‘The Wraith’ Scares Up A Good Time

A movie like The Wraith seems to be a casserole of genres. It’s about a murdered person who returns from the grave to exact revenge in a slasher style where each killer is murdered one by one mostly. But it’s also a western, set in the Arizona desert, where the main protagonist like Clint Eastwood’sContinue reading “‘The Wraith’ Scares Up A Good Time”

‘Identity’ Has A Great Look

A movie like Identity draws its inspiration from Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. A character even references it at one point. And why not? Most thrillers/horrors owe some debt to Christie and what she did to help the genre. But this movie has a twist that is so good that when you thinkContinue reading “‘Identity’ Has A Great Look”

‘Eye See You’ Coded But Has Some Life

Like most people, I spent my youth hanging out in the aisles of video rental places like Hollywood and Blockbuster. One day, I came across a shelf that had VHS and DVD copies of Eye See You starring Sylvester Stallone and wondered “How did I miss this?” I still read Entertainment Weekly, before the writersContinue reading “‘Eye See You’ Coded But Has Some Life”

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience

Christmas may be over but a movie like Jacob’s Ladder isn’t technically a Christmas movie. It’s set in the dreary late fall/early winter of December for a reason. It’s about the darkness a man experiences following a traumatic experience. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) was once a philosophy professor but after his youngest son, Gabe (MacaulayContinue reading “‘Jacob’s Ladder’ Is A Nightmare That You Never Want To Experience”

‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre

There’s just something about Santa Claus that is so creepy when you look at it. He’s an omniscient omniprescient person who is immortal and is able to travel around the world like The Flash (or Quicksilver for the MCU fans) and deliver presents. Popularized in A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore, he’sContinue reading “‘Christmas Evil’ A Noteworthy Entry For The Killer Santa Horror Subgenre”

Oh! ‘Krampus’ Might Be Frightful, But Overall It’s Not Too Delightful

Kramus has been a subject of Austro-Bavarian folklore for as far back as the 6th Century. So, it’s a wonder why it took over a 100 years of motion pictures for the creature who punishes naughty children to get its own movie. Sometimes the first of anything isn’t always the best. The Finnish movie RareContinue reading “Oh! ‘Krampus’ Might Be Frightful, But Overall It’s Not Too Delightful”

Unwrapping ‘Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas might just well be one of the most disappointing movies ever made. How could something with a great concept and stunning visuals be so incredibly dull and problematic? I remember watching this once when it went to video in 1994 and feeling bored. I later was talking about it with someoneContinue reading “Unwrapping ‘Nightmare Before Christmas”

Why ‘Elf’ Is A Horror Movie

When Will Ferrell first premiered on Saturday Night Live in the Fall of 1995, he appeared in a skit where he played a seemingly normal American dad who screams to his kids off-screen to “Get off the shed!” It wasn’t a funny skit. Ferrell had done this skit as his audition before the writers improvedContinue reading “Why ‘Elf’ Is A Horror Movie”

‘Chopping Mall’ Makes A Killing For Black Friday

Even though the movie had already been shown in test markets by the time Short Circuit hit theaters in the spring of 1986, Chopping Mall is the answer to what would happen if they took the Slasher/Dead Teenagers genres and mashed them up with murdering robots. What if Johnny Five blew people’s heads off asContinue reading “‘Chopping Mall’ Makes A Killing For Black Friday”

‘Kalifornia’ Is A Killer

A movie like Kalifornia pretty much breaks people down in two categories. On one side, you have the people who have a moral and ethical code that prevents them from doing things that might harm people. Then, you have people who will just do something no matter who it harms. The protagonist, Brian Kessler (DavidContinue reading “‘Kalifornia’ Is A Killer”