Noah (Dimitri Thiviaos) is about to have a very bad day in H4Z4RD an energetic action film from Belgium that boasts a really dark sense of humour and serves as the second film in Toronto After Dark’s opening lineup, having its Canadian Premiere. Driven by a Euro-pop-techno beat, we catch up with Noah, who loves…
Tag: unnerving
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,…
In the Tall Grass (2019) – Vincenzo Natali
In the Tall Grass a novella by horror legend Stephen King, and his son Joe Hill makes for a fascinating and unnerving watch, even if the film version leans towards a kind of happy ending that wasn’t even brushed on in the original source material. And speaking of, horror novels work on a whole different…
The Day She Died (2021)- S.M. Freedman
Dundurn Press delivers S.M. Freedman’s thriller, The Day She Died, to my summer reading pile, and it is a gut punch of a book, exploring dark secrets, while exploring the concept of forgiveness of oneself. It’s a captivating read that pulls you in, and drags you along at full-throttle on a white knuckle ride that…
Millennium (1999) – Seven and One, and Nostalgia
Here we are, the penultimate installment of Millennium, the first spin-off from Chris Carter’s The X-Files, and as we close in on the end of the series, the solid episodes just keep coming. Seven and One, written by Frank Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter, is scary, unnerving and fantastic. First airing on 30 April,…
The X-Files (1999) – Trevor, and Milagro
John Diehl guest stars in Trevor, an episode written by Jim Guttridge and Kenneth H. Hawryliw that first aired 11 April, 1999. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) have an x-file on their hand when a convict, Pinker Rawls (Diehl) escapes from a prison camp during a tornado, after having killed the warden, by…
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 Conjuring (2013) – James Wan
I’m going to be honest, the first time I saw The Conjuring, I was disappointed, I didn’t really get into it, and felt that it relied a little too heavily on it’s jump scares (always seemingly accompanied by a musical sting). Still, a while ago I gave it a rewatch, and really enjoyed it the…
The Red House (1947) – Delmer Daves
I dug into another of the trauma inducing titles from the Ten Bad Dates With De Niro movie book, and this one is pretty dark, filled with intimations that can be drawn out as you observe the action, and the undertones at work in this film. Edward G. Robinson headlines this back country melodrama that…
The Croning (2012) – Laird Barron
This week’s book shelf brings a bit of cosmic horror as I delve into Laird Bannon’s novel, The Croning. The story spans the decades of one man, and the horrors that are around him, and the realization that these nightmare terrors are real. It’s unnverving, as we are introduced to geologist Don Miller, and his…
The Mind Reels 