“Live longer or die faster.” With a gun to your head, what would you choose? If it sounds like a trick question, that’s because it is. “Do you think this is funny?” the man with the gun (Vasile Flutur) asks after the captured Alex (Stephen Friedrich) makes light of his dire situation.
Jeremy Saulnier, the mind behind recent indie thriller successes Blue Ruin and Green Room, began his feature directorial career in 2007 with the low-budget horror comedy Murder Party. In it, a man (Chris Sharp) finds an invitation to a Halloween “murder party,” makes himself a cardboard knight costume, and ventures to the secluded warehouse where the party is taking place.
A recent early review of Ouija: Origin of Evil—the unasked for sequel to 2014’s Ouija—by the A.V. Club is entitled “Ouija: Origin of Evil is much better than it needs to be.” Indeed, critic Katie Rife describes director Mike Flanagan’s (Oculus, Hush) film as “more thoughtful and more meticulously crafted than it needs to be.”
Christopher Guest has made a career out of droll, talking-head mockumentary films that satirize naive, self-centered hopefuls in one career or another. While the formula has certainly worked for Guest in the past, there is a precipitous threshold over which the deadpan ensemble piece becomes reductive.
Mascots is Best in Show with people in costumes. The ensemble of eccentric sports mascots travel to the annual mascot competition to compete for the Golden Fluffy award. Many of Guest’s go-to players return: Continue reading Mascots (2016) Movie Review→
Off the coast of Japan, a massive “anomalous” underwater volcano causes damage to the underground tunnel system and arouses the attention of the Prime Minister and his cabinet. But is it really a volcano…
STDs are inherently scary. But there are STDs, and then there are…stranger STDs. Sam (Najarra Townsend) attends the party of an old friend, reluctantly drinking as she waits for her girlfriend Nikki (Katie Stegeman) to arrive. When she doesn’t, she is instead coaxed into the car of a creepy, standoffish man. From the next morning forward, nothing is quite the same for Sam.
It’s Christmas in October at CineFiles, as we watch last year’s Krampus, a film about the eponymous antithesis of Santa Claus, a half-goat, half-demon who punishes naughty children during the holiday season.
We continue our Halloween Horror trilogy, in which we discuss the three films oft-recommended by Stuart Wellington on the comedy podcast The Flop House. In this installment, we talk about Head of the Family, an exploitation horror film in its truest form.
Nate Parker’s directorial debut has been steeped in conversation since its premiere at Sundance. First it was a conversation of high praise: standing ovations and the timely antidote to #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Then, it became a conversation of divisive controversy involving the personal life of the director himself. What is most important in this roller coaster conversation should be the film itself. So let’s talk about that.
Rachel (Emily Blunt) has an overactive imagination, living vicariously in her mind through the fantasy lives of strangers that she sees from her daily train commute. In particular, she is fascinated by a couple whose true lives are far less glamorous than the sex appeal that is seen as a blip on the passing train.
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