In a Violent Nature (2024)

Exclusively In Theaters on May 31st from IFC Films. 

When you’re a slasher movie buff as I have been for thirty years, you become convinced that you’ve seen it all. Every new kind of effect or aesthetic has been approached, all with varying degrees of success. So when a movie like “In a Violent Nature” comes around and changes your mind, it’s quite a special occasion. Chris Nash sets out to not only re-think the slasher movie, but deconstruct it, and succeeds with flying colors. He the best horror movie of the year, a nihilistic, gory, viciously mean slasher movie that’s also incredibly creepy, and downright haunting in its commentary about the unpredictability of nature.

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Hanky Panky (2023)

Now Available to stream on VOD.

It takes a special kind of balls to make a film so utterly abstract and bizarre and not pay the cast. But the press release insists that “nobody got paid” therefore they must have had a lot of faith in this project. Lindsay Haun and Nick Roth’s horror comedy is a weird cabin in the woods sitcom that pits a bunch of new age yuppies against a weird evil force. This force involves a sentient talking handkerchief, a supernatural fedora and a main protagonist who has an encyclopedic knowledge of finer materials and clothing fabrics.

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The Spider (2023)

Andy Chen’s “The Spider” could be appreciated as a multiverse interpretation where the story of Spider-Man is not about a superhero but a body horror tragedy. “The Spider” is basically “Spider-Man” as told by David Cronenberg and takes all the basics of Peter Parker’s tale and transforms it in to a gruesome genre hybrid. With the excellent prosthetics and make up from Alen Stubbs, he and Chandler Riggs help to realize a slick and entertaining take on Spider-Man that is pitch black in tone.

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The Strangers Chapter 1 (2024)

2008’s “The Strangers” was simple. It (and its painfully underrated sequel) was effective because it was simple. It relied on psychological torment where the strangers felt like perversely intrusive predators preying on a couple already in turmoil. When they arrive there’s the collective “What else can happen to us?” that we feel emanate through Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman’s characters. With “The Strangers: Chapter 1” all of that nihilism, that sheer sense of pure evil preying on the vulnerable is lost in favor of what is pretty much just a lazy remake of Bryan Bertino’s original film.

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Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988): Limited Steelbook Edition [4K/Blu-Ray]

Now Available from Scream! Factory

Another sign that horror is always ahead of its time, the mainstream has finally caught up with the horror community and realize what a loyal but small fan base has known for a very long time. That “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” is a demented horror masterpiece, and there’s never really been anything like it since. You can kind of, maybe consider “Mars Attacks!” its successor, but “Killer Klowns” is so much more concerned with turning its villains in to genuine horror foes, rather than trotting out all sorts of guest stars and fancy special effects. Even today, “Killer Klowns from Out Space” is a bag of mixed treats filled with gore, grue, silliness, and a fun group of fearsome alien klowns that seem almost unstoppable in their rampage.

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