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…
Tag: practical effects
Ad Astra (2019) – James Gray
James Gray delivers one of the most authentic looks at space travel since Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, throw in a little of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and you have the basic groundwork for this science fiction drama that sees astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travelling to the outer reaches of our solar system, all…
Scrooged (1988) – 4K
The endlessly quotable (‘The night the reindeer died’ stays with me!) Bill Murray holiday film, Scrooged hits 4K from Paramount Pictures just in time for the holidays. A riff on the classic Dickens’ tale, A Christmas Carol, Bill Murray brings the laughs in this delightful film helmed by the legendary Richard Donner. Murray plays Frank…
TAD 2023: International Shorts After Dark
It’s the final day of the festival and Toronto After Dark always takes this opportunity to showcase some of the amazing genre shorts that have been submitted to them from all over the world. This year, there are ten shorts to dive into, something that is sure to tickle your fancy is to be found…
TAD 2023: The Deep Dark dir. Mathieu Turi
Mathieu Turi delivers a delightful and ominous creature feature with The Deep Dark and the practical effects, and oppressive setting make this one spark, and it’s definitely something the Toronto After Dark crowds are going to love. Amir (Amir El Kacem) arrived to join a mining team in the 1950s. He’s paired with a rough-and-tumble…
Deep Blue Sea (1999) – Renny Harlin
This one is for my friend Lindsay, who insists this is a better shark movie than Jaws, and yet it can’t help but make a number of references to it, not the least of which is a familiar-looking licence plate. Director Renny Harlin does, for the most part, deliver a fairly solid thriller though even…
Cocaine Bear (2023) – Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks settles into the director’s chair again and delivers a mostly entertaining comedy thriller, which is loosely based on a true story, Cocaine Bear. Featuring an all-star cast led by Keri Russell, the film swings from working brilliantly to just falling a little flat. But damn if Banks doesn’t swing for the fences. There…
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) – 4K Review
I was delightfully surprised by Paramount Pictures Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Things, but if I had known that John Francis Daley was involved, I wouldn’t have been. Daley has been a delight since I came across him in Freaks and Geeks, and whether in front of or behind the camera, he’s always fantastic (check…
Mama (2013) – Andy Muschietti
Guillermo del Toro served as executive producer on Andy Muschietti’s Mama an interesting take on a ghost story that also explores the roles of parents, specifically mothers, while fostering some interesting and enjoyable scares with some pretty solid special effects. Sisters Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) were thought lost when their father took…
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) – Steven Spielberg
If the Indiana Jones films that were set in the 30s were to pay homage to the serials of the time, then by moving Indy (Harrison Ford) into the 50s it makes sense, from a cinematic historical point of view that the film would include nuclear weapons, aliens and UFOs. That doesn’t mean it translated…
The Mind Reels 