An ancient witch named Olena (Tetiana Malkova) from the Ukrainian town of Konotop has given up her powers to fall in love with a mortal man, Andriy (Taras Tsymbaliuk). However, as we all know, Russia invader the Ukraine, which also happens in this film. As they’re pulled over by a group of soldiers, her lover reacts strongly to them touching her — by the way, when they ask her what the name of her dog is and she replies, “Ozzie, like the band,” and they say, “What about Pantera?” I guess it’s become international shorthand for racist baddies to be Cowboys from Hell — he’s killed and she barely makes it to the home of her Aunt Evdokiya (Olena Khokhlatkina). She decides that it’s time to get her power back and along the way, kill every single soldier that sets foot in the Ukrane.

As the Russians literally rape and murder their way through what they see as enemy territory, Olena gives in to her ancient ways and starts to kill them off, one by one. Some see visions of her and drive tanks over the bodies of their fellow soldiers. Others are overcome by fear and kill themselves. And still others have centipedes crawl out of their dickholes, which is something that I have never seen before. You can still be surprised and you know, that’s nice.

It feels a little exploitative but isn’t that every movie I watch? How often will you get to see a tree covered with the skin and blood of several horrible soldiers that have dared to hurt women? The effects are pretty good, the gore is non-stop and it moves quickly enough. I laughed several times at just how far it goes and if you’re wondering, the dog survives to remind our heroine that she can be good. So many people in this can be killed and scarred for life but if that little pup got the slightest injury, I would have been so upset.

Fabio D’Orta’s The Complex Forms has such an interesting concept: A group of men, desperate for money, have come to an ancient villa where they are told all of their problems will be solved if they sell their bodies to a mysterious entity. What follows looks and feels unlike any movie I can think of.

With one creative force — and just a three person crew — doing everything from directing and writing to the cinematography, score and special effects, this is obviously a passion project.

Is it worth 10,000 lira for Christian (David White) to be possessed by something for 12 days? Not when the monsters come from the forests, huge dark ancient things covered in jewels and slouching in an inhuman march forward. These are some of the most unique effects I’ve seen in some time and I was taken aback by just how strange and horrifying they are. It sounds like hyperbole but it’s true: these are the most unique behemoths since H.R. Giger’s xenomorph.

This is something else and demands to be experienced. If you plays near you or when it starts online, make a point to see it.

Daniel (Lawrence Kao) wants to remain with his young daughter Collette (Kai Cech) and the only way that he can make enough cash to do that is to become the Grim Reaper. When he needs to, his face becomes a skull and all he has to do is touch someone to kill them and he must never tell his child. I mean, how would you?

Director and writer Benjamin Wong has created a movie that isn’t about the herky jerky possession jump scares of modern horror, but instead about a relationship between a father and his daughter, as well as the love they have for each other. This also reminds me of the massive debt that so many of us have to take on, not just emotionally but monetarily, as a strange man keeps coming for tokens from each kill, reminding Daniel that he owes eleven times what he has borrowed.

By the end, Daniel must remain hidden so no one can see his face and he watches as a social worker by the name of Macey (Shelli Boone) takes Collette away to a foster family who can give her the life she truly deserves. What an intriguing concept and one well made, too.

Directed and written by Ludvig Gür, Gudstjänst — which is being released in the U.S. as In the Name of God — is about Theodor (Linus Walhgren), a priest who is often the only person at his masses. The worshippers are dying off and his wife Felicia (Lisa Henni) wonders if they should move on. He’s happy that his mentor Jonas (Thomas Hanzon) has come to town. The problem is that it seems like he may be deranged. After all, he just killed a dove right in front of him and sprayed him with hot blood.

Yet when Felicia collapses and is soon hospitalized, dying from a mysterious ailment, Jonas offers to save her if Theodor follows him just as he did by going into the priesthood. Now, he must accept the true priesthood of God and kill sinners to save his wife’s life.

Jonas has already captured a rapist and all the younger man has to do is snuff out his sinful life. He does. His wife is healed. He becomes known as a faith healer and people come back to the church. His wife is with child. God has a plan.

Yet to make the prayers of his new followers come true, he must keep killing. Because the God who has listened to Theodor is the Old Testament one, the vengeful demander of sacrifice, the God that asked Abraham to murder his own son just to see how far he would go.

This is the very definition of a moral quandary. Isn’t murder a sin? Yet aren’t the people who Theodor is hunting and destroying evil incarnate? Isn’t all this murder making the world a better place? And if he can make miracles happen at the same time, isn’t that God’s will? Can you become addicted to creating magic happen in the lives of those who follow your teachings?

Witte wieven are the “white women” or “wise women” of Dutch Low Saxon origins. They were female herbalists healers who also could see the future.

In this film by director Didier Konings and writer Marc S. Nollkaemper, Frieda (Anneke Sluiters) is judged when she is unable to produce a child with her husband Hikko (Len Leo Vincent). Despite being a devout woman, when she emerges from a night of horror in the forest when Gelo (Leon van Waas) assaults a young girl named Sasha and almost takes her as well, everyone claims that she has become a witch.

