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Joseph Perry

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Horror Fuel

Fantasia International Film Festival Offers Up World-Class Horror and Genre Cinema in Its First Wave Announcement

The Fantasia International Film Festival, one of the world’s premiere genre film fests, is forging ahead with its first-ever virtual edition so that Canadian movie lovers can partake of the festival’s outstanding programs despite the current pandemic and the uncertainty it brings to the world. The official press release for Fantasia’s 24th edition follows. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 24th edition as a virtual event accessible to movie lovers across Canada, with a wild assortment of scheduled screenings, panels, and workshops taking place online from August 20 through September 2, 2020. The decision to launch a digital edition of the famed genre festival was born from Fantasia’s desire to keep the health and safety of its attendees a top priority during the current global health crisis, while still offering daring, much-needed new genre entertainment to residents of Canada and supporting the breakout filmmakers of the year. The festival’s full lineup will be announced in early August.

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Joseph Perry
Jun 10, 2020
Horror Fuel

Portland Horror Film Festival Announces Its Terrific Virtual Edition Lineup

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a new trend of film festivals going virtual this year. Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere horror genre film festival, is the latest fest to announce that it is offering a virtual version, and as a selection and awards judge on the fest’s film jury, I can tell Horror Fuel readers first-hand that the quality of fright fare selected for this outing is high, indeed. Best of all, you can partake of the terror from anywhere in the United States! Horror fans can dig into a selection of more than 60 short and feature films during the 6-night event, beginning June 10th with the first shorts block and a preview of the festival’s upcoming features. The terror continues June 17–21 with more shorts and feature films from around the world. Following is the official press release from Portland Horror Film Festival: In the midst of this pandemic, some businesses are finally starting

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Becky

Something seems hidden below the surface of the young teenage title character in Becky. Alas, quite a bit also seems hidden from viewers — though that is certainly not the case in the gore department — in this horror thriller that sees a dating pair of single parents and their children rudely interrupted (to put it mildly) by a quartet of neo-Nazis who have just escaped from prison. Lulu Wilson (Anabelle: Creation, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and The Haunting of Hill House series) stars as 13-year-old Becky, who is still mourning the death of her mother and is angry at her father Jeff (Joel McHale of Deliver Us from Evil and the Community comedy series) for, among other things, inviting his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel of the Snowpiercer and The Handmaid’s Tale series) and her young son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe, also of The Handmaid’s Tale series) to what Becky thought was going to be a weekend alone with her

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Joseph Perry
Jun 2, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Confessional

The central conceit of director Brad T. Gottfred’s Confessional is an updated, low-budget approach to the old chestnut of a mysterious host inviting people to a certain location and having them crack under pressure, or killing them — think The Beast Must Die (1974), The Cat and the Canary (1939), or Ten Little Indians (1965). In the case of Confessional, a group of college students come to a specially built booth that records their deepest, darkest secrets, to which they have been invited by an unknown host after the death of two mutually known fellow students. The film is an exercise that stays true to its technique, but it gets convoluted and has the issue of not presenting any characters for viewers to truly get solidly behind. Film student Amelia Lincoln (Mia Xitlali) and star swimmer Zach Turner (Brandon Larracuente) both die puzzling deaths. Seven students from their university are blackmailed by an unknown person into revealing what they know

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Chattanooga Film Festival): Skull; The Wanting Mare

Skull and The Wanting Mare are part of Chattanooga Film Festival’s 2020 virtual edition, which runs May 22–25, and these films may be viewed anytime during those dates. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org. Please note that the festival is open to residents of the United States only. Fest badges can be purchased at www.chattfilmfest.org/badges. Skull If a demonic monster/slasher mashup sounds right up your alley, don’t hesitate on catching Skull (AKA Skull: The Mask), a grue-filled, giddy romp that delivers action and carnage at a frenetic pace. This Brazilian fright flick centers on the excavated Mask of Anhangá — the executioner of Tahawantinsupay, a Pre-Columbian God — which viewers learn during a jaw-dropping cold open is a deadly false face, indeed. Police officer Beatriz Obdias (Natalia Rodrigues) gets tangled up with mysterious creep Tack Waelder (Ivo Müller of The Devil Lives Here) after a double murder in which the killer ripped out the victims’ hearts, because Waelder wants the mask

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Chattanooga Film Festival Features Vampires, a Sacrifice-Seeking Mask, and Other Horror Galore in Its 2020 Virtual Edition

