It’s always funny when you consider studios are spending millions on remaking slasher films, when people like Adam Wingard are literally re-inventing the slasher film. And making it look damn easy, too. Director Adam Wingard’s “You’re Next” is a sick, scary, and exciting amalgam of “Fortress,” and “Straw Dogs,” with a hint of Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game.” It’s clear director Wingard is heavily influenced by late seventies and eighties survival horror films, and he shows off his innate talent for style and suspense with one of the most entertaining horror films of the year.
Tag Archives: Mystery
Exhumed (2011)
Director Richard Griffin’s horror thriller about a demented and warped family comprised of people that simply can not leave their home is an often enigmatic, perplexing, but excellent horror film. I often found “Exhumed” to be a brilliant spin on the “Spider Baby” with a Lynchian atmosphere that worked quite often. From the black and white palette, to the intricate play with shadows, “Exhumed” is constricted to one setting, but feels as if we’re in an entirely new and horrific world.
The Conjuring (2013)
It’s amazing how James Wan once went from the man who brought us movies about a maniac torturing people to one of the most horrifying ghost tales ever brought to the big screen. “The Conjuring” lives up to its hype as a slow boil and immensely scary supernatural tale about an average family terrorized by a vicious demonic entity that’s intent on ruining their foundation from the inside out.
976-Evil II (1992)
Director Jim Wynorski offers up a sometimes clever, but inferior follow up to the original Robert Englund film, that doesn’t really advance the narrative so much as it treads water. Rather than explore the themes of the apocalypse, and the eventual war of good and evil dictated by the hotline, we’re once again subjected to a tale about the hotline wreaking havoc.
Damien: Omen II (1978)
Seven years after his adopted father failed to murder him and spare the world many lives, Damien now lives with his uncle and aunt. A famous industrialist, Richard Thorn is played with great zeal by William Holden, who is wonderful as the well meaning uncle of Damien who is seemingly the first among his family to realize who and what Damien is. “Damien: Omen II” is considered the lesser of the trilogy, and while it has its problem it’s a generally entertaining and creepy thriller. It just can sadly never get over one hurdle: How did Damien forget he was the anti-christ?
The Omen (1976)
Director Richard Donner’s “The Omen” is the fall out of the success of “The Exorcist.” And while it does subscribe to the evil child formula that became prominent after the success of the William Friedkin movie, it doesn’t try to top the former in terror. “The Omen” reaches for heights of slow boil horror followed by immediate shocks, and even for a film once considered a wannabe of “The Exorcist” it stands alone as a wonderful horror thriller.
American Horror Stories – 12 Movie Set (DVD)
From Mill Creek Entertainment comes a twelve movie pack of some of the most interesting titles out there for purchase. Every year, there’s a new set with these movies, but as I always say: These packs are good for horror fans starting a collection and looking to get more for their bucks. “Don’t Answer the Phone” is the 1980 thriller about a Vietnam veteran taunting a radio show host as he describes his violent experiences with women and begins stalking her.






