3,834 words
The Pit
Directed by Lew Lehman
Written by Ian A. Stuart (original screenplay; it’s complicated)
Stars [sic]: Sammy Snyders, Jeannie Elias, Sonja Smits
Canada (it’s complicated), 1981, 1 hour & 36 minutes
“We took your fantastic script and produced a piece of Grade B garbage. Sorry.”[1] (more…)
2,807 words
One of the smartest moves I ever made was becoming a “cord cutter.” Aside from the financial benefit, it has served to liberate my mind from the clutter of contemporary pop culture and media propaganda. Nevertheless, I occasionally indulge in streaming old movies, classics, whenever I can find them. (more…)
5,153 words
The police are called, and Mitch is asked to meet the sheriff at the Fawcett farm. Some detectives from Santa Rosa are going to join them there. Presumably, Mitch is expected to repeat his mother’s account of finding the corpse of Dan Fawcett, its eyes pecked out by homicidal birds. (more…)
1,032 words
Into the Dark: Pilgrim (2019)
Directed by Marcus Dunstan
Written by Noah Feinberg, Marcus Dunstan, & Patrick Melton
Starring Reign Edwards, Kerr Smith, & Courtney Henggeler
1,306 words
What is the difference between a “psychological” horror movie and all the other kinds of horror movies? Probably in how slow-paced and bizarre the director is willing to make his final product. The Lighthouse, directed by Robert Eggers and featuring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattison, is a tall, creaking, alien edifice of the bizarre. And as with many a good psychological thriller, The Lighthouse offers several levels of exquisitely-rendered weirdness and forces the audience to figure out which level it’s on at any given point. (more…)
1,001 words
John Krasinksi, probably best known as Jim in the long-running television series The Office, is the director and star of a unique 2018 horror film called A Quiet Place. Krasinki breaks from his typical casting as a smirking “soy boy” to play a gruff and serious survivalist in this post-apocalyptic drama. The film shows us what the world would be like if Earth became infested with monsters who attack any sound louder than a certain unspecified decibel level. These monsters are numerous and they move with lightning speed. The film begins after most of the human population has already been destroyed. (more…)
2,284 words
It’s not clear why human beings enjoy being frightened. Indeed, in most circumstances we don’t. I find nothing particularly “thrilling,” for example, about the frightening threat posed by mass non-white migration into the lands of my ancestors. Nor do I enjoy how I feel when I’m the only white person on the J train at midnight. But I thoroughly enjoy the imaginary threats posed by ghosts, witches, and vampires. There’s a lot to be said here about the human fascination with the uncanny, and what it reveals about us. (more…)