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Joseph Perry

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Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): F20

Croation shocker F20 may not deliver many surprises to fans of lover-gone-psycho cinema, but its vibrant style and gripping performances make the ride to the inevitable a stirring one. Director Arsen A. Ostojic’s thriller takes viewers on an unsettling ride with nods to slasher fare in its third act. Part-time university student Martina (Romina Tonković) reluctantly helps her widowed father Mate (Mladen Vulić) out at his pizzeria. She develops a crush on Filip (Filip Mayer), a young man her age who orders pizza delivery daily. Asserting herself into his loner lifestyle of playing first-person shooter games while his parents are on vacation at their forest cabin, she and her friend Irena (Lana Ujevic) coax him into going out for drinks and karaoke, and the pair eventually enter into an intimate relationship. Viewers are tipped off very early — some might argue too soon — that something might be amiss with Filip, but I’ll save the how and why to avoid

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Hex

Reine Swat makes her feature film directorial debut with The Hex (originally titled Heks, and AKA Her Mask), a South African horror tale involving witch doctors and human evil. The film is rich in atmosphere but it also has some confusing elements. After witnessing her mother being killed upon her return to her native South Africa, a British Girl (Coco Lloyd as Dilanne) then travels to that country to spend time at her aunt’s (Mary-Anne Barlow) home while trying to unravel the mystery of her mother’s unsolved murder. The aunt’s occupational therapist (Mari Molefe van Heerden) has been sworn to secrecy about a skeleton in the family closet, but believes that Dilanne should be informed. Plagued by weird visions, Dilanne seeks the help of a witch doctor (also van Heerden), and the intrigue begins to slowly build. The Hex has an eerie look to it, but relies on jump scares and a series of hallucination sequences to jolt. Any atmosphere

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): Murder Bury Win

Rich in sharp dialogue, amusing situations, and cast members wonderfully bringing their easy-to-root-for characters to life, writer/director Michael Lovan’s Murder Bury Win is a delightful crime comedy with horror elements. From nail clippers to bear traps and beyond, if it can be used as a murder weapon, the protagonists in this film have most likely thought of it. That’s because the main trio is made up of three would-be board game developers. Chris (Mikelen Walker), Adam (Erich Lane), and Barrett (Henry Alexander Kelly) are three game-nerd friends who are trying to come up with a product that can challenge Murder Wall as the next big thing. Chris is interested in the challenge, Adam is interested in the potential money, and Barrett is interested in the collaboration. After the three buddies fail in their crowdfunding effort for the titular game, they are invited by legendary indie game developer V.V. Stubbs (Craig Cackowski) to show him their game. Impressed, or at least

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 15, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): The Last Thanksgiving

Writer/director Erick Lorinc’s low-budget horror indie The Last Thanksgiving delivers big time on the practical effects gore and gags, but falls a bit short on its humor and social commentary goals. Set on the titular holiday, the story sees a group of restaurant employees made to work on Thanksgiving attacked by a cannibal family. The reason for the invasion and violence has to do with the family’s history — I’ll leave out details here so as to avoid spoilers — but their focus of attacks is on those who disrespect the holiday, in their viewpoint, by working on the holiday. The set-up is there for the aforementioned social commentary, but the delivery falls a bit flat with jokes about indigineous peoples — delivered by the villains, who are corrected at one point by an understandably upset near-meal protagonist — and the other attempts at comedy don’t land much better. The acting ranges from good to scenery chewing to a bit

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Online Film Festival): The Deep Ones

If you are looking for a new exploitation movie version of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, look no further than The Deep Ones. It’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth mashed up with Rosemary’s Baby, Humanoids from the Deep (complete with rape scenes, as in that film; be warned), The Stepford Wives, and tentacle porn, for starters. Lovecraft literary purists will probably shudder at that description, but B-movie aficionados should find plenty to enjoy here. Starting off with naked bodies galore, the film sees Alex (Gina La Piana) and her husband Petri (Johann Urb) renting a seaside vacation home to try and get their minds off of Alex’s miscarraige and reconnect more. Hosts Russell (Robert Miana) and Ingrid (Silvia Spross) Marsh welcome them in an uncomfortably friendly manner, soon taking Petri out on a boat ride where they hypnotize him while the local doctor (TimothyMuskatell in drag) ingratiates herself with Alex. Naturally, there is a reason for everyone’s fake friendliness, and if you guessed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Glass Man

