The Great Midnight Sneak

09/03/2023

Bert I. Gordon, an American filmmaker whose low-budget creature features brought super-sized monsters to drive-in cinemas in the mid-20th century, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after collapsing at …

01/03/2023

Sad that the very last of the Universal Classic Monsters actors is gone. But what a life! Rest well, Mr. Browning...

He spent a lot of time in the water during his career, also working on 'Flipper,' 'Sea Hunt,' 'Thunderball' and 'Caddyshack.'

19/02/2023

Last one, and one that's gonna leave a mark...As much as it pained me to see Chris Meloni leave LAW AND ORDER: SVU, it kind of stuck a fork in it for me, when Richard left. He seemed "as constant as the Northern star" on that show. He and Ice T. were always worth watching together. And outside of his film and TV work, he was one of the funniest people you could ever have the privilege to see.

The stand-up legend and 'Groove Tube' actor played Det. John Munch on 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' 'Law & Order: SVU' and eight other shows.

19/02/2023

If you remember or are a fan of THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER...

The Australian filmmaker died from a heart attack in Melbourne.

19/02/2023

I hadn't seen this commented on very much. If you're a film music buff, or a fan of The OG STAR TREK, this is sad news. Oh, and another thing: Sherwood Schwartz may have written the unforgettable title theme, but GILLIGAN'S ISLAND wouldn't have been what it was, without Gerald Fried's score.

The Emmy winner and Oscar nominee befriended Stanley Kubrick on a Bronx baseball field, then scored his first four features.

19/02/2023

We continue to lose our brightest lights from a bygone era...

Actress Stella Stevens, who appeared in a string of movies in the 1960s and '70s including "The Nutty Professor" and "The Poseidon Adventure," died Friday from Alzheimer's disease at 84, said her son, actor and producer Andrew Stevens.

18/01/2023

Ask me what actors or directors I'd like to meet, and I can still provide you with a huge list. Ask me the same thing about producers, and that list is a lot shorter. And Ed Pressman's name would have always been at the very top.

Not only is he responsible for my love of horror films, thanks to his shepherding PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE into reality, but also my love of unique indie films in general. Study the list of films he produced, and I'll bet you'll be shocked by the number of movies you love, that he had a hand in. A real loss for the cinematic world.

Edward R. Pressman, the prolific Hollywood indie producer behind Wall Street, Badlands, American Psycho, Das Boot and The Crow, among dozens of others, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 79. His d…

05/01/2023

OCTOBER 28TH, 2022
WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD
Directed By KIAH ROCHE-TURNER
Written By KIAH ROCHE-TURNER and TRISTAN ROCHE-TURNER
CAST: Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey, Leon Burchill, Keith Agius,
Berynn Schwerdt, Luke McKenzie, Catherine Terracini, Meaganne West.
RT: 98 MIN.

As it goes in a lot of cases dealing with the things I watch, I’d seen the trailers for this, way back when it was first released, and I was impressed, but with the sheer number of movies I have to mull over, it somehow fell between the cracks, so to speak.

Then I got to see a great little asskicker called NEKROTRONIC, and I remembered that the Brothers Roche-Turner had also done WYRMWOOD. So, no better time than October of ’22 to play catch-up!

And was I happy I did! Films like THE SADNESS, TRAIN TO BUSAN and THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD have recently breathed new, shambling life into the zombie sub-genre, but this was doing it AGES before. It surprised me how this could be coming out just now, and be a smash hit with the right M&P.

If you haven’t seen it yet, what’s it like? Well, think of what would happen if MAD MAX’S George Miller directed a zombie picture, written by a pre-LORD OF THE RINGS Peter Jackson. Or SHAUN OF THE DEAD’s Edgar Wright.

I swear, this is the fastest 98 minutes I’ve ever spent with a horror film, because once the action starts, it barely lets up for a breather. If you did this as a double with TRAIN TO BUSAN, you’d probably need heart pills!

In the Australian Outback, mechanic Barry (JAY GALLAGHER) witnesses a strange meteor shower with his wife, Annie, (CATHERINE TERRACINI), and daughter, Meaganne (MEAGANNE WEST).

