REUNION *** New Zealand 2020 Dir: Jake Mahaffy. 95 mins The Horror of real life is often as heinous as that conjured up by any vampire, spree killer, rampaging zombie or ghost. Jake Mahaffy’s 2020 film REUNION offers the viewer a world of grief, mental illness, secrets and the horror of old age. The theme of child rearing is strong as it plays on vulnerabilities, and an intense desire to protect your child. As if that were not enough, a spectre, albeit a benign one, of a murdered adopted sister is added to the bleak mix. The picture opens with…
Author: Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood Born in Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Terry is a "Monster kid ', film fan and popular culture person. Once worked in television as a commercial writer/ Director. Writer of the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET site covering aspects of the Horror Genre from Books, Comics, to Film old and new. He has previously written for WE BELONG DEAD and MONSTERMANIA magazines, The Spooky Isle UK website, Horror hound and Turner Classic Movies. Published Book of own writings titled SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM on amazon world wide plus contributed to other genre books. Chaired numerous convention panel discussions on Horror and Comics Terry is member of The Horror Writers Association and Dracula Society in U.K.
FAMILY SPLATTERS is a new adult horror-comedy series from Nick Damage and KultKult Entertainment. The production runs a little under ten minutes and there is little of it wasted. The series introduces Joe Fryers, Matthew Silverstein and Roddy Luger, famous movie slashers who are kicked out of Hell in 1993 to live in today’s world. Lugar is now a food delivery person who meets Fryers when he is dropping off chicken wings at Fryer’s mansion. Fryers is a big in real estate while continuing to kill people. The two renew a friendship, and this leads to Lugar to revealing that…
FAR FROM THE APPLE TREE *** 2019 Dir: Grant McPhee. 90 mins Losing one’s self to a thing, entity, or a person or by medical means has been a staple of the Horror genre for centuries. Losing one’s mind and individuality have been added to the mix of digital paranoid thinking. FAR FROM THE APPLE TREE (2019) is film of loss through the gradual disintegration of mind. It is built on visual media, and that is a distraction to the film’s evolution – almost to the point of “eating its own tail ‘to get to the conclusion. Far From the…
SACRILEGE *** UK 2020 Dir: David Creed. 83 mins Time and time again you encounter a concept in a film or book that ends up overshadowing substance. The concept is lost in a flurry of plotted red herrings or a ridiculous twist ending. David Creed’s 2020 picture SACRILEGE is neither of those. In fact it one of the tightest, most visually modern Gothic looking films that I have seen from independent cinema. Works produced by independent film varies with budget and scope. Not all are created equal. SACRILEGE has what many films of this nature do not: good lead actors. …
SACRIFICE *** Canada 2020 Dir: Andy Collier, Toor Mian. 87 mins Nordic Noir is a popular sub-genre of crime fiction. Most people know it from the Stieg Larson books and the film adaptions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Nordic mythology has been a source for folk tales crafted into horror films such as The Ritual (2017). Joining or attempting to become part of this is Andy Collier and Tor Mian’s 2020 release SACRIFICE. The film boasts the presence of Barbara Crampton in a minor role and a host of new performers with some lovely location photography of a…