Horror Movie Talk

Escape Room is a movie best described as tense, fun, and bad in a good way. It has a solid premise and uses it in creative ways to up the tension and suspense for the audience. At times is goes over the top, but mostly in fun ways. Escape Room is a thriller about a group of strangers who are brought together by an unknown presence that sends out a puzzle to each of them. When they complete the puzzle, it gives them an invitation to compete in a new, premier escape room in their area. The invitation claims that if they beat the escape room they can win $10,000! What they don’t know is that they are playing for their lives! Watch Escape Room Escape Room Full Movie Click here to Watch It’s is fun, funny, and terribly written. The dialog is laughable and made up of constant exposition about what is happening at any given moment is what makes this movie laughable. The bones of this movie are decent, and it’s pretty much exactly what I expected. Mostly I had such a fun time watching it with Bryce and being exasperated at the silly dialog that Escape Room ended being more fun than I expected it would be. Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/8W6yYBAUxv4 My Rating 5/10 Spoilers for Escape Room Escape Room starts out by introducing us to the six narrators of the movie. I say narrators because every single action taken by every character in Escape Room is narrated with gusto by at least one of these six main characters. Of the actors in Escape Room the two that you will probably notice the most from other projects are Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll) who you might remember as the redhead from True Blood, and Mike (Tyler Labine) who is Dale from Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Tyler is also a producer on Dale and Tucker. One of the main character’s is Zoey (Taylor Russell) who I recognized from the recent Netflix show Lost in Space. Everyone else is an up-and-comer. So, everyone gets the invitation and shows up to what they believe to be the lobby of the escape room. Turns out the lobby is the first room they have to escape, and quickly turns into an oven. They make their way through six successive escape rooms as their numbers are thinned. The one constant throughout all of the movie is that they are being watched by cameras that are set up throughout every escape room. The creators of the escape room use these cameras to monitor the subjects and broadcast the feed of human misery to nameless viewers on the web. The different escape rooms include (in order): Oven (hot) Ice cabin (cold) Upside down bar Medical treatment facility Trippy drug room Squish you flat study Several final levels/false endings The Good and The Bad The biggest problem I have with Escape Room is actually a bit of a strength for the movie – the laughably bad dialog and exposition. Everything in this movie is narrated by the characters; every action, every thought, every single part of this movie is narrated. It was bothersome at first, but then became so ridiculous and so dependable, it became a companion of sorts for me throughout the movie. I was able to look over at Bryce and see him roll his eyes and laugh every 10-15 seconds, and that was terrible and great at the same time. This movie is not disjointed and hard to follow like Slenderman, it’s the opposite. It’s so easy to follow and so heavily narrated that it becomes a joke in and of itself. Actual problems that stood out to me in this movie were some of the puzzles that the participants had to solve to beat the rooms. These puzzles were (sometimes) so specific to a single character’s personal trauma that only that character could solve the puzzle. So, it was movie kismet that happened to allow the participant who won the escape room to actually get through the whole thing. The plot premise on Escape Room reminded me quite a bit of the plot premise of Unfriended: Dark Web. A shady dark web group is paying to see fucked up things happen to unwilling participants on the internet. Many have said that it’s similar to Saw – sure, that works too. Check Out Our Review of Unfriended: Dark Web https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/07/27/unfriended-dark-web/ Overall, Escape Room was a tense, goofy thriller that had a few uncomfortable moments, but never anything bordering on “scary”. Going into this movie I was expecting the worst but ended up having a good time because of the way it was written and some fun acting. Final Recommendation Escape Room is a fun enough movie, but it’s nothing special. Watch it with friends and you will have a good time. Watch it alone at your peril. Horror Movie News The Prodigy Trailer https://youtu.be/BC4cyYRxjFk The director of The Prodigy is reworking some scenes because they were supposedly too scary. I just hope they leave enough scares in! What Qualifies as “Horror”? Check out this article written by Emily Von Seele for Bloody Disgusting about how everyone keeps trying to call horror movies anything other than “horror”. Listen to the podcast to hear our take. Also, check out what Bryce thinks about the question. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/08/17/what-counts-as-a-horror-movie/

This episode we review Bird Box, which is available to stream only on Netflix. It’s probably one of the best horror movies of 2018. Even though it was released the Friday before Christmas, it has already been watched over 45 million times according to Netflix. Bird Box tells the story of Mallorie (played by Sandra Bullock) as she experiences the fallout of a worldwide invasion of monsters that cause people to commit suicide if you look at them. The survivors of the invasion figure out that they must block their view with blindfolds or window coverings to resist the influence of the unseen creatures. Read Bird Box Bird Box Full Book Click here to Read The non-linear narrative jumps between the onset of the global disaster where Mallorie finds herself holed up with a motley crew of survivors, and five years after the fact when Mallorie is floating down a river with two small children trying to get to safety. Will they make it? Is it a happy ending? …You’ll just have to …SEE it. Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INJ2bPFy108 There is a star studded cast that give great performances. Notably Sarah Paulson in her small role as Mallorie’s Sister, and Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), the love interest. John Malkovich is also in it. It’s directed by Susanne Bier which has mostly just directed dramas and romances, but she has shown her skill with this movie. This is a really high quality movie that I’m kind of shocked wasn’t released in theaters. It would have done great, as evidenced by it’s record breaking first week on Netflix. It’s very tonally similar to A Quiet Place, and that’s only helps it. There is a lot of creative problem solving on display in this movie, but most notably, this movie is a great example of how to not show the monster. Another great compliment I can pay to this movie is that all of the characters’ actions made sense. Any time that I was yelling at the screen, it was from dramatic irony, not because of a stupid character decision. The writing was very good at building the world and communicating the situation in a very short period of time. Lots or really tense moments and great payoffs throughout. My Rating 9/10 Spoilers for Bird Box First, let me say, that this movie has some of the best scared faces of the year. If there was an Oscar for best scared face, I think Sarah Paulson and Lil Rey Howery would get nominated. Second, every time I see John Malcovich, I think of this interview of Matt Damon talking about working with him the first time on Rounders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMaAT_KPSs4 Alright, lets get to the rest of the movie. There are some great moments of tension in this movie that don’t rely on characters making stupid decisions. This is difficult for some horror movies for some reason. Two moments in particular are very effective and had me clutching the air. First, the scene where it is revealed that Gary, played by Tom Hollander, is an acolyte for the monster. Some people may think it’s cheap that this reveal happens as the births were happening, but to me, it just made it more effective. It served as a prime moment of distraction for Gary to make his move. Check Out Our Review of Creepshow https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/30/creepshow-1982-review/ The next part that I was clawing at the armrests was towards the end of the movie when Mallorie is separated from the children, and the monster is trying to trick the children to take off their masks in the voice of Mallorie. It was the penultimate scene of the movie and was so effective because at this point, you understand that the detachment that Bullock’s character is displaying towards the children throughout the movie is just a facade. She cares deeply and has masked her attachment to protect the children in case something happens to her. During the scene where they are separated, it is nerve-wracking because all of her effort could be for naught. Well, if you’re reading this spoiler section, you might want to know what happens in the end. Like my wife, who is a horror lightweight asked me: “is it a happy, or a sad ending?”. Well, it’s a happy ending. It might seem like an obvious choice, but throughout the movie, it truly felt like it could go either way. They killed Sarah Paulson’s character within the first 15 minutes, so they weren’t going to shy away from a super depressing ending if they wanted to. Check Out Our Review of Hereditary https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/11/21/hereditary-review/ To say that it is a happy ending, isn’t to say that it is cheap. The ending most of all just feels satisfying. It has a slight reveal that makes sense, but mostly it is satisfyingly because it ties up the thematic material so well. Mainly surviving vs living, and human connection. Final Recommendation If you liked A Quiet Place, then you should like this movie. It’s not as derivative of it as you might think, it is just very tonally similar. The acting is excellent throughout, as well as the direction. The story and thematic material are handled adeptly while maintaining a steady pace of tension and release. You should definitely see it.

If you don’t know what Gremlins is about, what the fuck are you doing? This is a movie about a Mogwai, and the sleepy little town of Kingston Falls, that wakes up to a very unusual Christmas day! https://youtu.be/XBEVwaJEgaA If you want to watch Gremlins use this link to rent it on Amazon and you will do your part to help support this podcast. Watch Gremlins Gremlins Full Movie Click here to Watch It’s single-handedly responsible for a HUGE section of horror, now basically known as Gremlins knock-offs. The list of Gremlin knock-offs is long and includes: Troll Critters Leprechaun Cat’s Eye The Gate Munchies Hobgoblins Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowlarama Beasties Elves My Rating 8/10 Gremlins Spoilers Gremlins is an iconic movie in many ways. It’s got Steven Spielberg’s stink all over it despite being directed by Joe Dante. An interesting thing about Bryce, he loves Steven Spielberg, and because he was the Executive producer on this, I bet Bryce has a worthwhile take on Gremlins. Listen to the podcast to find out more on Bryce’s takes on Steven Spielberg. Check Out Our Review of Gremlins! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/07/24/gremlins-2-the-new-batch-review/ Gremlins starts in my favorite way, in a bustling set of Chinatown, where a young boy leads Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) down into his grandfather’s shop of Asian artifacts. Randall Peltzer has an interesting through line in this movie, in that he is a shitty inventor unless you count creating inventions that kill Gremlins well. Anyway, the old Chinese grandfather/curator of the shop, Mr. Wing (Keye Luke), warns Mr. Peltzer that the cute Mogwai isn’t for sale but the grandkid can’t turn down the money, and Mr. Peltzer walks away with Gizmo. But not before being given very specific rules for dealing with the Mogwai. The rules for keeping Mogwai are simple: Keep them out of the light. No water. Don’t feed after midnight. So Gizmo goes home and eventually all the rules are broken, and we are given Gremlins. Gremlins are sadistic and mean, and they mean nothing but trouble for the town of Kingston Falls. How Gremlins Die Gremlins is a movie that holds nothing sacred, except maybe movie tropes. Watch Gremlins to see all the interesting ways that you can kill the Gremlins in your life. We get to see Gremlins killed with: A knife Food processor Microwave Sword Sword/fireplace combo Light Car And more! Tropes in Gremlins Gremlins is a movie about