EDITOR’S NOTE: Bad Girls is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year and I’m so excited that it’s playing at Salem Horror Fest on October 9. We originally featured this movie on March 12, 2021. You need to see this movie.

Dude, where did Christopher Bickel come from? This is the second movie I’ve seen from him after The Theta Girl and he’s taken the trope of the bad girls on the run into tomorrow with this film, a blast of loud obnoxious music filled with violence, bad men and worse women. More to the point, why aren’t more people making movies like this?

After robbing a strip club, three desperate teenage lovedolls — Val, Mitzi, and Carolyn (Morgan Shaley Renew, Sanethia Dresch and Shelby Lois Guinn) hit the road with money, drugs and several boys in thrall. They’re running from the law, they’re running from death, they’re running from, well, whatever you have to run from, all with no real place to go other than to experience whatever’s really left of rock ‘n roll by sleeping with Bard Gainsworth (Cleveland Langdale) and Zerox Rhodesia (Micah Peroulis).

Meanwhile, the woman-hating Cannon (Mike Amason) and the somewhat even-keeled McMurphy (Dove Dupree), are that aforementioned law that the girls can’t get away from. There’s nothing but blood, bullets and the end in their future, but would you rather live for a day in the crosshairs or a life in a hospital waiting room waiting to die?

Also, of course they go to South of the Border. Hello, Pedro.

When one girl wants to live for death, another wants to survive and a third just goes along for the ride, things get out of control. I’m all for movies where women outdo, outdrug and outfight men and this movie stands up bravely in that genre that frankly deserves more company.

While I love The Theta Girl perhaps a bit more because, well, there are moments of borderline religious drug insanity — actually, it’s an entire movie of them — this is more focused and yet rawer at the same time. A rare feat.

This was co-written by Shane Silman, who was an incendiary force of nature in Theta, but here shows up as, well…a rocker turned movie director that you’ll definitely recognize.

I hate when people tell me, “Well, we didn’t have the budget.” This movie cost less than my house. Hell, I could have bought a car — not a great one — for what they had. And this is something special. From the first song to the last, I knew I was watching someone’s vision and not just something made to get content onto Amazon and make some money.

Want to know more? Check out the official site and get ready to get destroyed. You can also purchase the movie here.

Sonny and Noah work at Caste Insurance for Paula, who lets the former know in no certain circumstances that he must stop working with the latter, who is his best friend. Sonny is working hard to impress his father and show that he is worthy, so all looks lost for their friendship. Such is the way of business.

And then they knock on the wrong person’s door.

A cab driver named Lucas has been abducting and murdering the lower rung of society. Is he doing it in tribute to his dead mother? Has he finally lost it after a lifetime living under the rule of his grandmother? And now that Sonny and Noah have barged their way into his home to sell an insurance policy — ending with them chained up in his basement — will they ever leave?

Director and writer Josh Wallace has really put together a tight, bloody and amoral tale here. Everybody — well, except for Noah — wants to use one another and will climb over dead bodies to get ahead. But when those dead bodies are literal, will they behave the same way?

If you’re in the mood for a very, very black comedy. you can’t go wrong with this one.

Keeping Company is now playing Salem Horror Fest as part of the Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers series. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.

Director Kevin Kopacka and co-writer Lili Villányi worked on an episode of the TV show DYLAN a few years ago, which is based on the same character from Cemetery Man. That makes perfect sense, as this film has style to spare.

Dieter (Frederik von Lüttichau) and Margot (Luisa Taraz) have moved to a Gothic castle that would be at home in the films of Corman or Bava*. He has anger issues, she’s in the throes of depression and the estate? Well, it’s slowly making them prisoners. And then they find the whip in the basement, which unlocks old souls and a house that was definitely the site of some whispered illicit behavior.

A story that goes from Eurohorror to a study of relationships to even the nature of male and female inter dynamics within an occult movie that looks like it came from Italy in the 70s, this one has so much going for it. Just look at the font in the poster and at the end of the film. This is a movie that has been polished and honed and worked into the art that it is now. Don’t miss it.

Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes is now playing Salem Horror Fest as part of the Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers series. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.

*The director has directly called out Bava’s The Whip and the Body and Jean Rollin’s The Iron Rose as influences. The poster is literally taken from the latter film. It also takes a line from Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

Man, this movie got me.

It starts as a simple criminal — Fin (Zachary Mooren) — on the run caper. He’s just gotten out of a deal gone wrong and ducks away from the cops and into a mansion, where he thinks he’ll have some time for the heat to die down. That’s when he learns that he isn’t alone.

The house belongs to Val.

Expertly played by Misha Reeves — who was also in Electric Love, another movie directed by Aaron Fradkin and co-starring Mooren — Val starts the film very matter of factly explaining her work: she entertains men, gives them a fantasy and often finds herself breaking down the most physically imposing men and making them crawl around on a leash. Kind of like Freddy (Erik Griffin, Montez from Workaholics who, yes, was also in Electric Love), who bursts into the house with one eye whited out and a body full of threat and swagger before being laid low by just a word from the redhead spitfire that’s really running things.

That’s the thing. Fin thinks that he’s in control, but he’s been continually led around (mostly by his girlfriend Jenny, who is played by co-writer Victoria Fratz), lied to and used. Even if he grabs that ceremonial dagger that Val for some reason keeps in her kitchen, it’s going to take more than that to get past one of the smartest women he’ll ever meet.

If she is a woman. Because by the end, we learn that she just might be Valefar, the patron demon of thieves, the one who encourages them to have a good relationship with one another. She keeps offering Fin choices, like the opportunity to be hers, and the chance to stop the spinning wheel that is his life and actually be like her and call the shots. Not everyone is cut out for that.

By the end of the film, it’s become a broad — yet gore-drenched — comedy with a cop’s live head on a plate and Fin being given one last opportunity to live his own life. Unless he just wants to serve in Heaven, rather than rule in Hell. But one gets the feeling that Val isn’t one to share the throne.

I loved everything about this film, from its bold colors to its throwback to another era of snappy dialogue back and forth between its leads. Much like the character that it’s named for, Val will slowly win you into its confidence and then own you. And hey — it’s only 81 minutes long, so it’s not that Faustian of a bargain.

You can learn more at the film’s official site. It’s currently available for streaming on a variety of providers and will be available on blu ray November 2.

Directed by Nick Verdi, who wrote the movie with B.R. Yeager, Cockazaoid really makes the most of its lead, Jimmy Laine. There’s absolutely nothing to like or feel sorry for when it comes to his character, who reacts to the things that he hates in himself by killing others that seem to be similar. He’s more than self-loathing; he would kill himself a hundred times over and that’s pretty much what he’s doing. He’s a pathetic killer and nowhere near the mastermind nor killing machine that he envisions himself as, saying his practiced lines about making Christmas a sacrificial holiday and the country being afraid to get bloody. It sounds like the ramblings of someone smoking up all night, except that Andrew has a knife and isn’t afraid to use it to kill people and then butcher the remains.

In case you’re wondering, the Urban Dictionary let me know that a cockazoid is a word derogatory toward white people. See? Cock and caucasian…it all makes sense now.

Cockazoid is now playing Salem Horror Fest as part of the Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers series. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.

Directed and written by Wl Freeman and John Harrison (Hesse Deni, who plays Liv, also was a co-writer), Brain Death is a movie that’s either going to fascinate or confound you. It’s a movie that can be about long conversations about stealing standups of the Minions and Garfield phones — shout out for using the footage of the mystery of Garfield phones washing up on French beaches — at the same time that it features nightmarish footage, then literally screens on top of screens and enough buffering and artifacting that I was for sure that I had a bad copy.

I don’t think that I did.

