Ninja III: The Domination (1984) – Sam Firstenberg

It took me forever to finally see this one. I remember seeing the videocassette back when I was a teen, but I hadn’t seen the other two (I didn’t know they had no connections to each other at the time), and never really got around to them until recently. And it’s easy to see why…

Death Whisperer (2023) – Taweewat Wantha

I love digging into horror films from around the world, seeing how different directors and cultures dole out their scares, what is frightening to them, and how some things are scary across the board, seemingly tapping into some primal fear. Thailand delivers Death Whisperer, which according to the film’s intro is based loosely on a…

The Exorcist: Believer (2023) – David Gordon Green

For the first few minutes of The Exorcist: Believer I thought that maybe the reviews were wrong, that they had been too harsh, or maybe didn’t understand what the film was trying to do. It’s opening felt, to me, very much in line with the original film, until the earthquake hit, and from that moment…

When Evil Lurks (2023) – Demian Rugna

The Spanish language film, When Evil Lurks, from Argentina, has found its way into my favourite horror films along with Late Night with the Devil. It’s creepy, has some legitimate scares, and a real sense of menace. Two brothers, Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demian Salomon), find themselves confronting true evil when they encounter a…

The X-Files (1998) – Chinga, and Kill Switch

This week’s instalment features episodes written by two guest writers. First up is Chinga which was written by Stephen King and given an X-files polish by series creator Chris Carter. The episode first debuted on 8 February, 1998. Predominantly a Scully (Gillian Anderson) story, with a bored Mulder (David Duchovny) popping up every now and…

The X-Files (1996) – Apocrypha, and Pusher

Series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz continue the mythology arc story they began in Piper Maru with Apocrypha, which first aired on 16 February, 1996. While Scully (Gillian Anderson) runs down leads on the man who killed her sister, something that has caused AD Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) to end up in the hospital with…

A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) – Paul Tremblay

That ENDING! I dug into what is supposed to be one of the scariest books in recent years, and I’ll testify that it is a solid, well-crafted tale with some real scares, and lots of things to worry about. Meredith, Merry to her friends and family, is meeting with a writer who is looking to…

Star Trek: Voyager (1996) – Future’s End: Part II, and Warlord

Captain’s log: stardate 50312.5 Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky pen the conclusion to the two-parter that sees Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran) stuck in the California of the 90s and attempting to stop Henry Starling (Ed Begley, jr.) from disrupting future history, and reclaim the…

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992) – Power Play, and Ethics

Captain’s log: stardate 45571.2 Brannon Braga, Herbert Wright and Rene Balcer penned the teleplay from this episode that first aired on 24 February, 1992, from a story by Maurice Hurley and Paul Ruben. When the Enterprise investigates a storm-riddled planet for a missing ship, the away team, lead by Riker (Jonathan Frakes) returns to the…

Vertigo (1958) – Alfred Hitchcock

Perhaps one of Hitchcock’s best films, Vertigo, is next on the list of recommendations from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book. With the combined star power of James Stewart and Kim Novak, this romantic thriller defines obsession as well as fear. Stewart is John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson a San Francisco police detective on…