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Movie Review: Primate is Brutal and A Bloody Good Cautionary Tale

If you’ve ever looked at a chimpanzee and thought, “That looks like a delightful companion for my suburban home,” please watch Primate before you make any life-altering mistakes. Because as this film vividly demonstrates, chimps aren’t pets—they are compact, hairy engines of destruction that will treat your face like a scratch-off lottery ticket. Practical Magic and Blood-Soaked Realism Let’s talk about the absolute standout here: the special effects. In an era where everything is smoothed over with mediocre CGI, Primate goes “old-school” in the best way possible. The effects are mostly practical, and they are impressive as hell. We’re talking tactile, “I-can-almost-smell-the-copper” gore that makes the brutality feel dangerously real. And when I say gore, I mean this rabies-carrying critter literally rips someone’s jaw off, and we see it all! I actually had the chance to sit down with the Director of Photography, Stephen Murphy. We peeled back the haunting imagery from the poster and his insights into the production,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 2, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Feels Like Home and Black Zombie (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Feels Like Home (Hungary, 2026) Official Synopsis Kidnapped by a family convinced she is their missing daughter, a woman must assume another identity to survive as she seeks a way out of this nightmare. Rita, an ordinary, but lonely woman is kidnapped. Her captors are the Árpáds; they claim she is not called Rita but Szilvi, a runaway from their family. Rita eventually understands that the only way out is in – to escape she must impersonate Szilvi. The more she becomes the lost girl the more she finds out about the family, and understands that her life is on the line. Review Director Gábor Holtai’s Hungarian feature Feels Like Home is a dynamic blend of thriller, mystery, and drama with horror elements, as well. The acting throughout is a master class, led by Rozi Lovas’s bravura performance as Rita, a woman who is kidnapped mere minutes after losing her job at a shoe store. One of the kidnappers claims

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 1, 2026

Delicious and Dark: A Review of Heretic Parfum’s Season of the Witch Discovery collection

Let’s be honest: the quest for a signature scent is often a soul-crushing march through a department store haze. Most fragrances are mass-produced to appeal to everyone. And that usually results in you smelling exactly like the stranger standing next to you in the elevator. However, if you’re looking to break the cycle of the mundane, it’s time to seek out the unconventional. Enter Heretic Parfum Heretic is currently making waves by rejecting the industry’s “pretty” standards in favor of something far more provocative. By leaning into gothic themes and utilizing unexpected botanical combinations, they’ve created an olfactory experience that feels less like a cosmetic and more like an incantation. The Gateway to the Occult: Discovery Sets We all know the struggle: you don’t want to drop a small fortune on a full-size bottle only to realize it doesn’t vibe with your chemistry. Heretic solves this with their meticulously curated discovery sets. However, these aren’t samples; they are vials serving

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 29, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Dead Bloom and Don’t Sleep Alone (Panic Fest)

Dead Bloom (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis A struggling Black family settles on the poisoned land. Decay, madness, and violence follow. Years later, a new family inherits the property, awakening horrors long dormant. Blending parasitic flora, multi-generational trauma with corporate greed perpetuates the dehumanizing of people of color creating a chilling story of rebirth and reckoning, where the past is never dead, only buried. Review Socially charged horror films, including environmentally focused fear fare, can sometimes err on the side of being too on the nose, hammering home a message so hard that it distracts from its genre elements. Dead Bloom cowriters/codirectors Damien Paris and Domonic Paris make no such mistake. The father and son directing team balance the social commentary with the shocks marvelously, with the result being a suspenseful, gore-soaked slice of cinema. Dead Bloom’s look, production values, and special effects belie the microbudget on which it was made. Gorehounds will revel in the highly impressive practical effects, but

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 29, 2026

Spoiler-Free Review: Hangashore (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Official Synopsis Haunted by nightmares and visions, an artist chases the ghost of her father to the remote coast of Newfoundland. Abandoning all that she knows of her life in Iceland, Vera settles in a remote Canadian fishing village looking for answers. She finds herself drawn to Jack, a seal hunter leaving town with his failing boat and superstitious crew. With a curious romance blossoming, Vera sneaks aboard his fledgling longliner destined for ice floes full of seals. The vessel is choked in a thick fog and there is no bounty on the water. Jack’s scrappy crew is led by Patrick – desperate and plagued by superstition, he blames the mysterious weather on the stowaway. Violence erupts, hurling Jack and Vera into a fit of survival. HANGASHORE is a hypnotic vision of romance glowing in frozen Newfoundland landscapes. Review Because Calgary Underground Film Festival’s official description above sets up the story so well, I’ll dive right into review specifics. Writer/director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026