Meanwhile, Barry’s photographer sister, Brooke (BIANCA BRADEY) is hard at work in her studio out in Victoria, with her latest model and assistant, when without warning, the two of them decide to take a break. A ZOMBIE BREAK, where they transform and promptly try to eat Brooke. It’s only by some athletic quick thinking that she survives.

The first thing she does when she can, she calls her brother and warns Barry to take Annie and Meaganne and G**O of the city ASAP. Donning masks, the three have to fight their way out to the car, as the entire neighborhood goes over zombie, DAWN OF THE DEAD-remake style.

Amidst all the carnage, they manage to get away, but not very far, before the car stalls. And it gets worse. Even though they wore gas masks, Barry’s wife and daughter both mutate, and he has no choice but to kill them with the nailgun he’s been using as a weapon, discovering that he’s out of ammo when he tries to kill himself with it.

There’s so much more I want to tell you about what happens next, and all of it batsh*t crazy. But all you need to know is that with his family gone, Barry’s one goal becomes a quest to get to Brooke’s Victoria studio and make sure she’s okay, (she’s not, of course, but I’ll leave it to you to find out what happens.)

Obviously, these filmmaking brothers have learned a lot from watching the works of Miller, Jackson, etc., because as it was evident in NEKROTRONIC, they keep the kinetic, rapid-fire fights, chases and chaos going, stopping only here and there for a little exposition and to allow you to get to know some characters (just don’t get too attached to any of them…you’ve been warned.)

Once the credits started to roll on this baby, it didn’t take more than a few seconds to decide to cue up the sequel.

WYRMWOOD is B-movie zombie pulp fiction served the way this kind of movie should be: fresh, hot and bloody, leaving you wanting more. Four out of five stars.

04/01/2023

OCTOBER 27TH, 2022
BITCH ASS
Directed By BILL POSLEY
Written By JONATHAN COLOMB and BILL POSLEY
CAST: Teon Kelley, Me’lisa Sellers, Kelsey Caesar, Tunde Laleye, Sheaun McKinney, A-F-R-O, Tim J. Smith, Sherri L. Walker, Belle Guillory and Tony Todd.
RT: 1 HR., 25 MIN.

Once upon a time, movie fans knew when a horror franchise (or any franchise for that matter), had clearly jumped the shark, whenever one of the entries had “’da hood” as its locale, (I’m looking at you especially, HALLOWEEN and LEPRECHAUN.)

But it’s also been gratifying to see a growing number of horror films set in that milieu ON PURPOSE, with stories that blend social commentary with horror, to greater or lesser degrees of quality. In the “GREATER” column, we have outstanding titles like TALES FROM THE HOOD, the Shudder portmanteau HORROR NOIRE, and DEF BY TEMPTATION, with the degrees coming down a bit with BONES, SNOOP DOGG’S HOOD OF HORROR and the like.

Now, ‘round the way gets its own answer to SAW’S Jigsaw Killer with BITCH ASS.

In the classic trope that has now been established, four new gang members, “Q” (Kelley), Cricket (Guillory), “Moo”, (A-F-R-O) and Tuck (Caesar) are undergoing their initiation. They’re being sent by their leader, Boots (Smith), to break into the house of a woman who died recently. Known for her meanness and her wealth equally, the four recruits have to bring back whatever loot they can find in the old house…after dark, of course.

Oh, and another thing: the house may be haunted by a local legend: the demonic grandson the old woman raised, known as “BITCH ASS,” because of his former rep as being the neighborhood “nerd”, before a brutal assault turned him into a monster.

The story being told is part of an after-dark horror show, with the legendary Tony Todd playing the host, “Titus Darq”. And any movie that employs him as its host, can’t be that bad! (The role was originally written with the late, great Clarence Williams III in mind, the Undertaker in TALES FROM THE ‘HOOD).

The admirable thing about BITCH ASS is how, in spite of an obvious micro-budget, the creative team worked around any constraints, to come up with imaginative sets and props that the masked killer uses to play fatal games with his victims. That Includes giant versions of “Operation!” and Connect Four that you’ll be glad to avoid.

Every tale like this has to have a “hero” figure, and that would be “Q’s” Kelley, who’s being pulled two ways – one by the peer pressure from the gang, the other by his firm but loving mother, Marsia (Sellers), who’s trying to guide him out of the ‘hood life and into college and a good job.

