Bryce Hanson

Synopsis Based on the Richard Bachman/Stephen King novel of the same name, Thinner tells the story of an overweight lawyer who is cursed by a Gypsy to lose weight at an alarming rate.  Review It’s a simple premise that makes you wonder, huh what are they going to do with that! The answer is nothing. This is a big ol nothing burger of a movie. I remember seeing it when I was younger but I always assumed it was a made for tv movie, and now I understand why I thought that. The production quality and acting was so bad that it induced incredulity. The movie focuses so much on moving the plot forward that it fails to include a story with characters with clear motivations. It is so focused on getting to the next stage of thinness that it never takes a moment to really communicate what the characters think or feel about the situation. It ends up feeling as hollow as the protagonist's former pants. Score 2/10 … [Read more...] about Thinner Review

Synopsis In this 2007 French film, a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve, the night before her induced labor is mourning the recent loss of her husband in a car crash when she is terrorized by a nameless woman in the dark.  Review This movie is something else. it uses the equation of vulnerable person + unstoppable psychopath = dread to the maximum effect. It would be bad enough with just the pregnant woman as the protagonist, but we also the the In Utero POV showing the baby suffering from the trauma. It’s very rare that a horror movie makes me actually feel something. I’m a jaded horror movie reviewer. I’ve seen it all. This film gave me a visceral reaction so deeply that I regressed to childhood and was watching parts of this movie through my fingers. This movie goes hard. Even with the rather cheesy CGI of the early 2000s, you can’t help but still be disturbed by the ideas that said CGI is portraying. While I can’t say I enjoyed this film, I can say it is a good … [Read more...] about Inside (2007) Review

Synopsis From a young age, Maren (played by Taylor Russell) has carried the innate urge to consume human flesh—a hunger that has shaped nearly every aspect of her life. Shortly after turning 18 and finding herself on her own, she sets out across the country in search of her estranged mother. Along the way, Maren encounters a colorful cast of outsiders and drifters, including Lee (played by Timothée Chalamet), with whom she develops a budding romance. Through this coming-of-age story, Luca Guadagnino explores themes of queerness, identity, loneliness, and life on the fringes of society.  Review of Bones and All Bones and all is a great romance movie for horror lovers  It’s artsy and at times weird for the sake of being weird but through the use of cannibalism we get a representation of the intense otherness that some feel   The approach to queerness is very interesting as how characters are shown in a more dynamic way where it’s a part of the character than their whole … [Read more...] about Bones and All Review

Synopsis Fire In The Sky tells the based on a true story of Travis Walton, a logger in Arizona traveling home with his crew getting abducted by an alien UFO. Now I know what you’re thinking they can’t possibly stretch out a single abduction story into a full feature length horror film. Well do I have news for you. You’re right. But! You can stretch it out to about 3/4 of a drama and 1/4 of a horror movie. Review This movie came out just months before the pilot of The X-files that all featured an alien abduction. Alien abduction was in the air in the early 90s and this movie came out at the prime time with a wide release and failed at the box office. I saw it in theaters when I was just 11, so I definitely have thick nostalgia glasses on. It is not a prefect movie. In fact narratively it is a real oddity. It spend most of the movie exploring the fallout and doubt around Travis’ friends story of his disappearance. In the last 1/4 of the movie we are treated with some of the … [Read more...] about Fire In The Sky Review

Synopsis The late Sam Neill plays John Trent, an insurance investigator tracking down the whereabouts of Sutter Cane a famous horror novelist who has gone missing right before the release of his new novel. Trent suspects that the whole thing is a publicity stunt for the novel’s release, but as he searches for Kane, he finds the line between Kane’s fictional world and reality start to fray and overlap in disturbing ways. Review John Carpenter goes full Lovecraftian, melding his trademark independent film sensibilities and impressive practical effects with cosmic horror. If you look at his Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB ratings, you will also see that this is his last major film with significant critical and audience praise. It marks the end of an era where scrappy 80s gore and body horror was supplanted by slicker high budget meta narratives. This movie ushered in the new era with the likes of Candyman, The New Nightmare, and Scream. standing between two eras, this definitely has … [Read more...] about In The Mouth of Madness Review