Spoiler-Free Review: Demonetize (Panic Fest)

Official Synopsis Out-of-work television ghost hunters discover the key to getting their jobs back — and proving ghosts are real — is by working with the last group of people anyone would expect: Social Media Stars. Review Director Alexander Boyd Watson delivers the latest in the fear-fare subgenre of influencer horror comedies with Demonetize (U.S., 2026). Horror films about social media personalities are a decidedly mixed bag, especially if viewers are already biased against their often grating personalities and when bickering relationships are part of the proceedings. Thankfully, Watson, who cowrote the screenplay with Janine Hogan, crafts one of the better recent offerings in the influencer-focused chills-and-chuckles department. One reason for Demonetize rising above the influencer horror comedy pack is that its characters, although deliberately not entirely likable, are at least more interesting than the norm. Yes, we have the expected obnoxious anything-for-clicks jerk in Paul Cory (Cherdleys AKA Chad Lebaron) and self-obsessed glamor gal in Tara Ahlquist (Lexi Collins),

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026
Horror Fuel

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Creature of the Pines and The Burning of Broken Beak (Panic Fest)

Creature feature devotees, we have reviews of two monsterrific films for you from Panic Fest’s virtual version: Creature of the Pines and The Burning of Broken Beak. Creature of the Pines (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis A documentary investigation into Pine Hollow disappearances reveals a presence lurking deep within the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Review With Creature of the Pines, cowriters/codirectors Chris Ruppert and Tyler Transue craft a faux documentary/found footage hybrid that cryptozoology devotees should find quite intriguing. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that what lurks in the woods in this feature isn’t the usual hirsute, large-footed suspect, which should make this film even more tempting in the curiosity department. Talking heads interview footage is interspersed between “found” footage of hikers who disappeared in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The experts and others portrayed as interview subjects largely do a solid job of seeming natural in their portrayals, a style that is not

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026

Movie Review: Night Patrol Has a Racism Problem

If you walked into Night Patrol (now out on Shudder) expecting a standard creature feature, you likely walked out feeling like you’d been through a sociopolitical meat grinder. While the film sells itself on a “cops vs. vampires” hook, the real horror isn’t the fangs—it’s the relentless, ugly reality of systemic racism that makes “enjoyment” a very complicated word to use here. Predatory Policing Literalized Directed by Ryan Prows (Lowlife), the story follows Xavier (Jermaine Fowler), a Black LAPD officer who left his gang past behind to patrol his old neighborhood. His world fractures when his brother Wazi (RJ Cyler) witnesses a clandestine unit—the titular Night Patrol—murdering a civilian. The “twist” is that this task force isn’t just corrupt; they are vampires. But they aren’t the sexy, gothic kind. These are “vampire-colonizers” (referred to as the Obayifo in West African mysticism) who specifically target Black and impoverished residents, treating the housing projects like a private pantry. The “Racism” Problem The

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 26, 2026
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant

Forget the “video game movie” curse; The Mortuary Assistant is a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul. What Makes It Work The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them. Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you c The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene)

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 24, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Imposters and Little Doors (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Imposters (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis After a couple’s baby boy is taken, the desperate mother learns of a way to bring him back. However, her husband begins to suspect that what she returned with isn’t their son. Review Writer/director Caleb Phillips combines changeling folklore with “The Monkey’s Paw” elements and science fiction doppelganger twists in his feature film Imposters. Paul (Charlie Barnett) and Marie (genre-film favorite Jessica Rothe) are having marital problems, and things get decidedly worse when their baby disappears during a party the couple is throwing in their new countryside home. Mysterious neighbor Orson (Bates Wilder), tells a willing Marie and a highly skeptical Paul about an enigmatic cave in which they might find their son. I won’t go into more plot detail than that, as Phillips has plenty of twists and surprises in store for viewers. Sharing equal time with the fear-fare elements is the marital drama between Paul and Marie, which heightens the proceedings and stakes