By contrast, we glimpse scenes that depict how “Bitch Ass” was raised by the very definition of a wicked grandmother, (Walker), who could probably scare the life out of even Carrie White’s mom, Margaret; beating and torturing the boy, twisting him into what he eventually became.

It's a decent effort. The acting isn’t terrible, but no awards will be given here (except maybe to the production design and art direction crews.) But this is still a good film to add to the growing list of stories in the horror genre, being told with the voices of POC. Three out of five stars.

04/01/2023

OCTOBER 26TH, 2022
MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON
Written and Directed By ANA LILY AMIRPOUR
CAST: Kate Hudson, Jeon Jong-seo, Ed Skrein, Craig Robinson, Evan Whitten.
RT: 1 HR., 46 MIN.

Ana Lily Amirpour’s second film, A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT, was the talk of the indie-verse. Dark, stylish, weird, whimsical and terrifying by turns, it wasn’t like anything anyone had seen before in its sub-genre.

Now, having given vampires a new lease on life, Amirpour takes her POV into the sub-genre of telekinetic teens as well.

When we first meet Mona Lisa (a great turn from Jeon Jong-seo, previously seen in BURNING with Steven Yeun), she’s on lockdown in a psych ward in New Orleans. This doesn’t last long…considering the scope of her unrealized talent.

Once out, a series of outrageous circumstances lead her to meet “playa” Fuzz (Skrein, whom you may or may not remember as the “first” Daario Naharis on GAME OF THRONES), and not soon after, Charlie (Whitten) and his mom, Bonnie (Hudson), a stripper at a local bar in the French Quarter.

Bonnie, realizing that Mona’s powers can be used to great, if unscrupulous advantage, does just that, resulting in some unforeseen events that take place, including the dogged pursuit of Mona by NOLA officer Harold (Robinson, in a role that’s not played for laughs, even if he is kind of funny), who got a taste of what the teen telekinetic can do, and actually lived to tell about it.

It would be an injustice to label this as a retelling of GIRL WALKS HOME, with a less fantastical backdrop as the mise-en-scene. Some of Amirpour’s favorite bending of certain tropes is still evident: Fuzz being another guy-with-a-heart-of-gold, in spite of his outward appearance; a lead character who appears alone and defenseless, who’s time enough for any “wolves in sheep’s clothing” stupid enough to make that unfortunate assumption.

Besides the great acting from the lead, Hudson submerges herself admirably in the role of Bonnie. She’s an opportunist, alright, and far from being the best mom in the world. But at the end of the day, she does care a lot about Charlie and even is kind of motherly to Mona. She has so much more to do here than in the recent KNIVES OUT spinoff, THE GLASS ONION.

Amirpour got my attention with GIRL WALKS HOME, and I’m here to stay after MONA LISA. She directed an episode of Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, that I now MUST see, and I can’t wait to hear about what movie she comes up with next. Four out of Five Stars.

04/01/2023

OCTOBER 25TH, 2022
THE BLACK PHONE
Directed By SCOTT DERRICKSON
Written By C. ROBERT CARGILL and SCOTT DERRICKSON
Based on the story by JOE HILL
CAST: Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, James Ransone.
RT: 1 HR., 43 MIN.

Right out of the gate, writer Joe Hill King let it be known that his work could stand apart from his wildly famous dad, penning such memorable novels as HEART-SHAPED BOX and HORNS. He excels just as well with short fiction, of which THE BLACK PHONE is a part. And if a strong resemblance to Stephen’s work seems evident, well, it’s STEPHEN FRIGGIN’ KING. Name any horror writer worth his weight in blood-spattered pages, who hasn’t been influenced in some way by the Master Himself. I’ll wait.

Meanwhile, about the movie: Finney Shaw (newcomer Thames) becomes the next victim in a string of kidnappings/disappearances attributed to a child snatcher known as “The Grabber.” When he does, his younger sister, Gwen (McGraw) begins to have strange, cryptic visions that could be showing her where her brother is. The cops, the siblings’ dad, Terrence (Davies) and even Finney himself are counting on her visions to help find him before it’s too late. (No pressure, right?)

Meanwhile, trapped in the Grabber’s lair, Finney discovers he’s not exactly without allies. An old-fashioned black dial phone is hanging on the wall of the cellar where he’s imprisoned, and even though it hasn’t worked in ages, he finds he can use it now, to converse with the ghosts of The Grabber’s previous victims, each who has some words of wisdom and clues to give to Finney, in order to help him escape their fates.