The Chattanooga Film Festival, known and loved by horror and genre film fans for its eclectic cinematic fare and incredible special events, has announced a breathtaking lineup for its virtual edition, headed to a computer near you next week! The May 22–25 event is a doozy, with film offerings such as the world premiere of the Brazilian shocker Skull, science fiction/horror outing The Beach House, and vintage 1970 nugget Hollywood Horror House, to name but a few. Some of the special events include Joe Dante receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Joe Bob Briggs hosting a talk with filmmaker/producer Mick Garris on the making of Stephen King’s pandemic classic The Stand. Following is the full press release from Chattanooga Film Festival, which is well worth poring through! The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF), along with its presenting sponsor Gunpowder & Sky’s ALTER and media partner Bloody-Disgusting.com, are thrilled to announce their innovative lineup of features, panels and live events set

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Evil Little Things

The latest offering in the killer doll subgenre of fright fare is director Matt Green’s Evil Little Things, a horror anthology consisting of two main tales and a wraparound. The film offers a fair share of amusement, but it falls a bit flat in the technical department, including some editing and sound glitches that are so jarring they had me wondering whether they were errors on the screener that I watched or baffling directorial choices. Evil Little Things kicks off with a fuming stepfather (Zach Galligan of Gremlins and Waxwork) threatening his stepson Jason (Mason Wells) when the little boy insists there is a monster under his bed at tuck-in time. Jason’s mother (L.A. Winters) takes the young boy doll shopping the next day to make him feel safer at night. A creepy doll maker (Geoff McKnight) spins two fanciful, eerie yarns to the twosome. In the first story, mother Jess (Hannah Fierman of Siren and St. Agatha), having recently

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 12, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Shudder’s “Cursed Films: The Crow” and “Cursed Films: Twilight Zone: The Movie”

Cursed Films, the original five-part documentary series from streaming service Shudder, strives to examine the facts behind the rumors and the tragic events that affected the making of some beloved classic horror movies produced in the 1970s and 1980s. These cinematic offerings have been deemed cursed, often because of urban legend and gossip. After launching with impressive episodes about The Exorcist, Poltergeist, and The Omen that offered rational considerations of their topics, the series wraps up with equally engaging looks at The Crow and Twilight Zone: The Movie. As he did so well regarding the tragic deaths of young stars Heather O’Rourke and Dominique Dunne in the Cursed Films: Poltergeist installment, series writer/director/editor Jay Cheel once again provides poignant, respectful views on how on-set deaths and accidents affect those close to the victims — from those who worked with Brandon Lee on The Crow and with Vic Morrow and the two young child actors on Twilight Zone: The Movie to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Perished

Writer/director Paddy Murphy’s The Perished is a horror film that explores the religious and social controversies in his native Ireland regarding abortion — which was illegal there until quite recently — and the stigma that it carries, but the film is easily relatable to viewers outside that country who bring their own differing viewpoints to it. It delivers as a body horror film and a monster movie with a decidedly creepy creature. Sarah (Courtney McKeon) is a young woman who accidentally gets pregnant by her boyfriend Shane (Fiach Kunz). During the same conversation when she planned to tell him about it, he dumps her before she can break the news. Not wanting a child at this point in her life, she travels alone to England to have an abortion. Her strictly religious mother Elaine (Noelle Clarke) finds out and kicks her out of the house in an uproar for bringing shame to their family as Sarah’s meek father Richard (Conor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 8, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow): A Ghost Waits; Anderson Falls

A Ghost Waits Horror cinema has had a strong track record in the past couple of years of introducing stunning debuts from first-time feature filmmakers. Add writer/director Adam Stovall to that list with his winning entry A Ghost Waits, a black-and-white offering that delivers chilling moments (the third act contains a scene that may go down as one of the most controversial of this year), plenty of offbeat humor, and a truly charming romance angle. Jack (MacLeod Andrews) is a handyman who fixes up vacated houses and readies them for new tenants. His boss gives him the task of finding out why one certain property has such a frequent and sudden turnaround, with people leaving abruptly. Viewers learn long before Jack does that that the cause is a ghost — that of a young woman named Muriel (Natalie Walker). She is actually a “spectral agent” whose job it is to scare humans off the property, and she works for the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Mar 25, 2020