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2026

More from Reviews

Movie Review: Primate is Brutal and A Bloody Good Cautionary Tale

If you’ve ever looked at a chimpanzee and thought, “That looks like a delightful companion for my suburban home,” please watch Primate before you make any life-altering mistakes. Because as this film vividly demonstrates, chimps aren’t pets—they are compact, hairy engines of destruction that will treat your face like a scratch-off lottery ticket. Practical Magic and Blood-Soaked Realism Let’s talk about the absolute standout here: the special effects. In an era where everything is smoothed over with mediocre CGI, Primate goes “old-school” in the best way possible. The effects are mostly practical, and they are impressive as hell. We’re talking tactile, “I-can-almost-smell-the-copper” gore that makes the brutality feel dangerously real. And when I say gore, I mean this rabies-carrying critter literally rips someone’s jaw off, and we see it all! I actually had the chance to sit down with the Director of Photography, Stephen Murphy. We peeled back the haunting imagery from the poster and his insights into the production,

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 2, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Feels Like Home and Black Zombie (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Feels Like Home (Hungary, 2026) Official Synopsis Kidnapped by a family convinced she is their missing daughter, a woman must assume another identity to survive as she seeks a way out of this nightmare. Rita, an ordinary, but lonely woman is kidnapped. Her captors are the Árpáds; they claim she is not called Rita but Szilvi, a runaway from their family. Rita eventually understands that the only way out is in – to escape she must impersonate Szilvi. The more she becomes the lost girl the more she finds out about the family, and understands that her life is on the line. Review Director Gábor Holtai’s Hungarian feature Feels Like Home is a dynamic blend of thriller, mystery, and drama with horror elements, as well. The acting throughout is a master class, led by Rozi Lovas’s bravura performance as Rita, a woman who is kidnapped mere minutes after losing her job at a shoe store. One of the kidnappers claims

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
May 1, 2026

Delicious and Dark: A Review of Heretic Parfum’s Season of the Witch Discovery collection

Let’s be honest: the quest for a signature scent is often a soul-crushing march through a department store haze. Most fragrances are mass-produced to appeal to everyone. And that usually results in you smelling exactly like the stranger standing next to you in the elevator. However, if you’re looking to break the cycle of the mundane, it’s time to seek out the unconventional. Enter Heretic Parfum Heretic is currently making waves by rejecting the industry’s “pretty” standards in favor of something far more provocative. By leaning into gothic themes and utilizing unexpected botanical combinations, they’ve created an olfactory experience that feels less like a cosmetic and more like an incantation. The Gateway to the Occult: Discovery Sets We all know the struggle: you don’t want to drop a small fortune on a full-size bottle only to realize it doesn’t vibe with your chemistry. Heretic solves this with their meticulously curated discovery sets. However, these aren’t samples; they are vials serving

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 29, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Dead Bloom and Don’t Sleep Alone (Panic Fest)

Dead Bloom (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis A struggling Black family settles on the poisoned land. Decay, madness, and violence follow. Years later, a new family inherits the property, awakening horrors long dormant. Blending parasitic flora, multi-generational trauma with corporate greed perpetuates the dehumanizing of people of color creating a chilling story of rebirth and reckoning, where the past is never dead, only buried. Review Socially charged horror films, including environmentally focused fear fare, can sometimes err on the side of being too on the nose, hammering home a message so hard that it distracts from its genre elements. Dead Bloom cowriters/codirectors Damien Paris and Domonic Paris make no such mistake. The father and son directing team balance the social commentary with the shocks marvelously, with the result being a suspenseful, gore-soaked slice of cinema. Dead Bloom’s look, production values, and special effects belie the microbudget on which it was made. Gorehounds will revel in the highly impressive practical effects, but

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 29, 2026

Spoiler-Free Review: Hangashore (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Official Synopsis Haunted by nightmares and visions, an artist chases the ghost of her father to the remote coast of Newfoundland. Abandoning all that she knows of her life in Iceland, Vera settles in a remote Canadian fishing village looking for answers. She finds herself drawn to Jack, a seal hunter leaving town with his failing boat and superstitious crew. With a curious romance blossoming, Vera sneaks aboard his fledgling longliner destined for ice floes full of seals. The vessel is choked in a thick fog and there is no bounty on the water. Jack’s scrappy crew is led by Patrick – desperate and plagued by superstition, he blames the mysterious weather on the stowaway. Violence erupts, hurling Jack and Vera into a fit of survival. HANGASHORE is a hypnotic vision of romance glowing in frozen Newfoundland landscapes. Review Because Calgary Underground Film Festival’s official description above sets up the story so well, I’ll dive right into review specifics. Writer/director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026