See? The apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree. Good thing that applies to the movies that get made from Joe’s stories as well!

Mason Thames is super-impressive in this, his screen debut, alternating between despair, determination and dread seemingly with ease, as his Finn tries to outsmart his captor. Likewise for Madeline McGraw as Gwen. Great chemistry between them from the word go.

Jeremy Davies, now aged out of his fresh-faced youthfulness in earlier character roles, cuts a figure that’s both sorrowful and pathetic as the kids’ alcoholic dad, Terrence, who was shattered by his wife’s su***de – driven to it by the same “gift” that Gwen possesses.

The real eye-opener here, however, is Ethan Hawke as The Grabber. Portraying doomed good guys in such films as the first PURGE movie, and the earlier collab with Derrickson, SINISTER, he tries out the dark side of character work this time, and apparently LOVES IT. His unnamed Grabber is every bit as unpredictable and menacing as any onscreen serial murderer you’ve ever seen…never does it feel like Finn’s out of danger when he’s around.

Hat-tip to James Ransone as well, who plays Max, The Grabber’s shiftless brother, who seems like he might be an unlikely hero in the piece (emphasis on “seems”).

As the adaptations of his dad’s work tend to vary wildly in quality, after HORNS, it seems to me that the Joe Hill-inspired films are batting two-for-two. I really hope this streak continues! Four out of five stars.

02/01/2023

OCTOBER 24TH, 2022
RUN SWEETHEART RUN
Directed By SHANA FESTE
Written By SHANA FESTE, KEITH JOSEF ADKINS and KELLEE TERRELL
CAST: Ella Balinska, Pilou Asbaek, Shohreh Agdashloo, Clark Gregg, Dayo Okeniyi.
RT: 1 HR., 44 MIN.

Cherie (Balinska) is a legal secretary at a very swanky law firm, where her boss, James Fuller (Gregg), a nice enough guy, begs her to help him out, when he mistakenly double-books himself one evening, and has to risk ghosting a VIP client he’d rather not leave hanging. When she agrees, I’m sure the rest of the girls in the office gossiped to no end about her “date” with said client, the handsome and charming Ethan, (Asbaek).

However, their tunes would most certainly change, if they knew what Cherie eventually discovers, much to her horror.
She gets together with Ethan, and the night goes beautifully. He’s everything a girl could want, besides the obvious advantages (like being very rich). She’s even willing to overlook a few “red flags”, including the startling reaction Ethan has to dogs. Like he doesn’t like them. AT ALL.

Once they get back to his place, he invites her in for a nightcap. The usual internal struggle happens with Cherie: should she stay or should she go? But with Ethan working the charm offensive so aggressively, she soon has no choice but to take him up on his offer.

A decision she’ll come to regret very, very soon.

It doesn’t seem very long before Cherie’s running out of his place, shoeless, disheveled and absolutely terrified. She just found out that Ethan’s not who he appears to be. In fact, it’s a whole lot worse than that.

Seems that Prince Charming has one particular sport he loves: HUNTING WOMEN. And Cherie’s just the latest potential trophy he’d love to “bag.” He even makes her a deal (how considerate of him). If she can manage to elude him until dawn, he’ll let her live. If not…let’s just say she won’t be making it to the next office potluck.

This is a fantastic thriller, but it has one central problem. It keeps on hitting you, the viewer, over the head with its feminist underpinnings like a cricket bat, (and with that level of subtlety.)

I’m hardly a chauvinist; I happen to love movies with a feminist message, and if it’s a suspense or revenge thriller, even better. But when it becomes clear that Ethan can track Cherie wherever she goes because of the smell of her menstrual blood…let’s just say they could have stopped right there. I would’ve gotten the message loud and clear.

But there’s signs (literally!), passages of dialogue and other aspects that constantly remind you that it’s all about “GRRL POWER!” and taking down The Man, in this case one who royally deserves it. (There’s a lot more inhumanity to Ethan, in case you haven’t guessed.)

Then to top it all off, there’s the wonderful Shohreh Agdashloo to give Cherie the 411 on what’s REALLY happening, and with that one scene, she immediately makes the movie better. The only problem, if it could be considered one, is that I wanted to see the movie about Shohreh’s character MORE than the one she’s in!