Writer/director Cristian Solemino’s thriller The Glass Man premiered at London’s FrightFest film festival 11 years ago to great acclaim, but then was tangled up in rights issues. Shot in 2009 during the credit crunch, the film is finally available in the United Kingdom, still timely — if not even more so than when it was made — and delivers a riveting story with some top-notch performances. Andy Nyman (cowriter, codirector, and star of 2017’s Ghost Stories) gives a magnificent turn as Martin Pyrite, a businessman who we soon learn is hiding the fact that he was fired from his job from his wife Julie (Neve Campbell). His credit is shot and his bank account is down to pocket change, yet he still tries to keep up the appearance with her of being successfully employed, pretending to go to work every day. Going to his old job to complain about the bad reference they gave him, he is treated as persona

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): The Turn of the Screw

Writer/director Alex Galvin takes a novel approach to his feature The Turn of the Screw, his adaptation of the classic Henry James novella. Setting the New Zealand-made film at a play rehearsal for The Turn of the Screw one night before the play opens at a Wellington theater, the approach puts the last-minute replacement actress Julia (Greer Phillips) in an unfamiliar environment. As she goes through what the director Richard (Ralph Johnson) calls an unofficial dress rehearsal, Julia finds herself becoming increasingly distressed and fearful as the play proceeds. Whereas the governess in the source novella slowly begins to believe that the house in which she is put in charge is haunted, Julia starts to see strange sights and hear odd noises. The theater is empty other than the cast, director, and sound and lights crew members — or is it? Phillips is marvelous as the understudy given a frantically rushed chance to take a lead role in a production

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Bid 2020 Goodbye with Another Hole in the Head Film Festival’s Stellar Genre Film Lineup

San Francisco’s Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is ending 2020 on a high note for horror and genre-film fans by offering a mind-boggling array of almost 300 selections during its December 11-27 online run. Looking for a surreal genre-mash-up? Try Sister Tempest. How about a psychological supernatural thriller — with sharks? Give From the Depths (our featured image for this article) a shot. Interested in a unique approach to a horror classic? Then you’ll want to check out the New Zealand offering The Turn of the Screw. Following is the official press release, with all of the information you’ll need to make a huge must-see list and order tickets. SF IndieFest is pleased to announce the complete program for the 17th Another Hole In The Head Film Festival which takes place December 11 to 27 via Eventive.org and Zoom.us. The festival will once again bring the freshest new independent genre films from around the world to San Francisco

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: What Lies Below

For the first several scenes in What Lies Below, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into: Mena Suvari hamming it up, Trey Tucker emerging out of a lake in a swimsuit like something out of a romance novel, and so on. Once the film kicked in and things got bonkers, though, I was all in on Braden R. Duemmler’s mashup of horror, science fiction, thriller, and family drama elements. Suvari — who does a fine job here, and it soon becomes obvious why her character acts the corny way she does in the opening scenes — plays Michelle Wells, a writer whose teenage daughter Liberty (Ema Horvath of The Mortuary Collection) has just finished her annual summer camp session. Liberty, viewers are told, is somewhat socially awkward and coming into her own about liking boys — which Michelle presses her on — and when she sees mom’s new boyfriend John Smith (Tucker of The Outpost) emerge from the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Oak Room (Popcorn Frights Wicked Weekend)

Canadian feature The Oak Room is a lean, gripping, dark thriller with horror overtones that celebrates the art of storytelling. Its settings are two closed bars in isolated locations on bitterly cold nights with snowstorms, with each bar story set a week apart. Prodigal son Steve (RJ Mitte) returns to his hometown after not bothering to do so for his father Gordon’s (Nicholas Campbell) funeral, and receives an unwelcoming reception from Gordon’s bartender buddy Paul (Peter Outerbridge). Paul has been saving Gordon’s ashes in a fishing tackle box, but he is not about to turn them over to Steve until the drifter son pays off a monetary debt. Steve tries to bargain to settle up with a story instead of cash, which kicks off the second tale set in another bar in which a stranger (Martin Roach) seeks a few minutes of shelter from an equally unwelcoming barkeep (Ari Millen). Peter Genoway’s screenplay unfolds at a tantalizing pace, slowly revealing

