If there was ever a case of “too little, too late,” it would be Goosebumps, released by Sony Pictures Entertainment under its Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation labels. And, not unlike “The Simpsons Movie” in 2007, this picture should have come out at least 15 years earlier. “Carpe diem” or “strike when the iron…
Opening night at the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival, held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland, is always a treat. This year, the opener was The Final Girls, a thriller/comedy that subverts many horror-film conventions — indeed, the very notion of movies themselves. Teenager Max (Taissa Farmiga, “Anna”) happens to be the daughter of the…
There are more coming-of-age films than masterpieces in the Louvre, but there are only a handful of them that have stood the test of time, even though teen-speak changes over the years. First-time Canadian director Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, an update of the short that won the youth jury prize at Locarno International Film Festival…
God did I want to like Wildlike — I really, really wanted to. Let me tell you why. Though I’ll not bore you with unnecessary details, I should elaborate on such a self-absorbed claim: I am a seriously superstitious soul. “Seriously” is, in all truth, almost a euphemism in this context, but I rather drown…
As the title, The Curse of Downers Grove, suggests, there’s a curse on the small town of Downers Grove — each year, a senior dies in the days leading up to graduation. I incorrectly assumed the curse would be supernatural, and as soon-to-graduate high school senior Chrissie (Bella Heathcote, “Dark Shadows”) tells her friends, it’s…
Awakenings are as births: Inherently unappealing and, when looked upon closely, intrinsically unclean. Only those involved are interested in such event and only their tricky memories (and the time that there elapses) can pretty it up till the point of making a miracle out of it — a radical makeover. And so we come of…
If you watched the trailer for The Gallows, you probably got the impression you were going to see an intense flick in which some high school kids that are involved in some sort of drama production are viciously attacked by a supernatural entity. And while you wouldn’t be entirely wrong, you’ve nonetheless been dealt a…