tropes. Here are some of the most impressive tropes that Gremlins sticks to: Black man is first to die. Rules are made to be broken. School as a place of horror. Alien blood, I.E. blood that is colored differently to make it appear strange. Damsel in distress. Mythical creatures. Action mom. Asshole victim. Bad people abuse animals Bungling inventor. Crazy cat lady. Police are useless. The Dad in The Chimney Subplot The dad in the chimney subplot is one of my very favorite parts of this movie for a few different reasons. Kate Beringer (Pheobe Cates) is finally convinced to share the story of why Christmas is her least favorite holiday. She tells the tale of Christmas Eve, the night her father went missing. Days went by, and there was no sign of her father. Finally, it became cold in the house, so she went to light the fire, where she noticed a foul smell. Turns out, Her dad tripped and fell while trying to surprise her for Christmas and wedged himself in the chimney, where he died. So many things are wrong with this: What are you doing on the roof when trying to surprise your child? Why go down the chimney, have you seen a chimney? Why did it take so long to find him? Didn’t he yell and scream? How long does the house go cold for before you light a fire? How much do you hate your father for being a blithering idiot? I love this story. I love this movie. If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it in a while, it’s a fabulous time.

Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension is available to stream on Amazon and is probably the weakest movie in the Paranormal Activity franchise. This is a Christmas horror movie as the whole thing involves a house with a Christmas tree in it. Let’s face it, that’s as close to Christmas horror as you should want to get. It does do that satisfying thing that all the Paranormal Activities do which is tie back into the others nicely. If you want to watch Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon link to help us support the podcast. https://youtu.be/zR2cc1BwdmI Remember Toby? The demon from the Paranormals is back in this movie, where he focuses on an entirely new family who bought a house that was built on the same site as the house from the third movie. The house from the third movie burned down, and this is what’s there now. This family has a child who becomes the focus of the demon Toby. Watch Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Full Movie Click here to Watch Ghost Dimension was released in 2015, and it was the scariest thing of all…a 3D movie. They took a good premise and fucked it out, pretty hard. My Rating 5/10 Quick Summary of Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension Ghost Dimension stars a family of three: the dad Ryan (Chris J. Murray), mom Emily (Brit Shaw), five-year-old daughter Leila (Ivy George). It starts light and ends heavy, like most Paranormal Activities. The family who lives in this palatial house is being visited by a super sexy family friend, Skylar, who parades her jubblies around like everyone’s business. Skylar is played by the stunning Olivia Taylor Dudley. Check Out Our Review Of A Truly Scary Movie, Terrified! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/03/20/terrified-aterrados-movie-review/ Mike, Ryan’s brother who is fresh out of a long-term relationship, is also visiting the family during Christmas. Dan Gill plays Mike. Ryan and his brother, Mike find a box outside while putting up Christmas lights. The box contains a bunch of VHS tapes and a souped-up video recorder that would make Doc from Back to the Future jealous. The camera allows the user to view the Ghost Dimension. These tapes reveal a good portion of footage from the ’80s where the original sisters Katie and Kristi were used by the cult present in the third and fourth movie to foretell the future and communicate with Toby. The Problems With Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension One of the many problems with this movie is that it focuses too much on boring 3D visual effects. There is a soupy 3D fog that the viewing audience is constantly forced into by whoever is piloting the ultra-camcorder. It’s supposed to be spooky but ends up being boring. There are quite a few visual effects in this movie that are cool to look at, but not as effective as a real person standing over their significant other for three hours or more while they sleep at night. There is some goop that shoots from floor to ceiling, and some demon figures that zoom around so fast you can’t make out more than a blur of movement. Overall these effects don’t do a lot for Ghost Dimension. Another issue that Ghost Dimension suffers from is showing the spook. The reason the Paranormal Activity series work is partially because you don’t get to see the spook, you just get the aching feeling that it’s there. The Ghost Dimension replaces the effective nothing, with a shitty something, and ruins the whole thing that made the series work in the first place. Check Out Our Review Of Summer Of 84 https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/02/27/summer-of-84-review/ As far as found footage goes, this is a pretty weak entry to the genre. They don’t use the stationary cams that made Paranormal Activity stand out as a series. Instead, they decided to go with, not a shaky cam, but a handheld camcorder. The dreadful feeling of being forced to look at a still frame for 15 seconds at a time is done away with and replaced with a format that tells you where to look instead of forcing your eye to find the action. What Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension Does Right Ghost Dimension does a good job of capitalizing on the story of the Paranormal movies. It’s eerie to see how the VHS tapes refer to the family in real time. Having a little girl in a pre-recorded VHS do live commentary on me watching TV would be enough for me to shit my pants, so I give Ghost Dimension credit for that. It’s also part of one of my very favorite movie franchises of all time, so while I am able to really focus on the bad, overall it’s a solid “C” of a movie. It had a good budget and some decent acting. If you are a sucker for found footage movies, The Ghost Dimension will be right up your alley. If you have friends who are very satisfying jumpers during jump scares, it will be fun. If you want to watch Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon link to help us support the podcast.

