SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF JIGSAW (2021)

 

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman Written by: Josh Stolberg & Peter Goldfinger Cinematography: Jordan Oram Editor: Dev Singh 

Cast: Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella, Marisol Nichols, Dan Petronijevic, Richard Zeppieri, Patrick McManus 

Working in the shadow of his father, an esteemed police veteran, brash Detective Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks and his rookie partner take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city's gruesome past. Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer's morbid game.

NIGHTBOOKS (2021)

 

Directed By: David Yarovesky  Written By: Mikki Daughtry & Thomas Iaconis  Based on the Book by: J.A. White  Cinematography: Robert McLachlan  Editor: Peter Gvozdas

Cast: Krysten Ritter, Winslow Fegley, Lydia Jewett 

A young boy named Alex becomes the prisoner of a witch to avoid certain death, he convinces her to let him tell her a scary story every night. Upon meeting the witch's servant, Yazmin, the two must use their wits to escape her apartment, a magical labyrinth filled with various dangers, before the witch kills them both.

SCARE ME (2020)

 

Written & Directed By: Josh Ruben  Cinematography: Brendan H. Banks Editor: Patrick Lawrence 

Cast: Aya Cash, Josh Ruben, Chris Redd, Rebecca Drysdale 

During a power outage, two strangers tell scary stories. The more Fred and Fanny commit to their tales, the more the stories come to life in their Catskills cabin. The horrors of reality manifest when Fred confronts his ultimate fear.

VEROTIKA (2020)

 

Written & Directed By: Glenn Danzig  Cinematography: David Newbert  Editor: Brian Cox 

Cast: Sean Kannan, Ashley Wisdom, Alice Tate, Kayden Kross, Natalia Borowsky, Kansas Bowling, Rachel Alig

Follows the surreal and bloody trilogy of erotic horror stories culled from Danzig's comic.

WOLF (1994)

 

Directed By: Mike Nichols  Written By: Jim Harrison & Wesley Strick  Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno  Editor: Sam O’Steen 

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Christopher Plummer, Richard Jenkins, Kate Nelligan, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin, Allison Janney 

Worn down and out of luck, aging publisher Will Randall is at the end of his rope when a younger co-worker snatches his job out from under his nose. But after being bitten by a wolf, Will suddenly finds himself energized, more competitive than ever, and possessed with amazingly heightened senses. Meanwhile, the beautiful daughter of his shrewd boss begins to fall for him - without realizing that the man she's begun to love is gradually turning into the creature by which he was bitten.

BLOOD RED SKY (2021)

 

Directed By: Peter Thorwarth  Written By: Peter Thorwarth & Stefan Holtz  Cinematography: Yoshi Heimrath  Editor: Knut Hake 

Cast: Peri Baumeister, Dominic Purcell, Carl Koch, Alexander Scheer, Kai Ivo Baulitz, Kai Setti, Roland Moller, Gordon Brown 

A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempts to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight.

VIVARIUM (2020)

Directed By: Lorcan Finnegan Written By: Garrett Shanley Story By: Lorcan Finnegan & Garett Shanley  Cinematography: MacGregor Editor: Tony Cranston

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots, Jonathan Aris, Eanna Hardwicke

A young couple is thinking about buying their starter home. And to this end, they visit a real estate agency where they are received by a strange sales agent, who accompanies them to a new, mysterious, peculiar housing development to show them a single-family home. There they get trapped in a surreal, maze-like nightmare.

SEANCE (2021)

 

Written & Directed By: Simon Barrett Cinematography: Karim Hussein Editor: James Vandewater

Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Ella-Rae Smith, Madisen Beaty, Stephanie Sy, Inanna Sarkis, Djouloet Amara, Jade Michael, Seamus Patterson, Marina Stephenson

At the prestigious Fairfield Academy, an elite boarding school for girls, six friends jokingly engage in a late-night ritual, calling forth the spirit of a dead former student who reportedly haunts their halls. Before morning, one of the girls is dead, leaving the others wondering what they may have awakened.

SUPERHOST (2021)

Written & Directed By: Brandon Christensen Cinematography: Clayton Moore 

Cast: Sara Canning, Osric Chau, Gracie Gilliam, Barbara Crampton 

With their follower count dwindling, travel vloggers Teddy and Claire pivot to creating viral content around their most recent "superhost," Rebecca, who wants more from the duo than a great review.

BLACK CHRISTMAS (2019)

Directed By: Sophia Takal  Written By: Sophia Takal, April Wolfe & Roy Lee Cinematography: Mark Schwartzbard  Editor: Ben Baudhuin & Jeff Betancourt 

Cast: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Cary Elwes, Caleb Eberhardt, Simon Mead, Madeline Adams, Zoe Robins, Ben Black

Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays. One by one, sorority girls on campus are being killed by an unknown stalker. But the killer is about to discover that this generation's young women aren't willing to become hapless victims as they mount a fight to the finish.

