Tag Archives: 2024

Amityville Backrooms (2024)

Posted on by

After visiting a house in Amityville, real estate agent Keith (Chris Lohman) finds himself in another dimension within the home. He is trapped, constantly finding himself in the same room, no matter which door he takes.

What are backrooms?

Between 2011 and 2018, a photograph of a large, carpeted room with fluorescent lights and dividing walls circulated on 4chan, and it just felt off. An anonymous user desribed this space like this: “If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you.”

It’s actually a photo of the second floor of what was once Rohner’s Home Furnishings in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that has been converted into a HobbyTown. Now, that strange image is the home to an RC racing area, Revolution Racing.

Also known as liminal space, backrooms often are “a place or state of change or transition; this may be physical (a doorway) or psychological (the period of a olescence). Liminal space imagery often depicts this sense of “in between,” capturing transitional places (such as stairwells, roads, corridors, or hotels) unsettlingly devoid of people.”

As for this movie, you will feel like you’re in a liminal space that never ends, as it takes 68 minutes for an Amityville movie set in California to unfold, with one person screaming and talking to himself while TV news fills the gaps, or, as we say, pads the film.

Also: That dude takes a piss at one point.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Flesh of the Unforgiven (2024)

Posted on by

Director, writer, and actor Joe Hollow’s new film is all about Jack Russo (Hollow), who suffers from a severe case of writer’s block that he hopes can be resolved by a retreat to the woods of Quebec and a trip to his family home with his wife, Sienna (Debbie Rochon). She may have cheated on him with his best friend, she may have ruined their marriage — he may have ignored her, to be fair — but she’s also gotten involved with the Death Dealer (also Hollow), a demon who sends a VHS tape — Violent Love — in the mail marked “Inspiration.” As a writer, I get it — I know what it’s like to not know what to write next, but I’ve never watched a snuff tape to get it together.

There are two other demons, Mr. Grimm (yes, Hollow), who has a mirrored face that resembles another Canadian film, The Mask, and the laughing harlequin called Livina (Adriana Uchishiba), who is also involved in this, as well as moments taken from Driller Killer. There’s also Vivienne (August Kyss), a woman who decides to take her own life — a theme throughout this — but is given one more chance at life or something like it by the Death Dealer.

It’s easy to dismiss microbudget horror as cheap and poorly acted. Sure, most of it can be. But when it’s something interesting like this film, these movies can transcend budget and allow you to fully see the vision that its creator had in mind, even with limitations. Sure, some of the bad guys’ voices are hard to decipher, the editing is a bit all over the place, and sometimes things look really well-lit and color-balanced, and at others, like a basic cable movie, but so what? Experiencing low-budget films means leaving your mind open and being a bit more understanding, just like when we used to watch regional horror films.

Flesh of the Unforgiven is now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. You can learn more at the official Facebook page.

Baby Assassins 3 (2024)

Posted on by

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: We’ve seen them fight, we’ve seen them chill, but in BABY ASSASSINS 3, we see Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa) at the apex of their skills as they take on a brutally nihilistic freelance killer who aims to take their place atop the assassin food chain. Director Sakamoto Yugo and action director Sonomura Kensuke are back with the most exciting and dangerous chapter in the Baby Assassins saga to date. This time, it’s a fight for their lives.

The Baby Assassins films rawk mightily, with loads of incredible, beautifully choreographed martial arts set pieces and terrific performances by the two leads,  Akari Takaishi as the highly extroverted Chisato and Saori Izawa as the more reticent Mahiro, both working together as a duo of professional killers. Obviously the third entry in the series, Baby Assassins 3 (though formerly titled Baby Assassins: Nice Days) finds writer/director Yugo Sakamoto delivering what may arguably be the most accessible of the trilogy. This is due in part to toning down the more annoying aspects of the characters’ personalities a bit — they are often more sullen and hot-tempered in the previous films — and some of the zaniness that goes along with that. But hey, the series wouldn’t have made it to a third entry if viewers didn’t love their chemistry. 

Though this is certainly the darkest film in the trilogy, not to worry, as plenty of comedy is still in the mix to balance out the proceedings quite effectively. Sôsuke Ikematsu co-stars as unhinged freelance killer-for-hire Kaede Fuyumura, whose target for his 150th kill is the same as the girls’ next assigned job. 