This week, we rented Silent Night, Deadly Night and to be honest, it might be one of my new favorite horror movies. https://youtu.be/hNBJfv5pIdY Silent Night, Deadly Night can be found for rent on Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, and VUDU. If you want to own the recently release Blu-ray edition, click through to Amazon. Silent Night, Deadly Night is about a young man named Billy who witnessed the murder of his parents at the hands of a criminal in a santa suit. Since then, Billy grew up in a catholic orphanage where his traumatic childhood has been stringently repressed by the Mother Superior and has been imbued with a strict and black and white morality. Billy is still terrified by Santa even as an adult, but one fateful Christmas Eve, he is asked to be Santa Claus for the store he works at. That experience along with a series of events brings Billy to the point of a psychotic break, and he begins a killing spree dressed as Santa. It’s awesome. Silent Night, Deadly Night is the best version of this movie that I can imagine. The script is way tighter than it needs to be in terms of setting up and executing the major moving pieces of the plot. This is a exploitative slasher, that doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur, but is more enjoyable than most slasher movies I have ever seen. Check Out Our Review of the New Black Christmas! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/12/18/black-christmas-2019-review/ Billy’s character is terrifying as well as pitiable. Some of the killings have real weight to them, though most are as cheap as any slasher death. There is a lot of creativity is the methods of killing, and since you actually kind of care about the main character, there is a constant tension on how it will play out for him in the end. I highly recommend you watch it this Christmas Season. My Rating 9/10 Watch Silent Night, Deadly Night Silent Night Deadly Night Full Movie Click here to Watch What works in Silent Night, Deadly Night A lot of things work about this movie. As I stated before, the writing in this was way better than it needed to be. I expected a movie about a killer Santa to much lower effort and production value than this movie delivered. The motivations of Billy as he turns into a killer are logical and presented in a compelling way. After getting scared by his grandpa about Santa and then having his fears confirmed by witnessing his parents’ death at the hands of Kris Kringle, he undertandable has some baggage about Santa. Not satisfied with that set up alone, the screenwriters augment Billy’s mental issues with Santa with a strict Catholic upbringing, including sexual shame. So needless to say, Billy is a ticking time bomb by the time he is an adult. Another indication that the writing in this movie is of higher quality is that I actually cared about the characters. I cared about Billy and his fate because he was a three dimensional character. I also cared about some of his victims, especially Pamela, whose death seemed tragic in the moment. The other thing I love about this movie is the original music. This is another example of demonstrated artistic care given to a movie that no one on the surface would take seriously. The original Christmas carols in particular are fantastic, and really add to the slightly off feeling throughout the movie. These Christmas carols sound deceptively cheery, but have weirdly ominous lyrics. Here is one that I’ve had stuck in my head ever since watching the movie: https://youtu.be/yp3vpOZ23uk I’m not a big fan of slashers, but I must say that I enjoyed the creativity of some of the deaths. I don’t think that Billy killed anyone the same way twice. We had: Christmas light strangulation Box cutter disemboweling Claw hammer to the head Arrow to the spine Stabbed with antlers Defenestration Axe beheading Axe to the Chest Sometimes these deaths came from out of the blue, and were super effective. What Didn’t Work To be honest, there wasn’t really anything I didn’t like about this movie. I’m sure that others will point out bad acting, and exploitative nudity, but we’re talking about a slasher here. There are always some flaws that come with the territory with slashers. This isn’t high art, but it is entertaining, and Silent Night, Deadly Night is a higher quality slasher compared to most.