Heavy-handed messaging aside, though, the film never really lets up on the suspense, from the moment Cherie runs for her life out of Ethan’s place. Balinska does all the Final Girls before her proud with her fierce performance. And Asbaek? He got plenty of practice being a charismatic sh*theel playing Euron Greyjoy in GAME OF THRONES, and as Ethan, he shows that he’s really honed those chops well. So it’s not all that much of a shock when you find out his character’s “true identity”.

Clark Gregg is also great as Cherie’s boss, and that’s all I’ll say for now. His part, like Shohreh’s, is really little more than a cameo, but it’s pretty damn effective.

This is director Feste’s fifth feature film; she’s a music video director as well. Some of that influence is evidenced in the staging of certain scenes, which is by no means a minus. But I’ve seen horror films and suspense thrillers that work in the feminist touches with a lot more subtlety and panache, which is probably going to get me flamed for saying it, because it sounds like I’m telling her how to do her job.

Au contraire! The film looks and sounds great with perfect pacing for its sub-genre. But for my taste, the messaging COULD be turned down quite a bit from “11”. Three out of five stars.

02/01/2023

OCTOBER 23RD, 2022
DON’T SAY ITS NAME
Directed By RUEBEN MARTELL
Written By RUEBEN MARTELL and GERALD WEXLER
CAST: Sera-Lys McArthur, Madison Walsh, Julian Black Antelope, Samuel Marty, Catherine Gell, Justin Lewis, Sheena Kaine, Carla Fox, Tom Carey, Griffin Powell-Arcand, Val Duncan, Pardeep Singh Sooch, Hannah Duke, Wilma Pelly.
RT: 1 HR., 24 MIN.

With films like BLOOD QUANTUM, AVENGED, and most recently PREY successfully finding receptive audiences, I’d been wondering what happened to this one, since the trailer dropped pretty early last year, and I was looking forward to giving it a try. Fortunately, it landed on the free platforms finally, so it wasn’t that hard to locate.
Full disclosure: I give hall passes to films that get to feature more characters of genuine indigenous descent, and yes, that includes the not-so good ones, which thankfully, doesn’t include DON’T SAY ITS NAME. The acting isn’t always top-drawer, but I like that it’s a scrappy little indie that refuses to let up on the terror or the tension inherent in the well-told script by director Martell and Wexler.

It's that age-old story of tensions between the inhabitants of a First Nations reservation, and the company that’s “developing” the land the reservation is located on.

Rez activist Kharis Redwater (SHEENA KAINE (FLAMAND)) is returning from a volatile town hall meeting with said company, when she’s brutally assaulted and killed. That makes things hard enough for the only investigating officer, Sheriff Betty Stonechild (MADISON WALSH), who knows everyone, including the “outsiders.”

But things go from bad to MUCH worse, when the female half of a surveying team working for the encroaching company is attacked and killed, as if by a wild animal. But that’s only the start of a string of attacks and killings that prove with each incident, that there’s something less than human and more than animal behind the incidents, and Betty, with the help of Park Ranger Stacey Cole (SERA LYS-MCARTHUR) and tribal elder Carson (JULIAN BLACK ANTELOPE) must discover the mystery of why it’s slaughtering locals, and who might be helping it.

The themes here have been explored before in many greater and lesser movies, but the only other one I’ve seen that leans into a horror context is BLOOD QUANTUM.

The blood and gore here is minimal, with the main focus on the “detective story”. Visual effects are pretty good, and the cinematography gets real creative with the attack sequences.
If you’re a fan of this particular sub-genre, which involves storytelling from the POV of BIPOC not usually featured in this kind of fare, don’t skip this one. Three and a half out of five stars.

29/12/2022

Genre fans will mourn his passing....

LEGENDARY director Ruggero Deodato who made one of the most controversial films in cinema history has reportedly died aged 83. He was most famous for horror flick Cannibal Holocaust – which s…

18/12/2022

OCTOBER 22ND, 2022
BODIES BODIES BODIES
Directed By HALINA REIJN
Written By SARAH DELAPPE
Adapted From A Story By KRISTEN ROUPENIAN
CAST: Amandla Stenberg, Rachel Sennott, Pete Davidson, Maria Bakalova, Chase Sui Wonders, Lee Pace, Myha’la Herrold, Conner O’Malley.
RT: 1 HR., 34 MIN.