Action director Kensuke Sonomura delivers jaw-dropping fight choreography, including frenetic, mesmerizing set pieces, from close-quarters martial arts inside a tight hallway to wide-open gunplay sequences involving chases down multiple floors. Baby Assassins 3 is worth watching for its action alone, but the performances from Takaishi, Izawa, Ikematsu, and the fine supporting players are all highly commendable as well, and Sakamoto invests the relationship between Chisato and Mahiro with impressive dramatic weight. 

Baby Assassins 3 is an absolute blast. Whereas in many action sequels we can expect the protagonists to survive whatever is thrown their way, making viewers less invested in fight scenes because of predictable outcomes, Sakamoto delivers tension multiple times in this entry as to whether either young woman will live to see Mahiro’s quickly upcoming 21st birthday. Action film devotees, action comedy fans, and Japanese comedy aficionados should consider Baby Assassins 3 a must-see viewing. 

Baby Assassins 3, from Well Go USA, debuts on Digital and Blu-ray on August 26, 2025.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2025: Chain Reactions (2024)

Posted on by

EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!

Lynch/Oz. Doc of the Dead. The People vs. George Lucas. 78/52.

Director and writer Alexandre O. Philippe has made so many good movies about movies and this — which explains the influence of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — is just as good, if not better. Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama all speak to what makes the film special to them, why it’s stuck in their heads and inspired their own work.

Many reviews of this film seem to make light of the fact that Chainsaw isn’t a critical darling. What do you expect of a movie with the tagline, “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” For me, it’s the reason I found my way into marketing, as the idea of those words sparked something in me that I couldn’t forget. That’s been my goal my whole career: to write words that talked others into things in the same way. The economy of that sentence, the images and ideas that it plays before your mind’s eye…it’s perfect.

A file stolen by organized crime, a movie that mainly played grindhouses and drive-ins for almost a decade, a film more frightening and bloody in the descriptions people had of it than what they really watched. A film made in the sun, in the heat of Texas, a movie where no one made money — other than that mob mentioned — for a decade or more. A film that maybe Tobe Hooper couldn’t live up to because he kind of made a Citizen Kane first time out.

Other reviews call out that Roger Ebert only gave Chainsaw two stars, or that people looked down on it and still do. Good. It’s the kind of movie that shouldn’t be safe. It’s a bastard: a grimy descent into the worst man can be, yet Leatherface basically just wants to work and be with his family. His evil isn’t evil; maybe the Sawyer family isn’t horrible, despite what they do. We just don’t understand their ways and should never try to be part of the strange, dark hallways of the world in which they live.

What do I know? I’ve seen Chainsaw so many times. I dressed as Leatherface for every haunted house my high school art club put on. I was fascinated by this documentary, which, instead of mixing up the talking heads, just gives you long conversations with each of them. This is like a good talk about a film you love with people who share your passion. What else did you expect?

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2025: V/H/S Beyond (2024)

Posted on by

EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!

The seventh installment in the V/H/S franchise, this has a framing device with director Jay Cheel receiving an anonymous email with footage of actual aliens, similar to the Canadian urban legend of Farrington House.

“Stork” is directed by Jordan Downey, who wrote it with Kevin Stewart. Based on artwork by Oleg Vdovenko, it has a police group known as W.A.R.D.E.N. fighting an alien creature that looks like a stork and eats brains and then baby birds them into infants’ mouths.

“Dream Girl”, directed by Virat Pal — and co-written with Evan Dickson, has two paparazzi tring to get photos of superstar Tara, a Bollywood actress who ends up being an android who can take faces and body parts and wants to “rule as a commoner.”

“Live and Let Dive” by Justin Martinez, who wrote it with Ben Turner, is pretty harrowing, as aliens interrupt skydiving, turning a birthday celebration into a violent first-person shooter. I loved this part, as it feels absolutely insane and never lets up.

“Fur Babies” by Christian and Justin Long feels like the kind of shock ending made by people who only watch the HBO Tales from the Crypt and never read the comic book or saw the Amicus films. A bunch of animal activists literally go to the dogs when a taxidermy expert transforms them into human puppy hybrids. Oh, Justin Long, you can’t stop loving getting turned into animals, can you?

