Director: Adam Robitel Stars: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore I must admit I have a soft spot for Escape Room. Adam Robitel's initial movie in this unlikely series felt like something of an underdog when it was released with little fanfare two and a half years ago. Who wanted or needed a YA Saw film? … Continue reading Review: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Director: Leigh Janiak Stars: Kiana Madeira, Elizabeth Scopel, Darrell Britt-Gibson The latest in the unending is-it-a-movie-is-it-TV discourse, Netflix's time travelling teen horror trilogy/mini-series hops further back than before as it reaches its final frontier - or should that be frontier finale? Largely reusing its extant cast, Fear Street Part Three: 1666 takes us back to … Continue reading Review: Fear Street Part Three: 1666
Director: Quentin Dupieux Stars: Adèle Haenel, Jean Dujardin, Albert Delpy As a costume piece that elaborates on character, the jacket has a storied history in cinema that goes back to it's silent days. For modern touchstones - especially in terms of how it is linked to masculinity - consider the ubiquity of Sailor's snakeskin jacket … Continue reading Review: Deerskin
Director: Everado Valerio Gout Stars: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Gregory Zaragoza James DeMonaco's Purge franchise lumbers onward. While it predated and has now surpassed the short sorry presidency of Donald Trump, it is the series that feels most laboriously representative of the whirlwind ills that the disgraced orange bile-pod brought to the Oval Office. … Continue reading Review: The Forever Purge
Director: Leigh Janiak Stars: Sadie Sink, Ryan Simpkins, McCabe Slye It's been but a short week since the first part of Leigh Janiak's Netflix trifecta Fear Street appeared on the service, and already much of its lore has faded from memory. Fortunately, this second entry opens with an (optional) recap. Even more promisingly, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 … Continue reading Review: Fear Street Part Two: 1978
Director: Jill Gevargizian Stars: Najarra Townsend, Brea Grant, Sarah McGuire Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a lonely hair stylist eager to provide immaculate service to her clients, but who feels alienated from the urban landscape around her. Her position at the lower end of the beauty industry makes her work a commodity, but she clearly wishes … Continue reading Review: The Stylist
Director: Prano Bailey-Bond Stars: Niamh Algar, Sophia La Porta, Michael Smiley In Britain in the early '80s, numerous low-rent horror films became the scapegoat of the Tory government's ills, dubbed "video nasties" and cut to ribbons by the British Board of Film Censors (now the British Board of Film Classification). This in an effort to … Continue reading Review: Censor
Director: Ben Wheatley Stars: Ellora Torchia, Joel Fry, Hayley Squires From one extreme to the other; those keeping an eye on the timeline here at The Lost Highway Hotel will note this is the second review of the day following Jon M Chu's In the Heights. It's a swift move from all-singing all-dancing to Ben Wheatley's … Continue reading Review: In the Earth
Director: Gorô Miyazaki English Voice Dub Stars: Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Henderson, Vanessa Marshall Poor Gorô Miyazaki. It's not easy being the son of one of the most gifted living directors of animated features, especially when you decide to walk the same path. That's one hell of a shadow to step out of. Not only that, … Continue reading Review: Earwig and the Witch
Director: Evan Spiliotopoulos Stars: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, William Sadler The Unholy is comfortably one of the worst films I've seen in my entire life, but I had so much fun. Well, a bit of fun. Well, I stayed 'til the end. Let me explain a bit. I've been writing this blog/site for going … Continue reading Review: The Unholy
Director: Bryan Bertino Stars: Xander Berkeley, Marin Ireland, Michael Abbot, Jr. Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael Straker (Michael Abbot, Jr.) are siblings, reunited when they return to the rural Texan homestead to look after their parents. Their father (Michael Zagst) is comatose, and their mother (Julie Oliver-Thouchstone) has taken her own downturn due to the … Continue reading Review: The Dark and the Wicked
Director: Mike P Nelson Stars: Charlotte Vega, Daisy Head, Bill Sage For the better part of a decade, the Wrong Turn franchise terrorised straight-to-DVD horror with a slew of tawdry sequels that ranged from bad and really very bad. Indeed the otherwise functional 2003 original came to feel like something of a minor masterpiece by comparison. … Continue reading Review: Wrong Turn (2021)
Director: Kevin Lewis Stars: Nicolas Cage, Beth Grant, Emily Tosta Nicolas Cage has comfortably settled into a mid-career groove of plentiful straight-to-VOD productions that tilt toward his strengths in manifesting either world-weary boredom or wide-eyed mania. Kevin Lewis is the latest director to be blessed with the actor's largess, and this cheap but cheerful horror … Continue reading Review: Willy’s Wonderland
Director: Jens Dahl Stars: Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Signe Egholm Olsen, Morten Holst The cosmetics industry is worth billions; from the pastes and poultices we use the create the brief illusion of youth through to surgical procedures designed to enhance or preserve. To freeze time. Jens Dahl's ice-cold, slow-burn body horror counters that, while some people … Continue reading Review: Breeder
The following contains significant plot spoilers for the movie. The link between rain and catharsis is a staple of cinematic storytelling, often representative of a release of tension, a moment of acceptance, or some other instance of resolution. From Rutger Hauer musing on memories like "tears in rain" as his Roy Batty shuts down at … Continue reading Minutiae: The Rain Dance in Kotoko
