Mutilator 2 first published by SciFiNow, for its international première at FrightFest 2024, 23 Aug Buddy Cooper and John S. Douglass’ The Mutilator first screened in January 1984 in North Carolina (where it was also shot and set) under the title Fall Break, and was retitled towards the end of that year, even as –…
The Only Ones screens virtually for Panic Fest, 29 March 2025 “Every town has a dark secret,” says an unseen narrator (Brett Wagner) at the beginning of The Only Ones, “a time when the stars align and things go so horribly wrong that a legend is born.” The legend told by this particular narrator is…
Scream VI first published by Little White Lies, 8 March 2023 Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream VI opens with a phone call. This is like every Scream film – a franchise that started as a knowing postmodern take on the tropes of the slasher movie in general and the Halloween films in particular, but…
Blue Light (aka Don’t Turn Out The Lights) had its world première on Saturday 28th Oct at the Halloween FrightFest Blue Light (aka Don’t Turn Out The Lights) opens with the sound of a little girl singing The Wheels on the Bus. As Carrie (Bella DeLong) approaches the girl from behind and compliments her voice, the…
Wolf Manor (aka Scream of the Wolf) first published by SciFiNow Those expecting the film that they are watching to be Dominic Brunt’s Wolf Manor (aka Scream of the Wolf) might be surprised to see a title at the beginning for Crimson Manor, directed by Derrick Francis. There is a blood moon, and lightning over…
INLAND EMPIRE first published by Film4, in 2006 Summary: Laura Dern gives several star turns in David Lynch’s latest brain-bending exploration of identity and the Hollywood dream machine.. Review: Before he began the five-year shoot for his feature debut Eraserhead (1977), David Lynch famously invited his small cast and crew to a screening of Billy Wilder’s SUNSET…
Eating Miss Campbell had its world première at FrightFest 2022 Eating Miss Campbell begins with a mixture of signals. First there is the Troma Team Release ident, setting a certain tone of trashy tastelessness (Lloyd Kaufman will later cameo with a two-word joke that practically defines ‘too soon’). Then Joe Renzetti’s jaunty upbeat score kicks…
Victor Crowley first published by SciFiNow When directors say that their film is ‘for the fans’, it is typically a defensive gesture: a counteractive response to critics who have not seen the merits in a work, and who, naturally, can themselves only be imagined as non-fans, or at most as disappointed ones. Yet Adam Green’s…
Sexy Killer (Sexykiller, morirás por ella) first published by VODzilla.co In a university locker room, as female undergraduates in various states of undress gossip maliciously about one another’s sex lives, a figure in mask and black robes watches and waits for his opportunity. With machete in hand, he finds each shower cubicle frustratingly empty, until…
Mirror Mirror first published by VODzilla.co “I want everything back to the way it was!” shouts teenager Nikki Chandler (Krisin Dattilo) near the end of Marina Sargenti’s Mirror Mirror. It is a typical adolescent cry, as a young person, confronted with her own changing self and resistant to the new responsibilities of adulthood, just wants…
Fright Fest first published by SciFiNow Fright Fest (aka American Fright Fest) opens in a creepy hospital basement, where a young blonde (Ashley Blankenship) is captured, bound and sliced by a maniacal surgeon and a man with a chainsaw. It is such a concentrated combination of killer clichés that viewers will be relieved to hear a director, Spencer Crowe (an…