If you loved the story of Ralphie and his red ryder b-b gun in A Christmas Story, then you’ll love this other Christmas classic by Bob Clark. In Black Christmas, the Pi Kappa Sigma Sorority receives a strange and obscene phone calls during their Christmas party right before Christmas break. The reactions to the phone call range from disgust and offence to amusement. Barb played by Margo Kidder fires back her own obscenities in return, to which the phone call ends with a sobering “I’m going to kill you”. Watch Black Christmas Black Christmas Full Movie Click here to Watch The faceless killer, which can be described most accurately as a maniac, then stalks and kills several inhabitants of Pi Kappa Sigma. The sorority tries to get the police to take them seriously when they can’t find a missing sister, but the police don’t take any action until a dead body shows up in the park. There’s also a relationship storyline that you won’t care about. Black Christmas Review Black Christmas was an interesting movie, but not the most entertaining. There were a lot of firsts in this movie, and much better horror movies have stolen from it to greater effect: I believe it’s the first movie with the “The call’s coming from inside the house”, but is outdone by When A Stranger Calls It’s not technically the first first-person perspective for the killer, but definitely influenced the much better Halloween It was definitely the first “holiday” horror movie though. With all these interesting first’s you would think that this would be great movie, but the sum is lesser than it’s parts and it ends up being rather dull. It’s not gory enough to satisfy the slasher connoisseur, and it’s not dreadful enough to be a great psychological horror; it’s just…ok at both. It’s dark and has a cinema verite feel to it, but it undercuts itself with clumsy attempts at humor. There are some things that work, mainly the phone calls and the cinematic treatment of the killer, but the main plot and the characters are just meh. Check Out Our Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2018/12/19/silent-night-deadly-night-review/ Black Christmas can be found streaming on Shudder right now. If you don’t have a shudder account, use promo code HMT at checkout to get a 30 day free trial. You can also find it on DVD or Blu-ray at Amazon. Be sure to click through the link on our website to support the show. My Rating 4/10 Spoilers You would expect a spoiler to be who the killer was, but in this movie, that is never revealed. The killer is presented as pretty much a crazy person that wandered into their attic off the street. In fact the killer’s face is never shown. It is easy to see how Halloween was originally written as a sequel to Black Christmas. I guess one spoiler is that the killer is calling from inside the house, but given that you are shown that the killer is lying in wait in the attic the whole time, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Overall this was a pretty straightforward film. A killer kills off sorority girls, and more! Is Black Christmas Worth Seeing? Your mileage may vary, full disclosure, I was pretty tired when watching this one, so the 70’s pacing probably wore on me more than normal. The best part of the movie is the killer’s phone calls, but those may be best experienced in clip form so you don’t have to sit through the melodrama of the story line. However, if you are a horror academic and want to see an influential movie, this is a good choice for the holiday season.

The House that Jack Built isn’t getting a wide release until December 14th, but we went to a one night only showing of the director’s cut a month early at the Cinema 21 in Portland. So this is a rare instance where we can provide a review well in advance of a wide release. https://youtu.be/c6DuLPGZIoQ The film tells the story of an unassuming, yet prolific serial killer named Jack. It’s told through a series of 5 short vignettes of some of his notable kills. It’s told over the course of 12 years from the mid-late 70’s to the mid-late 80s and takes place in the rural Pacific NorthWest of the United States. Jack’s nom de guerre is Mr. Sophistication, which he writes on the grisly photos he takes of his victims. Watch The House That Jack Built The House That Jack Built Full Movie Click here to Watch Throughout the film Jack’s descriptions of his personal condition, problems and thoughts are told through a recurring conversation with the unknown “Verge”. Jack views himself as a sophisticated man and the story is told through his own mixture of arrogant and narcissistic sophistry. The House That Jack Built Review If that sounds like a pretty pretentious serial killer movie, well, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t. The film is directed by Lars Von Trier, who also directed all of those art house movies you meant to see but never got around to. Jack is played by Matt Dillon, which is probably the best part of the movie. I thought he did a fantastic job portraying a psychopath pantomiming normal human facial expressions and when required had great comedic timing. Jack acts as the films unreliable narrator, and tells the story of his failings and mental illness from his elevated perspective of himself and his “art”. Jack’s victims include the likes of Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan (that lady from MIB), and Riley Keough among others. The death scenes where genuinely disturbing, and acted as punctuation for Jack’s ruminations. Check Out Our Review of The Dead Don’t Die! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/06/19/the-dead-dont-die-review/ I appreciated that they didn’t dwell on the fetishization of the killings themselves, they were handled more or less matter-of-factly which to me, makes them more impactful. It definitely delves into the distasteful and absurd with his storage and… use of the bodies. I could see how this film could be viewed as too pretentious for it’s own good, but somehow it worked for me. We saw the director’s cut, so there was definitely some fat that could be cut to improve pacing and make it slightly less art-housey, but I found myself laughing and cringing at the right moments. My Rating 7/10 Spoilers This is a serial killer movie that definitely pushes the envelope. Many of the killing scenes seem a little too real, and feel a little like watching a sudden snuff film. Uma Thurman’s character all but dares Jack to murder her and he obliges. It’s almost expected. The other murders are expected, but what is surprising is their brutality and grotesqueness. The point at which the film really changes tone is when Jack murders a small family on a supposed hunting picnic. Little does the woman and her children know that they are the ones hunted. The set up sounds like a generic 90’s thriller, but in this movie, it is a cold and brutal sequence where you get to experience the murder of children in the first person. Then to double down on the tastelessness, Jack taxidermy’s one of the young boys to greet him for when he enters his body storage fridge. If you’re like me and can compartmentalize this type of violence and can appreciate the absurdity and gallows humor of the likes of The Human Centipede, then this movie might be of interest to you. The eponymous house of this film is proof enough that Lars Von Trier isn’t as interested in high art as Jack “Mr. Sophistication” is. Check Out Our Review of The Killing of a Sacred Deer! