Tag Archives: Thriller

Imaginary (2024)

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Take a bit of “Insidious,” a dash of “Annabelle Comes Home” with a heaping spoonful of “Pinocchio’s Revenge” and you get what is another dull genre installment from Blumhouse Pictures. Once the beaming genre studio, Blumhouse seems to be contractually obligated to release at least two horror movies a year, no matter what, and “Imaginary” feels like more of an obligation than anything. It’s a convoluted, and often dull movie that seems to really want to be a cerebral tale about PTSD and mental illness.

But mid-way you can sense the producers intervene when the narrative suddenly veers off in to a more commercial dark pseudo-Gaiman horror fantasy involving magical beings, and a weird dimension for imaginary creatures.

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The Reclaimers (2023)

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I don’t know if “The Reclaimers” is a proof of concept short film or not, but if director Jason Sheedy is planning a bigger feature, count me in. “The Reclaimers” is a stellar horror scifi hybrid that watches like a mix of “I Am Legend” and “Bird Box.” It’s an interesting concept in a well worn concept that works very well thanks to the single performance by star Erin Ownbey. After her grandparents are killed by invisible creatures, a determined young woman seeks to avenge them with the help of her canine companion – the only one who can see the mysterious invaders.

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Stopmotion (2024)

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In Theaters Today before it makes its way to VOD on March 15th and then the Shudder Streaming Service on May 31st.

There’s a scene in Robert Morgan’s “Stopmotion” where protagonist Ella is discussing with her mother, another animator, how she’s handling her puppets. Her mother corrects her in a menacing tone that she is the actual puppet. When it comes to art, the artist tends to submit themselves to a certain kind of madness that becomes a part of the process of creation and death. Robert Morgan’s horror thriller is a brilliant look in to the creative process and the often maddening process that can come with being an artist. In particular, Morgan focuses on the grueling task of stop motion animation and writes a film that’s both a love letter and dire warning to any artist that gives themselves over to the art form.

It’s bound to inspire much analysis from its audience.

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Trunk: Locked In (2024)

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The tough thing about making a thriller centered entirely around a confined setting is that you have to kind of build something new with every plot beat or else it wears thin easily. While “Trunk: Locked In” could be confused with the previous year trunk-centric thriller “The Call,” Marc Schießer’s “Trunk” is much more about the victim within the trunk of a car. The majority of the movie’s script spends time only only trying to figure out the hows but the whys and inevitability of what might happen in this circumstance all the while she’s stuck in a trunk forced to deal with a faceless entity that has in their clutches.

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Madame Web (2024)

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In Sony’s quest to maintain the Spider-Man trademark, they continue milking whatever character from his universe that they can, no matter how irrelevant or nonsensical they may be. In the now established “Don’t Say Spider-Man” Spider-Man Movieverse, S.J. Clarkson directs what is essentially “Donnie Darko” but with a heavy theme about Spiders. The writers do everything they can to allude to Spider-Man and Peter Parker but, I’m assuming because of contractual stipulations, not once do we ever get to see Peter Parker or Spider-man, nor do we ever hear his name uttered. Uncle Ben does play a big role, though, because he is not canon in the MCU.

It’s all so tricky.

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