“Stowaway” is directed by Kate Siegel and written by Mike Flanagan. It tells the story of a woman who stows away on an alien ship and finds herself on a trip across the galaxy, where she is healed by nanites that enter her body.

Every franchise eventually goes to space. At least this one — for the most part — does a great job of it.

Amityville VR (2024)

Posted on by

Someone asked me the other day, “Have you seen Weapons yet?”

Nope.

“Sinners?”

No.

“These are the most important horror movies of the year. Why haven’t you?”

Because I have all these Popeye and Mickey Mouse slashers, and then Amityville…

After moving into a mysterious rental house in Amityville, New York — that’s how it always happens — artificial intelligence programmer Stuart Birdsall (Chris Heikka) encounters an evil force that kills his wife Vicki (Laura Schubring) and friends, but leaves him alive to go insane.

Another day in Amityville.

Directed and written by Matt Jaissle, this is better than you’d think. That’s because he’s the same maniac who made The Necro Files, so some of that madness is infused here. He also made Amityville AI, which is the start of this story. Also: He understands the Amityville + noun = success formula. He also gets that you must have a great tagline. This one? For God’s sake, stop the simulation.

Throw in a skeleton man and you get a movie that actually spent more than five minutes in scripting, which is four minutes more than most Amityville movies get. That’s right — this is an actual decent Amityville movie! That’s terrifying!

You can watch this on Tubi.

ARROW BLU-RAY RELEASE: Crumb Catcher (2024)

Posted on by

Directed and written by Chris Skotchdopole, this starts the morning after Shane (Rigo Garay) blacks out on the night he marries Leah (Ella Rae Peck). As they get to a remote location for their honeymoon, they soon find themselves blackmailed by a waiter, John (John Speredakos), and a bartender, Rose (Lorraine Farris), from the wedding, who know something he did that he can’t remember. But they don’t want money. They want to be business partners for their invention, The Crumb Catcher.

At one point, Leah tells Shane that he’s unlovable, which makes me ask why they’ve been together so long. or why he’s so worried about losing her because of the video that John and Rose have. It seems like everyone in this is unlovable, if you want to be honest.

Kind of home invasion, kind of relationship introspection, Crumb Catcher is, well, unique. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, as several viewings may prove that to me.

Extras on the Arrow Blu-ray release of this movie include a new commentary track by Skotchdopole, recorded exclusively for Arrow Video in 2025, as well as Catching Crumbs: The Making of Crumb Catcher, a 38-minute behind-the-scenes, featuring interviews with the film’s cast and crew, created exclusively for Arrow Video; two short films by the director, a trailer, an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring an introduction by producer Larry Fessenden and new writing on the film by Richard Newby and Tori Potenza and a reversible sleeve featuring original artwork by Tessa Price and Sister Hyde. You can order this from MVD.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Itch! (2024)

Posted on by

“Amid a mysterious deadly outbreak called the ITCH. A widower and his estranged young daughter take sanctuary in a department store, only to realize the real terror is inside with them.”

Directed, written by and starring Bari Kang, this has a disease call the Itch, which makes you scratch yourself, mutilating your body until there’s not much left. Jay and his daughter Olivia don’t just need to survivor those who have this infection; the normal humans are just as deadly, as Jay’s convenience store is invaded by Henry (Douglas Stirling) , a customer, and Miguel (Patrick Michael Valley) and Gabriella (Ximena Uribe), two burglars who end up trapped inside as the world comes to an end just past the metal barricade that has been pulled down.

Kang said, “ITCH! is inspired by a true event I witnessed at my family’s discount store,which also serves as the main setting for the movie. Without revealing too much, I saw abizarre scene involving a wild customer which left a lasting impression on me. This experience compelled me to create a film around it. I grew up watching movies from the70s, 80s, and 90s. As an immigrant, I often felt like an outsider, and film became my refuge, and my work drew inspiration from that era of filmmaking. My previous films were influenced by my long-time idols, Scorsese, Tarantino and Melville. With ITCH!, I aimed to pay homage to classic horror films like Dawn of the Dead, The Mist and 28 Days Later.”

An interesting, single location take on the zombie movie, ITCH! also has plenty of commentary on the nature of grief and what it’s like to be an immigrant in today’s America.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of films I’ve watched.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Even More Dangerous Visions

Posted on by

My last round of shorts.