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/07/17/the-killing-of-a-sacred-deer-review/ The real spoiler to share is that the voice that we hear throughout the movie that accompanies Jack’s voiceover is none other than Virgil, the author of the Aeneid who reprises his role from Dante’s Inferno by leading Jack through the depths of hell. This is portrayed very literally in the epilogue, and is one of the most striking sequences in the film. At times indulgent, the epilogue is a uniquely cinematic portrayal of a very mythic style of storytelling. It concludes with Jack faced with the choice of accepting his fate and living eternity in a slightly better hell, or tempting fate and falling into the deepest depths of hell. Given what we are told about Jack and his innate desire for self destruction and wanting to be caught, the choice is obvious, but also an effective moral bow to tie up the movie. Is The House That Jack Built Worth Seeing? I would say yes with the caveat that it isn’t for everyone. If you like your horror movies quickly paced, then move on. This one takes its time, but to sometimes excellent effect. If you have an art-house taste, this is right up your alley. In general it’s not great, but definitely better than average. Dillon’s performance is worth the price of admission, and the storytelling is unique and interesting given that the serial killer sub-genre can often be so stale and bland in its execution.

ALL HAIL NETFLIX! Now that we have that out of the way let’s talk about The Ritual, a Netflix original movie that was released on the streaming platform in February of 2018. I can’t believe that movies of this caliber, that is to say, theatrical release worthy movies, are created in the quiet depths of a streaming platform. I didn’t hear much about the production of this movie. Instead, it just showed up on my Netflix suggestion bar, and I watched it. There must be a better way to hype these things, right? Anyway, The Ritual is a well-done horror movie that capitalizes on the natural spookiness of camping and the woods. The Ritual Trailer https://youtu.be/Vfugwq2uoa0 I don’t know if you are a camper, but I am. For years I worked a job that had me camping for a good portion of the year as I maintained trails in a National Forest. I got quite used to camping in the backcountry, but the thought never left some primordial part of my brain, “What if something was out there?” Read the Book The Ritual is Based on The Ritual Full Book Click here to Read The Ritual is very good at capitalizing on this fear of the dark, quiet, forest primeval. It’s the best thing that this movie has going for it – it’s also what makes me a little angry at The Ritual. I enjoy camping – I don’t want potential campers to be too scared to miss the greatness of the outdoors. Before I launch into the review, I want to use The Ritual as an example of a trend I’ve come to expect in horror movies – predictable titling. Horror movie titles have devolved a bit from something interesting like Friday The 13th, or A Nightmare on Elm Street to something extremely cookie-cutter-ish: The Ritual The Strangers The Conjuring The Wailing The Ring The Grudge Do you see a through-line here? Just something that has been niggling at me. Bring back the interesting titles. The one-word titles and the “The” titles are effective but played out. Back to The Ritual review! Quick Summary of The Ritual The Ritual starts off with some old college friends who are having a night out on the town in England (their home). As they leave the bar, two of the five head into a liquor store to grab something to make night-caps with and find themselves in the midst of a robbery. Our protagonist, Luke (Rafe Spall) hides while his friend is beaten brutally and killed for not producing his wedding ring. Fast forward a year. The four remaining friends, Luke, Phil (Arsher Ali), Hutch (Robert James-Collier), and Dom (Sam Troughton) decide to go on the hike that their dead pal would have wanted to go on with them – the Kings Trail in Sweden. As they head down the trail, Dom sprains his leg in a frighteningly realistic portrayal of the kind of dumb movement it takes to sprain your leg. Another Great Netflix Horror Movie – Birdbox! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/02/bird-box-review/ The group argues and squabbles until they decide that going off-trail and cutting through the forest would be faster than, you know, being smart and staying on the trail. Once they enter the forest, things break down. It’s a scary forest. It’s got plenty of shots over overly-dense trees with something moving ever so slightly in the distance. It’s got abandoned cabins and all sorts of effective tropes. Throughout The Ritual, Luke is plagued by vivid waking dreams where he is forced to relive the fearful night where his friend was killed, and he stood by doing nothing. My Rating for The Ritual 7/10 This is on the low side of the seven spectra. It is a serviceable horror movie and has a lot going for it regarding production and acting. The script and character development are a bit clunky at times. The four friends argue so much that it prevents any real introspection or interesting character developments from taking place. However, I give The Ritual some leeway in this script and character development department because the panic that would be present in the circumstances that it places these four guys in could easily produce these, somewhat bothersome yelling matches. Spoilers for The Ritual This movie will totally cut it for a fun night of terror. If you are looking to sit down and have something suck you in, tumble you around and spit you out, this is it. In the long-run, this isn’t a game changer. I do expect it to age well and be added to the list of perfectly acceptable and effective horror movies. If you prefer the monster to stay hidden, as I do, you will be disappointed