Noroi: The Curse (Noroi) first published by VODzilla.co Around the turn of the millennium, a slew of Japanese horror films came out which updated old superstitions and traditional long-haired spectres to a new technological era, and spread their malign influence across the Pacific. For each of Hideo Nakata’s Ring (1998) and Dark Water (2002), Kiyoshi…
Hell House LLC first published by VODzilla.co The phrase ‘Hell House’ in a title – as in John Hough’s The Legend of Hell House (1973), Mitch Marcus’ The Haunting of Hell House (1999) and Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah and T.J. Moreschi’s Hell House (2009) – is a clear indicator of horror to come, almost certainly…
The word ‘host’ can refer equally to anyone accommodating a houseguest, to the organiser of a group webchat, or to a person who has become possessed. All these meanings will come into play in Rob Savage’s Host, in which six friends, bored by the isolation of lockdown and eager for any kind of stimulation, agree…
“It’s too dark, I can’t see,” says the unnamed (and unseen) investigator at the beginning of Murder Death Koreatown, filming from his Koreatown apartment as police lead someone off in the alley below. “It looks like a woman.” The investigator has just captured on camera the arrest of Mi-sun Yoo for stabbing to death her…
The Conspiracy first published by Grolsch FilmWorks Family man Jim (James Gilbert) and his friend Aaron (Aaron Poole) are making a documentary on conspiracy theorist Terrance (Alan C. Peterson), when Terrance suddenly vanishes without trace, leading Aaron down a rabbit-hole of fanaticism and paranoia as he tries to pin down whatever nefarious plot Terrance might…
The Hoard first published by SciFiNow “The following presentation is derived from footage captured by the catastrophic reality TV pilot Extremely Haunted Hoarders,” reads text at the beginning of The Hoard, over a rapid – indeed, so rapid as to be near inscrutable – montage of monstrosity, mayhem and murder. It is not just a…
Frankenstein’s Army first published by Grolsch FilmWorks “Everybody’s sick. The Nazis! The Communists! Capitalists! Everyone. The sickness cannot be cured, so it must be cut out.” The speaker is Dr Viktor Frankenstein (Karel Roden), explaining his solo surgical strike against all sides in the Second World War. A German who was interned in the concentration…
Diary of the Dead first published by Film4 Summary: George A. Romero’s fifth zombie film in as many decades takes on post-millennial fears, the new media, and itself. Review: “You’re blocking our shot.” The anonymous cameraman’s words are addressed with extraordinary insensitivity to an ambulance driver at the scene of a domestic shooting. Then the whole sequence erupts…
Grave Encounters 2 first published by VODzilla.co Found footage is one of the few subgenres whose name refers not (like, say action or comedy) to content, nor (like horror) to an ideal viewer response, but rather to the films’ (fictive) material framing and form – which is to say that, for all its claims to…
Grave Encounters first published by VODzilla.co The lessons of the ultra-low-budget, extremely profitable The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity (2007) were clear: by revitalising the ‘found footage’ format, with its uncannily self-authenticating ‘reality effects’, in this new age of light digital cameras, budding genre filmmakers could craft horror for very little money, and with…
Creep 2 first published by SciFiNow “I am what is commonly known as a serial killer. I don’t love that nomenclature. I sort of consider myself a murderer, but my numbers are such that I’m classified as a serial killer… I’ve killed 39 people.” So says Aaron (Mark Duplass) within minutes of meeting Sara (Desiree Akhavan),…