The first ever non-binary led Christmas film, this is the story of Pace (Socks Whitmore, an agender/gender non-conforming singer, voice and stage actor, lyricist-composer and writer), who is sent on an adventure to find a tree by her boss, who was once mean but has now been visited by not just three ghosts of Christmas but four.

That journey brings Pace to an elf named Buddy (Ky Mullen) and sparks fly. I’ve already seen one upset review on Amazon about this, saying that it wasn’t appropriate for a teenager, but I think that review may have come from someone who was morally upset by what they just saw.

I mean, it is Christmas. Or the holidays. Or honestly whatever you want to call it. This is a cute and silly little movie, a bit of fun, and if the worst we deal with is watching some non-gender-conforming elves and humans find love, then why are we even singing carols and giving gifts?

You can watch this on Tubi.

It’s hard to discuss this movie and not get into the spoilers because the biggest moments of this movie necessitate ruining several of the big reveals. I loved that not everything was in the trailer and I successfully avoided reading too much about the film, which helped my enjoyment. This was the first movie I’ve seen in a theater since Halloween Kills, so the risk of COVID-19 and all its variants didn’t keep me away* from the biggest movie of the year.

This movie arrives as so many older directors gatekeep what constitutes a movie. So let me break down my opinion: movies can be anything you want them to be. There is equal room for a high end Oscar contender as there is for the junk low end world that I live in, the places where Godfrey Ho, Jess Franco and Bruno Mattei make their home.

What else are comic book movies other than classical myths made with computers and no small amount of sound and fury? So yeah, this is the 27th Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and you know, you don’t have to watch these movies. Hollywood — the world — is still making something for everyone. But for crowd-pleasing moments, the two biggest I’ve heard in years are when Captain America lifted Mjolnir and when one of the characters arrived in this film, a literally explosion of happiness and joy from an audience that has weathered so much in the last two years.

And isn’t that why movies exist? To make us feel something?

No movie that I have seen in a theater in nearly a decade has elicited that emotional outburst and you know, it brought true joy to my heart. So I didn’t feel silly expressing my emotions, whether they were happy when a certain legal professional made his presence known or the sadness of Dr. Strange’s final words to Peter Parker.

Spider-Man has always lived by the lesson that with great power comes great responsibility. He’s a character informed — in every incarnation — by a great loss that he was at fault for and a lifetime of making up for that mistake.

Yet Spider-Man: No Way Home presents us with something new. Great power with responsibility also means being better than your enemies and at times, working to make them better people and not just punching them into oblivion. The fact that antagonists can be worth saving spoke to me, someone usually given to mad revenge schemes and years of grudges. Even when doing the right thing ends up hurting you, you still can do the right thing.

These are big concepts for a comic book spectacle. And this movie does what all great films should. It’s stuck in my mind since I saw it and I wanted some time away from it before I wrote this. Spider-Man is the story of a bully grown up and moving past the way he was treated, often finding those bullies — Flash Thompson, Eddie Brock — become if not friends, certainly no longer enemies.

This also gets into the Marvel idea of a multiverse, a connected web of other realities where small differences — Disney+ set this up with What If…? and this idea will form the heart of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — but the main part of this story remains refreshingly human in the midst of big ideas, strange science and concepts like how magic works.

Look — I don’t have to sell you on these movies. They make so much money that they’re critic proof. But I do want you to consider that even if you hate superhero movies, even if you think there are too many of them, to consider your favorite film series. What if you had more than three of the original Star Wars films and they all were progressively better? What if the last Jason, Freddy or Hellraiser movie was so much better than the original? What if James Bond got more human, more relevant and more real as the world around him became even stranger?

That’s what’s happening here. And it’s amazing.

*I’m triple vaxxed, beyond fastidious about mask wearing and personal space, and rarely if ever leave my movie basement. This isn’t a political statement. Viruses don’t have politics and if you think they do, you can kindly never read another word that I write.

Sometimes, I try and learn things on this site. That would explain why we checked out this documentary, which is about the events that inspired The Last of the Mohicans.

In 1757, a French army of 9,000 men, including almost 2,000 of their American Indian allies, laid siege to Fort William Henry on Lake George in the New York Frontier. This film by Eric Swanson is based on the journals and letters of men who were at the Siege — Colonel Joseph Frye, French General Montcalm and other soldiers. The Native American side, however, is lost as they didn’t keep notes like the white men.

Through computer animation, reenactments and historians recounting the story, you get a really full picture of this famous battle. Maybe if history classes were this exciting, more people would pay attention.

