The Woods (2014)

Posted on February 9, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

Director Remington Smith’s “The Woods” is quite an accomplishment, mainly because it’s a film set in the middle of a snowy tundra implementing zero special effects. The centerpiece of “The Woods” is our character’s surroundings and how she has to adapt to the snowy wasteland of the woods. Apparently Smith and cinematographer Joshua Yates used mostly natural lighting for their film, resulting in a masterfully eerie and haunting short film set during a fight for survival. There’s so much conveyed in “The Woods” and yet there isn’t single word of dialogue spoken.

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World of Tomorrow (2015)

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

The crude animation for “World of Tomorrow” seems like something that would distract from the overall experience, but thankfully Don Hertzfeldt’s short is still very powerful. The impact of the message and the ideas about time travel and unchangeable destiny still resonate, and the crude animation and simplistic voice work almost seem to compliment the abstract ideas presented here.

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We Are Your Friends (2015) (DVD)

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I really like Zac Efron. I have nothing particularly against him. He’s a nice looking guy with some chops to him when pushed hard enough by a competent director. When he’s really just asked to flash his looks around and literally do nothing, we get “We Are Your Friends,” one of the stupidest, most forgettable movies of 2015. I’m glad I’m not the only person who felt this way about the film, as it was one of the bigger flops of the year. “We Are Your Friends” has no substance to it, and pretends to be about something, when it really isn’t. Deep down it’s a remake of “Saturday Night Fever” and fails to capture any of the substance and complexity that John Badham’s masterpiece obtained.

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Waterborne (2014)

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a zombie kangaroo. Ryan Coonan’s short horror film is the prologue of a bonafide zombie apocalypse (and feature film currently in development), all thanks to a contaminated water hole in the outback. Set in Australia, a local park ranger proceeds to take samples from a water hole, despite the resistance of a local who insists that he’s creating an unnecessary hysteria with his testing.

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We Are Still Here (2015) (DVD)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

If you think there’s nothing else that can be done with ghost films, then you clearly haven’t seen “We Are Still Here.” Director Ted Geoghegan lends a flavor to the haunted house sub-genre that’s not only fresh, but feels nihilistic to boot. “We Are Still Here” is a successfully slow boil horror film that works within its limited scenery and provides a truly haunting ghost tale that works on so many levels. It’s creative, it’s creepy, and it opens up a vast world filled with a mythology that you want to see more of. When the credits rolled, I wanted to know more about the back story of the Dagmar house and what other victims it’d claimed before we met the Sacchettis.

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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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