The latest installment of the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rise, opens with a sequence that will be instantly recognizable to longtime fans of the…
Joaquin Phoenix’s first scene in Beau Is Afraid takes place in his therapist’s office, setting the story in motion while also presenting a roadmap of…
The hardest working man in show business, otherwise known as John Swab, is back with One Day as a Lion, the director’s third feature of…
High-concept comedy Mafia Mamma comes courtesy of Catherine Hardwicke, a director who never met a potentially interesting premise she couldn’t sabotage with her bland visual…
Teenagers are awful — that’s an objective truth. Throw in a hefty dose of economic privilege, and you’ve got the recipe for some real chickenshit…
Let’s start with a little personal history: when this reviewer caught the live-action adaptation of Norman Bridwell’s endearing giant canine in 2021’s Clifford the Big…
These days it feels like we’re more frequently encountering stories of people — particularly men — obsessed with legacy. Characters yearn for a sense of…
Kurt Wimmer’s mirthfully overwrought Children of the Corn, a revamp of one of horror’s longest and least-consequential franchises, is more fun than it should be.…
The found footage genre has proven itself to be quite resilient, particularly in the realm of horror. Pioneered by Ruggero Deodato, director of the 1980…
Two new horror films arrive on screens this week which, paired together, suggest a kind of state-of-the-genre address: Christopher Smith’s Consecration offers a lovingly constructed…
With all the various traumas and psychological afflictions on which character-driven horror has touched in recent years, it was only a matter of time before…
“I would do anything for my children,” says Jess (Michelle Monaghan), a phrase she repeats like a mantra that gradually takes on a more sinister…
Let it be said that indie writer-director John Swab is currently the hardest working man in show business, with his second film of the still…
An unexpectedly maverick prequel/sequel hybrid to one of the biggest mainland Chinese blockbusters of this century, The Wandering Earth II ditches the more rigid genre…
Though still relatively early in his career, initial indications are that arterial spray and pulverized bones are to Brandon Cronenberg’s filmography what unnatural orifices are…
The latest film from Light Chaser Animation Studios, New Gods: Yang Jian, continues several ongoing trends in its development as a production house: first, a…
A rare dramatic turn from Anna Kendrick, Alice, Darling surprises with its nuanced, twitchy lead performance. Alice (Kendrick) chooses to lie to her emotionally abusive…
Li Xiaofeng’s Back to the Wharf begins with a tragic accident that escalates, shockingly, to murder. After high school student Song Hao (Zhou Zhengjie) stumbles…
It’s something of a fool’s errand to try to trace broad trends throughout a full festival lineup — most critics don’t see anywhere near the…
Shot on location in New Mexico in early 2021, Pete Ohs’ Jethica is a kind of minimalist sunbaked noir that gradually transforms into something altogether…