The Loveland Frogman was first sighted by a traveling salesman driving along an unnamed road late at night in 1955. 15 years later, Loveland police officer Ray Shockey was driving on Riverside Drive near the Totes boot factory and the Little Miami River when an unidentified animal scurried across the road — like some kind of monkey — in front of him. Two weeks after this sighting, another Loveland police officer, Mark Matthews, reported seeing an unidentified animal crouched along the road in the same vicinity. Matthews hunted down and shot the animal, recovered the body and put it in his trunk to show Officer Shockey. It turned out to be a large tailless iguana, which isn’t reported often.

What is true is that the town of Loveland, Ohio has adopted the Loveland Frogman as their mascot and even has a town festival.

In Frogman, the debut film of director and co-writer (with John Karsko) Anthony Cousins, a young man named Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk) somehow captures a photo of the frogman on a family vacation. He then spends the rest of his life trying to prove that his photo is real.

He brings his friend Scotty (Benny Barrett) and Amy (Chelsey Grant) with him to Loveland as he becomes increasingly tunnel visioned into this quest. They go into town and The Legend of Boggy Creek-style meet the locals and hear stories about the frogman. Each of the three leads are great in their roles, believable and more than cannon fodder as in so many found footage movies.

What takes it beyond the basic of found footage is how audacious it gets, as there’s an entire Lovecraftian end of the world cult — a frogman sex cult! — out in the woods praising its name. It makes the whole movie pay off and the end even has some emotion.

I usually dislike found footage films, but wow — Frogman is good.

Frogman was part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

The cast of a film arrives to the movie’s wrap party, but someone has dressed up as the slasher from the film and begins to stage their own kill scenes. One by one, the cast is killed off until the true nature of the evening is revealed.

This movie takes a page out of Scream by having a cameo by Cerina Vincent who is talking to her manager, played by Tom Savini, before she’s killed before the rest of the cast buy The Mistress, the film’s slasher, just like in the movie she just made within the movie.

So who is the killer? Director Mason Maestro (Robert Donavan)? His wife Lily (Monique Parent)? The cast members — Carter (Ben Kaplan), Stoney (Steve J. Owens), Troy (Brandon Patricio), Lana (Sarah Poledna), Harper (Sarah French), Amber (Gigi Gustin) and Jamie (Adam Bucci) — or the producer (Frédéric von Anhalt)?

This film — directed by Marcel Walz — styles itself as a giallo and while it’s more of a slasher, it’s still rather enjoyable. It even has a shower scene out of nowhere. I imagine watching it with an audience will be a total blast.

That’s A Wrap was part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

Set over a 24-hour period in 1978 Florida, this movie has a man named Ted (Andrew Sykes) shoplifting and trying to get with someone, anyone and always getting shot down. Director and writer (with Eric Pereira and Brandon Slagle) Devanny Pinn buries the lead quite well, even if I knew who Ted was, knew what would happen next and have seen the story so many times. This is a very different take and if you want to be surprised, well, stop reading.

One night, Ted goes out drinking, following some sorority girls, but he gets too drunk, he comes on too strong and he gets thrown out. Yet he can still follow those girls home and instead of trying to pick them up, he becomes a destroyer, wiping them out one by one because he’s Ted Bundy and this is his story.

There’s a solid cast on hand — Jeremy London from Party of Five, Kathleen Kinmont from Halloween 4, Lisa Wilcox from Nightmare On Elm Street 4 and 5 and Eileen Dietz from The Exorcist amongst other talented actors.

Unlike so many true crime stories, this puts you in the world of the victims, letting you get to know them before the inevitable. It’s very effective and quite disquieting, as the violence doesn’t let up.

The Black Mass is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

Director and writer Pirie Martin has created a black and white nightmare that was one of the more unique films I’ve seen lately. Cliff Van Aarle (Derryn Amoroso) is a crime scene cleaner who suffers from auditory hallucinations. That’s exactly what you want wrong with you when you’re mopping up a headless body, right?

Cliff needs more money to take care of his comatose sister’s medical bills, so he goes deeper into the case, which deals with a dealer named Joubini (James McClusky-Garcia) and his new bath of hallucinogenic drugs. Did Cliff get dosed? Or are there really zombies everywhere now?