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 25, 2020

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): F20

Croation shocker F20 may not deliver many surprises to fans of lover-gone-psycho cinema, but its vibrant style and gripping performances make the ride to the inevitable a stirring one. Director Arsen A. Ostojic’s thriller takes viewers on an unsettling ride with nods to slasher fare in its third act. Part-time university student Martina (Romina Tonković) reluctantly helps her widowed father Mate (Mladen Vulić) out at his pizzeria. She develops a crush on Filip (Filip Mayer), a young man her age who orders pizza delivery daily. Asserting herself into his loner lifestyle of playing first-person shooter games while his parents are on vacation at their forest cabin, she and her friend Irena (Lana Ujevic) coax him into going out for drinks and karaoke, and the pair eventually enter into an intimate relationship. Viewers are tipped off very early — some might argue too soon — that something might be amiss with Filip, but I’ll save the how and why to avoid

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 23, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Hex

Reine Swat makes her feature film directorial debut with The Hex (originally titled Heks, and AKA Her Mask), a South African horror tale involving witch doctors and human evil. The film is rich in atmosphere but it also has some confusing elements. After witnessing her mother being killed upon her return to her native South Africa, a British Girl (Coco Lloyd as Dilanne) then travels to that country to spend time at her aunt’s (Mary-Anne Barlow) home while trying to unravel the mystery of her mother’s unsolved murder. The aunt’s occupational therapist (Mari Molefe van Heerden) has been sworn to secrecy about a skeleton in the family closet, but believes that Dilanne should be informed. Plagued by weird visions, Dilanne seeks the help of a witch doctor (also van Heerden), and the intrigue begins to slowly build. The Hex has an eerie look to it, but relies on jump scares and a series of hallucination sequences to jolt. Any atmosphere

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 16, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): Murder Bury Win

Rich in sharp dialogue, amusing situations, and cast members wonderfully bringing their easy-to-root-for characters to life, writer/director Michael Lovan’s Murder Bury Win is a delightful crime comedy with horror elements. From nail clippers to bear traps and beyond, if it can be used as a murder weapon, the protagonists in this film have most likely thought of it. That’s because the main trio is made up of three would-be board game developers. Chris (Mikelen Walker), Adam (Erich Lane), and Barrett (Henry Alexander Kelly) are three game-nerd friends who are trying to come up with a product that can challenge Murder Wall as the next big thing. Chris is interested in the challenge, Adam is interested in the potential money, and Barrett is interested in the collaboration. After the three buddies fail in their crowdfunding effort for the titular game, they are invited by legendary indie game developer V.V. Stubbs (Craig Cackowski) to show him their game. Impressed, or at least

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 15, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): The Last Thanksgiving

Writer/director Erick Lorinc’s low-budget horror indie The Last Thanksgiving delivers big time on the practical effects gore and gags, but falls a bit short on its humor and social commentary goals. Set on the titular holiday, the story sees a group of restaurant employees made to work on Thanksgiving attacked by a cannibal family. The reason for the invasion and violence has to do with the family’s history — I’ll leave out details here so as to avoid spoilers — but their focus of attacks is on those who disrespect the holiday, in their viewpoint, by working on the holiday. The set-up is there for the aforementioned social commentary, but the delivery falls a bit flat with jokes about indigineous peoples — delivered by the villains, who are corrected at one point by an understandably upset near-meal protagonist — and the other attempts at comedy don’t land much better. The acting ranges from good to scenery chewing to a bit

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Online Film Festival): The Deep Ones

If you are looking for a new exploitation movie version of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, look no further than The Deep Ones. It’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth mashed up with Rosemary’s Baby, Humanoids from the Deep (complete with rape scenes, as in that film; be warned), The Stepford Wives, and tentacle porn, for starters. Lovecraft literary purists will probably shudder at that description, but B-movie aficionados should find plenty to enjoy here. Starting off with naked bodies galore, the film sees Alex (Gina La Piana) and her husband Petri (Johann Urb) renting a seaside vacation home to try and get their minds off of Alex’s miscarraige and reconnect more. Hosts Russell (Robert Miana) and Ingrid (Silvia Spross) Marsh welcome them in an uncomfortably friendly manner, soon taking Petri out on a boat ride where they hypnotize him while the local doctor (TimothyMuskatell in drag) ingratiates herself with Alex. Naturally, there is a reason for everyone’s fake friendliness, and if you guessed

