The Shed follows an isolated high school kid who discovers a vampire living in the shed behind his house. After some gruesome deaths, the young man must decide whether to destroy the vampire, or use it for his own gain. The Shed Review Despite an intriguing premise, The Shed spends a bit too much of its runtime on the teen angst drama rather than the feral vampire in the titular locale. Our protagonist and his bullied best friend eat up a majority of the screen, playing out more like the beginning of a school shooting PSA than a creature feature. Like Dead Girl, the characters spend most of their time bickering about the implications of their supernatural discovery than actually acting on it
The Mortuary Collection is a horror anthology that follows a mortician who, while vetting a prospective employee, tells her tales of some of the bodies that have passed through the mortuary. The Mortuary Collection Review After watching Dark Stories at Telluride Horror Show, I didn't think I would soon find a horror anthology to match it. Then The Mortuary Collection happened. And not only did it match Dark Stories, it exceeded it. The Mortuary Collection, like Dark Stories, has that self-awareness and quirkiness often found in horror anthologies. There is a common treatment used that has that aura of comedy and campiness throughout, and both of these anthologies ooze that in the interlockin
Primal follows a hunter with a prized catch on board a shipping vessel. Suddenly, he must help the crew survive when a crazed killer escapes his enclosure and lets the animals loose. Primal Review What is there to say about a movie in which Nicolas Cage and Kevin Durand get into a battle for who can bring more camp to the screen? There's not a whole lot to say, as it turns out...other than this movie is more entertaining than it has any business being, yet is overtly terrible in so many ways. Firstly, Cage and Durand are a blast being at odds with each other. It felt like every scene the two actors were trying to one-up each other in the crazed overacting department, and Durand was holding h
The fourth and final day of #THS has come and gone, and I still cannot get some of these shorts out of my mind. I don't have anything to compare it to, but they really outdid themselves this year! Bos Bos may not be for everyone as it watched more like moving art than a riveting film, but this dark fantasy was somber and beautifully done. Two young adults jog wordlessly through a forest. They stop. A gentle smile and panting breaths are all that is shared between the two before they take off again. Everything goes right, and then horribly wrong, when they stumble into a ravine. Misha If you're looking for a modern take on a witch hunt, then make Misha your go-to. A woman named Misha is carin
The final day of the Telluride Horror Show is always a mix of good and bad feelings. We always get to see so many new movie experiences, but when it is over we have to wait a year to have experienced it all again. But it is not time to dwell on that...let's chat about the stuff we saw today! Reunion Sometimes you don't have any idea of what you are getting into with a movie and every year at THS there is a movie that would normally slip under our radar that one of us catches that we are incredibly surprised by. Reunion was that movie for us. Before THS we had never heard of this movie at all. So let's talk about why I enjoyed this so much. Reunion is about a pregnant woman who goes back to h
It's Day 4, sadly the final day of Telluride Horror Show, and it ended on a spectacular note with what we were able to cover. But before we get to that, it's worth giving out kudos to THS putting everything they could into the virtual experience. They understood we would all miss the in-person Telluride experience, so they ensured that everything would be as rewarding as possible. We still got plenty of interview content and personal prefaces from directors and actors, as well as the classic tradition of Creepy Campfire Tales. They even modified the animated intros to the short blocks to match their theme! Tie it all together, and the evidence of effort is clear. Thanks, THS for making an un
Day 3 of THS has come and gone and I am reflecting on two awesome showings: For The Sake of Vicious and Black and Blue Comedy Shorts. For The Sake of Vicious As someone vaguely familiar with slasher movies and revenge plots in terms of horror, I was curious to see how this film played out. A high-strung nurse, a harrowed, broken father, and a sleazy business owner are all connected in a story about anger and revenge. Five years after the trial of his daughter’s rape case, the father is dead-set on making the man he is sure committed this heinous crime, pay. The suspect is a wealthy property-owner with two little girls of his own- hardly a rapist in his own eyes. The father tracks down the nu
We watched a ton of awesome stuff today on our Day 3 virtual Telluride Horror Show journey, but I get the pleasure of reviewing Faking a Murder and Butchers. Let's get right to it! Faking A Murder Review Horror comedy is a staple. From meta-horror like You Might be the Killer, to the strange and hilarious like Tucker and Dale vs Evil. We always get great entries to the genre at Telluride and this year is no different. Faking a Murder is a sleeper comedy horror film, and while it is a bit light on the horror, the commentary and humor are on point. In Faking a Murder, we follow Stu and Adam as they document their process around creating the next new serial killer expose. As the story unfolds,
It's Day 3 of Telluride Horror Show and we dove into a smorgasbord of horror films and short blocks! Today I will be tackling one of each, with a look into the feature film "The Oak Room" and the "Sinister Stories" shorts block. But be sure to check out Efrit's and Final Girl's takes on Day 3 for the full breadth of coverage! The Oak Room A layered tale of stacked stories over the course of several nights and at different bars build to a violent crescendo. The thing about movies like The Oak Room is that they are highly reliant on the payoff at the end. And even more so in the particular format this film takes on of being entirely dialogue driven. If it didn't change settings with a decent a
Unsure of what to expect, I was comforted by the presence of Sickle and Efrit for my first go-around for Telluride Horror Show 2020. This is where the real horror, and the actual Very Scary Movies™ are shown, right? Let's see how my first experience of THS is going so far! “Dark Stories” (Anthology) At the end of Day 2, I was able to experience “Dark Stories”, an anthology, and “Fear Itself”, a series of horror shorts. Going into “Dark Stories” I hadn’t ever seen a horror anthology before but, like all other horror films, I was eager to see what it was all about. The film itself was interconnected by a possessed doll tormenting a woman after a scuffle in her basement. The doll ties up the wo