There’s also a vigilante named LoneWolf and the idea that maybe both Cliff and his sister were experimented on by their father. Martin has created the kind of world that needs more exploration than just one movie and I was enthralled by the time I spent within the world that he created.

It’s a film noir mixed with horror and even some comic book elements, but all of it works. This feels like the kind of movie that when the eventual sequel comes out and is a big deal, you can tell people that you were there from the beginning.

Psychosis is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

After narrowly surviving a violent mugging thanks to the help of a drifter, Travis Wilkes invites the man back to the home where he lives with his girlfriend. Somehow, he’s gone from nearly dying to transforming his home into a night of terror and revenge. 

Holt is also an actor, appearing in You’re Next, Time’s Up, V/H/S 2 and Party Bus. He was able to put together a great cast for this, including  Felissa Rose, Mark Patton, Chaney Morrow (Haunt), Wes Robinson (Blair Witch) and more.

The idea of a home invasion being one where the criminal is invited into your life is a strong one. You can see how Travis got into this predicament, as any of us could have done the same. Now, the question of whether or not he and his girlfriend will survive? You’re going to have to watch the movie to learn the answer to that.

Watchdog is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

Gwen (Samantha Westervelt) and James (Amanda Drexton, who co-directed this with Michael A. Drexton and co-wrote this with him and Westervelt) are going nowhere and doing nothing but still have to get to a baby shower for Gwen’s sister where the only gift left on the registry is Baby’s First Wellness Kit, complete with essential oils and tarot cards.

Except it’s $150.

And they have nowhere near that kind of money.

The journey to get the money will take them through Los Angeles and into the heart of glittery darkness. Gwen wants to show her family that she can be a success — or at least not a major foul up — and arrive with the gift. But when there are cult leaders (Corey Feldman),  a thrift store called Twin Sneaks, Reggie Watts, the liberation of succulents, a cockroach gathering and a shrine to Nicholas Cage. And oh yeah, neon smoke farts that will revolutionize the online sex industry.

Gwen and James feel like the kind of people who have been friends forever and might be holy terrors when you see them in a bar or they show up at your party, but when everyone is telling stories about them, they realize that they kind of love them afterward even if in being in their orbit can be a hurricane.

I’m a sucker for comedies where friends are oblivious to the world and defeat it just by being themselves.

Sour Party is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

Directed by John Barnard, who co-wrote the script with Carrie-May Siggins, Wintertide is about Beth (Niamh Carolan) whose world is battling a plague brought on by unending days of night and near-constant winter. She’s trapped in an isolated northern town close to Manitoba where the few people left are mindless zombies, overcome by depression, but at night when she sleeps, she’s able to enter another dimension that she believes can help her save herself.

This is a strange one, as Beth doesn’t believe in the vaccine that stops that disease, so immediately you feel your politics — also, I despise that sickness became politicized but it’s too late for that one, right? — you’re not going to be all in for. Also, she lies to her friends about her goals and while they made end up benefitting others, they’re more for her to find closure with her missing father.

Regardless, it’s certainly a new and interesting take on the zombie film, even if your pandemic fatigue may linger. I think anyone can understand that. Maybe pretend that it never happened and you’ll enjoy this a bit more.

Wintertide is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.

Directed by Sam Curtain, who co-wrote this with Benjamin Jung-Clarke, Beaten to Death starts with Jack (Thomas Roach) being brutalized by Ricky (Justan Wagner) as the body of his wife Rachel (Nicole Tudor) lies dead next to them. Barely alive, Jack stabs the man in the throat and stumbles out of the room. He runs into his neighbor Ned (David Tracy),, but that’s just the start of his torture.

That title should tell you everything, because Jack gets destroyed in this movie, which moves across multiple timelines and spends much of its time showing a blinded Jack wandering the Australian outback screaming, covered in blood and dirt and near death.

There are long moments of a man in absolute pain just yelling alternating with moments of extreme violence and an ocular assault that awakened the dead body of Fulci who was probably either smiling or annoyed to be awoken from his slumber. You’re either going to love how audacious this is or hate that there’s this much endless gore. But hey — the cinematography is gorgeous and in no way does this movie do anything less than go hard and then somehow find a way to go even harder.

Beaten to Death is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.