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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Thanatos (2015) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Emilie Black

[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Thanatos is partially inspired by the personification of Death in ancient Greece. Hsin-Yen LU’s student film of the same name follows a young photographer who captures an image of Death as a young woman. He becomes captivated and enamored with her, his interest becoming obsession as he stages his own death multiple times to be able to see her again and again and to photograph her each time. He desperately wants to go with her but she cannot take him as it his time has not come yet.

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We Are Still Here (2015) [FrightFest 2015]

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Emilie Black

FrightFest 2015

Anne and Paul Sacchetti lost their son to a car accident. In an effort to move on, they relocate to New England, to a quaint looking house made for a family. No sooner have they arrived do odd things start happening. Higher than normal heat in the basement, frames falling over, possible apparitions, … A few weeks into their living there, the Sacchettis are visited by the McCabe and are told that the house needs a family. As the phenomena multiply, Anne becomes certain it’s their dead son letting them know he’s there with them. To get to the bottom of this, she invites her friend May who is a medium to come spend a weekend and possibly try to reach her son. Once May and her husband Jacob arrive, something is clearly not right. One day, while May and Anne are out shopping, the men have a séance which turns very bad and is followed by all hell breaking loose.

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Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2015) [Blu-Ray]

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

With the glut of zombie entertainment choking pop culture right now, it’s rare you get to come across a zombie film that’s genuinely good. “Wyrmwood” wasn’t a win for me when I first sat through it, but watching it a second time I can safely say it really is worth a shot for open minded horror buffs. Not only is it a really damn good zombie movie, but it’s a new and fresh approach to the zombie sub-genre. It invents its own rules, it creates its own world, and it’s a lot of fun to boot. Of course I have a soft spot for post apocalyptic horror films of most kinds, but “Wyrmwood” really thrives on being an absurd and wonky take on the horror genre.

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Harbinger Down (2015)

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If John Carpenter’s “The Thing” were competently remade in 2011, “Harbinger Down” is what we’d have. I imagine Alec Gillis’ monster feature will be placed alongside Carpenter’s masterpiece as a double feature for many years, and why shouldn’t it? It’s a strong and very entertaining tribute that can also work as a companion piece. “Harbinger Down” owes a lot of its material to John Carpenter, posing much of the same scenarios from the aforementioned film. There’s a group of workers stuck in the middle of a desolate wasteland, a creature hunting everyone down and taking different forms, and an inevitable fight for survival.

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Synchronicity (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Jacob Gentry’s “Synchronicity” is the kind of film I really do enjoy. It’s non-linear, it has a taste of noir within it, and it’s filled with existentialist themes about parallel worlds and wormholes that dare to challenge its audience. “Synchronicity” is the kind of challenging fiction that will spark conversations among its audience and leave them pondering on the bigger questions that it poses right through to the end. I didn’t quite understand what was happening in the film for the first half, but Gentry really brings all of the narrative together making what seems like a scattershot series of events feel like one giant master plan. It’s a film in the tradition of “Memento” sparking brilliant visuals and a vivid world where nothing is ever really what it seems.

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