Spare Parts When you arrive at a horror festival for the first time you are never sure what you are gonna get. There are generally very artsy films that go way over my head. There are traditional horror films which tickle everyone's Halloween horror fancy. Then there is a great balls-to-the-wall action horror movie. This year we have Spare Parts filling that role. Spare Parts follows an all-female punk band who gets into a big scrap during a show. This draws the attention of a random kidnapper/recruiter for a local post-apocalyptic armor-wearing fighting ring/secret religious garbage dump society. Better yet, once they are kidnapped they are surgically operated on to allow for upgrades when
It's Day 2 of Telluride Horror Show and we were treated to a broad range of feature films and shorts that made us laugh and cower. Tonight, I'll be covering two of the feature films in The Columnist and Anonymous Animals. Let's get into it! Anonymous Animals Review A group of people are exposed to an array of horrors at the hands of human-like figures with various animal heads. While I enjoyed this somber, unsettling piece of nuanced horror, it was not as well received amidst my viewing group. Which leads me to the realization that Anonymous Animals is not for everyone and that it is particularly hard to define its intended audience. The heavy-handed messaging of its animal cruelty compass w
IT'S ALIVE!!!! Telluride Horror Show is happening now!!! Buy your pass and play along at home here. Sickle and I do daily reviews of the content we see. Tonight, Sickle is tackling two of the short blocks while I'm giving a glimpse into the horror anthology, The 100 Candles Game. You should expect more THS coverage from us for the next 3 days, so keep a lookout! And without further ado, here we go! The 100 Candles Game Review Anthology films are all the rage these days, especially around the Halloween season! The 100 Candles Game is another anthology horror film that brings a lot of festival shorts into the mainstream. Interestingly enough the 100 Candles Game was actually a really old NoSle
Telluride Horror Show is finally upon us! Kicking off the virtual edition today, Efrit and I scheduled out our on-demand content to fill the [extended] weekend with every bit of the THS films and shorts! To launch our first day into the festival, we've started with two short blocks (Down the Dark Rabbit Hole and Suffer the Little Children) and the feature film anthology, The 100 Candles Game. So...in essence, a lot of horror stories crammed into one night. Check out my coverage of the day's events below and be sure to check out Efrit's take as well! Down a Dark Rabbit Hole Shorts Block Tackling elements of philosophy and social/psychological commentary throughout, this block is more mind-rac
The Cleaning Lady follows a woman who is struggling with her affair with a married man, and decides to let a disfigured (and secretly disturbed) cleaning lady into her life to try and positively distract herself. The Cleaning Lady Review The quiet, warm person with homicidal tendencies is nothing new to film, and isn't even exclusive to the horror genre. Technically Sling Blade follows the same model. The usual progression found in these movies happens here: a quiet woman with a dark past gradually snaps over the course of the film until she responds violently. It's true that this film doesn't introduce a lot of new concepts, but there's something worthy of discussion amidst the moral compas
Books of Blood is an anthology following three interconnected tales based on the work of Clive Barker. Books of Blood Review It's fairly common knowledge for anyone that frequents our reviews and/or podcast that Efrit and I are quite fond of horror anthologies. Therefore, any time one pops up, we are quick to jump on it. When talks of a Hulu anthology based on Clive Barker's work began rumbling, it got us quite excited. But watching the preview sobered me up pretty quick. It didn't look like the films based on Clive Barker's works...You can see mild glimpses of Hellraiser, but the rest looked like dull material. And unfortunately, that's where Books of Blood lands...it's pretty dull. Firstly
Poltergeist follows a family who moves into a new home in a new development. They begin to experience supernatural activity within the home, particularly a malevolent force that has an interest in their daughter. Poltergeist (1982) Review I wanted to watch one of those “classic” horror movies. The ones that you hear about that makes people clutch their pearls. So I figured, why not Poltergeist, one of the popular old ghost movies? I really had no idea what to expect other than exactly that, an old ghost movie. And like with all of the films I view, before I hit play, I checked on IMDB to confirm that Poltergeist is indeed considered horror. The opening shows a cheery family, in a cheery hous
Telluride Horror Show (#telluridehorrorshow) is officially a week away! The virtual event will showcase some much-anticipated feature films and the always-entertaining short blocks! As evidenced by our preview of the first wave of teasers, this will be another fantastic year of THS, but the second wave of teasers takes the anticipation to another level...Check out our highlighted films below from the second wave, see the whole list here, and be sure to get your virtual passes for the festival! Second Wave Highlights Feature Films Bloodthirsty A singer/songwriter travels to a remote house where a mysterious music producer promises success for her much-anticipated second album. As her sanity s
The Babysitter: Killer Queen takes place several years after the first film, as our protagonist, Cole (Judah Lewis) must fight the now-undead ritualists from the first event and a new batch of ritualists seeking fame and/or fortune. The Babysitter: Killer Queen Review While the first Babysitter is certainly goofy with its dialogue and demented slapstick humor, it was also charming and had a lot of heart while still remaining somewhat grounded. This sequel takes all the charm and chucks it out the window...of a moving vehicle...then stops, reverses, runs over the charm...puts it back in Drive and runs it over again. This movie feels like it tried to make Scott Pilgrim vs. the World work in a
Spiral follows a couple and their daughter who move into a seemingly quiet neighborhood that seems to hide a dark secret. When homophobic signals, both literal and subtle, begin to pop up, Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) tries to convince his husband Aaron (Ari Cohen) that something sinister is at work and they need to leave before it's too late. Spiral Review Spiral is a powerful film with a message that gives a face to the prejudices our country tries to hide. While we do not all suffer from the same blatant prejudices, it's often just as devastating to ignore it. This film tackles the latent prejudice issues by manifesting them through the form of an ominous, obscure cult. Our lead protago