Chickenboy (2024): When a lonely farmer accidentally makes a chicken-human hybrid by jerking off in the chicken coop, he must decide what their fate will be. Directed by and starring Matthew Rush — as both the farmer and the chickenboy — this is something else, a world where humans and chicken can create something together that is ready for sideshows. Are those still a thing? I want them to be a thing.

Human Resource (2025): A financial horror comedy, this is all about Shae, a millennial HR manager who has brought her total self to work, giving everything to her beloved company. In return, she has been given purpose, friends, bountiful perks and an on-staff barista. But when the market crashes and her company is taken over, will she still matter? As a private equity firm begins to restructure, Shae soon learns that by saving the company, she may be damning their souls. This short, directed by Henry Chaisson and written by Max Coyne-Green, rings so true to me after a week spent at a company retreat. I went through a similar ripping of a company to pieces and I still have PTSD. Thanks for making me have flashbacks.

Tether (2025): On the first day of her job manning an isolated space station all by herself, Mickie (Geffri Maya) receives an emergency transmission and has to decide whether or not she should put her career on the line by answering it. This has the voice of Ming-Na Wen as another captain and offers several lessons for viewers and the lead. This was directed and written by Meredith Berg. It could be a full movie with the universe that has been created here.

Wake (2024): Directed and written by Sean Carter, this is one dark and tight short. As a hurricane grows in power outside the hospital, two nurses have one last job before evacuating. They must put a DOA corpse on ice in the downstairs morgue as the hospital floods. However, that will be anything but easy, as one of them is the caretaker for their grandmother, who claims that the dead woman is the same person who stole her purse. Man, this was awesome!

Slow (2025): A field recorder meets a sinister being that can change her perception of time. How can you run when your ability to feel reality has gone away? Directed and written by Rebecca Berrih, this is the kind of thing I often worry about walking into.

Arson (2025): Once a popular boy band — maybe — Actual Size — Drake (Jai Benoit), Nick (Thomas Johnston), Leo (Jeff Pearson), and Kenny (Jerik Thibodeaux) — can’t seem to reach the level of stardom they think they had. Or maybe feel that they deserve. Stuck gigging at pizza joints and dive bars, they sell their souls to Ms. Black (Olivia Peck) for success but forget to read the contract. Directed by Erin Broussard, who wrote it with Donny Broussard, this balances some awesome music numbers with plenty of humor and practical effects. Awesome!

OK/NOTOK (2024): Loretta (Bairavi Manoharan), a working-class British Asian woman, has a new man in her life. Unfortunately, he soon breaks down and she learns that even customer service in the future will be AI. Maybe it’s easier to just have a robot that doesn’t work sitting on the couch in silence than a partner that doesn’t understand you. Directed and written by Pardeep Sahota, this film creates a future universe that feels so close to now that it’s naturally where we’re going. Do androids dream of electronic sheep or do they get sent back in for repairs? This film attempts to answer that question. I’m not sure what I would do.

Daughters of Evil (2024): In 1966, a girl group — Mary Sue (Ariel Ditta), Mary Jane (Natasha Pascetta) and Mary Beth (Jenessa Michelle Soto) — consults a spirit board to come up with the best band name ever: The Daughters of Evil. Then they got possessed by His Unholy Darkness Beleth, who can play a mean tambourine, and who became their manager. Directed by Pascetta, who also wrote it, and Adam James Taylor, this is shot as if it’s a YouTube video and has some fun moments, even if I’ve been spoiled by Late Night With the Devil and Pater Noster and the Mission of Light, two movies that walk the same left hand path and do it with more style. Still, this is a fun watch.

Howl If You Love Me (2023): This new short from John R. Dilworth, the beloved creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog, is a romantic horror comedy about a man named Jim and his werewolf girlfriend Jules. Werewolf hunters show up and almost ruin everything buty our couple figures it out. This world is so sweet and nice that the Twin Towers never got hit by a plane. And there are werewolves! How can I go to this place? Are they taking applications? Do I need a Real ID? Are all werewolves this nice? Man, I have so many questions. One more: when do we get more of this? This seems like such a fun idea for a series and we always need more cartoons.