You can learn more about the film and order it from the official site.

We’ve made so many deals with Satan to bring you this site. There’s all the ouija movies. The shark cinema. The Amityville movies. And, of course, everything that Eric Roberts is in, which with as much as Eric Roberts is in, means that we’re always watching his movies.

You know how many movies Mr. Roberts makes? Every time an angel gets its wings, Eric has made 777 more movies.

Well, here we go. You’re welcome, Satan.

While working a maintenance job at an upscale hotel, Barry (Jason London, The Rage: Carrie 2) meets the mysterious Mr. Jay, who introduces him to the International Birthday Network, an agency that helps children across the globe suffering from miserable birthdays. Man, where were these guys when I was a kid and the cops came to my 12th birthday? To be fair, the police were also called to my first wedding.

Director Dan Hunter also made Agent Toby Barks, a movie that dares to make a dog version of Agent Cody Banks nearly two decades after the inspiration was released. That takes a certain lunatic charm that I can appreciate.

I love having our site because movies like this come to me. As I’ve written this — and your read it — Eric Roberts has been in 3 more movies. That also pleases me.

Mr. Birthday is available on a number of digital and cable platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, Comcast, Spectrum and Cox.

Caracas, Venezuela-based filmmaker Eduardo Rodriguez studied film at Florida State University and bowed with his first short in 2002. He’s since made five low-budget features, his last being, You’re Not Alone (2020). Here, in his sixth feature, he weaves a tale about Siri, a single mother, and Eve, her daughter, traveling on their way to a new life in their new home. Along the way they pick up Iris, a female hitchhiker. Then Siri goes missing. Then Siri and Iris soon discover Eve has been kidnapped by a mysterious presence in the lurking in the desolate woods.

The film’s small, unknown cast is headed by Johnny Whitworth (Empire Records; Cage Wallace from CBS TV’s The 100) and Najarra Townsend (as Siri; the action-indie Abducted and the horror-comedy Cold Feet).

Recently screening at Fantastic Fest 2021 in Austin, Texas — some of those films we reviewed with our “Fantastic Fest Week” of reviews — we are pleased to announce that Uncork’d Entertainment has picked up The Darkness of the Road for distribution as a digital stream and DVD on December 14. Other recent Uncork’d Entertainment released we’ve reviewed include Death Alley, The Mutation, Stalker in the House, Time Now, and The Handler.

The Darkness of the Road is yet another impressive film coming out of South America. We also enjoyed our recent watch of the awesome on-the-budget apoc throwback, Carrion (2021).

In the wake of films such as The Purge franchise, the box office hit Get Out, the failed The Hunt, and the recent Candyman reboot, sociopolitical oriented horror films are coming to streaming more often, and this feature film debut by actress Tonya Perkins is the latest (Martha from AMC’s Fear of the Walking Dead and Ethel Peabody from the CW’s Gotham). She brings along a cast headed by Ruben Blades and Kathryn Erbe (TV’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent) for a film that’s been embraced by the festival crowds for 22 wins in various disciplines.

Many of those festival critics compare the film as a cross between the 90s found-footage harbinger The Blair Witch Project meets the early 70s British folk horror, The Wicker Man, as ​six, upper-mobile progressives from New York head into the rural, suburban south for a “Get Out the Vote” canvas before the 2020 presidential election. Messages regarding the “real-life horrors” of systemic and inherited racism and white privilege, follows.

If you’re a fan of Jordan Peele’s Get Out and you’re up for a film that examines white vs. black issues, history lessons on slavery roots, questions regarding white supremacy, that liberal whites need to “wake up,” and don’t mind a little opinion-bashing of Republican-leaning folks within a horror film context, then there’s something to watch in the intelligently-written and directed frames by Tonya Perkins pulled together by her skilled cast. That being said, her currently-in-production, second features film, The Zombie Wedding – that deals with the sociopolitical issues of the first-ever “interracial” wedding between a human bride and zombie groom – is a film to look forward to in 2022.

Gravitas Ventures releases Red Pill to various streaming platforms this December. Others films from the shingle we’ve reviewed over the past few months include Bigfoot Famous, Downeast, Eye Without a Face, Marathon, the documentary, PTSD: The Walking Wounded, and the Sound of Violence.

15-year-old Nolan (Sloane Morgan Siegell) has discovered a secret family legacy. Where you or I may get some china or nice silver, Nolan gets a portal that enables him to travel to parallel worlds.

