Ever since the first genre films established rules, filmmakers have used them as a safety net. For better or worse, this ensured audience familiarity, while also simplifying the production process. Of the genres, horror films are probably the most reliant on these standardized tropes (1996’s “Scream” lampoons this), so much so that there is stagnation…
The inter-dependable relationship between mothers and their sons has been explored throughout horror for decades. From Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” the 1960 landmark film which left an indelible mark on cinema forever, right up to the recent “Daniel Isn’t Real” which sought to explore the link between mother and son and more specifically, mental illness, it’s…
Red Room starts somewhere in Dublin, as a woman named Kyra (Amy Kelly, “Red Rock” TV series) walks home alone at night. A lost cellphone rings on the tarmac. She picks it up. Distracted, she’s grabbed from behind and bundled into a van. She wakes up in a room, locked in chains, along with two…
“Creepy Passion” might sound like a dating site for certain high-profile members of the movie industry, but in this unambitious found footage horrorer, The Follower, from feature debutant writer-director Kévin Mendiboure, it’s the name of a faux YouTube program specializing in all things scary. That’s why its presenter, David Baker (Nicolas Shake, “A Prayer Before…
A found footage slasher which doesn’t add anything to a highly variable subgenre sounds eminently skippable, but Altar is at least short and sharp, reasonably gripping, and has good characterization. A slightly unconvincing and unnecessary prologue presents a married couple spending their wedding night in a remote hotel. For some reason they choose to go…
Undoubtedly, Cannes produces a showcase selection of films considered artistic or valuable, but it also incurs the inevitable backlash. As such, being the winner of the Palme d’Or in the short film category, it’s impossible to respond to Timecode without fastidious scrutiny.
Observance is a difficult film to figure out, the kind that makes you wonder not what its creators are intentionally hiding from its characters and viewers, but what they have not yet figured out themselves. While it has more than its fair share of beautiful shots, dramatic hard cuts, and impressive performances, how unclear the…
