Strange Pictures (2022) – Uketsu

I think the cover of this book is a little misleading, it calls itself a mystery horror sensation. And while there are elements of mystery to it, it’s not what I would call traditional horror in any sense. It does have some cool ideas and I like how they are presented. A quick, short read,…

Dangerous Animals (2025) – Sean Byrne

Jai Courtney is chewing all the scenery in a wonderfully over-the-top performance in Dangerous Animals. In it, he plays Bruce Tucker, a psychopathic serial killer who uses sharks as his weapon. Set in Australia, Tucker runs a tour boat that takes people swimming with sharks. When he chooses his victims, he chums, and then hooks…

Mandy (2018) – Panos Cosmatos

Nicolas Cage headlines in Mandy, a drug-addled hallucinogenic ride in this revenge horror (?) thriller. Set in the early 80s, but filled with 70s sensibilities in sense of style and set design, Cage is Red Miller who lives out in the woods with Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough). They have a quiet life, he works is…

The Trees (2021) – Percival Everett

With two books, Percival Everett has become one of my favorite authors. I loved his take on Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in James. And when I read the blurb on The Trees I knew I had to take a look. I didn’t know that I would be blown away by it. Everett…

We Used to Live Here (2024) – Marcus Kliewer

Some books not only take you in, but hint at a much bigger world behind the pages if you are willing to explore it. We Used to Live Here is one of those. It’s a spooky, unnerving tale, that is enmeshed in secrets and codes that eager readers can work to solve, and join online…

The Last Astronaut (2019) – David Wellington

Whatever 1I/2017 Oumuamua and now 3I/Atlas are, they fired my imagination. These intersolar voyagers are cloaked in mystery and possibilities. David Wellington’s novel, The Last Astronaut, takes that idea and runs with it giving us a cross of Crichton, Clarke and Lovecraft. A combination of science and wonder with unnerving horror. Sally Jansen was the…

James (2024) – Percival Everett

Percival Everett offers a fresh perspective on Mark Twain’s adventure of Huck and Jim. Filled with humor, heartbreak, horror, and irony, Everett’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel is captivating, powerful and entertaining. Jim, as one will remember, is a runaway slave, and is later thought to have murdered Huck. The pair travel down the Mississippi tumbling…

The Monkey (2025) – Osgood Perkins

Theo James and Christian Convery pull double duty as the older and younger versions of twin brothers Hal and Bill in Osgood Perkins horror comedy, The Monkey. Using the original Stephen King short story as a launching point Perkins delivers a gory tense ride, that releases with every gruesome kill and then ratchets the tension…

Terrifier (2016) – Damien Leone

Let’s get this out of the way, Art the Clown is a very cool creation, and a very deadly mime. That being said, the narrative around the character and the way the film is shot left a little to be desired. Trapped in a rough script, the film is luridly garish, but its uninspired cinematography…