Directed by Vadim Jean, 1994
Written by Vadim Jean, based on the novel by John Brosnan
NIGHTSCARES opens with long pans of the exterior of an apartment building inter-cut with long holds on the faces of people sleeping. This sequence is followed immediately by Craig Fairbrass as the worst cop ever (which makes him the best […]

Written and Directed by Xavier Gens, 2007
Perfect timing for me to appear hypocritical over two superficially similar French flicks. I lauded the shallow film INSIDE despite being a gore show with nary a story to tell and I am now going to proceed to, um, non-laud FRONTIER(S) for being a gore show with nary […]

Directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, 2007
Written by Alexandre Bustillo
Centerfold to French horror nu-waver-cum-2007-fest-favorite INSIDE is, well, a festival of gore the crimson of which you’ve likely not seen in a while. I am normally not wont to praise a film whose visual brutality takes precedent over story, but there is an adventurous […]

Directed by Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, 2007
Written by Jaume Balagueró, Luis Berdejo, Paco Plaza
There is a cold efficiency to [REC] that I never imagined I would admire from a film. It has no character development. None whatsoever. Zip. Zero. Nunca. [REC] is a conveyor belt horror film, a […]

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007Written by Sergio G. Sánchez

I lost a lot of money today. For me a hitherto unprecedented amount of money. Not quite, “I’ll put that in my mouth for $5 so I can eat tonight” kind of money, rather “Fuck Apple stock, shots all around!” kind of money. […]

Directed by Rob Green, 2001Written by Clive Dawson

Note: Despite that awesome cover, know there are no zombies anywhere in this film.  Unless you count the director, screenwriter and actors.
Is it law that any film with a group of people trapped in one locale must have Friedrich Nietzsche’s abyss quote as an opening title? That’s […]

Written and Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, 2006

Clocking in at a very trim 77 minutes, featuring only two characters (not counting the opening pair, who exist only for an introductory jolt), and hailing from the land of Haute Tension, Ils is a near plot-less exercise in sustaining the slasheresque chase for as long […]

Written and Directed by James Eaves, 2006

Glance at the above poster for The Witches Hammer and one would surely be convinced as to what kind of movie they’re getting into.  Let me further inform that it was made by a bunch of idealistic Brits who had a micro-budget.  Given these two pieces of evidence, one […]

Directed by Jaume Balagueró 2005Written by Jaume Balagueró, Jordi Galcerán

All the natural resources ghost films mine their goods from have been plundered for years now.  Every now and then a film like Shutter can tap into a familiar vein and uncover treasure in the process, but the law of averages says that most ghosties ride […]

Written and Directed by Guillermo del Toro, 2006

Without question, Pan’s Labyrinth is the hitherto epoch of Guillermo del Toro’s objectively off-and-on filmography.  His personal tale about the innocence of a little girl amidst a world of pain is, to say the least, bursting with imagination.  Featuring not only the best makeup effects of 2006, but […]

Directed by Tom Tykwer, 2006Written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer, Patrick Süskind (Novel)

I hate to write an introductory paragraph like this.  I know there are still a crop of leftovers from 2006 I patiently await (here’s looking at you Mandy Lane, Leslie Vernon, and a Hatchet), but baring the aforementioned unseen(s), I feel […]

Written and Directed by Billy O’Brien, 2005

Isolation opens aptly with moody, mysterious circumstances surrounding the imminent delivery of a calf on a remote farm in Ireland.  Orla, the sole vet tending to the pregnancy, is performing one of what will prove to be several armful uterus probings, when there is a crunching sound prompting an […]

Written and Directed by Nacho Cerda, 1994

Aftermath is art so rare, so exacting and so human that it will penetrate all who view it to their deepest core.  This is not theory, this is irrefutable fact.  It is gravity.  Nacho Cerda’s short film is a definition of gravity possessing such validity that had Newton seen […]

Directed by Nacho CerdàWritten by Nacho Cerdà, Karim Hussain, Richard Stanley

The Abandoned is a visceral, vein expanding experience.  Acclaimed short film director Nacho Cerdà’s feature length debut possesses qualities either extinct or seldom seen in American horror productions, especially those with studio backing.  Elaborate, cold visuals of isolation, decrepitude, murder, and undead doppelgangers.  The sound […]

If the poster alone isn’t enough to make you want to see 13 (Tzameti), a hard boiled thriller about Russian roulette insanity, I dare you to watch this trailer and not move closer to the screen when instructed to stare at that judicious light bulb. 
This is the kind of story I crave these days:
20-year-old […]

I try to keep this blog genre related only, but every now and then I’m compelled to break that rule.  Both the teaser and poster for Koldo Serra’s Spanish lensed The Backwoods are too good not to share.
That poster alone is awesome in its ’70s throwback style - especially the tag line.  And, let us […]

Directed by Michele Soavi, 1994

As an opening sentence there’s little I can do to make this seem less hyperbolic, and for that I make no attempt to apologize, but I shit you negative when I say Michele Soavi’s work on Dellamorte Dellamore is some of the best direction the celluloid art has ever seen - […]