It’s not all good. That’s because an entity named Evil is chasing him through those timelines, included the one he’s stuck in right now. It’s Christmas, he has an older sister that doesn’t exist in any other dimension and he realizes that unless he gets her on his side quick, everyone may end up paying the price for his travels.

Directed by Cornelia Duryée — whose godmother and mentor was A Wrinkle in Time author Madeleine L’Engle — and written by J.D. Henning and Tallis Moore, this film is family-friendly with some dark moments from its villain.

Portal Runner can be seen worldwide on Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Kings of Horror, TubiTV, Roku, Film Freaks, Microsoft Movies & TV and Jungo+ from Kairos Productions and Terror Films.

First, there was Amityville Toybox, in which a cursed toy monkey from the house on 112 Ocean Avenue caused chaos. That was followed by Amityville Clownhouse, which amped up the Satanic possession with, well, an evil clown. Now, the circle is complete as Amityville in the Hood goes to the inner city and shows just how deep the roots of the evil of Amityville go.

This is Dustin Ferguson’s third trip to Amityville and this time, he directed, wrote, stars and edited this movie. Heck, he even performs two songs as MC Dirty D, “The Amityville Rap” and “Slide Into My DM.”

You know how much I love continuity, so Peter Sommars (John Walker) is on hand again, a reporter who has been in everything from Amityville Clownhouse, Ouijageist, Tales from the Grave and Meathook Massacre 4  to Angry Asian Murder Hornets, Arcachnado, Zombi VIII: Urban Decay, Amityville Hex, Ebola Rex, Archnado 2: Flaming Spiders and the upcoming Axemas 3: Santa Insane, Axemas 4: The Axemas Legacy and Ghoul.

An Eastside gang is using the Amityville property to grow marijuana — yes, I know, this is the best idea ever — called Amityville Possession. I mean, when in doubt, name your strain after the best of the many movies, right? Well, those drugs get stolen and taken to the Westside streets of Compton as Amityville is in Los Angeles in this universe and whomever smokes that sticky icky pays for it with their soul.

Jennifer Nangle, who plays Malvolia the Queen of Screams, is in this briefly — too briefly — as a sex worker named Cheyenne who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I mean, do I have to sell it any more to you? I guess all that blood flowing out of the walls and ghosts and shotguns and cursed monkeys — look for a quick sprint through the last two films — all add up to the perfect planting soil. Or maybe they grew it hydroponically inside the red room?

Seeing as how this movie was not blessed with a tag line, let me give some:

• For God’s sake, smoke up!
• This time, Amityville gets smoked.
• If these walls could talk, they’d be stoned.

Look, it’s basically an hour of your life. This week has been horrible and this is the first time that I laughed in some time, if only when thacymbal-playingng monkey started slapping his percussion together and the ghost of Mario Bava showed up in the lighting. This is my 38th trip to Amityville, not my last and not my worst.

Also: I completely believe that this movie is way better on drugs. I’m not telling you to be on drugs but…I’m kinda telling you to be on drugs.

Want to know way too much about Amityville? We got you covered with a deep dive into every single movie in the series. Check it out here. We also have a Letterboxd list because, well, of course we do.

Thanks to the incredible folks at Wild Eye, who knew we’d need to see it immediately as it was released.

If you enjoy the cultural horror twists of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro — not so much the U.S. studio tentpoles of Mimic and Hellboy, but of Pan’s Laybrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, and Cronos — you’ll enjoy this France-Morocco co-production that first appeared in the overseas theatrical marketplace in 2018.

Described by its studio as the recent reboot of Stephen King’s IT: Chapter One meets the 2014 Australian box office hit, The Babadook, Achoura, aka Children’s Night, concerns four reunited childhood friends — one that disappeared 25 years earlier — celebrating “Achoura,” a Moroccan religious celebration. As with the Stephen King tale: a creature from their past returns and forces them to confront the errs of their youth.

Is it all too reminiscent of King? Maybe. Is that a bad thing? Not in the least, as the film is effectively well-made. The truth is: if we’ve learned anything from international films: no matter how different the cultures, our ancestral folklore — and the fears of them — are all the same.

Achoura makes its domestic debut on U.S. shores on December 14 through Dark Star Pictures on all streaming platforms and DVD. We’ve also recently reviewed the studio’s newest November and December releases of Ankle Biters, Beyto, (search for both, this week) and That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes. You can view more of the studio’s trailers on their You Tube page.