The Flacalta Effect (2024): Keesha (Rochée Jeffrey) and Toya (Tristina Lee) are black sisters whose house is being infiltrated by the undead who have been created by an anti-aging diet drug called Flacalta. Now, the beautiful undead are ruining their lives. Yet Keesha doesn’t really want to live, because as she sees it, being a black woman in America was never that great. Toya is an optimist who wants a better world and to have an orgasm. Directed and written by  Jeffrey, this definitely needs to be a full-length film. And they both need to survive!

Sempre Avanti (2023): Two U.S. soldiers — known as tunnel rats — plunge into a suspected enemy combatant tunnel system during the Vietnam War only to awaken unparalleled horrors. Like Shelter Half, this was directed by the Barber Brothers, written by Nathaniel Barber and shot by Matthew Barber. Both brothers appear in the story, unlike the above mentioned short.

This is appropriately claustrophobic and has a monster in it that looks like it was a lot like the one in Shelter Half, which if that’s true, props to these guys for extending their budget. It’s less a story than a framework to get said monster up against some soldiers, but it looks great and would probably make a great extended film.

The Traveler and the Troll (2025): Directed and written by Adam Murray, this has a traveler who has stopped to rest in a haunted forest. They soon learn they are not alone and have stumbled upon the lair of a terrifying troll who demands gifts for passage.

With no coin or treasure to give, the traveler must answer three of the troll’s riddles to survive the night and leave the forest with their soul intact.

Riddle 1: I have no fangs, yet I bite: The wind.

Riddle 2: I rise from the sea, I rest in the hills only to rise again from the sea: The sun.

The troll doesn’t have a third riddle because no one gets these right. The traveler makes the troll sad because, well, he is so used to these questions and doesn’t come off as frightening when he has memory lapses.

The filmmakers said that they were inspired by Legend, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. You can see that in this as well as a great mix of animation, puppetry and live action. Troll law doesn’t work out as well as the steel of a sword in the end, though. I totally loved this!

Her House (2024): Gina (Taylor Joree Scorse) and her estranged mother Helen (Gloria Gruber) have to go back to the home of Gina’s grandmother (and Helen’s mother) Jane (Lexa Gluck) to put things in order after the funeral. What’s my first rule of horror? Don’t go back home and definitely don’t go back home if you hate your family. Directed by Will Lee, who wrote it with Ian Hedman, this has the grandmother wanting to take Gina and Helen revealing where this cycle of mother and daughter trauma has begun. This short does so much in ten minutes. Definitely hunt it down and watch it.

Forever Yours (2024): Following a devastating accident that leaves the love of her life, Sebastian (James Tuft), paralyzed, Valeria (Andrea Ariel) becomes his caretaker. But is she devoted or obsessed? Directed by Elliott Louis McKee, who wrote the story with Andrea Ariel, this really is something else, a movie told by Valeria, who tells the entire story of how they met and we learn just what she tells us. I have to say, at least the human got it and Benny the dog was safe. I can forgive human being violence, but Benny is a good boy.

All Kinds of Animals (2024): Hannah (Carmen Sage) is an experienced hiker who is working her way up to the summit when something unexpected happens. Directed and written by Becky Sayers, this brings up the question of whether most women would rather face a man or a bear in the woods. Or maybe the guys should worry about our heroine and her bear mace. What a great and unexpected close to this! I feel like I see things like this happen on true crime shows all the time — often to women — so I am not sad at all when I watch it happen to men in movies. Ladies, get your revenge, at least in cinema. Seems like mom was all in on this plan too!

Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! (2025): When a broke birthday party clown named Bobo (Zachary Solomon) finds out in the middle of the gig from hell that his mother is on her deathbed, he has to figure out how to get home. “Stupid, we’re going to use magic!” is a great line in this. Also: Laura (Rivkah Reyes), the other clown who randomly called him a homophobic name with a hard g — wow. Everyone is against Bobo and why is he even at this party dressed like Porky Wiggles the pig and why are kids punching him Directed by Zen Pace and written by Zachary Solomon, this is the kind of short that I love. Strange, otherworldly and weirder as it goes on. I had to do a birthday party once where I was hired as a pro wrestler — which I was — and there was no ring. I just had to come out in full costume and talk about wrestling. Another time, I had to do one and actually have a match in a public park and get thrown into a tree. None of those things are as upsetting as the things that happen in this.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Fun Sized Epics vol. 2

Posted on by

Almost through all the shorts!

