Spielberg took on the real-world events in 1972 of the Palestinian Black September group’s horrific killing of Israeli Olympic athletes and the resulting action taken by Israeli forces in retribution. Spielberg takes no sides in retelling the event, instead engaging in the human drama at work in the thriller, the effect of the ongoing conflict,…
Tag: horror
TIFF ’22: Project Wolf Hunting
Project Wolf Hunting, a South Korean entry for TIFF’s ever-popular Midnight Madness series, is sure to be a crowd pleaser for that late-night crowd. Director Kim Hongsun delivers a silly, gory actioner that feels like the messy and violent love child of Con Air and Friday the 13th. After a disastrous convict transport that ended…
Absentia (2011) – Mike Flanagan
So digging into Mike Flanagan’s work, I found his first horror feature film, which you can source on YouTube. Sure, it’s shot on a digital camera, and looks a little less sleek than some of his later works, but damn if a lot of recognizable elements aren’t there from the off; the use of family…
‘Salem’s Lot (1975) – Stephen King
I had a tough time with the horror genre when I was a child. My imagination was always much more powerful than any image I may have glimpsed through my fingers and consequently, I couldn’t watch them. But I was intrigued by spooky ideas. It wasn’t until I was 12 going on 13 that I…
Road of Bones (2022) – Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden delivers another white knuckle horror thriller with Road of Bones. The tale is set in Russia, on an actual stretch of road known as the Road of Bones and the story follows Teig and Prentiss. Teig is an idea man. He thinks he has an idea for the next big reality show that…
House II: The Second Story (1987) – Ethan Wiley
While Friday the 13th franchise producer Sean S. Cunningham returns for House II, he and composer Harry Manfredini seem to be the only connective tissue to the first film. And while the first film was able to walk a bit of the cult line of camp, horror, comedy, and flat-out silliness, House II most assuredly…
Crimson Peak (2015) – Guillermo del Toro
The first time I watched del Toro’s gothic tale I didn’t pay attention as much as I should and consequently, I grew bored with it. The advertising had made it look more akin to a horror film which is what I thought I wanted. I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of lurid colors, and what…
Ararat (2017) – Christopher Golden
Ararat is a horror novel that moves along at breakneck speed whether you believe in the subject matter or not. And that puts the reader in exactly the same situation that the characters in the book find themselves in. When an avalanche reveals an impossibility on the mountain known as Ararat a pair of adventurers…
The Frighteners (1996) – Peter Jackson
Michael J. Fox takes the lead in what was Peter Jackson’s first big studio film, with Bob Zemeckis serving as executive producer. While some of the special effects have not stood the test of time, it remains a fun film, trying to walk that balance between horror and comedy. Frank Bannister (Fox) is a con…
Terror Train (1980) – Roger Spottiswoode
In the early 80s, poor Jamie Lee Curtis seemed to be in constant trouble with slashers. I remember seeing the fairly generic poster when I was a kid, and the masked face and the knife really bothered me. As mentioned previously it took me a long time to come around to horror films. So until…
The Mind Reels 