In the early 19th century, John Bell arrived in Western Tennessee to settle at the Red River Settlement, accompanied by his wife Lucy and their children. Within a decade, their family became leaders of the community and well-respected in their church. Strangely, however, the family starts hearing strange noises in the night — scratches on…
Neil Marshall has had a patchy career. From his riotous debut “Dog Soldiers” (re-issued in 2020) to his claustrophobic caving classic “The Descent,” his filmography sunk (or descended) into the highly derivative and uneven “Centurion” and “Doomsday,” before he applied his talents to television with “Game of Thrones” and “Hannibal,” among others. After the disastrous…
After his first-ever published article — Forbidden Fruit: Erotic Secrets of the Modern Witch — hits the newsstand, Joe (John Thacker) is visited at his home by high priestess Evie (Samantha Moorhouse, “Marrok”) who bursts his bubble, accusing him of writing an under-researched article that slanders her coven and furthers the bigotry and hatred that…
Remember the opening of John Carpenter’s “The Fog”? A salty old man tells a spooky story beside a campfire, perfectly setting the folkloric tone, and then Carpenter introduces his sinisterly serene seaside town like it’s a sleeping, snoring creature . . . Well, do not expect such magical mood-building with Mary, a damp fishnet of…
Zoë Kravitz’s (“Rough Night”) character in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Leta Lestrange, tells the franchise’s bashful hero, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”), “You never met a monster you couldn’t love.” The line is actually quite interchangeable with the film itself. While the narrative is somewhat of a slog, there is just…
Gogo (Michael S. New, “Night Kill”), a wacky Bangkok taxi driver straight out of a “Hangover” sequel, picks up Jim (James Landry Hébert, “Gangster Squad”) and Julie (Scout Taylor-Compton, “Halloween”) from the airport. They’re a happy-go-lucky American couple who unfortunately haven’t seen the prologue for Ghost House, in which a homeless witch shoves her fist…
Mary and the Witch’s Flower, based on the English book “The Little Broomstick” by Mary Stewart, is the first female-led action action fantasy film exploding into theaters in 2018. Originally released in Japan in 2017 this new movie, engineered by some of the directors and animators behind classic cartoon adventures such as “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s…
