Tagged: Movie Review

Howl (2015)
Directed by Paul Hyett

Is it just me or do werewolves not get the respect they deserve? In movie terms, I mean. Everyone is familiar with Werewolves, they’re a classic monster, but there aren’t that many A-List movies about them. There’s a full canon of great vampire films and more ghost movies and hauntings than you can shake a stick at, but Werewolves have always seemed relegated to B-Cinema. Not that I’m really complaining, B-Movies are a ton of fun and have the freedom to go in new directions, but it seems odd that such a recognizable monster doesn’t have a more mainstream interest. That brings us to today’s movie, Howl, an English Indie werewolf film that reminded me how much fun werewolves are!

Fiend Without A Face (1958)
Directed by Arthur Crabtree

I stumbled across Fiend Without A Face while scrolling through the horror section of The Criterion Channel, of which I am a recent subscriber. The Criterion Channel is a newish streaming service (yes, another one) that contains some (all? It’s a bit unclear.) of the typically high-quality films of the Criterion Collection. Basically, it’s a curated collection of movies with the purpose of preserving and distributing great movies that may not have other ways of being seen. You can pretty much pick anything at random and it will probably be good (some things may not have aged well though), which is exactly what I did here. I saw the odd thumbnail, read the (incredibly spoilery) summary, and dove right in. I’m glad I took a chance on Fiend Without A Face.

Contagion (2011)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Well, isn’t this topical? With nothing new getting released into theatres last week I wasn’t quite sure what to write about, but once everyone started talking about Contagion, things became pretty clear. Given the various states of emergency that many places are putting up, I think I’ll be streaming more movies than seeing them in theater, and this is just the first! Let’s cover this and then get back to the wholesome fantastical kinds of horror we all know and love, and leave the topical stuff for the next crisis.

The Invisible Man (2020)

Directed by Leigh Whannell

I was intrigued by The Invisible Man from the moment I saw the first trailer. Sure, that intrigue wasn’t always because I thought the movie would be great, a good part of it came from discussions about what different strategies you could use to fight someone invisible and those were all great fun! Now that the film is finally out I am glad to report that there’s more to this movie than a one-note joke about how you would ‘Home Alone’ your house against an invisible menace. There’s an actual good movie in here, which I am happy to talk about. Please note this review is spoiler free but the comments section is not. Venture down there at your own risk.

Fantasy Island (2020)

Directed by Jeff Wadlow

Oh god, Fantasy Island. Can we be done with these? Can we be done with crappy horror movies getting dumped onto an innocent world? I thought we had escaped the majority of these when January turned out to be a pretty decent month for horror, but it turns out that studios were saving them all for February instead. I hope the Invisible Man is good because after watching Fantasy Island, and knowing that I have to watch Brahms: The Boy II next, I am dreading going back to a movie theatre. So yeah, you can probably guess whether or not I liked Fantasy Island.

Gretel & Hansel
Directed by Osgood Perkins

I’ll lay my cards on the table, I was not looking forward to Gretel & Hansel. The idea of another retelling of a classic fairy tale as a horror movie had me rolling my eyes. And a horror movie coming out in January? I was ready to walk out hating this just as much as I hated The Turning and churn out another hit piece review. But then something magical happened! It did a lot I wasn’t expecting and I walked out happy to have seen it. What did it do so right? Keep on reading to find out.