Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 - Kudos to any movie bold enough to take one of the most famous phrases in modern American poetry and use it as a title. Yes, I'm referring to Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." It's a fitting poem in the context of writer/director Teresa Sutherland's [...]

Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 - Stay Online is no easy watch. Set days and weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it very much shows the human costs of war. While screen thrillers aren't new, we haven't quite seen a movie like this before that gives voice to the Ukrainian people following Russia's [...]

In Chinese folklore, the Nu Gui is a vengeful female ghost that typically faced some sort of injustice while alive. This myth is at the center of Malice: Nu Gui, which showcases the female spirit and lines up a slew of male and female victims that don't stand much of a chance in her path. [...]

Chattanooga Film Festival 2023 - When I think of folk horror, I don't exactly think comedy. However, Stag, written and directed by Alexandra Spieth, has plenty of folk horror elements and a lot of laughs. It's an interesting combination, and somehow, it works. It's a feature that uses familiar motifs and themes of the subgenre, [...]

Despite some of the incredibly cheesy lines in Desperate Souls, there's something oddly endearing about the film, which looks like it was shot on quite the micro budget. Most of us can relate to wanting a soulmate and needing connection. Despite the horror elements, and there are some cool ones, this feature really works as [...]

In Spin the Wheel, it's the end of the world as we know it, but instead of hugging loved ones or completing a bucket list, a group of strangers from varying backgrounds gathers in a bar, watching depressing news clips. Suddenly, their plans to drink themselves into a stupor are upended when the devil comes [...]

Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2023 - As someone who has taught Mary Shelley's Frankenstein more times than I can count, including a few of its film adaptations, it's fair to say that I'm always eager to see a new take on the story. Writer/director Bomani J. Story's The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster is [...]