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‘SCREAM’ Takes a Stab at “Requels” with Deadly Precision 

Scream is back. And with a new Ghostface (or two) comes a biting deconstruction of not just the long-standing slasher franchise, or the nature of “requels” (a term coined in this very film), or the horror genre in general, but the movie industry writ large. Many films of recent years have tried to capture the imagination of audiences by commentating on their own storied legacy – most recently with both The Matrix: Resurrections and Spider-Man: No Way Home – but none have done it with quite as sharp a wit or a curvaceous a blade as the most recent Scream. Tapping into the meta repartee that franchise architect Wes Craven approached the material with from the very get go, this fifth installment of the 90s-born slasher whodunnit is as razor-sharp and bloody glorious as ever. Most importantly, it’s just a hell of a lot of fun.  Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘DON’T BREATHE’

Let me be clear, you probably can’t handle Don’t Breathe. Hitchcockian in concept and French New Wave in execution, the batshit bonkers new horror film from Fede Alvarez is a sanguine-stained guillotine of heinous intensity. The Uruguayan director has issued French extremity an American passport, inviting a true-to-form, heart-stopping gang bang of insane tension to inseminate the United States homeland. Consider everyone at last night’s world premiere unmistakably impregnanted by its brutal brilliance. Read More

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Electrifying Horror Film ‘DON’T BREATHE’ Drops First Trailer

My favorite film out of SXSW 2016 was Fede Alvarez‘s unceasingly tense Don’t Breathe. I was so frequently startled, so genuinely unnerved that it physically hurt. And my god do I love that kind of pain. Call it what you will (masochism?) but horror films have the ability to engage sections of the brain that no other film can and Don’t Breathe is expert at doing just that. Part of my experience may have been going in with no expectations, knowing not a lick of info on what the film was about (or even called for that matter) but the fact remains that Alvarez has crafted a masterstroke of American horror cinema with his follow up to Evil Dead. Read More

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SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DON’T BREATHE’

Let me be clear, you probably can’t handle Don’t Breathe. Hitchcockian in concept and French New Wave in execution, the batshit bonkers new horror film from Fede Alvarez is a sanguine-stained guillotine of heinous intensity. The Uruguayan director has issued French extremity an American passport, inviting a true-to-form, heart-stopping gang bang of insane tension to inseminate the United States homeland. Consider everyone at last night’s world premiere unmistakably impregnanted by its brutal brilliance. Read More