Tag Archives: Survival

In a Violent Nature (2024)

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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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The Strangers Chapter 1 (2024)

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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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Jericho Ridge (2024)

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Now in Select Theaters and on VOD.

If you’re looking for a tightly packed and well-constructed classic siege action thriller than “Jericho Ridge” might be the cure that ails you. I was frankly very surprised with how well Will Gilbey was able to compose such a tense and well-crafted picture on what looks like a pretty small budget. The flaws reveal themselves in small increments, but they thankfully never hinder what is a movie so worthy of experiencing. “Jericho Ridge” owes a lot to “Assault on Precinct 13” where Gilbey pits one lone Sheriff against a skilled group of criminals, all of whom are trying to infiltrate her only strong hold.

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Abigail (2024)

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In a year filled with a ton of very serious horror, it feels good to see Radio Silence offer up a quick, breezy bit of survival horror that I could get behind. In fact the compactness can even tend to work toward the film’s detriment as it feels like an extended version of an anthology horror show, right down to the fact that it’s all one big chamber piece. “Abigail” watches a lot like the classic EC Comics, where our ensemble of ne’er do wells get what’s coming to them in a remarkable twist.

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Festival of the Living Dead (2024)

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Now Streaming Exclusively on Tubi.

The Soska Sisters hit absolute rock bottom with what is possibly one of the dumbest zombie movies released in the last few years. It’s dumb, and when you think it can’t, it finds new ways to get dumber and dumber. The Soska sisters are usually a very talented pair of directors, but with “Festival of the Living Dead,” everything wreaks of pure amateurism, but exploiting “Night of the Living Dead” for fan appeal, to the painfully stupid script, and just downright terrible acting. To make things worse, the premise and concept takes such leaps and bounds to connect to the universe of “Night of the Living Dead.”

And it’s only “Night of the Living Dead” since that’s the only movie in the series in the public domain.

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Sting (2024)

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Opens Wide in North American Theaters on April 12th.

 I’m glad that monster movies seem to be making more and more of a comeback in the last few years, and among them are director Kiah Roache-Turner’s “Sting.” Roache-Turner is an individual that’s delivered on very gritty, grindhouse flavored zombie films over the years (Any other “Wyrmwood” fans in the house?), and “Sting” is a big departure from what he typically offers the horror crowd. That’s a great thing because he proves that he can do more simplistic, stripped down and classic movie fare. “Sting” has a different aesthetic, one that’s darker, and more human based and relies a lot on the human characters to deliver on spooks and gruesome gore.

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A Most Atrocious Thing (2023) [Make Believe Film Festival 2024]

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Directors Christian Hurley, and Ben Oliphint’s horror comedy is a movie that I bet they had a ton of fun filming. They emphasize this idea with the credits including bonus blooper reel. Sadly, none of the fun translated in to actual entertainment for me, even when I tried to see it at its level. But the movie is eighty two minutes in length (not counting the closing credits), and the mayhem doesn’t actually begin until a half hour in to the movie.

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