House by the Lake follows a family of three — mother Karen (Anne Dudek, “The Flash” TV series), father Scott (James Callis, “The Hollow”), and daughter Emma (Amiah Miller, “War for the Planet of the Apes”) — through an extremely tumultuous time in their lives. After having learned that Emma, who has strong aversions to…
In some ways, Theresa “Tree” Gelbman (Jessica Rothe, “Wolves”) is your average college student. She parties, she drinks, and, at the end of the night, she doesn’t always end up at home. In other ways she’s your average sorority girl (the pathetically one dimensional way sororities are portrayed in movies, at least). She maintains shallow…
Both the original “The Houses October Built” and its sequel, The Houses October Built 2, open with quotes about the dark, primal volatility of human nature. The first cites Walter Jon Williams’ well known “I’m not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I’m afraid of what real human beings do to other real…
The first rule of a frightening film, as outlined in meta masterpieces like “The Cabin in the Woods” and “Scream,” is that in order to be punished, our protagonists must first transgress. Going somewhere they shouldn’t, engaging in nefarious activities, hurting another person (whether they meant to or not) . . . one or all…
When I first saw the trailers for When the Bough Breaks, I was excited. It looked like “Obsessed,” “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” or “Single White Female,” except with fewer white people (something most movies these days could benefit from). When I first sat down in the theater, I was still excited. The pacing…
Allison Hillstead (Marie Barker, “Horror Hotel: The Webseries”) has enough on her plate handling the house she just inherited and trying to lock down a post graduation job. With a time sensitive interview in mere hours and a Wilderness Scout knocking on her door, the last thing she needs is any more problems, but apparently…
What I want to say about Morgan is that it was a good idea that suffered from a poor execution. Unfortunately, I can’t say that, because, aside from a partial (which is wording it generously) explanation by way of a deus ex machina (which, contrary to what is ostensibly the belief of screenwriters at large,…
