Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of horror.

This low-budget 2012 horror film seeks to squeeze a few more pixels out of the “found footage” style by combining it with the anthology format. The result is consistently intense but inconsistently satisfying: the film-making is impressive, even innovative in its attempt to pack relentlessly downbeat horror into 20-minute packages, but the consequence is a narrative [...]

An extended “Unrated Edition” and a single bonus feature (30 minutes of “Recovered Files”) do little to enhance a sequel that seems to have given up the ghost.
When PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 appeared in theatres last year, it suggested that the franchise’s modus operandi had shifted from formula to template: whereas a formula allows for varying [...]

LA NOCHE DE WALPURGIS (”The Night of Walpurgis,” 1971)  is the third film in which Spanish actor Paul Naschy portrayed Waldemar Daninsky, a nobleman cursed with lycanthropy. As in the previous year’s LOS MONSTROUS DEL TERROR (”The Monsters of Terror,” a.k.a. ASSIGNMENT TERROR), Daninsky is revived when the silver bullets that “killed” him in the [...]

It was only yesterday that I was waxing enthusiastic about the restored conclusion of HORROR OF DRACULA, available on a Region 2 Blu-ray disc that incorporates previously missing footage rediscovered on an old Japanese print in an archival vault in Tokyo. Now, I am starting to have reservations, thanks to a YouTube post showing the [...]

Sitting down to write a review of THE LAST EXORCISM PART II, I find myself somewhat in the position of the modern satirist, who finds the real world has become so ridiculous that there is little room to push the envelope even further for comic effect, rendering the concept of satire almost redundant. In my [...]

The Holy Grail of horror cinema – the censored shot of the Count’s destruction from HORROR OF DRACULA – will soon be in the hands of faithful fans when the British Blu-ray of the restored version arrives on March 13. U.S. fans without a region-free player are not so lucky (no mention of a Region [...]

DARK SKIES proves once again (as if any proof were necessary) that Blumhouse Productions has codified its horror template to the point that their films are the cinematic equivalent of blues music: the lyrics may change, but not the subject matter or tone; and regardless of the writers and performers, you will hear the same [...]

In horror cinema, nothing so much becomes a character’s life as the leaving of it. It is de rigueur to see screen victims beaten, bitten and bled out, clawed and jawed, decapitated, eviscerated, and even evaporated. These fates are not reserved merely for the anonymous extras (the equivalent of STAR TREK’s red-shirted bit players) who [...]

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Movie monsters know that more than anybody. Much of the genre is built upon the suspenseful build-up to the first full revelation of exactly what it is that we the viewers have paid to see and shiver over. Often, that revelation takes the form [...]

The Weinstein Company (under their old Dimension Films banner) releases this science fiction horror film from Blumhouse Productions (the company behind the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise, SINISTER, INSIDIOUS, etc). The story has husband and wife Daniel and Lacey Barret witnessing an escalating series of disturbing events that threatens the safety of their home and family. When [...]

Universal Pictures releases this horror film, presented by Guillermo Del Toro. Andres Mushietti directed, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Neil Cross and Barbara Mushietti, based on his 2008 short subject.The cast includes Jessica Chastain, Nikoaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse, Daniel Kash, Javier Botet, and Jane Moffat as the voice of Mama. The story [...]

Open Road Films and Endgame Enterainment open this send-up of PARNORMAL ACTIVITY, THE DEVIL INSIDE, and various other recent horror offerings. Michael Tiddes directed, from a script by Rick Alvarez and Marlon Wayans, the latter of whom worked on the first couple of SCARY MOVIE spoofs, so you can guess where the humor is headed. [...]

Magnet Releasing opens STORAGE 24 in limited theatrical engagements. The British monster movie, starring DOCTOR WHO’S Noel Clarke, is already available via Video on Demand. Johannes Roberts directed from a script by Clarke, David Fairbanks, and Marc Small. The story has a couple, undergoing a breakup, trapped inside a storage facility, along with a few [...]