by The Ritual. It has a big, scary, moose monster with a roast turkey for a head. When the remaining two guys stumble upon a village within the forest, they learn that the village is held captive by the moose monster, which is described to them as being a god. Everyone who lives in the village bears the mark of this beast and is expected to worship this moose monster. Check Out Our Review of Mandy! https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/23/mandy-review/ The vibe I got was that this was a metaphor for fear. The monster chose people who had very intense fear and regret to worship him. The metaphor being, fear can rule your life. Eventually Luke faces his fears, stands up to the monster and finds his way out of the woods. Is The Ritual Worth Seeing? Yep, you should watch it. Solid horror movie that leaves you with a little bit of something extra to think about at the end. How does fear affect your day-to-day life? Does fear control you, make you worship it? It’s part of what I like about horror movies, I get to stand up to something scary and see how I fare against it. You might not want to camp after this. What Do You Think? Leave A Comment Below How do you think The Ritual Stacks up? Leave a comment below and let us know!

If you want to watch Hereditary, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon link to help us support the podcast. If you haven’t seen Hereditary, and you are reading this, STOP! Watch the movie. It’s available to stream on Amazon. I don’t want to argue about this, go now, watch it. Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/embed/V6wWKNij_1M You should go into this movie knowing nothing about it. I say this with certainty because I went in to see Hereditary without knowing a darn thing about it, and it was a transcendent experience. I didn’t know it was a horror movie; I didn’t know it was about interpersonal relationships, I didn’t know anything. That’s a slight lie; I knew that the movie had a very disturbing scene that polarized viewers and made many walk out of movie theaters. Ari Aster, the director, has made a masterpiece. I go into most movies knowing almost nothing about them. I don’t seek out trailers. I don’t look for release dates, which has had to change a little bit given the launch of this site and the podcast. I went into this movie knowing nothing, and it made for the wildest ride I could have possibly imagined. The build in tension, the crumbling family relationships, the fact that you can see and understand every major character’s point of view even though they are wildly conflicting – this movie is a high water mark in horror and for cinema in general. My Rating 10/10 Hereditary will be so uncomfortable for some that they will generally find it distasteful. This is not a jump scare horror movie. This is an Exorcist, a Rosemary’s Baby, a Psycho. Spoilers There is so much to this movie that one watching isn’t enough. Everything about Hereditary is intentional and of the highest quality. The writing, the characters, the acting, the sets, the tension – it’s all great. The more I watch it, the more I realize how rich the world that they have crafted is and how it turns Hereditary into an experience instead of just another movie. I’m not going to go in-depth with the spoilers here because it just wouldn’t do the movie justice. There is a version of this story that I think would make a powerful novel, but so much of the integral parts of this movie are based on visual keys and clues that I think that film is where this story was meant to be. If you want spoilers on this movie, listen to our podcast, we will be diving deep on this one. The story is centered around Annie (Toni Collette), her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), son Peter (Alex Wolff), and daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro). It starts following the death of Annie’s mother, who as it turns out was controlling and terrible to her family. Toni Collette is a tour de force in this movie. Her acting is so impressive, her emotions so raw that you really can’t help but empathize with her even when she is clearly circling the drain and moving toward a mental break. There are two reasons Hereditary is so effective the first of which is it primarily focuses on a normal family unit, who thanks to circumstances beyond there control, is thrown into extreme strife. Everyone has faced familial issues, but the ones in this movie are your worst nightmare – the things you hope never to have to experience. The second reason Hereditary is so effective is that despite that fact that each family member is essentially pitted against the others, you can see all of their points of view very clearly. As a viewer, you understand and empathize with every family member in this movie. You have experienced every niggling bit of anger, guilt, love, and miscommunication that Hereditary throws at you. You’ve been the guilty son or daughter, you’ve worried about your kids or family members, you’ve hated them at times and felt the guilt that hatred brings. As a horror movie, Hereditary starts out as a single note of dread in an echo chamber – slowly, the note builds in volume and is joined by more notes until you are overwhelmed. If the title weren’t “Hereditary,” it could have easily been “Dread.” There are no real jump scares. Instead, it relies on tension, time, and toying with your emotions to achieve something far more effective – something that sticks with you for weeks after watching. Most modern cinematography has ditched the long, well-crafted panning shots in favor of cuts and close-ups. In this movie, you see a bit of a return to the well-crafted scenes and long panning shots that made movies like Psycho great. Is Hereditary Worth Seeing? Let’s put it this way. A large part of the reason this podcast exists is that of the energy that Hereditary gave to Bryce and me. We saw it with Bryce’s friend Kevin whom I had met minutes before the movie started. After the movie, which was the late showing, we saw fit to sit down at a bar and have drink so we could discuss this movie. Every time I saw Bryce after that, we couldn’t help but gush over how it was still in our heads. At this point, I’ve hyped it too much, which is what I tend to do. I’ve shown this movie to a few people, and not everyone agrees with me on it. As always, let us know what you think about Hereditary in the comments section, or on social media! If you want to watch Hereditary, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon link to help us support the podcast. Special Thanks Special thanks to Simon Morkvenas for editing this episode out of the kindness of his heart.