Synopsis Two young men who are either 16 or 25 discover they like kissing. Their parents don’t like them kissing. So they call the gay exorcist, the kind that exorcise the gay out of gays, not the normal type of gay exorcist. The zealous christians who adhere to the Old Testament beliefs about gays use witchcraft (which they seem to be fine with) to curse the two mates with a sex demon. Review of Leviticus I was interested to see how they would handle the deep and complex issues of religious trauma for gays. Unfortunately, they handled these issues as clumsily as a back of the bus handjob between two teenagers. There really didn’t seem to be much depth behind the characters or relationships that would have made this movie really interesting.  Instead we get a repetitive and oppressive reliance on the gimmick of the movie revealed in the trailer. A supernatural entity that appears as the person you lust over to lure you in, so that it can harm/kill you. If you are expecting … [Read more...] about Leviticus Review

Synopsis A failing furniture store owner and aspiring architect Clarke is trying to work on himself in therapy when he stumbles upon a hidden portal to a labyrinthian series of rooms. These “backrooms” have an uncanny nature about them. They don’t seem to have any logical floor plans, scale, or use case. They are like a memory of a room, and not a room itself. As Clarke explores deeper he is confronted with a danger within that might consume him if he stays too long. Review Backrooms as a concept started as a creepy and tongue in cheek 4chan comment and them was adapted and thrived on youtube as a series of shorts. Now the creator of that series helms a hollywood movie starring oscar nominated actors. It accomplishes a great feat in bringing a very specific flavor of horror to the masses. Liminal horror. the unsettling feeling of the spaces between spaces. whereas most horror would focus on the scary, or horrifying, or dread. The word the exemplifies Backrooms is … [Read more...] about Backrooms Review

Don’t go anywhere, We’re about to get crackalackin on our review of Misery, one of Stephen Kings most successful and critically acclaimed novel adaptations. … [Read more...] about Misery Review

Synopsis A single mother and her two teens travel to a rural house inherited from a family member. News reports tell of a serial killer that targets families, killing the parents, and living with and torturing the surviving teen girls. You can guess what happens next. But can you guess what happens AFTER that? Probably not. Review of Incident in a Ghostland This is an effective psychological horror that really plays with the audience in some impressive ways. It keeps you guessing exactly what kind of movie is this? Is this a torture porn slasher? Is it a supernatural horror allegory of unprocessed trauma? One thing is certain, this movie is fucking with your expectations. Incident in a Ghostland is directed by Pascal LAugier, who is probably most known for Martyrs, so the amount of brutality should be adjusted accordingly. It is a very dark movie, and only lets up briefly. It borders on too uncomfortable to watch and enjoy. However, it’s so darn interesting, that you … [Read more...] about Incident in a Ghostland Review

Synopsis The film begins 17 years after the events of The Exorcist and follows the characters Father Dyer and Lieutenant Kinderman who have kindled their friendship from the shared tragedy of losing their friend Father Karras.  A series of murders in Washington DC copycat the Gemini Killer, who has been dead for 17 years. Kinderman is befuddled that they include Gemini’s trademarks that were never revealed to the public. The investigation leads to a psychiatric ward and a supernatural suspect. Review of Exorcist III The Exorcist 3 certainly does a better job of carrying forth the themes and story of the first film, however it never comes close to matching its quality. That being said, it’s a vast improvement over the incomprehensible mess of Exorcist II: The Heretic. The film is written and directed by William Peter Blatty, the author of the original Exorcist novel. While the writing is good, and the characters and relationships strong, the direction is a mixed bag … [Read more...] about Exorcist III Review