Movies
A slow burn that's a bit too slow and doesn't burn quite bright enough to be truly successful. Bruckner certainly has a knack for horror, that much is clear as there are some truly arresting scenes here. That said, I think he could use someone to trim and edit everything down to a more interesting film. The Night House felt like a collage of familiar horror elements that never really come together in a very coherent manner. There are some proper scares here, Hall is a decent enough actress and the mystery is upheld until the very end. Still, there are quite a few dead moments and too many unresolved horror elements to be considered a genre highlight. Solid filler.Read all
Southbound
It's a bit late to do a '85 episode of the V/H/S anthology if you ask me, but I guess it made sense since they never actually handled the 80s explicitly. This certainly wasn't the best of the series, but I figured I'd give it a go as there's already a new one out. Keeping up with horror films is a bit harder these days. There are some decent segments, but the old V/H/S look is a bit overdone and I'm not a fan of the 80s aesthetic at all. I liked the wrap-around segment best, and the Mexican one was interesting too. The rest felt obsolete and derivative. There's still some decent fun to be had for hardcore horror fans, but this series needs a quality injection if it wants to keep on going.Read all
A slight disappointment. Not that my expectations were all that high, not after they axed a slew of way more interesting directors from the project, but it was obvious that they wanted to bring back some of the original flair to the Hellraiser franchise. That didn't really work out with Bruckner helming the film. There's been a lot of talk about having a female Pinhead, but who cares when the Cenobites look like crap, the film lacks the excessive gore and the tension is completely absent. Yes, the budget is finally there again, but the horror elements are poorly executed and boring. That's not what you want from a Hellraiser film. Also, two hours is insane for a simple film like this. Just hire a good director for the next one, please.Read all
V/H/S