If you want to watch Overlord, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon linkto help us support the podcast. Overlord was fun, very loud, and not to be taken too seriously. https://www.youtube.com/embed/USPd0vX2sdc Overlord is a fun action-horror movie with intense emphasis on disturbing body horror and super stereotypical Nazi bad guys. It’s got everything you need for an action movie – incredible sound, crazy intense physical fights, gun battles, chase scenes, you name it. It also has plenty of disturbing imagery that works well and makes you say, “Boy, those Germans sure were mean dudes!” All the elements to make this a “fun horror movie,” are present. Overlord provided me with all my favorite things – WWII, Nazi killing, fun horror, drugs, and a decently tight script. Overlord is a movie about a few American paratroopers in WWII dropped behind enemy lines in France. Their mission is to destroy a radio tower in a church that has been occupied by the Germans and converted into a radio tower, and much more. The main character is named Boyce, played by Jovan Adepo, who is English. His superior is named Ford; I’m sorry I don’t remember the rank. Ford is played by the dreamy Wyatt Russell. They are joined by the most stereotypical set of WWII companions that you can imagine, including Tibbet – the most NY Italian American I’ve ever seen. Tibbet is played by John Magaro. Eventually, they bump into the sexiest French girl I’ve ever seen, Chloe (Mathilde Ollivier) who helps them in their journeys to kill Nazi’s and do drugs. Overlord is Produced by J.J. Abrams, and it feels like it. It was directed by Julius Avery, who is relatively unknown. Rating 7/10 Spoilers This movie starts with one of the most intense action sequences I’ve ever seen. The plane trip to the drop zone the night before D-Day, which quickly turns into a fight for life. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen such an intense action sequence in movie theaters since Saving Private Ryan. Overlord is a great movie to see in theaters because of how incredibly loud and violent it is. Everything about this film screams, “great theater experience.” Head to a theater with a confirmed great sound system to get the full experience. https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/01/02/bird-box-review/ The good portion of the movie is spent inside Chloe’s house where her suspiciously sick aunt and cute little brother live. In this house, we learn of Chloe’s rape relationship with a Nazi SS leader, Wafner (Pilou Asbaek). We also learn about how deep the evil of Nazis run when the little boy rolls his baseball to a Nazi soldier. The soldier picks up the ball, sneers, and hocks a big loogy on it before throwing it back to the kid. What an inhuman monster! This brings up an interesting observation – we all hate Nazis. They are bad. Overlord gives us a look, although maybe a slightly exaggerated one, at the thing we should hate. Intolerance and hatred incarnate. Maybe Overlord gives us something to unite under, a vision of what we should strive not to be. Plus, Overlord slaughter’s Nazis and zombie Nazis in massive quantities, so there’s that. As our American protagonists fight their way to the church, they learn about fiendish experiments that the Nazis have been conducting on the dead, bringing them back to life with some sort of drug they have been extracting from underneath the hallowed ground of the church. Eventually, they get their hands on the drug, run some experiments of their own, and find out that it brings the dead back to life and makes a living into superhumans. Is Overlord Worth Seeing? If you enjoyed Wolfenstein in any capacity, you would like this movie. If you love action, this is a great movie. If you are looking for lots of body horror, this is your thing. If you are looking for a deep, think piece, this isn’t your deal. If you want historical accuracy, this probably should be avoided. If you have a killer sound setup at home, you must test it out with Overlord. Horror Movie News Check out the silliest Vogue article ever, where Taylor Antrim suggests that 2018 was tame on horror. More importantly check out Brad Miska’s Bloody Disgusting article that slams Taylor for such ignorance. Finally, get excited for the most fucked up holiday movie trailer I’ve ever seen, Hanukkah. https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dNdUGbhjY8 If you want to watch Overlord, please consider renting or purchasing the movie through this amazon link to help us support the podcast.