PLEDGE NIGHT (1990)

Directed & Edited By: Paul Ziller Written By: Joyce Snyder  Cinematography: Big Paul Smith 

Cast: Todd Eastland, Dennis Sullivan, Craig Derrick, Shannon McMahon, David Neal Evans, James Davies, Joey Belladonna, Will Kempke, Michael T. Henderson, Robert Lantini 

A college fraternity in the middle of hazing their new pledges during "hell week" incur the wrath of a long-deceased pledge who died during a hazing gone wrong 20 years ago.

FALSE POSITIVE (2021)

 

Directed By: John Lee Written By: John Lee & Ilana Glazer  Story By: John Lee & Alissa Nutting  Cinematography: Pawel Pogorzelski Editor: Jon Philpot 

Cast: Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Pierce Brosnan, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush, Josh Hamilton, Sabina Godecki, Zainab Juh 

As if getting pregnant weren't complicated enough, Lucy sets out to uncover the unsettling truth about her fertility doctor.

CENSOR (2021)

Directed By: Prano Bailey-Bond  Written By: Prano Bailey-Bond & Anthony Fletcher  Cinematography: Annika Summerson  Editor: Mark Towns 

Cast: Niamh Alger, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin, Sophia La Porta, Adrian Schiller

After viewing a strangely familiar video nasty, Enid, a film censor, sets out to solve the past mystery of her sister's disappearance, embarking on a quest that dissolves the line between fiction and reality.

NOCTURNE (2020)

Written & Directed By: Zu Quirke Cinematography: Carmen Cabana  Editor: Andrew Drazek 

Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Madison Iseman, Julie Benz, Rodney To, Jacques Colimon, Ivan Shaw

An incredibly gifted pianist makes a Faustian bargain to overtake her older sister at a prestigious institution for classical musicians.

MOVIES WATCHED IN SEPTEMBER (2021)

CRUELLA (DRAMA)(COMEDY) 8/10 

VACATION FRIENDS (COMEDY) 7/10 

CANDYMAN (2021) (HORROR) 6/10 

RESPECT (DRAMA)(BIOGRAPHY)(MUSIC) 7/10 

SUPER HOST (HORROR) 7/10 

BITCHIN’: THE SOUND AND FURY OF RICK JAMES (DOCUMENTARY) 7/10

*SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY (THRILLER) 7/10 

*GOODFELLAS (DRAMA)(TRUE CRIME)(CRIME) 10/10 

BLOOD RED SKY (HORROR)(ACTION)(GERMANY)(FOREIGN)(INTERNATIONAL) 7/10

WILD OATS (COMEDY) 5/10

MALIGNANT (HORROR) 6/10 

THE COLUMNIST (THRILLER)(COMEDY) 7/10

VIOLET (DRAMA)(EXPERIMENTAL)(FOREIGN) (INTERNATIONAL)(BELGIUM) 7/10

PRISONERS OF GHOSTLAND (CULT)(ACTION)(THRILLER)(SCIENCE FICTION) 7/10 

*ZOLA (DRAMA)(COMEDY) 8/10

KATE (ACTION) 7/10

NORMAN LOVES ROSE (COMEDY) 3/10 

THE PAPER TIGERS (COMEDY)(DRAMA)(ACTION) 8/10 

SUMMER OF ‘85 (COMING OF AGE)(TEEN)(LGBTQ+)(DRAMA)(ROMANCE) 7/10

EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE (MUSICAL)(LGBTQ+)(COMING OF AGE)(DRAMA)(COMEDY) 7/10 

SEANCE (HORROR) 7/10 

NIGHT BOOKS (FAMILY)(FANTASY)(HORROR) 7/10 

TELEVISION SERIES, TELEVISION MOVIES, STAND-UP & SPECIALS

UNTOLD: CRIME & PENALTIES (LIMITED SERIES) 9/10

Q-FORCE (SEASON 1) 7/10 

LUCIFER (SEASON 5) 7/10 

LUCIFER (SEASON 6) 7/10

RESERVATION DOGS (SEASON 1) 8/10

NINE PERFECT STRANGERS (LIMITED SERIES) 7/10 

*THE SOPRANOS (SEASON 2) 8/10 

*THE SOPRANOS (SEASON 3) 8/10 

ATTACK OF THE HOLLYWOOD CLICHES (SPECIAL) 7/10 

THE NEW MUTANTS (2020)

Directed By: Josh Boone Written By: Josh Boone & Knate Lee Cinematography: Peter Deming  Editor: Andrew Buckland, Robb Sullivan & Matthew Rundell 

Cast: Blu Hunt, Alice Braga, Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Adam Beach 

Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.

STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997)

 

Directed By: Paul Verhoeven  Written By: Ed Neumeier  Based on the book by: Robert A. Heinlein  Cinematography: Jost Vacano  Editor: Mark Goldblatt & Caroline Ross 

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Clancy Brown, Jake Busey, Michael Ironside, Neil Patrick Harris, Seth Gilliam, Patrick Muldoon, Dean Norris, Rue McClanahan, Marshall Bell, Matt Levin, Brenda Strong, Amy Smart, Greg Travis, Dale Dye

In the distant future, high school kids are encouraged to become citizens by joining the military. What they don't know is that they'll soon be engaged in a full-scale war against a planet of alien insects. The fight is on to ensure the safety of humanity.