“THE HANGMAN” gives you a new demon to Dread this month; trailer & poster By MICHAEL GINGOLD The fearsome fiend emerges from the Appalachian mountains. Epic Pictures’ Dread division is giving THE HANGMAN limited theatrical release beginning May 31, followed by a VOD debut June 4; it will be available for pre-order on iTunes May 10. The movie was directed by Bruce Wemple from a script he wrote with LeJon Woods, who also stars with Lindsey Dresbach, Richard Lounello, Jefferson Cox, Daniel Martin Berkey and Mar Cellus. The synopsis: “To mend their troubled relationship, a middle-aged door ..read more

Piercing the Veil: Meeting the Empress of Rot with “GRETEL AND HANSEL” By JILLIAN KRISTINA Hunger can drive us to do mad things. Hunger can contort and deform us, transforming us through desperation and frenzied rage. Hunger can lash and whip and brutalize us from the inside out. Hunger can make monsters of us all. “My mother, she killed me. My mother, she ate me.” In GRETEL AND HANSEL, Osgood Perkins’s ravenous 2020 reimagining of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the descent into degradation begins with dire immediacy. A family is starving, with the mother reeling from the death of her husb ..read more

CUFF ’24 REVIEW: “PROPERTY” SHOWCASES A GRIPPING DIVIDE BETWEEN THE CLASSES By Michelle Martin Starring Malu Galli, Sandro Guerra and Tavinho Teixeira Written and directed by Daniel Bandeira Vitrine Films It is often said that horror reflects the fears of its time, with the long-overused “monster = trauma” trope being the most recent. In the post-pandemic world, it’s interesting to see class-conscious films like PROPERTY sprout out of the muck.  PROPERTY follows Teressa (Malu Galli), who narrowly avoids being killed in a hostage situation in the opening few seconds of the film. She an ..read more

CUFF ’24 REVIEW: AMBITIOUS DEBUT “THE BLUE ROSE” WITHERS UNDER ITS OWN INFLUENCES ​By Michelle Martin Starring George Baron, Olivia Scott Welch and Nikko Austen Smith Written and directed by George Baron Athena Pictures Few terms are thrown around more in film criticism than “Lynchian,” a veritable catch-all for any movie that bends the rules of reality in a vaguely frightening and overtly weird way – regardless of whether it’s worthy of David Lynch’s work. Even though it seems cliché, in the case of George Barron’s THE BLUE ROSE… “Lynchian” unabashedly applies.  The film follows two ..read more

Surreal indie chiller “HOUSE OF SCREAMING GLASS” gets a release date; see the trailer and poster By MICHAEL GINGOLD Get ready for some schoolhouse shock later this month. DeskPop Entertainment has announced a May 21 VOD and DVD release date for HOUSE OF SCREAMING GLASS, from director David Williams. Scripted by Williams, Costanza Bongiorni and Tom Jolliffe, it stars Lani Call. “The synopsis: Elizabeth Cadosia [Call] has lived a life of isolation under the shadow of her mentally fractured mother. On the day her mother dies, Elizabeth receives an unexpected inheritance: a timeworn schoolhouse ..read more

Movie Review: “TAROT” isn’t playing with a full deck By MICHAEL GINGOLD Starring Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley and Avantika Written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg Screen Gems/Sony “The Death card can mean the end of something, or the start of something new. But in this case, it just means death.” That line, twice spoken in TAROT, sums up the movie in a nutshell: A subject that could be adapted in all kinds of intriguing ways is reduced to a hopelessly formulaic youth-in-peril flick. The conceit of young people messing with occult forces they shouldn’t got a real kick in the ..read more

CUFF ’24 REVIEW: VAMPIRIC FANTASY “THE VOURDALAK” IS WORTH LETTING IN ​By Michelle Martin Starring Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed and Grégoire Colin Written by Adrien Beau and Hadrien Bouvier Directed by Adrien Beau WTFilms In a time where new ideas seem few and far between in the world of movie monsters, it is thrilling to discover something like Adrien Beau’s THE VOURDALAK, a folkloric French fantasy set in the quiet countryside, where strict rules must be adhered to – lest grave consequences are incurred.  The film opens with a knock on a door at night. Only the shadow of the per ..read more

ARROW Brings “PANDEMONIUM” to their May 2024 Streaming Lineup Arrow Video is excited to announce the May 2024 lineup of their subscription-based ARROW platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Enjoy a selection of new titles, from carefully cultivated curations, shorts by new talent, and deep dives into the tastes of filmmakers whose talents have delighted audiences and shaped genre filmmaking. The May 2024 lineup leads with the exclusive ARROW release of Quarxx’s French macabre horror PANDEMONIUM, available May 27 in the US, Canada ..read more

Movie Review: ANTHOLOGY HORROR FILM “BEWARE THE BOOGEYMAN” IS CONSISTENTLY CHEAP By JOEL HARLEY Starring Tim Coyle, Elissa Dowling, Khail Duggan Written and Directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy, Tim Coyle, Josh Dietrich, Kai Pacifico Eng, Chynna Rae Shurts Breaking Glass Pictures Wearing the influence of the 1972 portmanteau horror film Asylum on its sleeve (along with the Boogeyman-starring Stephen King book one character flips through, mid-scene) this lunatic asylum-set scare ‘em up tells the stories of five criminally insane individuals, each tormented by a terrifying figure lurking in thei ..read more

CUFF ’24 REVIEW: GENRE-BLENDING “OMEN” CONJURES A MAGICAL REALITY By Michelle Martin Starring Marc Zinga, Yves-Marina Gnahoua and Marcel Otete Kabeya Written by Baloji and Thomas van Zuylen Directed by Baloji Utopia  The opening moments of OMEN by Baloji set a perfect tone for what’s to come: A woman on horseback wanders through dozens of straw men (eliciting something akin to Jodorowsky) to then arrive at a body of water. She squeezes her breastmilk into it, and slowly, giant clouds form to change the water’s color. A heightened feeling of something mystical being at play permeates th ..read more