The line for this one was “After the disappearance of her girlfriend, a young trans woman comes into contact with an ancient evil.” I have no idea if that’s what was happening. I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. This movie is really and genuinely all over the place, a kaleidoscope of images and what I imagine that it feels like to be inside the mind of someone younger than me that never had to do linear editing or not exist with screens all over the place, all blaring nonstop stimuli.

There’s also a great-looking record store in this that made me want to leave my house for the first time in many months, so I consider that a win for the filmmakers.

Brain Death is currently is now playing Salem Horror Fest. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October. You can learn more at this film’s official website.

Most Groundhog Day movies have some level of happiness to them. But what if you just kept reliving the worst day of your life. And even worse, what if you didn’t learn a single thing from it?

Every day, Bobby wakes up and the same thing happens. His fiancée, Jules, has her throat cut and when he falls to the ground in, stunned by the enormity of it all, he has his spine snapped. And then he wakes up and does it all again.

But why do the people in the resort town know so many personal details about both of them? And why is Bobby in a bar so often when drinking makes him argumentative at best and abusive at worst? Why have the couple had so many blow out arguments? Why would you go on vacation to a town named Bog Grove?

The worst part of it all is that Bobby knows that this death is coming every day at the same time. And he can’t warn Jules, he can’t stop it and all he can do is wait for it.

Director Craig Singer made Perkins’ 14, A Good Day to Die and Dark Ride, which was also written by Robert Dean Klein. This film has a great look, a dark journey and no small share of surprises. I was expecting it to not pay off its concept, but it did a great job of landing the plane. Klein also recently scripted David DeCoteau’s Lifetime thriller, The Wrong Valentine.

6:45 played theaters earlier this year and is currently is now playing Salem Horror Fest. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October. You can learn more at this film’s official Facebook page.

When Harley joins her boyfriend for a long Halloween weekend at his family’s country estate, their romantic weekend is upended by a gang of masked freaks. But the intruders are shocked when Harley is no pushover; she has a history of violence that is going to make the games they’re playing that much more interesting.

Director and writer Teddy Grennan also made the movie Ravage. Here, he’s playing on a riff of You’re Next, The Strangers and A Bay of Blood, particularly the way the ending pays off. There’s plenty of blood in this one, as well as moments of great home invasion tenseness.

There’s some really nice cinematography on display in this film; it looks way better than a streaming or direct to WalMart feature. My only major issue with the film is its use of masks, which are either very Spirit store or actual luchador masks. It doesn’t take much production design to create unique looks for your killers. Seeing home invaders wandering around wearing Mistico and Rey Mysterio Jr. masks takes the viewer out of the movie, as these are beyond iconic masks; imagine if someone was walking around with John Cena’s face in a slasher film. You’d instantly stop thinking of the stalk and slash moments and keep thinking, why is John Cena’s face on display? The masks of luchadors are the very same and beyond; they are their soul and identity and their use in this film is beyond cheap. It’s lazy at best and disrespectful as well.

You can learn more about Wicked Games at the official site.

Wicked Games is now playing Salem Horror Fest as part of the Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers series. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October. You can learn more at the Facebook page and official site for the movie.

Snapper is a fun short that tells the story of an unfinished 90s eco horror film, the work that went into it and why it ended. With behind-the-scenes set footage, photos, newly digitized film reels of daily footage and never-before-told stories from the filmmakers, this idea could have been real, but just didn’t make it.

What did was a study of the Boston DIY horror and FX scene, as well as the friendship of Mark Veau, Michael Savino and Scott Andrews. Writer and director John Campopiano was also the creative force behind Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary and the same quality of that film is in this, which is a lot for a movie that ultimately never saw the light of day.

I found myself getting sad watching this, as Snapper feels like the kind of regional film that we would be watching and writing about with our site. Here’s hoping that someday it become a reality.  For now, we have this fun short to remember it with.

Snapper is now playing Salem Horror Fest as part of the Showcase of Massachusetts Filmmakers series. When we have streaming info, we’ll share it in this post. For now, you can follow that link to buy a festival badge and check out several other films during October.