Miscommunication, misunderstanding…they’ve been the basis for many a horror movie (I’m looking at YOU, TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL). But in all the annals of horror, I can’t say that it couldn’t have happened to a better group of rotten apples.

This wants to have its cake and eat it, too, as it rakes over the coals the same demographic the movie is squarely aimed at. Since it didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, I assume it failed in that respect, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still loads of fun to watch.
As a hurricane is about to descend, as they will in most parts of Florida, Sophie (STENBERG) is on the way to a party with her new amour, Bee (BAKALOVA), a (Russian? Bosnian? Ukranian?) student she met just recently.

Said party is being held at a huge mansion, with all of her “friends” – more like “frenemies” – who, as it turns out, had no idea she was coming to attend the hurricane “rave”.

All of them are in their twenties, many of them trust fund brats, and all of them some kind of online “influencer” (which these days seems to be code for having garnered fame via varying levels of digital douchebaggery.) The bot-ly crew includes Alice (SENNOTT), Emma (WONDERS), David (DAVIDSON), Jordan (HERROLD), and a fish way out of water, Greg (PACE), a twentyish dudebro trapped in the body of a 40-year-old, who's also Emma's current beau. (Yikes).
Apparently, there’s also an often-discussed friend named Max (O’MALLEY), who was involved in some major drama with the group the previous evening.

After the group manages to deal with the awkwardness of Sophie crashing the party, as the wind and rain begin to beat at the windows outside, the feckless frolickers within all scream with delight, as it’s suggested that a round of “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” get started up. Think “CLUE” for the 21st Century set. I won’t go into detail about how to play or the rules (which seem pretty arbitrary anyway); just know that it involves a “killer” and their potential “victims.”

The festivities take a turn for the gnarly, however, when one of the “bodies” turns out to be a dead one for real. The mood immediately shifts, as suddenly everyone’s a suspect and no one is to be trusted, made even more clear as secrets and lies come tumbling out of drug-and-drink-addled brains and mouths, ratcheting up the tension until people become prone to outright offing each other “for realz! LOLOL!!!”

Obviously, you have to get past the barrier of older actors playing millennials, which actually makes Pace the one with the easiest character to work with, since there’s no getting around the fact that Greg is way older than everyone else. And if you can’t make that degree of suspension of disbelief work, you wouldn’t be interested in watching this. But let it be said that everyone does a terrific job in portraying people you probably wouldn’t want to spend more than two minutes with. Pete Davidson is in his element here, playing a little more annoying version of the characters he trotted out during his time on SNL.

As there’s been a proliferation of this kind of movie lately, there’s really not a whole lot to make it stand out, save for the terrific ending, when the “big reveal” is made of who the killer is. If you can get through the first hour and twenty minutes or so, that third act conclusion is hysterically, blackly funny. I found it made it worth sticking with the entire film. Your results may be different.

Two and a half stars.

18/12/2022

OCTOBER 21st, 2022
ESCAPE ROOM 2: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS
Directed By ADAM ROBITEL
Written By WILL HONLEY, MARIA MELNIK, DANIEL TUCH and OREN UZIEL.
CAST: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Holland Roden, Indiya Moore, Thomas Coquerel, Carlito Olivero, James Frain.
RT: 88 MINUTES.

As any good sequel should, first comes a quick rehash of what happened in the first film, before it picks right up where it left both Zoe and Ben (Russell and Miller), getting ready to track down the people behind the Minos Corporation, who killed off most of the cast in the first one, and put them through hell, before they got a chance to escape.

It doesn’t take very long to discover, however, that they’re nowhere near as in control as they thought they were, as they find themselves in New York City, stranded on a runaway subway car, with people as it turns out, who are all survivors of Minos’ treacherous "games."

Funny how this came out in the same year as the Netflix runaway hit series SQUID GAME, not that long afterwards (GAME was dropped on the streaming platform in September, 2021), and yet did it better than the film franchise.

Of course, this would have to do with the formats. GAME had multiple hours to explore character motivations and obstacles, either self-made or external, which in turn allowed for more investment in the characters and their fates.

Not that the actors don’t do their best here with what’s basically SAW-lite, with traps that are no less lethal, but with a lot less tendency to just pull people apart and show us their innards “just because.”

