POV (2023)

Currently Screening in Various Festivals.

I believe it was Veruca Salt who said, and I paraphrase: I want a feature film version of “POV.” I want one, I don’t care how, but I want it now. “POV” is probably one of the very first horror based vigilante movies I’ve ever seen and it’s teeming with so much potential to build on this world and expand it in to something dark, twisted, and just downright bad ass. From director Brian K. Rosenthal (of “Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness”), “POV” is such a great film that has a pretty excellent concept behind it.

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Home-Sitters (2022) 

A young woman is hired to house sit for a rich couple last minute and without really knowing them. During the house tour, she is told to not bother with the gated section of the basement. Soon after, the couple leaves, she makes herself comfortable. That is until her ex and his friend show up just before an assault happens on the house. Seemingly, there is something there that they want. 

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“You’re Next” is Still One of the Top Ten Slashers of All Time

Simplicity has always been the best friend of the slasher movie. Nine times out of ten the best slasher movies aren’t convoluted or complex. Most times they’re just simple premises with simple motivations but a lot of subtext added throughout the narrative. “Halloween,” “Scream,” “Friday the 13th,” all benefited from being fairly simplicity and so does “You’re Next.” Adam Wingard’s horror thriller came like a wrecking ball back in 2011, sideswiping me and just blowing me out of my seat. Although now he’s headed for the bigger blockbusters, Wingard’s horror outings tend to channel John Carpenter with how they mesh sub-genres.

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Masquerade (2021)

I’ll be honest, I have a soft spot for home invasion thrillers; most of the time they always entertain me, because I love how they can be twisted for various narratives by writers and or directors. It’s sad though when I was finished with “Masquerade” that I couldn’t get over how boring it was. This is a movie with a genuinely good idea that fails to derive much tension or suspense at every turn, and doesn’t make much of a case for caring about any of the characters. Even when it drops a big climax twist on us, I was generally indifferent toward the entire experience.

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For The Sake of Vicious (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2020]

The visceral raw energy and violence of Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen’s “For the sake of Vicious” is bound to be compared to the masterpieces like “The Green Room” very soon. The set up at least conjures up memories of “Assault on Precinct 13” except in a smaller scale. In either case, it’s a classic white knuckle home invasion siege thriller that spares no one, even when it successfully builds on empathetic and fascinating protagonists.

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Bad Apples (2018)

Truthfully, “Bad Apples” isn’t a terrible movie even when you consider it’s a shameless rip off of “The Strangers.” It just obviously has a paper thin premise and not much else to do but pad the time. The movie is ninety minutes long and for twenty of those minutes it feels like a relationship drama set on Halloween starring Brea Grant and Graham Skipper as married couple Ella and Robert. She’s trying to adjust to her new house, he’s working his new job, and she’s trying to teach at a school run by an overly religious principal, oh the hilarity. Then it decides to dip in to the horror–eventually.

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