DID YOU REMEMBER THE CAT? (2024): Directed by Daniel Foster, who wrote the script with Autumn Olson, this has Tara (Angelique Maurnae) and Mitch (Jonny H Lee) escaping a house party turned horror movie. But then they realize that they forgot the cat and not even a monster can keep a cat lover from going back, right? Unless Mitch wants to be single. A fun start to this block!

radiation (2025): Directed and written by Peter Collins Campbell, who said, “there’s something out there. radiation is a special little experiment I made with the help of a lot of amazing people all across the country, and my cat.” What a gorgeous film! If you have trouble with strobing, consider closing your eyes for this one. Some magnificent scenery and use of music.

Bananahead (2024): After her mother’s disappearance, Andi Sanger (Sally Maersk) tries to get the lead in the movie of her missing mother’s novel, Bananahead. However, her mother’s legacy — both in life and in the house her grandmother left behind — is filled with dread. If you find a key to a room in a family house and you’ve never been in it, you know that you don’t have to go inside it. Directed and written by Christopher Greenslate, this asks why a grandmother and mother would disappear and what damage that would do to everyone left behind. The closer Andi gets to understanding who her mother was, the further she drifts from reality. Also: major points to Andi’s Fugazi shirt.

Disfigura (2025): All I needed was Doug Jones as the host of this Twilight Zone-inspired movie, and I could already say that I loved it. Promising “a world of 1950s suspense,” this is all about Anya (Alexa Cappiello), who is forward-thinking for the time but worries about how her husband George (Alexa Cappiello) is acting. Directed by Toni Blando, who also wrote the script, and Jake Bradbury, this film features Anya being told she’s becoming too muscular and rugged. Just let the Light Trim tablets make you thin or she has to go to Disfigura. I don’t want to give much away, but this was just perfect.

Hi! I Just Moved Here (2024): New divorcee Kat has moved into a new home in the hills. Two things quickly happen: she bonds with her neighbor Hannah and finds a VHS tape outside her house. Kat has nightmares after watching the tape, which opens her mind to the horrible secrets of her house. Directed and written by Alessandro Pulisci, this grows dark and proves to me that if you find a tape in the street, you shouldn’t watch it. I have learned a great deal from this year’s CFF shorts. Great acting in this, the colors are gorgeous and it’s directed so well. It also has a shout out to Jack N. Green, who directed Speed 2: Cruise Control.

Your Husband Was a Good Man (2025): Orla (Jamie Alvey)’s husband William (Deaton Gabbard) died in a school shooting a year ago and she’s still taken by grief. She can barely raise their daughter together. But does she miss her husband enough to resort to magic to raise him from the other side? Directed and written by Jamie Alvey, this is primarily about the lack of consent that comes with reviving someone who didn’t consent to it. Haven’t we learned enough from movies that death can’t be screwed with? Guess not.

DESTROYER (2024): Directed by Judd Myers, who co-wrote the script with Kyle Montgomery, this film follows a man who is certain that his wife has a secret, as he attempts to uncover the truth, which soon leads him into a terrifying occult realm and perhaps something inhuman. I really loved how this was built, as well as the quality of the shooting and colors throughout. There’s a message in this, but it doesn’t hit you over the head. Instead, it slowly takes over and changes what you expect.

Any Last Words (2024): A crook trying to flee town, but he’s now staring down the barrel of a gun and in a room with multiple people who want him dead. Directed and written by Isaac Rathé, this taught me something very important: when confronted by people with weapons on me, make fun of their dick sizes.

The Girlies (2024): Antics! Estrogen! Escapades! That’s what is promised, as well as hijinks ensue! Oh wow! The Girlies are forced to face the unexpected in this short directed and written by Natalie Couture. This was so much fun and I could see it going on to be more than just this movie.

Get a Real Job (2025): The successes and failures of amateur non-profit fundraisers Sam and Yogi make up this film. Sam and Yogi would be Samantha Lochs and Yogi Paliwal, who directed and wrote the script with Ramona Donahue. You know, I had to go to New York City once and ask people to share their opinions on health care while we filmed it. You have no idea how much people swore at me during this experience. Maybe you do. This movie feels real.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.