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Glass Man

Writer/director Cristian Solemino’s thriller The Glass Man premiered at London’s FrightFest film festival 11 years ago to great acclaim, but then was tangled up in rights issues. Shot in 2009 during the credit crunch, the film is finally available in the United Kingdom, still timely — if not even more so than when it was made — and delivers a riveting story with some top-notch performances. Andy Nyman (cowriter, codirector, and star of 2017’s Ghost Stories) gives a magnificent turn as Martin Pyrite, a businessman who we soon learn is hiding the fact that he was fired from his job from his wife Julie (Neve Campbell). His credit is shot and his bank account is down to pocket change, yet he still tries to keep up the appearance with her of being successfully employed, pretending to go to work every day. Going to his old job to complain about the bad reference they gave him, he is treated as persona

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 9, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review (Another Hole in the Head Film Festival): The Turn of the Screw

Writer/director Alex Galvin takes a novel approach to his feature The Turn of the Screw, his adaptation of the classic Henry James novella. Setting the New Zealand-made film at a play rehearsal for The Turn of the Screw one night before the play opens at a Wellington theater, the approach puts the last-minute replacement actress Julia (Greer Phillips) in an unfamiliar environment. As she goes through what the director Richard (Ralph Johnson) calls an unofficial dress rehearsal, Julia finds herself becoming increasingly distressed and fearful as the play proceeds. Whereas the governess in the source novella slowly begins to believe that the house in which she is put in charge is haunted, Julia starts to see strange sights and hear odd noises. The theater is empty other than the cast, director, and sound and lights crew members — or is it? Phillips is marvelous as the understudy given a frantically rushed chance to take a lead role in a production

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Bid 2020 Goodbye with Another Hole in the Head Film Festival’s Stellar Genre Film Lineup

San Francisco’s Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is ending 2020 on a high note for horror and genre-film fans by offering a mind-boggling array of almost 300 selections during its December 11-27 online run. Looking for a surreal genre-mash-up? Try Sister Tempest. How about a psychological supernatural thriller — with sharks? Give From the Depths (our featured image for this article) a shot. Interested in a unique approach to a horror classic? Then you’ll want to check out the New Zealand offering The Turn of the Screw. Following is the official press release, with all of the information you’ll need to make a huge must-see list and order tickets. SF IndieFest is pleased to announce the complete program for the 17th Another Hole In The Head Film Festival which takes place December 11 to 27 via Eventive.org and Zoom.us. The festival will once again bring the freshest new independent genre films from around the world to San Francisco

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: What Lies Below

For the first several scenes in What Lies Below, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into: Mena Suvari hamming it up, Trey Tucker emerging out of a lake in a swimsuit like something out of a romance novel, and so on. Once the film kicked in and things got bonkers, though, I was all in on Braden R. Duemmler’s mashup of horror, science fiction, thriller, and family drama elements. Suvari — who does a fine job here, and it soon becomes obvious why her character acts the corny way she does in the opening scenes — plays Michelle Wells, a writer whose teenage daughter Liberty (Ema Horvath of The Mortuary Collection) has just finished her annual summer camp session. Liberty, viewers are told, is somewhat socially awkward and coming into her own about liking boys — which Michelle presses her on — and when she sees mom’s new boyfriend John Smith (Tucker of The Outpost) emerge from the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Dec 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Oak Room (Popcorn Frights Wicked Weekend)

Canadian feature The Oak Room is a lean, gripping, dark thriller with horror overtones that celebrates the art of storytelling. Its settings are two closed bars in isolated locations on bitterly cold nights with snowstorms, with each bar story set a week apart. Prodigal son Steve (RJ Mitte) returns to his hometown after not bothering to do so for his father Gordon’s (Nicholas Campbell) funeral, and receives an unwelcoming reception from Gordon’s bartender buddy Paul (Peter Outerbridge). Paul has been saving Gordon’s ashes in a fishing tackle box, but he is not about to turn them over to Steve until the drifter son pays off a monetary debt. Steve tries to bargain to settle up with a story instead of cash, which kicks off the second tale set in another bar in which a stranger (Martin Roach) seeks a few minutes of shelter from an equally unwelcoming barkeep (Ari Millen). Peter Genoway’s screenplay unfolds at a tantalizing pace, slowly revealing

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Nov 25, 2020
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