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Posted on January 4, 2017

Hopes for Horror in 2017

Gwen

FILMS:

A Cure For Wellness

Due for release in February 2017, this Gore Verbinski directed psychological horror has stirred my interest.  The cyclical story has me wondering what they are hiding up there in the Swiss Alps. As one man goes to retrieve the CEO of his company from a wellness spa, his own well-being is tested. Will he fall victim to what ails all those who walk through these doors, or will he escape intact?  “Only if we know what ails us, can we find a cure.” If you are looking for jump scares and the such, this might not be for you as it is shaping up to be more of a slow building contemporary gothic film that taps in to your senses.

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Posted on December 30, 2016

THE TOP 10 HORROR FILMS OF 2016

Dawn Keetley

2016 has been a bad year in so many ways (there’s even been a horror movie made about it!) but there were some fantastic horror films released this year—and here’s our top ten. These are all terrifying films, but thought provoking at the same time. So I don’t get repetitious, let me say from the beginning that all ten of these films are superbly acted and directed. And if there’s one of them you haven’t seen yet, make it a new year’s resolution!

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Posted on December 10, 2016

The Monster: Of Mothers and Monsters

Dawn Keetley

The Monster is written and directed by the extremely talented Bryan Bertino, who also directed and wrote the 2008 home invasion film, The Strangers—a film that would certainly make my list of the best films of the 2000s. The Monster shares some of the things that make The Strangers a great film: its plot is spare, focused (without distraction) on the palpable threat to its isolated protagonists; it succeeds in very large part because of the undeniable strength of its actors: Zoe Kazan and Ella Ballentine are just as brilliant in The Monster as Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman were in The Strangers. And, in both films, Bertino expertly weaves in a larger frame of meaning—religion and the presence of evil in The Strangers (as I wrote about elsewhere) and the complicated love (and hate) of mother-daughter relationships in The Monster. Read more

Posted on January 15, 2016

The Forest (2016) Review

Gwen

95 min   |  2016   |   (USA)   |   Jason Zada

Grade:  B-

Synopsis:  A young American woman named Sara Price (Dormer) travels to Japan’s Suicide Forest (Aokigahara) in search of her missing twin who has a troubled past.

Review:  Slow, building horror with a cerebral bend.

If you are looking for jump scares, tons of special FX, or gore, this movie is not for you.  If I had to categorize it, I would call it more of a suspenseful thriller.  The Forest is like the burn in your muscles the day after a good run.  While watching The Forest, it is at times difficult to tell the difference between what is real and imagined.  The film’s dream-like quality leaves you as disoriented as the characters that attempt to navigate the labyrinth inside the Aokigahara Forest.

The Forest5

Be prepared, the Aokigahara doesn’t actually play as large of a role in the film as you might think. I won’t give away any spoilers but if you are going to enjoy this film, you have to go in with an open mind. Upon viewing trailers, one might think the whole film is about the horrors that lurk within this specific forest…not so much. The Suicide Forest is a conduit for the larger portion of the film to unfurl. In fact, I would suggest that the nebulous forest is just a means for Sara and her twin, Jess (also played by Dormer) to work out their equally ill-defined inner demons.

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