horror

Movie Review – They Remain

They Remain (2017)
Written & Directed by Philip Gelatt

they-remain

Keith and Jessica are sent for an extended research assignment to study nature. This isn’t your typical assignment because the plot of land they are visiting is the site of ritualized murders committed by a Manson-style cult decades before. The private interest backing the expedition wants to know if such acts of depravity and evil have left a mark on the environment. Keith goes out each day, placing cameras and gathering samples. Jessica stays in their geodesic dome headquarters processing samples, looking for some elusive unknown. Keith encounters a wild dog that seems to be leading him through the woods, and both researchers begin to experience hallucinations and dreams about the dark acts performed on this land. Something evil lurks in the darkness and is slowly luring two more victims to it.

Continue reading “Movie Review – They Remain”

Movie Review – Coherence

Coherence (2013)
Written by James Ward Byrkit & Alex Manugian
Directed by James Ward Byrkit

coherence

Emily arrives at a dinner party at a friend’s house where conversation quickly turns to the historic passing of a comet over the United States that evening. Reports are coming out of people’s smartphone screens spontaneously cracking, and one party guest has a brother who is a physicist and warn that strange electromagnetic phenomena could occur. Everything goes wrong with the power shuts off, and the guests notice one house down the road as the only building with any light. Two people go to investigate, and things get stranger and stranger. A lockbox is found at the other house with numbered photos of all the party guests. As tensions rise so does paranoia, and the people gathered that evening begin to turn on each other.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Coherence”

Movie Review – Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories (2017)
Written & Directed by Jeremy Dyson & Andy Nyman

ghost stories

Professor Phillip Goodman has made a career out of being a skeptic of all things supernatural and mystic. When we catch up with him, he’s exposing a medium that preys on grieving parents. Out of nowhere, Goodman is contacted by presumed dead paranormal investigator Charles Cameron, an inspiration to Goodman. Cameron claims that he had a crisis of faith and discovered three cases that he could find no rational explanation for. Goodman takes these three cases with the intent of doing his investigation and proving them hoaxes. However, as the good professor explores each incident and speaks to the people who witnessed each one he finds strange coincidences that hint at something more sinister behind these events.

Continue reading “Movie Review – Ghost Stories”

Movie Review – The Witch

The Witch (2016)
Written & Directed by Robert Eggers

the witch

In the 1630s, a man named William and his family are exiled from his Puritan plantation after he is found guilty of promoting an alternative view of accepted Christianity. After traveling through the wilderness, the family settles on a remote plot of land on the edge of the woods. While playing with the baby of the family, eldest daughter Thomasin suddenly loses him to an unseen force in those woods. She’s met with suspicion by her mother and William is driven further into desperation. The crops rot on the stalk, the goat is only giving blood, and there is a malevolent air about the land. The eldest son, Caleb strikes upon a plan to venture into the woods to gather rabbits from traps so that the family can sustain themselves with some bit of food, but this journey will damn his entire family.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Witch”

Book Review – The Cabin at the End of the World

The Cabin at the End of the World (2018)
Written by Paul Tremblay

cabin at the end of the world

Wen is on a summer vacation to a lake cabin in rural New Hampshire where her fathers want the family to be disconnected from the internet and their phones for a little while. She’s out collecting grasshoppers when a strange, imposingly large man shows up, introducing himself as Leonard. He seems very kind and quiet, telling her she is a great little girl and implying that he’ll be speaking with her parents very soon. Wen feels conflicted, safe at moments and then wary. Then the other emerge from the tree line, and Wen feels a strong sense of dread. Over the next two days, Wen and her dads will experience a confusing and terrifying series of events, forcing them to question the very reality of the world around them.

Continue reading “Book Review – The Cabin at the End of the World”

Movie Review – A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place (2018)
Written by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski
Directed by John Krasinski

a quiet place

Humanity is near extinction in the wake of a violent species that has emerged on the planet. These creatures are blind but possess super sensitive hearing. The film focuses on the Abbott family who lives on a farm in a rural community. They have spent over a year living in this violent new reality and have adapted, sprinkling well-trod paths with sand to soften their footsteps and building a soundproof bunker under their barn. Their eldest child, Regan is deaf and due to a lack of resources her damaged cochlear implant has become useless making her very vulnerable. The matriarch Evelyn is pregnant and due in a few weeks so this becomes an issue of vital importance, the family prepping a soundproof box to hide the newborn in when they arrive. But as often happens in movies like these things begin to go wrong very quickly.

Continue reading “Movie Review – A Quiet Place”

Movie Review – The Endless

The Endless (2017)
Written by Justin Benson
Directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

the endless.jpg

Justin and Aaron are brothers who escaped from a UFO death cult a decade ago. While they toil away as professional cleaners day to day, Aaron starts to wonder if life back with the cult would be better. They receive a videotape in the mail that appears to be a farewell message from one of the cult members. The two men finally decide to return to the rural campground where the cult operates from and finds none of them remember sending any tape and are just happy to see their old friends back. Strange phenomena begin to happen around the camp and the two men figure out that the very fabric of reality is breaking down around them.

Continue reading “Movie Review – The Endless”