Willard (2003)

In a world with over eight billion people, some are just born to be alone, and whether solitary by choice or through circumstances, it can tell us a lot about the human condition when we set out to observe the daily lives of these individuals. In his fascinating novel Ratman’s Notebooks, Stephen Gilbert tells the…

The Blob (1958)

There is a misconception that art, particularly cinema, becomes better as time progresses and new developments emerge, since many believe that having access to cutting-edge technology and more expansive resources somehow equates to quality and artistic merit. While this may be true in a few cases, no film has ever truly benefited primarily from an…

Hellboy (2004)

There is nothing quite as enthralling as the perfect marriage between a director and pre-existing material since there are some instances where it is difficult to fathom anyone else handling specific adaptations. In the case of Mike Mignola’s masterpiece Hellboy, which tells the story of a demonic entity who finds his way to our dimension…

The Roost (2005)

On a quiet country road somewhere in rural Delaware, a quartet of friends speed towards a party, not being aware that their reckless actions will ultimately lead to their demise. It’s a premise that could be plucked from just about any slasher horror film made in the past thirty years, but in this instance, it…

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

At some point in the past, Thomas Pynchon expressed his desire to write a story that was centered on the insurance brokers sent to Tokyo to assess the damage caused by Godzilla after one of his many rampages. As a culture, we have a tendency to latch onto certain stories, repeating them time and again,…

The Monkey (2025)

It seems like everyone has their own unique encounter with the work of Osgood Perkins, whose directorial career has been the very definition of a slow-burn, gradual rise to acclaim. Most filmmakers working in the proverbial field of “elevated horror” (a vulgar term if there ever was one) tend to emerge as major voices right…

The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

Some satire tends to be quite subtle, while others veer towards presenting their intentions and themes so aggressively, we have to admire the gall. In the case of The Werewolf of Washington, we find that the latter is the preferred modus operandi of director Milton Moses Ginsberg (a little-known editor whose only other endeavour into…

Presence (2025)

There was some discourse recently about the best filmmakers who don’t have a single masterpiece to their name, a sign of someone being technically gifted and a solid authorial voice but who has struggled to establish themselves as having at least one work that carries their legacy. One of the names that came up in…

Handling the Undead (2024)

Saying goodbye to a loved one is never easy, and we often find that it is made more difficult when we feel that sense of deep regret for all that we didn’t say and do when they were alive, knowing that we are going to be burdened with that remorse for the rest of our…

Mercy (2014)

Home is where the heart is, but it’s also often where the trauma lies, which is a concept many of us come to realize far too late in life. We all carry our challenges, but there’s something about the home in which we grew up that feels particularly difficult to overcome, even if our experiences…