, Ripley accompanies a crew of military to LV-426, the planet where the Nostromo first encountered the eponymous creature.

Like the 1979 original, Aliens begins with characterization by way of politics. The heads of the mission, both military and civilian, sit at a different table at the mess hall while the army grunts act amateurish nearby. The characters adhere more to Continue reading Aliens (1986) Movie Review →

A Movies, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Alien (1979) Movie Review

March 4, 2017 Alex Brannan

In preparation for the May 19 release of Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, CineFiles is taking a retrospective look at all of the Alien films. To begin, we look at the 1979 original, Alien. The film is largely heralded as a classic, and for good reason. Let’s get into it.

Ridley Scott’s Alien is, perhaps, the perfect horror movie. The best? Now that is up for debate. But it is inarguably Continue reading Alien (1979) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Love It

Get Out (2017) Movie Review

February 7, 2017 Alex Brannan

The opening to Get Out, the new thriller from Key & Peele‘s Jordan Peele, plays out in a single, meandering take that is gorgeously composed. The single shot depicts a man (Lakeith Stanfield) being plucked off of a suburban street in the middle of the night.

This cold open pivots to an idyllic, happy young couple, Chris and Rose (Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams), packing for a weekend at Rose’s parents’ house. This retreat to the woods, however, promises to be far more Continue reading Get Out (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Rings (2017) Movie Review

February 2, 2017 Alex Brannan

The premise of The Ring has always seemed silly. “You ever hear about the videotape that kills people in seven days?” This is one of the first lines of Rings, this third English-language installment of the franchise, itself a remake of the J-Horror sensation Ringu.

On a plane, two people who watched the tape are killed by Samara, the pallid, greasy black-haired monster of the film, as she climbs out of a monitor in the cockpit. This essentially unrelated cold open is the shoddiest scene in the entire film; a strange way to Continue reading Rings (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Horror, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Split (2017) Movie Review

January 20, 2017 Alex Brannan

The cold open to M. Night Shyamalan’s new venture, Split, features an intriguing mix of directorial choices. There is a Hitchcockian motivated mobile POV, one that starts as an innocent track. There are motivated pans and tilts that follow our protagonist Casey’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) increasingly cautious gazes. There is a sense of impending dread with each edit.

This opening kidnapping was shown in almost its entirety in Split‘s trailer, which presents the premise of a man with multiple personalities (James McAvoy) who steals away three teenage girls (Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Taylor-Joy). Ignore the ridiculous notion that Continue reading Split (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, F Movies, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Bye Bye Man (2017) Movie Review

January 12, 2017 Alex Brannan

I was going to come home from the screening of The Bye Bye Man and write a scathing review. I was going to give it a quadruple F-. I was going to tear the film apart and bury the pieces.

But first I told my roommate about this terrible film. I let him know; I said: “Don’t go see this film called The Bye Bye Man…” As the words of the film’s title left my lips, though, I started hearing things. A coin dropping to the floor. Scratching on wood. The sound of my girlfriend having sex with my best friend.

I was going to write an F- review of The Bye Bye Man but…don’t pay money, don’t see it. Don’t Pay Money, Don’t See It. DON’T PAY MONEY, DON’T SEE IT!!

In 1969, a reporter (Leigh Whannell) goes on a murdering spree over a name that people in his neighborhood keep spreading around. “Don’t say it, don’t think it,” he mutters to himself as he paces around his suburban street with a shotgun, stalking people down and shooting them after they comically run away at half speed.

Flash forward to present day, three personality-devoid college students rent a seemingly mansion-sized house. The trio include a couple comprised of Sasha (Cressida Bonas), a character whose only character trait is that Continue reading The Bye Bye Man (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Yoga Hosers (2016) Movie Review

December 5, 2016 Alex Brannan

Kevin Smith’s latest feature, the blatantly Canadian-set Yoga Hosers, feels at first like an unofficial Clerks 3 graduated to a new generation to include Instagram, yoga, an attempt at current slang, and a female empowerment angle. Indeed, most characters are introduced through an Instagram insert that adds no information to the character that was not already presented through narrative context.

The film is also a horror movie about bratwurst Nazis. And a musical, kind of. It paints Canada like a fantasy world completely alien to American audiences, so alien that Continue reading Yoga Hosers (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, F Movies, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Incarnate (2016) Movie Review

December 1, 2016 Alex Brannan

The exorcism film. Has it ever lived up to its contemporary creator, The Exorcist? Not really. Yet, here we are four decades later still letting Hollywood churn them out like soap operas.

Incarnate, the latest effort (if we can call it that) from Blumhouse Tilt, takes the possessed child angle to “new heights” by providing our exorcist character Dr. Seth Embers (Aaron Eckhart) with an ability to enter the victim’s subconscious during the exorcism. In short, Incarnate is The Exorcist meets Inception, only without everything that makes those films interesting and different.

The wheelchair-bound Embers is executing exorcisms (or “evictions”) in search for the demon Maggie. Maggie has also been searching for him so that she can cause him interminable pain, only it has taken Embers dozens of exorcisms to find her. Horror movies don’t need logical premises, right?

The reality check with Incarnate is that Continue reading Incarnate (2016) Movie Review →

CineFiles Movie Reviews