We Are Still Here (2015) (DVD)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If you think there’s nothing else that can be done with ghost films, then you clearly haven’t seen “We Are Still Here.” Director Ted Geoghegan lends a flavor to the haunted house sub-genre that’s not only fresh, but feels nihilistic to boot. “We Are Still Here” is a successfully slow boil horror film that works within its limited scenery and provides a truly haunting ghost tale that works on so many levels. It’s creative, it’s creepy, and it opens up a vast world filled with a mythology that you want to see more of. When the credits rolled, I wanted to know more about the back story of the Dagmar house and what other victims it’d claimed before we met the Sacchettis.

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Under the Dark Wing (2014)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If there’s one complaint I can lobby at “Under the Dark Wing” is that I really would have loved ten more minutes for exposition. Director Christopher DiNunzio unfolds an interesting story with considerable ambiguity that audiences might enjoy, but I think ten minutes more would have lent the film more dread. In either case, “Under the Dark Wing” is still an eerie and fascinating horror drama that focuses on dread placing it front and center.

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Hellions (2015)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It’s pretty sad when you sit through a horror movie and the only thing you can take away is the delight of seeing another talented “Degrassi” alum taking on the horror genre. Chloe Rose was one of my favorite characters of the series, and its fun to see her tackling more complex material. “Hellions” is ultimately a mixed bag that presents brief glimmers of greatness, but constantly stumbles in to sheer mediocrity and incoherency. To make matters worse, the film ends without any real clarification of what we’d just seen. Bruce McDonald seems to be building up to something, but then just shuts the film down before we can make sense of anything we’d just seen.

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Voices of October: Diary of a Halloween Haunt (2015)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

For some people Halloween is a state of mind and not just a holiday. For the Counelis family, it’s a yearly ritual that begins in the middle of the year and ends when November finally rears its head. It’s refreshing to see a documentary that’s more grounded and down to Earth, and much like films like “American Scream,” Paul Counelis documents his family’s journey to build and construct a haunted house mainly because they want to give their neighbors some memories. Surely there’s a profit to be had by a haunted attraction, but that’s not what the holiday means to Paul Counelis and his large family.

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Tales of Halloween (2015)

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I’m enjoying the rush of Halloween themed movies coming to theaters thanks to talented and ambitious filmmakers. If there’s any holiday deserving of a sub-genre it’s Halloween. “Tales of Halloween” is a near perfect anthology horror film that embraces the holiday and uses it as fuel to tell some weird, wild, creepy tales all set around a small town celebrating the wicked holiday. Much like “Terror Tract” and “Trick r Treat,” the anthology is set around a small suburb where inexplicably terrifying and nasty things happen on the holiday. Like “Trick r Treat,” most of the stories connect with each other and garner references to the former tale. It assures that audiences will have to watch the film over and over to catch every Easter Egg thrown to us.

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Random (2015)

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Cindy Maples really has a clever film on her hands here that I hope storms festivals soon enough. I didn’t know what I was expecting with “Random, but surely enough I was happy with what resulted in the end. Maples is a very talented director with a skill for exposition and characterization, while also telling a story that’s quite gripping.

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The 5 Best Moments of Marvel’s “Daredevil” Season One

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

There’s always been something about me and underdogs. I love rooting for the underdogs. Even as a kid who loved comic books, while my friends were buying Punisher, Wolverine, and Batman, I was spending my time on Darkhawk, War Machine, Night Thrasher and Superman. The last character is iconic and a household name, sure, but he wasn’t in regular circulation in my circle of friends that collected comic books. It’s been hell being a fan of “Daredevil” for many years without proper justice paid to him. Surely, Frank Miller did an amazing job with him for a few years, but watching other characters get big screen treatments while Daredevil literally got short handed was irritating.

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