Thursday, April 25, 2024

Tag: thrillers

Cherry Tree Lane
I'm no expert on UK culture, but it seems that for the first decade or so of the 21st century, there was a (real or perceived) increase in adolescent crime attributed to youths dressed in hoodies who seemingly adopted what they saw as the dangerous elements of hip-hop culture,...
It Comes At Night
NOTE: POSSIBLE (MINOR, NON-SPECIFIC) SPOILERS BELOW Having watched the movie It Comes At Night in its entirety, I can honestly say that I don't know what the hell comes at night. And as much as I like the film, this fact reflects the misleading nature of its marketing. Between the...
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Racial Dynamics in Get Out vs. The Invitation
Watching Get Out in the theater in 2017, I couldn't help but think about the movie The Invitation from the previous year. Both films have a similar setup: an interracial (specifically, black and white) couple heading to a remote get-together whose hosts turn out to have dark ulterior motives....
The Invitation movie poster
The Invitation is a delightfully demented thriller that plays on the awkward social dynamics of dinner parties, from meeting new people and trying to discern what makes them tick to reuniting with estranged friends and trying to get past what pulled you apart. Of course, this treatment takes things...
Parasites horror movie
In Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!, writer/director Chad "No Relation to Bobby Mc" Ferrin showcased his fondness for recreating vintage exploitation fare and for casting black leads, and he continues to cultivate both of those preferences in the gritty thriller Parasites (on demand January 24 on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play,...
My Boo horror movie
Watching My Boo, I couldn't help but secretly wish it was the most elaborate Running Man Challenge video ever, its 77-minute running time culminating in a group dance number to the Ghost Town DJs hit of the same name, but alas, there was no such payoff to this dull,...
Initiation movie
Initiation is more action-thriller than horror, but if 2013's captive-women-forced-to-fight film Raze can be considered horror by so many people, I suppose this can, too. The setup is similar to Raze, except with male captives, a smaller cast and presumably a much smaller budget. In it, masked men kidnap five...
Apartment 4E movie
Seriously, who holds movie distributors responsible for the misleading nature of their posters and video cover art? I fully expect films to use their artwork to exaggerate how good/exciting/scary they are, but in the case of Apartment 4E, not only does this cover art depict events that don't happen...
Three Sickxty horror movie
A general rule of thumb in identifying a bad movie: if two or more people in the credits go by a single name -- say, Madonna and Prince -- chances are it's not Oscar material. In Three Sickxty's case, there are actually five: Aerletaree, Earthquake, Chocolate, Navangia and Lashaun....
Brian De Palma's Sisters horror movie poster
I recall the unexpected joy I felt when I first sat down to watch Sisters and saw that it seemed to star (or at least co-star) a black man. And not your typical 1970s Hollywood black man either -- struttin', jive talkin', ho slappin' -- but rather, an honest-to-goodness...