A fun cast gives a bit of a young update on a classic western tale as Emilio Estevez climbs into the saddle as Billy the Kid in Christopher Cain’s Young Guns. Featuring a high-profile cast that included Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland, Dermot Mulroney, Terence Stamp, Jack Palance and Terry O’Quinn. John Tunstall (Stamp) has…
Tag: tropes
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…
Midnight: A Walking Shadows Novel (2021) – Brenden Carlson
Dundurn Press delivers more pulp retro-future noir with Brenden Carlson’s second novel in his Walking Shadows series, Midnight. Following up on Night Call, the narrative picks up a short time after, as we join Elias Roche, detective, hit-man. A man who walks a very narrow line of justice, balancing his work with the 5th Precinct…
Insidious (2010) – James Wan
Director James Wan, and writer Leigh Whannell’s Insidious is a fairly solid ghost story, though it took me forever to come around to it. My first experience seeing it was in the theatre, where I couldn’t get over how a couple in front of me was scared by everything that was happening on the screen….
Interceptor (2022) – Matthew Reilly
I’ve read my fair share of Matthew Reilly novels, in fact, I love the way he writes, tells his stories, and constructs his action sequences. Consequently, I was very interested to see what he would do when he got a chance to bring one of his action-packed stories to the screen. The story follows Captain…
Scream (2022) – 4K Review
Scream, the legacy sequel to the iconic horror franchise that was helmed by the legendary Wes Craven, hits physical media this week, courtesy of Paramount Pictures; including a gorgeous 4K version that brings the meta universe created by Craven and Kevin Williamson to sharp, and deadly clarity. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette all…
The Final Girl Support Group (2021) – Grady Hendrix
I’ve been a fan of Grady Hendrix’s writing since I first discovered the vhs looking cover of My Best Friend’s Exorcism. Since then, I hunted down anything he’d written before and after that (two last titles to read and I’m caught up) so I dug eagerly into The Final Girl Support Group. A Final Girl…
The Mary Shelley Club (2021) – Goldy Moldavsky
So I have been reading a lot of science fiction of late, and wanted to shake it up a bit, and find something a little bit more from the horror/thriller genre, and a top horror novels of 2021 list returned the Young Adult (I hate that term) novel, The Mary Shelley Club. Well I put…
The Medium (2021) – Banjong Pisanthanakun
Thailand delivers a moody, atmospheric character piece, shot in documentary fashion that explores spirituality, faith, belief, family and vengeance. Initially, the ‘documentary’ is supposed to be about shamnisim and focuses on Nim (Sawanee Utoomma), and how she serves as a vessel for a goddess that has selected females of her family for generations. Through Nim,…
Lord of Illusions (1995) – Clive Barker
I remember discovering the writings of Clive Barker, and how his writing actually got under my skin, and freaked me out a bit. He definitely won a fan in me, and then the film, Hellraiser, wow! And while Nightbreed garnered itself a bit of a cult following, Lord of Illusions never seemed to, which bums…
The Mind Reels 