Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Surely, once you see “Going Clear” you’ll have no doubt that it’s a terrifying religion filled with a horrific history, but watched side by side with a film like “Jesus Camp,” and there’s not much a difference. Scientology is just an in vogue religion that’s managed to use its legal force and strong arms to keep the lid about its sordid history tight for many years. “Going Clear” is the really explosive expose of the church of Scientology, an institution that’s garnered considerable influence over the world since its inception.

Continue reading →

Caedes: Forestglade of Death (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Emilie Black

Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015

Forest, zombies, Germany, sounds like a match made in horror-comedy heaven. Caedes: Forestglade of Death, or Caedes – Die Lichtung des Todes, follows a group of friends as they go to Happy Camping for a weekend of relaxation and beer, lots of beer. Quickly a leader is established in Dan who approaches a blond babe named Leen only to be shot down. Everyone settles in, meets their camping neighbors, and parties all night. When morning comes, some awake with one hell of as hang over while others wake up as zombies, something clearly having happened overnight. Zombies go looking for food where they can, attacking the remaining campers who defend themselves as best they can. San and his friends Manesh, Jose, and Jorrun all survive along with Leen, Fritz, Tina, and a few others. This band of survivors then works together to live, finds the zombie source, and get out of there.

Continue reading →

Entourage: The Movie (2015) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

“Entourage” is probably the first movie I’ve ever wanted to punch. It’s also the only movie I’m sure that if I punched, my fist would probably smell like Axe body spray for a few weeks. “Entourage” is certainly a movie. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end, and had actors in it, and a script. I’m assuming. I’ll just lay it all on the floor right now: I have never seen a single episode of “Entourage” even though I am familiar with it. For folks that would argue that you have to be a fan to understand and or enjoy this film, I would argue that that excuse only highlights how terrible this movie is.

Continue reading →

Inside the Box (2013)

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Matt is literally running on borrowed time. After a morning spent completely dismissing his wife who craves intimacy, he’s confronted by a local internal affairs worker Stephanie Miles (Regina King). Said worker is insistent on interviewing Matt about an incident he had with a perpetrator at a bar one night. Matt is very cryptic about what went down that night, despite eyewitness reports, and that’s when things begin to unravel. Ms. Miles has pictures and concrete reports of what occurred between Matt and the drunk, and this resulted in a violent confrontation that may have involved an exchange of bodily fluids. The problem is the suspect is infected with HIV and it may have been transmitted to Matt.

Continue reading →

Run, Hide, Die (2015) (DVD)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I’m a little exhausted with indie filmmakers setting every horror film in the eighties based on some hope that if it’s set in a nostalgic decade, the film will in effect be a gem. It’s not enough to show characters playing classic Nintendo, and walking around with neon colors. “Run, Hide, Die” garners a lot of inexplicable elements, from the eighties setting that adds nothing to the overall narrative, right down to the title that in no way reflects the film at al. It adds up to a pretty miserable dramatic thriller that poses as a horror film, and fails to deliver on every aspect. It spends too much time on characterization, offers no interesting villain, and just delights in being melodramatic when it should be terrifying.

Continue reading →

Some Kind of Hate (2015)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Adam Egypt Mortimer‘s “Some Kind of Hate” may be polarizing to some viewers, because much like its contemporaries like “Carrie,” and “The Final,” there simply are no winners or heroes in this narrative. It’s a tragic tale about people losing left and right, and the vicious cycle of bullying. Being the victim of bullying can be a stain on your persona forever, and it resonates as a horrific echo for eternity. “Some Kind of Hate” is a grim and brutally bleak horror film about bullying and how it musters up something really bad from beyond the grave. Mortimer keeps “Some Kind of Hate” consistently torturous by closing off any avenues of hope for his characters.

Continue reading →

Some Kind of Hate (2015) [Film4 FrightFest 2015]

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Emilie Black

Film4 FrightFest 2015

Lincoln Taggert is a loner metal head who is regularly bullied at school. After a particularly brutal event, Lincoln loses his cool and hurts one of his tormentors badly. Following this incident, Lincoln is sent to a meditation based reform school where he encounters a new group of bullies and eventually wishes they would all be dead. This awakens the vengeful spirit of Moira who attacks his tormentors one by one as she herself being highly disturbed by past bullying she was a victim of before her death.

Continue reading →