And naturally, you might consider this a spoiler, but yes, they do leave the ending open for yet ANOTHER sequel. I’d only be interested in seeing that if the writers can actually bring more to the table than what feels like “gussied-up leftovers.”

Two and a half stars.

09/12/2022

Horror fans take note...

Sometimes fact is scarier than fiction.

31/10/2022

It's the night, kiddies!

That time we've waited for since the last, 364 days ago!

Horror has never been more popular, and there's more than enough things to watch. Which may be both good AND bad news! Can't make your mind up with all the choices out there?

Well, if you've trusted my reviews so far, why stop now? I like to call this list my "NIFTY 50": the best things I could recommend to FIENDS...oh, I MEAN friends and family.

And keep it on this page...I even have 100 MORE "Honorable Mentions"; films I couldn't stand not talking about, so I gave them their own lists!

Let me know if this helped you out!

THE NIFTY 50

1. SLITHER (2006; JAMES GUNN)
2. SPLINTER (2008; TOBY WILKINS)
3. NEKROTRONIC (2018; KIAH ROACHE-TURNER)
4. HOUSEBOUND (2014; GERARD JOHNSTONE)
5. UPGRADE (2018; LEIGH WHANNELL)
6. SUMMER OF '84 (2018; RKSS)
7. RETRIBUTION (1987; GUY MAGAR)
8. THE SHED (2019; FRANK SABATELLA)
9. BONE TOMAHAWK (2015; S. CRAIG ZAHLER)
10. ALL HALLOWS EVE (2013; VARIOUS)
11. TERRIFIER (2016; DAMIEN LEONE)
12. CIRCUS OF THE DEAD (2014; BILLY PON)
13. LATE PHASES A/K/A NIGHT OF THE LONE WOLF (2014; ADRIAN GARCIA BOGLIANO)
14. GREEN ROOM (2015; JEREMY SAULNIER)
15. SOUTHBOUND (2015; VARIOUS)
16. ONE MUST FALL (2018; ANTONIO PANTOJA)
17. APARTMENT 212, F/K/A GNAW (2017; HAYLAR GARCIA)
18. THE SPECIAL (2020; HARRISON SMITH)
19. INCIDENT IN A GHOSTLAND (2018; PASCAL LAUGIER)
20. ALICE SWEET ALICE (1976; ALFRED SOLE)
21. TENNESSEE GOTHIC (2019; JEFF WEDDING)
22. LADY IN WHITE (1988; FRANK LA LOGGIA)
23. TRICK 'R' TREAT (2007; MICHAEL DOUGHERTY)
24. STRAIGHT EDGE KEGGER (2019; JASON ZINK)
25. SPRING (2015; JUSTIN BENSON & AARON MOORHEAD)
26. MIDSOMMAR (2019; ARI ASTER)
27. "X" (2022; TI WEST)
28. WE ARE STILL HERE (2015; TED GEOGHEGAN)
29. YOU'RE NEXT! (2011; ADAM WINGARD)
30. READY OR NOT (2019; MATT BETTINELLI-OLPIN & TYLER GILLETT)
31. UNCLE PECKERHEAD (2020; MATT LAWRENCE)
32. GET OUT (2017; JORDAN PEELE)
33. THE INVITATION (2015; KARYN KUSAMA)
34. THE GIFT (2015; JOEL EDGERTON)
35. DEATH BECOMES HER (1992; ROBERT ZEMECKIS)
36. ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2019; SHINICHIRU UEDA)
37. DON'T BREATHE (2016; FEDE ALVAREZ)
38. NOPE (2022; JORDAN PEELE)
39. US (2019; JORDAN PEELE)
40. THE WAILING (2016; NA-HONG JIN)
41. I SAW THE DEVIL (2011; KIM JEE-WOON)
42. THE SADNESS (2021; ROB JABBAZ)
43. TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016; YEON SANG-HO)
44. THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD (2018; DOMINIQUE ROCHER)
45. V/H/S 2 (2013; VARIOUS)
46. GHOST STORIES (2018; ANDY NYMAN & JEREMY DYSON)
48. DARLING (2015; MICKEY KEATING)
49. SADAKO VS. KAYAKO (2016; KOJI SHIRASHI)
50. THE ABC'S OF DEATH (2012; VARIOUS)