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‘TERRIFIER 3’ Clowns Audiences With Depraved Slapstick Slashing

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“It’s a Terrifier Christmas!” chimes the Terrifier 3 in-movie musical anthem, dripping with sardonic holiday cheer. Lyrics like “Let the horror fill your heart” and “He’ll burn your face with acid, he’ll saw you clean in half” set the tone for this third Terrifier film— the fifth time rising horror icon Art the Clown has graced the screen in a decade. This time out, the bloodthirsty clown is celebrating the most festive season of all. Donning the iconic red suit and hat a la the Grinch, who looks like a certifiable saint in comparison, Art joyfully embraces the Christmas spirit by sawing the jolly white beard off a still-breathing Santa Claus and attaching it to his chin. Naughty or nice, it’s all the same to Art, whose killer holiday spirit manifests as a singular goal: to “out-do himself and top his latest kill.” Or so goes the song. Not even good little boys and girls are spared from his murderous glee. Read More

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A24’s ‘WE LIVE IN TIME’ a Thoughtful Melodrama About Quality Time, With Strong Leads

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We live in time, but John Crowley’s film exists across it. An emotional portrait of a relationship unfolding across a number of years, Crowley’s romantic drama allows audiences to experience Almut and Tobias’ love story in an unconventional and nonlinear manner. Their meet-cute coincide with scenes of their later life as parents of a young daughter, punctuated by other moments throughout the beginning, middle, and end of their time together – free-form, finite and infinite. This creates a mosaic of the moments that make up a marriage – deep love, tragedy, lust, betrayal, make-up sex, arguments, flirtation – swirling in and amongst each other, unbound by the usual constraints of time.  Read More

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‘THE APPRENTICE’ Reveals Young Donald Trump: Ambition, Power, and Moral Vacuousness

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There is perhaps no person living or dead more polarizing than Donald J. Trump. His adoring fans think of the real estate mogul turned controversial politician as a strongman and a patriot, some even going so far as to call him the second coming of Jesus Christ. His many detractors find his rejection of political decency, frequent illegal dealings, and blatant disrespect for tradition to be a pox on American politics and a disturbing portrait of capital-C capitalism. This is the same man who proudly stated, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” and he’s not wrong. Even after 34 felony indictments and being found guilty of rape, the man’s popularity amongst his rabid base only grew. For whatever reason, a particular type of people just seem to love Trump, and quite literally nothing he says or does seems to shift that sentiment. Read More

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Singsong Sequel ‘JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX’ Is Provocative Anti-Entertainment

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If you’re like me, when you first heard the title of Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his controversial 2019 smash hit Joker, you probably Googled “folie à deux.” It refers to a kind of shared insanity experienced by those closely connected. Pretentious? Absolutely—doubly so for a Joker sequel—but it promised more than just your standard superhero/villain fare. Especially when we learned the film would be a love story between Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck/Joker and a new take on Harley Quinn, played by none other than Lady Gaga. Then came the kicker: it’s a “jukebox musical.” Doubts redoubled. Much like the first film sparked a million think pieces, fan adoration, cultural backlash, and Oscar plaudits, Joker: Folie à Deux is sure to rile up the masses—but this time for a very different reason. It’s an aggressive form of provocative anti-entertainment. Read More

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Demi Moore is Breathtaking in Body Horror Triumph ‘THE SUBSTANCE’

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Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is staring down the barrel of her 50th birthday, and her Hollywood star has more than a few cracks—both literal and metaphorical. To make matters worse, the once-popular aerobics queen just overheard her sleazy, keyed-up boss (played with pure snake oil charm by Dennis Quaid) plotting her replacement. The network wants someone younger, fresher, tighter in spandex. Enter a shadowy black-market pharma company with a miracle drug, the titular Substance, promising to rewind crucial time on Elizabeth’s biological clock. The promise is…misleading. As she drinks down the sketchy elixir of youth, she doesn’t just regain her youthful glow—she begins to lose herself, piece by horrifying piece, to the younger version she thought she so badly wanted. Read More

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Wistful ‘MY OLD ASS’ Stops to Smell the Roses

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When college-bound Elliot takes shrooms on a friends’ camping trip, she hallucinates a conversation of her future self, played with acidic charm by Aubrey Plaza. The future Elliot won’t tell her which hot stocks to invest in – for fear of butterfly effecting her younger self – but she does issue a single warning: avoid some dude named Chad. Also, spend more time with her family. Post-trip, Elliot encounters none other than some dude named Chad, a shaggy but sweet summer hand on her family farm, and despite the warnings—and the fact that she had believed herself to be a lesbian—she promptly starts falling for him in Megan Park’s sweet-natured and emotionally-stirring dramedy My Old Ass. Read More

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A Talented Cast Can’t Save ‘SPEAK NO EVIL’ Remake That Pulls Its Biggest Punches

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Speak No Evil, the disturbing Danish original that James Watkins’ American remake is based on, made my Top Ten when it debuted in 2022, in part because of how deeply affecting its unique brand of cringe-inducing psychological horror was. Part of what made Christian Tafdrup’s mannered but murderous satire on the social niceties we extend to strangers so sinister was its lack of physical violence. In its place was an escalating pattern of coercion that pushed boundaries further and further until suddenly: a ledge. The victims in the story were victims of their own complacency as much as the malice of their tormentors. The price they pay is high. Read More

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‘OUT COME THE WOLVES’ A Howling, But Much Too Slight, Nature Thriller

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In nature, you learn who you really are—or so says Sophie (Missy Peregrym), echoing the wisdom of her hunter father, ingrained in her during her upbringing in the remote Ontario wilderness. Now, she’s back in that secluded cabin, accompanied by her editor-in-chief fiancé, Nolan (Damon Runyan), who’s been assigned to write about man’s primal connection to food. However, Nolan, a noxious blend of protective, arrogant, and haughty, has never hunted a day in his life. Enter Kyle (Joris Jarsky), Sophie’s blue-collar childhood friend, who’s been tapped to guide Nolan through his first hunt, but a chance encounter with a pack of blood-thirsty wolves turns this learning experience into a firsthand account of survivalism at its most feral. Read More

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Zoë Kravitz’s Electrifying ‘BLINK TWICE’ Delivers Deadly Thrills

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Tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) is in the midst of a rebrand. A year after an undisclosed incident sparked a public apology tour, he’s turned over a new leaf, diving into philanthropic efforts while secluding himself on a mysterious remote island. His claims of reform are complicated by rumors of debauchery—all-night parties, sketchy associates, an on-hand pharmacy of designer drugs. This does little to deter the eager Frida (Naomi Ackie), a jejune cocktail waitress working the gala his company KingTech is hosting. Frida may still be figuring things out, but one thing is certain—brushing shoulders with Slater, if only for the night, would be a memory worth making. Read More

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‘ALIEN: ROMULUS’ Reenergizes Franchise By Leaning Into Its Celestial Horrors 

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20th Century Studios made a clear statement by hiring Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez to helm the seventh (or ninth, if you count the dreadful Alien vs. Predator movies) installment of the Alien franchise: we’re going back to basics. Alvarez, known for his low-budget, high-gore horror films, seemed like the perfect fit. After all, his ill-fated venture outside the genre with the poorly-constructed and even more poorly-received The Girl in the Spider’s Web landed him in unofficial director’s jail for the better part of a decade. With Alvarez behind the camera, Alien: Romulus promised a return to the franchise’s nervy space-horror roots—and it largely delivers exactly that. Read More