More from Joseph Perry

Horror Fuel

Fantasia International Film Festival Offers Up World-Class Horror and Genre Cinema in Its First Wave Announcement

The Fantasia International Film Festival, one of the world’s premiere genre film fests, is forging ahead with its first-ever virtual edition so that Canadian movie lovers can partake of the festival’s outstanding programs despite the current pandemic and the uncertainty it brings to the world. The official press release for Fantasia’s 24th edition follows. The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 24th edition as a virtual event accessible to movie lovers across Canada, with a wild assortment of scheduled screenings, panels, and workshops taking place online from August 20 through September 2, 2020. The decision to launch a digital edition of the famed genre festival was born from Fantasia’s desire to keep the health and safety of its attendees a top priority during the current global health crisis, while still offering daring, much-needed new genre entertainment to residents of Canada and supporting the breakout filmmakers of the year. The festival’s full lineup will be announced in early August.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 10, 2020
Horror Fuel

Portland Horror Film Festival Announces Its Terrific Virtual Edition Lineup

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a new trend of film festivals going virtual this year. Portland Horror Film Festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premiere horror genre film festival, is the latest fest to announce that it is offering a virtual version, and as a selection and awards judge on the fest’s film jury, I can tell Horror Fuel readers first-hand that the quality of fright fare selected for this outing is high, indeed. Best of all, you can partake of the terror from anywhere in the United States! Horror fans can dig into a selection of more than 60 short and feature films during the 6-night event, beginning June 10th with the first shorts block and a preview of the festival’s upcoming features. The terror continues June 17–21 with more shorts and feature films from around the world. Following is the official press release from Portland Horror Film Festival: In the midst of this pandemic, some businesses are finally starting

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 4, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Becky

Something seems hidden below the surface of the young teenage title character in Becky. Alas, quite a bit also seems hidden from viewers — though that is certainly not the case in the gore department — in this horror thriller that sees a dating pair of single parents and their children rudely interrupted (to put it mildly) by a quartet of neo-Nazis who have just escaped from prison. Lulu Wilson (Anabelle: Creation, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and The Haunting of Hill House series) stars as 13-year-old Becky, who is still mourning the death of her mother and is angry at her father Jeff (Joel McHale of Deliver Us from Evil and the Community comedy series) for, among other things, inviting his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel of the Snowpiercer and The Handmaid’s Tale series) and her young son Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe, also of The Handmaid’s Tale series) to what Becky thought was going to be a weekend alone with her

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jun 2, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Confessional

The central conceit of director Brad T. Gottfred’s Confessional is an updated, low-budget approach to the old chestnut of a mysterious host inviting people to a certain location and having them crack under pressure, or killing them — think The Beast Must Die (1974), The Cat and the Canary (1939), or Ten Little Indians (1965). In the case of Confessional, a group of college students come to a specially built booth that records their deepest, darkest secrets, to which they have been invited by an unknown host after the death of two mutually known fellow students. The film is an exercise that stays true to its technique, but it gets convoluted and has the issue of not presenting any characters for viewers to truly get solidly behind. Film student Amelia Lincoln (Mia Xitlali) and star swimmer Zach Turner (Brandon Larracuente) both die puzzling deaths. Seven students from their university are blackmailed by an unknown person into revealing what they know

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 28, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Chattanooga Film Festival): Skull; The Wanting Mare

Skull and The Wanting Mare are part of Chattanooga Film Festival’s 2020 virtual edition, which runs May 22–25, and these films may be viewed anytime during those dates. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org. Please note that the festival is open to residents of the United States only. Fest badges can be purchased at www.chattfilmfest.org/badges. Skull If a demonic monster/slasher mashup sounds right up your alley, don’t hesitate on catching Skull (AKA Skull: The Mask), a grue-filled, giddy romp that delivers action and carnage at a frenetic pace. This Brazilian fright flick centers on the excavated Mask of Anhangá — the executioner of Tahawantinsupay, a Pre-Columbian God — which viewers learn during a jaw-dropping cold open is a deadly false face, indeed. Police officer Beatriz Obdias (Natalia Rodrigues) gets tangled up with mysterious creep Tack Waelder (Ivo Müller of The Devil Lives Here) after a double murder in which the killer ripped out the victims’ hearts, because Waelder wants the mask

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 22, 2020
Horror Fuel

Chattanooga Film Festival Features Vampires, a Sacrifice-Seeking Mask, and Other Horror Galore in Its 2020 Virtual Edition

