Category Archives: Reviews
REVIEW: Disney+’s HAMILTON is an engaging and timely production to reflect on this 4th of July weekend.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Thomas Kail’s filmed staged production of Hamilton will make a believer out of those who wondered what the fuss is all about in this vision of early America told with the flavor and influence of the present. When Hamilton
REVIEW: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama THE TRUTH reveals that even behind layers of artifice and resentment, a family can find itself again anew.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve commands the screen in this drama of family and relationships and allowing your walls to come down so you don’t lose them. In THE TRUTH, acclaimed Japanese writer and director Hirokazu Kore-eda makes his debut
REVIEW: Kim Hong Sun’s METAMORPHOSIS uses possession as an interesting take on how unspoken tensions can destroy from within.
Posted by Victor Moreno
A unique spin on The Exorcist, Metamorphosis follows a priest whose faith is broken after a deadly exorcism and the shapechanging demon that begins to haunt him and his family. The book with possession films largely begins and ends with
REVIEW: SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is an honest portrayal of the price of screen infamy in 1980’s Hollywood
Posted by Victor Moreno
SCREAM, QUEEN! follows the life and career of actor Mark Patton and how his role in Nightmare on Elm Street 2 derailed his career due to his homosexuality in the AIDS panic of the 1980s. When you look at the
REVIEW: THE 2020 ETHERIA FILM FESTIVAL showcases a rich and diverse array of new female voices in the horror genre.
Posted by Victor Moreno
The online version of the yearly Etheria Film Festival serves up a great array of horror shorts from women in the horror genre that run the gamut from ruminations on the horrors of social media to a sassy computer waxing
REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT ZONE SEASON 2 delivers the goods in entertaining science fiction fare in an engrossing sophomore effort.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Decidedly less Black Mirror-lite than Season 1, Series 2 of CBS’ The Twilight Zone reboot delivers plenty of compelling fare with less in the term of morality plays. One of the chief of criticisms of CBS All Access’ reboot of
REVIEW: UNDERTAKER: THE LAST RIDE is a fascinating look at the highs and lows of a legendary live perfomer trying to find the perfect moment to say goodbye.
Posted by Victor Moreno
WWE Network’s 5 part Limited Series gives a deep insight into Mark Calaway, the man behind WWE’s legendary Undertaker character and his quest to find a proper ending for his storied career and character. Pro Wrestling, despite its scripted nature,
REVIEW: SCARE PACKAGE is the rare horror anthology film that really works.
Posted by Victor Moreno
The past decade has seen a spate of low-budget horror anthologies from the ABC’s to V/H/S, SCARE PACKAGE succeeds at delivering a great and unique anthology concept with solid entries from start to finish. By and large, I’ve become less
REVIEW: 7500 is a tense psychological thriller that draws you in with a compelling lead performance
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Patrick Vollrath presents us with a nail-biting real-time film with a tremendous lead performance by Joseph Gordon Levitt. In airplane emergency signaling, the code for an airplane hijacking is 7500. Director Patrick Vollrath illustrates what such a scenario could
REVIEW: BE WATER underscores the cultural impact behind the rising star of Bruce Lee in the 60s and 70s through today
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Bao Nguyen’s 30 FOR 30 documentary on Bruce Lee traces the rise of Bruce Lee’s popularity through hard work in the ’60s and ’70s as juxtaposed through the tremendous social changes of the era and how that affected him.
REVIEW: Disney +’s ARTEMIS FOWL is a YA mess that is DOA
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Kenneth Branaugh’s long-gestating adaptation of the 2001 Young Adult fantasy novel is an incoherent hodge-podge of a film that struggles to entertain. One of my favorite shows of the last year was HBO’s adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark
REVIEW: Josephine Decker’s SHIRLEY gives us a harrowing and haunting look at the price of genius and creativity.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Elizabeth Moss plays acclaimed horror author Shirley Jackson with fiendish aplomb in this fictionalized account of the creative process behind the writing of her novel Hangsaman. Shirley Jackson is one of the most acclaimed horror authors of the 20th century.
REVIEW: THE VAST OF NIGHT attempts to channel the spirit of The Twilight Zone with mixed results.
Posted by Victor Moreno
First-time director Andrew Patterson utilizes innovative cinematography and production design to make this low-budget period piece seem like a much bigger film, but the film’s methodic pacing makes it a very slow burn. As THE VAST OF NIGHT gets underway,
REVIEW: BLOOD MACHINES combines science fiction and the surreal in an explosion of retro-flavored Lovecraftian sci-fi/horror.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Director Seth Ickerman combines the driving retro synth-wave sound of Carpenter Brut to a fun 80’s sci-fi body horror throwback with shades of Alien, Blade Runner, and From Beyond. Director Seth Ickerman and synth-wave band Carpenter Brut have a soft
REVIEW: THE WRETCHED spins a tale of teen alienation with backwoods body horror with mixed results
Posted by Victor Moreno
Channeling films like Abel Ferrara’s 1993 BODY SNATCHERS with elements of CRITTERS and THE LOST BOYS, THE WRETCHED entertains with an interesting premise but feels more than a bit overstuffed. In the past couple of years, films dealing with the
REVIEW: SWALLOW examines the idea of taking physical control over one’s self to escape the claustrophobic psychological horror of existential dread.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/director Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ unique feminist horror film examines the psychological damage from being forced to live as a trophy Stepford Wife versus the physical damage of the compulsive disorder used to make that burden palatable. In the past few years,
REVIEW: THE BANKER shines a compelling light on the injustices placed on many in search of the American Dream.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Directo George Nolfi leads a star-studded cast in this captivating true-life story of African-American entrepreneurs who hired a white frontman to enable them to succeed in the segregated worlds of banking and real estate of the ’60s. Period pictures have
REVIEW: VEROTIKA, Glenn Danzig’s ode to the classic horror anthology, suffers from a case of ambition over experience in execution.
Posted by Victor Moreno
While Danzig’s influences in Italian horror are well-represented, Verotika is a largely overstuffed affair without a critical eye for the editing and direction necessary to elevate the overall concept. On one level, Glenn Danzig, music legend and well-known comic book
REVIEW: GUNS AKIMBO is balls to the wall fun.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Samara Weaving and Daniel Radcliffe headline this insane living Fortnite game of a film that is equal parts Suicide Squad, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Wanted, and American Ultra in an ultraviolent little package. You have to give props to
REVIEW: EXTRA ORDINARY is a fun and quirky supernaturally tinged comedy.
Posted by Victor Moreno
Writer/Director team Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman channel the spirit of early Edgar Wright and Taika Waititi films in this endearing comedy about a failed ghosthunting medium turned driving school instructor. The Cornetto Trilogy by Edgar Wright is one of
