Santa’s Slay (2005)
Dec 22, 2023Demonic Santa Claus
Christmas horror film with wrestler Bill Goldberg playing a demonic version of Santa Claus
Douglas Smith
Antiviral (2012)
Oct 5, 2012Future World of Celebrity Viruses
Brandon Cronenberg makes an impressive writing-directing debut, taking up the thematic reins of his father's earlier films in a darkly satiric future escalation of contemporary celebrity culture
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
Aug 16, 2013Greek Myth in the Present Day
This sequel is marginally better than the first film (largely due to Chris Columbus no longer being in the director's chair), being more dramatically engaged and with effects that feel less like random eye candy. That still doesn't disguise the fact that the Percy Jackson series is no more than a lightweight and forgettable Harry Potter knockoff
Ouija (2014)
Oct 26, 2014Ouija Board Unleashes a Malevolent Spirit
Blumhouse horror film based around the Parker Brothers boardgame. Modern multiplex horror films don't come more generic than this. On the other hand, you cannot deny that debuting director Stiles White creates some occasionally quite spooky moments, it's just that the rest of the show comes entirely by the numbers
Stage Fright (2014)
Jun 23, 2014Slasher Musical
A slasher musical??? The mind does a double takes trying to process the incongruity of the genre mash-ups. That said, this works exceedingly well – neither compromising on the slasher aspects, yet equally delivering some clever and witty musical numbers
The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Apr 10, 2017Boogeyman
Film based on an urban legend film about a boogeyman that kills everybody that speaks its name. Director Stacy Title creates one or two haunting and unusual scenes but in every other aspect this emerges as exceedingly generic
Bottom of the World (2017)
Aug 26, 2019Surreal Reality Blurrings
Indie film that channels a Lost Highway vibe in which Douglas Smith searches for a missing girlfriend Jena Malone and then wakes up in an entirely different life where he cannot be certain which life is real and which a dream
Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Nov 5, 2022Sinister Utopian Town
Actress Olivia Wilde creates a variant on The Stepford Wives set in an idyllic 1950s town where the women seem to be prisoners. Wilde is making a feminist parable but the plausibility of her SF scenario falls apart