The Chattanooga Film Festival, known and loved by horror and genre film fans for its eclectic cinematic fare and incredible special events, has announced a breathtaking lineup for its virtual edition, headed to a computer near you next week! The May 22–25 event is a doozy, with film offerings such as the world premiere of the Brazilian shocker Skull, science fiction/horror outing The Beach House, and vintage 1970 nugget Hollywood Horror House, to name but a few. Some of the special events include Joe Dante receiving the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Joe Bob Briggs hosting a talk with filmmaker/producer Mick Garris on the making of Stephen King’s pandemic classic The Stand. Following is the full press release from Chattanooga Film Festival, which is well worth poring through! The Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF), along with its presenting sponsor Gunpowder & Sky’s ALTER and media partner Bloody-Disgusting.com, are thrilled to announce their innovative lineup of features, panels and live events set

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 14, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Evil Little Things

The latest offering in the killer doll subgenre of fright fare is director Matt Green’s Evil Little Things, a horror anthology consisting of two main tales and a wraparound. The film offers a fair share of amusement, but it falls a bit flat in the technical department, including some editing and sound glitches that are so jarring they had me wondering whether they were errors on the screener that I watched or baffling directorial choices. Evil Little Things kicks off with a fuming stepfather (Zach Galligan of Gremlins and Waxwork) threatening his stepson Jason (Mason Wells) when the little boy insists there is a monster under his bed at tuck-in time. Jason’s mother (L.A. Winters) takes the young boy doll shopping the next day to make him feel safer at night. A creepy doll maker (Geoff McKnight) spins two fanciful, eerie yarns to the twosome. In the first story, mother Jess (Hannah Fierman of Siren and St. Agatha), having recently

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 12, 2020
Horror Fuel

Review: Shudder’s “Cursed Films: The Crow” and “Cursed Films: Twilight Zone: The Movie”

Cursed Films, the original five-part documentary series from streaming service Shudder, strives to examine the facts behind the rumors and the tragic events that affected the making of some beloved classic horror movies produced in the 1970s and 1980s. These cinematic offerings have been deemed cursed, often because of urban legend and gossip. After launching with impressive episodes about The Exorcist, Poltergeist, and The Omen that offered rational considerations of their topics, the series wraps up with equally engaging looks at The Crow and Twilight Zone: The Movie. As he did so well regarding the tragic deaths of young stars Heather O’Rourke and Dominique Dunne in the Cursed Films: Poltergeist installment, series writer/director/editor Jay Cheel once again provides poignant, respectful views on how on-set deaths and accidents affect those close to the victims — from those who worked with Brandon Lee on The Crow and with Vic Morrow and the two young child actors on Twilight Zone: The Movie to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 7, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Perished

Writer/director Paddy Murphy’s The Perished is a horror film that explores the religious and social controversies in his native Ireland regarding abortion — which was illegal there until quite recently — and the stigma that it carries, but the film is easily relatable to viewers outside that country who bring their own differing viewpoints to it. It delivers as a body horror film and a monster movie with a decidedly creepy creature. Sarah (Courtney McKeon) is a young woman who accidentally gets pregnant by her boyfriend Shane (Fiach Kunz). During the same conversation when she planned to tell him about it, he dumps her before she can break the news. Not wanting a child at this point in her life, she travels alone to England to have an abortion. Her strictly religious mother Elaine (Noelle Clarke) finds out and kicks her out of the house in an uproar for bringing shame to their family as Sarah’s meek father Richard (Conor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 8, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Reviews (Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow): A Ghost Waits; Anderson Falls

A Ghost Waits Horror cinema has had a strong track record in the past couple of years of introducing stunning debuts from first-time feature filmmakers. Add writer/director Adam Stovall to that list with his winning entry A Ghost Waits, a black-and-white offering that delivers chilling moments (the third act contains a scene that may go down as one of the most controversial of this year), plenty of offbeat humor, and a truly charming romance angle. Jack (MacLeod Andrews) is a handyman who fixes up vacated houses and readies them for new tenants. His boss gives him the task of finding out why one certain property has such a frequent and sudden turnaround, with people leaving abruptly. Viewers learn long before Jack does that that the cause is a ghost — that of a young woman named Muriel (Natalie Walker). She is actually a “spectral agent” whose job it is to scare humans off the property, and she works for the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Mar 25, 2020
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