The society that she lives in is one where she’s not even allowed to lead a prayer and where her husband can’t been infertile. Instead, she is the problem and even her self-flagellation isn’t good enough as he stops her and whips her the right way.

After visions of the white women, Frieda brings the forest to life, impaling Gelo multiple times and finding so many trees that have done the same to horrible men for centuries. Who blames her for running to those trees forever, leaving behind the patriarchy that has never seen her as anything other than property?

Dario Germani made Anthropophagus II two years ago, a sort-of sequel to the Joe D’Amato-directed and George Eastman-starring baby munching epic. This starts almost like a giallo, as Hanna (Valentina Corti) wakes up to her husband dead. As she’s in the hospital, she learns that she’s a suspect and that she’s also pregnant.

Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. The Wait played on Tuesday, October 17. 

Eladio (Víctor Clavijo) watches over the hunting grounds of the estate of Don Francisco (Pedro Casablanc) and has divided them into ten hunting stands. When Don Carlos, Don Francisco’s assistant, asks him to add three more stands — which would place them too close to one another — for money, his wife Marcia (Ruth Díaz) finally convinces him to take the money.

That’s when things go wrong. So wrong that his son Floren (Moisés Ruiz) is accidentally hit with a bullet and soon dies. Marcia kills herself. And Eladio is the one who is punished, not the rich elites that he has worked for.

Directed and written by F. Javier Gutiérrez, this finds Eladio soon descending into paranoia and the center of an occult conspiracy which may all be in his head. It’s an interesting film that combines the western — it’s shot in Spain, home of many an Italian Western — and folk horror.

Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. My Mother’s Eyes played on Wednesday, October 11. 

Hitomi (Akane Ono) was once a concert cellist before giving birth to Eri (Mone Shitara). Today, she writes music for her daughter, who goes to school to be a musician, and somewhat lives through her having the future she never did. Then one day, they are in a car crash and Hitomi loses her sight. Now she has to wear camera contact lenses and Eri, who is paralyzed in a hospital, wears VR glasses. This allows them to have the same body.

Living with the constant supervision of Dr. Tomio Miike (Shusaku Uchida) and his son Satonishi (Takuma Izumi), this film asks if a virtual life is a true one; if Eri should have to experience her mother’s existence and how Hitomi tries to make up for what happened.

Director and writer  Takeshi Kushida has created an interesting story here and it makes you question what life is and how the digital world may change your definition.

Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. Alone Together played on Friday, October 13. 

Director Will Kresch, who co-wrote this with A.V. Bach, has put together the tale of Nassdja (DeAnna S. Wright) and her boyfriend Luke (Matthew Kresch). They’re staying at his family cabin during COVID-19 and riots that come from a society unable to deal with the pandemic. The isolation only makes their abusive relationship even more horrible. All of the enforced closeness has led to her having visions while his abuse gets worse with each day.

This is the same cabin where Luke watched his father kill himself and where he’s watching the decline of their relationship as he spies on her phone, even finding all the photos she’s taken of the bruises he’s given her. There’s also a militia man outside the house who may be something more. As the movie goes on, Luke becomes possessed and Nassdja finds an inner power she didn’t know that she had.

The team that made this movie hasn’t made all that many movies, yet this works and will definitely be something to build on in the future. Having two people carry the movie is a big task, but both actors more than live up to that trial. I’m looking for some great things from everyone who made this.

Screamfest Horror Film Festival stands as a cornerstone of the horror genre, boasting the largest and longest-running festival of its kind in the United States. You can learn more about this year’s festival by checking out the official site. The Deep Dark played on Tuesday, October 17. 

Coal miners in 1950’s France — led by Roland Neville (Samuel Le Bihan), they are Louis (Thomas Solivérès), Miguel (Diego Martín), Polo (Marc Riso), Santini (Bruno Sanches) and Amir (Amir El Kacem), who has just joined the team and sends all of his money home to Morocco — have to take Professor Berthier (Jean-Hugues Anglade) to the deepest, darkest and most dangerous underground locations to get some samples. They get caught underground and if things can get any worse, they do, because they’ve found the resting place of Mok’Nor Roth, known as the Eater of Souls and a servant of Cthulu.

Director and writer Mathieu Turi said, “The Deep Dark (Gueules Noires) will be a mix of horror and adventure, in the best tradition of H.P. Lovecraft stories, but set in a French reality and a strong social context. It’s going to be a character-driven story, confronting the old and the new generations in an exciting and terrifying quest to the unknown.”

Beyond the terror of being trapped so far down in the mines and being in near darkness, lit only by lamps, this movie also has the practical effects puppetry that creates the beast known as Mok’Nor Roth. This comes in France at the end of November and I think that genre lovers here are going to go crazy when they see this.