Despite the immediate negative reception of 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling, it felt like a foolish endeavor to write off Olivia Wilde as a filmmaker. Her brilliant directorial debut, Booksmart, is not the result of an actor-turned-director who got lucky. That film is both deeply thoughtful and emotionally resonant, in addition to being a prime example […]
Author: Alex Papaioannou
EVIL DEAD BURN: A Mixed Bag of Brutality & Contrasting Elements
The Evil Dead franchise seems to constantly find itself in flux with each new release. This seems largely due to audience discourse, which, obviously, should almost exclusively be ignored… and yet, it seems forever inescapable. With Evil Dead Burn, the latest entry in this franchise, the question of what exactly defines an Evil Dead film […]
HOKUM Is A Terrifying & Exciting Horror Experience
Damian McCarthy’s Oddity released in 2024, and its immediate shock to the senses for horror fans was such a treat. The Irish horror film firmly committed to its own sensibilities and rhythms to treat its audiences to something truly chilling. The scares were effective and well-earned, opting to lean on invoking a sense of foreboding […]
EXIT 8 Is A Liminal Labyrinth For Exploring Our Own Isolation
It’s no surprise that Exit 8, a film adapting the video game of the same name, is resonating with contemporary audiences. After all, it relies on a framework explicitly centered around the shared experience of our current isolationist age. Despite being more connected than ever through social media and the marvels of modern technology, there’s […]
PROJECT HAIL MARY Is Transcendently Fun Blockbuster Cinema
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary has burst onto the big screen, and it serves as a joyous example of what a blockbuster could, and should, feel like. Within any frame of this Greig Fraser-shot spectacle lies so much sci-fi goodness for your eyes to behold. And it’s in Drew Goddard’s screenplay, quite […]
READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME Is Fun Yet Mostly Misses The Mark
For the fans of Radio Silence’s (directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) Ready or Not, it’s been a long seven years leading up to this sequel. Unfortunately for scream queen and immediately iconic final girl Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving), she wasn’t given the same respite audiences had before finding herself once again tossed to the […]