Of all the sub-horror genres that have hit screens in the last couple decades, the B-horror genre is one of my personal favorites. As a mostly unserious way of storytelling, B-horror is often attempted, yet rarely successful in being both entertaining and absolutely absurd. Into the Deep, directed by Christian Sesma, both revitalized my love for this genre and kept me laughing all the way through.

This film opens with a young Cassidy (Scout Taylor-Compton) as she recounts watching her…

When I was a kid, I remember growing obsessed with the jingoistic blockbusters Hollywood churned out every year. The ones with names like Lone Survivor or Act of Valor. They marched somberly through the cineplex, one DoD-approved schlockfest relieving the former of duty once the public grew tired of its patriotic thrills. It delighted me to no end when my English teacher taught us the word, propaganda. I know propaganda, I thought. Propaganda’s those movies with Mark Wahlberg.

James Clarke…

First, a heads-up: On its face, Vixen is a pretty by-the-books softcore film. Canadian bush pilot Tom (Garth Pillsbury) has a very promiscuous wife, Vixen (Erica Gavin) who sleeps with just about anybody who stays at their little B&B, which the connubially faithful and willingly oblivious Tom is fine with. Where the heads-up comes in is that the titular sexpot hotwife is incredibly racist towards the only other member of her brother Judd’s (Jon Evans) biker gang, Niles (Harrison Page).…

“Take a breath, I need you to take a breath, okay?”

Even as an avowed horror fan, there are still some parts of the genre that I am afraid to touch. The rape-revenge subgenre is one of those parts, mainly because in the current landscape of the world, it feels like I’d be touching a very raw nerve. But I am nothing if not a vocal subscriber to the theory that horror can provide a safe space to work through…

“This film is shot entirely inside the video game Grand Theft Auto Online. A violent and beautiful virtual world where almost anything is possible…”

These are the opening words of Grand Theft Hamlet. To stage an entire production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet with strangers in the world of Grand Theft Auto Online is the sort of gonzo idea that could have only been cooked up during the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Two out-of-work actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen,…

The buddy comedy has a long tradition in US cinema. Two friends go on an adventure, usually over a limited period of time such as a day or week, that will test their ability to be each other’s support systems, expose long simmering resentments, but inevitably deepen their bonds? It’s a formula designed to be an audience pleaser. Most buddy comedies center around masculine friendships with classics like Hot Fuzz (2007), Men in Black (1997), Some Like It Hot (1959),…

Whannell shifts the setting of this reboot from Wales to a sparsely populated part of central Oregon, the change reflecting the themes of isolation from when the script was written at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) grew up in that remote area; after his father is declared legally dead by the state after disappearing in the wilderness years earlier, he heads back there with his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth).…

Movies are one of my favorite ways to travel. A film can take me somewhere on Earth I’ve never been or even heard of previously–or somewhere outside our reality entirely. One way I like to travel by film is also to revisit places I’ve been previously and loved. In Bruges (2008) is one I love watching even more after visiting the real life location, and I will watch Before Sunset (2004) or Midnight in Paris (2011) when I am feeling…