Writer and director Andrew Fitzgerald (The Smiley Face Killers, Working It Out) delivers a haunting new thriller all about trauma and revenge. An Angry Boy tells the story of Owen, a young man living with his overprotective single mother. After a traumatic, violent event turns Owen’s life upside down, he is forced to unlock long repressed memories to find and stop those who harmed him. An Angry Boy is a surprising thriller that dives into some very heavy topics. When the audience first meets Owen, he seems to be at the threshold between childhood and adulthood. As he’s trying to figure out hi ..read more

While the events are fictional, true crime fans at this year’s Overlook Film Festival had the opportunity to see a bizarre new thriller, Dead Mail. Written and directed by filmmaking duo Joe DeBoer (BAB) and Kyle McConaghy (BAB), Dead Mail transports audiences back to the the 1980’s. A mysterious, blood covered cry for help arrives at a local post office. When the post office’s “dead letter” investigator attempts to track its origin, it leads down a dark path of obsession, kidnapping, and even murder. This film is certainly a slow burn, but with a constant undercurrent of bubbling tension. Th ..read more

Panic Fest audiences were treated to the feature-film debut of writer and director Zeshaan Younus, The Buildout*. This unexpected dramatic horror film follows two friends as they venture out into the California desert. Meant to be a journey of bonding and healing, things take a turn when they encounter something strange. What makes The Buildout such a compelling film is that every viewer will likely have a different interpretation of what’s on screen. Certain themes are quite apparent. The driving force behind the two friends is their grief and trauma. It’s fascinating to see the different wa ..read more

This year, The Overlook Film Festival has a host of foreign horror films, many of them French. One such French horror film is Hood Witch, which was recently acquired by MPI Media Group/Dark Sky Films as the distributor. The film was directed by Saïd Belktibia, making his feature film debut, who also co-wrote the film with Louis Penicaut (La plus belle pour aller danser). In Hood Witch, audiences meet a single mother named Nour trying to make ends meet by smuggling exotic animals and performing various healing rituals, even creating an app that connects people with mystics, healers, magicians ..read more

Another year, another Overlook Film Festival. Kicking off my remote coverage of this year’s festival is a review for a sinister slice of indie horror titled Kill Your Lover. The United Kingdom film follows Dakota and Axel, a couple in a toxic relationship on the brink of ruin. Dakota finally gets the courage to end things, but her plans come to a screeching halt when Axel comes home with a strange and rapidly worsening illness. Kill Your Lover was written and directed by filmmaking duo Alix Austin (Isolation) and Keir Siewert (Isolation). The film weaves back and forth between the early days ..read more

Twin brothers Benjamin and Paul China are making their debut as a writing and directing duo with a new feature film, Night Shift. This indie horror film follows a woman named Gwen as she arrives in a new town and is in need of money. Gwen finds a cash-paying job covering the night shift at a remote motel, but what seems like easy money quickly turns into a dangerous nightmare. Seeming to take inspiration from films such as Psycho, Vacancy, Identity, The Strangers: Prey at Night, and even a dash of The Shining, Night Shift is a chilling single-location thrill ride. The China Brothers managed t ..read more

Disclaimer: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The Blogging Banshee fully supports those on strike and wrote this review in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA guidelines. You can learn more about the strike and how to show your support by clicking the link provided above. Last week the 2023 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival kicked off. Over the weekend, audiences had a chance to attend a sold out screening of the Canadian psychological thriller, Red Rooms. Written and directed by Pascal Plante (Fake Tattoos, Nadia, Butterfly), the French-language film follows a model na ..read more

Disclaimer: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The Blogging Banshee fully supports those on strike and wrote this review in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA guidelines. You can learn more about the strike and how to show your support by clicking the link provided above. For almost every film at Fantastic Fest, I tried to go into them as blind as possible, maybe just reading a brief synopsis beforehand. Stopmotion is one film I went into knowing absolutely nothing about, and this world premiere ended up being the standout film for me at this year’s Fantastic Fest ..read more

Disclaimer: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The Blogging Banshee fully supports those on strike and wrote this review in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA guidelines. You can learn more about the strike and how to show your support by clicking the link provided above. With six sold out screenings, it’s safe to say Fantastic Fest audiences were excited about Eileen. Based on the novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, Eileen follows a young secretary working at a Massachusetts prison for teenage boys in the winter of 1964. When a beautiful psychiatrist begins working at the p ..read more

Disclaimer: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. The Blogging Banshee fully supports those on strike and wrote this review in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA guidelines. You can learn more about the strike and how to show your support by clicking the link provided above. One of the films I was most excited to see at Fantastic Fest this year was Suitable Flesh. Based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft, this film has a screenplay written by Dennis Paoli (Re-Animator, From Beyond) and was brought to life by director Joe Lynch (Mayhem, Everly). Suitable Flesh tells the stor ..read more