Archive

horror

Movie Review – Tank 432

June 25, 2017
2016, horror, science fiction
Leave a comment

Tank 432 (2016)
Written & Directed by Nick Gillespie

Tank-432

A group of soldiers fights an enemy unseen. They tow a couple hooded prisoners in orange jumpsuits along behind them. The war is happening in what appears to be the English countryside. They stumble across scenes of massacres, other soldiers killed in brutal and obscene manners. On the run from a strange figure that appears seemingly out of nowhere, the group holes up in an abandoned British bulldog tank in a field. As their minds begin to splinter and they are plagued with disturbing dreams, the dreaded reality of the situation starts to become clear.

Read More

Origins 2017: Cthulhu Dark

June 22, 2017
horror, origins 2017, tabletop games
1 Comment

Cthulhu Dark
Written by Graham Walmsley

cthulhu dark

Cthulhu and Lovecraft are so prevalent in the world of tabletop it is often hardly worth noticing when someone comes along with these names slapped on their product. Every noteworthy game like Munchkin, Gloom, or Smash Up will inevitably have the Cthulhu expansion. The tabletop RPG world has Call of Cthulhu at the top of a virtual mountain of madness of games (Trail of Cthulhu, Age of Cthulhu. Delta Green, etc.). There are some great games amongst all of this, but for me personally, I am very picky about how horror and games meet, especially the weird fiction genre of Lovecraft. My preference is always for a role-playing system that is light and allows for a lot of creative freedom at the table. I know this is not everyone’s style of game, but after writing lesson plans for weeks and weeks and weeks, if I run something I want to have to do very little prep-work and be surprised by my players and where they take the story. Cthulhu Dark seems to do just that.

Read More

Movie Review – It Comes At Night

June 11, 2017
2017, horror
Leave a comment

It Comes At Night (2017)
Written & Directed by Trey Edward Shults

It-Comes-At-Night-movie-image-Christopher-Abbott-Riley-Keough

Something terrible is happening. A virus is killing people, and no one seems to know quite where it comes from how exactly how you contract it. Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) is living under the strict rules of his father, Paul (Joel Edgerton) and mother, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo). Doors are kept locked up and tight and venturing outside is planned for only short bursts. Into their life comes another group of survivors and out of this develops the central conflict of the film. Told from the perspective of Travis we get overhear conversations muffled by floorboards and see the horrific nightmares that keep the young man awake at night.

Read More

Movie Review – Prevenge

June 4, 2017
2017, british, horror, independent
1 Comment

Prevenge (2017)
Written and Directed by Alice Lowe

prevenge_01

Ruth (Alice Lowe) suffered a terrible tragedy and is now a single pregnant mother to be. Something strange has happened though. She’s begun hearing the squeaky whispered voice of her unborn child. This gestating being compels Ruth to go on a series of murders that seem random at first but slowly reveal a methodology. The reason behind the killings and the tragedy that happens before the film starts to lead to a tragic and disturbing finale.

Read More

The Revisit – Frailty

June 1, 2017
2000s, horror, independent
Leave a comment

The Revisit is a place for me to rewatch films I love but haven’t seen in years or films that didn’t click with me the first time. Through The Revisit, I reevaluate these movies and compare my original thoughts on them to how they feel in this more recent viewing.

Frailty (2000)
Written by Brent Hanley
Directed by Bill Paxton

frailty

It’s a rainy night in Dallas, Texas when FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) is called into the office to speak with Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey), a strange man who claims to know secrets behind what authorities have dubbed “The God’s Hand Killer.” Mainly, he tells Doyle that his brother, Adam is the killer. The film becomes a series of flashbacks to Fenton and Adam’s childhood wherein their father (Bill Paxton) claims to have been visited by an angel that tells him which people are truly demons in disguise. He brings the two boys along with him as he hunts down and murders these false humans, but Adam grows increasingly fearful of his father’s actions. Their father begins to see Adam as a threat and takes drastic measures.

Read More

PopCult Book Club – June 2017 Announcement

June 1, 2017
book club, horror
Leave a comment

This June, Pop Cult’s book club choice will be Universal Harvester by John Darnielle (Mountain Goats).

universal harvester

The official blurb for the novel reads: “Life in a small town takes a dark turn when mysterious footage begins appearing on VHS cassettes at the local Video Hut. So begins Universal Harvester, the haunting and masterfully unsettling new novel from John Darnielle, author of the New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Nominee Wolf in White Van”

Hopefully a nice companion piece to the small town horror of Twin Peaks. Join me, won’t you?

Movie Review – Raw

May 30, 2017
2017, french, horror
1 Comment

Raw (2017)
Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau

raw

Justine has arrived at veterinary school, like her parents before her and her sister, Alexia, who is in her second year. The family are devoted vegetarians, and Justine attempts to uphold this tradition at the school. However, the hazing of first years leads to her being forced to consume a rabbit’s kidney and being doused in buckets of animal blood. Something begins to change in the young woman, and she finds herself overwhelmed with a hunger for meat, even consuming it raw from the fridge. At momentary slip of scissors beings Justine to a new precipice where she develops a taste for human flesh.

Read More