ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 14, 2010 With its leisurely pace, melancholy score, and low-key lead actor, The Eclipse is a curious supernatural drama that quietly lulls you into complacency. But just try holding onto your popcorn when its horrors are unleashed. The magnetic Ciarán Hinds of There Will Be Blood stars as Michael, a soft-spoken carpentry teacher in … Continue reading Horror review: The Eclipse
Human suffering abounds in ski-hill horror of Frozen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 3, 2010 By Steve Newton After suffering through his witless 2007 gore fest, Hatchet, I didn’t have high hopes for writer-director Adam Green’s Frozen. I knew it was a skiing-related horror flick, so I pictured an axe-wielding maniac lunging from behind trees and turning the slopes bright red with blood. Man, was I … Continue reading Human suffering abounds in ski-hill horror of Frozen
Horror review: The Crazies
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 24, 2010 If you’ve never been particularly concerned about the safety of your drinking water, The Crazies might make you think again. It’s a rip-roaring, topnotch terror fest that’s sure to boost sales of Brita filters. Smalltown Iowa sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is cheerfully mingling with citizens at the local ballpark … Continue reading Horror review: The Crazies
Radha Mitchell tapped inner angst for The Crazies
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 24, 2010 By Steve Newton Radha Mitchell is no Hollywood scream queen, but the 36-year-old Aussie—noted for her leading role in Woody Allen’s 2004 comedy-drama Melinda and Melinda—has taken on her fair share of fierce monsters and supernatural forces. She had her first genre role in 2000’s Pitch Black, playing a downed … Continue reading Radha Mitchell tapped inner angst for The Crazies
Horror review: Legion
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 22, 2010 In a recent review of Daybreakers, I mentioned that the promising but flawed vampire flick featured “the most entertaining exploding-body scene ever”. Well, it looks like 2010 is gearing up to be a banner year for exploding-body scenes, because Legion—no relation to The Exorcist author William Peter Blatty’s 1983 novel—sports a … Continue reading Horror review: Legion
Horror review: Daybreakers
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 6, 2010 When it comes to vampire flicks, I prefer the down ’n’ dirty kind. Screw the refined elegance of Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Interview With the Vampire; give me the gritty backwoods bloodsucking of Near Dark any day. I want to hear undead biker Bill Paxton bellow, “I hate it when they ain’t been … Continue reading Horror review: Daybreakers
Horror review: The Box
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 6, 2009 By Steve Newton “Button, Button”, the 1970 Richard Matheson tale on which The Box is based, is only 10 pages long, but that didn’t stop Hollywood from turning it into a 115-minute sci-fi abomination complete with solid cubes of water that transport people around, hordes of automatons with bleeding noses, … Continue reading Horror review: The Box
Horror review: The Collector
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 28, 2009 Now here’s a twisted little gem just in time for Halloween nightmare-making. The Collector—no relation to the same-named ’60s thriller in which weirdo Terence Stamp kidnaped hottie Samantha Eggar—should make the backers of the Saw and Hostel franchises think twice, because it takes the rotting corpse of torture-porn out of the abandoned warehouse … Continue reading Horror review: The Collector
Horror review: Saw VI
Saw VI is the sixth Saw I’ve seen, and maybe the sickest. In the opening scene, a man and a woman are held captive with devices strapped to their heads that can screw bolts into their skulls. They’re told that only one of them will live, the survivor being the person who dumps the most … Continue reading Horror review: Saw VI
Horror review: Stan Helsing
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 21, 2009 In this low-budget, Vancouver- and Surrey-shot parody of the cornball Scary Movie franchise, Steve Howey from TV’s Reba stars as Stan Helsing, a joint-smoking, slacker video-store clerk (is there any other kind?) who’s just finishing up a shift at Schlockbuster and plans on heading to a Halloween bash. But before getting off … Continue reading Horror review: Stan Helsing
Horror review: The Stepfather
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 19, 2009 Before he became known for his starring turns in Vancouver-shot TV series like Millennium and Harsh Realm, Terry O’Quinn dazzled in The Stepfather as a serial killer bent on forming a family and keeping it happily together—no matter what. Working from a script by novelist Donald E. Westlake, O’Quinn brought quiet menace and … Continue reading Horror review: The Stepfather
Horror review: Pandorum
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 25, 2009 The two movies that I remember scaring me the most as a little kid were The Wizard of Oz—that Wicked Witch of the West really had my number—and It! The Terror From Beyond Space, a low-budget 1950s sci-fi flick, a precursor to Alien, about a monster that gets on board a … Continue reading Horror review: Pandorum
Horror review: Jennifer’s Body
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 17, 2009 There's a pivotal scene in Jennifer's Body where a rock band is playing at a bar. During its first song, a fire breaks out on-stage, and quickly engulfs the entire place, with many patrons burning to death. The scene is basically a small-scale reenactment of the tragedy that occurred in … Continue reading Horror review: Jennifer’s Body