Spoiler-Free Review: Demonetize (Panic Fest)

Official Synopsis Out-of-work television ghost hunters discover the key to getting their jobs back — and proving ghosts are real — is by working with the last group of people anyone would expect: Social Media Stars. Review Director Alexander Boyd Watson delivers the latest in the fear-fare subgenre of influencer horror comedies with Demonetize (U.S., 2026). Horror films about social media personalities are a decidedly mixed bag, especially if viewers are already biased against their often grating personalities and when bickering relationships are part of the proceedings. Thankfully, Watson, who cowrote the screenplay with Janine Hogan, crafts one of the better recent offerings in the influencer-focused chills-and-chuckles department. One reason for Demonetize rising above the influencer horror comedy pack is that its characters, although deliberately not entirely likable, are at least more interesting than the norm. Yes, we have the expected obnoxious anything-for-clicks jerk in Paul Cory (Cherdleys AKA Chad Lebaron) and self-obsessed glamor gal in Tara Ahlquist (Lexi Collins),

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026
Horror Fuel

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Creature of the Pines and The Burning of Broken Beak (Panic Fest)

Creature feature devotees, we have reviews of two monsterrific films for you from Panic Fest’s virtual version: Creature of the Pines and The Burning of Broken Beak. Creature of the Pines (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis A documentary investigation into Pine Hollow disappearances reveals a presence lurking deep within the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Review With Creature of the Pines, cowriters/codirectors Chris Ruppert and Tyler Transue craft a faux documentary/found footage hybrid that cryptozoology devotees should find quite intriguing. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that what lurks in the woods in this feature isn’t the usual hirsute, large-footed suspect, which should make this film even more tempting in the curiosity department. Talking heads interview footage is interspersed between “found” footage of hikers who disappeared in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The experts and others portrayed as interview subjects largely do a solid job of seeming natural in their portrayals, a style that is not

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 27, 2026

Movie Review: Night Patrol Has a Racism Problem

If you walked into Night Patrol (now out on Shudder) expecting a standard creature feature, you likely walked out feeling like you’d been through a sociopolitical meat grinder. While the film sells itself on a “cops vs. vampires” hook, the real horror isn’t the fangs—it’s the relentless, ugly reality of systemic racism that makes “enjoyment” a very complicated word to use here. Predatory Policing Literalized Directed by Ryan Prows (Lowlife), the story follows Xavier (Jermaine Fowler), a Black LAPD officer who left his gang past behind to patrol his old neighborhood. His world fractures when his brother Wazi (RJ Cyler) witnesses a clandestine unit—the titular Night Patrol—murdering a civilian. The “twist” is that this task force isn’t just corrupt; they are vampires. But they aren’t the sexy, gothic kind. These are “vampire-colonizers” (referred to as the Obayifo in West African mysticism) who specifically target Black and impoverished residents, treating the housing projects like a private pantry. The “Racism” Problem The

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 26, 2026
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant

Forget the “video game movie” curse; The Mortuary Assistant is a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul. What Makes It Work The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them. Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you c The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene)

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 24, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Imposters and Little Doors (Calgary Underground Film Festival)

Imposters (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis After a couple’s baby boy is taken, the desperate mother learns of a way to bring him back. However, her husband begins to suspect that what she returned with isn’t their son. Review Writer/director Caleb Phillips combines changeling folklore with “The Monkey’s Paw” elements and science fiction doppelganger twists in his feature film Imposters. Paul (Charlie Barnett) and Marie (genre-film favorite Jessica Rothe) are having marital problems, and things get decidedly worse when their baby disappears during a party the couple is throwing in their new countryside home. Mysterious neighbor Orson (Bates Wilder), tells a willing Marie and a highly skeptical Paul about an enigmatic cave in which they might find their son. I won’t go into more plot detail than that, as Phillips has plenty of twists and surprises in store for viewers. Sharing equal time with the fear-fare elements is the marital drama between Paul and Marie, which heightens the proceedings and stakes

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 24, 2026
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